good evening welcome to the Bedminster Township Committee this is our regularly scheduled township committee meeting for April 21st 2025 recognize that we have a full quorum attending here in person Committee Fernandez Committee Moreski
Committeeman Hickeyi and attending remote Committeeman Doug Stevenson who's not on camera because he's upside down ms ray may we please have the open public meetings act statement yes ma'am
adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to the courier news Somerville Burnsville News Whippony and to all subscribers and post at the township municipal building on January 7th 2025 great thank you please join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all jason well done holding Bedminster down
while Robin was uh on vacation no emergencies that was good no emergencies good job this is the time of the meeting we open up the deis or the Zoom session for public comment any member of the comment any member of the public wishing to make a comment ask a question may do
so once again you are not entitled to answers or a dialogue unless you chose to engage any member of the public wishing to make a statement your name and address for the
record yes my name is Yolanda Sillo um I my address is 147 Villa Savana Court St john's Florida but I am a longtime board member and current president of the Friends of Jacob Vander House these are the times that try men soul so wrote Thomas Payne 250 years ago these words
still ring true today saturday's Wall Street Journal had an editorial by historian Alan Gelso entitled "Have you noticed it's America's 250th birthday have you noticed the celebrations already going on?" The friends of Jacovis Vander love managing JBH running our programs talking about history we've
accomplished much since co a few examples enhanced our summer program the field of honor into a signature program um we uh also have now the White House wind symphony concert performed there with house tours annually we now host two vibrant school days with reenactors
and colonial demonstrators we offer private tours to increase access two were given last week we've increased our participation with Somerset County the five generals tours weekend journey the dosent program the middle symposia we've installed a beautiful scale dollhouse
accurate historically accurate interactive model of the pluckman our link in Bedminster to the American Revolution we've obtained records and artifacts from the Pluck and Contoment arch archaeological dig we've recruited board members and dozens who participate in our events in period dress which adds
to our historical impact we've done many other things we appreciate the township's support with use and assembly of your tent the and the field of honor work and colonial Christmas it must be noticed however that our board spends endless countless volunteer hours and
several of us provide significant financial support to our nonprofit which benefits the house and Bedminster taxpayers we thought and perceived that we had a positive relationship with the township and our lease renewal would be easy but we appear to be at an impass
we're brokenhearted we've received no plausible explanation or reason communication to us has been limited delayed and requests for calls ignored bylaws are the center of an organization's governance this impass goes to that governance most citizens would agree that inserting the
government into a nonprofit's bylaws is at best unsemly and inappropriate having the appearance of government control we would be happy to discuss the township's concerns and give consideration to amending our B laws but this should not be as a condition of a lease or with
government pre-approval requirements we've worked hard to create programming for the 250th we love sharing American history and Bedminister Township's role in it we implore entreat and plead with you for an extension and better yet lease renewal so that we can ensure
Bedminster Township is recognized and represented in this historic celebration and beyond we received notice that our lease will not be extended and will end April 30th that we should act accordingly so with heavy hearts we will begin to move forward we sincerely hope that you will offer us a lease extension
and renew a lease with appropriate time ter terms thank you very much for your time thank you for your comments any further member of the public wishing to make a comment saying no john you know we are in you drafted a
lease you presented it lease is consistent with conversations with the board including members of the board who were at tonight's meeting from July when we met we talked about working
the town working with the town working with the community further engagement with Bedminister with the placement of a third of the board to be appointed by the township committee with
representation from Bedminster residents bed and residents who pay for the upkeep of the property the building the payment of utilities the maintenance of the roof the painting of the building the
erection of the tents DPW services for field of honor DPW services for a whole lot of other stuff so with all that municipal participation and frankly a drop off uh
Oh please and then the barn whatever the current state of the barn is so when I raised that issue about municipal participation on the board the response from the board
members including the president back in July last year was overwhelmingly supportive overwhelmingly supportive because to some extent there has been a loss of connection with Bedminster
residents the lease John that you drafted is consistent with those discussions from back in July correct position has not changed i see no reason other than
I've seen some issues that have been thrown out that are seem unsubstantiated whether it violates uh 501c3 issues or anything else there's been no indication um that that is
