##VIDEO ID:WaJqiNDxySk## okay I'd like to call the order the township committee meeting Monday January 13 2025 if you're able could rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the repblic for it stands one nation indivisible okay we're going to move on to the opena public meeting statement pursuant to the opena public meeting Zach notes of this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trent times and home News Tribune on January 3rd 2025 posted on the Township's website and send to those who requested a copy of this notice I'll move on to roll call Mr Christopher present Mrs elwi here Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and amican here thank you okay do we have any agenda additions or changes we do not no right no we're going do that perfect okay um can I get a motion to approve the minutes there'll be three here to approve uh the regular meeting our closed session both on December 9th and then our reorganization meeting on January 2nd moved yeah they should be separated because we have a couple of people that didn't attend ah okay let's do that okay so what's start with our regular meeting on December 9th do the regular and closed on that regular and closed okay yeah can I get a second uh second can't okay we'll move on to roll call Mr Christopher I'll obain miss El yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and may can yes and then can I get another motion for a reorganization meeting on January 2nd those minutes I'll move can I get a second I'll second thank you thank you move on to rock call Mr Christopher yes Mrs elada yes Dr Rogers obain Mr Scott yes and mayam yes and mayor I do have a corre we were G to move department heads to the top yeah if we could um because I know there's a conflict over at the firehouse with training um I would like to ask if um Charlie could just give us a brief update um Chief Smith on the recent events in our community yeah I think so uh you hit it till the red button there you go there we go how's that can you hear me yeah thank you never had that problem um yeah we had uh God I didn't know what the date was last Friday week ago Friday we had a uh report of a chimney fire on cranberry Neck Road 60 cranberry Neck Road I believe it was call originally went to Plainsboro because whoever called it on the cell hit their Tower so they had a little head start which was good um I pulled in right before then uh I smelled it coming out of the house I heard what it was I called for a tanker task force before I left my driveway actually um so we had things moving as fast as we could um but it does take time and unfortunately the closest water is Windwood so there's no water M on that street so you know people were hoping we could use the pond or the pool but that's not possible the way just can't get to it so and we used the Manpower instead of going there we used manpower to set up the the main coming down the driveway driveway was 1,800 feet long we had two 5 in lines down there so we had 3600 feet of 5 inch hose laid out we had um we flowed 455,000 gallons we had eight engines three ladders 17 tankers and filled the tankers with four fill stations throughout the town one was Windwood one was station in uh Maine I think the other was Park in Maine and then another one that maybe Dancer Drive I'm not sure where that was because I was at the scene we had a water supply officer that's how that works when we call a tanker so um Unfortunately they they lost everything um pretty much no one was hurt that's the main thing um still undetermined you know the cause but it was in the area of the fireplace so it's pretty straightforward but nobody wants to commit to anything um I guess that's about it you guys have any oh we had EMS there we had heightstown and cranberry EMS and we had um Princeton rehab unit there too so Logistics was a nightmare I've always thought about that house it'd be the worst place to have a fire and it's one of the biggest houses in Cranberry yeah so you know did I read it correctly that it's over 15 townships or municipalities oh more than that organized like I said we had 17 tankers yeah so there's 17 towns we had eight engines there's another eight we had three ladders that's another three so 8 11 28 about 28 30 people yeah W 30 times that's incredible effort W thank you well we do it all the time you just don't see it yeah you know this tanker task force we've been doing it for years and it works well you know I've spent two days up in uh um North Brunswick they had a warehouse fire our tanker was up there for like 48 hours and uh we've been up in Woodbridge for fire so it's just takes time to set it up and people don't realize that you know all in all I we've had all good feedback so the homeowners were grateful yeah I witnessed that firstand their gratitude was overwhelming emotional and overwhelming oh we saved his Camaro too I think that was the happiest I did hear that I told him to push it into my driveway but no that's about it I gu anyone any questions or com thank you guys that's amazing I me I heard from Le too and they they were so grateful so um I I have a sort of neoy question any house in Cranberry that's on wellwater would go through the same thing I mean there well no because there's houses that have water in front of them and not hoped up to it there's hydrants in Shadow Oaks yeah the new section Park Place um dir Road has hydrants it's one of the few now most everything over there there should be hydrants on we'd like to put more on on South M all right they stop at I think St David's now something like that or dter drive um but most most of the town's covered so it's a really sort of freak current I mean not freak but I mean no it's not freak it's just it's it's a nightmare it's we just hope you never house never caught on fire you is there anything they made a push they did make an interior attack and we had a they're starting to get a knock on it and they ran out of water so then it's 40 minutes to get water so you're done I couldn't even open