WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=3nJ2jyz1yGE

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: 3nJ2jyz1yGE):
- 00:00:03: Meeting Start, Roll Call, Open Public Meetings Act
- 00:01:13: Public Comment Introduction and Rules
- 00:01:43: Public Comment: Steve Rousavi, Farmland Assessment Issues
- 00:09:42: Committee Response to Public Comment and Start Approvals
- 00:10:15: Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes
- 00:10:32: Consideration of Permits and Raffles: Fireworks Display
- 00:13:58: Approval of Seasonal Farmers Market and Raffle Permits
- 00:14:38: Subcommittee Reports: Recreation, DPW, and Environmental
- 00:19:48: Board of Education and Summer Hills Roundtable Update
- 00:22:11: Crossroads for Hope Opening and Civics Day Report
- 00:25:15: Administrator's Report: Crossroads Park, Civics Day, and CDBG
- 00:27:29: Community Policing Update and Consent Agenda Introduction
- 00:28:03: Consent Agenda Approval
- 00:28:37: Resolution: Settlement Agreement with Ben Hills Housing
- 00:32:28: Resolution: Jacobus Vanderbeir House Roof Replacement
- 00:38:07: Resolution: Police Department Vehicle Purchases
- 00:40:44: Resolution: Adoption of the 2026 Municipal Budget
- 00:41:18: Budget Presentation: Impacts, Appropriations, Funding Sources
- 00:44:34: Budget Presentation: Tax Rate Comparison and Breakdown
- 00:48:39: Budget Presentation: Property Tax Assessments & Homeowner Impact
- 00:50:12: Discussion of Capital Expenses, Debt, and Fund Balance
- 00:53:42: Auditor Comments on Fund Balance Utilization and Budget
- 00:59:09: Discussion of Healthcare Premiums & Central Jersey HIF
- 01:01:39: Open Public Hearing for 2026 Municipal Budget
- 01:02:27: Resolution: Adoption of the 2026 Municipal Budget
- 01:03:12: Resolution: Approval of Bill List
- 01:03:44: Affordable Housing Obligation Consent Order Update
- 01:06:46: Details of Affordable Housing Compliance and Planning
- 01:12:39: New Jersey American Water Billing System Issues
- 01:13:59: Sewer Allocation Meeting with New Jersey American Water
- 01:16:24: Township Committee Comments
- 01:20:49: Motion to Adjourn to Executive Session


Part: 1

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Oh, very quiet. Mayor, it's recording. >> It is recording. Good evening and welcome to the Bedminister Township Committee. This is our regular scheduled meeting for May 4, 2026. Recognize that

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we have a full attendance by the Bminster Township Committee here in person. Miss Ray, could we please have the open public meetings act statement? >> Yes, mayor. Adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to the courier newsrville

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Burnersville News Whippony and to all subscribers and post on the township of Bedminister's official website at www.bedministerj.gov and at the township munville building on January 6, 2026. >> Thank you. Please join me in rising for

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the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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This is the uh time of the meeting that we open up the uh microphone up front. Telephone zoom for public comment. public is invited to ask questions, make a statement, ask comment.

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As we've been saying, you're not guaranteed of a dialogue township committee unless someone engages. You're not guaranteed of an answer, and you're certainly not guaranteed of getting an answer you're going to like.

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Hand up. Come on up to the microphone. State your name and street. You don't have to give your uh house number. >> Great. Hi. Uh my name is Steve Rousavi and I'm at um Waterm Ridge Road up in the hills. >> Great.

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>> So uh I I think I say this uh just about every time I come here. I think you guys do an absolutely fantastic job. Um I tell everybody that best friend town going um Department of Public Works does a fantastic job. So, um, so just to say

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up front, very happy with the work you guys do. Um, what I'm I'm here today is to ask your help for something. It's something that we talked about about a year ago or something like that. So, what I saw in the paper a couple weeks ago is, you know, we have to raise our our taxes

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because of, you know, increases in healthcare and things like that. Believe me, I know my wife's Obamacare doubled this this past year, so I get it. Um, and then the other thing that procked me was there's a guy named Jack Curtis up in Mendum Township who's been fighting

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against the farmland assessment and they finally in January let him on the uh on the committee that kind of governs things. But he was out of his mind basically saying it was nothing but a sham. It's all a bunch of garbage and he not happy at all. So, um, the reason I'm

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here today is is a couple things, but just just this main one. Um, I think the solution to any of our budget problems or any increases we need to do is to basically modify that farmland assessment act and and get our senator

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and our assemblyman to join and speak because uh so here's what when when Jack Curtis said, you know, was going off when I got off the phone with him and just take a step back. I'm not a big proponent of AI, but I was just last

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week in a in a three-day seminar. But, uh, so I just decided to go on online and basically ask Gemini, what town in New Jersey has the most farmland assess assessment act applicants?

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And no lie, we came up as number one. >> Um, so, so, but here's the good news. Why I say AI is not reliable. I showed this to Jack Curtis. He said, "Steve, they got it wrong." He said, "I can tell you

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right now." Because he goes around and actually goes in and talks to the people and gets the counts. Toukesberry has over 500. Okay? So, we're not number one, but we're trying. We try harder, right? But my my point is this, not a good look for us to be cuz we're

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Bedminster Township. We're not farmers. And and here's the thing I think that that a lot of people don't get is that everybody thinks it's a tax break for the rich. Um granted there are a couple small farmers left in New Jersey that would probably qualify if we had

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something like stay New Jersey involved but they didn't hit a ceiling but it's not a tax break for the rich. It is a tax transfer onto everybody who's not the rich. So all of us are paying for

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them so they get tax break. So it so it's kind of like the way I look at it is like this. Let's say we're all sitting at Thanksgiving dinner and all of a sudden a multi-millionaire walks up to us as we're having our dinner and says, "Guess what? I'm taking that turkey, all the chocolate turkeys that

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your kids got. They're coming with me." And it's kind of like in your face. So that's that's what we're up against. So, it's an absurd situation. And so just to uh and to to kind of drive home the point um

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when I was I do some speaking for ARP for senior citizens and last summer I was at a fraud scam seminar and one of the main speakers said in 2024

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there was about $200 billion dollar worth of theft from US citizens. from scams and and fraud and stuff like that. And then he he made a really telling comment. He said, "Imagine all the good that could come from if we were

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able to take 200 billion and I can't imagine what $200 billion is if we took $200 billion and put it back into the economy." Okay. So my thought bringing it down to us is we know there are certain people that just and also it's

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become a little bit of a game. They they they all look at like why wouldn't I do that? Even if I'm not a farmer, I don't care. Imagine if all these people like for instance like in in Mendum there's 158 farmland assessed um properties that's

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in Mendum and they avoid $1.1 million in taxes and they give it to their less fortunate neighbors. They have 158. We have more than twice as many. More than twice as

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many. So, not for nothing, theirs is $1.1 million in total. Ours has got to be more than $2 million if we have more than twice as many. So, think about all those extra dollars. If everybody got them back, that money

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back, which would be over $1,000 a person here, they could put that back into our economy. andor if we didn't give it all back, they gave it to you guys to do great things with like enhance our parks, do X, Y, or Z, all

