e e this uh this meeting is being held in accordance with public laws 1975 chapter 2 231 an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by notice sent to the Star Ledger local source and post in the main lobby of the municipal building and on the township website I would like to call up uh American Legion Post 228 Vice Commander David Pena for the pledge at the end of the meeting I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops out at home and [Applause] abroad a want to uh Dive Right In uh we want to go a little bit out of order today and call and a roll call okay uh mayor Weber is absent Deputy Mayor laer present committee man capes here committee man Huber here committee man Kaiser okay so we're going to go a little bit out of order and uh give the proclamation for elks youth week uh whereas the benevolent and protective order of the Elks has designated the first week of May as youth week to honor America's Junior citizens for accomplishments and to give fitting recognition to their services to the Community State and Nation whereas the Springfield hillsides elk Elks Lodge 2004 will sponsor an observance during that week in tribute to Junior citizens of this community and whereas no event could be more deserving of our support and participation then one dedicated to those young people who represent the nation's greatest resource and who in the years ahead will assume the responsibility and advancement of our free Society whereas uh our youth need guidance inspiration and encouragement which we alone can give in order to help develop those qualities of character essential for future leadership and go forth to serve America and whereas uh to achieve this worthy objective we should demonstrate our partnership with youth our understanding of their hopes and aspirations and sincere willingness to help prepare them in every way for the responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship now therefore I uh mayor Chris Weber uh mayor of the township of Springfield on behalf of the township committee do hereby proclaim the first week in May as youth week and urge all Departments of government Civic fraternal and patriotic groups and our citizens generally to participate wholeheartedly in this observance I would like to call up uh Miss Jer and kmar to say a couple words thank you very much um no use the other one right yeah I use the smaller one you want me to put the stand over there I don't care you want to go down present the get a picture yeah we got rich is a is an Elks member as well and for those of you who don't know anything about the Elks I'll give you a little pitch right now uh so we are uh want to be a force in the uh in the town we have been in years past uh we do we have a um we are the second largest Giver of scholarships in the nation under the federal government we do something for special needs kids uh we have the Elks state project is Elk Camp Mo so we sponsor children from each of The Lodges there's 107 lodges in the state of New Jersey uh a child is or a couple of children are sponsored from each Lodge to go to uh Elks Camp Mo they all have um it's all free of charge and parents get a break the children are well care for they are sometimes there's a one to one ratio sometimes two to one it depends on how uh how disabled the child is uh so that's what we do and we also help our veterans we are a big proponent for helping our veterans as long as is a veteran around the Elks Lodge will help them so uh I thank you very much for the proclamation um one other thing we have to do we were actually going to do it during youth week but unfortunately uh dates don't coincide so on April 30th we're having a drug awareness day for children so ages um 6th grade to 12th grade we'll have some giveaways we'll have uh see if we can get some uh an ear uh I I iPods the the uh you know Earp pods the airp pods airpods and uh that plus we have some entertainment have a pizza and we'll have some speakers it's a really great event last year or two years ago rather we had 30 kids asking questions uh our kids really need help in this they don't realize that uh you know making one stupid mistake and that could be all you need to do so I encourage all of the uh the youth to come out April 30th we'll have it things posted on the uh on the Elks website maybe we can post it here as well and we'll have some people share it all over Facebook and stuff but that is something that we want to do at the lodge at the lodge yes it'll be at the Elks Lodge uh 80 Springfield Avenue Springfield New Jersey and so this is actually uh Barbara zro is one of our members another member and she's actually going to help coordinate all of drug awareness she works for the county in that capacity right to drug to oh youth are at risk programs for youth is what I do right so she's graciously accepted again to uh to host that thing for us so thank you very much bar appreciate it um so one other thing while I'm here if you don't mind I'm going to talk about Memorial Day uh so we are this is uh I think the 11th or 12th year that I'm doing it okay so uh we have a lot of great stuff anybody again I would love to have anybody uh that wants to have a float uh seriously get in touch with Linda Linda gets in touch with me to tell everybody that um you know that would be an awesome thing to do um and it's uh what is it what's the date the 26th of the 27th Monday memor Memorial Day so it is on Memorial Day May 27th and it's at 10:00 a.m. just so everybody know all right thank you so much any groups that want to participate uh again if you can reach out to me my everybody's usually have my number but tell Linda and Linda gets in touch with me and we're all good all right so thank you so much I appreciate you letting me go out of turn very much thank you all right so we have the Springfield residents ages 55 and over uh calendar for April has been posted uh spring cleanup during the month of April DPW Cruz will canvas town uh in the garbage Packer truck for vegetative waste branches 4 in in diameter and smaller leaves and grass will be collected please note that material must be placed in paper recyclable bags or cans loose debris in the roadway will not be picked up spotted Lantern fly