make a motion e e e M what going does that make sense it's just as long as you say that phrase it references this version and not the one are we ready lot to cover tonight I call the
meeting to order at 701 Angela would you please read the public yes I adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by forwarding a copy to The Courier News Star Ledger and posting
on the township website at least 48 hours prior to the meeting all in accordance with the open public meetings act this meeting will not substantially go past 10:30 p.m. roll call Madam clerk Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster here Mrs illis
here Mr Machado here Mr Moran here Mrs po Mayor de I'm here would you all please rise for the indivisible okay uh trying something a little bit different uh this year with the budget and we're going to have uh
several conference sessions rather on the capital budget want to really just limit it to council questions this evening if we could because uh this is a rough B we don't even have the budget in rough draft I think Diane could attest to that that this is just really a starting point um it was just more
expedience to have the council Al together hear the same information Al together ask the same questions all together and get the same information all together so with that um I'm G ask director Graziano to come forward with the DPW
budget oh he just sit there evening mayor good evening Council um you have in front of you my request okay good so I'd just like to go over those Capital cross but first I want to thank you guys for um you know
for the opportunity to speak tonight just to go over a little bit of uh I guess what our Capital plan is going to bring to the township of uh of Berkeley Heights as you know I mean we have a wonderful public works department these guys we have 13 men that work down there that really um keep the streets and keep
everything in uh in great fashion and as you can tell if you drive around through other towns during a snowstorm or during uh during any weather event um our Town's typically the best you know I'm going to keep us even with the tach Union because I work there fulltime now
and now we're doing good over there but so mostly the requests on here um du relate to snow so I can just you know I'll just segue right in so the first um I guess the first request we're looking for two uh two F750 single axle dump
trucks um both equipped with 5 yard Salters and uh and snow plows they're on state contract they're um they equal out to about 100 $40,000 each um equaling $280,000 these are replacing two older
trucks uh a two a 1991 truck that was auctioned off in 2017 and a 1998 truck that was auctioned off in 2016 I believe um so those trucks were auctioned off at that point we never replaced those so what happens now
is that we have to use smaller vehicles and smaller trucks to plow the same areas that we would like to use with these with these these bigger pieces of equipment so um and all I mean you end up Saving Time with the bigger truck you end up saving um you know man uh man hours because you know the job will get
done quicker so if you have any questions on those I'd like to try and answer those questions for you and if I can't answer them I have uh one of my um uh Foreman here who who can help answer those questions what's the lead time uh they're on state contract uh don what's
the lead time on them by the time the truck's here yeah by the time we order it the six to eight months I think typically okay thank you ready to go yes yeah Salter plow no no we will I'm sorry we
will receive it the Salter and plow um I will send it because that speeds it up and then they don't tack anything off the end yes we got them all ready to go within a six month to eight month time FR excuse me retire no we won't retire the small ones now we're we're not we're
not replacing any uh any Vehicles we still need those for other things in town um because those are Mason dumps we'll take this you know take the so spreaders off and use them for for other things question we send it out to be lettered or comes it yeah so we have somebody come here who does it okay and
who letters our trucks they all look the same pretty much so is the 140,000 just for the truck or do the Sal that's for truck Salter and the plow okay um and if we've been doing without these two large trucks for the past however many many
years we really need two of them right now uh yeah I mean listen i' I'd love to have both of them right now because then I mean that'll really help this crew and this you know you know it'll help us speed up the process of waiting you know you know another year getting I mean next year the prices are going to go up
now they're about 140 for everything next year it might be 150 a year after whatever but um yes I'd like to have them both now but obviously you know whatever this Council um uh is you know would approve I'd be very happy with if I could um you know in my
neighborhood uh we have a small I guess it's a white pickup truck that you know does our streets a lot and it really struggles if there's a fair amount of snow on on the ground especially coming down hard that that truck struggles to push the snow it does and um you know a
lot of years and we have a lot of cold sacks in town as uh as you all know and um these trucks are just a little bit bigger than what we have so bigger than the smaller Mason dumps so these are it's it's an F750 so and it has a 5 yard dump means it only has one one rear uh
rear wheels that means it's just a single axle on the back so what do you use the dump truck for that isn't um plowing and salting anything just load wood in it sand dirt whatever leaves whatever oh I'm sorry I thought you meant during a snowstorm no I'm talking
about it's the counsel for Budget keep going thanks thank whoever that was muting everybody all right so the next thing is we want to do the final you're done or you may recall I want to know which of these we may have put off each
year the year before that was it that's what I thought okay um so the next item on uh on the agenda there would be the $50,000 to finish the paving at the public workyard yes um we just have to finish that one section we are waiting for all the fuel pumps to get uh I'm sorry the fuel tanks to be put in and
they're just about done so by the time if and when this is approved by you guys we will be able to get the rest of the uh the whole parking lot paved and just the narrative on that if you've ever been back there and we have a bu monthly e recycling it's dangerous for the
residents to pull back there it's dangerous for the staff to pull in and out with their personal cars and Township cars and anybody else who needs to get back there it really needs to it's in disre severe disrepair paved in 1995
at the next uh the next small item is uh is just a ride on leaf blower or just the blower that we use um this one's just expended its time it's uh over 15 years old um it's a smaller piece of equipment we need it's not worth it to have it repaired anymore but we use it
during Leaf season we use it for all the parking lots um it's a great piece of equipment to have and we'd like to just uh move that one forward if we could um the next two items on four and five uh four is a uh um it's a construction of a
100t long steel panel building at the rear of the DPW Yard so between this one and the next request I have on there is to try and get all of our equipment out of the weather during any kind of events and that's not saying this is not going to be a heated garage it's not going to have anything other
than some minor minor power with some lights and stuff we just have to get stuff out of the weather um we don't want anything rusting or anything like that so right now we have a lot of our equipment which is you know millions of dollars worth of stuff that sits outside um during any kind of event we don't have enough housing to house everything
that we have down there so these two these two sheds if you want to call them I one's I mean buildings I should say one's pretty expensive $775,000 but that'll give us the whole back part of the lot it's 100 foot long we'll be able to fit trucks in there suters in there
um uh uh chippers you know smaller trucks uh bigger lawnmowers and stuff like that will'll be able to open up some room and then the other one is just a smaller one that's going to fit in between a couple of the buildings and again we'll be able to um you know put put equipment in there as
well it building what's that Ty building uh no there there'll be steel yeah yeah steel buildings and the larger one was originally on the building plan when Redevelopment and it was removed right I
was to mention that yeah that was phase two that's all I have this evening for you hopefully uh can help me out I'm sorry sidewalk improvements not on this and stream cleaning Pro so on our list we have stream a stream cleaning project and sidewalk
improvements yes s that in yes thanks appreciate that oh sure what are the dollar values you put in on the are they on there or not 300,000 for stream cleaning okay and we so I can
speak to this too that we've had a number of storms in which we really need to clean out the streams to help the flow of water that the township actually is required to do and then sidewalks we've had some situations with potential liability where there's been um Township
trades as we talked about talked about today and roots coming up and having to replace maybe one or two slabs it's not a a million dooll sidewalk reconstruction project like we've done on plane P Avenue we're about to do on SNY or Springfield this is really just patching where we're responsible because
the tree cause the damage so and that's something that we're going to chip away at um pun intended chip away at every year um starting with this year that's what that's propos your support so just just just real quick on
that you know I mean you know obviously the streams do need to be cleaned out there's you know we have a lot of streams in town they all they all filter into either the Pake River or elsewhere but they uh there's a lot of areas that are but there's also also areas is that I don't care what you do they're not
going to they're not going to flow any better because Downstream is clogged so and when I say Downstream even Downstream at Berkeley Heights so there's nothing we could do with that but there is a lot of stuff that has to be addressed and we spend a decent amount of money anyway on a yearly basis after every storm to uh to either fix
there's like five or six different properties that were constant on this on this list and we do go back there and we take care of them so thank you for adding that to uh adding that to my list I appreciate that but you actually brought up something uh storm some sort of storm fund we maybe some of that goes
into a storm whatever Diane wants to call it that's legal um yes so that when we have to do these cleanups we have to hire contractors have money in there especially for summer St the council approved what about five years ago yeah
we just we ran it out of money basically and when we ran out of money we just stopped you know right we didn't fund it last year and we didn't fund it last year so because we did quite a bit the two years ago yeah we did yeah all right okay so with those additions I'm coming up at the calculation about
$837,000 in capital requests yep because there was about 400 you didn't know about yeah just double it I doubled your but all right I know you have a long drive we appreciate you thank you guys for um for all you do thank you Council thank you T yeah so so just just a heads up the
next couple weeks we have a pretty active weather weather pattern coming in so we have something tomorrow night Saturday we have some stuff they might not be major events but we will we will be in making sure the roads are clear that any we're going to BR earlier
yes but then we won't um then we'll plow or salate it's not wet we BR yeah this this one Wednesday and Thursday looks really nasty that's tomorrow night it's a Thursday morning for that thank you may thank you Council appreciate your time
next up we have the wastewater treatment plan alen Kennedy our director and as Alan comes up um he did put quite a bit of detail into his budget request so you do have that in front of you so um I told them you know there there is a
