I know you don't hit it that hard when there's people sitting in the audience will the clerk please read the meeting statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public and the Press on January 17 2024 and was posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building in accordance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 semicolon 4-7 okay roll call please council member bushier here council member D benedetto council member Higgins here council member Florida here council president rudo here uh may I have a motion to approve resolution 2423 and or is that uh what is that yep 2423 2 I'm sorry and I'm saying it wrong and enter into executive session I'll make that motion second second moved Byer Mrs bueri seconded by um Mr SP all in favor I opposed motion carries okay [Music] adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public and the Press on January 17 2024 and was posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building in accordance with open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-7 would you please rise with me and salute our flag I pledge allegiance 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 roll call please council member bueri here council member D benedetto council member Higgins here council member Sparta council president Ruda here resolution 24-55 authorizing the award of a contract for Professional Services Township attorney may I have a motion to approve this resolution move by Mr Higgins is there a second I'll second it right may I have a uh discussion going to ask if there's any comments yeah any comments from any members of the counc um having met this man this gentleman I was very very impressed and I would ask that we approve him by acclamation all in favor signify by saying I I I I opposed motion carries congratulations like to introduce the the public to our new attorney milch congratulations thank you congratulations welcome congratulations congratulations now I can't spill over all right good luck thank you it's an honor I really do appreciate it Proclamation I'm a little bit sixes and sevens here you have a copy of that thank you um I have it okay I have it you got it okay like to read it if you want me to Sure uh whereas Black History Month is celebrated annually in February to recognize the contributions that African-Americans have made to American history and whereas Black History Month provides an opportunity to reflect on the significant roles that African-Americans have played in shaping our nation's history and whereas Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of African-Americans and to recognize their essential role in American history and whereas Black History Month provides an opportunity to educate the public about the important contributions of African-Americans to our society and whereas the Vernon Township Town Council recognizes the importance of Black History Month and encourages all residents to participate in activities that celebrate the achievements of African-Americans and promote greater understanding of their contributions to our society now therefore be it resolved that the Vernon Township Town Council hereby proclaims February 2024 as black history in Vernon and encourages all residents to participate in activi that celebrate the achievements of African-Americans and promote greater understanding of their contributions to our society adopted this 15th day of February 2024 thank you thank you this will signed mayor we have a representative here this evening from Jersey Central Power and Light I do have the um uh set up if you wanted I I don't know if you want to hook your laptop up to that oh for PowerPoint what do I have my laptop in the car do you have of the presentation yes they have we have it we're good that's okay that's fine thank you thank everyone for having me this evening if you could hear me okay so what I really wanted to do here today by the way my name is Richard Biz I'm with jcpnl external you always get emails from you rich oh my name all the time nice to meet you um so we do send out a lot so hopefully they're being read and then possible but what I wanted to do tonight was uh essentially present energize NJ to the council what energize NJ is basically it's JCP all infrastructure program that was filed with thepu this past November on November 9th um but before I actually get into the plan itself and give you a little bit of a snapshot of what entails and benefits to've earn in Township want to introduce our comp a little bit and kind of tell you a little B about what we do who really are so what we do is we serve approximately 1.1 million customers between 13 counties and over 236 municipalities throughout the state uh in terms of employment we employ about, 1500 workers including uh of which 1100 are basically ibw electricians line workers and Tech who basically build and maintain our critical assets to make up our and uh one the most important things to to understand is that we actually operate and maintain over 20,000 miles of transmission and distribution very very large that our operating little bit more about the company and our our presence here in New Jersey over the last decade our EC development efforts have helped facilitate more than 7,000 new jobs and $1.7 billion in investment in New Jersey uh and in 2022 alone we purchased more than $90 million in local goods and services of which about 30% of those were New Jersey purchases coming from suppliers something to keep in mind and uh by the way if you're following along with the presentation that you have in front of you uh just to save some time I'm going to skip some portions of the actual program just because they may not now get the reason as to why because we don't really look at things by boundaries or accounting look at things by circuits so it's a little bit different and every number I'm going to be mentioning here uh any any Financial figure I'll be mentioning keep in mind strictly estimates so it's I have brought figures uh to put in front of you and to explain to you but they are as and the plan itself it is not something that's guaranteed it's under review by the BP by Ray council at the same time it's basically our job to to introduce the plan to the general public to to councils like to municipalities like burn and Township and then at the same time uh ask for municipalities to support publicly the plan itself uh either through a letter of support through something a little bit stronger in my opinion that would be a resolution and what that really does is basically tells the BPU and R Council this is important to us it's important to our residents it's important to our customers approve the plan as propos supposed to as proposed as can possibly be so something to keep in mind it's not set in stone it's under review by the BPU and these numbers have changed already actually in the last couple days slightly uh so energizing J uh what is it fiveyear 935 million disposal and that number is slightly higher today than it was yesterday uh it's probably around 900 million at this point just because the BP already gave us feedback on some of the plan and that was to basically take it out of this infrastructure investment program is puted towards our day-to-day operations and maintenance um based on the on the scope of the work and things of that nature so some of the goals of the actual plan excuse me for one second going back that uh the actual $935 million proposal is our largest Inc company history so something to keep in mind there uh but some of the goals of the plan uh essentially focus on enhancing reliability performance hardening the grid against storms expanding capacity and then essentially building the backbone of the electric of the future and I'll get into the components really quickly plan itself there are three components grid monitor soltion resiliency substation monitorization all three are going to benefit burn Township residents uh I mentioned that $935 old proposal investment that the company will be making on behalf of its Rays on behalf of the Rays here's where the estimates get a little wonky because now we're looking at things by Circuit so circuits travel through towns they travel through counties what you know feeds running Township customers may also feed a neighboring municipalities so something to keep in mind but as I mentioned all three components of energize NJ would benefit for an in Township residents uh specifically it's over $20 million loan that we be investing as proposed to the BPU so something to keep in mind um so the three components I'll get into the first really quickly grid monitorization what does that mean that's essentially 366 million of this 935 is focused