--------- please Jo me in theed States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for [Music] allad here
James here all right approval meeting for February 10th 2025 meeting we'll move to minutes second any discussion all in favor Iain and then approve and hold of all
right approve and hold of executive session the executive session minutes a second second any discussion all right all in favor I I let
see uh police chief's report everybody okay entered into the county CAD system was 466 incidents that took place over the month of uh February for Delaware Township uh 48 of those were motor vehicle stops 26 of those resulted in a
summons uh currently we have 24 radar posts throughout the town which we try to sit in break up you know uh when we can uh we have currently 37 property checks which we normally do in the evening uh people are away you know things like that out of town uh there
were 16 uh wire or pole incidents 14 trees uh down in the roadway this month and special thanks to Justin and his team because most of it happens at night and those guys are on it no problem road department has never run any smoother
and I've been here 30 years um on 220 couple highlights now just some things that Happ happened this month on the the 20th 4:15 a.m. a 34-year-old Flemington man was traveling south on Route 29 failed to negotiate a curve at the intersection of Brookville
Hollow in 29 as a result he struck the guardrail causing serious head injuries and unfortunately he died because of those injuries on the 22nd we recovered a stolen vehicle out of Philipsburg driver was charged with hindering apprehension
as well as the theft of the motor vehicle on uh the 25th officers responded to a residence in the township for a presumed heroin overdose upon arrival the victim was found to be unconscious and unresponsive officers administered Naran
which revives people from heroin incidents uh and the victim was uh transported to the medical center drug paraphernalia and other narcotics were seized and are on their way to the lab for testing on the fifth a wire came down
this is a this month but uh wire came down um at the intersection of lower Creek and 519 and uh caused a pretty substantial fire which caused the power to be out in Rosemont till about 11:30 that night wire came down at
1:00 um just an upcoming event distracted driving is the month of April so everybody just be aware of your on your phone and a lot of people don't understand if you just have this in your hand it's a violation so if you're looking for Direction listening talking speaker holding it in
your hand violation a lot of people don't understand that first offense to 400 second offense 400 to 600 third offense $600 to $800 that's going to cross stre and three points on the third offense and it's all a mandatory court appearance even the first one so do your
best to stay on hands free and you can't be bargain right yeah um the incident that keeps coming up a lot is the animals that are down here on
523 um we got a lot of calls about it mainly because it's right on 523 and everybody can see it my backyard right whether I agree with the animals or anybody agrees with the way the animals are being taken care of it's
been investigated by our Humane officer the prosecutor's Humane officer and the State Board of a has out there many times with their vet as well they said everything is at least meets the minimum requirements for the animals now the
minimum you know nobody wants the minimum but until you can do anything about it they have to go below the minimum so at this point they're all meeting the minimum requirements so UNT what animals are there still are the pigs still there cuz I can't see them do
you know I don't know I see the little horses and the big hes and the donkeys yeah but I'm not sure but they do have water I get calls all the time that the horse is dead cuz it happens to be laying down it's not dead it does have
water uh it has an automatic feeder and it does get hay you know and grain I don't know what else but it's all been they've looked into it a million times so just so you know but that could change is there any chance we have tried
repeatedly to get an ordinance that you you can't just leave animals alone you must have somebody living on the property would you would the police support that well uh I guess I would support
that if it wasn't in violation of a state law if the state law says you can do that then we're out of luck I don't know about that I'd have to look into that okay um I don't know if you can do that but if you could do that you know
it would be fair yeah it would or at least have be in the process of something being built or you know right but uh I know that's a big deal for every I got a lot of calls about it so could the attorney look into that uh I could look into it okay I'll
look into it and I'll I'll report back next I do you know I do feel sorry for them yeah yeah and there's nothing I can do yeah true I mean Jan is offered to take the horse you know everybody's
offered to take take the horse but yeah don't steal it people have said they're going to go steal it don't steal it the only other thing I have and I think uh Justin would back me up on this there's ever any uh incidents or issues
um that come up call one of us directly instead because I see a lot of stuff on Facebook a lot of it's not true or you know a stop sign's down somewhere we may not know about it and somebody's complaining about the fact that stop sign's down yet they didn't make a call
to us so I would just ask for your first stop to be either myself or Justin if it's a road situation or danger situation or if there's a uh you know spe anything that hases to do with the police department or the road department just you know I just encourage everybody
to try and start with us and then we'll go from there CU sometimes I see things that people are complaining about the stop sign's been down for days and we don't even know about you know so yeah we'll uh we'll take care of it immediately if
we find out that it happen but uh it's pretty much it does anybody have any other questions or anything thank you Chief thank you all right next up is DPW report Justin all right uh responded to 14 down trees in town remove brush and
logs from the sides of the roads of uh town we hold out two cardboard dumpsters and one mixed recy recyclable uh we continued blowing leaves from the drainage ditches in town uh sort of fixing any plow damage we created in town with the snow
events um we started working on our townwide sign survey replacing signs straightening signs and adding some signs to roads uh we replac two street signs on Stone sign Post Road one on locktown Flemington the other one on
579 uh Clean Catch Basin tops throughout Town continue with our tier a storm water catch Bas and head great uh replacement started filling some potholes in town uh we had three snow and ice events in the past month where we had to either plow salt roads and
clean Township sidewalks uh we checked roads and salt were needed daily and uh we fixed any vehicle issues we had from the snowstorms uh recycling clean communities I attended the uh County swack and
recycling meeting I also attended the monthly GIF meeting um also we had a walk through at dils Park and discuss some of the uh improvements that are going to be happening there uh met with the storm water committee and we discussed some of
the community outreach uh to comply with our TR storm water regulations and um townwide cleanup day is coming up April 19th permits will be available April 1st at the police station that's it thank you
