Welcome all to the June 26th meeting of the Bridge Township Council. In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act of New Jersey, the adequate notice of this meeting was provided on December 10th, 2024 by sending written notice and electronic notice to the
Courier News in the Breeze, posting on the website in the bulletin board in the municipal building and filing with the township clerk. Madame Clerk, may we have the roll call, please? Councilman Kersh here. Codilla here. Councilman Pedroso here.
Councilman Green. Good evening here. President Ogalis. Yes. Uh Councilman Cordilla, would you please lead us in the pledge 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. Thank you. We have the minutes of the regular session of June 12th, 2025. Has everyone had an opportunity to opine on those? If so, could I have a motion, please, on
those minutes? I'll make that motion. A second, please. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Minutes are accepted. uh township council reports. Can we start with Alan Cordilla, please?
This evening, I have uh no report to present. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Michael Kersh, could we have your report, please? Yes. I'm going to focus only on uh uh land use uh land use boards uh
most recent meetings. the zoning board met uh two nights ago and completed the um uh Starbucks case on uh 22. Uh so after 16 months uh that was uh resolved in the uh the applicant's favor. Um
considerable change was made to the original plan and uh the belief of the uh zoning board is that that uh best suits the needs of the community. Um and uh last night the uh planning board met and adopted the uh fair share housing
plan as was required before June 30th. That's my report. That was good news. Thank you. Uh Tim Ring, your report, sir. Thank you, sir. I just have one item of note. Participated in an event last night with the Plan NJ group, a group that uh helps support special
needs individuals throughout uh the area over at uh Somerset Patriots. And that's my report. Thank you. Uh, Philip Pedroso, your report. Uh, thank you, sir. First of all, I just want to, uh, uh, acknowledge the men and women of our
armed forces that, um, performed a very brave operation in the Middle East. Uh, I thank them for their service and I appreciate their bravery. Uh, the council will be voting on the 2025 municipal and sewer budgets tonight. I prepared a proposed budget
amendment for the council's consideration tonight. I asked the council president and clerk for it to be added to the agenda so the public could review it and offer feedback. I believe strongly in public participation. Whether it's support or criticism, it
matters in the decisions I make on your behalf. Although I had already emailed the proposal to the mayor and the council members, I wanted it on the agenda for full transparency. At 3:48 p.m., the clerk sent out a revised agenda that included my proposed
budget amendment. But shortly after, the council president, without my consent, directed the clerk to remove it. At 4:27 p.m., the clerk issued another agenda with the item removed. It is unfortunate that the public wasn't given the opportunity to review and weigh in on
these proposed changes. That decision was not mine. I brought I brought printed copies and placed them in the back of the room. If you're watching from home, you can view the proposed uh budget amendment at bwtnj.com
or on my council Facebook page by searching Petroso Council. Thank you. Thank you. Uh my report is as follows. Uh summer is here in the heat wave. Uh for those of you who uh passed it, uh we just passed the longest day of the year.
the the the shortest one won't be for six months but take time. Uh PSENG using its uh selected paving company has begun the widespread repaving of numerous streets distributed by its gas main replacement project. We're going to hear a little bit more about that from Mr.
Burr in a few minutes. Uh all work on the effective streets is be uh completed before school returns in September. uh based on the agreement with our administration uh we can expect curb to curb work. Country club has already been
milled tomorrow I understand from Bill Bur uh that move on the meadow. Uh for me personally this is another year of grandchildren graduating from high school time and kids move on. Uh my grandson Lucas Travisano graduated from
Bridgewater Rariton High School last Thursday. The school used Jersey Mike's Arena at the Ruter's Athletic Center for an indoor graduation. Lucas will attend High Point University in in North Carolina and major in economics and business analysis. The following day, my
granddaughter, Grace Norgalis, who lives in Branchburg, graduated from Somerville High School uh in an outdoor graduation at Somerville. Uh she is bound for the University of Georgia to be a veterinarian. Uh when she called me very excited a couple of
weeks back after she had decided and accepted, she said, "Grandpa, I'm going to be a bulldog." Because that's now I know George's bulldogs. That is my report. Mayor or administrative report, sir. Okay. Uh under proclamations, we have
none. Uh presentations at this point. Under item eight, we have the 2025 road problem uh road program bill. Is that going to be you? Come on up. Good evening. Get myself situated.
Okay. Thank you for having me. Um, what I'd like to do is just try to keep this brief, but I want to give everybody uh kind of an overview of where we were at at the beginning of 2020, 2021 until now. I want to put a bow on the 24 road
program. And then I just want to talk a little bit about our 25 program and where we hope to be at the end of this year. So everyone is aware um Bill stand a little closer to the mic. Sure. There you go. So when we started the comprehensive road improvement plan back
in 2020 2021 this body committed to a five-year plan funded at 8 million a year. We just completed the fourth year of that fiveyear plan. During that time, we've improved probably a little over 260 of the
township's 600, a little over 600 roads. So, almost half of the roads have been improved over the last four to five years. This year, we're going to we're going to talk about it a little more uh in a minute, but this year we have a bond ordinance that's valued at less than $8
million, but I'll talk about that in a minute. Um, so like I said, we have 260 plus plus or minus roads have been improved. Uh, that averages out to a little over 50 a year. 50 to 60 a year we've been improving, which uh I still
pinch myself sometimes because the fact that that we're able to pull it all together and get it done each year is in my opinion is it's pretty impressive. A lot of work, a lot of effort goes into it. Um, and it's it's very gratifying, frankly. So
this year we're proposing the same rationale that we've used the last four to five years talking about the regional approach to improving the roads around town. We have six regions. Each year we uh identify and we engineer
a cluster of roads in each of those regions, put them out to bid, award contracts. Frankly, it's proven to be a very successful um way of improving roads, lot of contractor interest, very good
bid prices. If I had to put a number on it, I would say you're saving at least 20% by by grouping the roads together in each of those regions and attacking them in that manner. So, very successful. um
frankly allowed us to get more roads done than we we otherwise would have been able to. So, um, when I was here, I think in December, we had talked about the 24 program. We gave everyone an update. At that point in
time, we updated that. All of the roads in the 24 program with the exception of one small neighborhood were completed, and that neighborhood was Pine, Davis, Biddle, and Weaver. A cluster of of roads right up off of Bosar near
Washington Valley. Those roads at the end of last year had not been completed. We committed to finishing them this year. They were done probably about a month ago. So, as of now, with the exception of some minor punch list items from last year, the 2024 road program is
complete. Moving on to this year, I mentioned um this year I think on the agenda is a $6.1 million bond ordinance that uh hopefully is up for introduction.
