people need to hear you welcome to the Blairestown Township Committee meeting for March 26 2025 we have an opening roll call please kristen Mrs mayber here mr lman here mrs lance here deputy Mayor Orcott mayor
Morhead here can we please rise to salute the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting act 1975 chapter 231 setting forth the time date place and purpose of this public meeting for a legal notice published in the New Jersey
Herald andor the express times following the township's annual reorganization meeting at which the 2025 meeting schedule was adopted good evening everyone we got a really full house here tonight i mean this our budget meeting
we had Lorraine right she she was walking in and I said uh she goes "There aren't many cars here." I said "You're in you're in." You were but always good to have you uh we will uh we'll start our meeting tonight with the uh our public comments any public comments tara
I kind of I well expected this but I bought a friend and I'll explain good evening good evening um Tara um I guess wearing the I8 to 611 pendant NJOT hat which is shifted a little bit
because we're taking advantage of an opportunity because uh granted us because the Explore Act was passed into law in January so I'm going to um speak to the resolution you have on the agenda
uh for tonight and see if you have any questions about it so uh the reason for this resolution is specifically to request support for inclusion of the Delaware Watergap Recreation Area Local Communities as a gateway community pilot
program under the Explore Act so I do want to read what the Explore Act is the Explore Act Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experience Act Explore was
signed into law in January um of 2025 it seeks in part to foster and encourage responsible recreation on federal and state recreational lands and waters with an emphasis on enhancements to recreation areas long-distance bike and
hiking trails high volume nonfederal public lands and by mitigating negative visitor impacts on infrastructure and local communities by quote providing financial or technical assistance to gateway communities under an existing
program or entering into public private partnerships cooperative agreements memorandum of understandings and such um in our communities so that's in general what the explore act is out to do there's a
provision in there rel regarding gateway communities which is what we are just like Hardwick just like Nolton all of us on both Jersey and Pennsylvania um we are communities where in order to get to these places they have to travel through
our our resources and we provide resources to those visitors accommodations hospitality and whatnot um but we're also impacted by those visitors so this is required by law is
they're going to identify 10 gateway communities to participate in a pilot program that will be if nothing else quantifying how many visitors actually visit you know are we not the most
complicated conglomerate of access points to one of these you know what's really a visitor when who's traveling on 80 and traveling on 611 which of those are really considered a visitor so the quantify visitors um I do believe this will quantify um the visitor quantify
the visitor use impacts on our communities and impacts in particular you'll see Eric back there you know I was at Hardwick's meeting where Eric was up there talking about um ambulance being up on the mountain 22 times last year you know when when our fire and
rescue who were really created for the to serve the communities are up on the mountain they're less available to the local communities for which they were created um so just one example of impacts um that hopefully will get
quantified so it looks like it's a 5-year program looks like it's federally funded um it doesn't create exactly what does that all look like because it's new um so my the hope is that by participating in this program we have
the seat at the table to be a part of creating this national program and by having that seat at the table we can ensure hopefully that our complicated jurisdictional situation um will also serve others as this
hopefully will roll out as a national program so other people in our situations we can serve we can take care of our needs um for example in your resolution is the mention that um you're you reaffirm that the township's commitment to maintaining the long-standing designation of the
Delaware Watercap National Recreation Area as a national recreation area by having that seat at the table you can ensure that that's important to Blairestown um that that designation doesn't change that you can put in a plug for that every step of the way so
this is really calling on our federal legislators to reach out to the Secretary of Interior and request that our our Delaware Waterg area um communities are included in one of these 10 uh Warren County took the initiative to set this off uh they did that into
February congressman Kane had a letter ready to go and that letter was sent immediately so that letter is in the hands of the Secretary of Interior um with our request word is kind of catching up on the support that we anticipated would be there um so before
I um let you know why my friend Christine is here I want to ask what questions you might have about this question I have is wouldn't they consider all of the towns that are that surround that area as part of it anyway
no because like um just like the Wild and Scenic River project that we're involved in in order for your segment of the Palm Still to be cons to be designated it requires local support same thing with this it sounds like
they're using that similar model whereas if a municipality doesn't want to be part participate in that in that gateway community then their section or they would not be included so it's not um they're not going to impose this on for