on reliability storm hardening and capacity so what ises that grid mization actually include or what it it's uh essentially upgrading over 600 plus miles of overhead power line with more robust and stronger wiring more durable poles at the same time uh it's also replacing uh roughly 46 miles aging underground lines for additional durability and capacity um big the big portion of this grid monitor ization is really that trips saer it's um installing 217 2,175 new trips saer 500 JC pel circuits there would be tripsaver devices here in Vernon Township and what a tripsaver is essentially an automated fuse so right now the most common fuse out there is that manual fuse if it does trip and pop open need somebody to come out to actually Patrol the circuit to see why that trip why that fuse stripped and once that uh fla is cleared from the circuit itself then that trou shooter or whoever is out there the Line crew can actually place the fuse back into that close position to restore power uh tripsaver what it does is basically tries to reclose itself three times before it officially just shuts down requiring somebody to come out to inspect the actual circuit to control that circuit figure out why that fuse was open as opposed to just remaining closer being attempt to reclose itself C keep in mind it's those trip servers are great when you're trying to isolate damage as well or trying to isolate an incident so if a tree falls on power lines or Graz let let's just use the I may be getting into a little won even area in terms of my example but let's just say um a tree branch falls over a tree and grazes our power lines that that fuse is going to pop right it's gonna it's going to forc be forced open if that if that tree branch falls raises the lines and makes its way down to the street that trips saer will try to close itself once probably hold because that Branch now fell onto the stre if it doesn't clear if the branch is hung up in the lines it's going to keep trying to close until the third attempt I believe it's the third attempt and if it still fails after that third attempt then we'll need a pro member to come out to actually inspect what's happening out there but it also help those trip Savers also help us isolate outages so if an outage does occur because of a tree that fell onto power lines taking out those power lines and poles and it's affecting let's say 2,000 customers Inver in Township these automated fuses and the additional work that would be done as part of this plan would be able to isolate that outage and reduce it at the same time also talk to one another so we can kind of work its way around an issue to isolate that issue and restore as many customers as possible maybe not all of them but as many of them as possible because that that fuse is in place um one last point on grid modernization before I move on to the next component the way we determine things like I mentioned previously is really by Circuit what we do is look at historical average patterns to figure out exactly where the investment would would make the most benefit um so everything that you're hearing here tonight is based on historical outage information uh essentially where with where the investment would make the strongest investment where would get the biggest benefit in terms of return on investment so something to keep in mind as I work my way through this presentation um system resiliency it's second component of the actual plan it's a $469 million program focused on aage recovery accelerated restoration after severe weather enhanced flexibility and energy delivery system and increase in equipment automation um some of the highlights of this system resiliency component and this is a big one this actually affects not only Vernon Township but also municipalities throughout suas County there are these things out there there are Pockets where circuits that are feeding customers Within These pockets are basically four four Kil at four operating at four kilovolts right now now if something happens within that 4 kilovolt pocket and we want to isolate and restore customers as quickly as possible by tying them into a neighboring circuit we have challenges right now because we can't do that because the neighboring circuit is operating at the old four kilovolts it's at 12.5 Kilts so we're proposing to eliminate those four kilovolt Islands I like to call them and uh basically bring them up to that 12.5 kilovolt voltage this way if an outage does occur we can tie those customers into a neighboring certificate and restore those customers as quickly as possible while the while the permanent repairs are being made so something to keep in mind um so also with those ties that I mentioned those uming the circuits you know 12 12.5 Kil to 12.5 K also need to actually increase capacity and add new circuits at the same time to work around issues should outes occur so that adding those new add capacities redundancy is a main focus of the system resiliency component of the plan uh but that additional capacity also will accommodate additional uh energy resources in the future like solar develop so a lot of solar fields that are popping up uh in Sussex County and even in Morris County in the neighboring the neighboring operating districts we also seeing a lot more electric vehicles on our loads so that infrastructure at your home or even at the local quick check or whatever it may be dun Donuts uh all that basically ties back into our our grid so that capacity will help uh that demand moving forward and then the final component um is our substation monitorization it's basically $100 million program focusing on upgrading equipment and increasing remote access and automation capabilities so like those trip Savers what would happen on the substation side would be more with um a more um I guess the best way to put it basically the automated switch you know it's instead of seeing a trip State r on a on a on a line on a distribution line that same type of switch an automated switch would be installed at substations that that serve ver townships something to keep in mind um and then one large component of this substation monitorization uh plan uh or section is essentially adding additional mobile substations to our Fleet so we do have mobile substations right now let's say something catastrophic happens at one of our substations that would literally take out power to tens of thousands of customers you know for an extended period of time today's day and age people can't live without power for you know two hours later alone two weeks so that mobile substation would help a ton we've seen that in action in other parts of our territory uh mainly in Somerset County recently but that mobile substation would help us basically transport it to wherever it's needed and uh switch those customers over from the main substation not to that mobile substation while while the repairs are made U so something to keep in mind uh impacted customers there was obviously an impacted customers whenever we're making an investment uh and that does uh come with a rate increase um so essentially the the program itself is 93 program there is a return on investment so this essentially pays for our um over time and essentially it's a $ 3.08 billion return in reliability benefits to customers by as I mentioned helping reduce non-store mtages and improving our ability to restore restore power following a m Maj storm event so what does that actually mean for the rate payer themselves the customer themselves so if a typical residential customer using 783 kilowatt hours of electricity per month um they would see an increase of essentially $416 on their monthly electric bill over the five-year term of the plan itself and those rates would not take effect or increase until actually the work is being done so I mentioned it's a five-year program the rates would actually increase incrementally over that five-year period seven different increments uh the first increase would actually be 54 cents effective April 1st 2025 and those seven R incremental increases range anywhere over that fiveyear period range anywhere from 10 cents all the way up to 99 Cents and something to keep in mind again with those R out there it's as proposed right and that's just the average residential customer so non-residential customer may see a little bit different it all depends on usage and but entally U there is that return on investment that I wanted to highlight for everybody here with go um something to keep in mind in one last point before I actually open it up in terms of rates we take we're very prideful in uh basically proclaiming that we're still the lowest electric uh Distribution Company in New Jersey regulat distribution electric