The meeting will come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. The bureau has completed with the noted provisions in the sun law by adopting prior to January 10th of this year a resolution describing the dates, times and locations of all regular meeting commission. This meeting is one of the meetings listed and set resolution and copies of the resolution were by January
10th killed the burough clerk. Sorry, this long through downstairs. Sorry. Oh, sorry about that. Okay, I need a motion to file the following uh
reports. Um, municipal court and zoning. And I also need a motion to file the minutes from uh June 2025. We have second reading and public hearing of ordinance 18 for those. Is it a public ordinance?
We're not going to be I missed the question 183. We're not going to be reading the second right. It's great. We're going to carry it into the next. So, I'll make a motion that we table this. This is just this is noted that the public hearing will be held at our
next meeting, October 6th. Okay. And that's just a motion. It's a motion. You should second. Yeah, I second. Okay. And this was just to explain essentially there was still some some paperwork that needed to come through in order for this
to be a second reading. So that's like you'll see passed over. Then we have the first reading uh ordinance 1814 amending the borrow code chapter 141-13 escro fees.
Uh, I just want to explain this real quick firstand. So, essentially what happens when you have to do construction to your property and you need approvals from the construction or the zoning office, you're asked to put some money in escrow, which pays the engineers, the
different officials who uh make sure that your property is being um worked on in a in a way that's not going to burn out of town. um and we set aside for that. The fee schedule for that has not paid in a very
long time. This is not going to increase what it costs. It's just how much is going to be in escrow because what's been happening for the past couple of years is that there's a back and forth because once you've used all your escro money, the inspector should not continue. So, it slows down your
project. It slows down everything at the at our office. And so this way there's just more in the bank at the beginning so the process can move faster and if there is more paid into it there will be a refund. Um we looked at Cherry Hill um
Oakland Woodland and uh one other bureau um to compare and use the rates. So all of our rates are within line with those and this is just adjusting that commissioner. is yes on first.
First second reading will be in this. Commissioner Anderson Riley. Yes. Mayor Sana Ward. Yes. We have the first reading of ordinance 1815 amending chapter 57 organization of police department.
So, this one um I don't believe we have it in our packet, but it was added um past may have a copy just if you'd like it in front of you. Um these are some changes to the bureau code. Um there are some discrepancies in chapter 57 regarding authority in the police
department and a couple of duplications. In addition, um this expands the number of officers. We are not planning to do that at the moment, but um expands the size of the department. So in the future if we wish to do so that would get that
uh it also language from um policemen to so to have um inclusive language um and commissioner yes commissioner Riley yes mayor yes
okay we have the first reading of ordinance 186 16 amending burough code chapter 167 flood damage prevention. Uh so essentially what this is doing is if you're going to be building in a area prone to flooding and you're on the
flood map there is going to be an escort required so we can do proper um environmental investigations to make sure that whatever you build there is not going to sink or uh face other issues. Uh, and this is in line with state standards
when you're building in a budling. So, we're just updating our code to the blood. Commissioner Mali, yes. Commissioner Henderson Riley, yes. Mayor Sana Ward, yes. We the first reading of ordinance 1817 appropriating $625,000
from the Seward Capital Improvement Fund for the purchase of a combination vacuum jeter. Uh, this is as sexy as it sounds. Um, this is to make sure that sewer is not run in streaks. We have one vehicle that does this already, but it's um, and
there's two. The second one is just being held together very well by our dedicated DPW crew, but it's time for a new one because we have a lot of old pipes and um, you don't want that truck to be late to pick you up or to come do your to do work on your home. So, that's
the business. Commissioner N. Yes. Commissioner Henderson Riley. Yes. Mayor Sana. Okay. With the first reading of ordinance 1818, commercial and educational filming in the Burough Collins live. Um, so in order to be on
Film Ready New Jersey, which is the state site or all of the places that um, a studio or producers or anything like that want to film, we have to adopt this ordinance, which would then put us off the map, give us some protections. um as
well as you know make sure that we can get proper fees and understand what is needed from our police department just to make sure that we don't obstruct and have had a plan for whatever filming could happen. Commissioner M.
