okay good start okay good I call this meeting to order good evening everyone and welcome uh this is the April 29th 2024 business meeting for Council uh roll call gaas here Jers here Mel here Weiss here have we been adequately noticed for this meeting yes on January 19th 2024 to the Princeton packet the Trenton Times posted in the building thank you can we all rise for the salute to the flag United States of stands indis we have no ceremonial matters uh this evening so we'll move on to our first public comment we do have hearings so if you're here to speak on any matters regarding the uh the public hearings um just wait till that point other otherwise um for general public comments um You' like to make one anyone uh just come to the mic state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes okay seeing none we'll move on to Administration comments um Russian leaf collection in zone four is now complete um Public Works will begin collection of leaf and brush in zone one on May 6 this is the off be working on other things around the town and then on Saturday May 4th from 8:00 a.m. to 2m is the spring cleanup day that will be held at West Windsor Township at public works at 70 Southfield Road West Windon New Jersey um there'll be a dumpster there for broken items such as wood fencing outdoor play boys exercise equipment at little Furniture small Furniture area roads that you can uh bring to the center and drop B you can donate your unwanted bicycle New Jersey bike exchange will fix them up and give New Life uh to those bicycles and Goodwill will be accepting donations including books movies toys home decor games puzzles housewares shoes clean clothing and accessories no baby cribs please more car seats no high chairs Walkers or BL pants um this information is on the T website it's a very popular event and it's a Rin of shine that's all I have okay thank you all right we move on to Mayor you can any comment I I think the can't is working okay um not too many comments but um what Marina said reminded me of something uh lot of people have asked questions about the recycle there's really no limit on number of cans they will pick they will definitely pick three cans as long as you have things in the can that are recyclable if they obviously see things that are not recyclable they will not pick up that can they will not separate it a number of people have bought uh their own cans uh with wheels they will pick up the cans as long as they are not heavy don't don't bring uh because the recycling uh truck is not it's manual it's not mechanized so they can't pick up uh very heavy stuff and a number of people had asked for uh Lids on the can the county won't provide the leads but for that 32 what 32 lit can you can get leads in either Home Depot or lows and you can put those leads and the county will take those leads off and pick up your thing because it is a big nuisance uh if it's a very windy day when you put recycle out it's uh everybody on the street can read what uh your uh what you were reading last two weeks hopefully you don't have your social security number in there otherwi it may land in somebody's front yard but you can purchase those leads and put it on the cans and County will honor them so thank mayor I I was told they do have to be yellow or green cans you have to they have to be yellow the yellow or green cans no not necessarily I mean they have technically said they will pick it up as see they don't pick up if they are too heavy or so some people use cans with wheels which are much bigger than the 32 the county executive has specifically said that they will pick up any color cans doesn't do we have his phone number from when people say they're blue can yeah you can you can the DPW does have cans so if you need cans you can go to DPW and pick up those cans for free for free yeah they are available um if you have boxes you have to flatten the boxes if the boxes are not flattened they will not pick it up again the truck doesn't have a Crusher so if you have nonf flattened boxes that will fill the truck up very quickly so they will not pick up if the boxes are not flattened all right thank you um councilman Martin Whitfield is uh unable to come tonight um he did send me a report for the planning board um from I guess it was last week so I will read that uh under reports later in the evening um uh Dan me comments thank you uh a few things wanted to point out an event coming up this Friday um by the Mercer County Park commission it's called Eyes On Eagles it's uh you can it's Friday the 3D from 2 to 4m you can join an naturalist by the eagle viewing area Long merer Lake uh to peek at Eagle Nest through a spotting scope and to have all your Eagle questions answered um the viewing area is about five minute a five minute walk from the Mercer County Park West picnic area um parking lot area and no registration is required and and drop in is encouraged it's a fun thing that the count is doing um over the last month I've had a number of uh Town Hall open Office hours um around the community and be at the municipal building been very positive uh experience I got uh lots of questions about recycling um about soliciting about Road repairs about crosswalks about adus about construction going on town so um it's been a good opportunity to help people get more engaged and I will continue to have those um on a monthly basis going forward um and during those meetings I encourage everybody to sign up to our e bulletin it's a great way to get information about what's going on here in town as well as our nixel alerts and um our path and sewer bill alerts as well thanks all right thank you Andrea thanks oh and that Eyes On Eagles is really good I've been at them for the last few years um there is a eagle watch that uh I think PG put the money into um and it's right across from where the eagle nest is on the other side of the Mercer County Lake um and you can sometimes if you're really lucky see a tiny head of an eagle coming out uh the Scopes that they put out there and I believe they lend you some um binoculars if you don't have some a good also and