e e e Madam Deputy clerk oh where's our yeah we can start go ahead okay this meeting is called to order councilwoman Rebecca Peron councilwoman Samantha Whitfield councilwoman Dr Tiffany worthy present Deputy Mayor Nathaniel Anderson present and mayor K McIntosh present we will now have the prayer Reverend Gary T suor I hope I pronounced your name correctly thank for the honor of being here today we appreciate that thanks for allowing me to come and invoke God on important time together sh you know in the Bible God says that the prayer of a righteous man or woman prails much tonight and God and ask God bless St work all of us to bring about good things for our let's just unite our hearts in PR Heavenly Father we want to thank you dear God for the night that you've given us we want to thank you dear God for the community that you've given us Lord to serve him live and I want to pray tonight I thank you Lord for these for our mayor Lord for each one of them I pray tonight as we open this meeting I ask Lord that you would just open up their minds and their hearts I pray dear God that you would give them great wisdom and they deal with the issues of the day father we live in a day when the magnitude of the problems are and father the wisdom that we use has to come from our mention word pray tonight Lord as open the proed this meeting that you would just work Lord that you would super over all the things that I pray Lord that you would guide thoughts I pray dear God that you would guide hearts and I pray Lord that you would superintend Lord I ask Lord that that you would just give each of these men and women Lord as they serve them tonight that you would just give them me of PR able to of I pray Lord that you work them just bring about even greater things and better things Lord in our community I pray father that the results of tonight's meeting Lord would just be a blessing Lord to this community I pray Lord that we would rather Lord our children that it would just work Lord in all the various situations Lord that we might be able to Rejoice father because you have worked through people who known you and love you to bring about better thank you Lord for all the things that you've done thank you super over all the Affairs of life I want to pray Lord even tonight for our nation think about all the challenges that we face not just globally but nationally and we ask Lord that you really bless Lord because our nation made meetings like we're having here tonight where people who care about each other come together about the best we want to give you thanks now for what you're going do just ask your blessing Lord upon these servants Lord upon their families Lord upon all of the attend amen amen you may we now stand for the flag salute I pledge the alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in compliance with the open public meetings act this is to announce that adequate notice of this meeting was provided in the following manner advanc written notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in the municipal complex and was mailed to the Burlington County Times the Intelligencer and The Courier Times advanc written notice of this meeting was filed with the Township Clerk the clerk is directed to enter into the minutes of this meeting this Public Announcement mayor thank you very much well good evening everyone it's great to see everyone um we will start off with our manager's update good evening mayor and council members and members of the public I just want to first off make a note on how bright it is like we can see you very clearly um this is evidence that the EIP program is moving forward here in Willingboro as they're continuing to swap out our lights to LED lights and uh it's happening all over uh our community I did submit to you all the our formal uh monthly report which was quite substantial um and I'm just going to give you just a synopses of some minor things major major things but uh we have a lot to discuss tonight so I don't want to bog down with um uh things reviews but anyway as you may notice that the county is in the process of uh milling and Paving on Veterans uh Parkway they will be redoing Veterans Parkway from JFK um Boulevard down to Millennium Drive they're currently working on the concrete portion replacing sidewalk Curbing and handicap ramps and when they uh finish that they will begin the uh milling and Paving process along uh JFK I mean a Veterans Parkway on April 10th our office was notified um by our Department of Public Works of a severe erosion at a property uh on 460 Charleston Road directly above the existing storm outfall pipe from Charleston Road uh we had engineer Remington Vernick go out and conduct an investigation of that area and it was discovered that the existing end of the outfall had collapsed causing severe ER erion bank failure falling trees um damaging adjacent property and the potential to comprise our compromised existing utility poles at the rear of that property um their recommendation was that we that the outfall be replaced immediately in its current condition the existing outfall pipe presents an immediate danger or Hazard to the public and warrants an emergency replacement to avoid a potential catastrophic failure the anticipated repair attached to this will be approximately $260,000 and we are preparing the paperwork to perform an emergency repair without going to bid to Abate this situation uh we do have funding available in Prior capital projects to cover the expense however we may need to reappropriate some funds which we which would be done um by ordinance at our next meeting so we are going to engage a contract to begin to uh Abate that situation uh immediately and I wanted to bring it to your attention there has been discussion about creating potentially a 501 SE three uh which would enable the the municipality to receive charitable contributions uh however you know in New Jersey towns can't directly establish 501c3 nonprofit organizations um but there are some workaround possibly a 501c3 partnership um which I don't really have a lot of knowledge or experience in so I again I'm going to defer to our solicitor if she could PBE possibly do an analysis review of what the council could do uh in that capacity um to U establish the goals that they are trying to accomplish I will remind everyone uh that Financial disclosure statements are due um if you have not received that information uh I did send out a link to um the members of the governing body in case uh you needed just a reminder and um I don't know if that information has been provided to our boards of commissions okay good be sending it out tomorrow uh we are still working on our tree ordinance uh which is the state is looking for all the municipalities to move forward with introduction of those ordinances sometime in May um they did host several um sessions uh discussing those uh our our environmental commission uh members did attend some of those discussions so we will be Co collaborating with them uh in the construction of our tree ordinance uh and we would hope to have something presented to you for your consideration probably at our second meeting in May uh I'm going to ask Miss Jackson if she would come at this time and uh update us on all the wonderful happenings that are going on in Willingboro over the next couple of weeks Miss Jackson evening four days away from this year's spring clean community so that will be on Saturday April 20th beginning at 9:00 at the K C plan to come out and join us as we come together to clean and beautify our community churches Community organizations girls Boy Scouts all of that everybody's invited the registration is still available on our website we will be giving away t-shirts and thanks to a generous donation from Chick-fil-A in we will have Chick-fil-A sandwiches available for those who attending morning clean up get your sandwiches what's going on no I don't have a mic okay thank you all right we are looking forward to a great day so all are welcome to that and alongside the cleanup event those with a green thumb are invited to our Earth Day Garden opening which will uh is a plant and Seed swap that's hosted by go grow event and that event will be held from 10:00 am to 2 PM so after stopping by to assist us with the cleanup we want you to head over to the Garden to plant and Seed Swap and also going on that day is the Kappa classic which is being hosted by the Willingboro Fort Dicks Maguire alumni chapter this is a collaboration between the kappas and the Willingboro police department and the games begin at 10:00 a.m. and will be held also be held at the Kennedy Center so we invite you to be a part of that very very busy day tomorrow is the last day we're accepting invit applications for our citizen fire academy so if you're interested in learning more about our fire how our fire department works consider signing up to be a part of the academy and more information is available on our website and then on next Saturday April 27th is the volunteer Fair hosted by Willingboro H and the Willingboro Community Development Corp this is a great opportunity for like-minded individuals to come together Network and promote volun volunteerism in the community so um our mayor will be bringing us greetings and Senator sing Singleton will will be the keynote speaker we are inviting nonprofit organizations to be a part of that and inviting residents to come who are interested in learning more learning about more opportunities to volunteer also on Saturday from April 27th from 10:00 a.m. to 1 pm is the community and wellness event this is a collaboration between Cooper University healthc care and other partners in recognition of national minority health month so there will be screenings Health Resources cooking demos and a number of tools you can use to ensure you're on the road to good health and wellness this event will be held at the Kennedy Center no registration is necessary applications are still available for our youth police academy and our youth fire academy so and these spots will fill up fast so secure your spot today if you're interested um in being a part of that experience and lastly we want to remind you that the 2024 phenomenal women Awards event will be held on Sunday April 28th at the Kennedy Center at 3:00 the deadline to purchase tickets was this past Friday but event prite has reopened and will be open until the close the business on Thursday Thursday April 18th so if you did not purchase your ticket please do so today we're looking forward to a phenomenal event tickets are $55 and can be purchased via event bright and one more thing before I sit down the Friday night music series is um was going to kick off on Friday May 10th at the amphitheater live music will be held on the 2 and fourth Friday during the months of May June and July genres include Latin gospel Caribbean R&B so we're looking forward to that upcoming music series that will be held at the amphitheater on the second and fourth Friday as always this information can be found on our website social media platforms our YouTube channel or by subscribing to willber weekly thank you so much thank you Miss Jackson Mayor also with us this evening we have uh our engineer haker from penon uh who is here to give a brief update to the governing body on the Performing Art Center uh where we are and where we are going uh Mr Dockery good evening mayor and Council appreciate the opportunity to speak before you I did speak with Mr Harris and Dr worthy last week on the progress of the theater and Mr Harris wanted to bring me uh here to just bring the council up to date and I am actually looking for some feedback as well now just to give you a quick background our original design for the theater if you recall prior to our involvement was two $2.8 million and it was deemed too expensive at the time so bids were rejected and in March 2021 at council's request we PR prepared a master plan for the JFK Center in September 21 2021 we pursued a blackbox concept and developed concept and discussed that at length and in in September 2022 a year later we moved away from the blackbox concept in favor of the Performing Arts Center and the theater Concept in October 2022 uh we value engineered the the theater design and we looked at Cost savings and recommended a phasing of the work to accommodate the uh the budget in December of 2022 we developed phase one plans in specifications and uh we completed that and submitted to council for some feedback the budget was set at $500,000 in April 2023 the phase one theater project was advertised we included a value engineering uh design of the sound and light system which was appropriate for the space in August uh Council awarded that contract to leevy construction the the price was $927,000 and um in September of 200 uh 2023 work began and the sound system was ordered as we had specified progress was going well and we had anticipated a soft start opening on April 20124 this month actually uh in January 2024 it was brought to our attention for us to re-evaluate the sound system based on input from a Township recommended vendor uh Bobby Ducket so we we started talking to Mr Ducket over the the course of the last couple months and in March the specified sound system that we had in the bid was delivered and stored on site because it had been ordered and because of the supply chain we it was was somewhat delayed but it we we received it in March uh ongoing working with the vendor we wanted to present a a change order request to the council if Council wants to proceed with this alternate system the issue is the alternate system would require significant structural modifications to the roof in the building itself because the the weight of the the uh system the alternate system would also require a significant design effort for us to design the the roof and supports the change order for the alternate system is estimated with all the design modifications to 700 to $825,000 this alternate system would would also push the lead time for delivery date and opening to the fall of 2024 so that brings us to today I'm I'm seeking Council Direction at this point for the alternate sound system as a change order but due to the cost uh we must advertise the sound system as a separate uh item and then we would seek the lowest responsible better for that equipment at at this point quite frankly as the township engineer I would recommend implementing the sound system as we had specified if additional sound is needed for special events uh we would supplement with rentals from vendors and there's vendors out there such as Starlight which Camden County currently uses for some of their venues but that's where I'm right now and that's bringing you up to date of where we are and also basically seeking whether or not we should pursue the change order right now I do yeah Dr worthy thank you madam mayor thank you Mr Dockery um I don't want to go back and forth with the sequence of events um but the the part that was missing um from the what you provided as the the plan was when Council was very clear about what type of uh performances we wanted to have um in that theater and so while yes we're now looking at this change order the request was state-ofthe-art sound and we talked about the Grammy nominated artists that would be coming here based on who's from willing B who wanted to come back and to do shows in willing B so while it may appear to be a bit of back and forth we were happy to find someone that could provide um that expertise around the sound that would be required um the council didn't want to have a whole new um perform and art center and then when it's time to do performances um of a high of a certain caliber we've got boxes all over the stage and stuff hanging because it wasn't built in so I just don't want the representation of the body to be that we haven't decided now we're at this change order we're going back and forth we've lost all this time um penon played a role along the way with this um this elongated timeline as well as the shift from the blackbox to the Performing Art Center we had made a decision and were clear about moving from that blackbox theater we didn't wait a year to to provide that feedback as was described in your timeline so I just wanted to be clear for the record that that I appreciate your perspective and your perception of the timeline but there are some things that I have that I've been tracking alongside that don't quite match up um but here we are today and it is a huge decision for the governing body to to be facing now finding out um about a 800,000 change order um or we going to go forward with building a Performing Arts Center and have bluetooth speakers all over the place when it's time to have Adam Blackstone perform at home which is a bit embarrassing so um it is a huge decision um but I did my best advocating along the way but here we are and we have a huge decision to make thank you Madame mayor thank you Dr worthy anyone else have any comments questions just to pick piggy back off what Dr worthy um has indicated I too have met with the gentleman who consulted with us and when we showed him what we were working with he said what we have here is a high school theater the setup was a high school theater and the problem for us is as Dr worthy said when we bring shows in now we're spending additional money to rent equipment when