the roof till we got water so yeah you know it just went right across the ridge is there anything like a piece of equipment that you guys would you know going down the road that you would have had here make a difference what helicopter helicopter that's really it's just over and dump it uh right now no um I think we had we used throughout the whole phas we it came in at 10:30 and I got home at one o'clock the next afternoon and between that time we used every piece of equipment we have because we had a couple rekindles you can't get in and do a good overhaul so you just kind of put it out wait till it stops smoking and we come back an hour or two later so we used uh we went back on ourselves we did that just granberry we had our Tower our tanker and our engine there so yeah no there's I appreciate you know the thought but honestly we had all the equipment it's just a just a bad bad place yeah in town with a hook of hydron up there would have been knocked without no problem you know what I mean wouldn't have made it made it in that first room there where the family room was and that would probably been it water does the trick um and I want to thank you for all your support too I appreciate it we have one more if you're done anything else any other questions go ahead um again just thank you so much for your heroic efforts I was out there it um I arrived late that night from an event and I was surprised to see orange in the sky and I just didn't know what was going on and all yeah of course and it was very scary and so to see all of you like everybody was composed and everybody had a plan and it I mean everybody was there all the different Fire Marshals from different towns it was quite impressive yeah what Happ when you go to a well second alarm you get um when we called the tanker task force then you get get um what they call uh fire Marsh well Fire Marshal from the county was there yeah you get fire coordinators yeah that helped with the dis with the tankers and everything else they come from different towns and um and they were very complimentary I mean everybody was complimenting each other so it was it was just nice to see honestly I mean it the results sucked but it went as well as we could expect I'll be honest with you of course of course um and I wanted to share with you that I um I was at a middle SE County Event and um um committeeman Chuck Kenny he he came up to me to sort of talk a little bit about the the fire and just to recognize that we had been through that our town had been through such a big event and just to um just to honor the fire department who where's he from I'm sorry state representative yeah oh okay a county representative County okay yeah County representative yeah County nice yeah thank you absolutely absolutely thank you all just please extend our gratitude and we will yeah we will thank you um Rich Zimmer our president has a uh has a petition we want to present to you tonight so we get it on the record um ahead thank you Charlie um yes as you know just over a month ago we we came to this committee uh in regards to the possible formation of a fire district here in Cranberry uh we've moved along with that we had four information sessions one at the cranberry Library one at our Firehouse uh one down at the Four Seasons Clubhouse uh and then just last week we were uh invited to a Lions Club meeting uh so you know we got the word out of you know kind of what we were doing um and part of that was also obtaining signatures that's needed which is the next step so pursuant to uh njsa 40a uh 14- 70a uh there's a certain percentage of cranberry residents we registered voters that needed to sign a petition I believe that number is about 160 150 um we're ready tonight to present to the committee and to Deborah as clerk to to verify we have a little over 200 signatures from from Town's people so we' just like to present that to you tonight to uh start to move forward with this okay great and then the next step in that process is the validation of all the validation of all the signatures and then kind of go from that our attorney is starting on the paperwork for the state to help you guys out so yeah you started that process I think what we need to do is get our accountant Denise together and Jay and maybe myself and rich just to go over all the opras that you sent make sure that we covered all our expenses you know what I mean just double check everything does that make sense or Denise yeah I think so and then come up with a finalized budget and then I guess take it from there okay perfect then you have you're gonna have to have a um a hearing yeah I once I verify with the county the the 5% I just want to confirm with them how many signatures and then I'll go through and verify them and I'll let you guys know what we came up with 170 or 160 something but we so we got more than perfect yeah I'll let you guys know if there's any ISS and we've had a lot all positive feedback be quite honest with you we've had no one that's that's really well one guy likes to push our buttons but that's nothing new for the last 20 years a lot of questions are probably going to be needed to be presented at the final hearing hearing right you know it was stuff that just in the preliminary phase were we weren't able to answer questions for them but like Charlie said you know we did get a lot of positive feedback from from Town's people until we finalize that original budget or the initial budget we can't answer a lot of questions right that's kind of predicted that right right so all right makes sense any questions thank you guys no just quick question um you guys probably don't have the answer to this maybe we can put our heads together but like what what kind of time frame are we talking about like Well we'd like to get this soon as Debbie vetson that'll be by lunchtime tomorrow but we can't we're not discussing it tonight so yeah okay just let them let her verify and then a hearing date will have to be set in the future and we'll speak with our our attorney