##VIDEO ID:OHSClCt_6fo## for I call this meeting to order it is the December 9th 20124 business meeting of the township Council roll call gas here gers here mandal here voice here Whitfield here have we been adequately noticed for this meeting yes we were adequately noticed on January 19th 2024 to the times in the Princeton packet posted in the municipal building and filed with the Township Clerk please stand for the salute to the flag good evening everyone and welcome uh we have no ceremonial matters this evening so we will now go into the first public comment you'd like to make a public comment please state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes any like to come forward come forward to the microphone did so oh please say your name and address yes um my name is n I'm um I live in um uh in 10 ban drive I'm here representing my neighbors my community on the issue of street lights and um actually the lack of street lights and um you know time and again there have been several misses in terms accidents with pedestrians with kids with vehicles um on uh in three areas specifically you know uh where we live I I live on ban the stretch between um what is it village Village Road and this side right Clarksville um this stretch has you know very poor lighting uh today in fact we drove in the fog it was uh it was pitch dark so there are a lot of bicyclists pedestrians here all kinds of that you know we there are bare misses on all these things on the other side we have um South Post going to the casperson rowing Center and that's a complete disaster very very treacherous with kids bicycling walk you know Walkers who love to go to the lake um so it's just a very dangerous path there and um our own neighborhood which is Ban Keystone and Garnet has very poor lighting the poles there are lights but the poles are really um you know 20 ft kind of thing covered in foliage so you know it barely has a you know it really impacts visibility and I brought my daughter who often goes to the lake so synu if you want to say a few words so every week like I I like to and when I do um we always like Lake and now that like there's daylight savings there bit like it's kind of hard to tell when the sun's going to set so sometimes I get back but it gets dark so um thinking that something like street lights could put us in danger makes me a little bit scared and like feeling that like it makes me uncomfortable to hang out with my friends or go out um to the lake when it's going to be dark so I think street lights would help this and also I'm someone that goes to school and I go to the bus stop every morning and I know that especially there are a lot of roads where there are a lot of cars coming and going um which can put them in danger especially for um roads where there are a lot of cars and in mornings where it may not be that bright outside like right when the school season starts could you just State your your full name both of you just um my name's cindu barwad yeah we can write you can write yeah yeah and if also if you have a telephone number or an email um so someone could get back to you um you know maybe from our community development I mean I think overall it's really the we sent in an email to Sonia with lots of you know all our neighbors it's uh really talking on behalf of all of them they have little kids it's young families um that you know collectively voice this concern yeah all right good thank you for your comment thank you thank you thank you thanks okay anybody else come up for a public comment please come forward and state your name and address seeing none okay see none we'll move on uh Administration comments good evening um we have a couple comments tonight um as of December 6 um Public Works ISR currently collecting it leaves in zone 4 and they hope to be starting back up to Z Zone one to complete their final pickup for 2024 looks like they should be starting tomorrow on tomorrow also uh or on Tuesday December 10th the health department will be hosting a covid-19 clinic at the Robinsville senior center from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and on Thursday December 12th the health department will be offering a covid-19 vaccination clinic at the West Windor senior center from 4 to 6 both of these clinics are in partnership with Wagman's Pharmacy and are open to West Windsor residents Robinsville residents and heightstown residents um walk-ins are welcome at both clinics um but you can also call the health department at 609 936 8400 to schedule an appointment if you are without insurance you can also call the health department to help get you set up the D has also issued a notice that the current drought warning remains in effect and they hope to have an update on December 10th and the recent rainfall and snowfall Statewide has generally helped the water supply conditions across New Jersey but accumulations were not enough to change the current water supply um the public is strongly urged to continue voluntary water conservation practices and that is all the updates we have right now mayor thanks Linda um street lights I did get the email uh I've always commented street lights is very expensive for the township we spend roughly half a million dollar every year uh but we do have a lot more street lights in the this budget and I do have list of the streets that you emailed and we will include it in future budgets this year we are doing lights on Conover Road on bearbrook road and few other intersections uh they are included in this year's budget roughly top of my head so don't hold me to it but I think about 200 40,000 or something like that it's included in this year's budget so we will keep it will be very slow process because if I decide to put light I can literally put 5,000 lights in town and still there won't be enough light the problem with three I have it right outside my house I don't know who planted a tree right under but that was 25 years ago so nobody realized that in summer the light is worthless because the tree covers the whole light and that's a problem everywhere I don't know what the solution is if the tree dies or if we take the tree down we don't plant it underneath but there's no easy solution to that that whatever happened happened 25 years ago so we will keep uh keep working at it but in the meantime just be very safe I mean b and pedestrian will tell you where uh West that can be seen especially at night and take take safety precaution as much as as much as you can and we will continue to improve street lights I can promise you when your turn will come but uh the engineer goes around and decides based on the budget how many lights we can put up and the challenge is it's ongoing expense not a one-time expense so thank you um just to reiterate about leaf pickup zone one this is the last pickup for the year until March so please please please if you are in zone one and you see the leaves have been picked up please don't put them out and same with zone two three and four um in future weeks uh because then nobody's going to come pick it up till till March um uh on Sunday uh we had Christmas lighting and first first time drone show I believe in Mercer County not only in West Wier and it was a great success and I want to thank uh Ken Jacobs for taking the initiative to find an alternative