egg Mass scraping Sunday April 14th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the at the Quarry community cleanup day Sunday April 21 from 11:00 a.m. to 2 PM meet at Laurel Park student community service hours are offered our Arbor Day event April 26th at 12:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park uh the annual planting and seeding giveaway our next council meeting uh will be Tuesday April 30th at 700 p.m. as Passover is the week before and the Harry J Delgado uh New Jersey State Association Chiefs of police accreditation program director will present the re accreditation certificate to the Springfield Police Department Mr Delgado Chief cook dressed up in a suit and tie for you so this is a very important day is very important day I was saying I was a v City and one of the council members met me for the first time and say to me this is a big deal and it is indeed a big deal and I want to share that with you um thank you for having me here it's my honor to be here today representing the unate association of chiefs of police uh on this very special occasion why is why is that special occasion because just to add context of what I'm about to say out of the agencies that would be eligible to be accredited 54% have done it once and then I say contining the program 32% have done it twice continuing the program 19% have done it three times fourth time less than 8% of all the agencies that have been accredit the state in New Jersey if you actually use the universe of law enforcement agencies in the state of New Jersey only 44 agencies in the entire State Barone have received or can claim the achievement that they have been accredited for four times so that's that's really remarkable so if you indulge me for a couple of minutes I'd like to share with you other aspects of the significance of the achievement Deputy Mayor so the Springfield Police Department has consistently continued their commitment to adhering to best practices at the state and National level in a highly regarded Statewide law enforcement accreditation program in which an agency is re-evaluated every three years in March 2024 the Springfield Police Department received this prestigious re accredited agency status for fourth accreditation time it demonstrates Chief cook and his Department's firm commitment to maintaining credited status to in adherence with State and National standards and the continued expectations for Quality professional and ethical policing accreditation status represents a significant uh professional achievement in the Springfield Police Department the following best practices have become part of their culture is the way they deliver Police Services during this uniquely challenging times and a threat to our health and safety encouraging law enforcement agencies to follow tenderized practices and policies is a potentially life- saving and coste effective investment of time and resources the program administered to the New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and the New Jersey Law Enforcement accreditation commission has seld to transparently demonstrate the professionalism preparedness of state's law enforcement agencies this law enforcement accrediation program is purposefully designed to enhance professionalism and transparency in the state's public safety system so the Springfield Police Department has been carefully measured against an established set of 112 State and National standards and has met in the case of the spring Police Department I want to remark that they have exceeded many of the accepted practices in the field of law enforcement theyve actually showed the um continuity to make that claim uh and verify it Township officials should be more confident in the agency's ability to operate efficiently and make Community needs now offices and accredited agencies can take pride that they have that they have been objectiv to be recognized for their professionalism in adherance to high standards currently the Springfield Police Department is embarking in many exciting uh many exciting changes including seeking out ground opportunities to finance Innovative police strategies managing increase technological demands including enhanced software and network security continuing community outreach programs such as the junior junior Police Academy The Bike Rodeo the naal night out pizza with the police coffee with a cop and the new jerse special Olympic uh Summer Games so they could busy as they engage the community now one one thing that I'd like to say before I close is that we do hold an open hearing for members of the community to actually reach out I can tell you as the administration of the pro as administrator of the programs that sometimes you get no response whatsoever that might be a compliment you know uh for the police AG but in this case in this case we received numerous phone numerous calls in support of the police department not a single one against the police department a quote Chief cook is a great Chief who runs a friendly and punctual Department the agency works very well with OEM te Springfield is a professional agency or responsive and well-run agency the agency is good with kids and 100% responsive to Residents concerns Chief cook is an outstanding leader with a great administrative staff and Department who are as who are an asset to the county the agency is a first class department they do a great job in town an outstanding Police Department the agency is a great asset to the town professional and they appreciate their work the agency is respectful and understanding especially with an incident that affected this particular resident as they related it to us earlier in the year now this feedback comes from members of the public from various sections of the community businesses government and law enforcement amongst many that Express their support with their work so in closing under the leadership with Chief cook the prin uh Springfield Police Department demonstrates a high level of competence leadership and professionalism it is the opinion of the assessment team which I certainly concur with that the department is a highly professional and committed agency which exemplifies all of the tenants of law enforcement accreditation