lot on here so I told them to focus on the the big items and then you know if anyone has any questions on additional items also that you have here you know feel free and then you'll you'll see in a couple of these places there are um indications in the comments where some might be
ibank um ibank projects Excuse me yes thank you good evening Madam mayor hi Al evening Council um like Liza said I'm just going to briefly touch on each one
or some of these items the major ones and um happy to answer any questions that you may have um uh third page first item uh you'll see that we've requested 56,000 for new main operating building boiler replacement um so basically we
have two boilers in the main operating building they're over 40 years old they are completely Rusty and one of which has just failed inspection the New Jersey Department of Labor has issued us a notice of violation and they are
mandating that we replace um the failed boiler uh due to their age uh due to the lack of availability of parts they are essentially in a state of disrepair so uh they have to be fully replaced so that's our first item uh our
second item I just want to lump two together um in the interest of time so you'll see we have collection system pipeline that's their second item if you could please pair that with the one two three four the sixth item down which is
manhole Improvement so both of those items fall under the opes of collection system upgrades um the D has identified the wastewater treatment plant's main
problem as being an infiltration inii uh problem so they essentially want us to put money into our collection system that's repairing pipelines that's repairing manholes um so we will be asking for 500
100,000 for pipeline improvements that's to line and repair our pipelines and 200,000 for manhole improvements and if I could just um guide your attention uh to the uh pipeline improvements you'll
notice that inherent in that $500,000 ask there is a 71,000 uh request um as part of it for National water main to conduct an ey on ey study this will be part of the 2025
inii study um basically the 2025 ini ini study will differ from the 2024 inii study in that we will be excluding uh PSNS from the project by doing so uh or running the project
inhouse we will be saving upwards of $137,000 um moving on from that yes how is that related to the resolution that we're passing tonight um authorizing the issuance of a notice of intent to award a contract through a national Co-op purchasing agreement pursuant to local
Finance notice law for services at the Wastewater and it looks like I and I as well I would have to see that is that does that pertain to National Water man yes it is the that's that's exactly what it is okay so this is just participating
in an II co-op uh no uh the uh we will be asking National water made to be part of the um program that we will be running inhouse the wastewater treatment plant instead of using PSNS to run it uh
essentially uh we will be directing the um inii study from the plant and that's it'll be a two-prong approach the first prong will be to have National Water man come in and they will be cleaning and
inspecting a very critical uh 65 500 linear foot segment of the pic River easement that easement handles essentially half of the town's flow so it's a specialized job that we don't have the ability to do inhouse National
Water meain will come in they will perform that service for us um as part of our inii study the second prong will be for the township using our new Township vehicle that was approved last year our new jet truck to out to the II
hotpots in town and uh to inspect and clean those parts so so the resolution tonight is in essence could replace soft costs for the capital that you have let me sorry let me step in so we're doing something a little bit different when
we're and Angela maybe you can explain this better this resolution is just indicating an intent off award Co-op and when you go through the national Co-op you have to advertise ahead of time okay so this you have to approve the offer uh issuing a legal notice of intent and
then that sits out there anyone else can bid on it and then in 10 days so at our next meeting you'll see uh an award to them through the national Co-op which process than state or County co-ops yes and that's yeah yes this intent
resolution is an extra step we have to do just wanted to know how they were connected s so continue on sure uh chemical feed system uh so we had uh Council had approved uh monies in 2024 for the construction of the chemical
feed system uh that project has since been awarded to Sovereign construction um under the guidance of PSNS uh the extra money here uh is to make up for the bid the bid came in at 9
96,000 plus and PSNS has additional money for engineering costs uh so uh we We'll be asking for the differences uh in for that particular project and again this is the chemical feed System project
this is to construct a new pumping station for two chemicals magnesium hydroxide and our to replace our line system um and micro so micro and magnesium hydroxide uh moving on switch gear
project engineering cost uh possibly one of the biggest uh liability that the plant has is the Aging switch gear electrical system um it is past its useful life if we lose
our switch gear we lose all power to the plant and that will invite a potential environmental disaster so we will be asking PSNS to uh come in in 2025 uh to design and implement a brand
new switch gear uh system and a new generator uh next up is our Iration Basin airator and flesh mixer replacement so um another liability is this we have an aration Basin uh at the plant we cannot pass our
permit without the proper functioning of our aration Basin and the issue that we have is we have absolutely no spare parts to repair the irration system if one of the components breaks on us so
instead of asking to replace the entire system what we'll be asking is to replace uh a mixer and a and a uh an arator mixer and a flash mixer we'll take the old Parts we'll refurbish them
put them on the shelf and if one of the other six mixers fail then we'll have a backup ready to go on the Shelf um we talked about the manhole improvements uh waste gas flare system
this is for PSNS to design and Implement a new waste gas flare this is to replace the existing flare on the digestor building uh essentially PSNS has um indicated that we are no longer within
the the safety standards um for flare design our current uh flare design is Antiquated and to meet the new uh the new safety requirements we have to construct a flare that's 50 feet away
from the uh digestor building alen I'm sorry can I just interrupt for one second so this is the flare we've been talking about for a few years where we constructed a temporary flare that solved the odor issues and kept it lit so that's fine but meanwhile PSNS was
working with the D to extend our permit correct me if I'm wrong next year right next year yes I want to say August maybe August some somewhere around there so this is to actually get this new flare built y all
right okay um the next one will be to replace the service water system uh this project comes directly from the asset management plan that PSNS created in 2023 uh we have picked off off um some
of the most critical aspects Or the critical projects on that list and next up will be to replace the service water system very basically the service water system are pumps they take a very a portion of our effluent or treated
Wastewater it returns it to the plant and we use it for beneficial use so we take that treated Wastewater and we use it to cool our seals on our pumps so it extends the lives of lives of our pumps um we started to uh upgrade the system
last year with money that the council approved we uh we installed the new strainer the rest of the money the 620,000 that is being requested here is to now replace the pumps and some of the old
piping uh the next project is RNs pump overhaul um this is a project that is uh intended to be a money saver so we have arnus pumps and very basically they
return some of our Iration Basin water back to the Iration Basin so it's returning our uh micro biology back into the system um we can't meet permit without it these RNs pumps are over 40 years old they're original to the main
operating building and we've had failures with them so instead of asking for hund $100,000 project to replace them what we're asking for is to essentially refurbish them to get new impellers to get uh new new critical
components so that will be a $32,000 ask uh we could skip over the next one in the uh interest of time the grit Channel grit Channel valve replacement is just to replace a broken valve the same thing with the telescopic valve on the next
page um and uh we'll just touch on the scum pump replacement essentially the scum pump replacement uh we skim um the nasty stuff off the top of each of our
clarifiers that's the rags the grease the really smelly stuff and it goes into a scum pit uh we have three of them uh two of those pits have had their pumps replaced those pumps take those um items
and they pump it into our anerobic digestor to break it down the third scum pip scum pit is our biggest one it's the one that is closest to Garfield Street where we get most of our odor complaints all of our odor complaints and um we're
asking $37,000 to upgrade that scum pump component and um yes I will leave it at that and open the floor any questions that you might have question please sorry man yard yard
hydrant replacement you didn't go over that okay sure um I'd be happy to so the plant has 11 hydrants they're kind of like fire hydrants but instead of uh dispensing fresh water they take the
water from the service pumps they treat effluent the treated Wastewater and uh it brings it back to these hydrants we use these hydrant for maintenance we essentially hook a fire hose up to them and we wash down our tanks we've have
like I said we had 11 we have 11 of them most of them or some of them do not work the ones that do work they are um barely usable they're leaking they're broken they are decades and decades old so uh this price and they're very costly to
replace so this is to replace essentially four of them at this at this time that was Advocate um you sure it's the hydrant not the water the lines the the lines are good they are to definitely convey the water to the
hydrants we we could see it because the hydrants are leaking that water all over the place okay and we have to shut them off the ones that are broken if we don't they will they'll be a geyser are they be buildable at all I don't know anything about hydrant so the question sounds off um to to my knowledge the
ones that we have are in a state of disrepair they're rusted out they need to either be completely completely rebuilt or replaced the company that we have approached uh Federal fire protection said let's just replace them all that's where we're at right
now my question is I guess we can start with the manhole improvements sure um the request is for 200,000 yes what percentage of the town's manholes does that cover I know you can't like say how many manholes could I can't I would say
if you're looking at percentage it'll be very little we have 72 miles of pipeline here I don't know how many manholes we have but it's within the tens of thousands I'm sure um what we wish to
use this money for is to Target the most vulnerable ones um so we have an extensive list uh that we've created over the years of problem manholes uh by going out and Performing inspection uh
we know which ones need to be um to be addressed in addition we are in the process of engaging with with PSNS uh to get the results from the 2024 inii inspection they will come back and they will tell us what they found as far as
what manholes that we need to address so this will be it's not going to cover a huge swath of the manholes in town but it will be very specific to the ones that we know about it'll be very targeted so is that word that we would
do or do we have to hire we have to hire yes specialty work it's not we have to hire it's very special is very specialty work specialty oriented work we had five manholes uh done this year I will tell
you five cost $30,000 through a State Contractor Al of uh the request this year roughly um if you could just scan down how many of them are from our asset management plan and are we on track with that and how many are Urgent needs that