is familiar with the process so we could have him come contact your attorney maybe and just make sure we're all on the same page we don't get held up by not doing something correctly does that make sense we just want to work with you on this that's all yeah let's go one step at a time yeah yeah this was the first major step perfect that's the easiest thing to do thank you thank thank you guys thanks for coming in too appreciate it you're welcome take care okay then we'll go back to our regular order um so who'd like to go first and any updates that they have all right well that makes it quick Matt went first then I'll go second I don't have anything either okay nothing yet I know it's either you had a week or you didn't have a week yet right um so I updated the business calendar um the business calendar is on our website it has a map with all our businesses and several have closed and several have opened so it is now updated um so um I I attended a zoning board meeting there was a site plan um approval use variants for outdoor storage of a construction of construction equipment on Brickyard Road um the site will contain offices maintenance and Equipment storage which was the main um conversation uh basically they said that um the number of of equipment that would come and go is SE seasonal basis and um several plans were shown and on exhibit and um that's amazing great questions that the zoning board comes up with to clarify things and um they especially were very focused on storm water um you know too um which was really it's really great to know that people are so on top of things there um December 16th this was last year I didn't get to report out there was an EC meeting um this was their last uh meeting of the year um and um they're moving forward on the community energy plan Grant is terrific John did a great job of scheduling out how this can be done within a year um to get the community energy plan um accomplished um Dela is working on identifying funding sources for an outdoor classroom um and then the stream cleanup 14th year I cannot believe it um April 12th at from 9 to 12 The Watershed Institute is putting on their annual stream clean up any questions when will that uh like maybe a link go out so that people can sign up for the stream cleanup they usually do that like yeah well next week is uh the next EC we'll find out okay yeah thank you I'll I'll make sure we ask him okay great excellent thank you I have a few things to share for tonight I did since our reorg meeting actually the night of our reorg meeting I attended the Plainsboro reorganization meeting and that's where mayor kantu who has been mayor for 40 years stepped down God bless him and um Ed Yates took on as the new mayor and Deputy Mayor is um mayor bander and it was a really nice event um Governor Murphy came for that event so it was pretty cool and then I attended the middlex county reorganization meeting on January 7th um lots of reorganizing and it's just nice to know that all the pieces are back together and that everybody is functioning for the year on you know full steam ahead in term of our local um meetings the Personnel subcommittee had a meeting on January 3rd and we discussed staffing issues and um you know sort of conversation to start the year with um the DRC met January 9th and we received an application from the cha we had talked a little bit about uh the group home that was being proposed uh towards the end of last year I think we talked a little bit about that and uh the application just talked about the logistics of a little bit of extra land that's needed from the township and so I have sent that to all of you as an email and there are two images in particular that I'd like you all to look at and I did also reference the DRC meeting itself if you wanted to go through it for the exact details but um as you look through all of that if you have questions I'd be very happy to answer them and um you know we're going to we're going to be looking um to discuss it at length um po at the next meeting um what did else did I do the planning board met the same night and the results of the reorganization meeting there our chair is Evelyn span our Deputy chair is Wayne Whitman and our DRC representative is Bill Gidding so no change there and uh the application uh that Wayfair had an applic we were supposed to be reading a resolution for them uh that night but they did not show up so they deferred uh for the next meeting and we instead went on to discuss sort of reflecting back on applications from the last year what is it about some of the applications that ended up eating up a lot of our time in the meetings and how could we move forward a little more efficiently and so we discussed that you know quite heavily and the board um so the board professionals will look at a little bit of some of that just to see are there any general trends that have been occurring that we need to sort of try and streamline so that we're not always Reinventing the wheel right there like maybe we can actually um put some of that into you as as part of our plan or checklist or some something like that so they're going to take a look at that and uh that is all I have any questions no just thank you for the um DRC recap was really really thorough so we're going to add that to the agenda for uh January 20 yeah okay perfect so I just encourage everyone to read the work because it was very thorough so that we could get questions get ahead of it so that it's a more productive session okay all right I just have a couple of things um as of today we have 94 dogs and 12 cats but we think that number is actually a little little higher I'm very proud to say that Monty the golden doodle is one of them uh so I have not made uh I did not repeat I'm not a repeat offender um but the uh applications they've been available on Town Hall since December 30th uh All Pets need to be licensed by the end of this month and there's a new automated system which I test drove and it was awesome and I got uh Monty's license