you have some a whole bunch of people spotting so I agree with Dan it's um it's a really nice event that I think they started right before Co and uh then it was continued somewhat before so I do recommend it um I hope everybody's enjoy enjoying the warm weather uh looks like spring is here now's a good time to remind everybody out driving that will there will be many Walkers and bikers in the streets so be especially careful at dusk the pedestrians and bikers should wear bright reflected gear and carry lights to make themselves visible uh safety is everyone's concerns so let's all try to work together on that uh tonight we'll be voting on the engine braking ordinance and the new tree removal regulations and we'll have a chance to comment on those later during the hearing which the public of course can also comment in voting um on Friday evening April 12th I attended the Maurice Hawk International Fair which I believe uh councilwoman Sonia goas had started many many years not many many but many years ago um when uh her children were there uh I always enjoy this event it's a chance to see the children from our many cultures represent their Heritage both on stage and then when they show me their exhibits on Friday April 19th Sona and I went to the learning experience and took part in their parade celebrating the money they have raised for the make A- Wish Foundation they're well on the way to sending two children to their wishes and we applaud the generosity of the children and the families to make this happen on Saturday April 20th I attended the annual Arbor Day put on by the West Windsor shade tree commission I want to thank you to the commission for putting this together and to all those who volunteer and those who came came and to the students who put their um uh pictures in for the contests there were a number of very attractive winners for the contest um there were PRI prizes for the Arbor Day artwork there were additional display tables by Girl Scouts with several excellent environmental projects and the West Windsor environmental commission also had a display table this is the second year this event has become a mini environmental Fe fair and I hope this continues this event was bittersweet to me and to many others as we read proclamations for landscape attorney Dan doam milsky who's retiring tomorrow I will miss him personally as I've known Dan for years through my work on the environmental commission the planning board the council and as a Girl Scout volunteer and Mentor who has worked with many girls on their environmental projects throughout West Windsor so um I wish Dan best of luck in his next uh round of enjoying himself in the outdoors which he likes thanks thank you Sonia thank you yeah um the eagle watch is a lot of fun um I think 2019 was the first time they they um started that and then during covid I think they took a break and they're back up so it's it's it's definitely a lot of fun and yeah International Fair was um the first time International Fair was done was in 2017 um that was something that um was I was the um PTA president at moris Hawk at that time and uh it was my pet project that uh you know with all the diverse cultures that we have in our town that was something that we started and I have been told that it's a very popular event um anyway um I just want to um wish everyone who celebrated Passover this past week um hopefully everyone celebrating had a peaceful celebration with their family um this coming Saturday May 4th is the um opening day of farmers market um so it's at the one lot off of Alexander Road from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. um you know they they did have Farmers Market throughout winter as well but now it's opening day it will be every Saturday so if weather seems to be really holding up nice please do go enjoy them they are open rain or shine so um get your produce get your carbon F footprint you know reduced to next to nothing and um get shop local um w spcer bicycle and pedestrian Alliance is also um going to be doing their annual walk to Farmers Market um on the opening day um this year um they are starting it from Duck Pond Park and would go down bearbrook Road starting at 9:00 a.m. so you can either join them to check in at um duckon park at 8:45 or join them along the Route on bebook road it's a lot of fun that was my first time um introduction to Farmers Market 15 years ago when I moved into this town was the walk to Farmers Market um from moris Hawk at that time we used to walk from moris Hawk so I think that's it's really great it's fun so go to you do that if you can um May 15th um 7 P.M would be ride of Silence starting right here in senior Central Parking Lot um this ride is held um across the globe on May 17th at 700 p.m. local times um in memory of those um lives um that have been lost or injured um while riding their bicycle um if you want to ride this um join this uh 10 Mile ride which would be big start and end would be at the senior center parking lot um arrive there at 6:45 p.m. that's it thank you good good thank you happy Passover to all those who are celebrating uh Mera County Park as has been mentioned here has a lot of uh great events um for for people of all ages and there's um the summer concert series if they haven't already posted I'm sure they will soon um so there's a lot to do and and it's it's all in our town so uh so check out the uh merro County Park website for activities uh my thanks to uh the West Windsor shade tree Commission and uh Township landscape architect uh Dan Dober milsky for putting together another fantastic Arbor Day celebration on April 20th uh the K12 students art contest depicting a family of trees always shows off their talents and creativity we also thank Jeff santour supervisor of fine and Performing Arts for the wwp school district uh for him being present and encouraging students in their artwork uh thanks to Boyce Scout Troop 66 for leading ceremonial activities to the Girl Scout Troops for their environmental presentations and to high school South's first edition AC capella group uh and to the DPW uh