example the northern communities like the Sussex County and Pike Sussex Pike if they don't want this if they're not on record um and their needs and their their situation is unique to them which is very different than what we have going on in our Delaware Water Gap area
so it's I don't um it's not automatic from what I read so what are the positives and the negatives i don't see I don't I can't um Well my glass is always perpetually 90% full so it's hard for me to see negatives but I've worked
hard on that um I I wouldn't be here if I saw negatives i I don't I don't see them um seat at the table the positives are what I explained seat at the table to be a part of of a national program um why not
we're so positive so fantasize so the the the fantasy I have with this is um they want to this is suggesting that they might say okay we have overcrowding at Dunfield Creek and other fairly local
resources that are also state you know we're unique because we have um the the what's the Warthingington excuse me we also have a as significant as as the Del Watergap National Recreation Area
that parking lot is really federal I mean safe that's where part of Warthingington State Forest so when you have overcrowding there for example I think we would all agree and this is part of the reason I have Christine with us tonight um I think the Appalachian
Mountain Club um and Catfish Pond would appreciate visitors being diverted to them and I think Blairtown with your interest in um ecoourism would appreciate visitors coming through Blairestown and and and using the services of your of our our our
restaurants for example on their way up uh to Moan Outdoor Center um so this act is uh looking to do that kind of thing to to address overcrowding issues and whatever so my fantasy is even our fire
and rescue what happens if they do identify how do you resolve our what I call Horton here's the who situation you know the reason we can't get attention on 80 and they can't get attention on 611 is our situation in the gap is so
watered down by being two states three congressional districts three different counties what if all of a sudden we become some kind of a gateway community and that is recognized as some kind of an entity and they rec they say okay
maybe our fire and rescue services are taxed because of providing services to the gap maybe maybe there's a way to compensate for that or maybe if nothing else there's an opportunity for training for like ropes the the technical rescue training because we have cliff climbers
you know we have to rely on Portland Um we're not I I don't believe anybody in our area is certified to do those kind of things so I see I see nothing but opportunity so what would they do like put things together or or whether
whatever towns are incorporated into it put package together or something so that they can give the people that do come to the area and come and that would be whatever the group decides to do i think that is the open possibility yeah
i I think um and by us having that seat we get to hopefully craft be a part of crafting we are the ones with the problem we are the ones that can fantasize about solutions yeah thank you anyone else i let you
know why I have Chris with us you teed it up very well so so I want to introduce my friend Christine who is the senior hospitality manager of New York and New Jersey for Appalachian Mountain Club and they on they run the Moheaggan
Outdoor Center and since it's in your resolution and we're friends I thought it would be only right to let her come here and just let you know the services that they provide up there for our community which I enjoy personally cuz that's my Thanksgiving buffet and I go up there with my canoe and I love just
being able to pull up to their lake catfish pond and dump it in and and paddle around and get my lake experience since Columbia Lake is no longer available to us that's another story but so I wanted to let if you don't mind give Christine a moment to say what what
she does up there sure so my name is Christine Molinsky i work for Appalachia Mountain Club i've been there for just under three years and one of the things that I am so proud to say to people anybody can afford it you could have absolutely
nothing our town this is a place where our town can go up there you could swim for free you could bring your own kaying canoe you could bring a lunch you could sit on the beach and you could enjoy that water you could come up to our free music on the mountain we have different
types of things where people could come up and practice and try to figure out if they could be an artist or not we like to explore different things we have fishing um we partnered with the NJP so it's free fishing you come up
there on your on the the day that they do it and um we hand out the fishing poles to the kid that gets the biggest fish the most fish the first fish the last fish they give us all these neat things to give out to the kids then for
uh we have the Boy Scouts that come up we comp them a cabin so they can come up and they can you know explore they can camp out we have camping with a buddy up there we do all these neat little programs where people can come up and and really enjoy it it's it's slow it's
off the beaten path we we're the Appalachian Trail runs right through my camp um where New York my other camp they trip on the business and it obviously helps them so Moheakin could definitely use a lift to keep something
like this going we lease the property from National Park Service so um you know we go into like these 10-year leases or whatever so I would love to keep that going you know when people come through we have a trail marshall