legally accurate once again we come back to the July meeting overwhelming support for municipal participation whether that was going to be from the rec committee which wreck
manages River Road Park from public works which takes care of the property takes care of the building from historic preservation which is Bedminster's 's statutoily delegated authority for
looking at the historic value of what we have here in Bedminster and maybe from Bedminster school and the PTO to get once again further engagement with the municipality and the school which seems to have dropped off over the
years so back then there was tremendous support for it this was offered as a way of helping the JBH house and the JVH board and it was recognized at the time
as so this resistance to that very same lease provision that we've talked about while still bedminister maintaining the property the building the utilities and all the other services
that DPW provides this is from my perspective an unacceptable position for the JVH board to take with us so John you still have your
direction you prepared the lease the lease is ready to be signed by Ben Mr township correct correct Mayor it's just a singular issue that has held us up seemingly since last July and for your direction not not
mine i'm just the messenger um the tenant cannot have the power to veto township committee appointments and that has to be in the lease because if it's not in the lease bylaws can always
be changed and changed again so it it has to be that notwithstanding any provisions in the Balus to the contrary township committee appointments to the board are not subject to a veto power by the tenant i don't think that's an unreasonable
uh request by the landlord the township here um you still would be in the minority position on the the board with with a limit of onethird of the trustees so I'm I'm not quite sure why this has been
such an arduous road but it certainly hasn't been because of any hardline positions of the the township okay thank you John we have two sets of meeting minutes to approve april 7 no no
we don't no we tabled those we t Oh we tabled those you're right we did so we're going to move on to permits and raffles we're going to hear the first two individually up front rob Tottton why don't you come on
up so the first two permits and raffles we're going to consider are fireworks permits for fireworks display first scheduled for May 10 2025 at approximately 9:45 at Trump National Golf Club and the second a fireworks
display scheduled for May 25 2025 at approximately 9:45 at Trump National Golf Club mr totten just for the record name and position at the golf course sure matter robert Totten director of security Trump
National Golf Club Mr new Jersey okay so the fireworks applications are in the packages any member of the township committee have any comments or questions and if not if you just want to walk us through the um artworks displays
sure uh May 10th is for a wedding it is going to be approximately um an 8minute show i have uh the Bedminster Fire Department uh approved the permits and they're going to be on site along with fire trucks and
Bedminister PD will be present because we have to shut down Copper W and and our attorney uh attorneys are writing letters to all residents within 200 ft of our property notifying all the
residents when and what time we are going to have these uh fireworks and May 25 May 25th is our annual Memorial Day uh event it's the same
about an eight minute show closing the roads fire department um police department and letters to our uh neighbors presence of the president does that affect the display the timing or any of the uh security associated with
the display in the past no um it may delay it a couple minutes or it may expedite it but is generally around the time that I put in for it okay there there would be no other uh issues okay
not Mr totten's first rodeo i have no questions okay there's no further questions of Mr ton i'll take a uh motion to approve both fireworks displays for May 10 and from May 25 so moved
second all in favor thank you thank you mayor thank you committee appreciate fireworks the rest of the uh permits and raffles annual seasonal farm market permit for
Flounder Brewing Company at Bedminister Farmers Market beginning May 24 through December 6 a social fair permit for the Steven Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation on May 12 2025 from 8:00 a.m
to 9:00 p.m at Trump National Golf Club an on premise 5050 raffle to benefit Somerset Healthc Care Foundation on June 2 2025 from 10 am 700 p.m at Hamilton Farm Golf Club and an off- premise
merchandise raffle to benefit New Jersey Golf Association Youth Foundation on July 22 2025 from 8:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m at Hamilton Farm Golf Club any comments or questions
regarding the two permits and the two raffles seeing none take a motion to approve remaining permits and raffles so moved second all in favor i thank you
monthly report discussion by subcommittee chair easter egg hunt yes we're going to go with start with me ladywoman Fernandez thank you mayor okay uh so the Easter egg hunt took place on Saturday before
Easter on the 19th uh it went very well there were a couple of hundred kids who participated which is great it seems to grow every year um we have a couple of spring programs happening uh right now Camp Bedminster and afternoon camp
registration is taking place it began on April 1st for Bedminster residents and beginning on May 1st non-residents will be allowed to register if space is available uh community service applications are due by Friday May 2nd there's some spring programs taking
place there's adult indoor volleyball began on Wednesday and has about 35 participants and it will run um adult outdoor volleyball will be either begin May 27th or May 28th at the Pluckman Park outdoor volleyball courts uh
there's a soccer clinics taking place right now and multisports clinics as well and the Bryce Rosen Memorial 5K will be held on Saturday June 28th at River Road Park and that's all so uh we have Bill Rosen from uh Wreckit
