this is a way to get back yeah yeah yeah you got a cover for the courier we are live alex we're all set yes okay that worked welcome members of recording in progress
welcome members of the public we are returning uh from our executive session now in the public uh session portion of our workshop meeting uh I now ask everyone to rise before the pledges to the flag of the United States
of America and to the stand with all we're at the hearing of citizens mr lanti if you timely provide guidance members of the public are now welcome to come to the microphone to address the township committee this is an
opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are not topics scheduled for public hearings tonight those present may step up to the microphone to be heard if you're watching via Zoom you may speak during any of the public comment sessions by following the Zoom instructions to raise
your hand whether in person or online when you are recognized to speak please mind the following procedures please say your name spell your last name and give the name of your street you do not need to give your street number all public comments will be limited to three
minutes rather than use any of your time answering questions the township committee will wait until you finish speaking before they respond there are two public comment sessions on tonight's agenda each of the um each member of the public will be limited to
one comment of up to three minutes during each public comment period and uh mayor we do not have any written comments tonight from the public great thank you Mr may we have anyone online we do not have any raised hands at this time thank you i now invite members of
the public to approach mire to do so hi Jessica Romeo Pine Street i just wanted to make an announcement for the Environmental Commission that on Saturday April 26th from 10 to 12 maybe 9:30 to 12 we've got a lot going on at Shunpike Field Castle Park we're going
to showcase our tree restoration project um we're going to plant a few red oaks northern red oaks to add a few of the oaks look like they were taken down over the winter i think they were diseased um we have a cleanup which helps with our clean communities program we are giving
away 75 free trees all native species northern red oak pmen and flowering dogwood uh what else do we have going on can't read this it's too small the clean up trees the
replanting and oh the trails yeah trails celebrate trails day so three of the Chattam trails um Monica Sean Pike and Green Village Pond will have dosent from the open space committee there handing out information on the trails in Chadam
Township and Burough and helping people appreciate and accept what we appreciate and explore what we have in town that's the same day same day same time yep we coordinated so it's all together okay and then after that everyone can head up
here to the spring festival yes busy day yes did you mention a time for uh 10 to 12 thank you thank you i invite anyone else from the public to approach i see no one else i shall close
the hearing of citizens now move on to reports mr shotty thank you Mayor um to begin um just so we can get our professionals out of here um I'd like to start off with uh an update from our affordable housing
attorney Jessica Almeida she is on with us by video um as obviously the governing body knows and some of the members of the public that have been following along we are in what's known as the fourth round of uh affordable housing matters in the state of New
Jersey um and we have a very condensed timeline that was given to us by the state uh part of legislation that was adopted last year uh so we are moving uh quite aggressively um we've we're hitting all of our deadlines uh and for
anybody that's been watching the the process has been a combination of workshop meetings and subcommittee meeting but also uh public uh updates and briefings on what's been happening and action has been taken by uh the governing body in public specifically a resolution that was adopted uh at the
beginning of the year to uh set our numbers that based on our planner study and our professional study and opinions was recommended to you guys and uh more recently there was some action and uh and and some next steps that will be coming over the coming months uh so
there will be uh pl more opportunities for the public to hear what's happening uh the decision making weigh in and provide their feedback uh and so with that Jessica if you don't uh please uh offer the the governing body and the public an update on where things stand
and where we're from so um as our township administrator has um discussed we are in the fourth round of affordable housing our first milestone that we had to meet was to adopt our obligation by
January 31st and we did so um we also passed a binding resolution adopting that obligation in accordance with the law we filed a declaratory judgment action with
the Superior Court in Mars County um to confirm our adoption of that binding resolution with them with our obligation in the meantime the Builders Association of New Jersey challenged every single municipality in the state of New Jersey
who did not accept the obligation that was recommended by the Department of Consumer Affairs the DCA I'm sorry the Division of Community Affairs the DCA number um was presumptively valid
but it gave everybody the law gave every municipality the opportunity to review those numbers to review the data that were used to calculate the numbers and when our planner Kendra had reviewed our numbers she did find that there were some inaccuracies
and as a um in when we adopted our resolution we took that into account and our number that we adopted was not the DCA number we our initial and I'm just pulling up
the number so I have um our need that we adopted was 141 units as opposed to the 156 that the DCA had um published the reason we adopted a lower number was because when we
reviewed the data that DCA used they included several parcels of parcels of land that were either already developed or undevelopable and if they were undevelopable we shouldn't be using them to calculate our obligation so we had a
mediation um with the builders association about a week and a half ago we're still waiting on the result we're hoping that we'll uh the obligation re set in stone we'll get a court order that will let us know what our
obligation is and we'll continue to move forward with the remainder of our planning in the meantime we're not waiting for that obligation we are assuming because we know that our number that we came up with that we adopted 141 was correct we have been working with
our planner Kendra Lely to put together um the skeleton of our fourth round plan which includes not only our realistic development potential but also our um unmet need so we're we're looking to
address both of those numbers as well as our rehabilitation obligation which is something else that the DCA also set for us um if anybody has any questions for me I'm happy to But the next steps that will be coming up for us is we will need
to um have the planning board of the township will be adopting the housing element and fair share plan in May and the township committee will need to endorse that plan by the end of June so
those are the next big milestones that we have coming up in the fourth round of affordable housing i guess I would just add for the for the public's uh for clarification for the public the prospective need that we had
um countered with at 141 even though the DCA said 156 is perspective need that's not what we have to build so uh from that number you come up with your realistic development potential which is the number you need to build and then you come up with unmet need the last
time the unmet need was about 156 which was addressed through overlay zoning and The amount that was built was about 100 i think it was 98 or 100 but the original perspective we need originally was about 700 went down to 500 i think it was eventually 357 so I don't want anybody to worry
that we have to build 141 units of affordable housing because that's not what that number means yeah so we what we are responsible for is our realistic development and that number is is much much smaller it's in the single digits
so that is that we're planning for currently looking at different options throughout the township and we will have several opportunities for the um public to learn about how we're going to meet that obligation as well as the um
overlay zoning that we have to address our amenity one thing uh correct me if I'm wrong but there haven't been any surprises so far right nor did we anticipate a lot of
surprises back in our hands we anticipated to be expected yeah that's 100% correct we um were very confident in the numbers and our planner um has been able to verify our calculations
they were done in accordance with the law which is what the law says they need to be done by um I I feel confident that we're heading in the right direction and we there shouldn't be any surprises coming down the pipe i mean it's the broad belief that the
builders association challenge doesn't really have merit and we were not challenged part of the challenge by fair share housing so that's a good thing um so that helps but once we come up with the plan and submit that in June there's an opportunity for challenges again
so it's a never ending you never know right but so far it's as good as we could hope the modifications that we submitted um that now has been challenged by the New Jersey Builder Association that was so
we are one of 159 municipalities that fall in that bucket um and we obviously follow the prescribed procedures set by the DCA that afforded municipalities to make adjustments based on the preliminary figures uh so we're in full
compliance it also affordability for some entity to appeal in this case the New Jersey builder associate took such action um and they they presented they basically move forward with a blanket
appeal against all 159 municipalities um so we're in the process of moving through that appeal the only other thing I'd like to add is the 141 unmet need that is as committee woman you will uh describe
that is over a 10-year period and what the municipality but the township uh is uh is um preparing to do is provide pathways uh for example one tool is inclusionary zoning to to make that potentially feasible those are that
