##VIDEO ID:0DobMXs7oGg## [Music] good evening I like to call this meeting to order at six o'clock this is a regular meeting of the township of Washington in accordance with the requirements of New Jersey statutes regarding open public meetings notice the meeting was legally advertised in the carrier Post in the South Jersey Times it posted on the Bolton board in the municipal building fire exits are located through the double doors to your left and right please silence all mobile devices this meeting is being a videotape anyone who wish does not wish to be seen on television may be excused this will be shown on Comcast channel 9 every week Sunday at 900 PM Wednesday at 7 p.m. Friday at 10 p.m. and Saturday at 10 p.m. and we'll continue until the next meeting the meeting is not being live streamed corre okay it's not being live streamed tonight please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge algi un States of America stands Nation roll call please Mr Bennett here Mr Brown here Mr Delia here Mr jurus President Mr deell here mayor Burns Mr Russo Mr Wright presid moving on presentations start with Chief gersi good evening everyone it's truly an honor to stand before you tonight as we celebrate the incredible Spirit of community and partnership that makes Washington Township such a special place to live and serve as chief of police I have the P privilege of leading a department committed to not only law enforcement but to Foster in trust connection and Care within our community the mission would not be possible without the unwavering support of residents who share our vision and work alongside of us to make Washington t a safe and welcomeing place for all tonight I proud to recognize two outstanding individuals with the community caretaker Awards this award is reserved only for those who go above and beyond to support our Department's mission to protect and serve not only through their words but through their actions and deeds uh Mike graph and Jeff Novak can you please come up mik care if your contributions have been invaluable whether through sponsorships or donations or your constant encouragement you exemplify the best of what it means to be a neighbor who cares deeply about our shared Community Mike your dad would definitely be proud of you tonight Jeff your dedication to our community outreach programs has had a lasting impact not just on our department but on the countless lives you have touched through the police department with your kindness and generosity on behalf of the men and the women of the Wasington the Township Police Department thank you for your commitment your compassion and your care you inspire us and you set the standard for what it means to be a true partner in community service congratulations and thank you for everything you do for our town [Applause] con we [Music] over it was backed up to Def all right moving on can I get a motion to approve the bill list for oh c I'm sorry Colette report on best practice presented by Colette um good evening mayor council members U my name is kette akish and I am the CFO for Washington Township and I'm here to discuss Washington Township's best practices inventory results for this year just for a bit of background on what best practices inventory is the state of New Jersey prates an inventory or survey to all municipalities to obtain Vital Information about the status of their governmental practices this inventory is meant to assess compliance with New Jersey statutes and operational procedures there were over 70 questions both scored and unscored and the scoring for each municipality is based on the answers to the questions in a variety of topics ethics budg budget affordable Housing and Redevelopment just to name a few this year the minimum score that must be reached was 35 in order for Washington Township to receive a full State financial aid payment I am happy to report that Washington Township scored well above the minimum and will be receiving 100% of our state aid in the year of 2024 thank you for your time and if you have any questions I will be happy to answer have any questions we have a dollar um it's over it's over three million it's in our it's in the budget for I don't have the exact dollar amount they uh send that out I should be in the next couple weeks I can give you that dollar amount yeah fine when when we do rece no yep thank you appreciate you okay thank you [Applause] all right moving on can I get a motion to approve the bill is for November 26 2024 motion second roll call Mr JZ yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr delpia yes Mr deell yes can I get a motion to approve the regular minutes for October 23rd 2024 and a special meeting minutes for November 7th 2024 Mo roll call please Mr jorz yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr delpia yes Mr debella yes moving on to ordinances ordinance 0017 d224 ordinance amending the code of the township of Washington Chapter 2 article 9 Department of Law Enforcement and chapter 80 article one fees this ordinance is up for adoption after public hearing can I get a motion open to the public on ordinance 00 17-24 motion all in favor I anyone in public wishing to speak about this ordinance seeing none can I get a motion to close to the public on ordinance 17-24 can I get a motion to approve ordinance 17224 second roll call please Mr yoris yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr Delia yes Mr deell yes moving on ordinance 0018 d224 ordinance amending chapter 80 of the code of of Washington entitled fees this ordinance is up for introduction only can I get