employees I personally thank them um because they they made the they cleaned up the whole area fresh Mulch and and really made it look um very nice so I thank them too uh this year there were several proclamations given to Dan Dober milsky for his um many years of Serv service to our Township so uh we all wished him uh well in his retirement and are grateful for his service all these years okay so we will a clerk any clerk comments none okay all right so we will now move on to our our public uh hearings 20247 ordinance amending and supplementing the CH the code of the township of West Windsor 1999 chapter 113 noise section 13-9 Motor Vehicles to add D engine braking prohibited uh Mr Herbert is our Township attorney um I just wanted to ask him to uh confirm for the record that uh all emergency vehicles are Exempted by Statute as it would pertain to this um introduced ordinance yes Madam council president uh emergency vehicles are Exempted from State noise regulations that do preempt local ordinances uh I do wish sometimes that the siren that goes off by my house was regulated by state noise codes but it is not uh so yes it is something that's Exempted and we don't have to worry about okay thank you um Andrea and Sonia worked on this ordinance uh and and Andrea will say as a pray prude to the public hearing um uh regarding this ordinance and a little bit of background um old background um in last year we got a number of complaints about truck noise from residents um along several residential roads including uh Princeton heightstown Road um and a number of other roads leaning into town uh and within the town and one thing we found out in research and and speaking to um one of the residents on Princeton heightstown Road is that one of one of the very sharp noises came from engine braking and that engine braking was for um in most cases under the uh legal control of towns and that um for instance the town of East Windsor uh regulated whether or not uh engine braking which is essentially also known as uh compression braking which uses the um uh the pressure that's inside of the cylinders and internal conduction uh diesel type engines in particular to slow down the trucks and so we had some discussions we did a little bit of of did some research um and the problem is that in some cases there are trucks that do engine braking and um they don't have muff lers on on that to prevent the noise and in some cases the trucks do it because of emergencies so we looked we looked at all of the possibilities of what we should leave out in the ordinance what we should um consider as uh exceptions and so what we've done is we put an ordinance that says we don't want engine braking as a standard breaking technique as long as it leads to these loud noises but we do provide for uh which I believe these winds or doesn't we we do provide for exceptions where there's some sort of a danger somebody runs in front of a truck that's the best way to stop it we're not going to question that um and also for emergency vehicles so um we have something that we think is going to put a damper on it especially a lot of the trucks come from a lot of the industrial sites in in East Windsor they already have the regulation in effect they'll be coming into West Windsor the regulation will continue um and we're hoping that we can put some kind of a damper I'm not sure if I'm playing with words on the um loud loud sounds that come from some of that Type U of breaking in town so that's that's under a noise ordinances and uh that's that's where that came from okay yeah yeah thank you for that um Prelude so now go into the more formal part um of of the hearing um if anyone would like to make a comment on um 2024 d07 please come to the mic and state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes okay all right all right seeing none um can I have a motion uh to close the public hearing so moved second roll call Vote gaas Yes mandal yes Weiss yes Jers yes okay that motion was approved now a motion to adopt salute second roll call oh any any comments any comments from Council no I think um Andrea covered it um covered it well um so I think I discussed it um and it's it's you know to to for M main reason was the noises um so if we can regulate those I think that would be helpful for our residents yes this is in the best interest of the residents of our Township right and I just like to thank uh Andrea and and Sonia uh for working on this uh should should the police receive any complaints regarding um regarding engine breaking noise uh this ordinance would give them the tools to appropriately uh take action uh this is an effort to make all roads in West Windsor more quiet so with that uh roll call vote on on adoption gaas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers yes motion 20248 an ordinance to replace chapter 170 of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Windsor 1999 by modifying Provisions pertaining to tree removal and mitigation due to the state of New Jersey storm water pollution prevention regulations I'll just um make a few comments as a as a Prelude to this uh this ordinance came about due to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issuing draft standards for the mitigation of tree loss by requiring the reporting of their removal and in some instances their replacement in alternate locations the township is required to adopt similar standards by May 1st so that it remains in compliance with the municipal storm water discharge permit reauthorized by the state in 2023 okay uh if so as part of the formal hearing if anyone would like to make a public comment please state your name and address and you have up to three minutes I like good evening John Church 11 prinston place first of all I'm uh looking at this ordinance it's not going to affect me in the slightest I have very few trees I love them all and I'm not planning to take any of them down anytime soon so I hope uh what I say is not doesn't show that I have any conflict of interest here I love my trees they're not going anywhere so with that so uh Madam president in addition to the tree