okay Mr Bartlett are we recording here actually now let's do that maybe we should take two take two yeah we're recording okay uh roll call please Janice Mr Bartlett still here Mrs
Patrick here Mr mcf here Mr here miss Seuss here thank you also present Mr Schwab our Township administrator Mr Fox our Township engineer Mr heinold our Township solicitor Mrs lore our municipal clerk Mrs Russell our Deputy
municipal clerk Mr Fenimore superintendent of Public Works Mr Waring our acting police chief and please rise for the flag salute to the flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one
nation God indivisible liy and justice for all sunshine and live stream statement please please advised comp meeting act in the following manner written notice has been
mailed to the BR County Times and post December 30th 2024 editions written notice has been posted on offal Board of the township of Delan at least 48 hours prior to the meeting this meeting of the Delan Township committee may be transmitted VI live stream on YouTube
video streaming of the meeting is not intended to be relied is formal Public Access under the open public meetings act and if the technology is disrupted for any reason the township meeting will proceed in person as an official meeting in accord with the official
notice thank you uh first on the agenda tonight we have resolution second Mo motion by Mr mcfaden second by Miss fatrick roll call please Mr Bartlett unequivocally yes Mrs Patrick of course yes Mr MC yes Mr arlet
yes Miss absolutely yes thank you I will now administer the oath of office to Chief basil waren [Music] fir swear or affirm swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I support the constition
of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey constitution of state of New Jersey that will bear true faith and Allegiance will bear true faith and allegiance to do the same to do the same the government established the government established in the United States the United States and in the state and in this state under the authority of the people under the
authority of the people that I will Faithfully I will faithful and partially partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the AL of the officer chief of the best of my
[Applause] [Music] speech everyone for coming out Happ thank
exced our very thank you for taking [Applause] J maysi to turn the next portion will be for yes next up here micophone there so
we are going to have uh up next on our agenda we have a special presentation our annual Lawrence D Sterns officer of the Year Award presented to patrolman Jacob lner so I was fortunate um it's really easy making a decision
this year for this award this is tman Jacob lner two years he's done an amazing job he hasn't missed a day of work yet at all uh but he's do great in the last year he led our department every category
statistically um including or he's always looking to help ask questions and he's definitely was U preserving of this of this award so without further Ado Jacob congratulation 2024 Lawrence St s officer year
[Applause] congratulations do it by the microphone yes congratulations patrolman Jacob lner I have a proclamation to issue to you this
evening honoring you as a recipi recipient of the Lawrence D Sterns officer of the year award whereas it is the desire of the township of Delano to recognize patrolman Jacob lar for his dedication and commitment to the township of Delano's Police Department the residents of the Delano community
and his profession as the recipient of the Lawrence D Sterns officer of the year award whereas Jacob lner was hired in March 2023 and currently serves as patrolman and whereas patrolman lar exhibits a positive work ethic coupled with an encouraging attitude as a police
officer and whereas patrolman lner's competence together with his character and desire to learn and embrace new training opportunities demonstrates his ability to grow thrive in our police department now therefore be it proclaimed by the township Committee of the township of Delano that Jacob lner
is hereby commended for his accomplishments as the recipient of the Lawrence D Sterns officer of the year award and witness whereof the mayor myself Deputy Mayor and committee persons have caused these present to be executed and the Seal of the township of Delan was fixed on this third day of
March 2025 congratulations patrolman [Applause]
thank you and the chief quit ready yes we're going to take a quick five minute recess to allow everyone to head out of here although it's going to be a really fun meeting if you want to stay thank you everyone for coming have a great great
night did you get a gets yeah Le [Music] okay nice see I like my artwork beautiful really brightens up the pl doesn't it
Cas I actually ordered two new ones cuz they're too small I ordered 24 by 36 of those cuz it just looks like it gets lost in the wall there yeah are we going to put pictures back yeah we're going to do it outside in the um outdoor there you going to
autograph we're going to take down the kids pictures just kidding no yeah we're not down yeah no we have there's an area where I yeah I wanted it to be like uniform on each side
so yeah need a little bigger lot of colors come on up Ray hey Ray were you at dunies last night were you at Doney last night I thought I saw you I saw the back of your head from across the restaurant
wow really right right exactly right it's got so quiet in here all no I was he uh we can't shut the doors right just one you can shut
one I can't a meeting like this so we're just going have to wait another minute or two I can't hear over [Music] them are you are you kidding me Phil read
it no keep going above it keep keep going above who wrote it oh okay best plans oh you reprinted it thank you um it doesn't matter
Casey closed the door you got a new one for me D did you both no and and this is for it's my do I have to sign this yes on the bottom have a great night have a great night have a good night enjoy go enjoy