a motion to introduce ordinance 0018 d24 motion roll call Mr Brown yes sorry Mr jorz yes Mr Bennett yes Mr delpia yes Mr deell yes public hearing adoption will be held on December 17 2024 ordinance 9-24 ordinance adopting the amend Redevelopment plan for the deli Drive Redevelopment area in accordance with the requirements of the local Redevelopment and Housing law NJ sa 4A 12 A-1 this ordinance is up for introduction only can I get a motion to introduce ordinance 019 d24 motion second roll call please Mr jurus yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr delpia yes Mr debella yes public hearing adoption will be held on December 17 2024 orance 0020 d224 ordinance of the township of Washington County of Gloucester in the state of New Jersey repealing township code chapter 216 streets and sidewalks section 38 through 41 pertaining to sidewalk maintenance and amending chapter 179 Property Maintenance and housing standard section 7even hats and unsanity conditions D duties of owners and operators to include maintenance of sidewalks this ordinance is for introduction only can I get a motion introduce ordinance 0020 d24 excuse me council president uh the title should be it's um section 39 through 41 oh okay it says here 38 yes that supposed to be 39 okay notice in the first paragraph okay all right strike that actually 30 39 through 41 this this ordinance is up for introduction only can I get a motion to introduce ordinance 0020 D2 2024 motion second roll call please Mr yurz yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr delpia yes Mr derella yes public hearing adoption will be held on December 17 2024 moving on resolutions the following resolutions are by consent agenda only require vote for all listed each one must be read by title if any member of the council wishes to heard one removed and heard separately they need to indicate prior to reading the titles does anyone need anything removed Madam clerk would you please leave the resolutions please resolution 280 resolution appointing a municipal housing lison resolution 281 resolution authorizing a change in custodian of petty cash fund for the tangal Washington 282 resolution accepting bids and awarding a contract on an as-needed basis for snow snowplowing Services throughout the township of Washington for the Department of Municipal services for the 2024 2025 season to 83 resolution awarding a contract for the lease of property owned by the town CH Washington known as 220 fish pond Road Su New Jersey 08080 block 8532 l21 for agricultural purposes 284 resolution awarding a contract for the lease of property owned by the township of Washington known as 339 Selena Road blck 20 lot 3 285 resolution requesting approval of Revenue and Appropriations from the Department of Community Affairs for the opioid settlement Grant in the amount of 23,000 n 95 25,000 23,9 how do I95 that got me to thank you 286 resolution requesting approval of re of Revenue and Appropriations from the Department of Community Affairs for the Washington Lake Park inclusive playground project Grant in the amount of 750,000 287 resolution authorizing the Township Tax Collector to cancel any tax refunds or delinquencies of less than $10 for the calendar year 2024 in accordance with njsa 485-1771 288 resolution cancelling taxes for Brandy Wilson 270 Green Tree Road effective December 31st 2023 289 resolution cancelling taxes for Branded mat a totally disabled veteran 55 Saddle Brook Drive effective August 9th 2024 resolution cancelling 280 290 resolution cancelling taxes for David eer a totally disabled veteran 423 Greenview Road effective August 13 2024 291 resolution cancelling ta taxes for Curtis price a totally disabled veteran 325 Johnson Road effective August 28th 2024 292 resolution cancelling ta taxes for Brian scavetta a totally disabled veteran 16 Sher Court effective October 9th 2024 resolution cancelling taxes for James Early a totally disabled veteran 52 pal Tree Drive effective October 30th 2024 294 resolution cancelling taxes for Sarah oberer a totally disabled veteran 914 forb Street effective October 31st 2024 295 resolution cancelling taxes for Francis Fischer a totally disabled veteran 209 Forest Drive effective November 4th 2024 resolution approving the releasee of a maintenance guarantee for hedenberg Pinnacle Place Phase 1 Project 0818 P36 363 DOI esro 1920 297 resolution approving the release of a maintenance guarantee for hedenberg Pinnacle Place Phase 2 project number 0818 p363 doi2 escrow 19 19 20-2 298 resolution to approve an application and contract for Bingo and games of chance at the Washington Township senior center 299 resolution approving large Gathering application for St John's Church of Turnersville Inc 300 resolution approving 2024 massage P license for Jasmine Spa in the township of Washington 301 resolution awarding a contract for the purchase of two 2024 Chevy tahos for the police department 302 resolution authorizing the cancellation of stale dat bank reconciliation items for various accounts for the Tanta Washington 303 resolution authorizing the sale by public bid of certain tax sale certificates owned by the township of Washington pursuant to njsa 54 5-14 et. Q thank you madam clerk can I get a motion to approve resolutions r280 d224 to r303 d224 Second roll call please Mr jurus yes Mr Bennett yes Mr Brown yes Mr delpia yes Mr deell yes uh moving on to Old business and new business and reports let's start with councilman Rich Bennett councilman all righty um coming up in mid uh December which will be our December 14th uh the Old Stone House through