e e e e e e e e e e e e the PO tonight or what did you say yes welcome to the township of Springfield County of union state of New Jersey meeting for April 30th 2024 notice 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 rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by American Legion Post 228 Vice Commander David Penna I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all please stay standing for a moment of silence for our soldiers overseas and at home thank you roll call Mayor Weber here Deputy Mayor laer present commit M capes here committee man Huber see committee man Kaiser is absent tonight okay we have the Springfield residence AG 55 plus calendar for May that is available right now at the uh Chisum Center and a town hall I'm looking at the calendar it is a full calendar filled with Bingo pickle ball uh we have a blood drive I see on the 17th of Friday 17th of May on a Friday 1:30 to 7:30 please uh attend if you can there is a shortage still of blood and they can use all the help they can get 2024 Municipal budget presentation will be held Wednesday May 8th 10:30 in the Margaret bandi meeting room and Thursday May 9th at 700 p.m. at the Town Hall courtroom please attend please uh we'd love to see you there there's a lot of information that will be given it is Wednesday May 8th 10:30 at the margar bandasi meeting room at Chism Center and Thursday May 9th at 7:00 p.m. Town Hall courtroom right here and here we go Springfield first aid Squad every drop blood every drop counts blood drive Friday May 17th 2024 from 1:30 to 7:30 the Chism C Center um appointments encouraged Walkins are welcome Municipal clerks week is going to be May 5th through 11th of 2024 we we will be partying here literally 247 that entire week I don't know if any work will get done here but we're going to make sure that um Township knows how we feel about our clerk Miss Donley National Association of letter carriers will be conducting an annual Nationwide food drive on Saturday May 11th letter carriers will collect non- perishable food donations as they deliver mail very nice any questions contact Daniel scarone at 732 986 6220 I think I I'll we'll get you the the the full number for that one we have Michael sarino presentation for Eagle Scout project at the library come on up have some want to look at we would love to see anything you have absolutely congratulations yeah that's really hard to earn thank you so I need Township approval to um start an Eagle project at the library which would ma would which would be major restoration project we would get rid of a lot of like the overgrown plants and replace them with low growth like dwarf plants and generally just beautify the library so we'd achieve this in multiple different areas like the Mountain AV entrance sign the walkway and general entrance and the main entrance sign uh the MAV entrance sign we're not going to do too much work on we're just going to repaint it replace the shrubs there and add a solar powered light um the walkway and general entrance we're going to put gravel in put a flower bed or gravel depending on what the library wants um refinish the benches and just generally get the area looking cleaner and finally for the main entrance sign we're going to get rid of a lot of the overgrown areas um there is a full color copy of them FL around looked cool I who has that it has um you can see the old library well not the old library but the library of the past and how it looked we're almost trying to get it back to that so we're going to clear out all this old growth plants again replace them with lower growth plants um that's really it I'd like to note that the library already approved this so um when do you when's it proposed to start um I'd like to start around May 17th ideally will you be doing this by yourself or no we would have a lot of um not about 10 volunteers on site yeah yeah it would not just be me that would be how long do you anticipate this to take place um the main workload would be about a month I believe and then if then some planting may happen after that but I'd say the main workload is about a month long well um if you want to postpone College our dpw's hiring like I'm just saying like great work yeah I I have to say you know it's it I had no idea that this project was coming and um I passed by yesterday actually and I looked and and as I was driving by I said to my wife you know there were certain spots over here that would that couldn't use a refresh what what brought you to to this um you just felt the same way like where why why why the library I had a lot of positive experiences there um and I thought I would get back it's a really nice way to get back because we have a lot of people who attend this library library always kind of you know needs a little help here and there um because a lot of it is volunteer this is fantastic uh does anybody have any questions how how long have you been in Scouts um yeah basically what what is your favorite part about being involed in this SC probably Camp yeah you got Woods that's cool that's cool do you part of your um roles and responsibilities is also training the younger members so what what are the types of things that you train or what do you think the most valuable lessons to train the youth that are coming up to be um you know as someone being a being a leader yourself what are some of the important um