##VIDEO ID:80jfCLtozLk## thank you recording in progress welcome to the chadam township committee meeting of July 16th 2024 Mr lante has adequate notice been given yes adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows no was given to the Chad MCC Courier and the M Gilly record on January 4th 2024 notice was posted on the bulletin board in the main hallway of the municipal building on January 4th 2024 and notice was filed with the Township Clerk on January 4th 2024 thank you can I get a roll call please Mr Lois here Mr McHugh here Mrs Roland here Deputy Mayor Choy mayor eald here we have quum if everybody could join me uh for the flag [Music] salute I pledge Al to FL States ofice well thank you all I'm pleased to see our uh chadam Township Police here uh in my my uh opening statements later on I'm thanking you all for all the work that you did to allow us to get re accredited by the uh New Jersey Association of uh Chiefs of police so I want to thank you all for your efforts um we're very excited to have everybody here to welcome a new police officer to our ranks uh chadam Township is proud to welcome Robert Forte to the ranks of the chadam Township Police Department in 2012 Robert enlisted in the US Marine Corps where he served as an ammunition technician until 2016 after the Marine Corps Robert attended Bergen Community college and graduated with an associate of science in Business Administration concentrating in finance Robert joined the Morris County Sheriff's Office in 2019 after graduating from the Morris County Police Academy's Basic Police Class during his time with the Sheriff's Office Robert was a detective in the warrant section where he successfully served several hundred criminal warrants additionally Robert served as the PBA president for PBA local 151 tonight Robert is joined by his girlfriend Jillian vesia and his two brothers David and Matthew Forte uh welcome to chadam Township and come on up for your swearing in thank you too hi nice to meet you okay let's see how we're going to do this I'm just trying to think of which way I want because I want you to be positioned uh yes okay um okay I State your name I Robert Forte do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established within the United States and in this state under the authority of the people and in this state under the authority of the people I do furtherly swe I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the office of all the duties of the office of police officer according to the best of my ability police officer to the according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you very [Applause] much and did you want to get some pictures sh Seal Seal I just want in there dep thank you very much hurry up Ryan hurry up Ry usually admin up front [Music] go stereo go stereo together okay we're going to move move into the public hearing of citizens uh Mr lante once you're settled in would you mind reading the guidance for the public hearing of citizens ex members of the public are now welcome to come up to the microphones 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 hearing tonight those present May step up to the microphone to be heard if you are 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 recognize 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 3 minutes rather than use any of your time answering questions the township committee will wait until you finish speaking before responding there are two public comment sessions on tonight's agenda each member of the public will be limited to one comment of up to three minutes during each public comment period written comments submitted to the Township Clerk before 3 p.m. today will be read during the public comment sessions written comments are subject to the same guidelines as oral comments duplicative written comments may be summarized rather than read in full according to guidelines issued by the New Jersey Division of local government services and I have not received any written comments thank you and we have one person with raised hand on Zoom okay um sure Robeson r o s o n hin Street chadam Township um I'm calling about the third item on the workshop agenda is now a good time to speak or should I wait till the second public hearing I'm sorry I couldn't hear that yes now would be the time to speak okay um so I've been going to Colony my entire life and my family is there literally every day unless we're away um and I'm also a seconde lifeguard and thirdy year employee so I heard that there could be changes to the structure of colony um regarding the wall and I think that if it becomes a straight wall this will not only ruin the atmosphere of the pool and the pond-like feel it has but also cause many safety issues that all now have to handle as a lifeguard such as wall crawlers so young kids getting to deep areas which they normally wouldn't be able to with the slop walls um also I think this will increase the risk of kids just jumping right into the pool because with the sloped walls it creates a buffer so we're able to get to the child before they're in the water um also I think this will make search drills much harder because as you know every week we do a search drill in case anything were to happen and I don't think we'd be able to do this with the 90 degree angles because it would just make it harder to enter the pool and also in relation to that having the 90 walls would make it much harder to evacuate in case of an emergency like thunder or something else um and lastly I think that if there is a decision like this being made I think it's really important that there's input from the members because this would really affect us and it may change people's minds about going to Colony many people I think would be very upset with this change and I don't think they would like it as much as they do now if we don't aren't able to give our input thank you thank you I appreciate your input do we have anybody else uh that was only raised hand okay and seeing no one in the audience I will close the public hearing um I think I'm going to move into my mayor's message before the workshop this this evening's uh schedule is a little bit different than what they're we're accustomed to so so um move this around a little bit um I I wanted to congratulate our chadam Township Police Department are receiving their third reaccreditation from the New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police I look forward to the meeting when the Association members will attend and we can officially recognize this wonderful accomplishment I'd like to also uh note that three officers or or thank three officers who were recognized uh Detective Mike that's okay Detective Mike Bloom for his investigation of a financial crime Officer Shawn lamp for his actions and investigation of a motor vehicle accident involving a cyclist and officer CM doy for his actions during encounter with a male experiencing a mental health crisis well done thank you for all you do for our chadam Township residents with one meeting scheduled for July this evening's meeting will run a little different than usual we'll start with a workshop session where we discuss upcoming resolutions and ordinances of the committee can provide input and direction to the township staff then we'll move into our traditional meeting where we will vote on a series of matters including resolution to authorize bidding for the colony pool wall replacement as discussed in Prior meetings The Colony pool sidewalls are crumbling and in need of replacement the committee requested the township engineer develop plans a draft plan was Circ circulated to the committee last week with updated plans provided today those plans will be discussed tonight so that we can move forward with the bid process and toward having the work completed in the fall no decisions have been made at this time this is a discussion to find the right answer for our community and for our Colony members I look forward to having an open discussion with this committee this evening to determine the best path forward also on the agenda is a resolution establishing an affordable housing advisory committee with our fourth round affordable housing coming up in 2025 the State Legislative changes and tight implementation timelines it'll be critical for this team team to ensure we're doing all that we can behind the scenes to manage and plan for our fourth round affordable housing obligation before we move into the township business of this evening I'd like to take a moment to address uh Sunday's attack on former president Trump it's disheartening to know that the vitriol on both sides of the political aisle has come to this I Look to our Township residents to lead with peace we can disagree we can debate and we can be a passion advocate for our causes in the end we take our differences to The Ballot Box voting not violence violence is never the answer and has no place in our civilized democracy my thoughts and prayers for Speedy healing are with President Trump okay so with that we'll move into our Workshop session Mr Shi May Rel your agenda pet accompanying your agenda packet was um a reference to an ordinance currently in place in our code uh regarding construction and Contracting work on Sundays and holidays um it is a minor modification that we're seeking and wanted to bring to your attention uh hopefully for uh next month as an introduced ordinance and is to add juneth to the list of federal holidays does specify national holidays um but since the time of this codification that was not a holiday and so we just seek to include it in uh in our code I think it's fairly straightforward any questions or concerns or can we move ahead with uh drafting that ordinance Amendment for next meeting any concerns or objections thank you uh next one uh is uh as I mentioned at the previous meeting uh or rather the last Workshop meeting a number of ordinances uh from other communities were provided that describe parks and Fields recreational area type rules uh and policies we don't have one that covers all of our parks and Fields we have two currently one that covers uh the skate park which is Obsolete and one that covers uh The Colony pool tennis courts but nothing uh that provides a comprehensive set of rules for all of our Parks so uh I made an attempt at trying to ensure that what we currently have at least especially for tennis but um you know what would be appropriate for the rest of our parks and looking at the way other communities uh police and and regulate their usage of their fields uh is is applicable to ours as well from a safety perspective largely but also uh in some areas to help DPW uh maintain the parks a bit more easily and more safely um but also to to ensure that our police have a mechanism by which to discourage and deter people we can't post a sign saying these things are not allowed and indicate penalties if we don't have these these rules in place so the draft that you have is just an initial stab at it we don't have a draft ordinance yet because I wanted to make sure we get some time to deliberate about that um I think these are all fairly standard I didn't put anything in there that was out of the ordinary I don't think um seek your seek your feedback on that does anybody have any questions or comments I think you answered one of mine which is whether or not these were enforcable and I guess that's