the historical preservation commission will have the magic of Christmas we'll have a tree lighting at 5:30 Polar Express Reading bake sale music vendors food photos with Santa activities and mail your letter to Santa it's a great opportunity especially for families um to come out and we have a great Santa he's really great I mean so uh we recommend that people come out and participate in uh this event and uh and as usual do not speed so make sure that everyone is slowing down and make sure that they're driving the speed limit uh we got to be careful especially now that it's getting darker out but uh we got to respect the speed limit in in the town and I thank the police chief for constantly taking care of uh speeding tickets uh throughout the uh weeks and months thanks thank counc Ben coun Brown few things from the library uh they're winding down their program food for fines for November um so if you have any fines up there um make sure you uh some food over and they'll uh second thing cupcake thck at 1 p.m in the adult meeting room celebrate the holidays with cupcakes learn decorating practices and create cupcake designs like a pro uh supplies are provided and she'll show you how to decorate decorate them and take them home and eat uh from the fire department um Santa runs are now being posted on the Township Fire Department website uh take note for the specific times and dates Fire Company taking Santa around um bear with them they got a lot of uh streets to cover and thank these guys for their efforts every year thaning sure uh standing get around to see every thank you councilman Council yurus thank you um I know our open space committee has been busy this past fall with giveaways at the park different flowers and shade trees um excuse me if I got maybe may not be open space maybe the other committee but uh our friends who uh care very much about the environment have been busy over at Washington Lake Park and want to give a special shout out for Veterans Day celebration um this this month was very well attended by the residents of Washington Township special thank to our veterans uh for what they've done and the public attendance and I also want to thank the Washington Township band uh did excellent job um keeping us entertained throughout the uh the program and a special thanks to our guest speaker um that's it all right thank you counc Benn mayor Burns um I just want to say that the township Christmas tree lighting this year um the annual one we do at the park is December 6th which is next Friday uh starts at 6: the Village opens and the tree will be lit at 7 and we're asking this year to bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots um it was a big success last year I believe so it was it was pretty packed so I'm hoping for warm weather yeah yeah War good event and then the other thing is is that the light up the township holiday house decorating contest is on its way we're accepting applications um I know the agenda SS says December 2nd but um I've extended that to Friday December 6th to submit your uh your house if you want it to be considered um we will be judging them on Friday night December uh 13th yes Friday 13th Friday 13th yeah be prepared yeah um and then we'll we we'll announce the winners and give wordss out on at our meeting or your meeting on uh Wednesday December 7 or Tuesday December 17th thank you man that's it Mr Right you have anything Council vice president thank you council president um first I want to mention um if anybody heard about John demara hit by a car a few weeks ago on frill Road um the police department had zero leads they had one fuzzy photo that was very hard to make out by making thousands of calls and knocking on doors they actually were able to turn that lead into a suspect so I want to give a great shout out to our detectives and our Police Department for bringing a little closure to that family you know during the holidays um it's not going to bring John back but it's great to see the work our police department does so a great job Chief in his Department um also uh high school football team lost a tough one on Friday night uh it was great to go to the games last couple games to see the community rally around them um they did something I believe they went to the state game since 1995 95 yeah so um they did a great job lost a tough one on Friday night so you know town was proud to see them do well and it's great to see great group of kids having fun lastly Thanksgiving on Thursday um the police department had our food drive last Wednesday and Thursday um we had people donate $3,000 worth of food uh one guy came kept coming out getting carts he keep filled five shopping carts up so it's great to see the community rally around people in need so uh check on your neighbors anybody you know um it is time to be thankful but also to give so Happy Thanksgiving to everybody all right thank you Council vice president couple things one is congratulations we had eight officers that that got promotion so congratulations to them also high high school football team congratulations again to them happy birthday to Winnie who turned 100 so uh she's 100 years young so we all got to get to spend some time with her we had our play at the high school when we got to see it Harry Potter play was was a big success also in our lobby here at the mpal building we have letters for Santa box have the kids drop off their letters the box is out there it's we're open every day Monday through Friday also have a toys for top box as well so please bring an unwrapped toy you can put inside there had a great