at the state and National level therefore again it is indeed my honor here tonight on behalf of the New Jersey State Association Chiefs of police the New Jersey Law Enforcement commission congratulate Chief John Cook gradation manager Lieutenant Ryan Westover who I saw there behind me the members of the Springfield Police Department the mayor Deputy Mayor and the council the township and those citizens that they so privately uh serve for achieving the fourth accreditation joining a very very very exclusive group of law enforcement agencies that are make this long-term commitment to Excellence imp policing to all indeed so to all indeed congratulations this is what you get app for your Police [Applause] Department yeah thank you very much deputy mayor council thank you for your time thank you Mr Delgado Chief cook you want a couple words I'll be real quick real quick um I just wanted to thank uh Mr dogado for for taking the time to come here for this um and special thanks to Lieutenant West over uh Captain Rachel used to be my accreditation manager once he got promoted he um brought Ryan into the fold it's a lot a lot of work um amongst doing everything else that he's responsible for and he did a great job and I appreciate you Ryan thank you thank you everyone thank you great work Chief cook our entire uh Command Staff uh it's a great accomplishment public comment on any uh agenda item agenda items only seeing that there is none we're going to move right along administrator's report Mr basico thank you couple of things if I may Mars Avenue Bridge we had a meeting the other day and we're looking at now that the award should be made sometime in December of 26 what and the work will be done June July and August time of of that year of 26 I'm sorry um looks like about eight weeks to finish so it's going to be awarded awarded in December then the work is going to be done in the summer so Su summer of 27 26 it should be done you said December of 26 was I believe it's 25 I'll have to double check that but I think the work is going to be done in 26 so by 2030 we'll have a new bridge yes and we're looking at about eight weeks to finish they're predicting I bet on odds I'll take the odds all right over under they're also going to be working on the bridge over on Caldwell towards the end uh by Mount um yeah Mountain the County's doing that we have no date as of yet though if anybody we pressure them to do it after school is closed we have we have no date right now they're going to do it don't do session definely we we mentioned that but again we don't know yet um I don't know if anybody noticed but the Grease Monkey on Mars Avenue they finally started working on refurbishing the building is that going to be GRE G to be an oil change place it won't be named Grease Monkey probably it's going to be some other name but same same idea the used car lot they're working on actually going to be patching all the holes in the parking lot probably restriping and the building there that little Shack is getting a redo so that'll be done um couple other things our pool is scheduled to start work on the 11th whether permitting if not it'll be the first day it's clear enough for them to work tennis courts in Henshaw we planning on the 12th for the start date we've got a couple of reports that have to be done mandatory New Jersey D ordinance required for May uh salt storage and tree ordinances we're projecting that to be ready for you to vote on for April 30th meeting our annual storm water permit must be filed by May 1st mandatory New Jersey D ordinance for storm water is due in July we can propose on April 30th or in May um and that will require 30% more rainfall than in all storm Water Analysis Le a higher residential and Commercial storm Ure management cost so we'll keep you a breast of what's going on with that from our public works department uh we still have the the sewer up on Mars Avenue has to be we're bringing in our contractor to pull that out and replace the line that should be done sometime shortly the poles have been moved now the wires have been transferred so now it's down to us in March we got a couple things that we're planning on semiannual cleaning and inspection of all storm drains we have to rebuild some catch basins we're continuing to cut and clean up all of our Township fields and properties uh we're going to collect tonnage data data for the annual tonnage report which is due April 20th Street sweeping continues every day sign maintenance and repair and replacement of traffic signs we had a paper shredding event on April 6th and we replaced a float system on Treetop on our pumping station because that went bad I think that's all I had on that touching on our developments we've got a meeting tomorrow with the Gomes people so as I think everybody can see they are making pretty good progress the facade is just about done on Mars Avage Avenue now uh the calwell side is just about finished I think they got the last back corner to do a little more work but that's just about done uh on our Patriot Way in two weeks New Jersey American water should be done with the replacement of the water line that runs under the building once that is done then they've got to move all the utilities to the center of where the new Academy green will be and then Foundation should be started Sometime Late spring early summer so you'll see the building start going up Scotty we still refining the drawings we are working with them because they did Supply some new ones Mike and I Mr our planner would still like to see couple of changes on that so not until that's done you won't see it until we've got everything ironed out other than that I think that was all at the mo oh I do have a meeting tomorrow with the state to go over shared services I called them and we got a meeting tomorrow at 11:00 so I'll I had it down this tomorrow I'll double check that I looked at my calendar before I came up unless I put the wrong date in but I will double check but we do have a meeting with the state on shared services wonderful other than that I don't think there's anything else unless somebody has some questions or comments anything up here when they taking this the going open up that's a discussion for tomorrow