##VIDEO ID:CV1jyToDbqc## sign it now good how you sir e e e e three 2 right e e blood pressure I agree e when you're ready I'm ready the there's no upside to quitting so before we start if everyone could just silence their phones uh there's been a lot of uh phone disruption for the council members um so good evening I'd like to call this September 23rd 20124 burough council meeting to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 specifying the time date and location by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building Municipal website and providing a copy of the annual notice scheduled to the official newspapers of the burrow and is on file in the clerk's office will the clerk please call the RO council president revolinski here councilman Collins here councilman moo here councilman pansy councilman Potter here councilman zamb Brana here mayor Murray present Peter Attorney Peter violo present burrow engineer Mike mclen here burrow administrator Fred Carr pres bur clerk Monica Orlando present everyone please stand for a moment of silence which will be followed by salute of I pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all all right we have a couple presentations uh I'd like to First Call up assemblyman Stanley and assemblyman carab benek for your presentation please hi good evening mayor council members um it's a pleasure for both of us to be here tonight to come before this body to tell you that you know during the this year's budget we were able to secure $200,000 for the burrow to help secure a new fire engine for the uh volunteer firefighters here in town so it was a uh extremely hard for uh time because of the budget constraint that we had in the state but we were able to secure it and I'd like to thank uh Council pottter you know for bringing this to my attention and then we worked as a team to make sure that you know we got this through you want to say some words if I can sure mayor thank you so much and Council people so much uh this is so important for the for the town and also for the First Responders which is so so important to everybody who lives here every single day of their lives in this great town this is what it's about it's about networking it's about asking for stuff that we can do for you and as the assemblyman said this was a it was a little bit of a rough fight but you know we prevailed and we're so happy to be here presenting you this morning thank you very much thank you [Applause] sir thank um just one more thing before we head off just want to let you know you know last couple years we've been doing a lot of uh the MVC mobile units all you know throughout our district and we're happy to say that we're bringing you back again to miltown and it's coming here on October the 17th at the senior center so pretty soon I will be putting that out too and you know the residents will be able to sign up for that coming up and we will make sure that on the B website as well thank you thank you thank you so much the borrow auditor for financial year 2023 audit good evening everybody thank you for having us I'm Rob provos partner PK Conor Davies by col League Anthony Caprio is joining us he's the Lead Supervisor and engagement I'm going to keep this fairly brief figure out go over some of the financial highlights anony is going to go over some things in noral process just briefly explain what's involved in pretty much uh you know a four to five week process before we even start I really wanted to say thank you to Fred and his team just for providing everything a difficult year trying to get us um you know and we're really thankful for that Fred so thank you so I'm going start with some of the financial highlights uh overall it was a it was a very stable year so the current FL fund balance I'm just going to touch briefly on your operating funds so the current fund fund balance decreased roughly around a million dollars from 2.1 million to roughly 1.1 million but keep in mind there's a very large inter fund Advanced which for $1.8 million which will be returned in 24 if it hasn't done ready so the $1.8 million is roughly a timing difference and without that fund Advance you actually would have generated more Revenue in 23 than 22 so your current fund I I think is in really really good standing the water sewer Utility Fund remained relatively flat from 264,000 in fund balance at 244 but one thing that's really imperative to keep in mind is all the covid funds that we're going through there have now expired you know there's 365,000 that was recognized in Revenue which you no longer will see that in the future and without that in 23 you know the fund would have ran a deficit so I think you guys are really prudent and smart how you kind of use some year Co art funds which was allowable and So that obviously kept the the fund stable for 23 uh electric utility operating funds really stable um you know decrease 160,000 but from 1 million 386 to 1 million basically 1.2 million so you know that fund is always been doing you know fairly flat I go so last few years but so overall I think the financials are really good shape like I said where sewer fund had that uh you know thankfully one last year of the r funds um you know to keep that fund to flow but other than that I mean I think you guys are doing a really really great job you know really good internal controls uh compliance you know we we did a single audit this year this year being 23 on both the federal and state single audit and we had no findings in that at all we're happy to report that we did have two findings in a regular burrow audit and that was just overex expenditures in the water sewer and the electric operating funds we're only around $112,000 collectively but you know just for compliance if you know a year end the last two months it couldn't have some transfers maybe to you know just avoid those overe expenditures and the last fing we had was um on compensate absences we just had a tough time trying to drill down to userfriendly budget get the sporting documentation but that's not something that really materially impacts the financial statements or anything like that but it is a footnote disclosure for us and we just couldn't get the support to back up the number that was in the budget but like I said those are by all means not Material items at all and you guys really really do a great job overall so you should be proud of that and you know regular burrow audit you have have an unmodified opinion that's the best opinion you can get so even with those two small findings you guys are still still looking really really good so with that I'm going to turn over to Anthony Caprio just to touch on some of the um Things That Go actually into the auto process thank you up yeah I'll make this quick as well uh so every year we do our general audit control testing uh this includes going through the narratives making sure we have a good understanding of what the controls in place in the burrow are as well as doing and Performing walkthroughs of individual uh samples uh these areas include payroll tax receipts cash receipts cash dispersements and the various utilities this year we rotated our F full test of controls under the cash dispersement section uh which included bids and quotes testing tax receipts and cash receipts tax and cash receipts had no issues uh regarding any of the receipts that were coming in we were able to recalculate um for tax the payments and interest U as applicable the cash dispersement the bid and quote testing we did we had one missing po um quote and invoice um and a few encumbrance dating issues uh but they are not they weren't material at all uh just making sure that the availability of funds uh prior to those purchases were made uh every year we do third party confirmations we received no issues with those and tying back to the buau uh reports and as Rob mentioned we performed a state and federal single audit under the state we tested the new New Jersey DCA water infrastructure um Improvement Grant and federal single audit we tested the American Rescue plan again no issues were found in those um we also test a few outside departments these include Court animal control construction code clerk registar Vital Statistics Recreation and losap again flying colors there was no issues in any of those uh areas so we thank you guys very much for all the help and again Fred thank you that unless you guys have any other questions that's uh you know the kind of the highlights that we had for you guys tonight than thank you gentlemen um just one um last year when you were here presenting the audit noticing a decrease between the 2021 and 2022 Surplus in the water sewer fund I had asked if you thought a rate increase was pending and now tonight I hear you mention that if not for the ARA funds or more commonly known to as the co money that the water and sewer budget would have been underwater that that's accurate yeah you would have had um roughly maybe $100,000 deficit something at ballpark it's just better sometimes for the public to hear it from our professionals than just me yeah I know it's uh yeah it would have been uh 120,000 deficit so what you're saying is we shouldn't have used those funds to cover that deficit no I I think that was a very very smart Pruden decision that the thank you that the burough did very very intelligent so you recommend utilizing non-recurring revenue for recurring costs well you know in that particular year at least the funds were there you know going in the future you know so it's help us plan ahead for this year yeah it's without the unfortunate thing is without rate increases there's no way that funk could really sustain profit or even break even you could repeat that one if you like too I know nobody likes to hear it TR me myself included but I mean that's the reality when you look at the numbers and you know you look at the rising costs I mean you know and even not just the Utility side but health benefits everything is just you know the state side you went years from being flat all of a sudden one year like oh we're going to raise them 18 to 22% I mean it's just astronomical you know it's everything everything costs just a fortune and you know the burrow is no different thank you for your Insight i i a question for you do you think it was a prudent decision knowing that the rates went up in 2023 by about 3 and a half% and not to raise it last year well I mean it's obviously I think raising rates is always probably a good decision to do it gradually other than just one big impactful you know year I think that's what we always try to recommend um th those are managerial decisions not necessarily aor decisions but um that's what we always recommend we we know it's not an easy thing obviously to to to do that when you look at the numbers though you know it's it's got to happen and then again that's why we say you know small increases incremental increases so that you know the residents don't don't feel the impact as much any given year or anything like that just nobody wants that thanks good thank you gentlemen thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you so we have two resolutions to uh approve for that and then uh we're going to move on with the rest so will the clerk please read resolution 20245 uh 25 9 by title certifying review of the fiscal year 2023 Municipal audit may I have a motion move that the resolution be adopted second I have a motion made by council president ravinsky seconded by councilman Potter is there any discussion no cler please call the RO council president revolinski councilman colins councilman moo hi councilman pansy councilman Potter councilman Zim Vera I will the clerk please read resolution 2024 260 by title Please approving the corrective action plan for the 2023 Municipal audit um you heard the reading of this resolution what is your pleasure move that the resolution be adopted second I have a motion made by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Collins is there any discussion no clar please call the rooll council president revolinsky Council Collins councilman moo councilman posnanski councilman Potter councilman Zam BR I okay uh we have a presentation by Brian for Public Power Association thank you mayor and Council uh my name is Brian VA I'm the executive director of the Public Power Association of New Jersey uh the ppj uh provides wholesale uh electric procurement services to nine uh Municipal Electric Systems in the state of newor Jersey as well as the um State's only Electric Cooperative uh burrow of miltown is one of those nine municipalities that we provide services too I'm going to give a brief presentation uh starting basically like electricity 101 and then I'll move into a little more detail on uh items specific uh to miltown so electricity 101 so the movement of electricity consists of three primary segments generation uh where the electricity is produced transmission which moves the power over long distances via high voltage power lines and distribution uh which the burel provides um where they move power over shorter distances to the end users you know homes businesses and Industrial sites uh the overview of an electric system so you see on the left here left hand side um the generation uh that is controlled by an entity um the dispatch is controlled by an entity called pjm uh pjm used to stand for Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland but it has since expanded um the burrow is a member of pjm um that's you get a pjm bill weekly pjm bill monthly PGM bill um it details basically all the costs to run an electric grid the PGM is in essence the electric grid the next is the transmission Network um that is controlled by pscg so they own all the transmission lines the high voltage transmission lines that are used to deliver the power to the miltown um distribution system and then the third item is the distribution Network which is um owned and operated by the burrow of miltown so pjam as I mentioned um they're really the grid uh they're a transmission organization Regional transmission organization and they coordinate the movement of wholesale electricity um I think there's 13 states and 65 million people um that they impact and I'll give you just a there's three major components um to your Wholesale Electric Bild the bur of miltown energy transmission and capacity um energy is is the actual commodity um just like you buy natural gas is a commodity um you know electricity energy that's that's a commodity um and you can either buy it uh as a under a fixed cost contract uh long-term deals with multiple parties which that's what the burrow does or you could do it a floating um and be subjected to hourly spot mark spot market prices in PGM a lot more volatility a lot more risk in that so um Burrows tend to use the U the long-term contracts and fix their costs second component is transmission and as I mentioned you know that's the uh high voltage lines that psng owns and controls um that cost and I'll show you it a little bit later has been creeping up sign ific anly over the last several years and then the third component is capacity um capacity is basically uh iron in the ground for lack of a better term um all the generators that are uh built to reliably Supply electricity to the grid miltown historical wholesale power costs so you can see here um 65% of your costs are M were in the past made up of transmission and capacity um that was 55% was transmission 10% was was capacity and 34% of your bill uh was made up of the energy component the commodity component transmission the way it's calculated is it's based on miltown meter reads five meter reads that are coincident with the PSG system so whenever PSG hits its five highest meteres that's what determines miltown obligation for transmission capacity is very similar however it's based on the five meter reads of the pjm the entire pjm grid and what miltown meter reads are during those five um highest hours in pjm so in essence 65% of your costs are um they're based on 10 critical hours you know it's the five hours for transmission and five hours for capacity and then as I mentioned the other 34% of the energy um we we buy multi-year energy Supply deals from several suppliers um based on your historical consumption which amounts to about 98% so 98% of the 34% is fixed in essence for for several years and I'll talk a little bit about that starting June 1 in 