Took a little bit different approach this year in putting together that ordinance. You've heard us talk previously about how aggressive we we are and how successful we've been at getting grant money for road improvements. This year's
bond ordinance really reflects a lot of those grants. and we're committed to try to get three for sure, maybe even four constructed under the 2025 ordinance, which I think makes up for the
difference in 8 million down to 6.1 million. Because if you're taking a look at the slides, and I'll show you another one in a minute, we have just under $2 million worth of road grant money that we'd like to take advantage of. It's
reimburseable grants, but the net impact on the road improvements should still allow us to get the equivalent of $8 million worth of road work done while utilizing those grants. So, I think it's a great thing to to to highlight and frankly champion. Um, and and on the
next slide, you're going to see a little bit more about that. this year's road plan similar in terms of the number of roads that are included, similar in terms of the roadway mileage that's included.
The major difference is that this year we're incorporating more alternate bid items. So, we're trying to give ourselves a little bit more flexibility and and and frankly squeeze as much road work out of that ordinance as we can.
We've implemented successfully alternate bid items in the past when we talk about our road packages. We're going to include a few more this year and I think it's going to allow us to to get as much bang for our buck as we can out of that out of that 6.1 million.
You see on your agenda the bond ordinance lists a number of roadways. I I forget off the top of my head. I think there's 10 roads listed. Those are the roads that we're committed to doing as part of the ordinance. When we flip to the next slide,
you're going to see a little summary. I think you'll see. Yep. You're going to see a summary of those grants that I was talking about. First one is we have a $750,000 grant under the NJ DOT local
transportation projects fund. that's going to allow us to improve all of Vanvetton as well as South A off of Finder Aav. The second one is a a a safe routes to schools grant uh for the Adamsville
school neighborhood. It improve it it improves sidewalk across the frontage of the school up Morgan Lane and some of the other side streets. That was a grant we got a few years ago for almost a million dollars towards the construction cost. What's included in this year's
ordinance is the initial engineering fee, which is why 337 is listed. That amount is going to allow us to get going with engineering. That amount is fully covered by a separate grant that we obtained by DOT.
The third project is an improvement to Country Club Road. Last year, we put in a grant application to improve the northerly stretch of country club north of Roosevelt up to the township border. It also includes
Ardsley Lane and Goldfinch Drive out to Meadow. And you can see on the right side, I had I I I didn't mention the grant money, but you can see on the right side, 750, 337. This latest one for Country Club, 356,000.
The last one is another NJ dot municipal aid grant. That's to improve the neighborhood of Plymouth, Jeffrey, and Ryan. That's up off of Crim Road right next to the Crim School by Washington Valley. And that one is is just a little
over $400,000. So when you take a look at the roads that are listed in the bond ordinance title, you take a look at these these 10 or 11 roads, what you're looking at is about 20 or 22 roads.
We have proposed almost 50 roads, but many of them are alternate bid roads. So we're really trying to give us maximum flexibility in getting, like I said, as much work done under that 6.1 as possible. Bill, I have a question on this slide.
Do you prefer to wait till the end or you want to You can fire away. Sure. You mentioned the sidewalk in front of Adamsville School, right? If that's along Route 28, wouldn't that be the state's responsibility? Not the state's responsibility. They're
even though it's a state highway. It's a state highway and we have to get permission from the state just like we would the county, but they're not going to propose to install sidewalk along that roadway. Okay? So, it's common place for a municipality
with the state or the county's consent to seek a grant, but they're not going to improve the sidewalk themselves. And and and frankly, Councilman, that's only a part of the project. Understood. We are wrapping it up other roads, but I understand your point. We like kids
better than they do. Exactly. Yeah. Um really last thing I want to touch on and then I'll open up to any questions is u council president to your point PS&G has been working since early this week milling roads in that country club. I
think they finished country club and van Holton. Tomorrow they're going to be working on uh from the northern stretch of meadow making their way down towards eastern turnpike. They're going to do some of the side neighborhoods. We'll see paving start next Tuesday unless we
get in inclement weather next Tuesday. Um trying to minimize the length of time that the roads stay in that mil condition. Unfortunately, we have to wait through the weekend and then they're going to start on Tuesday with paving on country club and follow the same sequence that they followed for the
milling with the paving. So, there's a slight chance it might be done before we break for the holiday. Worst case, paving will be completed Monday after the 4th. I think that's July 7th. It's almost too hot to pave the last couple days anyway, wasn't it? Very hot.