event for the craft fair anybody got to see that that's always a packed event just touching on with Council vice president said yeah it was pretty awesome to see all the people who who were giving to the meals program so we have a couple meals programs that we have here we have the one that Chief does which is a huge success then we have one on with the Meals on Wheels which is actually on Thanksgiving Day so anybody in the county needs a hot meal we can deliver that meal please get in touch with me we can do that that's Paul dils in the Kathy McGee meal program we always talk about Kathy McGee when you say can one person make a difference Kathy G was that one person she made a real difference that program was started I think almost 17 18 years ago Kathy's no longer with us but she did a great job she's a was an amazing person anybody who knew Kathy also uh Jerry from the total tur Foundation also they're going to be fif feeding 5200 people around the county so we really do live in a great place a great town people are so generous what a great job they did and the last thing I want to touch on is just the election you know people think in our town that elections have to be so nasty and three people on this SAS proved that prove that that doesn't have to be that way so thank you to them thank you to all the candidates who put their name on the line but they really did a great job we had a pledge here in town there was no negative campaigning they stuck to that we had a great election on on both sides they're great people I I've been honored to work with both of them and and also councilman Bennett uh as well but you when people say it can't be done we Prov that Washington Township can do it doesn't have to be be that nastiness you know we're not Washington DC we're we're Washington Township and I've heard people say that before but so thank you to all the candidates that stuck to that pledge cuz I think over the last couple years we've seen some really really tough tough elections with some really some really nasty stuff so I think it was great on both sides congratulations to everybody it's all I have okay now we're going to move on to public participation please follow the public the Corum posted which is located on the back of the public agenda please limit your comments to 5 minutes once you've completed your comments or questions please take a seat I'll ask if any member of the governing body or designate wishes to address your comments or questions asked by the person who spoke can I get a motion to open to public motion second all in favor I anybody in public listen to speak just please state your name and your address of the record my name is Alicia deer I live at tuell Lake Drive to nurse um I am the coach of the unlimited cheerleaders that's the seventh and eighth grade 12 and 13y olds recently we won a competition in Wildwood that was ran by Spirit Brands that's known nationally not only did we win first place in our division but we won Grand Champs that means we had the most points scored in our entire age bracket it was a very honorable win and has only been done once before in this town and that was back in 2019 before Spirit Brands announced our names they explained winning the award would mean to get to go to the grand championship competition they only hold two of them one is in Alabama and one's in Atlantic City at the showbo on March 29th as you can imagine after hearing them explain this amazing opportunity and then announcing Washington Township our 12 and 13y old girls were so excited watching their reactions would bring anyone to tears I have the videos that over 80 P parents from my team alone had sent me a lot of my girls have been cheering in this town since they were 5 years old this is the last year before going to high school and they're ending it as Grand Champs that's amazing right not so much both me and my other coach had to look them in the eyes the eyes that were full of excitement and hope and tell them that we may not be able to go because we have nowhere to practice I'm guessing people think there are a bunch of little girls that just stand on the sidelines of football games and say go team let man land the folks who have no idea what goes into this we currently have 206 cheerleaders 206 because we sell out and we have to shut down registration early we start practicing the first week week of August same as football and we practice three days a week in August same as football thank goodness we can do this thanks to the park one school starts we practice two days a week at whatever School we're allowed to use that's 104 hours we are allowed to use that's actually 104 but we have six teams we actually have two teams for the K through 2 program because cheer has gotten so popular so each team practiceing 104 hours to season is 624 hours this is not including the practices on Saturdays before competitions that the rest wrestling coaches are so nice to let us use their gyms since their season doesn't even start until the end of ours clearly we use their um use our schools wait sorry lost my clearly we use theirs because our schools are closed I don't know about you but I've been to basketball games wrestling matches plays concerts and more at schools on weekends and speaking of schools being closed we can't practice on holidays that are recognized by the school I want to thank Bunker Hill for allowing our team to use their gym this has been so nice considering we have to rent a Pod at $280 a month just to keep our 10ft 100lb mats in we flip the 10ft mats out of the Pod there's nine of them and