the point um any questions comments about the uh draft that we received there any other areas folks would like cover that you're questioning why we're covering them and also just knowe that there are some in here that are repeated Elsewhere on our ordinances that are sort of blanket Township policies listed elsewhere but they aren't specific to the parks and so I just thought it would be helpful to have one set for the parks and that way if we decide this governing body or future governing bodies decide to remove them from other sections that maybe they will still consider to be applied at least for our Parks MH yeah so uh I'm on the rec subcommittee and I did conference with Mr Choy um in the last few days uh he is away um and so we were going to dive deeper into this specifically the field roles uh how they would affect each sport so we will have more comprehensive uh feedback when he returns and is able to meet but I just looking at these rules um you know one of the big ones that jumps out at me here is just simply the the Park opening and closing rules right so um what I don't understand is how how can we have a set of rules we don't already comply with right so um we of EST a field not accessible to the public in the hours that's even outlined here so I would I would say we can't move forward with any kind of new rules or system of rules until we correct some of the things that we've you know that we we have had for for years and I've been on this committee for three years now and I've been talking about this that public field should have public access and that field gets locked off um and it it doesn't comply with these rules and I do agree completely with Mr Shah these are pretty basic pretty simple set of rules and the idea that we have a park that doesn't comply with this pretty basic pretty simple set of rules is kind of gross um and I I think we really need to attend to that and quickly because it's been literally years I've been bringing this up and we haven't yet accomplished it okay I yeah I wasn't under the impression I I I think people have had access to that Park so uh I think the idea here is that people have access and won't be chased out of the parks during those hours but I'm not under the impression that you can't access that Park during those times you can't access now now periodically it is locked and closed I mean there's a children's playground mean you can't drive in there okay sorry I I walk there when I go okay and a lot of times the gate is open so that's why I was a little confused but I'm usually there on the weekend when I go um could you remind me why why is the gate often locked I mean I can speak to police and DPW can certainly clarify but I think it's not that the park is not accessible um and it's not that the park isn't open it's simply inaccessible to vehicles and I think there are safety considerations there because it is not visible from the public uh you know streets and from uh line easy line of sight for the police department but certainly can consider that but you know I don't I don't think that that's necessarily relevant to this discussion on the ordinance certainly a discussion for another time I mean my input on that would just be it's been another time for a very long time okay if you and I could touch a base on that sure okay um any other comments on I I would assume because I saw about you know dogs on leash which is fine except in certain areas I assume you know Ada if there's um that that would that would we need to include that we could certainly mention that but that wouldn't be includ you know that would not be precluded by this ordinance okay that would Prevail that supersedes this so yeah I mean everything else seemed reasonable and typical to me yeah and I mean um you know a number of things here were mentioned that were specifically to not impact you know Township sanctioned you know and there's several places where I mentioned you know Township Recreation organizations that are uh or without prior approval so any of our town leagues Town programs would not necessarily have the same set of rules okay great um so the idea is to move forward with this for the August meeting yeah if there's consensus on these rules uh I'll pass those along to our Township attorney to draft the ordinance in the proper format uh and then introduce hopefully in August okay so in terms of the rec subcommittee uh if you get feedback in the next week sure still be manageable would that be okay if you could provide that feedback in the next week well I will certainly attempt but that's Mr Choy is not here this evening and he's away and I'm not sure what his schedule to return is okay so if you could just let us know how that's how that's going because I'm I'm sure we've got plenty of time great thank you um okay so let's move on from that one thank you and the next one is uh Colony po wall design um there was a second draft uh circulated uh today and I apologize for the late circulation of that but it was to kind of incorporate some of the the later feedback I received and John and his team worked uh quite diligently to get that to us he prepared a wool design that accounts for um the entry into the pool uh because I know that was a major concern with the straight wool design um so we have additional sets of stairs uh that would complement or rather replace since the blue mats are being removed uh because of that slope uh did John did note that safety issues that were associated with those blue mats because of the grade the lack of railing so they do pose a safety issue in of themselves uh the stairs actually would be an improvement uh to the design so that way people can enter safely and have rails along the side uh currently the wall is uh in for the benefit of the public just so they know we have a lot of safety issues with that wall and maintenance issues because of the fact that uh uh it is so old it's crumbling chunks of the wall are repeatedly fished out of the water there's uh often times gaps in the wall uh this not only causes issues during the season but then offseason what ends up happening is water and snow can penetrate into there INF further erode so structurally uh that wall is is compromised uh the DPW then has to patch it we've been patching it for a number of years it's reached its end of life and then DPW has to paint it um with uh so with the design that we've before us uh it is a safer design it certainly uh makes things and certainly respect the the the Lifeguard that spoke but uh disagree with the fact that it is unsafe for lifeguards and all many pools have straight walls uh in some cases also this allows people to reach over to the wall if they are having an emergency and hang on to the wall right now they don't have that um however as far as you know wall wall crawlers you know that's a discussion for you guys as to whether that is a good or bad thing um um it prevents it reduces the maintenance that DPW has to do for the wall and improves the safety there as well um and um our light our our pool manager reviewed this design also thinks that this design is a more Superior design from a safety and operational perspective than what we currently have there um at the end of the day if there isn't a consensus on this we do have to move forward with a design for the pool wall uh to get re rebuilt uh rehabbed uh so that way we can get started in September and have it open the next season so if there is a consensus on on this then I think what we need to do is just default back to a status quo rehab uh in its current condition but just a new one um and I seek your authorization by way of a resolution this evening to go out to bid so that way there is no delay in terms of uh making an award come September okay thank you um and I know there's a lot of passionate opinions around this one so I'm going to stay Qui and I'll pitch in my my what I have heard and um committee man Lois I know you talked to the advisory committee so if you kind of want to share that input The Colony advisory committee sure well also uh Mr McHugh was generous enough to lend some time to me this weekend we did discuss this as well um and you know I'll first give you the advice of the colony pool committee I guess um so the advice of the colony pool committee is that really has not changed at all since we last gave advice on this uh or since the committee last gave advice on this which is that um that that there be a staircase added which there has been in this new design we received today at 3 o' um and that so that there' be staircases on both the clubhouse side and the Spring Street side so that that is an improvement here um there are a number of staircases added to this design so they they they go from the deepest end of the pool to the shallowest end of the pool there's there's three on each side um and I'm describing for anybody who might be listening is there is it possible to put the design on screen or or the and the images that would have actually be helpful both of them great and is that is that document accessible now on the web it's not okay can that be seen right now because you have it on the screen you can it could be seen on the the uh stream Alex do you mind putting up the display on the broadcast thank you yeah I think it's gonna be pretty hard to discern that maybe we could just zoom in on one side at a time like maybe if we could zoom in on the clubhouse side that would be oh thank you Greg appreciate it so those uh those there are three three staircases I guess one is in the traditional position of the staircase there's there's one that's sort of um in the middle there and then one that appears to me if I'm if I'm eyeballing and reading these elevations it appears to me to be just outside where one of the mats is just outside of the shallowest end of the pool where the where the lane line goes across the cut off the shallow end of the pool for those who haven't passed the deep water test so so you have sort of three staircases in the deep end of the pool um I I think that is an improvement for accessibility in um over the over the previous design which had only a single ladder um but there are there are some other concerns um that the that the pool committee put forward the the suggestion of the pool committee which hasn't changed is to go to the straight wall design but exclusively in the lap Lane area so that would be the area from the dock to um the the deep end wall and to have that straight wall there but to have replacement in kind elsewhere in the pool uh the idea of that is to preserve the appearance of colony pool as a natural water pool one of the issues one of the largest ISS and and so I I'll just end there with the colony pool's advice um the additional advice that was added in last night's meeting about Colony that Colony pool put together uh the advisory committee put together as a you know in preparation for tonight is that there is the official advice is that documentation should be public which I guess this is a bit public um and that we should uh we should have a period of time um for this to be digested and commented on before we move forward okay um one of the issues with Colony pool is that if if you if you go there is that the thing is bowl-shaped so whether you're at the snack bar or you're at the the grills or you're on the off side of the pool the Spring Street side of the pool you're always