bill so all the work for the Easter egg hunt two minutes 90 seconds may 90 seconds hours of
work by Wreck by a rec director by DPW mhm 90 seconds everything's gone cleared and the ladies that parents put their kids through to you know get that dollar bill unbelievable
it's It's one of the highlights of the year yeah it's finally had a nice Saturday beautiful so Robin 90 seconds is that uh is that slow or is that quick given that's totally accurate right on right on 90 seconds every year about the same
the horn goes off from the fire truck and it's like mad dashed people you know before we put the tape off they're there chomping at the bit to get off now I recall last year there might have been a couple blocks and hip checks by parents
any of that this year uh I didn't see any i think we're incident free this year all right good i think everybody pretty well behaved that's great that's great thank you Gina committeewoman Moreski thank you Mayor good evening everyone on
the EC front on April 12th there was the annual Ronin River headwaters um stream cleanup site 22A as usual at River Road Park was coordinated by Don March and Deb Tagliieri from our Benminster Environmental Commission so we start the
day with Cindy Erin Cloud who's the senior director of development and she came by in the morning and asked us not to go near the waterways oh boy she let us Oh I see where this is going hang on hang on she let us know that with the rains and the snows earlier in the week and in the morning Ron Headwaters had
closed a few of the sites and that the streams were really swollen and it was a crappy day so we thought there'd be light attendance but uh to our surprise 20 25 people attended so in attendance were a couple of families with small kids several solo te uh teenagers i
think they were getting uh credit and a handful of adults many of the volunteers actually were repeat attendees all sorts of things were found from diapers to large highway road signs did Did you pick that one up oh yeah good lord um but the highlight of the event was when the mayor reached out for something in
the river and the bank gave way under his foot suddenly he was up to the river dropped to his chest cold river water but being the good sport that he is he ran home got changed and came back even though it was really miserable weather everybody seemed to enjoy
themselves and to many told us they would be back next year swimmies for the mayor well you know I was I was along the bank and there were these you know fishing bobs that were just you know the floats were just sitting there like in this little I went
to a bunch of junk trees and leaves and stuff so I just went down to pick it up stepping on what I thought was solid ground and next thing I know I'm up to here to your surprise oh my gosh and and
Renee who was my hero and she reached out her arm said "The tank was so slippery i guess we have so much clay in our dirt that when it was wet I started to slide." I'm like "Oh no I'm not that good." I'm surprised
you didn't take your phone out and start recording it was really it was really scary the mayor was up to here and I was a little concerned because the river was really flowing pretty fast so I was the camera didn't come out so but my camera came out later but it was a little little wet
so um yeah I had to get a had to get a new phone but Oh man oh well yeah well it happens everybody it happens it was time so um once again just great job
um to uh Bedminister EC to Don and Deb Taglaryi uh Don March and Deb Taglei for manning the tent Renee for your um work out there and um thank you again for that helping hand
thank you um and later that morning I was driving up to uh PPAC and it was really great to see that RHA had um folks up in PG they had them um well in Peepac they had them in the Gladstone
side as well on the far hills border so it was really great to see that you know they really bring out a lot of volunteers and it was um it was great yeah I think a lot of the volunteers are very dedicated to this event and there were there were some new folks who came
out this year that I haven't seen uh there were some group that came out from uh some business I forget where they were came from but a lot of them weren't local so they were one guy very end he was from Branchburg and he comes up so yeah so so good job for RHA putting that
all together and for EC for running it here in Bedminster i know um so we did just hear Yolanda and she told us many things that are going on at JBH but just a quick rundown
um April 9th was another school day um it was the Somerville Vandervere where elementary school and the American Christian School they had about 120 students attending the teachers were all highly complimentary and looking forward to doing this again in the fall usually
they run it in October um so as Yolanda mentioned um their programs still lined up but they've been put on hold at least for this minute field of Honor which is June 7th Weekend Journey through the Pass which is October 11th through 12th that's a
county program fall school day as I said it will be in October the participation of the new county dosent program and then Colonial Christmas which is usually early December um and as we heard there's some issues going on but hopefully the specifics will be able to
get ironed out and the programs can move forward because it really wouldn't be the Fourth of July without the flags at Field of Honor and it wouldn't be Christmas without the lighting of our Liberty Tree even though I know we've got an issue with the lights on the Liberty Tree but they've been worked out for years and they're absolutely fine
and everybody comes and it's a great event so hopefully we'll be able to square that away um couple quick things on uh some traffic around town um a second follow-up stud a follow-up study was done on the old Dutch road um