developed this year because I obviously the failure inspection and the D vulnerability that's something that probably just came up this year I was looking at the asset management plan earlier and um we've I wish I I do have if you don't have the answer tonight
that's fine if you I have I have a rough answer for you mayor um so I think we've actually we're actually doing pretty good uh with the asset management plan we've really hit uh or have completed or are in the middle of addressing some of
the most uh pressing concerns from it so for example uh on the asset management plan the very first item is the effluent filtration and influent Pump Station we now have um we've rewarded the contract
to get that taken care of um so uh we have definitely made Headway into the asset management plan uh the parastic acid disinfection the equalization Basin these are all uh
these are all inherent or actually all in the upper echelon of uh of the task to be tackled in the asset management plan how many of the ones are left the most critical you have it in front of you
sure I will tell you that first one was the um excuse me the W the service water system that's the next one that was slated for 2024 2025 so we're right on target for the asset management plant
with that one and we're three of we're in year three of six capital of the plan uh I believe we are in yeah I think we're in year three or four um um the copy we have here actually goes up to
2026 right so yeah I think we're in about year three yes do you know what the total is my calculator actually would not compute all the numbers on my phones that scares me a little three million something under under three million 2 2.8 million
what is it 2.8 million 2.8 yes I have a question uh getting back to the scum pump replacement yes sir um you mentioned that you may be able ble to refurbish it and not actually replace it is that correct let me just uh the scum
pump replacement um said that you might to refurbish it we could refurbish portion of it so the piping uh the check valves they could be refurbished the pump itself is old it's failing that has to
be pulled out okay in addition to that the system is very poor whenever we need to pull the pump out we can't do it we don't have the equipment do it so part of this project is to install a dbid crane so the so we don't have to call in for example rapid pump to come pull the
pump out the crew could do it and um if we switch over to the aration Basin arator and Flash mixer replacement um it says over here that uh this would replace one of six irration units correct uh so um I'm assuming that uh
while it's being fixed or replaced whatever that we would still be able to continue to run uh operations yes with five so basically oh I'm sorry to cut you off sir no go ahead go ahead so basically when they replace that one
unit uh it'll take a day so they'll bring a crane in uh the Iration Basin will be down for one work day six to eight hours so we we won't miss a beat as far as operations excellent and just one last thing uh from the very beginning May operating building boiler
replacement yes um did we incur a fine an actual no sir we did not the notice of violation asks us to uh address the issue within uh one calendar year so I believe the notice of
violation that gives us to June in order to um alleviate this issue um that's going to the problem with that is lead times boilers take a of time to come in so we'll have to work hand in hand with New Jersey New Jersey Department of Labor uh to say hey we're
addressing it here's the lead times could you give us an extension and the timelines with the adoption of the budget in the capital too it seems tough timeline that we're not going to make right um uh with my experience that they are understanding
of that and they have worked with us before especially the Department of Labor it's not D it's not D any other question I I have I have I have two um one may not be a question more like a statement yes sir but as you went through this whole thing there's only one word stuck that jumped out of
me was the Reverb on the RNs pump overhaul yes everything else seems like it's got to be brand new out of the box is that on in your in your opinion as the head guy over there is that what we're looking at um so when you're
looking at Capital the answer to that will have to be yes most of it will be either new construction or replacement if you look at the operating that's that's the third prong you're not seeing so um the wastewater treatment plant is operating with multiple aging
systems and um some of the things that you see on here yes of the replacement you look at the operating uh the systems that are not being addressed by the capital we're going to go out and buy critical repair parts and put them on the Shelf um let me give you a really
quick example last year Council uh approved us to get new drives um and we have six new drives on the Shelf we had one of our drives break at the twinfalls pump station two weeks ago if we did not
have that drive on the Shelf we would not be able to use that pump for the next three to five weeks because we had that pump because we had that drive on the Shelf we were back up and running that day so uh the operating uh will fill in the gaps with the systems that
are not on the capital in the most economic way possible I would say that some of the residents that live nearby um the treatment plant have given us the I'll call it feedback not criticism feedback that um we should be able to have the type of Parts when something
fails that we can repair it immediately rather than having 68 15 20 week um waiting periods that was good feedback yeah so I think Alan's trying to catch up on that yeah I appreciate that question because that's not that's not visible in the in the capital right and the second one uh everything you have
listed here is this just for the main plant or is this also take care of all the satellites UHS Diamond Hill uh yes uh so everything here yes is no um everything here is for the plant except for the collection
system which is the pipelines and the manholes there not there's nothing here for the pump stations the pump stations uh we have backup parts for we have new pumps in a number of them we have a backup major backup pump at the plant for two of our stations we're we're
doing better not great with our pump stations we're doing much better with our pump stations in 2024 than we were three years ago thank you sirry any other questions can you tell his former military yes sir yes sir yes sir I can't Alan you're doing a great
job I know this has not been easy it has been a herculan task we're fully in compliance I think the last three or four staff meetings that we've had you've been able to report that it's not easy work you have to manage a lot of Resident concerns and complaints they come directly to you and you handle them
beautifully so we thank you for all of your service to the township and uh drive home now we'll see you later thank you mayor D thank you councel okay chief bhpd chief and Captain good evening mayor and Council
you should be a lot quicker than the sewer department Alan always has the longest report in the stock meetings he's got the most intricate Department councilman Mar may have a few extra questions for you um the first item that uh we would
uh we're requesting are for two new police vehicles um this cost is $180,000 $600 and that's the cost for the two vehicles fully outfitted with the computer Radio Systems cages that they need um for that what do we typically do
or what and where I know that we're kind of I think we're a bit behind we're behind last year we requested two we settled on one and then we tried to uh cut down cost on that that became an administrative detective vehicle where it just needed the bare minimum so uh
we're kind of you know starting to fall behind a little bit but um and the useful shelf life of a police vehicle is barely 5 years they can you know these guys at the uh DPW miracle workers so they have some
that are pieced together for quite some time we have a couple that are uh hitting 990,000 miles 100,000 miles so they're getting there you know but um we don't want to fall behind so whatever we can do with that um the second item here
is uh for three license plate readers lprs uh we utilize this technology in the township um surrounding towns have made a a major investment to this type of Technology uh during the home invasion stol on cars I
know Westfield has over 40 Summit made a huge investment with 20 I know new Province just came online with a lot of cameras also so um we're trying to get to that um we're trying to get our most
uh strategic locations um at least covered here so we're requesting three cameras the um other items here are for some of our pedestrian safety uh we're looking at $74,000 and that's going to cover
pedestrian crossing signs it's uh at four different locations so there would be two signs uh two signs for would count as one location so we would have a total of eight signs there um and we're also looking at at the solar powered speed
radar signs that we typically have on Park Avenue here uh we're looking for four of those and U $28,000 for that and we would work with you know our Green strees Green Street task force to find out you know the best location for some of this technology I've also reached out
to the grants committee to Alo um and we're going to be looking to see if there's anything available out there for uh grants that are that would provide with some of these pedestrian safety signs it would be solar have we started building more of a
question for um Diane the CFO then have we started billing for the community impact fee for the mandelli property or the um can't think of the proper name for it yes it's part of the pilot um amount and then we have to pull it out so I R calculations to move over yeah if
we was anticipated to generate about 20,000 and we haven't spent four years collecting it for four years three years that might be a possibility for some of the the The Pedestrian safety needs that you
have yeah I mean we there's a long list so yeah you know all right that's it if anybody has any questions I'd be happy to answer Mar would you like to grow the chief
my Just for Old H sake you don't r a little bit no okay all right thank you construction Joe poo good evening mayor and Council good evening a couple of items on the request
the $30,000 to continue our document scanning scanning archives look at do some security upgrades with departments we have there $10,000 for that
um uh computers uh $112,000 to replace some of our old computers and um we're looking $25,000 for some office furniture new working things the final item the uh we're
looking for a a used vehicle and we've already already had that uh police department was kind enough to repurpose one of their older vehicles and it's not done with the DPW getting stripped of all the police
equipment so the $10,000 is still required to it's not required it's not required doesn't need or anything c one thing out huh got one out so that was uh it was a big help already the one we do have is a very old vehicle yes
it's a big huge suburban suburban yeah yeah I think it's been around since my first time around um nothing uh crazy uh if if any questions to answer anything you got anybody have any questions so where are
the glass petitions proposed for glass petition right now we have it's wide open right now there's two windows that are wide open to the public and low and very low um we're proposing to close one of them the smaller window and just
focus everyone onto the larger window but um we'd like to have some sort of partition security wise we do get some IR rate individuals and um and you are the only
Department facing Department that does not have protective glass or Plex of glass whatever it is we all we we being the being the only municipal office on the first floor we get every Everybody we're an
information center as well so sometimes people aren't always happy thank you always happy when I visit Town Hall all right any questions all right I know you've got a lot on your plate too with all the Redevelopment in the smaller projects in
the downtown and you guys get a lot of positive feedback from um residents which is rare that they email me to say what a great job and you and AD are very much read up there so thank you for all your service thank you you can go all right fire
department the Kucha good evening mayor and members thank you for allowing me to present the proposed 2025 fire department capital budget in 2024 respond to 686 fires and emergencies and calls for service average response times