thank you do you want wait hold on you want to take a quick picture for the yeah sorry you open that door B yeah all right still noisy let's continue
on meeting is back in session and it's going to be our public comment session so the meeting is open to the public for comments and questions this is session one please state your name come up to the podium and address please
P anyone seeing no one we'll close this session to the uh to the public uh move on to comments and reports professionals we'll start with um Mr
Fox thank you mayor um everyone has a copy of my report but I bring on the I can't hear you you have to move like put the microphone yeah better no no good on there there you go
that's better thanks the uh 2024 local Aid um project that is the um the do grant that we received for Hickory and Chestnut streets the plans are done they've been approved by do uh so
they're all ready to go out to bid uh I'll be talking with um staff Richard and Janis to find out when the best date is to advertise and and um receive bids but they're all ready to go so within the next few weeks we'll be advertising that
project and that's for the spring Paving we want to do correct it'll start in the spring when when when the plants reopen which they're getting ready to reopen now um so that'll be within the next couple of months that'll that'll be started okay the 2024 local um local money uh
Road program we met with the uh the subcommittee and we switched things around initially that was going to include Delaware Avenue from Walnut to Hazel um and then also Second Street we took second Street off
that project and we're going to now do Delaware from Cedar to Hazel so that whole stretch of Delaware will be getting done under the road program 2024 4 cdbd Grant uh that's the handicap Grant replacement project that
uh has been done uh without the bid uh in my report has the dates um when we're going to be receiving bids which is next week um we'll be awarding the bid on the 17th your meeting on the 17th um and we anticipate construction start around
April 7th or so I'll give you a list of we that project includes uh 15 ramps and it what we have in there is we have alternates so if the bids come in higher we can still award
it and and it's come in cheap we can award the alternates and once the bids come in we'll discuss it um with with the staff and give our recommendation on what ramps we want to to do with the amount of money that we reive for the
grant so at at your next meeting you'll have a I have a list for you of what ramps are actually going to be getting done the um 200 Ash stre uh as you know we applied for the hdsr grant uh we were approved by D for that but there's two
stages of that Grant um has to go to the economic development Agency New Jersey Economic Development agency now for their approval there's other ones that actually disperse the funds but D approved it and they sent their approval to to the EIC um agency um I have a
phone call into them and have not heard anything back uh which is not surprising I have to keep on them and see when they do it it's it's not a quick process generally but it's in it's in the works and it's it will be happening uh the Zub um Waterfront
Park that project is out to bid as well um when my report has to schedule um the same thing we're going to receive bids on the 12th we'll award them on the meeting of the 17th your next meeting we can award that um that project hopefully
the bids come in proper and we expect to start construction around the same time is is ramps which is April 7th or so and the deadline for completion on that is part of the specification is um June 27th the contractor has to be done
including punch list and all his work by by June 27th uh and that's all I have for report uh thank you Harry um you are you did submit your your cost estimate for 401 Creek Road for the
inspections uh yes so I gave an estimate but I I I didn't fill out the formal proposal yet um which I certainly can do if if okay with with the number uh are you are you has the work commenced yet on that are you waiting
for our approval no we we've already started okay we we don't want to hold things up so yes we've already started um and and done some research which I'm not too sure and Doug can stop me I don't know what how much I should say in the public just we're just
talking about due diligence review with respect to the inspections for purchasing 401 Creek so um um er has provided a figure for the estimated cost associated with that um mayor I think
the discussion was as long as they're they know to proceed with that we're we're in good shape and then I guess Harry you'll give a formal uh formal proposal and you guys can approve it formally at the next meeting okay perfect as long as they're moving forward we're in good
shape yeah as far as the like details um we can talk about that at our subcommittee meeting y okay thank you Mr heinold it's a nice Segway right into 401 Creek um I just for the people who
are following uh what's happening with 401 Creek the township is under contract now as of February 10th um the anticipated uh Target closing date is June 10th and um obviously we have uh a
number of due diligence items to go through most importantly the uh engineering environmental re review type issues that we were just talking about but there are a number of other things related to title uh survey um and other uh contract
requirements that both the sellers counsil and we are working through um but um that process thus far is moving forward quite well and um we'll keep uh obviously everybody updated as we move through
that process um and that's really I want to talk about um in terms of public discussion tonight mayor thank you thank you Mr Schwab Township administrator okay thank you um actually
as a followup to what Doug's talking about 401 uh our bond Council prepared Bond ordinance to introduce at your next meeting so we'll get that started so we have the funds available for the June 10th Clos closing uh that's number one