then roll them into the gym roll out the mats and tape them every single practice taking about a half hour away from our practice these mats are essential for our athletes there's about nine of them and you may not think this is a big deal but I invite you to come help us on a Monday or Wednesday but not this Wednesday because school's closed and we can't practice not all of our athletes are as lucky as mine the younger squads bounce around from school sometimes parents are going the wrong school because it's never consistent at those schools they're using two inch blue mats and the schools are nice enough to let us use theirs sounds good but not so much our athletes are flipping and being thrown in the air the blue mats aren't even big enough which is hindering our younger teams once they get on the comp mats competition mats a real mat their little minds are confused and once again their confidence turns into sheer Terror they are 5 years old to 9 years old you may be thinking you guys have a gym why are you complaining but it was fine and good and we were used to taking backseat and not being recognized for a lot but guess what basketball started what happened our squads got kicked out of all of the gyms that we've been in since September and now we all have to share my practice is cut short so the fifth and sixth graders could come and and have a place to practice since they got kicked out of the high school now that basketball is there we have to wheel our 10t 100lb mats down the gym into the hallway down to the cafeteria where we can't fully practice because when we throw our girls 25 ft in the air they'll hit their heads on the stage L I won't even get into all the towns that have provided a safe place for their athletes to practice one of which is glosser Township who consistently wins because they give their athletes the resources they need to succeed they won and are going to Florida wait a what a great experience yet I can't take my girls to Atlantic City there's about 10 gyms in this distri we can't constantly have one or a place place to store our mat my question to you is why do you not take the cheerleader seriously why do we take backseat why has no one ever taken interest in helping 206 athletes that's 400 plus taxpaying parents is cheerleading not a sport I assure you my athletes put their bodies and just as much risk as any other sport would a $50,000 pool Barn be too much to ask for soccer Has a Field baseball and football have beautiful complexes wrestling has their own building softball has a barn every single sport but ours again I invite you to come to my practice from start to finish God knows I could use help with the mats we wouldn't like we don't want to fail Our Girls and show them we want to show them that we believe in their Sport and their dreams these girls are our future one day it may be your daughter niece or friend one day these girls could be your leader I will set the example for them that anything is possible as long as you stand for what you believe in I know I do not feel comfortable telling a 5-year-old that they're less than they are just as much of an athlete as every other child in this town it's up to you to help show them they are important and respected we know there is land and buildings that can show these athletes they are worthy am and just as out of respect for other athletes we could even share on Seasons that we are all if you need help understanding I have multiple pictures and videos of stunts most athletes would never dream of even being able to do girls cheering at championship games in the pouring rain also girls trying their eyes out because they lost to a town whose Council supported and respected them please show these girls Washington Township is a great place to represent thank you for your time thank you so [Applause] much Alicia we we can um talk after the meeting because I Crystal's here and we've been talking about that situation for about a year now so we could talk after the meeting thank you thank you also girls congratulations but we we we'll definitely have a conversation about this this first time I'm kind of hearing about this what each board has a liais on to the board so sometimes we share the information but we we'll definitely have it have a conversation it's but again congratulations nobody's less here we want everybody to succeed so we we'll definitely address that anybody else want to speak just need your name and your address of the record yep uh Ray skelo I live at 63 Windfield Circle in Su how's everybody doing tonight hey great how are you good uh just had a few questions really um one of the ordinance I think you guys introduced tonight the 20- 2024 had to do with the sidewalk maintenance stuff just a clarification and question really I know in my development there's a lot of trees that were I guess installed by the township originally and a lot of the times The Roots kind of kind of go underneath the sidewalk and kind of you know screw them up so I've actually seen a lot of issues in my neighborhood with that occurring what I've read through the ordinance it seemed like the onus would now be on the the resident owner to fix these problems where I see that kind of not being completely fair to the residents kind of walking into that situation so I'm just asking to challenge you to see you know what we can do to maybe if it's a tree that was planted by the township maybe we can talk about like that being an exception and any anything else you know those kinds of things just something like that um second thing um obviously this this the struck