##VIDEO ID:rxI_IrP-m0o## I open the burnard's township committee meeting for November 12th 2024 please stand for the flag salute United States of America stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in municipal building one colier lane Basking Ridge on the township website and email to Bernardsville news whiy The Courier News Bridgewater tap into. net patch.com and filed with the Township Clerk on December 18 2023 any motion to go into close session will include that matters discussed at such closed session will be disclosed to the public when such matters are finally determined and there is no further reason to prohibit the public from disclosure of information relating to such matters the meeting rules adopted by the township committee are as follows no new business will be introduced after 10:30 p.m. public comment will be accepted at all meetings speakers will be limited to 5 minutes each all meetings will Jour no later than 11:30 p.m. that brings us to roll call Christie Miss DTE McCarthy here Mr MCN here mayor AC here miss Fields Mr boundman our excuse this evening thank you um executive session none this evening mayor that brings us to presentations resolution 2024-25 recognizing The Ridge High School work-based learning program and local businesses that participate so we're excited tonight this is the first time that our community has done this um and I'm going to call her out where is Karen there we are so um an amazing mother uh who has really contributed significantly to our community Karen and some of her cohorts Lily uh and Judy uh are here as well and uh we had some really great conversation we are a very proud community of all of our children and we happen to have a really wonderful school system that really provides really great experiences for youth with disability those folks grow up and they need opportunities Beyond traditional education and thanks to some of these folks um opportunities have been created and so tonight um was originally planned to take place in October because October happens to be employment disability awareness month we had an issue with Quorum and so this got pushed to tonight um but I think it's a wonderful celebration so thanks to Karen to get this ball rolling we want to recognize the wonderful businesses within Bernard's Township that help to support our youth uh with disability in terms of employment based learning and actual employment so the first resolution I just want to give just a little bit about what this resolution says and then what we're going to do is uh the township committee we will uh vote we'll have some comments and then what we will do is we'll have just a brief um speech about more about the topic and then we will invite um every business that participates in this to come up and be recognized and we will take one group photo at the end okay so um whereas Ridge oak or excuse me Ridge High School has established a work-based learning program that provides students with unique challenges the opportunity to develop essential soft and hard skills necessary for success in the workforce and whereas this program offers invaluable hands on experience for students enabling them to build confidence learn job responsibilities cultivate social and interpersonal skills in world world settings and whereas local businesses have partnered with Ridge High School dedicating their time resources and mentorship to support students as they gain essential skills demonstrating their commitment to our community's youth and fostering an inclusive and sporting learning environment and whereas these participating business have gone above and beyond to provide meaningful learning opportunities significantly contributing to the program successes and the growth of the students they serve therefore be it resolved that the township Committee of the township Bernards extends its sincere gratitude for the following businesses for their partnership and dedication to the work-based learning program at Ridge High School and those businesses include travel magic Bernard's Township Department of Public Works Bernard's Township Town Hall Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church Hills of harat Riverwalk Pharmacy soup shop Welcome to our neighborhood Barrister Coffee House Pizza denapoli Priscilla's Pantry YMCA Washington house and ridge sweet shop and so that is what the resolution is about so what I would like um for my colleagues if you have would you like to take a vote or make comments make comments do comments thank you mayor um so first of all I also want to congratulate all of the owners who are here and associations who have put this together and provided meaningful opportunities for individuals who are differently abled and who are a then able to learn skills and and be part of a community that makes you feel that you're contributing um I've had many interns work for me and it's not always easy to put together what will that person do that day so I commend everyone for taking that chance and bringing folks in and partnering with our high school to provide that wonderful opportunity uh you're providing these students meaningful life lessons um whether it's showing up being on time adhering and completing their tasks these are wonderful lessons for now and for later so thank you and thank you all for being here it means a lot to see so many faces in our community thank you mayor thank you I too would like to um congratulate everyone who came together to uh put these programs together Karen Bridge high school and all the businesses um that have participated in this you know I think that as most most people in this room will be aware for for for a long time there was this Gap um that existed for special need students uh when they graduated um you know kind of what came next for them and and and all of you by through your collected efforts are um filling that Gap and really supporting uh our students so thank you all and if I could just add um our Community Values everyone and by virtue of your participation in this program you are validating that everyone is a contributor and certainly going above and beyond running your business but then taking on the added workload um to impress and to um make an opportunity for a young person I don't think there's any greater gift that you could give anyone and so that's why we're just beyond honored um and grateful that you would come come tonight and to receive this resolution so with that may we do I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2024 0425 I'll second it Miss DTE McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes mayor e yes motion carried thank you so what we'd like is I understand Ben and Joe will come up and and uh tell us a little bit more about this program if you come up to the mic thank you for having us tonight um first we'd like to thank the mayor for um recogniz en Ridge uh work-based learning program um as she mentioned there's so many people that are involved with our program um so I think for me and for Joe it's really important to you know share with everyone all the people that collaborate with our programs you starting with our students our students are um some things are so challenging for our students and every day they get an opportunity to whether work in the community work in school work at home um and our staff from our teachers therapists behaviorists um they always set our students up for a success um there's a few people here tonight uh Gan oconnell Allison Reed Russ lazovic um they support our students in program um if it wasn't for everyone that works with our students we wouldn't have all these opportunities um the community all these businesses that are here um the businesses that have worked with our students in the past uh you really give our students the ability to um engage in valuable work uh and you guys Embrace and um you give them opportunities that not every Community gives um Joe and I go to different um just workshops and things and we hear um how our community Embraces our students our program um the opportunities you know some of our students are out five days per week um there's something to be said for that and um so proud to be here tonight proud to be part of our program um also like to thank Linda Valera and Linda Meyer they started our work based learning program many many many years ago um it's come a long way um we have You' heard the list there's so many businesses that are part of this our students engage in maintenance tasks they engage in office skills um they set up restaurants for service there's so many different things that our our students do at these jobs and um all of our students have different needs everything is individualized um we collaborate there's so much collaboration going on with the businesses the partners the owners the mentors that we have at these locations um and again I I have to really thank our staff they are out there they every day um troubleshooting setting our students up for Success um they really go above and beyond every single day uh Joe you anything else to like to add oh yeah just and just quickly about our program like there's only so much you can recreate in a classroom or in a school in general right so this program really provides the opportunity through these businesses to have our students and young adults work out in the community and really feel what it's going to be like not just in a work environment but to be out in a different setting and not so not maybe not as secure setting something that's new something that's more open that will create the circumstances that they're going to be in in their real life so they've been in school and kind of contained somewhat of a bubble a lot of their lives and this kind of opens provides the opportunity for them to be out in the community and work on these skills we talked heard about soft skills just the communication the collaboration the teamwork just being able to work for extended periods of time being in a different setting and coming in contact with challenging situations that you're not going to come into contact in in the school setting so without the businesses really this program doesn't exist at all there's no they're not you know they don't have none of them have to work with us so it's really out of the kindness of each of their hearts that they do this so we really do thank you guys because you are what prop us up and all of our people that work with our young individuals seeing some of our old students out here who have moved on but it's so great to see them still supporting us and just really um just at the end of the day businesses are where it's at so we implore other businesses to reach out to us if you have any questions or interest in creating Partnerships Ben and I are never stop creating Partnerships it'll keep building and building until I'm well on the ground hopefully and beyond that and beyond that if you don't have a business but you're out in the community engage with our young people out there okay do even if it's not our students unfortunately a lot of times our population is overlooked or people are a little timid to interact with them and that's it is what it is but I really just encourage every individual to do your best to go out there and interact with our young people and our adults with special needs and everyone cuz they're the most amazing people and you know I have a special place for them but they you'll get to the more and more you get to see them and talk to them you're you'll be amazed by them and their capabilities and just what they have to offer and these this really gives them a sense of purpose and really builds them up so thank you guys very much and one last group that we have to mention and thank is our parents um they are the best advocates for their son for their daughter uh they really push Joe and I to make our program be the best program that it can possibly be so thank you to all the parents that are here all the parents that have been part of this program um you guys are you know the heart of this program so thank you very much I just want to add part of the reason why um I'm not surprised by the names of the businesses that are on this list um having lived in the community I I know a lot of these businesses and some of the business owners I've gotten