higher than wherever uh than the center of the pool and the pool the whole facility is b-shaped and the walls that are sloped add to that so it was said before that you know being able to grab onto a wall if you're not a strong swimmer if you're having trouble might be helpful to you but actually having the sloped wall much like a natural lake allows anyone in the facility at any time to see who's in the water and as a parent that's very helpful because when your child is too close to a straight edged pool um you can't necessarily see them and depending on As you move through the club you won't be able to see them so it's it's harder to see your child or to see anyone in a in a pool where you have a a straight wall that that sloped wall creates a buffer and pushes the person pushes people out into a visible area um additionally for the wall crawler issue is the issue of wall crawling is when you grab a wall and then you're able to grab to go out deeper than where you can stand so when you have you have that issue in a the shallow end for anyone who hasn't passed a deep water test you're able to grab the wall and you're able to get yourself into deeper territory and a traditional straight edge pool that puts you in danger and when I was a lifeguard that was certainly the predominant number of minor rescues that we had to do is sort of grab somebody who floated off a wall and and became uncomfortable um the stairs in the shallow end which are now the stairs I guess in this uh new design the stairs on the Spring Street side which are the closest to the Frog slide they appear to me and I'm just eyeballing it because we don't have a um you know a demarcation line for the shallow end but that does appear to me to be in the shallow end of the pool that staircase will now be used by small children to you know enter the shallow end and right now they can only use the the Zero Entry right the beach to enter the pool or a mat to enter the pool so they can be observe the whole time they're not able to jump in and they they can't fall down um or hit their head on a on a hard surface and we have really no trouble attracting young families and small children we have more trouble as people get older um and I can I'll talk about that later but um this is a place if you're four you're five you're six you're seven it this is the greatest the beach is the greatest thing you make a river you you have some fun um and so that staircase there is problematic and any straight edge at that point is also problematic so and um we don't have those issues now um in terms of the quality of the pool and the quality of life I mean the historic nature of this pool is that it's been uh you know it was dug by the original Association right The Colony Association it was supposed to be natural it was so natural one point that there was turtle and snakes that lived in the walls cuz they were rocks um but it's it's been a naturally uh formed pool uh or it's a man-made pool but it's made to look natural and the curve of it not only are we getting giving up the the slope of the wall but also the natural curve is largely be given up we only have a single joint here to create um containment yeah so at the very least I would I would say this probably could have some improvements with additional angles there but in terms of the the bowl shape of the entire facility and then the the natural curve of the pool um this could be there could be definitely improvements one of the big differences I think when you make comparisons between this pool and um you know any other pool that has hard angles and you know and and a deck which is being proposed here as well a six- foot deck surrounding this new wall um those hard surfaces at first seem like very attractive because they clean things up and maybe they're easier to maintain but the the issue is they make things um hotter louder and uh they're it's not as soft and easy to spend the whole day at a concrete or hard hard bottom pool as it is at Colony so what ends up happening is um when you make a comparison between a traditional pool and Colony we have a dark bottom so you can't can't really account for um some of the things that dark bottom creates where like jumping in off of the side you can't gauge how deep it is because you can't see the bottom um so there's there are significant differences and then if you think about your own experience at a at a at a lake um where they don't have walls like this except for in deep areas like we do a a colony there's good reason for that okay if it would be possible if we could go to I I just want I'm sorry Greg um let me just change my mind there um here on the drawing it says railroad tie you see that um at the beach and then it differentiates between a railroad tie and a CPP border and CPP border being the it's sort of a black plastic border that surrounds the back of the beach and then railroad tie here um where where is that that's um it's on the it's on the uh clubhouse side of the pool uh on the edge of the beach the transition to the lawn so you'll see there's something there marked as a railroad tie and then you have the 6in CPP border which is so they're differentiating materials there you'll also notice on this on this site plan you have um asphalt marked which in that's the asphalt um sort of pathway around the pool yeah that's the railroad tie thanks Greg yeah and then you have a asphalt marked on the pool and then um on the far side of the pool it's hard to tell because the the new is overlaid directly over the old survey but the old survey is is not showing any pathway at all it's just it's showing the new proposed concrete pathway which is all straight lines okay so if you don't mind Greg if we go to my photos Okay so this is the first photo and I'd like to note that there's a storm drain there and um that storm drain is missing from this survey so we have a a storm drain that's missing and of course that could be added in and the where with how runoff works that could be dealt with but that was an upgrade at one time because of the water that was running into the pool that was added in and you can see how close that is to the edge that is not accounted for in the new design and it's not on this survey okay if you go to the next where is that the is that like Midway on the you remember where that is so yeah so that would be close to where the staircase is um on the the the closest staircase to the beach on the bath house side on the on the plan that we've been sent oh in the new drawing okay in the new drawing that's where it would be and it would be entirely covered in cements according to this to the new drawing okay um and and and that's you know the engineering concern of it or how to deal with that is not really my concern my concern of it is um how the this was exactly made because this storm drain if you left this off your survey and you wanted to widen your driveway you wouldn't be allowed to do that you'd have to provide an updated survey if you wanted to add a shed you couldn't do it as a resident you would need an updated survey and if you wanted to you know um do something simple like put a generator pad out for a new generator you couldn't do it because the survey wouldn't be high enough quality yes right well my point is I don't believe that somebody has looked at this very very closely because these elements don't exist anymore so if you go to the next picture um this is an asphalt pathway and this asphalt pathway is not depicted on this drawing at all this is the asold pathway on the Spring Street side and it's not shown on our plan so I'm not sure who you know how much time was really spent looking at this and I I think what this behooves our Comm to say like hey you know what maybe there were some things that were missed maybe there's some things that we could take slow down a little bit and just take a look because when you're missing something like a massive amount of impervious coverage and a massive design feature like that there might be something else that might have been missed and there might be another look or another set of eyes could could point out what what might be um beneficial to the club we would go to the next um image okay so this is the other side of that asphalt um walkway and it continues um to the dock and I think is that it Gregor do I have one more I have one more okay and that there is showing the same CPP border the same type border and not a railroad tide wall okay so again the engineering diagram not accurate all right so I'm just saying that it it's clear that as a resident you couldn't present this to get a permit to do any work right but we're okay well obviously you're reacting to it so there must be something to this because what I'm saying is that there could be a little bit more time a little bit more time spent on this and I think it would put people um you know Minds at ease so looking at at those things and then looking at the the the safety factors the quality of life the design of it I just think we need uh to spend more time on on this and I think passing a resolution this evening about authorizing bidding for the pool walls putting the cart before the horse I understand that we have this money already authorized in the capital budget now we're going to authorize the bidding of the pool wall but that would best come and I think everybody would agree that would best come and in ideal situation that would best come after we said you know what we had some public input we looked at this thing we're being transparent about the changes we're making and there going to be large changes to the pool because it's not just simply hey we're repairing the walls we're changing the egress and entrance to the pool we're making big changes so I think it would be a better idea if we just pump the brakes a bit and even if we had to have an emergency meeting even if we had to come back and say hey you know what in two weeks or three weeks we you know let's let's come and we could just vote on on just this as I understand it the emergency rules are still in effect or at least the zoom rules are still in effect we can even do it electronically so I don't think it's a um that would be a major problem certainly not not from my point of view yeah I mean as you were speaking that's what I was thinking about but what could you Mr shotti could you just tell me the timeline in terms of when we'd have to get the bid documents out because I know we want to do the work in the fall so if from the point of authorization uh the clerk would then uh you know the following week have that in the paper correct Greg so if it was authorized tonight then we wouldn't we wouldn't advertise until we actually have vid spect I'm just saying if just hypothetically if we had if you tonight you had the authorization You' be able to advertise next week being correct so that's kind of the timeline just for getting something in the paper and then based off this authorization uh we would need a consensus on the design so John would need some time to prepare the bid specs themselves the publication is really just a notice it's not the bid specs themselves the publication says we're we're soliciting bids you can soliciting bids you can request the bid specs from the engineering firm on this day so it would also announce a date when they might be available so that's kind of just gives you an idea of how that works um