is were under 10 minutes our current roster is 50 members that includes uh probationary members and we have four in the junior auxiliary this proposed budget represents our efforts to continue to deliver effective And Timely emergency response in 2024 the fire department
approved the Township's ISO public protection classification from 4 to three this was achieved through a meticulous equipment maintenance program and an effective training program as Community continues to grow we will work to meet the needs of our community this proposed capital budget will help us to
effectively serve our community um so we've got five items correction six items on for capital budget one is to replace engine one uh engine one is approaching 27 years old is that I'm sorry it's not in order is
that purchase pumper trucker pumper truck rather yes trucker I don't think that's the thing um okay got it the uh the price of fire apparatus is skyrocketed since covid um that would be $1.2 million and that would be a
approximate 36 month Bill time that was my question um propose uh to replace car 2 which is a 2008 Dodge Durango with a uh a vehicle more suited for our Battalion Chiefs to respond to help take the workload off me
and the deputy just to confirm that's purchase battalion chief vehicle correct um this vehicle would have it's a pickup truck with a cap on it this way after they're returning from a fire they don't have their contaminated gear in the passenger vehicle with them I thought
that's why um there was a request for a pickup truck this P this year for that same purpose of transporting the contaminated the the pickup truck that we we we have not taken that is to replace our C pickup truck with a lift
gate that HS our hose and other things back it also transports our uh members going to the fire academy this is a separate we haven't taken delivery of the pickup truck yet they haven't even built it yet right now it's there isn't
okay um five sets of firefighting gear um this is to replace gear that's uh aging and um can no longer be serviced uh we do maintain a pretty good maintenance program I send the the sets of gear out maybe once or twice during
their 10-year lifespan to get um to get you know holes patched and uh get new Velcro on it and um so sometimes we get more than 10 years out of them but this is to kind of keep up with the maintenance program and we have had a growth in membership over the past couple of
years um the fourth item is the the uh the dorms and the sleeping quarters um so when we have storms or potential storms coming members stay at the firehouse to cut down in the response times because if you're home sleeping the car is covered with snow obviously that just increases the response time
and having to drive at a slower Pace to the Firehouse uh we also fortunately have a lot of members that um work shift work so sometimes they're willing to stay at the firehouse and sleep or you know do their homework and other things uh one of the concerns I'm having right now if you've noticed during the day
especially when school's getting out the traffic is becoming a real problem and my main concern is this as this continues to grow uh we could have a fire or other emergency during that that'll really throw our response time well over 20 minutes um the SCBA Filling Station $90,000
that's to replace the uh original this was replaced in the original machine that was put in the firehouse when it was built um it still functions it's just becoming a maintenance problem and it's becoming difficult to get parts for it and then finally roughly how much you spend in my maintenance just as a
comparison of new versus how much you're spending to maintain the old some sometimes I get you that number yeah just curious if you know does it sense to continually maintain if something is more cost effective as new okay um and the final one is the vehicle exhaust system uh the firehouse already
has an exhaust system in it um the firehouse was built when they constructed the firehouse with an exhaust system that's been largely unused and then we had one added I don't know 10 to 15 years ago that needs to be upgraded um this is very important because uh this is this is keeps the
diesel exhaust out of the building and that's that's it so there's a couple of these that say we'll try to get gr funding are you are you working as a fire um company or fire department or are you working with the Grants Department I know we have the
portal and we we see grants come through all the time a lot of them are um for First Responders more than they are for anything else s right I put that I put that on there just in case you're wondering what she's talking about sorry I'm I'm working off the spreadsheet yes for the as right for the um SCBA filling
stations firefighter gear and the radios I just put in additional comments we'll try to get grant funding like if do you know Susan is I know she's um under the weather today but uh um do you know if they're they're actively looking the grants committee or actively involved in in particular or do you know they are
always looking I'm not officially on grants anymore but we are always looking for that um for funding for things like that what would help the grants Committee in order to get funding is to get the specifics from the fire department on like the specs what the
specs are that you're actually looking for and if you have quotes for them then that also you know then we see a grant a lot of times it's a very short time frame as you know like I've talked to you about this a couple of times so if you could get that information to Liza
or Susan then we can jump on grants as soon as we see them without having to delay and possibly miss a deadline do you have I mean I apologize for not knowing how this works but I know like the rescue squad they break in the labor right so
there's somebody at the rescue squad that handles like administrative Grant types of things does it work in a similar way at the fire department you have more of an administrative person who handles that kind of thing that look you know does the bids or you know looks into Co-op or whatever the case may be I handle most of that okay or me or the
deputy chief does it so Tony helps me a lot with all this so okay that's how it works okay all right do we have any other questions the um the dorms in the firehouse that 50,000 is it for construction or
furniture or a combination of both It's a combination of both but um it would basically make that one small area that's off to off the side in the meeting room um make that into three separate rooms it would be a lounge and then two dorms that would sleep two Crews like
you need sheet rock you need to like close it off we got to build the walls uh we might have to add one sprinkler head um have to add hornn strobes because if people are going to be sleeping there the construction code requires that we have um a way that he can wake up in the event of a fire so it
all that's not very extensive it's it's very minor and then the only other thing uh is adding heat and air conditioning to the two dorm rooms so we've had a couple ideas on how to do that maybe at what's called mini splits in there for heat and AC and but it' be mostly the walls and the construction that building
was originally constructed wasn't there sleeping corns in it so there were in that room the space that we're talking about there are five Murphy Beds the problem is it's all open so if anybody else is in that area doing work it's impossible to sleep like for example
during a storm we've had storms where we've had to use the firehouse as an evacuation a temporary evacuation uh location for residents so there's no place for our people to go to rest when we do that um the only other question I have
was the a pickup truck is that replacing a vehicle or is it an additional so that will be replacing the 2008 Dodge Durango the white one okay and how many mods on it uh I I I'll email you with that but that it has a
lot of miles on it is this falling out yeah it's got this has been we've put this off a couple years now I think you've asked for it over the past couple years the floor is literally patched together with something that's not a car park the one sign yeah street sign the
one that the floor was rotting out that's the one that that's that's that was the pickup truck that we're waiting for the replacement still correct so that isn't this truck this is a different vehicle I got word today that truck has now been built it's sitting in
Kentucky all right that's good news that vehicle we use for a multitude of Maintenance we you know like if we have a fire we throw the hose in there and bring it back or um this is the vehicle that takes the people that are going to the fire academy back and forth to the academy the one we're waiting on but the
one that was approved in the previous we're waiting Ono this would increase the vehicle count no no it would stay exactly the same we're wait this the vehicle we're talking about now was the replacement that we haven't taken delivery of yet or a different vehicle that you don't have do you mind me
chiming in sorry goad like it seems like the question everybody so last year you ordered this new vehicle it's almost bill that was ordered to replace a vehicle but not this Durango a different vehicle that's a different vehicle right
so this is that replac something else and this is to replace the Durango that's put that one on of service okay so that's what I think pick truck we can't we take it out of service the one out of service we couldn't wait till the new one arrived in that bad right this
one he's requesting now is to replace another one that's even wor still well but but it's still on the road correct if you want to call well any other questions for the CH course thank you for all your service and women thank you so
much okay engineering Michael and just introduce yourself because I think may may not know you mayor council I am uh Michael Gormley I work under Tom SAR and
Engineering we enjoy hanging out with Michael more than Tom right that's what we tell Tom at least as I said worked under th s far unfortunately he had AIT that he was unable to make it tonight but uh
I'm I am uh somewhat from go to the projects I'll try in as much as I can and answer any questions you have um I believe starting with item one which is the road improvements Bal first on Wars
that was a uhal Aid 2024 grant that was push from last year um sorry Michael I forgot the game plan for this I'm totally leaving you hanging right I was no oh you got it yeah I
think okay I have multiple ones okay sheets are here so we're working off of the spreadsheet if you have that yes he has he actually has the same one you do yes okay yes and these are in order of priority ideal priority order okay good yeah so Road improvements okay good
so the back in under the municipality 2024 njd Grant the township receiv received 347 just under $347,000 in grant money um this project would be a typical new slid project which would include millon
and Paving selective roadway reconstruction buing block curbing under drains and NJ DP Eco compliance storm structures Etc um this work needs to be completed in 2025 um or we would need to Forfeit
the grant uh right now we with the $346,900 in the grant we would need a projected $258,000 in capital
funding so that include that includes the construction of this project as well yeah that's I guess I'm just trying to figure out why the grant is the you know 350 and then we need another 250 so so
when we kind of apply to the state we get the real price yeah yeah it was I don't C out my head but it was $600 $700,000 project and then they'll say okay we'll give you
$350,000 or yeah they rely fund the whole thing I don't think ever they funded the whole a reconstruction project rarely gets funded in in in total I should say corre so just a quick question uh in order for us to get this grant money it has to be
done by 2025 but is there a specific it needs to be we need to be award the project by November 2025 oh okay and this has been the pipeline we got this grant like three years ago yeah been a while yeah yeah so all right your letter
permits yep so this is uh the ms4 permit requirements uh particularly this $200,000 is for the up upgrading of the currentl mapping to be compliant with the new NGP