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kinds of great things that could happen from it. And and here's the other thing, too. It's not like these are poor people that we're taking money away from, right? These are the richest of the rich, and it's not like that. Remember the Beatles song Tax Man? This is not where these poor people are getting

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taxed 95% on all their income. They're just not. So, you know, it's it's a situation where they probably wouldn't notice it, but they have to start paying. They could tell their accountants, their accountants would say, "Oh, yeah, they did away with it. Okay, fine." So, anyway, my my ask for

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today is that um we have a state senator that supports us. We have two two assemblymen. I think the uh one of the assemblymen is uh one of the the senior people in that group. Um if we just ask them for the support to say, "Guess

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what?" Um, we have a situation which is probably growing in other towns too where nobody's taking this this act or this loss seriously anymore at all. Everybody's just jumping on the bandwagon saying I'm never going to get caught. Nobody wants to do anything about it. So why would I not give my tax

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liability to my neighbor if I can? So if we could just let them know that guess what? It's getting a little out of hand. We might want to get serious about pulling back. And just so you know, in January they did enact a change and which they they touted instead of being

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having to come up with $1,000 worth of farm products that you sold ever for the year, it's 1,900. So it's a ridiculous amount of money. And and if if you go into their the books, you'll see these people saying, "Well, we uh sold $1,1 worth of profit.

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We sold $1,3 worth." So it's just the biggest joke in the world. So anyway, that's my ask. I appreciate your time. Does anybody have any questions or concerns? Great. Tell you what, thank you very much. And again, I appreciate all the work you guys do and I hope um

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you can basically contact these people and just say, "Guess what? It's getting a little out of hand before this gets really ugly and people realize that we're asking them to pay their tax bills. Might want to make a change." Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you. >> I am familiar with Jack Curtis. I think

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there were a couple articles um he might have actually have written about them. I think he may have sent one on >> Yeah. >> about six, seven months ago. >> So, I'm familiar with Jack Curtis and his uh

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and his uh outreach um to the state and we'll we'll see if that gets uh gets any legs. Any further questions, comments? Robin, do we have anyone participating via Zoom? >> No, mayor. Okay, good. We'll proceed with the rest of the meeting.

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We have one set of meeting minutes. That's the uh April 20, 2026 Township Committee. Any comments or questions regarding the minutes? Not take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? I

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>> thank you. >> We have one, two, three, four, five permits and raffles on for tonight. will take the first one by itself. A fireworks permit for a fireworks display scheduled for May 24, 2026 at

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approximately 9:45 at Trump National Golf Club and believe we have Rob Totten from Trump National and we do have our new uh fire official Mario Brutesy. >> Yes.

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>> Okay. So, um Rob, can you just come on up and briefly u give a summary of the fireworks display confirming 9:45 duration all that good stuff. >> Good afternoon, mayor, committee

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persons. Um Rob Totten, I'm director of security at Trump National Golf Club in Bister. I have applied for a permit for fireworks display on May 24th, which is part of our Memorial Day celebration.

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I believe all the paperwork is in order. And it says 9:45 for the firing, but it may go off a little bit earlier, which probably would be more beneficial to the to the um neighborhood.

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And I have uh police coverage for that day. And I have fire coverage for that day. And I have our law firm sending out letters to our neighbors within 200 ft of our property notifying that we are having fireworks.

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Display duration could be is probably going to be between 9 and 12 minutes. Okay. >> Okay. Any questions for Mr. time >> and Mario, if you could just come up and uh just go over your review of the

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application. >> Uh yes, our office reviewed it. I reviewed it with uh the former fire official uh Steven Dil and it's met all the requirements from the state and our office. So we approved the uh application. Okay, great. >> And Chief Bernardo, take it um all your

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your review and your concerns have been addressed. Yeah, Mayor, it's the same posture that uh we always do over there. So, they're good to go. >> Chief, you're off mute, but we cannot hear you. >> He can hear us, but we're having some

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issues. >> Uh, yeah, no issues, mayor. >> All right, do another test. It switched speakers again on us. Thank you. Did he say something? >> No, he did. He said he was good. Okay.

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>> All right. Any questions for >> our fire official or for the chief from the township committee? >> No. >> Nope. >> If seeing none, take a motion to approve the fireworks for Trump. So moved. >> Second.

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>> All in favor? I. >> Thank you. Thank you, Rob. >> Thank you, Rob. >> We have a annual seasonal farmers market permit for Jersey Spirits Distilling. That's at the Bed Misters Farmer Bed Mister

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Farmers Market May 23 through December 5. An on premise 50/50 raffle to benefit Somerset Healthcare Foundation on June 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Hamilton Farm Golf Club. an on- premise 50/50 raffle to benefit Freedom House on July

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13 from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Fiddler's Elbow and an onremise merchandise raffle to benefit Freedom House on July 13, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Fiddler's Elbow. Any questions or comments regarding that one permit and

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three routes? See? None. Take a motion to approve. >> So moved. Second. >> All in favor? I thank you. >> Thank you. >> Monthly report discussion by subcommittee chair committeeman Rosen. Uh thank you mayor. Um on the recreation

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side, summer camp programs are filling up. Registration's ongoing for the final spring programs and the um dog park on Burnt Mills is near completion. And speaking of completion, we had an

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amazing opening ceremony for the community garden. uh last Friday. It was well attended and the end result is just amazing. The garden looks tremendous. It was a true collaborative collaborative effort between all the parties involved.

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Neil and Wreck, Jason and DPW. Great job. It really looks tremendous. And uh let the planting begin. And I believe 158 plots are accounted for. 168 168.

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And I believe uh as more of the gardens get assembled, they'll be quickly taken up. And I just um driving to work this morning, saw someone there coming to the meeting tonight. Saw someone there. It's still a little early for planting. >> They planted a lot over the weekend. >> Did they? Yeah, I did see during the

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weekend. I saw some folks out there. That was great. Uh we had Robin, by my estimation, we had over 50 people. >> Sure. >> At the uh the rim cutting. It was a tremendous turnout. >> Uh once again, thank you to um Somerset

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County Commissioners for their support in uh putting that grant or giving us the grant. Um didn't cover everything. Turned out to be a little bit more expensive than we anticipated, but it it

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fantastic. And um you know this really you know I think uh Bill mentioned the collaborative effort uh from doing the outreach with uh the polls to the uh community where were they interested in once again looking back at uh where we

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were in COVID when we started this whole concept uh and moving it forward uh to where we are today. It just looks great. talking to the engineers. Um they are now working on community gardens at a couple other towns and

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they're using what was put together here as their model moving forward. So that's great to hear. Robin, great job at the uh at the ribbon cutting. And Jason, whoseever thumbs and fingers are sore

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from putting those VGO gardens together, >> great job. >> It's probably mostly John. I but great job and it does look great. It really does. And uh so thank you everyone. >> Any more? I'm done. You're done.

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>> Thank you, mayor. I just had a DPW update. Um they've been working on the police cars and the DPW equipment, lining the soccer and lacrosse fields, creating dirt roads and adding stone to the dirt roads, all while building and loading guarding boxes. >> Yeah.