Jus all right thank you all right public comment on agenda items only three minutes per person come yeah Chuck there's two items on the or sorry chuck could you come up sorry
two items on the consent agenda I was asking a question about the uh event um that you're going to give a permit to what what are those events Bic sorry Bic they're both bicycle
events and the other thing I want to mention is I've been in this Township for 80 years and U I think Justin has done a fantastic job this year in cleaning the roads to ensure that it's safe and also picking up the logs and
the brush along my road sure a lot of the other roads and I think uh you know I just want on the record that I think he's doing a good job thanks thank you agre and I I hear it all over 10 thanks work anyone
else Judy alen I I was curious whether or not uh in the future attached to the agendas at the back of the table if you could also attach the resolutions you're going to approve tonight because we don't really know what you're approving or you might have to comment on it we
don't know and we need the resolutions so there could perhaps be a packet with the resolutions and ordinances State the agenda so we all know what's being good on that great thank you anyone
else all right thank you moving on uh public hearing adoption of ordinances we're going to start with ordinance 20251 calendar year 2025 ordinance to extend Municipal budget appropriation limits and
establish a c bank all right yeah this is a public hearing so you're motion okay so we have a motion um move that we open the ordinance to public hearing I don't know if there was any discussion first no open okay sorry all
in favor all right go for it any discussion we're open for public public com sorry sorry well then I'll I'll propose that that question to you
people any questions comments seeing none seeing none that we close the all in favor that we approve the ordinance we have a second
second all in favor this you need to roll ordinances and resolutions R right roll call please okay David B Chad Bower yes Susan Lo yes Joseph yes
Andes yes ordinance 25 20252 an ordinance to amend the code of the Township Delaware County hund state of New Jersey CH 93 Chapter 93 I I usually skip through this so that's it entitle Township
committee entitle Township committee I feel like I was like missing some words on sorry okay all right so I'll make a motion to open ordinance 20 25-2 to public hearing I'll second
that any all in favor any discussion from the public what is the ordinance all it says is in Township committee that's what I was saying yeah I'm TR L to theend okay sorry and all the
weite on the board and I linked it now so this is the one where we were changing the wording so that it didn't say we had to hold our reor on January 1st it's and and then we also still had um languages that Meed two meetings per
month and that the r right all that that's all St all right I'll make the motion to close uh ordinance 225 the public hearing do I have a motion to move
in in favor I now do I have a motion we make a motion second a second thank you call hey David Chad B yes yes James
wal yes may yes ordinance 2503 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County hun in state of New Jersey chapter 190 there have entitled fees by deleting and repealing so basically this is changing some of the fees um removing reference
to the zoning code of changing some of the language motion relates to es relating to es yes thank you is this the public hearing no this is an introduction this is a motion to
introduce and set the public hearing date for April 14th okay I I'll move the ordinance I'll second discuss this please David Bond Chad B yes Susan
lockman yes James Walman yes may yes ordinance 2025 show forward ordinance to amend the code of town Delaware County of H state of New Jersey chapter 158 thereof entitled construction codes uniform and then Section 3
motion to introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th thank you show moves second in favor roll call sorry roll call Chad bow yes Susan Lockwood yes wal
yes Joseph yes right ordinance 20255 in ordinance to amend the code Delaware County in state of New Jersey chapter 162 there of entitled construction record clearance to amend
section 6 B I make a motion to introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th at 7:30 p.m. second discussion hey David B Chad B yes Susan
L yes J yes yes 2025 -6 an ordinance to amend the code of Delaware County of H state of New Jersey chapter 230 thereof entitled land use to amend section 140
miscellaneous application fees uh I think it was 20255 J no it's a it's on the next page oh my my apologies I'm sorry sir um I will uh make a motion to
introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th second David Chad B yes Susan Lo yes James wal yes Joseph yes all right so next we have the consent agenda so let me know if anyone
wants anything P so we have 25 resolution 25-49 of rizing May to sign deer management agreement so this is for and Fleming to be able to hunt on the premises 25- 50 authorizing non-fair and
open contract fourth round housing element and fair share plan uh this is cuz we hired a planner and now we need to put the plan together authorize that 25- [Music]
51 uh reappointing director of Public Works upon completion of probationary period so this is because Justin was hired on a one-ear probationary period this is to get them another here
contract 25- 52 authorizing tax payment refund um so this is a tax collector ordinance just to P refund basically 2553 hiring electrical subcode inspector um so our inspector is
retiring so this is the higher replacement 25-54 authorizing hiring a police officer um so this is hiring a police officer that'll go through the academy understand yes good all right 25 that 55
authorizing participation in the state department and Redevelopment plan um so basically oh that's right yeah so Bob was involved with that's one right so basically I think we're just kind of letting the county know what's going on
with this B do you have anything to add for this one for um it's it's the plan he's you're not the planning office are you yes you are I am basically uh you want to come up if
you want if you want to explain I need to put you on the spot I know if you have anything to say about this essentially the State Office of planning advocacy has written a new state plan the last state plan I think was 2001 um the what you looking at tonight
is essentially that if there's any differences between the state plan and the municipal plans the County planning office is the negotiating agent between the two agencies and this is just saying that in
your opinion the township master plan is essentially in compliance with the state goals um the state goals are pretty much unchanged from the previous plan and the mapping is completely unchanged in terms of the PA 1 through five uh
development areas all right thank youate I'm assuming that the planning board or the planner looked at our plan and looked at the new state plan in order to make I consult
chair and they have no comments so this this is like a first step at this right because usually there's cross acceptance so they the cross acceptance plan um the head Opa is now was the previous Somerset
County planner and had been through the previous cross acceptance plan and has been a great influence on making it a lot more streamlines we no longer have to say how your plans are in compliance you're just saying how they're different uh we also had an intern
through Opa in our office that went through all the municipal planning documents the farm plans everything for every municipality and sort of we charted ahead of time any red flags that we saw and we didn't so this is just sort of following