ordinance for adoption this evening I reviewed the ordinances of eight of our neighbors East Wind Plainsboro Princeton Lawrence Robinsville Powell Township ying and Hamilton of these eight only Robinsville has enacted a new ordinance they did it very recently and this one is much more lenient than the D model for example whereas for a 1 acre property we would allow only three trees to be taken down in five years without Replacements Robinsville would allow eight trees to be taken down in two years without Replacements so if you reduce it to a one-year basis Robinsville would be almost seven times as permissive as West Windsor in this regard and the other towns have just totally ignored this none of them have done anything U so and May 1 is coming up and yet still all these other towns have done nothing they just got they have ordinances in place but they're really very relx and not going anywhere close to what the D wants so I can't speak for them but it certainly looks like they're that they don't want to comply with this they should comply with it but they're not doing it for whatever reason they see fit so what would be the penalty for non-compliance apparently DP would not renew a Town's storm water permit unless they comply and in Practical terms this would mean that a town could no longer use its retention basins and storm sewers I don't know how this could possibly be enforced which might be why most of the neighbors our neighboring towns aren't haven't done anything because they know it's be very difficult to enforce this I I can't speak to them I maybe shouldn't speak to their motivations or whatever but I'm just wondering what's going on with our neighboring towns uh now I want to talk about a different sort of man and Council knows about this I've written about them written to them before a Michigan Ordinance requiring Financial penalties for removing trees without taking sight specific environmental factors into consideration was held unconstitutional in the Michigan federal district court in 2020 was it would be a prohibited taking under the Fifth Amendment this decision was upheld in the sixth us Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati in 2021 now the sixth circuit encompasses Michigan Ohio Kentucky and Tennessee so we're in a different circuit it it's not binding on us we're in the third third circuit nevertheless circuit has may I speak through a couple more minutes uh you get up to three so if you want to finish a sentence you can do that okay anyway you should take site specific factors into consideration low-lying areas are going to be quite different than upper areas and I think they should be uh should be looked at carefully I have one suggestion to make if I may president my suggestion is that whoever is called upon to issue a permit for a particular tree should use their experience to decide if removing it would or would not significantly affect local flooding in other words you could add wording that these statutary requirements should be liberally conr as the phrase goes this phrase is often used in ordinances and I believe it could save Westwinds a lot of time and trouble in the future so thank thank you very much for your attention thank you my name is an Jacobs and I live at 64 bearbrook Road um thank you for this chance to comment on the ordinance I'm here to ask that you further amend section 170 beyond what you've already done to include the following three Provisions first require residents and Commercial developers to plant native New Jersey trees in place of any tree that is removed um in the United States we have experienced a terrible decline in our bird populations we have lost 1 billion for Forest dwelling Birds since 1970 and 3.2 billion birds of species like the American Sparrow wood warblers black birds um according to the Smithsonian Institute this decline is partly due to our Habitat to our habit in Suburbia of replacing native trees on which insects depend with non-natives which do a terrible job of supporting the insects that feed the rest of our food chain according to Doug Camy an entomologist at the University of Delaware um 90% of insect herbivores need to eat the particular native tree or plant with which they have co-evolved over millions of years non-native species of trees sorry that's me let me just I'll continue non-native species do not support the caterpillars and insects that birds need in so much abundance in the Spring to feed their young in addition Talam has reported that the berries of non-native plants lack the fat content our native birds need for fall migration now these are just two examples of the way that non-native trees deplete our ecosystem and fail the fauna in our ecosystems um so therefore I urge the council to articulate in this section that residents must plant native species when they remove a tree the second provision I'd like to ask for is to please allow to make allowances for residents who remove invasive trees if a landowner removes an invasive calorie pair which out competes natives his or her effort should be not should not be penalized um could the township use some of the money collected under section 17.2 c eight to help these residents replace invasive trees and provision number three please be lenient in the size requirements for tap looted trees um these trees take longer to shoot up but often provide more benefit than faster growing trees oak trees are a great example of this they develop massive root systems which help percolate water after a flooding rain Doug talami again the Delaware enologist also reports that oak trees in the US support 897 different species of caterpillar which feed our Birds um so when you're when you're making rules about the size that's needed to replace a removed tree if you could be lenient about um trees that grow tap Roots first and take longer to grow thank you thank you would anyone else like to make a public comment if you do please come now state your name and address you'll have up to three minutes seeing seeing none uh can I have a motion to close the public hearing so move second roll call Vote