DelenCo Township Special Committee meeting of May 29th, 2025 held at 6 p.m. at the municipal building 770 Coopertown Road, Deleno, New Jersey. Mayor, yep, we are recording. Thank you. Good evening.
Welcome to uh May 29th's township committee meeting. There's also we're calling a town hall at 6 o'clock the municip municipal building 770 Coopertown Road. Roll call, please. Mr. Bartlett here. Mrs. Patrick here. Mr.
McFaden here. Mr. is absent. Miss Seuss here. Thank you. Um, also present, Mr. Fox, our township engineer, and um, Mr. Raymond filling in for our solicitor and Mrs. Lur, our municipal clerk. Please
rise for the flag salute 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. Oh, sunshine sh sun sunshine statement
of please live stream as well. Please be advised that proper notice of this meeting has been given in compliance with the open public meetings act in the following manner. Written notice has been announced to the Bronson County Times and Courier Post and written notice has been posted on official bullets board of the township of Delango at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.
This meeting of the Delango Town Committee may be transmitted via live stream on YouTube video. The streaming of the meeting is not intended to be relied upon as 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. Okay. could you please silence um all cell phones and uh we'll move on to our agenda which tonight we have a special presentation regarding uh the township's purchase of 401 Creek Road. So we're
going to do uh go through a quick PowerPoint presentation um which we've done before so I apologize if you've seen it before. Um but there is some additional information that we added and um after that we will take comments from the committee and then we will open
public comment for um questions and uh comments. So I will read the rules governing public comment after we do our special presentation. So if you allow me a moment to set up the projector u we'll do a brief uh like two-minute recess.
That's good energy. Okay, it's blinding me. Sorry. You just plugged it in. It worked last time, right? You just plugged it in. It worked. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like it's not connected. Hey, Rob, can you hit the lights? It's not connected to my laptop.
Try the other port. No, I think it just didn't spin last time. Like it just automatically went on once you plug that in. Miss, is this also available on the township website? It's the Yeah, it's basically the one that was uh before.
There's a copy in the vestibule as well if you want to follow along, but the newest one will be um updated. There's a couple new slides. It's like it's trying to There's also paper. Yeah, they're right on the table on the left. Sorry to blind you.
You tried this. No, you don't. You're right. Setting failed. It said, should we recycle? Recycle. Huh? That's an HDMI cable.
Looks like it's on. Oh, there you go. Let's play this right screen. Okay, it's going to expand. Just close. I don't know why it's it's not. There we go. Okay. Versus averted. Thank you, Matt.
All right, Jen, we good? We're We have been actually Okay. All right. So, we're uh we're back in session, so to speak. And uh we're just going to go over the uh the PowerPoint presentation again that we gave, I believe, in the beginning of April. Um, this is the
property here, 401 Creek Road, about 11 and a half acres and kind of a weird triangular design there. Uh, located on Creek Road next to the Field of Dreams, backs up to residential
houses and it's right across from um, 450 and 500, which is also owned by Criterion and the DMV. Here's our fact sheet. As I mentioned, about 11 and a half acres is currently zoned in the I3 district industrial.
Um, this was the only property not included in earlier planning of the redevelopment of that area. Criterion Group is the owner. They're a New York-based real estate company that specializes in commercial outdoor truck storage. They purchased the property in 2021 for 20 million 2 million. It was
part of a three parcel purchase um that was deemed unusable by the tax office because it was also um it was a part of a a three-party a transaction of 450 and 500. Um currently there's two businesses in operation there, machine shop and a power washing company. Um they actually
are winding down operations as our original contract stated that they had to be uh vacate the property before our closing which was originally scheduled on June 10th. So, the property was reszoned by Delanco Township in 2023 from I2 to I3, which
does not permit warehousing. Um, because of that zoning change, um, we were sued by Criterion and Pharaoh Point in in August of 23. Um, and part of that, uh, settlement was a redevelopment agreement and that was, uh, done in February of
2024. Okay. So, Criterion um wants to build a truck and trailer repair facility there. They received approvals from the joint land use board in October of 24 to build that um truck and trailer repair facility that also permits outdoor truck storage. Uh the plans
included clearing the lot of about 700 trees, paving a large parking lot, which most of the land would be a parking lot to accommodate the 124 parking spaces for trailers, those 19 car parking spaces, 10 vehicle service repair bays. They will be using the large existing
building that's there. So, they will not be building anything new. They'll be demolishing the two existing buildings, keeping the building in the front. And uh their plans also call for four drainage basins per the New Jersey D storm water regulations. And you'll see
later in the slide, we have uh a actual plan that will show you that. I think it's important to point out the trucks are permitted to be dropped off by tow trucks. during the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7 a.m. So, here is um Criterion's plan.
You can see here Bowler Engineering did this. Uh this is the existing large building here. Right here, this is the building in the front. This is a storm basin. Storm basin, storm basin, storm basin. So, there's four total. This entire area here right now is currently
trees. Um there's a little bit of open space here that was cleared out. Um but this would all be truck parking. So this would all be blacktop and then you have um a very minor buffer here of and I think it's 10 to 15 ft. And then there's residential homes that back up in this
area here and then literally right up against the fence here. Over here is the field of dreams. This is an overhead drone shot of the property. As you can see, that's that building that they would turn into, I think, 10 truck bays. This would stay, the buildings back here would go, and
then this would all be tractor trailers and black top. Um, back here is a small portion of deciduous tree wetlands. And then that's the creek right there. As you can see, residential homes right here. And back here, so very close to that property. This is the lot that the county said that they would be willing
to discuss uh doing a land swap with us for the wetlands back here. This is just a mockup we did showing how many trucks were would be possibly parked there. Very similar to across the street here. Okay. So, um again, we'll just
kind of go over the timeline. As I mentioned, they received their approvals for the repair facility in October of last year. Um the township then approached criterion about purchasing the property in Octo October of 24. Uh in December we had an ordinance pass and
public hearing for for um ordinance 26 adopting the ordinance for the purchase of the property. Um Miss uh Fitzpatrick, myself, Mr. Templeton, Mr. Bartlett all voted yes, Mr. voted no. Um, moving on, we started the process to uh get the
agreement of sale drafted and in February we passed that resolution 2025-37 authorizing that execution agreement of sale for the purchase of 401 Creek Road. Um during that meeting, Mr. Vlet, Mr. McFaten, myself, and Mr.
Olette voted yes. Miss Miss Pisspatrick was absent. Um February 10th, we were under agreement with criterion to purchase the property for 3.5 million. And starting on that day, we had a due diligence period of 95 days to perform
our inspections and uh do our fieldwork. And that has been completed as of today. Um April 7th, we had a meeting and we passed the ordinance um and had our public hearing for bond for ordinance 2025-4. uh the bond authorizing the acquisition
of land and improvements for 401 Creek Road in the amount of 3.6 million. Um we put a extra 100,000 in there for costs associated with the sale. Mr. Patrick, myself, Mr. Borlet, and Mrs. Mr. McFaden voted yes. Mr. Olette voted no. Um would like to point
out that the purchase price is well below the written appraised value of $5.3 million. Okay, so this is the um new slide letting you know what's been happening the past few weeks. Um a petition to protest against incurring uh the indebtedness in ordinance 2025-4 was
submitted to the municipal clerk's office on April 25th, 2025. It was then certified by the municipal clerk on May 1st. On May 5th, the township committee had a meeting and we passed ordinance 2025-75, a resolution establishing a
ballot question and special election date in response to the petition for referendum on bond ordinance 2025-4, which then authorized the funding for the acquisition of 401 Creek Road. At the May 19th project committee meeting um just last week we had
resolution 2025-83 authorizing an emergency appropriation for $70,000 that is to pay for the special election that we have to have um in the budget per the NJSA 44-48 and that was adopted. Um, as of now, the next step is the special
election, which is scheduled for Tuesday, July 29th, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 PM. Okay. Since our last presentation, we have received um, ERRI's um, soil and groundwater investigation results on May
15th. Um, they found no areas of concern or remediation necessary. Um, I did read this letter into the record at the last meeting, but basically I'll just kind of summarize. The investigation was limited to the collection of five subsurface soil samples. Three subsurface soil
samples and one groundwater sample. The sampling locations um were depicted on a map that we received. Um, soil samples S1 through S5 were collected from a depth of 0 to.5 ft and were analyzed for arsenic, lead, and um, TCL pesticides, which are target compoundless. Um
samples S1 and S3 were further analyzed for extractable petroleum hydrocarbons um TCL semi-volatile organic compounds TCL PCBs and target analyte list which is TL metals tow metals. The detections reported by the lab did not exceed
applicable uh NJT soil remediation standards. Soil samples um SB 1 through3 were collected from a depth of 4 to 4 1/2 ft from boring um at the septic field location. and they were analyzed for heatcl volatile organic compounds in
EPH and no detections were reported by the laboratory. They also sampled groundwater from a temporary wellpoint installed the septic field and analyzed for TCL volatile organic compounds and semivolatorial organic compounds and no detections were reported by the
lab. So good news there. Um, okay. So, this slide basically goes into why purchasing 401 Creek Road is beneficial to Delanco Township, the the township with input from residents in the future. If this does um get passed, will control the future of the property and its use.