when we realize that we can't do the um we can do the firework show um he took the initiative to find and negotiate a a contract with them to beat them down to bring their price down and thanks to Recreation committee members who agreed to to fund it through their uh through their fund so it wasn't uh taxpayer money used to uh taxpayer money is never used to do the um fire uh firecrackers and wasn't used to do the Drone show um it was a success so I bet next year there will be a pressure on them to permanently replace and do this and it was very nicely done um customized for us they showed where West Wier was they did mascots for both High School South and North and really everybody enjoyed it um this morning our neighbor Janice mirov has been requesting me for a meeting to talk about the small Warehouse on 571 uh this morning I did meet with Janice she did bring uh Dan Benson couple of uh uh Commissioners a business development person and uh mayor of Princeton I did talk to her about it and they suggested various Alternatives uh um I have promised to talk to the developer uh but no firm commitment has been made uh the ball is in their Cod they are going to uh come up with uh give us a contact of somebody who may be interested in uh doing Recreational facility in that area and we will be more than happy to talk to him in fact I've already reached out to the developer and uh given him heads up that uh we are going to meet um we will see how that goes but I did I did offer to meet her in did she did come and meet um just for record um I did uh go and visit the warehouse she's building another Warehouse right across from the two that's already there orindo is also expanding a facility they have cleared all the trees across from orindo um orindo has 20 docks in two drive-throughs and on a typical day they at least eight or 10 trucks standing there uh the two warehouses total has about uh 48 and 78 docks um between them and she tells me both of them are fully Leed so they will be generating uh they will be generating trucks as well no matter what you call them Einstein or some other name they will definitely be generating trucks so I will continue to work with him and County Executive as best as we can but I did tell County Executive we do feel lot of trucks going on Village Road which are originating in Hamilton truck and going to um either 130 or Turnpike and I requested him to take a global look and find solution to every truck uh uh problem not just uh a smaller 300,000 Square ft in West Wier so I'll I'll keep updating uh but I didn't meet with her um affordable housing I did meet with the planner first meeting today he does represent uh several towns so given the short time frame that the state has given us um it's it's uh it's tough to get uh things done the state did release Maps only last week although they gave numbers um about a month ago they did release maps of how they came up with the numbers just last week so he's looking at the map trying to make sure that we do believe that the state has made some mistake and uh assume some properties as available which are already under contract or even have um projects approved by the planning board so we are looking at it we will calculate our own number the council is supposed to adopt a resolution on January 31st um stating what we believe our number is and as soon as I have a number with them we just had a first meeting um I will come to the council in close session discuss with them what the number is going to be and then you'll at least have two three weeks to process that ask questions and then we have scheduled a meeting on January 29th in case if we need it um given the short time frame uh to come up with a resolution to uh Define our numbers um we did I did check with some neighboring towns and our lawyer also checked so far as far as we know nobody has uh nobody has prepared a resolution because one of the questions was what what form the resolution would take and how it would look uh nobody has yet formed a resolution so we will continue to um we will continue to find and uh find what the resolution should read like and what it should include um a number of towns in northern Jersey have filed a law suit in morer County uh Court um to challenge that certain townships were Exempted from the affordable housing um requirement so they have filed a lawsuit that hearing was on December 20th um the state came up with the number of 85,000 85,000 houses as total requirement throughout the state if these townships are successful and we are we are not participating in in in it um if these townships are successful and these um these townships which are Exempted do get a number or DCA is forced to issue them a number then obviously everybody's number will go down um by equal proportion um there doesn't seem to be any movement on the part of uh league league the league has PR had prepared a data showing on an average Mercer County numbers going down by 78% and I was very excited because that would uh that would help us a lot but I I don't see any um I don't see any progress on that and I don't see legislation going uh legislature going along with the league um to adopt their they're requesting a halt on the timeline since the timeline is very strict mayor um I believe that was a lawyers group that that uh made that proposal that's correct yeah yeah yeah but I I mean I was at the mayor's meeting Zoom meeting last week I didn't get a sense that it's going anywhere and Janice also didn't think it's going anywhere so that 78% is just on a piece of paper uh nothing worthwhile um and Kevin I did see your email this morning I afternoon I didn't get a chance but I have talked to um bike and pedestrian to do a much more wider safety campaign hopefully starting next year if they agree not only to include both but do a lot other things to make people aware of uh they're driving too fast uh follow the street rules and um if they agree then you can work with them to come up with a much wider safety campaign just than just a simple one display on one uh uh one board say that again I thought you send an email this afternoon again no okay sorry but whatever you talked about at the last meeting so I just want to do a much bigger safety campaign throughout the township rather than you offer to design a display for um the electronic board outside so rather than right rather than just doing one I want to do a much bigger safety campaign to make everybody aware of doing that so okay that's right mayor there are a couple of girl Girl Scout Troops also working on some um safety campaigns as one of their projects I think they are in touch with the bike predat as well so they can they can work together to make it yeah um just question uh at the beginning of this year we passed a resolution asking for the county to try to pursue a uh Regional uh look at uh TR I did I did ask the county executive that uh they don't have the money so if they get a grant from somebody they will do that uh I did I did push for that and I did tell us that we have a lot more truck problems than we will cause even if every Warehouse in town is built um and he understands that he did tell me that they don't have the money and if they get a grand from somebody they will do the study similar to the one that you you had pointed