regs we got an update that the map mapping is completed so the the current mapping that we have uh to keep it is pretty much I guess it would it would be like a two-dimensional mapping
the state is requiring about January 2026 like a threedimensional mapping they wanted to see have for all the structures they want the like the inverts they want the conveyance they want all the information um currently we did 30 to 50
of the new inlets that have been recently constructed by DPW and by under different Road programs we got just got all that data book we still have about 2100 inlets throughout town that we'll need to get data for to to to
comply well I guess we can take my questions offline I so sitting through sessions on the ms4 permits we approved money last year for the mapping process and now it
says we're you're asking for another 200,000 to continue the mapping to upgrade it to the standards so I don't really understand why we approved mapping last year we got an up from negli is saying that that part of the project was nearly
completed or was completed and you know now it's another 200,000 so I'm probably just misunderstanding some piece of it so I apologize I'm not too knowledgeable I could be missing something but yeah I'll follow up do you know the top of your head and be done it's okay yeah um
when the 3D requirement changed that was from 2D to 3D I'm sorry it was either 21 or 23 I believe part of the big Ms Bo changes so I recall that this the mapping
was it was it's significant cost and we were trying to phase it over four or five years so I think we budgeted 100,000 last year which it's I think that's from the conversation I had with Tom I think they they've used that for that initial mapping and then this is another I asked them today I'm like do
we really need all that money he's like oh yeah I think this it's been Tres that's why I'll get the details and then you know we can ask tell too if we can see the results of the first CH yeah I think that's what's I
think um number three is the CER Avenue sidewalks and crosswalk improvements projects yeah this is this the Shar right yeah so this is at the do yeah this is this is the do um under review by the do right now this is the grant we
got a few years ago this has also has to be done this year we just kept you know putting it off for budgetary reasons but yes the grant is 517 the remaining is the in Back to the schools I mean we would start are we thinking of starting construction in the fall no uh I want to
start in the summer I want to start in April like say the do gets back to us like sometime in the next month it should be very soon go out to bid like as soon as uh the bid docs are put together April try to be finished by
which seems possible based on planfield if there's not a lot of tree removal I me so it could be done by Fall you think sorry I know you're not we just have school and ideally we want them to start like as soon as they can in April so that's why want to go out to
bed as soon as we get approval we'll see never works out that way definitely be able to okay okay we just need to be mindful of that that's all um also this next one we still have to decide on a project the UC infrastructure trust Grant this is a yearly one um so normally we get about
$60,000 and we we budget for the it's a 50/50 match so we have to put in um at least the amount of Grant funds that we got if not more for a project so um we're going to discuss what a good project is that we can complete with that money that might
be yeah that's G to cost a lot it depends on the rest the capital request I'll put together because that's going to be pretty expensive we can fit it in we'll go with right okay sorry to talk I just don't want to promise people something that's not gonna Happ well right that's why the name is not on here
yet okay got it okay um I'm sorry to interrupt just real quick um uh the old Canon foot path uh Liza um you know we're crossing underneath the psng um property well actually crossing
over did we ever look into I mean we're allowed to continue repaving that foot path without their permission or or can we get something from them that um perhaps maybe we could even you know get some resources from them that bill I'm
sorry tell it's the it's the foot path that leads down to Hughes Hol yeah from old Ken that's party it goes directly across PS property I'm I'm assuming P NG or jcpnl oh
it's I hope it's p ps they're easy to work with I think I think it's PS I mean if there's already an existing path there we're just we're improving that path that's the old Canon path that's part of the SN AB project yeah do we need their that's probably a legal question
we need their uh yeah there's already have there might be an existing easement and we have we don't know it's really that could be Township property may not be their property there's an existing path there it's re it's it's improving the path because it's all crumbling and there
there is walkway eement I believe recall I just don't remember if it goes through the or not right right so if there is an Emma issue we'd have to sort that out first but we'll figure that out um like there isn't because Tom I feel I think I
think right right um okay right we digress Springfield Avenue yeah Springfield Avenue um this was a safe Street to Transit project yes uh which would be from I believe from P to
planfield Avenue um which would be replacing the street frontages in that vicinity with streetscape standards such as the papers sidewalk the streets street lights and the like what's the timeline to award on that do you
know I am unaware if we have another year on that yeah we have to award not complete by um I believe it's 26 yes and are there design documents available for that no nothing's nothing's designed yet
okay we have to um award a contract to the engineer to do the design yes um number six is the 2025 Co-op Road PR program Co-op Road program which is the annual Mill and Page project
throughout Town um currently we're requesting 7 uh 750,000 and um leave speaking with Tom we were looking at but possible roads right now those number of Roads um we'll
have to circle with back with DPW in the spring once the weather turns and we can get a feel for all the roads conditions to figure out um which is are the priorities and sorry so 750,000 is sort
of the placeholder we've had in the capital budget the last few years for roads but in this particular case we have about 1 million that we scrape together from unused Road cap Capital money for the last few years um so we can like this could be decreased so
we're trying to get some pricing from the co-op contractor soon um to see how many roads he can do with that pot of money we already have available so this will probably be decreased and we're going to start Paving again as soon as possible because he was unable the co-op paper was unable to finish the work in
uh fall yeah November so um yeah I think the uh current projected hopeful date start date is uh April April and it tends to be cheaper if you can get them in and Paving and God knows what tariff issues
going to be happening between now and then with concrete or whatever L it'll it'll happen jinx us so um moving on to item seven which is Crush Drive yep um so right now we're requesting
additional $300,000 in addition to the $500,000 authorized in 2023 um that's regarding when we we had geotechnical um had a geotechnical
engineer go out and look into the um rock profile underneath the road um because as you might recall we currently there's an inlet at the end of the quack on Crush Drive
which um currently goes and out bound the properties and Bubbles bubble and there's a bubble Inlet which when it overflows it Cascades down the road uh it bleed towards like upper drive and uh washes out some resid
currently so to try to count out that we currently are proposing to Buck grade and run a 900 foot of storm pipe down Crest Drive to I believe it's Countryside yeah my
wind chip is a recipient of the wall upper this was if the original amount was approved in 2023 yeah so when when we did the do technical work about 20 yeah that was 24
that's my typo okay I was gonna say this sounds really no no no that was last year that was my bad sorry um yeah so about approximately about 20 feet below the surface there was Rock Prof file found such that we would have to drill out a lot of that
put the pipe in which is the reason for the cost increase which we knew going in we until they did this Geological Survey we weren't really sure if we were GNA need more money or not and of course we do the other way find a of
gold and then uh item eight is the Westside drainage project which currently I believe there's um 500 ,000 in federal appropriation from 2022 we're looking for I believe 1.75
million they we're trying to currently to get State appropriation for this money right now the projects down at the ibank currently in review um and we're hopefully looking to get approval for a zero to low interest
loan for this project um phase one is from the stream to H crest eventually we'll this will be a two to four phase project um give or take hopefully which
would eventually work its way up to Emerson and this was just a a bit of a change in the strategy was to open up the pipes at the bottom of the project instead of starting up on on in the Emerson area and making a way down it just made more sense to make create bigger pipes to have um yeah correct
capture those water you know while we try to deal with some of the other issues just made more sense I think also with a project that's expensive I think we're looking at 15 to 20 million total if we chunk it out and start actually doing some of it I think um granting
agencies and entities look favorably upon that versus like a $20 million ask like how many municipalities can actually the ground right right didn't we appropriate some money for this phase one last year
I think there was soft L yes so um there was an initial $100,000 for negated due initial study then 290,000 I think two years ago to do the remaining suring permitting work um to get the project to the ibank so we're still drawing down on
that those costs are now reimbursable as part of that 500,000 Federal appropriation so I'm in the process of getting reimbursed for those costs now plus like the 16,000 for the culture resources study that the ibank requires us to do to make sure there's no historic artifacts that we're going to
be digging up after those costs it leaves us about 150,000 to put toward construction um when we get we have another $2 million request in through Congressman kan's office that our
federal lobbyist feels if things stay the same which they haven't um that they feel that we we are likely to be successful so that would also help the timing would help but who knows so if we get that this request I mean we put this here because this is the number we're
looking at but ideally we don't need to pay for any of this that's my goal we don't pay for any of this thank you yeah she's printing money in the basement any questions from Council oh
sure the CFO just wraps it all up yeah yeah thank you Michael we appreciate it I am not going to put any value judgments on anybody's requests I'm just going to give you a big picture of where we are financially we have $42 million in bonds outstanding right now with
another 1.2 million in notes so that I'm sorry repeat that because that's important information 42 million in bonds outstanding and 1.2 million in short-term notes so basically the impact to the
2025 budget is 5.1 million in interest and debt p and principal payments so now whatever you approved this year will be on top of that oh and I did a quick um quick quick quick quick
dirty calculation I got the interest rates of the latest notes that went out recently we're looking at a 3% interest rate so I wouldn't hit 2025 budget but it could be a potential impact of at least
50 uh $50 a household for this project alone just at interest cost so that's just kind of just remember everything trickles so when we when you start thinking about it and sorting through you know I just want to get you an overall idea of where this could be um
to the budget and uh timing wise we've filed our annual debt statement we can move ahead with the first reading um as soon as decisions are made um and I don't know that you have a handle on this but I mean obviously we've generated um the pilot payments have
