##VIDEO ID:z1SDqf539-Y## I call to order this regular meeting of the township Committee of the township of Mars this Wednesday September 18 2024 the time is now 5:30 this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law specifically notice of this meeting was emailed to the Daily Record and a Mars newsby on January 4th 2024 and posted on the township of Mars website the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on our website mars.com under agenda centered certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personnel Andor other matters outlined in the Sunshine Law notice to members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records act madam CL call please Mr gazelle present Mr Dy here Mr janada here Mr Adams here may here Madame clerk will you please read the closed session resolution resolution 218 act 24 authorizing the governing body to conduct a closed meeting as defined in the open public meeting ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 whereas the open public meeting ACT public law 19 75 CH 231 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas the township committee is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist and whereas the township committee wishes to discuss the follow affordable housing and general liation is there a motion to approve the resolution some moved second Madame Clark may I have a roll call vote mayor before you roll what was what were the topics for close session affordable housing and general litigation okay uh Mr gazelle yes Mr janata yes Mr JY yes Mr robits yes mayor G yes at this time we are going to move into Clos session and resume with the regular meeting at 7.m the closed session May resume after the regular meeting meting reped I call to order this regular meeting of the township Committee of the township of moris this Wednesday September 18th 2024 the time is now 7:04 this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act and adequate notice of this meeting was has been provided as required by law specifically notice of this meeting was email to the Daily Record and the Mars news date on January 4th 2024 and posted on the township of Mars website the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on Marist township.com under agenda Center certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personnel Andor other matters as outlined in the sunshine notice to M of the governing body and the township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records act Madam clerk roll call please Mr gelle Mr JY Mr R here Mr Jan here may here will everybody please stand for the pledge of aliance I pledge Al of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all the next item on the agenda this evening is the approval of the minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the July 17th 2024 closed and regular reading and the July 30th 2024 special meeting so move second all in favor all we have two proclamations on the agenda for tonight and the first one is the sisters of char um I will be attending an event with them we don't have anybody here this evening but committee and janata will present the Sister of Charity Proclamation thank you madam mayor in recognition of and and congratulations on the 165th anniversary of the Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth whereas cting provides an opportunity to reflect on the history of the Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth and the contributions they have made to Mars Township in Education Health Care and pastoral and Social Services Through The Years while celebrating the 165th anniversary of their founding and whereas mother Mary Xavier M and Bishop James Roosevelt Bailey founded the Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth in Newark on September 29th 1859 to care for Orphan children and the sick and to educate children and whereas on July 2nd 1860 mother Xavier relocated the mother House of the Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth to the former site of SE Hall College and Seminary on Park Avenue and whereas mother Xavier and her sisters opened the Academy of St Elizabeth in 1860 in St St Joseph's preparatory school for boys in 1863 in Convent Station as well as Assumption School in 1875 and St marget School in 1885 and founded the College of St Elizabeth in 1899 and whereas The Sisters of Charity is s Elizabeth staffed All Souls Hospital from 1913 to 1970 and operated Xavier Center a retreat and Conference Center for 50 years and whereas The Sisters of Charity St Elizabeth were instrumental in the establishment of the train station and the post office and donated Convent C to benefit their neighbors now therefore the mayor and Township committee on behalf of the residents of Morris Township congratulate The Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth on their 165th anniversary on a personal note my daughter was a recent graduate of St Elizabeth University so we are thankful for the founding of this school and and also the part of the township and also giving providing the name of Convent Station thank you m thank you Comm Jada the second Proclamation we have on tonight's agenda is the proclamation as September as aaring cancer awareness month we do have on Zoom we have a special guest Rachel sack cutman we will um let her speak after I read the proclamation and make some comments whereas ovarian cancer is the fifth leading close of death among women and the American Cancer Society estimates each year approximately 19,000 710 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2024 and 13,270 individuals will die from the disease Nationwide including 560 new cases and 350 deaths here in New Jersey whereas in the United States a woman's lifetime risk of being diagnosed with aarian cancer is about 1 to 78 whereas due to vague symptoms and the lack of REI reliable early detection tests most women are not diagnosed until stage three or later when the cancer has already begun to spread to the lymph nodes and outside of the pelvis whereas although the 5year survival rate for stage one ovarian cancer is over 90% only 15% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at this early stage and the fiveyear survival rate for the late stage ovarian cancer is below 30% whereas while a mamogram can detect breast cancer and a papsmear can detect cervical cancer cancer there is no reliable early detection test for ovarian cancer whereas women's lives can be saved through increased public awareness of ovarian cancer and its risk factors signs and symptoms whereas this month the township of Mars joins all those who are battling ovarian cancer those who have lost their lives through the disease their loved ones and our state's many dedicated healthare workers in spreading awareness committing to public education and embracing hope for better diagnosis treatment and a cure now therefore the township Committee of the township of Mars does hereby Proclaim September 2024 as ovarian cancer awareness month in the township of Mars New Jersey and the township committee does encourage all residents of the township of Mars to observe ovarian cancer awareness month and support the Clause that so deeply imp act families in every Community across our country September is the time to spread the word about ovarian cancer risk and prevention push for more scientific research and make progress towards a cure for ovarian and related gynecological cancers as well as all women's health issues across the board I know too well the unknown Sy symptoms of this cancer are vague or absent I lost a