we are pressing him for a schedule and a date etc etc so we want something firm before I tell you guys where we are because there's a lot that happens between you know when they tell us and when it actually does so I don't want to mislead anyone thank you uh Mr bico welcome Comm and Harris we are uh moving right along we have no minutes and reports uh no new business nothing on first or second reading resolutions we have resolution 2024 96 997 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 and 106 does anybody want to pull anything okay can I get a motion for Resolutions motion to adopt resolution 20246 through resolution2 I'll second Madam clerk committee Kiser yes committee man capes yes committee Huber Deputy Mayor laer yes um now we have uh no discussion or action items uh Mr Kaiser um yeah I'm going to make a motion to payroll uh I'll make a motion to adopt payroll invoices for the period of March 27 2024 through April 9th 2024 in the amount of 2,527 52.99 I'll second committee Min Kaiser uh yes committee man capes yes committee man Huber yes Deputy Mayor laer yes okay thank you let me ask a question before we go along about finan yeah we'll I'm going to make a comment towards the end so yeah if you want yeah ask ask your question how's your committee doing with that have you was that that's I said we'll make a comment part of it uh correspondence we have a Township of Milbourne planning board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday April 17th at 7:30 p.m. regarding a proposed amendment to the township master plan the township of Springfield planning board will hold a public meeting on Thursday April 11th at 6:30 for the application of Los penos Delhi and mini market LLC for a waiver uh for a minor site plan approval uh we're going to move on to public comment on any governmental issue and then we'll do uh then we'll do uh comments in the Das anybody public comment any governmental issue was there any emails Madam Clerk okay I'm going to open it up up here is anybody iser since I uh see see you read it too quickly I knew I knew I needed to pull something and I tried to slow you down you didn't you just didn't listen you made the motion yeah did um so this is uh kicking off I think my sixth budget uh that I've been chair of uh uh since my time up here uh this year the the budget committee uh uh it's a rotating chair with me they keep switching off I don't know it must be myself but this year I got Harris laer uh uh who worked with uh uh the committee on this time uh the committee you know met going back to the be end of last year uh we the work starts to work on the next year's budget and that started you know uh and and a huge thanks to uh RBA and our CFO uh John and Diane and myself we met many many hours uh uh with the department heads and then they continue to work on it even after I go home uh and you know work tirelessly over the next few months uh uh with the department heads refining exactly what the uh Township needs to function and how we can give the best bang for our buck uh uh uh for our residents uh to make sure that Services aren't diminished uh uh but making sure that we try to save as much money as possible because hey at the end of the day that's still a taxpayer uh that's fronting the cost so I think we're all keenly aware of that uh this year's budget was as introduced as of now uh which we did today and that kicks off the project over the next month of when we'll hold a series of hearings and then ultimately final adoption but this year's budget was uh 40 million uh 40.6 million uh it had uh uh uh we'll get into all of this at our public meetings but we met with our citizen budget Review Committee which was newly formed this year to give opportunities from the public to come in and and and look at the process and give suggestions we met with them a number of times uh uh and ultimately over the next few weeks we'll hold a a a series of uh public hearings I think we're going to do two prior to the final adoption presentation so the present the final adoption presentation is set for Tuesday May 14th that's our May 14th a regularly scheduled meeting but prior to that we're going to have a night session at May 9th at 700 p.m. which the public can come and we're going to do a morning session at Chisum on Wednesday May 8th at 10:30 now of course you don't have to just rewind uh uh to do this I'm tomorrow we do a flyer we'll get this out to the public of when you can kind of come comment and uh listen to a presentation of myself and several of our uh uh Administration to go over the budget um and uh I think that's kind of it we'll everyone will get to hear me talk for much longer which I like uh uh in May um and over the next few weeks we put together a presentation which is then publicly available and the budget I think appears tomorrow online thank you Mr Kaiser anybody else I would just like to um you know uh comman Kaiser mentioned the citizens budget committee and uh I just want to thank them for uh their commitment to be involved in the process uh I know that was something that came up last year and um a lot of people wanted to uh step up and be part of the process and I think I can speak for everybody up here where we say we certainly appreciate it not only did you say that you wanted to step up and be part of the process but you were so I appreciate the time you took um to look at this uh budget and to uh be involved be committed through whatever lens you were looking I'm sure you gave suggestions and I know that there there was some conversations that were very Frank and productive and I appreciate um your advocacy and your commitment to Springfield by taking part in that committee and just from the standpoint of last year and and and you wanting to uh be a part of it this year I certainly thank you for your commitment and thank you for the time you took uh to meet with us and discuss um with our stakeholders on the government side what your thoughts and ideas were and uh I certainly appreciate it thank you uh I want to add my thanks to Diane John and our uh citizen budget Review Committee Alex as always tremendous work um we have a motion to adjourn motion is there a second second all in favor I we are adjourned