generated more than what was anticipated because rents are higher we've had things like sewer connection fees that are higher we've had construction permits which have been voluminous especially with conell so there's going to beue side right that we could maybe take some money out of the fund balance right
and the right one I just said all things I'm thinking all things being equal right if I took 2024 and did that this would just be an increase on top of what assuming nothing changed right everything there were no increases to the budget no increases to the revenue
if 20 24 was equal that's where I'd come up with a that's without without any increased revenues because we're not we hav't evaluated the revenues yet pure math pure simple math um and did not make any assumptions okay perfect so
that's where we are and it can only go up from here so thank you we can make whatever you to happen we'll figure out a way to make it happen just realize you know Dian I know that you've worked very hard um I know that we've had some
really um difficult CFO issues over the last three years you have spent more time than I think you ever anticipated when you agreed to take this job and you have done an outstanding job of turning that department around I don't think people understand it's the unsung hero in the back who's doing all the cleanup
and um and you're a Berkley Heights resident on top of it so I want you to know that on behalf of me me and the council we really appreciate all the hard work and and I don't think people understand the half of what you you were left with the baggage you were left with so thank you yes thank you thank
you oh Michael's not off the hook he has who's doing storm waterer management okay all right our second conference session topic this evening will be the storm water management update or our ordinance forthcoming ordinance so Michael would you please uh make another
appearance for us this evening even the [Music] mayor it's nice to get a helping hand from both of you all right proceed Michael so um Michael B I work with Tom Sara I have
the honor of presenting the amended from water for you and to go over particulars and regarding especially differences between the state state ordinance and the proposed Township ordinance I have the pleasure of working
with councilman Ellis and the environmental commission to put this together thank you Rich so the the old SAR Control Ordinance need to be updated due the revisions by the state to their SAR ordinance
the state has mandated that all municipalities um update their ordinance to comply which is why we're going through all this right now as sections in order to ensure compliance with the state standards we utilize the uh State model
ordinance as a guideline and then we added a few additional sections to benefit the township uh particularly and we'll go through each section the additions are within section
uh the definition section which is 13.17 32 new design and performance standards which is 13.17 380 the township discharge standards which is 13.17 380 the township storm water runoff
requirement which is section 13.17 390 and section two exemptions so comparing to 13. 17.3 t on page two I'll go quickly through the
definitions and what's change based off the state model orance so this model ordinance this is um a little background this is the simplified version of the state model ordinance
um after kind of discussing with environmental commissioner and coun councilman Ellis we thought that um the simplif version was the way to go to keep to streamline the ordinance and keep it short and to the
point um regarding definitions the model ordinance just defers all definitions to the state however we included the the definitions for exempt developments monor developments and developments um I'm going to start with
the major developments definition just to kind of trickle down um I think I'll make more sense as we go so the major development um definition is for any
whenever there's any development uh results in disturbance of one or more acres of land for the creation of one one one qu acre more regulated and per surface or the creation of one4 acre or more of
regulated motor vehicle surface or combination of uh the regulated Mo motor vehicle surface and the regulated imperious surface they are deemed a major development and have to comply with
these regulations um this definition is exactly from the state I included it just to kind of give you to give anyone that's looking at the ordinance like a baseline of what is is uh expected and then uh sorry to get kind
of jump around but next I would like to go to the modern development definition um and I note um Min development would be uh any propos development which results in at least 500 square feet of
new net imperious surfaces well less than the quarter acre requirement of the major developments um and I would note that there was a small uh gamical error it should be 500 square F feet throughout
the uh document um we'll fix that before finalizing the not 250 not to 5500 Sor uh this monor elment was added to the orance to help
enforce um mitigation on smaller projects that come before the boards or the engineering building department zoning uh in order to help decrease runoff throughout Town especially on the
neighboring properties um for sites that are increasing impervious surfaces but oh um so that's so
the so that's kind of the cation of minor development and then we also have exempt development which is any development that's not increasing imperious with that 500 square fet they would be classified
sorry they would be classified as exempt development generally these developments will not require storm water mitigation however engineering will review all applications uh deemed exempt on a case-by casee basis and if they're and
if and if it is determined that there are any existing R issues Andor neing um Andor any sorry there are any existing R of issues on the neighboring Properties or if there's any uh list of connections into
the roadway we we would look to have them somewhat mitigate as needed ordinance correct this is in a purely new ordinance correct um so is there any way to R like what I don't
want to say red line it's too much right so the problem is that the prev the ordinance that's on the book is based on the full NJ DP ordinance from way back right njd issued a new model ordinance
with um enhanced storm water controls so we are required to update our ordinance to the D standard to the new D standard but we can go above that um then de recently issued their
simplified ordinance which removed a lot of the Redundant language because if you define it once at the de and you say you have to adhere to all of these things at the D why is every town in New Jersey redefining what each of these things are
so that's essentially so we by adopting the new model which is the simplified we will be removing the current ordinance chapter from the book and fully replacing it with this is there a way I guess what
I'm it's it's a topic of interest to Residents um is there a way to sort of highlight the major changes yes before we introduce the ordinance just so our residents and everyone can really and businesses can understand
what the major changes are yes so I can write out the summary um with Michael's assistant um that's a you know userfriendly yes good good language that's the right language yes homeowner friendly yes a
frequently asked questions kind of thing or whatever would make it simple for people to understand um doeses anyone have any specific questions for this evening okay
IAT taks out and every time you tell them to stop um as we experience more intense rain events and there are additional pressures on our environment from development from development removing trees increasing pave surface
the management of storm water is more critical than ever the ordinance presented today is a significant step towards addressing these challenges First We are following the New Jersey D recommendations for defining enhanced storm water management controls for
major developments these controls will help reduce the negative impacts on to our storm water system for these buildings secondly We are following environmental Advocates recommendations for defining storm water management control for minor developments such as
large home additions smaller home projects continue to be exempt from these rules for for homeowners it's imp it's important to keep as much storm water on our properties as possible gutter leaders sump pumps driveway
runoff can all be handled by Green infrastructure detailed information will be available at the building department and from the township engineering department thank you Margaret appreciate that that's good information um m thank you for presenting the ordinance and as we promise when we make policy changes
local policy changes we always have a conference session to explain before we introduce when we have sort of housekeeping ordinances we don't typically do that but when we're having doing something that's a what we consider to be a major policy change we like to inform the residents before we introduce so thank you both for that thank you for your time so the other
thing that I'll add is we are going to be providing um detailed information through the building department and the engineering department that homeowners can get at any point it'll be available on the website as well that we'll have guidelines that are easy for them to
understand how to achieve these storm water goals but it's really about flooding it's to keep more of the storm water sinking into the ground instead of running down the streets and into the storm water system or unfortunately in
our case into the sewer system so that's the ultimate goal and I think this ordinance moves us forward thank you for all your hard work on that we appreciate it thank you Michael have a good evening okay moving on to the regular
agenda and uh we do have one ordinance for final adoption um bill I believe it's you yes um I move uh to introduce ordinance introduced on January 21st 2025 ordinance 20251 amending the township code for the
town Township of Berkeley Heights to dissolve the Township's ethics board I think somebody has to second second any discussion sorry and just again as I mentioned at the last council meeting this is a housekeeping um
situation um or dissolving the ethics board because we just inappropriate for mayor and Council to appoint um you know people to a local ethics board it's your neighbors it just keeps the it keeps the
process at the state level keeps the process from ever becoming political um so it's just something that as we've encountered um a situation that made more sense for us to dissolve it locally so it doesn't uh fall into the appearance of politics at any point leave it into the hands of the state of
New Jersey um okay roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes I think it's still you
Bill no doesn't he have to direct direct her to advertise oh oh no no no we're doing oh yeah this was a final adopt so he's opening the hearing the public I'm missing my oh I'm sorry Nar we're opening the hearing for the public yeah
sorry yeah so I uh I um move to open the hearing to the public yeah any discussion roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran okay the public hearing on this
ordinance only is now open to the public now I see that no one is uh um I I move to um close uh the public heing second any discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr
Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay uh and so we're doing resolutions oh we have to adopt right now we just closed sorry we closed and now we just make a motion to adopt I'm
sorry Manny I know all right so I make a motion to adopt yes thank you second I can't second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs ill
yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes you're opening up the hearing on the agenda items only be move to open the hearing on agenda items only I'll second any discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr
Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes and I will read the instruct instructions comments are welcomed during the public comment period during this meeting on any agenda item however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda
please fold your comments for that particular public hearing to make your comment the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to three minutes the council president will keep time please promptly yield on the floor when the time is
