good evening this is a meeting of the Tinton Falls pero Council being held March 5th 2024 this meeting is hereby called to order would the clerk please read the open public meeting statement pursuant to section five of the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been Prov provided by posting on the bulletin board at Burrow Hall and by notification to the Asbury Park Press the Newark Star Ledger and the new coaster at least 48 hours prior to the meeting and filing with the burough clerk all on December 19th 2023 thank you may I ask the clerk to call the rooll Miss Buckley here Dr Dolan here Mr manginelli here Mr Nessie here Mrs clay here at this time I'd like to invite everyone to join me in residing the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh there is one set of meaning minutes for approval may I have a motion to approve the February 6th 2024 regular meeting minutes motion second may I have a roll call Miss Buckley yes Dr Dolan yes Mr menelli yes Mr Nessie yes Mrs clay yes uh next we will move on to reports I'd like to begin this evening with Mr palon our CFO and our 20 24 budget presentation thank you uh oh thank you very much that's nice thank you council president and uh good evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight and I am pleased to be presenting the mayor's 2024 Municipal budget if you're watching on YouTube and would like to follow along you can access a PDF of the presentation on the Burrow's website homepage at www.tin andf falls.com right so we'll get started here so the the first chart is where do the tint and Falls tax dollars go the local Municipal budget and Municipal open space budget uh comprise about 24% of what residents pay in taxes fire district 4% the county 15 % the elementary school budget 38% and the high school budget 19% the this is basically the same uh chart it's just exploded uh to indicate the percentage of tax levies that the burrow uh of ttin Falls controls which is the two exploded pieces there the 23 and the 1% 24% um the the 24% is approximately about $1,800 for the average residential assessment of about $567,000 so what does a taxpayer get for their 24% of their taxes um from the burough they get essential Services certainly infrastructure and roadway improvements public uh Public Safety and police Public Works solid waste removal and Disposal engineering and planning municipal court and Justice tax collection and distribution property assessment registar zoning code and housing enforcement emergency notification system and curbside recycling and also Quality of Life Services parks recreation programs PL Playing Fields summer camps open space acquisition open space maintenance affordable housing historic preservation and burough Library the results of the 2023 operations as it pertains to the budget our budget structure continues to result in a positive position in available cash and reserves which adds to the bur's ability to stabilize the tax rate and weather economic downturns the percent of fund balance that we're holding in reserve remains strong it's increasing from 32.0 to 32.1 5% of the following Year's budget The Bu regenerated 109% of the fund balance utilized in the 2023 budget we exceeded our Revenue targets by 25% which certainly aided in the Regeneration of the Surplus that we used our 2021 through 2024 budgets combined have 1,540 th000 remaining under the 2% Levy cap um this equates to approximately 2.9 cents on the tax rate and that a, 540,000 is taxes that the buau could have levied under that law but we did not the tax collection rate remains strong but dipped slightly to 98 8.52% which requires an increase in our reserve for all collected taxes this year to a,1 126,000 the budget structure overall the budget continues to be a fiscally sound and responsible plan the budget contains no gimmicks or structural issues the budget provides necessary funding for all Municipal services and for continued and increased capital investment in the burough infrastructure parks and equipment and it allows for the Regeneration of the Surplus that were utilizing the buau continue continues to be conservative conservative in its Revenue projections state aid in the budget has increased by 4.92% or 77,78 Appropriations the total operating expenses have increased by a marginal 2.15% total budget budgeted salaries and wages a component of operating expenses have increased by 3.31% this increase is primarily related to contractual salary increases and uh contractual step increases The Debt Service uh continues to remain stable um from the pro from 2023 the budget Appropriations exclusive of the non-s spending reserve for uncollected taxes have increased 2.18% the buau continues to employ a hybrid strategy for its capital needs the B appropriates all non-road Capital Improvements directly in the budget and authorizes General debt only for our road Improvement program this strategy has resulted in a reduction in the bur's net debt and in our long-term borrowing costs we'll get more detailed on the revenues in the next slide but this is just a summary of the 2024 uh proposed budget revenues um compared to the adopted budget from 2023 so there's our slight increase in state aid from a, 578 to a mil 656 th000 our Municipal revenues have remained um fairly flat um at 5.9 million delinquent taxes um have increased from 500 to 850,000 that goes hand inand with um a comment I made earlier with the we had a little bit of reduction of in of our current year tax collection percentage so we're able to anticipate those delinquent taxes in the following year the fund balance that we're utilizing um is $50,000 more than last year so that's pretty much stayed consistent from 4.2 million to 4,250 th000 and the amount to be raised by taxation under the proposed budget will increase from the 16, 923,50 198,000 or 2.8% assess values have increased by 99.8% or 471 million uh 26 million of that 471 is due to new uh assessments the value of new Assessments in the burrow and about 445 million is due to increases in existing assessments based on market value adjustments the municipal tax rate will be uh will be will go down by 6.25% or 2.2 cents per $100 in assessed valuation from3 5.2 to 33 this chart is of um a pie chart of the breakdown of the 2024 budgeted anticipated revenues if you start um at the the top under uh Surplus and we'll work to the right Surplus