That's what's important. No additional tractor trailers will be on our roads. No tractor trailer repair facility will be built. We preserve the quality of life for the residential areas in the immediate area of the property and throughout the township because we're all affected by additional truck traffic. Um we would maintain and
preserve the Field of Dreams Park and Sports Complex. The children and the families deserve to have nice facilities that are not next to the industrial truck facility. Um we are purchasing the property for 34% below the written appraisal value. 700 trees are slated to
be removed. Um, if we purchased it for what we're we're purchasing it for general municipal purposes, those trees would be preserved. Um, we would preserve the wooded area directly located next to the county owned Pennington Park and Rancco Greenway Trail, which is visited by many residents and people from uh throughout
the county. Uh, it's also uh important to point out there will be no truck pollution, additional truck pollution or noise from a repair facility. And uh of course there's guidelines that you know are associated with contamination in
storm water but it's only as good as he was monitoring it. So um I think it's beneficial that there would be no risk at all to for contamination to the site from a truck repair facilities. And of course that's a sensitive area located along the Rancokus Creek. Um cons. So, um 2025's budget has
passed and there is no property tax increase to the residents because of this property that would be purchased. Um there would be some short-term property maintenance that we would have to do if we did um purchase the property, including, you know, securing the buildings um for safety. And as of
right now, that bu that um parcel generates about $23,000 in taxes. Um but obviously there would be a potential to return it to the market at a greater value uh greater tax revenue in the near term if that's what the committee um
chose to do in the future. Um also this $23,000 does not go to the township um in full. The township's portion of that is 33% and I have a chart later that I will show you kind of breaking down what our tax rate is. So this additional benefit I think is important to point
out. Um there is a potential land swap agreement with the county for this wetlands portion of the property of 401 is that the small area here which is right along their their trail. See this line here is their trail their bike trail for um Rancco Greenway. So they
are interested in preserving that to have a buffer. Um, and in turn, this area here that's highlighted in pink, um, has been an eagle's nest buffer, but because they're they're not federally protected anymore, the county has really no use for this, um, land and would be
willing to swap this land that is usable to us and make it part of our Field of Dreams complex park. This doesn't apply anymore because we had to move forward with bundling our existing debt because um, our bonds expired in June. So, um, we had to move
forward without that. This is the um from the D website which is still accurate um today. Uh this block lot you know number is 401 Creek Road and this portion here this little green portion is what's um classified as deciduous wood wetlands and that's the
wetlands portion. So it's just a small portion of the entire property. Okay. Okay. So, we'll kind of go over our budget changes again because I know that a tax increase has been kind of at the forefront uh as to why this should not go through. Um our budget changes this year
and why taxes are increasing. The minimum increase we have is because of these these things these appropriations here. Um we have a salary expense increase the township does of 6.4% or $200,000 because we added a 16th police officer. And we are also hiring a new
full-time administrator as um Richard is a part-time administrator right now. We have health insurance benefits increase of $80,000. Um state health benefits continues to go up year-over-year. They are actually not in a good spot right now financially and we're not sure if
they will continue sell state health plan benefits. We might have to go uh different route. So um rates just continue to increase unfortunately that's across the private sector as well. Uh we have a trash collection uh disposal increase of 35,000 this
year because of uh we because of changes at the facility where we dump the trash and also we will be um starting a new trash contract in December. So we anticipate costs will be increasing. Um we have allocated one of our public works uh gentlemen to handle the
buildings and grounds maintenance. So we allocated a salary of 130,000 for that. Um that's not paid out of open space. That's actually in our operating expenses. Previously, we would be using our open space fund for um grounds and parks maintenance. Public library aid to
Deleno increased um 21,400. That is going to be paid to the Deleno school district for utilities. That's anticipated. They are still working on that contract. Um but we are assisting the school with um with more of that. We have an increase in reserve
for uncollected taxes of 17,000 as a state calculated formula. It's to cover the amount for those who don't pay their taxes. Um whether it's a township, county, school, or fire district, the township is the collecting entity and they still have to pay 100% to these people regardless if you pay your taxes
or not. So, we have to have a reserve for that. And we also allocated 25,000 for the centennial celebration next year so we could put deposits down and get ready for that event. I know recreation does have a plan to fund raise to cover a lot of those costs. Um, and we also
have a 20% utility increase that the BPU has approved that everyone will be seeing next month in June. Okay. So our 2025 budget versus last year in our revenue side, we virtually had no increase in
ratables because uh all the new housing and new warehouses were added to the tax roles in the last few years. So the budget doesn't have the benefit of having the tax levy spread out over a larger tax base to help moderate the tax increase. So that's um that's one of the things that's affecting us. The New
Jersey state aid was reduced $42,000. Um, which goes back to what our number was in 2022. Um, all towns are are seeing the reflection of reduced state aid. Um, permit fees are down. We don't have any additional building. So, that has jumped down 51,000. Um, other
licenses and fees also are affected by that. That was reduced by 10,000. And we also lowered our delinquent taxes by 24,000. Um, this is just a a chart showing kind of from 2005 what your taxes looked like, the tax levy looked like, um,
year-over-year changes, and then where we're at here. So, in 2005, 1.9 million and change was our tax levy. That's the amount we have to raise from taxpayers in order to pay our bills. Today, we're at 5,400,000. And um if you see year-over-year kind of
what the difference is um percentage change was 250,000 from 200 from 2024 to 25. And that's what our tax rate is. Last year was 1.147. This year it's 1.202. So very minimal tax increase.
This is a um a chart that you can kind of look at as far as what your assessed value is. So the average assessed value in Deleno is 190,000. So, and your property taxes that go to Deleno Township in 2024 was 2179. This year
it'll be $2,284 or $104.50 increase year-over-year, just the Deleno Township portion. Okay, so this slide is new. I added it just to kind of explain more about taxes. Um, this pie chart will
show you that 49% of your tax bill goes to uh Dano Township School District, 49%. 33% goes to the municipality, 15% goes to the county, and then 3% is other, which is like open space, fire district, and other things. Um, and then
you'll see here, this person, uh, as an example, has a tax bill of $10,423. And you'll see their county tax is $1,250. the county library tax, $106. They have county farmland and open space,
$151. And then their school tax is the most at $5,140. Then their municipal tax here, which goes directly to the town, is $33.98. And then you have a um open space tax as well, $59. And then you pay your fire district,
$317, this particular person. So that kind of breaks out. So, it always pays to kind of look at your tax bill when you get so you understand where your hard-earned money is going to. Okay. So, this slide just kind of talks about what previous initiatives the township took um in the past 30 to
40 years. Um just wanted to point some things out here. Uh 2700 Burlington Avenue, that is the warehouse that's on the river right by the tracks. It was slated to be a cargo ship container port facility. The township spent um a lot of money to fight that proposal to make sure our township didn't become a port
town, which would be similar to what Glster City is today, and have big boats coming up and down dropping off um shipping containers there. Um Whimsinger, they proposed a recycling facility for demolition debris, um which included concrete, asphalt, wood,
masonry, bricks, trees, stumps, tires. Um that's what the solar field is right next couple of sites down from us here. That was um fought by the township successfully to make sure it did not become that. Currently that site you can find um on Mar Highway right at the
Mount Holly bypass. Uh if you want to see what could have been uh at 2005 I think which is the most uh similar uh situations as to what this is um economic development at 2005 purchase of Zerberg mansion for $2.1 million. The
township purchased the property and eventually reszoned it to an area of need of redevelopment. There was a juvenile facility for troubled youth that was proposed for that parcel and the township decided to purchase it. Today, uh it's home to 27 moderate and
lowincome senior apartments. And the township was lucky enough to keep that waterfront lot and that is now what we know as historic Waterfront Park and what is currently under construction to be an amazing park. and will really add value to our town in that that area. Um,
we also the township did also purchase that carriage house for 300,000. Um, so they did pretty much break even, but they were able to get the park. They also fought the D to protect the West Avenue Dunes from continuing to be a dredge spoils dumping site. That
was a huge undertaking and they spent tens of thousands of dollars to make sure that did not happen. Um, nobody wants to see, you know, more dredge spoils dumped. They're unsightly. They uh would have dump trucks coming up and down triacles coming up and down our
streets constantly. It would not be good for our quality of life. Um recently in 2020, they purchased 414 Rancokus Avenue, which is the lot next to Gateway Park where the gazebo is. Um and they spent $60,000 for that and included a um
large park expansion. So that park's pretty much double in size now. And recreation's able to have their Christmas village out there. So, it's lovely. Uh, also in 2020, they purchased 200 Ash Street. Um, as a lot of people know, was the canvas factory or shoe
factory. It was that tall building, brick building on the creek. Uh, they spent $200,000, um, for demolition for that property and also a demolition engineering was about $29,000. Um, recently they've acquired lots on Hawk Island to prevent them from
being developed in various different ways. And then of course our largest um undertaking recently is the historic waterfront park seaw wall um installation and the park of that installation of the seaw wall and the park um has been in the project for
almost 18 years. Um several bonds were approved over the years um totaling about $1.2 million and that is for the park and the seaw wall but that does that does not include the legal design, engineering and permitting costs that were associated with
it. So what's the plan? Right. Um the township is permitted to purchase property particularly in the reh rehabilitation and redevelopment context to ensure the property is put to its most appropriate use. Purchasing this property doesn't mean we have to hold on to it for forever or even a year. Uh the
township can resone the property to a more appropriate use and likely some form of residential use with no impact to the schools. We don't intend to keep it in an industrial zone. This is no different than what has happened in Zurberg Mansion. As I just went over in 2005, the township
prevented a negative use and eventually returned all but the waterfront to the market. Economic development. Um, as of right now, Township Committee does not intend to preserve or otherwise permanently restrict the property to open space. So, what you what I mean by
that is once you designate something as open space, you take open space funds. you are not ever allowed to do anything with it ever again other than have it as open space. So that concludes my PowerPoint
presentation. Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. Um, thank you for listening and taking the time to gain a better understanding as to why we think it's so important that the township moves forward with our purchase of 401 Creek Road. Thank you.
You can pop those lights on for me, Rob. Thanks. question. Not yet. We're going to have um comments from the township committee now. Are you going to read the rules? Yes, I'm going to read the rules before I
open it to public comments. So, if anyone from the committee would like to say anything, um you are certainly welcome to do so. Uh I would like to add a little bit more about the Zerbrook mansion. Um when we purchased the Zerbrook mansion, the um
state was moving forward with the juvenile detention uh center uh because the owner at the time, Larry Stein, was conveying that as a deed in Low since they could not fulfill the agreement of sale. So, the
township offered Larry the same amount that he was under contract with uh for Capital Academy and he agreed and we purchased that property. Um we had hoped to keep that property actually and to
use it for public um history board, recreation, what have you. It needed uh too many repairs. It was too costly for us to keep it. So, we did finally uh come to a good use, which was what it
currently is. Uh 27 affordable um senior residents. There are a few residents from Delanco that live there, but in addition to that, uh we had town houses that were built around the
perimeter and they were sold, which gave us a good tax increase. And um for each sale, in addition to the taxes, we also received $1,250 for each unit as it was built and sold. So I know there may be some
residents here tonight that live in one in the town houses. They're beautiful. They do not distract from uh the Zurbrook mansion as far as I'm concerned, but they did help us to gain some tax base for the residents.
um that particular property did not benefit everybody in town. Uh and I know a lot of people have said that about um 401 Creek, but in my eyes it does benefit everybody in town because it's a
beautiful um it's a beautiful landscaping area. There's some beautiful town houses there. We maintained uh the waterfront property so that we could have a great park which is coming to fruition and
hopefully that'll be opened in July. So I think it's important for residents to understand that this isn't the first time that the Lano Township committee has moved forward to buy a piece of property for the benefit of all the
residents of the town. This particular property may be a little more costly than than some, but when you put all if you were to add up all the different things, the dunes litigation, we also
had issues with Hawk Island with dredge spoils there. These are all issues that we worked out but at a at a an expense at an expense to the taxpayers because the uh professional fees got quite high
especially the dunes litigation. Um D sued us. Um we did manage to come out of that okay but it still cost the township a a large sum of money. So, I think that
we have always been um careful in our spending and we have done what we have thought was for the betterment of Delano, the Zurbrook mansion. When we finally got a buyer for
that property, there were five members on the township committee. Uh Joan Hankle and myself were in favor of selling it to uh Grapevine who did develop it as it is today. There were three other members of the township committee that were against it. Uh one
of them's in the audience today. Uh one is also in the audience today who changed his vote to yes so that that development could occur and thank God he did because it is a beautiful area. It is a gem in Deleno and I would like to
think that 401 Creek Road is going to become a better use so that we can all look back and be proud of the decision we made for this property. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Kate. Uh, Mador Phil, did you want to
say anything? The the only thing I want to add because the PowerPoint, it had pretty much all the information. I'm not going to regurgitate everything that was in there cuz I want to get to the residents and hear what they have to say. But I think it's important to for everyone to understand this isn't just a little truck repair shop like Safety
Auto or any other little garage. This is a commercial fleet truck repair and storage facility. It's storing up to was 125 tractor trailers out there. It's not a small little truck repair facility. So,
I've seen people hear or heard people compare it to a regular local garage like Safety Auto or the BP in town. Nothing like that. Phil, my concern is of course Pull that mic down.