called and return to your seat your cooperations in adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting with that uh the hearing on the agenda items only is now open see no one I move
to sorry Rich 49 sum I have a question about the um uh budget for the storm order I'm wondering um it's required by the state that
smaller grates be put on the catch basins in the township and I see many of these catch basins don't have these smaller GRS and I'm wondering if that's part of the budget so are you asking a question not related to the agenda the
agenda item is the budget for the storm order I'm sorry would just direct my my attention directly to the number I heard I thought that the presentation from Mr G oh so this is was about the budget
which is an agenda item or is that not anend it was just a conference session but um let us get back to you on that because I'm not sure okay so budget so the budget doesn't count as an agenda item no but it's in
conference it's not considered know super confusing super confusing and tonight what we were trying to do is that this portion was of course for the public to listen and to learn but we really wanted to um have Council all together we've not been able
to do that and and listen to the requests so the budget is a very very rough draft know that we have answer yet I apologize Council has to go do their work and then we'll get back to you do you have Tom's email email Tom and ask well so Li
Li when we do those major Street works yeah they do yes change the catch basins as needed and whenever we do a catch Basin we're going to install the new
approved D approved catch Basin that is our plan that we should be doing yes yes and of course reconstruction P Paving just the expectations sorry Rich did you come all the way here for just that we love seeing you though I promise
you were here for the storm water yeah okay anything else on the agenda St 35 syamore Avenue thank you Angela for working on those technical things so we save time tonight and all square away um is it is this this is a
final agenda there's nothing added to that's not here correct I saw another I saw another yeah make tonight it's not added on to the agenda but we can do it tonight that's why it's here for everyone it is going to be done but it's not added into the
agenda so they they'll read it into the record from the floor yes and typically or very very rarely do we ever do anything from the floor so that's probably why it's a little foreign to you um but we have it's something that we needed to do last minute so that's
why it's a little foreign okay um and regarding the uh introduced ordinance for the um economic develop development committee when when you look at the changes I mean you can guess any number of reasons like some of those
organizations don't exist so we don't want to necessarily call them specifically but let me just with that said you just give a quick overview of of of why the the membership stuff aside from adding a council changing and we also did that for seniors and I think um
once we have the mayor's Wellness it'll be the same thing I think the intention is when when we create these committees that it's nice to have a representation of different organizations and stakeholders that are related to seniors or related to economic development but over time what tends to happen is you
can't fill that bucket and so then that role doesn't get filled it's better to have maybe two restaurant owners and you may not get somebody from Nokia because they moved out of town right um it's just better to have generic membership it allows us more flexibility and we have people that may be able to
volunteer for the committee you know for one particular year and the next year their business is in a fashion that they can't or the business goes out of business and or same thing with seniors they move out of town um you know they're not able to do something physically you know due to an ailment um but there might be other seniors that
are moving into town because we have woodrest now and they're new to town and they want to help out so we're just trying to make it a little easier for ourselves and for the residents to volunteer and for the businesses I should say yeah well and thank you uh that one the other ones had less of a
question because it was still you know from the community kind of thing where this went from very specific like I asked myself what you what do these stakeholders feel about this yeah well you know and why I asked that question for that committee I give you another
great example so um like business and Civic there's been a change in leadership there and the person who was actually our secretary on economic development wasn't a real official member of the committee for year so this again just allows us the flexibility to have the people people that are actively
involved on UDC um participate and be offici part yeah if emphasis change if if the if emphasis in a certain area of a business or resident changes it's like you don't have to worry about sure carrying something that right right you
know for example we're trying to become a via Town say it wrong um and so there might be somebody else with expertise you know in a particular area so just makes it a little bit easier for everyone good thanks thanks
Steve okay now I think you are safe little gsh safe Frankie's a resident a res see no one I move to um
close the hearing on agenda items only I'll second that any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay um gunshine brand new one here
it looks like I'm going to be moving resolutions 20259 through 2025 D 102 via consent agenda correct yes second that any discussion roll call
Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay here's on the floor go the floor first okay yeah [Music] um I move resolution
2025 d104 wa let all right it's a resolution approving the submission of an application for planning assistance from the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority for Transit Hub planning whereas the T ber hes desires to apply
for free professional planning assistance to prepare plans for improving the area around the Berk H train station and obtain a grant from the transit Hub planning program a partnership between the center for Community planning the American Planning Association New Jersey chapter
and then North Jersey Transportation Planning author and whereas as a part of this assistance program New Jersey communities can apply for free professional planning systems to prepare plans for improving areas anchored by transit bus Rail stations
and stops and now therefore be resolved by con of Berkeley Heights does hereby authorize the application for such assist such assistance which will be used to study and make recommendations to improve pedestrian safety around the downtown area which is anchored by by a
New Jersey Transit Transit train station located on Sherman Avenue and be a further resolved that Township commits to a community-driven planning process which includes field visits and community outreach and be a fur resolved that the township has the necessary staff volunteer network and
Council participation to provide the need of resources for the duration of and Via further resolve that councilwoman Margaret Ellis oh it says right there point to Margaret will serve as the community lays on for the duration of the project
and will facilitate coordination between the planning professionals the pertinent Township departments Berkeley Heights Board of Education boards and committees including but not limited to Berkeley Heights complete and Green Street task force historic preservation committee
senior affairs committee and as needed for the duration of the project we have further resolv that the mayor or Township administrator the persons whose names and titles signatures here below that be are authorized to sign the application and that they are or their
successors in said titles are authorized to sign the agreement and any other documents necessary to connection therewith have a second second any a discussion roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr
Foster yes Mrs Hillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Mor yes times I said planning in that okay 14 Angel if you would please uh ordinance 202-02 an ordinance amending the
township code for the township of Berkeley Heights to revise the membership of the economic development committee yeah move that the ordance Say by clerk be offered on the first reading and that February 18th be set as the day for public hearing and that the clerk be directed to adverti the same in The
Courier News any discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr Foster yes Mrs Isis Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes you read next ordinance ordinance
2025-the of the township of Berkeley Heights to revise the technical review committee's membership and responsibilities I move that the ordinance as read by the clerk be offered on first reading and that
February 18th 2025 be set as the day for the public hearing and that the clerk be directed to advertise the same in The Courier News I'll second that discussion roll call sorry Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr
Morin yes Angela can you uh do the honors on ordinance 2025 d04 as amended um an ordinance amending the township code for the township of Berkeley Heights to revise the membership of the senior affairs committee
I I move that the ordinance as read by the clerk be offered on the first reading that February 18th yes February 18th 2025 be set as the day for public hearing and that the clerk be directed to advertise the same
in the career news I'll second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay to Township Council reports Manny your first up okay I'm not
going to go too too late on the council reports I just want to say went to the lud New Year celebration at the YMCA it's the year of the snake uh the year of the snake represents transformation wisdom and personal growth it also symbolizes good luck rebirth and
regality want to remind everyone today is National hot soup deck homemade soup deck National sweater day and um National hemp day yes it's not what you think it's about the first sustainability of the product hemp the
other day is 420 so just remind every that's right and it's also Facebook founding day um and I was reminded by John Foster and I'm going to take Thunder on this one uh 217 February 17th is random acts of kindness day um it's
important you practice that it could be as simple as a smile by saying hello to someone walking down the street or buying buy their coffee or buying them a sandwich by the way I'm one of the local places here in town tomorrow um it's life life's hard enough to begin with
without being miserable um try to smile and if you can brighten someone else's day the SM goes twice as far Remember by letting a candle in the darkness you don't diminish the first candle you double the light so thank you that's it for me love it spreading happiness thank
you Manny John okay I I also attended Lunar New Year over at the YMCA and it was awesome and uh it was like man said that you're the snake and I was more interested in the dancers that they had and what they had going on there and also the musical instruments that
predated even some of the instruments that we've seen like violins and stuff like that so I thought that was that was really cool um most like let we know it's Black History Month and on the 18th of February we're going to be having our
first flag race at Town Hall at 6:30 at the flag Hall and the theme of Black History Month is African-Americans and labor okay um I Al also like to point out that in case you didn't notice it the groundhog did see a shadow so that's
why we're getting more stuff on Thursday okay um 29 is Super Bowl Sunday I don't know who you're rooting for it doesn't really matter just enjoy the game I personally I prefer the commercials um Tuesday the 11th is time says his
birthday I want to thank him for the fact that we can actually see what we're doing in here today uh our historic preservation committee meeting is on 2 13 at 7:30 p.m. um we are still looking for a couple of uh couple people that may want to join our committee and go
from there um I'll also be attending a mental health awareness kickoff meeting on the 13th of February mental health awareness month is May 1st to May 31st so we're kicking it off getting things started for that um February 14th is oh come on people this isn't that