gwas Yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers uh yes motion to adopt a comment um we'll comment at second Sal second second okay okay we'll do comments now again um I'm fairly certain that um this ordinance does include a list of invasive species that cannot be planted right the list includes a um what we might call bad trees but it doesn't specify what trees areer excludes what might be considered an invasive tree or a tree that might be damaging the environment but might be more neutral in terms of uhre benefit so it does prevent um invasive trees from being planted um it doesn't specify that only New Jersey native trees have to be planted and keep in mind this these are only the trees that are used we're not telling anything else here in this particular ordinance these are just the trees that are to be used as replacements for trees that are removed under the rules of the ordinance this is not a gen General tree planting tree planting which would be a separate which I don't think does that exist is there any do we have regulations that prevent that prevent I don't something and that's something that's been sort of talked about but but we haven't it's that's that's something that maybe we should ask shade tree to do some review about because I know um I personally feel something like bamboo is is extremely invasive and wellest it's destru and it's listed is not a replacement tree but the whole idea of the destruction it can do so um yeah so that might be a future thing that's separate from this that that we could look at in the future take that Park that later um I think know for those who've been following along the last um couple of months this um we've had a lot of discussion about this ordinance and a lot of sort of collaboration in refining the language making it um clearer more precise um enhancing the exception processing the goal here is really to minimize not this is not supposed to be an owner's task for um either the township or its residents um probably the the hardest thing here in any ordinance is how do you operationalize it um because so now we have to make sure that we keep track of trees which is why we're using the already established permitting system um I think I think this is a a we're in a good place here I think this is an effective um ordinance that will be benefit to all residents um and it's not going to be um something that's caused too much acha for us yeah I think the benefit of where we wound up on this ordinance is that we're um we're really only affecting the trees that we're regulating we're not asking people to put in a permit and wait time for um you know for a tree that we know is not going to be regulated because it's a sick tree or dying tree and that way we're able to focus on essentially people taking trees down for things like um I'm going to build a pool um or I want to put a patio here and I have this nice old tree and those trees uh depending on where they're placed and if they're healthy trees um those would come under the regulation and it being that if you removed a large tree for essentially personal use or for some reason you don't like looking at it Aesthetics then you have to come under the rules of after three trees over five years of replacing it and if you don't have space on your property to replace it then you would get into the fee system and the township would find a place to uh to replace it and any of the money that is being you that we would collect um for the replacing of the trees which I don't expect to be a lot I think most people are going to replace their own um would be used for trees in the town so I think there's a lot of good things here without um basically going at after everybody who has who who most of the cases in in West Windsor is there's a storm and trees get knocked out and people or get damaged so badly that people uh have to give up their beloved trees it's not a matter that that people want to uh want to get rid of them and that's not uh the the only thing in here is that when they get the tree people to come in the tree people have to say yes this is a damaged tree or yes this is a cry and um they would have to keep that record for a while it would um and they but they won't have to go through a whole permit process so I think we've simplified the system um so we're really working on where it's important and which and and on the trees that are under under the regulation so right and we and we are doing this particular ordinance because D has uh put out the rules to do an ordinance like this and we've come up with I think the best possible way between between shade tree and danam and Council and everybody working Administration everybody working together to to make that work what was extensively discussed I mean first at the sh shade tree uh commission they gave their recommendations and forwarded that on I guess it was probably late January onto the administration Administration um reviewed the ordinance then then the council uh I would say at least two meetings we did we discussed this um a lot of you know some changes were made um and the landscape architect Dan did a big presentation on it as well yeah and and he he and Francis gzik who's the township engineer they did call the D with the latest version I'd say late February March kind of time frame questions we had so there you know just to kind of confirm run a few things by them so so they did do that um so I just want you know I want to thank the Shay Tre commission and Dan Francis Administration all of us because we we we had a lot of input uh in this at public meetings um and I just want to say that uh this ordinance protects the environment The public's Health reduces soil erosion and increases infiltration of uh storm water um and also the um um Miss Jacobs um your comments what I'll have the clerk do is give them to um Dan Dober milski who's only with us another day tomorrow right tomorrow but that's okay he can he can look at this he can pass it to the proper and also the uh I guess the township um engineer Francis guak so that so they have this um um so I appreciate the