My concern is of course the truck traffic going through town. Um, as you're aware, we have an issue with the flooding over in Deleno Bridge. Uh, our only access at that point is to either go out to 130 and go all the way
down and come back through Beverly or go out to 130 and take the holiday ice cream jug handle there. Um, thankfully the county has readjusted the light timing. Unfortunately, my vision of a heavyduty
truck with a trailer with a tractor attached to it taking up the whole jug handle as it is. Um I I just don't see it as a benefit to the te to the residents of Tanka. Thank you.
All right. So, I'm going to read um the rules governing public comment period. and then we'll open the meeting up to the public for comments and questions. Pursuant to the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act and JSA 104-12, Deleno Township Committee is entitled to
permit, regulate, or prohibit public participation in its meetings. Public participation and comment shall be governed by the following rules to maintain order and prevent disruption of the meeting. Each speaker will have a maximum of five minutes to speak and should limit comments to the matter at hand. The speaker will be directed to
conclude the remarks once the speaker's time has expired. No time may be yielded to a speaker by another speaker. Groups are asked to select a spokesperson to speak on their behalf. Speakers will address towns of committee from the podium and are asked to begin the remarks with their name and address for the record. Township committee members
are not obligated to answer impromptu questions or address remarks for members of the public during the public comment period. Speakers should expect the township committee to refrain from engaging in dialogue except to the extent necessary to clarify the speaker's comments. The allotted time for the speaking for speaking from the
podium is the method to address the township committee during the public comment period. The township committee will not entertain questions or comments called out from the audience. Uh speakers and members of the public should at all times maintain proper decorum and shall make their comments in a civil manner. Personal attacks,
obscenity, derogatory, or slanderous remarks will not be tolerated. So, if you'd like to come up to the podium, this meeting is now open to the public for comments and questions. Please state your name and address for the record. Oh, you get hurt with this stuff.
Careful there, Mike. Trying to be careful. Uh Mike Templeton, 621 Delaware. uh you know repeat some of my remarks that I made at the last meeting and uh add a little bit more. I don't have new PowerPoint slides but I'll try
to make it uh clear and concise. So um the things I want to talk about are are really um the next two steps down the road after the township does acquire the property. Uh, as I've said previously,
I'm concerned about forthcoming DEP rules on flood zones and how that would would affect the ability of the township to turn over the property or sell it or redevelop it to a follow on use. Um this goes back to
uh the governor's executive order 100 back in January 2020 which asked uh various D or various state agencies to look at the future of climate change in the state. Um couple years ago the state uh uh brought forth their
um the inland flood protection rules IFP that was July of 23 um that had a several year gestation since that EO 100 and that's really deals with increased flooding uh due to increased rainfall
from climate change and so forth and uh um uh increase the flood elevations uh excuse um revisions to the flood hazard area control act and storm water major revisions to all that. As a result of that, the township had to update our
chapter 65 or flood flood damage prevention ordinance. We did that uh last year and that adds for the FEMA 100year flood zone 3 ft locally and pretty much statewide. Following that was the state the followon regulations
which are expected to be enacted this this summer or fall or the New Jersey real rules resilient environment and landscapes. That rule making started back in March of 2020 and it regulates the waters wetlands pirate riparian zones which are the transition areas
between waterways and the upland areas and storm water. Uh it establishes um um uh the a climate adjusted flood elevation which is the FEMA 100year plus 5 ft and that's found on the DP's
website flood indicator uh flood indicator tool u and it also establishes an inundation risk zone and that's for title flood zones um back in November I had sent an email to Hugh Dockerty who's the planning
board uh engineer who dealt in detail with the 401 project as that was going through that process. Um in his response of November 25th, Mr. Doy says the site is considered a title flood hazard area and
going forward several paragraphs found in the email that you all have had received over several occasions. Going forward, the township would be proceeding at risk due to the uncertainty of these new rules. The inundation risk risk zone is
based on title flooding. that's forecast for the next couple decades through the end of the century. And looking at lot 11 uh with the new flood mapper tool that's on the D website and this is what it
looks like when we get to it. About seven of the nearly 12 acres of lot 11 is affected by this new rule. So, whatever you do there or whatever a subsequent owner does there, it's going to have to comply with
uh excuse me um higher elevations for the lowest habitable floor. It's going to have to be uh basically storm proof. It has to have the required structures within the flood
hazard area be designed to resist uplift, flotation, collapse, displacement due to hydrostatic hydrodnamic forces which is proposed or instead of is proposed to be updated to refer to buoyancy collapse and displacement. That's out of the proposed
uh regulation. In addition to that, there's a risk assessment that's required to be done by the owner of the property. And that's supposed to um u that's that's a required state requirement that identifies the potential economic and
other cost to the current and future property owners, including government entities, for activities on public land associated with the project for future flooding and inundation risk. Construction with the flood hazard area carries inherent and specific long-term
risk that are likely to be severely exacerbated due to clim changing climate. Is important that the owner of the site, not the applicant or agent, provide a written record attesting to the realities of said risk. the New Jersey League of Municipalities,
a uh group of municipalities and or entity that distributes information that's useful for government officials and so forth. Their briefing paper on the real rules, municipalities will face significant limitations on new development and redevelopment that may
affect property values, implications for insurance costs. Um, I think there's a an appraisal that you mentioned that's been circulating. I believe the effective or the um that was
valid as of October last fall. Um, looking at that appraisal, there's no mention that there's a flood zone existing at present. There's no mention in the appraisal of what could happen with the
implementation of these new rules. So that obviously would affect the value at the current level. It would obviously affect the value going forward for any opportunity the township look to sell the property or turn it over to a new
new buyer. So, I believe that's this is all important information for you to consider and for the public to be aware of with these this is out there and um that's kind of the nut nutshell right there. So, a lot of information there.
I'm glad Mr. Fox is here and our solicitors are here and they have comments on that. Um just a final word uh the list that you have of all the parks and open space and preservation and things over the last 20 years last
18 years that I was heavily involved in many of those. It's uh it's a point of gratification that I feel I had a a significant impact in uh the surf brick waterfront uh suggesting that the township retain that uh West Avenue in
the litigation working with Mr. Heinhold so forth um and Steve and many days in the courtroom sitting in the back back row there listening to the litigation with the state. Um so it's uh it's a
good feeling that these things are there. Uh the Windsinger property u or the concrete crushing facility that was proposed. I got into looking at that permit and found that Windsinger had error uh
significant misrepresentations and contact D and the permit was revoked. So um thank you. Thank you. That was seven minutes, but I did let you finish. Professional courtesy. Um,
just before you get up, I just want to give um a a chance to to respond. Um, yes, you you were integral in those projects and, you know, thank you again for for mentioning the flood stuff. We'll let Harry talk about that. But I think it's important too that to to note
that you did support us in December by voting yes to move forward with this project as well. So I don't know where you stand today, but I know in December you were on board with it. So I don't Yeah, take three seconds. Sure. Uh my vote then was to
give the remaining time on in December and the oncoming governing body the time to really think about this. That's important. Uh time and space and getting all the information you can to make a good decision because
uh you just don't want to make mistakes especially on this amount of money and it's it's a big deal. It's a big deal. Yes, thank you. And I think uh we've done a pretty good job, you know, doing our due diligence uh and exploring, you
know, the different ways that we can uh move forward with this. So, Harry, did you want to talk about uh take a few minutes and kind of talk about the the flood concerns that Mr. Templeton has maybe in detail? Sure. Sure. Microphone,
you just pull it forward. It's not Yeah. Won't bite you. We promise. Uh first of all um you you were pretty much on point 77. I mean there's a real uh bill that's coming out. Um the the
issues with that are right now it's in it's in stage uh they made public comment. Um they're expecting Septemberish to adopt this bill. Uh the bill there's no indication of when it
will take effect. That's something that's going to be decided after they not. So particularly on bills like this they it takes several years to get that they don't advance you have to follow those guidelines. We don't know what that time limit is but there will be
some period probably a couple of years of time that you have to to comply the there is a lot of excuse me Harry but there is a lot of objection to that bill that I've read recently. Well,
it definitely is. Yeah. And that uh I know it's going to be a topic of our com, you know, on our agenda coming up. So, it may it may not pass. I don't I don't know if that's possible that enough municipalities object uh if that
happens or if they'll just, you know, agree to accept him anyway. Absolutely possible. Absolutely possible. And and and the people that it really hurts more than anyone are people on their um that's where it's really kind of
geared to it. Uh we are included in that, but that's not the real main goal of of this um this bill. Um so yeah, it may not pass there. We know what's going to happen with elections. We don't know any of that stuff. Just like any other
they're constantly changing all of their rules. Um and we have to abide by them as it happens. Um the existing site plan for the for the trucking facility received uh permits from DE to fill some of the
flood lighting area. Um and and those permits actually all the permits that they see are out for 5 years. If if that was put up similar to what that facility is um and possibly
the residential less impactful those permits may carry over to to be used to be able you don't need that that's not a possibility. Um thirdly, the what the major impact of
this cycle be in this bill is that basically raising the flood elevation by 5 ft to account for sea level rise. Um, so anything built within an elevation slightly higher than
the flood plane elevations out there now would have to be be able to be built to withstand flood. Um, or they're actually allowing field to be brought in to build the ground area to raise the building so
it's not in the flood zone. We did take and and and map it might um download it shows the area um post assumed area of noon in a David area um
I actually plotted from the top pocket plan um the elevation adding the 5 ft the area in reality is a little bit less than what's shared on on the state plan state plan is just They they use aerial photographs and and things like that to
determine their lives. When you actually go to develop it, you physically do deprive people and and line out where that elevation is where in theory in um 75 years about 75 years the flood
level will be because that's what this is geared towards. It's geared towards the year 2100. Um at that time they figured the sea level rise would be 5 ft. Um so that's the result and and it's
really it's not for stopping development. It's just making sure that when people build things in the area they're accounting for those five foot rise and seed um so we don't have cash losses of buildings and houses and and
safety issues. uh includes infrastructures, things like that. Um they want to make sure it's safe. Uh the bill itself is,44 pages. Um so Ken Heather document in government. It includes a lot of
other things in there. A lot has to do with the windows off the car. It has to do with green infrastructure. It has to do with a lot of things. And then this is only one small part actually of the bill that type of
effect and I don't feel that with the site that's there all the existing buildings would be out of the museum even using the state map would be out of that innovation zone. The front portion is out. There is possibly they would have
to we have we would have to do a study and do a report um on what the effects of development would be due to the flood. Not a major undertaking.
