e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh there we go welcome to the township of Springfield County of union state of New Jersey meeting for June 25th 2024 this meeting is being held in accordance with the public laws of 1975 chapter 231 and adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a notice sent to the Star Ledger the local source and posted in the main lobby of the municipal building and on the township website please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mark Russ who is Cap retired captain of the American Legion Post 228 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Justice for please St standing for a moment of silence for soldiers overseas and at home thank you roll call Mayor Weber here Deputy Mayor laer present committee man capes is absent committee man Yuber committee man Kaiser here all right I am going to skip all of the announcements and I'm going to go straight to the proclamations because what we have here is we got a lot of girls who have practices for Club teams and everything else um all right the the world is filled with accomplishments that are first and Mark history uh the 1923 Yankees are the first ones to win the World Series for their Club the 69 Mets first ones to win for their Club the 2024 Jonathan Dayton girls softball team is the first team to win a county championship for Jonathan Dayton and for Springfield and the first one in 70 [Applause] [Music] years this team will forever be listed as the first to do it in a 100 years they will look back and go 2024 team did it so you are history sitting here right now on day one of the season I don't know if Linda's here if Linda is here but on day one I told Linda I said they're going to win a county championship and we sat there and and Gary and and all of us dads and Anthony and and and Billy and Scott we all sat there and talked and we all sat there and said they're going to win and Linda Linda believed it and Linda's been in the business a long time and she said uh they're a good team she said I've watched them last year and and she thought she could do it and then we have Coach Dave reny he put the girls through the paces and had them working hard and sharp every weekend and I mean every practice every game and I know because my daughter would come home an absolute mess from practice and I knew that he was preparing them for a rough year um and he was trying to get their full potential out as a parent of one of the players I have to thank him Coach renie his coaching staff Katie Gibson and Chris Moore team managers Gianna Julian AA team trainer Mrs T Mrs Triano and uh of course Frank who keeps our field in shape all the time we love frank right we love frank um for my fellow parents th this Championship is yours to be proud of for sure this is why you got up took your daughter as early as 5:00 a.m. at times as home as late as 11:00 p.m. at times from Wreck Ball to Storm ball which is how every one of these girls over here started just like you to Club ball which you'll end up eventually playing to Varsity High School softball which you will end up playing you parents you sat in 100 degree plus heat all weekend you ate subs from Wawa from every part of the state you can deny it all you want but I know you everybody we all eat Wawa we rely on WWA also your child could Su succeed and be the best player and teammate that they could be so enjoy this moment as what you have accomplished as a family team so it's with great pleasure that I read this Township proc Proclamation after I'd like coach reny to come up and say a few words about his Union County championship team and then a picture uh but let me get onto this Proclamation whereas the Jonathan Dayton Bulldogs softball team won the Union County tournament for the first time in Jonathan Dayton softball history on their way to an impressive 22-7 season and whereas this is the first Union County tournament title for any sport at Jonathan Dayton High School since 1954 a span of 70 years and whereas we are gathered here on this occasion as friends family and neighbors of the Jonathan Dayton softball team to congratulate them on their achievements this season and whereas the township of Springfield expresses to it desires to express its admiration for these athletic accomplishments now therefore I Chris Weber mayor of the township of Springfield on behalf of the township committee do hereby recognize and congratulate the Jonathan Dayton Bulldog softball team and its coaching staff for the hard work and dedication exhibited by them during this softball season and recognize the exceptional magnitude of their accomplishments be it further proclaimed that June 25th 2024 is declared to be the Jonathan Dayton Bulldog softball recognition day and that all residents are encouraged to express their admiration to the members of the Jonathan Dayton bulld doog softball team and their coaching staff picture piure now before we take a picture I would like coach Renny to come on up if he would R yeah uh the mic should be on if not let me it's yes it you you can take it off there if you want oh that's okay that's okay um first of all I want to thank mayor Weber and the township committee for honoring us tonight um mayor Weber if I knew you predicted a County Title I don't know if I would have been able to handle that pressure so I'm glad I didn't know um last night we were honored at the Board of Education meeting and uh I touched upon towards the end of my talk after speaking glowingly about the incredible young ladies on his team about how they inspired so many youngsters tonight so it's only fitting that we have a lot of them here tonight so I want to touch on that a little bit more about what incredible Role Models these uh high school girls are what does it mean to be a role model it means you have others looking up to you it means you are going about your day-to-day life the right way the players on this team are exceptional role models for the young girls in town not just because they are fantastic fantastic softball players not just because we won a County Title when the young when the youth players come to see this state and team play they see players who work together and support one another they see bench players who are as into the game as the players on the field they see a level of enthusiasm I have not seen in all my years of coaching and it's quite a few they see players who embrace the challenge of competition and have fun doing it I want to ask the girls if they REM remember the word I used last night to talk about this team Synergy boy we're going to we're going to beat them over the head with that word in the years to come so Synergy means the whole is greater than the Su of its parts um the individual pieces of this team are incredible every single one of these players contributed to this team but you put those individual Parts together and like s energ means the whole was definitely greater than the parts as proven by um the County County Title in just an incredible year as was mentioned by mayor Weber this team made history on May 20 20th by winning the County Title but even if we didn't win the County Title this year for the first time in school history it wouldn't have changed my opinion about these young ladies it wouldn't change coach Moors or coach Gibson's opinion of these young ladies I'm fairly sure certain it wouldn't change the opinion of the parents of the players about these young ladies besides receiving a trophy and having a banner hung at school besides the players receiving a medal besides being honored by the Board of Education and the township committee tonight winning the UCT provided the platform to speak about what an incredible group of young ladies make up the State softball team it is truly an honor to coach them so so let's talk about the game for a little bit I can't girls are you tired of hearing about the game good cuz I'm not tired of talking about it um anyway so we a couple days earlier we had won the semi-finals against a very good Cranford team third time we beat him that year this year um at Kane University so we were coming back for the finals on that Monday night May 20th to play Scotch Plains um and I mentioned this last night as a coach in a situ ation like that you you wonder if the team is going to be able to rise to the occasion if the pressure is going to get to them um something we hadn't experienced before and honestly I've never seen as enthusiasm as enthusiastic as this team is on a day-to-day basis I never saw anything like that night and how enthusiastic they were they were so focused and so ready for that game Lyla Caroll pitched an incredible game our defense was probably the best game we've ever played we went out to a 5-1 lead and I wouldn't say we were Cruising Into the seventh inning but we were pretty comfortable fairly comfortable we needed three outs to win and Scotch Plains as we expected was not going to lay down and let us beat them they came back did a great job putting some hits together and before you knew it it was 55 um and uh we were coming off the field to to Baton the bottom of the seventh this is a little repetitive from last night but uh you know coach Gibson and I were talking about how we needed to get the team together to talk about get them psyched up for the bottom of the seventh put that top of the inning behind them and get ready but before we could do that Angie gado got the team together um gave an incredible speech um to get the team ready and it worked on her for sure um because when she got up with two outs and two strikes and I'm in the third base box thinking this may this game may go into Extra Innings and with the momentum shifting it would have been tough and next pitch she made history um probably leaving a dent in that concession house out in right field um and no doubt about it walk-off home run it was magical I've described it as surreal but even that doesn't give it justice um you couldn't have written a script