It wouldn't never cure. Very hot. Uh, it will take longer. It will certainly take longer. And if you allow people to drive on it too soon, they're just going to tear it up. The road would be rutdded. Yeah. So, it it's actually it's a good point. And it's worked out in our favor because trying to keep the detours and
the interruptions to a minimum. If you put that asphalt down when it's 100° out, we're going to have to keep them closed a little bit longer. So, yeah. But that that that's all I have right now. Any other question? Go ahead. What happens if it's hot for a couple of
days? Say we get three days in a row at 100 temperature. Is it reasonable to think that that neighborhood would not have access to their homes? No, no. I I I guess I'm trying to follow you, Councilman. If if we have a 100 degree temperature for several days in a
row, it's still going to cool down in in the evening. So, if if we pave in hot weather, it's it's still going to cure. It just might take a couple of hours more. And then once Yeah, it it's not an extended period. It's a few hours more. So, if we open the road up at say 4:00
normally, we may have to keep it closed till 6:00 or 7. But once the nighttime temperatures come down to a reasonable level, the road will set up for sure overnight and there'll be no issues with it. Okay. Thank you. And council president, I just a few quick comments I wanted to highlight. Uh first of all, I
want to thank the council for council's continued commitment to uh $8 million a year road pro road project. This is the fifth year in a five-year uh commitment and um you know after this year we will
reassess um with with Bill's help and of course with input from the council about where we go uh going forward. So uh just because we're completing five years I don't want anybody to think that we're not doing more roads. The question will be um how do we approach it? Do we do
the same approach? Do we have a multi-year plan? Do we, you know, the the goal ultimately is to be able to u when we first started this, there was a lot of roads that were in extremely bad condition. And of course, the worse the condition of the road, the more costly it is to do. So, the initial goal was to
get in there and uh address the worst roads as quickly as possible to make sure they didn't get even worse, to stop roads from going from not great to that worst condition. uh so that way we can make the dollar go longer um and uh we can get more when
we're repaving roads that don't need to be reconstructed, we can get more mileage done. So we will take a look at that going forward with the idea being that we'll continue to do an aggressive road program. Uh but we may recommend less than $8 million a year going forward, which was the, you know,
ultimately the goal. Um, I also want to thank uh Bill and uh his team and the finance team, everyone that worked with us to get some of this grant money. Um, it's really um phenomenal that we can continue to do this project but be able
to do it uh this year with a significant amount of money which doesn't come out of our taxpayers. Um, one of the things that we talked about was because these are reimburseable grants um you know we have to there's other challenges. It's like Cam Cromwell. The federal government comes and they give you a $4
million check, but it's not really a check. You got to spend your money and then go get it back again. Um, so we were creative this year in terms of how we use the grant money to be able to um uh implement it to put $8 million a year
uh this year into the roads and to do it at less cost to our taxpayers. And uh the last thing I want to highlight just for anybody who's I think the council knows this pre members of the public with the work being done by the utility companies, we work with them as much as
possible. It's not perfect uh sometimes, but um to make sure that we know what roads they're doing so that we are not if we know someone's doing a road, we get a call from a resident that says, "Why aren't you paving our road? It's really bad." And we know say, "We know." But if PSCG or the water company is
going to be either doing that road next year or or you know a year or so out, well, we don't want to be paving it just for them to tear it up again. The other thing that we've done is to coordinate with them with regard to like my road. Uh it was done, I don't know, 10 years
ago, 8 years ago. Half of it's paved from the center line to the curb. The other half is not. And I don't know about other residents, that drives me insane because one half is bad. It's not even no part. It's literally you drive down the road, nice paving, bad paving. So, what we've done is worked with PSCG
or the water company to say, "We don't want you to do that." So, on the roads where they're not required to redo the whole thing, Bill and and Mike and everybody involved has worked to uh, you know, get some roads where they're going to we don't want any roads that are
partially paved like that. So, if I'm making this up, but if PSNG is required to do a mile of roadway, we'd rather be, you know, a mile that's completely done and then that maybe means that the next year we're having to make up the the other half of those other roads if it
doesn't cover everything. Um, but we've worked with them to make sure that it's being done in the most efficient way possible. Um, both from their money and from ours to maximize the road work. So, uh, Bill, thank you very much for all your work on on this and, uh, for everybody that, you know, as part of your team that's done this. It's a major
accomplishment for the number of roads that we've done. So, thank you. You're welcome. And Bill, I personally want to thank you for your leadership. You have probably received a few more calls from me than probably anybody else in the township. Maybe not.
We'll let him decide that. But you've always been here. you're very responsive. You call back and you do a great job and I'm looking forward to a successful 25 uh road program again. Thank you. Any other questions for just a comment? Yes, sir. Um something I
surfaced last year and I discussion of the roads and some of the stuff PACG the county has posted that starting July 9th they're working on North Bridge Street. Not the worst section but section is actually in pretty decent shape. don't know what they're doing, but as we're
closing roads and all that, I just point that out cuz I get frustrated when we don't talk to one another and you can't get anywhere easily when multiple roads are closed in an area. So, the the water company has approached us. I guess they have identified that there's an issue
with the water man on North Bridge Street. There's multiple water main issues on I mean it's a regular occurrence from the firehouse at Green Null down to boat drive is what they're talking about. So they they've approached us. They've they've collaborated with both engineering as
well as PD to come up with a traffic control plan, but um they do have plans. Unfortunately, the county just repaved that that stretch of road, which I think speaks to the collaboration and the communication between all the parties. um try to avoid it. But sometimes they
only paved to Woodlong Lton. Excuse me. They didn't pave that whole stretch. They've only paved part of it. Right. The nor the northerly the north. Yeah. Correct. Yep. But the section from Prince Rogers to 22 is what needs to be paved. So, we're just waiting for some
final updates and then we have plans to post updates as well on our township's website. Um we'll keep an eye on it. Thank you again, Bill. You're welcome. sharing this time. Thank you, Bill. Our our next uh mini speaker here uh will be
Sergeant Jamie Edwards, who's the OEM, Office of Emergency Management. Council President, it's Lieutenant. I I beg your pardon, Lieutenant. Thank you very much. Sorry. Uh good evening. There's a uh resolution before the council tonight asking them to adopt the Somerset County
Hazard Migation Plan and Bridgewater's participation in that plan. So, we just wanted to give you a brief overview of what this hazardous mitigation plan is. Um, so some of a lot of what we do in emergency management is not responding to a disaster. We do a lot of work ahead of time and preparing and mitigating