Um at this time it really doesn't look like it would it would hinder the development of of that property. Maybe there would be less area for actual buildings. Um maybe and and what's very popular now is they put because we're
talking about finished floor elevations. Um it's very popular that they build condos with garages underneath. So the garage can be part of the building and then the building is raised up above flood elevation and those.
So there's there's really a lot of ways around that bill if it even passes that that if it all hurt we can certainly and we do private work as well and that's we would look for ways and a lot of I I don't see any major
concerns. Okay. Thank you Harry. Uh sir did you want to come up next? Good evening. Uh Austin Dasher, 2405 Burlington, A. Uh I want to start by thanking you for giving us this opportunity to hear more about this
proposal and to ask some questions. Uh I think it's important to have a well-informed electorate and I believe that giving people as many opportunities to learn and discuss this is going to be very important. I love Delanco. It's where I grew up and I'm absolutely interested in learning more about this
decision that is going to have long-term ramifications for myself and what I hope to be a future family here. I plan on being here for quite some time. I mention all of this because I have several questions regarding the potential tax implications that the proposed purchase of the property uh is
going to have on the average Delanco resident. I believe it's important to gain a clear understanding of how this $3.6 $.6 million acquisition is going to impact the taxpayers both immediately and over the long term. My intent is not only to ensure that I have accurate
information myself, but to provide clarity for the rest. Uh based on information you provided in your presentation, uh a resident with a home with an assessed value of $190,000 can expect $104 increase already right off the bat. We expect
that coming down the pipeline. Is that correct? Not because of the purchase. That's just I'm aware it's not because of the purchase. It's just this year's tax down the pipeline regardless. Yes. Uh and that estimated $104 increase does not include the impact that'll be coming due to the school bond that was taken
out for $3.5 million. Correct. The school has released their tax rate and taxes will not be going up due to that at all. Nope. No increase. I think they went down actually. Okay. So, do we have any idea what the pental interest rate on this $3.6 $6
million bond is going to be. No, because we can't go out to bond because uh the referendum bond was killed. So, we can't even look at that right now. Well, I suppose I'm interested why the town would purchase a piece of property without knowing how much an interest
rate would be. Even a ballpark would probably be pretty reasonable to acquire because I don't imagine an estimate change by some insane amount based on what an estimate would come in down. So, uh, just as a regular resident of the town, I wouldn't, and I'm sure many
other people wouldn't purchase a house, a piece of property, a car, or any other kind of major purchase without knowing what the insurance rate or monthly payments are going to be. Speaking of long-term, I am also very concerned at the lack of a concrete plan for this
$3.6 million purchase. I've heard some mentions of a potential land swap. However, last I heard it was only a verbal discussion and you, mayor, said that no, it's all very unofficial. Has there been any followup on this? I'll let you finish your comments and we can answer your questions at the end.
Oh, I got a lot more coming. Go ahead. You got two and a half minutes. Okay. Uh, well, I'm not sure why this whole process has remained unofficial and was not involved in the presentation if it became official. I think that would be very relevant information for the taxpayers to know. Uh, another option you guys mentioned was possibly turning
it into some kind of housing development. Uh, and have any developers been contacted to gauge interest or any estimates been done looking at the potential additional costs needed to get the land ready for that? We'll answer all your questions at the end of five minutes. Okay. Do you want
to mark down bullet points for these questions so we don't forget? I'm good. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. Uh, I've also heard a mention of selling it off to another party. Uh, while I certainly would love to be an optimist about this purchase, are there many any calculations about what happens to our taxes if the town can't sell it? Uh, is
there any coverage for if we need to recover that 3.6 million? Oh, still waiting. Okay. Um, cuz based on what I'm gathering here, it looks like you guys don't have a plan for what will happen if we do buy it,
and you also don't have a contingency plan for if we can't sell it. Um, based on all the information I have at this time, uh, this committee appears to be proceeding rather hastily with this proposed acquisition of a $3.6 million bond for the purchase of 401
without presenting a comprehensive or clearly articulated plan regarding the intended use of this land or the strategy for recouping the substantial expenditure of the taxpayers's funds. The current proposals lack the necessary depth, specificity, and financial
prudence expected in matters involving the public's tax dollars, especially in this amount. It is fiscally irresponsible to commit such a significant purchase without providing us with clear, detailed information on the purpose, projected cost to the taxpayers, or the long-term implications
of this investment. The absence of a clear and actionable plan raises serious concerns about the stewardship of the taxpayers's dollars and the accountability of this committee. And I am sincerely and very much against this purchase. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh Mr. Raymond, did you want to speak on to why um you know the the bond and what that's about? So, um, again, as the mayor pointed out during your your your presentation, we we can't get a finalized number on the
bond rate until we're until the bond is is approved. So, we we don't have a finalized number. Um, again, we we have to go out we have to go out to the special election because there was the um objection filed to the the referendum that that or there was a bond because
the bond ordinance there was the objection to. Now, now we have to have that special election. Um, with regard to the the point of what would happen if if the if the township were not able to sell the property, again, obviously it would be bonded that the township would have to have to pay
off the bond. So, um, as I've stated in several meetings before, the, um, purpose of the, uh, why we're buying this is for general municipal purposes, and that has to be classified as that. So the bonds are not taxable. If we were going to buy
this with the intention of rebuilding on it, keeping it as green space or doing anything else, the bonds, the bonds would then become taxable. Therefore, they have to be um classified as general municipal purpose. Um right now, if you look at the bond market and recent uh bonds that have been sold in New Jersey,
uh the interest rates right around 4%. Obviously, we can't say what our interest rate would be because that wouldn't be until August if it does get approved. Um, so right now if you can you can track the interest rates that way. Um, I understand it's frustrating to not have the township committee
present a full and concise plan as to what our plans are. Um, understand that, you know, if this purchase does go through and we buy it, it would be a process. Um, in January might be two new people sitting up here. So, we can't obviously commit to what would be done
uh by another township committee. So, that's why that is what is happening um, as far as that. So, um, did anybody else want to answer any of his questions? Um, I did want to make a point that we cannot have a plan
because we want to sell the bonds for municipal use. You can't have the plan. As Carolyn said, they would be taxed. But the sewer authority um, they would be taxed and it would be a higher interest rate as well. Interest rate, right? But the sewer authority uh bonded
for our project that we did, our relin project, and we're just the bonds were sold in May, and we won't have the official payment amount to us according to our bond attorney who is part of um
our solicitor. It's Tom Coleman, maybe at our meeting in June, but maybe not till August. So that's it's not something that you can project because of the market. That's how the market the bond market works. So even if we were to
bond today, we may not have those figures on the payments and what have you for a month, two months or three months. That's that's and I only learned that through being on the sewer authority. Um, so what we're doing is
what we can do and um, and just like with the Zurbrook mansion, we were able to sell the property so that we could recover some land and the amount that we paid for it. Um, and that is really what
we hope to do here, but to have it as a better use than a truck repair facility that um, has already been approved from the joint land use board with their permits from DP. So, this flood elevation is not affecting that. There's
one other development in town, which is Creekide, which is right off of Burlington Avenue on your way towards Burlington. uh Beverly on the right hand side and if you notice those homes I don't know if anybody is here from Creekot but those homes are elevated
uh much higher because of bogs the ditches right there um much higher than the other homes in Delano. Uh I don't believe it was a requirement of the joint land use board but the developer wanted to protect the homeowners who
purchased the property. So um I can see where those efforts have been used in other areas of Delanka. So just circling back on on the issue of the bond. So um the useful life of that property is 40 years. So they could bond
out for 40 years if they wanted to. Uh for that um the township would what do what's called a bond anticipation note and we have nine years to do that. So, we have nine years to do short-term funding before we have to go out to commit to long-term funding. So, the
first three years, we only have to pay interest on that loan. We don't have to pay principal. Year three is when the principal would then kick in. So, um in my mind, if the township wanted to, you know, make the best use of their investment, they would uh do something with that property within the first
three years before the principal payment would actually come due. So, um, they do give you that little bit of a grace period, but again, you have nine years to do short-term funding with which, uh, a bond anticipation note gets renewed every year. So, every year, like I mentioned in my presentation, your debt
gets renewed at a new interest rate. So, what we bonded out for last year gets renewed again in June and then they have a new interest rate. So, that's what a short-term note is. And you had mentioned the school, uh, the school did bond out for $3.5 million for the roof referendum. Um they did do a budget
presentation and their tax rate actually did go down. So there will be no um school tax increase this year. Hi Vera, are you ready for me? I'm always ready for you. Sure. Thank you.
I'm really interested in the area name. Oh yeah. Ber Dharma 605 Hickory Street. Um, I'm very much interested in the area because um because I love nature and I know a lot of people now they're very much on the uh some people are on the edge
financially because of all the inflation and the rate increases. So that's why I actually signed the petition to do the referendum because um even though I would will be willing to financially sacrifice to pay for this land, it's
very important for me. I know. I don't I don't want people to be certain people to be maybe even pushed out of Delanco because of taxes, you know. I want to I want to stay here. I want this area to be um affordable for my children to stay here. My one child has a house here. And
I love Delano. And a big reason is because of people like Mike Templeton who did so much to preserve so much of nature here. And I'm I'm really thankful for those efforts. Um my question is uh I think I remember in the slide
presentation you said if the purchase goes through um we'll be able to preserve the wooded area located directly next to um the the Pennington Park. Did I remember that correctly? You're talking about the land swap with the county. Um well, yes, if this if
this goes through. Um but if it doesn't go through, is that is the environmentally sensitive um the the land that's very environmentally sensitive near Pennington Park? The truck facility can't cut that
down and fill that in. Correct. You're talking about the wetlands portion. Uh Harry, do you know what what the uh anticipated um future is for the wetlands there on their plan? On on their plan, they actually determined that there were no wetlands on the on
the property. Um so they they're building right up to the property essentially. So what so whatever that boundary is, that's where they're going to be building up to pretty pretty close. Yes. Okay.