that's the extent to which uh the township is in terms of actions is going to take as far as being in compliance for the program and that's that's as far as Mayor do you would you like either
Jessica or myself to go over the U oh there you are sorry on our screen you disappear do you have the timeline do you want us to go over the timeline of the uh housing element uh plan and sort of at least our rough timeline when
we're looking to adopt and when there's going to be some more hearings do you have that Jessica or do you want me to go over it i I do and I just um so in April we are looking to sorry I in April we are going to have
a planning board workshop to discuss the housing element and fair share plan in draft form with the planning board that miday we should have a finalized report that we'll be able to present after we get input from everybody as to the
elements of the housing element and fair share plan um in late May i believe that is the target that we're going to have a public workshop for everybody to present the plan and to show how we're going to meet our
obligations um June 16th is the date that we are looking for the planning board to um put the housing element and fair share plan on their agenda for adoption and that would follow a June 24th um township committee meeting to
endorse the adopted plan by June 30th that's the deadline that everybody in the state has to meet to address that um has to meet to adopt their housing element and fair share plan after we after the planning board adopts it and
we endorse it it's going to be submitted to the same program that the obligation was and as long as we continue to all of these deadlines we remain in compliance and we continue to have immunity against builders remedy lawsuits which you know
is is the goal here so August 31st of this year is the date that anybody who wants to challenge our housing element and fair share plan can and then we have until the end of December in 2025 to
work out either a settlement or revise the housing element and fair share plan with you know if anybody does have you know challenge it and then at in in the housing element and fair share plan there'll be certain
ordinances that we're going to need to adopt you know for example to accommodate the overlay zone the density or increase the size of the whatever however we intend to meet the obligation and those ordinances then have to be adopted by March of 2026
March 15 of 2026 so it's a very tight timeline if you consider the other rounds took three to four the third round took three four years for municipalities to get all of this done in a six-month time frame that we have now so
thank you miss all that is to say that uh We looked ahead looked at the schedule which was an aggressive schedule set by uh the DCA we understand the milestones and key uh deliverables that must be submitted up till this point we're fully compliant uh we've
engaged our professionals to keep looking forward as far as the deadlines that need to be met down the road um and I think overall based on the preliminary numbers and and where we stand today it would appear that we're in a pretty favorable position as far as executing
on the obligations for the fourth round um it would appear that we've got some semblance of plan that I think will be uh certainly satisfactory and amenable as far as what we're trying to achieve here so um it will be our intention as a
committee to make this a first of several um venues by which we communicate to the public our efforts on affordable housing as they are allowed um and uh we'll try to stay a breast of making the process uh understandable to
the public uh and information that that can be distributed to the public uh done so in a timely fashion so that's our intent and again this will be multiple venues where we'll be having discussion on this matter
thank you Jess i'm still here mr thank you Jessica so we can dismiss her okay thank you Jessica you're you're relieved for the evening thank you um the nextbody call up uh mayor is our
engineer and then we can go back to administration that way Mr rushki can as well um so as part of uh John's uh attendance before you this evening um we've got a
couple items legislative items um resolution for a change order to the engineering firm that's handling our safe routes to schools grant um that is a uh change order is fully funded by the grant but if there's any questions on that John can speak to that we are
looking to make an award of a contract finally to safe schools one of the grants um it may not happen this month but eminent we did get notification and that was a year package i can speak about that one uh we are also John could talk about that looking to have a
resolution um to authorize bidding for Hillside Avenue as part of our NJTO municipal aid grant that we received and uh we can also answer any questions for you there um two discussion items and John correct me if I'm missing anything is uh the
road resurfacing plan for 2025 uh we talked about that the last workshop meeting governor might want to digest and visit some of those roads and the highlight of John's presentation this evening is the colony pool wall rehabilitation project
so yes we'll start off first any questions on John's report or anything in his report so Just to clarify safers to school we actually made No come on don't lose my take away my thunder like we've been talking about this
for you guys we've been waiting like 15 years for this to happen i know i know why don't you just film in on what ended up happening real quick sure sure we went out to bid again and um 10 words John [Laughter] went out to bit again we we uh
ultimately received bids and one of the the item that kept um delaying the award is the contractors were not submitting appropriate federal forms for um for um minority firms to be part of their there's an obligation to have a certain percentage of their contract minority
firm and no one was filling out the paperwork we've bid this project four times this is you know this is the fourth time we did it um we had uh multiple biders um the first bidder um immediately uh wrote a letter indicating
that he made a mistake on the bid and asked to be taken out and that's you know follows a public contract lawyer he was allowed to do that um the second bidder um was reviewed by um NJ do for compliance with those federal forms they
did not complete it correctly and so um and following the federal requirements we had to give that contractor an opportunity to appeal the DO decision and and that could have lasted another six months and so we were all hoping that the contractor to decide he wasn't
going to appeal and that's what happened he didn't appeal so then we went back to the DOT and told them okay the contractor is not going to appeal now they reviewed the third bidder uh and the third bidder did in fact submit all the forms correctly so we we're at a point where
um where we have a potential contractor that we can award i was a little nervous i contacted the contractor because under the public contract law you're supposed to award contracts within 60 days and we're well beyond the 60 days but he said he'll honor his price he'll give us extensions whatever we need so he's
willing to hold his prices so that we wouldn't have to get more complicated with this um so um we don't have an authorization to award yet the the next steps is that I have to uh amend my engineers um report on the um an
evaluation of the biders just to make just to to demonstrate that um the the cost of uh the third bidder is reasonable and and and it's it can be awarded um we also need a legal uh review of that so um you know we we
should be able to wrap those up um quickly and get them to the DOT i'm not sure how long the DOT is going to take to to review those and ultimately give us that authorization to award because that probably goes down to Trenton and hopefully that doesn't turn into a black hole but if it's if it can be awarded
quickly um we do want to try to award that project as soon as possible because um once it's awarded you know we have to get contracts executed we have to coordinate a pre pre-construction meeting and that ends up being like an army of people from DOT coming in and
making those scheduling those and with all that said we're trying to get this so that the work can be done during the summer you know when the school's out so we're really hoping that uh it's all comes together and we can actually see shoveling the ground on on the first one which is a you know which is it's
incredible this is this is a um a 2014 grant award and so we uh so we're there those middle schoolers are long since graduated i know i know and all the residents are on that block with all those multiple meetings that we had undergoing this project many some of
them have moved away um so we are so we have asked for uh just to um I guess I guess we'll um ask for authorization to award pending DOT approval and so that resolution may be on the next agenda um
I just need to confirm with DOT i don't want to you know I have done this in the past where they've agreed that we can do an award pending their approval but I just want them to get that in writing from them that they're all okay with that and so um so it may have to get pushed to May but we're going to try to
get it um this April john for the benefit of the public can you because it's 2014 it's been a lot of bumps in length uh and memories can be short sure particularly those can you u just describe where it runs from and to
um sure it's um Spring Street it it basically runs from the uh the parking lot of the tennis courts um it goes from uh along the side of um the new side will go on the side of Colony Pool and extend all the way to Lafayette that's
one segment another segment is on Lafayette and that will basically start at the middle school and go on the um east side of of uh Lafayette because on the west side you already have a sidewalk side and that would continue from that location all the way to um
Shanghai road thank you and and the drawings for this is on the website so if someone's interested as we get once we get the authorization and then we make an award we'll put something out there yeah yeah once once once the once we