2025 we're going to see a significant increase in the capacity component um you're going to move from the 65% to now 74% of your electric costs are going to be based on these 10 critical hours so what that's going to amount to is a 33% increase in the costs to the burrow um your your Wholesale Electric bills Wholesale Electric bill is going to go up by 33% um starting June 1 in 2025 uh I'll talk a little bit about the the commodity so as I mentioned um the PPA PPA andj members they purchased fixed cost wholesale energy from a third part from third party suppliers uh through a special bidding procedure um authorized by Statute uh 41-5 and there are some of the suppliers that we buy from Peg Exelon nexera BP and we also buy um a small portion of our power from um hydroelectric a hydroelectric Dam uh up in New York this is an example of when we go out for an RFP we bundle the load together we aggregate it together with several other municipalities miltown South River Park Ridge um and then we go out for an aggregated amount um we usually do that for about three times per year um depending on what market conditions uh indicate this is a chart of what pjam energy prices look like so you can see um they were sometime around 20 they were about $25 or 2 and a. half cents per kilowatt hour you know back in 2019 um now they're in the 50s uh when we made our purchases for miltown for this commodity um we bought it pretty much at the low as you can see back in 2019 uh we locked in 2023 to through 2029 you know in the mid 20s mid to high 20s um and if we were to purchase that same block of power today you know we'd be in the mid-50s you know low low to mid-50s transmission um so as I mentioned before miltown transmission obligation is based on meter of the five highest hours uh on the local transmission system and I won't talk much about this I'll show you a chart next but um one thing to keep in mind is it's going to keep increasing uh the last bullet point there the njbpu just awarded uh 1.1 billion in round one of the off offshore wind transmission uh and a second award is coming probably in Q4 2024 so that 1.1 billion is going to be spread across um every one in the state so here's a chart of what transmission costs look like um you guys are in the psng zone which is the gray bar which is the highest as a matter of fact the PSG transmission rates are the highest in all of pjm um you'll see there it's about $180,000 per megawatt year as opposed to jcpl which is like $30,000 per megawatt year so right down the road um you know it's three times the cost right down the road from compared to psng and JC the next component is pjm's capacity market so PGM runs a capacity Market called RPM it's called the reliability pricing model and the way I kind of explain capacity it's akin to a shopping mall building a parking lot that can um hold enough parking spaces for their highest demand um Black Friday when they have all the shoppers out they have to have enough parking for everybody just like pjm they have to have enough power power plants ready to serve reliable energy um when when Peaks occur and when you know when the grid needs it at all times so pjm just recently ran a capacity Market um the capacity Market goes from June 1 through May 30th and as I mentioned before it's based on miltown highest um miltown meter reads on based on pjm's five highest coincident Peaks so pjm just ran a capacity auction um just in uh June and as you can see here capacity prices went from from $56 to $270 a megawatt day so it's unprecedented um has never seen a spike like that before and pjm as long as several um entities have um noted that the the capacity price spikes are due to Fossil power plant retirements um increased load and also New Market roles so what we're seeing is a pretty significant Supply demand imbalance in the um pjm market demand is increasing while Supply is decreasing here's just a quick synopsis of you know what happened between 2022 and 2025 so you can see um coal there were 45,000 megawatts offered in 2022 only 30,000 in 2025 natural gas went down from 85,000 to 66,000 nuclear stayed flat solar went down a little bit Hydro went down a little bit and wind stayed flat so primarily um the supply side is seeing a lot less fossil generation uh offering to supply capacity in the market here's a chart of capacity prices uh so you can see you know it's kind of been up and down um but this most recent um Price bike is is kind of unprecedent we've never seen prices like that in the PJ Market before here are uh here's a depiction of miltown capacity costs so you can see in 2024 2025 miltown had a capacity cost of $31,000 starting in June 1 of 2025 it's going to increase to 1.4 million um that's just the market cleared at $270 versus $57 so you're going to see about a 1.1 million increase starting June 1 of 2025 through May 30th of 2026 now Morgan Stanley just came out with a forecast for 2026 starting June 1 2026 through 2027 and they said capacity prices could reach 695 per megawatt day if that happens if that comes to fruition then miltown capacity cost will go up to 3.8 million from 300,000 today um if that if that forecast holds true um I don't think it's going to hold that high but I think there's definitely going to be um an increase because the supply demand imbalance for um generation and demand has not abated at all so the question is how what can you do to mitigate some of these increas in costs um so the energy component you know we have fixed pretty much out through 2029 so that 74% the capacity and transmission the only way to mitigate those is to manage your Peaks um the only way really to do that is um with some type of behinde meter generation you know you got a battery uh solar whatever it may be to um to try to you know mitigate some of the Peaks so with that um that's the end of my presentation any questions from anyone so um as I understand it thank you for that I think uh at least the people who are watching are probably confused I'm sure they know that uh bad news is on the horizon um I'll get into the the capacity issue but um we've seen you mentioned that we've seen from 2019 at 2 and half cents a kilowatt hour to Now 50 cents a kilowatt hour so that's a 25 times or 20 times increase in The Last 5 Years yes um and even though we were on a fixed cost that that Trend seemed to be consistent that we were heading upwards yes yes and the um the Burrow's representative who addresses pjm or is R Lea on is our business administrator is that correct cor that's correct yes yes typically most most Municipal Electric utilities the ba is the uh representative for ppj I have a question yeah while your chart are you showing that we could actually be paying 10 times what we're paying now correct yes in starting June 1 of 2026 holy cow yes how we supposed to do that how how how are seniors I'm not no no I I I know that's that's how are people supposed to pay their bills and honestly what is the Genesis of this huge this huge increase I mean I mean I appreciate you're calmly telling us how can this happen so what's happening as I mentioned we're seeing the supply demand imbalance where generation is retiring fossil generation in particular that that gets the most waiting as far as reliability goes you know they operate 94 95% of the time so they are retiring at a fast clip and they're not being replaced fast enough renewable is in the queue to replace the fossil generation but it's not being built fast enough nor is it being built to enough scale well you're saying fossil it's not actually fossil fuels but yeah it's it's nuclear or I mean sorry coal and natural gas right how how come things haven't been done before now it's it's now going to be an emergency yes and and I like I said I appreciate you're telling us calmly but this is terrible especially for like in our town in every town yes seniors and say like like someone who's a s a single person living in a home AB this is outrageous and it shouldn't it absolutely is and as I mentioned this is going to impact 65 million people in the pjm market and everyone a lot of people saw it coming and they sounded the alarm and the problem one of the problems you know it's a market so I wouldn't I mean necessarily said to Market so Supply didn't respond because prices were always nice and flat you saw some of those charts capacity chart it was kind of T ticking down a little bit so there wasn't an incentive um for generation to come in and build uh at the scale that was needed well our our politicians in Washington are sleeping then can I ask what in your opinion has led to the increase in consumption or demand over the last few years that we weren't able to offset the decrease in production yes um as a result of those other plants shutting down but obviously there's it's coupled with a decrease in Supply as well as an inre so yes the increase in demand has been primarily due to Data Centers um they're building a lot of data centers everywhere across basically the nation and secondarily um electric vehicles and electrification of homes so you know electrifying everything um data centers that are popping up everywhere um they I think we've seen probably a 10% increase in demand and you know you're looking at a 30 or 40% decrease in Supply and and you know economics 101 tells you when you see that imbalance shift um it's only going to result in exorbitant costs for everyone has there been uh legislation that has also led to this I know at one point we had some folks come in here saying that any new development we should require them to have electric stoves and electric heat as opposed to any sort of natural gas boilers or using natural gas stove um has that legislation furthered the increase yeah I mean that's further the the demand yes the demand for for electric has gone up because of public policy yes and councilman a decrease in the in the use of fossil fuels you know if we have a vision of an America where we don't rely on fossil fuels because it's uh polluting the environment and destroying the ozone and and producing emissions that are increasing global warming and our vision ferally and on State wide is to decrease our Reliance of fossil fuels and those good reasons but the math on one side when you get to that point where we're all solar dependent or all wind dependent it has to be you know at the same level this builds up over here while this decreases over here and what you have now that there's been a plummeting of the so of the gas and the of those fossil fuel plants into the system but this is not caught up in order to basically be Kindler and gentle correct absolutely I mean if you look at I mean we've had a we've had a couple of major we've had a couple of major wind wind farms that have failed significantly off the coast of Jersey which you know we in Jersey hoped would offset this it's not going to happen to make up for that loss and the loss is now as Brian said is basic it's economics 101 supply and demand but I but I also heard that is it the cape wind project that you mentioned is $1.1 billion uh no the the one that Mr Carr is referring to um off the coast of New Jersey so the state is going ahead to build the transmission before you have to have the transmission in place before they would build the wind farms some are so I think there was three projects or four projects that have been awarded I think two of them have been canceled two of them are still going forward so they want to have the infrastructure in place prior to anyone actually you know putting a shovel in the in the ocean uh to get the Wind forms built um and there's going to be round two of that uh where the state's going to award a second I believe a second um award for offshore wind transmission but the $1.1 billion in reference that winds up falling on the shoulders of R payers every R in the state every Everybody P all PSC customers not just the nine communities in yes every everyone in the the state pays for that so so basically we're paying for a billion dollars for something that's not working that hasn't been built yet um you know so it's like tax they're going to supposedly build it um but you know whether it comes to company pulled out yeah two of the companies pulled out orad pulled out um but I still think there's two that are going forward is there a silver lining to this I wish I wish there was think I wish there was and you know I don't I'm not as pessimistic as the Morgan Stanley um forecast is that you know looking at a 10 time increase or something but if it falls somewhere in between that it's unavoidable right um as I mentioned the only way there's one the only way as of now to avoid these increases is to do something with behind the meter generation that's that's the only option right now that's available to everyone would be the fossil fuel generation if you put something in the town to reduce your Peaks MH yes and whatever the whatever the fuel may be whether it's fossil fuel whether it's battery whether it's solar whatever it may be um you put that into the town and it reduces your Peak loads your contribution to those five hours and that's what you're build on at pjm then that'll in turn reduce your your costs what do you think that would cost I I mean it all depends on which you know which um battery power which battery power I mean you know I'll I'll kind of let the AP folks uh onti Partners talk more about that so out of um out of the other nine municipalities how does MIL towns increase Fair comparatively so it's across the board um it's very similar to everyone across the board because it's based on what your contribution is so it's proportionate basically you know your your increase is going to be the same as South rivers or Park ridges or butlers it's going to be proportionate June 2025 um those numbers are already set yes they're fixed so if we don't amend our electric rates now we're going to look at at uh not having enough money 1,119 th000 in the bankay is going to be from today till June 1 or from let's say June 1 of 2024 through June 1 of 2025 it's going to be additional 1. 