we've we're anticipating is 4,250 th000 it's 44% of what we have available which is 1 % less than what we utilized in 2023 it's important to maintain um a healthy Surplus for cash flow maintaining a strong bond rating which reduces our borrowing costs and protection against economic downturns and uh I'll discuss a little bit of our fund balance Trends over the next several slides local revenues to the right of a surplus 1,475 th000 or about 5% of our budgeted revenues that includes licenses fees and permits uniform construction code fees court fines and costs interesting costs on taxes and on investments and deposits and Commercial garbage fees state aid is next which we discussed it's uh a mil4 and uh it's gone I'm sorry it remained relatively stagnant for about 14 years it's now increased to a, 656 th000 in 2009 a little background on our state aid it was reduced from 1.9 million so in 2009 our state aid is higher than it is today which funded 9% of the total budget at that time uh the current level only funds about 6% of our budget so while the costs for goods services and personnel and benefits continue to grow you know state aid really has not grown with with it shared services the buau receives a combined com receives a combined total of approximately 350,000 from Eaton toown and Mammoth Beach under a shared service agreement for municipal court services and 27,000 from Keyport under a shared service agreement for a tax utility collector and Treasurer which uh that shared service agreement will expire uh May 31st of this year you got your other special revenues of uh Revenue other special items of Revenue of 4, 42,000 those consist of host benefit fees cable and fil franchise Fe fees Hotel occupancy tax operating grants our pilot with convolt and the third and final year of the coron virus Revenue loss state and local fiscal recovery funds and you have your delinquent taxes of 850,000 which we see in an increase of 350 that offsets our increase in our reserve for uncollected taxes and then you have the largest piece of the pie which is what we raised by taxation it's about 58% of our revenues that's remained consistent with 2023 it reflects again a 2.8% increase in that revenue and the amount to be raised for this year I'm not including caps that we have but for this year is $447,000 less than the amount allowable by the state 2% Levy cap for 2024 historical Municipal fund balance shows a very uh positive trend from 2018 to 2023 2018 we had uh 7.7 million in Surplus today we have 9.6 million and it's been pretty consistent uh for the last three years running from you know 9.3 up to the 9.6 that we have now this is a a fund balance data chart just another way of of explaining fund balance and the importance of it the the the bar to the the far left the darkest bar is the the fund balance that we have so if we look at the 2023 column all the way to the right the first bar shows the fund balance as of December 31st 23 the middle bar is what we're using in our 24 budget and the gray bar is what we're leaving um in fund balance uh for future years non-utilized fund balance uh as a percentage of budget if we just want to look at the 2024 uh uh bar on the far right um as an example the the buau has 9 mill, 660,000 in fund balance as of December 31st 2023 we're utilizing 4,250 th000 and we're leaving 5,410 th000 which is 18% of our total 2024 budget of 30, 50,000 so that's a very positive trend in that chart as well the more little note to the side there the more non-utilized fund balance the burough has on hand the better we are positioned to manage emergencies and unexpected economic issues and to continue uh to stabilize Municipal Taxes so summary of uh Appropriations this similar to what I did with the sum what we did with the summary of revenues it uh shows the proposed 2024 budget uh compar compared to the adopted budget for 2023 so you got total salaries and wages up top which we we discussed that's up about 3.31% primarily due to contractual and step increases other expenses operating expenses have been held almost stable from uh 9, 340 to 9.4 million or 66% Capital Improvements directly budgeted have increased by 189,000 Debt Service stable statutory expenditures are stable and that increase in the reserve for on collected taxes we had uh discussed previously this is the budget Appropriations by function by function if we'll just go through this uh quickly here the Appropriations are 800 898 th000 under the state appropriation cap limits uh which includes 450,000 in unused cap Banks so like the uh Levy cap we're also substantially under the state appropriation cap on start at Public Works uh on the bottom left uh and we can work counterclockwise also i' like to mention before I start that the uh benefits for the functions are budgeted under separate Appropriations so for instance the benefits for Public Works Workers Health Insurance pension are included in separate pieces of the pie in group health insurance pension costs so under Public Works functions they are 14% of of our budget that includes our streets and Roads our sanitation Central maintenance buildings and grounds and uh Community Services ACT public safety about 24% of our budget includes the police dispatch and 911 emergency management Aid to Emergency Medical Services fire prevention and the prosecutor employee group health insurance this appropriation is 12% of our budget it's about 2% higher about 70,00 are 2% higher than the 2023 budget the buau has been working very hard to control these costs by offering one way is by offering lower premium options to the employe to the employees thereby reducing the employee cost and the burrow cost for these benefits the appropriation um is also net of these $792,000 in employee contributions towards their health insurance premiums Insurance other than health is liability workers comp and unemployment premiums have been relatively stable longterm with a slight increase of $80,000 in 2024 Insurance uh I'm sorry land use code enforcement and uccc com is comprised of the Departments of planning zoning housing code enforcement and uniform construction code and that comprises 2% and our general government which is 9% of the budget is comprised of Appropriations to provide General Services includes the administration clerk mayor and counsel Finance tax collection tax assessing purchasing law and Engineering