that's going through Straburg right now showing like how the hikers usually go through he he might be doing more of a pub crawl than most but um but these hikers they come through and you know they'll they'll call the the limo service to get a ride down to do their
laundry they'll go over we get groups that come up there and they do um they they have reunions and uh the the other Blair I can't think of all the different names of the different groups we get different schools and stuff like that
and then um reunions and they'll go over to uh the the brewery and they'll go down to Blaires Town and so they they are frequenting you know the the different stores and everything so it is helping the community and we we just
want people to come up and enjoy it as much as we do we're up there you know living their life and you know we get we get some kids that come in you know from Philadelphia or from from New York and uh they come in a little bit you know
hardened they because that's the life they live and when they come up there they don't have to be tough they don't have to be mean they could just There's a there's a porcupine you know and oh my god like how cool is this so we get to
see another side and we offer something to people that it's it's just unmatched that's what we do up there so I imagine and a Blair Town res yes I am and a North Warren student
so that's fantastic and Mr mayor may I ask a question if there has flyers and stuff would you like to send them to me so maybe we can post them on our Facebook page absolutely i love that anything we can do to promote
the cause thank you it's a It's a neat place and I've seen your I've seen your your passion on Facebook as well a little bit everywhere so it's it it's good stuff you know i So I grew up in Bloomfield and we just
didn't have you know this beauty here you know that pond is is amazing you know and people can go up there with their own boat they can go for free and and we rent them 15 bucks or four hours if they want to go up and pay but you don't have to so we get we get mom uh
the stay home rooms that come up there and they go up there and and we let them just use the space we have a little nature center and kids come up with the bones and the furs and stuff like that it's it's a cool little space and and it
would be nice to keep it going i think we saw on Facebook or somewhere you have a lot of events you know yes and you see the haunted trails that we had that was a big thing if you have We're not crazy about that it's It's really good interfere with our uh
That's okay no but there was a lot of cooperation there well yeah we actually were advertising for each other yeah we were telling people at ours to go down to yours and we were telling
you stand yes yes so thank you thank you thank you very good thanks for all your work you're welcome so um I trust you'll let me know if you needed anything else
thank you any other public comment before we move on seeing none we will go to our department head reports for the month of February we got Claire'stown Ambulance Corp Claire'stown uh Fire Department Company number one Department of Public
Works Police Department Tax Collector Township Clerk and vacant and abandoned properties we have a motion to accept the February department head reports so moved second all in favor i all opposed all right
um have some minutes to approve February 26 2025 our public session meeting minutes any discussion i just wanted to make a comment that I would like you to put in the minutes that the reason why I objected is
because I wanted to wait until the budget discussions could you please put that in advance for me on the uh on the open space do we have a motion to accept as amended i'll make that motion second all in favor i All opposed
okay and uh we have a proclamation tonight may you see here can you see it i I can see it yes I wore my wor my seeing glasses uh it's child abuse
prevention month it's April 2025 whereas children are our nation's most vulnerable members as well as our nation's most valuable resources helping to shape the future of New Jersey and whereas positive childhood experiences like loving caregivers and safe stable
and nurturing relationships can help mitigate trauma and the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences to promote the social emotional and developmental well-being of children and whereas childhood trauma can have long-term psychological emotional and
physical effects throughout individual's lifetime and impact future generations of their family and whereas childhood trauma including abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every community in the US and finding solutions requiring input and action
from everyone and whereas children you live in families with I don't think that's written correctly um with access to concrete econ economic and social supports are less likely to experience abuse and neglect and whereas prevention
is possible because of the partnerships created between families prevention advocates child welfare professionals education health community and faith-based organizations business law enforcement agencies and local state and national governments and whereas we acknowledge that in order to solve the
public health issue of abuse and neglect we must work together to change heres and mindsets through storytelling and sharing center the needs of families break down bias and barriers and inspire action from expected and unexpected
partners in prevention and whereas we are committed we are committed to advancing equitable responsive and effective systems that ensure all children and families are health and health and thriving whereas we recognize the need to
prioritize kids and invest in more prevention initiatives like home visiting and family strengthening policies economic supports and community-based child abuse prevention programs at the national state and local levels and now therefore it be resolved