dear friend in her 40s thinking her symptoms were premenopausal and didn't worry about them and sadly was diagnosed with stage four I am also a big proponent for better Research into all women's medical issues and talking more about what for years were uncomfortable subjects including menstruation and menopause we need to bring more awareness and education to help end this devastating type of cancer and bring all women's health issues to the level of importance that men have had for so many years I would now like to ask Rachel if you would like to speak on Zoom yes I would too thank you so much for allowing me to join and mayoria thank you for supporting this proclamation in the township of Morris and thank you for those additional words as well I think you really hit the nail on the head is that we need to bring more awareness to this cancer I was blindsided by my diagnosis at 38 um I thought all along my you know healthy passers were keeping me safe from ovarian cancer but psmears only detect cervical cancer and I think that's a big misconception out in the public um my type of cancer low grade cus accounts for only about 5 to 10% of all ovarian cancers it disproportionately impacts young premenopausal women so I wonder if your friend actually had this very specific rare type and it is insu and recurrent with an 85% recurrent rate so at four years out I have really beaten the odds and it's unfortunately ultimately fatal ovarian cancer is one of the few unique cancers that have a lasting impact on people like myself I was diagnosed while trying to seek fertility treatment for my husband and I and ultimately it took away my ability to have biological children and so I think it's super important to create this awareness to understand the signs and symptoms and to your point they are vague a lot of times many of the doctors um confuse them with GI symptoms so it's important to really have these good conversations with your doctors understand that anything lasting longer than two weeks you should seek medical care and I think you know through these proclamations through creating awareness um across the country we can help to um you know put an end to ovarian cancer or at least come up with a reliable detection test my cancer also does not have any FDA treatment so basically I am on a breast cancer maintenance drug that hopefully keeps my cancer at Bay and you know for me and my family really impacted us and so I really appreciate you guys standing by my by Me by my teil community just really giving us hope for the future thank you Rachel and we're all here happy to support and again um we thank God that you are here and we know how hard you're fighting to make this issue be in the Forefront of everybody's medical health issue so that we can all find better ways to help end all kinds of cancers and especially this one that goes so undiagnosed any other comments from anyone no I I'll just look back to what the mayor said Rachel uh you know it's a horrible thing uh gynecological cancer so many of them go undiagnosed for so long I know it's hit home to me with with a couple women in my life so um you know my heart goes out to you and and your family and I wish you absolutely the best of the best of everything uh good health you know contined good health uh for you know for the rest the rest of the rest of your life so you know it's it's a brave thing you're doing coming out to you know the various towns and and me there when they support ovarian cancer awareness month and and letting women know that it's so important to have um to be aware of whatever it is that that's something doesn't feel right then something's not right so thank you for for you know letting women all over know that thank you for those comments I'll just add really quickly to um a month prior to my ovarian cancer diagnosis I was actually diagnosed with breast cancer as well and just to give you an idea it took two invasive surgeries during the pandemic and four months to be diagnosed with my ovarian cancer it took one week to get diagnosed with my breast cancer just to give you an idea of the Health crisis that we have out there as it relates to ovarian cancer thank you Rachel thank you I appreciate it the next thing we have on the agenda is we have one presentation tonight and I would like to call did you say something sorry I would like to call up Noel Robinson who is on our senior citizens advisory committee and she is going to present the senior advisory committee transportation report that was submitted by both Noel and edra and I'd like to also welcome some of our other seniors in the audience who came out to attend yeah before you start Noel I do just want to say Noel Robinson in so many ways has been such a great volunteer in our community but her work here too she's extremely dedicated and she's got things moving really quickly on Senor citizens advisory committee so we welcome you and we look forward to your presentation well thank you and I'd like to acknowledge my coach here Barbara sairi uh we've been a very good team working together and I'm sorry Edna isn't here because she works specifically on this Transportation Report with me um the first thing is I'd like to thank the committee because it came as a huge and happy surprise when we learned that there's actually funding for a senior transportation bus we thought that you know it was years down the road so hopefully uh in the not too distant future there will be a bus serving seniors um on a personal note uh my dad lived with us for five years am I not speaking into this okay alrighty on a personal note my dad lived with us for five years and um honestly if there had been a senior bus it would have been a great help to us we were both working and uh we he ended up in adult daycare and he was picked up and dropped off but it took a while to find that arrangement for him and more recently my sister who is quite a bit younger than I am but um as a result of um an unfortunate situation ended up um with um a spinal injury and uh was confined to a wheelchair lived with us for four years she moved out two years ago and again if there had been a bus especially to take her to medical appointments it would have been a lot easier on us uh because of her spinal condition she had a very very heavy wheelchair and uh at the time we didn't have a van and her wheelchair had to be disassembled put into the car to bring her to uh appointments and it was it was very difficult so I have a personal interest in all this um I'm going to backtrack a minute before I discussed the report just to say that early in 2023 the first year of the senior citizen advisory committee uh we conducted a survey um asking seniors about life in the township uh what was working for them what kind of ideas they would like to see and um we had 600 residents respond just about 600 I think it was 590 something um and we thought that was very good the county did a survey of senior right around the same time and they only got 600 in the whole County so we thought you know we did ve very well that was followed by focus groups with 41 participants in October 2023 the me reason I'm mentioning the survey is because in the survey um uh transportation did not come as a top priority and I wanted to explain why that was that was because the people who responded to our survey the vast majority of them were aged 61 to 74 and really uh for the most part this age cohort is not in need of uh Transportation uh most people in that age group do Drive um so the whole point of uh having a bus for seniors in the community is that we