the reserve for uh uncollected taxes actually skipped one there is the statutory amount that we need to appropriate for un collected taxes to ensure cash flow to meet all requirements to other entities Debt Service slight increase this year of 23,000 of the 2,522 250 in debt service $2 million of that is principal we'll be paying on our debt and 52225 is interest cost an additional 500,000 is appropriated in our open space space budget and that will be paid off uh that will be used to pay it off uh to pay off open space debt Debt Service remains low at approximately 8.3% of the total budget Appropriations Capital Improvements are direct improvements funded through the budget and this year they uh equate to about 3% of the budget and then you have other uh appropriations of 537,500 which is your Municipal Library operations accumulated leavea compensation our length of service award programs for our EMS stormor management and operating grants and that's about 2% of the budget and we have shared services which we have four main shared services in the buau uh we receive from Mammoth County dispatch services in 911 that cost though is reflected in the public safety section of this pie chart and we receive from freeold Township Health Services which is reflected under the Health and Human Services what's reflected under the shared services is our cost um to provide services to Eaton Town and Mammoth Beach under our court and also to keeport under um financial services and there's also offsetting revenue of 377,000 for those Appropriations Social Security obviously our our share of um the buroughs portion of Social Security you have pension costs which equates to 9% of our budget that includes the police uh retirement system of a, 734000 and the public employees retirement system of 98,000 as well as uh 15,000 for def Deferred Comp retirement program and for the first time in many years this appropriation actually has decreased uh about 77,000 or 2.8% from the prior year um in in 2014 these you know the pension costs were about a milion 380 so over a 10-year period That's increased about 93% but I have seen in the last couple of years it stabilizing somewhat utility expenses and fuel that's all our regular utilities including Street lighting um and fuel for vehicles court and public defender that's appropriation for Justice Services and public defender 1% of the the budget Parks and Recreations is our division of recreation and maintenance of parks some maintenance Improvement costs are also provided through our open space TR our open space trust budget Health and Human Services is 1% and that's uh primarily the Health Service provided through a shared service with freeold Township and our animal control services our net statutory jet uh debt uh very proud of this chart um from 2014 to 202024 the buau has reduced net debt by almost uh $8 million or 37% from 2.37 million to 13.38 million this equates to an average reduction in net debt of almost 887 th000 per year over the past 9 years plans are to reduce net debt by an additional 4.5 million over the next nine years credit rating the bur received an upgrade uh from moodies in 2020 to a able A1 and we recent recently received an affirmation of that rating on October 27th of 2023 this is uh just one notch below the highest and best possible rating of AAA can read the comments from Moody's up there but they're they're very PE positive comments on the buau and on its financial management Municipal tax rate this bar graph indicates a decreasing Municipal tax rate over the past 7 years including the 2024 estimated municipal tax rate the municipal tax rate is down by 142 14.2 cents or 30% Over The Last 5 Years Municipal open space trust fund this schedule shows actual revenues and expenditures for 2019 through 2023 and the proposed budget for 2024 the municipal open space tax is 2.25 cents per $100 in assessed valuation as approved by voter referendum this rate does not change year to year so if you look at the 2024 side uh we have in our open space trust fund at the end of 2023 335,000 revenue for 2024 is projected at 1.2 million and below that is how it is uh budget Ed to expend those funds for this year 150,000 is salaries and wages to maintain our open space 100,000 is other costs uh primarily associated with maintaining the open space as part of our capital budget this year we have two projects uh the walls Park design which the engineer will discuss later as well as um some Hawk Hawks and park improvements together about 240,000 the 165 and the 55 and then the balance of our expenditures are to service um open space um debt so 500 I'll just point out that 500,000 is uh principal payment that we'll be making on our open space notes um which are due to substantial open space initiatives over the last four or five years our s utility budget the budget uh compared to this is just a summary of it compared from to 2023 is budget as you can see it's very stable uh the total budget is up just $177,000 or 32% from 5,356 to 5,373 uh on the spending side there's one large increase and that's in our Capital outlay which we disc discuss in the during the capital section of the presentation that's up 270,000 or 81% um I will note that the sore utility is is debt free and it's it's entirely self-supporting from our user fees this capital projects overview the two 2024 budget aderes to the 2023 revision of the Burrow's long-term capital debt management plan that allowed for an increase of 70% in road infrastructure funding over a 10-year period 2023 to 2032 the plan proposed to maintain a stable total annual Debt Service budget appropriation fund approximately 20 million in Road improvements and reduce debt net debt by an average of 500,000 per year or 5 million over that same 10-year period under the revised plan all non-road and infrastructure Capital items continue to be appropriated and paid for in cash without incurring debt the total plan capital projects in 2024 is 2, 220,000 that consists of 1, 620,000 in general Capital Improvements and $600,000 in seore utility Capital Improvements and we're making use of 1, 560,000 in direct operating budget Capital Appropriations and again um we're proud of that 1, 560,000 in the capital Improvement section of the current andore operating budgets as these Appropriations help reduce future debt issuance and further strengthen the bureau's