1 million yes it's going to start start in June and then go through May so yes and are any other municipalities doing something or have they been proactive to help offset this or better accept this when it when it comes to their doorstep yeah so um others have put in some behind the meter generation others are diligently looking at it um but for the most part I believe everyone is probably looking at a rate increase and I've seen actually Maryland um States everywhere within the pjm territory they're they're all talking about you know 30 to 40% rate increases across the board for everybody the 65 million people that are served by pjm I have two questions uh one's easier than to answer to any other okay uh so uh will unit one at uh 3 Mile Island going back online will that uh help us at all so the the way the structure for that is working is they are going to be specifically tied to a Microsoft data centers so Microsoft entered into a well they haven't done it yet but it's preliminary um a 20-year contract and all of that three m Island output is going directly to Microsoft to serve their data centers wow so they're buying all of it it's like I think I think and don't quote me but it was like a$1 19 billion deal or something like that that all that output is going over 20 years to to Microsoft um second one this one's a little bit more so the uh when you mentioned about the battery uh system and the peak uh lowering the peak demands Peak loads uh how is that uh helping offset like we know South River does a battery had a battery project um how is that helping the municipalities lower that Peak demand for the purchase when it comes time to purchase it and what kind of savings is South River seeing from that Peak so I'm not I I'm I don't know about the exact dollar value that South River is saving it's significant I can tell you that much it's it's fairly significant okay um economics have changed maybe a little bit from when South River did their first battery um so it is it is fairly significant and there is value in these battery projects depending on how much infrastructure you have to put in place um and the way it works is so as I mentioned the five Peaks whenever your five Peaks are so for instance let's just say you guys are a 14 megawatt Peak you put in a 10 megawatt battery when pjm goes to determine what your Peak contribution is and the battery if the battery was operating at 10 megawatts you would only be looked at as four four megawatts instead of 14 so um you know it's the the that one chart I showed you you know that would spiked up um that $270 a megawatt day it would be your obligation times that everybody pays that fixed rate but the um the calus is you know what your contribution is to get to your full cost so it would significantly help so something also and I know we talked about this uh right before the meeting started was um you know our solar ordinance right now charges significantly or gives back less money than what we charge the resident for electricity because we make our money as a town on consumption not on the fixed fee for operating the system or the million dollars plus that we take from Electric every year to balance the the budget um so if we can increase the incentive for putting solar in and offer more um reasonable tradeoff between what they purchase and then if they're over generating uh what they get back that would further help us decrease our Peak as well corre correct so so technically when Peaks usually occur it's 95 degre out sunshine in that's usually you know across the system so of course a solar is going to be operating during those peak times and that will in turn look like less demand from miltown which will drop your the calculus you know your your Peak um Peak load so yes that that could absolutely help and then the the last uh question that I have was uh we were looking at $1 119,000 or 1,119 th000 increase right yes so if I divide that number by the 3,000 electric meters in town that means every meter or every customer with a meter would essentially be paying another $373 per year yeah if it was split out evenly correct and that's kind of what I calculated I calculated based on your usage um you know roughly it's three cents per kilowatt hour um per per customer uh which calculates around you know if an average customer uses $1,000 or th000 kilowatts a month kilowatt hours a month you know that's what you're talking in that ballpark you know3 to $400 increase for every every customer per year that simple math comes out to around $31 in change a month per month correct yeah that's pretty accurate to what I calculated and that'll start in June that'll start June one how does this affect electric grids and push for um electric vehicles massive push especially New Jersey coming um next decade yeah so if if the numbers of electric vehicles multiply as they're expected to in the state you know that's going to absolutely push your contribution up you know to the five Peaks which is going to raise your obligation which is going to cost even more money exponentially it could it could yes it could depending on you know how many electric vehicles are are come onto the system it's a scary situation yeah it's it's not a great situation definitely thank you very much yep anybody else so we had a whole bunch of electric charging stations in town that would in turn increase our our usage it it will um if they're charging during Peak period so Peaks usually occur at 5:00 p.m. 600 p.m. somewhere around there okay um if they have a home charger of course when everyone gets home from work the first thing they're going to do is plug in their vehicle if it's a public charger probably not going to contribute as much because it's probably not going to be utilized as much during those Peak you know 5: to 6:00 p.m. in the summer 10 to two time frame yes okay beautiful thank you Bri you have Brian do you have any objections to us taking your briefing and putting it on the website no okay so we'll post this along with everything else and just tell the public that if they have any questions they can address they can send me an email and you know I've been doing it a few years I could most likely answer most of their questions and the second is an editorial comment for could the council speak into the microphones so we can pick it up yes sir that's you all right thank you everyone thank you you thank you Brian next I'd like to call Joe up with uh on a onsite Partners thank you appreciate the opportunity to come tonight and talk about uh distributed generation or behind the meter generation as we've been talking about my name is Joe gansman I'm a business development director with Aon tyte Partners um our our company developed a battery project that was being discussed before in South River uh it's a 10 megawatt battery project and uh you can see the batteries along the right side here uh this is the transformation equipment that turns the DC voltage into ac voltage to match the grid uh it's stepped up in these Transformers in this Transformer and um sent over to the substation that's directly adjacent to uh the battery project um it's a 10 megawatt project it is specifically designed to run during those coincident Peaks that were discussed before um and then the rest of the you know those those are the 10 hottest hours of the year you really need to run these battery probably um closer to 50 hours a year to make sure that you catch those 10 hours so you're not sure exactly when they are so you run them a little more and the rest of the year we operate the battery to support the grid um uh to to make sure that the grid stays smooth with renewable um intermittent Renewables and um just loads coming on and off the system um any questions about kind of this this battery project in South River what um what are the dimensions of that that out outline there that that uh gravel in the fenced in area there is 80 ft by 120 ft um and then that again that's a 10 megawatt project so that would be approximately the size of your Peak load maybe not quite as big but so that's about the size you need and how long has South rer had this I believe the project went online in 2022 okay and how much how much did their system cost uh I can't recall offand the the exact cost of that system but I I would say it was probably around 10 m million they they put out $10 million for it South River paid $10 million to have that built no that that system is owned by Aon Partners um and we dispatch it on their behalf to reduce their loads at the right time of the year council president we have their CFO here I don't know he's like shaking his head he's not he's not we he's here he can answer I I didn't want to ask him because he's not wearing his South River hat and I didn't want to ask him to dis any information but I watch him he shaking his head Jo Jo a Joe Joe show no South paid zero for it so we entered into agreement we out to bid for it a one the bid and there's parameters in the bid on how this whole entire thing works the only thing we pay for is AE to to run the system to make sure they capture the Peaks because nobody in South River can do what they do so that's what we pay for a every single year so their performances are how we generate Revenue how how long is the life of this system uh that's a 10-year contract on the South River Battery the the batteries that that we're looking at today are a 15year operating license so it last about 15 years to site yes how many units there are there are are some of them in sets microphone please are some of them in sets and how many units are there U they they do operate in sets that right there is a three unit system uh so there's three inverters there at about 3.3 megawatts each um and so they they can be offered in different building blocks depending on the size size and they really you know they don't have to be oriented in a square they can be more long and it depends on the the space that you have but they they are kind of modular like that how long's the build start like from from the time that you say go uh you know whatever paperwork signed how long does it take to create that and install it and get it up and running it's say 8 to 12 months are you allowed to share uh rough savings at South River um generates from the electric or saves from the electric the battery in this in this presentation I have some projections of what what savings are available for a b project why don't we let you get through a couple of the slides and then we'll inundate you with more questions yeah no questions are great this is great um so some of these slides get into uh what was just discussed before about kind of the breakdown of power prices so won't go over that again but I I similar to what we saw before a big jump in the capacity prices in the zone um and a steady climb and transmission rates in the PSG region um those really come from uh from the grid from the market that that you're exposed to so behind the meter generation is really the path um to avoiding those costs in 2025 transmission will be at $180,000 per megawatt the capacity charge that I'm showing it in a little different th those were the prices shown before were dollars per megawatt day when you multiply that by 365 you'll get it in dollar per megawatt year so $180,000 per megawatt per year is what the town will pay for uh transmission and $105,000 per megawatt per year is what you'll pay for the capacity portion of your bill and and the key takeaway is reducing the amount that this the burrow is taking from the grid during those five PE peak hours the five transmission Peaks and five capacity Peaks that's where the savings are created we um took a look at your historical usage of data and plotted the red bars here show how much the burrow was using during those capacity Peaks um I believe that's in 2024 2023 uh so really small no one needs to see the exact numbers but the point is this shows that you can look backwards and see where you were used we would do something similar and if you picture those thin red bars on there if you picture the battery being dispatched during that hour and dropping the the Burrow's load during those hours you're just going to have a different billing component um on your future pjam bills and that would affect the transmission and charge the and the transmission component of the bill and the capacity component of the Bill thank you so th this is to the question earlier about the savings and the volume of the savings so this is an example of um uh the savings available on transmission so we've got to assume that the batter is able to reduce the load by 8 megawatts um and the annual rate is $180,000 we typically do a shared savings contract so we keep uh a onite Partners keeps 25% of the savings that are created and the bureau um keeps 75 it um so that math the $180,000 time 8 megaw time a 75% share would be 1.08 million for transmission um Revenue capacity is 105,000 time 8 megaw a 75% share is $630,000 so the project savings available is $1.7 million um that's gross right that's that is yeah gross that is the total amount of savings so um if you you know and and the battery project cost would would not be um even half of that amount so there's a sign significant savings that's available to the buau um by you know having a battery project installed the other uh key thing is that we offer a fixed battery service charge so that is just when we build these things we offer a men and have a fixed charge uh these rates we think are um poised to to increase and so um you know those savings would probably increase increase over over the life of a project especially if we're going up even further as we heard Brian say earlier that next year a million the year after that the projection from Morgan Stanley even more so the the higher that these transmission fees go up the Greater potential we have for savings even if we're not producing necessarily more it's because we're cutting off that top peak yes okay I I have a question if if we re receive the batteries would they be new batteries and what is the lifespan of a battery yes there would be new batteries the the batteries are it's a 15year project contract we have a warranty on the batteries for the full 15 years okay thank you have you um you you did how close did you say uh that the batteries need to be uh next to the um the plant that we have right over here on the hill so the the closer you can get the obviously the less expense you'll have to to run um cable conduit to the substation but as long as you can get have you seen that site yet or not uh yeah I saw it on the way in here today so yeah so we're familiar with some of the possible locations around town okay um and you actually have a lot of good spots for a battery which is kind of rare so we don't always have that much um but you do have um a couple spots Here Local to the substation that's can you go vertical with the batteries you have them laid out narrow some spaces might be narrow can you go vertical yes as long as you follow and we will follow the the the um uh National Electric codes and the the the building codes that are enforced that we have seen them stacked and built on um with the right separation distance a little down the road but at the point where you have 15-year batteries or if you needed to replace batteries is the rest of the transmission system that connected to our power grid would that remain feasible or you think that technology would be outdated by then that's that's a great question so really it's it's kind of a two-part system so there there's the whole infrastructure to to locate the project and interconnect it to the substation and at the end of 15 years some of that the transformation equipment and the conduit and cable that goes over there will still be used and useful and in 15 years there may be a different technology that you'd want to put on the project site that would you know tie in and stay behind your meter um but that that is kind of an investment that's made um and lives on after the batter so it's component driven so you could swap as long as the cable size properly I mean you in the future you couldn't add a 50 megawatts if this one's 10 but um yeah it's an investment that really kind of stays with the with the town and I would I would assume that if you're going to do any retrofit or replacement of batteries you would try to time that with the colder months so that you're not missing your opportunity to save on the peak hours absolutely there a very little amount of Maintenance that is with these things but with if something was you know any kind of preventative maintenance that needs to be done is done in off peak hours is it possible to visit a for any of us to visit a site in the area in New Jersey Riv uh to see how it operates it isiv I understand let me ask the CFO yes just send me an email whoever wants to come down we'll have the electric Guys open it up and you can see it first stand thanks now I understand that South River is doing a Expansion Project um W with I think they're going another 10 is that correct yes so phase two was awarded by the the governing body um everything is in A's hands now they're getting everything ordered and lined up and we're hoping for a June 1st 25 operational date good time so you'll have a full 20 20 Megs yes just in time for the increase M yeah that's proactive can we buy from that um just I think a few more slides here but just we usually go over this you know these projects are heavy on engineering and design understanding the balance of system getting all the permits in place there's an equipment procurement portion of this managing the construction commissioning them anything that breaks we we fix that we're responsible for the product registering it in pjm and then all the dispatch and operation and maintenance so um that really is kind of what we do 247 365 5 is operate distributed generation projects uh this is our core competency and and it's really important you know to get all that stuff right um You you build it right but you don't operate it right you're not going to see the savings you build it too expensive and operate it good you're not going to have the same return on your investment so um just something to think about as far as all the the things that need to come together for a successful project hey can uh can I ask one last question where's all your equipment manufactured uh so we haven't selected any equipment for future projects uh the most recent project we purchased a Tesla MEAP pack um and um I'm trying to think if uh I I believe that we're going for um domestic content um incentive on that project so okay thank you prevailing wage uh installation um apprenticeship um prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements will be met on that project and all future projects General Security of that kind of uh the battery project like I mean I'm sure there's there's no working parts there's no moving Parts uh you know everything's sealed like just for vandalism weather um you know lightning strike General stupid yeah um very similar to your own substation so you're we're going to have fences around it we're not going to want people you know wandering through it um but it's very similar to high voltage substation equipment so it'll be fenced lighted um it's not Reinventing the wheel to secure it or okay is this the first generation and if so can you give us a a brief history of how the battery came about the the battery project is not a first generation the the beer FIS I'm sorry on the battery the the the whole idea of the this battery well um you know I think people really Sol all the these this peak mitigation situation coming on and understanding and and there really is a need to respond to ultra Peak pricing um you know like Brian talked earlier about building a parking lot for Black Friday the Electric System does need to be built for its for its um highest peak hours um and so there there is some incentive or benefit to to giving customers incentive to not be you know basically in the parking lot during Black Friday and so these Ultra Peak prices give give customers a chance to respond um some people respond with load curtailments um steel mills have known to shut down and things like that uh it's really hard when you have a lot of residential to do that and so having a device like this is is something that works I think Tesla saw that years ago and kind of as they were building their car manufacturing line um they also built a MEAP pack uh line but Tesla's not the only person you know making these devices the system in South River the first one was built by uh Villa um with and um there's there's several other manufacturers that that make this equipment it's a it's a known um industry and people are responding to these Peak prices thank you so South River has had this for five years no we went out to bid in 2019 if I remember correctly I think there was supply chain issues with covid like everywhere in 2020 so it delayed a little bit 22 I think it went on board in June MH and then we started saving in 23 so he has to the battery will capture the peaks in one summer year and you'll your savings will come the following year so 23 and 24 were where we've been saving so far and South River being part of pjm this you you did the same presentation or something similar for the all nine members or brought it to pjm at the time think we did a similar presentation for for South River explained to them kind of what was going on with capacity and transmission it really wasn't a capacity story a couple years ago it was more of the transmission story but same idea the these large fixed portions of your bill are are really out of your control unless you have something behind your meter um and they reacted to that and and elected to go further into a project the first one ran they liked with the savings that they saw and then they um build a second project basically to cover the rest of their load and just to let our residents know the reason why we're saying South River they also have their own utilities just like miltown yeah so besides having this battery back they're in the same boat that we are so yes I don't think they'd have the battery system if they didn't have their own electric it so the residents know so but what I'm confused with is how you know I know George reached out today and and in part that was because of uh our business administrator saying hey you guys got to pay attention to what South River is doing but you know why this is like the first time we're hearing of it as an opportunity we've we've owned and operated our electric utility for a while we had to go through the uh the hurricane issues and moving our substation out of a flood plane or flood zone whatever whatever the term is these days that they want to fancy it um I'm just curious why now like we're finally hearing about it as opposed to how come it wasn't brought to our attention several years ago and I don't know if you know that answer or I I'll just say that you know but don't know specifically here but for a lot of our customers we were watching the capacity markets really not responding and for years it it just you know hasn't been that big of an issue and I think it it reached historic lows um and and finally now the market you know when when there's not enough supply for for the demand that happens quickly and prices raised quickly and so I think um what what maybe wasn't as big of a problem before is really looking like something that needs to be responded to so I I it really could be just the the um quick shift in the market the higher need kind of creating a market value for you and creating that Gap for you to step in and provide services for lovely people to us in our town yeah it's a good thing so what you're saying is we won't see the savings Joe was say until 26 you will see them the summer after the project first operates to reduce your load after the summer we build what one year later because you need to get yours adjusted or evaluated based on your reduced Peak but it it it really hopefully it's the new you know the new standard so it's a 15year long project there will be 15 years of operation and there will be 15 years of savings in the subsequent year so sometime you know that that first year is going to going to hurt but knowing that something's in place to to um stabilize rates in the future is is um the longer term Vision I think is the key and also too this is another reason why we send the nixel out to the residents on the off on the on peak hours to reduce energy so this is also an eye opener for everybody so now are we on the back end then you're going to see more savings or is to be the same savings uh year 15 so at year 15 not really sure what'll happen or you know how much use will be we don't expect this to be just a paper weight at that point and like we talked about earlier there's going to be a good amount of infrastructure there that can be reused for a different technology you know whatever batteries are are in at that time or there could be something new but um there's three options and you at that that time you can actually ask us to just take the system away and demolish the system or leave parts of it that you would want uh we could probably renew it and look at you know going from 15 to 17 or you know whatever makes sense at that time or we can um I I believe sell at the at the fair market value at the time so a lot of options it's it's totally in the Burrow's control of what happens at the end do the batteries uh perform is there a decline in the performance of the batteries for over the lifespan know you're saying the warranty ends at 15 yes however is it still going to have the same capacity after 10 years as it will on its initial so there is a warranty on the amount of capacity that'll be there as long as the batteries operated under the warranty so we're consistent for 15 that's right and and and we it's our job to operate that battery within the requirements of that to to maintain the warranty um so we can't run it 8,760 hours a year we have to use it uh you know at one cycle per day or two c you whatever the warranty requires um and so uh so your 25% that you're taking enlists your system to make sure that you're running it enough to make it profitable for all of us that's right and and that that 25% is really just to reduce the battery payment fee so that it's so that you yeah I don't have a problem with that at all I'm just meaning that you have a vested interest that's right in this going well that shared we don't necessarily need to manage it on a day to day that's right it's are aligned it is the crockpot of savings when we do well when the battery project does well the both Savers are doing well okay so you're saying it's not going to cost the burrow any upfront money is that what you're saying or if you elect the same structure uh that that South River did then there would be no there would be no money other than location microphone other than location at least I can hear that's because we I was I actually asked uh the assemblyman to stick around a little while because I knew this was going to be interesting and uh we looked at this already actually uh the mayor and I were on a call conference call with the um the freeholders or whatever they're called now um Commissioners whatever um whatever I'm old school so the freeh holders and freers and we talked about the area adjacent to our existing substation they had indicated it was now part of a list of uh properties that are uh preserved open space and so part of that was well can we stick around and swap and I was hoping the assembly men might have been able to uh use their persuasive nature to try and make that happen for us or at least help us navigate it a little bit better because there's not too many other locations one we've got a flood plane over here and then I know the other we talked about was potentially behind the Dunkin Donuts as that is a another location that is elevated but yet relatively close to our electric substation where it is now so I our our goal would be to help you minimize the cost of the project helped give you ideas about where we see cost increase or cost reduction capabilities you know but uh just in general the closer you can get and the higher you can get the less you're going to have to spend to bring copper to the batteries and to raise them so greater potential for savings yes and the lower yes the lower the cost of the installation uh the greater the savings and like you said like we asked you you manage the whole the whole Center and if there's a damaged battery how long does it take to to fix that if something occurs um so depending on what it is uh it could be a supply chain issue but we're we're that's back to the Align incentives on the savings when that's out then the savings are down for for both parties so we're we're moving quickly um we operate a fairly large Fleet of these so we have uh spare parts for for these things we're not just waiting around for them to break and and we really understand how it's operating throughout the year so we can see things you know giving us trouble and we can get those replaced before the peak season so those are the big things we do to kind of minimize that that down time um and keep the project operation 247 365 you guys don't close we don't close there we go we our job is to keep that thing on and and it's um it's really like I said it's our core comp that's what we do cor so with maintenance from your side do you need any is someone here supposed to be trained to do anything there no no and I'll let the South River speak for that but we don't we we certainly need help to understand in inter inter connect but normally when we're going to looking at the battery it's to help us get access to the to the substation there's no wrench turning it's like a partnership they contact us when they have to get in okay and it's their battery so they're handling their battery okay thank you I get it and you guys own the battery throughout and at the end so it is yours and we shouldn't touch it it's better that way that's right um voids the warranty voids the warranty indeed um with that so let's just say I mean um CU just looking at the picture when you have to stack of five three to four different batteries or battery stations if one were to go down does the system remain running just at a lower rate or does mean it's it's a sliding scale like that that's a good question so it's really tied to those inverters so if there's a problem with the one of the inverters then it could take down the the 3.3 megawatts associated with that if the problem's in one of the battery cells you may only have you know 100 KW um they're kind of like uh server racks and so it's really where the issue is it's very rare for the entire system to be taken out but if there was something wrong with the Transformer this you know then then you could have something like that but even then now we're really getting into more Transformers per train and so you really just lose one of the the 3.3 megawatt so there's there's incrementals to it so that would continue to work even though it may not work at full capacity right but we'd still and we try to design so there isn't n't that single point of failure but um great could could adverse weather create a problem it could I suppose it could but I it we try to set them up so that they're not you know um subject to that a lot of our cable and conduit is underground and okay uh and the closer we can get the the more we can assure that but um sure they definitely can handle the heat the rain the the snow okay basically we're a year too late say again well Year too late before the transmission costs go up the sooner the better I would say the sooner it's operating the better it is for your future as the other guys said 25 25 and 26 look to be three times um you know it's never too late to start a 41k I don't know same kind of theory but yeah I mean uh sooner we do it yes so I guess what are the next steps what do we need to do as Council to look into this you looking at me yeah so where do I sign do we have to uh create a ordinance or a resolution to I I need to this has been a presentation so I I need to figure out how South River went out to bid on this and the parameters of it there's there's a fair amount of information that I'm going to need so you'll have that by the next meting meeting for us Peter we can't wait to tomorrow absolutely yeah thank contract signed I'm actually to start the install tonight so it's no so at least you're aware I can I can start the B I mean I need someone to tell me what to do I get T So consent approval to move forward with um investigating preparing that type of stuff yeah if if the council is so inclined and they would like to pursue this more just say yes yes yes yes okay we Joe we have a bunch of stuff ran has ACH of stuff the Joe a bunch of stuff the lady who wrote up the contract of South River has long retired Jill uh crackerjack electrical attorney microphone that information if you can't hear me I can't help you the uh and I'm not sitting in Joe's lap so Sor we uh that would be a little awkward go so we will the information to the council like we did before uh with this presentation uh and get you involved to get this project uh up and run and we'll probably then have another meeting most likely via teams or Zoom unless Joe and I have to fly out to uh Bob Evans in Columbus to have breakfast to talk to them personally nobody else is invited but Joe and I Brian sorry we can't do this this is this is legal project FR I'm sorry invited or we're taking a bus trip but anyway this is easy you know now that I have seven members of council agreeing holy Cal write this down um that um we'll move forward as fast as we can to get it back to the council with some definitive decisions that the council needs to make uh other than moving the project forward one of the things that the Joe's will have to figure out is where do we site this project it's a good idea talking to Green Acres unfortunately in my experience it's by the time we get approval the fine Green Acre spot next to the county thing it'll be 10 years from now which which leads us to possibly a title search for other properties in town that would be in proximity further away from the substation the decrease in our increase in our costs and decrease in our profits we're looking at some places closer with some different ideas we'll bring some of those ideas back to council I think some of them are pretty easy and I I have one more question for the gentleman uh standing here so patiently is uh do you guys have any plans to expand your core competences to include something of water generation or sewage disposal because we've got a problem with that as well the cost of that going up and we're hoping maybe you can help we not not at this time we're we're electrons figure it was worth it water electricity you don't perhaps any have any your department your company doesn't provide any type of services in trying to offer assistance in acquiring land or any legal