that the Township Committee of Blairestown Township hereby proclaim April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month and urge all citizens to recognize this month by holding a narrative of hope for children and families through collaboration and the creation of an ecosystem of primary prevention that
does not currently exist in this country dated this 26th day of March 2025 mayor Rob Morehead who should have proof read this sorry I thought if it was a national thing I
would guess I did obviously it's it's not reading is fundamental month um all right we've got a uh an ordinance uh up for public hearing and adoption tonight it's 202502 the ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits
for the calendar year 2025 and establish a cap bank and uh we are at that we're at that limit we are at that limit joan would you like to uh like to give us a little overview of why we have to do this every year yeah
we do have a cap limit in in our town we're only allowed to welcome up to a certain percentage of our appropriations and currently we are at 3,874937 the cap tax is 3,8749 total so we are about uh what is
it 34 cents below our cap limit so this is just uh an ordinance letting us go up to that 3 and 10% okay we will uh this is a public hearing and adoption so we'll open it up to the
public any questions comments about uh 202502 seeing none do we have a motion to adopt i will make that motion roll call please roll call please mrs van Werberg yes mr lman yes mrs
lance yes deputy Mayor Orcott yes mayor Morehead yes an introduction of 202503 ordinance to amend section 184-20 stop intersections of code of the township of Blairestown
where is this going to be is this going to be inside No Road by right be right at the where you come in from North when you come down from from uh we're
opening road back up so where road meets the high school meets down below down below yeah that it's going to be a stop sign in there need a stop sign there isn't one there already well there there isn't one for that little parking lot that's right there that's the problem there's a little lot there that needs a
stop sign there's two there's there'll be two stop signs there eric we needed it so Eric Pizza put in the ordinance okay we have a motion to introduce so moved second all in favor all
opposed move that one along our consent agenda tonight six items uh 202539 resolution releasing executive session minutes completely unredacted 202540
uh the governor's council on substance abuses disorder uh the alliance to prevent substance abuse disorder 202541 a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement between Blairestown TA Township and Celebration
Fireworks um 202542 to 2024 tonnage grant application 202543 resolution requesting support for inclusion of Deliver Water Gap Recreation Area Local Communities as a gateway community pilot program under
the Explore Act and 202544 approving vouchers and claims any uh discussion on consent item consent agenda items 1 through six motion for approval nope i wanted to see if we could pull
out 202541 uh the fireworks okay so I would say I would be okay to discuss everyone but leave that one aside you want to discuss that first i I would okay yeah so maybe we can lump it
all together yeah yeah that's fine that so u my question was um the contract I think in the past um has been signed by the township but we've been provided with commitments of the financial backing from other municipalities and whatever was the fundraising that would
be placed towards that by other businesses and other sponsors and I don't think we have any of that in place at this point we are today I didn't receive any of it yeah i emailed it to you when I got into the office thank you um so the question then
becomes it's still half no we're on the hook for three grand three grand so if that's the case uh was there any discussion with regard to the police overtime or any of the other things are we are we committed for the three grand we we comfortable with that yeah i mean
that's that's what we do every year okay whatever they need from other towns or fundraising they that's up to them all right thank you very much for providing it to me i'm I'm okay combining all of them okay we have a motion i emailed it i just
made one copy just in case anyone had questions so I can make a copy for you yeah go ahead we're going to pass it down here we're going to pass it down to No no i'm glad i'm glad no it's important though
okay so um Deputy Mayor Orcott made the motion to combine them and discuss them as one vote on consent agenda items one through six so I second that let's vote on one through six all right roll call please
kristen mrs van yes mr lman yes mrs lance yes deputy Mayor Orpot yes caveat that I'm not voting on the PCFA oh
oh right okay mayor M yes two that need to just little caveat well then we Yeah we're not going to not vote on the bill we're not going to not we can go back and vote on it
individually it's like a $100 should have made a comment but it's okay i don't want you in this four years from now making a campaign issue out of some unfinished business our early voting date extension
yes so at the last meeting I um stated that our early voting would be here in the municipal building um and it was only going to be for two days the next day well a few days later I got an email stating that they are extending early
voting so it's now going to be June 3rd um instead of June 6th so June 3rd until um Sunday before the election day that's all okay no problem um and uh GeoWorks just signed that
today for the Walnut Valley Firehouse Remediation um few more tests that's all included in that that hopefully that last check we gave them and this No I don't think so i think there'll be another there's going to be another bill no yeah there'll be one another test