speeding and it looks like with the new signs that have been put up most of the speeds that they uh are being traveled at are between 26 and 36 miles an hour which um Chief if you want to chime in
on that that um that's probably a an acceptable level of speeding but or feed um but the residents still feel it's too fast and um would like to continue talking about additional options that might be available so we'll put a
meeting together for that um when we get a chance and Lisk Road is having a similar issue so I've reached out to Chief Bernardo for a speed study to be done up there um that's a very tiny road
very windy road um the chief has uh the equipment in another location at this time for a couple weeks but hopefully Liz Kale will be next in line we'll get the results share that and then put together a meeting for those residents
and see what we can come up with and that concludes my report for today thank you one thing about list paved it's going to be faster oh yeah and they are concerned about that yeah
how about that tree that's like right on the road more is that coming down or nope yeah certainly well it's going to come down eventually the one on the right going in yeah I know the big one
I can take that yeah I know which one yeah it is a very small um narrow road you're right once it's paved um it's gonna be a little faster committeeman Hickey thank you
Mayor so I get to follow let's see Easter egg hunts and the mayor going in the drink with septic applications sorry I'm lucky board of Health we had three septic applications reviewed at last week's meeting which is not that exciting but it is worth noting that one involved a lot on Deer Haven that
combined a proposed location for a new septic system in tight proximity to an existing well oh it's not how you would draw it up on paper in an in a perfect world but these designs are driven by the lot configuration the soil composition and the location of the
river these geometry problems are becoming increasingly complex in this area of Bedminister especially as these homes many of which were built in the 50s and 60s are now in need of another septic replacement right the board of health has been working diligently with the applicants and their engineers to make sure that water safety is
maintained but it does beg the question of if and when how the sewer system can be expanded to provide some relief and I know mayor you and the sewer advisory committee have been working hard on that problem and that's all I have thank you Committeeman Stevenson
thank you Mayor good evening everybody just a quick update for DPW um Jason and his team continue to work on our dirt roads and pothole repairs throughout town uh the grading and the repairs of the roads continue to obviously take up a lot of time uh we're doing the ball
fields grooming and lining both lacrosse and soccer and baseball uh working over at Pluckman Park doing the top soil and seating um they continue to install the open space signs throughout town and um you know we're starting to get into
grass cutting season um and then on their spare time they're working on our on our police cars uh not really sure what we're doing to them but we're working on the police cars and we've got uh some lighting project we're still working through
all right thank you welcome so go ahead so from um from my subcommittee's land use uh no meeting since our last meeting um a advisory meeting later this month uh
farmers market meeting coming up in I believe early May um library library uh Colin and I attended the last library meeting uh library is going through uh HR um review
with a um personnel employee handbook as well as a general handbook for the operation and um services of the library um so we're really seeing some sort of like what I would almost call professionalizing yeah
what we have in place at the library it's great to see um and I just want to give a little shout out to uh the president of the library board Judith Griffiths um who I think has just done a
bangup job as president of the library great uh she is not necessarily one who's going to uh defer review and consideration to the uh to Marie who is our Marie Krenshaw who is our library
director but Judith is going through all the details with a fine tooth comb asking her questions and I think she's just doing great great job like you said level of professionalism I think that is is new is new high it's terrific yes
that's really Great to see miss Ray may we please have the administrator's report yes Mayor well as you know um we introduced our budget our 2025 budget the April 7th township committee meeting um both the budget and the userfriendly budgets are on the township's website for the public's
review we are state review this year so um the state is actually um going to get back to us they're going to review our budget get back to us with any questions and we expect to adopt at the May 5th meeting so is that after state review or is or do we adopt and then it goes to
state review so we're hoping that they're going to do a quick turnaround and we'll adopt on May 5th okay so that'll be after after state review that's correct we don't anticipate any issues our auditors are quite confident so um the DCA LEAP grant um that's actually due on May 30th that stands for
local efficiency achievement program is LEAP and um it's to encourage shared services throughout uh the state of New Jersey bminister Township is actually applying with our partners of the Burough of Far Hills and the Burrow of Peep Gladstone for a shared street
sweeper so that we can be in compliance with the state's storm water regulations um Bminister were taking care of completing the grant application and Farhill and um EPAC Gladstone are drawing up the shared services agreement so we're planning to meet next week just