person uh terrible thing that happened and you know I I ride my bike along all throughout Township I run on the streets you know Township's not a very walkable City uh there's there's not a lot of bike pass there is some bike pass when you start going um I guess towards the middle school and stuff like that and I ride those and those are great I mean it'd be great to see a lot more of that stuff uh and you know now it gets really dark early honestly our town is not very well lit either um and it's difficult to see I I was turning right on uh off Egg Harbor Road to come down going towards the police station right where the the bank is and there was a a guy Crossing at night and it's very difficult to see you almost it it's close calls right so just visibility throughout the township you know something that I think we should take more seriously or see what we can do uh maybe upgrading some of the lights to LEDs get some of those metal highlights out of there put solar panels up there to kind of support that you know things like that um and then the last thing uh I guess to to challenge things a little more is you know i' I've looked at the budget and stuff like that it seems that year-over-year it's close to a 10% increase to to the cost of things um curious is are are we challenging ourselves to to see how we can maintain the cost and and keep them lower or at a level uh that is you know more feasible for everybody to kind of swallow um I know that that kind of hits the taxpayers it's continually increasing year-over-year and we kind of have to B ble it out so just another challenge to to everybody to see what we can do maybe to to kind of lower or or kind of maintain but uh yeah that's a bit appreciate it all some of the some of the concern the concern you have about the taxes the most important thing I always tell people is there's three entities to taxes and that's most important on what we can control and what we don't so the first thing is Municipal is our responsibility Board of Ed is is through the the board and then the county so again A lot of times uh the taxes on the county this year were flat uh the school board went up over 5% and then we went up 6.5% but we hadn't had an increase a big increase uh other than 1 cent for assess value since the for like seven years so a lot of times we are looking at shared services opportunities with between us and also the uh school board and uh you know and we're looking at ways to to save money can't say we're ever gonna have H have ability to say your taxes won't increase but again we have three entities also that need help too so again so it's important that you know you also I recommend you do is speak at the school board meetings too oh I will be and um I mean I go to a lot I go to every school board meeting and uh to tell you that it's important that they look at some options too because uh you know there's a lot of things going over there too and also you know on the county level um you know we don't see anybody saying hey we're going to give you back money like we send $32 million to the county you think the county gives us a refund at the end of the year they don't I mean I wish they would uh and that way if you're you're not spending the amount of money in your budget then you should return it back to the taxpayers right so and also the idea about the lighting I agree with you that there are a lot of areas that and I especially when you were talking about the Citizens Bank area I would agree uh there are like there's areas that lighting needs to be uh more brilliant I mean even though there's a light there I think we need to work on Lighting in town yeah personally I like the guy was crossing the street I could not see him he was on his phone not paying attention but that's besides the fact you know it's our responsibility to make sure that we don't let that happen right so it's also responsible inter oh yeah yeah sure just so you understand um taxes for this year um we were able to keep relatively low increase managing and Chang our trash I saw that change some things yes but better um keeping cost trash collection down is where we would additional ways to collecting the trash 75% trash uh kept ours relatively low 30 30% area help not increase the budget that much yep but financially we're always going to have some type of a small tax increase cure inflation oh yeah pensions C health insurance it just has to be managed and we have financial obligations and bonds uh meet and also um we have to maintain a healthy Surplus that if we ever have an emergency that's where certain uh funding comes from and keeping our healthy Surplus also keeps our bond uh rating up high so for the last two years we we're residents we've been affected by tax increase and it's Council wants to minimize what's going to happen next year realize two increases in a year for two years we're concerned about it as well too but we have to run a town has run resp completely understand again more of a challenge and and this is one of my first meetings that I'm coming to I want to get more involved so definitely would like to just understand things I'm I like to ask a lot of questions I'm not necessarily when I ask them coming at you with anything it's just more for my understanding so right um we actually already started on the budget for next year to try to get ahead of the issues you're talking about but when we are close to the budget time we will have a public meeting with all the department heads and they will go over we'll we notify it in newspaper or be on the on the website you're welcome to come