AG that by middle six County yeah I did bring that up to him and I did point out that thank you all right we move on to council member of comments Sonia [Music] um not much I I think the um this past weekend was a very busy weekend with uh many events in town um breakfast with Santa had um over a thousand people attend the event um it was very successful actually we did do a a little the setup was done a little um different this year um with um Santa moving into the engine bay area I think think that moved the flow pretty pretty easily um pretty well um the weather held up really nice so that was really good tree lighting was um as mayor pointed out we had the first ever drone light show I have already received many feed feedbacks from many residents um um about um wanting to see it happen again next year so I think Parks and Rec is um considering looking for sponsors for next year because um it is expense um it's um uh more more than uh more than the fireworks right exactly um and there are some some other feedbacks that I have received from the residents that I'm going to work with parks and um wreck to um see what we could do for for future um I'm I'm I just want to wish everybody a happy holidays I'm not going to be here I'm going to miss the next meeting so I want to wish everybody um H very happy holidays and see everybody uh next year Martin sure thank you madam president just briefly wanted to reiterate Council colag mentioned about the rec department and the Christmas light and the Drone show which was phenomenal very creative very Innovative um many people have said it was a wonderful time um so I just want to thank Ken Jacobs and direct department for that uh also this weekend I'm not sure if any if any in our community have seen uh that there was a nixel uh that went out because there was a missing person just wanted to make sure that we thank our Police Department uh for the work the Timeless work that they did to um actually um find that person and as well their expertise and experience and one of the big reasons uh they were able to locate the person um that was mentioned by the department was the drones that they had so just wanted to also uh thank them for their time and I know that family is very happy that they were their loved one was back in their home so I just want to thank our department uh the police department for the work that they did and uh actually technology that the drones uh helped out uh ly according to them to help and discover that person so that was a wonderful uh blessing uh so just want to thank them at this time thank you Andre yeah um and the let's remember those uh drones originated with West Windsor gives back back um 2017 yeah I think it was 2018 17 17 and I'm pretty sure was the year pont's first year was 2018 yeah anyway it was it was the first year of uh West Windsor gives back and um the police department wanted the droned as um as their uh gift if you will from from the um police benevolence Association and um they got their first drones and they've been very very successful this isn't the first time that they found uh a um person that was missing they found they found young people they found older people they've uh it it's been they've used it for things on the water they've used it for in this particular case it was u in a place that was not very visible from from anywhere where they found um this person so um it's been a wonderful success and we've expanded on it um I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving uh we moving into the thick of the holiday season please stay safe as you drive walk by cook and bake um West Windsor does the holiday season right I always enjoy this time of year um I was a Dutch mnu Elementary School Dexter Emporium um which I remember from when my daughter was a kid and I was helping the kids wrap gifts for their families I was at the Historical Society had a holiday open house with cookies once again uh and I see Dave's in the audience he does the um uh ecological Museum there so that's always a always a interesting um thing for the for people to go to uh and I was at the West Windsor volunteer fire department breakfast with s and what seemed like half the town's population so I want to thank all the volunteers that put so much work into organizing these events to bring us together I want to thank the rec department and the rec commission members for the wonderful drone light show uh they took a negative drought condition and turned into an exciting but safe experience it's the first one I've personally seen in person and I really enjoyed that extra West Windsor flavor that was added to the holiday celebration that kind of like that way they were able to put that little map up with that one little star showing where West Windsor was that uh you can't do that with fireworks uh thank you to police CMS volunteer fire departments Girl Scouts and everyone that added to the experience the robotic season's in full swing and several local teams are participating in the next level of competition over the next few weeks I met with another couple of local f teams this past week including one who adopted local storm sewers in Plainsboro as their project more on that later in the environmental commission report with so many teams I'd like to look at having another Council robotics Proclamation and Expo in 2025 um the uh mayor mentioned the uh due date for affordable housing the uh DC uh Department of Community Affairs CCA actually came in on October 20th with their with their numbers um but they did not come up with the um GIS map until around Thanksgiving so that was um so we didn't have the advantage of that as the mayor mentioned January 31st we have to pass the binding re uh resolution uh February 28th uh interested parties have until February 28th to challenge our um M Municipal number obligation um then on March 31st there has to be a final decision for uh numbers based on the challenges then we have June 30th 2025 to adopt the housing elements and share Fair Share Plans and proposed drafts of the zoning and other ordinances and then it moves on later past that so this is a very very tight schedule um and every town other than the ones who are getting out of it I think it was something like 47 towns um have to all meet this schedule at the same time so um I know there are certain challenges to the dates but at this point we're looking at meeting U meeting this schedule and um looking forward to seeing what some of the numbers are are going to be thanks thank you I think for January once we get that resolution that we're going to be considering and talking even more about the affordable housing um you know month is to get the timelines and get some information out on the municipal website so people can can see that understand it more thoroughly okay okay so that'll be the new year yeah we'll do that right yeah because um the these new numbers are on top of what's already being built so I think that um we need to make it clear like it's not right yeah a lot of people say it's top of everything that's getting built so it's all the new next round of for next 10 years because a lot of people say that we've already done this it's this is the next 10 year round with um this is this is round four it's not whatever we built before is for before