to kind of put the icing on the cake and see where we're at um also we're now in the process of liquor license renewal so you can expect they all expire June 30th so you can expect to start seeing that um coming in and your approval um I should back up the DCA leap grant there
is a resolution on the agenda tonight for consideration that was a an ad um each one of the member municipalities do need to um uh we need the governing body support to apply for the LEAP grant so
that's the resolution that was added this evening it should be uh I think it's 078 so not on the agenda it's on the agenda it's on the agenda it's on the agenda yes it's um 2025078 it authorizes the the the grant
application for the street sweep work and that was a last minute addition okay and that concludes my report okay chief Bernardo updates on um community policing uh just one thing Mayor good evening um
AT&T asked us to participate in their take your children to work day this week so we're sending a few officers to do some activities with the kids and that's all I got that's great okay thank you no ordinances to introduce no ordinances
for public hearing we have two items on the consent agenda these are items of a routine nature any member of the township committee may pull one or both of them off for individual consideration if not take a motion to
approve the items on the consent agenda so moved second roll call vote please mr stevenson I mr mr hickey I miss Moreski hi miss Fernandez hi and Mayor Jacobs hi thank
you resolution not on the consent agenda is resolution 202577 which authorizes the agreement with US Bank for the use of procurement cards ms ray we started this last year didn't we we did um I wanted to put it
on the regular uh agenda so that we could just give you an update um so our current provider which is Bank of America will no longer be servicing the municipality so we needed to switch to a new provider and uh this new provider is actually on the state contract so um we
our QPA has made the recommendation that we move forward with um the new provider and the same thresholds on the PE cards everything else same thresholds identical yep any questions comments
from the township committee members on resolution 202577 wonderful seeing none take a motion to approve so moved second roll call vote please mr stevenson I mr hickeyi I mr moraskki I miss Fernandez I
and Mayor Jacobs I thank you the resolution that was added to the agenda is resolution 20250 the township of Bedminster um desires to apply for obtain a grant from New Jersey DCA for approximately
410,000 to carry out a project for a new shared service between the town of Bedminster the burrow of Far Hills and the Burrow of Peep and Gladstone for the purchase of a spared street sweeper uh the resolution would authorize the application for the
grant any further questions or comments of Miss Ray regarding the street sweeper grant application seeing none take a motion to approve resolution 2025 078 so moved second roll call vote please committee
Stevenson i committee Hickey i committeewoman Moreski i committeewoman Fernandez hi and Mayor Jacobs hi thank you and I'll take a motion to approve the bill list pending review of individual
invoices so moved second we'll call again please um uh Committeeman Stevenson I committeeman Hickeyi I committeewoman Moreski I committeewoman Fernandez hi and Mayor Jacobs I thank you
any I always get thrown off township committee member want to put any item up or discussion under new business seeing none old business utilities thank you mayor uh quick update on JCPNL i had mentioned last time that at our request a
reliability engineering study was being kicked off to address repeated outages at the Somerset Hills Shopping Center aka Fresh Market that work continues and I've actually connected the property owner directly to the reliability engineering team over at JCPNL i hope to
have a readout of what that study finds for one of our upcoming meetings in May and mayor that's all I've got jason do you have anything utilized no we're good that is it okay doug John Pluckman Park Senior Quiet
been quiet all right we'll leave it up there summer City Hills Public Safety Committee uh no update since our last meeting um Robin do you remember when our next um conference call oh it's Thursday thursday good thing thank you Robin i think it's this Thursday i'll
send out a reminder okay thank you we do have an executive session uh we will be uh in discussions regarding a it's identified as property acquisition but it's actually a foreign land preservation easement
um so we'll go through township committee we will adjourn to executive session we will not be taking any formal action following the executive session so let's run through committee
comments and we'll start with committeewoman Hernandez thank you mayor i have no comments just hope everyone had a nice Easter and um that's all all right good committing women of mores i just hope we get the uh lease
agreement figured out with JBH because I personally think that that will be a big loss to our town i've had an amazingly wonderful time being their liaison and I would like like to continue that i think this new group has um breathed a bunch
of new life into it and I know this is a law thing and I'm not a lawyer but I I hope we can figure this out because I seriously think that um we'll be missing a good chunk of our town with the with the friends disappearing
committeeman Hickey i have no comments thank you committeeman Stevenson i have no comments Mayor thank you okay and I have no further comments at 7:38 take a motion to adjurnn to executive
session so move second all in favor i once again we will not be taking formal action when we return from our executive session and it is 8:18 the township committee has returned from our
executive session as we said earlier we are not taking any formal action following the executive session take a motion to adjurnn for the evening so move second all in favor i I thank you and good
night good night all night ciao uh