financial position is there uh grants associated with capital projects that will be completed in 24 um the uh total of these grants is 1,831 th000 see a list of the grants we received a uh New Jersey DOT grant for hawen Road of 314,000 a DCA grant for our softball fields that are being developed this year at Sycamore Avenue sycore Park of 600,000 Public Safety Grant um for this uh Municipal comp Lex security of 50,000 the DCA another grant for the softball fields from the DCA of 74,000 Mammoth County Municipal open space grant for our restroom uh restroom improvements at wal Park of 195,000 another do aid grant for Essex Road of 219,000 the library construction Bond act uh Grant of 217,000 and a community block grant for w Road of 161,000 yeah we very proud of these grants and and uh a lot of hard Works done by uh Municipal Employees um to receive these the engineer Administration um certainly Council um everybody works hard on on uh obtaining these grants and they they really help uh reduce the cost of these projects I'll just go through this chart uh really quickly because um has to do with capital budget and Tom is going to discuss um that in more depth so this is a just a summary of the capital improvement fundings in our general budget um as well as our actually open space budget we have the field lighting improvements at Hawk hawen and the walls Park improvements which are going to be funded by our open space we have some improvements to public buildings and grounds it's in our operating budget we have drainage improvements of $440,000 which were funding by previous Bond ordinances where the projects came in less than what was allocated for those projects primarily the last two Road Improvement programs the we have some improvements to some DPW equipment as well as uh Public Works uh and burough truck Acquisitions fuel Island improvements acquisition of storage containers and our refu container ERS what you will note on that chart is that there will be no debt authorized in 2024 and this our sore improvements same chart for our sore budget all these are being budgeted uh in cash um in the operating budget again no debt authorization and they all are Pump Station improvements which Tom will discuss in more depth that's pretty much it for me uh thank you for listening and uh I'd like to turn uh turn it over to uh Tom nef the burough engineer for his part all right thank you Tom um as he indicated I'll go over a little bit more detail on some of the capital projects uh starting with the road program this is typically the largest uh budget item under the capital side of things uh as Tom indicated we are going into the first year really of the expanded Road program where we're spending um closer to about 4 million or so on this road program uh to my knowledge it is the largest Road program that the burough has ever done as far as mileage of the roads and the dollar amount being spent so some of the roads that we're looking to do include ess6 Road um we in addition to the milling and Paving we'll be replacing the Old Timber guide rail that's deteriorated we'll be doing some drainage improvements around the curve of the road um we're also going to be completing the sidewalks so we've been working over the last probably close to 10 years on sidewalks going all the way from the north end of Pine Street to the outlet mall this will be that last Gap to get residents to the outlet mall so everyone who lives in all the residential communities on Pine Street as well as ISX Road can safely walk to the outlet mall uh we'll also be doing West Park Avenue in addition to the paving uh some of the residents from Rose Glenn have requested new handicap ramps and crosswalks so they could safely cross West Park AV and walk down to Liberty Park uh Wardell Road uh one of the grant that we got is again in addition all of these were Paving um some were doing additional improvements like on Wardell Road there's a number of low spots that will be regraded doing some drainage we are also going to be putting in new curb and sidewalk so residents uh from Maywood run which connects to all of Fox Chase all of those residents will be able to walk to the Wardell Park hak coxan Road another area that fronts on the park we'll be doing improvements there Firehouse Road uh Wilshire and Wilkins those streets are getting all brand new curb out there to fix some issues up in what we call the fruit bowl that everyone knows we've got Clover Street Blossom Street and Peach Street which will pretty much wrap up all of the roads in that neighborhood uh again we've been working through the years to address all the roads up there Hamilton Road um on the presentation you'll see photo here there's a gazebo in the back and there's actually uh been weddings there so in addition to people using the park we can also um um make some improvements for the residents that do live in that area down in Parkplace area we'll be doing Colonial Drive Trent Road and Andrew Drive and finally we are starting to tackle all of the college streets neighborhood um starting with Harvard Drive and then all of the culdesac streets off of Ruckers um um so on the presentation here we just have a couple photos Essex Road you can see dpws out there on a regular basis trying to patch all the potholes uh Wardell road you can see one of the low areas that DPW has tried to address and realistically we need um much more significant drainage improvements we're going to put inlets in drainage pipes connected to the existing system in that area uh harvor driveing Haw hawen uh we're doing similar improvements on these roads you can see there's curb in some sections no curb in other areas the road widths vary so we're looking to make a uniform WID and do curb for the full length on both sides fill in the gaps where it's missing so that's it for the roads um up next is i' say one of the more exciting projects we've done probably since Wardell Park um this is something that everyone's been looking forward to for the last year or two is softball fields at Sycamore Recreation Complex you can see on the image here this is the existing back soccer field area uh field number six so for this one we're going to do Synthetic Turf infield and a natural grass Outfield in addition to all the standard amenities you know bleachers dugouts scores table new walkway around everything um new storage building and then