effort and coming out and pages and pages of information here so we do appreciate that mayor want to comment yeah um first Mr church I don't know I can comment why other townships haven't passed the ordinance but we take State seriously so we take State seriously I don't know why other townships haven't passed the ordinance we were required to pass it by May 1 we passed it by May first so that is what it is um this ordinance will have uh some impact but the Major Impact is when a new development comes in and they are required to plant a lot of trees and I've been on planning board for six years and in every instance planning board insists that only the native native trees be planted and and then our landscape architect or whoever replaces it oversees what kind of trees are going to be planted with the new development so the spirit of your suggestion is always followed when a large scale project is done so yeah even for some of the changes like uh there was a small one where there were some improvements being made around uh where um was it AT&T has that spot on Washington Road hamont do you remember that um and they were putting in some new trees and we did say that we want the native trees put in so when they're doing these large um projects uh the planning board does talk about not only trees but a lot of the other plants being uh Native uh friendly to the environment in various various ways uh we have a lot of times instead of putting in grasses and uh in terms of regular grass it's either special gr um grasses or meadow meadow type grasses or Meadow flowers in a lot of the development places so um we're very very uh aware aware of that and I think the township is showing um some leadership and actually uh making the May 1 deadline there a lot of discussion a lot of interest some townships are just well we'll get to it when we get to it but but not us we we make it a priority the environment and and so um that's why between the commission the staff the council um we worked very very hard on this so uh I just want to thank all again all right so um we have already have the motion to adopt in a second um any further comments I think we've talked about this ordinance more than we okay so a roll call vote on adoption gas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers uh yes motion approved 20 2409 and ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 882 fees of the revised General ordinance of the Township of West Windsor 1999 to add section 8226 tree removal and replacement right so this introduced ordinance is reflective of the ordinance which we just approved 20 or just adopted 20 24-8 and it covers fees for the ret tree removal and Replacements um if anyone would like to make a public comment please come up to the microphone and state your name and address you'll have up to three minutes okay seeing none uh motion to close the public hearing so moved second gaas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers yes motion approved uh motion to adopt salute second any any comments no we this motion basically gives the price list for the last ordinance so right okay um okay roll call vote then gaas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers yes motion to adopt is approved uh consent agenda January 29th 20124 business session as amended January 29th 2024 close session is amended February 12th 2024 business session is amended March 7th 2024 close session budget number one as amended March 26 2024 business session as amended bills and claims does anyone need anything pulled NOP no hearing none uh motion to approve the consent agenda salute second Bas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes gerse yes motion approved okay recommendations from Administration and Council clerk 2024 r105 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the renewal of the shared service agreement with Hamilton Township for the provision of sexually transmitted diseases STD clinic Services 20124 r106 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the reimbursement agreement agement with Windsor Woods luxury apartments for solid waste collection costs for 2022 for $47,000 2024 r107 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the reimbursement agreement with Princeton Green Homeowners Association and Windsor ponds homeowners association for snow removal costs and refuge recycling costs for 2022 2024-the the business administrator to purchase one new dump body with plow package for the Department of Public Works from Tyrus Inc under the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey escnj Cooperative pricing system for $1 17,42 a48 2024 r109 authorizing the business administrator to purchase one 2025 con conventional cab from Houston freight liner Inc under SBF Sr P l2d Houston galeston area Council purchasing program for $ 109,8 2024 r110 authorizing the business administrator to purchase the annual GPS vehicle tracking licensing from Shi International under the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract CK 04 subcontract 22- 24 with the county of Bergen for $1,392 2024 R11 authorizing the business administrator to purchase annual Cisco Enterprise switching software from Shi International Corp under New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract CK 04 subcontract 22-24 with the county of Bergen for $1,630 182 2024 R12 authorizing the business administrator to purchase three large monitors for the Construction Division from Shi International under the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract ck4 subcontract 22-24 with the county of Bergen for $929 2017 20124 r113 authorizing the mayor and clerk to executed Professional Services agreement with starnet Solutions Inc for Information Technology support services for the municipal Network for $14,400 2024 r114 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with spel Architectural Group Inc for architectural services for the senior center kitchen and Pavilion improvements for $ 48,4 40 2024 R15 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute amendment number five to the existing lease agreement