yeah they said there was two high salinity in one and it's bad sample one sample yeah they could pass that first sample the second they had to do second don't ever let anyone test your soil because it will take forever to make it right
um okay yeah uh new business we've got uh application for facility use uh celebration of life foundation for June 14th for Quint Bridge Park um anyone get a chance to look at that i
I have no issue with it we've already received the check and the um insurance agent approved their certificate of insurance i mean it's you're not going to need the police or anything no it's like less than They do it every year they never ask police yeah um
uh the food shed alliance that's that's for the uh the use of the parking lot for our farmers market and that is contingent on um a few certificate of insurance from vendors okay uh and then uh Boy Scout Troop 140 using Sycamore
Park on the 19th of May everything's good with that with a certificate of insurance all right and excuse me one second though i was thinking about this the baseball games and still aren't going to live longer they already are um told about it they do not have a games that day or soccer
it happens this is another thing that's every year so they they're all aware of it the Boy Scout troop is for the uh the retire flags they retired flags that day yeah you know what that is right i I can't
really read the It used to be London yeah now it's It's kind of hard to read is it but what is that event so again they do it every year um this is the name of the
church that does on prayer day May 1st um Pastor Mark Eagle I think his name is Eagle Conceal so sorry um comes to the municipal building with some other locals um other churches and they do a
prayer around the flag hole okay again done it every year since I've been here with the exception of CO all right uh and uh then the the the Playerstown Youth Softball shed maintenance request so what do you have
something on that Walter you were just they're they're going to do it all under your under your supervision sure okay and again that's all um by the um insurance agent because they had to have a certificate of insurance okay do we need can we vote on these all in their
entirety here i mean really you don't you requested that I don't put repeats on right however um I do put it on only because we need to make the public aware of things okay we just do a That's fine
nice all in favor for all of these well uh celebration of life pays us so we don't pay anybody out so we're good we're good all in favor okay i'll make the motion to approval fantastic we have a second i have a second all right all
in favor i all post great all right we love all that stuff uh there's a lot of correspondence is there anything in here of note that we need to pull out and talk about because a lot of it is Mrs van or sorry woman van mockenberg has requested that we um ask Jose Ortiz to
come to one of our meetings to explain what the heck's going on so with the permission of the committee I'll I'll reach out to him and see when he come to the next meeting i'm sure he's sure he's not going to have much to say no I think you'll have a pack yeah they don't have a a canned
response that that's all that the communication guys do they don't really they're not the numbers guys so they they can't speak too much on billing but uh it would be nice to hear because my bill has doubled over the past year and
then we have a 20% almost a 20% increase coming up in June also um I don't know if you want me to have Lisa Hibs come at a different time cuz she's the one that does the um the IDT the energy
um program yes did you see the email that they had said yeah it's in your correspondence yeah it's it's it's a it's a grim situation with we're all going to be eating candle light dinner come in today walter was there too and uh her her bill
which she said she really never had to win $280 a month is 900 for two months in a row um actually you made a comment to me about tagging the mayor jose responded instantly you did well I have to get the account number so so thank
you yeah they couldn't find her i think we're going to look her up uh but yeah it's it's really a it it's going to get to the point where we're going to be paying more in electric than in taxes that's how I
those things that must I want to see electric let let us all know please be on that uh from the township attorney relatively quiet mayor but I I did note in in the package there's a couple
letters that our zoning officer sent out to property owners with pictures attached that show quite a bit of junk and debris um I've just recently been working on some ordinance uh upgrades and amendments and some of
the other municipalities because uh and I'll check with Dave on this but um a lot of zoning officers are running into a lot of problems enforcing their summones in municipal court municipal court can't issue bench bench warrants
they can't do trials by absentee and the word has kind of gotten out on the street that if you get a zoning something you can just ignore it at your leisure um so it's become quite frustrating for zoning officers um so
and I I know also he's citing a an old privately operated dump ordinance which is not really the best way to go about this it also doesn't make it sound really good for the homeowner i think a lot of them take offense to that so um I know but they're we know they're not
operating dumps obviously some some of the picks are pretty bad but um so I think for next month in advance of the meeting I'll circulate u perhaps a proposed revis ordinance for you guys to start digesting maybe we can get a little little handle on these things