against uh damages to personnel, people, and property. So, what the hazard mitigation plan does is it an analyzes vulnerabilities to a township and in this case, Somersa County and Bridgewater Township and the surrounding areas. um and then look at our
strengths, our weaknesses, and areas that need improvement. Um and we try and do that before disaster strikes. Uh and this is an ongoing project. It's done should I think it's done every 5 years. The last time it was fully adopted was 2019. Um and it's basically a living
document as storms and hazards come, uh we re-evaluate it and look at our list. So, one of the things that we do um in each municipality, again, each municipality has a plan that's part of Somerset Countyy's plan, is we look at some of our problem areas. Now, if you look at our vulnerabilities in
Bridgewater were susceptible to flooding in certain areas and severe storms and power outages. Um, so we have an ongoing project list. In the LA 2019 update, we had a list of projects. Uh, many of them were unable to complete because we didn't have funding, we didn't have
personnel. Um, and but they're priorities and they're listed in order as our priorities. Uh, so for example, one of the items that dropped off our list this year was the Blossom Drive drainage project because engineering was able to get funding from another source to complete that project. So what we did
this year is we worked with uh engineering, public works, municipal services and looked at some of our problem areas that have been flooding especially after Ida and uh and around Ida and we added those projects in uh poor drainage areas to the list. Uh that
doesn't mean that we're going to complete the projects. It basically means that they're on our uh the horizon. We understand their issues but we meet have challenges of money personnel uh and um you know again funding. So um that's the broad overview
of hazard mitigation. The other important part to keep in mind is that um according to the federal disaster act mitigation act of 2000 uh a community is required to adopt a hazard mitigation plan in order to be eligible for any federal funding pertaining to uh
mitigation. and that includes uh a flood mitigation assistant program, uh a hazard mitigation grant program, or something called the brick program, which I've heard is going away, but that's building resilient infrastructure in communities. So, we're kind of required to adopt this in order to be
eligible for funding related to u mitigation of of hazards. And a quick reminder, uh what happens historically happened is the government has a certain pot of money. I think like the mayor addressed that you have to put the money out ahead of time for a grant. You get the grant. it's great. You put the money
out and then they'll pay you back. U but after disasters, there's usually another pot of money that helps to address areas that were impacted and to try and mitigate those hazards. Um so the opportunities are out there sometimes and what this plan does is identifies them, puts them on our uh wish list and
it's available for the public to see. The summer if you uh do an internet search for Somerset County hazard mitigation plan, the draft plan is available. So if I understand correctly, we Bridgewater Township has contributed to the overall Somerset County Correct
plan. So if you look if you look at the county's uh website for hazard mitigation, each municipality has its own plan and best of my knowledge, every municipality participates in the plan. And think about it. Um the nice thing about that is we can look at for example Bernard's to our north. A lot of our
problems when it floods comes from up north and I'm sure their problems come from further upstream, but it gives us the opportunity to look at everybody else's issues and see what what they're experiencing as well and look for regional solutions theoretically. Yes. Any other questions, Amy? Uh I had asked
him to come because the term hazardous mitigation sounds more ominous than Well, it's important uh but I wanted people to be able to put context and thank you Jamie. You've done exactly that. And and by the way, in terms of of getting FEMA money back, I don't think
anybody's worked harder than Jamie in terms of trying to squeeze dollars back from from FEMA and been very successful o over the year. But so thank you for your reference. Okay. Now, we're now moving to item number nine, which is meeting open to the public. Members of the public wishing to address the council on any
matter will be allowed three minutes to speak unless there are unusual circumstances. May I have a motion to open to the public, please? So moved. Second. Okay. All those in favor. I I We are open to the public. Anyone wishing to address the council, please come
forward, sign in on the the deis and uh and let us know what's on your mind. Dean 671 Country Club Road. Just wanted to say thank you. Uh, the street lamp was put up.
Nighttime has been a lot better, so you don't hear horns honking 11 o'clock at night because someone is flying and they can't see the person at stop sign. Uh, Bill, you could take four weeks to pave that road. I don't care. It slows people
down. So, I watched someone with his undercarriage go flying two days ago because he wasn't paying attention and he was flying and he hit a manhole. So, you could take it as long as you want. It's all good. So, I wanted to say thank you. Um, I know every crash
I came in here complaining. Uh, but it was serious. So, hopefully it helps, but thank you. Thank you. Uh Bob Elbano when he left the council years ago left me with the job of of keeping note of of nice things that people would say about
the council. If I can add that to the list, you're you're welcome. You can. Anyone else wishing uh to address the council, please come forward. See none, I would make a motion. I think we do see motion in the back, but thank you. Uh hold that in the bands. Uh I
think John has something he wants to share with us. John Aroly, 1110 Washington Valley Road. Um, I don't know. I've been um using a lot of AI uh tools on my phone recently and I I see that there's going to be a data center opening uh at the Greymart
building and um where where I'm coming from is that data centers use a tremendous amount of power, electricity, megawatts of power, you know, and uh it's one of the number one reason why uh utility rates have gone up. So, uh, when
you see your bill go up by 20% this month, it's not because somebody's building too many solar panels or wind wind turbines. It's AI. It's the these search engines. I, example, I got a book off Amazon. Said it was going to be in
English. Turned to be in Italian. So, I used the AI to take a picture of the page in the book and immediately when I tried translate in the AI program, the English translation came through. It's very powerful. It's very useful, but it's going to it's going to really
saddle us in New Jersey with higher luxury rates. Is there anything that the town can do about putting requirements that these data centers limit their amount of power they use from the power company? It just they can come they can propose a 10 20 megab
megawatt uh power plant. So, it's going to really just drive rates through the roof. It's there's no easy answer for it. It's also going to drive global warming because all this power is going to be coming from natural gas or coal. It's not going to come from renewable
energies, green energy. So, and the second thing I want to talk about tonight is that um back in 2021, I was verbally called out in an inappropriate manner by the mayor and I see that he continues to do this to other residents and now to
council members. Is there anything that you can do, Howard, to uh lecture him or censure him to get him to behave? There is nothing that I in my capacity want to do or intend to do in any way uh to limit the verbiage of anybody seating at
this stage. That includes the mayor, that includes the attorney, and includes uh anybody here. He strikes out in a ver verbal outburst. It's documented. It's not it's almost in the eye of the beholder. uh those kinds of conversations tend to be two ways and to
to bring up something from four or five years ago is probably not as recent as of a year, you know, last year or two. But thank you for your thought. Thank you. Good day. Anyone else wishing to address the council scene now? Allan, you're up. Uh one second. One second.