company in New Jersey at the lowest rate possible so that's amongst our four quote unquote uh District companies I guess you want to call them I guess we're not related but kind of related so it's PNG earn Rock electric and then l c Elric down in city so we're one of the four and we we're going to remain lowest and we plan on remaining Lo mooving Bo and we take a lot of pride in saying that out there in the public um if I did have the presentation I I apologize for not having it on on the uh PowerPoint on a projector but I would have had a demonstration before you in terms of how that not in person how that trip sa Works um but you know if you wanted to circulate Tina I can actually send you link to the video and you could circulate it amongst the council if that's yes that's good thank you okay um so that's the proposal itself as I mentioned it's five years $935 million which is kind of down to 900 at this point just because some of the work was actually taken out and put into our op uh our operations and maintenance uh day-to-day operations and maintenance but as I mentioned has an estimate roughly little over $20 million alone would be invested in burn in town trip thank you for your time welcome any questions that you may have yeah the 12.5 versus the what was that KS versus 12.5 oh yeah um so basically what you're looking at is a diversion that that you're you're putting out you have you have four Point whatever it is available on the island and if you lose that you don't have the ability to tap in to the higher Mount but by changing that you can kind of redirect your your your power to those areas absolutely what percentage of though of that type of uh functioning is setting in is sitting in verment so I'm I'm only So based on the way uh the plane is proposed to the BPU I'm aware one one i' call them Island it's probably the worst term to use I think it's a good because to me it it hits the the nail right on the head I need you to write an email to my boss um but that's essentially what it is it's I'm only aware of one Island here in C that's operating at that for does JCP andl have the same rates All Counties across the state or is it it is the same so we're paying the same as everyone else currently so what you're paying here in Veron Township is the same that somebody pays in belmare or in uh throwing a blank on some of the Southern belmare anywhere down south Jackson those are but the difference is that's for your transmission and power okay but you if you wanted to separate this and just shop your own power supplier you can can still continue to do that absolutely I would only caution people who do that is to watch it every year because they frequently you know give you a very L very low rate and then they don't they don't let you know when it's rate change time and so you see the bill you're like how did I yeah what Happ that actually happened last week uh one of the Mayors I was speaking with had a question about his bill and he was wondering what this company was that was listed on his bill and I told him that was his third party energy supplier right and his biggest uh issue was the fact that his his uh bills were increasing exponentially per month you could understand why you basically using the same type of power no no specific load changes in his house um if you have an old school meter that's that still that spinning dial on on the meter C you can actually do a test to see if you're drawing somewhere else two person operation but essentially have somebody at the at the breaker panel break communicating with the person who's watching the meter see if that meter stops slows down in terms of spinning or does it increase when you put the breaker back on and obviously the breakers are are um you know feeding other feeding major appliances in your house get dishwasher or something something keep mind will this program also include a change over to digital meters so it's totally separate smart meter program is actually totally separate okay and good I'm glad you asked that because the smart meter program we've already introduced in other portions of of our territory here in New Jersey uh the Newton District which our Newton operations District which Vernon Township falls into it's a 450 squ mile District uh we actually start installing Smart Meters next mon okay so you'll start seeing uh some of our contractors out there next month it's Wellington I'm not too sure where they're based out of but basically it's the same type of contractor that psng used um to install Smart Meters but by the way we work together yes I uh I could have sworn I recognized it took me a second to it took me a second sorry I just made eye contact with you I was like I got to mention something but yeah those smart meters are are actually being installed next month it's no secret that Vernon and jcpnl have had uh lackluster relationships over a period of time because I missed the first part was J it's no secret that jcpnl and Vernon Township have had lackluster uh relationships over a period of time in terms of outages and the ability to restore power uh will this proposal uh help reduce the outages uh and shorten the periods of outage absolutely absolutely and it's things like those trip Savers it's things like eliminating those four kilol Island um you know it's combination of those things the one thing I didn't touch on it when I was speaking on trip Savers um so this plan as a whole is essentially part two of our in infrastructure invester program part one you may have remembered back in 201920 it was called reliability plus uh there is essentially what that program really focused on was installing a lot of those trip saers and then at the same time tree trimming tree triming through county is a big challenge for us constantly trim it's a fouryear cycle by substation by Circuit by Circuit subst so um you know I think since 2019 2020 you've probably seen a big difference here in Vernon Township with outages and it's duration of outages and things of that nature this will take a complete step forward into another Stratosphere one thing I'm going to read this verbatim just because I don't want to miss uh any the key points here but those strip Savers uh and this is going back to reliability plus and the effect that we've seen or the benefits um that we've seen by putting those STP Savers in place in strategic areas throughout our territory but basically trip Savers insto during 2019s reliability plus investment program we rent more than 3.2 million Millions minutes of cumulative customer outages within 24 months of consideration the% average benefit identified for outage causes that are temporary in N temporary in nature this means that for such identified causes it is expected that 80% will long no longer experience stain out of like I mentioned with that Tri that PS and raises our Pops it's the ground on that line it tries to close itself and if does recognize that the fault has cleared and that branch has cleared the uh our lines or conductors then again reducing the size and a duration of those those aages so yes to answer it's a long way of saying absolutely duration size all those things will will uh significantly decrease because of energizing Dr but keep in mind too there's always that car pole accident that may happen right we see a lot of those in sub County so something like that is really out of our control but again if you have the automated devices on the system on the grid uh folks losing customers losing that losing power because of a car pole accident may actually sustain a shorter outage and the size of that outage may not be you know initially it may have been 2,000 customers and you could possibly reduce that down to 500 by having some of those trip savers on their I'm keep in mind Mr sparter is a resident expert on I'd like to ask him if he has any questions that I don't have any questions I just know that the trip Savers will save a tremendous amount as the gentleman stated of uh outage minutes down because of those many times when the tree branch does come and hit and it trips them a manual breaker somebody has to back to reset it and the uh trip Savers prevent that person from coming out so and now is that up here we would see for a couple hours sometimes before somebody would come out and reset is is literally down to seconds so um it's there that's a it's that's a positive technology thank you and you hit you explain it a lot better than I did but that's essentially what it is it's we measure everything in customer minute CMI it's called customer minutes of interruption so let's say uh you know two of you have an average and of an hour each that's 120 CMI so that's the way we measure things and we go