any better than that I think it would get turned down by Hollywood if you brought that script to them it was that surreal um and that magical so with that I just want to say thank you obviously to the players for an incredible year and I know we have great things to come even though we're losing four incredible seniors um parents have been an incredible support not only for their own daughters but for the entire team um my assistant coaches Chris Moore just an incredible job first year um with the team he's going to be heading to fmg to coach the Middle School softball team so we're grateful to that for that and of course Katie Gibson who's been coaching with me for three years and I mentioned earlier about Role Models I can't think of a better female role model for these female high school players than coach Gibson thank you coach Gibson um and coincidentally enough just to finish up I met earlier with Brian brendel um he he's part of the Springfield softball uh Association and we just talked about like how do we keep this train rolling forward um how can we support them how can they support us and we we knocked around a bunch of great ideas and I'm going to make a promise tonight that the young ladies sitting to my left and the ones who couldn't make it tonight um are going to make a commitment to be to be a big part of the young ladies lives to my right and uh through through clinics and and and uh practices and lunches and and we're going to make a connection here we've made it in the past but we're going to raise it up a notch and uh it's going to be something to behold to see the connection that uh the the different age groups make um all around the game of softball but you learn a lot of life lessons through the game of softball and we're certainly going to do the best we can to to keep that going so thank you again really appreciate it thank you thank [Applause] you storm girls you're next to give you an idea of how big the program is when Ashley started and and I I I guess everybody who in this sitting there I I think we did a count I think it was about 70 girls total in all grades that was involved in in storm and wreck and everything else we're up to 180 now almost so that's a lot if if I can get you to come up we'll take a picture I have a proclamation for everybody to hand out and you're out of here thank you [Music] [Music] yeah you're you're fantastic got to get a SE up here that only on fine please hello good to see you e e [Music] [Music] br down5 ever [Music] [Music] can never know [Music] I'm going to call for a 5 minute recess you guys can do whatever you want we're going to hold off tight over here so five minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e back in session thank you for that uh special um moment for our softball team we're going to move on to proclamations announcements Springfield residents ages 55 plus the calendar for July 202 24th is out I am looking at the calendar right now and every day is filled so fantastic stuff happening at Chism Center pick a calendar up at the Chism Center or pick it up online and print it out Springfield library is hosting summer reading kickoff with Ron albines Wednesday June 26th at 700 p.m. in front of town hall bring your lawn chairs or blankets and enjoy the kitty Rock and Roll Show I read that wrong it's a kitty Rock and Roll Show [Music] okay um that is Wednesday June 26th at 700 p.m. oh that actually looks like fun you can find this also online celebrate Pride Springfield community pool Saturday June 29th 12: to 3 free admission music Zumba classes swimming art crafts and more that is June 29th 12 to 3 blood drive at Chisum Community Center Wednesday July 3rd from 1:30 to 7:30 free Mets T t-shirt and tickets register at nybc.org sponsor use Kai code I'm sorry use codee 70915 so that also will be online please there's still a blood shortage Across America Wednesday July 3rd 1:30 to 7:30 if you can get there you might have a chance to win some Mets tickets and and and t-shirts uh all municipal buildings will be closed July 4th Thursday the 4th of July celebration is at 5:00 p.m. at myel Avenue Park free admission food trucks petting zoo pony rides DJ and more fireworks will be at dusk the Springfield library hosts Grand Funk Railroad a quirky eclectic eccentric mix of Forgotten favorites Thursday July 11th 700 p.m. at Town Hall bring your lawn chairs and blankets rain date third uh is Thursday July 18th wow Grand Funk oh Grand Folk Railroad I read that wrong too I was going to say I love Grand Funk railro but okay I will go with Grand Folk Railroad also and I will see what's happening there that sounds like fun update on the farmers market allstead Farm will be changing their hours from 1 to 6:00 p.m. due to lack of sales from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. the market will still open at 11:00 a.m. for the other vendors which include picious the baker unique snacks Urban cone and refresh and flourish by Nature cousins main lobster will be there July 8th and the 22nd the next committee meeting is not going to be on a Tuesday it's going to be on Wednesday July 17th at 700 p.m. so mark calendars uh Wednesday July 17th at 7:00 p.m. the township wishes to express its condolences to the family of firefighter Antonio decampos um Township committee uh expresses its condolences and um the the family's requesting everything remain private at this point so um we are sorry and uh if there is anything we can do let us know okay we're going to move on now to public comment on agenda items only public comment on agenda items only I do not have any emails from the public and if anybody has anything come on up to the mic see seeing none we're just going to end public comment nothing happening and move straight on to reports with our administrative report and ba John bico you want to go to oh you let's get that out of the way yeah sure you want to do that first okay hi Keith come on up you grab a microphone um if you can try to talk into it as as as you know loud as you can so we can uh have the audience outside here well just for the record I'm also a big fan of Bren Funk railroads see you now I I if I remember right they sold out sha Stadium the fastest sellout ever at the time in 72 or something like that they sold out in like don't know minute or something like that Mark forer yeah that's right did we we close public comment yeah yeah public comment is closed um I'm going to need the mic a little bit higher or yeah or just grab it or whatever I don't know okay is that better I don't know Tomar is that better just how just talk into it we we'll for the best so um oh well I we're going to discuss uh you guys wanted him to explain the tree ordinance correct which which is we that's not on today's on agenda okay this was on the last one and I know there were some questions so okay so the New Jersey d uh uh for any town that has a municipal storm water discharge permit it has to adopt a town CommunityWide ordinance for tree removal and replacement based upon the D's model ordinance and that's what that's what we have now that's what we're working on um I understand there's some questions on that so I'm here if anyone has any concerns or questions more than happy to answer that for you is there anything specifically you want to know about this or well a a I would just like run through exactly like the breakdown of it break down of let's let's break down the uh proposed ordinance and how this will affect uh our residents and then okay and and then we'll run into question what's changing and why yeah so so the changes are the big part of this and every town is dealing with this is the tree replacement program you have to come up with a table of x amount of trees depending upon the size of the tree that's removed you have to replace the trees either on that property or another town property with a specific amount of trees or if you don't then you contribute money per tree to the town to the tree replacement fund okay so the differences between this ordinance and our previous ordinances right right now the minimum tree was 4 Ines and above would require permit of course we don't have any tree replacement program at this time that's being raised to 10in minimum tree and also what we propos in this new ordinance is your first two trees in a 12-month period if they're under 16 in diameter do not require permit okay um we're also want to put in there any dead or disease trees or highrisk trees that are determined by me or another New Jersey licensed tree expert will be emitted from the permit um the reason why we're doing that is to try to give a little reprieve to the rest residents because this is this is restrictive and punitive to to the residents you know in the past if you're taking down let's say a 24in oak tree and that's costing you $2500 now you got to contribute money for four trees and right now that's at $400 a tree you either got to plant four 2 and a half inch caliber trees on your property or give the town $1,600 that could be pretty heavy load on on a resident who's already paying a high cost of having that tree removed so we're that's why we have here where you can can remove two trees up to 16 inch in a 12- month period without having to deal with that we rais the minimum size of the tree and right now the permit is still $75 just for the permit that's my time to go out and do the inspection but any tree above that is over those two trees is right now is $100 we're reducing that to $50 per tree above the two tree minimum okay so we're trying to come to uh a middle ground here with this um there are some other things we can do with this if if we needed to um I can work with my team on that possibly things such as maybe reducing the cost of the uh for tree which is 400 we came up with that $400 per tree because that's what the town spends on its current value when we plant our 50 trees a year in town the street trees that's the cost of the tree planted and quite frankly that's an excellent