in front of that on field 4 which is directly down the hill from the concession stand um where the kids go sliding over the winter which we are not touching the sliding Hill don't worry um we're doing full synthetic the entire area is going to be converted to a Synthetic Turf so we can fit a full size uh 200t softball field as well as a smaller size soccer field but it'll still be big enough for 7 verse seven age group to have games there as well as anyone who wants to use it for practice um also with Park improvements this year we will be doing the restroom building at Wardell Park uh the design for that is about 95% complete uh we're looking to get uh we actually have something on the agenda later tonight to get New Jersey American Water authorized to start doing some of the needed water main improvements and then we'll be looking to get that building going uh this spring and summer uh won't be an exact replica of what's at Sycamore Park which is on the picture here but it'll be similar size and style um and I did just forget to mention with the softball fields uh you know the equipment is out there they're mobilizing this week um as far as really getting going if the weather cooperates and then they hope to wrap up um by early July or so to have those fields completed a little bit smaller scale but just as important over at Haw haxen Park there's been requests for the t-ball fields to put some lights out there uh not just for the small kids playing t-ball later in the evening but also some of the older kids do use that area to practice um or to throw the ball play catch you know warm up for night games so we'll be looking to get some lighting out there and a few years back the burrow acquired uh the old Waltz property which is about 60 Acres and we are looking this year just to get started on the design side of things so we're going to do survey permitting design that'll be for new walking trails uh playgrounds fishing platform at the pond restroom building So the plan is to design it this year and build it in 2025 as part of next year's budget uh we also have funds allocated for drainage improvements as Tom mentioned uh we're looking to utilize old funds that weren't expended on previous Road programs uh one example is over on Pine Brook Road there's a large drainage run that uh essentially got overrun by tree roots so we had those cleaned and we're looking to make repairs to those pipes to clean up any cracks and open joints there's also a covert on Wardell road that is reaching the end of its life so it'll be looking to either make some repairs or upgrades to that Culvert depending on um how our study goes with that structure buildings and grounds looking to invest some money in the property here uh for the benefit of everyone involved uh first starting with a new monument sign the existing sign is rather outdated um starting to show signs of wear and tear well beyond its stage it's also a little hidden uh especially now that the road has been realigned so we're looking to do a new monument sign closer to the intersection and also to do a new modern LED message board on there so we could put any uh notifications or messages for the residents on that sign as well back by DPW is a fuel Island again it's just starting to reach the end of its useful life um been a number of Band-Aid typ repairs over the years and we are due for a more substantial upgrade and that's not used just by DPW it's used by the police it's used by other Emergency Services it's used by the schools in town so it really does get a lot of use and serve a lot of agencies and also along Pearl Harbor Drive um about a year ago lenar installed a retaining wall backed by regador drive and DPW property and then DPW went in and added Landscaping we have received requests from a number of residents at the nearby townhouse Community we're also aware of obviously the new Robert Wood Johnson facilities being built um so we are looking to continue that retaining wall and Landscape buffering just to provide some again buffering from DPW property a little separation from the public and the operations that we have going on on site and finally we have our sewer improvements um the largest outlay being for the leand Terrace Pump Station upgrades this is one of the older ones that has not been updated in quite some time so we need to replace the pumps out there as well as some of the miscellaneous items on the ground surface that you can see the graen the hatch cover things like that uh down at the Jumping Brook Pump Station which is the largest pump station we have that Services the entire South End of the burrow everything ultimately goes there before going to Neptune the generator needs to be replaced there uh the existing one is 20 plus years old so we need to put a new modern generator in there so we don't have any issues with that pump station during storms and then finally uh just some minor upgrades to the alarm notification system uh in the event that we lose power we get notified if there's any high level water alarms our sewer operator and DPW would be notified of them so they can respond accordingly and that's it for my end I'll just let Tom wrap it up thank you thanks Tom uh the real good news is we budgeted for a new HDMI cord so that's my fault I touched the the laptop that was good anyway uh that's that's it thank you again for for listening um the budget will be posted on the website and will be published in summary as required by law and we'll wait at least 28 days prior to the hearing so our first available date for the hearing uh the public hearing will be Tuesday uh at our April uh 2nd 2024 council meeting thank you uh thank you Miss Mr palon um I'd like to thank both you and Mr nef uh for a thorough presentation and for all your hard work to develop uh this sound and thorough budget and um all the work on the crays which are fantastic and um the one thing that I just want to mention about the budget is not only is it fiscally responsible but it allows us as tit andf Falls residents to continue to enjoy all the things that we know and love about living in Titan Falls so thank you for that um that was your report for tonight Mr nef or do you have more I have nothing further okay I'm just making sure uh Mr Tero our business administrator thank you council president good evening everyone I just want to reiterate the uh Sentiments of Mr nef