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um you know, cutting grass and grooming the ball fields getting ready for spring. They were working in the uh DPW yard in preparation for the county inspection. So hopefully that goes well. And that's all I have. >> Great. Rene. >> Thank you, mayor. Good evening, everyone. Um I don't have much of a

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report, but I just wanted to give an example of how our community garden is going to be um a real center of social um interaction. I had we have a woman named Lauren Zuggalli who's at the

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Benminster school. She's on the uh Jacobus Vanavir committee with us and um they have the school has their interest in environment with the their own EC and green team and stuff. Um our Bedminster's EC has reached out to the

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school on several occasions and not gotten much response to as to um to participate with programming and stuff. So, I kind of cornered her at the um at the Friday um photo opportunity there and she got so excited. She didn't know

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any of this. She was new to this. So, I'm going to hook her up with EC. She's already responded back to me with uh who at the school um we'll get in touch with. So, just one dot connects to the next to the next to the next and now we'll get some kids involved and maybe they'll get their own little plots at uh

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at the garden and get them involved with some of the environmental programs. I know we have a raptor trust program coming up and another amphibian night, but uh we're working all together and making making things happen and it's just a great example I think of how this

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has all worked >> and I have a EC meeting on Wednesday. Um but that's all the report I have today. >> Thank you, Command Hickey. >> Thank you, Mayor. Good evening all. Uh board of health did not have a meeting last month. Uh board of ed, speaking of the school, I did attend the board of ed meeting on Thursday the 30th. They

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adopted budget which includes a school tax levy increase of $1.24 million which translates to a 6.77% increase or about $249 per year on average. And recall the school constitutes about 51% of the

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overall tax uh bill in bill here in Bedminster. Health insurance costs which are up 25% increased transportation cost and the rebuild adjustment from Burns High were all cited as cost drivers. Notably, the change in the start time for the high school is going to force

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Bedminister School to separately contract for the five bus routes currently serving our students. As for the rebuilding, it is a two-year look back that allows the high school to retroactively adjust actual costs versus budgeted tu budgeted tuition per

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student. For the 2324 school year, that resulted in an additional charge back to Bedminster School of $710,000. And for the 2425 school year, it resulted in an $830,000 increase. So that's what's driving the

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increases over on the Bedminster school side. Also, mayor, do you want me to touch on the round table from the other day? >> Yes, please. >> I did attend in your absence the summer hills school district mayor's roundt. Dr. Brochaw gave the mayors and myself a state of the union synopsis. There was a lot of discussion around how we can all

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better collaborate to get the message out and engage our respective communities. and the group agreed that going forward these meetings should be scheduled on a quarterly basis. It was a it was a good productive uh conversation. A lot of uh a lot of stuff that neither neither side knew about. So it was you know good to share ideas and

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collaborate and you now have more meetings on your calendar. >> Did they talk about the um the merger study? So the merger study was mentioned that it is ongoing but it is too early on to make any assessment in terms of what it's go where it's going what it's

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going to recommend. You're probably going to see results from that in probably November. Uh and Dr. Brochel emphasize look we're going to get the results. Doesn't mean we have to abide by the results. You know we'll all assess it and then figure out what we want to go do next. It could ultimately

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wind up in a referendum but we're way too early to even determine that. So he said, "Let the process roll out and we'll see what happens." >> Thank you. Um there's since our last meeting, I've had no subcommittee meetings. However, I did want to talk

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about um couple events. Uh one is April 21st. I attended the opening for the new building at uh Crossroads for Hope. This is the former cancer support uh community center on BT Mills Road. Uh the building is

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beautiful and um you can tell that they worked with some nationally um known architects on putting that building together. It's a small building uh but it's going to be used for uh classes,

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sessions, seminars. Uh it's not there's a kitchen in there. So, it's another opportunity for Crossroads for Hope uh to work with uh those who are afflicted with cancer and their families in taking them through the process, letting them know they're not alone and certainly uh

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giving the opportunity for um enhanced focus on nutrition and um really just communal support. It's great to see. Uh I did have the leave uh as soon as the seminar soon as the ribbon cutting ceremony was over. They were

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doing uh tours and I did ask if the township committee and township staff could get a separate uh tour and they said yes. So Robin perhaps we could just get a poll of uh TC members and anyone

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from staff who'd like to participate and just reach out to them and see if we can't get some folks over there. Uh, and then a couple days later we had the eighth grade civics day and once again Robin did

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excellent job managing 60 eighth graders um showing them around the municipal complex DPW fire police and then here in administration uh the judge was actually

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wrapping up um session U and she became an impromptu participant in the state >> awesome >> experience and so that was great to see and I got to follow her. So uh that only left me a little bit but Robin

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took him through it. So, it was all good to see these eighth graders who we probably saw about four years ago for the fourth grade >> say that was great. And then just once again, uh the community garden, 50 people uh and it's great to see folks

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from the county. Once again, um Commissioner Melanie Morano who was with us from the very beginning of this process. Uh great to see Commissioner Morano there and was the words that she gave. And once again, Robin and Jason, thank

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you guys so much for putting this together. And you >> fun worked out great. Okay, >> Ms. Ray, may we please have the administrators report? >> Sure. Just a reminder to everyone um that we opened our ballot boxes for the mail-in ballots. They've opened on April

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20th. Um on the 21st of April, I attended the Crossroads Park uh preconstruction meeting with um Derek and Jason here. Um they were supposed to start today but as of uh this afternoon they had not. There is some equipment

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that has been moved over there. Um just hosted the school eighth grade civics day on the 23rd of April which was tons of fun. I just have to say thank you to the chief and um of the fire department as well as um Chief Bernardo and Judge

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House and the mayor and Jason Michelle who is our uh general foreman. Everybody was great and we all stayed on schedule which was most important. So thank you very much. Um community garden ribbon cutting was terrific. We had, as the mayor had said, um not only did we have

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the commissioners that were involved from the beginning, but the open space advisory committee members from the county, which were great. Um just a really good turnout. The garden is fantastic. Ne Neil and Jason did an awesome job um nailing down some of the details for the garden. It's immaculate.

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It's just I hope it stays back, >> but it looks fantastic. >> You know, with the trees, I noticed that with the trees on 206, which are now in bloom. >> Yeah. You really can't see the garden and it happened in >> four or five days. >> You could see the garden then all of a sudden

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>> it's tree down. >> Yeah, it's great to see people there and like just like Renee said, I'm sure it'll become a great um source of a community socialization. You saw it happening already on Saturday and Sunday for those that were there. So, long time coming. I'm just so happy to see it uh

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come to life. And then um this week, actually on the 6th, I have to do a presentation to the county CDBG grant committee uh for the handicap accessible entry doors for the rear and the front to Bminster Town Hall. So keep your fingers crossed that we we succeed and

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get that grant. It's the grant is the in the amount of $51,000. And then um Mayor, this Thursday we have the Main Street meeting which I'll let you talk about later. And that concludes my report. >> Okay. Thank you, Chief. Any update on community policing?

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>> Uh, no, mayor. No updates uh for tonight. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Did it flip again, Robin? >> No, I think Frank um he was having problems with his connectivity. >> No, I'm back. No updates. >> Skip community policing.

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>> Disconnected. >> And >> no updates, sir. >> Okay, there you go. Thank you, Chief. Uh, we have no ordinances either for introduction or public hearing. We have one, two, three, four items on the consent agenda. These

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are items of a routine nature. Any member of the township committee may pull one, some, or all of them off for individual consideration. Seeing none, I'll take a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second.