and now these are new and yeah so right so and and then once we come up with all of that then we have to start worrying about what the time uh how how it lays out over time time and what the schools are like and things like that but we're not there yet so when we when we are everybody will know that long process Dan thank you um so just to pick up on that same topic I'll throw my two cents in there it's good to see that um there's some potential of when we analyze those GIS maps to see that there are some gaps um that's not surprising the DCA kind of implied that that we should look at that closely so um I think that's a good sign that um we'll be able to bring our number down a bit so looking forward to seeing that analysis um we have any other business items I do want to point out a couple of things uh earlier this week or I guess it was yesterday since actually it was today since today is Monday um the uh Governor signed uh the freedom to read act and for those of you who are paying attention that was the U the bills that uh some of our um young Community groups presented to us earlier this spring so it was uh eventually passed went through both um the Senate and the assembly committees and then voted favorably by both the assembly and the Senate and the governor signed that into plot today so think that's a a good thing there's there's nothing that we have to do as a council it really impacts um the school libraries and the county libraries um a comment on the uh the Drone light show I I thought that was marvelous um and I think it also showed um good stewardship as it's a much more environmentally friendly um display and it also uh was much more friendly to pets in fact I saw a number of people that brought their pets which you never have seen before so I would be certainly very in favor to maybe make this a new tradition being the lead in this uh new um new model um that's all thank you good thank you Dan uh so we had the pancake breakfast yesterday morning and uh it opened the doors at Station 43 at 8:30 but people were lined up at 8 a waiting to get in there's a lot of excitement and you know free picture with Santa and plenty of food um the volunteers at the fire company uh work very very hard because there's a lot of of cleanup and preparing um you know for uh like a thousand people that are going to ride for breakfast few of the members were stationed at the station since Friday including my husband so I know yeah I know it's it's a lot we had one night we were cleaning the kitchen and the floors and scrubbing down the uh uh the freezers and and everything in preparation for the health department to come in sign off and say everything's looking nice and clean then another night I was you know helping everybody was decorating the trees and decorating putting up the lights for the whole so it's like you know 40 people working to make this make this happen for the community so um so we appreciate all the the donations and and just it's just really sitting around the table having having fun with your your family and your friends because that's really what it's what it's all about I would like to add like you know um Saturday night um many of the crew were actually at a at a call at an accident call um up until like 4: in the morning so and then yeah start working at 5:00 to prep for the breakfast um so many of them actually did not sleep for over 24 hours and that included Santa Claus didn't it that includes Santa Claus that's why Santa Claus was delayed a little bit because of that because he was um at the fire call um yeah till till the morning and then he went home for you know cleaning up and coming back know it was long night for some of them very long and we're very grateful that you know they're working all night long on a regular basis too um all right so after that um I moved on to the skank Farmstead and and you know house was beautifully decorated Santa was also over there too and there's some students um with musical presentations and that was that was lovely they really did a wonderful job if you've never gotten over there especially at the holidays when they when they decorate um it's it's uh wonderful a lot of people from out of town come too um and so thank you to the uh Historical Society of West Windsor all the volunteers for the work that they do all year round because you know there's painting there's a crack here or you know something wrong with the fence or whatever they're out there doing um all this type of Maintenance work uh year long so we're grateful for them um taking care of one of our Treasures in town uh so the Drone show we we all mentioned that we were all there excited well received big big crowd was you know a little bit warmer you know during night the wind had finally calmed down by the evening so that was good um I can't tell you where all these drones are in Route One in Morris County and all over New Jersey seems to be making national news but uh officially we have not heard what what exactly those those drones are all about but are free yeah yeah so we we'll see that'll be interesting to see about that but we're heing West Windsor the crowd enjoyed um the show and and thanks to Ken Jacobs in the Parks uh and Recreation Commission uh and also attended the lighting uh of the candles for women's space the women's space is is now called um a Unity uh so we did that a week or so ago Chief Gallow um Allison uh Gayu myself and members of the group uh were present as I read um our governing body's Proclamation that we all signed uh to their representatives so that was that was a nice evening to okay so we will move on oh Allison do you have any comments um there is a resolution that we're going to have to pull tonight off of the agenda and it is resolution 2024 D r234 there are still some outstanding issues that um make this unable to be right the police are still looking to right okay so I I'll officially pull that then um all right so we'll move on to public hearings you want to read that 202 24-26 an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 168 traffic and parking of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Windsor no we're in the public hearing yeah all right um would anyone like to make a public comment on the proposed ordinance 2024 d26 hi Sylvia ascarelli 27 Melville Road I'm speaking on behalf of the West Windsor bicycle and pedestrian Alliance I'd like to thank the police department for recognizing the need to slow traffic and keep drivers uh well behaved by making some more sections no turn on red and together and I appreciate the council and the administration supporting this I assume you are supporting this um and together with the those pedestrian activated flashing yellow lights the rapid flashing beacons that we are waiting to see installed at pen L and Cano Brook we think these will make it much safer for students who walk to High School South and have to deal with drivers in a rush during the morning commute so thank you again for supporting no turn on red around the high school thank you anyone else I see no one else uh can I have a motion to close the public hearing so move have a second second roll call vote gas yes Mandel yes voice yes Whitfield yes Jers yes uh a mo can I have a motion to adopt so move second okay any discussion before