aspects of scouting that you want to treat or teach the young ones I think leadership is the most important one what I'm sorry I I think leadership is the most important one so like you try and seeed them in leadership position this I got a taste of it what grade are you in um I'm a junior and your senior next year Jonathan Dayton yes what do you want to do after you graduate not not sure yet um it's okay I was looking at like engineering I have no clue really that's awesome and and and not only um community service is part of your Eagle Scout project but something like this on your resume whatever you want to do yeah is absolutely fantastic volunteerism giving back to your town uh taking pride in the town where you live and you grew up those are all excellent aspects of this project outside separate and apart from this endeavor I think this is fantastic I think that um the library will certainly appreciate your um revamp of their landscape and uh I wish you all the best for sure so uh this this project is I feel like we're grilling you this is all really good I promise uh this project is uh is in order for you to get your award of Eagle Scout so when you get it after you do this project uh the township would love to host you for a party invite your friends uh we would love to do that we'll make sure like the our congressman is notified our state senators all that we're going to give you all bunch of fancy paper it's going to be awesome uh but uh thank you so much this is awesome what you're doing for the town thank you and I just want to say congratulations I was Scout many years ago how many years Rich oh six 60 maybe 50 60 no but Eagle Scouts were very few and far between yeah there's only a few every year actually throughout the the states that make it right yeah you know you did a great it's a great great thing you're doing if you find find yourself in in in any situation over there where you're going to need some Township help give us a call just call me I already talked to Mr berer we're standing by already and if you if you need a recommendation letter let us know y don't hesitate and if if you ever a short of help I I live with somebody who's also a scout love love to help out I'm sure want's your son out there doing it I'll make him do it if you all right yeah you thank you back there you guys proud proud yes absolutely thank you keep us updated please let us know congratulations thank you you have our permission if that's what you I know you're looking for yeah um all right before I go any further if you're watching out there you'll notice um we've changed our look a little bit behind us we've got a humongous picture I'm going to try to get the history right this came from the Wells Fargo Building yes it did um I'm out of information that's it go ahead what do you got from Fargo I think originally contacted and I'm not sure if I'm wrong I'm sorry but I think it was Margaret that they contacted that is yes to move the painting they thinking Wells Fargo was going to actually transfer to Ohio I think to where their storage is once it left the building it was never coming back so I I actually got in touch with Wells Fargo and said the township would love to to get a hold of it we didn't have a place for really marget was going to try to do it maybe in the Cannonball house we didn't have any place big enough to actually put it up so with the help of Mr berer from DPW he pulled a favor and had somebody with a box truck run over to Wells Fargo and loaded in a box truck our chief of police was kind enough to let us use the sally port downstairs so we we pulled it into the sally port the next thing that we we're wrestling with is okay now how do we get it into the building you know when you say 16 by I think it's 16 by6 when you actually see it all of a sudden it was like wow it's big so we got into the sally port and the only way we felt we could get it into the building was bring it up on the roof there's a lower roof over here where some of the air conditioning units are once we got it there there's a side door we were able to open up the side door and actually walking into the building we couldn't get it up to front stairs there was no windows that we could even take out that were big enough so we ended up taking it up to the roof we just had to wait till it was a calm day and there was no wind blowing so we managed to get it up it's only up temporary now as you can imagine it'll be permanently a fixed then a frame will be built around it and hopefully it's there for the next 100 years the picks of Battle of Springfield it was painted actually by a local artist in 1970 yeah it's pretty cool yeah you know whenever I went to the Wells Fargo over there I would look at the picture and and you know they they had all of their uh Cornerstone plaques all up on the wall and everything else and this was up there and um very impressive looking like and and thank you Wells Fargo for letting us have it yes you guys can we're going to go to public comment Michael if you guys want to run for the hills now if you don't we're not offended trust me no one is yeah thank you public comment on agenda items only if we have any public comment on agenda items only come on up I do did not see anything in the email so I I am certain that we were not emailed anything and with that said we have nothing no emails either we're going to move straight to