Okay. I saw a lot of stor what are they called? Um storm water basins. Is that what it's called? Now if um a development went in there, would there be the same amount of storm water basins? Probably not. Or a lot fewer.
Correct. With with that facility, as you see by the site, there's a massive parking lot area. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, because it then it couldn't the water couldn't go through. Um my other question is um if those
regulations pass um increas uh raising the flood plane. Is that how you say it? How would you say elevation? Okay. And um it becomes a little bit more difficult for the developer. Would we ever consider giving them a pilot
program to make it more attractive? Yeah, I can't imagine. I I can't imagine that we would, but like I said, I couldn't speak for a committee down the road. Um I I'm not in favor of pilots. Nobody here would consider a pilot for the developer. Is that correct? I would
never consider that. It they don't get the school gets no money for it, right, from the taxes. I would never do that to our schools. Okay. We already have way too many pilots in this town. there, as you know, all of us are are really involved with going to schoolboard meetings and being involved in the
school and and and making sure they're they're making good decisions and um you know, it affects our town. So, we try to go to as many schoolboard meetings as possible and a lot of times we're the only ones there. So, we do support our schools and pilots don't support our schools. Okay, those are my questions.
Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks. Gary Cooper, three Edwards Avenue. I also lived at 912 Burlington Avenue. Sorry, one second. Say that one more time. Gary Cooper, 3 Edwards Avenue. I also lived at 912 Burlington Avenue for a long time. I lived on 5172nd Street
for a long time. I've been a resident for basically 65 years. In the last 20 years, this town has really gone downhill. It's being overcrowded. It's being overbuilt. The uh we don't have an emergency squad. And a lot of people I've walked
10 miles a day all around town for the last two and a half years. A lot of people don't even know that that we don't have an emergency squad. The fire department is under manned and I understand it's for volunteers and there's an issue with that as well. The police has picked up but the crime rate's going up. The school system is a
mess. Look at Walnut Street School. When I went here was three schools. Now you're cramming all into one and it's a mess. It can't be that you can allow this town to build more condos and more houses. It's overcrowded as it is and it can't handle it. The sewer system alone with with Beverly, we could have built a
sewer plant. Didn't do that either. The water systems a mess. You better pick off your tails and think about not building ourselves out of a panel. Thank you. Thank you. Just I'm sorry, Todd, before you start.
Just real quick, Mr. Cooper, for you're 100% correct. We don't have the squad anymore. 100%. Read the Oh, they should be paying attention. We We've Did you put it out? Yes, we did. Actually, we did. 100%. We did. And the reason we
didn't we don't have a squad anymore is because lack of volunteers. Del has a paid squad. They've had it for years. Correct. Was on back in the 80s. Took the money from the three ambulances and all and hired a paid squad during the day. We have a contract with Delane
EMS. That's who handles our EMS. Okay. And the same issue with the fire. How much are we paying? It's 30 something. I don't have the number in front of me. It's 30 something,000 a year. Must be an ambulance, too. 36. They they don't own the ambulance. They're using the
ambulance. They do not own it. They make a call on the land. Do we still have to pay them for being out of town? No. And it's the same issue with the fire department. As you mentioned, we're short members. Anyone in the room? Stick an applica. Not just you, Mr. Cooper. Anyone in the room, you want to join the
fire department, please submit an application. There there's Understood. But the majority of the t they just can't handle it. We keep building and building and building. It's got to stop somewhere. Understood.
But again, if anyone would like to join the fire department, we're taking members. You could see Lieutenant or Captain Hubler in the back of the room. Oh, understand if it's zoned for that in this town. The Joint Land News Board has no authority to just deny it. They because they don't want it there. The
Joint Land News Board has to approve an application if it meets all the criteria. Open space. Everybody rather pay for the open space and have more condos. Well, I mean, if we're going to buy and preserve, you know, $3.6 million and preserve it, there's going to be tax implications. But all I keep hearing is
that we don't want our tax increase. So, I mean, we can't have it both ways, unfortunately. What happened to what happened to I'm responding. So, um, yes, thank you. So, we'll go ahead and Thank you. We'll go ahead and allow Mr. Burke to uh to uh have his comments.
Let me just reset the timer. And let fine. You said there would be some. Yeah, it's a town hall, so I mean we're trying to be, you know, as much back and forth as possible and not so formal. So, um Okay. Um I'm going to start your timer, Mr. Burke. Go ahead. Todd Burke,
1506 Second Street and my concerns here, and thank you, by the way, for the for the show and for this town hall, which of course I suggested months ago and is months too late to be really effective, but nonetheless, here we are. Now, my concerns are with governmental
transparency and sticking to the subject on this $3.6 million referendum, which is only about a bond issue. And I don't think that we should allow other issues to obscure the fact that the referendum is only about a bond. So, on that note,
uh I note that apparently the board has received numerous documents including appraisals, environmental studies, etc., etc., uh that none of which have been publicly publicly published and distributed to
the uh residents. Is that correct? I'll take that as a yes. Your no your fallback my time. Question. My my time. Okay. So, here's what we'll do. We'll let you do your five minutes and then we'll answer all
your questions. Did you stop the stopwatch in the meantime? Yep. Go ahead. I'll put another 30 seconds on for you. Your fallback position is for everyone to file over request, which is an unnecessary burden and not in keeping with transparent, responsible local government. Correct? I'll take that as a
yes, Mr. Burke. With all fairness, if you if you want us to respond, ask us a question. If you don't want us to respond, don't ask us a question and then complain when we respond. It's my time right now. Then don't ask us a question, Mr. Burke. You're asking us a question. You have to watch and let me
ask my questions. And you can go through just like with the other speakers, take notes and answer my questions at the end. Right now, you're stepping on my time. Well, then don't say I take that as a yes. Mr. Burke, I'm speaking. If you're asking us a question and you're going to stepping on my time, I'll give
you an extra minute. If you're asking I am speaking now. Actually, I'm speaking now. Mr. Burke. Okay. If you're asking us a question, I'll give you time. Don't worry. If you're asking us a question and we don't answer because you don't want us to and
then you say I'll take that as when I'm done speaking just like then don't say I'll take that as a yes. Don't say I'll take that as a yes when we're not responding to your question. You're putting words in our mouth by saying I take that as a yes. You're inviting a response, sir. So if you don't want the
response, then don't add the I'll take that as a yes. Make your comments and let them respond. Oh, okay. Thank you, counselor. The latest appraisal in four months shows a $25% increase, a $1.3 million increase in the last in those
four months with no proof, no evidence as to why suddenly that property magically increased 25% in value over four months, right? We're not going to answer. You passed in April or May of this year a
resolution which says in part it's 2025-75 that the township is currently under contracting which is currently under contracting cannot wait for the November general election date and therefore must hold a special election
for determination on the question that there's no facts there's no evidence to back that up. instead of blowing $70,000, you could have withheld it to the November election because the the solicitor put it in the contract that if
the bond doesn't go through that everyone walks away, clean hands, we're done with it. There's no rush. There's no other buyers out there. It has never been for sale. I understand that it's not for sale now because it's under contract. It's never been up for
sale. I won't ask the question about whether or not that's correct. Okay, the interpretive statement which apparently and hopefully not seems to possibly be attached to the
referendum issue uh confuses the entire issue. It's partisan. It's prejuditial. This vote on this referendum without any of these other issues is only about do we approve of the bond, yes or no.
Now, uh, today we found that, uh, on the website, the municipal website, there was an unsigned, allegedly authoritative partisan statement, and there have been partisan statements and videos on the municipal website, uh, which I think is
improper. Um, and that that one that was posted today was attributed to some, but it was unsigned. It was also factually wrong, but that's okay. That's a big problem. Attaching partisan statements and videos to a municipal
website. That's a real big problem. All right. If you don't understand that that's a problem, look up the rules because it's a problem. Um, now I posted something to the uh residents of Delano website this morning at 3:00. It took
six hours to get it posted. I also posted it to another website on Facebook called uncensored Riverside Delanco and it got posted in two minutes and generated a lot of response and when my post to Delanco residents was posted
today it generated a lot of response but it was held for 6 hours and I don't understand why. So those are my concerns that this governmental action is not transparent. you're not providing all
the information to the residents. You're making us peek around the corners for this kind of information. And number two, that the issue is only about approving the bond, yes or no. And that's why I certainly will be voting no
on July 29th. Thank you. Okay. So, the uh the statement um you have 30 seconds left if you want to. You're done. Okay. I added a, you know, reset your timer. Um, so the the Facebook group that you're posting um
had 12 posts that weren't posted today because 12 things were posted all at on approved at once because administrators have jobs and they don't sit on Facebook all day long to sit there and approve posts. So there was 12 posts in uh in the queue that were all approved at
once. If you go back, you can see they were all approved at the same time. So, nobody is is is trying to censor you or anything else on the unofficial Facebook group really. And who are the administrators, Miss Seuss? Myself and Paula. Yes. I've been administrator on
that page for 10 years. So, it's not something new. Paula and Paula. Yes. Um, both of us have jobs. I spend half a day at the township and half a day doing work at my house for two other jobs that I have. 350 a month doesn't pay my bills, so I don't sit on Facebook all
day. Um, regarding the, um, documents that were submitted in response to your misinformation online, um, that was drafted by our attorney and those are they're not partisan responses. Those responses were drafted by our attorney as stated in the document that they
were, um, input information from our township solicitor. So, he drafted those responses um, to your misinformation. Um the uh information from ERRI that was sent is now on the website that was posted
yesterday. Um we did receive as of today um the full um environmental assessment report. So I know you have an outstanding OPER request and now that we have that that information will be provided to you uh within the time frame allowed in by the state. How about
posting it to the public, to all the taxpayers, to the residents, put it on the website, distribute it somehow. Yes. But township committee had to look at it first before we shared it with the uh the township. So, um we just got it today and the township committee got it today. But you don't do that with any
documents? All the documents, what documents are not provided, sir? The h how about the initial phase one? I understand that's not public because the seller paid for it. Don't you think it would be nice? You guys have seen it. How about if we get to see it? Um, you have a you have a copy? No, I don't. Oh,
no. I'm sorry. It's not public record because it's not our property, right, Mr. Raymond? That that's not a public that's not a public document that can be shared. It's a it's a document that was shared with us as part of the the due diligence period. It's not a public record that can be shared at this time. It was not it's not our property to
share. So, that's that. Um, the uh the environmental report, my presentation is up there. Um the this will be posted um tomorrow so that the public can access that as well. Um Mr. Fox um can also
talk about his report um shortly um once we get through this. Um so I I don't know how other trans more transparent we can be um other than you can try to explain how a property increased 25% in four months. I don't know what you mean by that. It was appraised in October of
last year at 4 million and now in February it's 5.3 million. Incorrect. Uh there was a verbal appraisal done by the appraiser back in that time frame and that came back. So let me finish please. Um we consulted an appraiser so the
township would have an idea of what our uh in investment would be, what our offer would be to make sure we were in line with what it needed to be. That cost $4,000. A full appraisal cost $8,000. So when we offered that, we wanted to make sure we had a good idea of what the value was. So we got the
verbal appraisal at that point. Once the full appraisal was ordered at the beginning of this year, way more goes into that. You look at rents, you look at comparables, you look at square footage, you look at approvals. It's way more detailed processes, which is why it
cost $8,000. So then came back at 5.3. We have nothing to do with that. That is a professional commercial appraiser that did that. And I can't sit here and testify or say anything as to why that changed. It's not I have no idea. Well, since I still have some time left, what happens if with your real estate
speculation, with taxpayer money, you can't resell the property and then we're stuck with a bond at a loss. I don't know what to say. No, I mean, at that point, you know, shrug shoulders. Oh well. At that point, we would have to address it at that. But you're just you're making an assumption that it's
not going to sell. What What are two things that don't lose an assumption that it will sell? You're continuing to interrupt me, which is very unprofessional. You've interrupted me. No, I've answered your questions and given you your time to speak. So, when you buy a property that's, you know, land. What don't we have in New Jersey?