to know actually quite well through a variety of collaborations that the town has had this year for instance the parents of exceptional children I'll run with me 5K there are some familiar names of sponsors that are on this list um in particular if I try to embarrass barer um and other partners that we doing things right now tomorrow I'm going to do a a a plug because I have shared with folks as soon as these presentations are over y'all can leave um so you won't see my comment but for instance tomorrow's kindness day so my daughter and I made this um because tomorrow's World kindness day and we have S businesses um and there are some that are here as well that are participating in that and donations from tomorrow's event um those are going um to parents for exceptional children um and then we also have going on Anthony knows a little bit about this we've got the food drive for the gods Coop food pantry and some of you have stores that are collecting for that so many of you it's really not a surprise um to know your hearts that you really care about our community and every member in it so just from the bottom of my heart thank you so much and just really pleased to be able to do this so um let's move on to the resolutions so when I mention your business name if you would be so kind to come up and we'll do a a one group photo if that's okay okay so let's do Travel [Applause] Magic yes please Bernard's Township Department of Public Works yes yes and then we'll just let him stay up here at Bernard's Township Town [Applause] Hall Liberty Corner Presbyterian [Applause] Church Hills of harat [Applause] Riverwalk [Applause] Pharmacy soup shop I don't know if she's here yet uh Welcome to our neighborhood Stella Perna okay she's on her way um bar coffee [Applause] house there you go thank you Pizza denoi Priscilla's Pantry YMCA [Applause] thank you Washington house and last but not least Ridge sweet shop thank you course may we do a quick photo you so also important but a little bit different is our next resolution resolution 2024 426 recognizing National disability awareness month and local businesses that employ disabled adults so while the first one provided educational opportunities for youth this provides employment so this is uh an even more significant investment and one that we think is worthy of recognition so a little bit about the resolution um the purpose of national disability employment awareness month is to educate about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities and with the history of the ndam traces back to 1945 when it started as a week and focused only on people with physical disabilities it was later expanded to a full month and the the name and scope evolved to acknowledge the importance of increasing the inclusion of disabled adults into the workforce and whereas work workplaces that welcome the talents of all people including people with disabilities are critical part of our efforts to build an inclusive community and strong economy and therefore be resolved that the township Committee of the township of Bernards hereby recognizes and extends its gratitudes to the following businesses that employ disabled adults this is Bernard's Township Library Somerset Hills YMCA Ridge Oak Senior Housing Aramark Stop and Shop in Washington house and so this is recognizing October as National disability employment awareness month and that is the resolution so I'm going to ask my colleagues for any comments um thank you mayor so this is a uh a wonderful resolution and I was looking at a recent statistic from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics saying that 77.5% of people with disabilities are not currently employed and this is a significant portion of those who would wish to work and are not able to find jobs it's a much higher statistic than the percentage of people without disabilities who are not employed and it's i w worked for many years in banking and finance and can tell you that we did a lot of work to encourage people to interview individuals with disabilities to seek ways to be able to bring those talents to the workplace and to be thoughtful about opportunities to make accommodations because the individuals had the ability to do the job so this is a really important resolution it speaks to inclusion it speaks to opportunity um hopefully these this list will be longer in the years to come but in the meantime it takes a village and all of you who are here representing these associations and places of employment um are doing a great value I go to the Y differently probably five days a week uh at least and I see Karen who's here among others and and the Beth and the team there the Y is a great employer of people disabilities and we see firsthand the impact um that those folks make to our community why so thank you for this resolution mayor and thank you to all who make this a possibility and an opportunity for the folks in our community thank you Comm I too' like to add my thanks to all the businesses and organizations that participated in this you really provide an opportunity for um members of our community to really flourish and contribute in meaningful ways to your businesses and organizations and that means so much to them and it means so much to us that you've stepped up and provided this opportunity so thank you all and if I can just add you know when Karen gave me the list it was quite a lengthy list and um not to minimize um these are the businesses within Bernard's Township but many of our students are employed outside of our municipality limits and for instance this is the first time we've done this and we've learned a lot in the process but as an example many of our students also were employed in Burnville and so I reached out to the mayor and asked her if they had ever done anything like this um and so they implemented something so um give us a little more time a little more experience and then make me next year I can get to some of the other Mayors in the other communities and we can recognize where all of our Bernard's Township youth are provided educational and employment opportunities so this is a wonderful list and I'm very proud of it would also love to see um additional folks to to add to um it's a significant commitment that you make and as a Bernard's Township resident um I prioritize and I value organizations that value all so thank you so with that um for this we would like to ask Gil to come and speak a little bit about this program before we take a photo hello let me see if I can work this in here hello and thank you for having me here today my name is gilmanor and I'm the director of food service for AR Mark in Bas baskan Rach school district armac has always Pride himself on being an equal opportunity employer and that naturally includes the staff members with a special needs some of our different able Associates have been with us for more than 15 years we still to this day try to find the best position available for these individuals to highlight the strengths and increase the confidence nowadays some of them come with job coaches to help them train and get a claim in the fine environment still all this may require some extra time and effort to bring them up to food handler standards however we believe they are absolutely worthy effort throughout the years we have learned that these workers are dedicated Dependable hardw working and of course a valuable access to our day-to-day operations for the last few years especially at Rich High we have participated in a program develop for special needs to students where the children are always getting ready to getting ready to graduate we have them come down and work in the kitchen to get some hands-on experience in a true work environment under the supervision of course of a teacher as well as of food M service management we find this to be an exciting opportunity for them to gain some real word experience and it also teaches our current employees some valuable skills that they may now otherwise be able to develop as tolerance Compassion or patience arach is not only proud of our support for our workers and children with disabilities but we also know we try because of it and of course of them thank you for having me so I'm going to ask my colleagues for a motion please I'll make that motion a second chrisy roll call please Mr dor McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you so now what we're going to do is we're going to do presentation of the resolutions so the first I would like to ask the Bernards Township Library thank you thank you Somerset Hills [Applause] YMCA oh come on up no no you get it come up twice you earned it Ridge Oak Senior Housing [Applause] Aramark thank you stop and shop thank you and then Washington [Music] [Applause] house so may we take a quick photo yeah thank you thank thank you and as we tell everyone with presentations they can feel free to leave um or you're welcome to stay as you wish um most people leave thank you all for coming and thank you for all of your contributions thank you we're going to move on to the third presentation Jersey Central Power and lighting presentation by Bob Flynn Regional external Affairs so Bob Flynn come on up is regional external Affairs and Bob thank you for coming thank you for being an excellent partner absolutely this year as we've got to know each other spend a lot of uh quality time together thank you for providing all of this background um and for sharing it with our residents absolutely is that I end the microphone back feed no good okay all right so good evening everybody um for those that don't know me my name is Bob Flynn I've been with jcpnl external Affairs now for five and a half years um my primary territory is Morris and Paya County um we have some restructuring happened over the last five or six months so they asked me to come down into what's referred to as our Summit District which is this area here in Bernards um as well as all of Somerset County Union and a few others so I have have quite a few towns right now but um primarily up in boten as I said in Mars County in pic so uh we will have a full-time rep named most likely within the next month or two so we'll do an introductory meeting at that point um with that individual as soon as they are chosen for the position so um I am here today as to no surprise that everybody that has stuck around we have had a very challenging summer um in a lot of parts of New Jersey and it really started with the Heatwave that was at the end of May which continued through August and we're still dealing with other issues I was just saying the mayor tonight um there's wildfires that week we have a Red Flag Warning in New Jersey as I'm sure a lot of you are aware we are actively involved in that as well we have municipalities we have transmission rways that we have to keep intact and keep control over so it's we're pivoting to the next issue right now but um again the reason why I am here tonight is because we did have a challenging summer in terms of the high heat in terms of the storms and the reliability in some of our municipalities so what I'm here to discuss today is um an overview of our circuit information and the outline for Bernard's Township and then what I think most people will want to hear is what is the investment that we're doing in each of our mun municipalities and throughout the state so we're going to get into that and I'm going to have to Pivot between two PowerPoints because there are some slides that I think are important um for the public here to understand in terms of our restoration efforts you know some other updates that we've made so I'm going to flip at one point so just bear with me but we're going to jump right in um so this is the overview uh this presentation is kind of a tandem effort between external Affairs and our reliability engineering department um it's a core group of people that are past at looking at our customers outage histories determining where we need to invest where we need to do additional tree trimming or install new equipment um Etc but this is the profile for Bernard's Township so these are the circuits as well as the the numbers that they're associated with and the customer count on the right hand side um this presentation obviously is very protected by Homeland Security for specific