cost that we have for doing that a typical homeowner if they were to have a tree planted depending upon the species typically could run from 4 to $700 depending upon the size of the tree and the species um so this is something um we have to do it is a law by the D um I spent a lot of hours at seminars I have a lot of acquaintances in this industry who are very much involved in this and we've had some a lot of discussions on this and we're all come up with the same thing um every town is a little different they have different needs um but I will tell you for example if you'd like to hear some of our neighbors um for let's take mbour next door our nice neighbors next door let's say for the sake of discussion we're talking about just a 22inch caliper tree or 22 inch diameter tree right now Milburn if you take that you have to plant or purchase to the town for five trees and that's a $250 a piece so that would be $1,250 you have to give the town if you weren't planting those trees on your property Madison's five trees of $400 a piece that's $2,000 you'd have to give it to town Springfield we have for 22 in diamer tree is Three Trees of 400 that's 1,200 you can see for just a small example we're at the lower end of that scale of What the residents have to pay the town um my assumption is because of the extra cost of this I think we're going to have some people that are on the cusp of removing trees in their property I think that's going to go down because of the cost the additional cost of this um but the good thing out of this is that my job as an urban Forester is not just the safety of its residents and their property but to eventually have a goal of zero net loss on trees in the community because the importance of trees it's not just the community and environment and everyone in his community benefits from it um so I I did crumch some numbers and I going to go through this because it's a little lengthy but if we were to stick to the amount of trees that we have to the trees that we're taking down looking at the history of trees so far year-to dat we would meet that goal of planting enough trees to to have a zero net loss of course that that can change and I'm assuming things like variables of the 16inch trees and things like that so um again this was actually technically this every time we supposed to have this ready uh to go by May 1 but us and a lot of other towns in the state are still working and struggling to put this together because it's again it's kind of punitive to the uh the residents um so that's kind of it in a nutshell um if anyone has any other concerns or questions i' be more than happy to answer that um Waters our major concern here you know at water do do you do you feel this impacts us at all in terms of um absortion and dissipation that that's the whole goal of the D doing this I'm sorry I should have mentioned that but there's already been numerous instances in where people wanted to take down some large deciduous trees in their backyard that were healthy and I talked them out of it because of the the importance and the value of storm waterer mitigation that trees do it's really a tremendous asset to the community as we know Springfield has some issues with wet properties and um the more trees we plant specifically larger shade trees uh the better the town can deal with that it makes it does make a difference in the long run I my question is from and I guess we're all curious um when you have a tree of that size uh it really does make that much of a difference in a yard in terms of uh spongy ground or that that is that tree really able to absorb that much water yeah uh be this is you know my part-time semi retirement job I was in the industry for 40 years and my company I work for is the large private Cree company we had a lot of highend Residential Properties and Commercial properties that I dealt with I have seen a couple of trees taken down a rear yard trying to tell these res not to do that under their basement flooded because the tree was removed because these trees were removed that's correct it does make a big storm I'm sorry storm water mitigation is the whole reason of this ordinance from the DP try to reduce the discharge of storm water question have we looked at you mentioned Milbourne and you mentioned Madison if we looked at any other towns I mean to me like $400 seems pricey uh it is and but my point I was making before is I think the whole I thing with this ordinance we have to keep at least the minimum standards of the D's model ordinance now they have X amount of trees we actually tweaked it down a little bit made it a little less punitive the amount it's not just it's not just shovel ground insert tree right it's not Shuffle ground insert tree like there's standards that we need to oh yeah there has to be a restoration plan that I get and I discussed with a homeowner on the suitable species for their property for example a lot of lot of these properties in in Springfield are going to have to wetside Toler trees planted and I do have a tree replacement list that will be put on the website for that um what was the previous question that was uh price oh that's right I'm sorry so what we can do is we can play with that number and I I I played around on a spreadsheet was some different amounts of that cost to the town should they not plant uh even if we were to reduce that let's say to 250 for example what milburn's doing although Milburn has a higher amount of trees well I mean it doesn't matter if it's two trees at 250 or one tree at 500 as long as the standards are met it's the same money well but yeah what I'm saying is reduce the cost for tree of the town from 400 to 250 what I'm interested in doing uh that would reduced the amount of money that the person would have to pay the town should they not want to plant trees we're not going to change the number of trees just the cost per tree and I I again I Crump some numbers with that 250 and we still came up with a with a nice high amount of tree Replacements to approach that net zero loss goal sure when it when a a a resident decides to move or remove a large tree or two is is the goal to try to put a tree back in that area a at that point that's up to the property owner so how do we go about then I guess and I'll jump to this question off of yours We're Going Back Where Do We site then our new trees like the this fund at the end of the year you take the amount of money we have and the township goes out and and and plants trees correct correct where do we site those and and and and and what's the diameter of those trees versus the diameter of the Town plants actually when you get down those trees there technically R called caliber of the nursery stocks a caliber is 2 and A2 Ines for either the town planted trees which we have done here historically and just did this spring and that is also the specifications on the new ordinance for the homeowner uh at the town was to plant trees uh we were going to be planting them along the rways on the streets and the parks we could do it on the school properties uh in any Town property we can plant the trees with a space and it can accommodate the tree now again in the ordinance the it's written that the um that money is to be used for a tree replacement fund and dedicated to the cost of maintaining the trees so how exactly that would be you know brought out out and paid into the town specifically I think that would leave that up to the D DPW or the town de side raki where that money goes I I guess then the the the the natural question is on average how many because I I think we've had this tree fund replacement for a number of years if I'm not correct how many trees have we planted over the last few years there is no tree play oh the tree there is no treey plac in ordinance right now for homeowners didn't we have a but wait wait I I what about e so where was that where was that money then going that money does go into a fund okay for ref for to re so in the past few years I'll repeat the question in the past few years how many trees have we planted well we usually uh have that number I haven't been here that long but I I do no no no I'm not saying that necessarily you would have that number I'm I would hope somebody would I can tell I'm sorry and you can get back to me at a different time yeah I would rather get back to you with an accurate accurate number yes and and and and since you're getting back with an accurate number I would like to know how much uh over the past few years we've collected break down by year and then how many we have uh uh decided to plant by year and going off of this would we have in this ordinance would we have a a a a set date right are we are we building up the money year one year 2 year three or are we taking and looking at the end of the year hey we we've brought in $500 this year we're going to spend that $500 uh uh uh x amount of money to plant new trees are we going to look at it in a different couple over couple year cycle like how long will it take to build up and what's our plan with that well I that I think that's maybe above my pay grade exactly as far as that goes but I think as far as the amount of money that would come in uh just doing some scenarios it's going to be quite a bit amount of money and we're talking you know possibly 80 to over $100,000 in in a given year will you take down that many trees I don't know oh sure we year to date we've taken down 210 trees on private property 210 right the town itself is taken down 50 50 and but we have a different Mission naturally as a Township we have a different Mission uh uh getting off of those cuz you'll you'll get me those figures and and and i' would like to know how many trees you know we've taken down and how many we've planted and how much each year and we can get a breakdown uh I'll just go into hey where my initial concerns are I don't know what a six do you have those numbers of each tree that is taken down the diameter of those trees no because in