know that in fact we're we'll start the you know public information on the residents are going to be impacted i did have a question about the change order which I forgot to send it in there's just there was so much information to to go through um so I
noticed on the change order it looked like the curving is being removed and not being replaced exist one of these projects i just saw something that looked like there was a whole issue about curbing and it was too expensive to replace so
additional engineering required for the correct curbing yes the um the the the that was the change order was not related to construction it was related to the engineering design and and just just to step back a minute is
that the um the contract the engineer that was retained um was ultimately procured through the DO's process so was it was basically their engineer but their contract is with the township to do the design so that's why and so even though the the change order is to
formalize additional funding that was approved by the DOT that we just need to amend our contract with that engineer to increase his contract amount because you know comply with the funding so that's really what this is about but during the
design process um the DOT um the the engineer initially had um curbing on both sides of the roads and and the cost of the project was sub end up being substantially higher than what the grant amount was and the DOT basically said well you know this this is a sidewalk
project it's not you know improving the road or improving other aspects and so they eliminated certain portions of curbing because it was really not you know associated with the sidewalk itself it wasn't So that's why um and that's one of the things that was going back and forth
with the some of these other design because um you know when they they over you know they did a lot more they they kind of did a lot of scope creep and they kind of went beyond what the original you know intent was of the grant was just to put the sidewalk okay
so if there's no intent to remove any curbing no other than maybe township property well the only curbing would be related to if they're going to remove curving in order to install the 88 ramps so any curving is related to things that need to be be changed or if curbing is
necessary for grading purposes such but the but the drawings for the 2016 um associated with the 2016 grant is also online so the plans can be probably as we're getting close a lot
of the residents are already We had public sessions on this we had a specific um you know discussion and invited the public come out to see these current plans and so the public has been informed of where we are on the current plans okay that additional engineering
John that's covered within the grant correct correct the uh that that's good good and bad with the safe routes to schools is that the the grants have covered engineering we have a grant to cover the engineering inspection and and
a grant to cover 100% of the construction so basically the work is in fact it's 100% covered in the grants but it's taken forever to get question thank you for your undying person up the mountain
here uh Hillside I'll just mention I'll just mention Hillside hillside um Hillside Road we had um I mean we had a um DOT grant to do um mill and pave the road and also do some drainage improvements and so um that bid
documents have been prepared and all the documents have been submitted to the DOT for them to approve uh the project to be um go out the bid so we're here to ask the council also to approve going out the bid as soon as we hear that from the do we'll just go out the bid
and then hopefully you know with because we're bidding this we have to go out advertise receive contracts award the contracts and again we're trying to coordinate this so that we we do the work during the summer like and that is a road that was listed
on the 25 memo if you check table A that's where that was there is a portion of that that desire contribution but you know as John the rest of the roads the roads that we're going to pay later this year as part of our capital uh plan those funds uh those
would be done through the co-op the North County co-op vendor but because of the state grant we are required to bid that that we can go directly to TCO through county co-op but this one will be the lowest bidder so may not so
we have to time it for you know summer season we want to getting the bids out as soon as possible so the bidding and uh awarding process and the commencement work it seem to be rather predigious and slow
moving process um are you fairly confident we can get this as soon as we get out the bid i think you said May uh if we do the authorization and we do authorization at the end of this month then we'll get it published we'll get it published i would I would Yeah we're at
a point where I'm expecting the DO to basically authorize us to go out the bid so the timing of that if that happens about the same time as as you pass your resolution we go out the bid right away we typically want to go for at least three weeks maybe four weeks so we'll
probably be receiving bids in June and then you know awarding in June so by time and so for the contractor schedules that those summers the summer working days are not already allocated for by the
time we get to it's it's um you know we're we're bidding it at a time where it's it's a lot of projects typically come out on streets and stuff and so so we may not get as many biders um but you know we we've um I don't think it's at a
time that's prohibitive you know ideally it's it's the best time to bid a project is in the middle of the winter when no one's working and the guy they want they want hungry for work they want to generate their schedule for the year but you know I wouldn't recommend pushing this off all the way to you know a whole year just to try to possibly get a
better price you know the grant amount is a pretty substantial amount and uh hoping that you know kids bids come in competitively and and uh we don't actually have to put as much money out as our matching so we'll see how the bids come in it's a pretty
straightforward project and so I don't see that it needs to be out on the street for a long period of time um so it's a it's a it's a it's a sizable project enough that I would think there's going to be a lot of interest for smaller contractors yes yeah thank you
so moving on there do you want to uh still continue the road or to call i think we can uh so there was some talk at the discussion of a prior meeting about road servicing yeah did you want to revisit that now or after the
approval discussion well if I may offer it up to the committee if anyone else had any other further conversation points on the matter resolved and rely on M rush's recommendations as far as So we don't want to deviate from uh table C
i don't know what you mean by Tennessee but um in John's memo on the road yeah we had talked about whether or not to push to move up Britain because that has been sitting you know to 51 until the next year's 61 um and we kept pushing up
Britain because we said the EPA is going to hopefully solve this whole clean up of rolling which have any so um so we didn't want to you know repave the road and have it destroyed um so we talked about accelerating that now but we would
need to move one or two of the other streets down i think uh I did a a extensive capital review with our finance department and again with our engineer today i think the pri prior year bids came in um
more aggressive than we thought the the we didn't have excessive um adjustments in fuel or asphalt prices because we're obligated if if the uh prices change there there was some some years where we paid a very substantial amount of sir
charge because of asphalt prices but you know over the last two years we didn't so we do have some extra funds from prior years that we can apply to this and we're going to be a couple of different uh accounts from old capital balances to be able to
if you want cool yeah I think that's great so table with bread i did a thorough analysis to my daughter's [Laughter] car with a lot of referring to Can you
put So that's tell the purpose of what the other ones are sure yeah and and just for the benefit of the public as well um this is not the the u we're not taking action on these this is right now just a workshop meeting uh these will be announced and
individuals will receive notification so to come after we adopt the capital budget uh in June um there will be at that point a resolution to uh authorize an award of contract to Tilcon under the Morris County co-op to pave the roads
and at that point also list them tentatively the based off of the engineers recommendation in the discussion this evening it would be Delwood Avenue Old Farm Road Ferndale Road Wexford Road Overlook Drive and Britain Road uh all of those have been
identified according to a very uh robust and thorough analysis of the conditions of the roads uh from an engineering perspective as well as from a uh construction budget perspective so these are just arbitrary an extensive vote matrix that uh John
and W have put together to make these recommendations for you today for members of the public mr rushki would you be able to guesstimate rough timeline of when that road work would occur or is that premature it's premature right now we we we will um do
our best to get on the contractor schedule to schedule the work for July and August typically we want to do that work um but many others do the So we're struggling with so so the quicker the quicker that we can award and get a PO to them the quicker we adopt our capital
budget the quicker we can get the award of a resolution to be able to certify the funds and so it's all these towns are kind of on the same cycle we're all competing on our operating our capital it's whoever has the far available to certify first is doing it but this is following the same timeline that we did
last year so last year was pretty much same thing in June we adopted a resolution that was contingent upon uh clearing on our capital ordinance and John Rich and I had a call with the contractor we pushed them along and we're like you know get started soon and yeah luckily
this year um Tilcon won the Morris County co-op and they're a much larger contractor they've done they've done this in the past and they have multiple crews that can keep up with a lot of work and and unfortunately last year the contractor was much smaller they won all