process of trying to implement in some way other municipalities i think it's kind of unique across the state but I think it's enforceable it's basically there are statutes that say we can you know if somebody ignores the zoning officer we can actually do the cleanup and impose the cost as a lean
but the problem is that can be several thousand dollar cost you got to dig in your pocket first and recover yeah um we can add that permission to to a a proper property maintenance ordinance but I also want to go one step further and and instead of having a summon issue
potentially to have a a a notice of hearing if a notice of violation is ignored the next notice would not be a summon be a notice of hearing for here and then this would be our due process here for anybody who wants to contest the nature of the notice violation that they've issued if they
don't show up we can still drive them an absence again and at the end of the day if we find that the violation is is appropriate um instead of cleaning it up ourselves we would have our zing offer get a couple quotes we would select the lowest responsible quote and certify
that and I think that I think that's uh it's a bit creative I think but I think it will put some heat back in zoning enforcement um because it's not your judge's fault or anything this is a statewide problem ever since the municipal court reforms
um several years ago um but any I thought that maybe would looking at this we take a look at that maybe get something to you for the next month on that um and I think we also mentioned the dog the dogs u impound fee stuff so I think you'll be see I'm working on
that as well and a couple nice with Rob so I think you'll see something probably on that okay very good thank you other than that I think we're pretty quiet kristen you have any reports um just a reminder May 16th there's shredding event will be held here in the municipal
parking lot from 8 to 11th and spring cleanup will be May 27th through May 31st with vouchers being handed out April 2 april 10th april 10th april 10th oh April 10th we're having Thank you we are having um a seminar here in the
municipal building for seniors regarding the new anchor program um it is going to be held um by members of the state and they're also going to um I guess have a setup to log you on to the program and
help you with that so now I'm done committee woman Falconberg okay all right uh first happy birthday Lorraine lorraine's birthday was a couple of days ago hey Lorraine happy birthday happy birthday she works
really hard on on uh the seniors and on March 5th we had the pre privilege of hosting assembling the mail uh to speak to our seniors we had uh seniors from more than our town other towns didn't come in uh for it was well attended and
they had asked a lot of questions he was here over an hour and a half answering answering questions he got his money good he got our money's worried about yeah so that that was a nice a nice program on finance the committee met on March 22nd at 9:00 a.m to discuss this
year's budget we're limited to a 3.5 cent uh increase in appropriations a 3 and a half cent increase in not on taxes please don't think that that's taxes percent percentage on the cap on the cap
percent right percent in appropriations uh which became extremely difficult to maintain since the cost of living over the last 3 years uh 2022 was 8% 2023 was 4.1 and 2024 was 2.9 so this uh consumer
price index was not reflected in our um ability to raise the cap to bring our cost up as as the CPI had gone up um that affected everything from labor to utilities to insurance and products and
just an example our cost this year for salt alone the um CFO is telling me is close to 100,000 already is that more than we've ever paid for salt that has to be an alltime high yes well you know if you look at the weather this year it was very little snow and a lot of ice
yeah lot of lot of a lot of ice we went down to five below yeah so and they were salty constantly i think every single storm they have a lot of salt going out um so um we will be introducing the budget on April 23rd and the public hearing will be May
28th uh as far as shared services are concerned we've received three different emails stating that the salaries from other municipalities are pensionable now we just have to work up our numbers so yeah okay um uh the court we're just
exploring possibly bringing the court closer to home um all right in speaking with our CFO she had made a couple of suggestions regarding um one of the things that we should really look at in changing and this is a change in our
employee benefits to the Omni Healthcare only for any new employees um the Omni there's a big difference between the Omni Healthare and the other healthcare that we were providing and she feels that the way things have been going we could you know everybody else
gets grandfathered but any new employees we would only permit under the Omni Healthcare so I don't know if that would have to be a resolution as a change to there's a there's a form for that from from the state the only thing I just to
offer the Omni Yeah yeah and I'm not quite sure you're going to be able to do that to check it then because my understanding is they have multiple different categories about five yes the last form I saw I just recently saw this in our municipality they state was indicating you must provide one in each
category like there's an HSA there's a high level there's one where the omni is so I I think Chris Christine better check on that all right no I'll talk about that to follow up on that uh the other suggestion that our CFO had made was um increasing the dog fees that uh
possibly going um to you know in order to cover our acco rabies clinic our licensing uh maybe going 20 to 20 and 25 and 10 and 15 for seniors and and um federalists so that's something else and that would be an ordinance change