John would still need uh a few weeks to finalize everything for them to then be advertised to have them ready for biders to pick up um based off of whether it's this existing meeting schedule or an additional meeting schedule they would have to be advertised for I believe a minimum of let's say two weeks but you want to increase that so you can get more biders and better pricing so ideally you want to have this advertised for a month so if again best case scenario we authorize this tonight and it goes out in the paper next week right that's one month uh that you're talking about so now you're taking it into mid mid August then we've got our September meeting schedule which is when you would likely award at the second meeting of September that way we can have a contractor have a pre-con meeting they're going to need to order supplies mobilize get it on their schedule there may be periods of time where it's so cold that they can't work during the winter and then there's work that would need to be done in the spring and we're talking about you know very limited in terms of construction window say October November maybe December let's throw throw out January maybe throw out half of February and then you've got March and April so you're on a very tight timeline as is to get this done in the off season which is you know what about a month or two ago we were talking about and and how we got to this point so uh that's again suggesting everything were to go as quickly as possible so any delays to this would only risk our jeopardizing having this ready for the pool opening okay so may I just conclude my remarks because well I mean I don't know that we have an end time tonight I just it was just that I was speaking and you had you know came in to ask a question because I I had said um you know I think that perhaps we should put this off come back for emergency meeting and then you explored that which I welcome but I I just wanted I have one more comment okay I thought your marks were on okay I just have one more comment to make um which is you know we can't I think that allowing the process to to dictate the outcome for a pool that's been with us since 1928 right and the the towns possess it since 1967 I don't think that's a very wise move I think that what you have to live with is the result and if you talk to members the first question you get about well why are we doing this to the pool walls okay there might be a repair need and you know if we probably have to repair them again just like we have in the last couple years and it might not be the most efficient thing but the process and the needs of the process shouldn't outweigh the the the overall outcome and the the lasting product that we're left with thank you thank you um and I do want to hear from everybody else um in terms of I um I want to let the public know one thing I will open uh the opportunity for them to give input on this discussion because I do value that discussion um I want to make sure we get we adhere to the timeline but I also want to make sure we get resident input uh Mr shotti so it sounds like the goal is to be able to award the contract second meeting in September so if we have if we and what is the notice we have to give for a special meeting uh 40 48 Hours sent to the newspapers okay so we can literally let sit out there for a week and then call a special meeting just to address this and and are are you good on your timeline okay so let's let's think about that but let's go through the discussion to in my mind the goal here is we have General um schematic for plans it's not intended to be uh detailed you know specifications which certainly things like making sure that drainage is included we can certainly provide that and I'm Mr Rush's pretty good on that stuff so I don't doubt that he's already thinking about that um so yeah I'll open it up uh committee woman Roland if you wanted to give your input at this time um I just think that safety is is foremost and I think the difference between you know colony and maybe a Noy Pond and other pools with the straight walls is that you can't see the bottom and it is the murky water and it's not the clear water and that does pose a difference of a risk because even my daughter is a lifeguard at Madison pool and there was an incident last week in a clear pool with a 10-year-old so it it's dangerous and I just feel like this is a huge project financially and emotionally and the the reason that 98% of big projects fail is because they don't ask the people that are on the ground so we've had some conversations and I think there's a I would love to have an emergency meeting to investigate other options because I think when we first started talking about this it was around definitely the wall you know needs to be repaired and we need to figure that out but then it was thinking longer term like what do we want the swim Lanes to look like because some other towns that come to our meets aren't thrilled or happy about not swimming in Clear Water and it's different for them and they feel it's a disadvantage of that kind of thing so I thought when we were originally talking it would kind of be a phased thing to get like the swim lanes and the dive tank to be kind of blocked off that was going to be clear water and then the rest of it to maintain the pond feel but I don't and I'm not an engineer but is there an opportunity to make that a Sandy entrance like extend the beach to have it a Sandy entrance rather than a straight wall and the concrete wall sloping in I don't you know I think there's other opportunities that we should talk through with people that work there that go there and especially lifeguards who have experienced you know different things at Colony pool as a lifeguard so I think happy to have an emergency meeting every week if we need one to meet the timeline but I don't want to rush a project that I think there's other options to speak through I think I feel like we had a quick conversation once to talk about the walls and we said okay build a straight wall but you know I I'm not in a position to determine if that's the best answer and just to be technical we wouldn't have an emergency meeting for this we would have a special meeting special meeting the emergency is when there's a threat to health safety and Welfare thank you for clarifying okay first time ever using that term in my role so that that's just my input based on you know having lifeguards in my family and and risks to safety thank thank you Mr mik did you want to if I may not to be too redundant here I think a lot of points were taken on a lot around but the that consensus in my view anyway is that um we're not ready to go forward certainly with the the specification writing uh my big uh ask however and and the reaffirmation of some of the other comments is that we get as much member um input as we can I don't know that that's been and this is my my own ignorance uh you know how much of that is really been discovered yet um as uh as conversations I'm sure happen at Colony uh as well as with the advisory committee so um if we could kind of hone in on it's going to take time for the spec writing it's going to take time for the advertising it's going to take time for the project itself um and uh despite the uh the most current weather it you know maybe it'll get cold this year um and so uh if the possibility is to kind of capture um blocks of time how much if we can get additional input um how much time do we need for the advisor committee Mr Troy to be back involved and then the uh the members themselves of course and um a good point from the safety is is both sides if it's straight and it's and you jump in that's easy but it's also the sight line views of a unique spot and certainly uh that is something toh consider because of and for lack of better term the feel that is there and the uh and the attractiveness to particularly young families so um if if we can not necessarily delay but at least uh allocate some time for each of these conversations um because what I'm hearing is that I want to ask more so I don't think we're defined enough from the input from the membership primarily so not to delay but at least to put the breakes on as Mark uh eloquently put it to uh before we do the but I have no problem with the allocation that we want to go forward and do this I don't think that's really at uh at uh you know a discussion uh that anybody would necessarily battle obviously we definitely want to do it um and does that help our timeline when we can add these blocks or does that get in the way of our timeline if in fact we do not uh approve the allocation tonight right or the approval tonight for what we can do in September is that going to impact the timeline if we don't do that at least to have the ability and flexibility to do something early that we don't have to execute the actual project yet I guess the only other risk is if it is delayed and we aren't able to open the pool on Memorial Day weekend because fish and game has been going through this right now they have not been able to open for a broken pump and it's chaos and a lot of people are very upset they're working with minis sync it's it's it's not good so I'm thinking of that as a risk if we start later we have weathered every single construction project at a third in time and money so that's another consideration to figure out when we pull the trigger on this and if we decide if we do wait another year and we suck it up and do the repairs for a year but then be very ready to go on the day after Labor Day next year it's just some just a thought yeah I mean knowing the budget pressures we're gonna have coming up I don't want to hold off on do the colony pool um but I do want to you know get uh The Colony member input uh resident input um and I want to make sure it's limited to things that are within the bid specs because the bid specs are the wall not necessarily the the you know railroad ties correct correct okay um so I want to focus on the bid specs I think we could do that in a week I think we can get input in a week um I I will tell you uh you know I know this is a very sensitive topic I don't necessarily like change for the sake of change I think we're all in agreement and I want to make sure we're we're uh we Mark these off we're all in agreement we like stairs we're all in agreement we want a vertical wall in the lap Lanes so uh but what we do with the rest of his a question so I went I I contacted a number of the advisory committee members we played phone tag including um with committeeman Lois um and I went to the pool remember if it was Saturday or Sunday my days are a blur um and I had hoped I would have stayed as long as I could have to talk to residents of course nice went on Saturday it wasn't nice you went on Sunday then it was Sunday because it started pouring the moment I got there so uh but fortunately a lot of people have held captive up at the snack sh Shack so it was easier the tried and true who were going to hang in there and unfortunately kept getting bumped that half an hour every time that the Thunder rolled in so um so I had an opportunity I asked I talked to lifeguards I talked to our uh pool manager uh and I talked to some of the um the members and I was I was surprised because I walked in thinking you know I my kids grw up there we were there for years we love that wall and I walked in thinking well why