through a weekly reliability call with our Engineers or reliability Engineers or operations staff to basically talk about those large outages with large cmis and ways to actually reduce those cmis moving forward the other thing the trip Savers do too correct me if I'm wrong is a lot of times it will it will narrow down to where the incident occurred so if a tree is on a branch instead of it looking over uh say five miles a line it might be only one mile a line so even from that it it takes less time to investigate where it happens and uh that also leads to a quicker recovery as well absolutely and that's essentially what I touched on with isolation when we isolate these trip Savers can't isolate issues out there like like that if a circuit runs for say 20 miles but only a mile it's affected because you know a tree tree fell or a tree branch um again it could isolate and just minimize the out size to that particular stretch there that span of wire or something if if I could just ask you to spend just a quick minute because I know I've gotten a couple questions about your amrs that are coming out um I know the concern is um how long is it going to take to put them in and am I going to be out power and so on and so forth so if you just give a 30 second synopsis as to what's included to switching out to an AMR um from ACP now so folks who are I keep saying folks it's really customers who uh are going to be swapped meters are going to be swapped at their homes at their wherever it may be they'll receive notification well in advance when Crews will be out there contractors will be out there to replace those meters the meter itself uh maybe a twom minute outage you know between them taking out the old meter and putting a new meter in maybe it's two minutes or so I'm not in jcpnl territory I actually I'm in psng territory myself I have a smart meter installed at my building uh it was installed a couple years back I was home when it was done and I actually spoke to the technician he's kind of surprised that I knew a lot more than he I probably looked uh at the time in flip-flops and shorts you know in terms of the smart meters but yeah it's quick two-minute uh Interruption service Interruption and essentially it may not be activated right away uh there may be additional time it takes to actually calibrate those meters and whatnot that's not something that's going to effect the customer that's done behind theat thank you those meters are like Plug and Play just pop out the other one Boney slicer I call it tell my kids you know they they run that electric and I can slice meat off those things but you can't if you can um so it's funny with those meters a lot of times I I would get a call from a municipality say we're upgrading our service CH needs to pull the meter to basically upgrade the service they want to bring they want us to come out and actually pull that meter you don't really need the pull the meter the electrician do it I know there's a tag on it tag will get replaced one the next meter but those trip Savers are great too because you know you're going to be able to know your your usage uh hour by hour essentially when they're when they're up and running full capacity but then at the same time right now we're customer dependent on outages right so if you lose power at your home we're still relying on you to report that to us with Smart Meters we'll be able to tell instantaneously exactly who's still out size of out is who still out if there's a 2,000 customer outage and everyone here is included in that we tell you it's all restored all 2,000 customers are restored but maybe two of you still don't have power that means you probably have an issue at your house specifically that's specific to your home uh but we'll still be able to see that on our end so instead of saying hey everyone's restored 2,000 C customers are back we'll basically be able to tell you it's 1998 there's still two customers remaining out some something along those lines going back to trips saers really quickly as well and you you hit on this councilman in terms of you know crew having send a crew out to actually investigate a fuse that's that's open what the what the cause of that fuse opening was uh that those STP Savers if they if they work as intended and if that fault does clear and that trips saer does save us time in terms of restoration whatnot that saves our crew time you know fuel consumption and things of that nature so the money that would typically be spent on something like that can be redirected somewhere else within a company himself and then at the same time that crew can actually go focus on something else that's an outage happening another uh also frees up uh Chief young right his guys his his um his staff the police department you see a lot of CR Critical Care customers that are on uh uh on the grid um essentially and they need power to operate some of their lifesaving equipment so trip Savers are huge for customers like that huge for well water customers I know there are ton here in Bon County everybody here everyone pretty much so again that saves a lot of headache for customers with these trip Savers and again it's not just the trip Savers it's everything right It's a combination of all things but you know in places like Sussex County specifically it's going to make a huge difference because again A lot of people are on critical care or they have well work so if the council chooses to pass a resolution when would the work start would it be completed expectation timeline five years uh is the timeline for the actual completion okay so in terms of start we're ready to start tomorrow we you basically and they're not at this point just yet uh they haven't even scheduled public hearings and they do need to schedule those public hearings we don't have dates on them the docket is still open um so as soon as we actually get approval from the BPU on the plan then the next day we're essentially out work so we're anticipating most like fourth quarter this year and ifu were passed and work were started and then completed would the amount of money that were added to the residents Bill be then dropped from their monthly bill on the completion of the project good question again um so yes and no but it's long they'll see customers will see the difference in their rates not during the length of the actual program is s it's really based on the equipment that we're installing it's the lifespan of that equipment so if it's let's say a poll if we're putting a stronger more durable pole in and that lifespan the lifespan of that pole is 40 years that pole appreciates over time just like a vehicle would or a boat or almost going to say house but it's not exactly accurate but today today's day and age maybe but the depreciation is really where you're going to start seeing the rates kind of drop over time and drop maybe too strong of award what kind of scale back let's scale back any other question thank you very much we appreciate the time you've taken thank you for your time apprciate thank you sir than is it in the interest of the council to continue to discuss this for a resolution to be proposed at the next meeting for pass it at this meeting I don't think there'd be much controversy on it it's uh JCP and I'll customer personally y makes sense well see I I don't because I have those things on the roof but I happen to think if I had not not have those I'd be right there with you so right how about you I'm I'm fine with it I'm fine with it can we I'd like to see one get written up yes can we we will have it introduced at the next meeting is that okay absolutely thank you actually Tina has a copy I have a template resolution that I shared with Tina okay yeah so it's again it's not um you know feel free to add take away whatever it may be to the resolution itself it's just a template so something just to keep in mind but a lot of the heavy lifting is done right yes I hope I'll I'll send it to you Mar thank you you very much have a good night appreciate thank you Tina for the effort that you've put into this program it seems like you've been in contact quite a bit you're welcome time we have with us our EMT uh I guess chair or uh Mr Clark and Clark om Om I'm sorry got the numbers wrong never be very good in the military I believe you have uh some comments that you'd like to address to the coun yes also we have Mr Duffy a member of one of our crews uh in uh Glenwood and uh who served my family a number of times thank you very much well my L wife myself when I was clumsy enough to break a knee and appreciate it thank you so much thank you my name is Ken Clark I'm the OEM coordinator for the township uh with me is Kevin Duffy's the Chief Operating Officer uh from