we should not have to and that was one of the things that was very clear as we took on this project Dr worthy was very very articulate in indicating on behalf of council what we wanted and it's a little disappointing that we're at this point and there's so much confusion here and to to uh the point of Mr Bobby Ducket who is you know consulted with you because this is what he does this is his business we needed that that that Vision because if we didn't have it we would be stuck with something that we didn't want we didn't ask for so if was not for him you know I think we would be much further back in this process not understanding what we want and what's being delivered so it is a bit disappointing thank you councilwoman Whitfield um thank you mayor while um I do think the $800,000 change order is uh a big decision for the council I think in the long run and what we want to achieve with the Performing Arts Center it may be the best decision that we can make in order to bring in the acts the type of performances that we want to bring in um I think overall we probably end up spending more in rentals over the long run um having to rent additional equipment for each performance um so agreeing with Dr worthy it is a big decision but I think um you know with the intended vision and what we set out to do I think may be the best decision to move forward with the change order yeah and I just guess we would have thank you Council withi I guess we would have to look at the impact what is the impact on the budget and our um Capital like significant impact yeah we although the the Performing Arts Theater is pretty much funded as it was designed currently um that would be a substantial increase in in cap Capital which we really don't have allocated um in past or present Capital budgets go ahead Dr worthy yeah I have a follow-up question um if we were to decide to go forward with um the value engineering design that was provided um what would it take to be able to do these sorts of modifications at a later Point like in three years or five like a later point to come back and revisit so we're having successful shows we've rented a few things and now it's like okay we see how the theater is going now we want to come back what does that look like right well um because we would have all the chairs uh in place the theater seats then that would be um a bigger undertaking because there does have to be design modification to the roof and the structure so those would either be protected in some way or removed and then put back so the time the time to do it if we were to do it would be now but the price tag is is significant and my followup question is how much is penon willing to put towards this $800,000 uh change order well uh coun councilman worthy I um you can I'm find have the discussion and come back I'm sure you don't have that right that prepared with you this I me yeah we we provided the design based on the council input at the time um so that this is a change order uh the introduction of Mr Bobby Ducket was not until uh January of this year when we had the plans prepared uh last year agreed but as Pastor Gary started the meeting he actually invoked the spirit to help us to look at the root of issues and we're not the root it was a a lack of um it was not bringing to council what we asked for and when we uncovered that it that the system was not what we asked for it was through Bobby Ducket who shared that information with us so we it wasn't that the council just changed their mind and I think that the disconnect and the tension that I'm experiencing with penon is the lack of any acknowledgement of the role that was played by penon as the experts that we've hired to consult so that we did get the appropriate sound system not for the room but for the performers and the PO performances that we were very clear about bringing to willing borrow so I'm really challenged by the lack of any acknowledgment by our experts um you know as we find oursel in this situation so I I don't know it's we'll have a collective decision to make but I'm disappointed that penon doesn't see the role that they played in this right and I understand Dr worthy the um the the structural modifications would have would have precluded us from doing it in this phase so that those speakers that require these structural modifications that would not have fit the budget that we are currently under so and that's where that's where you know using the the numbers that were coming up with now you know we had passed that up early on because it's it's just too much it was too expensive and as I had mentioned the $2.8 million was rejected out of hand because it was too expensive thank you you're welcome right and I think you know to to further Dr worthy I think the intent of this theater was to be more than and high school theater I think that's the point I think we're kind of missing um and then we did rely on the expertise of per penon to AC to you know at least present it to make let us make that decision at that moment whether it was too expensive you know previous previous to now um so I think that's what we're all kind of a little you know frustrated um is that the intent was to have a state-of-the-art performing center you know and we understand things cost differently but we my understanding was that we had an adequate sound system at the time but now you know with the input of a um somebody who's in the business now we're finding out that it's not adequate or or up to the standard that we were looking for so I think that's where because we may have had the money we could have prepared to have the money but I think 800,000 is a lot to to kind of get together now so you know if you're looking for you know when do you need an answer you need answer today we have a Yeah well yeah um the project right now is on hold because we have the the equipment that was specified on um basically delivered in at the theater so that um we've held the contractor up from installing that pending outcome of the change order so you will have to discuss we'll have a discussion in executive today um to see what we you know what we're going to do great thank you that's what I'm seeking thank you okay thank you you mayor uh I had also made a commit commment to the the governing body that Captain bucks would come uh today and do a an update on um Prime in in willing Barrow um are you still willing to receive that today or we can okay Captain bucks you're up right good evening everyone Mr O'Brien if you could uh get bring up my PowerPoint for for everyone to see all right good evening uh mayor deputy mayor council Township manager Deputy clerk you know Willingboro residents um I'm here tonight to present our 2023 year in review very similar to what I presented uh last year um I'll go through probably about 20 slides with a lot of information um um at the end I'll answer any questions um that anybody has so uh next slide please so what we'll be discussing tonight is our cost for service our cases homicides motor vehicle uh threats uh threats motor vehicle thefts The Uniform Crime Report use of force Internal Affairs or new hires or Community engagement and then some future projects uh next slide please so calls for service similar to what you know I presented last year and and for uh some that are that are new to the meeting a call for service is any call that we are dispatched to it can range from a barking doll complaint all the way up to a shooting or shots fired so that is what is considered a cost for service so what I have displayed is the last five years of our cost for service and you know 2020 was that was that covid year and it's a little hard to see with the uh the close captions uh underneath but you can see each year that they have gone up every single year since uh since 2019 in 2023 our cost for service was 33,976 next slide please this slide is going to show the difference of 2022 versus 2023 on a monthly breakdown so the blue line is going to show what the what the monthly breakdown was for 2022 and then the red line is obviously 2023 so you can kind of see you know uh the Peaks and valleys what month was a little bit busier uh than others and compared to what it was the previous year next slide please so these are some of our higher calls for services that we respond to they're not every single one that we respond to but there's some of the higher numbers the numbers in Gold represent 2023 three and the numbers in white is the previous year of 2022 so you can see alarm calls we responded to 1,481 uh animal complaints I know we've had discussion uh in previous meetings about animal control and um and services provided and how are things going you can see that we've responded to 1,437 calls for service for some type of animal complaint whether it's an aggressive dog a barking dog dogs running at large um assist EMS and fire you know 5,95 disputes you know domestics escorts you know um you know noise complaints so if you go down to uh suspicious suspicious activity again that would be an example of somebody calling in and saying I have a suspicious vehicle or suspicious person and that's you know what we're responding to traffic stops you can see that we conducted 4,000 396 uh motor vehicle stops or traffic stops in 2023 which is slightly higher than the the previous year next slide please so now we'll move into cases what a case is a case is a incident that needs more it needs more investigating so what we have here an example would be a call for service would be let's say an an alarm call once our officers uh once our officers uh respond to that location they may see that the front door is kicked in there some type of forced entry so now that goes from an alarm call which would be a call for service to a burglary and a criminal mischief with a lot more investigation is going to be needed and that becomes a case so you can see in 2023 there was 2317 which is a little bit less than the previous year of 200 455 next slide so this one again similar to our calls for service I broke down our cases uh with some of our higher cases and you can see our assaults 121 in 2023 to 126 in 2022 burglaries were a little bit lower domestics were a little bit lower broad lower so if you go over to where you see vehicle theft we had an increase in vehicle thefts so um just we'll get back to that a little bit a little bit further into the presentation when I you know when I talk about um those that particular number and why that we saw a increase in motor vehicle thefts next slide please so what I decided to do and present to you guys tonight was um the homicides that we've had over the last five years um you can see the numbers uh uh in front of you you know 2019 it was it wasn't a good year for us but you can see the stuff to the right is seven out of our 10 uh um homicides were gun related and all 10 resulted in suspects being charged arrested and found guilty so going back Year bye in number in uh in 2022 there's an asri next to that and what happened was is in that particular case the uh the ucr's purposes it was classified as a homicide but the prosecutor's office didn't charge as a as a as a murder or homicide Uniform Crime Report and we'll get to that's a little bit farther down too so that's why there's a little ashter um next to 2022 uh 2021 we had uh we had two 2022 we had one and last year we had we had zero next slide please so I wanted to to show you know the the council and our community you know over the five years what we compare to uh in Willingboro to to the rest of the county you know homicides aren't just you know you know specific to to one Community they're spread out through an entire Community Burlington County has 40 municipalities um within Burlington County and you see in 2019 we had five the rest of the County you know had a total of 11 2020 we had two the rest of the county had 10 2021 two verse 20 verse the rest of the county 14 2022 we had one the rest of the county had 18 and 2023 was zero with the rest of the county at two so um you know with that there it it it doesn't matter I mean I have a list of where the homicides have occurred Community such as Mount Laurel e sham uh Medford Medford Lakes pemon burrow you know it's just it's it it happened unfortunately you know it it happens so this is the uh next slide please please these are just going to be a little bit further breakdown of the uh of the homicides that we had uh uh each year so I'll just kind of read them real quickly you know 2019 we had those five there was the milbrook drive a victim was shot while sitting in their car the suspect was arrested and sentenced to 60 years medly Lane the victim was shot in the head while sitting in the vehicle the suspect was arrested and sentenced to life in prison East book East Brook Lane two victims were stabbed and a third victim escaped the suspect arrested and sentenced UH 60 years for each victim Baldwin Lane the victim was shot while sitting in the car two suspects uh one was sentenced with uh to life without the possibility of role the other one was still pending a trial next slide please rockboro place this is the one where it was uh where it was classified as a homicide in the Uniform Crime Report uh but the the person was in charge so again the victim was beat up in the home by the suspect striking with fists and an unknown object the victim went unconscious the suspect was arrested and charged the suspect was not charged with murder that sentence is still ending maplewick Lane the victim lured outside of the home and shot in the backyard the suspect was arrested and found guilty a sentenced to 30 years in prison next slide please 2021 barington Lane victim was found outside shot after returning home from work uh two suspects were arrested and found guilty sentencing is still pending for that the MLK Drive victim was shot while sitting in the car at the gas pumps two suspects were arrested and found guilty sentencing is still pending uh 20 next slide please 2021 or 2022 the one was at the JFK Center parking lot the victim was shot after leaving the suspect's uh vehicle two suspects were arrested and charged one pled guilty and sentenced to 17 years and the other one uh due to another unrelated incident um is unfortunately deceased uh next slide which was 2023 we had zero zero homicides next slide please so motor vehicle thefts Willingboro we had 60 Motor Vehicles stolen in 2023 compared to only 28 in 2022 that was a 46% increase this unfortunately was due to a social media challenge um that went all over Tik Tok it was all over um Instagram and they called it the Kia boys where um there were some defects in Kia and Hyundai which made these vehicles very easily to steal um we came up with an initiative uh where we gave out free Club style um uh uh steering wheel locks for uh any Resident or any anyone that worked in Willingboro that had those certain models of cars um but unfortunately you know there was there was an uptick in the entire country not only in Willingboro um but you know throughout the entire country and I I gave you guys the numbers to look at you know you can see the state of New Jersey uh there was approximately 16,640 vehicles uh stolen Statewide which was a 5% increase from the previous year next slide so this is the UCR or the The Uniform Crime Report so it's broken down into violent crimes and non-violent crimes so the first four would they would consider a violent crimes and the bottom three are your nonviolent crimes and they're classified a certain way and then each one would get designated with the number so up here is we have our four or a fiveyear uh fiveyear uh breakdown and each year we had you know we had a significant uh decrease you know 2020 again that covid year where you know it was a an extreme decrease but if you look at uh 2023 is column and you go to auto theft you know if you look at that you know that specific line from 19 20 21 22 and 23 you know we've average probably about 30ish motor vehicle thefts you know if we didn't have if we didn't have that uptick this year you know our our our total number at the bottom which is 483 would probably be somewh around the you know the 4 you know the 450 is which would have been a decrease from the previous year which was was 477 um but that total number if you go and you look at other communities it's it's very comparable if not better than some of the other communities such as the morst towns the Medford the eams the dels and so on and so forth next slide please so Firearms purchasing that something that has uh has increased over the the last few years and so has the uh Concealed Carry Permits so what I did is you know our detective division does an outstanding job you know vetting all of the applications that we that we receive and you can see you know in in 2023 alone that we received 602 applications for permit to purchase or Firearms ID cards uh the previous year again you know 2023 is is an gold uh we approved um 384 we denied 12 applications we had zero that were appealed uh withdrawn with 151 applications with were withdrawn and they can be withdrawn for a certain reason whe they didn't they didn't complete the uh the proper paperwork or there was something that they had from years ago in their their their background that they weren't aware of and then they voluntarily you know asked to be withdrawn try to take care of some of those things uh that