One sec. Uh Mr. Okolio, uh I I acknowledge your comment. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. uh not regarding AI. However, I think you should really focus on the failed energy policies of Governor Murphy. The fact that he has diminished our capacity
of coal, the fact that he doesn't give any attention to nuclear, the fact that he has not had an energy policy for the past seven years is really the fault why our energy bills are going up. Plus, you know, a constant pushing people to drive electrical vehicles and pushing electrical mandates also contribute to
the demand on our power supply and the cost of energy. So, there are many factors that are impacting our energy costs besides AI and data centers. You brought this up. I mean, yeah, and and I'm going to stop it. Alan, could I have the motion to close uh the motion to
close public port? I have a sec second on that. I'll I'll second it. All those in favor opposing say I. Opposed. We're close for public input. Thank you. Okay. We're now moving to uh item 10,
which is the public hearing on the 2025 municipal budget. So, uh can I have a motion to reopen to the public for So moved. Uh second, please. Second. Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Okay. We are now open for the public
hearing on on the 2025 budget. Anyone wishing to address the council, uh, please come forward to the deas. Seeing no one, I move to close public hearing. Second, please. Second that. Uh, roll call on closing the public
meeting, please. Councilman Kurt, yes. Councilman Codiller, yes. Councilman Pedroso, yes. Councilman Green, yes. President Gallas, yes. Okay, moving to 10B, which is the 2025 budget amendment. Uh, Mr. Papus
or mayor U who wants the budget amendment that that's in front of you is just a few minor issues. Um, there's the miscellaneous revenue which was to address FEMA uh money, one of the things mentioned earlier. So, there's a
revenue added from that we received from FEMA. We have a clean communities grant that was received. that's added as well. And uh we also updated the county challenge grant. Overall, the changes result in a decrease of the amount to be
raised by taxation by $6,717.34. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It it cleaned up a number of things that that were uh moved between uh documents. Um if if there are no questions on B the 2025 budget amendment uh like a motion to approve
that. Mr. President, just a brief question for for the mayor or for the administrator or for our CFO. Would you say that these changes are you know within within reason of standard practices of uh introducing a budget? Yeah, this is just you know we get grants in throughout the year. So when
it happens outside of the budget time frame, you know, you'll see special items, the resolutions that that So this is the uh the items. Oh, sorry, I'm on the microphone. Uh so this is the items that uh from the time we introduced it until now that resulted in changes
because of the grants. So largely a timing issue. Yeah. And that we get grants throughout the year. So that's why you'll see resolutions throughout the year on those. Thank you. Just a a point of order, Mr. Council President. This is just for the budget amendment. We are going to then have a discussion
on the the the overall budget and the next item. I'm I'm sorry, Philipe. I could not. That's fine. I think I did gibberish that. Uh we are voting purely on the budget amendment and then we will uh discuss the overall 2025 municipal budget as the next item. Yes, it's the
next item. So, there's two votes here. Yeah. Okay. Roll call on B 10B, please. Did I get a second? I I'll make a motion. Motion. Second. I'll second it. Roll call.
Councilman Kersh. Yes. Councilman Kodiller. Yes. Councilman Pedroso. No. Councilman Ring? Yes. President Ogalas? Yes. Okay. We're on now up to 10 C, which is the adoption of the 2025 municipal budget.
Council President, just a few uh uh quick points. Um, I know I think everyone has this information, but just to remind the council and the public, uh, this year's budget is a 51,400,000 budget. Um, the overall budget increase is 1.077%.
Uh, which obviously is way below inflation of 2.9%. Um, the uh there was a question uh at some point at one of the prior meetings from a resident. Um uh what this amounts to is a 0 uh it's
01 um increase in the tax rate which is if your home value stayed the same it's a $6 tax increase is what that amounts to. Uh the average home has gone up. So, um, as we mentioned at the introduction, uh,
based on averages, the average household will see a $34, uh, total total increase. Uh, $6 of that is from the increase in the tax rate. The other, um, the other portion of that, the other $28 is uh, based on the average home
assessment. Obviously depending on your specific home and value and changes in it will impact uh whether you see your you know uh taxation go up or down or or with the exact numbers. Uh that's the average. As a reminder to the public as
well even though we send out your tax bills um only 11% of your overall tax bill is ours um so to speak. So um 11% is what you pay to the well you pay everything to the township but 11% is
what we keep. Um the other amount is um sent to the various entities who receive that money. And uh somebody had emailed me recently asking a question about the assessments just to be to so the public understands too is that the uh the assessment both the tax assessor as well
as the uh assessment you know we have a vendor that helps do those uh we don't control that even though it's a township um employee they actually report to the county tax board. So, like, you know, we don't uh as any township, not just us,
but you know, we don't have the ability to go in and uh tell the tax assessor, you know, what we think a property should or shouldn't be worth or how they assess it. That's done by the tax assessor's office with the consultants that get used for that. Um so, uh that's
not something that that we uh directly control. Other than that, we're um uh very proud of this budget uh compared to what is going on around us in other communities as well as um you know what
we've seen um throughout the country um with regard to inflation and increased costs uh to be able to deliver a budget that only goes up by 1% uh with the inflation without cutting services. So something that we're very proud of. Last two points uh briefly is that uh
remember our budget is made up of money we receive through taxation as well as money that we receive from alternate sources. So that could be your taxes, excuse me, that could be grant money, uh that could be the money we receive from the mall, hotel occupancy taxes, all
those things go into the budget. So when we put together the budget, we have to look not just at spending but also revenue. So if mall revenue is down or hotel tax revenue is down or grant money is down for you know or a couple years
ago we sold a liquor license. Well you know you have that one year you don't have it the other. So um all those things go into it which is why you can see a overall spending increase of only 1% um but some other items go up because
we are balancing not just expenditures but also revenue. Um, last but not least, I I thank the council um uh for you all of your input over the uh the budget over the past uh four or five months that we've all been working on
this. Uh I did receive late amendments from Councilman Proso for the first time last night. Um it's they're not a serious proposal and I'm not going to spend anyone waste anyone's time going through them all line item by line item. But um you know they include things such
as cutting $100,000 from recreation which would be elimination of the basketball program, cutting $300,000 from sewer, which is a bill that's given to us by SRVSA. So apparently we're not going to pay for the sewer bill as well
as not paying for fire hydrants. So, um I don't know which residents aren't going to get uh fire hydrants working in front of their house or which houses are not going to have sewer working or which families don't get recreation programs.