up great thanks B absolutely all right next up resolution 2556 authorizing Insurance issuance of special event permit clington Jewish
Community Center for uh B ride um 2557 that's or Proclamation last last sign 2558 authorizing mayor to sign agreement with teamers Union um so I guess Sue and
Jamie negotiating everything's all wrapped up there 2559 authorizing um isurance of special event permit so this is also another B one all right so anyone need anything pulled for
discussion good I'll uh I'll move the consent agenda second fav call please okay Chad B yes Susan L yes James Walton yes Jose yes all right number 11 resolution 2560
authorizing payment of remiss oblations amount of 2,491 21852 thank you second roll call please hey Chad yes
Susan yes James yes next up is new business so acknowledge receipt of Tax Collector's 2024 annual report we have that um accept the retirement of Peter beanan um our electrical
inspector that and thank you for US service um friends of locktown Stone Church uh pable toilet request that's being discussed as well um next up for is the Recreation Commission 2025 summer
program so yep we're good okay all right open for public comment minutes per person regular um since you pointed out to me that the links are here for these things
if a person doesn't have access to the links computer access how would they get this information they come in and request a copy from okay I just want to make sure that all I want to know is how to get it if I don't have it yep or they could do it on the Bulet
board if they don't want to copy no Fe for it so I mean I'm sorry I know it's public time but we have this new Under new business we have this request from Friends of lown church are we not
discussing I asked discuss okay you're asking the public to no we moved on to public if if you want to go back there we can well there's that I guess my point is there's a request in here that from the for the township
committee this letter is asking the township committee to um provide portable toilet facilities we didn't answer their question I guess it's my point
not you want to finish public comment and then go back that however we want to that's fine so um so I just s your name Tim office written house I take it back there you go oh my sorry I pushed
the button my apologies that your introduction not only do I not live not so I just under under so we are open for public comment regarding agenda
items anything you want so uh under correspondence Recreation Commission Recreation program what is the can we discuss that I'd like to discuss what the correspondence was
specifically and that's this is the request to expand yeah yeah I'd like to I'd like to open up the floor to The Correspondents from the Recreation Commission we to exp so could you read the
correspond that's fine yeah yeah absolutely thank you Township Recreation Commission is planning a subber recreation program in 2025 at deler Township School the goal is to expand the program from 3 to 4 weeks starting Monday July 7th Friday August 1st there will be an optional before care
opportunity from 9:00 a.m. to 10: a.m. the program will run from 1: a.m. to 3: p.m. the commission respect request toship Police Department coordinated patrols to include routined stops at DTS accepting of course the time needed to address unexpected emergencies in the
township this assistance will address any safety concerns as well as promote excellent and important community policing and out Outreach opportunities please include this request in more s Township community agenda I don't really know that
really why this is being discussed in public for safety purposes but we can discuss it in public for safety anyway but okay so do you have do you want to discuss requests or you have anything more to
add I don't have anything else to add I just wanted to bring it up for conversation okay so we want to discuss when the patrols are coming through when the kids are there I idea whatever not when but is that going to
happen like you're asking what exact time they're coming through no is it going to happen you're seeking seeking requests they're seeking you're seeking permission to to expand this so I guess guess I guess this is
not a you know we're trying to expand the recreation program and we don't want to we don't want to spend the money necessarily to hire another resource officer so we are just as I said trying to expand the
recreation program to include a before care and an after care component okay so that's fine us I I think that needs to be taken under advisement with the chief because we do have um a human resource issue at
the Police Department that I don't want to you should not discuss that so yeah that so yeah and we the the summer Recreation program is going to be expanded which is going to be great uh it's a great program that serves the entire Community everybody loves it
we've added an extra week over the last couple years it's fantastic if it can be done I'm all for it but it really comes down to and you know there's question ENT there there's lots of other facets to so
sure when is the before care supposed to start and that's when the summer actually actually 9: a.m. to 10 9 to 10 a.m. academ starts okay yeah so crosses over with Summer Academy the building's going to
be right anything else good um I would like to discuss thege St yes just stall thank you um so the bridge newsletter comes out four times a year Township pays for
it um I would think that the news that goes in the bridge would be information for every resident such as who's running for office so last year I was running with two other women we asked to have our bios
added to the bridge and we're told no because there were two other people running and you didn't have the information for them which could have been easily collected so actually we don't do anything political with the
bridge at all you get your name listed everybody's name hold upe no politics hold up please I got three minutes so in addition to that the wre commission wrote an article that was
supposed to be that we asked to be published in the bridge it was completely cut and the information that we needed to be in the bridge was not in the bridge information such as we might not
be holding any of these events and all of that information was taken out and only events with the dates were put in the bridge with a not please contact anyone in advance okay but that's not at
all what our article was supposed to convey so my question is the Town Township pays for this newsletter which is our taxpayer money which is $7,100 a year and sue you are on the township
committee and you are the editor is that a conflict of interest no if if you're the one determining what articles go into the bridge and you cut information that should have been given to the residents
I'm Sor I would consider that a where the township committee decided what went into that well that's what I'm asking who makes the call on what goes into the bridge and who cuts the articles we 99% of the time it's a matter of space
this time basically the township committee did not believe that your information was accurate the information basically said the information basically said that the township committee had changed its funding process and that's
why these things might not occur and we know that's not correct we haven't changed the the purchasing process has 100% changed and that's why we are having difficulty planning events so the egg hunt is not going to happen the fishing derby is most likely not going