do we really need to change it and then oddly enough people reminded me of the safety issues of that sloped wall so I knew about that and it was why at first when they they plans came through and I asked about and was told it was a safety issue I thought well that makes sense to me um you know the sloped walls uh and then this is feedback from residents but also for me the slope walls anytime kids are crawling walking or doing anything on those slope walls the lifeguards below whistle so they shouldn't be doing that and and uh from you know a couple people who are long ERS there who also have a lot of pool experience elsewhere managers and things like that um from their experience the crawlers are better off on the vertical wall they do hold on to the vertical wall I I do appreciate your opin your perspective that parents can't see you could see easier on the slope wall than you can when your kids's hidden behind a vertical wall um seniors didn't like the slope dwells and didn't like the Treads they can't get in even they're not comfortable even on the Treads and you know after dealing with a knee injury and even you know as I improved uh sloped dalls are a frightening thing for me so um even with Treads so uh the stairs you know I appreciate that and I think um the members will appreciate that uh the notion about the curvature of the pool adds that whole quaint feeling I think if we want the curvature and we want the vertical walls we could redesign this I mean this pool's made with curved walls all the time so I think we can keep uh that feature I'm wondering if it makes sense to do the vertical walls in the deep end and then keep the slope W so you kind of get a mix of some of those features on the uh deep side that um separated for everybody but then you still have the ability to hold on uh somebody had said to me um who you know longtime lifeguard and they said you can't hear the kids when they're on the wall and and they slip down you can hear them if they fall off of a vertical wall so you know it was just different opinions um so the safety in that respect I'm trying to remember what else came up um yeah I can't think there was uh maybe one or two who like things the way they were and and certainly I've gotten you know calls from a couple of people very passionate about uh keeping things the way they are I would like um the opportunity to get more resident input so I would say if everybody's up for it let's uh post the drawings again and if we could post it with a message that it's conceptual because that's what it is and we're just trying to get input but um let me see next Tuesday where are we next Tuesday the [Music] 23rd mayor yes may I just uh make a few comments and address the issue of the resolution also sure um so you know Tien and I Township attorney I were just talking she said the same thing that I put in my email I mean the the authorization can go ahead tonight I mean we're you know the intent is never to go behind your backs and advertise anything that does not have a consensus that would just eliminate the need for a special meeting to adopt the resolution um so you know I just want to offer that you keep that in mind um as for the you know the plans you know again we don't want to put anything I Greg none of the employees want to put anything public on the website that's going to Spur a conversation that you guys haven't seen first so that's why you're getting these plans before we've gone to the public and solicited their feedback so I think it just needs to be clear that not anybody's trying to do anything that is not engaging the public but you should have the the ability to give us some direction and some initial thoughts on how you want us to proceed so that way the Ben the public isn't hearing something for the first time that you have not also seen yet uh so that's that's kind of that there were discussions about you know safety and you know as you said mayor there's a lot of different opinions on this who would you like for us to consult with on you know sort of this definitive of safety what is better the bow the wall the you know the visibility all these different things because I think you know everybody's going to offer their opinions on what is safer and what who do we want to rely on I mean at this point with these designs you know we're relying on Engineers who design pools uh for a living and they follow industry practices and best practices so um you know that's fine that you know we want to make sure that we're doing something safe but I I would ask who should we consult with uh or who would you prefer we consult with to get this sort of guidance on this is safe versus not safe um and what is safer not safer so um I do think that that should be something that we uh try to get clarity on before we move ahead with any bid specs uh and and advertise those and then finally I do just want to suggest that it's not only members uh because but it's also non-members because the pool has lost members and I think you know if we simply only cater to existing people you lose the ability to attract other people to join um and you know I can give an example on that with a senior center and and a community center that I worked on you know people don't like change but there are other people that see change as a as progress and you know as it was mentioned the pool had rocks as walls and then it went to that didn't have a frog it didn't always have a frog didn't always have the things it had so things develop things progress things grow and I think that that's part of this iteration of colony pools it's never always going you know it's not going to be this time capsule from the 1920s because standards change members change preferences change and that's also what we have to cater to so you know I think if we're just going to solicit members um input then we may be precluding other people and and that's where also sometimes you act as Leaders to say hey yes this is what the existing members are but this is going to help us grow the pool and and move forward in a positive direction okay so in terms of safety you know we we look to our engineer everybody else is speculating on safety because but what's not speculating on safety is that we know what's safe we have a set of rules right now the the club has never lost anyone you know knock on wood we've never lost anyone that's amazing and um we know that the design that we have now can be safe anything else while best intentions and expert advice given will be a change it can be managed and I'm sure rules can evolve and I'm not I'm certainly not against making changes at the pool especially I mean I suggested the straight wall um in when this first came up in in Workshop so uh in the um in the lap Lane area so I I I definitely am not against change I just think we know what is safe um anything else is going to be where we need some some real guidance yeah I mean I I guess I would disagree agree that it's safe because the lifeguards chase the kids off the walls all the time so by de facto it's not safe otherwise the kids could be on the walls so uh the problem is that nobody really knows how well our Engineers tell us they that they uh based on their expertise that the vertical walls are safer um I I really think in many respects it's coming down to I think I think uh there's a lot of um people like the pool they like the way the setting um you know we love it it's very much a gem and I think that in some respects is uh driving a lot of the opinion but you know I still think we need to heal residents out um so I guess I'm just trying to figure out how to manage those two things because I'm more than happy to to listen to Residents to get their input for a week if we so you're saying we can move forward with a resolution but then you need some guidance in terms of what the bid specs are going to look like correct and you know we're still need consensus on that but you know I I don't see reone of are going to sneak behind your timing because also as the township attorne noted if let's say when we get to September and we receive bids they're not good we have to reject them it's happening you has to reject bids multiple times for gpw roof for other things that just adds another so uh we're here tonight we have the resolution yeah I would offer that I I highly recommend that you adopt the resolution subject to us you know confirming the ultimate design before going um and and Publishing that should really be final before we publish obviously because then the clock really starts um but I don't want to see you waste any uh lose any time I'm concerned about how tight the timeline is and I know that come spring if we're not opening on time it's going to be a big problem and there are so many unknowns about receiving bids you know they could it could be that everyone doesn't submit a consent of Charity and I have to reject everybody or it so you know it's those types of things can come up and can really delay delay us so the quicker we move the better um being mindful of the design and the choices I mean I guess there's not un limited choices here so I think it's just got to be a meeting of the minds of the committee as to what you want to see based on input that you receive um and how would we do such a meeting of the minds within opma without meeting so oh that I didn't understand you want to have a meeting to further discuss what what because I was going to ask the same question so we can pass the resolution to so that your you have the authorization to go ahead with the bed specs but the question is how do we come up with a consensus when all five of us can't speak to each other you know yeah that's another yeah I mean if you want to have a meeting to to discuss that and we publish it that's that's fine and then if we're meeting why not take the vote at that time because from a transparency point of view I mean that puts a definitive vote down as to what we're going to do and gives Direction and without that the residents I mean I know certainly as as a resident um if I wasn't paying that close attention to to all of this I would be thinking well we've created the financing and now we are we don't know exactly what the car is going to be but we're going to authoriz right sign the check and give it over to the dealership and then we're going to figure out which car it's going to be afterwards that's kind of what it seems like I mean well that's not what it is because we do other things like that but it's fine I mean we do that police vehicles a number of things but I I mean uh to the feedback Point let me go to that what do you want exact just this and present I mean we've got to ask a question we've got a do we propose three different concepts one is Asis one is some straight with some curve and then the other is all straight I mean what is it that we're seeking feedback what kind of question are we trying to get answered from the public who's doing that is it just put this on the website and say let us know what you think um you know as we talk about this I'm thinking you know what maybe we just push this off until next year I mean I I don't know how we're going to get around this with all these new delays and and questions that have to be answered uh yeah I don't think I'm ready to throw on the towel just yet um so I I would say I I think if everybody's comfortable with a special meeting we hold a special