they were you know 20 30 years old and then they would you know go ahead and reapply uh the the column on the right is concealed carry we really didn't have any in 2022 because of the way that the laws were written and since they've changed since then you can see that we had uh uh 78 residents requested Concealed Carry Permits and we approved 78 of them we had zero that were denied um zero withdraw and zero pending next slide please now what I'll do is is I'll talk about use of force so the column on the left is considered there's there's two ways that uh we report use of force in our in our portal anytime an officer uses force it must be documented and it must be uh reviewed so this this kind of talks about the different types and different levels of force the column on the left is consider you know constructive Authority and physical contacts constructive Authority is just that an officer in their uniform um using verbal commands things of that nature physical contact is is what you know would be considered routine um guiding somebody into a police car putting them in handcuffs things like that that's you know so that's constructive Authority and physical contact that does not require a use of force report everything to the right does So Physical Force mechanical force enhanced mechanic iCal force and deadly and deadly force they require a use of force to be reported in our portal so you know the definitions of you know physical Force you know taking someone to the ground um mechanical force would be you know OC spray it would be uh the canine or it would be um uh some type of your baton enhanced mechanical which is your your CED or taser um and any type of less lethal less lethal ammunition you know a bean bag round or something of of that nature and deadly force uh Firearms choking somebody or taking uh your baton and striking somebody in the neck or head area is considered deadly force next slide please so what I did is I broke down our use of force so like I mentioned earlier we had 33,976 calls for service out of those calls for service we had 51 situations where we had to use Force now in those 51 situations we had uh we had to create 109 use of force reports so what that to explain that is you could have one situation but maybe two or three officers had to use Force each officer that uses Force must complete that use of force so that's where you'll see that 51 situation and then 109 reports so any officer that uses Force must do a uh a use of force report so when you kind of take those numbers you know the 51 and you divide by the 30 thou 33,000 you know you you you basically get that force is used when we respond to a call 0.15% of the time so would I kind of give you guys a little bit of a a little bit of a further breakdown is most of the times when we go to some type of call it there's more than one person there you know whether it could be you know two three or whatever so I just used you know Hey listen you know every call that we had there's let's say there's two people there so that kind of even increases the percentage that we would have to use force and that put it at a 0.07% chance that we would have to use force compared to last year it was a 5.5% decrease from last year we had the same situations but less officers so we had we still had 51 situations but I think last year we had 124 reports where this year we had 109 reports uh breaking that down a little bit um so the out of the 109 reports that were created 54 of those 109 were for a potential mental health issue 26 was for we were dispatched for a or we were there for a some type of domestic violence situation and then 16 would be some type of welfare check so not all force is an example would be and this is the kind of the best way to explain it is so if someone is is a diabetic and their blood su Sugar starts to to drop to a certain point sometimes they can become a little bit of com combative so if we have to use some type of force for the the Medics or the um you know the uh the EMTs to deliver them some type of insulin or something like that a use of force would be generated for that even though it's not you know sometimes you think um use of force Police use of force it's you know um it could be one thing but there there's a whole bunch of different situations that we just document it and that's and that's what it is you know because forc that's not just putting somebody in the back of your police car you know we actually had to hold somebody down to be able to administer some type of of medication next slide please so I broke these numbers down for arrests so in 2023 we had 477 or 474 arrests out of 474 arrest force was only used 24 times so in 2023 if you were arrested for whatever reason there is only a 5.0% chance that force was going to be used during that arrest next slide so what type of force is being used what type of force is are are are our officers using when they need to use Force 82% of the force used by our officers are their arms hands or there some type of takedown 18% was either an arm bar a pressure point or a leg kick we had one incident where we had to discharge our duty weapon and that was for a dog a dog was attacking one of our officers or attempting to attack one of our officers and uh we had one incident where we had to discharge our taser on a dog also next slide so what happens after force it has to be reviewed so there's three levels three levels of review so you have your uh your Frontline supervisor which is your sergeant your Watch Commander which is your Lieutenant and then it goes to your Internal Affairs Lieutenant if there's any deficiencies that are noticed uh officers are held accountable and dis accordingly and this discipline can range from counseling notices training written reprimands suspensions or termination next slide yes good yes sir next slide next slide we're almost done anyway this just goes over our Internal Affairs stuff next slide next one these are the good ones so these are our new hires for 2023 so you guys kind of met them do uh throughout the year uh next slide and these are our promotions for 2023 uh next slide Community engagements next slide and these are our future projects arrive together shot spotter active shooter training and police licensing real quick the the uh arrive together program um it's us working together with mental health clinicians to kind of alleviate you know those types of use of forces where you know we're going to these calls where you saw what 54 54 of those reports were were because of a potential potential mental health um situation so this would uh pair us up with a mental health before you don't leave yet now this is this was an excellent excellent presentation I think this would be great for the community I think this was well done um and thank you for presenting it relative to other towns too I think this was great news and we see you know some good progress going um I just do have one question concern I know we have a high um population in foster care and um I want to I say dius but I yes um how's the relationship over there are we working on the relationship huh with the group homes and stuff like that okay and that's kind and and that's part of the the arrival program also because you know some you know we'll say some of our calls are to the group homes for some type of Behavioral issues um and then you know there are some procedures that we have um where uh skip it which is you know they they will do an Outreach to where you know uh they would respond to the home as opposed to us having to take you know someone that's having some type of Crisis taking them somewhere else okay so any comments and questions for Captain bus I just want to say thank you for an excellent presentation very well done done um you articulated the numbers I mean very detailed great job thank you sir all right thank you so much um Mr Harris um we want to bring uh penon back up we have some more a couple more questions and then we just wanted to discuss briefly the turf field okay and while he was coming up I just want to let you know that Captain bucks and I will be conducting interviews next week for the vacancy in our office of emergency management okay we do have three three three candidates okay um the council have any further questions I know we had some further questions or um comments concerning the theater uh one of the questions came uh as far as the construction portion would it be possible to do construction portion and ordered equipment at a later date prior to the seats going in um well I mean that would be the nature of this change order so that we would we would do the work um we we would do the change order and then put those speakers in before the seats go in I mean that would be the goal so that's the structural part of it that yeah the structural part correct the structural part has to do with the speakers themselves it cannot be supported with the existing roof and structure it's in the theater okay that's the clarification I need well Deputy Mayor I thought your question was could they like fortify the structure could they do the structural part order the equipment put the chairs in and then at some other point come back and put the speakers up I thought you were saying no because earlier he indicated that it would be more of a cost so someone sent me a message asking if they could do the structural portion first but not realizing that the speakers on the equipment is part of the structural okay okay I thought I thought it was they were two sep port beames and put the structure infrastructure in and then the speakers have to go up on that structure that you've created is that right but the yeah so the the the seats would still have to be protected or removed to put the speakers up because you need a a lift or something like that to put the speaker so you wouldn't be able to access the space to put the the stairs are in the way the seats are in the way and what cost would be that to make those adjustments to pull the seats out put them back in that I would have to look at that right now just once again just for the numbers cuz depending on where it's at it's not all the seats coming out it would be sections I'm assuming correct correct be the sections that you would need to uh do the work so once again just if we can get some numbers just to see what that looks like we explore our option I I had not done that so I can do that okay thank you um one other question and is the cost of the change order is that just due to the equipment change or is that due to the roof and support beams or things like like that other pieces that need to go in yeah so the cost of the change it's the complete cost with the speakers but the speakers then dictate the structural improvements so without the speakers we don't need those structural improvements and that's how we proceeded with the current design we don't need structural improvements in the in the theater if we use the current the specified speakers but once we go to these new speakers they're heavier they they have a a heavier load so therefore you need to reinforce the ceiling in the struction okay and that's adding an additional cost in addition to the equipment itself correct that's cor okay thank you one more question mayor so in regards to the different speakers when we asked for the assessment from you guys how come you came in with an inferior product opposed to which recommended based on us warning a state-of-the-art theater where's the disconnect there right well so so the uh the speakers were what was appropriate for that space we had looked at the um various types of speakers although we didn't we didn't get Bobby duckets input until earlier this year so that was that was not part of the consideration understand but without his input based on the specs that we requested how come you guys didn't provide us with the quality you know we we asked for instead it appears we got this and then when we B someone in they informed us they said well what you have here is not what you're asking for because that's the way we were presenting it to you know to this gentleman who is in the business and to others as far as getting performances here and it was stated based on what we have we would be spending so much more money bringing renting equipment and so forth and that's you know so I just want to know where that disconnect came from right so so under the value engineering aspect of this which is looking at costs of everything we looked at Cost we looked at cost of the chairs we looked at cost of the curtains we looked at cost of um you know carpeting everything and so under value engineering we looked at that for that space for 500 seats the speakers were adequate for that space so they they were of of a quality that you could then uh supplement those with additional speakers on a rental basis as needed okay so what you're telling me is you looked at it based on space we're looking at it based on performances and quality that we're bringing in right I I understand but the speaker though that type of speaker again it's the cost of that understandable wasn't it presented to us so that we can make that decision early on so what you did was you took what you believed we wanted to fit it into a box of course opposed to saying to us well for this for this here just like with the turfield there's different levels of tracks you gave us the option to pick what we want based on certifications but I think it would have been most appropriate for penon to say to us well for what you want the quality you want we're here and get had given us provided us with the different levels for us to decide but instead what you did was based on the space and the seating you guys gave us a product that was inferior to what we were asking for so until we got the consultant in who made us aware of that which I'm I'm thankful he did because you know we would have been really upset having this put in and we're not able to accomplish you know the goals that we set out so as Dr worthy said there is some ownership on penon okay whether it's communication whatever it is but you're not going to walk away without taking some ownership at all and that's and that's just in all fairness okay so as Dr worthy said it's not so much the township didn't give direction did we gave Direction what happened is you based your specs on what you guys believe based on based on space and seats not quality of what we were asking for so that's I just want to make that clear that that's the disconnect and all I'm looking for is you guys to say you know what all we we did make a mistake that's all we just want ownership here I mean we're going to work through it one way or the other but you have to take some ownership you have to right I mean I mean I would say that there's a differing professional opinion on the the speakers that we have spec and we did provide a complete set of specifications prior to going out to bid so that was reviewable but but Bobby Ducket did not look at those uh apparently until uh January but I'm going to go back and forth but you know I understand I understand and I will take it back and and I appreciate your input um Madame may I did have um some questions concerning the the turfield if okay Swit we'll switch over to the turfield conversation sure yes um so uh today I know council is going to be considering the different options for um The Turk field in terms of um the level or the type of field um if we're going to have field activities or if it's really going to be just focused on having a state of art track and then having a Turk field primarily for football or soccer field hockey what have you and not like Javelin pits and things like that we talk through all of that um but I guess I did see the diff I know we're not talking pricing right now but I did see um a report that showed a significant um increase in price that included uh the parking lot and some other configurations my question is when we started the conversation at about $2.4 million um are we still at a turfield and um a turfield and track for around that same pricing and the additional pricing is for the parking lot I'm just want to be clear in terms of the cost allocation or the you know the cost allocation for the turf field in track right so the way we broke out our Co cost estimate we provided the track and turf just as a separate item you know for for tracking the numbers but there is U with no parking at all there's still a significant amount of cost associated with storm drainage for instance because the field would it be is treated as an impervious surface so we have to accommodate that there's also wet lands that are on the property so there's a permitting aspect to that that would have to occur um as we designed the the turf field so just that one number of 2.6 million for the for the turf and the track does not then include some of the infrastructure that's required storm drainage and and also the parking as well so there is a there is a another component and that's up in that the upper part 2.7 million is that that does include parking as you had mentioned but it also includes the infrastructure that's necessary which would be storm drainage and and uh storm water control okay um and then the following question is when the presentation was made several months ago with the um Turf and track people who came um they stood by this 90day it