to happen so how are you going to communicate this information other than now residents are going to have to remember like oh let me go check the township website to see if this is happening Sue I look like a bunch of
a-holes when a lot of parents with kids show up with buckets at don't and nothing could I just say something real quick sure um I thought we had set up a protocol where the newsletter would be distributed to all the township
committee members for our approval since it is in fact and no the set up a process if the mayor wanted to see it the mayor would get it in advance not the entire town see I thought never well that's being that
it's coming from the commit I would think that the entire committee should have access to the entire committee is going to be you know [Music] the the the
clerk the new I I know but the the the township committee I mean we're the governing body of so here's let me just say I never leave anything out but we don't
politics so so I'm not running you know bios of people running for office you get your name in there which why would you not you didn't even put our names in how else would anyone know who we are if we're running for Board of Ed it's not a
political position excuse me but all you had to do was tell me you never told me I didn't know that I didn't leave that out because because I was trying to keep you all out of the newsletter I didn't I didn't have the Full Slate I listen I
would recommend that the bridge from now on maybe put a disclaimer that this is paid for by the township and who is making the call on what articles go in and because I think it's a bunch of BS that we asked for something to be printed in there and then you just cut
it and again to the to the township committee we had that conversation here and the township committee did not change the process for for funding so and that's
what the article said so we I could have and again we put in there you know check ahead of time but we did not change the process we didn't change the process the process has been the process perhaps it's being perceived differently applied differently but we didn't change that
process and that's all that got that's all that I removed because I did not believe that was accurate and I was here and you were here and we said no that's not accurate I I do recall the conversation that we had that we couldn't change the
process because of the advisement of the auditor and so to to tell people that somehow we were causing them to not have these events I didn't I okay I I I understand your position and and why you
did that I I just think that we do need to be all on the same page because Chad and I had been working independently with the rec commission to try to I heard that figure out a solution to this problem that we have regarding the
purchasing orders in order to simplify the process so Etc so unfortunately I think without us our knowledge in what was actually put in the in in the news in the bridge it makes it look like it's
coming from from all of us and that's happy to let you see what the original article that I was given said and what I and why I didn't all I did was take out the front well then you should have contacted one of us and told us that we
were I agree I understand where Sue is coming from maybe from now on we'll Township committee will take a look at it never done that before I'll tell you right now I don't I don't edit like that
because most of the time to it should be called The Covered Bridge anyway not the bridge okay all right was there any other all right Mario resel um first off want to Echo Shuck's comments about Justin I think been moving great so
thank you bu um the other thing I know you guys move the committee reports to after public comment but um I know we have something on the dtmua with the construction Department here just kind of alerting us when somebody puts a
permit in NSU is the company that licenses the water plant for us and the tower uh they have to get approvals when somebody messes you know installs new water and stuff like that there's just like a lack of communication between the construction
department when these permits are applied and the dtmua to let NS you know hey you got to go out there and check the plumbing make sure everything's you know up the code there for us um so I know we sent a letter to the construction Department Sue told us at the meeting there's been a lot of
changes in there but if we can just bring it to your attention to like move it forward I don't know if you were going to bring it up there in committee group but like I figured I'd throw it out there but that's just one thing we can try to communicate back and forth that will help between the two sides cuz
there is some construction going on in that work and we just want to make sure everything's right thank you that's it thanks guys thank you and this I'm sorry real cor so that's sewer and water sewer
and water okay and that does not include Rose though right like that's separate separate just just stuff going on in network with our 18 okay thank you you got good evening everyone U my name is
Joe Wy on Lambert Road um I did make a comment I believe it was in the January meeting about the desirability of of having public information about the planning process that's begun regarding
U affordable housing and I'm hoping that has considered a way of educating the public about what the planner is doing how the process works what what are our obligations what are the Alternatives
that are being considered at the appropriate point but so may take more than one session first of all how does it work and what do we have to do and then perhaps later on what are the options when the planner has some better understanding of what the options might
be I think it could be very 60 units if that's what we really have to provide for um there could be a lot of of impact that will be concerning to a lot of people and I think the committee should be very uh prudent in terms of educating
people so that they aren given a plan to present to the public at in June when apparently it has to be plan has to deducted and no one will know what it means or how how it came about so I think it would be wise to have some kind of information sent it doesn't have to
be through the committee it could be through the planning board or whatever board is most involved in working with the plan and could I get a response I'd really like to know if this has been discussed we're definitely planing on once we're at as you said the
appropriate points okay um I know there's a lot of people in the community who have a lot of different ideas um and want to be heard so yeah absolutely I just want to say I love the new Podium thank you very much anyone
else uh Judy Allen I was thrilled to hear that you were meeting at a dils Justin about planned improvements to the Park area what are those improvs we've had no update on what's going on in the park a
plan nobody knows what's going on out there and I would love to know where are we are we at a bonding stage are we at ordered contracts uh have you know um what is going on so uh I was not present at the
meeting but Mr Balor was present uh we had folks from DTA dtaa cers uh engineering and the park planner was there to discuss sort of the timeline on how everything was going to uh proceed
for the year and it's my understanding from that meeting that they determined because of the amount of sports that is going to be happening during the Spring program you have baseball soccer girl softball um amongst other things that it
would probably be best for the process to begin in the later portion of the summer early fall uh that way that the fall program would have less of an impact because there