should be looking forward um the same people who filled out our survey six uh no 80% of them 79.7% of seniors in Mars Township who answered our survey said they plan and wish to remain in place in their homes so these are people that are going to age in our community and they'll definitely be in need of Transportation um in the not too distant future so with that in mind um we decided to undertake a study uh of um how other towns have transportation for seniors how it works what we would recommend Etc um we're happy to see in the publicity that came out that the bus that's proposed would be wheelchair accessible uh we think that's very important um that of course me means that you need a CDL driver a special driver for that bus and I assume you know you you you would all know that um and I we were happy to see that one of the things that was mentioned is that the bus or the van whatever uh would be used to transport seniors to the new community center um and certainly making seniors um available to go to activities is extremely important um we all know that isolation and loneliness is a big problem with seniors and having activities readily available is is is pretty important um so our report on Transportation over the last several months Edna and I gathered information by phone on four state and local resources and then we gathered information on 11 municipalities in the area and the transportation they provide for seniors we followed up with five towns that have good options for their seniors and Tim helped us with that second stage with the five towns that we were interested in more information from um and I assume everybody has the report or got the report is that right you all have it okay all right good um so um what I would like to do is to concentrate on the recommendations that were on page four at the end of the report the conclusion and recommendations um we definitely def itely feel that Mars Township should have a free uh transportation service for senior citizens as some of the surrounding towns have had for years many of them for 20 or 30 years have had Vans um we think that before you decide how the van or bus is to be used you should do a survey to see what seniors uh wish to use it for and I can tell you from um our uh looking at other towns uh medical appointments is huge and of course we're lucky that we're in such close proximity to the Marist toown Medical Center because the van you know could easily be used to drop off people for appointments um the second reason that people seem to want to have a van is for grocery shopping and many of the surrounding communities have vans that once a week make grocery trips they'll pick up various people um we also very strongly Advocate a dial ride system we think that having a root and going around and trying to pick up people um is is not effective um you know seniors don't want to be standing out in the in the snow or rain or cold or heat or whatever uh hoping that the bus will come uh they'd rather you know have um a dial ride which many of the surrounding communities have uh that's the way most of their Vans work um many of them people have to call in advance a certain number of days especially for medical appointments um and um people you know seem to be happy with that um let's see what else oh if it could be used for the community center or for senior trips and outings uh so much the better most of the towns do not have a full-size bus they have uh Vans one or more several of the towns have up to two three or four vans um you know you would have to decide what what we want but I think um a larger a bus is probably um not coste effective um it would be wonderful if it could be an EV vehicle uh but I was talking to Donna today and apparently uh there's a long waiting list for those uh so maybe a hybrid or whatever especially since this uh transportation system would be making short runs it wouldn't be going Miles and Miles um an EV or a hybrid seems like a very good idea um of course the township would have to do a complete assessment of the course costs and um I think everybody has to be realistic that you know it's not going to earn anybody any money but it's a valuable community service for our seniors and um I also suspect though I don't have any solid evidence for this that it might get off to a slow start um it'll be hard to have uh or it'll take work and publicity to have people aware of it and how it's going to work and so forth so it might start off slowly but in the towns where it works well like in East Hanover and Randol and Madison um they have dozens of people a week who use it um some people use it on a consistent basis they use it once a week other people are occasional users but I think it'll take time to build up the writers ship and to get people to be aware of um the advantages of of using it um as an aside Donna and I were up at Mars Muse today and um those folks would be a prime target for the use of a van um a number of them that I spoke to today I was helping um Tac the transportation advisory committee uh do a survey up there about transportation and a number of the people up there do have their own cars but they told me that they don't like to drive and a number of them said this is my last year driving or if I didn't have to use use a car to get to medical appointments I'd be happy to give it up it's it's an expense I'm not comfortable driving so I think even the people who do drive up there some of them told me they'd use the bus anyway if it went someplace uh that they needed to go and and it was easy to use um let's see what else um well I I think that that probably covers it I forgot to say I'm happy to answer any questions and I I don't mind you know I you could have asked them as I went went along but um we're very happy uh the senior citizen advisory committee that this is coming to fruition uh we appreciate your work on this and of course the upcoming Community Center which we're very excited about and we are hoping that we'll be able to have some input on that too on the design of the building and um appropriate um modifications for senior that that might require so I think I think that's that's about it is there are there any questions anybody has so Noel just before I just want to say too I I thank you all so much because I think you did did such a great report and you came up even in your conclusion recommendations obviously definitely the seniors will have input into hold meetings like we do and get their input great um I love your idea of when you said three or four I think we're getting a little head of our sees here on but um this is going to be very exciting and we're all really looking forward to it and again I just can't say enough how hardworking the senior group is thank you how willing they are to participate and give us feedback so we can continue to meet the needs do any committee members have any questions have any questions just a comment just to say thank you for this comprehensive report the ideas that that I just we were wonderful oh thank you to the extent that we can do some of these things we thank you that's great that's very good news commit uh mayor thanks um I can hear Noel really well for all the people attending virtually but it's very hard to hear anyone from the de it sounds like you guys are talking across the room so just letting you know I don't know if there's an issue in the tech or people's mics are on or off but it's very hard to hear the comme um Noel thank you for coming in to talk sorry I couldn't be there in person I'm uh feeling under the weather tonight I