takes 90 days and it's all it's all done we'll come in and you're gonna have everything done um what does that is that still a 90day process or what does the timeline look like if the council comes back and says yes we're ready to go is that a 90-day process or what does that timeline look like so so no yeah the the 90day process was was that vendor through the co-op program but we would have to get a full designed together and permitting so that process is I mean realistically we've done something similar in Mount Laurel and it's about a year process from when we get to go to have a design ready to have the vendor come in and and do that 90 days I appreciate you um sharing that with the Council on the record because from the beginning of the conversations I've been asking for a timeline and how long does this thing take and the only thing we got was the 90 days we've never this is the first time that we're hearing it's a yearlong pro we already waited a year um so we're the this the first time so a year from now so spring of 2025 is what you're if we were to say let's go spring of 2025 is when we'd have our Athletic Facility yes okay it's the first time that the council's been made aware of that timeline right and I was dealing with budgets and things like that but the a schedule because we didn't know where Council was as far as the budget so so I was developing these numbers Mr doy the the council's budget has nothing to do with the the project timeline itself when we kept asking for highle timeline whenever I'm working on a project I ask consistently with any of our professionals what is the timeline I need to know how much it costs but we need to know the timeline because there are a lot of other different factors um in the community that we're considering so tonight is the first time we've gotten a straight answer on that and we're learning that it's a year we thought we were we were much further along than that yeah with the next year so again whatever's happening with the communication there's a significant disconnect between what's happening at p and the efforts being made and what's being communicated back to the body yeah I understand and I apologize for that again the the vendor his his um process is 90 days but there is right so penon should have come up and said that's his process we've got this engineering to do this is our timeline this is what we would need his part would be 90 days our part is six months or whatever and then provide an overall response to the council our our goal with working with penon is having like that single point of contact that's giving us that information that's already been synthesized we don't want a project manage the the the work and have to figure out a little piece from penoni a piece from a vendor a piece from usatf a pie that's that's not what we want to do the goal was to have a turnkey operation working with penoni which is why this body you know selected penon yet again to be our our Township engineer so it's just it's a little disappointing that we continue to have um these points of Disconnect and I'm hopeful that we're able to rectify that yes thank you thank you so we we'll discuss an executive session further great okay thank you okay you're welcome I'm sorry counc and um Mr Harris you're G um before you go into um the resolution ordinance I just want to I'm going to uh let CarMax come up and do their presentation um you know the governing body is uh continues to seek economic growth um for this community so um um CarMax is here to present their intentions for a possible intentions for the Route 130 Marketplace property um so uh you know where're the council is looking to create job opportunities boost local businesses and strengthen our overall economy so um we just wanted to have this presentation we I'm going to allow for um a brief public comment concerning this um presentation so we do welcome the in of our residents um we are we are always looking for input as Council Works to grow our economy here in Willingboro so thank you CarX thank you mayor and and and members of uh Council for the opportunity to present uh uh this evening about the proposed development for CarX my name is Michael Floyd I'm an attorney with Archer and Griner and I'm here with Paul Toms on behalf of uh CarMax we are passing out right Sean if you can hear me check your email I just sent you an attachment that they're going to need for their presentation all right give me a few minutes um Ju Just to State up front CarMax does not own the property okay I'm sorry and they are in uh discussions to potentially purchase the property it's commonly known as the Grand Marketplace uh as everyone knows it's located along uh Route 130 North and in the rear from sunset uh Boulevard and I think what would be helpful this evening is for Paul to walk through the presentation that we've passed out uh to talk about CarMax carmax's history with uh dealerships uh both with the retail end and the wholesale end and then talk about the property in question and how it would be utilized so like to turn over to Paul Paul maybe just for the mayor members of council can you just explain who you are with CarMax yeah absolutely so my name is Paul Toms I'm a senior analyst on the real estate team here at Carmax basically what I do is uh I work on the transaction side finding new properties for Max to build new facilities on and um Willingboro has emerged as a contender for one of those facilities and I'm here to talk to you about it and thank you so much for your time tonight maybe just with your presentation I know it's gonna be coming up in a few minutes but I know the time is precious this evening I think we have about 10 minutes so let's go ahead and start on the about the company slide that's going to be uh the next page here if you guys have these handouts so we are the largest retailer of used cars in the United States we started the company because we truly saw an opportunity in the marketplace to completely revolutionize the used car buying experience by focusing on providing iconic customer experiences for every transaction perfect there we go that core competency of providing that iconic experience to our consumers really resonated with our customers and since we first began in 1993 we've been able to grow to over 240 stores in 41 States we have over 30,000 Associates Nationwide and in the last fiscal year we sold just under 1.4 million Vehicles next slide please CarMax is also known in the industry as one of the best places to work and across the United States as one of the best places to work we have very competitive pay and benefits where we really shine is through internal training and promotions it's an incredibly common story in the CarMax world for an associate to start on the sales floor of a facility work their way up to be manager of that facility and even possibly beyond that when you're part of the team we truly do everything in our power to make sure that you are comfortable and happy on our team and we have quite a few accolades that represent this um we've been on training magazine's top 125 for 16 consecutive years we've been on Fortune's 100 best companies to work for for 20 consecutive years in 2024 we placed 68th on the list Nationwide and we've also been featured in newsweek's America's greatest workplaces for diversity for 2023 and 2024 next slide please so we also have an awesome organization tied to us called CarMax cares that basically provides ways for our Associates to make impacts in local communities by matching dollars and hours spent so we have fantastic Partnerships with quite a few organizations across the country one of them being Kaboom this is a great example so we actually build playgrounds with Kaboom in certain areas in the United States and we've done over 200 playgrounds since we started with our partnership with them um it's also incredibly common for our store and capacity facilities to donate their time to local causes that they feel um good about so at least once a quarter this is very common I was just talking to an lgm of a store in Kenesaw Georgia and she was saying that they've recently spent time with a no kill animal shelter they've worked with a domestic violence shelter they've worked with local food banks they've even done adopta family type events at Christmas it's a very common thing for our Associates to truly care about our community and become an actual partner in our community and that's exactly what you would see with a CarMax facility in Willingboro next slide please and just to give you a scope of where we are financially as a company um in the fiscal year ending in 2023 we did open 10 new retail store locations we sold just under 1.4 million vehicles through our combined retail and wholesale channels we bought just over 1.2 million vehicles from consumers and dealers we had net revenues of right around 30 billion gross profit right around three billion and net earnings a little under 500 million next slide please so everyone knows that Carmax buy buys and sells cars but what is not commonly known is that we're a big player in the wholesale vehicle Sales inventory so when we buy a car we're going to put it in one of two different types of inventory if it's a car that is looking like it's going to meet our retail standards for sale these are might be newer less miles on them those cars are going to be reconditioned through a separate process and then will be listed for sale at our retail locations if the car doesn't meet our standards for immediate retail sale we're going to sell it home wholesale to our network of third-party independent dealerships so historically we've sold our wholesale vehicles at our retail dealerships and we realized that we were actually holding back s inventory in these retail sites um so we decided to purchase additional land strictly for these types of facilities so that is exactly what this facility would be it would be a facility to sell our wholesale cars to licensed and pre-qualified dealer customers next slide please so talking a little bit about how this facility would actually function so Wholesales inventory would come in throughout the week on car carriers and be sold at midweek wholesale sales events um H inventory will be unloaded placed into our staging lot and then our pre-qualified dealer customers that are included on an invitation only basis are allowed to come check out the cars in the 48 hours before we hold our wholesale sales events see what they want to bid on see what they're interested in then we hold our midweek sales events which are usually only once a week sometimes twice depending on volume um on a date from usually Tuesday to Thursday depending on the location where our wholesale inventory is sold to our dealer customers right now most of our events are being held virtually um kind of as a result of covid but we would need the ability to hold in-person uh wholesale sales events as well if the demand for the in-person services shows up again so on a high level vehicles are coming in they're being sold at our sales facility and then they're being removed from the lot by the dealers themselves we wouldn't be Distributing those cars the dealers would be taking them away and it is also important to note that these events are highly professional we use the services of a professional Auctioneer it's an extremely clean Sleek modern operation it's not what you would think of when you think of a general wholesale Sales Event can move on to the next slide so as far as our vision for the property we have identified a property U it's about 29 Acres we would plan on building approximately 12,000 square fet of improvements on site total development cost is currently spec at around 10 to 15 million just for the improvements on site this does not include what we would pay for the purchase of the land and then we would be hiring approximately 26 Associates seven of which would be managers making from 110 to 137,000 a year the other 29 would be clerical staff making 27 A5 on the low-end part-time scale to 60,000 a. half on the high-end full-time scale so along with our capital investment we'll be bringing in 36 new Associates uh at Market rates with the backing of a company that is consistently ranked in the Fortune 100 best companies to work for in the United States next slide so this is our concept plan it's a little tough to see on the screen but I'll try to walk through it um so everyone can kind of understand what's going on so at the moment we don't have any use for that back portion that's closest to the Bottom Road so we are kind of planning on leaving that as is we would be demolishing the existing structure um as it is currently speced we have our customer and employee parking and truck load and unloading right by the road so trucks would only be able to access that front portion and there would be a clear separation between our activity and the residential areas we don't plan on disturbing any of the wooded areas we're thinking those could be great natural buffers to the other developments around uh we've actually enhanced the green space on this plan on the northeastern portion as well uh we're not proposing to change any of the access points along Burlington Pike and we've mirrored the Landscaping of adjacent developments to fit into the neighborhood we're uncertain but we suspect that the senior living facility has access rights through the existing entrances so we're trying to maintain those um but as it stands that that would be the customer and employee lot at the front on Burlington Pike and then that would be our staging area right below it where you see the rendering of those cars with our wholesale sales building right there um and that is where we would stage the cars that are going to be sold at our wholesale sales events or are waiting for our dealer customers to pick them up after our wholesale sales events any questions on that concept plan mayor one thing I should mention to at the beginning is that the use itself is not specifically permitted in the zoning District or under the Redevelopment plan that governs the use of the property so if there's an interest on the part of the township to uh accommodate this use we realized that this plan would have to go through probably various iterations yes and we would also work with Council to uh amend the Redevelopment uh plan to allow for the proposed use but but CarX is here wed to be fully transparent they want to work with the township and if the the feedback is uh you know an interest in um this use uh we'd love to work collabora collaboratively with the township and its professionals okay now we appreciate that and just for clarity um again this is just AE presentation um for our residents for their input there will be no decision made today um as Council deliberates on it but we do want the input and the ideas from our residents so um I will open it up for public comment briefly if you wouldn't mind you stay right here absolutely so public comment is now open for the and this is strictly for the presentation for um CarMax public comment is now open please St state your name and address for the record hello my name is Ed the Ala 33 express lane um so when we're talking about jobs for the uh for the proposal here there's really no guarantee that I think any of those would go to willing Gro residents if I'm not mistaken right and it's really not a a net positive in terms of the sheer number of jobs um you know and then when we're talking about Community impact I mean that's admirable I get it um but you know other than the re Revenue that's generated from CarX I don't see the benefit for the township right um as opposed to something like a WWA or Royal Farms or sheets or some other kind of retail or restaurant type of business um the truck loading and unloading I don't think that's ideal for the elementary school along with the uh senior home um especially as it relates to the uh pollution that's generated by the tra trailers are come and go I mean essentially to me it seems like it's going to be a Dumping Ground for a clearing house I don't know how that benefits us as a Township so that's all I have thanks thank you Council um Marcus King 135 torington Lane um in looking at um the picture of the layout of Carmax um I agree with the gentleman who just came before us that um there's a lot of traffic already on 130 this is just going to create more traffic I believe uh in terms of um the warehouses that we already have in the area um because this is going to be an A Car Auction so that means cars are going to be coming and going all the time there's no real EST estate ability here and the biggest concern is you're talking about 24 are jobs that's a beautiful piece of property um I think Mark it correctly we can do more for um our city so I I would hope that this is discussion but I don't think this is the way to go moving forward thank you bar Johnson 54 gr Mercy Lane um I have similar sentiments to what are being said it it looks to me that from the standpoint of wboro this is looking more like a warehouse um it's good to hear that the uh semi trctor the car trailers that bring in the cars are going to off Route 130 and although Route 130 needs no more traffic uh the other thing that hasn't been discussed here is if you're going to have these cars on that lot expressed I assume there's going to be some