formerly Glennwood uh pochu ambulance Corps um we wanted to bring you up to speed um in order to expand and um improve EMS service for the township we have um merged the two organizations Vernon first aid Squad and Glennwood pochu uh ambulance Court together into one organization um we chose a new board of directors representing three members from each group and then uh myself as the oam coordinator was assigned to be the leaon for the township to this board um we've been moving forward since November in this effort um we are fully operational at this point as one organization Vernon Township emergency medical services I'm sorry Vernon e Emergency Medical Services um so we have uh dramatically improved the EMS coverage for the township uh for evenings right now there's there's nothing we can do for daytime we're using uh Atlantic which we work with on a daily basis um but we were able to uh move forward we have a new board the board chose Kevin and um Peggy warnett as his deputy chief Kevin chose his uh officers from there um it has been an undertaking of U consolidating equipment consolidating finances we filed our 501c3 already we have um um incorporation papers filed with the state to move forward so what this is um rapidly improve the MS coverage at night for Vernon Township um Kevin has done a wonderful job uh with Glennwood he's taken this on um as the Chief Operating Officer for the new organization and uh let him speak a little bit but this is what we wanted to do we're going to consolidate some equipment down um which is going to save the town some money for insurance and maintenance and uh overall costs um we're going to try to improve um some of the ambulance that we need there's been a lot of Maintenance that has been done so I'll let Kevin speak to that thank you for the introduction as Ken said my name is Kevin Duffy I'm the chief operation officer of now Vernon Emergency Medical Services thems Veron EMS it's a as Ken said we've done a lot since November uh to the point where I'm proud to say that we're actually in a holding pattern for recruiting new members the reason being is I have over 20 applicants that we're waiting to put on nights we went from a typical week where we'd have only one ambulance on Monday through Friday nights to now we only have two nights that do not have two on and our call volume has maintained the same everybody's still calling us for help which is always there for them but our response time has also gone down we've gone a lot faster some of the changes that we're doing with the vehicle is just to increase with our safety and just typical standards in today's Ms World along with being able to provide better care for all patients that call for us I see you have are they your fellow members back there that's well that's actually some of my partners on fire I don't do fire I do not run into a burning building credit to them we appreciate their efforts as well yes me too because I can't run into a burning building takes a special person um are you requiring anything from us so it's actually your continued support the uh Council and town Administration for the past I've been te for now five years for the past five years have always shown great support the community has always shown great support uh so the only thing is really your continued support with our finances with our assistance with vehicles DPW we're in contact with them every day um it's been great working with them so your continued support uh we don't have any age limit on applications so if you guys want to volunteer you can volunteer he looked at you when he said that I hope you're not looking at Meer did she's always welcome back so it's just your continued support thank you we um we have met with the mayor and Tina and Donell um we have presented a capital budget which the mayor looked and said this is painful not really but uh we do need to upgrade some of the fleet um we're going to do that in in pieces we have laid out a plan for the LA for the next 10 years um but we are going to require continued support we're going to maintain the three buildings in town for coverage so like Kevin said you're continued support is uh is crucial to us moving forward and your coverage Will Remain the Same by Lake Barry and yes yep where's the third building Glennwood on 565 you have the Valley Building 94 in the uh there's a building up on canister Road oh there is can't break NE actually oh okay thank you very much I assure you I assure you we will continue to provide our support to you and uh thank you for the excellent service that you given to our community and the people who need it most those who are agent and uh need that extra bit of help thank you so much thank you guys thank you thank you guys mayor's comments thank you council president Mr Anthony I just want to add that uh I've met with the Duffy in the clock uh back in November so I do want to applaud you two gentlemen for all the work that you've done by putting this together and and I know from my background was doing mergers and it's it's a big undertaking and uh you know I sat with these gentlemen during their budget meeting and and they they were extremely sensitive to spending money and uh and I applaud you guys for that too so now only you an incredible job out there in the street but watching you guys conduct business too was really great and uh thank you for having me there and you know uh you have my support thank you guys thank you for everything you do thank you thank you uh I'd like to thank U well thank thank you Council for uh proving uh the appointment of M thank you very much sir I think he'll be a great fit for burn um I also uh I want to thank uh Mr zilinsky and his FM for all the years of serving uh as M's attorney thank you for that um during my campaign you know I've said you know I would work with anyone help reduce cost and expand our shed Services I have also made comments in in regards to working with the with what of vet and I've and at times I've been told to stay away from the board of vet involved um you know they're their own separate you know entity per se so uh but I have to say truly uh for the first time probably Vernon's history that we are finally working together as a community and this new board of head Administration has taken up has taken me up on my offer to to work together the ways that we can reduce spending through shared services we had been working together since I I've been elected with Tiner and and denell um Can mayor can you speak up I make sure I speak more to the microphone could you guys hear me yeah sorry it's been a long day um sorry that was my spot um so we' working yet since I've been elected we continue to discuss and we go here we go thank you all ways of reducing cost that's beneficial to the taxpayers this is only possible because of both new uh administrations have the the willingness to work together I also wanted to be clear that our Administration is not discussing any educational cost savings initiatives Etc this is not an area that that I would touch the shared services that we are working on uh getting done not only reduce spending but also provides a better and faster service for an example The Bard of Ed has two catch basins that are collapsing ones at the high school and ones at Glen metal uh and they have the potential of being dangerous um so if they're not addressed in a timely matter the Board of Ed has received several estimates the between 17 to $20,000 to fix these two Pat patients uh with with no ETA on exactly when they would be done uh repaired so when I raised the concern to DPW they immediately visited these two locations and told me that they can fix it and we'll start preparing for this after this after the snow slore um this will only cost less time material because I think Corvette even has the material for it um and like I said who you know they say who government is slow right uh government doesn't have to be slow uh as long as you have right people in place who have the willingness to get things done then there always the money but that's you know that could always be slow um other shared services with the board of v um that we are we are planing to deal uh is are snow plowing and street sweeping that that's an average cost of 90 to $100,000 a year we're looking to take on the garbage which is about $100,000 a year plus we'll soon be managing our own garbage it's about $30,000 a year we have the trucks uh and we have the permit to manage this type of garbage so why not uh we will be purchasing another garbage compactor or two we're still in the process of putting that stuff together we also be taking over were the parking lot patching um I don't know about the entire parking lot