because I believe that's on ordinance the the values money that's there so that's another thing to think about but um we have a lot of dogs in this in this town and you know we are paying Well when you say think about it what what would what would spur any action to do
with that i guess a vote to to change something back in the next year yeah I will yeah i want to just reconfirm the numbers with Christine we did raise you know last year no last year to 10 to$10 from $6 i think we're still very
much on a lot of other towns yeah we we kept the we kept the seniors and the veterans the same we never changed theirs right so we're looking it's not a big increase it really isn't but you know as time goes on between the the
fees that the state is collecting right the rabies clinic the licensing all these different costs if we can recoup a little bit even uh you know maintaining the dog park and everything um it may be it's something's got to happen because
do those like surprise vet bills also come out of that copper well you know what every now and then we'll have the comes out of a dog right all right that's it thank you give the
name of it uh just an update on uh Walnut Valley septic uh for the field um all of the required uh permits were submitted to the health department uh they uh our engineers have received back
their uh report uh they had some comments that they're addressing uh they're going to check back with them after they resubmit their comments but they should have that next week cool weather's getting warmer it is
um Committee Lance thank you um well just a couple things first I was very happy to be able to uh work towards uh the budget that's been uh discussed and will be presented shortly um I think the whole thing for that is to understand
that uh the basis of allowing the cap bank to happen is not that anyone's raising your taxes um they they will go up but the whole point is to be able to bank the ability to um work within our means uh there's not any way that we can
we can you know raise more money but that's not the point point is there are so many things that are just contractually obligated and we're limited to what uh how they're handled and how they're allowed to be funded so I was happy to see that we were able to come to a good resolution for that um
for we have two grant applications that we're working on right now for Blairestown Historic um one of them is a renewal of uh the one from last year for the county um historic uh u sorry municipal trust and how it's going to
work out hasn't been even announced yet but we're ready um the other uh one that we're doing is something through the state and we're looking forward to presenting some of the same information that we have towards uh receiving that um in addition to that there is an
upcoming recreation grant which will be a renewal of the one that we got last year for the Walnut Valley Field so we'll be working on that eric I think we're going to have to spend some time putting some more numbers together for our engineer for that that was 70,000 if
I'm not mistaken last year last year um but I think the the whole bit for that there there's a there was a limitation so what we're really waiting for is what is the number what are we allowed to apply for up to so uh but it's nice to see that that's progressing what would you do with that grant that's Walnut
Valley right so it's a recreation grant so the first grant was there for the uh diagnostic and planning and some of the different samples similar to the spot that it's adjacent to which they had all the pollution there from the uh W Valley
Firehouse so it's immediately adjacent to that so the concern is that anything that's there is not going to have had any spread uh we're confident so far that none of it has the samples that we're going are getting better and better so I'm happy for that the problem
is the location and proximity to the uh uh the body of water that's there i guess the tributary creek yeah so that's that's a problem for that but um it'll be very very nice to be able to see a functioning uh um septic in that building that's I'm thinking I was
thinking I'm looking at that picture i'm thinking of the Borak property oh no no no pat would be happy no it is nice because the different facilities that we have should be you know top-notch and to be able to offer uh our residents uh you know that is positive that's all I have
all right very good deputy Mayor Cut what do you have for us i have nothing tonight thank you is it a full moon or something just keep going there are you sure i'm going to give you Should I get a cap wait can I
We're going to take your time and give it back to me because Bob Herstat is in the room even though I don't have my statistics here he does and he has the story to tell bob I'd love to hear do you know them off the top of your head i have nothing to say okay
I don't think that I I squad handles the about thousand about 100 calls this month uh volunteer uh hours about 768 volunteer hours we also
had most of our calls were grass town is not the amount i'll let you ask some questions in a minute when I'm done um we entertain troop 140 on Monday they came to our building we gave them a tour um for all our equipment and what it
cost for instance a a Lupus Lupus CPR machine was $17,000 kind to buy a car for that kind of money and we have three of them that we need in our rigs uh it kind of make them stop to think that what it cost to
run uh we let them go in our rigs we show them how to refill oxygen tanks uh they may have gotten a uh American i'm not sure probably part of their first name yeah exactly um and let's see i know you want
to ask my questions so if you're not um if you don't ask me um okay uh regarding uh not SWAT not having u an ambulance we actually they still don't but now Atlantic Health is running a rig out of N uh it's not