didn't want to get anyone thank you Noel and Edna for putting together the report and presenting thank you to the whole committee for all your great work um I know it's been a long time coming I know our active seniors have been advocating the township to get dedicated transportation services for a long time um I know former mayor Wilson was a huge advocate about that um and um I think this is a great opportunity I was earlier this year I was helping an elderly relative who lives in Verona get transportation to a grocery store and doctor's appointment and in Verona you know you only have Essex County uh Transportation Services for Seniors but Theona itself had uh a bus with a dedicated shuttle route for each day going to different grocery stores and then you also had dial aide sedans for doctor's appointments and that really stood out to me um clearly there's opportunities for Mars Township to improve and I'm excited that we're taking a a big first step toward getting to having that sort of service for our seniors um so thank you for all your work and we have a lot of exciting work ahead of us for the bus and for the community center and I know that senior advisory committee and Tac will definitely be parts of all those conversations for planning for shuttle routes for Designing and building the the community center as well so thank you for all your work thank you and I neglected to mention that um Kathy Wilson really did a very very good job getting us underway with the senior citizen advisory committee and um I know um she emailed me today she was sorry she couldn't come tonight but uh she was also a very strong proponent of transportation for seniors as well thank you thank you very much and O really appreciate it Mark uh we'll try to figure out are you hearing us any better or not I mean it looks like you're talking right into the mic but it's not really coming through so oddly like the the mic at the podium is fine so maybe you can all just keep walking up to the podium every time you talk Mark can you hear my mic yeah I can hear you now maybe we have to get very close I'm just don't mean to make your lives difficult but I can't hear you you're not hearing it if the others are as well we need to figure out what's what the problem is M okay um we are going to open our first public comment inquiry period there are currently five members of the public joining us via zoom and there are five members here in person at this time we will open the meeting to public comment we will first take comments from inperson attendees and then we'll switch over to zoom please use the raise your hand option in Zoom if you would like to speak please state your name and address for the rec heard before speaking please note that your comments are limited to 5 minutes if you have questions you would like answered your remaining time to speak will be yielded back for this purpose is there a motion to open public comment so moved second all in favor is there anyone from the public who would like to speak seeing no one from the public we have oh I'm sorry I know we have um we have one member on Zoom Mrs M yes thank you very much Marley member 63 Independence Way I just had a quick um question for Noel actually uh in regards to the transportation the bus and when they talk about I'm sorry am I getting through yes yes okay when they're talking about um grocery shopping appointment is that include our neighboring towns Floren Park um you know not only common marown but also uh medicine wherever that was my question well that would be something that the committee would have to decide I would say in most towns for any kind of shopping it is pretty local um I would imagine in Ms Township it would be logical to have um transportation to uh the shop right that's over on West hover because there could also be drop offs at our new Marketplace over there and it would be a way of encouraging uh residents to use that nice brand new mall um but it would be up to the committee to decide uh exactly where I I from what I've seen of grocery shopping on trans transportation in other towns usually they try to have two options uh either one week they go to one store and then the next week to the other store or they have two gross grocery runs a week but usually they try to give people a choice I think from what I've read thank you no okay thank you for that can I just ask you know just to reiterate something as far as appointments go um our doctor my husband and I are in La Park which is right down the road would that be something that might be covered it's something that we will have those discussions that we make those decisions obviously there will be certain boundary lines that are very close so we'll have to have those discussions um closer okay thank you very much and that would be outlined when we get the confirmation of you know the bus and its availability and the areas that would be included I would imagine okay thank thank you very much you're welcome seeing no other members from the public wishing to speak will someone make a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor all all right we have two ordinances for public hearing and adoption on tonight's agenda Madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 2224 into the record and we will then open the public hearing ordinance number 22-24 an ordinance of the township committee of the township of moris amending and reting chapter 460 Towing the Township Code note revise selection process we will take comments from inperson attendees first then we'll switch to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate you would like to speak I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 22-24 so moved second all in favor I seeing no members in person uh Mrs member is your hand raised again or did you just not remove it was never put down thereor okay sorry about that yes I'm trying to read my notes Here my uh things here on the line here not quite sure what I'm doing okay thank you very much sorry about thank you seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak will someone make a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor I I may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 22-24 so moved second is there any discussion or any questions on the ordinance Madam clerk may I have a roll call vote Mr RIT yes Mr janata yes Mr gazelle yes Mr Dy yes may yes I Donna j gigley a mayor declare ordinance number 22-24 approved and adopted and direct attach of clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper Adam clerk please read ordinance 22-24 into the record and 23 23-24 into the record and then we will open public comment ordinance 23-24 ordinance reappropriate $ 79,513 proceeds of obligations not intended for their original purposes in in order to provide for the replacement of the swimming pool UV light disinfection water treatment system in and by the township of Morris note reappropriation of funds for swim pool UV disinfection system again we will take comments from inperson attendees first then we'll switch over to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom if you would like to speak I have a motion to open the public comment on ordinance 23-24 so moved second all in favor hi hi seeing no one from the public and no hands raised on Zoom can will someone make a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor I I may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 23-24 so moved second is there any discussion or any questions Madam cler man all call Mr Roberts yes Mr janat yes Mr gazelle yes Mr Dy yes