reasons that you know we are seeing an increased interest in the electric grid um so counterterrorism cyber um we're preparing for a lot of this so this information does stay with me which is why we can't give an advanced copy but um for the public that are here tonight this is the profile for the town in terms of the customers that are fed um in the slide is uh the next slide that we go into is kind of the circuit overview for the township um and this is very very busy graph but this is the circuits that feed Bernard's Township and the surrounding municipalities so we have a total of six substations I believe there's Bernards Chambers Brook Somerset Ridge Lions King George and Dead River excuse me seven um but a big profile here in a number of substations which um I'll get into at the end of the presentation but there is a benefit to that that you are having sub substations that are on bordering municipalities because there's benefit to both uh or multiple municipalities that are fed by our substations but this is the overview um it's I know it's kind of hard to look at but if you can find your street in there you can find your circuit um and as I said a little bit busy but I'm leave that up for just a sec for those that can see it okay um so again this slide because we have seven substations is it's it's tiny print um but what I would focus on if you're in the crowd is the graph that's on the left the infographic um so this is the average minute of interruption or customer minute CMI customer minute of interruption that we have out of the seven substations that feed Bernard's Township um a lot it's it's really no surprise in a lot of the towns that I have in Somerset and Morris County that the the main culprit for a lot of my outages are trees and animal contact and a few other things and and this summer we did have a variety of other issues as well we had a lot of transmission trips we had a lot of lightning strikes on our uh equipment at our substations and on our transmission lines which caused trips um we did have some equipment failure some animal contact uh object contact with line uh carple accidents um you name it we kind of go through it Forest outages as well but the biggest culprit in terms of our distribution outages which I'll back up a second um transmission is what feeds our substations those are the very L large towers that are inside of our RightWay they're usually A-frame or monopoles distribution are the poles that you see outside your neighborhood that is what's called distribution um substations we call trips things like that that happens at a substation level um so there's equipment that is supposed to operate automatically or within you know a 3 minute period to get it back online uh distribution are a lot lengthier of repairs due to the nature what happens to those circuits so we'll have you know a 40,000 lb tree come down a distracted driver hit a pole break two in a row or things like that uh but distribution is primarily where we do most of our restoration efforts but again for the CMI that we see here for Bernards is a large portion of this is tree contact and I'll touch on something because the other um the other big factor in this graph is also equipment failure and this makes my job very difficult because um it's it's hard to put yourself in that perspective but if you're a lineman or line woman who's doing the repairs a lot of the times we're trying to do it as safely as possible and as quickly as possible it's not prudent for us to spend 15 minutes searching around the base of a pole to find the culprit and and that is difficult but that a lot of the times that crew May label an outage where that Branch hit the line and just Roch shade back into the woods by 10 ft there's no indication that it burned or anything like that but that was the cause so unfortunately a lot of these get labeled equipment failure when in reality they they may not be and not saying that all aren't because there there are things that happen we have you know fuses that go bad Transformers that need to be replaced um things like that that we'll have to do out in the field that are actual equipment failure but I you know a number of those are probably due to some sort of animal that may have just burned up completely there's no EV evidence of it left we label it equipment failure because that's what happened the wire burned down next uh is our substation information so these are again both the last graph and this graph are excluding major storms but this is the number breakdown in terms of what we've seen throughout the past five years at our seven substations that feed Bernard's Township um and you can see there those graphs that are in the middle there you'll see a little bit more data in that because as as I said this summer we did have a large number of transmission activity down here in Somerset County um so those numbers have gone up quite a bit I ask a question I am G to take questions at the end but I'd be happy to that's more than fine yep so it's hard to understand yours you're presting charts right so do do you want me to read it is well you should explain what the chart means so the the chart is the numbers itself so that's what the infograph breakdown is so the large green in top left is unknown the green that's all the way on the top right is equipment failure then the blue sliver is forced outage purple is lightning green underneath the purple is line failure and then the Orange is trees that are inside our RightWay or outside of our RightWay thank you sure sure yeah it and I will as I said I will after I'm done my presentation I will be taking questions um for anyone that has them so again um this is really the graph that or the the slide that I wanted to Showcase and this is the information that I think uh the public wants to hear in terms of what we're doing in terms of the investment so in our Bernardsville sub um we had excuse me the percentage total of non-storm distribution customer minutes impacted 18% of that for Bernardsville was due to equipment failure 13 due to line failure and 40% of that due to trees and the cell that's all the way on the right is the reliability work that our reliability engineering is proposing for this so for Bernardsville specifically we actually have since completed this project so when I presented to you we had not we were just starting it I think at that point we have since complet completed this but this is a pretty big project for us where we had not a great RightWay in terms from outside of our substation we were noticing that a lot of trees in What's called the lockout Zone outside of our sub which is usually the first you know half mile depending upon the municipality it's the most critical area where you know if we trim on your street we'll usually trim within 10 feet we'll trim back regrowth and things like that lockout Zone gets a more specific and robust trimming because if we lose or have a tree come down we could lose three or four circuits in one tree that comes down so it's a little bit more robust but we were noticing a lot of tree contact in our lockout Zone um outside of the Bernardsville sub specifically because of the right of way that we were taking in addition to that um it was in close proximity to NJ Transit if I'm not mistaken and those are very difficult agency to get permits for to do work obviously because of the nature of what they do in the trains you have to be very safe we can't park trucks on the side um there's a lot of coordination involved in that and unfortunately a lot of time that we lost for repairs due to waiting for those permits and waiting for the all all clear for us to start the work so we have since moved that location um is a $1.5 million project that we did and it's again to relocate the main artery and reduce the likelihood of the outages due to trees in that vicinity chamber Brook sub uh our main culprit this past year was animal contact 47 % of the outages out of Chambers Brook that feed Bernard's Township residents were due to animal contact um so the circuit inspection last performed for Chambers Brook was 2022 um we did reduce the main cause which was animal contact we do have animal guards that we can put up on our equipment to keep it away however we as the utility are constantly utilizing new equipment new equipment requires new animal guards so we have things that are called reclosers that are on our our polls now um and when I was back here I think at 2019 I talked about trip Savers which were automatic fuses so exactly as their name sounds they save the trip for the crew um it's a fuse that'll attempt to restore itself if it has a momentary fault like animal contact or a tree branch resting um if that fault clears it can restore itself and it tries I think three times in a matter of five minutes um but reclosers are the bigger version of a trip saver um and allow us to do things like it's called switching um so switching is when we have customers that are impacted by a fault or some sort of outage we can throw them onto a different circuit um depending upon the capacity obviously of the circuit the substation the consumption on that circuit but uh a lot easier to do in winter months than it is in summer when the load is very high due to air conditioning and um you know refrigeration and and things like that but reclosers help us with that um we've been installing them a lot and they do a lot of really good work but we keep finding that they're so large that we have so many animals that are trying to hide their food for the winter in our reclosers and they are not cheap so uh we're trying to find ways to put new animal guards on a bigger piece of equipment that's up there but a big culprit especially during fall is animal contact Dead River sub uh 177% of the adages of the last year were due to trees 19 due to animal contact and 43% due to line failure so the next circuit inspection is scheduled for next year in 2026 before those inspection dates my reliability engineer is actually speaking with our management to formulate some sort of plan to put new equipment up um in this location or animal guards in the areas that we're seeing the highest concentration of those contacts King George sub um 74% of those were due to line failure so the next circuit inspection is scheduled for 26 and 27 again before that the reliability engineer that that is their sole Focus they don't have another job besides looking at our customers outage history and we have um a program called high priority circuits which basically it's a rotating list where it changes year after year um basically we compile the data similarly I showed in those few graphs in the beginning we see where we're having the highest concentration of outages where are we spending the most wrench time the most truck rolls where are we having the most equipment replaced that and we formulate a plan that year each year on a rotation to address those circuits that have those issues so King George will be one of those that we have a plan for that the next rep at that point you know in a year or two we have something formulated similarly to Bernardsville sub will come and relay that to the governing body uh Lions substation 22% were due to trees 52% actually due to vehicle um major outage cause Were Trees on and off our RightWay notice that be reduced after the forestry cycle was completed in 2020 the next cycle is uh actually supposed to be I think they actually maybe just completed it or will be completing it this week I know they're still down there but um that should be completed within the next few weeks that cycle forestry trimming Ridge substation uh 26 due to equipment failure 19% due to line failure 37 due to trees and again trees off RightWay or on RightWay so the forestry cycle is scheduled to be completed next year um and again our forestry cycle trimming is this trimming back regrowth we did have uh our last investment project was with uh it was a 97 million investment project that we put forward I think it was two years ago or three years ago at this point now but it was a tandem effort of trips saer installations as well as enhanced vegetation management um and the purpose of that is the emerald ash for came into the state and we had a record number of ash trees that were taking down our equipment and