three contracts for for the areas all three districts and they just couldn't keep up and there was a lot of towns that actually didn't do their paving last year because the co-op didn't get to them so um I have to compliment Z because we got the owner on the on the phone he's like
"You have to go i fight hard." Um all right so um on the TV are uh 3D renderings um very rough 3D renderings they are rough um you forgot the sand John no this is to give the depiction of
the uh engineering plans that were put on the website we did email the colony pool members uh these are the based on the plans the second set of plans that last year were reviewed by the governing body and presented to the public based on feedback after the first initial set
so uh John do you want John to kind of talk walk us through what these planes depict we've got extra copies we just mouse doesn't seem to be uh moving that well but um perfect okay well this area here this is
a portion of the new wall that we constructed so Move to a chair that's closer to I'm sorry move to a chair that's closer to here so that it picks up sure so the portion of the wall that was replaced um already was is this portion
here the the the higher wall and it ended about here so this is all new new concrete wall it basically was replacement in kind when when we replaced that so the changes that has proposed is that uh the swing swim lanes
um right now has a sloped area and and this these steps are located about in this location so uh the proposal was to have this as a vertical wall move the steps closer to the platform um and then just have that vertical wall there the
rest of the uh improvements would match uh generally match the the slope that's out there now um there would be a slight improvement right here where this area is very steep and we'll just lighten that slope a little bit because it it's steep um the other area that we have we
add another set of steps but this is basically exactly what it is um this area here is is the one area that there was concern about getting more visibility um in the corner here um I was hoping to avoid having to demolish a
new wall that we put in but if we we could angle that wall more this way if we wanted to but I defer it to the committee on that i just kind of avoiding doing that but we could change that more but that's the main concern but overall it's it's matching the uh
the same and and you know Z is right i didn't put the sand in here but I'm also budget conscious that I didn't want our guys to go oh we're spend more time we'll use our imagination yes yes but the the intent was is to show the walls and then and I did right here we are adding a set of steps because there's no
steps on this portion so you know that's the general u proposal could you scroll through the perspectives John um you have it nine or eight slides there just scroll yeah just scroll through
oh okay well there it goes okay so it's the same proposal just different angles yeah different angles so again if uh you know people perspective there's the the stairs again yeah the stairs on the side of on the the structure side um and and
the steps um you know just continuing looking on this side again the steps putting moving the steps closer to the platform versus having the steps out here and here's the vertical wall the end set of steps here and again this this area right here it's very steep on this end so we wanted to flatten that
out so it's more uniform over this entire area and make it more consistent with the rest of the slopes john can you speak to the steps um by the um the jetty or dock that's coming out
there's another set of steps by the swim lanes um what is the makeup of those steps is it steel that sits on top are they embedded in concrete with rail we were proposing all concrete yep all concrete that way y it's sturdy yep is it required to put a handrail on those
steps or no we would want them just for people walking um in and out of the pool just to give them some stability you know the steps themselves might get a little slime on them or slippery you just want to make sure that they can hold on to it you know usually people when they're getting to steps they may be tired so
they just have a place are ladders easy enough to map out at some point i know in the blacks it would be good to have ladder we could certainly add a ladder in that area you know we certainly over in this area where the steps were we could put a ladder right
here yeah and I guess my only thought is as somebody who's officiated these meets by the dock i'm hoping nobody's going to be falling over the steps as they're racing because all the kids will be on the dock racing around to the other you know so I'm just hoping that we'll have railings
on either side yeah so Okay um and then is there going to be a ladder well the old stretch I'm trying to remember there's ladders by the diving doors by the Yeah I didn't map the the ladders that are here
there's already existing ladders on this i'm just wondering if we need another ladder yeah right there right there frankly yeah I don't believe we need one there we can look at it the preference would would be this is
a much shallower area we don't want kids jumping or anything in this area you know we'll put so no diving on on the locations and sorry go ahead because otherwise well I'm going to look them up but the uh colony committee had some questions
and I want to make sure John you mentioned that portion of the wall the existing wall so we are leaving that wall intact and and locating the slope piece with the two stair staircases to be in line with
that or we reconstructing that vertical wall this this this vertical wall is existing and we would demolish what's the existing jog correct okay so we'll put an angle on there and then and we'll tie they'll they'll drill
rebar drill rods in and uh you know set that properly to the existing wall but uh that we would propose right now I believe it's a it's a 90 we just put an angle on it to to improve that one of the things my recollection was there was some dialogue about so on the
southern portion of this diagram where uh the um you know the lap wings are uh what is there any hard surface around the pool there or yeah it' be a sidewalk okay so that would be
concrete that would be concrete um so the questions I got today there is a walking path around the entire perimeter of the pool long term the draft plans the walking path will stop the smaller playground and doesn't appear to be continuous as it is today we're not touching that walking path
right no that walking path around be the same and then in the same path that you have that's there now we're going to be putting concrete on top yeah I don't know if they meant the outer uh yeah we're not touching the outer path okay you're not touching any of the outer paths regarding the
relocation of the stairs and lap lane area will any regrading need to be done to the in this area if so there needs to be a retaining wall of any sort otherwise the the grades are going to stay the same we weren't proposing any regrading in that area it's already
a steep area that be maintained in that area um and then are the bleachers accurately represented in the updated plan we don't Yeah we weren't proposing to move the bleachers only changes really are just just to the
walls okay and then the entry mats we're going to use the same is there you know otherwise we're in between the stairs for entry mats yeah that's that that's why I think we also added that set of stairs there if I recall the
conversation was stairs would be more helpful we still need walking ms two stairs because you think about when they do the drills yeah those can always be it's not a construction yeah um Then there was a question about
the trees uh what's the plan to protect the mature trees at colony during the process how the machines will be brought in facility where they'll be stored heavy machineries stored on tree root systems that will cause damage to the tree in the plan will any of the trees
need to be removed we're not proposing any tree removal and in fact we're not uh proposing uh we'll we'll define what the limited disturbance for the contractor what he has to So we define that okay he doesn't get free reign
that's uh at this time I'd like to invite anyone from the public to approach the microphone should they decide yes aaron Virgo Candace Lane Street no problem i'll go first so we just
talked about the walking path like when we when the committee met last night we looked to look at it um it's definitely small but um we could only see the walking path going we didn't see it remaining consistent mainly by the area of the
where the frog slide is past the volleyball courts what I highlighted in green sorry okay i think that's the only thing I was going to talk about right now which is the walking path when I look at the engineering diagram that's online yeah yeah the the the walking path will be
exactly what's there now go past the frog slide yep what's what's there now will be we're not proposing before you go yes okay yeah we're not proposing to expand anything the only change that we're doing on on that side
is is going to flatten this slope and then add this stairs in other than that the paths are going to be the same it's there now okay so we don't see them on the diagram the second just to clarify so the the diagrams are really just intended to as
engineering drawings just to reflect the changes we didn't put everything on this drawing that they're not fully changed so that's why they may not show on there it's the only thing that were really shown were those relevant to the wall design uh so it's not there just doesn't
take that as being only the walls uh you know the the portion of the actual pool itself is what we're touching with construction will there is there any potential damage to the walking path
then in light of conversation and or is there a plan to repair not the what if situation but you're doing it alone yeah we're again we're defining the limit of disturbance and if the contractor goes outside the limit of disturbance he if he damaged