meeting in a week I'm I'm fine with uh passing the resolution as long as we're it's understood that we're going to you know fine-tune some of the details and then you know we all Outreach to the community uh we could take we can't take it together but we certainly certainly can take field trips to the Colony pool and talk to people um and encourage residents to reach out to us um are we able to have a meeting with an engineer so that we can have our questions answered and it's an engineer that not only is a pool expert engineer I understand that but the dynamic here is you can't see through the water so that's something that really needs to be included in the expertise of someone who builds pools they have to really understand that it's not m pool New Providence pool it's Colony pool so that if we could have a meaning where we can ask questions and just you know white board or something and say okay here's the you know at this point can we do sand can we do straight wall here and a sloped wall here that I think that would help us if that's a motion I would second that motion well if we're setting a special meeting there's no reason we can't ask John rushki to be there to address the engineering aspects of this yeah that I think that would alleviate a lot of the questions and the possibilities and I think after a little bit of time we could probably all get there well we could certainly uh submit we know that the the clock is ticking um Tiana you can you can write a resolution uh that says subject to the uh approved uh specifications right um and that's the reason for a meeting we would those specifications would be approved based upon our individual input that are there questions submitted that's not a a meeting um and then have John here for that final this is what we've come to based upon each of our membership The Advisory committees input um that way things aren't held up so I I can see that being a process that gets us to what we want to do within a time frame that will work okay why don't we open uh I I said I would allow the resid or whoever's online if they wanted to speak to same rules apply so um let's open up the hearing to for residents to comment regarding uh what they've heard about the colony pool Asher you were the first hand raised hi it's actually Asher's mother Jessica Romeo on Pine Street I just wanted to say that um I really think taking a step back and really engaging the public is a the only way to go here you're proposing potentially drastic changes to our biggest Community Asset and to do that without really getting input from people that go to that facility seems just irresponsible or I don't know it's it's not Community friendly I mean the only way I see that happening is if you host sessions at the pool a series of sessions where you have the plans you have renderings so people can see what this looks like and you have someone who can answer questions if you're just one-on-one soliciting feedback from Cherry Picked people it skews everything I just this just feels like something that is so Rush that really impacts this community like I said it's our biggest recreational asset we have you're proposing huge changes if you were to do what that drawing implies it changes the entire atmosphere of the pool and why people go there it it just feels icky to me that's all thanks thank you uh just to be clear the only cherry picking I did was everybody who was trapped up at The Snack Shack and the pouring rain so um I and I spoke to the lifeguards and I spoke to uh our our pool manager so um just to be clear on that point um anybody else yes uh next up is uh Sarah vickner thank you Sarah I'm glad that you are considering name in street oh I'm sorry Sarah feckner three Rolling Hill Drive in chadam of course um I'm glad that you are slowing down and getting member input um and I I propose Mrs Ewald that maybe we'll consider when you went to to have a rain date for that go back and talk to some more when it's not raining if you have the time but um the people I spoke to were uniformly and again I Cherry Picked I only found out about this yesterday but the people I asked and they happened to be all senior citizens had no idea about this they also said they like the slope and my husband pointed out because he's getting over surgery that for disabled people they don't put in stairs they have ramps maybe a thought is is it possible to put a rail next to one of the Treads that's a possibility um but I happen to really like the wall and there are lifeguards there to keep kids off the wall and they're certainly more safe than dropping out of sight off of a straight line I know of a story and I can't use the person's name because I called them today and I and they were weren't home they're out of the country actually but there was a person who had to jump in to the deep end near the twin slides because there was a kid right up against the straight side who was drowning was starting to drown did not drown thank God but this member was able to see the child because they were at a different angle than the lifeguards and they jumped in and saved that child the child could not be seen because there's sort of a blind spot a triangular blind spot from a higher elevation when you have a straight wall so do consider asking a lot of people um and do consider making sure that the engineer hasn't just done Clear Pools and also personally I really like the aesthetic of the slope and you do have the a choice already of stair or walk in through the beach thank you thank you okay next up is Aon bergo hi can you hear me yes yes Daren bergo Candace Lane Mr shahadi I want to reference something you said earlier tonight you said many pools have straight walls well Colony doesn't and that's one of the many reasons I love it it isn't like other pools it's beautiful it's Unique and we're so lucky to have it and because of the bull shape that committeeman Lois described I can see my kids all the time I have joined other area pools and I have attended maybe twice and I continuously go back to colony because I can see my kids all the time and that is so valuable to me the colony pool committee advisory committee The Colony Pool Club advisory committee met last night and I can confirm that the concerns that have been raised tonight by committee Ben Lois by Asha Robson by Jessica Romeo by Mrs feckner are are shared amongst all members of our committee they're also shared by members that I have spoken to at the pool Colony Pool Club is unique it's a naturally beautiful facility and the changes being proposed are going to have dramatic impacts to the overall feel of the facility I talked to a gentleman today that I met for the first time that just joined this year a senior resident from of Floren Park and he told me how much he loved the pond-like feel of the pool the trees the shade he had absolutely no idea that there were changes being proposed so I I really think it's important that we pump the brakes as is being discussed tonight and give people in the community and members of the pool and the lifeguards Etc time to really weigh in on these changes that are going to really that could potentially have a significant impact to the overall feel of the facility so on behalf of the colony Pool Club advisory committee um thank you and um please allow us to help in whichever way we can thank you there anybody else okay Katherine Europe hi everyone I'm Katherine Fowler from um School Avenue the same street as colony is on um appreci apprciate the opportunity to share my thoughts I uh totally agree with the need to slow things down this is uh I I would guess that most people have no idea that this conversation is even happening and we want to understand the details of what's being proposed and um you know and and look at it and and share their story so um I think I would recommend that you post um opportunities for pool members and residents to um participate in sessions at the pool I agree with Jessica that having the plans available for people to review ask questions um you know and and really try to understand what uh the proposal will Encompass one of the things that I heard was more cement around the pool which I think is not a great idea so I think those types of um details uh you know I think everybody should understand them and and and and think about you know how that will change and impact the environment um I'm also a a member of the Board of Health and I appreciated the question about safety and how are we going to um who are we going to turn to to advise us on safety at the pool um you know I think just because we've never had an issue doesn't mean we won't tomorrow so we should always be thinking about that and always be prioritizing um that as long as well as the environmental component of this um Community Asset so um thank you for for the for the time thank you there anybody else okay thank you so I'm going to close the hearing um so I will you know I'm going to look to have a special session next Tuesday but if if that's not it would be lovely to have all five and if we can get our professionals to should probably make sure John's available before we okay set that in stone okay um so if you can let me know so we could do that but I do want to move forward either way with this I don't know why we can't move forward with this resolution if it's contingent upon um because we know we want to is there is I guess I'm wondering if there's an objection to starting this process so that at least we can get bid specs or just start the process knowing that the bid specs will be after our meeting if if you adopt the resolution tonight we still need the uh bid spcs to be completed before we can advertise any anything yeah so we got we got T I mean we're not it it's if we wind up in the situation where we have the stair everything we aged on the stairs uh the wall on the um lap lane side uh and potentially everything else is the same then we're willing to move forward it sounds like we're all in agreement that at a minimum we're all comfortable with that I think the question is whether or not we switch from doing that to something uh different so we could no I don't think anybody's objecting to moving forward that's what I'm trying to get a sense of is anybody objecting to moving forward or is just that the details of what this is going to look like we're objecting to yeah I I'll just reiterate what was said that it was unanimous of the colony pool advisory committee no one had a descent from our previous um advice so if I'm not sure if you're saying if you're capturing that you're saying that that is the design I'm I'm not sure I'm a little lost in the design but I can tell you though like looking at this plan even this concrete walkway that's six feet wide that goes all around the pool now all around the new wall um I mean looking at the to the topography on on Spring Street you've got a at least a two foot drop you need a retaining wall to build a retaining wall you can't have the decking that's directly against the pool can't have more than certainly not more than a sidewalk and that would be maybe maybe a 2% grade you're allowed maybe I mean and so you you couldn't possibly H that has to be dead flat so you now you're talking about building retaining walls there's a lot to chew on here I don't think a week is is going to do it um I I and I don't think that that gives a public enough time