reports to the administrator's report thank you Mr Mayor I'm going to start off with the pool because I think there's a lot of people that are interested and what we're doing there I just want to kind of give you a rundown on what actually is going on there because I I think when you say resurfacing the pool I think it's a little bit misleading it's a it's actually such a huge involved project so just a quick rundown and and they've already done this the tiles have been removed the old plaster has been removed they have to sand blast water blast AET wash then they replace all the tiles and they do the joints over and then they put a bonding agent inside the entire pool and then the resurfacing is done we've already got the fire department lined up and we've already got an agreement with the people that own the property there's a fire hydrant on I think it might be JCP and I was property that's that borders us there they've already allowed us to go in there and and meter that and we're going to fill a pool from the fire hydrant the reason we're doing that just so you know is that this particular product cures underwater so if we fill it with the garden hose it's going to take a little while now hopefully we got to bite if we fill it from the fire Hydra we're looking at one day and then that will help it cure also much quicker so that's where we are on the pool they will be done somewhere around the middle of May pool will be filled and ready to to go so that's where we are in the pool uh a couple things from engineering we just did a grant with um there was a grant that came out from congressional spending Grant we put in for sanitary sewer related items for $985,000 we'll see if we get anything out of that there was also one from um Senator book is it Senator I'm sorry Senator Booker's office y and we filed that also that was uh for storm waterer and that was for $900 and some, again not sure we'll get either one or we'll get anything but we did we did we did apply for both of them DT Grant is out that has to be applied for by 71 we generally get about 400,000 and that's for roads in town so we will be applying for that one also the tennis courts at Henshaw they've been stripped they had to let them sit for a couple days they should be getting repaved and that should be done that's actually the work is supposed to be put down uh the week of the 29th this week actually and then the color coding and the striping will have to be applied afterwards um we also had to put our annual storm water permit that's been done and then I want to go on to if I may want to go on to what's happening down at DPW what we we've been doing there um we had a shredding event recently and Craig this is something you and I need to discuss we have to set up some parameters around how much people are allowed to bring we had one person show up with 90 boxes of documents and what happened was then our other residents could not get their stuff shredded so unfortunately we're going to have to put some limits and then put that in I guess an ordinance to limit what can be brought 89 boes 89 and I'm not so sure and I I'd have to talk to Mr beter but I'm I'm pretty sure that was not a resident but I don't want to be mean but that will be uh will not be allowed again the sore line that was damaged on Mars Avenue was finally fixed uh we we completed that last week or so the original cost that we had on that with everything it was 90 grand we ended up getting that done through again I give I give Robbie beter a lot of credit went out and found some other vendors that were able to work with us on the digging to excavate and the replacing of the pipe ended up costing us less than half schedule project to be paved in 24 we have Christie miltown and Smithfield we had a meeting the other day with Milburn on discussing some more shared services we're looking at What's called the resisto graph what that does it allows you to actually they what they do is they bore into a tree with a 1/8 big it tells you if you've got rot how hollow it is that type of thing so we can make sure that we don't have a tree that's going to cause us issues with possibly falling and we don't know about it once we we see it we're going to we're going to do that to it we'll be able to tell if it has to come down or not we're also looking at splitting What's called the push camera for our sewers we'll split that and we're also looking at what we need as far as either a um a new sewer truck either that or there's another piece of equipment for our sewers that we might end up splitting speaking of sewers I I know there was a question Chuck you had a question on rvsa I just wanted to touch on and and Mike fie is with us he's our he is our commissioner on the board that represents Springfield rvsa is owned by the towns it's not a we're not they're not a vendor of ours technically we own a piece of it what it what the cost are base it's a 5year rolling average of how much water we put through there so it does vary if in those past 5 years you've had more you see an increase we also are responsible Mike jump me jump in if I'm wrong anywhere if there's maintenance it needs to be done or something needs to be replaced everybody shares in the pain so you got a 30-year old plant and I don't know how familiar you are with with sewer plants but I have I have a lot of experience with them add a bunch of zer zos