in the mail within a week which was great so very very uh intuitive and easy to use uh you can also still uh come to town hall and fill out that application and you get the application offline and then if your pet um unfortunately is no longer with us then uh there's a link also on the site to just make sure that the town's aware of that again I just wanted to thank the heroic efforts of the cranberry volunteer fire department as well as the I'm going to amend this to 18 other uh municipalities that responded to that devastating fire so please keep that family in your daily thoughts as they try to rebuild and adjust after this loss also please consider volunteering for the local fire Department as volunteers are always needed and I think all of us up here can say there's nothing more rewarding than serving your community uh the Princeton School uh system is welcoming a new superintendent Michael Lusa he comes from the chadam school district he'll be joining in June I want to thank the board of ed for I want to see countless hours of vetting and interviewing to ensure that our high school students are and all of Princeton are in in good hands on that same note um cranberry School uh sent out a notification last week that there was a cyber security uh event that happened it wasn't cranberry school it was the uh Power School platform so it was a School Technology platform the breach wasn't specifically on cranberry's data but it was an overarching National event that they had and I'll have there's a link to the communication that will come out tomorrow so if anyone wants to read that um if you didn't happen to get it and just as a reminder our current police chief uh Michael Owens will be retiring at the end of January we wish him the best as he enjoys more time for himself after an honorable career serving cranberry for more than 25 years and we warmly welcome our new chief police jeppi dasaro uh he brings with him a passion for service a love of our town and a commitment to our safety uh our annual rabies clinic is going to happen just in time in case uh when you go to get your pet license they don't have an updated rabies shot uh this is going to be January 25th from 1: to 2: pm at the firehouse uh this is for dogs only and weather permitting uh and you can register um on the township website and the deadline is just the day before at noon so you can get in there under the wire um and that's kind of all I had mayor caner I had a question for you sho uh and that is with regards to the rabies clinic um if people are not registered will they be able to participate in that clinic well when we did it Matt we did have some walk-ups and we're able to accommodate that so if they didn't register we would just be able to log them in the book as long as they had a uh they have to have that rabes certification and it has to be within um a year from October valid after you know before October 25 okay we we have a different veterinarian this time though right do will will they honor the same will they honor the yeah okay perfect I think every I mean prefer to have them registered so that they can kind of plan it okay and they're not overwhelmed if the only thing that they might have to do is wait right so if someone was there and scheduled and registered then they would just have to maybe get in line depending whole point of registering was so that there weren't dogs aggravating one another and out you know getting anxious and trying to run away and so that was the whole reason why the registration but I know the vet took walk UPS last year I'm sure this vet will doesn't really know the difference they'll also take the walk that's great yeah thank you where do cats get their ladies not here you there's clinics all across middle count we recommendation the link we don't recommend there's a link on our website that always has the uh link to milx County where the rabies clinics are throughout the county good to know okay I don't think we have any subcommittees and we already went through department heads so I have a question about the budget meeting oh yeah so we're looking to schedule the budget meeting Saturday January 25th oh wow that day is so full oh boy I agree okay that day is really I I don't know I I I'm quadruple book that day do we have do we have another option um Matt can't do it you can't do it let's see that's also the day of the baby's Clinic um Matt talked about a Sunday how do people feel about a Sunday the 20 seriously the 26th y y I can't I'm not here I'm you have to run the meeting have a shower in Pennsylvania I'm sorry and you're not available the following Saturday right then we're pushing it too far yeah that's to so Matt you're you're not avable at all on that Saturday yeah no okay I mean I I could I mean I need three preferably four I mean we can get it done if we can get we can get it done in a couple of hours we can do it at night um I mean I think we have to just also um pick a time that allows for some of the stakeholders to come in right there like people that have sort of don't really have anyone Parks isn't asking for anything except for the Pavilion roof okay so we don't need them to come in um we don't need fire to come in because honestly I don't even know what's happening with the fire district so we're just going to move forward with the budget the way that it is for the year um HPC was like police will come in to discuss Capital that's pretty much it HPC HPC they already submitted the budget it was like nominal it was like nothing nothing that needs to be discussed No No Cap not like a signage program like last year uh sh no shade tree gave us their budget we put it in just like we did last year okay so it really is just us let's and and uh the dates we're throwing around right now are the 25th which is a Saturday the 26th which is a Sunday and I'm sorry what is the last date that you we could try to do a a week night if we want want to try to do that we have a TC meeting on the 27th so we can't do it that night are are there any