to digest this I mean I I think a better question would be like how are we going to communicate this can this go out in um to to the membership can a can a package be put together and and you know some type of the drawing and then we blast it out to the membership well then then you're talking about bumping everything for a year so we got to we got to make that decision if we want to do that we are you know we're really risking getting this ready so it just seems like pushing it off till next year is the best route and so what does that mean for the wall because it just means that they've got to maintain they just got to we're just going to have the same issues that we've had that's again a question for you guys if that's fine I mean we've had these issues this year last year um it you know I can't predict what's going to happen by next season between the winter and all this stuff so you know delaying it potentially could result in a bigger issue K is there is there any for lack of better term catastrophic uh failure potential that uh NE never mind the Crum rumbling and those kinds of things that are somewhat cosmetic or configuration um uh if in fact it is delayed for a year um what's do do we have maybe Mark you can comment on this uh any kind of uh catastrophic potential I mean if there depending on the Integrity of that wall I can't I mean I don't want to speculate but again depending on the Integrity of that wall you could have major leaks in the pool I mean you could have serious issues there um right now we're just talking about large chunks of concrete um but it could you know penetrate the wall and cause major issues over the winter we don't know yeah I mean the biggest issue would be ice right that gets into a crack so you know whatever care could be taken in the fall but um you know usually pools have catar shock failures because they have pipes and returns and supplies right and we don't have any of that the injectors are in the ground in the sand and the water all gets pushed out to the end of the pool so there's there's no recirculation through the walls themselves um I don't want to speculate as to what else could happen the pool has been there for a long time the dpw's been done a good job of doing repairs if we had to push it off I'm not suggesting we we should and I I do think that this no matter what needs to be presented in some way I'm not against moving forward but I don't think that um you know rushing It Forward is a good idea you know I think probably two weeks or or or so well communicated a week of comment you know I I you know an honest attempt is what I would suggest at getting feedback mayor if I may given the possibility that will be put off for a year I suggest we don't adopt the resolution tonight and we we wait and I don't know how you're going to proceed with whatever public hearings you're going to have but I think we should wait to adopt the res I don't want you to adopt that resolution and then for us to wait a year to actually go out to bed yeah I I'm not inclined to wait the year and to be honest if we can't get the feedback in the week it we're not going to get that's going to be the feedback the people are passionate about it I will I'm going to be at the pool this weekend and I'll be just talking to lots of strangers at the pool which I love love to meet residents and and members of colony pool so uh you know when I invite anybody else to do that as well uh we could have the engineer at the meeting in the week to answer those questions but you know in in my experience and the residents can be reaching out to us in the meantime also to give us you know their input and I don't think any there's if I really thought that uh you know this was a situation where we couldn't default to where we were then I you know I would say we need more time worst case scenario we go back to what we were doing so and I'm perfectly fine with that I the reason I'm open to this is because like I said those those um slanted walls have always been a safety issue one of the people I spoke to again longtime was there as a kid was a lifeguard went through that whole thing remember the days when they were allowed to be on the slanted walls but everybody was getting injured yeah so then they had to chase them off so it it's a known safety issue since forever so that's that's why I've kind of opened my mind to you know maybe there's a better way this might not be it but but there might be a better way and I want to you know we're going to do this we're going to do it once we're not gonna there's no right you know this is a major undertaking so uh I don't but I don't want to bump but I want to take a chance that we can't open Colony pool next year I mean that that's that's a mistake and that's on us we should be able to get the feedback in the next week is there an opportunity to have the meeting sometime next week and are we able to adopt the resolution at that meeting so and is there also an opportunity maybe in this next meeting kind of like the school district does with the calendar because everybody has an opinion about what the calendar should be so they send out three versions and everybody votes on it so maybe there's an opportunity for us to come up with three versions and then we share it with everyone and then people can vote which that'll take some time for John to come up with those drawings so bear that I I don't even know if we have to do a drawing so much as even just say wall to the stairs with concrete people can't visualize they can't no no they need they need but I mean is there a way to do a down and dirty just a I don't know yeah if there's a way to do a quick down and dirty next week at the meeting that's doesn't have to be like beautiful and just if that's a motion I would second it and I also say that you know if we why wouldn't we leverage our email lists and send this out and do do some sort of a poll whether it has to be just text based you know writing I mean we could just simplify it down should should we be spending 300 somewhat thousand to you know to make straight walls at Colony pool with staircases as opposed to the sloped walls I mean you could you could create some very simple feedback hybrid uh so that does raise another question I had the the cost is there any sense of whether or not one costs more than the other would we be able to go and bid both versions just tell them bid both versions and then decide in case there's you know one turns out to be oh you need bid specs yeah we need big bid specs for all them you know remember you know we had John provide a proposal based on uh you know to do this engineering and and prepare these so the more we go through this then and and have multiple designs that's outside that scope so I don't want to speak for him but I'm sure that's going to change the the cost and probably would come back to us with a different authorization for uh the engineering work okay um okay so it seems like we're all on board uh I'm fine if we move this resolution to the next meeting we're all on board for a special meeting um and we're talking we're going to aim for Tuesday if we could do that um and we'll reach out to John to see if he's available hopefully and he can zoom in yeah um I'll make sure to be a colony pool let me see I can't go Saturday I'll make sure I'm at Colony pool oh Colony uh the fire department's at Colony on Sunday so I'll be there Sunday um and if I can get a packet of the drawings to have a couple packets of the drawings that would be great okay do so we have a plan right we're good so anything that you need me to act on as far as the drawings the website anything or right now it's just the special meeting for next week special meeting if we could post you know what we have um with a general description and I and I really want people to focus on what you know what's going to be part of the bid specs if we can figure out how to get people focused on that so it's going to be the wall the stairs I don't I don't think we need to worry about anything outside of that so the asphalt and the concrete and all that I mean it's been raised and that's why we you know to what level of detail are we getting into on this the asphalt that's not being done is that being done by our our DP is that part of the bid the concrete around yeah yeah it's part of the bid specs leave it in there of course okay could we is it possible that we could add just simply the the lap an approximation could be even wide of the shallow end um Lane line I I believe that it goes you'd have to read the topography here and there's no demarcation as to how high the water goes up on the beach but it would be helpful to people they would understand where the lap where the shallow end begins right where where the deep water starts you're just looking for notes on not not a note I mean literally I would just do a drawing just a you know approximation yeah it's it's um so I don't know where the old wall is on or the existing wall is on here but I was amazed at how far back from the current wall that the that um Lane line is set up you know that safety line that where the kids can't pass MH um it's it's nowhere near that wall it's between 316 and 314 would be my guess the the topography markings but it's and but the you know the average person it would be very helpful to them okay um okay are weet we can move forward that's fine that's fine thank you okay uh are we moving to our regular meeting session was there anything else let me sorry okay I guess the only question I have remaining on Workshop did anybody have any questions from the all the reports that we received okay great then we are moving into our regular meeting and we'll start with Township committee reports committee M Lois would you like to start sure I'll start with Colony pool um so we have not to beli any of the other points but just there was another piece of advice from The Colony pool committee which was just that uh we note that the log replacement log rooll is gone it's not there right now and um we are asking the committee is asking if we would that we would be if we want if we should be tasked to gather input to do research to make recommendations or to support the search for some sort of replacement for that amenity that amenity is important to the pool because it helps to engage older children and our biggest struggle is to engage children once they hit the twen teen years and and keep them engaged and interested in the pool before they're kind of off and working and doing summer camps and things like that that so um you know that log rooll was was helpful especially for that age group that you know that 11 12 13 14 um group in there so we and you know the attractiveness of it can't be Lo isn't lost that it's used in all of promotion of the of the pool so obviously it's attractive element um so you know if we could do perhaps another log roll lily pads whatever we we we would be certainly be willing to brainstorm some ideas if that's needed um but we just note that it's not there and we really looking to have it replaced in just whatever way we could be helpful we would love to be tasked yeah so I am going to interrupt you there so I would say yes could you could you ask the committee to look into options and make some suggestions that was the other piece of feedback that I did receive this weekend was we want to replace the log girl and I agree see