kind of security Arrangements need to protect those cars and that hasn't been discussed what it would be and how it would be construction so I would be curious to know what those would be and and I agree having jobs is great but there's no guarantee that any of those are going to come from Willingboro so I remain just a little bit skeptical uh yes Sharon Anderson oh good evening thank you for the presentation this is Sharon Anderson I live at s Belhurst Lane uh the ratio of 36 Associates to 29 acres is 1.24 jobs per acre and I find that to be very very very low for some for uh such a central parcel in our um town that would be appropriate to an industrial area to a warehouse area but not to a heavily trafficked retail or residential area I want to see the elevation from Burlington Pike because if they have enough parking for once a week auction that means 6 days a week There's an empty parking lot that we'd be looking at and behind that P Parking Lot would be used cars it seems like it is indeed a warehouse for used cars um I would want to know what commitments could be made for the unrestrict for the land not used I want to see restrictions on that land because the next thing we know we're going to get somebody coming in and wanting a low job use of that uh location um I did take a quick look at a map of other Auto Auction locations in our area and looking at this map they tend to be in low trffic industrial areas and that is not what we need for uh what effectively is our front our our front lawn thank you very much thank you Miss Anderson okay Shirley Dorth good evening Council and residents um my only comment about carat is that we will have another opportunity you know to to review this process it was you know this is a quick sale tonight a quick presentation and um I'd like to have more time to think about it and maybe come back and discuss it at a later date thank you thank you all right Martin knock good evening um to say I was a little surprised about the presentation would be an understatement because I personally uh feel that um this is probably a worse proposal than the other ones that we had before for trucks uh coming in and out of there of just having hundreds of cars sitting there waiting to be auctioned off and everything I don't believe that's what we want on one of the main uh properties that we have fronting our community normally auctions are really off to the side and so forth now there's a main um CarMax facility in Del Lano and I'm sure there's lots of land that available that they could do an auction this is not even a showcase not even a showroom this is not a place you would go and by to the regular public and we can have cars in and out trucks in and out and you know I have been complaining about the increased traffic on beveri ccus uh from uh uh well I don't know it's not it's not CarMax but it's certainly carvana and uh I don't see how this helps this community at all um especially uh when they previous owners turned down the uh movie studio I mean that would have been much more of some something that would be would be a perk for the community and now you're talking about a a car facility that there hundreds of cars moving in and out trucks coming in and out uh obviously these are cars that uh CarMax doesn't want so I'm like wow this is this is flabbergasting thank you for my allow me to make my statement thank you Mr KN is there anyone else online okay public comment for this presentation is now closed um and I just wanted first address Miss Dorth that there's no we are not making any decisions so there is time for you to um uh think about it and share your input appreci um so and I appreci appreciate all the residents that did come up or um check in online to give their input thank you and I let allow you to no thank you we CarMax is very well aware of the concerns about traffic on Route 130 uh the adjoining residential uses and again if there's a willingness on the part of the township to look at this use that's the benefit of uh pursuing an amendment to the Redevelopment plan and having carax enter into a Redevelopment agreement because in that plan process with the Amendments you are able to bake into the plan certain restrictions on the use uh the width of buffers uh restricting the rear of the property these were all good coms that were raised by members of the public and there is a way where the township working with the solicitor can um incorporate some of those concerns and how to mitigate those concerns during the Redevelopment plan process um but again CarMax is a well-known company it certainly has the financial wherewithal to undertake this process uh but it wants to be fully transparent and that's why it's here uh before the council this evening they did not simply want to submit an application for use farance approval and site plan approval they want to work collabora collaboratively with the township or any other municipality the only other comment I would address is in terms of the workforce and and hiring locally uh CarMax would certainly uh in terms of hiring be willing to host job fairs here or elsewhere in the township and uh give every resident the opportunity to apply for those jobs they certainly can't say who's going to be hired or where they're going to be hired but it benefits CarMax to have its employees local uh to the area only other comment I think maybe to address member of the public was concerning onsite security Paul if you can speak to that yeah absolutely so we would have this would all be walled off um we do have certain whip wall or work in progress is what we call them wall standards um so the entire staging area would be behind a wall which is where all of our cars would be held and there would be a guard shack as well that's a very um it's a very wellestablished perimeter wall there so that's what I would say for the uh security stand there mayor I have a question go ahead so you know we met before we had conversations but one thing that wasn't mentioned by the residents was the infrastructure so you're gonna have trucks coming from 295 through Willingboro and that's an infrastructure concern then you have the back road to Sunset which there's no way you can say a driver won't be coming down there you have a school you have the senior home so I think that's going to be a big issue in addition to the traffic you know additional traffic on 130 but right now as we're trying to uh rehabilitate our infrastructure you know I don't think that's going to help us in any way having all of this traffic coming in and out you did indicate trucks will be loading unloading between certain hours but you also stated that it may be one or two after hours which means for us if the doors open to come in after hours that's what normally happens so the time frames um once again we met before this is no surprise I just don't think personally not speaking as the council that this would be conducive or ideal for this community you know I did mention to you that we were looking for something to be more of a destination and as you heard from some of the comments you know we've had other opportunities to entertain other projects that I guess would have been more pleasing but those were turned down so I just think you know I right I appreciate you're coming before us but based on what the community says you know I'm just weighing in on you know what I feel no and we should have St it up front one thing is we you know I'm here on behalf of Carmax we don't represent the property owner so I can't speak to any prior uh proposals that came before for Council and um in terms of sunset uh Avenue Avenue uh road behind the property um you know if we move forward um farax would be willing to again work with uh the Township engineer on changes to those access points on Sunset Road so that tractor trailers can't use it whether that's uh narrowing the throat of the driveway coming in whether it's pork chops whether it's other right in right out so it's for cars only the anticipation and the goal is for all trucks to enter from from Route 130 and again that was in response to your concern I understand that but when you're a truck driver you're coming to an area you're not familiar with navigation sends you any which way so even though though you're narrowing the entrance doesn't mean trucks won't come down that road until they see that so it's still that Transportation issue with the infrastructure and everything else with those heavy vehicles thank you Deputy Mayor anyone else have any concerns or questions okay so thank you for coming again we just wanted to present to the public there was no you know uh direction that Council was going with this um but you know you want to come before the public get understand Tru appreciate your time and for anyone if there's any questions about CarMax or about the proposal if we could supplement our presentation this evening we could send it through the Township Clerk the solicitor and they could share it with the members of the governing body okay and you could you would hear from us again I want to give the public a little bit more time to um digest and look at it we have people look at YouTube later on so um I just want as much input thank you for your time you so much for your time all right Mr Harris um could proceed and and just do brief like one liners give you one liners yep yep yep uh so uh for for your consideration this evening is ordinance number uh 202 24-5 which is an amendment to chapter 272 property maintenance this ordinance is just to designed to um provide some structure in the way that Properties Manage the uh the storage and handling of firewood and um uh down trees that are on their property uh resolution number 2024-the the township of Willingboro to apply for the Historic Site management Grant uh this will uh allow the township to apply for the Historic Site management grant grant through the histo New Jersey historic trust for the futural house um we would be required to supply matching funds in the amount of 15,000 which would is included in the 2024 capital budget and the approval of this uh application could potentially provide funding for the cost of our pres preservation plan and uh possibly the cost of construction drawings for the future house resolution 2024-25 is just a resolution accepting a treadmill donation to support the boxing program uh for recreational purposes are actually two treadmills resolution 2024-25 d111 there's a resolution to amend the appropriation lines on resolution number 202 3- 179 um there were certain Appropriations or certifications of funds that were approved in Prior resolutions that needed to be adjusted once uh certain Grant funds had been received in relation to the Performing Art Center and that's what this resolution does it just moves Appropriations from one capital account to another capital account but it does not change the the amount of the funds that were previously appropriated or approved resolution number 2024-the LLC or one of its Affiliates that's a a cell tower that is on our property behind uh Country Club po that um this company wishes to now sublease to T-Mobile and it would require your authorization to do so resolution number 2024 4-12 or 112 is the introduction of the municipal budget um by title only um this is just uh this is just permitted if the budget has been posted online if it has been provided um to um in the municipal building the local public library and the county library and all those conditions have been met which would enable us to read the budget by title only um resolution number 2024 at-14 is a resolution to make amendments to the 2024 budget um when we first did our budget introduction we did come to the council with a one peny reduction at our last meeting under the direction of Mayor Macintosh um we were instructed to go back and review that budget again we did do that and we were able to come back uh with some adjustments to bring forth another pen decrease in the budget for a 2cent decrease so if the council is satisfied with that then we can introduce the we can well we have to have our public hearing anyway tonight but then if the council is satisfied with the two Penny reduction we can go ahead and introduce the Amendments we can go ahead and have the public hearing at our our meeting in on May the 7th okay and then um we can go ahead and adopt the budget at that time with the Amendments or if the Council decides they want to make further amendments at that time you would have the opportunity to do so before we go into the final uh yes so just for clarification we will be meeting in between um for Budget um workshops okay just to you know go over it I don't foresee many a minut but I just want to make sure we go through it and see okay and and just what we're just touching on the budget uh Miss UCB and I we have been talking about prior capital accounts and monies that we are having available we're going to be looking at that tomorrow uh in relation to the emergency appropriation but we will also look at that and see if we can shift things around to maybe alleviate the funding for the Performing Art Center so we'll discuss that as well and finally an item that is not on the agenda um but it is presented to you authorizing the advertisement and receipt of requests for proposals for the theater Management Services at the Willingboro Township Performing Art Center uh if you authorize this then we will go ahead and advertise to receive proposals for theater Management Services those uh proposals would be open on Tuesday May 14th um after 20 plus days being out on the street and then you can decide um you know if you choose to award the contract to to whom uh submits requests and that is all that I have uh for your consider ation this evening thank you for that um and so just for clarification we you still we still you still presenting um 114 okay that's still on okay okay thank you um I'm going to open it up for um public comment for agenda items only you have two minutes um please state your name and address for the record public comment for agenda items only is now open anyone online uh not at this moment mayor thank you Public public comment for agenda items is now closed you can proceed Deputy clerk for the ordinance so we have ordinance 20245 which was an ordinance to amend the code of the township of Willingboro specifically chapter 272 entitled Property Maintenance by adding a new article entitled outside storage and deliveries of firewood in residential areas public hearing is now open for ordinance 20245 doesn't seem to be anyone okay is there I'm sorry public hearing is now closed for 20245 is there a motion so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor Anderson seconded by Dr worthy any discussion Dr worthy thank you madam mayor um I am so happy to see this on um for us to to consider for the ordinance and looking forward to hearing um if the public has anything to say as we move forward in the process and future meetings um going around town seeing the pictures knowing the hazard of having so much firewood stockpiled um I appreciate um code enforcement and and inspections um really being proactive and bringing something to the body that will be meaningful for our town it may not seem like a big deal but it is definitely a safety um Hazard and um when you see the totality of firewood that is stored and stockpiled throughout our community in different places I think it shows the um how necessary this ordinance is so thank you to the administration for bringing this forward any other discussion all right roll call please councilwoman Whit Phil yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor McIntosh yes all right does anyone have any any further um discussion on any of these resolutions before I put a motion for consent agenda 113 I just want the value of the okay pull that out all right all right I make a motion for a consent agenda of resolutions 20 24-18 109 110 1112 114 and 115 mayor if I may yes uh resolution 114 can not be un done in the okay gotcha I'll it has to be done after the the hearing all right I'll repeat um I'll make a consented I make a motion for consent agenda of resolutions 2024 d108 through 112 and 20 24-15 second what I have a question um the resolution 112 does the budget have to be read into the record by title no because it was advertised that's correct so you're just uh uh authorizing the budget to re be read by title so we don't have to go through the whole yes so it's moved by mayor McIntosh GNA by Dr worthy roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson and mayor McIntosh yes I make a motion to approve the consent agenda for resolution 2024 108 through 112 and 202 24-15 second moved by mayor Macintosh seconded by councilwoman Whitfield roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson and mayor McIntosh yes all right we have to do 113 114 need a motion for 113 is there a motion for resolution 2024-the seconded by councilwoman Whitfield roll call I'm sorry um discussion thank you Madame mayor yes um and I was curious if there was anything I could find on the um value of the contract I see that it's a up to a 15-year agreement I didn't see what the benefit was back to Willingboro I know if it's in my packet you can point me to it or so I do not know if the materials were included in the packet they were sent along from um vertical bridge