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Roll call vote, please. Committeeman Hickeyi, >> hi. >> Committeewoman Moreski, >> hi. >> Committeewoman Fernandez, I. >> Committeeman Rosen, >> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs, >> I. >> Thank you. >> For resolutions for individual consideration. The first is resolution

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202687. This authorizes the execution of a settlement agreement and general release on behalf of Ben Hills Housing Corporation as our former administrative agent on the affordable housing program.

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Um, and this is in a matter and Sean, I'm going to quickly do a very quick summary. when Sharon Diko, who was the director of BHC,

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um she had sent out a letter to several residents indicating that they had no recapture fee and that they were free to sell their units uh at the market without any further participation by BHC.

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Uh Sharon was wrong. Um in that uh there was a uh litigation filed by some residents indicating that they had relied on Sharon's letter. Um and that

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litigation proceeded very very slowly, >> wasn't really going anywhere. Um the lawyer that was um or that is representing DHHC as our agent um is recommending a settlement which is

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essentially they still have to pay recapture fee. They're just going to get a small discount on the recapture fee uh from our that this is essentially nuisance value uh settlement. Um, and since the money coming from the

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recapture fee goes back to Bedminster and our affordable housing trust fund and BHC was literally doing nothing more but acting as our agent in collecting those funds. Um, both the attorney for BHC is handling the litigation and

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attorney Florida recommend that the township pass a resolution authorizing the settlement. John, any any further color on that? Okay. >> And uh with respect to the remaining residents that were not part of the litigation

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uh there will be a declaratory judgment uh entered that uh they are responsible for the entire amount of the recapture fee in the future. So except for some uh administrative and procedural actions that need to be taken with respect to

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entry of those judgments by the attorney for BHC. Uh this concludes all the outstanding litigation involving uh BHC, including the uh rather uh substantial settlement that the township received as

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a result of the uh malpractice litigation against the former attorney for uh BHC for giving Miss Dinoco um advice that was due, which as you indicated uh was incorrect advice.

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>> Incorrect. And then this uh the resolution also authorizes us to um take actions to dissolve PHC. And that's the resolution. Any questions

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or comments regarding the resolution? >> Finally. >> Finally. >> Seeing none, take a motion to approve resolution 202687. So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. Committeeman

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Hickeyi, >> I. >> Committeewoman Moreski, >> I. >> Committ Fernandez, >> I. >> Committeeman Rosen, >> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs, >> I. >> Thank you. >> Next resolution 202689. This resolution authorizes the award of

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a contract to Weatherproofing Technologies, Inc. to provide roof replacement services at the Jacobus Vanderbeir House through the Mils County Educational Services Commission Cooperative Pricing System in the total amount not to exceed

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$125,000. Who gets this one, Rob? >> Well, actually all three of us. I I just wanted to make sure that it was on the um the regular part of the meeting just so everybody knew when they start seeing activity over there. We have a large tarp that's over the roof.

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Um the roof is old. It has uh degraded over time. It wasn't treated properly. And in the last windstorm with the snow all on everything kind of got mushy and disintegrated and the wind just blew all the shingles off. So um we have an emergency repair. I'm applying for an

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emergency grant. Um Derek has been working with contractor to secure bids. Um Derek, if you want to explain the We don't have to go to bid because we're getting this through a co-op. Uh >> yes, we we were able to Yes, we were able to find a uh co-op

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that offered roofing services. We reached out to the co-op contractor was able to work with us. They're they're uh they are going to be a weatherproofing technologies will be awarded the contract and they will subcontract subcontract it out to a roofer that is

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actually specialized in uh cedar shake roofs. He's on the list of um >> certified >> certified cedar roofing specialists, which the uh historical preservation wanted to see. That that means that they know these kinds of roofs. They know what they're doing. They know how to to

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put them up correctly. And um as a result, uh we didn't have any any issues with historical preservation. So >> So ship So what did what did we need from the state historic preservation office? So, I got the final um broken

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down proposal today. We submitted to the shipo state historic preservation office, a preliminary um proposal from the roofing company. They need a little bit more detail which we received this afternoon. They said send it over and they can do an approval via um email. I

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already sent them pictures and documented everything. So, that's it. We also applied for um uh mid insurance claim which we will be receiving u money towards the cost of the roof repair at a significant amount which is fantastic

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which will cover a good chunk of the roof repair. Um and uh lastly um we did hire an architect just to give us proper specifications. So I think we're in good shape and thank you to Jason for climbing on the ladder truck and tarping

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the roof. Does does the claim amount have anything to do with the grant? Is it um is the grant deducted by what we get back to the claim? >> The estimated repairs are at approximately 125,000. Um the uh insurance claim is going to be close to

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96,000 and um it's because there's some internal damage as well to the roof inside which is not necessarily covered which is why I'm applying for the emergency grant from some town. So of that 125,

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some of that is not just for the cedar shake install, but for fixing the substructure of the roof. >> Yes. Particularly, there's one room one room where there's clabbered seal clabbered um or should say even shiplap that's on the ceiling that buckled

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>> from the moisture and so we need to repair that. >> The the 125 is basically the cedar roof and the facial ring. So >> yeah. Okay. >> Okay. >> Throwing it all out. >> All right. Any uh So, Robin, congratulations on uh getting the

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insurance coverage. That's excellent. Thank you so much. >> Great. >> Any further questions of Derek, Jason, or Robin on the repairs and replacement of the roof? >> Nice. I'm just glad to see it's going to be the cedar shakes again. They probably

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>> thought there was an option. >> Yeah, I think they have to, but still. But still, it's very expensive. >> Yes, >> the house is going to be gorgeous. >> It'll be great in time for Fourth of July >> in time. And Right. So, actually, why don't we cover that? So, um assuming everything goes forward, we've got the

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uh the award of the contract tonight. Um when do you anticipate work starting? When do you anticipate work com being complete? >> Thought June 1st was a start date, right? Somewhere on >> correct. We have a tenative uh pre-com

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meeting for I believe it's May 14th, Thursday, May 14th where we'll be meeting with the contractor subcontractor going over uh start date. Uh he believes uh June 1st at the latest possibly being able to start a little earlier and he doesn't anticipate it

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being a very long project. It's it's not a very complicated roof to be able to do approximately a week to do the >> week. It's dependent on weather. That's that's really that's the factor that we don't know. But either way, um if we're looking at a roughly a June 1st start

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date, that gives us plenty of time to get it done before the uh >> 4th of July >> the 4th of July celebration, the 250th. >> Great. Thank you, Dar. >> Welcome. >> There's no further questions or comments. Take a motion to approve resolution 202689.

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>> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. Committee Hickey. >> I. >> Committeewoman Moreski. >> Hi. Committeewoman Fernandez. >> I, >> Committeeman Rosen, >> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs, >> I. >> Thank you.

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>> Next resolution is resolution 202691. This resolution authorizes the purchase of two vehicles for the police department from Neielson Ford of Morristown under the Morris County Cooperative Pricing Council in the total amount not to exceed $92,000.