and Mr Fallon and the council president I think uh the budget that was just presented is in line with previous budgets and the mere fact that we do things in a fiscally responsible and efficient manner and try to meet the best uh goals we can for all the residents and also the improvements I think this year um I'm really looking forward to in particular are the improvements at syamore Park with the uh softball fields to give the girls softball teams the same par the boys have over at Hawk so that's going to be an exciting time um just one more reminder we're getting ready to gear up for Community day which is going to be in October so look for the save the date notifications that are going going to be going out soon and as always we're looking for volunteers vendors and sponsors and that's all I have thank you Mr tarano uh with us tonight Mr cani good evening I have nothing to report but thank you okay thank you so much uh Miss Hutchinson or bur Clark I have no report this evening thank you okay thank you um moving on to council reports uh councilwoman Bucky thank you council president um just want to want to highlight um and thank uh Council and administration for their support uh for the resolution of support authorized in the sustainable Jersey Grant application r2403 that's on the budget this evening um I know the uh environmental commission's worked hard on on that Grant submission appreciate your support on that um and I believe we have an Earth Day date of April 28th and and so look for some uh planning with regard to that as well and that's all for my report thank you thank you councilwoman Buckley uh Dr to thank you um great presentation Mr Fallon Mr nef very um very thorough and we thank you for your hard work uh as far as the library goes uh we're moving along uh we did come up with some uh specific things that we needed so it's going to be a little delayed Maybe by about a month or so uh Mr nef but um it's looking pretty good and we're very pleased that they uh have uh also uh put into our budget a substantial increase in the uh operating expenses for the library this year so we're very excited about that and um that's all Miss president thank you thank you Dr do bran uh councilman manell well I have a a lot has been done on the uh landfill issue and I have a letter that was online if you want me to read it you want me to read this yes please the counil the county has done quite a bit of work and I'd like to read the letter authored by uh County Commissioner Tom onon on behalf of the commissioner director Ron I would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the progress that have been made by waste management at mcrc landfill over the past 6 weeks please feel free to share the information at the township council meeting which is what I'm doing tonight some of these we projects were started during December of 2023 and completed in January and February 2024 in total they reflect a significant amount of work to address the Oder issues as quickly as possible and he goes into detail vacuum Cas vacuum gas collection enhancement the first decision was to enhance the vacuum and the gas collection system in order order to decrease the amount of futur of gas emissions and to increase the amount of gas that was processed through the system this included the insulation of surface gas collectors that were placed in areas of the landfill that were emitting gas oders by the end of January there were 22 Nerf uh 22 surface collectors installed and completely connected into the gas collection system cover material and flare in addition Waste Management enhanced the amount of cover material that they placed on the slopes at the end of the day on the area that was actively accepting trash for the day this practice also has reduced The Fugitive gas emissions due to the depth of the cover materials over the last two months we've employed the use of second flare on site to supplement the capacity of the other flares that burns the collected gas and disposes it with no order the there are now two flares which have sufficient capacity to burn all gases collected and processed to flares temporary cap further a decision was made to design design and construct a temporary cap for the top of the landfill until now there has been a temporary cap along a 15 acre section of the phase 3 landfill which is the active landfill however with the increase in trans collection over the last 3 to 4 years years there has been a strategy a strategy to reclaim airspace at the landfill this reclaiming of airspace was required due to the prolonged revenue of the plans for phase four of the landfill which was under review in the Department of Environmental Protection for over eight years without a clear indication of the future of the permit there was very real concerned that the landf would run out of airspace this activity did not allow for the placement of temporary cap since the grading of the landfill was not complete over the S over the past 6 weeks Waste Management has been bringing the top of the landfill to final grade in preparation for the new temporary cap system at the same time Tech ter tetrach the County's Consulting engineer has been designing the temporary cap or the top of the landfill as well as the permanent cap primarily on the slopes of the south side and north side of the landfill material and supplies for the capping project have already been ordered and are due for delivery by Middle March 2024 the capping project both temporary spring 2024 and permanent sought fall 2024 will be significant steps in controlling orders from the landfill this spring the capping project will cover 32 Acres of the phase three landfill in the fall there will be the start of project to provide a permanent cap on the slopes of phase 3 landfill which will cover another 35 Acres combined with the existing fake 15 Acres of cover by the end of 20125 over 75% of the air of the landfill will be covered the only section that will not be covered will be the area where active landfilling is taking place well drilling plan finally a well drilling plan has been completed by Waste Management in conjunction with tetr tech over the last 6 years the county has insalled a completely new gas collection system to date over that period of time there have been 136 Wells drilled to collect gas Drain Liquid from the landfill and provide a vacuum connected