everything he has to repair it now we we we access likely be coming in through here so we'll have the path that's located over here um we're probably call for that to be removed and replaced because it's probably going to get broken up because the equipment over it just
um if we're going to post this after then maybe we just not show any of the trails i think the part because only some of it shows meaning the outer trail that might be what's confusing or just make it very clear that it's really just the pool nothing else is being touched
i I honestly wasn't intending to publish this because tonight was the night that's it we're making the decision to go out to bid um so we can make the final drawings you know whatever that's final we put that on there but you know this
was more tonight okay but if you like certain do more of a window to think that there's more to deliberate over when we're trying to wrap this up tonight it sounds like we'll still have a
continuous walking path around the pool correct ash ropes in Pine Street so as a wife just coming from a safety perspective I I'm so happy that we're keeping the stairs in lane but I do have some concerns because as the committee
said the kids really do love running around there and I just really am scared that they're going to be some of them like to swing on the railings of the stairs and I just feel like it's not the safest maybe to have the stairs right next to the dock because that's where
all the kids I do do worry that like if they're jumping off the dock they're going to be hitting the stairs or something that um also also from a safety perspective I think the ladders where they are currently in the floor good and I don't
see a need for them in the lap if you still have the stairs i'm sorry what was your last statement the ladders are good where they are right now in the pool like the three on the one straight wall i don't I don't think I would add any anywhere else
yeah where I was talking about was uh on the on that one lap so where the stairs are and it's more because the stairs are near the dock that there's often times the little kids on that end it's hard for them to get out so if they can go over to the
especially when they're only doing 25 to try and get out um if they can go over the ladder then they can get out by the wall you know I'm talking not not where they arrive on the the side that's already existed talking about the new vertical wall it's going to be put in
but if we move the stairs a little more central I think it's a fair point because if the stairs are next to the dock and to the extent children jump off the dock you're inviting children to come in towards the dock in order to access I'm all for
eliminating this and just putting a ladder here so that's Um right we we put this we inserted this in to keep it you know so it's not protruding out like these other ladders you know that's that's actually into the slope and coming in so the the end of the ladder is going to be aligned with the wall so
it's it's recessed into well whether it's a ladder or stairs perhaps offset it you know I don't know but it would be appropriate 10 feet away from the dock okay right because you're inviting children to swim towards the dock where other children are theoretically jumping off the dock right and you can have a
child swimming on the water which might not be immediately visible from the child's to launch him or himself into the water um but right is that your concern yes but I definitely do think it should be stairs because many of the senior citizens use the laugh lanes and they
won't be able of them will have trouble getting the ladder so I think the stairs are good that they're still there thank you so is there opportunity
Yeah yeah yeah consider it done hi Jessica Romeo Pine Street sorry John just so everybody's clear you said it's done and this is it would you point with the mouse where you're putting putting the stairs so
10 or 15 feet away just to keep it away and then this will be a vertical wall so it'll be a vertical wall indentation for the steps and then a vertical wall everybody's good with that okay and when you say that I'm looking at Mike and Moren who are they swim laps every day
so as long as they're good with that they're daily users of those stairs um but uh the mats that committee Ewalt brought up I know it's not a a construction thing but they're important for the safety drills and there are some people I remember some people speaking
last year they had injuries um so they couldn't use stairs they needed to walk down a gradual incline so not that it matters to this drawing but um what else oh the paths around the perimeter i was a little confused the
area here it looked like these were going to be six foot pads six foot wide i don't recall here so I mean I guess my my question is what will the path look like what will the with and what is the
material currently it's black top black top so it blends in it just looks less you know if it if it's concrete like the white gray colored concrete it just screams at you and it's loud and it's hot and it's not as inviting as what's
currently there it just kind of blends in aesthetically um so that was the path around the perimeter how wide so we'll just make it doesn't matter to me as Walter or concrete so um I think both committee said something about
possibly putting a ladder here my concern there would be kids love to dive under there and pull up mud and that's a really great spot to collect mud someone might get stuck under a ladder
right i It's a thing that the do there they collect mud they're not supposed to they get in trouble but they do it so that's just a safety concern that popped into my head when you mentioned putting a ladder in that corner i guess I didn't understand so they put mud on this on the
on the surf on the upper surface no no they they dive under and under the under the sand there there's a layer of mud and the kids go down and they dive down and they try to get the mud and collect the mud whoever gets the most mud wins so the encourage this mud practice is
that they could get stuck under the ladder so when they're looking to resurface I look as a ladder when ladders are pools are usually a way to get out that's what Yeah but they might also be able to hold on to the bottom part of the ladder i guess that's what happens well what's
the obligation of us telling kids like do that versus them not doing it i have three stitches on my lip from hitting the bottom of the stairs and passing diving in for pennies so I did want to just say thank you to everyone you heard feedback from the community
and you listened thank you for doing that thank you okay so at this point then we have Sorry one more question not sure where we landed on the ladder but there isn't a ladder there
where where's the It's like right there right like that whole wall well they have the steps here and then there's another ladder i didn't plot the ladder proximity it's not there two ladders along that vertical
pre-existing vertical wall there's three okay okay there's three i'm sorry no ladder so no ladder um the uh concrete versus black top um
and that area by the l construction right now keep it blacked out i'm leaning towards concrete because does blend into the concrete over there but also I think concrete would be
warmer than black well that would be my question is not level what you saying it's more durable it's more durable i'll uh before we decide on on that I'll talk to our director see if he's got an
opinion and the pool manager see there is that fine so changes from this is sounds like this is the final drawing other than moving the stairs by the docks what I hear um and we are not
adding an additional ladder is that correct adding an additional ladder on on the south side by the docks correct we're going to shift this over and then have No I just shifting stairs
walking paths will be unchanged and remain as Does that capture everything is that everything okay uh we did have the authorization still from last year our attorney feels that that's still valid so John will
make the revisions i'll connect him and I with manager mainten Take care i do want to mention Yeah actually Mr not letting you go just yet thought
you were out of here um I do want to credit John this was just an update uh that's not listed on the agenda but we did get a wreck grant uh the grant that we applied for um earlier this year for Nashville Playground we got that grant in the amount of $60,000 so thank you to
John and his team uh for that one we will go through the same public process and it's really mostly in kind replacement but we'll have all that information on our website uh for public feedback and I'll circulate
community stakeholders um well just one last thing on that grant Mr shotti it's 60,000 it will be for Nash but the specifics as to how to how it's going to be spent yet to be determined correct i mean it's it's mostly an inind we've used it in the past for
playgrounds correct it is playground for Nash there is a match we have to put up a couple so uh there is a little bit of a match there but just as we do with Mountain View it was pretty much an update new
stand in uh for the most part okay uh did you want Yeah so was that Yes so you want to talk about that yeah if if you don't mind Mr rushki so uh sorry
in in 2024 uh the township acquired parcel uh block um 48.16 lot 12122 approximately 18 acres commonly referred to as Sensky property this is a large parcel of land next to Nash Field um
uh it it was a open space connected uh transaction it is something that I I I believe it's my opinion that it's an opportunity um that that presents itself to us as far as uh putting some thought
into um a plan uh to utilize that uh that parcel for some amenities or services or some sort of uh project that would uh enhance um that piece of land which is next to Nashville um and what I
wanted to was to uh bring it before the committee for these preliminary considerations as far as mobilizing uh folks uh a body of folks to start looking at it critically uh explore some possible uses some concept ideas and put
it before the committee um during which time we'd obviously um share it with the public as far as uh some of the ideas pilot ideas concepts that we'd be considering for um it is a large parcel
Not all of it is obviously um can be um manipulated in the minority portion but uh some things to consider uh it is next to Nashville uh which is an actively used uh field um it does have um existing acute parking challenges uh