you know paven but that's a big undertaken but that's another story so again I'm just discussing with things that that I've been working with the Board of Ed and you know so just so you guys can really get that transparency of what's been going on um the we also the board of heads currently pays around $100,000 for a sewer operator I have discussions with the w we have one we have one possibly two employees who have their sewer operator license and just needs the water license which we were scheduling this employee to to get his license and then we could possibly take over the sewer operating course um and but also the water testing which is another 37,000 so it's a total of $137,000 a year we'd be saving vehicle maintenance uh I know the B does some vehicle maintenance we we do some but we're we've opened up the door so they can actually both work together on on seeing what we can do for them and vice versa we've also uh discovered that the board of vet actually has licensed electricians and plumming on payroll so we're looking to do a shared service with well for a Township um this would be huge for us if we have certain some jobs that we can possibly uh get some assistance from instead of having to go out and uh and pay all the time so pre removal is another one um we are looking for we're they haven't put it out yet we're looking to add a bucket to one of our existing trucks which we can outfit one of our one of our trucks um we that cost I mean it's probably I think around what 10,000 we spending 4,000 what had spent four grand or so it's somewhere I think if we start now this does not include like we're not doing total you know certain tree removals what we can't do because you know obviously you have to be really experienced uh at that before we start you know taking down trees everywhere but it is something that we we can help offset some of that cost um and once we have all these shared services in place the Vernon tax rate uh the tax payers of ear Township will say probably close to about a half a million dollars a year um here it take is we still have to you know we also have to provide that service and also this this billing that goes with that too uh we'll be drafting up these agreements as soon as possible Council to approve uh uh as each board event contract sets to expire which hopeing I think that somewhere about in another year some of those contracts will start to expire so hopefully we have some things in place to get that going I want to thank the DPW for all that they've done for us and stepping up willing to take on these these shed Services these men and women are extremely valuable to Vern in Township and they did such a phenomenal job uh with the snow and uh especially the contractors that we sub out to uh we've I've heard no complaints about about the snow plowing another thing just to I just throw out there it's very early in development but the V of Ed was uh in contact with Elizabethtown Gas to convert the schools to Natural Gas not the high school with the other ones so that that is coming at at some date don't know but that's kind of you know in a distance also I want to mention that on February 21st we were having an open public forum with our tax assesses and the has been doing these phals so I encourage the public to attend we will also be avail a on Zoom um that information is available on front of Township website that's all my comments thank you thank you m thank may I have a motion to open the floor for public comment move by Mr Higgins I'll second second by Mrs berer um may I have motion the made seconded all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries this portion for comment is limited to three minutes and is for agenda items only anybody here wish to comment on something on the agenda please step forward we have anybody on in the sky boxes yes I have anneal I'm sorry anal anal how are you sir hello anel yeah I'm here I'm here can you hear me yes I can hear you okay great so that's Annie L that's what it's not an L I'm sorry an no worries no worries I just do that oh how are you yes an lson so good evening everyone and uh if I speak to the things on the agenda I I just wanted to bring up something I passed uh going through in reference to the Cannabis ordinance and the deletion of h a police a police background check on the applicants and uh I don't know where this came from but this is a bad idea I I started looking through the requirements for um for uh liquor licenses there they're required to get uh to get police background checks Realtors require them insurance agents EMS workers all sorts of people need need background checks so this really got me puzzled and then I started looking further and further into this whole uh proposal by the um by the green people there whatever their name is and I came up with a few things that are extremely troubling uh one of which is that the the staff I guess they're looking to Target re-entry programs while hiring veterans is wonderful and mendable I really take exception to drawing uh felons here re-entry re-entry people who are former offenders I don't think we need to lure these people into town uh if you ask me but um it may not sound polite but you know I'll let them find their business elsewhere outside of our rural County our rural area um it's just very very troubling uh the the workforce is you know they went on and on about a bunch of different things but I've got other things to discuss about it for example uh what is the what is the process for determining who the other people on a license are it mentions 51% is Karen goonan who are the other 49% who were apparently nameless um in the event of a bankruptcy or serious violation What remedy is for the town to yank the licenses immediately in the event of a death how does the how does the license get transferred I mean if we're going to correct these things in the ordinance I feel like we should correct them all at the same time but I don't believe these cannabis licenses should be held to a much looser standard than our actual um liquor license owners are so that's it thank you quickly I uh generally don't like to just answer business meeting but regarding the background checks background checks had been done by our police owing to the fact that the requirements and statutes change so quickly at the state level because of the inconsistency of the legislature on interpreting various things regarding cannabis we will have the state police will do the background check because they're closer to what's happening than our local police and the the the thoroughness of that background check will in no way be uh lessened as regards to uh I believe you had another question um the ownership the transfer of of the license you know all these things that addressing the we don't issue the license the township does not issue the license the license is issued by the state hence that whether or not is being revoked rescinded suspended or whatever takes place at the state level not at the local level well here's the thing the state doesn't do anything well so if there's if there's a crisis here we should be the first people to act not wait for I just want I I understand that but please understand this when the township actually when the county approved cannabis use by 70% townships had an opportunity to opt in to retail manufacturing wholesale and distribution it Vernon chose to do that it did it through its elected representatives now you have you you need a fiveyear opt out and we haven't reached that point so whether or not any of us sitting on the council sitting here or who sit in the audience and say they prefer not to have it want to do something about it we can't what has been done was a revision of the Cannabis ordinance freezing the retail licenses at three and that has come to pass the other issues still remain the same and when the period of the opt out arrives then you can ra raise this question to the council or the council can bring it up on its own and we can see what happens then okay one other question does SK school count as a school I I feel like the property is very close to Mountain Creek and the pal is bringing the palal student to ski school there and theil as long as as along with the other uh interion people this is not an illegal drug hence being near a school is not a consideration thank you very much is there anybody else I don't have any other hands up anybody from the audience no may I have a motion to close the meeting to the public moved second I'm sorry the public portion of the meeting moved by Mr uh Sparta is there a second second seconded by Mr Higgins all in favor please signify by saying I I I motion carries okay um right now we have a review of