and I will forward them in case everyone does not have them um it is an existing agreement that started with Liberty Tower back in 2012 so um this would end in 2027 based on and if the the recital I think says August 22nd 2012 so the end date would be um August 22nd 2027 the agreement has a subsection 6 in there that says that um sublease has to be granted by the coun or it should be granted by the council cannot be unreasonably withheld so vertical Bridge took over cig they took over the rights of the contract so they have the ability to request the material they sent everything along for review um the T-Mobile would have to do everything the exact same as um vertical Bridge has in place in the contract or the language of the contract um which is a 1,200 a month to the township right so we're if we're looking at this again I just wanted you know to be able to consider or reevaluate if there's opportunities to make any adjustments in the benefit of you know for the benefit of town at at this time there is not an opportunity to readjust the agreement the agreement will be in place until 27 when it expires at that point in time the township would have the ability to renegotiate thank you very much that's all and we also we did also put that on the radar make sure we don't miss that opportunity um to make sure we you know look at the full thing if we read it and I'm you know we're kind of stuck for this threee two-year period threeyear period thank you any other discussion roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yeah yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor Macintosh yes so now mayor we would need to go ahead and open the public hearing for the 2024 Municipal budget public hearing is now open for 2024 Municipal budget okay public hearing is now closed for the 2024 Municipal budget a motion is there a motion to introduce the TW I'm sorry the public hearing is closed okay so now we're going to go ahead with resolution number 2024 114 uh introducing the um resolution to amend uh the 2024 Municipal budget okay so resolution 2024 1114 to amend the 2024 budget there a motion so move second moved by councilwoman Whitfield seconded by Dr worthy any further discussion roll call please please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor Macintosh yes and mayor if I can just make one just comment regarding the budget and I really need residents to understand that the township is working very hard to control fiscal spending and willing buau by reducing their budget by two pennies to the tax do to the to the residents uh there are other taxing agencies that affect your tax bill in willing Barrow one being County taxes and School Board taxes uh the school board increased their Appropriations to their tax bill that to the tune of $5 million this year so that is going to be a substantial increase to the residents tax bills that they will see uh probably on the average of of about $1,000 but they really need to understand that that is not the council that is doing this that is the result of of actions taken by the school board which are just out of your control so when when people see their bills it's not the council you I can't tell you enough because you already know that you know we are doing everything that we can to to reduce spending um and and for the benefit for the taxpayers so I just wanted to make that clear no and I appreciate that statement and we'll probably have to reiterate it over the course of the rest you know over and over probably every meeting because it's going to come up um obviously and I do appreciate you know the work that the Administration has done um to really hone in and you know cut where we need to cut and invest where we need to invest because you know we do need we still have Investments to make we have infrastructure um things that we need to accommodate and you know certain activities that we still have to um fund but I am very grateful for everyone's you know and that's that's every um Department that has worked hard to try to uh make sure their budget is tight so definitely appreciate that Madame mayor yes at the last meeting you asked the manager to work harder he worked hard and came back with a penny you want to try it again this week I can work hard but I can't work Magic we gonna look thank you but thank you it was very good the audience where's where's M digs okay I see no but definitely that's I mean a penny sounds like a little bit but that's hard work um with a municipal budget that is really impressive so thank you all right moving on to our treasurer for approval and adoption no treasurer's report this evening I think um there's no treasur report okay thank you all right you need a motion for approval a minute I'm sorry is there a motion to approve the minutes for March the 5th 2024 and March 19th 2024 so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor Anderson seconded by Dr worthy any further discussion roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor McIntosh yes all right and you can um do your updates just a few um updates for the clerk's office for the month of March between mertile licenses and request for 200 foot list we received a total of 10 um totaling $177 35 we also received in the clerk's office 21 dog licenses for a total of $512 and there were a total of 54 opras submitted for the month of March that's all for this evening um can you just give us an update on the rabies clinic or for that yes the rabies clinic um the flyer is posted on the township website it you have to click on I would advise the calendar to actually see it it will be held May the 8th 2024 between 4: and 7 p.m and where is this at you said mil Creek Park Park yes all right and can we just make sure that's on our social media just if it is it's fine I just didn't see I just want to make sure um people are aware that um we are hosting the rabies clinic and everything is in order for that with the county yes okay thank you um also I just want to make sure the financial disclosures are done tomorrow for anyone who's new to any of the boards and commissions anyone that um has not been we'll be sending noes out tomorrow tomorrow okay thank you anything else from your municipal clerk updates okay okay um I just have a request that because the financial disclosures um may be new to some people and they're not anticipating it's and they don't know that it's due if you don't get them via email if you would please follow up with phone calls and if there people who you can't reach please you know let us know let us figure out how we can get in touch with them because it's a really short turnaround and some people don't even know that they need to do it yeah thank you all right moving on to unfinished business does council have any does anyone have anything for unfinished business no okay anything for new business know I always got something it's going to be a novel yes Deputy Mayor thank you goad all right I've been uh the mayor and I have had conversations with uh the manager in regards to uh the ideal of doing a golf tournament the school district just held a golf tournament which was very successful um we wanted to do it as a joint venture with the three major entities in town uh but but unfortunately one of the entities uh is the Dynamics will not work at this current time so I would just like to ask the council if we can just approve moving forward getting some additional information as we prepare to take on this endeavor and to that point earlier in uh Mr Harris's comments he mentioned the 501c3 um at one point it was talked about establishing one but the work that goes into it is a bit much so the ideal if we can look at partnering with some 503 C's like TD Bank Habitat for Humanity you know start to explore other 501 C's that meet we might want to partner with to be able to take on some of these donations and benefits and so forth as we prepare for this upcoming fundraiser [Music] um yes if we if we can just support giving direction to the manager you know we can continue to move forward to look into this I support looking into it um I think partnering with an established 501c3 like TD Banks Foundation or habitat if they're open to it I think would be great um and I would like to see um the funds go to um to support our students within our willing borrow Community we have students that attend um various Schools they're they live in willing borrow but we have students that go to Gerard College they go to Northern Burlington they at westtech Medford um and so I would like to see and in Willingboro of course but I would like to see us be able able to create some kind of um fundraising arm to be able to award scholarships um or book scholarships or offset um some of those financial hardships that students are moving you know out of high school okay yes and with the um so far the wmua signed oning along with the township so the next step would be to put a committee together and these would be the conversations of how these dollars would be allocated being that we're entering into it with another entity yes so we can have these conversations definitely at the table thank you um also I would like for Council to consider moving forward with conversations regarding the golf course and allowing them to have a Lial license so they from the inspection department they met the uh Co compliance of 150 seats I Believe by I think it's like 360 um and speaking with the attorney earlier today regarding the um Banquet Hall facility it also includes catering of which they do so they met that requirement so I would just like for us to look at moving forward to see how much a license would actually go for do some due diligence uh I believe this golf course has two other golf course that they are have some type of ownership interest in so we could start shopping around to see what a license would go for just so that we can continue these conversations I support that I also support that all right so three for three I got one more um finally at the last meeting um I indicated we received a letter from the Democratic Club regarding Miss Lizzie moris who was a matriarch of this community uh the council granted approval uh to move forward provided that the requirements are met through the petition process but in addition to that um Miss Lizzy as I indicated uh started the was one of the founders of the PO baseball league um I had an opportunity to see Mr Johnson over at McDonald's and he was throwing some ideas at me and with those I just wanted to bring back back to see if we had an opportunity to name a ballpark in her honor so as we started looking at the different ballparks that had names associated with uh one came back that didn't have a name which was Sportsman field so I would like to get the support of council that if we can you know name that uh and uh Lizzie Mars Memorial Field if no one objects Hot Leg Beverly ran cus yeah by the by the church yes yes so I would love that support if I can get that I support can I get another I don't have a problem with that all right can I get an amen can I get an amen there we go thank you guys good job all right that's it there any other any other business for new business um I just would like um and I'm not asking for support yet until um we hashed out um we are currently working with our economic development team um I think we have a great group um this year um but we're looking to expand um our Economic Development input so we're looking to find some spaces in the JFK Center or and or in the municipal building for people when they come in they can you know we have a map or something that draws them to this wall um for economic de development and get their ideas on what they would like to see in Willingboro um so I haven't talked to you about space or anything um in any of these buildings but um I just want to put it out there for now that we are seeking some space just to um with with goodfoot traffic that we can get even if it's temporarily but just to get some more input from the residents as they go into these spaces um of what they would like to see um in Willingboro like a vision board of some sort um so just put that in mind but I need but we want it to be you know where there is some foot traffic um and interactive well and we'll you know we'll discuss it further we're having meetings every two weeks I think now with the economic development so we'll have further um further um direction right yeah because I think this is where people come so um and the library and I'll ask the library you know I'll ask for their um input also I think those would be you know good three spaces where people you know go um so if there's you know I'll ask for support later but you know I just want to put that on the table all right thank [Music] you okay all right is there anything else all right so we're down to public comments you have four minutes if there's any questions or concerns please state your name and address for the record public comment is now open the evening Council I should have gotten up before when the um engineer or whoever it was penon was here but nobody asked me to tell him what I thought okay well this is the time okay well you'll listen I know I was so happy to hear you talk about the sound system because that's one of the most important things going into that building for 48 years we have been going to Willingboro high school and you all know what a terrible sound system it is we have put I don't know how many times we've changed it I don't know how many times people have of Affairs there including the superintendent of schools I saw one report that he had spent $30,000 on speakers for one night so I don't know something has to be done because if sound system isn't right that building will never survive in that again and I thought we were ready to open that this year right yeah we did too so what's the target date now no I know we'll let you know okay enough said you know how I feel about that and we finally got this set straightened out the sound system thank you Walter for doing that although I have still have trouble hearing you all because you don't like to have the mics near you people don't like to talk into the mics I know that I don't myself okay the second thing is the turf which I guess comes under your department with the budget we've talked about Turf before um this is the last article I have on the turf fields from the inquire it says the risks associated with the artificial fields which contain chemicals linked to cancer asthma and other health issues are not worth the benefits band tur fields and city parks um I'll leave this with the Clark when she can make CS for you all I did notice though going out to West Hampton the other day everybody looks at that and says it's so wonderful out there and it is all of those fields are not turf fields the football field is regular field because that's where a lot of the injuries happen uh okay the last thing I wanted to say was uh that concerning Lizzie moris a few years ago when we talked about redoing the um cafeteria into the banquet hall it was mentioned then that that be named the lizan Wesley Mars um Memorial room or whatever because of their involvement with the police department and all of the food baskets that they used to give out so just another way to look at it okay thank you good evening again Marcus King um 135 T to Lane three things I want to talk about um when um the gentleman was talking about change orders can somebody look to see if there's additional cost when you have change orders because most contractors will will stick it to you when it comes to change orders um and also I'd be curious to know the original contract of the speakers that you had versus the ones that you're recommending and in in the cost so somebody could look into that that'd be great and I'll volunteer if you like me to um tomorrow night we talked about taxes tomorrow night the school board is having their special meeting um at six o'clock so anybody that hears me please come out because the last time they talked about the school budget um there were two people in the room and one of the things that they talked about was um that every school needed new roof every one of them and so I'm I'm curious to find out what they're going to do with their Capital budgets going forward because that's going to impact taxes going forward and you're right Mr administrator in terms of um taxes there are quite a few things um that go into that um that you do get blamed for that's what happen you s the big chair um lastly I had the pleasure of going to Wildwood um this this Sunday where the cheerleaders of the recreation um came back grand Champions also had the opportunity to go to Atlanta where again they won Grand Champions I'd like to know if there's a way we can have a area where we can put up their tropies and awards because those kids really need to see themselves they represented willing bro unbelievable and you've been very proud of them and so I'm hoping that somebody could give me um the werewolf all of how to rec recommend um somewhere in the town where we can post those um those trophies and Banners that they won so they can see themselves that's all I have thank you thank you G Johnson 54 grammar C Lane don't get old there's no future in it anyhow I I'm a bit of a skeptic so well I want to thank you very much for having the PRI presentation by carax