after whatever breaks they're extremely expensive and you're you're governed so strictly by D as far as you know the quality and what goes out on the other end it's very tough now if there are more questions that I can answer Mike can answer and if not the gentleman that runs the board I guess you call it there John bonor is would be willing to come in if we have enough residents who would like to hear a further explanation so if there's anything else Mike can answer tonight if not we're can to have somebody else come in um let me touch on a few other things if I may um we're also DPW we in the midst of cutting all ball fields maintenance of the pool we're getting the grass and everything ready we're working on that I'll touch on our developments we were in court with Gomes again not last Friday but the Friday before I don't know if anybody noticed but the court made him had an additional crossing guard up on Mars Avenue uh the signs that Captain Rachel had put together somehow disappeared over time and the court ordered them to put all of the directional signs back up sidewalk closed pedestrians this way yada yada yada we've got another meeting and I think it's May 10th I don't have the calendar in front of me with the independent construction manager um at that point we will have a date on when Caldwell should be reopened we also just on on kind of a Down note a little bit we end up finding him the other day $2,000 for not getting an inspection done on the sheathing they put the stone cladding up without the sheathing being inspected so our construction official which is just so you understand it's not our responsibility to call them and tell them they need an inspection it's their responsibility to contact us so they did not he went over and inspected and we're going to have to figure out whatever he needs to be assured that that sheathing is what it needs to be will be done before Anthony manguso signs off on it so that's kind of where we are at the moment on goes I think you will see though if you you take a moment and look they are making pretty good progress we're actually it looks like a building and and they are moving along pretty well the saxs property they're actually starting to rent the apartments May and June that will begin so that project is going to be completed very very shortly uh we have nothing further on Scotty yet Mike mustre and myself are still working on the architecture we're not satisfied at this point and we will not bring it to you until we feel it's where it's something that we would be extremely proud of it's just not where we want to be yet um other than that I think that's all I had at the moment if somebody has any questions or comments I would be just had a curiosity uh people asked me I was over there the other day Ruby the back of Ruby way in the back we used to be best go for yep has every been I know the trees have to come down y I know that that we talked about that has there been any discussion about that I know we're supposed to it's a fill-in job right for we we did look at that I actually had our Engineers out there looking at the topography water etc etc um we kind of we did that but we never went any further at this point because the trees need to be removed we've got to take care of those ash trees so at some point we are going to have to sit down and figure out what it is we would like to use that back field for me I remember was talking about it haven't talked about but yes we we are going to get to that unfortunately you know as I think we all know nothing's cheap and then take all those trees down we're we're looking at that you know a lot of them we're not capable because they're just too big so when you go to an outside person it gets to be very expensive thank you anything further no thank you department heads monthly reports were emailed and move on to minutes Mr Mayor the do I would like to approve I would like to move to approve the regular and executive meeting minutes of January 23rd February 13th regular meeting minutes of February 27th special meeting minutes of March 4th regular and executive meetings of March 12th regular meeting of March 26th and the regular meeting of April 9th well done uh Miss Donnelly well done assistant on Clerk's week no less no before all in favor I I I I have to abstain I was not here for one of them I'm just not sure which but I'm sure it was one of them all right we'll move on to new business ordinances second reading ordinance 20245 this ordinance is to establish a cap bank for the calendar year 2024 pursuant to njsa 44-45 point 14 Mr Mayor uh I would like to move ordinance 20245 with publication in the local Source on April 4th 2024 second I um sure that's April 4th May 4th just do um lets people know we do this every year we have to do it by is it by law no you're on now you're off yeah now you're on now you're off now you're on all right I just want people to real that it's done every year here yes here thank you okay okay public comment public comment any public comment at all Township ordinance 20245 seeing none right now um anything up here additional no roll call please deputy mayor laer yes Huber yes committee M capes yes mayor Weber yes okay first readings we have none we're going to do resolutions by consent agenda if anybody wants a resolution pulled please pull it as I'm reading and we will handle it afterwards resolutions 