listen ask questions um you know like I said we already started to try to get ahead of the curve to make sure that our services stay where people are happy but then we keep the cost as tight as possible like Don said I mean my my mom lives here my brothers live here our taxes go up too so we want to make sure that you know we get what we pay for but we don't overpay I'll say that the trash was over gme service-wise way better than what it was like tenfold yeah yeah for me at least we've noticed that R also our phone numbers and our emails are right here on on this paper right in front of us on the table always feel free to email or call us any questions and even like I see maxing on the audience I mean she'll tells we'll take your phone call so if you have questions and we don't have the answer right then and there we'll get you the answer right so we don't pretend to have all the answers but contact us let us know get involved any questions you have please reach out anytime thank you yeah and and we really do like people to to come to the meetings and uh the more the more you come the more you're going to learn and and see what's going on because you know sometimes in the back you you're a resident you don't see all the stuff but you're more than welcome to learn anything you need about what's going on in town it's it's it's it's the you're you're the resident you're the you're the one who pays the taxes you're the ones we're accountable to so that's important thank you again I appreciate you coming right thank you for those questions um for your information to the public because they need to know this uh we have over 200 employees in this town uh covered by health insurance health insurance to us went up 23% 23% plus we have a number of patrol cars with police out on the street 247 gasoline prices as we all know have gone up and up and up we're very hopeful that in by mid August Midsummer that we're going to start to see prices come down uh in some aspects um and and we can get a control on um what we have to spend but this council is dedicated to the Public's health and safety and you know we back up Chief gersc 100% keeping our streets uh safe uh we see the crime log every week there's a lot of dangerous people out there I think our police do a very good job and keeping us safe in our in our residences and you know if it C more we have to hire more Patrol people uh we'll do it because I think that's why a lot of people move here to Washington Township they like the safety they like the parks they want the freedom let their kids go out and play in their front yard or get down the park without too much concern of uh their safety although you always have to be concerned with their safety um in today's uh crime ridden world but you bring up some excellent questions I'd like to see you come back to more meetings and like the other people up here said um we're only 18.2% of the tax budget the county collects over 22% and the Board of Ed between 58 and 63 my question would be to our free uh holders or our new uh Commissioners you know purin industrial center and all those warehouses and all those industrial sites in West Effort Logan Township are bringing in millions and milons millions and millions of dollars in tax revenue where's it going I know one place it's been going is the port of Paulsboro we're dumping millions of dollars into that I don't know what kind of return we're getting I never see a report on that but you bring up some excellent questions and that's why we're up here to try to resolve those problems but thank you thank you sir anybody else want to speak please call just St your name and address for the record just St your name and address for the record CIA B Hi how are you we live at 25 Orga Lane we are uh complaining about chickens from our neighbor at 27 Orga Lane we started these complaints I guess uh about mid August and nothing has been resolved he's only moved the chickens hid the chickens and has no intention of getting rid of the chickens so we're wondering you know what's going going on because we keep writing complaints and nothing is being done what development is that what sorry hiden lak so you made it all you made the complaint already with with the with the zoning officeal several several next before you leave means everyone want to have a conversation we'll get your number we'll I'll just double check it as well tomorrow and just make sure we we're on the same page okay all right thank you John thank ladies anyone else seeing none oh Leon okay you quick Leon so Leon lr's head of the shade tree advisory committee and I just want to comment on one of the questions or one of the issues that was addressed with regard to trees as to the best of my knowledge the township never planted any trees if a Township does plant a tree they are totally responsible for fixing whatever whatever ever sidewalks routs Etc so if the township didn't plant the tree it's the responsibility of the homeowner to the curb that's just to kind of follow up with what this ordinance does this ordinance the proposed ordinance doesn't create any new responsibilities it simply moves it from chapter 216 to chapter 179 so it falls under the property maintenance where really it is more efficient to be reviewed by the property maintenance in the same fashion as they review um other issues with with properties anyone else looking to speak seeing n getting motion to the close of the public second all in favor I meeting is adjourned next meeting will be oh motion for adjournment so move all right adjourned next meeting is December 4th