Um thanks to Lindsay for putting this together. I know this is a big project to get on the state list. Yes. Commissioner Henderson Riley. Yes. And Mayor Solano Ward. Yes. And we have the first reading ordinance 1819 adopting amendment to the rules
regulations of the health police department. Um this uh allows uh those folks working at the police departments to have facial hair and this is a change to the uh department rules um for request from the
patrol officers there. Commissioner yes. Commissioner Henderson. Yes. Mayor Salana Ward. Yes. And we have the first reading of bond ordinance 1820 authorizing the completion of the construction of a new water treatment facilities for the burrow of Collinswood
app the sum of $26,500,000. So this is um uh authorizing um the funds for the construction basically of the new water plant uh that held perhaps down at at the pool. Uh it
will be a new facility that'll be new buildings that will be built down in the pool. Um, we need to do this in order to uh keep our water supply compliant with
new federal standards on uh PEOS on the uh what they refer to in the press as forever chemical. Um and the the 265 number, it's a big number, but we are working through um the state's
infrastructure bank uh in order to secure to secure all the funding that we can. There's a couple different um uh other programs at the state level that allow us to um apply for funding for the design. The design of this $2 to3
million um it's a substantial expense. So, we're looking we're hoping that by at by at the end of this we're um actually going to need to charge rateayers less than half of what that total number is going
to be. But we need to appropriate it. We need to get it started. Uh work is underway um on the design. Um and we'll keep you all posted. And just to be clear, the water is fine now. the water.
It's running all on temporary um built temporary charcoal filters. Um they're expensive and um we need a new plant. Our plant is dated. Uh and we need need a new plant in order to ensure that for
decades to come we can maintain um our water supply as it is. Um sorry, Commissioner Mley. Yes. Commissioner Henderson Riley. Yes. And mayor. Yes. Okay. Any public comment on the resolution
comment on any of the resolutions we're about to hear? We'll open it up again at the end once you've heard about the resolution. According Sorry about that. as a part-time circulation and reference assistant for the Collegewood Library. Yes. Yes.
Authorizing the bid for a combination sewer vacuum jeter. Yes. Yes. Authorizing the bid for ambulance services. Yes. Yes. Authorizing refund of tax overp payment for 209 East Palmer. Yes. Yes.
Approving a resolution of support for the NJ DOT Route 30 to Grove Street project. Yes. Yes. Approving a resolution of support for the green amendments from the New Jersey state constitution.
Provides construction administration services and fees for the Conley Avenue water treatment plant upgrades. Yes. And approving payment of bills as presented by the CFO. Yes. Yes. All right. So we'll open back up to public comment
now you've heard of the resolutions if there's anything anybody would like to make comments about ask question about this is your resolutions for Tom 530 um back in June you had your information
session for the immigrant and trans communities and I was just wondering if there was any community feedback from that session. Um, I personally received a few emails thanking us for holding that. Okay. And do you view that as you were
able to reach those communities or It's hard to know for sure, right? Immigrant communities, especially at this time, may be fearful of coming to such events. Um, so we purposely recorded it and had it online. I'm not sure how many times it's been viewed online, but we had that so that folks
could watch afterwards, but we didn't have, you know, formal program evaluation, right? And we have had some of the leadership from Camden Indivisible reach out about, you know, appreciating the program and since we had it reported and it's still available, that's a resource they can
point to. So that's that's about as much feedback. Um, in regards to the Scottish Wright, um, did the Scottish Wright charge you for that event? And if so, how much? I think so. I wouldn't think so.
No. Okay. No, it was a bar affiliated event. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, let's see here. Uh on August 10th, uh it was I think it was Sunday night or Saturday morning. Uh
there were approximately um five instances of breakins along Haden Avenue and I was just curious as to is there any comment or any you know any action being taken to, you know, try
to prevent these kind of happenings. House breakins. No, smashed windows, smashed mirrors, stuff like that. That it happens from time to time all parts of the burl the avenue and Kevin sorry.