the past that the diameter was never was never needed it was never needed so we no the only thing it was needed was to make sure it meant it met the minimum size of forign yeah so so going forward with this new ordinance we will be collecting that data we're going to have to yes of course sure uh Hey and and and and if you were to take down so a homeowner in 2025 could take down two trees on his properties under 16 in could he then in 20 2026 take down another two trees uh that are 16 in and not be charged but within that 12 Monon period from that date of application he will be charged above but if it's not I take it down January 1 I wait till January 2026 I won't be charged that's correct that's correct for for 16 and under yes see I I would personally have some concerns doing that I I I hey I I understand I don't think we should be penalizing people for disease trees dead trees uh unhealthy trees I'm with that I don't think a homeowner should be penalized we want them we want to encourage them to take that down because that's a health risk for not only them but everybody around them I don't know if if a healthy 16-in tree we should be encourag enaging and not being punitive I think the point is to try to encourage people to keep trees on their property keep essentially healthy trees uh keep going so that two in a 12 month cycle that's a lot I I I I don't know how often every homeowner up here is taking down trees I would be a little concerned with every every year they can take down two 16 I I'm a little concerned about that I'm a little concerned that uh uh uh uh a we've had a situation right we had a situation off of Route 22 where we had Redevelopment we were able to get quite a bit of money from a developer that had let's be honest not not I wouldn't say the healthiest of trees or trees that we would deem like actual natural trees but we were able to get significant money from that developer uh because we went out there and caught the trees and they they contributed a an x amount of dollars to replanting I would be concerned with letting potential future development like that uh uh skirt around this by by claiming yeah those aren't sufficient trees well at one point in time that worked for us so I'd be a little concerned about that so take that back as as we as we talk about uh uh this and develop this uh uh I would also be and I would like the data and I think committee man har laer at for this Milburn Madison for sure but maybe we go uh uh look at another I don't know what cranford's doing that has significant flooding let's look at some more towns and maybe you can present that data to the township committee before it makes its uh a determination because Madison and and Milburn are great but not the whole picture and on and last time I checked Madison doesn't have significant flooding issues that we Milburn Cranford and our area do although I love Madison and they have a very you know very passionate environmental committee and and public works department which takes care of that so that's just some of my concerns before we move forward can I can I just address something yeah you can please without getting too long-winded uh and this is just a rough scenario on my part so like I said so far in private properties we Tak it down 210 for easier day now I'm going to assume that 30% of those trees this is a guess on my part are under 16 in so that leaves 147 trees that were taken down now assuming as 140 trees have an average devh or diameter of 22 in that would mean that three trees planted would be 441 trees now I'm assuming 75% of those people will not be planting trees on their property because they either don't want them or they don't have the room that would leave 110 TR trees planted by the homeowner and 331 trees left for the town so if you look at the number of trees and revenue on that and that's with assuming the first two trees in 12mth Period of 16 inches and under I don't I think that having that that give I think is important to the residents to have some kind of breathing room in this because you can see the revenue on that and the amount of trees I will have to planning I think is substantial and meaning our zero net loss can I ask one to be fair I don't know if that's my Net Zero is not right I I I want I don't want people taking down trees if they're healthy if they can avoid it I think that's the there are trees that uh and I've done it here in town a couple times people wanted to take down a tree of very large shade trees that were very healthy and I declined it I have the I have right to enforce that and I agree with that but that that's that's a small amount yeah no no hey and it should be small I don't want to be telling Property Owners you know right you have a Libertarian streak and not telling them what to do with their their property I I I think part of this is encouraging that we are not taking down healthy trees 16 Ines to me I don't know maybe I'm off and not picturing it but 16 in to me seems rather large and and giving them the ability every 12 months to kind of let's be honest and I'll use Chris Weber as an example your property is is is is a moderate smaller uh thing if you were to take down one tree hey that's your right you were putting in a swimming pool I I can kind of see that the people who are going to be able to skirt around this are people with large properties that have many many many trees and yes year one they're going to take down two year two they're going to take down another two and they're going to wait and I don't necessarily want to see that or encourage that that's where I'm coming from and not not to bring a Milburn again but they're they're 18 Ines on the two trees a year just a ooper thought um the other thing is I fail di mentions also in here is that you if you can't no matter what size you can't take it down if constitutes more than 50% of the trees on your property so if I have two trees on my property and you can't take I can't take one down unless they're dead or diseased understood you said that's interesting cannot take you cannot take it down if I have three trees I can take one down correct if it's yes run through that again you said 50% well if it's not well no you're right more than 50% of the trees under propit if you have four trees you can take down two that's it if you have two you can take it on one that's correct interesting final question at least for me by your math you said we we as a town would need to plant 400 and something trees right in this scenario in your scenario I'm going with 100% your numbers we have 441 I feel like we're running into a space issue yeah and that's why I I asked and I I details on what exactly is the the funds from the the the tree replacement fund for the town is also stated as you know part of maintaining the trees how does that get Diversified you know what I'm saying so I I don't know that answer to that how much would just be specific for planting other for maintaining got it like I'm just seeing like a a large lot somewhere in town with 400 trees Tre planted like you know we re we film Star Wars and that lot you know I agree with you that's why there I think there needs to be question answered on those funds is yeah okay I'm good thank you my final I'd like to say just one thing yeah I thought it was very good and very informative you guys wrote the letters I know on Ros Avenue saying that you're going to start taking dead trees down and all that I have neighbors that protested a little bit you know you explained everything to them what was going to happen mhm thought it was very good I don't know if you sent that to other neighborhoods in town I know our neighborhood got I thought it was very good good this this talk gives me a headache and I'll tell you why over and over again I'll tell you why it gives me a headache because you got homeowners who are going to want to remove the trees they're going to still in the same sentence complain about the water in the area this is not a winning situation no matter what we do it gives me a headache because there are people who are going to be in flood areas or low-lying areas who going to want it take a tree out cuz it's a it's just a pain or they want to put a pool in or they want a playground in the yard whatever and then I don't have an answer I I will trust it to you guys for right now you change yeah trust it to you guys to come up what's going on can you change the ordinance instead of if I have four trees I can take two or say eight trees of my property I say two down this year and two down next year can we some way do it and I don't know correct where say to say we can't if two trees are down or a percent down you can't do keep on doing it every year honestly I I I'll disagree with all of you I don't mind if you're taking them down but you you are there should be a penalty that's where I'm at I I I understand we have a but you have a property if you have a you want to take down a tree okay but there's a penalty to that I don't understand why we're letting people skirt around with taking potential two down it's no different than anybody else if you're taking it down there's a permit we don't let somebody uh uh uh with a water heater you've replaced your water heater every five years yeah you get a pass on this time no there's there's a feed to that uh uh so if you're taking a tree I think there's a penalty I'm not necessarily for saying hey no you shouldn't take down that tree but there should be a penalty in a and and and a fee to the town that is paid we have a town Forester we have other trees to maintain we should should be trying to collect as much revenue as that not hammering I'll make it certain if you have a diseased tree or a dead tree I'm not for penalizing you I think we should encourage that taking it down but anything else if it is healthy 16 in seems a lot large I think there's a number that we can come up with but there should be a fee associated with that why don't you sit with them and I would