to the overall gas collection system over the next 6 to 8 weeks waste management will undertake a project to install 21 additional vertical wells in the area where it was determined to be necessary to collect more gas than currently corrected collected future plans there are several other project projects which will be undertaken over the next 30 days which include ordering materials for the two operational flares to enhance their performance engage the contractor for the well installation plan and start the well drilling project by middle of March and continue to perform daily Auto related inspections in addition the county is exploring the upgrade of mcrc website to be more informative as appropriate we are open to suggestions from tunon Falls like the information provided by councilman man oh and uh landfill monitoring committee regarding the Atlantic County Utilities Authority website information provided as we discussed the review is the review is provided at as Mammoth County was originally scheduled for the township council meeting tonight due to the unavailability of County staff we agreed to move the appearance to March 19th 2020 24 at the March 19th meeting we will be providing further information and will be available for questions from the public should you have any questions or require any additional information prior to the meeting uh signed by GF Presley Deputy County Administrator so a lot has been done and a lot has been done by the NLC committee you we've got a new form which we're asking uh people who have complaints to fill out it's online it contains a lot of great information and we're starting a database on the kinds of complaints we're getting what areas they're coming from and it's still being fine-tuned but it's available you go on a burrow website it tells you exactly how to do it so a lot has been done but a lot more has to be done that's my presentation thank you thank you councilman Manelli I know that was a very lengthy letter uh to read um but I think it was important that we read it into the record and that people have the opportunity uh to hear it in detail additionally that will be posted um on our website uh Mr Nessie thank you council president I have no report this evening but I'd like to also thank Mr nef Mr Fallon on The Bu budget presentation it was very thorough and uh I really appreciate that so thank you very much thank you um and uh in terms of my report um I uh I attended the Board of Education meeting uh at the end of last month and uh that was a spotlight on the Middle School uh they had their pep band uh a life skills program and um um a connections class about social emotional learning it was really a lot of fun um it's always great when you have kids there um in addition keeping on the topic of the schools on uh Thursday uh Mr Tera frano and I are going to be meeting uh with student council advisors the M the Middle School principal and uh student council representatives to talk about an April session uh where our bur uh administrator some of our bur professionals and um some of our council members will be meeting with student council to talk a little bit about the functions of the burrow and how local government works uh this is going to be like a mini uh series of what we're hoping to expand for next year with an earlier onset and uh more indepth visitation uh but these are our like younger residents and we definitely think it's important to to get them interested in Civics at an early age so that hopefully one day they'll be Borough professionals or council members working for their Town um and lastly uh you heard uh quite a bit about the mcrc and uh we've been having multiple meetings with Prof professionals and residents and really um working very hard with the burrow uh employees to really try to develop a system that will help us um more accurately log what's happening while responding to resident concerns um It's Our intention to keep the pressure on uh the county and to hold them accountable uh for the landfill and for the things that they've told us that they're going to do and we will continue to do that and as you heard mentioned uh director commissioner unnown will be here or uh some of his Representatives on March 19th and uh that concludes my report uh there's one ordinance on for introduction this evening I'd like to remind the public that when an ordinance is introduced there is no public discussion the public discussion for the following ordinance will take place when it's up for a final consideration with that may I ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance 20241 1511 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a c Bank NJ essay 4A col 44514 the public hearing will be held on March 19 2024 or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached on the agenda thank you may I have a motion to approve the introduction of this ordinance motion and a second second and a roll call Miss Buckley yes Dr Dolan yes Mr menelli yes Mr Nessie yes Mrs clay yes uh there are no ordinances for final consideration this evening at this time may I have a motion to open the public discussion motion second thank you all in favor I hi this is the time the public make comment on any topic of their choice please state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to 3 minutes at this time I'd like to ask the clerk if any public comments were submitted prior to the meeting via email there were none thank you yes good evening uh Mitch cber 21 Cedar Place I haven't moved um uh yeah first of course great job on the budget I I set my calendar every year for the exciting budget presentation uh and uh no actually yeah I get around and it's but it's great I mean you really get you really do an excellent job and and keeping the expenses under the caps and all that it's you know there's that is not the case in many towns so so thanks um another thank you to Mr tereno and all the people at Public Works I uh asked him a couple of questions and sent a couple of emails and and the Public Works has been doing some work over at the Riverdale Park and they've been going to town um there was Vines and all kinds of CRA and they just clean it up and it is really amazing and it's and just I have no idea if it was related or not but anyway I'm really grateful for all the work you guys are doing so thank you very very much uh uh and I had a question but I