the bills list anybody have any questions on this I have some not a questions just comments on it there were we payments as you know Council we are now working with the uh two types of bids here or payments here one prior to the uh use of the bid the new bids the result you know the new rates and the one from the old one um we have the in the amount of money uh for notchwood snow removal for Barry Lakes $ 28,1 se2 we have spidel for Lake Panorama lake walkill lake Glenwood in the amount of in total 50,7 se5 and then we have Ray bro sanitation a snow removal for Highland Lakes in the amount of $93 um 8008 93,6 50 you're looking at a total of about 170,000 73,000 uh if we look at that amount of money against the amount that has been set aside in our temporary budget the first for the first quarter we're going to be uh knocking at the door so I I have asked uh the I'm going to ask the council the Mrs brigh to kind of give us some assurance that we'll be okay we will have money we'll have money okay all right as long as we can know where it's coming from we do have H snow reserves we put aside funds every year um from funds that we don't expend into our snow reserves that um you know this is the first year that we've taken on the communi obviously it's through a contractor um but that money will be in the budget and we will have money obviously in reserves anything outside of the budget secondly I noticed that there was a charge of $8,888 38 from uh cucin Brothers for cedar planks for the community garden and I know all of you have heard and I that the community garden was not supposed to cost the township any money and I brought this up to miss wgh and she immediately gave me the answer that I had hoped I would get was that it didn't it came from our trust account specifically for the garden for the garden if anybody should ask you it doesn't cost the township at least this didn't cost us anything maybe the water that we provide but that's about it there's a rain catch there and what's that I think there's a rain catch there a rain catch good okay thank you are there any other comments the questions on the bills list thank you we have with us tonight the approval of the bills list I'm sorry we the minutes and the all members have received copies of the minutes of the meeting of January 15 which is our reorganization meeting and I have a motion to put these minutes on the floor for consideration you're GNA have an issue with the 20 second for votes Natalie and I were not there for the meeting well I guess we can only do you want to table that table y so we'll table this the 15th um the 15 we're good the 22nd will table yep okay um moving along I'll make a motion for the 15th I I'll second it moved by Mr sparter seconded by Mrs bueri and uh the meetings have been tabled I'm sorry vote on that no the motion was to approve the January 15th minutes because we we were all there for that one we were you don't have enough fotes for the 22nd that's I wish you had let me finish I got me how to sink there sorry you know I'm kind of kind of old and crotchy I stand in go my he there thank you y so uh may have a motion on the motion has been made and seconded all in favor signify by saying I unless there are any corrections or deletions I I I I motion carries consent agenda resolution 24- 56 uh resolution of the township Council of the township of Vernon amending resolution 22- 77 in support of an adult used cannabis retailer license for Castle of green I'd like to separate this separately from the consent agenda we do have the the resolution are there may I have a motion to bring this to the floor moved moved moved by Mr sparter seconded by Mr Higgins um so any comment on this we're just doing 2456 right now right right okay this is not this is essentially just a change in the address the address is very near the existing address I believe within a couple of doors a printout has been provided for the type of Decor of the facility the interior and also the Staffing of the facility and uh it's essentially what was promote provided on the initial presentation any questions or comments or additions on this no so it's moving from 218 to 222 Route 94 exactly okay okay I I do have a question sure since they already had a a through Wellness from back in 22 I it yeah 22 right um and since then we've changed the ordinance so now are they subject to the new timeline that we put into the ordinance yeah and the licensing fees and the licensing fees and everything right the okay excuse me they were involved in the original yeah we approved them under the original ordinance I don't know I don't think so they probably they probably aren't they probably under whatever the original one know that's off top of yeah I mean like and uh the only thing we really changed in that is the number of retail licenses no no we we have a we have a yearly fee now we also didn't we put in a timeline that they had to come before the um land use board within a certain time of our I believe 100 days also an initial license and there's early fees to this is it is a new resolution right it's well no it's amending an amendment the existing resolution yeah as a general matter if you increase fees you know this is again just haven't looked at your ordinance or or this in depth but um if it's just an annual fee they might be subject to annual fees but if you're you know increases things like that but if you're changing um if they were approved under one set of land use rules or licensing regulations overall and you made changes to it they may be Grandpa if there's a concern in particular we can look at it and and obviously we want to make sure that if we can that they are being covered by whatever the newer regulations are to the extent we kept exactly there was no fees at all in the original ordinance and we added that in we added an annual license fee of what five 5,000 or 9,000 or 10,000 10,000 10 10 right yes we do not amend but we withraw a resolution and then do a new one would they be then subject well I don't know I was going to say um not wanting to throw a wrench in the works on this uh not knowing all the the history to it uh certainly one option uh potentially could be if it's not time sensitive is you table it for tonight you give us an opportunity just to to review it and at a minimum that way the questions are answered um and if there's an opportunity to make sure it's clear in the resolution or there's no dispute with them over it that may be something we could do I I think for the for the for the town standpoint and for the applicant standpoint um I would like to have some clear uh answers on this so I I'll make a motion to table this yeah motion has been made to table I'll second it not necessary all in favor I I I motion is taken U Matt you'll search yeah I'll take a look at it and and then I'll advise everybody before the next meeting there's quite not only for the applicant but for what we've done since that understood okay thank you resolution 2457 resolution authorizing fireworks to be displayed on February 5th in the township of Vernon Special Olympics by the way the was a very very nice they were nice Firework and uh we appreciate the effort that has been hopefully it passes otherwise can't bring it back resolution 2458 authorizing the township of Vernon to enter into an agreement with Statewide Insurance funds resolution 2459 resolution of the township of Vernon County of Sussex state of New Jersey granting Authority for approval of certain purchases in excess of the bid threshold through the New Jersey state contracts indoor purchasing cooperative for 2024 resolution 2460 authorizing contract with Micro Systems New Jersey LLC for the year 2024 in the amount not to exceed $15,000 resolution 2461 resolution of the township of Vernon authorizing an execution of agreement for municipal Services between the township of Vernon and Stonehill Property Owners Association Inc resolution 2462 resolution of the township of Vernon authorizing the execution but agreement for municipal Services between the township of Vernon and Lake po chunk associ Association homeowners association resolution 2463 a resolution authorizing a Grant application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs uh for FY 24 local Recreation Improvement grant program 20 resolution 2464 resolution of the township of Vernon County of cesk state of New Jersey authorizing execution a memorandum of understanding between the Vernon Township Police Department and Atlantic Health System Newton Medical Center to establish joint participation in the arriv together program to enhance the support response to certain Behavioral Health crisis qual may have a motion excuse me may I ask does anybody