be happy come up with it okay sure we we'll talk about this all night long but I agree with you I mean this way you can tell them your opinion and try and get together and just sit there and get some kind of ordinance though everyone's happy and I I'll come up with some numbers for you okay and I'll get it over to you and I agree I'm with this button I think you're right I I I with the with the number 400 you know that to me seems a lot but compared to our neighboring towns who are more you know I'm not I'm not for whacking you over the head to make it impossible but there there should be a penalty if you're taking down any sizable tree and 16 in to me seems sizable and and definitely love the approach of not hammering people with diseased trees and and we want to make sure they come down right we had a whole issue with the what bug was it that was infesting right yeah we shouldn't be hitting people over who you know getting diseased trees cuz that's a problem we're still dealing with that 100% so six 16 in just seems a little a little big to me but I'm I'm happy to work and and I'm sure there's a compromise mayor I have a huge huge Oak in my side behind my house and I had the Forester come out and look because I have visions of this coming down down the storm and he said to me do not take that tree down right MH he said I wish I had that in my yard it's a healthy tree and he looked at it and everything so my tree is still up I don't want it down but it made me nervous so there you go yeah you know I will tell you after meeting you you meeting with the environmental commission I can tell you that you have the support of of them they they they trust you a lot um I'm assuming most house owners remove trees because of location on their property for what they want to do center of the yard or whatever have you asked are are are these homeowners receptive if trees were taken down if trees were planted on the corner property line or anything like that is there is there a way to to entice them to to put another Tree in another location in their property maybe people that aren't tree people that want their trees on are because they're getting acorns on their gutters or they're getting you know right Samaras from Maples on a deck or whatever or the sweet gum little spiky balls we all see right so people that's that's the people don't like trees that want the trees down but I also think those people that are going to probably that amount is going to drop down because of this extra cost I think of taking these trees down as I said we took down 210 trees year today in private properties I think this time next year it's going to be less if if if Linda wanted to take that tree down let's say she did and um she agreed to replace trees on her property in different location do we do we have a a a uh discount program or something could we get them trees to replace at a at a rate that the township could buy the trees at or you know if it's just a location problem and somebody says hey I'm putting a pool in I want to take this tree down or so on is there something that could be done to get them a tree in another piece of the property I I think we could uh right now the vendor we use uh serbo who does a great job it's possible we could discuss with uh with them maybe if you're res of Springfield maybe get a break on that because they do a lot of work in town yeah meaning if if if we took a tree down instead of paying the fee let's say the fee is $400 and you can get a tree for 400 and agree to plant it in a different location in the yard does that work for us kind of I did speak with the owner of that company I gave my heads up about the new ordinance I said a lot of you nurseries are going to be very busy with this uh so you may want to think about how you want to deal with this as far as pricing goes maybe there's something that you guys can look at in terms of enticing homeowners to replant in different locations and we can help them in some capacity with a Township discount or something from your nurseries and I guess what do we do with this then we just park it for now and and Robbie let get let's get some more info before we do anything further we may have of the those changes we may have to reintroduce it okay well that'll depend on how it evolves are we on a deadline for that no this year have to be done this year we have time with the ordinance so Now's the Time to tweak it okay for us so we're okay then we'll we'll work it out and figure it out thank you okay thank you good night Home Depot gift cards for the T that is a headache that is like a pool headache right there just going to say that [Music] now let's move on to administrative reports with John bico all right thank you Mr Mayor just want to touch on a couple things if I may from our tax assessor's office I'm just going to give you a couple of highlights she reviewed and inspected 67 permits for property Improvement for the construction permits including measuring of additions pools new homes Etc we processed 112 200 foot lists and we process 14 Oprah requests that's in the tax assessor's office for our building department we had 76 new permits were issued for the month and we collected $ 32,592 from engineering our Capital plan for 24 is Milling in payment improvements on Cane Street Christy Lane Edgewood Avenue Henshaw Avenue Sur Lane Henshaw Park tennis courts the only we've got left is clear cating and striping will be applied in the very near future to the courts they're just about done can I ask you a question real quick on that one sir Henshaw is that pickle ball only now or is that going to be pickle ball and no that's for both both that's both okay we just we lined it so you could use it for both okay people just make stuff up online yeah that's what I was trying to figure out thank you okay um miltown and Smithfield you know we got the New Jersey DOT Grant uh design work is commenced and of July 5th our July bid is anticipated uh Union County Community year 50 uh will be receiving $120,000 and that's for pavment and improvements on Pit Road Project design and bidding will be performed in House Field measurements and drawings prepared as commenced and Full Construction is anticipated for that um that is all I have there from zoning there were 45 permits issued for the month in zoning I wanted to touch a little bit on police activity because I think sometimes I think we're all under the impression that you know we're quiet sleepy town but just to give you a couple of numbers that I found actually very interesting was calls for the month of May to police were 1223 calls for the month so I mean they're quite busy you know again I I think we think we're sleepy little town but kind of shows you we really not they they are quite busy we issued 438 tickets for the month also John was there anything else you wanted to add that I to highlight that maybe I left off yes sure got to yester was coming down Mar Avenue there two police cars on Mars Avenue like G the fence was coming down yep but there were cars that were um going in the right lane and cutting over to the left yeah we have that problem constantly time because I mean you had two police cars there and they were there for fence but one I saw three cars do it and one car was pulled over I mean I understand you're there for the fence to protect the public and all that but I mean I think you know it's a big thing there I'm just put somebody there could make his pay in a month I mean the way you know way the way they you know people ignore that I just surprised like nobody going to pull over for our fire department again I think everybody knows that they are always very busy for the month of May they responded to 391 calls so they were very busy uh year to date just let you know there are 1471 for the year let's talk about our DPW real quick pscg continues to upgrade their system all over town once the work is done they will meet with DPW on repaving the streets any questions on the restoration should be directed to DPW guest committee man Uber is that what's going on right behind us here in this street on uh Brook Street that's a psng project what are they doing putting well they're upgrading the mains and they're making connections all right I just back back into the residential homes so again what we're going to do is make sure that when they go to pave we're going to try to get them to pave not just where they've cut out yeah yeah so there's streets that are under the moratorium which they're obligated to to pave but a lot of these streets uh like U Gard noal uh is not under a moratorium but they're going to be Paving that whole street based on how much work was done so we're going to look at what they did when they're done and we'll see how much we can get back from them signage I think people will notice that on the parks there's several signs missing that's because they were wooden so we've REM removed all of them replacing with new ones what is this all the parks um our Jitney bus you know that we had a recall on that we actually did very well a Jitney bus was done today uh Mr berer took it actually did we take it over did they come here no I I had them come down here they did it in between the service and they replaced this uh CME oil sender unit which was recalled and it's back in service so that's we were actually kind of like Pit Road we pulled it in between they jacked it up did it andom guy took off again so there was no loss in service we missed nothing yes the replacement of the signs are they going to be wooden again no we're going to use a different material so we don't if you happen to leave tonight uh I did replace the annex sign and uh for longevity reasons I changed it from wood to vinyl and I'm using the same color scheme that I have here which is blue and white and um if you want to comment on it but I'd like to do all the signs uh and have them more uniform as long as they look Hy you know sometimes you get that vinyl and it's like well you can look at