we realized that we had to get ahead of it as far as we could um I I think we went through the budget within a matter of a few months I mean that that's how many trees that we were removing and typically for cycle trimming we won't do removals unless it's absolutely necessary if we see you know a cause that's going to break six poles we will go up to that customer to say I know this Tre is 10 feet on your property and outside of our RightWay but you know can we take this down can we leave the wood with you can we take it away we find a balance with the customer that helps both of us and we for the iip which was a few years ago we went uh even further outside of that where we were pretty far on customers property that if we were seeing trees in Decay to remove those um and again it was just you know we went through that budget very very quickly and trip Savers are still up we're actually still putting more of them up with the reclosers as well so that has continued because we've seen the benefits of it um I don't have exact data or things like that but we've noticed a large reduction in Interruption time for customers where they're they live in an area where they get those momentary faults just like a branch that hits all three phases trips out the fuse that could be a two to three hour outage with trip Savers it could be two minutes as long as that Branch flies off the line so those continue the forestry we still do our cycle trimming we still do removals and things like that but we're directly speaking with those home owners for that and then Somerset um 133% animal 15% trees 22% line failure and 36% equipment failure um circuits inspections have been performed they are going to be taking funds to upgrade the fuses cross arms um give our lateral feeds fusing so that we have uh not deadend areas that are out of power while the rest of the circuit is online we'll give those customers a fuse and install sectional izers in every lateral to further be able for us to sectionalize an issue where you know if there's a dead end and a tree comes down that could affect that whole circuit that's past that dead end the fuse is a protection device that will keep that outage to that location thus reducing the amount of customers and um that before I pivot to the next presentation that's what I'll touch on now is um we do have a proposal actually in front of the Board of Public Utilities I believe it's we're still on conversation it's still under review but the plan is to spend 937 million and this is to upgrade our equipment it's very public you can go online and search uh on our website there are press releases about it but we are requesting to spend $ 937 million to upgrade substation equipment poles circuitry um equipment on our devices and what that would mean for the average Customer because that's the big question that we get is you know how does this affect my monthly bill and it's a fiveyear what we're proposing is again a five-year program we have reliability metrics to hit for each year so if we're not meeting something the BPU can halt our spending um that is one of the benchmarks of the program and the average customer impact I believe is around $430 um total over five years so it's staggered first year could be 90 cents second year could be A110 etc etc until it's around that four $440 or so so we're hopeful that that moves forward um we meaning external Affairs what we're kind of doing is going out to our municipalities and beating the drum for support um because you know we understand we need to do this investment project we're having a lot of municipalities um commissioner boards things like that sign on because they understand that the investment does have to happen so we're hopeful that gets pushed through I know a lot of my towns up in in Morrison excuse me pic are excited if that project does get pushed through and if it does that's when our role will come back when we fine-tune where we are spending this money in each of our municipalities to come back and say this is our plan so uh this graph right here again I apologize about the size uh but this is the inspection cycle that we do so we do routine cycle uh inspections for our polls our underground equipment overhead equipment um our substations are inspected as well annually and this is the cycle that we have so they go on a rotating basis and if you see our contractor Osmos we we get that call a lot um there're are thirdparty contractor who does the pole testing so you may see some guy in you know an Osmos pick up outside your house putting a screwdriver through a pole they're testing the Integrity of it they're testing for termites they may be putting a Cess on it if it got swiped by a truck um I I live full disclosure in Chester so I I am very deep in the woods um and I'm the second to last house on my circuit and I get no special treatment uh I don't get a crew that comes to my house if I lose power I have two kids that are under two a wife who probably doesn't know how to start my generator so I have to do that as well but um we have we had this issue where we had um multiple people since I've lived there for two years have hit that pole due to distracted driving and drunk driving and it is extremely important to test the structural Integrity of those Poes because if you do have one fall if those poles aren't sturdy down in the line that can create if there's loose guy wires or they got hit or things like that that could create a multi you know two or three poles that come down which is adding on to the restoration time so it's very important to do those inspections um wood poles are done in a 10-year cycle forestry obviously every four Thermo and infrared I'll actually show a slide on this at the end but that is something where we have uh you'll see a pickup that has on the back line inspector those are individuals with thermographic or infrared cameras that are looking at our equipment and what they're looking for are tiny pin holes or animal marks or things that where they may bite the insulation off our wires or you may have a lightning strike that comes in proximity to our equipment it could create tiny pin holes you have a summer like we had of 60 80 Days Plus of 90° weather when high humidity over time those pin holes can become bigger and cause issues and the thermographic camera identifies those and has uh in the infrared camera hotpots so they can actively see if there's a fuse that has a hole in it or a line that has a break or something like that and they address and repair those um as needed but that's done on a four-year cycle as well and that is the cycle for Bernard's Township a lot of those for those that can't see are 2024 for information red I'm going to Pivot to the next one so just bear with me okay so there's just a few slides here but I wanted to highlight them because I do believe that they are important um one other investment we've done is the customer side of this obviously there there's a bit of a veil and on purpose because of our utility is we do have to keep some of this information secure um what we've realized though is uh you know I I often quote isas is during that storm we had almost a million customers impacted we were the fastest utility restore customers we still had resolutions we still had Mayors who were complaining or residents complaining about the the the time that happened and things like that and we kind of sat back saying well what happened like we just beat all these other utilities like not you know no one likes to be out of power obviously I don't either but we would we were happy with the progress and the speed at which we had got everyone back on safely what we realized was is that we weren't doing an appropriate job communicating with the customers and the real reason for that is we have uh a mandate by the BPU called the global ETR and ETR stands for estimated time of restoration that is something that we and every utility in the state is required to do and that is 24 hours after the storm leaves the service territory we are required to give when is the last customer going to come back and power when's the last customer a lot of customers before we realized this during isas you know again 24 hours after a storm we probably hadn't restored more than you know maybe a few hundred thousand at that point and a lot of our customers received a 7day notification and that for me in external Affairs is where my phone absolutely blew up and 95% of those people weren't seven days from now they were probably going to be within the next 24 to 72 hours but that level of communication is that important and I get that because also if you're at home and you see an ETR of seven days from now but all that your issue is was just a fuse at the end of your street or we just had to replace a Transformer or a pole it's a 12-hour job you still saw seven days you went to just go rent a hotel you spent all this money and your power comes back on in 24 hours so what we've done is we've instituted What's called the ETR team so we work feverishly in the beginning of the storm before we hit that 24-hour Mark to populate as many multiple customer outages with a user ETR user ETR means a crew a foreman a crew chief line shop manager anyone in operations has gone out to your outage said all right this is one major tree three broken poles this is this is going to be a 16-hour job we'll get this back by you know tomorrow night by 5 that is the goal is to hit as many multiple customer outages with a user ETR before we have to give that Global um those customers that are at the end which I'll go into and I think it's the next slide or the slide after the customers that are you know they had a tree come down in their yard and rip the service off their house they have to have an electrician come out and make repairs and things like that those are the customers that are receiving that 7day ET at that point or should be moving forward but sorry I'm skipping what I brought this up for is the other update we've done is the outage map um so it was a little outdated before it used to have a triangle at where we were sensing where the fault was or the issue what we've done now is use this polygon feature where you can actually see and this is good for oems police fire Etc they can actually see the damage profile from one particular outage how many customers it's impacting the streets that are affected by it um so that's a pretty sign significant update and it actually got stress test in Ohio over the summer we had I think it was five tornadoes Spur off the Great Lakes like 500,000 people out um and I checked because I was curious and that map was lit up and you could click Every Little Dot to see where that profile was and that stress test is work so I don't want to test it here you'll hear me say that first I don't want any more storms or any more weather but um it is good to know that there is an investment in this now to be a little bit more robust and and give you a good damage profile as elected officials and emergency responders and his customers um so this is our restoration process I'm I'm going to go through this a little bit because I do want to be able to get the questions from the governing body and from the public but um this is the process that we have I'm sure you've seen this graph online but the first step in all of this is to isolate and make safe so you'll hear the first 24 hours in the storm we do what's called cut and runs um where if we have egress issues at neighborhoods we will cut the line so that way we can get people in and out for fire police EMS Etc um we also do life and Lim emergencies at that first step so uh a cop has a live wire on his car we may not be restoring customers within that first time period but we are responding to a lot of life and limb emergencies as well as high priorities um in that first you know fewer hours of the storm the second step in all of this um and this is a big one during EAS is we had a lot of um transmission and sub-transmission outages that were affecting our substations due to Fallin inside the RightWay um which Fallin is trees that are outside of our Corridor that we normally trim that are falling and and hitting our our wires when normally they're perfectly healthy trees but during a tropical storm they they do come down uh but we