aren't as many sports going on simultaneously it also afforded dtaa the possibility of reaching out to other municipalities that participate in the program that you know we might need to do more away games that you know your in
your locals versus ours uh also utilizing the school fields when they are available um and with that in mind my understanding is that callers is going to be going out to bid in the early part of the summer with anticipation that
that process will be completed sometime in July work to commence in August and correct me if I'm wrong here Chad but they are suggesting that the entirety of the project should be complete uh by the
spring season of the following year that's their target that's their target and of course weather can have an impact on that timeline is it being done in phases you know or is it being done like everything's being T up at once that's I think that's TBD based on going out to
bid and getting the details of the bid but the plan that he walked us through head and changed it's the same plan that was presented at the firehouse what we did was we walked the grounds with the engineer to help us better understand where things were going to be so for example we looked at the pickle ball location we made sure that we were clear on what we needed to recommend for noise
barriers uh we took a look at you know the baseball field um we know that it has to be changed around so what's in the actual plan didn't change we looked at it with Seth Buchanan to make sure that and Mario to make sure that the fields that were recommended become the master Sofer field um do conflict um we
looked at the Pavilion and discussed is it is it worth taking it down or do we need to consider um reinforcing it and keeping it as a building that the public could use um he showed us visually from the map and help kind of visualize what the parking lot would look like uh we talked about the drainage making sure that the drainage
is still you know you know going to run where it needs to run um we talked about the prefab building so we just talked about everything that was actually in the plan and the next step there is to go out the bids and start to make some decisions have we bonded for
it yes we did that process uh don't we complete that process oh we did the ordinance for only ordinance only okay well this a great information thank you very much you're welcome yeah just following up
on I I I was a little bit concerned about bonding for a whole project I'm at the point very conceptual estimates of the plan that had been uh weigh out and and I guess had been
accepted by everybody involved I would recommend that the engineer prepare a final estimate now that they are doing a design prepare a detailed estimate to confirm that there is enough money to
before they go out the bid so you don't get surprised that the bids come in way over the budget in terms of what has been approved in the B it's always a good idea in any public process like this and I think it
protects the committee uh because you had the opportunity to B things or you know maybe there's some overfill here and there in the desire you'll know about that before you get bid and then and create expectations thank
you I I feel as though real quickly Mr Wy that uh it's sort of a chicken in the eggs situation um the engineer is providing us with their best estimates of what ultimately they believe them to cost but obviously the fluctuation in
material prices fluctuation in gas prices all that uh labor prices Etc uh really comes down to the individual bids that we receive and if they are beyond the scope of what we have approved we
will pull them back correct uh we only we're only allowed up to a certain threshold by means of what we already approved absolutely well that's up to the mayor
yeah I think this is a question of I'm sorry the engineer is because I look at the estimates that you provided and to me I've been involved in publicly funded project and working with Engineers to me what it like is a what we call a
conceptual plan and therefore a conceptual process it was not an estimate based on detailed design Engineers typically working for public agencies will do another estimate after they have detailed design and that's
part of their service it's not like a big deal for I would really recommend that you ask the engineer again before you go that are you still what is your current estim as on your design your final preliminary your final design whatever
they are just to confirm that before you go to bed the engineer still thinks you it's it's in the budget because this is the time you know to change things if and and and I I understand what Mr Walman referred to of course material
prices and everything fluctuates all the time I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the difference in the technique that was used to make the estimate between what you had yearo and you yeah I think it would be wise to check yeah I mean I just I'll comment on that I think that's kind of the purpose
of that walk through yeah so there were some comments that he shared with us like they just finished doing some of the plugs um to help us understand the level of effort required against the grading and it turns out they I think went 7 ft and didn't find any Rock so that'll certainly reduce the level of effort um on the grading that was a big
concern of his um and looking at that structure he's going to go back and have to do some assessments to see um if it's actually got concrete footings so a lot of the discussion was about the details of what he we were seeing and about the details of what um he was collecting so
my understanding is that will be part of his next step you guys correct me Justin Mario you different I found um I think it was around 3 ft or 7 ft of top soil yeah on top of those fields so they could reuse a lot of that soil to regrade those
fields and regrade those areas they won't have to bring any dirt into the park which is a very good thing and it's going to help C and I haven't spoken to Adam specifically on this but typically the way that it works is the engineer will
provide um bid specifications that will be very detailed that will that will happen as part of the process and then associated with that will be a number that will help guide uh the township committee and making its determination
and if the number exceeds what the um what the estimate is the township committee has the right to reject that specification because it's it's out of bid scope so there is some um built-in protection in that the
township committee has the ability to reject it but I I suspect that that is why they're walking because in in bids um the engineer will put together detailed specifications and I I see no
reason why that wouldn't her here right anyone else moving on committee report yeah I just want to go back to the purchasing challenges that um came up earlier so I'll just kind of level set from what I've seen
and be part of a lot of the meetings they are having challenges with the way that the state law dictates the actual policy or the uh the procedures last year what had happened was they were a little bit loose on how we were going back and forth reviewing and approving
and paying out for some of the um um events that they did and what was flagged was just the amount of sales tax that we had been reimbursing and based on that um there was concern about our bond rating um being questioned by the