the one across the street when you take a look at it I think it looks really good yeah I'm I'm sure I trust you but you know what I'm you know what I'm and it last you know sometimes yeah yeah I'm down for it lasting but you know sometimes you get that like plastic feel and it's not yep a look at it when you walk out tonight uh just a couple other things Ewa drop off has been extremely busy and just remember anything with a plug can go there vegetative waste we're still very active there and that leads us to the next item camera systems we're looking at putting cameras on up there at 44 Marson on the recycling center DPW on Center Street and I think we're also looking here um we've had issues with people that shouldn't be dumping up at 4 for Marson dumping there so we need to have some camera coverage there so that we can take action when we catch someone um I can't dump anym no no it's not that what's happening is it's not residents that are doing a dumping sometimes we're getting we're actually getting commercial no we're getting commercial people going there and dumping so we need a way to to have a camera so we have a recording of it so we can go after them I thought we already had I thought you caught people out here we did we caught people actually out here but again the cameras are we have no cameras here so we are going to put them in at DPW also um we talked about the American flags last meeting Mars s JCP and Verizon both gave permission but I think that's something we still want to discuss and make sure with all the construction going on with Gomes and everything do we want to do it at this point something for you to think about we had to mention that there was benches missing at the pool and they were replaced uh DPW replaced those recently uh Veterans Park was cleaned up we removed all the old overgrown bushes Ruby Park tree removal we got a uh bid to remove the as trees in that back lot highest bidder was at 49 the lowest guy was at 145 but we had some questions with him so I don't know if that's yeah we're not sure yet we're still exploring that one but those trees are going to need to come down in a not too distant future the ash trees on our sanitary stations we um we opened up the bid on Joanne Joanna Pump Station the other day and the low bidder we had a question on Craig is looking into if that bid is acceptable or because of some issues it's going to need to possibly be thrown out we don't think the eror is fatal and that the low bidder on that actually fell in line with kind of where we thought the bid should be so we'll let you know what happens there but all of our our stations Summit Maran Johanna Marian storm station they all need work and we are doing that we're replacing pumps impellers etc etc most of these are 50 years old well the uh Joanna station is 50 years old the rest of these stations are between 15 and 20 years old the pumps you know I'm talking about the pumps that are in them that we're actually replacing yeah we can't even get parts for half of them anymore so we need to address this before it becomes an issue now fortunately we have a grant which is going to cover a great deal of it Diane what do we get 1.8 sir so all of that money is dedicated to our sewers so that will be used again according to priorities we'll will we will dictate what gets done and we'll make sure that they're all uh at least the money is encumbered before we lose it on our developments I think everybody noted that the fence fell yesterday down at Gomes on calwell sidewalk is open if anybody's been down there problem is is that the barriers haven't been removed in the street and of course we're having a discussion so uh last when I met with with the the people up on site actually Mike Mike disco myself and Bob Herbert met with them on Monday I think it was we were told that by last Friday they would pick the barriers up they'd be out of the street we got a letter today from their lawyer said we never agreed upon that writing so not sure what you're talking about so we're still uh we're still haggling over getting those out of there we want to get them out for a couple of reasons we want to see what the street looks like because if you look there there's there's where that pole fell lot of the black top on the street is cracked so we're not sure if that street has been compromised in spots so once the barriers are gone we'll have engineering look at that and determine what needs to be done uh you see that this the brick work or the ston work has been done on all of the three sides the only thing that's not done is the courtyard in the middle that you really don't see from the street so he's actually made Fairly good progress so we're getting we're getting closer day by day it is looking like a building it does it is looking like a building Mike and I disco up at saaks the other day we walked it went through it um I got to tell you the amenity sections that they put in really were were done very very well they got a huge pool probably have enough for a 100 people sitting out there they've got three spots for a bar not that they have a liquor license but if you wanted to have a party there they have a huge entertainment room that you can rent throw a party in the their exercise facility was spectacular everything is tiled and I they just really did not spare you know the dollars they did a great job on the amenities uh the the development is basically done we're looking at a third to be rented in the apartments in June July and August and then they're basically finished everything is paved and ready to roll excellent the other what do we call Church Mall Church Mall Patriot Way they started the foundation so they're moving along and once they get going you're going to see that's going to go up very quickly cuz obviously it's the same Builders as s yeah yeah no no it you know really didn't picture how large of a lot that is very large exactly exactly so that's kind of where we are in the developments that are in progress right now if there's any questions or comments I'd be happy to answer when do they start paying us some of the pilot money has started to come in Diane maybe you can comment on pilot money who have we seen from yet I think Charlie sent Lin you're on you're on I'm on actually should believe it's the sax money that we received half of it so far Reed some because we build them quarterly um so we've for 10 what 10 years and then they start and then it goes to a different rate yeah the first 10 or fixed yes and again I think everybody up here understands the purpose of a pilot a pilot is done because without it the development is not economically feasible is what the developer has to prove before he gets a pilot it's not just a given he can ask for it but unless he can prove by by all of the uh the figures that it's a necessity he doesn't get a a pilot program I just want to bring you that because I know a lot of people qu are questioning oh this guy's not paying taxes yet I no and and I agree but again sometimes you know you got to take tax on the land too what there also the pilot has a separate tax for the land or does it I didn't even know I thought just one pilot yeah so thank you um the Joana pumping station that handles the the areas that flood the most Alvin Maran Laurel all that is is that going to be fixed sooner than later well that's going to depend on the bid I mean overall it's going to take probably over a year that that's once once the bid is awarded but we're not in jeopardy of any problems over there we have one pump that's working and uh it it it also has gravity uh drainage over there that's been working fine so we're operational then yes yes okay we're definitely understand that's a complete overhaul we're replacing all the pumps we've got to stop the water from infiltrating into the station actually because it's filling up what else we we're doing electrical over there also we're doing electric also yep basically brand new yeah it's top to bottom but again since we got that 1.8 Now's the Time to do it no no no no that that station handles lurel handles Riverside I mean those are the the low-lying areas that that get hit the wor so that's what as long as we're functional and and they don't have anything to worry about all right um takes about a year that's good to know yeah because we had to order the you know the pumps have to be ordered and again they're just everything's long lead time right now so unfortunately it can't be done overnight is Fatam road fixed uh as far as I know they JC pel said that they had a um circuit breaker that was smoking so they took care of that they said If by some chance Mike you were there if by some chance they need more they can switch that over to another substation yeah that's correct um they were hoping that there would be no outages that that are not going to be happening that we currently don't have they believe that they were able to isolate it fully and send that power out to Route 22 and distribute it that way but they said no more significant outages if we don't already have one um this is probably going to take some time to get fixed because we had um I think multiple circuits CAU fire um it was mitigated quickly within two hours they had the whole power shut down that grid and then I guess sent out uh across Route 22 into the rest of the town so the they're saying right now that that we'll be okay cuz I I guess what my concern is is they went and bypassed and went to I don't know if they can another Power Station or Waverly or wherever and then we get over it's supposed to be really hot tomorrow and then we get hit with that grid and and the way it sounds I think it might be backup and running they were talking about they can actually repair the circuits and if they're hoping once they get in there and they see how much damage in is is uh occurred inside those um I guess those electrical components they can possibly replace them and have an back up and today okay when I talked to Scott late