did have a large number of our our substations that were affected due to those high winds during EAS but that is the most critical piece of it is you know we could come to your street and make all the repairs we want unless the substation working it doesn't mean anything so we have to get the sub online and make sure that that feed is clear and safe SEC uh third step in the process is restoring our critical facilities so this is where my position comes in to work with the elected officials the OEM the police fire uh typically they are funneling priorities of you know there's a hospital out there's a nursing home that only has two hours left of fuel or things like that they are funneling those to the county we embed someone internally in each County OEM to be the point person to communicate with me in external Affairs who's typically in the line shop and also our Community Partners so we're funneling those priorities to the county the county is responsible for rack and stacking them and giving them to us uh to work and we do have what's called priority restoration unit where if we have you know big issues in our County we have Crews that are specially um available for these types of emergencies so that is the third step and then obviously Opening Our critical roadways so State roadways highways um things like that for the fourth step in the process is repairing our main feeder and distribution lines these are the main circuits that run on you know Main Street that feed our our largest amount of customers and then as I said in the previous Slide the last kind of the longest part of the storm is really those customers that have had damage to their house um and typically for a lot of these especially New Jersey it is um trees that fall on their private property that hit their service line and it ripped their service out or ripped their meter pan out and they have to hire electrician before we can come back and energize it so they're typically the ones who are that last you know during a bad enough storm that six s day restoration that's what we anticipate for those customers um so again jcpnl is owned by First Energy which is based out in Ohio um we do have one benefit with that well two benefits that you know for this graph's purpose is that we are a member of three regional Mutual assistance groups so North Atlantic Southeast electric Exchange in the Great Lakes Mutual assistance group um so those are collections of electric utilities that if we have emergencies we will go and assist them so we were since we are part of the southeast exchange we've been down in North Carolina Florida um Louisiana last year but we we do send our linen and line women down there to help them as they do with us when we get hit um and the other benefit of First Energy is you know they own it's it's um 10 operating companies five states so we get that as an added benefit that not only can we pull from this group if New Jersey were hit but we can also pull the sister utilities if there's not a damage footprint in those States so that does help and that is something we do quite often uh and then this graph just this is you know for those that aren't aware this is our footprint um we try to marry it up to the graph on the left I mean we work we work in what we call the beautiful part of the state it's the most challenging um we by far have the most trees besides probably the the little sliver that orange and Rockin has right at the top which is at the edge of actually my territory up in Ringwood um a lot of difficult terrain up there a lot of mountains a lot of trees um a lot of difficult runs for our circuitry up in the north but again it's the beautiful part of the state but it does come with its challenges so that red outline is our profile in the light blue is Jersey Central's territory cut through the middle as pscg Orange and Rockland is at the top and then City Electric obviously is at the bottom of the State uh this one this graph is it's really interesting and if you live in a transmission right away if you've ever seen the helicopter it it's truly frightening I mean it's like 15 Buzz saws on like a 50 foot beam and it's a helicopter that drags along the transmission right away to cut back any of the regrowth um but those are done in all 13 counties uh for transmission vegetation management our municipalities are giving a two-month advance notice so that they can get to customers um and those are done on a four-year cycle and again we you know same as we do for distribution proactive Hazard tree limb overhang ash tree removals and uh aerop patrols of our circuits as well for transmission and then this is the thermographic camera I was referencing this is a line inspector performing that but again those are done on a 5-year cycle equipment deficiencies are identified and repaired or replaced and then again wood poles are done in a 10e cycle reinforced as necessary and we actually did upgrade our class after EAS of polls as well so any new poles that are uh constructed I think are a class two at this point it used to be class one um I believe I'm probably mistaken but on the number but they are being increased in terms of their um durability the ones that we are putting out right now and then uh again last point was the infrared camera is done on that four-year cycle that we do to identify those issues that we have that are invisible to the naked eye so that's what I have for tonight um but I am happy to take questions from both the governing body and then I will probably after that just in the interest of keeping you on schedule I'll head outside and answer any questions I can out there so colleagues any questions yes thank you I start with just clarification so in the last slide it said that circuit inspections are done every on a 5year cycle and then on one of the graphs you had that circuit inspections would be were up 25 26 20 25 right is that it's on its fifth year cycle so that's when it's coming again okay Y correct so it was last done in 2020 2021 correct and then differently U sort of a macro question you talked about a 937 million investment what's the process for that to move forward what's the timeline and just to give a little more context on that yeah so we have submitted the proposal to the BPU and the last update that I've received is that we're still in conversation with them um I don't know the specifics it's handled by a different department are rates and Regulatory Affairs that deal with the BPU um but that's the update we have now so external Affairs is really still continuing what we're doing still trying to Garner support for it um to showcase the BPU that our communities do want you know this investment and to what extent do municipalities work with you on that does it come back you mentioned that some municipalities were on board yeah t typically it's um a letter of support or occasionally it's been a resolution for a number of municipalities but typically just a letter of support um so you know again if that's something you would like to consider we were happy to have that discussion and and show you what some of the other municipalities have been putting in there as well thank you um Bob I'm going to reserve on my questions just because I know where to find you and I need to ask you some questions and this will give an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of you sure um you know I think for some folks um you know some of this stuff is is a little bit technical so I appreciate your willingness to speak with them you know in a one-on-one sort of setting in sure explain it I get it but that's because I used to work at BPU and at electric utility so so me hearing you speak it's through a different lens than some other folks but you know certainly I I want to thank you for you know coming in uh appearing before this body giving this presentation certainly um as you yourself acknowledged you know outages are frustrating you know to both our residents us up here uh who live here yourself um but you coming in here and explaining a lot of this stuff I think is helpful um and it elucidates the fact fact that um you know electricity gets to us uh by human build beings building infrastructure right uh that is susceptible to weather animals you name it and it doesn't get here by Magic um but I I want to thank you for you know coming in and explaining a lot of what goes into you know restoring power once it's lost Etc some of the reasons for why power goes out in the first place um and continuing to work with our uh OEM us up here our Administration large absolutely thank you so about we spent a lot of time together um especially in June um and I learned a lot from this process and I'm wondering if you could just maybe share with our residents um some of the programs that we uncovered that maybe some of our residents weren't participating in like the critical customer was maybe you could speak about that just very briefly sure yeah so we do have programs um for customers that are on some sort of medical device that they need life-saving equipment um it's called our critical care and wellwater customer list and that is a form that's actually submitted by the doctor of you know who who is your primary um physician will fill out a form to give to us to basically say that you are on a device that does require power for us um what I do say to people though is to plan accordingly is if we are having a major storm like a hurricane or things like that you know we do still keep that data as a critical customer but we are following that IC process throughout the storm but Blue Sky days things like that when we see that critical customer pop up we are hustling to that location to get them back on online as safely and as quickly as possible uh I am a wellwater customer out in Chester so I've been added to that list as well and typically when we have weather that is going to potentially impact our service territory we'll do what's called a ivr so that is a 24 or 48 hour call we give in advance to customers that are on critical that are a Critical Care customer or a wellwater customer to say just in case they're not paying attention to the weather or the news or things like that hey there's weather coming we're anticipating we're going to have some outages there's high winds there's you know six inches of rain or whatever the issue may be um so we'll give them instructions on how to prepare for that so that's one um the other thing we have now right at this point is um payment plans for those customers that need to get on them there's there's a number of those that they can call if there are any customers that are facing any hardships um that is something we do offer to them as well um and then a multitude of different things that are coming down the pike kind of like EV um there's a number of different departments and groups that are kind of sprouting up as the technology is developing so obviously we have our Smart Meters that's something I didn't touch on tonight but that is a huge significant benefit for us as a utility where we used to rely upon the customers to call in and we would map the data to where okay this customer fed off this Transformer this one just called they're on the same street but they're off this one all right this is a bigger issue now it's a lot of math that went into that before Smart Meters it's instantaneous now we keep the information it's all cellular data so it's communicated to our headquarters or will be it's not completed yet excuse me um but it will be completed by the end of next year and is the target we have and that'll allow Crews to actually go out and hit a button on their tough book in their line truck and can ping the meters to see where we're getting a feed from and where we're not so there's customers that are still out so that's also another big benefit but there are a number of those programs online um that I would Advocate those customers do research for because there are a number of um you know benefits to being on some of those groups and enrolling the other um program that you shared and that I had mentioned at one of the last Township committee meetings was um reporting a tree since we knew we have tree problems right what can we as residents do to help besides the normal stuff if you can talk about the reported Tre problem