number two uh we got our notice from the organization that goes out to bids for electrical work Electric Supply I'm sorry for in the state it's like a joint Insurance Fund and they've gone out to bids and and we're supposed to receive
them April 1st they will receive them let us know what they are some years believe it or not the Statewide bid is no better than what psng is providing so one of the things to note is that it's not necessarily a reduction over last
year we dropped down by 15% to what it was when we started doing this and now we're at that level if we hadn't done it we'd be paying 15% more so we continue to work through that uh we also I got a notice from the uh New Jersey court system that they're doing their annual
inspection of our Municipal Court uh in the end of March they do this every year we always get a great report and uh I'm sure we'll get the same thing when this one's done um I think that's uh Fern you're going
to talk about the cross no it's not on this agenda just so you know we the Berlin County cross acceptance planning process that Fern is spearheading uh working with our planner uh we finally got the notice on all the survey information that they need by the end of
March and that Fern will work with b and our planner to make sure that everything's submitted with the state wide plan process called the cross acceptance process and Beverly Russell's a big help in helping to put that information together uh I looked at some
of the stuff it's a little bit over my head but uh she's helping me through it and I think in one respect she might be taking the lead on some of this stuff so thank you Mrs
Russell and then we're moving forward each week doing stuff on the budget if everything goes wonderfully we could introduce it as early as the 17th if not we'll introduce it April 7th meeting so we continue to have budget meetings as
often as we need them so it's a it's a tough process and hopefully we get through it not too distant future that's all I have can we make it warmer in here I feel like the air conditioning is
on thank you oh thank you all right department heads we only have one the man the myth the legend Mr Fenimore
yes um we put out a half a ton of patch potholes uh we put a sign back up at Newton's Landing the big sign that the wind wind grabs and wiggles Until It Breaks and then tractor and trailer ran
it over so uh we removed three trees at West Avenue that's the only trees we really had in town we had a lot of brush come down but uh no thank God no trees were
down uh we put up one handicap sign we cleaned all the storm drains along the river and we're cleaning storm drains now we're up to 26 storm drains uh we're cleaning out uh we got the leaves turned uh we
put up the exhaust port at the trailer where the the gator for the police is going to go and both of the ball fields were done cleaned up and raked up and uh dragged the infields and so the
field door which is the first for us usually takes us sometime in March the end of March to get done all this but uh the weather was good last week and we uh kicked through it and that's
it thank you um um one other thing that while you're talking about 401 Creek you now they had that line go down there and it blew the water meter out I don't know you knew that in front of Keith Mormon's property it actually burned a
hole in the street Street and I mean it made a big hole but where it run to I guess the waterline runs along there okay you can see in the driveway apron how it cooked the line and went right to
the water meter there and I guess it blew it out that explains why American Water was out there the next day yeah so one of the things that we should make sure that we get checked on is that swer line cuz there's a force main there and I don't that's probably plastic maybe I
I don't know yeah I forget so if that burnt I mean it burnt a line of asphalt like you wouldn't believe and why it would burn that had something had to be there so just make sure get we get it
checked out it was actually burning under the asphalt I was out there for eight hours while we were waiting for PSC and to come so we could put the fire out that it burned and it it was we were waiting on PS andj yeah so that's probably why
it continued to burn all that time yeah it was live we couldn't put the fire because the wire was live it was 13,000 volts why couldn't they get out there sooner there it was a they sent a gas guy out they sent the gas guy who said it's electric I can't do nothing yeah
there was all those all the trees came down that night in everywhere throughout the county the county was hit hard um while we're talking about storm drains sorry did you have something else say nope Harry have you talked to um the people with Newton's Landing yeah
uh um I I did I spoke with um it was George um and he is going to look into it I get back to me by Wednesday he's indicating that they feel that they only damag two
of the three of the inlets they're saying the third one was already damaged it didn't look like that way to me when I first looked at them but I'm going out and take another look at it and and see um there may been an old Kraken one that
they just made worse but that that's indicating that there's one of the inlets that're they don't think they're responsible did you you think it's three it is three you're going to have to have that argument then I thought it was more
than that well there more than that that are that are missing p last and and those actually the good thing about all this I guess is that they the the heads are not the proper heads for storm water management so they should have been replaced and should be
replaced anyway so it's kind of a blessing that they're going to have to replace it and it won't cost the town any M yeah but so they'll have to submit their plans to us before they can install absolutely I told them that um that they
have to we want to inspect their work um and they have to propose on what they're going to be doing first and then we will approve that or not and uh inspector work as they do it is there any kind of building uh permit they have to get for that or it's just an engineering sign