we vote um I just want to say that the way this works because these are County Roads um the um we pass the ordinance and then the county it gets sound to the county the county has to approve it um so I'm hoping that the county does this quickly it would be nice to um to get this through so we can start putting these signs up as soon as possible but um it's not something where as soon as we pass it within 20 days uh there's a um um we did check this morning because I did want to make sure everybody understood that these are County Roads and the county will have to uh put an approval which I think we don't feel would be any issue it's already been discussed but um that that's the procedure than yeah we Curr we confirmed that um this morning and and Sergeant um Kevin uh lur Tui uh gave his confirmation and and spoke with someone uh at the county the county merer county supervising engineer so uh we're doing the right process and uh good work in time it will it'll come hopefully soon um hope hopefully soon yeah would be nice to have it when school starts up again but we'll see how that goes right we just you know contining working on safety issues there's all sorts of flashing beacons and stop signs and no turn on red and lighting and there's a lot of issues one one sign one crosswalk at a time we we are getting there I think the latest one was uh installed at um norchester and U Clarksville yeah and that those particular Corners it always is a freefor all particularly During certain hours if with the not with the turn on red and some people turning and some people not so this will this will make it all legally but buttoned up and with signs so y good all right good we're g take a roll call vote then from that we will move on there's no further comments We Roll Call vote okay um gas yes Mandel yes voice yes Whitfield yes St yes okay approved right we have a a second hearings tonight 202 24-27 an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 168 traffic and parking and chapter 113 noise of the revised General ordinances of the township of West wsor okay if anyone would like to make uh comment at this public hearing uh please come up to the microphone state your name address and you'll have up to three minutes David Paris 207 Washington Road i' like to add my endorsement to the the passage of this revised and greatly improved improved potential ordinance I think it's going to be a very good step particularly for my me and my fellow pens neck residents to deal with matters of noise and I think it's a very excuse me a very good first step so I think you've crafted it very beautifully and and should be passed incidentally if there's anybody who thinks that I'm bigoted about the matter of trucks that is not the case I wanted to tell you my father was a tank truck driver early in his career my father-in-law was a Mayflower owner operator for all of his career I myself pretty much just drove a pickup truck and haul dinosaurs with it but I was very proud when I got my professional driver rating from Pilot Flying J okay thank you thank you anybody else would like to come up for a public comment okay seeing none okay seeing none can I have a motion to close the public hearing salute second he roll call Vote gaas Yes Mandel yes voice yes Woodfield yes Jers yes a motion to adopt salute second any discussion um yeah with um we're um we're uh re we're uh revising this son and I had worked on this uh since I could place last year and got it um put in to beginning it this year um after some experience Administration felt that by moving it to a different section putting it under the police and moving in another section that'll be much easier for enforcement um one thing I'm going to ask for is that once this does get passed we can get some signs up that would actually uh you know have have the the um ordinance number and and uh letting the truck drivers know that we have this in town yeah that would that would help with the enforcement as well so so we should start on Washington Road put on washingt yeah and Wasington Princeton heightstown Princeton heightstown especially since some of the I believe on the other side of the Border they have a similar rule so when they keep driving they'll know that they have to still abide by it so we could no so we we appreciated Mr Mr Paris and and other residents especially from pens that came and said there's so many trucks they making so much noise 6:00 am in the morning Washington Road the pens neck area can you can you help us can you do something about it so um this is one measure that we're we're taking now so yep appreciate that um okay no further discussion um roll call vote okay gaas yes Mand yes voice yes Whitfield yes CH yes motion approv right move on to the consent agenda Okay resolution 2024 D r232 establishing January 1st 2025 New Year's Day and January 20th 2025 Martin Luther King Jr day as official Township holiday August 12th 2024 business session as amended August 26 2024 business session as amended September 9th 2024 business session as amended bills and claims anyone need anything pulled seeing none can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second second ladies first roll call vot goas yes Mand yes voice yes Whitfield yes CH yes motion approved we'll move on to recommendations from Administration and Council clerk okay 2024 D r233 authorizing the reappointment of John mder as Chief Financial Officer Treasurer effective January 1st 2025 and granting tenure 202 24- r234 we're going to pull okay 2024 D r235 authorizing the business administrator to purchase desktops laptops monitors and related accessories for the municipal network from Shi International Corp estate contract vendor $6,350 2024 r236 authorizing the business administrator to execute change order number one with mtbl LLC for quantity adjustment and supplemental work for the West Windsor Arts Council building roof replacement project for an increase of 27,800 48 for a total not to exceed $242,450 48 2024 r237 authorizing the reimbursement of costs associated with the underground Crossing of Amtrak rail line Corridor as part of the duck pond sewer Interceptor Phase 2 project Pro to the National Railroad passenger Corporation 2024-25 authorizing the reduction of performance guarantees associated with private on-site improvements within the project known as Wawa Route 1 zb1 19-6 2024 r239 authorizing the business administrator to purchase one new 2025 Ford F250 Super cab four-wheel drive pickup truck for the Department of Public Works from Cherry Hill winter Ford under State contract number 8887266509 26 t210 for 61,000 $ 7793 2024 r241 approving the settlement agreement between Avalon Bay communities Inc and West Windsor Township and authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement 2024 r242 transfer of funds within the 2024 budget um this requires not less than 2third of vote y okay um does anyone need any resolution pulled yeah two I mean I I'm not a voting member but I request I I want to make comments on the 241 have on one okay we discuss that separately we'll pull that we pull that everything 242 um requires two3 vote so do if everyone's on board then we don't need to pull that one otherwise does anyone want that one pulled nope no no okay all right so then let me have a a motion to approve 