yeah so report Tre problem is under our service request on our website um and what that is it's the same with street lights um basically when you submit them online we have an internal time frame to meet um we have metrics that are in each of our line shops that we have to get Eyes On by this time by this time by that time depending upon the different department um so forestry is the same if you submit a request for us to come look at a tree that you're concerned about on your property there will be a Forester there typically within 72 hours obviously if there's storms or you know the situations I have right now are like wildfires in some of my municipalities it it may vary by a couple days but typically that's the internal time frame they have to meet and they will go speak with the customer if there is something that we can do in terms of doing any tree removal branch removal or a complete tree removal but again it's they're the main culprit for our outages we are an electric company not tree company so we do go through you know those budgets quickly so I would Advocate customers that are concerned that a tree that is not 50 feet on your property but maybe it's right near our wires or you see it leaning heavy the branch has fell off it's dead completely it's a lot cheaper for us to remove that tree than to replace five poles and that's how we view it so um I would advocate for those customers that do see trees near our equipment um that are in Decline to submit that or submit it through the municipality to get to me for us to inspect and take a look at perfect um and listen I don't want to take more time because thank you for the opportunity to have um individuals ask you um individual questions I just I did want to thank you for taking all my many calls um and especially um there was one resident in particular that we were talking until it was midnight and we had started I think at like 7:30 and they had restoration and then at 9:30 literally she called me back and she was a critical customer where she was on oxygen and I could hear the oxygen machine and I was worried about her and you helped and we were with OEM and and and such so it's something that you know every person matters and I appreciate you doing that with all the other towns that you had to do um helping that one resident was important to me so thank you for doing that um so with that I know if you guys have any questions um he is going to very generously step outside and that way the meeting can continue um and then you can ask your individual questions sure and listen um you know we can certainly if you have questions or what we can get questions to him after the fact so we know where where he is he is responsive um you know and I appreciate that the I I appreciate the collaboration my pleasure happy to be here thank you for having me thank you very much thank you Bob thank you thank you Bob for all that you do thank you so if you have any questions for Bob please feel free to step outside and you can ask away you're welcome to stay as we are going to proceed in our agenda and I hope that you found this presentation helpful thank you Bob thank you so we're moving on to our agenda chrisy do we have any public work session none this evening mayor any reports none this evening any correspondence none this evening mayor then that brings us to public comment comments are welcomed during the public comment period during the meeting on any agenda item or other matter over which the township committee has jurisdiction however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comments for that particular public hearing the public comment portion of the agenda is not structured as a question and answer session but offers an opportunity to share your thoughts with the township committee the committee may or may not address these comments during the meeting however all comments are considered to address this body the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to 5 minutes the clerk will keep time time priest pply yield the floor when time is called and return to your seat your cooperation adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting I open public comment hi I'm Lauren boso I'm at 42 peach tree uh first of all thank you guys so much for your dedication to making our town which I also grew up up in so awesome so I appreciate it and congratulations on your re-elections so the residents of Homestead Village um right by Cedar Hill School particularly those of us on Peach Tree Road between the other part of peach tree and Woodstone um we want to bring to your attention the issue of safe passage for walking neighborhood students who attend Cedar Hill and ridge so recently there was a decision made to reroute buses through the neighborhood um while they pre previously drove straight up Peach Tree to Cedar Hill they're now coming up Woodstone which is on the other side of Homestead they turn left onto my part of peach tree and then they turn right onto the other part of peach tree isn't it fun that they both intersect and have the same name so that's where we're at so the reason that this is a concern to so many of us is because there are no sidewalks at all on Woodstone or our section of peach tree there's only sidewalks in our neighborhood where the buses had previous driven up um and due to its location every single student who walks home from Cedar Hill or Ridge does step foot on Peach Tree Road so after speaking with principal uler at Cedar Hill as well as uh Bernard's Township Police Sergeant Tracy biseri I recognize that this change was a result of the board of education's decision to tear the busing in an effort to save the township money which I get that I'm certain these decisions were made with every good intention but they're clearly impacting the safety of our walking children especially our youngest ones who if any of you are parents I'm sure you know they're a handful to Corral at the end of a very long school day um I have unfortunately witnessed very large buses backing up diagonally and into traffic almost onto our neighbors's lawn due to this new pattern because there's not always enough room to turn onto the Cedar Hill part of peach tree from my part of peach tree um also despite no parking signs parents still Park their cars there all the time um and they force buses into oncoming traffic it is a regular everyday occurrence and our neighborhood is very much a buzz with concern as a parent and a neighbor I am bringing this to your attention so that we can make proactive holistic changes in an effort to ensure safe passage for walking neighborhood students I believe as many of my fellow neighbors do some of them are here um we should first and foremost paint a do not block box where Peach Tree intersects peach tree so that all drivers whether they live in our neighborhood or not are able to safely and easily maneuver uh when they need to drive through the neighborhood adding speed bumps would also be very beneficial but finally we really do believe it's imperative to install sidewalks on Woodstone and pet tree I recognize that sidewalks in particular are not an immediate answer they will require patience and planning and lots of resources a few of us neighbors have already begun our research and we understand that title 18a chapter 6 of the school administrative code contains a school zone design guide and can offer great help in planning Additionally the NJ do offers safe routes to school grants so the deadline for 2024 has passed but I do urge the township to apply for this in 2025 in an effort to offset the costs of whatever improvements can be made I will tell you my therapist will tell you I care way too much and I get way too involved in too many things um but she is right I am here to help I'm not this kind of person who just gets up and complains I I know some of you I absolutely am willing to get involved in any way that I can so I recognize that this is just step one in the process of safe passage and we ask that you please advide advise us um there 24 of my neighbors also signed this letter uh in terms of where we can go from here and how we can help and I really believe we owe it to our students and our community members to be proactive about this instead of God forbid reactive that's our biggest concern so I appreciate your time and I will give the rest back and I don't know if you want a copy I have a million of them along with the title and all that good stuff I tried to be prepared um but I can leave it for you on my way out if you'd like so thank you guys thank you thank you anyone else please come to the mic George stano 32 Peach Tree Road uh I remember when we had the last controversy I don't remember how many years back it was about the busing the routing and uh I don't remember it being resolved in a satisfactory or comforting way from a safety perspective uh so my question uh would be to whoever is overseeing all this I don't know whether it's the school board because in the last time we had discussions with the school I don't recall uh having uh conversations with the township so who is the Safety Authority on these re bus rerouting plans is it the uh Board of Education well the Board of Education will determine the bus routes the times and all those sorts of things and this is triggered by virtue of um change in times school start but but who's the uh safety Authority on this says that this is you a good idea you would have to ask the school board that okay so I don't think that question ever came up so or it's not come up yet yeah so uh I guess we have to wait till the School Board gets engaged on this topic the school board meets regularly right um you know there are people you can contact District okay so this is not the right form for addressing this issue we we we don't dictate what time the school starts and and the busing that's associated with that okay okay thank you thank you I'm I'm his other half oan Sano 32 Petry wrote not to repeat the safety that's been said but I agree with my husband that I do recall um we are right literally two doors down from Cedar Hills so we're right in the middle of it constantly twice a day and I remember last time it happened I couldn't leave my driveway to go to work I'm retired now but just when we walk and sometimes we do walk at dismissal time I try to avoid that but as my fellow Resident was saying um whether it's in pet tree or Woodstone if a bus is coming we really have to step on someone's lawn to get out of the way because there is really is no way to avoid it they I don't even think they I don't want to say they avoid don't observe the speech because I don't have anything to clock this speed but you know it really is something whether you discuss it with the school board or somehow it does need to be addressed because I think it is becoming an issue so that's it but again I agree with my fellow resident thank you for at least offering us the Forum to State our opinion because I think that's important and thank thank you for your service thank you hi Gina capy at 62 Winding Lane um down the street from around the corner from pet stre in the homestead Village neighborhood um thank you Miss bazo um I support uh what she said however being at the bottom of that neighborhood um I I support and I have three children that used to walk up and down a Cedar Hill um I do support having some sidewalk or something put in where these buses are going to be for safety reasons but I do think that the um Town should also look at how they incorporate if they do decide to put sidewalks in because it's also a neighborhood that's been neglected with all the building up top that just the water and everything constantly just keeps flowing down into Winding Lane and Grove and all these other streets um so that's just one more piece of it that I would consider otherwise maybe go back and reroute the buses the other way because there are sidewalks on the other peach tree and Homestead thank you good evening Jonathan Collins 43 winding just want to uh piggyback on my neighbors I also live on Winding Lane and uh not so much with the buses being the issue for us it's the speed of vehicles coming through the neighborhood uh especially at school hours my neighbors will will test to that as well there is a um I I imagine people are cutting