Um but the proposal, the proposed amendments by council Joseo are an election year stunt uh not meaningful governance and our residents deserve better. So, thank you to the other four members who have collaborated over four months on this process and I appreciate
your input. Thank you. I'd like to entertain a motion on the adoption of the 2025 municipal budget, please. I have some comments briefly, please. Thank you, sir. Uh, I did provide a um a serious um
recommendation for budget modifications. Uh, I have a brief statement on that. Real estate taxes in Bridgewater have gone up too much. In fact, in the past four years, your taxes have gone up 22%.
It's time to give relief to the taxpayers who shoulder this burden. Tonight, I'm proposing budget amendment that keeps municipal taxes flat. And by flat, I mean truly flat. I don't mean keeping the tax rate flat because when
property values rise that still results in a higher tax bill. What I'm proposing is is that residents pay the same amount in 2025 as they did in 2024. Let me be clear. If your home was assessed at the average Bridgewater
value of $576,459, you likely paid $1,372 in municipal taxes last year. Under this budget amendment, you'll still pay exactly the same $1,372
this year. and I don't have to go through some smoke and mirror calculation about fooling you about a $6 tax increase. To accomplish that, we need to lower the tax rate from 290 to 238.
This budget amendment makes thoughtful targeted reductions mostly in the other expenses line across departments, but it does not touch our police budget. It does not cut funding for senior services and it protects essential services. I
have always supported our police and I will continue to ensure they have what they need to keep us safe. This proposal also respects and protects the hardworking men and women who serve this township with one exception. No
jobs are eliminated. The only proposed staffing reduction is in the office of constituent relations. A department that frankly Philip I need to caution you if you're going to uh provide negative comments about any organization. I'm not
Thank you. I I'm not proving any negative comments about any organization. You conclude your comments. I am not going to I'm going to do my comments in my fair time as you said uh before that you don't censor people from talking. So, the only proposed staffing reduction
is in the office of constituent relations, a department that frankly has become topheavy. Many residents have voiced concerns about this office, and I agree with them. Every other department keeps its staff and leadership, and I thank all of them for their service.
Making budget changes at this stage is not unusual. In 2019, then Councilman Matthew Mench and I, both on the budget finance committee at the time, introduced a modified budget at adoption. We also
made substantial cuts. Mayor Hayes warned of disaster, but the township did just fine, and taxpayers benefited. So, tonight, I'm asking this council to do what's right. This amendment protects core services, trims excesses, and
reflects the sound fiscal responsibility our residents expect. Let me briefly address. You're far you're far field at this point. I'm not the your amendment. You're trying to censor me from speaking and addressing my constituents. If you You're trying to censor me from speaking
and addressing my constituents. I am allowed to address the voters who elected me. I'm here to serve them. We are at the I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm saying, Howard. I'm entitled to speak to the voters who elected me. I am representing them right now. Let me briefly address the sewer budget,
which by the way has gone up 33% in four years. The township is clearly collecting more than needed. The pro it's proven by the plan to shift $730,000 from sewer surplus into the municipal
budget. Let's give some of that back. I propose a $2163 refund per household this year and a lower sewer rate going forward. We've been ripping off the residents for too long. It's fair, it's reasonable, and
it's the right thing to do. This amendment, this proposed amendment is good for our taxpayers. It provides for no tax increase and simultaneously refunds $2163 from the sewer bill back to our residents. I hope you will join me in
supporting it. Thank you, sir. Motion to adopt. Mr. President, I'd like to speak briefly, and I promise it will be brief, but please be brief. It will be brief. Um because we've had this story before. Um we've had a process that's been
exceptionally successful. It's been collaborative. The budget and finance committee which for the last few years has been myself and councilman Ring have devoted a considerable amount of time with the administration with key employee with key uh uh employees of the
town to really understand needs. Um we operated in a collaborative environment. We had uh multiple meetings, multiple opportunities for feedback. Uh and that's how we reached uh we reached this budget um to come in with uh a million
dollars of cuts at the 11th hour. I mean certainly we should always consider new and creative ideas but um you know this is this is highly irregular. Um uh it it it deviates from our established uh orderly process. And and just one item
that really needs to be set straight was a comment was made related to the sewer utility that we are I'm going to quote ripping off residents. Related to the sewer utility, our council president Howard Norgalis has
taken considerable time, effort, and energy to really understand the inner workings of that system and how critically important it is. Knowing that council president Norgalas was going to be leaving council, I took I've taken upon myself to educate myself about the
system, including trips to the floor of both of our pumping stations. I'm not aware of anyone else on this deis that's done that. I say that not to be a hero, but to illustrate that it's important to understand that system, what keeps it
going, and threats that it may not continue to operate as we wish it will. We must invest appropriately in that system because our residents depend on it. There is no ripping off going on. We are
investing so that when residents of this town flush their toilet, the stuff goes away and doesn't back up into their house. So for all these reasons, I will be gladly supporting the budget. It is a
collaborative budget. It is largely uh uh it is it is uh an investment not only in our community of today but for the for the future. And those are my comments. Thank you. Is that a motion? Well, and I'll make the motion to approve. I have a second on adoption of
the 2025. I'll make that second. Councilman, however, could I make a comment, please? Short one. Promised it short. Okay. I'm I'm after you. So, all right. We've heard some comments tonight with
some what I consider some negative thoughts. Heard some comments with some very positive thoughts. Councilman Kersh, I assure you, I've been to the pit in Gilbride Pumping Station. Also, I I apologize that I did not know that. As far as the budget process that we go
through, if anybody thinks it's not painful, you're missing the you're missing the boat. Here's the initial budget. Here's the next revision to the budget. Here's the next revision to the budget.