there is also the Green Village connector trail uh which is um forthcoming and that connects to Nashville I think to the rear of it so I think there's a timely opportunity to consider um some what appears to be some present day needs or challenges and some
um activities development activities are going on there to to consider a larger more cohesive plan to make that part of our township even better for the community so um with that um I'm preliminarily thinking and by the way Mr
the reason why I'm going to keep you here is there has been prior work that's been done there sort of exploratory work as far as um some tons of ideas on what we could do with that so I think um we certainly want to dig that out and if you can sort of kind of refresh our memories of what was considered in the
past um and to what effect of any we took sort of additional steps yeah no it's it's a great piece of property for as having a large walking path it's kind of a piece of property where we're going to put a soccer field or we're going to
put anything type of active recreation a lot of wetland restrictions there so it's going to be passive recreation in that sense we can look at if we can expand the parking lot that may involve an individual wetlands permit so maybe some challenges to expand the parking
lot um but there is there is an ability to because there's an existing driveway we may be able to just enhance that existing driveway with gravel and put maybe even a small parking lot in the back to open that area because it really is a beautiful piece of property once you walk in the back and get towards you
but the great swamp and it's just a beautiful piece of property we'll look at how we can best utilize it so I remember I guess there's two things I wondered about i I recall that there's three buildable acres that we looked at
at some point potentially put fields if we needed addition field space so that was feasible but that parking was a challenge but the other thing is I thought the Mars County master plan factored in taking you know that connector trail and then trying to
continue eventually down to Oh yeah no that we we can easily come off a branch off that connector trail and bring it in it'll be a short section of that area still floods and it'll be a short section of boardwalk and connect into a walking path that connect
right property and come around and it's said it's a beautiful piece of property in the rear and such it's just you know I I don't believe we can look at it um or really is a passion to try and get some active recreation there um I can
just say it's going to be a very difficult hurdle to get through the D You know that's the reason why the property was never developed in the first place because of the restrictions that you have in there you have the wetlands but then you also have repairarian zones off the streams that
go through there so it'll be a challenge is there we can get there is a pocket of wetlands in the front of the property actually two pockets of wetlands and and we'll have to get a better delineation of those wetlands to see if the parking lot
can be expanded if those wetlands are continuous all the way to the great swamp that may be there may be threatened endangered species associated with that and such that we may have to have to look at it closer um certainly we could I could see knowing the property that um instead of building a
parking lot immediately adjacent to what we have Nash that that have a gravel driveway because there is a a pocket in towards the back that's less restrictive from environmental constraints that that we can get something further back so we may be able to do a parking lot and then
from a parking lot there maybe um really augment the the passive recreation and enhance more access there so people that if they want to walk they can go in that back parking lot and not tie up the parking lot in the front what's the um cycle given given the
continuation of that trail is part of what is their cycle for like grants is that something we want to pursue for them to fund it it is something that we could certainly pursue with them um you know I would I would if we're going to go through the Morris County route I would recommend first going with their
design assistance program it's just I think actually they're require Well it's you're not required and like Dville they they just want they want to you know because there is downside again we're going with Morris County it's going to be following their
schedule on design and doing you know through their process um you know you'll lose a year and such you know some municipalities just says I don't want to lose another year I want to design it right away and let's build it you know so some municipalities just go for the construction grant at all but it it's just um Morris County has gotten better
but there's still a challenge to work with will follow leads to next yeah I think uh well um the next steps would be to nominate or essentially charge certain folks and I think uh perhaps
communist andor who respectively serve on administration committee and the open open space some combination there of working with the committees themselves doing some exploratory work
perhaps putting forth some proposals before the committee to consider yeah Mr and has it on the agenda for this Thursday now you can really Don't even put your coat on mr
yeah so next uh if I may I'd like to call up the police chief who's joining us by video he's actually at a conference but he is on the line um and there are a number of things for him uh is that okay please okay so um three legislative
items under police that is uh the contract for the ALPR cameras uh an ordinance to make some corrections to our uh emergency management council and an ordinance to amend the police department stable
organization um yep so and then his report were there any questions report were there any questions on the chief's report okay thank you um all right um there was a question from Committee Eld on the
ALPR cameras um Chief if you don't mind just giving a sentence or two for the governing body on uh what's happening with that sure first of all good evening everybody i'm sorry I can't attend in person but thank you for having me via Zoom the ALPR that I'm proposing The
next intersection comes from a state grant that we applied for in 2023 it was a competitive grant that we one of four municipalities in Morris County to receive and we've already installed two intersections and this ALPR will be
using remaining funds to add a third so that is my ask and I'm hoping to move forward with that relatively quickly questions or concerns on
that um and the the other item is the correction to an ordinance from I believe it was 2023 on the LEMC uh at that time we had a different uh OEM coordinator uh Chief Miller is currently serving as our OEM
coordinator and he identified uh some areas that need to be touched up with this ordinance uh that was uh provided to you as well as supporting documentation uh chief is there anything you want to add to that and turn it over to questions or concerns well I
apologize i don't have the ordinance in front of me but just going by memory there was some reference to the emergency management coordinator in that ordinance and I don't think it's appropriate for it to be in there um it's dealing specifically with the LEMC
so I think that should be removed and that be reworked okay uh and the last item uh is an item that the public safety committee did review i think back in January we reviewed that uh and the chief did
prepare a memo on a uh requested reorganization uh of our table of organizations for the police department would increase the number of sergeants by one um any questions you want the chief to talk
through that real quick or the benefit of everyone else yeah Chief if you don't mind just give us a quick summary of the requested change sure the current ordinance allows forum up to two lieutenants and up to
five sergeants if there's only one lieutenant available so I'm looking to get that change to two lieutenants and five sergeants so I'm looking to promote another sergeant have him or
her running the tech zero and traffic currently it's run by a lieutenant and currently our our workload has increased the tenants need to be focused on more
higher management tasks and I I strongly believe that we need to install a sergeant pack in that position so chief I think I I understand that so we're going to um have a sergeant um
whose roles and responsibil would be enhanced what is current for that particular sergeant um and the detective count so the one detective or the detective function would report to that sergeant um my understanding was it was
a net headcount change of zero so work yeah that's correct can you help me understand a little bit more it is a net increase of zero we would just be taking currently we have two detectives we would be reassigning one of the
detectives and putting a sergeant in his spot so in essence we would have a sergeant and one detective that sergeant would also have detective responsibility so essentially would be a detective holding
okay understood thank you is a detective just not it's an assignment and It's an assignment at the chief's discretion so it's not a permanent title that they hold likely the rank obviously to get promoted so you have a sergeant
that is also functioning as a detective so he's not looking to change the count of the department the same one of the patrol officers would serve as a sergeant become a sergeant and have one
less patrol officer but a sergeant overseeing services so traffic investigative function as well yes so we can move ahead with that thank you chief
thank you yeah I have no questions for the chief that all works out i didn't see the um ordinance we didn't have the draft or the OEM the OEM ordinance i didn't get that and I'm not concerned but um um
yeah I will send that to you and we can we can uh if there's any issues with the drafting for introduction let me know it's not time sensitive yeah I'm not worried about it sounds like it's just cleaning some stuff up not an issue do we have a new one out not a new one I
guess it was the old uh the old ordinance and the requested changes those uh not yeah sorry about that we'll send that out okay thank you okay anything else for the chief