through the neighborhood to go to the high school or this or cedo Hill Elementary but um walking my dogs or walking my my kids to school in the morning it's been a uh an issue um lately especially of cars speeding up and down winding um going up the peach tree and vice versa um it's it's gotten to a point where you start you know screaming at people as are driving past you but um I would ask that coming in off a winding just if so you know there is a uh a blind curve there where Homestead park is there used to be a circle there now it's been it's been rerouted but there is a blind kind of curve people are coming around they're not they're not paying attention there's kids walking in the streets there there people walking their dogs especially in the mornings and the afternoons um I did talk to Sergeant uh um baldari about this we spoke I'm a retired police officer myself um so we talked about maybe setting up a a speed um sign or something like that to let people know that you know it is a 25 M hour Zone but 25 even even that is still fairly uh high speed for that for that little area but um I just wanted to to voice my concerns and I wanted to support my uh my neighbors also but thank you very much appreciate it question is the blind curve coming off of cross or is it when you come off coming off off of South Maple you come in on winding and it curves to the right and there's a lot of there's a lot of pine trees and whatnot there so it's it's kind of a and then if you were to if you're driving into the neighborhood there was a circle there that's where Homestead Park was and they they now closed it off but coming around that curve we've almost had a couple of head-on collisions because people are coming outbound and it's just a it's unfortunate right so it's just something that we wanted to to let you guys know about about and we appreciate your concern thank you very much thank you anyone else to Stein Riverside Drive I like to congratulate um Jennifer and Andrew for the the um winning of the election I also like to um thank the um the runner-ups for trying um takes a lot of time and energy to run for office and um that should be acknowledged also but I will also uh continue reminding um interested parties that coming to the township meeting is important even after the election but also important to step up and if you have um something to say to say it it's important otherwise the committee doesn't know and um if you have any ideas that's always a good idea to share them uh if you care about the community there's no reason to keep your ideas a secret no matter who it is on the committee constructive criticism is always welcomed and remember the line share of the work comes from committees like the planning board zoning board environmental commission shade tree Parks um and that's where you can start a lot of that conversation in those committees um also like to um mention um since Liberty Corner first aid Squad is now being turned into the emergency management building I like the um committee to start thinking about U making that a polling place eventually so if there any um work is going to be done at that um building it should be kept in mind because once Mountain View is built and with the population that's growing within the town anyway will probably have to increase the polling places and now will probably be third place the be the next polling place and so instead of waiting to the last second yeah they need outlets and stuff for the machines that should be considered and um that's all I have thank you very much you anyone else going once okay then I'm going to close public comment let's move on to staff comments Township committee comments and board leis on reports Pat would you like to start please uh thank you mayor um I just want to reiterate The hestad Village a lot of the concerns I'm going to Ping uh Tom Timo or toship engineer just to have these conversations and if you can give me some information so we can get back to you so we'll we'll take care of that that's all I have M thank you Christie none this evening thank you mayor Mr blardo I'd like to congratulate the mayor and committee men MCN on their election success um I'd also [Applause] like I'd also like to point out that the mayor not only ran for re-elections here in the New York City marathon in an extremely competitive time recently J um and having run marathons I know how much effort that takes and lastly Miss DTE McCarthy have a game coming up in a few weeks between our respective universities and I wish I could wish you good luck in that game but uh I I can't but it'll be a great game so we'll see down goes the brown we'll see the outcome on that one and um that's that's about all I have to say today see thank you Anna thank you um first of all U I'm going to defer to committee man MCN when he speaks to address some of the issues raised about the residents on Peach Tree and Winding Lane um I too I live on kinan and deal with traffic the some of the younger drivers in our community start to race down to beat the buses going down Lake and it can really be a challenge so I'm glad that you know certainly our coo Pat Monaco has already shared that and then angrew will speak as well but thank you for coming and sharing those concerns um so thank you mayor going back to the end of October um I was happy to be part of the township volunteer recognition dinner on the 24th it was a great way to recognize the people who serve on the township boards that volunteer their time and talent and thank you chrisy and your team for pulling together a really nice event uh we held the annual pumpkin Sash on November 2nd this program is a partnership with the environmental commission the agricultural advisory committee the Board of Health and English farm and kids of all ages uh including me had fun breaking and recycling the pumpkins as feed for the pigs and chickens and particular thanks to all of the volunteers that were there and to our own Carol English who is also a member of our agricultural advisory committee and then on Sunday uh November 3D I joined the township committee at the dedication of our field of Honor honoring our military veterans which raises funds for Community hope for veterans um we all made brief remarks and I mentioned that my father-in-law served on the USS Wasp during World War II in the Pacific theer theater and lo and behold another Resident who we didn't know came forward and said that he his father had also served on the WASP so that was a really wonderful connection and thanks to Jen Gander and the team from Parks and Rex and DP W and others involved for making that such a wonderful event for our community uh mayor I know that you were running the New York Mid City Marathon that day as Mr Bardo has said so congratulations for you on a very significant achievement in doing so uh the Environmental commission uh Volunteers in partnership with DPW have completed rehabilitating the garden and planting trees this past weekend at the Bernard's Township emergency management building on Martinsville Road and that's going to be a great transformation because it had really gone into disarray and they're going to see that come into fruition in the spring and then just also a few Reflections on last week's election first I wish to thank she's left um Christy kefir um and the township Clerk's Office Team lesie meth Kendra Kelly and from the finance department Joe deato and Teresa fetting for all their work on the election um they ensure a really seamless experience for our community and I understand it was a bit more stressful this year um in light of surrounding potential for disruption at polling sites but they just did a terrific job so when she's back I will give her my remarks so she knows how much we appreciate that um I also want to acknowledge as has already been shared the candidates for Township committee including Elizabeth Greener and Adam subury for saying yes to running for Township committee on the Democratic ticket and for you mayor AC and committee man MCN to run for reelection um it's a lot of work to run it's hard you put yourselves through a lot and you put your families through a lot and your dedication to Civic service and serving your community is commendable um likewise I wish to acknowledge Niko for running for Somerset County Commissioner and for his ongoing volunteer service to the burners Township community and while the elections haven't been certified yet um I wish to congratulate you both for winning re-election to our Township committee the election season can be trying and I look forward ahead to what we will continue to achieve together in the coming year um lastly we've elected a new president and anticipate a peaceful transfer of power in January um here in Bernard's Township I've heard of few residents say that they feel that we continue to be divided and are afraid and uncertain about the future and one longtime resident shared that her 32-year-old daughter who identifies as queer sent her a text simply saying I'm scared I've lived here nearly 30 years and have generally experienced a welcoming Community however even in our town we're not immune to bias or unkind behavior and in that spirit this is a great time to have candid conversations um about our perceived differences listen to one another and seek common ground in understanding I welcome the opportunity for those conversations and I commit to being intentional on ensuring that we are a place where people are respected and value tomorrow when we celebrate World kindness day and mayor will talk about the program that's being sponsored here we can also reflect on the power that being kind can have on creating communities that thrive mayor thank you Comm yes thank you um first i' I'd like to address um um the uh members of the public from the homestead Village um peachree area um certainly um as Mr Monaco said um he'll be Consulting with our engineer and exploring different solutions there um I won't prejudge uh that discussion uh which which you know I'll engage with you guys on that as well but one thing I'm certain of is that to the extent that there is an engineering solution um that will take some significant time and from what I heard from uh all of you who came up this speak and thank you and consistent with what uh Mr edel was saying during public comment you know coming in here and bringing these things to our attention is really important um but it certainly would take some time if there is an engineering solution to be had so the question then becomes okay what can we do in the near term uh in order to mitigate what we're talking about there's certain things that are beyond the scope of our jurisdiction although we certainly Lea with the school board on such matters and will uh bring this to their attention um but from a uh law enforcement perspective um you know the as you were speaking sir I wrote down mobile spedometer uh just as you were saying it so you know that's one thing and certainly um you know focusing uh police resources you know on problem areas such as that you've identified is something that we've done in the past and certainly something that we can do in the near term and to the extent that that means getting people to slow down uh getting people not to park where they're not supposed to park um that can provide um some relief to what you're experiencing in the near term so uh I speak to the chief of police all the time along with Sergeant Bal desari so uh I will have that conversation uh on the subject of public SA safy uh I I wanted to address uh a very serious incident that occurred uh last Wednesday the matter has been reported the local press and is the subject of a press release from the Somerset County prosecutor office suffice it to say that a member of the public was severely injured by way of a violent assault perpetrator of this assault was a minor and was a resident of the Bonnie bra School perpetrator is now in custody and facing very serious charges Bernard's police department members of the public and staff from the Bonnie bra School took actions that led to the apprehension of the perpetrator I want to thank the Bernards PD and Ems for helping the victim get medical treatment and we pray for the victim's continued and full recovery uh the perpetrator left Bonnie