2024 d107 20 24-18 202 24-19 20 24- 1110 20 24-11 20 24-12 20 24-13 20 24-14 20 24-15 20 24-16 pull this 20 24-17 20 24-18 2024 d119 20 24-120 and that's it I you have a motion please mayor um resolutions 202 24107 to 20 24 115 and from 2024 117 to 120 second call committee Min Huber yes deputy mayor laer yes commit man capes yes mayor Weber yes Okay resolution 20241 2016 this resolution authorizes a salary increase for Moren Connell Deputy municipal clerk uh I'll make the motion uh before I do I just want to publicly say for the record Moren has done a tremendous job uh working for the town as the deputy clerk she started and has grown into the role of Deputy clerk um you know she took her uh RMC exam uh last week uh let's let's let's hope she passes um and uh you know she has done an exceptional job uh helping Linda Tamara Diane and John run the town um and this is a long overd and kudos to her second YY mayor laer enthusiastically yes Huber yes M capes yes mayor Weber yes all right we're going to move on to discussion and action items we have a request uh Mr Mayor I would like to approve the request from Jonathan Dayton High School for the Houston Ruby field as the Overflow parking for graduation on Tuesday June 18 2024 at 6 pm and uh they do this they they ask they have this request of us every second all in favor I two people up here who have two people graduating from Dayton this year your daughter and my son yep yeah does that mean you guys need to obstain Time Flies mean time means time goes way too quick man a kid was 5 years old yesterday my mine turned 18 yes yeah I don't know all right Finance Treasurer we're going to pay some bills with Deputy Mayor aler you stole my line I was going to take Alex's line let's pay some bills uh Mr Mayor I would like to move uh payroll and invoices for the period of April 10th through April 30th in the amount of 9, 290,000 689 with 50 7 cents I'll second it Deputy Mayor laer yes M Min Huber yes committee man capes yes mayor Weber yes also the March Budget Pool budget March revenue and March pool revenue reports uh for everybody's viewing pleasure okay we have uh one thing I missed over the first um the announcements in the beginning Wednesday May 15th uh we've already had coffee with a cop we are now having pizza with the police if anybody says we're not witty up here they need to look at these things we have pizza with the police uh Wednesday May 15th at TD pizza from 5:00 p.m. to 700 p.m. the last one was pretty good I think you had a pretty good turnout right so um we look forward to seeing you there if you have any questions this is a good chance to kind of pick the brain of the of the police department of of some of the officers and and the brass that will be there uh they will be more than happy to answer your questions and um you'll be uh enjoying some pizza with it second thing the 2024 third quarter estimated bills due August 1st tax bills will be prepared starting in May and will be received by taxpayers no later than June 30th 2024 please note these bills hold the same status as a regular Bill and payments are due by August 1st 2024 please feel free to call the tax office with any questions regarding this matter this was always a question but it is August 1st 2024 and may I add one thing to that so people understand understand we only start the process we don't mail them out so I know last year I think the bills actually arrived on like Father's Day if it ends up happening it's by coincidence we don't mail them we don't plan it it's when they just happen to get there yeah um thank you all right now let's move on to public comment on any governmental issue uh this is like a free-for-all if you want public comment on any governmental issue come on up state your name address and this work top one top one okay uh Scott Hart 74 Q drive if you want you can bend it down if you want I'm fine I'm loud enough um so I like to walk around town with my dog pretty frequently in the last month three times I'm walking on with the white I almost got hit one time if another car didn't honk their horn I'd be dead right now like that's how close this woman came to taking me and my dog out I just want to know if there's anything we can do to like P pedestrian safy this was at Hillside in um Mountain as well as Shunpike Mountain those two intersections are just death traps for uh pedestrians people are turning left and right they're not looking I don't know what you guys can do but I was hoping Chief cook would be here but just Captain Captain Rachel yeah yeah he runs but yeah just you're not on now you're are we just got finished doing a distracted driving operation um through grant funding um with the next one we're going to do is pedestrians those will some of the spots we be hitting thank you and I could just tell you from personal experience that I have let the captain know and the chief know of three separate incidences that I was witnessed to um probably one in the fall one about two months ago and one as late as or as early as two weeks ago where I've witnessed firsthand uh situations or concerns that I had between vehicles and pedestrian Crossing and I had made my thoughts and my conc concerns in own to the police chief and staff so they are very much aware of the situations as they occur and they are currently addressing the problem all right great thank you thanks Scott okay any