services in that matter do you we have a lot of experience helping and talking you know and sharing our experience like where this might take longer in your lead time um and what could work um but there's nothing we can hand off but you can help us no let me let me no we have to fight that fight ourselves here locally you know amongst ourselves let us know how we can help councilman rinsky I was going to say that you could probably ask that question to Elon Musk I think he'd come up with something he'd come up with something Joe thank you very much thank you very much thank Brian thank you very much sorry you're both here at the same time but it's coincidental that it it's also good it's also very good actually plan that way over it overlapped us so thank both to you gentlemen the problem and the Sol thank you thank you all right we have a public hearing on Community Development block grant I'll read this so uh the purpose of the public hearing tonight regarding the Housing and Community Development Fund is to receive uh citizens input on how to burrow should spend any Housing Community Development funds that are allocated to the burrow Housing and Community Development funds are monies received from the federal government and administered by the County government the use of the Housing and Community Development funds is limited to certain projects monies allocated for these funds round are expected to be approximately $58,900 ation director S Building improvements such as new windows new roof ADA compliance sidewalks and ramps at this time I will open the floor to public comment if anyone from the public wishes to comment please state your name and address for the record okay um may I have a hi oh sorry Hi Dorian Kerber uh 24 Rea Avenue I just want to say this is a great opportunity to even expand next year on things that we will need uh in the playgrounds in the Parks I think that's fantastic that we're going to be getting some funding you have to prepare it to the county they get the federal funds and then the county distributes it but if you don't say anything you get much of nothing and middle six County gets a bundle of money just like Woodbridge Edison they get hundreds of thousands of dollars because they put the plan together and itemize what they need the funding for it's Beyond affordable housing as well as the senior center so that'll be great in the future for all of us in the other departments as well thank you excellent thank you hello Margaret odonnell 89 CA Avenue um I just heard you say that it could be used for the senior center and I just came from the senior center so I'm aware that they're having some hbac and fan issues so I don't know if it could cover the facility itself but if it can there's a project in the waiting all right I'd like to close the public hearing um may I have a motion in a second please so second I have a motion made by council president revolinsky seconded by councilman Potter um all in favor or is this a uh roll call vote this is just this is just for the public hearing so this is just a mo yes just to close it that close the public hearing okay so in the consent in the consent agenda this is the public hearing and then the consent agenda has the resolution authorizing the submission of the packet if you will perfect for the council's uh information at the end of the public meeting as I stated in my you know previously that you know we're we're a little bit behind the power curve based on some transition issues here uh rolled over to an easy an easy fix if you will which is to fix some sidewalks in town we have a lot of conversation since I've been here about sidewalks needing working and curb Cuts curb Cuts can work anywhere in town regardless of the the demographics because everybody who is challenged if you will needs to go up and down the sidewalks and and out of crosswalks things like that we traditionally use them to fix um places where we're Paving the roads and you know doing those things and it sort of helps us with that then we offset a portion of the director of the senior center I would hope that next year that uh if we want to do some improvements to the senior center let's say you want to fix the windows I've heard about heard about today that they want to fix the windows that we that we would have a senior uh citizens participation cdbg group appointed by the mayor and Council who would then sit vet ideas bring them to the council or bring them to me and we would submit these to the county you know in March um not September so this should have been done in SE in March but uh obviously my office was a little on the behind the power curve to get this done now we're just trying to prevent from losing the money can I speak here yes sir yes Fred I don't know if you recall I'm I'm I'm a little surprised by this I appreciate it I came to your office at least six months ago with with uh Ralph to talk to you about things that we plan to do at the senior center and you were going to look into into this grant I'd assumed things were happening and and I'm I'm really surprised by this because I knew that the ramps would be an item that would would be happening but I assume things were going to be happening at the senior center and I haven't heard a thing until I saw this so I understand what you're saying that this shouldn't have this shouldn't be coming up now it should have been done months ago and I did come to you months ago you are correct sir and a month ago yes sir you are correct and six months ago I was alone in the office okay okay but no but I'm just saying yes you correct this shouldn't have come up now this did come up many months ago yes sir you are correct I got you know I got overwhelmed I'll take that hit FR do you know how many years ago we used to get a grant for the senior center it's been a couple years now hasn't it so we in in miltown uh there's a this is a as the the ladies have both mentioned this is a yearly cycle uh in Middle sex and all the other counties where you apply for uh you you have an allocation if you will our allocation is at 58,000 and change that's it's based on population okay the county comes down and says this is how much money you're allocated you could get what do you want to do with it this is your tentative allocation you submit a project request and then they go through a vetting process and then you get more and or less depending on what your needs are yeah but my question is we didn't get this last year did we yes you did you got $8,000 yes sir9 8989 89k or something like that to the uh salary for the director and 50,000 is in Ralph's um pile if you will for for sidewalk improvements and things like that thanks but we haven't spent any of that yet hey Fred can I ask a quick question about the um the number of ramps that we'll be able to get with the $50,000 is it five is it five because they run like 10,000 a piece well that depends on whether or not we have to hire a CME to design them or not I got it okay so you probably get like two two okay Z let's move on so so it'll it'll it'll it'll it'll it's it's included in a project cost as in a design of a road the the portion will just use the the sidewalk the the cdbg money to pay for the sidewalk portion or the ramp portion and Grand monies that pay for the thank you okay now is the time for public comment limited to the resolutions on the agenda if you wish to speak please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record again this is the public portion is limited to the comments only on the resolutions listed on the agenda at this time just a reminder under the rules of council individuals wishing to speak during the public input part of the meeting shall be limited to 5 minutes and they may after after other speakers have finished may be allowed to speak for a second 5 minute period Joe excuse me Joe Panza 15 Bruce court so I saw the uh latest Water and Sewer increases and I come up with 71% increase for water and sewer without flushing my toilet or running my faucet is this what you guys worked on and I mean where do these numbers come from how how short are we with New Brunswick me personally I think my in increased cost will be $18 a quarter what are there there's about 2500 homes in miltown right 264 M okay so 118 * 2500 is 295,000 how short are we can somebody do you all have the data that formulated these price increases yes we went through it at the finance committee meting microphone council president please we went through it at the finance committee meeting and who's on finance councilman Potter myself and councilman Collins John you saw the the data yes Dave you saw the data briefly yes we spent an entire three-hour meeting on it not looking at the DAT no I can't help it if you don't look at it all right so remember he talked about the Joe so two 290 guys 295 a quarter increase how much money do we need how much money do we need to charge people 71% without doing anything I get it I understand understand it had to go up you know I was here in June I I understand it needed to go up how much how much are we short that's my question we didn't focus on how much it's going up we focused on balancing a budget right now the water operating budget is around $2.9 million which when you divide that out by $264 residents comes out to about $285 per quarter that's what keeps us operating a system so that when you want water you can actually turn the faucet on and something comes out quality of it well we have to improve upon that that's going to cost more money if we don't get more grants but it's 285 a quarter that's how it works with 264 unit meters without without doing anything just just the base that's it now if you add usage into that the problem that you that results is that we have to pay New Brunswick for every gallon we use in both Water and Sewer so now if we want to include 7,500 gallons per quarter the cost of that is around $8.50 per thousand gallons so add that on to your 285 and that would have to be the minimum any other way you do it you're not guaranteed the revenue and the revenue is needed to pay for operating costs our overhead so instead of having folks say I'm paying for water I'm not using now there is no water in there that you're not using everybody in town pays the same they pay 285 to be connected a quarter and then $9 per th000 gallons for everything they use and miltown needed roughly $1.2 million the operating budget is about $2.9 million and and our CFO here you can verify those numbers if you like councilman I'm saying $1.2 million additional from what we were paying again I didn't look at what we were paying I looked at what the budget is and what our costs are now you heard the gentleman say earlier if we didn't get $350,000 in covid money we would have been upside down on the rates again last year right he did say that and it was 300 and it it it I think he said you needed about a 100 to to to make it work but I I I just think you know unfortunately it's excessive but uh you know you you guys have the vote don't forget Joe most of that is sewer you have 17966 in the sewer well that's all in compass that's that's in the that's in the 285 it costs us more for the sewer than it does for the water I understand dispose of I I I do understand but I I just think I I just think this is excessive but uh that's my opinion but thank you for uh time councilman rinsky do you recall when I ran the first time that there was uh several hundred th000 overage in the water fees and they asked what I what I would do with it and I said it would go back to the people I think that was and then years ago two years ago $600,000 was left in Surplus right 650,000 what happened to that money all right let's can we I don't know get back to the meeting first what happens when we don't raise the rates okay I'll close the public portion of the meeting meeting minutes for September 9th 2024 regular meeting are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections can I have a motion to accept the meeting's minutes as typed so move second I have a motion by council president rev Linsky second by councilman Potter all in favor I I any opposed thank you ordinance public hearing second reading the ordinance was introduced on September 9th 2004 published accordance with law if any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24540 by title ordinance 24-1 1550 ordinance to amend chapter 25 Water of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown may I have a motion uh for ordinance 24550 so moved it's all right if you don't adopt it the rates that we have now stay in place and that'll generate more than enough Revenue hence why there was no sunshine Clause no but if you did put a sunshine CLA Falls in there it would have come You' be screwed right now yeah but that's on you hey Mr venol how do we if there's no second it fails okay so there's no second all right very well so now instead of 285 a month plus paying for your water we're going to stick at 316 a quarter was no it was never introduced a second time we get a motion in a second then they open the public motion a second to to move it forward and then you have a public hearing now so in the absence of a second there's no public hearing good good question te following ordinance was introduced on September 9th 2024 and a published accordance to law if any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24551 by title ordinance to amend chapter 26 sewer section 26- 7.9 sewer use charges of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown I have a motion yes so move introduce the amended sewer rates so we can pay the bills next year nobody nobody with a spy very well I'll second it so we can have the conversation there you go and now the lovely lady from the audience can come up motion made by council president rev Linsky second by councilman Mo um up for public makes sense I mean it uh public comment first public comments thank you Margaret 89 CA Avenue um so the rate structure sounds like it would change with this um so I see the base quarterly amount and then I see all gallonage um so could anybody um just walk us through exactly what a bill might look like um under this rate structure well I I think it would be virtually impossible to maintain this rate structure since the water didn't pass but to answer your question uh the way this works is we have certain obligations that are the budgeted cost for operating the Sewer Department and Water so we took the respective values of each divided out amongst the number of customers and said that's the fixed key that fixed amount also includes 20 million gallons of unaccounted for water meaning water that we don't build customers for that whether it's in a leaky pipe under there or it's filling the burrow pool or flushing hydrants we're not metering it we don't know where it goes we just know we're using about 20 million gallons a year so the concept was you cover all your costs divide it out that keeps us running and then anything you use you pay for so the sewer bills I think uh when we divided it out last year it was around $535 C per th000 gallons of sewage that was pumped through New Brunswick that's what we got a bill for so we put a small portion on there made it 550 and said good enough it will generate a little cushion in case you have a rainy day something comes up you have a break you got a little bit of extra cash to fix things so um it doesn't um change that the previous water amount is how you calculate the gall gallonage of sewer amount that you're build so your water usage determines your bill for G yeah still would be water usage equals your sewage okay and one suggestion I had I heard at the um a previous meeting that uh you talked about installing um meters and I think it might be a good idea to have meters installed on uh the burrow facilities um you send us back to our meter to measure in case there's a leak or something that's a good way to find it that'll be a good way to find it on burrow uh facilities as well I've been saying it for years thank you thanks okay seeing no more I will close the public comment portion of the meeting is there any Council comments I'd like to say something microphone please I'd like to say something um I recommend that the mayor may consider forming a three council person committee with input from all of Council in regards to the water and sewer rates we on Council should appear in