DCA which said okay we need to go back and follow what the law says about the purchasing of various items so Diane has laid out what the state says about what's required ired for um purchasing items for their events but I will tell you it's very cumbersome and so I do
think we need to look at a resolution or a solution um I've talked to Diane I think maybe some of you others have have have as well she's brought up ideas that include U maybe um putting in a wck coordinator that um could certainly help her because on the other end she's sorting through a lot of the
communications to help them make sense of what the policy and procedures are and it's just creating a bottleneck back and forth and it's just piling so I do that's how I see in general the issues I see both sides of what we have to do but also I me these guys are volunteers um
they have a plan but at the last minute there's certain things that are going to have to be purchased so there needs to be something you is there not a tax exemption for yes for commiss there is
when you follow the process there are C certain pre-approved vendors that you utilize that will ensure that it doesn't happen the problem is when a volunteer goes to Costco and makes a purchase on their personal credit card because it's
not a municipal purchase that triggers the payment of a tax and then when there's a submission for the reimbursement it's causing taxpayer funds to pay for a tax that the DCA and our auditor says is not
appropriate so back to what uh committee bow is saying is there's there's a frustration where volunteers are just trying to get it done and they've laid the money out and nobody disputes it but the problem is this is a government
purchase which has certain rules because there's taxpayer monies that are implicated and the auditor is through the pressure from the DCA is saying this is reot and this is okay and there certain rules that have to be followed
but it sounds like sounds like what you're thinking of is a way to provide additional resource to navigate the red tape that cannot be eliminated the bottom line is the red tape that is causing frustration is not going away and it can't go
away requirement but maybe there's a way to to make that painful process less painful sounds like exactly there isn't a list of 10 or 12 vendors that there are there are there are but when people don't go to them and they trigger the
tax and they submit it that creates the problem if the rules are followed I know we're not in public comment section there like I run the fishing derby and the rule says I have to get a quote from three different fish provid I'm just I'm
just explaining I was on a zoom K the auditor this is not subject for debate I'm just telling you what the auditor says that's it I'm try to it's redundant and it's not practical process whether it's redundant whether it's practical
what I'm saying is there are rules that have to be followed even if they make no sense could we increase the list of vendors by a few it's not a question of that it's a question of whether the vendor on the list is utilized or not utilized it's as simple as that if you
have if you have a hundred vendors that are approved on a list and somebody goes to the first it doesn't change the situation there are vendors that have to be used and when the process is not followed and a tax is charged that's
what the problem is so committee V Bower is saying he's going to try and provide the resources to help navigate the rules because we have to play Within the red tape you're not going to get CR then why do we give a blanket amount to the senior group and we don't ask them because there's a specific statute that
specifically governs that shot me down all you want I'm not shouting you down I'm telling you what it is just need more vendors so hold on I think one of the problems here is the fact that a lot of the vendors will not go through the
administrative burden of having to take a purchase order from the township then proceed to build the township wait 30 days for us to submit payment back to them so a Costco is like we don't want
this business there's a bunch of them that are like that so all in all due respect you could be in line at Shop Right and it's your turn to check out and you have a $199 form and the cashier goes okay you're with a nonprofit I
won't charge you sales tax thank you next it's really it shouldn't be that complicated but we need the purchasing order because the auditor needs the P the paper trail we are dealing with tax doll ta tax dollars there is unfortunate
when you're dealing with public tax dollars we have a a very specific set of rules for auditing purposes uh you know to protect Jamie we give the senior group a big lump of money and we don't ask
them 501c3 that's what he's saying they 5013 special statute that deals specifically with that specifically with the seniors which is that alleviates that burden 3 I I don't
know for DTA we have a a document that set up a new vendor to buy equipment because we're a nonprofit We cannot pay sales tax same same issue uh we have a a document that our Treasurer gives us to send to that company it has our tax ID
number on it has our location all of that it's like a two-page document from the IRS we share that with the company and then they remove the tax and they send us a receipt but I need that document for my treasur to set up to give to that company so I don't know if
that's the same for the township but I I have to talk to more that you know people that are if we're going to spend more than $600 need a W9 there's a number of steps that are required that make it make it difficult
yeah I think that the difference matter you're a 503 it's different we are that's right that's what me that's what makes the DTA process easier right but but to your point I you know I I had a zoom call with the auditor and with
Diane because of the frustrations that the rec commission was experiencing and I specifically said to the auditor can we streamline the process or there ways to simplify it and it got a very long answer about no and here's here's and I
even said well can you reach out to the DCA and I and I honestly this was like two months ago or a month and a half ago I don't remember specifically there was something I asked her to reach out to the DCA to get an exception and they told her no so I've asked her to come to
a Township meeting and explain this because ultimately the end of the day all of this it's just a conversation that's not going anywhere if the auditor says it's black doesn't matter anybody says it's going to be black because the auditor is singularly in charge of this
issue if she says yes we can do it if she says no we can't do it that's the end of the discussion you can't change it cuz she's our auditor but we I just actually tonight I I asked clerk I'm like what you know have we scheduled it yet but this is a tough time of the year
because the budgets are due and she just doesn't she said she doesn't have the time to come yet because of the crunch but as soon as the budgets are done we'll make sure that she comes so that to the extent that anybody in the
audience has a suggestion like you have maybe she hasn't thought of something and then you can prompt her and if she can sign off on it we're okay with it you know it's just that we have to do what the auditor says and at the end of
the day I I understand the frustration I saw it in the letters I saw it in the emails I heard it in the conversations I had and I tried to move the needle with her and she wasn't moving because she has certain things that she's
accountable for as the auditor and there there's very strict regulations when it comes to taxpayer funds in some respect as as it should be you know but we we'll we'll we'll try we'll continue to I think the question is can knowing the