have any desire to have any resolution separated from the consent agenda not I'll ask for a motion I'll make that motion motion made by Mrs bueri is there a second a second second by Mr spart there any comment or question on these no so DaNell I promised I wouldn't ask anything that wasn't on the agenda so some of these things are new to me and uh so I I see that some of the state contracts we're going over the amount because of price increases and we need these items is that no there's just um bid bidding thresholds so in order to go ahead and go over the bidding threshold and use the St contract would it's just a formality to pass a resolution use so State contract doesn't have a price in it right now or they have pricing for the individual vendors but we know we're going to spend over the bid threshold okay okay and then the second one was on the uh uh I I guess on the Township roads there's a lot of history that went on with that and uh plowing and replacing the grid and the salt and reimburse at our cost is it for the MSA agreements yes yeah so the two that are on here um we're required by law of the municipal Services act in order to reimburse those communities we have to have an agreement in place these two um associations never signed an agreement with us going back to 20 prior to 2019 um so when the township realized they didn't have an agreement in place we sent out agreements um and they have finally agreed to sign those agreements so the one for Stonehill is for everything from 2019 to 2023 we're going to do a separate agreement for them for 2024 this is just so that they can get paid um for the four years and then um the one for like again it was the same agreement that we sent out to them um that they've decided to sign so they can get reimbursed so it just wasn't signed but we provided the services we did not provide services we did not reimburse them no so they were they have outside contract s they submit all their invoices we calculate a per mile rate and then we reimburse them based on what our per mile rate is um they never signed the contracts before they have now signed them so that's why it's for the council tonight so it's a breakthrough good thank you thank you motion has been made and seconded roll call please council member bushier yes council member Higgins yes yes council president rudo yes resolution I'm sorry ordinance 24-02 ordinance of the township of Veron County ofes state of New Jersey amending chapter 13 cannabis establishment licensing and regulation of the code of the township of Veron to remove requirements for the township Vernon Township Police Department uh to perform background checks Andor investigations we have a motion to introduce ordinance 24-02 first reading as a first reading moved moved by Mr spart is there a second second second by Mr Higgins um roll call please council member bushier yes counc CC member Higgins yes council member Sparta yes council president rudo yes motion carries an ordinance 24-3 ordinance of the township of Vernon County of Sussex state of New Jersey amending chapter 52 section 90 uh of the Township Code entitled duties of fire commissioner Deputy Commissioner may I have a motion to introduce 24-3 I'll second moved by Mr spart seconded by Mr Mrs jir um roll Coes counc sharing yes council member Higgins yesc Sparta yes yes may I uh G to open the meeting to the public for five minutes on any topic uh may I have a motion to open the floor moved moved by Mr sparter is there a second second seconded by Mr Higgins all in favor signify by saying I I I oos motion carries um the floor is open for public comment on any item for a time of five minutes anybody wishing to speak um thanks Alie quick um I know you guys have your name please I'm sorry Scott Castle from Glenwood um I know a lot of times you get negative comments uh that people are bringing up so I wanted to bring up a couple positive ones um I can't say I'll always be up here always um but I I in general my wife and I were discussing this and and I really like the feel from the council that we're getting recently with new members and things like that um I think uh the township attorney change is huge um you know I won't get into why I think that's huge but seems like we have a competent Township attorney um I like that Mr Higgins quite often I mean you all do it but he brings up questions on you know why are we uh you know why would we go over the bid limit things like that which questions that I have and I think other people have gets that explained um along those lines I've seen Mr Higgins and Miss D benedetto outside of these meetings very open um really informative on what they do and similarly Mr rudo that was a great question on jcpnl with um you know I'm fine with the improvements and I'm fine with paying for it with rate increases when those improvements have paid for themselves with the rate increases do the rates go back down very doubtful that ever [Laughter] happen and just the last thing is the mayor's comments to me are awesome I think the uh the shared services plan with Boe is great I don't know if they all happen or they don't but I think that I I can't believe they weren't in place to start with I know the Boe likes to do their own things at times but things like that I think even even the small shared services changes they all add up to something when you have the board of bed you know cutting out late buses and kids can't take Sports and things like that because there's no late bus to me that's it's insane so I think that any money that's saved in those shared services is is just great so you know in the short per period you've been mayor I've had really a great feeling from all of it and you know I don't know you personally but um I appreciate that that effort you're putting in so that was it for me just wanted to throw that out there thanks thank you sir thank you sir have a good night thank you anyone else anybody online um going to give it a second but I don't have any hands up I don't have any hands up make a motion to close the meeting to the I'm moved moved by Mr Higgins second second by Mr Cy all in favor signify by saying I I iOS motion carries favorite portion right Council comments right okay Mr Higgins Mr Scot thank you very much for what you said and it's a it is a good feeling good group open Communications with the mayor and uh I'm enthusiastic so thank you that will wne over time um I just want to thank mayor Rossy for inviting the council member to the council members to the uh Special Olympics opening ceremony it was it was a great experience to to witness um from my understanding it's the first time that that the council's been invited to that so uh it was much appreciated um had a couple good laughs as well and uh it it was a nice night so thank you for including us in that so that's all thank you this yeah I want to Echo Mr Sparta's sentiments um it is the first time that I had the opportunity to attend that so it was a great evening a wonderful organization and just really something that um you know we're proud to have in our town so I wanted to to thank you for that and welcome Mr mench and um hopefully we'll have a great 2024 I'd like to thank our and police and our Personnel this was a hard you know was a hard- hit storm really came up fast uh got a lot more snow than many people thought we would ever get close to 12 inches I think on the mountain we were probably looking at 14 to 16 and people don't understand that there is that type of a difference now and I I know that when we I was expecting I had to go to a medical appointment the following day and I expected to be shut down and I wasn't the streets were great they were just wet they were you know any downed uh Limbs and everything were taken care of I didn't hear too much about the power being out uh I think everything worked well so my thanks to the people in the DPW and they did an excellent job and as I said the fire and police and are EMT and of course for our to our mayor for managing this uh I had run into him the day before and he was swolling coffee because he wasn't sure how you know how how long he could stay up was monitor the thing did a nice job thank you mayor uh as far as the Special Olympics I had had the opportunity to be there previously under an earlier Administration and it's nice to see how much it has grown it was a very very nicely handled Affair and uh thank you for inviting us mayor uh I made sure that I put a a little slip into the to the people at the door that you know we we look forward to be invited again so but other than that I have no move second moved by Mr spart second am Mr pins all in favor signify by saying I I motion carries he good everybody okay you know