lockstep helping all of our fellow residents in Midtown it is Council that legislates let's work together and make things fair for all our residents we don't want an unfair burden to displace long-term Town's people who have called miltown home for Generations I have one thing to add to put things in perspective since Co we've seen the cost of everything sore the burden of unfair inflation in affecting all of us food clothing shelter gas the cost of living everyday needs have become a luxury for many we and Council want to keep the cost of everything we bill you as low as fiscally possible so so much is out of our hands we mostly have to find a way to make things work here in miltown so I think uh as there is its statement everything has gone up and as going up trickles down it's all going up for the town what I did notice and uh I like I like the concrete numbers of this is what it costs we divide that up everybody pays their share let's do a minimal markup on the water the part that I like about that is that what that also means is that a business like Acme who is um out of a food service any food service required to do a lot of washing a lot of cleaning a lot of paying for the gallon paying through the nose on a high rate um which I think is a valid concern in the future for businesses in the town I think if we want to be conducive to having businesses you know that is something that they pay an exorbitant amount of um you know granted that that one charge is heavy for someone who barely uses water but they'll be paying less on their rate per gallon uh as the markup goes and there's a security in the trade of consistency if we're going to play with that balance if we go okay so instead of having a standard incremental payment of this much and you're going to raise the water rate a little more if you want to make that one lower you're raising the other side of it and my concern is as being in town for a dozen years I would really think that we'd like to get away from having these conversations of so there's a gap and we got to come up with x amount of dollars and and I think the overall presence of the overall concept of this plan was to safely say we don't have to worry about that it doesn't mean it doesn't it's not a it doesn't mean it's comfortable it doesn't mean it's our favorite thing but that is the security the trade of budgeting of knowing that it's going to be there and you're not going to have to come over the top or the likelihood of having to com over the top is very very slim uh I'd like that it builds in an equitable change from whatever New Brunswick changes us that's what it goes up from that point on I think that there is a uh to trade of consistency you buy a new car you've got a payment you have an old car maybe you pay nothing today maybe you got to buy a new transition that's uh I um just maybe not too just to where I'm at I'm willing to trade that so I I just think that we should still adhere to the tiered system of water usage and you know the more you use the more you pay because the seniors in mtown can't afford anything but the minimum and I I don't feel that it'd be fair to say well you know I can use a lot more water then you should pay for a lot more water and the seniors that can just get by on you know the minimum 7500 gallons it was I don't know if it's going to be 7500 in the future and uh a lot of towns are going to 5,000 gallons that we should just keep that system and to preserve the seniors in our town because we certainly you know don't want them leaving the town that they've lived in for years and years because we just keep you know raising the water rates I mean it's a difficult situation and um I just think we we got to protect our seniors in this town and some of the minimal users I'll uh I'll add to that I'll I'll rebut um the tiered system is unfair to the folks who are build for the three hottest months of the summer in one bill I've said this many times already there's an inconsistency you can use the same amount of water anywhere in town in June July and August as anybody else but if you get bills for June July and August in one shot you're going to hit the tier and that tier is going to make you pay more dollars per gallon just simply because of when your billing cycle goes now I spoke to a resident today he didn't realize that we don't build the entire town at the same time for water we build a third this month and then another third of the town the next month and another third of the next month it's what also puts us on this cycle of we have to do it four times a year that we have the opportunity to introduce new rates and if we miss one of those well it what what looked like a 25% increase is now going to be a 30% increase because now you got to make it up over only 75% of the year the numbers don't lie and the whole purpose behind this ordinance in addition to capturing the rental units and making the people in an apartment of four pay the same amount for a water service as the the two folks who are living in the home that they've lived in for the past 4 years was fair and Equitable the other thing it required was that when we have a contract with New Brunswick our water supplier if that contract says every year the rates go up 3 and a half% it took it away from Council from having to increase the rates which if you look at the last five years we made such a huge stink when the rates went up 30% and we played politics with it to the point where who could ever justify V for a rate increase now you look like a hypocrite I mean God I just blamed everyone for raising the rates and here I am raising it I get it you handcuffed yourself and 5 years later where are we without the use of covid money upside down in a water budget when you see Revenue decreasing and surplus decreasing year after year and you do nothing about the rates you're either too stupid or too cowardice to be up here and do the job this isn't a popularity contest we have a responsibility to look out for the future of miltown today and to do what's right and if you don't want to do it by all means get reelected I don't care but the problem is getting reelected and doing nothing just means you're doing absolutely nothing for the future of this town you're just kicking the can down the curb you're just prolonging the inevitable and you're putting us in a worse and worse situation you don't want to pay the bills don't pay the bills you want the water rates to be less than what they are pick a number out of a hat go ahead throw it up there see if it sticks the Math's got to work right now we're at 316 per quarter for 7500 gallons under the new system you'd have at least a chance to pay 285 and only pay for the water you're using shooting down the water and sewer but uh ordinances tonight just means that 316 stays on Long and you know what if that stays for a whole year it is going to generate so much more money than we need talk about being fair to the residents but don't worry we won't touch the rates after that I'm sure they'll stay exactly where they are it won't be dropped down and in 5 years from now we'll be right back here again going oh my God a 30% increase I think there's a lot to dislike about the current system the the easiest thing to look at in in the new one is the rate per gallon and that quarterly payment however um the overall package all the thoughts about it that include that include basically uh creating the new meters it also puts in there a lot of good things that happen that when someone creates a new apartment building someone makes a new Do's a charge for new connections that are going to help offset if things happen in any one of the other places that all these units may appear uh the current program regardless of the rates does not provide any long-term protections for the town any future benefit and it hasn't been done with forethought clearly there's a lot of good things in this proposal in both sides of it whether we do one rate or the larger per gallon smaller original payment the basic idea is that this whole system has been flawed and if you've lived here you probably noticed it what the final details end up being you know I'm simple on math if it works it doesn't have to be Revisited but it needs to pass in order to work but it falls upon a council at some point regardless of how we feel regardless of history is say there's a blank Sate what are we doing about miltown tomorrow and if we don't have that answer tonight I can live with that but we are going to have to come up with an answer and I think there are a lot of things in this that are well worth preserving I mean I would vote for it I sorry I didn't second it but you know it seems uh that would have been a moood point anyway but there's a lot of good detail that's g into this and there's a lot of things that protect this town in the long run and I think a disservice gets done when in action is taken I would love to see someone say here's what I would vote for here's what I do think would be better here's how we can change this because no one said all these points I like this one this one this one this one that's what I don't like having a committee where three people get together it sounds like I'll see you guys in March and um I'm just not that patient so I have to say I don't think you need three people I think we need to get all together in executive session with charts with numbers with our CFO with our ba and discuss it I no no I'm just saying I also no no no I'm just and I'm just saying too I do remember there were emails going back and forth of also proposals for this that were ignored so this isn't going away we're going to work on this and get this done it's just what is here tonight just doesn't work because you're hurting the seniors you're hurting the minimum users and the and the ones that are using more so in other words instead of going like this we're going like this and it should go like this so that's what we have to work on and we will it's just not going to happen we want to further punish the people who water their lawns and put a pool in there well I want I want to say something one person at a time go ahead rich I think I think the idea of doing it in executive session and taking some time to do it can't have the discussion needs to happen before the public so just so we're all on the same page your rate discussions are something that the public is part is privy to if you want to discuss it in a committee and then bring it to the public you can do that but you you can't all convene and close session to do that I stand correct you no I say Dave you're right because it's like if you know you're being build the highest in those three months and don't use the water just don't turn your specul out don't water a lawn don't fill your poll if you want to do that then you're going to pay more you know and I accept that I water my garden I water my lawn if the seniors are in the house they should get the minimal charge they're not going to be watering their lawn and the people in apartments aren't going to be you know filling their pool so right now we used to have well we used to have it up to a certain amount there was a minimum that minimum is gone so a senen you're up to 7,500 gallons of water in the past they use that that's but now it's 285 plus gallon for gall that's correct this going up way no notop we we you guys didn't vote for the water boat you didn't vote for it so it's it is what it is it's still three 15 for 7500 gallons they we talking both though we didn't have a discussion for the first one cuz it wasn't so we're talking no you didn't have a second you had your chance to make comments at the last meeting and your only comments were well I think we need to clarify this a little bit right I think we need to clarify that no no comments about the rates themselves or how they were structured you sat in the meeting you heard the example from our CFO you ran through the numbers and you sat there go wow excuse me excuse me Joe were you here at the last meeting so so you stand corrected our CFO was not here at the last I'm talking about the finance meeting before we even introduced the finance meeting when we introduced these when we sat down and went through the final numbers and we got it down to 285 that meeting you sat and said nothing now wait a minute that was a committee meeting on no no wait till we get up here we'll make a big stink and we'll show are you done are you done are you done are you finished can CLK call the hold on can I just say something M uh councilman Collins also said no okay and councilman Collins is also on utilities and finan and councilman Collins should be to blame as well can it cler please call the RO I'll take the thank council president rolinski I councilman Collins no councilman moo I councilman pansy no councilman Potter no councilman Zam Brana no motion does not pass authorizing payments of Municipal obligations next on the agenda we have the authorization of payments of Municipal obligations will a clerk please read res the resolution by title authorizing the payment of bills claims and statements against the borrow of miltown in a total amount of 2,1 153,00 what um for the uh obligations here uh it's on page four and it is let's see let's see okay it's um the special counsel yes sir I I know I'm I'm not going to talk about what the special counsil is there for um I believe they've been there here for about what four or five months this has been ongoing for four or five months yes s um do you know how much money has been spent to date approximately I don't have that number in front of me sir I just know they're on the bill list they've been here a while probably close to 10 grand okay um I I was I was asked to speak to a person and I I did not want to speak personally to him I asked him to send me email questions and that was about a month and a half ago and I see a bill here for this and this is ongoing and I see nothing productive in this for any party and all I see this is is that it's cash going um going going to a a company and it's not helping here we you have the the taxpayers here that are being that are being built for this and I don't see any purpose because I haven't seen anything of any resolve here that's just my that's my thoughts can we amend the bill list and choose not to pay that bill because we haven't seen anything from it no sir you can't do that can't do it okay side Peter he covered it either either one of us can say it can I ask that um since since nothing is happening that this be resolved immediately well we we finished with that councilman pasinski I I don't know that it's it's as you're aware you authorized a certain set of actions to occur my understanding is that ongoing as evidenced by the bill list so just because there's been no resolution doesn't mean that nothing's happened I believe that you had asked your business administrator to provide you with an update I would say in light of what the subject matter is that might be appropriate again with a directed email to the parties involved we can do that I believe we I believe you had that question a month ago we provided response to that it is ongoing I do know that uh that you didn't not respond but others have and he's conducted interviews and did not respond no he he did not you know he I believe you indicated sir that he had contacted you and you didn't want to respond you want to do by email respond he did not respond in return I I have to take yes sir I got I got I got that but at at the beginning of this I I think that I'll say I'll speak for myself that that I was I was okay with it and now I'm not because it's just dragging it's it's just a drag to the tax payers just my opinion may I have a motion in a second I got a question on page 11 about the pump services that's the same company they did pumping service at all these places $221,000 page page page 11 that shi no pump it says pumping Services Incorporated I'm get I'm get that's $2,583 and4 you s pumping Services works on our sewage pump station stuff don't they providing Parts and Repair that's correct part of which we had $120,000 budgeted in water sewer of which we spent $186,000 last year fixing a sewage pump station year after year 100,000 plus this is part of it but it's okay be answer I have a motion in a second please other than the comments the short answer is they are the people who we call out to do the work