2024 D r233 through 2024 r240 and 2024 D r242 everything except excluding 234 yes ex excluding because we're going to pull um 234 is being4 so that's being pulled 234 was already pulled that's right already was already removed that was removed so r234 is um is removed and r241 is being pulled right now right okay so we're voting on everything but r241 correct right yes yes can I have a motion for that so moved second okay roll call gaas yes Mandel yes voice yes Whitfield yes J yes motion approved okay so discussion for 2024 or 241 you want one second before a comment or you um we already us have to for resolution okay we're gonna we're going to discuss R 202 24- r241 okay so we need just to get on the table to vote on it y so you have to motion to approve approve in a second and then we'll wait for the roll call vot after the discussion okay salute second second right we can discuss now gu okay we disc mve in second okay I didn't hear that okay so I just want to comment on the settlement I mean we did discuss this in close session at the last throwing last uh meeting um Avon has been a very tough uh developer to deal with theyve probably sued the township multiple times I lost track of number of Suits they had filed um that I mean just shows uh some people say I'm too easy with the developer just the amount of Suits Avalon has filed shows that's not the case um they file suits about not getting permits in time or not approving the permits as they wanted um we denied the permits because we thought they were unsafe they did complain to DCA the DCA came and inspected our review at least uh three times three different times and they gave us a clean bill of health so that tells me whatever our permitting Department did was um perfectly normal and nice um they continued to um claim that the delay was because of our uh delay in granting permits and lot of other things so they filed a lawsuit ask asking for damages for de delaying their projects I mean we were fairly confident we were going to win that lawsuit because we won every lawsuit that they had filed against us uh we had filed only one lawsuit against them because they uh we building bedrooms 90% of which uh bedrooms without Windows 90% of which were given to people living in affordable housing we thought that was discriminatory so we did f uh complained lawsuit against them um since the construction was already underway um we knew that um the court wasn't going to ask them to just take the whole construction down and rebuild it so our lawyer came up with a uh with a clever ask and we were asking that the number of people without Windows should be roughly equal between uh affordable housing people people and uh people who were paying full rent that was our ask uh we did lose in the U County court because the judge didn't find any law that unfortunately says you could you need to have a Windows in the bedroom that was the unfortunate outcome but we had we had filed an appeal and we were willing to go up to Supreme Court if required to make a point that that was discriminatory and we we felt that was discriminatory and we won't accept that uh the fair share housing center was very worried and they kept requesting us not to file an appeal and from their point of view if we lose in code then that becomes an accepted practice and other builders would do would do that as well so they were very concerned about that they did assure us that they are working with DCA to come up with an alternative way to not allow uh Builders to build uh bedrooms without windows so we did we did accept uh their request and we did uh settle with Avalon one for one they have a loss pending against us for delaying their project they were asking for damages and we do have a appeal pending against them for building a windowless bedroom so we have agreed to settle that that's the agreement that council is voting on um there's one more lawsuit that's uh that we have filed that's pending against them and I'm very hopeful that's going to be settled very soon um uh we our permit department had uh denied them a permit for um building a a five story building um without using metal um they had appealed that to construction Board of appeal anytime you don't like a decision made by the local uh Construction office uh there's a board of appeals at the county level you can go to them and we do tell a lot of people to go to them because um we want somebody else to uh make a judgment that whatever we are saying is appropriate so did they did go to them uh the construction Board of appeal on the first hearing did side with us um the Avalon appealed again and on the second hearing the construction Board of appeal uh two of the three people changed their mind and sided with Avalon even though the facts in the case hadn't changed one bit um so we had appealed that we have appealed that decision with the uh with the appeal and division um that case is pending but Avalon has agreed not to defend that decision and last time we spoke the construction board uh at the county level has said they would wake it their judgment and let the first judgment uh that upheld our uh that our denial of permit stand that hasn't been settled yet but I fully expect that to be settled so um it's unfortunate we spend a lot of time effort and money fighting this lawsuit I can't describe how many hours I've spent and how many hours Jason and has spent preparing affidavits and going through zillions of emails uh preparing for the Cod but I'm happy that it's finally over and I'm also very happy that DCA came and looked at our Construction office and gave them clean bill of health because one of the complaints I often hear is that um our guys are too picky and they the people didn't get their permit but I do feel comfortable now that the in spite of political pressure from a big developer um DCA didn't find any fault in the work that was done by Jason and his team so I'm very happy about that I make me feel lot more comfortable that we we are strict and we are very particular about upholding the uh the code but we are doing everything by the book so I would urge the um Council to um pass this uh settlement agreement and I hoping that um fair share housing center can work with DC and um eliminate that ability to build windowless bedrooms in future projects so thanks well we fought the good fight over that and we were willing to go to the Supreme Court if needed to fight that but uh this is a good outcome if it gets done without spending money then all the power at some point I mean the amount of time amount of time Jason and Company spend is unbelievable and he did a great job so just to be clear for the folks who are listening this is a one for one swap basically the the avalan suit against us for damages foray is being dropped and our suit about the window bedrooms are being stopped that's that's that's how doesn't impact anything else but just those two right and then there'll be a final dismissal hopefully from the from the Superior Court once we approve this yeah okay all right um so can I have a motion to approve 202 I think we did that already we just have to do roll call right we pulled and we P discussion and we did an approval in a second and now we do roll okay right roll call gas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes chers yes motion approved we have no introduction of ordinances so we'll move on to our um additional public comment you'd like to make a public comment please come to the microphone and state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes okay okay see seeing n we'll move on to council reports discussion new business uh solid waste collection bid discussion this is one of the difficulties that the mayor and the council face um the uh the garbage collection bid is up for Renewal next year uh some of you who were on Council when we renewed the recycling build uh remember that that went up by 70% generally when we put the bid out uh no I mean only one person deals uh bids on the project this time uh thankfully two people bid but still the current bid by our current uh vendor waste management was the lower by almost a million dollars but still it's a lot higher than um a lot higher than uh uh what it was before so the bit documents I gave you a little complicated to read because it's a fiveyear data I've prepared a simpler one so just I I printed 8 nine copies if there any anything extra you can give to people in the audience so um we were aware that uh uh the bids were going to come very high so that's why we did put out uh five different options um asking for them to build uh So currently our current system allows once a week pickup uh uh twice a week pickup during summer once a week pickup during rest of the time and they do bul pickup with every garbage pickup and almost unlimited so it's very generous and more generous than most of the townships in in West wion so the number of options we asked to we just exactly like current which is twice a week in summer and then uh once a week rest of the time plus bul pick up that is the first one current and if you saw that uh the annual increase in the first year would be roughly $460,000 or 66% then we asked the second option was to do once a week pickup only and bulk like now so whenever they come they will pick up all the bulk that they want that's still a 36% increase $255,000 then we as them exactly like current so twice a week in summer and once rest of the time but the bul pick up only once per month that came up 76% the fourth option was once a week pickup uh sorry the current pickup but like twice a week in summer once a week regular time rest of the year but no bulk pick up at all and that still came up 6 63% 64% and the last option was only once a week pickup throughout the year and still no bulk pickup that still came at 34 35% um so if you see the option two and option five that's [Music] um sorry option one sorry yeah option two and option five um then you would see that there's not much much difference so what I am going to recommend and you can comment um and public can comment they have one week to convince you otherwise that we go to once a once a week pickup throughout the years and keep keep our bulk that would still end up spending almost um $255,000 more next year now the challenge is if this is still under the cap then anything about 2% has to come as a from some other line item um so we are trying to hope we are hoping that the uh the state will allow us to put it outside of cap next year but if they don't then we have to find a saving of almost uh 34% of $700,000 next year so these are the options and you have all the fiveyear data showing how much more it would cost for over the 5year period so if anybody has any questions or comments uh can do it is the recommendation to do a fiveyear agreement or you have a fiveyear agreement yeah and do we get is that is there any discount or any what's the benefit I mean after the first year the rate is not increasing 66% it's still increasing quite a lot looks like there's a small increase small and increases you lock that in right um so for example if you keep the you have the sheet if you yeah keep the current bid the total you pay is almost over five year period is $3 million more which is like $600,000 more every year so that's just the so the goal is to do a fiveyear plan so we have it so we know exactly what our cost will be yeah even though it will still increase I mean the though if if we had hoped that after two years the rates will go down then it's uh beneficial to do a contract um there's no hope that rates will go down I mean if they give me a longer that never happen if they give me a longer contract I would sign a longer contract but I think state law only allows so many years of contract and they would be willing to do only so many years of contct I mean even the recycling bid after the first jump of almost $370,000 I believe it went up by 7% every year for next four years so it's still 5% above and beyond what cap is allowed so we are looking at the number one which is once per week once per week we bulk pick up as as is do right best that's the best and yeah and there's nothing we can do about the fact that it's going up we got two bids and we're looking at the lower bid so I me the fact that it's going up is a given there there's no choice so the only choice we get to make is um what options the options that reduce bulk pickup don't really do anything for us so there's no reason to pick those and the only real choice is between staying with current which is um essentially what 10 months out of the year once a week pickup and bulk all the time or going with the other option which is um one once a week pickup uh the the current is sorry is 10 um the current one is uh about 10 months of once a week with all the bulk and two months of twice a week or going with another option which would be only having uh pick up once a week throughout the year and staying with the same bulk so that's really probably the only rational options that we could come up with to stick to stay with the current cost us something like I think it was a million dollars over the 5year period for just a couple of months of an extra summer pickup so much as I actually like the summer pickups because you know you're getting rid of smelly stuff oh God bless you during the summer I can't see a million dollars that we could be spending on something that we really need um for for that one benefit so personally I would say that we're going to have to um is okay personally I would say that the rational approach here would be to um go with essentially the same but with only once a week pick up in the summer and um I don't follow your million dollar difference well well if you look at five years I think it's an annual basis on an annual basis we're looking at about 200,000 a year so that's effectively what we're looking at we're looking at that but we're looking at I can't predict what's going to happen after the five years so but I do know that if we've got a fiveyear contract I'm looking and I haven't calculated the exact number but we're looking at something like that over a fiveyear period I know we're going to be behind so it's about um, a year to get the eight eight pi to get essentially the essentially just those uh summer months I think it usually ends the for Ends by Labor Day and it starts so it's two and a half months yeah so it's a few extra pickups depending on um and you look at it that way it's $200,000 right it's not those 12 pickups right so it's it's not if it was all year to pickups that would be a different story