Here's the next revision to the budget. Councilman's Kersh and Ring and Norgalas have done a tremendous job this year in working with the administration and the administration has done a great job working with the council to answer
questions and quite frankly deal with some issues that were not easy to deal with. I plan to support the budget tonight out of respect for the work that was done by Mr. Councilman Kersh and Councilman Ring
by the and by Mike Papampus and Mayor Mench and the administration. It's never an easy process. It's really easy to sit back and take shots at it. I prefer to say thank you for the job that you did, guys. You did the
residents of Bridgewater. Well, yeah. I just want to add that um I will thank you sir. My comments I'll be brief. Um you know I think I've said this before uh a budget is not a perfect process. There's give and take. It's a it's a collaborative effort to put together a
budget. Everyone has different priorities, different views and beliefs and it's finding that balance and there is a lot of work that went into this budget. Um I I did receive a lastm minute proposal about a little over 24 hours before tonight's meeting. I did
start going through it. I as we've heard tonight that proposal would not cut any salaries other than an OCR. Uh however, in many cases it cuts uh several departments it cuts their budget below what their actual costs were in 2024,
which means we're cutting programs for our residents. Um cutting services, we're cutting snow removal. You heard recreation. Tonight we have on our Tonight we have on our agenda uh award of contract for tax assessment for $89,000
under the proposed budget amendment that we've heard talked about tonight. We couldn't even award that contract because that's been cut to $64,000, $25,000 below uh the actual contract. So, um, I think we need to put that aside and as Councilman Condrilla said,
look at the collective effort done and, um, you know, I think we have a budget and roll call, please. I have one additional comment. No, I'm entitled. I'm No, you're not. Yes, I am. A roll call, please. Madam clerk. Councilman
Kersh. Yes. Councilman Codeller. Yes. Councilman Pedrosu. No. Councilman Ring? Yes. President Ogalas? Yes. Okay. Uh we're now moving to item 11, introduction of ordinances. Uh A is a bond ordinance providing an
appropriation of $6,100,000 for various road improvements including but not limited to Monroe Street, Jackson Street, Villa Drive, Cabat Hill Road, Sunset Drive, Miners Drive, Ridge Road, Middle Road, Blomer, Farm Road,
and Blazer Road, including curbing, milling, paving, drainage, sewer, and miscellaneous improvements, various road overlays, and sidewalk improvements throughout the township. ship in and by the township of Bridgewater in the county of Somerset, New Jersey, and
authorizing the issuance of $5,795,000 bonds or notes of the township for financing parts of the appropriation. Uh, mayor or administrator have any additional comments? I know we've covered this pretty thoroughly before. The only the only very brief comment
just as a reminder to the residents that the and council the roads are listed on this ordinance are not the entire list of roads but as Mr. Burr pointed out there are um when we go out to bid we will put different um you know add-ons
options uh to the packages so that we can try to make sure that we're getting the best deal to maximize number of roads. So, um, these are the the main roads of which we're going to build around and, uh, we will add to that list as we get bid packages back. Could I
move I have a comment? Could I have a second, please? I'll second. I have your comment. Sure. Thank you, sir. Um, I don't I support roads being repaired and I and I am generally okay with the
6.1 million number. However, since uh it comes out of a bond out of the broader budget package, uh I think the budget is excessive. I'm going to have to vote no. Reference to the sewer items listed in the budget. I' just like to note that since from 2020 to 2024,
the our sewer bill has only increased 3.4% but yet we've raised the sewer bill on residents 33%. That's important to note after the sewer bill after the sewer rate for 12 years. Roll call on 11 A, please.
Councilman Kersh, yes. Councilman Codiller, yes. Councilman Pedroso, no. Councilman Ring, yes. President Gallas, yes. 12A. Resolutions. Resolution. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The public hearing and final action for this bond ordinance
is scheduled for July 10, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal courtroom. Public inspection of this ordinance is available on the township website, the bulletin board, and in the clerk's office. Thank you, Grace. Welcome.
Okay. Resolution 12A, approving a shared municipal court agreement between the township of Bridgewater and the Burough of Somerville for a term of three years, commencing on January 1st, 2025, and ending on December 31st, 2027. This has been a successful program uh over the
years, and obviously we want to continue it. Uh, Mr. Papus or mayor, is there anything you folks would like to add to this? No. It continues to be a good program and has benefited both communities. Hey, could I have a motion, please, on 12A? I'll make that motion. A second, please. Second. Any discussion?
Roll call, please. 12A. Councilman Kersh. Yes. As Codeller, yes. As Pedroso, one second. I lost my page. So, sorry. What just happened? We're waiting for Philip. Yes.
Councilman Ring. Yes. President Ogalis. Yes. Uh 12B. Somerset County 2025 hazardous mitigation plan update municipal adoption resolution. Uh I would move that. Could I have a second, please? I'd like to before we go that
far, if I may. Sure. Um, I'd like to actually propose a revision to this resolution. Yes, sir. Um, based upon the presentation tonight, it's my understanding we have contributed to the Somerset County Houses. Tell you what, let's get the second and then you can make your change. Well, no, because I think we want to move it as amended.