yes I Donna J gria declare ordinance number 23-24 approved and adopted and direct a Township Clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper we have 20 resolutions on tonight's agenda committeeman J B will recuse himself from resolutions 20 22424 23524 and 238 24 due to his role in the fire department we will pull those three resolutions From the Block and we will vote on them separately additionally I request that we pull 219 24 for a separate vote okay may I have a motion to approve resolutions 223-242 d24 through 22324 and 23624 and 37-24 by one motion oh I think you missed 220 and 221 though no can you repeat it oh because you said 219 I'm sorry yeah just 219 I got it so it's 220-24 through 22324 and 22524 through 23424 and and 23624 and 37-24 by one motion sorry 23824 is pulled out yes that's up top see Jeff okay yeah okay I'll second Mark's uh motion Madam clar may I have a roll call vote Mr JY yes yes Mr gazelle yes Mr janada yes Mr abits yes mayor Gia yes may I have a motion to approve resolutions 22424 23524 and 2 38-24 by one motion those are the fire ones Madam cler call V Mr yes Mr J yes Mr gazelle yes Mr and mayor ggia yes Deputy Mayor would you like to speak to 29-24 uh yes thank you mayor uh 219 speaks to a requests for water service outside the District of the southeast Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority that is the water utility that Services Morris Township Morris toown hover and Morris Plains um we've had multiple requests for service outside of the district I I realize this is just one home but there are multiple outstanding requests at the moment and I have great concerns about the capacity of our system that have not yet been answered and I don't feel I have personally adequate information uh to vote on such a request um outside the district until I get such information um so I we I could ask that we remove this for a future discussion at next month's meeting and perhaps we will have additional information about capacity um or if you decide to proceed I will be abstaining from voting on this resolution because I personally feel I don't have adequate information to properly uh vote so uh committee are you presenting a motion to table uh yes so why don't I go ahead and present a motion that we table 21924 in the hopes that we get additional information from SMC mua um in the coming weeks regarding my is is there a second okay go ahead is a second to the Commandment motion to table want to discuss it can I ask a question yes you need a sec yeah's no second you want a second for the purpose of disc is there a some sort of deadline uh for this property that they need um or some sort of extenuating circumstance that this access needs to be immediate yes sir there is there's a time of the essence on this it's a single family home off at sandspring Road um the other homes around that also have the service from the water utility um and for the record the other three municipalities have all adopted the ordinance um but it requires all four municipalities to adopt I'm sorry the resolution in order for them to provide the service is is the house under construction no sir it's not it's not under construction yet but the roadway is going to be uh repaid and um there so there's a time of the essence from what I'm told to get the to get the water line in there I think this would send a message to Harding about our concern about the other issues um and uh I think we should table it for a month it's only it's only four weeks well there's a motion and there's a second who second there's no second is there a second I I would just comment um I concur with Mr with Deputy Mayor gel's concerns with the water utility um I Mr greal has brought up a lot of several concerns with their capacity with their um failure to disclose information to the municipalities I 100% agree um however I think we need to find a different venue to um express our disappointment with uh their lack of details for us yes and while I also agree with uh the deputy mayor on the flow of information you know to from the the water utility to the governing body um we do have a time of the sence issue and I don't want to penalize um a homeowner for something that's out of that homeowner's control so uh I I'm in favor of continuing to vote on this if I could add one more comment uh we have other outstanding issues with Harding in terms of requests for water service um they have not been I don't think responsive uh to setting up meetings and again I think this sends a message to that municipality uh that we are concerned with the capacity of the system it's it's one way of sending a message I'm not saying I'm not voting for it I'm just asking for it to be tabled for a month if I may sir this is not a request from Harding this is a request from the property owner okay the the others are too aren't they I mean they're from SM the mount kemell right but it has an affordable housing upon some other things I understand L yep so that's that's my position I'm so we have this motion on the table Yeah I think we've asked for a second once we'll ask for a second twice man there's no there's no second to that motion okay so can I have a motion to approve resolution 29-24 so moved is there a second second Madam clerk may I have a roll call up Mr gelle uh I'm going to abstain for the reasons I stated already on the record thank you Mr JY yes yes Mr janata yes Mr Rabbits yes mayor yes we have three items on the consent calendar this evening can I a motion to approve the items on a consent calendar by one motion second all in favor the following reports are on file in the office of the Township Clerk and the township administrator the August 2024 Tax Department police department and marown Mars Township Library July 2024 fire department and the June 2024 fire department can I have a motion to approve the monthly reports so move all in favor claims for payment list of bills and vouchers the total amount of bills and vouchers for this meeting is 9,342 n918 66 we are also the tax collector for the school district the library and the county may I have a motion to approve the list of bills and vouchers so moved second Madam Clark may I have a roll call vote Mr Dy yes yes Mr gazelle yes Mr janata yes Mr robt yes mayor G yes at this time we will go to our standing committee reports and general commentary and we will start with committeeman janada thank you m mayor uh regarding the environmental commission we have a butth meow development that's centered phase one one acre has been fenced off the ground being prepared for next two years's planting for a meow consisting a dat plans I think um that should look good after a couple of years just seeed them out now and uh we're also going to have a poster contest like we did last year with the local schools and we planning to hold a tour of our sewage treatment plans the one or both of them sometime in the near future and for the marown Fall Festival the environmental commission will have a tent along with the transportation advisor committee as this is the first time the attack is going to be at the marown Fall Festival it's going to be pretty fun time I encourage anybody to come by and go both both boots and speaking of T they held their final walking tours this this past month last month the senior walking tour was out at Lan Park in August 22nd and they had one at Speedwell is September 7th and fi has an arum on September 14th the arum walk was in conjunction with the historical preservation commission met by parin and was very informative for anybody who was interested in