What is being absorbed constantly? Land. What are two things in the world that don't lose? Land and gold. Don't lose value. It's just the way it is. This economy, if you look back 20 years, land continues to appreciate because we can't produce it. We can't make more land.
So that's all I can say. Yeah. And what happens if it can't be resold given construction costs, the unstable economy, everything else, and we're stuck with a bond. That's your opinion. In the meantime, in the meantime, you're banking on our money being used for real
estate speculation, and I object to that. Understood. You've made that very clear. Thank you. Anyone else wish to make any comments? Harold Klear, 509 Buttonwood Street. Uh, this might be a a a question I guess for
uh the engineer. Um, I listened to some other engineers at one time, and I'm not an engineer or expert or anything, but they had talked about the uh wetlands up in North Jersey, and they uh built uh some big
stadiums up there in the wetlands. And uh the result of that is several towns around that area ended up being flooded uh that were never flooded
before. And the the point that he brought up is whenever you build on wetlands or even near there, that weight pushes down and then it hits the water and the
water spreads out from the weight and it goes somewhere else because the water just don't disappear. It goes somewhere else. Mhm. And that's uh Kate brought up earlier about that housing development
that's uh up there by uh Creek Side. Creek Side that that developer built those houses up almost like mounds. Uh mainly because that area up
there is all wetlands and that even though they built that up, they brought more weight in there and then they put more weight on top of it and the water that was underneath there somewhere had to go somewhere.
Now, I know that some people in this town have flooding in their basement that never had flooding before. Uh they may be near those areas where
they built all those town houses and condos and and that's housing in in that wet wetlands area. And I don't know if this town can stand one more building anywhere really. I mean, we're
surrounded by water just about. There's lots of wetlands everywhere, and I don't know if we could just stand even one more building in this town. Uh, and uh, that's all I got to say.
Thank you. Thank you. And, um, just so you know, our our commercial building code does allow 75% uh, impervious coverage. So um they are allowed to build commercially. They can cover 75% of the lot in imperous coverage meaning black top concrete
rocks and stuff like that. So and Hal I do express I do feel your same concerns about you know the wetlands and building you know as Mike Templeton puts it. We're surrounded on three sides by water four when it rains. And you know,
it's definitely an issue. And I see paving this entire lot for this truck parking area. I see that as a big issue for that area. And you know, I'm not an engineer. I I I understand all that. What I don't
understand is whether uh like the mayor said, well, under the rules for the town, they're allowed to do all this paving and all this stuff. I don't understand how the uh the
county or the state would even allow it or allow the township to allow them to do it. I don't I don't understand that at all. So I'm because the the water affects everybody. Sure. It's got to go
somewhere. Thank you. Anyone else? Um Liz Mattiset, 304 Center Avenue. Um I've been a resident in Deleno for well over 30 years and I just um wanted
to clarify a couple things. Um so if the bond is voted down and the town is not able to purchase the property, the developer who now owns the
property is shovel ready. like he has all his permits. He has his approvals. He can go out the next day and start building. Is that He has his approvals. I don't know of any permits. Okay. Harry, do you know of any? Yeah, he has
his uh ladies board permit uh as well as D permits, but he but he would have to um receive county permits, county permits. Um we we would do a bond estimate for the public performance bonds things like
that. So there's some housekeeping that would need to be done building but essentially he has the right now to start building that facility. Right. So he could move pretty quickly. Yes. And that is they haven't told us any any otherwise. So that's
kind of what their plan is to move forward with that if this does not go through. Okay. And um and I guess they're agreeable to the delay that the uh referendum the vote is. Uh yes, there will be there will be uh something on our agenda Monday night to extend the uh
contract. Okay. Um so I am in favor of purchasing the property. I have um a lot of thoughts about what should be done with the property if the town is successful. Um, you know, we've we've
talked about and you know, maybe it's premature to discuss this, but um, you know, we've talked about in your presentation, you talk about 700 trees and preserving and but then there you say there is no intent to preserve the
property. So, I think that's kind of to permanently put it on the Rossy list to make it open space permanently. Right. Well, I mean, if you purchase it and make it open space, you know, that would be permanent, right? So, um, if you classify it as open space. Yeah. If you just leave it as general municipal
purposes and don't classify it. Um, so it would be my preference if it, you know, stays uh, mostly forested and um, like I said, I think that's premature. I think our real question here um is no
other issue than should the town purchase it and because do we want that truck uh facility there and is that going to benefit the town? And
um you know sometimes uh development seems like a really good deal but when it's in its spot doing what it does it can cost the town and it kind of negates some of the tax benefits
that the town uh may think they're getting. So I think that's important consideration. There are services that will have to be supplied even to a commercial property. There will be um you know perhaps issues res residents
that the town will have to deal with um if that facility is um built you know there may be drainage issues and things like that. So um development you know tax ratables are not always without their negative
benefit as far as that goes. So so that's all I just wanted to you know know that if the referendum is voted down that the truck facility will pretty much a done deal. So yeah, thank you.
And I want to thank you guys for all the materials you've put together. Um, as a former government employee, I understand that it's, you know, you have time frames and receiving documents and review periods for documents, things
like that. We talk about the new wetlands regulations that might be in the pipeline. I know that, you know, once the legislation, if it gets approved, if there's regulations that are going to be associated with that, they have to get written. they have to have a comment period. So I think
there's probably a fairly big lead time for that affecting any development that's you know currently on the table. So for sure government doesn't move quick a state government especially. Well they try their best. Yeah. That's a
lot of red tape. And I think I think on on um Liz's point about the taxes u just she brought that up. You know, the property right now is taxed at 23,000 some odd dollars.
If this fleet commercial truck repair facility goes in there, there's going to be little to no tax increase on that because they're not changing anything with the building. It would be minimal for our tax assessor. It's they're
paving the parking lot, which is minimal assessment. We're not going to get this big windfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars for this fleet uh repair facility going in there. And and we don't receive the 23,000. And I think out of the 23, we get a little over seven. Yeah. 33%. I wanted to address
one thing that Liz had mentioned about the mic. Oh, okay. U Liz, um I don't know if you were aware, but when we purchased uh 200 Ash Street, the residents did come in. We gave them the
opportunity to make suggestions as to what they would like to see there. And so we have designated that as a park area. We have uh reviewed it. We've walked it. We've had our planner and our engineer take a look at it. And we have
some nice plans for an open space park there. So we do take into consideration residents um requests or likes or dislikes. And so uh I I just want you to know that. I mean uh Mike has done a lot
of work on this committee and so have I. I've actually been here longer than Mike and I've always had the interest of the residents at heart. So, um he's not the only one up here saving uh our environment and our open space. I just
want you to know that. I've worked very hard for Delanka to do that. So, we will keep that in into our consideration if we are able to purchase this property. Yes. I mean, that's why we're elected by the taxpayers to speak on behalf of the taxpayers. That's why our government is
set up the way it is and that's what we intend to do is to get public input if we do move forward with this. Michelin wine line 316 Oakford Avenue. Um, at one of the earlier meetings, uh, I kind came up and I asked about strategic planning
and, uh, I want to mirror your words and thanking all of you for your tireless commitment to this township. Um, sitting through your budget meetings, I learned so much. And what came very clear to me was, if I'm still
correct in my uh remembrance, were there 40 pieces of property in Delano that have been undeveloped yet. That might be somebody that has a double lot, a triple lot. This is a big deal. And I think about what I learned from your process and certainly what I've learned from the
schoolboard process is uh the lack of revenue. It was made very clear as you noted in the presentation. Um you basically maxed out in permits, building code stuff. Um that was a windfall and it was budgeted appropriately. I learned
about the savings Delano seems to be in the forefront is having a good solid base. I think about moving on. Oh, sorry. Thank you. Um, and I'm worried about what the tax
increase is going to be if we don't strategically plan. That means you're going to have to cut because you can't keep on spending. And then I worry, what are you going to cut? Are you going to cut recreation? Are you going to cut the library
services, police services? Where else are you going to cut? So yes, 33% of our taxes go to the municipality and watching the past couple years and sitting back and seeing the time and
effort and the knowledge of you thinking progressively. I wonder when we then ask the question, what does this town want if we don't have a strategic plan? Nothing is going down in cost. As you noted, benefits have gone up, utilities
are going up, salaries are going up, gas went up again everywhere we go. So then I wonder for our town, what do we then want to cut? Because we do have mandated services. And I've never seen anything like this before. Um, I've been a
resident for 26 years here. Um, I love this town. It's very special to me. But as Mr. Templeton said about two steps down the road. Progressive thinking and strategic planning has to be part of your roles and responsibilities.