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Robin, >> I'm gonna let Derek take this one since this is uh part of our new capital funding program. >> Um this resolution uh is basically because the the award of the two vehicles would be over the bid threshold. We are purchasing through a

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co-op, but it does require governing body approval to do the contract. The line item that was identified in the budget is uh a capital outlay line item is a line item that we have started using this year that hasn't been used in the past. Essentially, it means that we are able to spend directly out of the

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capital outlay line item rather than having to adopt an ordinance uh with an intro and adoption. The capital lines were targeted. They're very specific line items. They were part of our budget introduction and will be part of our public hearing and budget adoption this

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evening. Yes. questions, comments. When do you anticipate we get these? If we order them right now? >> That That's uh it's a good question. I don't know because it's up to the dealership on when they become available. But by being

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able to do it this way, we are getting our order in rather early compared to some other municipalities, which will hopefully put us at the top of the line, meaning that we have the likelihood of getting our vehicles before other entities because everybody buys through the same co-op and usually it's first

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come, first serve. >> Sense. Okay, there's no further questions or comments for Derek or Robin or the chief. Take a motion to approve resolution 2026091. >> So moved. >> Second.

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>> Okay. >> I have a Committeeman Rosen for a second. >> And Committeeman uh Committee Fernandez for first. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Thank you. A roll call vote, please. Committeeman Hickeyi. >> Hi. >> Committeewoman Moreski. >> Hi. >> Committeewoman Fernandez. >> Hi. >> Committee Rosen.

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>> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs. >> Hi. >> Thank you. So, speaking of the Bedminster municipal budget, uh our next resolution is resolution number 202692, which authorizes the adoption of our

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2026 municipal budget. And we have Derek um Derek Machia, our CFO, and from Nissotia, our auditor, uh on hand for any questions. But Derek, do you want to just walk us

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through the resolution and the numbers? >> Yes. So, um, I'm actually going to defer to Robin. Robin has prepared a PowerPoint presentation summarizing our 2026 municipal budget, some of the key

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points, some of the highlighted items, uh, hardships that we faced in going through this process, and where we ended up at the end of the day. Bill. >> Okay, sure. Here we go. Um, if you don't mind, I'll just stay right here since

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I'm moving the uh the PowerPoint presentation and I apologize we couldn't get it to go full screen with us being on Zoom as well. But, um, first of all, some of the major impacts and we're not alone. Um, all the municipalities are feing feeling the same squeeze with the employee health care premiums. Um, these

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are our top four uh liability insurance premiums, our debt service. This year we decided to we were going to be hit with some significant debt service and um thanks to um Derek our CFO he made a recommendation that we use fund balance

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to um cover the cost of our debt service so that it was no longer in our operating budget. So that was a a huge um help for us this year. And then we also have an unfunded mandate which our storm water management where we need to actually street sweep um say that fast

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street sweep all of our roads at least three times per year and that just comes right off the top of our budget. Um just a couple comments. This is just a a summary of the budget appropriations. Um, if you take a look, public safety all the way at the bottom is it should

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been reversed, but public safety is one of our largest uh budget appropriations that includes our police, fire, and EMS, as well as um LOAP, which is the length of service award program for our um uh

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volunteer fire and first aid, debt service, uh the insurance costs, and then our capital improvement. So these are all lines in our budget that are grouped together and um put in our user friendly budget is just another way of looking at categories of expenditures um

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that the municipality it um will be incurring for 2026. Um I hope this next chart works right. No, it didn't. It didn't take the changes. Derek, see that the percentages? That's okay. So, in comparison to our 2026 budget versus our

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2025, I apologize the numbers um are not didn't necessarily save. We had some linking issues, but um our fund balance is not 37%. It's actually we're utilizing um uh 49%

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in the budget. Um I don't believe I have the other numbers with me. I think the um the miscellaneous uh funding is actually down to 15 or 16%. Correct. The um state aid is actually lower than last year at 12% whereas last year it was 16.

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State aid saved flat. This year the um the uniform construction fees actually went down to 5%. We went from uh 400 to 350. And then um grants we are at 9% which is

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the accurate number that we know and then the shared services are actually down a little bit to 8%. Um so that's where we're getting all of our funding sources for this year's municipal budget. Um

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>> yes the these were the funding sources other than the tax >> other than tax uh levy. Correct. And then um the tax rate comparison. This is just compares um last year's taxes to this year's. The municipal uh portion which is just municipality is 232 versus

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last year which was 239. It's actually down 2.93%. The library is 0032. Open space tax is a constant at 0015. Um the school levy as committeeman hickey mentioned earlier is 619. It's

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up.16% over last year. And then um the county levy, this is an estimated number because we don't actually know the county tax rate. We're assuming that this is what it's going to be. >> Correct. >> Do you want to add anything to that or you're good? >> Um well, these are the tax rates. Uh

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again, um on an average, I believe this is addressed in the next slide. Um these tax rates would be applied to each property individually within the township per $100 of assessed value. uh because of the assessment I believe

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it's the reassessments that go out every year. Uh the average home saw an increase of I want to say it was >> yeah back to the next couple slides you can jump there if you like. >> So that's right here. >> Yes. So the we saw an increase in the

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value of an average assessed home in uh Bedminister Township with the decrease in the tax rate but the increase in the assessed values. The net increase um for just the municipal levy alone will be approximately 3.24%

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or uh approximately uh just shy of $60 a year on an average assessed home in Bminster Township. It's $58.89 89 per year or roughly about $4.91 per month for just the municipal portion. The

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overall tax increase we don't know at this time. Uh we have to wait for the state to certify our final rate as well as tell us what the county rate is going to be. But um our we we know what our number is and our number is um it is less than the average the state has been

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seeing this year. uh average increases have been raging between three and a half and 4% for municipalities because of such rising costs as the health care things like that. Um so we we came in with a very reasonable um increase to do

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that addresses all of our municipal needs in the budget as well as puts us in a position to have our debt service be significantly reduced uh going into the 2027 budget cycle. Thank you, Derek. >> Sure. So, this is just the the breakdown

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overall of uh the taxes uh that resident would pay to Bedminster Township. Um as uh Committee Man Hickey stated, the school district tax is the largest percentage of um the tax levy at 52%. Um next would be our local municipal

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tax. Then we'd have our open space tax which is 1% and then um Somerset County what we pay to some county equates to 24% again that's an estimated number um and then 3% of your tax dollars is goes

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towards is for the library and then this is just a summary of property tax assessments which um Derek already alluded to and just breaks it out by the um number of vacant parcels that we have here in Bedminster Township, uh over 4,000 residential

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properties, 574 farms, 130 commercial units, and two utilities. And then um with their total values, and the overall percentage of change is uh 6.5% over over last year's assessment.

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Okay. And then it was just the impact on the individual homeowner. Um, and this is a the aggregate of your taxes. So an average assessed home value of 610,000 versus last year which was $568. And then the tax rate per 100. The

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annual tax bill this year is roughly $7,261 with an annual change over last year of $420 for a total of monthly charge of 3503. So, not an easy process. >> And you may mention, but what was the

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portion? That's the municipal portion of that. >> The municipal portion of that was uh 58 uh89 $58.89 per year or $4.91 per month. Uh that number is subject to change because as I said, we're still waiting on the final certification to come in

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from the county. It also depends on when the state adopts their budget because of the state aid figures. We don't anticipate any increase. uh hasn't been an increase in quite some time, but maybe we'll get pleasantly surprised. I don't know. Uh not from what I've heard coming out of Trenton at this point. No.