that and if you w also interested the arum is always open for anybody to get to a natureal walk and the final tour will be held uh on September 21st it's on the traction line and it's going to be by bicycle so be sure to bring your helmet with you and as for my comment um normally I talk about hisory but I'll talk about personal history because person family friend of ours passed away last week his name was narar Tunda Dr T kunda passed away at the age of 90 he was a longtime Mar resident for 50 years lived in the Butterworth neighborhood he's one of what people I would call a hidden treasure these are people who are little known in the larger Community but had a direct in Impact for those who knew who knew them in ter they impacted those who did not know them and Dr Ra or I call him ra uncle was such a person he came to this country by boat in San Francisco with just a slide rule in pocket money studied Berkley for graduate study then got his PhD in Stanford at at electrical engineering and one with think with this pedigree he would go work in Silicon Valley however he took a job in Bell laboratories on the other side of the country because Bell Labs was where Innovation happened it was where the transistor was invented and the big Bank theory was discovered Silicon Valley was not yet a thing but Uncle was one of those innovators he invented something called call waiting for anybody who was knew what call waiting was he was uh he was the one who had on it my father worked at Babs as well that's how we met the family and we had parties at their place of Thanksgiving and they came to ours for Christmases her and we grew up with her children together and they even held my parents 25th surprised 25th anniversary and I remember him as a tinkerer because he helped as I mentioned he helped patent for call weing he also worked with Heath kits if those remember what Heath kits were there where you can build things like speakers and stereo and he also built a very fruitful vegetable garden for his wife who then they were married for 57 years and they raised two accomplished two very accomplished children who in turn have raised their own families which we met at their family Memorial yesterday and his living Monument is that family and friends who were there and they're very numerous as I mentioned he is one of our hidden treasurers who have built this country his story is not just an immigrant story but but an American story their accomplishments are not often found in newspapers and media but they're known for those who count and the Legacy continues as long as we remember their impact in the world thank you madam thank you committee and janata and we're sorry for your loss and I do know I live in the neighborhood uh St knows this that they live around the corner for me and yesterday was yesterday when I came home the amount of cars that were at in surrounding the whole neighborhood so he definitely very IED thank you Mr committee man JY uh thank you may um I don't know but um thank you for the time um I had a few updates um that I'll just present um as one full report as opposed to standing committee reports and joural commentary um one uh so been a long long time coming uh but the shovels are in the ground in Collinsville for the Collinsville playground Tucker Park reconstruction project um that work started about a week ago and if you've driven by you've seen the amount of work that they've done is really impressive um thank you to our Parks and Rec staff Bill folch our Consultants Tim Quinn and Mr Rabbits for all the work that they've done uh to get this project to where they where it is today um it's been at least three years in terms of when we started to put funding in place for this project and when we've started receive grants to help pay for this project um we've gotten about a million in federal dollars to pay for this reconstruction along with about 600,000 from the state um and we're really excited to see uh the work progress over the coming months as stated earlier in the evening um about the senior shuttles bus um the township um got word that we were receiving two grants from the Department of Transportation to help pay for road projects that we have already budgeted in this year's budget um those projects are the Bailey Hollow Road resurfacing project along with the Reconstruction projects of three streets and Fairchild uh that's delmare a Ridgewood Road um andant um and because of the money that is now um available um in our budget we will be using that to purchase the senior uh shuttle bus which will be will chair accessible as Noel noted um which we're super excited about and we'll also be able to further fund the architectural and design work for the community center um so we will be getting the word out in the coming months when we'll be having intake sessions for um not only the shuttle service route but also um What the residents want in a community center and how we're going to get them there um so there's gonna be a lot of work to do we're excited to be going to RFP soon to hire professionals to manage the community center project for us um and we're looking forward to continuing to work not only with building out this project since since now we have the money to design it fully without having to seek more funds um while we do that we'll be seeking those funds for the construction so there's a lot of exciting work to be done um and I'm really happy to be part of it um I wanted to note that um as OEM Lea's on the fire department um announced that they are um expanding their EMT ALS coverage for advanced Life Safety calls to 247 um residents may know our fire department responds to Medical calls um seven days a week and some calls during the weekends um when the men and men need help um and the department has changed its policy to expand that coverage to 247 to provide quality care for all residents when they need it um and this is a this is a big add-on to the township and I'm excited to see the fire department leading on providing quality care for our residents uh 247 lastly I just wanted to highlight that our veterans banners project is uh and applications are out now for banners to be printed ahead of Veterans Day in November so if residents have a loved one a friend um or themselves are a veteran and want to recognize those individuals please see our website to apply for a banner uh the banners cost $200 and they are um there are considered contributions to the American Legion Post 59 to help support all the good work they do with their veterans Outreach um if a family or an individual cannot afford a banner uh the township will help seeking a sponsor to help purchase that step in or for that individual um with that I will uh yield back my othering time thank thank you committing M jorie and um I have to say that um I think all of us here on the township committee and we always work together as a team but I think that committee M jorky I'm gonna have to refer to as the money man because he seems to have really gone above and beyond and his efforts in helping securing funding and grant money have been excellent so we thank you for all your hard work in those areas committee man rabits uh thank you mayor I will also be brief and I just want to touch on a couple of the things that uh committee M Gori had said U certainly about the Colville construction starting it it has been a long time coming for sure and you know much to the frustrations of the residents and and the township committee it's it's started a little later than we wanted to but you know I think that uh on a positive