Yeah, but but you can amended it, but you're you're okay. So the second whereas it says prepared a multi-hazard mitigation plan known as the Somerset County. I'd like to delete the word prepared and change that to contribute to. It suggests we wrote the overall
county plan and we did not. That's fine. Okay. So I will move that as amended. Okay. And second was I'll second it. Okay. Roll call, please. Kersh. Yes. Mike Diller.
Yes. Yes. Mike Pendroso. Yes. Councilman Ring. Yes. President Ogalis. Yes. Thank you, Lieutenant. Uh C is authorizing an award of contract to Appraisal Systems Incorporated to perform professional appraisal inspections and related services in
connection with the township reassessment program in an amount not to exceed $89,400 for the period of June 27th, 2025 through December 31st, 2025. Uh Mr. Papis, did you have comments on this? I know this has been a this has been an
annual uh process to uh assist the assessor in completing his responsibility and they've been the one we've been using for years and it has been successful. Correct. Okay. Uh could I have a motion please on C? I'll make that motion. Second please. Second. Uh
if there's any other discussion if not uh call for the role please. Kershman Killer. Yes. Pedroso. Yes. Councilman Green. Yes. President Ogalis. Yes. Uh D is authorizing acceptance of the project for the
original contract amount of $237,500. release of the performance bond, acceptance of the maintenance bond and and final payments to HM company LLC 3 Orlando Drive, Fairfield, New Jersey 0704 for the senior center improvements
funded through the CB block grant uh COVID 19 resiliency program and 2024 capital fund. Um that has been a very successful program. God only knows the senior center needed
a lot of work. Uh any other may I have a motion please on on D? I'll make that motion and a second please. Second. Uh any discussion? If not, roll call please on D. Councilman Kush. Yes. Councilman Killer. Yes. Councilman Pedroso. Yes.
Councilman Green. Yes. President Ogalis. Yes. E. request for a waiver of fire permit fee in the amount of $240 for the Bridgewater United Methodist Church 651 Country Club Road, Bridgewater, New Jersey 0807 in connection with the use of fire pit for outdoor church services
and events for the month of July as follows. July 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30 from 7 uh to 8:00 p.m. I'll second it. Roll call, please. On E. Councilman Kersh? Yes. Yes. Councilman
Codilla. Yes. Pedroso. Yes. Ring. Yes. President Ogalis. Yes. Uh I'd like to do uh 13 C uh through consent A through D. I'll read them. Follows. A is 2025 and 2026 renewal of the plenary retail
consumption liquor license uh 1806 333011009 for Fogo Dechar uh Chirio uh 400 Commons Way. All right, I bet I didn't get it right.
Uh sweet 279 Bridgewater, New Jersey 0807. Uh if they only had a simpler name, it would be easier. I'll go to Chalice. They're simpler name. Well, that would have been easy. Uh B is 2025 2026 renewal of plenary retail consumption
license uh number 1806-33-14-12 uh for Bridgewater Tavern LLC 1288 Route 22 East Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807. C is 2025 2026 renewal for of club
license 1806-31-35-00002 for Gerard Brago Post number 327 American Region 77 Old York Road Bridgewater, New Jersey 087. D is renewal of the plenary retail consumption inactive liquor license number 1806-32-00003-00006
for Solo Bridgewater LLC for the 2025 2026 licency term pursuant to PL2023 uh C290 the inactive uh liquor license reform act which amends NJSA 33
col1-1239 and modifies requirements for inactive retail liquor licenses, including establishing expiration dates for quartortile list licenses. Uh, unless there are any questions, uh, could I have a motion on, uh, A through D?
Apologize. I do have a question because something just came to light on that with me that's a little puzzling. Grace, 1288 Route 22 on B Bridgewater Tvern inactive status. That's the old hoola hands that's now stone how whatever it
is. I'm sorry. Stone tavern. It's It's not inactive. It's active. But the resolution says it's currently held in an active status. A mistake. Okay. The resol the the agenda though is correct. Okay. Agenda is correct because this
copy says inactive. So um we just need to modify that. It will be. Okay. So, was that a motion? As modified. Okay. Second. I'll second it. Roll call, please. A through D. Kersh. Yes.
Councilman Codilla. Yes. Councilman Pedroso. Yes. Councilman Ring. Yes. President Ogalas. Yes. We're up to uh item 14, close session, contract negotiations for affordable housing, shared services agreement, and litigation Warren Township. I anticipate
no additional business uh after the close session. So we will simply adjourn. Mr. President, may I have a minute before we go to close session? Very, very short, but I think it's important. Sure. I see we have our CFO here this evening, Bill, and his staff,
and I think in our discussion on the budget, we talked about the council activity, the administration's activity. Bill, you and your staff did a lot share the work also and I'd just like to rec recognize that and thank you for the
work that you all have done. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Alan. Excellent. Uh okay. Uh could I have a motion to go to close session? I'll make that motion. Okay. Um let me get my piece of paper so I can read the the boiler plate. Second the
motion. Okay. Uh be it resolved by the Bridgewater uh Township Council that this body will now hold a closed session to discuss litigation and contract negotiations, shared services agreement, affordable housing, Warren Township when and if new uh the matters discussed be
on public record. This will be made known to the public at that time. The public is excluded from said meeting and further notice thereof is dispensed with all in accordance of sections 8 and 4A of the open public meetings act. Uh all those in favor going to close session
signify by saying I. I. I. All right ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. We are we are closed and we will not do anything afterward. Welcome back. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Uh we have completed a very very short and productive close session
and we are now up to my favorite motion which is adjournment. And may I have the motion to adjurnn, please? I'll make that motion. I'll second it. All those in favor? I I We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Mike, take care, buddy. You going to
take him home? Yeah. Well, you know, a good Uber