called 41 which is the township designation number it's called 1551 51 is the rig number and they've been answering some calls which is terrific um they're staffed which is great um and uh we have been going west fortunately
because we take a rig out of town with manpower to go there and this leaves our county but no one on the call is a second call with we just can't get it fortunately they've taken care of it and let's see what else uh do they come out
of both house or do they keep they come out over at Milton has an old need to be updated but everything uh and u let me think i think I ran out of stuff sorry
guys sorry no that's okay that's okay the other thing I wanted to mention is that um we um we were able to understand uh this past Saturday when we had our our finance uh um our budget uh discussion that um we're in the market for a new rig um and we are looking for
something in the neighborhood of 300,000 in order to fund that that's about a new cost because there's a 19 it's a 20 it's 20 years old 30 years old as a matter of fact uh it kind of sits there it has a small old week we don't really want EMS
calls on it we put the standbys however a new rig cost $300,000 fully fully equipped i mean you can buy a rig for less but then you have to have So just so you know we did get the
commitment of our u auditor to be able to sit with us and understand uh the opportunities that we would be able to present some of those fees or some cost sharing to some of the neighboring communities as well since we do serve them well that's very nice that's good to know speak to my accountant excuse me
the squad's account you don't want my account well the squad's account just the same i didn't want it to pass and I apologize for having to call back but I appreciate No no i appreciate your insight thank you everybody thank you everybody i'll give you a
second chance Debbie do you have any all right i just thought something okay all right so uh let's see um police over the past month a few uh few things occurred owner of Simply Day Spa
uh Sun Chang was arrested and charged with one count of sexual assault 12 counts of criminal sexual contact for illegal contact conduct during massages they're asking for anyone who feels they may have been a victim uh to contact our
police department and at this time we have an additional nine victims who have come forward with more charges pending uh Warren County paving Facebook post and Nixl announcements are forthcoming they'll be paving 521 Stillwater Road
from Bridge Street to High Street starting the week of April 21st paving will be two days during the elementary school spring break one lane will be open during that time pipe work and site prep will begin next week and there will be lane closures veil Road and Mount Herman Road is scheduled to be paved the
following week of April 28th they will have one lane open and scheduled to take 4 days and Officer Dylan completed defensive tactics instructor training it's a new requirement for police licensing and it gives us the ability to stay compliant without sending officers
to the police academy every year as far as uh Blairestown uh fire department host company number one they had fairly light month they did uh they had 10 members participate in an ice rescue training exercise with Hope Fire
Department they had 18 calls for service in February which is pretty it's on the light side it's nice uh 11 in Blairestown three in Hardwick and four mutual aid and uh I don't think I have anything else
to bring forth you mentioned you were talking about the county that's the county do they notify the schools they do notify yeah they work that's that's why they're working with the uh the spring break uh window there uh open up the
floor again any Joel do you have anything for us tonight you just you just wanted us to I do have something I would like to say come on up i have to identify myself i'd like that okay joel Mc Green Farm Valley Lane Clartown New
Jersey you don't have many patrons here tonight um or cut or members of the public and I think one of the reasons is I would say half of you don't talk into the microphone including our esteemed lawyer
who I never hear at all i wear hearing aids and I sit in the back and most of the time I can't hear you and um be nice if I could and uh please try to do that and maybe I'll come back
again can you hear me Joel i absolutely am I okay you're fine and here I thought you were coming up to thank the quick work of the road department for fixing the farm your sign at your private
road within hours i believe it was fixed that was the second thing I was going to say oh okay stole my thunder but thank you appreciate it thanks for all the work you guys do appreciate it thank you do me a favor gentlemen if you come and
and that happens we we asked Lorine and I asked somebody else one time that was sitting in the back just raise your hand yeah you can stop it if you can't hear us stop us at any time it's it's it's fine there's also you turn towards pinging there's like a feedback kind of
thing all night since you're asking I don't hear anything no I I actually hear it with my with my miracle ears i hear it bob do you hear like like a feedback unless it's the supernatural talking to anybody
i think you have the youngest ears in the in the audience so I'll give you a pass the only thing we don't hear is when you actually turn your head to speak to another country person you knock us away from the microphone we don't want that that's probably You did not go up to the
microphone and I heard nothing you said maybe that's your intent see yeah i'll tell you i'll tell you now oh I thought there I thought you guys was going to fight us i don't want to hurt
i would love a motion to adjourn so move in favor and all oppose thank you everyone [Music]