note that it actually did start and we are going to get this project done and it's going to be an incredible project uh for us to to accomplish and in what a boom it's going to be to the residents of Collinsville so um Everybody many Township committees had their their hand in this and many committee people had their hand in it and you know kudos to everybody for you know keeping a close eye close eye on it and and finally bringing it to uh to fruition I also want to commend committee jori for the funding as the mayor had also uh mentioned be the money guide this is a fantastic uh a couple of grants that we got for road projects that we can um we can uh redirect money that we had allocated for for um the senior uh the you know for the architectural design for the for the uh the community center so kudos to you mark for that that was that was really great um I also just want to mention that uh the we do have an election this year uh vote by mail ballots are going out in a couple of days on uh the 21st of September and for those who have registered to vote by mail I I urge you to complete your ballots and return them as soon as possible there is a uh ballot drop off box here at uh the municipal building uh so you know please take advantage of that it's it's it's an important it's important that everybody's voice be heard in in this election U just want to end as I as I typically do um and by saying that you know let's not marginalize or demonize those who have less political power or economic power than some of us currently enjoy rather let's stand up to uh those who continue to profit from our our division equal rights for all citizens does not diminish the right of any other uh citizens and as we've been hearing a lot uh over the last month or so and something that I've been saying since the day I got here on the day is we have more in common than should ever divide us and which we will realize again when we start talking to each other and not at each other amplifying misinformation and hateful and violent rhetoric is not part of any civil society and lastly as before I headed had turn it back over to you mayor uh be kind be kind to yourselves be kind to others because kindness matters mayor thank you committee rabbits and also thank you for bringing over your incredibly beautiful little granddaughter so it's nice for you to share her with us Deputy Mayor grelle thank you mayor uh for my committee excuse me for my committee reports tonight uh the Eda meeting that had been scheduled for earlier this week unfortunately had to be cancelled because too many of its members could not attend so that we did not have a quorum um so I have no updates there on the agenda tonight we had four resolutions related to funding four separate projects at our two sewer plants Morris Township is continually upgrading the sewer system and the plants that process our sewage and police uh residents should see the agenda for more details on each of these four projects for engineering I have my usual roadway updates uh Paving is now complete in the neighborhood of Bradford Estates as well as Bailey Hollow Road and the various streets that were part of our annual overlay program um I have previously reported on the progress of the road reconstruction project for pin Tree Lane Kennedy Road and Gregory Avenue that project is now complete and it looks great it's like the neighborhood got a facelift and now has a great new look on the agenda tonight was a resolution for surveying work for Ridgewood Road Delmar Avenue and Brian Avenue and this is our next neighborhood facelift project and I would like to just remind the public that you know the Investments that we're making in individual neighborhoods uh raises the value I believe of our entire town it makes uh makes us look great across the board and it's a great investment um even if it's not in your neighborhood I really believe it raises property values across the town uh for my personal commentary I too would like to thank Noel Robinson for her presentation tonight as well as all of the senior sen advisory committee members that helped out on the report together um I would also like to acknowledge uh Kathy Wilson who is a driving force in putting together the senior CI citizen advisory committee and uh thank Kathy for all her work uh leading up to the report tonight um I want to remind people that all the volunteers for escac are our fellow residents who are giving their time to make our municipality a better place for all of us so I wanted to thank all of the individual members on esak for stepping up uh to volunteer and do this great work two months ago at our monthly meeting here I condemned the act of hatred that occurred with an assassination attempt against former president Trump unfortunately another similar attempt was perpetuated uh this past week and but thankfully no shots were fired making it worse for me is some commentary that I've seen on social media where one person puts the blame on an entire swath of people when in reality it was only one unhinged person that was committing the violence that is a result of hate from one person against another but it is disconcerning when whole groups of people are targeted in response to an act of Hate by an individual so I'd like to take this opportunity to repeat some of my remarks uh from a couple months ago hate comes in many forms these days and I condemn hate in all of its forms it has no place in our modern Civic Society whether it be religious hate racial ethnic hate or political hate and it is up to all of us to help put an end to it we must call it out when we see it and we must report it if it is threatening to another member of our community ha is something is that I have actively been working on to combat one of the organizations I do volunteer work is Jewish Federation of uh New Jersey here in this area on its community relations Council and one of our initiatives I personally participate in is an interreligious group called Community leaders against hate hate puts our democracy at risk it is completely antithetical to how our Founders designed our system which is rooted in the idea that rigorous debate of ideas makes our country stronger we all need to commit to the peaceful resolution of our differences and sometimes agree to respect respectfully disagree and call out words and deeds of hate that threaten other people uh mayor that concludes my remarks for tonight thank you Deputy Mayor grel as far as my updates uh and janata spoke a little bit about tech I did want to let everybody know that tomorrow Thursday evening at 7:30 here at Town Hall we are having a complete streets Round Table discussion due to the fat fatalities that occurred in Mars County this over the summer months the Mayors will be joining me here from the surrounding towns and urging the Mars County Commissioners to create a county complete streets policy in order to help with the connections the county roads create that affect all of our towns and ensure best practices for safety for all who travel whether by car bike or walking we are also urging anyone going to the Fall Festival in marown on Sunday September 29th to walk bike or scoot to the event and if you do so stop by the transportation advisory committee table and let us know that that's how you came and you didn't bring a car Tac also had an an update from engineer Jim slate all the projects that are going on and this is something that he will be giving to teac on a quarterly basis I also want to thank the teac members for once again pulling off a great Mars toown motion summer