process is the process can we look for a solution that we put human capital up against helping these guys I think that's what can't you just the best step you're talking about a process can't a process be developed that anybody can follow yes that's what I think most
people are asking for what's the process no not if you don't know how to follow it not it's been not well there's a difference wanting to follow it and not having a process process follow any process you give me you give it to me I'll follow it but you're not even part of these conversations no but I'm working with other groups that spend
Township money as well and I give it to somebody else to do because I'm not in a position of any Authority I would I would you know respectfully disagree process is process I get that but when you look at the requirements of this process they'll tell you that it's very conversive and so I think back to what you know the attorney is saying is we
need to have the conversation to see if we can find ways to help take the pressure off of that but in the meantime maybe putting some human capital against helping Diane and the budgeting group process things a little quicker would bring some
resolution Diane told me last week that she was going to set up a petty cash fund for is that process started yet yes I'd have to talk to Diane but I know after speaking with Steve SP about it that we are in back and forth and
trying to allow him a Rolling Cash uh sort of fund that he can utilize and as long as receipts come back that meet the requirements to release that cash yes is something that can be rolling going forward and it's nominal but it's
nominal but you know so that's like the last minute uh you know Snapples for for the one event or whatever right or or donuts and coffee for the parents um so I think that will help um as Chad had mentioned there are some ideas that this
committee is going to be discussing to allocate human capital to you folks to be able to use that person or persons to be able to uh submit requests to where that person could possibly go ahead and
submit the PO get the PO to the proper uh you know organization that you're trying to or store that you're trying to purchase these items from so we're working we're working diligently and trying to find a solution that will work for everyone um I just hope that
everyone understands that if we don't follow the auditor's rules we put our bond rating at risk and that's like a fiduciary duty that we as Township committee members have to put
first above filling the Easter eggs with candy I I'm sorry it sounds like the Grinch but it's the truth and unfortunately we we want to make sure that both of those things happen we just have to find out what the proper method
to make those things happen properly so and I think we'll get there I I I really do uh we're working very hard on trying to find out that St so I just asked for or we ask for just a little bit more time and hopefully no
events will be affected could the rec committee be a 503c is that allowed like like open space I think you you actually I did shot that down yeah the auditor said now
can I have your name commiss Steve ler I feel like this is a discussion that's happening in you know Prett much every municipality in school it's this is a common thing and I know before I work as Drive the business administrator CRA it's not you know I know it's it's frustrating is what I'm saying yeah I
specifically asked the question can we just do a lump some and then just like we do with the seniors and then let Rec do whatever they want with it and even if and she said no can't do it I grew that was that was a that was that was where I started the conversation
figuring that would be the easiest way to resolve it just just transfer one just transfer a budget and then let everything be spent and the order says no every single penny spent has to be tied to a purchase order and that's just
the way it has to be so um there's no way of avoiding that but that was that was the starting point yeah I've worked for the state and that was just asers for bigger items to get those purchase ERS every time the
process all right that's it enough so the open space um committee had a meeting with our open space coordinator and actually we spend a lot of time um
walking through the process for land preservation because pretty much most of the committee has never actually been through that process because it's been a long time since we had a coordinator and everybody's relatively new so we we spent a good amount of time walking
through because we to um we want to put that information on our website so that the public understands how the process works as well because we figured if we didn't know you know if the committee members didn't know the public probably didn't know as well and we're also again hoping
that sometime not too long this postcard is going out to invite people who might want to preserve their land to contact the coordinator so that's what we've been spending time on there also I think we already talked about the um Space
Explorers um and that's like of running um so it started started in February and it continue through till close to the end of the year I think um the environmental commission I guess
I'll just invite everyone we're having a talk on bluebirds we do it every so often um it's uh our next meeting on March 19th um the talks at 7:30 so um that's what we're working on there
among other things as Justin said the storm water Committee subcommittee of the storm water committee met with Justin um we walked the um police and um Public Works property because again
we've been sort of hoping at some point there might be a project there that we can do that will help water quality and storm water um we I think we understand mutually what we're kind of thinking on that um in the
meantime however just and did point out that there are a lot of um checklist items that would help him with um meeting the tier a requirements of the storm water permit so um the uh storm
water committee we're going to take that back to the rest of the storm water committee and see what we can do to help in that effort um and then we're thinking maybe in the long longer term um we may be able to either get
Grand funding or something to do this the pro project that we've been looking at and it actually may help more in the the next phase of our permit because then we have to do more on um have big St motor plan um for the township and
you can start to take action to help with that and the planting plan that we kind of had in our heads would actually help with that in the long run and then finally since seniors have come up a bunch um the seniors were unaware that their
funding was unclear at this point um they are also trying to plan their um mainly their their field because that's that's where they spend most of
their money on their trips and now we do a couple trips a year and they rent a bus basically so they are you know if there's something they need to do we just need to tell them because um
they I guess they've been hearing little bits and pieces but they really had no idea that their their um funding was in Jeopardy and so they are basically saying that what they do or don't do with their field trips I mean they also
have you know they also charge people for their events so their events some of them they're partially subsidized by the funding that we provide to them they also have their dues and then they also charge for their events very similar to a lot of what happens with Rec events