all right thank you chief enjoy the rest of the conference thank you Mayor so with that we'll go back to the top start off administration u perspective resolutions or ordinances
the verd settlement agreement amendment uh possibly we discussed that in executive session so hopefully in the next two to three months we will have something for that um there was a request to add discussion of bylaws in the order of business
yeah I can talk about that um so uh how do I phrase I keep saying I'm new around here right um and one of the things that kind of struck me was that in all the meetings we've had um there really doesn't seem
to be any place on the agenda for new business um for us to talk about things which I understand why but it seems to me that the opportunities for which I can bring forward ideas happen to be either I talked to Z about it in advance
decided to put something on the agenda which tends to go through the approval of the mayor to make it way onto the agenda which is totally fine and appropriate but um it kind of means that that doesn't really give me an opportunity to speak
if whoever the mayor might be decides not to put it on the agenda the only other times for me to speak for us to speak collectively are during the committee meetings or during a particular topic that's already on topic where we can assert our opinions there
are plenty of opportunities for us to speak but I think what struck me is that the public have two opportunities during every meeting to bring forward new business if you will they have a time limit and everything else and we as committee members actually don't um
there really isn't the time unless it's pre-planned and pre-discussed there's something on our mind or something that I think that this committee should maybe consider or address um it just feels a little bit of a miss to me to not have
that during either a workshop probably during workshop is when it's appropriate um and set a time limit too for that matter just give sort of everybody that opportunity to if there's something
forward to collectively set it at that time it's kind of just a suggestion i'm sure I don't know half the things that go on around here there might be legitimate reasons for that not happening but it does feel to me like a
little bit of a miss that I need kind of perm if you will to get something on the agenda rather than just say something and I don't I don't mean to insult at all like we're all friends if you will
um but I like and I think that it's very accommodating if there is something on my mind right now nobody has said no to me at all uh but who knows what the makeup could be in three years from now or something else and I don't there's an opportunity
at any point during the meeting for me to say I've got something on my mind unless it's during my committee report which doesn't seem to be the appropriate time for me to bring up something so by format in a workshop meeting just a dedicated period does anybody have
anything for lack of a better term to discuss any new discussion items pretty much yeah thank you yes ma'am mayor um if I may um I appreciate and uh Mr el Perwood's concerns and they are valid and I
understand why you'd want to have a chance for new business um my concern as the one who prepares the agenda is a concern for transparency for sake of the public um we get agendas out in advance so that way the public knows what we're going to talk about before the meeting
starts so that way if there's something on the agenda that they want to talk about or hear about um the public has adequate notice to tune into the meeting or come to speak during hearing of citizens and also for sake of uh the administrator and the committee as a
whole that way the administrator can be prepared to address anything by speaking to the appropriate department heads or um get uh whatever information the committee needs whatever reports you know so that way and I I I don't want to stop you from bringing up new business
at meetings um but I I just want to make sure that we're um giving our administrator and the public you know proper notice before before things come up um and to that end like during during during uh as Mr alperwood noted during uh committee reports that would be a new
time to uh say publicly that you want the committee to at some point discuss it doesn't necessarily have to be at that particular meeting and um as a best practice when the public brings up new business my suggestion would be generally to thank them for their comments and then put it on a future
agenda rather than get too far into a back and forth at that meeting so that way uh proper uh information can be collected so that you way you can have a proper discussion on it rather than trying to make decisions on the fly
well with all respect I don't know what any member of the public is going to bring up during one of our meetings at all and we can talk about it and if it's not during a workshop meeting where we can actually work out some details it just feels like you're taking
an idea farther and further down the road which might very well happen several times i might bring up an idea that you all say is a little off the rocker right now we're not going to address that two minutes to speak and you don't think
you move on honestly just kind of the way everything happened about preparation because even we were talking about fensky John gave us so much information that we could use and we could have had hours of conversation about what we would all want to do with
18 acres of fensky but without John's input to help prepare so it's having time to prepare and think through and get data to have a Yeah I'm not disagreeing with that i'm just merely making a suggestion that
something be considered uh this is what's on my mind or something this is what I'm hearing or this is something that happened or whatever and I believe that the committee should actually look into that it's almost as simple as that
it's not that we have to go deep into the woods of any decisions because decisions won't be made that quickly but just to to have that sort of voice um it feels like it's still missing
in these meetings i'm not saying anyone has suppressed me so far but we all know that hasn't happened i just it just is seems to be on my mind that I don't know when to bring up a topic unless I bring up a topic behind
the scenes and I rally support and then it gets on the feels a little bit wrong well I thank you for the footnote clarify you don't feel your voiceainly don't want to be mayor serving the function of mayor and and
having my colleagues feeling suppressed so I think this is more of a a intellectual freestyle discourse right as far as uh the uh thinking about ways to perhaps improve the operations of the committee i do think there are naturally
um I guess early on in in my term as a communion I realized that there I came to understanding that there is quite a bit of rules and regulations um with regard to serving as elected official um and the operations of the committee I
think by virtue of its function and the affioned rules and regulations there does need to be rigor as far as how the meetings are run um uh but I do believe that
um and by the way so there there are uh avenues by which um you know ideas can be can be floated around obviously restrictions around it but there are pathways to do just that i think we're just talking must be able
to sort of um have those conversations publicly for the benefit yeah or um I mean things that I'm not involved in i mean it's about colony for example but committee
woman doesn't say anything about colony during her committee report when can I bring up on my mind right and I'm not I'm just using an example i'm not on the pool i wouldn't
ever give an update on the only time for me to interject an opinion about when somebody mentions there isn't another time during any of our meetings for me to open
that's all i mean I'm being quiet because I'm I've been on both sides of that situation so um and regardless of the mix up here I picked up the phone to anybody I need to
talk to so that's usually you know discussions I would have and then also if the public has an interest and and you know they'll come up as well um it's one of those things you have to have guardrails because people use it
the wrong way um and but I've been in situations where I'm sure I had free rain for a couple minutes people wouldn't want to hear what I had to say and there are times where you know somebody else had didn't had free reign for and sometimes they took that free reign anyway during the short section
[Music] so so that's uh the tough part but we haven't it hasn't I've never been a situation when anybody was up here that I didn't feel I could advance something important and but it did it would either be talking to you
know one you know one person here the mayor usually or a committee member that's in charge of something or the public and then the public comes up and out of curiosity can we be the we could step down and be the public at an employee actually recommendation
something on your mind speaking during but I kind of but I do feel like well haven't we all earned the right to not have to do that I mean we have we've all run for election we've gained this seat we should have an opportunity just like
the public to do that I just feel that's I mean and it's okay to not we can table this honestly we can table this right now I just wanted to point it out and the very fact on the agenda was actually a success because I didn't have to get
anybody's approval for it to get on the agenda for me to talk about it and that's kind of my point mayor uh for what it may be worth there have been times it's never gained much traction but there have been times when the legislature has taken up this topic and there have been times where
legislation has been um been been brought forth that would specifically eliminate a committee's uh abil a governing body's ability to discuss something that wasn't on an agenda in advance um again for sake of transparency and it's it's it's not that
I disagree with where Mr aleritz wants to take this um in principle I agree with you but just for you know for sake of transparency for the public to be aware in advance of what's going to be discussed you know I feel that there should be that um getting it on the