in the day he said there was possibly One commercial building that was still without power other than that everything else was back fantastic um Police Department I you weren't here the last time that we talked about this we're still looking for maybe an internet exchange area because I know that's kind of what happened with the TV situation put put that on your radar please something around town hall that is um you and cameras for yeah something that is monitored oh fantastic but we we're on the path all right um pet scanner can we get a pet scanner Diane will write the check whatever it cost I thought we had one nobody knows if we had one or not yeah it's unver we don't right I I feel so bad looking at these little dogs online that that you know trying to figure out who's coming home without their dog when literally just chirp them and andit all right see that that's that's re yeah I thought then we partnered with somebody to do this at one point in time we definitely did I thought we did oh it must have been through our old animal control then they us to take I thought they partnered and I'm just throwing this out it must have been with our old animal control I thought they partnered with a local vet in the area that did it for us we can call them tomorrow we still de with v yeah oh so Moren will call we'll call planfield tomorrow we'll figure I I yeah this is one of those like lowly fruit things that will really no seriously you know what I mean it's like one of these lowline like hanging softball that you know will make a huge difference for the town and their dogs and stuff all right thank you no brainer um I had a meeting with commissioner Del for uh a week ago she is not sure where the miscommunication was between the county and the state and the paving of myel um it's being worked on okay I don't know what else to say it is being worked on for the hundredth time but we are still trying to get it paved the bidding for the lights went out 630,000 or something like that for the lights Iselle we will see lights from Isel and um we asked for clean up for the park in the pond from the county we just last week uh in the past Bryant Park has been brought up not necessarily our town right that's located in Summit so I know some people online bring up not myel sometimes me gets mentioned but Bryant Park gets mentioned a lot and unfortunately not our town and any County Park system right but we do get a lot of questions on Bryant Park I did see the signs up at Bryant that said dredging is about to commence or or they have a they were actually this morning I passed it early and there was a county truck or there was a truck there backed in okay working so they were doing something already yeah that Waterway is clogged you look at it it's just completely yeah um so so anybody who out there's asking about Mel field we are we are trying we we have I I had a three-hour meeting with her I believe um you know over a week ago and uh I'm trying we're all trying with that said anything else that's it all right let's go on to minutes then Mr Mayor I would like to approve the regular meeting minutes and executive meeting minutes of May 28 2024 as emailed all in favor hi new business this is for second reading ordinance 20249 this ordinance amends the existing ordinances governing certain employment positions and establishes compensation levels for the position of Forester within the township of Springfield I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance 202 24-9 as read by Madam clerk with publication in the local Source on June June July 3rd 2024 I will second that okay uh anybody from the public wishes to come up and speak on ordinance 20249 come on up we ever questioned why we needed a Forester tonight should answer that question yeah yeah we spoke about this last week and and or two weeks ago I don't see anybody coming up anybody no questions up here no okay uh roll call please committeeman Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer 100% committeeman Huber yes mayor we yes ordinance 20241 this ordinance amends provisions of the township code to create the position of leave replacement clerk administrative assistance I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance 2024-25 second okay any public comment on ordinance bring them in just as a replacement and it's only for a short period of time they're less than 20 hours a week so we don't fall behind right Services continue get that's exactly delivered for the residents and again this is this is just so that when it happens we're not scrambling we're just trying to get some things in place in anticipation that inevitably it's going to happen to us okay yep uh roll call vote please committee man Kaiser uh yes Deputy mail Yes committe Man Uber yes mayor Weber yes okay ordinance 20242 this ordinance amends the existing ordinances governing certain employment positions and establishes compensation levels for such positions within the township I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance 224-1274 I will second that all right public here uh public comment from anybody out there seeing none any questions up here no no all right roll call please committee man Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer Yes committe Man Yuber mayor Weber yes okay a lot of resolutions yeah yeah I'm actually just taking a quick look through them right now if anybody has anything that they want to pull you going to read through them or can we just tell you I'm we're just we're just going to go I'm going to pull I I just want to pull 164 I just have a question okay and I'm going to pull uh 174 164 and 174 do we have to pull 175 in conjunction with that one then if you want to all right pull 175 also anybody else got anything n good then we're going to go with um go for Resolutions consent agenda resolutions 202 24-16 2024 d157 2024 d158 2024 d159 2024 d160 2024 d162 2024 d163 2024 d165 2024 d166 20241 167 2024 d168 2024 d169 2024 d170 2024 d171 2024 d172 2 2024 d173 2024 d176 and 2024 d177 so moved second okay committee man Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer yes committee man Uber mayor Weber yes Okay resolution 20241 164 this resolution approves the renewal of plary retail consumption licenses so I oh I I'll I think you have to move it through first so I'll make a motion to move resolution 20241 164 second and then before we vote just a question how uh uh I know the change of the law is this their first renewal I and I don't know if uh uh Mr Dow you have an answer uh uh I think they get two years to renew if it's a if it's a if it's a pocket license am I correct that law will change I believe August 1st 2025 so they have two two years we can look we can look into that in terms of when yes I don't have an answer to that off yeah no no no no no so that's that's why I'm just you know what I would totally forget in the future ABC didn't have an answer for it either yes them to to uh to bring it up so I I just noticing it now bringing it up and uh I don't know how many pocket licenses we currently have but four that's that's quite a lot and and and certainly if we could get those back into circulation uh that's four that's four businesses that could attract uh uh quite a bit of uh uh an economic and and and and fun in town so after July 21st we will not have a restaurant with the bar except for Outback wow we the one on 22 is closing what's the other one Longhorn no oh Longhorn too yeah uh but yeah like yeah not much and we do have the hotel also yeah the sooner we can get licenses back out on the street I think we got a pretty good chance once the Gomes building finishes because that was the idea actually those ones on the first floor in the corners restaurant so we'll keep our fingers crossed so the only liquor license that's in effect right now is bolol no Bolter uh the hotel Outback and Longhorn the Elks oh okay no these are the last two that needed to be renewed okay no I that my question was on the other things so no thank you um roll call committee man Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer yes comman Yuber mayor Weber yes Okay resolution 2024 174 this resolution authorizes a shared services agreement with Township of Berkeley Heights for CFO and purchasing agent Services I'll make a motion to uh adopt resolution 20240 d174 as read by Madam clerk second um I just wanted to pull just to discuss uh uh we're kind of make a point uh you know every year I think the township uh uh is always peppered and rightfully with the question hey what are we doing to uh uh uh shared services and hey a lot of shared services have been in place for a long time whether it's with the Board of Education whether it's with neighboring communities and sometimes they don't certainly get highlighted uh as such I think this is one uh where assured service once again I think they're always a win but this is certainly a win for the township and and the taxpayers of of our town and certainly proves the point uh every year and and and every single day our Administration is looking at ways uh uh to do shared services and make it a win for not only us but another community and I think this highlights it uh this resolution right and somebody correct me if I'm wrong would allow uh uh uh us to share our CFO and purchasing agent with Berkeley Heights Berkeley Heights uh uh is a much smaller Community uh uh and in tandem with us uh is is is a size certainly that can be handled by by one individual so uh uh uh our CFO working in both communities is a is a win for both communities taxpayers it's a win for our state especially because we know that uh there are there are more municipalities than certified CFOs uh throughout the state so there wouldn't be necessarily a CFO for every Community couldn't have one and it wouldn't make sense for communities our size to have uh independent uh CFOs necessarily anymore so I think this is a win uh uh we understand that I I think Springfield comes first right in this agreement