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>> No, absolutely not. >> No. Um >> but uh that is where we're anticipating the annual bill to be. Uh once the final numbers are out, they'll be mailed with our tax bills hopefully in July. Um and uh it'll be hopefully it'll be very

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close to that number, if not right at that number. And can you just for the benefit of the audience talk about go back a few slides with the public safety being a large portion. >> I think a lot of that has to do with just the capital cycle for fire engines and EMS. So can you just discuss that for a second?

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>> That that that section right there the public safety is just the percentage of the overall appropriations. Uh that's just the operating appropriations. That doesn't include the capital. >> It is the uh cost associated with running the police department. uh the

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operating expenditures for the fire department, the first aid squad, the OEM. It also includes the uh uh the LOAP as as Robin had mentioned as well as uh the municipal the municipal prosecutor because that is considered a public safety function under the flexible chart

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of accounts. >> So can you talk for a second about what was driving our capex and why we did what we did with respect to funding the debt the way we did? So right right now um we're looking at interest rates that are remaining steady if not possibly increasing for this year. There's been a

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lot of talk with the Fed that at the beginning of the year they were going to be dropping interest rates but then uh I guess you could say life happened and that that is no longer the rosy picture that they're they're predicting anymore. As such, when we borrowed last year, we

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were borrowing between 3.75 and 4.75% on our debt service, but our earnings in the bank were averaging about 3.75%. Our earnings have dropped down um not significantly. We we we have been given a a almost guaranteed rate of 3 and a

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half% for this year, but the borrowing rates have still crept up a little bit. Uh there's a report I will be sharing with you at the next meeting. I'm just putting it together. It is a market watch report that we get from uh Phoenix advisors that shows the average um borrowing at both long-term and

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short-term debt which is showing anywhere between 2.75 and 4.25% on long-term and short-term debt depending on the amount of debt issued. So, by using our fund balance, um we lose the cash in our bank account because we're using our own money to pay

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off our debt. But what we're saving is that we're no longer going to be paying interest on any of that debt going into the 2027 uh budget cycle because the borrowing rate is higher than our earnings rate right now. this the differential between our earnings rate and the borrowing rate is the savings to

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the township in that we won't uh we won't have those costs going out the door anymore at least uh unless we don't again I can't predict what 2027 is going to be but if we don't authorize any new debt our debt was significantly dropped this year we have no more issued debt as

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of today we only have authorized debt and that is for items that have not come in yet we don't anticipate them coming in until late late this year or perhaps early 2027 and then we'll be able to address those items in next year's budget cycle.

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>> Right. So the debt itself was the radios that was a mandate that was from Somerset County where we switched from the five to the 7 megahertz. So we had no choice. >> No choice. >> We had to do that and that was 1.8 million, right? >> That was a big chunk. And then we had two fire trucks in between there. So, >> and we think about, you know, firet

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trucks only come up every 25 to 30 years, but when they do, you have to >> time we got slammed. And so, >> you know, so a lot a lot of big items that came at once, but uh we did a fund balance projection. We looked at our fund balance utilization. We looked at uh where our fund balance would be at the end of this year versus beginning

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next year. And we recognize an opportunity to be able to use to utilize that fund balance, which is why it is there to help stabilize the tax rate and to minimize the impact to the taxpayers of Bedminster Township by being able to responsibly use that money to to lower our costs going forward.

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>> Thank you, Andrew. So Andrew um our utilization of fund balance um and you've deemed that acceptable. >> Yeah. Yeah. So um as as many of you

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know, Bill, we're we're we're not as familiar, but as as the rest of you know, I normally attend several meetings every year during the budget planning process and everything like that. Um, just so you all know, I'm sure that Derek had told you this, and I know that

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Robin knows this. Behind the scenes, I was still there. I just wasn't in the meetings. Um, I was more instead of being there, you know, Derek is very good. He's uh I I refer to him sometimes as a mad scientist when it comes down to things.

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um talking about the the storm water money that you had to come up with this year for the street sweeping. He found some in a local finance notice from 30 years ago. >> Okay. 20 years ago. I exaggerate

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um to who was it that you spoke to at the division that was impressed with you? It it was actually uh Natada at the division, but it was uh we also had a um I think it was an informal meeting with Mark Fifer and when he took a look at the local finance service, he he read it for a minute and he goes, "Wait a

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minute. I wrote this." >> He was very impressed with it though. He said, "That's exactly what this was for. Great work." Um no, but I mean your use of fund balance is responsible, right? We have a good healthy fund balance. uh using it in that way, as Derek had said,

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the net effect um is positive for the township. Um I think that basically everything there was a lot of back and forth with Derek saying, "What do you think about this? What do you think about that?" So on and so forth. Um and I think that everything that went into

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the budget is a very good and responsible use of of the taxpayer money. Um, one of the things that I will say is that I've had so many towns this year that are having such a hard time uh getting underneath the appropriation cap. That hasn't that wasn't a problem

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for you here, thankfully. Um, and I do have to say that having the modest tax increase and being able to keep up with all of your capital improvements for infrastructure throughout the town, maintaining the level of service that your citizens expect. Um, really great

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job. you know, you all always do a wonderful job of of being good stewards to your community. Um, and I I have to say it's it's really nice and really easy sometimes coming here and and having to go through

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these things and and working with Derek uh has been a real pleasure on this. Um, and by the way, just so you're all aware, I think next month I should be here with the audit report. self. >> So, uh, Andrew, I've talked to u some mayors across New Jersey, not

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necessarily immediately local, but uh what I would call similarly situated uh municipalities. And it's interesting the amount that these other towns are

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utilizing from fund balance. Uh we've Andrew's been um uh our auditor for years and has established essentially don't dip below this level and talking

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to some of these um other towns this year. They're dipping below that level. They're taking a lot. I don't know what their auditors how their auditors are going to deal with it. Um but you know we are in a good position.

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Uh both Derek as a former auditor and Andrew as our auditor uh both gave us the thumbs up on how we approached uh the utilization of fund balance to offset tax uh increases. Uh so thank you both. Um

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how many meetings? >> Six. >> Six. So that was six meetings. Uh I think the longest went close to 11. Um so that's a 4-hour meeting. um surrounded by bunch of three and a half

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hour meetings and in between a lot of work by Robin and a lot of work by Derek and a lot of work by all our directors Jason and uh the chief and the fire department um wreck as well and

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putting it all together, working it through, reworking it, reworking it again. And when Robin thought she was done, we asked her to do it maybe, you know, two more times. >> We didn't get to Z. So that's >> We didn't get to Z. We didn't get to

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capital budget C. Uh but we've said this before. Uh thank you everyone who uh who worked with us. Derek, thank you for joining your first Bedminster budget and and staying through the process with us. I know this is not necessarily how a lot

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of other towns do it, uh, but we've been doing it this way for a while and I think it works, >> right? >> Yep. >> So, any further questions of Robin, of Derek, or of Andrew?

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>> Just one point of clarification. I know I get this question a lot. We are not in the state healthcare plan. Robin, maybe you want to spend a minute talking about Central New Jersey HIF. about 10 years ago um Bminister Township had the mindset to move forward with uh getting out of the state healthcare plan

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because the costs were going up way back then. So, um, we moved to the Central Jersey Health Insurance Fund, which is similar to the, um, joint insurance fund that we're in for our liability insurance. And, um, while we have seen increases,

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you know, exponentially, um, it has not been at the same rate as the state healthare plan. And I believe Derek, you just told me today that Warren is another town that just passed a resolution to get out of the state healthcare plan. So, >> we're very fortunate.