think John Mr Manelli answered that there so the 45 day meeting for the landfill that's the one that got pushed to March 19th uh we have a followup on the 19th but uh the letter that Mr manginelli shared uh really is the progress that is that has transpired uh since the presentation okay yeah it sounds it sounds great I I don't live down there but hopefully the people live in the area are are noticing the difference uh and just one last one Dr DOL in your report you said that we get the librar is getting a an increase in the operating budget um do you know what that is yeah it's going to be in the budget you're going to be able to go online and take a look the details all right we do have a board meeting Thursday night so maybe if you show up love to be there if only I wasn't going to be in uh Big Sky Montana snowboarding but Ellen will be there I'm sure thank you very much thank you good evening Ellen Goldberg 90 Glenwood Drive um before I say anything else uh I just wanted to thank the council um I think that each and every one of you are so dedicated to tinon Falls and you put a lot of time and energy into this town and you're volunteers and I just want to tell you how much I appreciate what you do and your dedication to this town um I had a couple of things uh we're excited about the library it's a little disappointing that it's not happening as fast as we wanted it to but um it's definitely exciting and um can't wait for it to happen um as far as the environmental commission we say thank you again for supporting the uh Grant application to sustainable Jersey and we hope to see this thing through uh for our NRI ER report um Mr Tan feno did I miss it or did you make the announcement about the Earth Day Festival date are we are we councilwoman bu I did oh sorry yeah I did I did today I think Charlie might have last meeting but I but I did today the April 28th date okay all right um and then I have a question about the turf grass um I'm thinking environmentally turf grass is really not a good thing can you explain to me why we're going to encourage turf grass as opposed to uh real grass yeah there's no environmental concerns to our knowledge of Synthetic Turf uh the benefits for it are really for the kids because the big issue we have at Haw oxin is every time it rains some of the fields turn into a mud pit and the games get delayed they only have so many weeks that they can play keep trying to reschedule the games and it really cuts down on the usability of the fields so it's really just to allow rain to come and then they can play on pretty much immediately right after okay that's reason for it and it's not I mean there's no environmental impact negative impct I mean as far as you know groundwater and runoff and Rain you know everything infiltrates right through it it's not a impervious surface you know so the water can go right through it okay okay thank you welcome um um so lastly I've been attending multiple workshops on planting native plants um and the benefit to planting native and to um uh replacing non-native species and how um how much benefit it has to the environment as far as insects and and animals and things like that and so I'd like to encourage any of our public space to plant native and to continue to plant native and uh bring in the species that belong here and um and help our environment the best we can thank you uh thank you so much anyone else all right um uh hearing no further comments may I have a motion to close the public discussion motion second thank you all in favor thank you um miscellaneous business for the good of the order does any member of council have anything to add all right uh hearing on we're going to move on to resolutions we have one resolution that we're going to vote on separately this evening may I ask the clerk to read the title of this resolution r- 24-33 introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget thank you may I have a motion to approve the resolution motion and a second second and call Miss Buckley yes Dr Doan yes Mr menelli yes Mr Nessie yes Mrs clay yes uh now we will move on to the consent agenda I would like to ask councilwoman Buckley to please read resolution r 24034 declaring March as women's history month thank you council president I'd be happy to whereas women of every race class and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways and whereas women have played and Contin and continued to play critical economic cultural and social roles in every sphere of life in the nation by constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside of the home and whereas women have played a unique role throughout the history of the nation by providing the majority of volunteer labor force in the nation and whereas women were particularly important in the establishment of early charitable Phil philanthropic and cultural institutions in our nation whereas every women of every race class and ethic background served as early leaders in the Forefront of every major Progressive social change movement and whereas wom women have served our country courageously in the military and whereas women have been leaders not only in securing their their own rights and suffrage and equal opportunity but also in the Abolitionist Movement the Emancipation emancipation movement the industrial labor movement the civil rights movement and other movements especially the peace movement which create a for a more fair and just Society for all and whereas despite these contributions the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature teaching and study of American History now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and Council of the borrow of ttin Falls that March is designated as women's history month and encourages the people of tinon Falls to observe March as women's History Month with appropriate programs ceremonies and activities thank you so much uh now we will continue on with the consent agenda are there any items any member of council would like removed to be voted on separately okay hearing none may I have a motion to approve the cons sent agenda so move and a second [Applause] second may I have a roll call please miss Buckley yes Dr Doan yes Mr manginelli yes Mr Nessie yes Mrs clay yes this concludes today's business may I have a motion to adjourn motion may I have a second second all in favor hi hi this painting is now dring at 8:40