with the West Windsor Arts Council Council extending the lease to 2034 and 2024 r116 authorizing the business administrator and clerk to execute the temporary access agreement with Roman courp for the use of the gravel lot on Municipal property around the former Wallace Road garage block 59 Lots one and two for lay down area and access during construction under the am trctor Rail lines do any council member need any resolution pulled see none all right so I'd like a motion to approve 20 24- r105 through 2024 D r116 so move second roll call Vote gaas Yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Jers yes okay motion approved we have uh no introduction of ordinances this evening so we'll move on to the um second public comment period if anyone would like to make a public comment state your name address and you'll have up to three minutes to speak I seeing none uh we will move on to council report reports discussion new business um Sonia um Parks parks and um recommission meet um on May 1st um this week so I'll have report from them um at next meeting um Board of Education meets tomorrow night um so again I don't have a report from them the only reminder I would say is um Board of Education does have their budget hearing tomorrow night so if interested you can either watch or attend the meeting tomorrow night so and materials are on the the um material is already on on the school website yes the district website so I think um it's an important meeting tomorrow night there right yes good Andrea environmental commission here um we we presented a proclamation to Dan Del milsky for his many years of service to West Windsor Township wishing him again best in his retirement starting tomorrow uh we have a project on the um that we're looking at to do a Whole Meadow project over on the other side of community park that's probably going to be a little bit on hold for a while with Dan leaving and now we're looking to see who we can who might be coming in to uh help do it with that new project um gria is doing a Girl Scout project near our environmental demonstration area where we currently have the large rain Garden in community park in the pollinator garden and this is going to be another Native Garden that's going to include a branch in a little library and it's right near uh some of the new um Cedar native trees that we're putting around on that side of the skate park so that's going to be a really really nice area with um with that addition which will include both trees pollinator and the rain Garden demonstration um we had some discussions ongo about maintaining our rain Gardens now that we have all these Gardens and pollinator Gardens we are going to need um some more specialized M maintenance and there's been some discussions about bringing in a contractor that would be more able to do that and possibly under some kind of a system of oversight by environmental commit volunteers that have expertise um there's a look uh project on light regulation and they EC is looking further at how lighting is regulated within the state which most of it isn't they're discovering and they're going to be putting together a report for engineering um affordable housing did not meet since our last meeting um and the May meeting is cancelled um and the next meeting is going to be on June six good thank you Dan the West Winds of parking authority met um since our last meeting here U one of the interesting topics was uh the repaving of the Lots on the westbound side of the um tracks in partnership with um the work that's being done at uh on the Avalon construction site uh they're essentially going to repave and restripe the entire side um and include um enhanced walkway that connect the the U the prominade into the train station there's also connecting roads that are being built that will allow um access to the southbound of part of the the station from Alexander Road um I was invited via the U authority to do a walking tour of the site a very interesting um progress that they're making one of the things that sort of not related to parking but there's um massive um sort of storm Basin um systems in in the in the facility as well as I guess you describe it as sort of underground catch basins underneath the garages um I've been I've received a lot of questions about sort of the all the extra flooding that have occurred on Washington Road in in the last couple of months um with conjecture that maybe has something to do with some of the extra runoff from the site which I don't think it's it's hard to to to nail down the site's about 26 Acres yeah but um what what what brings people that conclusion is that when it's flooded recently it's been sort of very muddy sort of murky flood waters which are sort of consistent from some of the runoff but um all the systems are not completely in you know intact and the land isn't completely graded yet so um it will continue to approve and um that was very reassuring so that's probably going to happen before the end of the year I think they're targeting there'll be some connectivity between all the construction that's going on and the train station area yes so the again the entire side of the lot will be completely redesigned right then restriped um for those who use that lot frequently there are some incredibly narrow um parking spaces a lot of people complain about their you know cars getting dinged and doors getting you know bashed in um so they're going to that out and have a minimum size space and um again enhanced walkway so that um it's safe you don't have to walk in the middle of a lot and they rodad with lighting and some Landscaping it's I think it's going to be quite nice it's all did they talk about the the access to V dve to the V Drive side yes yeah yeah that's basically almost connected they just to cut the curve so it's it's all there because that'll that will give a good exit point there yes it will definitely provide more sort of options for traffic flow and not force everybody to one side of the station good okay great thank you um councilman member Martin Whitfield uh could not be here tonight but he's a