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>> Yeah. The last article Warren Township U mentioned that they are withdrawing from the state health benefits program. Uh AON report the preliminary report came out. They're looking at again a another doubledigit increase closer to the 30% uh for members of the state health

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benefit the school employees health benefit program going into the 2027 cycle. >> And you know the big thing that's driving it is prescription drugs. >> Yeah. The medical isn't as bad, but the prescription went up. Our prescription went up 42%.

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Just the prescription coverage alone. So, that's huge. >> Huge. >> And I think you're going to see as uh more municipalities look to get out of the state health plan, >> it's only going to get worse. Mhm.

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>> Because the towns with good records, with good uh track records with their insurance, they're going to go to whether it's the CGHIF or to other >> Yeah. >> health insurance funds and that's going to leave uh the state health plan with

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everinccreasing coverage and it's just going to get more and more expensive. And there's already been talk at the legislature about maybe they made a mistake by opening up uh these joint insurance uh funds for

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the health coverage. Um but I think it's too late to uh to put the toothpaste back. Um now >> any further questions or comments? If not, I'll take a motion to approve

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resolution 202692, approving the 2026. >> Yeah. Do the public hearing first. >> Don't have that. >> Open the public hearing. >> I don't have that on our uh agenda. Did Did we do the public hearing at the last

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meeting? >> We have to do it for the um adoption. So, it's just open the public hearing. Okay. Okay, if >> there's any questions and then close the public hearing and then vote just like we do with the ordinance. >> Okay. So, we'll take uh take a motion to open up u the resolution. This is the

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one resolution that does get um a public hearing. Uh >> open. >> So moved. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. So, this is the opportunity for the public to ask questions of Derek,

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our auditor, about the municipal budget. Seeing none, take a motion to close the public hearing. So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Thank you. And I'll take a motion to approve resolution 2026092 adoption of

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the 2026 Bedminister municipal budget. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call vote, please. Committee Hickey. >> I. >> Committeewoman Moreski. >> I. >> Committeewoman Fernandez. >> Hi. >> Committeeman Rosen. >> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs. >> Hi.

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>> And now that we approve the budget, take a motion to approve the bill list. >> So start paying off the bills. >> Second. It could. >> Okay. Roll call vote again, please. Committee Hickeyi, >> hi. >> Committeewoman Moreski, >> I. >> Committeewoman Fernandez,

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>> Committeeman Rosen, >> I. >> And Mayor Jacobs, >> I. >> Thank you. >> So, under new business, we do have an item for new business. Thank you, Derek. Thank you, Andrew. >> Thank you, guys. Thank you, Gentlemen. >> Uh, I believe it was on April 15th,

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Judge Menon um entered a consent order regarding our fourth round affordable housing obligation and our um we'll call it um open matter with Fair Share

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Housing. John, you want to take us through it? >> Uh yes. Uh this essentially concludes the uh 2-year journey that uh began back in March of 2024 when Governor Murphy signed legislation essentially implementing a a process for the fourth

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round of affordable housing uh from July of 2025 to July of 2035. Uh it was a uh process that superseded the third round process that involved a declaratory judgment action uh in the absence of any

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legislation that oversaw the affordable housing program uh that involved the uh interession of fair share housing center and Mount Laurel judges. Um numbers were put out by the state back in October uh

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of 2024. for the Department of Community Affairs. The numbers all in all were not too draconian for uh Bedminster Townships uh purposes. We did have credits from uh prior years. We did need some rental. So essentially, as the

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mayor indicated on April 15th uh of uh last month, Judge William Menon of Superior Board in New Jersey signed the consent or final compliance certification for the 10-year uh period. So uh briefly some some high points of

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of that order is that uh Bedminster's fourth round fair share plan was approved and met the objective standard of the March 2024 law. I'd also codify uh that Bedminster's uh prior were uh

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incorporated and approved including its prior round obligation from 1987 to 1999. the third round obligation which included the gap obligation in the absence of legislation during that period for 1999 to 2015

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uh both perspective and and present need and finally again our fourth round obligation that will take us through to July of 2035 when uh if the legislation is still uh in existence we'll start a fifth round obligation for a 10-year

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period thereafter. So, um, most significantly, the, uh, approval of this order gives the township, uh, immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits, meaning, uh, you know, builders or other interested parties cannot come in here and file a declaratory judgment action,

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uh, indicating that Benminister has not met its constitutional obligation under the mal doctrine uh, and the cases there. Um, significantly it indicates again that the township's present need or rehabilitation obligation is is six.

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Not a large number, something that we could uh uh readily meet. Uh and then our fourth round perspective need obligation is is 72. Uh that will be made up of course from credits from prior rounds with with pluckman barre

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project and and also some uh uh elite carryovers. So um essentially it requires us on an annual basis as it does all municipalities um by February 15th 2026 to file reports monitoring with the state. Uh Miss Ray

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has that uh distinction and obligation with their municipal housing liaison and I think you indicated uh the state is finally rolling out some some courses to train all the MHLs uh so that that can be implemented. Uh we have an administrative agent CGPNH

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that uh the township has contracted with uh to oversee the the monitoring, sale, resale, uh recapture fees, uh the discharges of mortgages. Um essentially that's that's that's it. um in July of

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uh 2035 years from now, well, maybe a little less. Um there'll be a midpoint review to see uh where the projects that have been included in the fourth round are, whether they've been built or still in existence. Um Carrie, I believe, mayor's

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coming in soon. It's wild and happy. >> Carrie is up for a um zoning board hearing this Thursday, right? So, uh, thanks to the the planning of this township committee, the planning for it prior township

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committees, it's, uh, professional and planners, uh, Ben's done relatively well compared to, uh, some of the surrounding municipalities where you've seen rather large development numbers uh, bringing on large uh, housing units in in the

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future. So, uh, good job to all. >> Thank you, John, and thank you for your efforts. Um, I know that you've been uh back and forth with uh the other attorneys on this matter for a very long time and for prowling um our other

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professionals, which sometimes is like hurting cats, as the phrase goes. But certainly getting everyone together going in the same direction, going through the math, looking at the math

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again just as we did with the budget, looking at those numbers and which was an iterative process uh and then reducing it into a uh coherent plan that could be presented to fair

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share, agreed to by fair share and then signed off by the judge. So there's a lot of um you know John and I were on I would say in telephone conversations multiple times a day uh about where we were and

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what we needed to do um and where we needed uh additional support from our municipal planner uh getting some of the background information that you could put into uh into the papers. So, John, thank you so much for taking us through

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this and getting to a very very good end result. >> Glad to see the process uh is over and successfully concluded. Um allow your uh planning board to review applications without the threat of builder lawsuits.