So I look at this I'm not so sure if I'm correct here or not. I'm no expert with land use even trying to attend the meetings and better understand if I understand correctly. You can have a different kind of control if you change the zoning. You can work with somebody
and keep as much and limit things. But I can do the math and if I take the average of 190 and I look at that tax assessment for the township and even if you built 25 homes, it's a heck of a lot more than
$7,300 in tax revenue. I very much appreciated the uh respect um and I thank you again publicly for your dedication to our school board and the school district um with the no impact because as you said sir we're in trouble
and well we're getting a little better. Just want you to trust me on that. Just trust me a little bit. Um I can't test scores and behaviors have increased to be better. Um so we're trying. Um, but I think if we all work together
collaboratively, respectfully, no one knows everything. Every one of us knows something and um, we get to elect you. That's our privilege and right. If we don't like something, we can pro probably try to change that. If we don't attend, if we
don't give comments, we then may become part of the issue instead of part of the solution. So, I trust all five of you. I'm very thankful for your time. You're you're just tireless in your dedication. Um and I look forward to this moving
forward because I'm very worried about what's going to be next as far as the budgets go. Um and that's for every entity within this township. So, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. That was very well said. And uh thank
you again for your dedication to the schools. I know it's a lot um to to try to work on them on a daily basis as a volunteer. Uh there's a lot thrown at you and sometimes you're not always on the good side of parents
frustrations and you get blamed for everything. So um thank you again Joey. Anyone else wishing to speak? Oh, Mr. just popped up real quick and then we'll go to you after and you after. Steve Jass for
McKay. Um I know how you guys got here. I'm sorry, Steve. Just pick the mic up. I know how you guys got into position. Yeah. You know how I got here? You said it'd be two meetings a month. That's how I got here. The town didn't want any more big boxes.
Remember that was the whole thing. Everybody didn't want any more big boxes. So you went and you the land use for it and we decided to take all the big properties in town that could be turned
into big boxes and box them out so they couldn't be. And of course there was one person who didn't agree. So that ended up in court. Now, the people that want to build this truck thing came to the joint land use
board for approval. And I won't say who, but I was told this has to pass because if it does, it's going to go back to court. And I listened to the presentation that was made. He listened to the presentation
that was made because he was there too when the land use another member sitting in the audience. And there were only two people after listening to what they were going to do. And the trees that they were going to cut down and they weren't going to
cut down and the pretention ponds that had something on the bottom that was going to keep the oil from going in, but then it had to be picked up and it had to be cleaned. There were two people that couldn't vote for it. Carl Cherrosky and myself. So it
passed. If we didn't have that hanging over our head with the court settlement, I doubt it would have passed. So, you guys came up with a plan
to buy it. That would if that thing gets built, it's going to be terrible. And everybody is worrying about what you can do with the property and what could you can build on it. Can you build high-rise? Could you build
senior? Well, one of the things that you might consider or not you might consider, but there's a building adjacent to it that's like an office building. It's sitting empty. Kate, you remember who was
leasing it? Uh, Princess Cyrus. Yes. for for a very long time and then they moved out on Route 38. They changed their office. Right now, I've been in that building in that office building. Now, there's something here in
town that we're missing. We have no prek. No prek. We closed walnut. something else that a few of us voted against, but it got closed. So, we have prek problems.
No prek. Now, I don't know if it can be used. Maybe that building can be used. Maybe that building can be renovated. Maybe that building could be rented to the school. There's things that can be done with that property that aren't
going to go to waste. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] You want to go next? Hi, Michelle Se 1506 Second Street. Um, quick thing with Mike. You know, global warming is real and I can attest to it
and you can attest to it because you've been at my house when we flooded. Um, I'm not sure it's totally the Delaware. It could be the culvert next to us. that's unregulated and is now mosquitoes and um an invasive species of plant that lives there. But our yard is flooding. I
mean, Todd and I are now forced to running around to our neighbors trying to find our fish when they flood out of our ponds. So, flooding is really a a problem here and I think it's something that you're going to address in the future and it's only going to get worse. My other thing is when I asked last week
about the bond issue and you guys said you didn't know, now when you present that you did know, is there an Oprah that I can file to find out what the cost of the bond was, what you had presented it as, and what the cost was going to be. I didn't
present it anyway. I said you just said you had it before the bond expired. You had the terms and you had the conditions. So, can we Definitely didn't say that. I I didn't say I said interest rates on bonds that are selling on the market are three and a half to 4%. But I mean is
there a spreadsheet that's going to tell me what this bond is going to cost us if if in fact it had gone through just so I can look at it in the future. Mr. Raymond, could you explain the bond again? So again, no, we we we won't know until
it's approved and then we get to sell the bond and what the bond rates are at that time. I understand that. So there was no no testimony as to as to what the bond rates were or what it's going to cost at this point. I understand that. But didn't you include that in your
planning before it was null and void? Because didn't you have a plan of what the bond was going to cost in the terms? No, because it didn't go out to bid. You never you never figured in the budget for next year, how much our taxes would go up based on what you had to figure
then. No, because we can't do that without the bond actually being approved. Thank you. Anyone else? Was there someone over here? Chuck. Absolutely. Grab whatever you want. Good
evening. My name is Charles Gross. I live at 35 Walton Way. Um, I wanted to touch upon some of the issues regarding having a strategic plan, knowing what to do with the property. Um, I was in favor of uh looking at the property further at
one of the uh earlier committee meetings. Um, I still think the property has a a lot of value and I think it's a matter of finding a strategic partner to help determine what the greatest value of that property is. Um, I I am I'm
involved in real estate. They have been developing property for a number of years and um it's um important to understand that there are certain needs that the township has. I understand that they recently agreed to a um an F FHA
commitment for uh meeting their COA requirements of affordable housing. Um that's something that's the township has to fulfill and I know that there are redevelop companies that specialize in redevelopment and can use this property
as well as looking at other properties in town to uh create additional value and meet the needs of the township. It's just a matter of finding who that partner might be and and uh striking up a relationship. Um, I also wanted to say
that, you know, the Zerberg property with the addition of the park out front, you know, created an additional location for this summer concert series, which I think is awesome. I drove by the park the other day. The amount of effort that Harry's put into the development of that
park is is tremendous. I'm really looking forward to being and spending uh uh seeing sunsets and listening music out there. And thank you very much. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, Chuck. Mark your calendar for July 19th is the park uh ribbon cutting and there'll be a band
there that night and activities for kids and food trucks. So that's something positive that we can all look forward to. Um yeah, so I don't think I I don't think I wanted to comment on anything that he said. No, it was good. Yeah, strategic
plan will take place after if we purchase the property if the bond goes through. We can't do it beforehand because of the how you have to sell the bonds. I did have a comment about a a warehousing. Everybody dislikes trucks and
warehousing and we have two warehouses here, one behind us and one next to us. And um the owners of that property were Bob um Bob Miller and uh Whitel. And actually they donated this land to the
township for us to build our municipal building. Uh they also came to us and asked us if we would want to purchase these properties behind us and next to us. Um Joan Hinkle and I met with Bob
Miller and Tom Whitaw and uh the township committee at that time did not want to purchase the property. So we could have had those properties and put them to maybe a better use for the township of Delanco. And that was even before we
started our Field of Dreams, which would have been nice to have it closer here. But um but the Field of Dreams was a land swap with a county. But I just wanted you to know that um we've always been thinking about
what better use can some property be and I would like to think that we could have made a better use of these two properties had the township agreed to purchase them. Uh it probably wouldn't have cost 3.5 million at that time. It was several years ago. But um I just
wanted to point that out so that there are times when we have opportunities and we don't always get them because the township committee has to vote for it and if they don't agree it doesn't happen. So um I just wanted to add that to you that those warehouses may not
have been able to be there if we would have had one more vote to put something else there. Thank you. And I think it's important to also note um there was a comment made online that the township would spend millions more to develop the property.
Um we've never indicated such of an intention and we would not be spending any money to develop the property if indeed it is uh the goal of the committee down the road to develop the property and sell it. Um that developer would then in incur those costs to
develop the property, not the township. So, uh, anyone else wishing to speak? Uh, Christine Holland, 319 Delaware Avenue. Um, I didn't speak up, Christine. We can. Sure. Um, I didn't intend to speak, so I don't have anything prepared, but I want to circle
back to the discussion following um, Liz Matchet's comments. I don't think that there's anyone in this room or watching online that wants more traffic in town, more trees cut down, more
development. And the way that discussion went, it sounded like we were actually going to preserve the property, not officially as open space. I just want to be clear that that isn't the intent. that if if we purchase
this, it will be with the intent to sell it to someone who is going to want to do something to make money with that property. And rather than being a truck repair facility with parked tractor trailers, albeit 125 or whatever the
number was, we're going to have real humans, real car traffic in our town. those those tractor trailers being delivered um or those trucks moving into that facility, they don't have a reason to be
coming into town um the way that human traffic will when they're wanting to hit 7-Eleven or Duncan and all that. So, I just I didn't want a misconception to be out there that the town buying it now saves those
trees and saves this from paving and potential flooding and potential traffic. All that stuff is going to come with it. It's just going to be in a different form and different intent. And anyway, that that's my feeling and
just what I wanted to put out there. Thank you. So again, the intent is to purchase the property for general municipal use. We don't have a uh specific plan as to what we're doing um as a committee because we don't own the property and that would be
a future committee decision and we'd have to we have to purchase the property with the general municipal purpose because of the taxable bond um issue. So um anything is on the table uh in my mind still. That's what the future is. There's no concrete point. And I think
if we did sell it to a developer, we would be able to at that point say exactly what it's used for, what trees remain. You have control, not just clearcut it like criterion is proposing to do. We have total control
over the use, the development, everything about it. We don't have that now. So right now it's classified as an area in need of rehabilitation. um if the township committee at that time wanted to um zone it in an area of need of redevelopment, you literally
work one-on-one with a developer as to what goes there. You make the approvals. You go over the plans with them. You sit at the table and say, "You want to do this? No, we want a 30 foot buffer. You want to do this? No, we want this." And you sit there and you have control as a board, which is not something you do
have on a normal develop regular development um agreement with just somebody that wants to come in and put a development in. They work directly with their engineers and then they present it to the joint land use board. It's a very um unique opportunity for the township to work directly with a red development
uh agreement to work with a developer directly as the control. So when we say we have the unique opportunity to control its destiny, we literally do. And personally, speaking for myself only, and I'm sure the other committee members would agree, if if and when we get to that
point, we're not doing any of that without having town hall meetings such as this to hear what the residents would like to see on that property. Right. Right. Chris, I just want I'm sorry. I just want to highlight again
then that in the presentation when we're talking about the appraised value of it being 5.3 million when you have someone sitting in front of you ready to make an offer to develop it for affordable housing or what whatever
comes down the pipe. They're not going to pay 5.3 million to be restricted like that. That is the pie in the sky number. And I know we're projecting who knows how far into the future that someone would come to us interested in this property, but I
wouldn't pay if if I were looking to buy a house and it was $100,000, but they said, "But you can't do this, this, this, this, this." Well, then that's not worth $100,000. So, we're not saying we're going to restrict them. We would say we would work with them. Said that you would be controlling what trees you were going to work oneonone with if
that's what they want to do. We would work with them directly in what they want to do. Yeah. Um I'm saying if that's what their proposal was and they wanted to buy it for that reason we would work with them directly. If they want to buy it for another reason that that is you know zoned for that then we would work with them directly for that. We're not restricting it to just you
know development. We're not restricting it to this this we're buying it for for general municipal purposes and we get to work with whoever if down the road we decide to to sell it we would work with them directly. Again no decisions have been made but ultimately as the owner of the property we would control its future
use. Understood. I just want to put out that the 5.3 million is is a great thing if we can get it. Sure. But that's I mean that's what the commercial appraiser gave us the number. I mean when you have a house
appraised that's what it's appraised at. That's usually what you're buying it for. It comes in pretty close. I just want the town people to understand that it's an awesome number. It's a really unlikely number once you start looking at what we would be asking of a developer. So, and rightly so because we
love trees and not having flooded basement, right? And just to play devil's advocate, let's say Christine's correct and a developer is not willing to pay the 5.3 and they're willing to pay a fraction of that, $4 million, 3.5. We're buying it for 3.5.