board meetings at I don't have anything on the calendar I listed them all here we the last meeting that was on our Township publicized calendar is RTC meeting no not ready yeah we don't have our books or anything we need to have some time with our books as well I mean the 28th so 28th there is the 28th there is nothing on the Township calendar on any meetings so that's no good for math how about that 27th after our meeting after after our TC meeting that's going to be going into the late hours I was going to suggest what about the 28th and starting can we start at 5:00 p.m. I can like versus starting no is there any dat that week 29th or 30th people wow four would be was better no I'm not going to be ready yet guys I'm ready we're not gonna be ready yet have my assess value yet 24th is Friday well we're going to have to pick a d and I need four so let's do we just take it off what was the 28th there was was the problem at five or 28th at Matt can't do it at five can you do it at six what time they get here well can you we start at six and then you get start without me mat well we did it without Bara last year without last Hell broke yeah look how hard it was last okay so um Matt but the first is too late what is first Matt can't do he can't do it that that following Saturday yeah after our meeting on the 27th I think it's just going to go too late 28 let's do 28th we're doing at seven get it done by nine that's fine so I just need to know for the okay advertisement I mean the last two years that I mean on average it was literally a two hour we scheduled it for longer but it was about two hours just make sure there's no othere yeah we just meeting now do we need to check with the police if they could make it that just new chiefy dating hold on can we nod your head yes thank you sir good timing okay all right January 28th 7 PM okay thank you you got it all the mar okay anything else not for me and we don't have any followups of anything that we discuss so far okay all right so boards and commissions we have a mayoral appointment uh this evening um John muselli uh cranberry's construction uh officer is going to be appointed to the planning board class two member um and that will complete mayoral appointments at this point uh and then our openings for our boards and commissions right now I'm happy to say we have two member uh or three members that are open everything else is actually a first or second alternative which is really good uh the other TC appointment should I do the TC appointment at the same time no perfect um so the uh openings that we have right now on the environmental commission is a full member uh term expiring the end of 26 we have the first and second alternative that are open and I'll post this tomorrow too in the mayor's update so we can try to amplify what our openings are vacancies Municipal Alliance is a first and second alternative that are open parks and wreck will have a second alternative open shry has a full member open and Zoning has a full member open so if we can try to get the word out and amplify those and see if we can get some folks and then we're going to go through um some recent applications recent meaning the last couple of months um that you know we might be able to contact some folks and see if we can fill these by our next meeting okay I I I'm not sure but it where the list can we have it sent to us um of of the openings yeah it'll be in the mayor's update tomorrow uh tomorrow too yeah but it' be great if we can get it our email thanks okay uh that's all I had for that um okay we have a first uh reading tonight okay so we're going to introduce ordinance uh 0125 d01 and ordinance 01-25-20 1- 25-01 to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a kep bank we can have a motion to introduce so moved second second thank you we're going to move on to roll call uh Mr Christopher yes Miss Dobby yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and maram yes and that second reading will be on January 27th and that was unanimous for introduction now we'll move on to ordinance number 01- 25-2 creating in the code of the township of cranberry chapter 6 entitled restricted areas in certain municipal buildings if I could have a motion to introduce I'll move thank you second second thank you move on to roll call Mr Christopher yes Mrs Ali yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor can yes thank you it's unanimous and again that'll be second reading January 27th perfect okay we have no other we have no second reading for any ordinances so we can move on to resolutions a through D I'd like to move resolutions a through D second thank you we move on to roll call Mr Christopher yes Miss elada yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes mayor caner yes thank you that is unanimous okay uh next is we'd like to open the floor up for any public comment uh as we've reiterated countless times this is really our time to listen um and to provide feedback from the community to us um you can step up just sign your name and your address and speak into the microphone with a three minute time limit okay seeing no public comment I'll move on to any updated action items I just captured the one where you told uh Barbara you would email her uh the openings got it and DRC Rie the DRC review you already have that yeah I know we're that's what our action item yes yes great yes thank you january7 28th Tuesday 28 28 that's the budget meeting that's the budget the budget meeting what glad I mentioned it yeah got it okay great all right um we're now going to move into a closed session uh where we asked the uh members of the public to leave for a closed session no action will be taken on behalf of the township committee and we will rejourn after our Clos session so we need a motion I'll move second second thank you I'm going to do roll call this for cranberry tangent resolution r- 1-25-20 uh to move into close session Mr Christopher yes Miss elwi yes Dr yeah Mr Scott yeah mayor Canam yes thank you please give me a moment