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>> Right. And once I think we've talked about this, we've talked about this at uh reorg and other uh opportunities that doesn't mean that you know we are locking the door on Bedminster, but it

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gives the township committee it gives the planning board the flexibility to plan for development and to choose development that we want where we want it as opposed to being compelled on us

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by the courts through the DJ actions that are known as builder's remedy lawsuits. So, this is a big relief to every municipality that can achieve that and uh and we have and the the other thing that you know folks don't remember

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is you know many years ago minister established the R10 zone. >> Yes. minimum lot size of of of of 10 acres as as a way to preserve open space and to prevent uh subdivision sprawl. That was that was challenged. Uh the

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honorable Robert Gutrell, late honorable Robert Guterrell upheld that uh in Somerville. It was a challenge by Kirby. Uh it is a reported appellet division case, meaning anyone can go to the books and look up that case as a seminal case

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on preserving large acre zoning and it was upheld by the appellet division. So um there's not a lot of towns around here that have minimum 10 lot acre zoning. Um and that took a lot of your land out of the subdivision development

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uh process. So, uh, kudos to whether that's I think that was over 30 years ago. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> And the Kirby property actually has a site plan approval for 10, 11, 12 acre

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parcels that was approved years ago. They've not >> they've not done anything with it. I think there's been some discussion about filing the plat uh but that has not yet been u perfected. >> All right. Thank you Johnny. Questions

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for John. Old business >> Colin until it is not you as old business. >> Yes. >> That's what it sounded like. Uh just quick update on New Jersey American Water. I've been working with Miss Ray and her team to try and resolve a

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nagging problem with New Jersey American Water. There are cases where an association pays the water bill, but the homeowner pays the sewer bill, and there's a problem disconnecting service when someone moves. Long story short, the township has been fielding phone calls from homeowners who have been

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instructed to call Bedminster Water by the New Jersey American Water Call Center. Jason, you didn't know you ran Waterworks in addition to everything else you do. >> So, as a result, the customers are incurring charges after they move because New Jersey American Water won't process disconnects. The problem is

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further exacerbated when it is an affordable housing unit because the homeowner, as you know, is one step removed from the real estate transaction which is being handled in those cases by CGP&H. Uh we've all been playing a bit of better get picero to help out these residents, but at the end of the day,

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this is a New Jersey American Water problem with their billing system and their customer care representatives, and we are going to work to get them to address that and drive this to resolution. So, just want to give you an update on that one. >> Okay. Also on the New Jersey American Water, um Robin, have we scheduled a

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meeting with uh New Jersey American Water on sewer allocation? >> Is that is that with me? >> Yes, that's the following week next week. >> And that we do have the representatives, >> Peter Black, our sewer engineer, and

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several others will be in attendance. and and that meeting is if we're you know we've got um >> EDC the old EDC now owned by New Jersey American Water >> processes the sewer for treatment for

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Bedminster including the hills Bedminster village the section that's uh connected to sewer the section of Far Hills that's connected to sewer and the sections of Peepac Gladstone that are connected to sewer

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as we look at future development uh including the KRE project uh down in Pluckman uh perhaps eventually the Alfie project uh right next to the Bridgewater Manor uh whatever is going to happen

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with AT&T uh we really want to get a sense of what is the sewer capacity for treatment here knowing that there are projects uh just as John mentioned some of the other

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towns that didn't fair as well as Bedminster did in the fourth round settlements. Um they will be accommodating relatively large um residential projects including in uh Gladstone uh which will be sending their

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waste water through the sewer that comes down into Bedminster to our pump station and over to EDC. So, we're trying to get a sense of total capacity, total conveyance, and

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identify any bottlenecks that may be in the way. Um, and the ability of the New Jersey American Water Treatment Facility to handle all of that. So, uh, stay tuned for updates as we have that meeting. And Somerset Hills Public Safety

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Committee, we're supposed to have a call, I think. When's our next call? >> Third. Um Thursday. >> Thursday. >> Third Thursday. >> Third Thursday. Okay. So that will >> we have some time. >> We probably won't report back on this until June then. >> Correct.

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>> Right. Okay. Um we'll go through township committee comments. We do have an executive session. We will not be taking any formal action after executive session. So, we're going to run through township committee

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comments, adjourn to executive session, and then we will return to public session merely to adjourn for the evening. You're all welcome to stick around to see us say good night, >> but you don't have to. And once again,

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we will not be taking formal action when we return. >> Good night. >> Nice meeting you. Bye. You knew we're not going to do your committee comments or are you done with your committ? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, we will go through Yeah. No, no, you're you're absolutely right. We will go through committee comments.

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Thank you, Julia. >> Committ Rosen. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to echo your sentiments uh with the cooperation from Derek, Robin, and the department heads uh during the budget sessions. They were my first

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sessions and their cooperation, their collaborations, the give and take back and forth. The creativeness really made for a fascinating process and makes uh made our lives much easier. And also it's international firefighters day. I

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want to give a shout out to the crew at uh House 29 for their hard work and uh dedication they provide on a 247 basis. >> Thank you, Bill. That's great. >> Committeewoman Fernandez. >> Thank you, Mayor. I mean, um, I echo the

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sentiments. You know, the budget sessions are always, you know, like child birth. You forget how how it is until the next year, right? So, thank you so much for everyone for all their, you know, collaboration and cooperation and,

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um, just, you know, very excited about all the things happening in town. And thank you, John, for handling all the affordable housing stuff. That's amazing. >> Cool. >> So, that's all. Have a good night. >> Committeewoman Moreski. >> Um, just want to echo those those guys sentiments. Thank you to everybody who

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works in Bedminster for all the work you guys did on the budget. It does make our lives so much easier. And thank you guys for all the work you did on the community garden. That that is an amazing place. Hope everybody gets to visit. And now I'm looking forward to farmers market.

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>> And that's all I got. Have a good night. and a half weeks. >> I know. >> And a meeting tomorrow night. Okay. >> Yes. Two and a half. >> Commitment. Hickey. >> Thank you, Mayor. It's tough to top the child birth comment. So, >> I ain't touching that one. >> We'll take your word for it.

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>> Yeah, exactly. But no, many thanks again, as everybody's mentioned, uh to Derek and and our order and Robin, as I always say, you make the trains run on time here in Bedminister. It all comes back to you. So, thank you for keeping us on task and on target. It really is important.

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>> Um, also want to thank you, the mayor, and John. John, you mentioned it was a two-year process for affordable housing, but it feel felt like we were running the two-minute offense all the time with the deadlines that were set up in the interim for all those things. So, it's amazing job keeping that process. So, thank you.

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>> And uh I just want we were talking about the school before. I just want to mention another great job by Bedminster School regarding a new program they've instituted. They borrowed a page from Google which encourages employees to dedicate part of their paid time to their passion projects and Bedminster School is doing the same. We heard

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presentations from two fourth graders, one on chess and one on baking. I mentioned to Miss G afterwards that my fourth grade self could not have done what those kids did. Get up there in front of a big audience and present. But it's important to develop communication and presentation skills early in life. I

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know we've all worked with people who were super smart, but they couldn't express an idea or present to an audience. So, great job by the school getting these kids ready, not just academically, but socially and professionally as well. And that's all I got. >> So, fourth grade, Colin did not have Excel, but you probably had some type of

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spreadsheet. >> I I probably did. Yes. But but the thought of getting up in front of a crowd and trying to talk about this stuff, no way. These kids do amazing work. >> Thank you. And uh I have no further comments at 8:20 to take a motion to

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adjourn to executive session. >> So moved. >> All in favor? Good night, Julia.