We're not going to sell it for less than what we purchased it for. I mean, when we set out to to do this deal, we were happy with it, you know, the $4 million mark because at that point, we're still, you know, we're buying it for 3.5. It's appraised at or, you know, the the verbal appraisal was 4 million. We're
not doing this to make money. We're doing this so we can control its use and future destiny. That's we're not in the real estate business to sit here and make money. We were thrilled when it came in at 5.3. was a bonus, but we were okay with it being at 4 million because at least we were going to know that our investment was going to be returned if
we did sell it for the 3.5 million. So, and by the way, if the township does decide to sell to a a developer and makes money on it, where does that money go? It goes back into the surplus and then the benefits of that are then extended to the community in their taxes by surplus. You take from your surplus,
the tax rate doesn't go up, doesn't go into our pockets. Okay. Um, anyone else? Good evening. Good evening, J. Joe Robinson, 37 Pennington Court. Um, this property adjoins our property.
Back right up to it. The impact of this project would be detrimental to our home to the value we talk about value would be detrimental to the value of our home and many homes along Pennington and in Newton's Point. Now what was said was about okay right
now the property owner pays $23,000 in taxes about $7,000 of that comes to the town. What isn't said if this project goes forward is the impact to the adjoining property owners for which if this goes through we'll be filing tax
appeals to lower the assessment on their properties which would be detrimental to this town. So there's no status there's no status quo. You know if this goes through tax appeals will be filed taxes will be lowered to detriment
of everyone in town. Anytime there's a tax appeal it has to be shared and there's a reduction it has to be shared by the all the property owners. Um, last point. Much has been said
about market value and taxes and a strategic plan. Well, being the former tax assessor in this town for several years, I've heard many tax appeals and had many residents come and talk to me about this thing is, you know, this
issue is impairing her value. This issue is impairing. My neighbor doesn't take care of their house. I do. How come I'm being penalized? This is a strategic decision that this board is making. I applaud it. I approve
or I in favor of the referendum and I ask everyone else to consider in town to approve this because what the town is doing with this 3.6 million, you're buying an asset and it's an asset that we were able to get now for the future.
It's our children's future, our own future. And we don't know what the future holds for us, but the township has this opportunity at this point in time to make this decision, and I think it's the right decision, and I appreciate your support of it. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, Chad. Um, I just wanted to point out, uh, a recent commercial sale in town. Uh, you may not be aware of, uh, where Wallace Paving was the 2407 Burlington Avenue. Um, right by the railroad tracks there. It's about 9 and a half acres um in a
flood zone. It just sold for $3.4 million in March and a auto body shop will be going there. So, I just wanted to to point that out to let everybody know. Uh anyone else before I close this session? We couldn't conclude it without
hearing from you. Right. Concluded without me. Uh Ray Weber 22 ships. I've been coming to these meetings for the last three years. every meeting. I missed four over three years. That's because I was away from vacation.
I got to take care of the wife. Much information has been put on the internet that is not true and not totally true or completely false. Some of this has been generated by those not even who live in Delanco Township. They don't even live in the
county. So, how can they be right putting something out there? the township. A lot of the people in the town have no idea the truck traffic that occurs along Coopertown Creek and Beverly Britbury roads unless you live on this side over around here. Trucks
usually road 247. Does the town want to be known as a tractor trailer capital, warehouse capital of the state, or a tree capital? This is what's going to happen if not purchased. The township
has over 500 trailers in various lots along Creek Road. That does not include the tractors that hook up to these trailers. Some of these trailers have not been moved in years. You get out, you take drones, you'll see that they haven't been moved because they got flat
tires. When the truckers have to make some deliveries here, a lot of times they arrive along Creek Road or Coopertown Road and they park on the side of the road. Only reason why I know that because I'm out there 5:30, 5:00 this morning going down Creek Road, there was three trucks
parked on there waiting to make deliveries. If you have your windows open at night, which I'm a light sleeper, I like fresh air, too. But you they these truckers, you know, they use their engines to slow themselves down for backing up. You hear
the beep beep beep beep because it's required. If you utilize Creek Road to get out to Route 130, you see all the trucks parked. The DMV over here, they do traction trailer testing there five days a
week. You'll see trying to pull out behind them or waiting for them to make the turns even on Creek Road or whatever. Then on top of that, you get to Carvana to FedEx and other trucks. The owner states that the the owner of
this property states that the trucks will be coming and going during normal working hours with an occasional afterhour delivery. That came from them when they were here making the presentation. But this same truck um owner has a truck repair place on
Hartford and Bridgeboro roads and have trucks coming all hours of the day and night. have taken the the trail or lot next to it and are using that for part of the repair location also. I've I've had people take drone
pictures of it. Residents in the area are not happy about it. Plus the environmental problems that are occurring in that area. If you take the jug handle at Route 130, Beverly Bridge Rail Road, even though the state has increased up the time on
the uh extend light that that traffic goes and gets backed up and it gets to be ridiculous. If a wrecker is coming through pulling a tractor trailer, God knows how long he's going to take to get around that jug handle
because that jug handle is not too cold. It is not too cold right now. vehicles have to back up to have these trucks uh make these turns. It's the same thing at the creek and Beverly Bridge Road right there at the Waw Wa when they got to try to make a turn there. I've backed up
many of times to help some of these truckers get around because I know what it's like trying to turn a 53 foot truck plus the tractor. We as individuals who are living in this town are responsible for it. That means that any environmental
effect to this town has an impact on all residents. So if cutting down 700 trees, clearing space for 128 trailers and tractors will have no impact, you're wrong. It's been shown that putting on
in a BM by the owner, if the repair truck company moves in, will not have enough space for replacing all 700 trees. Some of these trees are over three foot in diameter and have been there longer than most of the residents in
Delano. The trees produce oxygen and enables everyone to breathe. I'm going to for the environment. It enables the hawks, the wild turkeys, the deer, the rabbits, the squirrels, the red foxes, the buzzards all live in and around this
area. We keep infringing on these animals. Soon we'll only be able to see them at the zoo, not in their natural habitat. So, do we want to say hell to the environment and the health of our kids and grandkid or we want to or do what we do in our best
interest. If the township does not purchase this property, the ramifications cannot be calculated. One thing is Mount Lauring, they could come in and say township's got to put in more houses, more fair housing. We don't have the
property. We don't have the land. Just got 30 seconds left. I know. Okay. Property as some say has say only affects about 10 homes in Newton's Landing. No, it affects all values within the township. If Newton Landing values go down, all values in the town
will be affected. How would you like to have this in your backyard? Noise, lights, pollution, etc. The purchase of this property will increase everyone's taxes, but taxes are going up no matter what. Even without
this purchase, who knows what next year's tax situation could be. So, I applaud the township for trying to be proactive instead of just being reactive. And I want to thank you for your time and your all you do for the township. Thank you, Ray. Thank you,
Ray. Thanks, Ray. Anyone else? That closes uh public comment session and um any additional comments? Uh Harry, did you want to add anything additional? Uh no, no, no. Unless you want me to No,
I think we covered it. Mr. Raymond, did you want to add anything? No, nothing further. Anybody from committee? I'd just like to say that the truck traffic doesn't just come in Creek Road and Koopa Town Road. It comes in through Burlington Avenue as well. And I'm sure
that some of the people may be here who live on Burlington Avenue, but if you're at the light at Cooper Street in Burlington Avenue, uh some of these trucks, these tractors, they aren't like they were years ago. They're like at least double the size. And I've had to
back up more than once at that light. Almost had my um mirror taken off. Uh so that truck traffic still comes through the center of town and we can't control that because it's a county road. Uh cuz
I did ask the county about that. Um so I mean it does come through and I just want you to know that it's just not that area that has to deal with truck traffic. It would be nice if it was but it isn't. They come down Burlington Avenue. I've sat there and videotaped
it. Um well not videotape but videoed it. Um just uh so everybody knows to address the engine breaking uh comment that was made. Um I am or we are actually introducing an ordinance on Monday night to restrict engine braking
uh in town uh specifically on Coopertown and Burlington Avenue. Um engine breaking, jbreaking, whatever you want to say. Um in order for us to uh put the signs up, we have to have the ordinance. So um that will be um introduced on Monday night breaking news just so
everybody knows. Sir yeah with the trucking here. Can you come up to the microphone? Um we we only do like one person but go ahead real quick out here and the one by Wawa and all that. That trucking issue is not going to stop whether this happens or not. We can't hear you. I can't hear you. Is the mic
on? Yep. Yep. Okay. With the trucking firm here and there and one over there and one by out by Waw Wa behind you. That trucking issue is not going to stop whether this happens or not. 100%. But it doesn't mean we don't want additional trucks. It's just going to get worse. Yeah, it's just going to get worse.
Okay. Um I think that concludes our session. Um we'll have another one next month uh to to continue to get the message out there and educate the public. And uh thank you all for coming and uh have a great evening.
Motion to adjurnn. So move second. Hi. All in favor? I I You're cold. I I'm I'm shaking. I'm shaking. Yeah, we are We are live.