So detectives look at trends and then push out patrol directives to see what areas are being hit. We concentrate on those areas for the Pacific time stand out to me as one of those general areas as much as it may be happening all over town. It's important to know that
not just wood county has seen an increase in stolen really majority of so aware of it saturated. Okay. um in regards to communication
about instances like that to the community to make the community feel safe. Um I'd like to ask why there's no police water. So we have communicated uh through social media. The last time we did was
we saw it very unusual vehicle thefts. I think there were eight in a matter of 10 days and that's I don't know specifics on that but we see very unusual spikes in normal crime trends that's when we will notify about something as a reminder to a lot of people
right and the the reason I asked because I I kind of wondered why I couldn't find anything um like online or in a paper anything like that and like on Facebook Washington Township Police Department
they do a weekly synopsis and basically have all the arrests that were made all you know every everything even if it's like a wellness check something like that and they they publish it every week and I don't see that here and I was just
kind of curious as to why that doesn't happen Washington Township that's interesting something I I can show you there's it's very nice they do what what benefit do you see of advert
advertising every police contact that's made. Okay. Okay. So, my question to you is how will it not benefit the community by doing so? Well, I think because I think it causes
people great concerns that are that they really don't need to have because you're not dealing in the That's your deter. If you're not Let me finish my answer. Okay. if you're if you're not dealing in this world where like bad things happen.
Okay. Um and and that notice that goes out to the public sometimes that that thwarts that investigation that that stops that stops the ability of the police to to address the issue.
Okay. So that's all I just wondered. So you don't the reason is like if I don't have a good reason not to do it, we should do it. Well, I think for public safety um people need to know what's going on. You know, I only found out because two of the the um smatch and
whatever it was were my next door neighbor. Thank I think there may be a middle ground where it might be some sort of a monthly recap and maybe not something that gets pushed out like in a nixel or anything, but maybe something we can put on social media. It's worth I'll we'll definitely take a look at Washington and see what
it looks like. I think a weekly I do see the concern about just being a little more alarmist than we need to but at the same time wanting to know what's happening. Maybe maybe a monthly right would be a middle ground. See I come from the corporate world I'm
in service delivery communication is my world. Okay. And like when I hear things like when I bring something to you and you don't know anything about it, my first thing is are Kevin and you talking? Okay. And to me, like on Monday
morning, you should have a 15minute touch point with Kevin. What happened over the weekend? We do every Monday. Okay. We have we have we have a meeting every Monday with with our department and you know and chief joins and chief car that call and let us know about the
big happenings and things that we should be aware of and um likewise we get those things in the moment they're happening are big I'm just concerned because I brought up two different things and you didn't know about both of them and that's why I I asked that question. I' I'd like to respond if that's okay.
Um, so the police department does submit it to us and to me as director of public safety a monthly report. So I do know all of those numbers. Um, I don't get, you know, a download on every single incident, but we do know what those numbers are across all of the statistics across the department. So those are
being collected. We do really appreciate the feedback and the communication of course is key. Um, and finding that balance between wanting people of course to feel safe um, and also not amplifying miss and disinformation on the internet, right? and is actually going to be later in my comments. Um there's a lot of
information that's you know across Facebook groups much of which is inaccurate right so why don't we take this if we do really appreciate it and we'll take this and we'll discuss and yeah and the other part of it was basically just justification for for
Kevin to maybe get more equipment or more officers in and if that information isn't being communicated it's kind of hard to sell that to the public when they don't have that information. So that's that's another reason behind it. So thank you.
Thank you. The uh I don't know if I'm stealing other people's thunder, but s noon is the opening of the pocket park. Um It's only taken 30 years and about $85 million to get there, but we're there.
We're the from the beginning when we bought that property to where we are now, it's going to be a great use. We're hoping to get Sarah's all set in in there as quickly as possible, but the pocket park will be opening in noon sharp and we'll be a little bit it'll be
open so that folks can come up and use it and enjoy it. Um, thanks to Sandy Kelly is involved. I want to thank uh Morgan and uh Rob, my colleagues for like getting it all started and rock and roll with it. And
DPW has helped with a bunch of it and we're really looking forward to getting that getting that space open. That's all I have. All right. Thank you. Sure. Um, so I have several items. Um the first is I wanted to highlight again um office hours that I'm holding on
Friday morning. So that's where you can bring information to us and I want to thank the residents. So every week I've had several folks come um as an example some folks that come recently um talking to me about people who are experiencing homelessness. Um I've also personally received several emails on this issue.