uh we're not we're not selling out the the the for a diminish in Services we're ensuring that Springfield's first in this uh always putting Springfield first to to to to take a phrase from a neighboring Community uh uh we're uring ing that uh uh we're getting something for this right yes this is offsetting existing costs and bringing in more money for our community and it's allowing our own individuals uh because they do such a right one of the best one of the best ways right there's a Yankee Way right there's a Springfield way people understand that the work we're doing here and that the people who work for us are not only well respected it and have a knowledge basee but that they want them uh and and and and that shows uh that we're doing a good job that that people are trying to attract our uh employees and I've always thought that's a good thing because you it just shows how good of a community we are so it's a win on all these three fronts so I'm uh pretty proud that we put this together and that uh that that we're going to be able to work with a neighboring Community to get this done would not agree more okay committee Min Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer yes commit man Yuber yes mayor Weber yes resolution 20 24175 this resolution authorizes additional compensation to Diane Sherry in connection with shared services agreement between the townships of Springfield and Berkeley Heights for Chief Financial Officer and purchasing agent Services I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 20 24- 175 second same comment stand m m Kaiser yes Deputy Mayor laer yes committee man Yuber mayor Weber yes okay um zero discussion and action items and let's go pay some bills with Finance I love talking this agenda fit fitted me perfect Perfect uh thank you madam Clerk payall invo literally I think that might have come off as sarcastic but no I I just give me the microphone all the time uh I'll make a motion to adopt payroll invoices for the period of June 12th 2024 through June 25th 2024 in the amount of 4 m865 14554 second committee man Kaiser yes Deputy May ler yes Manu mayor Weber yes and everybody should have received the May budget report the May pool budget report the May revenue report and the May pool revenue report and that should be filed accordingly all right we have no correspondence and I'm going to move on to public comment on any governmental issue if anyone in the audience has any comment on any governmental issue I did not receive any from email um seeing none here going to close public comment on governmental issue uh mayor I was going to say I know we had a question at the last meeting on the intersection up at um by Scotty I don't know John did you want to comment on that Captain I know Ryan and you guys I thought you looked at that wait could you come up to the mic I'm sorry because yeah no one's going to hear that yeah we'll get roasted for that so several of the items we already took care of uh we reached out to do they corrected some of the missing panels on the traffic signals um um DPW cut down a tree that was partially obstructing one of the the signals um we're looking at the uh situation with the um bus stop still blocking that signal there's really not a good spot for them to put it at this point but we're again we're we're dealing with do with that um we're doing a traffic study at the corner of baltis roll in Crescent that was one of the issues too apparently the vehicles are traveling at an excessive rate of speed through there so our traffic officer set up a device we're measuring the speeds right now um and you know once we get the results from that we'll be able to see what we're going to we're going to do if there's anything that we need to mitigate that so that's where we stand with that right now I'm going to give you an FYI as a car guy I went up to that business and I said listen some of the clientele here is is is I don't know what's happening and um I said we are going to be ticketing anyone and everyone up there and they said go ahead they've warned those businesses have that business specifically says they have warned these drivers oh you're talking about the uh Speed Shop up there oh this is a different situation yeah I I went up there I I went up there purposely and I said listen I'm going to you as a car guy I don't want to see your business fail I I want to see you succeed but the complaints we are getting from all the residents over there and I think I I think I told myself we will station the police there and Hammer you day and night until this ends and he said I have told them over and over again please do not drive out of here like that do what you have to do so I I did try well we've been doing a lot of enforcement out there already up to this point we've been focusing on specifically the loud exhaust um unfortunately it's not only that business you know obviously they're contributing factor but it is a problem everywhere with these cars being tuned specifically to make the popping exhaust so sounds like gunfire sounds like everything and and I get it but you know people don't want to hear that when it's 10:00 at night and they're trying to put the kid to bed no not not at all hey it's it's a certainly a a a great Hobby and they have some cool cars but you got to do it respectfully but hey to that point I I stopped with a friend there for gas and I couldn't the the the the gas attendant there was probably one of the nicest people that you would ever find I I never he was like the nicest guy no they were all very friendly and and and I you know receptive to me being there but I did tell them we will put a police car here 24 hours a day if we have to because it's got to stop but also I I do recognize me living at the bottom end of Morris Avenue they're coming from Union Elizabeth they're coming from all over and it is just Relentless um so thank you for your efforts on that we'll continue anything else one not with you not with you no thank you no uh okay so at that point one more comment go ahead just hey you you closed up shop with the uh the softball but two comments to that uh uh one I and and not that they're here but it certainly reflects on the record and maybe they'll hear after uh one is to coach renie uh I had the pleasure of having him as my fourth grade teacher so while no one he certainly gets highlighted as a as a great coach but he he he shed light on the and his assistant coach but there's no one honestly even better than him as a mentor and still some of this finest memories to today are in his fourth grade class and and a what he taught us as as really young kids and and and taught us how to be and how to act and just how to go about your life and that really does you know there's so many lessons in life but there's a lot that I point to in fourth grade at at a young age when he he mold you and he tells you how to be so there's no one greater for our community for our student athletes and and what he gives to the school at Caldwell and he's honestly just uh one of the greatest people that I have ever met and somebody that I honestly I don't know if he necessarily remembers me uh in that fourth grade class but I can tell you that he made a a a a memorable impression on me and I'm sure with every other student athlete and and and student at Caldwell now so thank you to coach Renny and and number two as a student athlete myself I still I there is no nothing in this world you know at that time in in your life some of those games and some of those uh uh tournaments are very stressful and you know you might ah I I can't wait until the season's over but once you're done with it there's nothing like it and I'm still to this day trying to find that same as somebody that is competitive and likes to win and and there's nothing wrong with that but there's still to this day I still can't find that same Edge that I had in high school sports so uh uh live it cherish it cuz you're going to want to get back to that one day and there's no greater High than trust me win or lose there's no greater high in that compe ition that you're you know doing with your fellow athletes and it's just still I wish I could go back yeah and and I agree with you and I don't want to sleep on it because you know I didn't want to put baseball in it specifically baseball be was State sectional Champions this year good um but they've also won that I think a few years ago so this was something that was not done congratulations baseball I didn't want to ignore you but um all my thunder I was going to baseball as as a former Dayton baseball player I think I played left bench um and uh you know coach Abate is a great coach um and uh you know congratulations to them Dayton baseball has been uh a highlight for Dayton Sports um and uh it is a pleasure to still watch uh Dayton baseball do well we have some good people abat Rene renie you know all them teaching Cadwell guys Cadwell was fantastic I mean you know as a sandmire kid this really hurts but all right um with that said we are looking to go into executive session resolution 62524 whereas article six of the open public meetings act provides that a public body May hold a close session and whereas the township committee will during this meeting enter into discussion of the following matters attorney client privilege and potential contract negotiation Library attorney client privilege and Personnel attorney client privilege and potential contract negotiations Redevelopment motion whereas second matters to be discussed in closed session are to remain in the strictest of confidence by all committee members in furtherance of their fiduciary duties to the township now therefore be it resolved matters discussed at this meeting will be released to the public when the reasons for discussing and acting upon them in close session no longer exist haris motion second okay all in favor I and we'll be taking no action no [Music] action e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 for