member of the planning board um so he gave me uh his report to read um he stated the planning board met on Wednesday April 17th there was a full informative and detailed draft presentation of the Burian City Planning and Zoning study upon completion of the presentation the public was given an opportunity to address and give their General opinions thoughts and concerns and suggestions to the board there was a large contingency of residents from Baran City present at the meeting which was good Baran city was well represented the comments uh and discussion was very productive and the feedback was well received by the planning board um I I also attended that that meeting and I thought it was very very good uh and I also appreciated um that that this is like it's a study but the study is not completed yet they they came up with some ideas that they wanted to talk um to the community I mean especially Baran City residents but you know the great it's open to everybody in the public to make uh any comments and I thought that was very um very open and inclusive and I I think it goes a long ways to um making a much stronger study than doing the whole thing and then getting reaction so that was the first meeting um uh there will be more how many more I don't know we don't know and what the date will be we don't know that either um but but there were a lot of comments and those comments are being um taken into consideration um as they complete the study so I appreciate that I've been saying that we should be doing this at a a couple of meetings and just really reach out to the residents and and uh planning board did and um appreciate that very much so I think that went went very well were there were there that as well and I thought it was um the fact that we want to be inclusive with the the community that's being impacted by this is um incredibly important and so they did a good job that I think the reason why we don't know about how long this is going to take is because there isn't any kind of set dead line so no you know their their mission is that we're going to get it right when we get it right that's when we'll move forward um the one comment that I made to some of the board members is um that it it was challenging at beginning to understand what the context or the purpose of the meeting was to begin with I got a bunch of calls ahead of time saying you know why are we doing this am I going to be forced to change my property because of this um and I tried to reassure people no it was actually the other way around the reason that they're doing this is that um they wanted to actually make it easier to people to be in Conformity as opposed to out of Conformity um so will be challenging yes and and it's you know it's never going to be perfect but yeah again the goal here is to to improve the process make it easier um and less um onerous to make changes that are that should be no-brainer but because of sort of this weird zoning model that happens to be in place because of decades and decades and Decades of History um we want to clean up and many many properties of different sizes too yeah and different opinions so they got their work cut out that conversation about Aesthetics so and about whether we describe this as a historical neighborhood with a capital H or a small H some of the the comments were you know well you can't you can't regulate you can't you can't create laws about Aesthetics because everybody has a different View and I think you know the goal of the residents that I heard was that we want to keep the character of our of our community the same you know and there's been a few incidents where things have changed or new houses have been put in place that are not necessarily in the character and come up with ways that we I will say it's their opinion though this is all subjetive always subjetive opinions I guess like you know it's um it's the goal the goal is basically to clean up the zone that have been passed down from Decades of you know various levels some an interesting history lesson too to learn about how this got to be that we're talking about well over 100 years worth of development and yet it was one of the first planned communities yeah one thing I really like at the meeting is that there wasn't a conclusion so the report basically says okay this is how many many are out of spec this is how many are are um not according to you're you're built but you're outside of what the zoning rules are this is what this looks like this is how many are that size and yet there wasn't a conclusion because as soon as there a conclusion then all the people get up start getting scared depending on which side they are and now they're going to and that becomes the topic and in this particular case it's okay here are the facts and one thing that the planner did do was try to divide uh because there is such a big variety of the sizes and shapes of those properties you can't really consider the entire Community for exactly the same and he did try to divvy up along certain lines and say maybe in this section it could be here and there because otherwise you're not taking into account the variety you don't want to change a rules so that your neighbor can now build up against your border and uh unfortunately with bulk rules for planning that kind of thing happens so it's it's not going to be easy you had some people saying they wanted more room to build and you had other people saying that buildings are too high and or that the building is too close to my property line that's going on now so um other than building basements which I don't think you want to do there anyway um you know it's it's going to be a challenge to come in with trying to take what everybody sees and I'm I'm interested in seeing what the next iteration is going to look like we'll see stay tuned on that uh the shade tree commission is not meeting in April um Administration updates any updates no no further okay no need for a closed session no U so can I have a motion to uhj the meeting salute second second all favor I this meeting is adjourned thank you everyone for coming appreciate it