other public comment on any governmental issue can I just make a comment please um if I'm wrong tell me haris you know um but the budget that's going out we had a committee of a lot of civilians we asked everybody we didn't just say oh we're doing it with their help and they had input am I correct that's correct and so it's not just us that's doing it it's everybody that's doing public and that can you can you actually fill us in a little bit on on what your meetings consisted of before we've wrapped this up sure um and and just let us know what what is going on and uh you know chaired by committee man Kaiser um and myself uh we along with uh our administrator John bico and our CFO Diane Sherry uh we had a a committee the citizens budget Review Committee uh uh one of the members is in the audience right now thank you uh and and and and what we did is we kind of dissected the the township budget we talked about various strategies to try and save money uh and and Diane I think Illustrated that that that those sessions proved to be pretty helpful um and there were a lot of questions asked about the budget why are things the way they are um and it was it it served as a really good platform to kind of Workshop how the town is operating and there were a lot of questions surrounding um other aspects of the Town such as Library Board of Education and we had to direct those questions to the right places um but we uh we worked as a committee of seven uh and I will publicly thank that committee when we do our budget hearings uh but we worked as a committee of seven to go through um how the town spends the money and try and Implement strategies to save the town money and I think you know with the help of this committee we uh we achieved a much lower uh increase than we did last year to put your spot no you you you didn't you're good let the yeah no listen I I think what we all fought with last year was involvement and you had five up here who were saying hey we we want people involved unfortunately by the time decisions were made and and and things happened we had not seen the involvement that we wanted at the level we needed um we took a step by forming this committee to to try to get everybody involved with a with a proper heads up notice and and I think it worked I think we had a a very diverse group of people up there um with all sorts of different backgrounds and I'm looking forward to it I will you know to seeing presentation and and I would just like to give a shout out to to our fire department and our EMS and the rest of our First Responders um last week I had a non-emergency medical situation at my home which required an ambulance and uh obviously there's a lot of people just from our relationship in town that know what street I live on they obviously didn't know what house it was uh but it didn't matter because they were there in two seconds they were professional they were courteous they were thoughtful uh they gave distractions uh when it was certainly necessary to do and I've always said it before um I certainly appreciate our First Responders and I'd like to sincerely thank them personally uh as I always do up here for for everything just uh for their diligence for their hard work for their response and uh for just you know being uh good human beings and great customer service to our town I would I would like to Echo that sentiment uh I was just recently involved in a uh in a motor vehicle accident and I will tell you that uh PD Sergeant Christopher uh officer MC bratney and uh Captain kusza and the ton of people who were were there with him as well as Springfield EMS were all tremendous they were professional um and courteous so kudos to you guys and uh than thank you for all you do thing I want to say go ahead lot to say tonight no Linda you said you like it four here first Linda I've known you for many years how many years [Music] Rich I just turned 50 no but Linda you do a great job I remember when you were appointed so that's how long whatever with that but thank you very much for your help I've been in Chris's seat I've been on every seat on this board just want to thank you also I like to thank the for the Rotary Club on Sunday it was a great success the fair over at the pool I don't know how many people went but it was there it was crowded Abu was there you know you were there um but a lot of people showed up from town the band they had there was great yeah 1910 Fruit gum com no no I'm sorry I had to go there no but it was good and just want to thank the people for coming in supporting it that's all you know I I didn't process that 5 to 11 and I was going to save my love for you until the next meeting but I'm looking at the calendar right now Linda when we first got on I wish Alex was here right now because you're the first person we went to and we were like where did the other people mess up or what do we do what are we doing and your first word of advice to us was leave the department heads alone and let them do their thing let that they're here for a reason and there's not been a lick of better advice I've had than that than to let the department heads do their thing um and and everything else will fall into place and uh you're pretty awesome thank you thank you so so Linda as a present uh on on Clerk's week I want to get you out of here by 8:00 p.m. so I uh I will move to adjourn this meeting all in favor I [Music]