Bray without authorization uh for those who don't know the Bonnie Bray school was located in burnard's Township and was founded over a 100 years ago over its long history it is housed and educated boys that have gotten themselves into trouble it has transformed the lives of many young men and their families over its long history and has many success stories to its credit Bonnie br's work is La that said as one of the Liaisons on this Township committee to the police department Public Safety is my highest priority as part of that Focus I am deeply disturbed by last Wednesday's incident therefore with the support of my colleagues on this day in coordination with the police department we are taking actions to respond to this incident our focus is on steps that Bonnie Bray can take to prevent its residents from leaving the campus without authorization and we're doing this along with the leadership at Bonnie Bray with whom I've been in touch with bonnieb understands the gravity of the situation and I expect them to take concrete actions to enhance security so that the events of last Wednesday do not recur the specific actions that Bonnie will take will be the subject of a detailed upcoming discussion maybe multiple discussions that I will have with Bonnie BR along with my kazon to Police Department Deputy Mayor fields and our police leadership we intend to move swiftly we expect to see specific actions in the near term some of these actions may be seen others may be unseen given the recency of the incident and the fact that these are security matters I will not get ahead of myself on the specifics however I will report back as um uh I too would like to commend my colleagues and members of the staff for putting on a uh wonderful field of Honor event uh last Sunday um it's truly a sight to behold to see all those uh Flags uh many of which have been sponsored in the name of a veteran um my my father wasn't on the WASP but was part of I believe the same task force on his air character that that your on we should talk little about that um but uh I I truly want to thank everybody who came out for that event It's a Wonderful event every year in honor of our veterans um and then uh finally I did want to um just mention the election I'd like to thank the residents of burnard Township for reelecting mayor AC and I to serve on this committee uh additional Thanks goes to my family friends volunteers and supporters um and I'd like to congratulate everyone who participated in this process process up and down the ticket either as a candidate volunteer voter or anything in between our ability to choose our elected office holders is a sacred right uh one uncommon throughout history and even in many parts of the world today um but uh thank you and as you can see here tonight it's now back to the exclusive business of serving the people of Bernard Township mayor um so to the homestead um residents I hope that you feel confident that there is going to be action taken and I'll just speak from experience when I was at a Board of Ed or on Board of Ed property um two issues were raised to me and um I quickly was able when there's question of jurisdiction we do not get into other people's business um but we quickly ascertain what is that jurisdiction and whose ever jurisdiction works with in that jurisdiction to resolve an issue so I feel very confident that what the town can do the town will do and what the Board of Education can do they can do as well so hopefully you've brought that to their attention as well um if not this will be a byproduct of that so I hope that that you know that you are heard and again thank you for bringing it to our attention um in the future if ever you have an issue or a concern you can also send an email give us a call as well um you're welcome to come to meetings but I just want you to know we are ears are open and we are receptive so thank you for doing that um and calling out the the marathon just a fun fact I'm wearing flip-flops because there were a sign it was my first marathon that said all toenails go to heaven I Now understand what that means so um yes I'm wearing comfortable flip-flops in this cold weather so that's why I was hiding behind the deis to try to not have my picture taken anyway so F moving forward I'm not I'm going to try to keep my remarks brief because if my colleagues have' already mentioned it I don't want to uh reiterate uh going back from the last meeting our uh brick Community held multiple amazing events mend was on October the 18th and Dali was a wonderful program that was held on November the 1st at Mount Prospect the marching band was amazing on October the 19th um such amazing group of parents in addition to the very talented youth it was so much fun and brought me back to my marching band days um people have spoken about the election I just wanted just to reiterate to our clerk's office that's like your Super Bowl um and all the early voting that um all of those activities from what I understand it was tremendous um I heard nothing but positive feedback from folks and again that the voting experience and um truly grateful and humbled um to be able to continue to serve um this community and look forward to working with each and every one of you um and for those of us on the deis and then serving all of our residents um for those of us animals you know that our uh animal control did vaccination those you know when we pay our fees uh for our animal registration you get free vaccination um that happened and if you missed it there will be another went in January and we'll make sure that we'll publish that and please know that you do that before it's due so you can still get it in time and then get your registration submitted and no problem um I I selfishly plucked for those that have been here since the very beginning um about a very exciting program that we're doing tomorrow the world kindness day uh I don't want to bager this but we have seven Basking Ridge business Alliance businesses participating in particular two of the businesses tomorrow are hosting uh with again profits being given portion to PEC that includes barister coffee and Washington house if I'm thinking off the top of my head but the other businesses are often some of the women's own businesses and have some products that you can purchase and please go to the brba website for that the program though tomorrow night is a panel discussion of a diverse group of leaders in town um to talk about kindness so I hope to see you there we will record it and excited this is the first time we've done it ironically I guess perhaps with the temperature of maybe how folks have felt with the federal elections that maybe the the timing this had nothing to do with it and I'll tell you more tomorrow night as to how this even started it wasn't even my idea um but excited to do it another really important program that's happening right now and it's never too late is also in collaboration with the brba is our townwide food drive so um Gods goout food pantry um is a wonderful organization in our community and it serves three populations in our community including r o seniors and Veterans at the ba that food drive started October the 27th then it goes until November 17th um there will be youth volunteers at the stopage shop on Sunday if any body wants to stop by and see some bright and shiny faces um to help encourage people to go to Stop and Shop there are only six items that are being requested because these are items that are uh put into the prepacked bags that are given to these residents and so um there is a collection bin downstairs um in town hall as well as at other businesses so um I understand Christie that there's been a a nice it's we have a very generous Community um and have a nice storage of amount we will communicate what that is um but would love to see some more to help all of our all of our residents so very excited about that and lastly um understanding Bernards uh the uh public works department has that meeting has been rescheduled to December the 12th at 700 p.m. maintaining our infrastructure and services provided so please come and listen to Ryan uh tell us some about important things that that group group leads other little topics of uh headline I hope that you found it useful for the JC panel presentation um it was recorded and please do use that reported tree problem again um for my marathon training days I did a lot of miles in Bernard's Township and I started looking at all these poles there's a lot of trees that are in these lines so please report them they've got 72 hours to send a forestry person that'll help us too so um Public Safety in addition to what Andrew has said I just want to share from the somerset Hill Safety Committee October the 23rd we issued a joint press release because all the Somerset Hills all of our towns did acquire um the auto the automatic license plate readers so we issued a press release specifically trying to get that information to some of the other counties for anyone that might be wanting to think should we go over to Somerset Hills and you know break into homes and try to steal cars maybe not so that was all a part of the plan of us again working with each other to be able to um discourage people from coming into our community besides our resident protection ordinance and the cameras I hope people understand that the Somerset Hills we are alert our residents are alert and we'd rather people go elsewhere and last but not least affordable houses um going way back October the 18th the Department of Community Affairs published their report of the calculation of regional needs and Municipal obligations Bernard's Township was given a number 218 units if you hadn't already heard we are continuing to work with our Township professionals and we'll communicate updates when we have them so with that if we can go back to the regularly scheduled program fire and rescue appointments resolution 2 24- 414 appointment to membership in Township of Bernards volunteer first aid Squad of bassi R Fire Company number one pron chapoy full member may I have a motion so moved second chy roll call please mrte McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you and welcome next resolution 2024413044 Bernards volunteer for a squad of the Basking Ridge Fire Company number one and the Basking Ridge Fire Company number one William Edward frani full member may I have a motion please so moved second Christie roll call Miss DTE McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes Mary C yes motion carried thank you next resolution 2024 d420 appointment to membership in Township of Bernards volunteer first aid Squad of the Basking rdge company number one Neil Troy full Junior member may I have a motion please I'll make the motion second chrisy roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried and if you noted between resolutions it looks like uh two individuals had the same last name so what an amazing family we lucky to have them thanks so much moving on to unfinished business none this evening mayor then we go to consent agenda the items listed within the consent AG agenda portion of the meeting have been referred to the township committee for reading and study are posted on the agenda on the website are considered routine and will be enacted why one motion of the township committee with no separate discussion a separate discussion is required this item may be removed from the agenda by Township Committee Action and placed on the regular agenda under new business would anyone like an agenda removed from the town or the consent agenda seeing none may have a motion I make motion to approve the consent agenda second chrisy roll call please mrte McCarthy yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you then that brings us to letter B Marl appointment Library board you have a motion to approve I think it's a mayor you just make it very good thank you great right so I'm announcing the appointment of Emily Gallow feeling the unexpired one-year term of Dr Mary Jane MCN regular member expiring 12312 wonderful perfect then moving on to approval of minutes October 15 2024 Open Session minutes we have a motion please so moved second all in favor hi I any executive session none this evening mayor then that brings us to adjournment may have a motion