but this is just those few months of pickups which I know some people have questioned some people like some don't um I just can't see that kind of money that given all the other things this is operational expenses where we have the cap um I can't I just can't see using that money that we could use for so many other things for that extra pickup so I think it's ultimately it's a discussion about what people value um and sure there'll be people on both sides of the fence because some people who you know feel that that's really valuable during the summertime because they generate a lot of garbage want sitting in the I get it yeah I do I mean I I happen to always really like yeah I I always like the the two pickups because you know yeah for those you know 12 11 or 12 pickups are we is it really great and and there's a there's a number if it was $50,000 a year then you know there's everything a different conversation there is no there is no conversation because there there is no bid like that so I can only look at what we've got right and I think pretty confident that it will be away way from the appropriation cast since they've done it in the past right so at least right I think people value the bulk pickups buk pickups got furniture and all there's not even a real savings from that so yeah and and they cost more if they picked it up once a month probably because they'd have to have a whole bunch more trucks people don't even know that's even a service to them so maybe something that we can going forward well there are yeah and and this is the pickups this isn't the Tipping fees and stuff like that so it's not like it's it's free if you put tons out there that's a that's just a different cost but I think I think we'll have to start promoting this information out to the residents sooner so you know they get before especially before the summer month come in when when residents expect the twice a week um pick up well we can also if if it gets approved at the next meeting right next meeting yeah it will be on the agenda at the next meting then we can put something on the uh Township website just letting people know new year new contract Y and then a reminder as we get more towards Memorial Day because that's when they'll they'll think they're getting it We'll be asking for the schedule so a lot of people not going to change that's after after the spring break like you know we'll have to start really getting that information out and yeah we can put that on the website and send a blast and Y make people aware people aware of that they may have to keep their garbage a little longer or maybe start composting so you know that's a yeah another option okay any other questions comments all right uh let's go around Council with reps Dan anything uh yes the human relations Council met last week um planning for MLK celebration right now the uh working model is a um panel discussion on civil rights we're going to be leveraging our relationships with uh High School model Congress to um bring in speakers and as well as uh other um notable speakers either um existing elected officials at the state or county level and other civil rights experts so that's in in the planning pH right n um parking authority uh meets to Wednesday this week good all right thank you Sonia um Board of Ed meets tomorrow so I don't have any reports from them um Parks and Rec met on December 4th uh drone show was discussed in length we have already already spoken about that um so I don't need to get in the details of um of that um basketball league um we have over 160 um kids participating um they're looking to see if um Parks and Rec is looking to see if um they can utilize both the gyms at Grover so they can hold more games um at the same time um the Duck Pond Park renovation of the courts and addition of bathrooms and that project is going to um um start soon um house Decor decorating contest is going on right now we have had 20 registrations the um winner of the contest would be announced at the next meeting on uh December 16 okay yep uh their Parks and Rec uh next meeting would be January 8th there was a question because the council um Council does not have the reorg till 15th correct so Parks Andre can they have that meeting on 8th or they need to move their meeting not recommended that they meet before the council meets and we're going to meet the earliest statuto possible which is January 15th at noon right because uh the January meeting would be the reor meeting for for parks and re so that was a confusion but theoretically whoever is parts and Rec the A on is going to be that until the 14th yeah but if they have their reorg do their reor because their terms run with the 15th also everybody's terms are believe everyone's terms 14th and then so you can have a meeting but the yeah if the clerk's office can convey the message to Parks and Rec about that oh yes yes I'll let them know yeah thank you again on the January 15th a reorganization meeting at noon and then it'll be immediately followed by a business meeting thereafter right after that meeting be reor you got bills and claims and different things to pay oh yes so that's that's the law the 15th instead of the you know early January but right we're following that that evening is a planning board meeting right y right so that's right into the new year right they will be meeting at noon at noon so planning for yep um yeah the affordable housing committee met on Thursday um essentially I gave them a rundown on how our um affordable housing number what our our DCA number is from affordable housing and on how that's calculated and um I went over um with the with the committee in some detail and of course they're interested in an update on when we have one um the environmental commission is going to meet on Thursday but at our last meeting we had um discussed as I had mentioned storm sewer drains including a uh adop a drain program uh and I believe the mayor's interested in in that adopted drain program also and I spoke to one of the robotics teams that's actually been doing an adopted drain as part of Plainsboro and there's also a Girl Scout Troop that's been doing adopted drain in Plainsboro and the robotics uh teams planning on presenting their experiences uh with the Plainsboro program at the environmental commission meeting on Thursday that's it thank you Martin uh the plane board has not met since our last council meeting next playing board meeting is next Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. December 18th okay and the shade tree commission is not meeting in December um also council members if you have any budget priorities ideas for the 2025 budget because the administration is working on that um please send that in to Allison Allison will poate it all together and then and then give it out back out to all of us um for dis you know brief discussion or long discussion however it goes under uh new business for next Monday's meeting December 16th so you have ideas send send them in so we can talk about it all right anything anything else um anything else from the administration no all right so any need for a closed session no all right so motion to adjourn salute second second favor post all right this meeting is adjourned thank you everyone for coming out [Music] Furniture once week sometimes yeah