agenda in advance generally before before we go too far into any particular discussion on the topic yeah I mean ultimately there um it's tremendously helpful to have some disciplines as far as what what items are up for discussion on the agendas as
we all know these meetings can can quickly turn into marathon sessions of multiple hours long not to suggest that's inherently a bad thing but I think um the density of information and compactness efficiency of time is probably something that we all would
champion we all volunteers in public service uh might I suggest as committee committ um I I think it's it's it's a notion some merit certainly for further
discussion um if if we can uh discuss it further along with I wasn't looking for resolution yeah I understand it's probably not something we can sort of knock out of the park in one
shot 15 minutes um but certainly something that uh absolutely would welcome you further thoughts on it to the extent there's anything that um we want to bring organized
fitting manager uh at the next meeting yes uh then that comes at the recommendation of our manager um and I also did interview this individual as well so this uh is not going to to the budget or to necessarily the uh
concurrent staff but it ensures that there's adequate coverage should one of them need to go on vacation leave or whatever is there's a a bench of managers that then we will discuss this in executive get to discuss it executive
earlier but uh likely there will be a resolution to award a contract to a concession pool concession I'm sorry concession air bids were received today we received one bid um those details
in housing any other questions for me on general administration it clerk report was received any questions for the clerk okay uh construction building department any questions there sorry no no
questions for the clerk but just to reiterate to residents they can get through their dog and cat licenses online now right yes that has been active since April 1st and I've already received a few applications online and a few payments so we're happy about that
great thank you we did a limited roll out to people would be immediately impacted those who have to renew um both because it's the same system uh the same software system that we're using which is called SDL for the clerk's office but also construction office and fire
prevention um so before we kind of make a huge push to to direct people in that direction we wanted to make sure it works out we did figure out there were some kinks uh that we resolved uh just this week and uh our clerk and finance department also worked you know what
happens when the money comes in there's multiple steps to this uh from an accounting perspective too so once we work out all the all the issues and you'll feel comfort comfortable and confident in how it works then we'll put out more information but it is available
and it's on the website great thank you i know that's been a goal for some time you've been working on so I appreciate that and for anybody listening um when when people do submit their dog or cat license application online the process is that they'll submit their application first once I've reviewed it then we send
a request for payment so it's sort of a two-step process so just so everyone knows what to expect great thank you anything else under uh or any questions under construction or building engineering we covered Finance
we do have a resolution for the next meeting to adopt a budget you adopted a resolution to reduce the budget last month this one would be to adopt budget uh we also have a resolution to adopt the audit and the corrective action plan
i believe also those were both included the agenda packet yes they were any questions on those uh the item in the audit is the same item we have year after year which It's it's segregation of duties but it really comes down to
personnel um it's not a huge issue our you know slapped our hands you have to do this but it is an issue in a lot of municipalities especially small ones where staff is limited um but we haven't had any financial issues the team here
does a great job and it's very no I think it was a very narrow scope in the past because I didn't really give the specifics or maybe I just didn't drill in but I didn't didn't all the specific detail it's not broad separation of duties i thought it was very specific yes yeah segregation of
duties very limited more in um certain function office okay okay um police that public works uh we do have a resolution uh that we're
requesting you adopt to authorize bidding for plowing services this is for supplemental pling services uh DW calls upon in the event of more significant or severe weather events that uh goes beyond their capabilities to ensure that
the town is plowed quickly and safely um we are in year five or we would be going to year five of the existing contract but that is an option for us to exercise so a threeyear plus uh option annual
renewals we are looking to go out to bid and we got some time on that we'd like to start that process now so that way it's ready to go any questions there um tax collector and tax assessor
both submitted their reports as well uh tax collector just the it's on everybody's mind at least on the governing bodies the uh I'm sorry from the assessor's perspective the rebal um we are still working on getting the tax maps approved by the state we did just
get uh another round of comments last week uh I believe it was uh with more feedback for the the professional that's working on the tax maps out of firm so we're hoping to wrap that pretty soon
the contract with the rebal firm uh for the most part was approved it wasn't formally approved because they don't approve that until the tax maps are approved but they did give us feedback um we made some uh created an agenda uh
for that and otherwise the agreement was good to go so that would be ready to roll once the tax maps are updated and then we'll start more public education on that and and for benefit of members of the public the repal is is an action that
that is mandated by the county yes statewide uh rather municipalwide action um when information when once we reach this first milestone with regard to the updates to the map um the plan is then
to provide uh really notifications and avenues by which we'll certainly invite the assessor to present some information as to how the purpose of the rebal what's driving it how it might go and the time frames and so on so forth so
all those are forthcoming for members of the public who are interested in understanding more getting a handle on what's what's going to happen uh and mayor we do already have some information on the website with the timeline uh so anybody who goes to our website they can type in rebal they go
and go to the tax assessor's office page they'll find some information on the rebal but when uh we get the tax maps approved and we can actually implement the contract um there's a that they put together there's a letter that they put
together public information sessions as well and presentations here so a lot more great thank you and uh that concludes the public portion of the workshop agenda thank you Mr shotti and
now would like to move to the second hearing of citizens mr lanti no wonderful i now invite um uh anyone in the audience to approach the microphone yes hello Jessica again from Pine Street um might as well make most
of my time here tonight so a lot of the discussion tonight had me thinking about the master plan i think our master plan may be due for an update sometime soon um it's something we talk about a lot in our environmental commission meetings but I think
recreation and kind of community engagement seems to be a common thread the Fensky property came up it would be awesome to engage the community as a whole not just a couple groups that are represented you
know open space is a very small committee um I just sent you a picture we were in Nashville this weekend and they had this thing with a QR code you could scan and say "What are your thoughts on how we can redevelop this area and make better use of this area to
have it be a community resource?" So Fensky Property I was just ding down thinking like "Oh birding area native plant garden rain garden some sort of an educational place for residents to go to with interpretive signs." It just it got me thinking there's ways to engage the
community if people want to be engaged to bring them into these discussions so it's not just a couple of people who are the same people all the time talking about things that happened to this community oh thank you i've also noticed a lot of kids lately riding bikes and
stuff which I think is fantastic so skate park if there's any way to revisit that topic potentially create a healthy place for kids to play doesn't involve them on video games on their phones vaping things like that they're outside playing out in the fresh
air getting some exercise making new friends uh that whole topic just kind of got dropped i think it's an opportunity for the community to maybe rethink where can teenager you know teenagers and tween have a place to go
thank you the earlier suggestion of the activating our liaison or andor committee heads um certainly didn't intend for that to be construed as they would be in a closed environment driving the process
and making decisions it merely was activating to start getting the ball rolling as far as how the process uh should be run and collecting information doing the analysis uh and ultimately presenting to the larger committee
of that process uh certainly would be inclusive of capturing resident or community input most likely that would be natural so so I certainly welcome comments thank you very much we're certainly on the same page
yeah as Leia is on for Thursday night that is actually a topic of the discussion of how do we engage a little bit more feedback from the community so good thank you uh anyone else i now close the second hearing of
citizens do I have a motion to adjourn there were two items still under contractive session my apologies do I have a motion to enter
yes mrs yes mr mchugh yes deputy Mayor Rand yes and Mayor yes and mayor I just like to always caveat for the public that we are not taking action but it's going to