okay make I'll make a motion we accept pay the bills second I have a motion made by councilman Colin seconded by councilman Potter will the clerk please call the RO council president rolinski go right ahead councilman Collins I councilman moo I councilman posnanski I councilman Potter I councilman Zen Brana I all all right uh consent resolution has been prepared for the resolutions listed on the agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and haven't been reviewed by burrow Council will be enacted on in one motion any items removed from the consent agenda at the request of the council member and if so removed will be treated on in a separate matter any items requiring expenditures are supported by a certificate certification of funds if there are a number of council wants any resolution acted upon individually please give me the resolution number and I will pull from the consent resolution yes uh Mr Mayor 202 24-26 268 you said yes and just uh Mr Mayor I put a new copy of 2024-25 on the day is for everyone uh I had the year is 2023 instead of 2024 in the actual resolution so I just wanted to let you know okay will the clerk please read the consent agenda uh resolution whereas pursuance of the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular or special meetings upon certain C certain conditions and whereas each of the following resolutions to be presented before the burrow council at its September 23rd 2024 regular meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the burrow Council 202 24-263108 2024 d2699 2024 regular meeting and adopted by separate vote now I'm ready so moved heard reading this resolution second approved by councilman um Collins seconded by councilman Potter uh will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski I councilman Collins councilman moo I councilman posnanski hi councilman Potter hi councilman Zen Brana hi will the clerk please read resolution 20 24-26 by title authorizing Award of contract under New Jersey state contract 23- fle t- 34933 2024 Dodge Durango Pursuit all-wheel drive neelon of Morristown not to exceeded 50,7 one666 is this tpw no police uh is this something that was um is this a purchase that was uh supply chain related from last year or is or were we just replacing another car I was replacing a 20-year-old detective car that we that is like falling apart that we don't even take out of town anymore okay so I will say that for the last couple of months councilman we've gone back and forth looking we found a we found a vehicle uh uh but it was outside the bid State contract uh for the but the the qpa was a little nervous that we were you know outside of that window it was bit you know because as you know you buy a car that's older you know it's already decreased in value even more when you drive it off the lot so this was so then we went back so so we went back and bought one that's you know 2024 instead of a 2022 that's been sitting on the lot that we you know you would to buy it yourself because it was a really good deal but we constrained by the law not to be able to do that so we went back to the buying the purchase here through this Co-op for the police department and it's in the budget um that's my next question um is does this by not purchasing this car does this affect uh the utilization or the effectiveness of the police department yes sir so you know the the vehicle that the detective drives around it's dead it would be technical term I wouldn't drive it myself okay thank you thank you sir only went up 1 a half% last year we look clear please call the RO council president rolinski councilman C councilman moo councilman pansy councilman Potter I councilman zamber I reports from elected officials council president rinsky nothing to report thank you counc Collins no reports Mr Mayor thank you councilman moo I do have a few um so for the library uh Wednesday September 25th drop in play at 10:30 a.m. an after school snack and chck book club at 300 p.m. uh after school Jeopardy on Thursday September 26th at 300 p.m. Monday September 30th there's adult yoga at 9:15 a.m. and superhero bingo at 6:30 for families and adults come as your favorite superhero or just feel free to be yourself Wednesday October 2nd there will be an after school bingo at 3 p.m. come crochet with Sam G on Saturday October 5th at 11:00 a.m. Monday October 7th adult yoga at 9:15 a.m. and an Edgar Allen Poe presentation at 6:30 p.m. uh in the Halloween theme Wednesday October 9th drop in play at 10:30 a.m. and Minecraft games at 3:15 Thursday October 10th tween craft at 3 p.m. the library will be closed on Monday October 14th Tuesday October 15th AARP will have a presentation on smartphones excuse me uh please inquire at the library for registration on these events the library will be having a table at miltown Day on September 28th the next Library board meeting is Tuesday October 8th at 6:30 p.m. and is always open to the public mostly always uh the library is doing a Halloween costume extra exchange and they are accepting children's clean and gently used Halloween costumes until October 18th on October 21st from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. children are invited to come to the library and choose a costume to use on Halloween uh and I think that's just a great service and thing for a lot of people and a nice thing for them to plan the library has a book and movie Delivery Service for limited Mobility individuals please inquire by calling 732 247 2270 and the rec department actually I believe I don't have a Rec Department one tonight no no I do not uh that concludes my portion of the thank you councilman pansy sure uh I only have the DPW to speak about tonight they're having a shredding event it'll be at the American Legion parking lot JFK Drive Saturday October 12th 2024 8:30 to 11:30 and uh let's okay miltown day is this Saturday the DPW will be represented there and they ask that uh you stop by they have freebies uh meat the staff and ask questions and uh last is uh I I hope people have noticed on Highland Drive that um it's uh it's it's a it's beautiful it's um the uh the Milligan the paving has it actually uh it's been ahead of schedule it started on the 18th and uh it it looks great and Ralph told me there were uh zero complaints actually no he told me there were a lot of complaints and that's about it thank you that's that's my report thank you councilman Potter thank you Mr Mayor uh from the miltown police department residential security reminder the miltown police department is offering complimentary home risk security risk assessments to assist residents in enhancing the safety of their homes upon request one of our Community Affairs officers will visit your residents assess potential vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for improving your home security to schedule a risk assessment please contact Lieutenant dorenzo via email at C dorenzo mil pd.org Community involvement is crucial in maintaining a more secure environment we strongly encourage you to assist us by reporting any suspicious persons vehicles or incidents that you come across the non-emergency number is 732 82810 in case of emergencies always dial 911 concerns can also be submitted by using the official B website under the reported concern tab together we can make our community a safer place place thank you for your continued support and please do not hesitate to reach out to the miltown police department if you have any questions or concerns and we look forward to seeing everybody at miltown day along with the Midtown fire department and rescue squad from the miltown fire department tickets are now available for the Endless Summer Clan bake at the American Legion taking place this Saturday September 28th please note that a limited number of tickets will be sold if you're interested in attending kindly email MFD Clambake gmail.com to secure your tickets and members are needed candidates that are interested in joining the miltown fire department or encouraged to stop down by the firehouse on Monday evenings at 6:30 or email join miltown fire gmail.com and from the miltown rescue squad if anybody has any billing questions please call our building please call our billing company directly please do not contact the miltown police department with any billing or recruitment questions and regarding recruitment anyone is interested in joining the miltown rescue squad or becoming an EMT should contact us via email at recruit mtown rescu squad. org to learn more we're happy to answer any questions from the miltown 4th of July committee the miltown 4th of July committee looks forward to seeing everyone at miltown day this Saturday be sure to stop by our tent to meet the committee members and enter our free drawing for a chance to win a basket filled with Fourth of July merchandise and Mr Mayor I was following up on a comment uh made during our last meeting um I reached out to Chief Johnson to inquire about the three alleged pedestrian accidents uh Chief Johnson confirmed that there have been no pedestrian accidents in crosswalks during within the past 12 months however there was a bicyclist accident reported all other suggested incidents were UNF founded we encourage all residents with concerns to continue to utilize a reported concern process as each individual who submits a report will be contacted directly and that concludes my reports thank you councilman zimbrana thank you Mr Mayor um our environmental commission meeting is uh this coming Wednesday 7:30 p.m. via Zoom uh our Board of Health meeting is tomorrow 6:30 in the conference room in the back uh as you've heard several times tonight miltown day is Saturday September 28th from 10: to 3:00 p.m. the revitalization committee uh welcomes all um hope we have great weather that's what it's looking like so far um to come out and uh join us all and have a great day um and then my my last report here is from the human Relations Committee our next meeting will be Tuesday October 1st uh at 700 p.m. via Zoom uh I would be remiss to not mention with a week left in September uh September is National Suicide Prevention month as well as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month uh Hispanic Hyster Hispanic Heritage Month started on 9:15 and runs through October 15 and World Alzheimer's day is uh was on September 21st in October Breast Cancer Awareness Month ADHD awareness month and World blindness day is October 10th uh 2024 and then of course later on uh next week uh rashash Shana is on Wednesday the second yam kipur is on Friday October 11th the the beginnings of both and of course Columbus Day uh which is also known as indigenous people's day is October 14th and that concludes my reports thank you reports from professionals B Attorney Peter venola no report tonight Mr Mayor thank you B Engineers very short report toight Mr Mayor U we had meeting with Public Works director today and uh uh your administrator uh discussion on Highland Drive there is some remaining work after the pavings been done uh mostly the concrete repairs we waited to get those done until the asphalt work have done because we're going to need to possibly do detours so that work will be scheduled during the month of October thank you U Mike got a quick question um I think I believe we're supposed to have a meeting today but off we got moved but we do have to meet to discuss about um the money being used from the grant how long do we we have to use that well I think that the projects must be awarded by Spring of 2025 so the sooner the better with the meeting I think that uh uh we if you'd like we take the lead and try to get scheduled all right Fred you try to make a see yeah take two thanks so uh real quick mayor thank you as to take away off Mike's conversation and for the council mayor and Council and the public uh part of our conversation today was the continuing issue with our non-compliance if you will or note of non-compliance on a trial trihalomethanes issue that I emailed the the council a couple of weeks ago we continue to move forward with that with checking our data coming in from our samples coming in from Brunswick our sampling data if you will uh and but at the end of the day at the end of the day we're required to notify the residents uh with a letter that I provided to council uh in draft form that letter will be generally as I provided and the differen is being there'll be dates on it uh the point of contact for the water system those yellow blanks that you saw on it but the the meat of the letter is going to stay the way it is uh when that but we have sent the draft to Da D they are uh they do require us to provide them the draft once they approve our draft then we'll get it out to the residents to meet that statutory guideline required by them to get the public notice out just wanted to update you and that's where we're at thank you B cler thank you Mr Mayor uh reminder that our burrow ordinance states that you must apply for a permit to hold a garage sale permits are handled by the clerk's office and applications are available on the website as well as in the office in person the fee is $5 cash or check only marriage license applications and appointment are available by appointment only please be sure to have a ceremony date and efficient to marry you before you call to book your appointment notary services are offered free of charge in the clerk's office we do ask that you try to schedule an appointment but we'll make every attempt to squeeze walk-ins letters were sent to any members of boards committees Commissions in the burrow that have a term that is expiring at the end of 2024 if you haven't gotten that back to me and you are interested in serving again please fill out the citizen leadership application and drop it off for email to me if you no longer want to serve uh check the box that says I no longer want to serve and get that back to me um looking to have them back around Thanksgiving so we can start preparation for reorganization uh those appointments are made at the reorganization meeting which will be January 6 2025 so if there's any Resident that's not currently on a border committee and is interested in volunteering fill an application get it to my office uh the general election is coming up Tuesday November 5th polls are open 6:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. mailin ballots have been sent out by the county clerk's office and the Ballot Box in front of the police department is now open early voting is October 26th through November 3rd the list of early voting polling locations within our county is on the clerk's page on the borrow website October 15th is the deadline to register to vote and October 29th is a deadline to apply for a mail and ballot all of those applications are available on our website as well as in the hallway in front of the clerk's office um as far as planning board the next meeting is October 2nd at 700 p.m. the Christopher Street application which drew a lot of interest in the town has been withdrawn but there is another application on for that meeting and one more thing uh court is currently a shared service and has uh off hours than our usual barough Hall hours the municipal clerk's office cannot take ticket payments or help with court matters we are the municipal clerk not the court clerk their extension is 1221 and uh their hours are posted on the window and that concludes my report thank you does any member of council have any old business to bring before Council yes Le someone else does go ahead okay want to speak about the uh schwinderman property in regards to the yet to be determined plans for the schinman property I have an idea it's just me that may please some residents and anger others council is the final Arbiter of the disposition of the site some groups in town have a voice in this matter some in advisory voice many have a loud voice council members doing their own due diligence will decide the fate of the cabin and property respectfully some residents are saying that the council has misused the grant money saying there should be an investigation the grant is a reimbursement Grant when money is spent we are reimbursed such as the architect assessment of the structure thus we hold no grant money the county does my plan is to sell the swind cabin back to the family for a dollar they can move the cabin to their property on Main Street which is a large property