hard it's Valentine's Day all right so get out there get your Valentine's thump all right it is also known as St Valentine's Day or the Feast of St Valentine okay uh and I'm gonna I'm going to go in here March 1st we're less
than a month away there going to be the mayor's Wellness committee is going to be hosting the Inspire for wellness and happiness crawl at Town Hall from 1: p.m. to 4 p.m. where do you to follow very good yes I will flag raising next
council meeting perfect I just I texted them and said put the flag up now the whole month of February thank you John re ra the yeah the mar um so the year's only a month old but boy has it been busy the senior affairs
committee had its first meeting we're working on a number of initiatives we're beginning to develop a resource directory for Township seniors and including local County and state resources and hotlines we discuss the Statewide survey of older adults and will investigating develop and will
investigate developing Outreach for our Town's older adults to help inform our activities and resources we heard about resources at the library including Tech Hub Tech help and we'll work on more ways to get the word out through Liza
and our communication methods and lastly we're working on um organizing Community discussions with the mayor more information to come um as we heard at the last meeting the complete and GRE green Street's task force has completed their report the task force leaders are
working with um Council on creating a committee to continue work on road safety um we assisted the transit Hub Grant application just this past week um with information from the task force report last week I went to the
um njeda information um fair over ke University um it was fascinating they're relaunching film ready and they encourage towns to put up as many
individual locations as we can come up with so if you're will if anybody knows of a site in town that you know would be good for a film whether it's a you know quaint bungalow or a historic
home or you know a a nice street so um let me know I can help with Liza we can get pictures they say the more um sites you have up there the more attractive it could be for um producers great strategy um and
there's also some information that I picked up about um grants and funding opportunities lowc cost loans for businesses that I'll be bringing to the next EDC meeting so I think that business and Civic I'll talk about it but business
and Civic I think is going to host her next so there's a wider audience but they've got some great programs thank you me thank you very thank you very much Bill I just have one thing um everyone has been hearing about this bird flu situation that's been
going on through the United States um it apparently has now um transferred over to cats and I just want to make sure that and I know that we do have several cat colonies here in our town just want to make sure that uh those caregivers uh
the ones that are taking care of our Colony Cats or Community cats or feral cats whatever you want to call them um refrain from giving them unpasteurized milk dairy products or undercooked meat um now there hasn't been any uh
confirmed uh situations here in New Jersey but they have been throughout the United States and I just wanted to bring that to your attention um just be careful out there uh with these uh well with what's going on with the U the
undercooked uh meat and whatever you may be providing these cats out there um and lastly uh your dog license if you haven't renewed it expired uh just a few days ago January 31st so uh you still
have at least this full month to get it renewed without getting a late fee and that's where it is thank you thank you B Andy no report thank you Susan's absent we wish her well Administration reports
so um May's report good evening everyone it feels like just a few days ago we were ringing in the new year and now here we are already a few days into Fe February I'm not going to repeat what Margaret said just want to uh hover over the point that we're going to do our own survey
uh New Providence did something with funding from the gr fund called New Providence our community for all livability survey it's an amazing survey assembly woman mudis um she did reach out to me today and we're going to connect and I'll figure out how they did it so we can execute something similar
um as mentioned the economic development committee met last Friday and we were fortunate enough to have Michelle asorio who is a small business leaz on from New Jersey Economic Development Authority to discuss all the state um and more recent Finance programs for small businesses are a lot of Grants out there that are
worthwhile I think we'll get that posted on the website there's a QR code that takes you right to the state and all the information that you need um but you can reach out to her as well if you're a small business and you're looking for a loan or a grant um she's incredibly helpful and willing to work with the Berkeley Heights businesses um the EDC
is also exploring a popup kind of farmers market s kind of thing with multiple events over the summer to drive business into the downtown um and we are also still exploring the property uh card tax program which will give us small reduction on your property taxes when you shop local um the EDC explored
in 2019 um the initiative was not viable because there was a hefty cost investing in the plastic cards to use um now with the Advent of apps and fintech we're able to uh potentially offer this uh to Residents who can simply download it on their phone to participate and get a
small reduction in property taxes uh veterans mayor's Wellness committee and the book club will meet over the next few weeks but in the meanwhile uh there are a few important updates Veterans Affairs um did connect with Michael bow and we will be hosting a vet Fest in the
fall I'm very excited and proud to start planning this event with um our committee members I think it's going to be amazing um I'm in awe of our mayor's Wellness uh committee period specifically I'm really grateful for the committee and their teamwork to finalize
the CW to inspire happy NS and wellness event um which will take place as John said on March 1st from 1: to 4 p.m. I just want to know everybody has contributed W's out there everybody has contributed so personally and John Foster's daughter Casey is actually
designing the entire logo for our our crawl so that makes me incredibly grateful to have that personal connection um a small sampling of the elements of the Spy model will be demonstrated participants can learn about the S how meditation and breathing can bring new neural Pathways to reduce
stress and anxiety and strengthen our compassion the P body weight train can help improve physical health our I reading and appreciating art can help with our cognitive decline as we get older and it's a part of our intellectual element the r relational
will include chair massage massages and skin care for self-care as in relationship with oneself is the most important relationship and emotional activity will Encompass journaling and the science of how it improves your mood as we learn about the E of spire our presenters will include the mayor of
Berkeley hates Township just saying with the overv uh Randy Kenzie from transcendal meditation Angela EPO and of our own from healing we company the local YMCA our library director and our Council vice president nutritionist Tera tamino from Fieldhouse local resident
and art therapist Rebecca ainson and Trauma therapist Chris sylvestri from peace and my yoga we'll talk about the science behind some of the short activities we will be sampling that will promote happiness and overall wellbeing uh just today Christa little will be our massage therapist and Glenny sarapin our
aesthetician and all of this funding is provided by the kimbley an Foundation the C Foundation we love you Maryann thank you um John is working on the registration with the QR C code for residents to to sign up so stay tuned for more information from our council president participants who partake in
all the activities will earn a Spire bead bracelet signifying the five elements of Happiness spiritual physical intellectual relational and emotional uh and I'm experienc some e some emotion over the Comfort kits um that we are helping Mountain Park students select this Friday it is the brainchild of
Becca Robinson and the tenacity of Laura kazinski to get it organized and the generosity of call foundation and Gil Radford our board president who made it happen that the children at Mountain Park will be able to assemble a little box of fidget Spenders and other small
toys to help with their an anxiety and stress and if we know anything we are children in particular and teens are experiencing record numbers of anxiety and stress and we need to help them and that's this is one step in that direction um tied into Spire the I and R
and E book clubs all over the nation are reading the let them Theory by Mel Robbins I am reading it for the second time this month I've read this twice um it will now be our March May's Wellness book club on March 13th and we are working to have the event at delicious tight it's going to be epic
I'm telling you this is like Springsteen getting the tickets to see this woman I have them I was very blessed that my husband likes to get spring spring Ste tickets and he actually worked really hard for it please read this book I brought it to the staff meeting today it is life-changing I don't say that lightly um it really does change your
perspective being in the public sector um we experience a lot of feedback from people it does really give you a whole different perspective um and with that that's my report and Liza left so I just want to add something from Lia um but just to thank everybody
in town for attending the um the Lunar New Year and a big shout out to Natalie and Angus for organizing it and arranging all of the volunteers and the YMCA for hosting it was a great program this year really I mean it's always been
great it's very visual but it was just very quick moving and it was interesting like some of the older um instruments so it was great all right Township official reports be accepted and approved I'll second that
any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes excuse me Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes it moves to open the citizens hearing second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr
Foster yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay the citizen hearing is now open with the same rules in effect that I mentioned earlier this evening going once twice Okay g what you hand up oh okay
she all filled up on meetings right see see no one I I close the citizens here that any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay they listen to me
again I had a lot of readings done today I was warming up okay um resolution perer through njsa 10 4-14 moving the public meeting into executive session whereas the provisions of the
open public meetings act act njsa 104-1 SEC expressly provide that the public body may move into executive session and exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which the public body discusses any of the nine
areas set forth and njsa 10 call 4-12 B and whereas the Town Council the township hates has determined necessary to move into executive session to discuss the following subjects all of which are included in the aid exceptions contract negotiations now therefore be
resolved by the Town Council of the township of Berk Hees and that it does hereby move into executive session pursuant to njsa 10 412b to discuss the AET matters and is further resolved that the after said discussion shall be made
public either at a public meeting following said executive session or at such time as any litigated or Personnel matters are concluded or upon conclusion of any negotiations or related discussions or is otherwise specified and it is further resolved that this resolution will take effect pursuant to
law approved this fourth day of February 2025 than any discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes okay we will now go into executive session there will
no be any further legislative action other to come back and adour for the thank you e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e no