because it's nice to let the public know and be prepared to participate in discussions like this uh I am spectacle of but I respect hearing on the proposal anyhow um one thing that keeps coming into my mind is there is a project ongoing over in Burlington Township on what I believe over there is Salem Road of apartment buildings now I know that you are looking into all kinds of projects for the former uh Marketplace but wouldn't that be a a place for multifam units to go into there uh which would bring more housing housing and and more residents and and yes it be an increased traffic but it's not only the type of increase in traffic is what kind of traffic and I don't think we really want the big tractor trailers the cars should be bad enough um the one other thing and I hate to be a k jooy but with regard to the performance center and in even applies a little bit to the turf field that's great because I'm one who would like to have nothing but the best for Willingboro I'd like to have Willingboro to be The Shining Light in the state of New Jersey but to some extent I have to ask are we going to have the performances and the usage of it that would justify the expense we're spending a lot of money and people right now have been I know we're keeping the budget down we've cut it down by a penny Hallelujah bust you but keeping it down uh we're still talking about spending a heck of a lot of money I think we need to provide a justification for it I you know if we have it there I'm a permanent supporter for it but I want to see it supported and I want to make sure that if we have this turf field that we're not doing some substantial harm to the economy because I also happen to be a member of the environmental committee so I try to keep track of these things so uh if we could do that and so thank you very much you um yes uh Shirley Dorth good evening again everyone uh Shirley Dorth Newport Lane uh I just have a few comments but my uh very first comment is to say how very disappointed I am that I was missed at the last council meeting my hand had been raised and so I don't know you know how I was missed but I did not have an opportunity you know to present uh the comments that I wanted to make at the last meeting so going forward I hope whoever is in charge arue that will take a little bit more time to uh be to look around to see that everyone's hand has been acknowledged and no one is being omitted the other two comments is uh this first comment is something that I wanted to you know just present at the last meeting but I wanted to give kudos to the community for our outstanding participation in the County recycling program uh in the year of uh 2023 and I know the report has been out uh maybe for a few months willenburg should be very proud of itself because of of our participation in the rec the County recycling program now as you know there are I think 40 or 41 townships they in Burton County and out of the 41 townships willenberg came in number four that's impressive that is and we should Pat ourselves on the back and so I'd like to continue to encourage the um the members of the township you know to keep recycling because it is a wonderful thing uh the last comment that I like to make is about the uh property reassessment that Mr Harris has been talking about I do have some uh concerns about that and my concern is that as properties are being reassessed in the township okay I I hope the process of reassessing properties does not cause members of our community okay put members of our community in the position where they cannot or no longer be able to afford okay their properties okay often time when property is being redeveloped or reassess okay we have to be concerned about the process of gentrification so uh Mr Harris and council members we're depending on you to look out for us and to make sure that everything is going right for us and that we are not being taken advantage of and I know you say that this is a State initiative being okay administered through the county uh but uh again we are we're depending on you okay to look out for us for the members of uh this community thank you so much and I appreciate everything that all of you do thank you Mr Del worth all right Maddie mallerie good evening mdty mallerie Hudson Place and um I'm concerned again about um the uh speed of the traffic on chareston Road between Kennedy Way and Van skyver um yesterday was a nice day and I was outside with uh several of my neighbors and one particular neighbor that lives right next to Charleston Road and we were out there looking at some things and talking and um people just don't realize that the speed limit is 25 miles an hour and uh on several occasions uh you know we yelled at people speeding and you know we did have the monitor there for a short period of time but I think we need to look at other ways that we can um influence or enforce that 25 speed now on Salem Road going through Burlington um I noticed that once you leave Burlington Township and get into the part that's called Burlington City behind their 25 uh mile hour speed signs they have like a yellow metal uh sign behind that which automatically um you know brings to your attention I think we need more 25 M hour signs on that stretch of Charleston Road because it is residential now from uh van skyver no from Kennedy way to Veterans um it's different because all the residents their back to Charleston Road but once you leave Kennedy way and going to Van skyver you have strictly residential where houses are facing Charleston Road and this is a real problem and we have children that are play on the sidewalks we have quite a few children in this area and as I said yesterday I mean we couldn't believe the speeds of vehicles and also the uh County bus I mean the speed that they come through there and it's like from uh van skyver to Kennedy way there are two signs that say 25 miles an hour one is as soon as you turn on to Charleston Road at hasell and the other one is right by my Street Hudson Place and other than that there are no other signs that indicate the speed limit so I think that you know we're going to have a problem in the summer when kids are out there playing and people are speeding through doing 45 some of them maybe 50 miles an hour um the other thing is I noticed the grass cutters were out yesterday or the day before and um there was quite a bit of grass that was uh thrown to the curb and so I'm wondering when are we going to see the um sweeper um to clean up some of this grass that is being cut and left in the streets and I think that's all I have for this evening thank you miss mallerie all right Torina Williams thank you good evening everyone Serena Williams 8 botney Circle first I want to say um special thanks to Mr Harris for the thorough report followed by Miss Jackson for giving us a breakdown of upcoming events I love and appreciate all the good work that not only our Council does but different department throughout the township um commemorating different times in history and the different um uh awareness months that we have concerning for example youth the um volunteer National volunteer month with the volunteer Fair coming up and Earth Day and so on and so forth um thank you to Captain Buck for the thorough report that we Reed God bless the fire department and the police department for the great work that you do helping to protect and care for our Township but also I'm just amazed every time I see an upcoming event of community service to help the children have um safe fun as opposed to going out and strin from what they need to do to obey the law um also wanted to um share that um this Saturday we're having our annual Health day at willing barar SDA Church on 2011 veteran Parkway services are at 9:30 followed by worship service at 11:00 a.m. by um featuring our health Ministry director um tamy fashanu she's a nurse practitioner we'll have a free lunch right after and then in the afternoon we're having a special Suicide Prevention Workshop featuring speaker guest speakers Dr Bobby and Miss Thomas from the brington county Mental Health Department you also have Miss Lillian Banner who will be speaking about the risk of and the ways that we can help treat um Su help prevent Suicide Prevention we have our own detective Richard I'm saying the wrong name I'm sorry I just lost my paper um Detective sorry he's from the our own willing Barrow Township officer Landrum has always been so supportive of our events um in care of the police department and he'll be coming I know they have the event at um the high school but we really appreciate that a representative will be sent from the Department I see that have to but yes I just want to say thanks special thanks to everyone for their great work and service thank you thank you Miss Williams oh you're welcome thank you PA all right uh Martin knock good evening again Martin KN from Wain just like a couple updates if possible uh would like to know um there was a long conversation about the intersection of bever Van cus and Windsor uh I like I like to thank Mr Harrison when came and took down or took out the uh park identification sign but the tree is still there but someone I guess it's the county or the state came by and trimmed the entire top of the tree thought the tree was dead uh now the tree is blossoming a little bit but but still it doesn't uh give you that line of sight that we now need because of the neighbors fencing that went up that you can see down to the light and like to know where we are that tree removal number two is uh we mentioned the reassessment and I agree that's going to have a major impact on the community and since been done over four or five years uh there has been nothing published about which parts are going to be reassessed first is that going to be published uh for us to know um I'd like to also know um there were several months back uh the Avery came in was talking about what it was going to do and everything else I've heard no updates um about uh the phases of the Avery so where are we on that uh they were supposed to be building some restaurants um they've been trying for years to try to turn all that land into those uh apartment buildings uh so I you know it's been a slow walk for at least the last six to eight years um and two i' like i' like to thank Mr Harris since some of us no longer follow the school district as much as we should uh in terms of the impact that their budget is going to have on our uh overall uh taxes tax budget uh as versus the township um I'm hoping there some rationality uh from the the governing body could talk to them and say this is going to be an issue especially where these homes are being reassessed and everything else so if I could just get those updates on the tree on the corner the reassessment and the Avery development I would be happy and thank you for listening thank you Mr not Sharon Anderson uh good evening folks Sharon Anderson s Belhurst Lane also a founding member of burrow Pet Project a Grassroots advocacy group I wanted to let everyone know that we will be at the rabies clinic again this year giving out free ID tags for their pets you do not have to come for the rabies shop this is for anyone in town anyone in Willingboro you can get a free engraved tag that you'd spend $16 for at uh PetSmart um the reason why this is really important is in the two years that I've been uh working through Burl pet project of all the pets and all the Strays and all the lost dogs one had an ID tag one it would be so easy to bring a dog home or tat even but if you want to put an ID tag on them it'd be so easy to bring them home if we just had the phone number um we do have a microchip reader that we use and we can check the registration unfortunately too many pets don't have microchips and too many people don't update their phone numbers if you have a pet that has a microchip be sure that you have your current number there so um I I I realized uh listening to uh uh director bucks that we've not given any numbers and so just a little update is that in in the last year we've matched two first families and for forever families who were going to have to rehome their dogs and instead of going through the shelter we helped them do a direct adoption where they knew the family that was taking their dog um I do have one dog that's going to be available next week so watch our Facebook page we have had three Strays and two surrenders adopted in partnership with either the shelter or Burlington County animal Alliance we have neutered four indoor cats for seniors who could not afford to have their their cats uh neutered um we've gotten great help from Dr kowaki at Willingboro V I believe she'll be the vet doing the rabies clinic and she has donated her time to us um which has been really wonderful we've had seven kit kittens go to adoption through the cats meow in Burlington County Animal Shelter we currently have one mama and two kittens um the kittens will be ready in two months or in a month um and they're in a foster home seven times we've helped with lost dog and cat Outreach um probably more than that but those are the ones I remember um three found dogs were re reunited with their families rather than having to call the Animal Control Officers after hours if you call after hours the town has to pay overtime the pup gets taken to a noisy dark kennel and the family gets stressed until they can pick up the dog the next morning um by us just holding the the pup they're able to re reunite it and we reunite at any time 11:00 1:00 a.m. doesn't matter but we do do it with the cooperation of the police so that we're very sure the dogs don't end up in the wrong hand um I don't have the number right now but our cat goddess working with the cats meow last I knew had worked uh trap new to return 35 cats so um we've been kind of busy and um we are looking forward to the rabies clinic again this year I do have one request and that is we have a contract with the Animal Control Officers and it would be really wonderful if that contract would include them posting found dogs that are going to and cats that go to the shelter because if we post them people can go get them quickly now I know that the company's going to say we got lots of towns we got lots of things to do well they're working for us we got we pay them thank you time is up thank you thank you Miss Anderson uh buet Williams good evening mayam McIntosh Deputy Mayor Anderson oh um councilman Whitfield it's good to see you back you weren't here for I guess a couple times we're glad you're here um and Dr worthy good evening I see do um Miss Fon is not here I hope she's well um thank you Council you I appreciate you all you know you're doing an awesome job and I like how you work together to advance um Deputy mayor's initiatives this was all for the good of the community because he's has a Caring Heart you all help to advance it so good very good and of course I appreciate Mr Harris the sorrow work he does for the community yeah I appreciate all of you so God bless you um I wanted to mention um detective Richard C cff is cool how do you pronounce his name anyway c p e CP yeah detective Richard coup my daughter forgot his name so I wanted to give him the respect you know we appreciate him devoting his time to help and um spread the awareness of you know this horrible subject you know um suicide you know he will have a wealth of knowledge to share with the participants and I just want to thank him and you know um praise the police Department you know they're always so helpful they're always there to you know lend a helping hand to make our community a richer place I praise this fire department the EMS I praise all of you all of you deserve you know praise instead of nitpicking you know to say you did this wrong you did this wrong you know to me you you do you're doing right and the Lord is Blessing you and I thank you all I hope I said everything God bless you and um on on Saturday I know that you have a full schedule it's our sabath otherwise You' be out there helping as well so um keep up the good work for the community we love you God bless you um okay did I Terina is saying didn't I say where we where I live willing um bot circle botony circle right didn't I say that she said I didn't so so um any part of the initiative the um the health day that you want to participate there some people are out there and they can't attend the worship service um and they want to have a lunch come and have lunch just you know just come and have lunch and um the workshop is 2 to 4 but you're welcome any part of the day you can come just come on over God bless you and also have the zoom ID which is 871 0209 5223 pass code is Adventist and I just want to send um that we appreciate our host Church um St Paul's they have a wonderful pastor at you know um Reverend Geral nice lady so God bless you I talked enough amen good night night good night Miss Williams thank you you're welcome mayor all right is there anyone else for public comment all right public comment is now closed all right Mr Harris um so start with Miss Mack um we agree with the sound system I think we need a good one so we're going to have to figure out how we're going to make this work and figure out you know what the quality of what they offered already you know how that would affect um what we're trying to accomplish for a stateof the Art Theater um also the