you were at Colony that's dead proof all right um and then uh as I mentioned Mr Troy and I had conferenced about the the pool uh the field rules um and then also some other miscellaneous Recreation improvements and I'm looking forward to meeting with him uh for recreation um in terms of I yeah that's it for my reports thank you Mr McHugh uh thank you mayor uh not a lot on the reports this particular um this particular meeting uh for environmental commission and open space that is beyond the other things of everybody join in I think we'll push that harder in the fall um but I did want to bring up something about the library um and that is as much awareness as anything uh as we're all well aware there is a very significant weather pattern that is both hot and humid and it's been an extraordinarily difficult time for uh the staff at the library to keep up and uh the reason I'm bringing this up is that we have to be aware that um humidity certainly affects books but it also it absolutely impacts um uh the library staff and what they're doing they're uh a very highly trained and uh capable staff that's emptying buckets essentially and so this is something we don't want to lose sight of I know there's all kinds of things we're talking about but I do want to emphasize that this is something that we should not ignore and so I want to just resurface it for everybody's back of mind and front of mind for 30 seconds anyway here thank you thank you Mr BR I have a question about that are you talking about Capital Improvements are you talking about a plan execution what what do you mean t that yeah thank you um uh there's a number of um over the course of years as you're well aware um the capital plan for improvements on the library uh all of these um little parts and pieces are in fact impacted by that mechanical system um or I misspeak it's mechanical systems and plural and that is something we really need to uh not forget about because this will be ongoing it will be um uh quite a burden and an albatross really around the staff for for a long time so I just wanted to bring it up so that we do not lose sight that this is something that is uh very serious in its um uh in its uh impacts on not just the library not just the assets of the library physically but also the assets of staff and so I think that's a very important thing that we do not forget about as we consider and support the library along with the burrow toward a capital plan that actually gets done sometimes you know within within our lifetime so to speak um so that's really what I wanted to Brak it's really an awareness question more than a report question I think we can't forget about this because they're living through it right now and it's very very cumbersome on the library Mr shot last we left off I thought we were waiting for them to give a phased plan what where where was that uh that is my recollection as well um I actually met with the library director today uh coincidentally and the new assistant director um and kind of raised that same point because I hadn't heard anything and she had said something that she their architect had emailed all of you something which kind of surprised me and I was like I don't think so because she insisted that their architect emailed something about the phased in approach uh and I told her not to my knowledge so uh she did have a memo from the architect my understanding was that the architect gave him I don't quote me on the number but I I want to say something as shocking as3 to $400,000 to just develop a phased in approach which was uh brought before the Board of Trustees and I believe the Board of Trustees voted that down uh so uh she he uh was uh asking for mine and Mr Williams my colleague over counterpart over at the buau for our assistance in uh meeting with the um architect or talking to the architect to see how we can get that cost down if at all possible so they can develop the phase in approach so no not that has not been developed yet and it seems like there's going to be uh a significant uh Financial outlay in order to get that going um I did reach out to Mr Williams today uh and going to try to coordinate between us so that way we could help them out on that couldn't we just engage our Township Engineers to to take a look at that problem I don't know why it cost three to 400,000 and come up with a phased plan that's insane because there's a lot of interplay between all the different components that go into this um and so because it's not just the mechanical but you know a lot of structural and space issues engineering issues so while the engineer could kind of look at it definitely does come from an architect um my understanding is uh I believe the mayor of the bureau has an contact who is also an architect and reviewed that proposal and did say it is within the range of what it would cost to do a phased in approach anyways so uh it is a significant amount of leg work to come up with that okay so I guess we're back to square one and hoping for some of the federal funding the grant uh well actually State money did they hear they hear back on that state money not I'm not aware of that mayor um okay is that correct Mr Miku I mean okay uh committee woman Rand library and like onload buckets I probably will while you're a colony I might be at the library but um uh I just want to remind people that National Night Out this year is Tuesday August 6th and we will be having an event at Colony pool um and last year was great it was huge turnout so I'm sure it'll be the same this year so keep that on your calendars um and then just a reminder that if you haven't got your dog license or your cat license you can do that thank you um when you said National night night out you did remind me of one thing at the next meeting I'm looking forward to uh having a resolution um officially uh setting up an uh community events committee sorry I had to think of the name of the the committee I've got six people who are interested in participating which I'm very excited about and uh they're already thinking about ideas so I'll be meeting with them Thursday to kind of talk about that structure and uh how we can you know plan ahead for you know taking it slow this year and then uh coming able to plan for next year so I'm excited about that um okay so we we're going to move on to our public hearing and final adoption of ordinance 2024-the deed of historic preservation easement so I will open the hearing for that uh ordinance open the public hearing no no hands ra okay thank you in that case I will close the public hearing and then just so everybody's aware this is tied to uh the funding for the restoration of um the red brick Schoolhouse um do I have a motion to adopt ordinance 202 24-16 so moved have a second I'll second thank you any discussion okay can we get a vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes and mayor ewal yes motion passes okay so we're going to move on to the consent agenda um did we have oh colony is in there so we're removing 20 no which one is it 171 oh yeah uh 2024 d171 uh anything else anybody wants to remove for discussion that's removed from this evening's uh consent agenda but anything anybody wants to remove for discussion I I don't need to remove it but I would just yeah I'll remove 173 that's fine 173 okay okay can I anything else can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda with uh 171 removed and 173 to be discussed later I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda removing number eight the 171 and for discussion the Nash field lighting number 10 thank you can I get a second second any discussion no there would not be any discussion sorry uh can we get the vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr M yes Mrs Roland yes and mayor eal yes motion passes okay so now we'll address 202 24- 173 uh change order for Nash field lighting visor let's start with a motion to approve that resolution I'm I'm so moved can I get a second second okay open for discussion yeah I just wanted to mention about this this like so this is putting some visors on Nash field and this was basically to my understanding not kind of doing enough due diligence on this project not doing not kind of checking every every box and taking it to all the Committees and places where it should have been taken to and I just think that whether you look at this you're looking at the re running meet Fairmount intersection or Green Village connector when we're looking at these infrastructure projects and things that are just kind of like the nuts and bolts of of uh Township business where we're filling potholes and making repairs and doing curbs like it can't hurt to talk it out it can't hurt to you know if it takes a month delay if it takes a a little bit of delay it's worth it because um it ends up coming back to us and this is this is an example of something like we're putting in a fix here um and I'm great and it's great that we were able to come to it but it was a lot lot of time and attention to go that go into these fixes you know and we have a saying in business I used to be in it's like there's never enough time to do it there's always enough time to do it again and you know if we could fall like if we can learn a lesson from this for Colony pool um or and for future projects I think it would be helpful so thank you for indulging me thank you any other discussion yeah I don't see how that deviates from my comments I think that's what he was getting at but yeah just if you want to clarify that just so resident understand just to I mean the difference is that this did not follow the process it's not that it didn't get input it it didn't follow the process that it should have been which was when making improve certain improvements it's got to go to a planning board uh if you're making Capital Improvements like this to make sure that we're following our ordinances and uh my predecessor did not do what was supposed to be done with this thank you okay so can I get a vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes and mayor e yes motion passes thank you and we will open the second hearing of citizens we don't have any hands raised okay then I will close the second hearing of citizens uh we are going to move into executive session normally we we have these at the beginning of the meeting we're going to have this at this point um we don't anticipate taking any action upon return um so residents are welcome to hang out till the end but um you don't need to because uh we if these are minor items which is why we put it at the end of the meeting instead of the beginning um so I am looking for a before we do the motion as far as I know um Mr shot you can correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe we expect to take any action after the executive session yes yeah I think that's what I said okay thank you um I know I'm getting old I just turned another year today I'm sorry I didn't hear you say that thank you happy birthday thank you yeah we're hitting a big milestone next year so I'm very sensitive to um okay so do I have a motion to go into executive session for resolution 2024 - P1 so moved can I get a second second Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes mayor eal yes motion passes okay we are moving into executive session thank you everybody appreciate your feedback and I look forward to seeing you at Colony recording stopped