event schedule we continue to increase our numbers and we will work with our other committees to keep finding new roots and Adventures to expose to our residents on the senior citizens advisory committee I again want to thank Noel for her presentation tonight and all the others who work on escac and who contribute such great committee work we have another meeting next week and each one of the subcommittees is coming up with new ideas and incentives for all of our seniors um Kathy Wilson would have been here tonight I think it's interesting she texted me and said she's at a league um the New Jersey League of municipalities which always does their dinners on this third Wednesday so she apologized and said I'm so sorry but she finally gets a chance to attend those I attended the senior Club picnic at ginty pool at the end of the summer and there was they had a great time there they always do they have their DJ they do line dancing I also want to thank our Parks and Rec staff because they always do such a great job as far as my commentary in our efforts to be transparent and encourage residents input we have coming up coffee with the mayor is this Saturday from 10: to 1200 noon at Hillside Firehouse we encourage anybody to please come by it's nice relaxing you can sit down have a conversation um let me and we can have one other committee person comes by and let us know any concerns or any of the good things you see happening in Township please let us know on September 25th we're having an affordable housing meeting we urge residents to attend this educational session here at Town Hall with our leading experts and you will have an opportunity to ask some questions September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic History Month and the theme this year is pioneers of change shaping the future together I do want to thank all of our Hispanic and latinx residents for all the cultural contributions they make to our community the Latin population in the US is over 60 million people Latinos enrich our nation and our local communities with contributions of vibrant art popular foods and entertain entertainment new entrepreneurs public servants and many more things the other thing I attended last night in uh Mars Plains was the mental health Symposium put on by mayor Carr along with our mayor group law enforcement and presentations by Leading experts sharing all the programs that mors county has to offer Sheriff Ganon spoke and he said it's remarkable the amount of Outreach and response we've seen implemented over the past couple years stories of addiction loss suicide domestic violence and the level of stress and anxiety in our schools and our children were met with some very positive outcomes in many successful programs run in the County Mental Health association's youth mental health and well-beings program is in 40 of our schools the AR the arrive program which has been implemented here in the township is is also expanded the level of trust between our residents law enforcement and Municipal leadership to continue to prioritize our commitment to saving lives and offering solutions to those affected by mental health issues remains a priority tomorrow night I already spoke about the round table so um as I close after hearing the reporting from last night I want to wish all of our families a great school year Year and hope that from our very youngest students just beginning to our seniors in high school you remember to enjoy every moment and faced with a bad day A bad test or any setback know that you are supported by your family your teachers administrative staff and counselors we are all here to help you the last thing I'm going to just let everybody know because um today September 18th is National cheeseburger day which is something I look forward to after these meetings so I'm G to wrap up with that hoping that maybe we get to to do that so um I'm gonna have to look up when National chicken wing day is because that's what I look forward to so uh now we will open our second public comment inquiry period there are currently five members of the public five members no there's three members of the public joining us and five members on zo at this time we will open public comment we'll First Take comments from in-person attendees then we'll switch over to zoom please raise your hand in Zoom if you would like to speak state your name and address for the record before speaking please note that you are limited to five minutes if you have questions you would like to answer your remaining time will be yielded back for this purpose is there a motion to open the public comment so move second all in favor is there anyone from the public who would like to speak George quillin nine Barberry Road I wanted to thank the township committee members for their very interesting reports and commentary uh and there are a lot of fascinating things going on in the township so it's great to hear about about those things I'm particularly happy about Collinsville um getting getting started the Collinsville playground project I wanted to ask one specific question and I was reminded of this um uh during the earlier brief um discussion about the water utility um I noticed about two or three weeks ago when I was looking at the township website that it looked as though Mars Township has a vacancy on the Water Utility Board I wanted to ask if that's true it is not it it is not not okay so perhaps the website was um had not been updated or maybe I misread what I saw on the website is there is there just one board member that Mars Township um there's two there two that that the township puts on the waterboard yes just to be clear we don't water board people yeah thanks [Laughter] good okay thank you very much thank you very much I can wait I just um sorry mayor just to give more background on the Water Utility so um Southeast mors water utility each town the four towns Mars Town Mars Township Mars Plains and Handover Township all have two board seats so everyone has equal representation on that board and the chair of the board shifts each year so effectively every town gets a a seat at the Chairman's seat once every four years okay thank you thank you I do not see any hands raised seeing no one else here in public for comment is there a motion to close com public comment so move second all in favor the time is now 8:16 can I have a motion to we need we need a motion to go back at the executive session oh okay uh is there a motion yeah mayor I I move that we move back into executive session in order to complete the uh the the matters that had been outlined earlier this evening um I believe Mr caner for the record it's a it's a legal so we have it's a legal issue that we have remaining to discuss we have um a general litigation that's what I meant a general litigation matter we have we have affordable housing under attorney client and we also have um anticipated litigation under attorney client and litigation privilege so there's a motion is there a second second all those in favor Mar roll call near roll call yeah the executive roll call Mr J yes Mr JY yes Mr gazelle yes Mr R yes and mayor yes and and Mr caner for clarity the record we will return to this room after Clos session to end the off meeting officially correct but to the public there'll be no further formal action taken following executive session so the public they will be no further formal action taken other than an adjournment thank you and and I think we can probably adjourn from the Clos session okay so the time is now 8:17 and we will go into close session thank you