behind the old Taxidermy Studio there's plenty of room for the cabin on site where family friends and supporters can donate time labor and financial assistance to to get the cabin into fine shape and transform it into a nature center and town Focus if that is their desire they can create a foundation to solicit funding they can host fundraisers have schools and special interest groups pay or donate for maintenance and upkeep the land itself can be cleaned up trails form wild flowers grown trees Etc uh even possibly becoming an extension of Albert Avenue Park my point here is to have ideas a broad spectrum of thoughts when people work together we can achieve great things yes M Mr Mayor U Mr mcah I had a question about Christopher Street now that we can talk about it now because we couldn't talk about it because it was a pending application well you can I mean you can talk about Christopher Street as paper street but we I don't know what your question is councilman no I mean there were some U when I was on the environmental commission they were talking about uh seeing if we could do something with the Green Acres for some of that area so it depends I mean you have a paper Street I believe which is Christopher Street so it is a street if you don't want to allow it to be improved you would vacate that street at the point where you vacate at that street it would revert back to the property from which it was created jent Property Owners exactly one one or more of the adjacent Property Owners depending on how it was whacked up to create that street um if you were so inclined to acquire it you would need to have the property appraised and and but you don't there's there's a number of steps involved there so but we can't talk about it now at least we can certainly talk about because you said we could talk about it while there's a pending application I didn't want to talk about vacating a street that someone was relying on in connection with an application now we could talk about Green ACR you can certainly talk about trying to pursue Greenacres funding for it but although you would need to create a subdivision in order to have the property available because once it reverts back to those Property Owners that's that's where it would be I see thank you like to close all business uh new business does any member of council have any new business to bring before Council I I had a question for Monica is there going to be a townwide garage sale in October uh we don't have a burrow sponsored townwide garage sale I believe on one of the Facebook groups they do an unofficial one uh as long as you apply to the clerk's office for a permit but that has nothing to do with the burrow okay thanks I'd like to close new business um open to the public the public common portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments the council will respect the Public's Time by refraining from any comment till the speaker is finished it should be further noted that the public comment portion of our meeting is not structured as a question and answer session please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium just as a reminder that under the rules of council individuals wishing to speak during the public input part of the meeting it shall be limited to 5 minutes and May after others speakers have finished be allowed to speak for a second five minute period goe Joe Joe Panza 15 Bruce Court I'll be brief I know it's late um I was just calculating because we talk about I'm talking about the water and sewer again sorry we talk about the covid money the 300,000 so if we raised the base 30% instead of 71% and kept the ordinance as it was cuz generally it is a good ordinance I I like many fa factors of it that increase the 30% increase generates about 500 more than a half a million dollars a year so that is well above the covid money and you know I just you know I um I came up before and said I you know I didn't like the 71% so 30% I think more than would would more than do it and it would give you know if there's a water main break or what have you it it give you some wiggle room to address those things thank you for your time thank you uh John McMan 30 Highland um first of all thank you for dealing with Highland Drive that's been a disaster for a long time um ordinance 24549 didn't make the list tonight but I wanted to speak about it anyway and that's the one where we're going to prohibit the parking at the ends of certain streets uh I can't speak to all of them I live at the corner of Garver and Highland um Garver is a disaster my daughters almost got killed once uh and it's it's scary thank you for looking into it uh my concern is is those cars that are parked by Main Street are going to park somewhere and all they're going to do is move further down Garver Avenue and then we'll be saying well we're going to have to prohibit parking at the corner of Garver and Highland and then they're going to go on Highland Drive and we're going to have to like I feel like we're chasing our tail and and and and I recognize that what you guys are doing here is at least a step in the right direction uh maybe at some point we need to look at parking permits thank you I and I haven't been to a council meeting in in since I filmed them with Russ 20 years ago uh so I don't know who might have suggested what but maybe we could we could uh at least keep that in the back of our heads what we're doing is a great start because that corner getting out in the morning on Main Street is bad whoever looked at it thank you um but just something to keep in the back of our heads uh moving forward so so John just to let you know the the chief and I did go around uh last last week and Garver was one of there were 14 there were 14 items on that list yeah there there's a big list out of the 144 the chief said there is a public safety issue and Garber was one of them so um again we didn't see it on the list here but the mayor and and council president revolinsky and you know we're in the Public Safety Committee we're we're going to look into it but just let you know that Garver was was one um of the issues that were that the chief did agree to yeah I saw it on the list there and and uh I mean we made it three times and that street is like from here to the wall and what was suggested what was suggested is all AC off from Main all all up and down Main Street all those Street all those side streets get signed and you know yellow line for the 25 ft to see where the issues are and then you know then take it from there so um cuz a lot of them don't have it and and a lot of people don't know yeah no and it's it's scary when cars are turning off in Main Street it is scary so so thank you guys for looking at it and uh appreciate it I agree with you 100% on the parking permits I don't know how we're going to get around that honestly because all the cars are going to do is move and they're just going to keep Ching shuffling them around y but you know there's professionals that hopefully know more than I do thank you John thank you weisenberger 99 JFK drive this might be out a little sequence here I'm guessing what might happen tonight but any update on Fort Avenue did you want detail on that update or just yes uh the the court case was finally heard they came to a determination on the value however the next step in the process is that both the developer and the county have to agree with that valuation deposit the monies so that the property can be taken the burrow gets its money the remainder or the balance then goes to the land owner and development can begin we don't know yet if the county or the developer have agreed with the Court's determination so but at least we've got after 20 years we've got a value on the property so to be happy for the the court case the date that that was finalized then the Judgment that when it was made is it um about a week ago has been entered yet but the the the jury has rendered an opinion as evaluation there's still proceedings ongoing right so there'll be probably an appeal or not appeal there's so many days for an appeal yeah we're we're going to find out more with some of the that's I said what we have going on after the meeting right that's we'll be able to ask questions later too no no at the next meeting okay appreciate it I will close the um public portion of the meeting Council comments is there any one on Council that would uh like to bring up at this time I've got I've got one um clearly disappointed that uh it didn't pass tonight you know we we came up with a plan we talked about it the concept um at meetings no one sat here and objected and I mean in the finance meetings uh no one commented on the other things and I think what happened was when they saw what the operating budget is and the costs everyone just suddenly shriveled is what it is eager to see what happens next hopefully it uh it changes the way we do business because I remember someone once said that uh insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results and if we don't change the way we plan and we budget for the water system for example increasing at 30% sounds great you increase 30% people use less water the revenue is not there your profits not there you're back to square one so that's all I got good luck I'd like I'd like to speak about that also um I did fight with myself councilman rinsky over this because I did I asked for a meeting with Joe Zenga which I did receive and I asked for uh 5 years worth of um order bills broken down quarterly I looked at everything and I asked him please make me understand this I said I'm going to have to vote on this and um I'm also Le on to the senior center and I speak to those people and John Collins was with me last week and they had their monthly meeting there were 50 60 people and um the president Bob sarinski wanted us to speak when John and I did and those people are very scared so I have on the one hand I appreciate the ordinance that Council rinsky uh presented I really do appreciate I see I see a lot of good in it it just scares me for the the seniors which is the fight that I had with myself because I have to talk to those people some of them came up to me I've said it before and and I wish they didn't they'll tell me how much they bring in a month and it's it's scary because they'll say that they have to foro some things important things just to pay some of their bills and that's that's what weighs in my mind when I vote here and um that's what I have to say about that just one more thing um talking about Fort Avenue I contacted the the new chairman of the fort Avenue Redevelopment agency Kevin mwan and I respect respectfully asked if he could uh attend a council meeting introduce himself and speak about his his new Mission he countered asking ask him if I would like to have a cup of coffee with him and I thought that was fair to me and I look forward to meeting him if one or two Council M would like to join us please contact me and the number one question I I get in town is what is happening with Ford Avenue and as of now um substantial movement seems a foot but but we'll see ju just for the record councilman he is the executive director he's not the chairman the chairman would be somebody's just all right I misspoke no it's okay so a lot of different titles I just wanted to make sure we were clear for the record okay thank you I share the same sentiments as councilman pinski and you know we uh you sitting up here you also have to take into account the public feedback of what you're doing because U you know you don't understand if you pass something and people are going to be hurt like we heard at the senior center with some of these bills that it would be you know not responsible not to listen to the public as a as a you know as a councilman that we have to listen to the constituents and uh I mean I heard from one lady and she said my friend Rich is raising my water bill I mean I had to tip toe around that one um so I say you know we we do want to listen to the people when we are you know empathetic with the seniors in this town and I I don't see a problem with using continuing the tiered system because it's always worked in the past and you know somebody throwing out an idea that well the people won't use any water if we raise the price but people are going to use the water anyway I mean that can afford it they're going to water their lawns like councilman Potter and councilman rinsky you're going to water your lawn you know uh so no I'm not well maybe not you don't have to wor like I said you don't have to turn that hose on Rich you know it's your decision um but we do want to appear empathetic to the public and also to the seniors in this town and that's all I have to say if I may um I think using the word system works is I don't I just can't agree with that one but uh unless we all agree just to use the same amount of water we're never going to be able to figure out something that's just completely fair and in all reality counil Rey raising the rates no are we raising the rates no inflation the age of our system the required maintenance of it all of these things are a perfect storm that raises our rates the math gets harder to see because they fil you know gaps were filled in using covid money and with that what you know we say 30% 20% you know we're pulling numbers out that's why I like the system of this is what it costs to run it and let's divide that equally I get that that is a jump the the part that is hard to see in this and I don't quite know what it is either is that if we did the tiered system if we did the old system and just raised the rates accordingly there was still going to be a jump so does the new way cost us any more I don't think so because at the end of the at the end of this we are at some point paying the same bill I think we're just as far as I can see it the bill is the bill is the bill so whether we're going to have to raise the per gallon rate and see how that works out and at the end of the year like this year come up with another by the way here's an extra bill either way I think that's just inconvenient to People to People whether it's a fixed I mean I have a fixed income as well except I could go possibly work another job but you know I like to see my kids my daughter my wife once in a while I mean like so it's it's it's a commonality of problem is that it just goes up every single year the battery thing that we're talking about for the electric is it is the happiest thing that I can ever think of that we're going to vote on something that could really do things that are great and Offset you know what's coming it's getting out in front of something and it's just hard in this town that the water system getting out in front of that it's going to require some suffering and you know we all live here us too and I know for some people it hits harder you know I wish there's more we can do about it just what it is sometimes sadly wish we can do better I'm done all right I'd like to close Council comments uh my comments um yes I'm I'm glad that uh actually everyone agreed um for the battery project as well councilman Mano um I would like to thank the director of the utilities and the CFO for running all the numbers um multiple times multiple different ways for um council members myself um CFO um everybody was running the numbers to try to come up with a a possible solution so uh thank I want to thank them for that um will the clerk please read resolution 2024 270 whereas the open public meetings ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 permits the ex inclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist and whereas the governing body wishes to discuss litigation and whereas minutes will be kept and once the matter involving the confidentiality of the above no longer requires that confidentiality than the minutes can be made public now therefore be resolved by the burrow Council of the bur of Midtown County of middlex state of New Jersey at the public be excluded from this meeting you have heard the reading it is resolution are there any questions may I have a motion in a second please so moved second I have a motion made by councilman Potter seconded by councilman Collins U will cler please call the rooll council president rinsky councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman pansy councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana I wait second for