turf fields um we'll get copies of that and read through that and that's that it that will we will um consider that input when determining you know if and when we go forward with the turf field um so I appreciate that information um Mr King um Mr Harris can we talk about can we look into the Willingboro wreck for you know our championships our Sports celebrating you know our wins our huge wins oh we do have something a trophy case okay so can we just um you know living that back up and get that in a place where people see and you know they do know they're appreciated and seen and you know we're proud of them just want to you know do that and I guess it's Council okay with that yes okay um Mr Johnson's car um comment about the CarMax um again we were just bringing them forward just to present none of the council you know had um offered any opinion on it or anything they just came to us and wanted to present to the um Community just for transparency and again um when we talk about it we'll definitely you know include the input of our residents and I think you you know everyone made some great points to consider um also you know we could look the the um housing uh we have a little bit of difficulty only because it stresses the community we're trying to get some more um Economic Development and you know things that we can help um you know manage taxes so the housing you know especially senior housing you know we're looking into but we just still have to be deliberate in what we're with the limited space that we have um for commercial or retail um and to your point justifying the uses usage of money I mean we've been working hard and I'll say you know kudos to Dr worthy who's been really been I'm having an Eagle Eye on on the spending but making sure that our amenities are topof the line I think we do deserve it and we can afford it um without um a huge imp to the taxes because we have planned accordingly over the years to fund certain things um so I do think it's important to balance you know the quality of our amenities you know with the cost so and I I will say that you know we have the right person on the job looking at it um and really making sure that we're um quote unquote Scrappy in our spending but you know not having a cheap product on the end um and I appreciate you bringing up the environmental stressors on the turf field I think that's another thing that we really have to consider and we will be tapping into um our environmental commission also um and getting their input because they have been studying this too um so I think it was a good point that you brought up about the you know environmental stress and you to make sure we keep on top of um that situation um Miss stillworth indicated that she's proud of the partici participation of the recycling program do you had did you get that information that okay okay so I mean I think if if that's something we we definitely want to um make sure that's said and public you know publicized um so so that we can keep that momentum going I have not seen that report M but I will look for it you'll look for it okay got it and we're going to have to do we're going to have to talk about this tax reassessment again um and just CL I think that can kill um two birds with just an explanation um re explanation on that so I actually had a conversation with the assessor today um you know this is going to be a a reassessment over a 5-year period um as far as you know what parks are going to tackle and when I can ask him to put together a schedule um however uh there is a notification that goes out residents when they are are beginning to do work in a a particular Park I believe now they are in Garfield East um uh he we did at your request uh prepare some documentation to be posted on the website up it's a a frequently asked questions very thorough explanation of the process the end results and the reality is at the end of this process which I believe is slated to be completed in 2020 2028 um some properties taxes will go up some property taxes will remain stable some property taxes will go down um so um you know but but we will do are working very efficiently to make sure that the the assessments are not outrageous and we do have the benefit of working with our tax assessor who has been with willing B for a very long time uh through this process and he is aware of the limits uh you know that the municipality can can take I guess you would say so he's just not going to go out and just put a hard number without taking all things into consideration okay i' appreciate that um for Mr mallerie still concerns about the speeds you know in JFK Charleston um and I she did mention some some Charleston wrote okay um is there something we can do for the speed calming you know people are speeding through the township and we just need some assistance just to squelch it somewhat yes you well uh I I will have those appropriate conversations with Captain Buck okay um and you know we have been talking about um detailed thorough plans regarding uh traffic in in the township but we're not ready to unfold that to the council as of yet but we're looking at uh some things that could be more uh permanent solutions to these problems throughout the community yeah and then as there is there a time when when do you plan to present when we have all of the details kind of lined up and no not next year second before the Summer's over second meeting in May we're just trying to get an idea I mean don't pen me no I I don't want to I don't want to give you any false expectations uh we're talking about it and you know when we get the all the the eyes dotted and te's crossed then we'll be ready to to present it to the government but can you give us an update on where you're at on the timeline the next just make sure that's on the um just update just say he we're working on it you know it's it's on the top of our mind you know still that's all speed um also also the glass clippings um you know what do we have a schedule for the sweeper throughout Town yeah the sweeper has has been been out almost every day uh out and about in the community um so they are uh sweeping all of our streets um the Cutters have been out cutting and the sweepers have been out sweeping or the sweeper has been out sweeping and uh we are still waiting on the delivery of our our our second sweeper that's out for repair and uh and then when that gets it we'll have that sweeper out sweeping too okay good thank you um we had Miss will both Miss Williams and you know thank you you know so the council I say the governor body we do appreciate the Kudos that we get and the positivity um that you provide every meeting so I just wanted to um just say thank you for that um for Mr knock um can you give a update on the tree removal we have contracted for the removal of that tree um it's it's it's in process um and it will be happening in I would I would say in a week or so I'll keep you updated thank you I'm also the um where do we net out for the Beverly ran cookus and Windsor in intersection I know we did discuss that did we did we come to we came to a conclusion the county is still uh in the drawing board about uh installing that blinking light there okay um but that's you know the County's work we'll we'll stay on top of them as as well okay and just you know I guess yeah just make sure there's um clear visibility um you know at the intersection it does get a little crazy over there um in terms of the Avery um they have presented on multiple occasions you know what they're trying to do we're still there's still no real agreement um council did give the okay to pursue what they were offering but we're now we're still in the middle um you know we're going to discuss it actually in executive session but um I have nothing else to add to it hopefully we can I can um give you an update at the next meeting but as of now we're still trying to work some things out with them and I think is there anything else oh and then miss Anderson thank you um for providing uh the residence with uh the benefits of the Burl PR pet project um do appreciate that is there anything else and just a reminder at the they they will be given out free tags for your dogs or cats um at our rabies clinic I think that I have a you know tag on my dog so it it's actually a good a great benefit um even if you don't get the rabies shot so please make sure if you have a pet you do attend our rabies clinic and what date is that again May the 8th May the 8th 4 the 4 to 8 p.m. to 7 to 700 p.m. at mil Creek Park and is there anything else anything I missed okay moving on to Council comments does any Council have any comments tonight yes madame mayor um first one is we may have to extend the meeting because executive so at the end we don't want to forget that y but I just want to thank everyone for coming out I want to wish my buddy a happy belated birthday Mr Dennis tun day over 25 um congratulations again to the uh Willingboro high school cheerleaders as well as the panther cheerleaders uh the council will be recognizing them at an upcoming meeting but as to Mr King's uh comments as far as being able to be able to display their their hard work it it was a great suggestion um in the past I know Council and the school board used to do joint budget meetings and that kind of went away so I don't know if there's an opportunity for us to revisit that or not but if that's something uh Mr Harris if you can just look into just to see if it's an opportunity for us to sit at a round table like we used to do I can investigate that but you know a few years ago the state kind of modified the way School budgets were approved and and done and they pretty much have control over the approval of the school budget so I mean we can discuss it but I don't know what it will what root it will yield well just from a standpoint of you know understanding the impact on the residents and some of the looking at Best Practices and when I say best practices as far as what the township does to prepare for future projects so once again conversations for whatever it may be worth to show what we're doing and how we're being able to maintain and manage so from that standpoint [Music] um Captain bucks great job on the thorough presentation um wonderful you hit every point and I think think it was very um informative for the residents um what else what else as far as the sound system Mr Harris I do remember when we had the uh shot shot spotter meeting you mentioned you can find the money remember you said we can find money I need you to go into that treasure check that was that was two years down the road Deputy Mayor um and thanks again to you and administration on um the hard work finding that extra one cent for a total of a two decrease all right thank you thank you Deputy Mayor um thank you everyone for coming out I did have just a few comments one to piggyback off of councilman Anderson's um point about the taxes I want to thank Mr Harris and the administration for all your hard work for the decrease um in the budget for the 2024 year but I also want to remind the res presidents that not just these these meetings aren't the only meeting that your voice needs to be heard at um as you felt in last year and and Mayfield again um proposed this year the tax may be increased by the school board um which you know many people don't go to those meetings unless they have children in the school district and as was stated earlier even at the budget meetings there are only two or three people in the audience so so with that being said your voice is definitely needed over there um your input is needed over there we hear you we hear your concerns we hear what your priorities are are and we take um that into consideration when doing Municipal budget but on the um School District side thank you councilman Anderson on the school district side um there's nothing really we can do there um also just the events that are coming up April 20th or yes April 20th is a big day here in Willingboro we look forward to seeing everyone out at all of the Earth Day and community events that are happening at JFK on that day the Kaa classic the garden opening and the community cleanup that starts at 9:00 a.m. so we look forward to seeing everyone there and I know I'll be there early so I can get my Chick-fil-A sandwich and I hope I see you there too uh and also come out on April 27th to the volunteer Fair um we always need more hands uh to the plow and more ideas to the table so we look forward to seeing you at that event as well and that is all I have to say thank you thank you Council councilwoman Whitfield thank you Madame mayor I may be out of words for this meeting um a lot of words tonight um but I just wanted to reiterate with the public that we will continue to work hard to articulate willing Burl's needs and our expectations as we hold our professionals accountable we spend a lot of money on professionals we take great pride in the deliberation process that we go through to select those professionals and they have to be held accountable so while it's disappointing that it's taken a bit longer for us to get to where we thought we would be at this point I think it's important that we're very deliberate um as you all know as we're building Willen bro for the for today we're also building Willingboro for the future and these decisions that we're making about a turf field or not a track or not um how much money we spend on this Performing Art Center you know the finishings in there the sound system are things that are going to be in there for many many years and so um I had I had to delay the meeting quite a bit I had a lot of questions um but it's very different when the professionals are here in the meetings versus the emails that are flying back and forth and snarky comments on a phone call so um in the past um our past Engineers joined us at almost every meeting um at least monthly to update the body and I really believe that with all the work that we're investing in our Engineers that they should come and be present and update the council in totality as well as the residents so that we don't keep having um you know points of Disconnect and we're wasting time and there's money being spent um I think we could benefit from that but I appreciate everyone um coming out this evening and um I appreciate the work of the administration um seeing the Tulips blossoming in the medians rain Gardens going that are done and the street sweeper and roads being redone sidewalks I mean willbo is thriving we have a lot of work to do but there's so much being done right now to celebrate so thank you to my colleagues to the administration um to the residents for the work that we're doing to be one willing burrow and to move us forward thank you Madame mayor thank you than you very much don't have much to say tonight I think we did exhaust all the Kudos um but um thank you for coming out and participating in our Civic responsibilities this is you know we are the governing body but we do are very open to What the residents want you know so you know I I do appreciate the participation in person and online um to c a deputy mayor's point about the school board um you can look into the legality but I think it's incumbent upon All of Us Al also as the governing body to have these conversations um in passing and you know on purpose um so that those meetings and um conversations will be had um but I can't guarantee that we can control we cannot control you know what they do that is just how it is but um I think we can have further conversations on aligning what we're trying to do in will BR as a whole I think there's a lot of points of alignment that we could um use but you know we're just going to have to work a little bit harder on those so um continue to love one another we are willing bur we are neighbors um look out for your community look out for each other and have a great night we oh we do have to do a motion to extend the meeting okay can you want make the motion I make a motion that we extend the meeting uh by one hour okay not to exceed not to exceed one hour correct second roll call on that please Council woman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor McIntosh yes and then we do have executive session and there may be yes uh so EX Ive session is needed tonight pursuant to njsa 10412 subsections B7 and 8 for matters involving contracts and matters involving personnel and there is anticipated action tonight thank you good night need a motion is there a motion to go into executive session so moved moved by Dr worthy seconded by Deputy Mayor Anderson roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson and mayor McIntosh yes no e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] s okay Sean are we good to go uh yes sir we're back is there a motion to come out of executive session so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor Anderson seconded by Dr worthy roll call please councilwoman Whitfield yes councilwoman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor McIntosh yes so we have resolution 2024-the councilwoman Whitfield yes Council woman Dr worthy yes Deputy Mayor Anderson yes and mayor McIntosh yes I make a motion for adjournment no moved second all moved by um councilman Deputy Mayor Anderson seconded by Dr worthy all in favor say I I no nay thank you have a great night thank you everyone it's 1053 thank you