And so for those who know me and those who don't, um I'm a researcher and I work in public health and the topic that homelessness is very near and dear to me. um arresting people is not an evidence-based or an effective solution. And I wanted to remind folks that here in Collins we have a great response team
at our police department. Um that includes uh members from the volunteers of America and they can refer to services, housing and support which are effective more evidence-based solutions than jail time and so I would encourage us as a community um to work and come together to take care of those uh among
us who may be experiencing homelessness. Um this is back to school week. So I'm really excited and looking forward to joining um the my fellow commissioners and school leaders and wish all of the students well this week as you head back to school on Thursday. Um the Clover
Market is coming back on September 21st. So for those who love that experience, be sure to mark your calendar. In addition, before we see you again um at this meeting um in September is Porchfest and the Porch West uh event that's happening the night before and as
well as the book festival. So lots of great events and opportunities to be out and about in town. Um we have a new edition of the town crier coming out so be sure to check that out and staff spotlight with some folks who actually happen to be in the room tonight. Um as Jim mentioned at the beginning of the
meeting, we do have new equipment. So, we have an owl for those who may be online. Hopefully, this is improving your um experience of joining these meetings. Um and I wanted to mention in terms of communications um that uh for the resident's comment, we've observed
an increase in reporting through social media. And I'd like to remind the public that in case of emergency, you should call 911. And for non-emergency police matters, that number is 8568541900. Um, Facebook is often just not the best
way to report this information. So, please call the non-emergency number if you have something for the police department. In addition, our borrow numbers and email addresses are on our website and you can reach out to our excellent burough staff as well as the three of us. And finally, I'd like to
conclude my remarks with a call to action and how to get involved. Um, I'd like to encourage local civic participation and have, as we like to say, more people under the tent. So, um, first I wanted to say thank you to those folks who applied for the police chief's advisory committee. That application is
now closed. I believe the chief received at least five applications and more information about those uh folks will be soon. The Snowball Gala is looking for volunteers. We mentioned this at last month's meeting as well. So, uh, Lindsay Ferguson is looking for a fundraising
and decor committee. Um, and breaking news, the date for that event will be January 24th. So, be sure to mark your calendars or your fancy clothes and a great night out for a good cause. Finally, the burrow is looking for a
communications intern. We are looking for someone who is currently enrolled in an institution of higher education. This individual will be working with Lindsay Ferguson on events, publications, the town app, which we have coming soon, website, etc. This is a paid
opportunity. So, if you're watching and you know a college student, someone who might be interested, please have them contact Lindsay Ferguson at the burrow for a paid fall communications internship. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so now that school is
starting on Thursday, I will begin my office hours ne starting next week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 to 12 in Burl Hall. Check in the hall to head up the uh spiral staircase where I'll come down and meet you if there's accessibility issues. And then uh
starting September 18th, I will also be having office hours on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 at the library for people who work and can't come in during the day. um speak at the library. September is library card month. So
children get the library cards. There's free classes, jobs, resources, homework, help, streaming media, cultural events. Uh, rumor has that if you stop and this month the library is renew or get your new card, highly
sophisticated Collins library head may be in your future. So, uh, run don't walk the Collins library. Um, October 4th is the book festival. Poets, authors, used books. Um, they are always looking for volunteers, especially for for setup and for takeout. So, if
anybody's around that weekend, uh if any any of our um high schoolers need service hours, things like that, um on the website, the Bookfest website has contact info and if not, just email one of the three of us and we'll get you set up. Um
Saturday the 6th before you go to the grand opening of the pocket park from 9 to 10, Chief Joyce is going to be at the TA concession stand at 9:00 a.m. for our night park cleanup that are first and third Saturdays. Um,
so keep that in mind. Um, our communications team posted about some openings on the consonant food pantry. They're looking for a treasure and I believe one other volunteer position that would be, you know, two to five hours a month. So, a very low time commitment and people are looking for a
way to get involved. Um, we went over there just to say hello, see how it works. And it's one of our few food pantries in town. And uh so if you're looking for a volunteer opportunity, it's there as well. Um and that is it for me.
Have a motion we second. Thanks everyone.