off okay great thank you is that it John no are they qualified to do that K do they have an engineer or somebody no no need for an engineer but they they'll have to get a contractor that's
that does drainage work right um you know they're not going to be able just do it themselves right but um they'll submit that to me um and if we don't agree with what they're going to do we won't proceed and and would you be out there during the install make sure
there's no damage underneath and yes because there there at least on two of them um the block has been damaged as well right so it's not just the framing GD great and and redo top probably two coures of block okay so yes I'll be make
I'll make sure that they do it great yeah just keep us posted after Wednesday I I just don't understand how they lifted the whole head up left the head up like this in the air yeah and it was unbelievable he thinks the skid steer
did it oh it did that's definitely what did oh yeah is that like a bobcat okay little tiny thing yeah okay anything else John no all right moving on to the consent
agenda items consent agenda items are considered to be routine and will be enacted with a single motion any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda all consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes does anyone wish to remove
anything hearing nothing resolution 2025 -47 appointing municipal court judge for three-year term resolution 25-48 resolution requesting permission for the dedication by Ryder donations for the township of Delano's 100th anniversary
celebration required by njsa 4A 5 col 29 resolution number 2025 49 amending the rates for outside employment of police officers payment of bills account out of the current fund 661
95222 payroll $673 2249 approval of consent agenda can I get a motion please so moved second motion by Matt second by Kate roll call please Mr Bart yes Mrs P yes Mr M yes Mr
yes M yes thank you uh correspondence please none thank you all right meeting is open to the public for for comments and questions this is session two please come up to the podium state your name and address please feeling okay Ray are you all
right no he just sends emails now seeing none I'll close this session two to the public uh we have discussion items new Township seal design Matt yeah um as we talked about last year I think
it was early last year um and I'll pass this out this is just a rough sketch pretty much every town around here throughout the state everywhere has a Township seal and we don't yeah like some way to to figure out where we are in the
courtroom yeah exactly yeah um there's two yeah down and this was just a very rough design I have not uh done anything with it except just put together I think we have to change it to
1852 though 1852 yeah that's when we were technically established see we were we were going back and I talk to Janice about that we decided that it would be 19 okay for for the hund annary okay got I took your
design and I sent it to a graphic artist Susan Mata because I I thought maybe she could add give us a little input okay um so I s it to her because I just thought that it would be nice to have it done by graphic artist okay I've taken
graphic art class I know that yeah but the basis of the the uh design um the eagle represents the Eagles that are native to our Riverfront and throughout the town uh the tree represents us being a tree
City uh the two wavy lines represents our Creek and our River of course and the Sunset obviously represents the marvelous sunsets we have uh every evening here over the river so and and
the in the winter time right yeah there's a lot of them throughout the walls of this qu pictures so people in the audience could see what we came up with and this is just a concept yeah I think it's anyone's feedback of course
yeah some of the feedback that I got was just that where the sunet and the water is might just be a little busy with all the colors there and the lines so if we can incorporate that in some other way um a little less busy yeah it's a little
busy because I think it just takes your eyes to there so maybe just yeah we could shade fig out different colors but I think it's cool to have the the state of New Jersey behind us there yeah maybe should be outlin a little bit
more but anyway I did the state I did take the Liberty to send it to Susan I didn't know you had taken courses um that's okay welcome her welcome her feedback as well yeah I'm looking forward to it I'll put this here in case anybody
wants to come up afterwards and look at it uh thanks for taking the initiative on that though because we definitely want to have something and Our Hope was to get a big vinyl of it and put it behind this big white wall be so it doesn't looks so Industrial in here we
like colors I brightened up the place with some artwork so trying to make it a little more welcoming were you an interior designer also say interior I a no I'm talking about saying she sees and shops like was
I an interior designer um okay so um we have our next discussion item is going to be our 25 budget preparation discussion so if we want to we're going to take a brief recess so we can gather our
documents and um I think the decision was made to go back to the conference room it's just a little easier for us to discuss numbers that way so um it's still going to be a public meeting so you guys are welcome to join us in the conference room if you
want um but we're just we're probably going to be in there for hour or two discussing budget stuff and um trying to find finalize our numbers um you know tightening up some line items so the minimal tax increase
to Residents so that's what we're going to be doing so we're going to take a brief um I guess five minute break we'll reconvene back in the meeting room at 10 of so if you want to join us just uh kind of wait in the lobby and we'll let you in on the side door there by the uh
window