not really who are they we just give them a blind lump of money and nobody knows who they are go the meeting their meetings are open like everyone I don't know who your children are yeah their meetings are open public school all right I I don't believe in public
school okay they're very they're events and in fact just so you know we actually recommended because they're supposed to have a member participating on W and they one of the members there said she
had been that member years ago and and then she didn't want to do it anymore and they asked the seniors if anyone wanted to do that and we we may have a volunteer so they have a charter who are
they can we stop with the interruption this is this very apologize anyway so if there's something that we want them to do we just need to tell them and again interestingly I mean they do sort of have a budget they do know how much the
bus cost they do know how much the trips are going to be you know but and they have to do their farar in advance you know so as I said because if they're reserving tickets and reserving buses and whatever like they're talking about their events for the again very
similar for the entire year but they know kind of how much things cost it's just a matter of whether they're going to fund it at 100% themselves or there's going to be a subsidy basically from the
funding that they get from the the township I think that's just a question for Di yeah so because as I said they I mean I believe they have all the information they need they just need to put it in whatever format we want it if
that's if that's the case if there's something that they have to do um I think they'll be happy to do it but um but I also think just so you know that that they that funding they do consider that funding important for their
organization just just putting it out there um but they understand because we told them that you know there may be issues because I didn't know there may be issues with same issues with auditing issues or
whatever and how we do that so they have been sort of warned but they need to know something specific we need to tell them well um and I think that's all I have because Mario already talked about
dtn all right thanks uh since we're already canonizing Justin for St Hood this evening um I did receive a text today uh sorry I just want to read this out loud just want to let you know whatever we're paying J is not enough
that man that man is amazing I just want to remind you you're under contract this isn't the NFL we can't renegotiate contracts in existence is that Texas from his wife right yeah right very well done um on a more
serious note uh I've been in contact with jcpnl I've been back and forth with them about the various issues that we constantly have in the township regarding power outages trees down um power outages because of the trees mostly
um they have agreed to come to our next Township community meeting which is April 14th um it will be attended by the dedicated jcpnl rep that I work with regularly very responsive very
knowledgeable uh whenever I have an issue or I have a resident that is beyond what I would consider a normal restoration time uh I'll reach out and she'll send out a dispatch a crew immediately to see what's going on at that particular resent house so she's
been great she's coming um she's really the the jcpnl front person for the township but more importantly she's bringing a dedicated um engineer with her that is here to
discuss the various local problems that are in existence down on Worman Road and lower Creek Road because from my understanding of if you took the total the totality of the township and counted the number of outages a majority of the
outages actually occur on those roads uh and unfortunately the last outage on Lower Creek Road resulted in an overvolted situation that caused a lot of damage to appliances um even if they had search
protectors so the residents were I spoke to the represent and then the represent said hey we do have a claims process have all the residents submit a claim to jcpnl um I found it amusing how quickly the claim came back
denied um so I inquired further and I said can we find the reasoning behind the the almost immediate claim or not took a while for me to get a response but the response was the tree that caused that fell down onto the
transmission line that ultimately found that fell into the distribution lines which are all the lines that run to our homes caused the over voltage but that tree was located on a resident's property uh it was not within jnl's
easement so therefore they were not responsible for the removal of that tree um I did some investigative work and unfortunately that was in fact the case um so I think you know having JC pnl here um not only for you folks to be
able to ask them questions regarding the infrastructure or lack thereof that we all believe is is unfortunate unfortunately Happening Here in the township um if anything it might be an educational sort of lesson if you will
that hey if there are trees that aren't within the easement and that tree is on your property ultimately uh you should probably do your best to have that tree removed for the betterment of all your neighbors and you know keeping the power
on so to speak so anyway both of those folks will be attending our next meeting um I did post something online Mrs Allen was uh kind enough to point out that because of the issue being so prevalent here in the township we might get a lot
of of folks that want to come and attend and ask questions um we're going to work with the firehouse to see if that's available uh for over overflow um however I'm not promising anything as of now because we uh unfortunately right
now they're gearing up for what was supposed to be the post office buildout that hasn't happened and with the change in administrations and sort of the unknown uh unknown uh sort of space that the
post office remains in I'm not sure when that build out's going to begin but they have done uh some modifications to the point where I'm not sure whether they can actually host a large overflow group so we're going to find out whether
that's the case and if we can hold it there we will we can reach out to the school as well I hope we have done that thing as of yet but we will reach out to the school see if that's a possibility and if neither of them are a
possibility obviously will be here we're up to 132 people in here first come first serve um unfortunately we're going to have to try to tell folks to not come in be a nice night outside or something yeah
sure sure sit out the green put some lag bolts in yeah [Music] right I that's another issue um I'll talk to the attorney about that there
probably are some uh issues regarding that and the particip the public and and asking questions Etc so that is something that I'm going to have to discuss at the township attorney but anyway we're we're taking into account all the available
options I think it's most important we get them here to answer your questions the one thing I did want to point out is that I'm hopeful you know these folks are just agents of jcpnl they're not the people that are making the decisions to
hey we're not going to spend millions of dollarars to run wires underground or they're not the ones that say hey we're not going to send a Forest Street crew over to Worman or lower Creek R so I just ask for you to be respectful to
them um they and they gladly uh agreed to come here and answer your question so let's just be respectful but at the same time let them know uh if you're unhappy that way that they can take that back to their
superiors that are making those decision so so anyway that's that's all I have so thank you all right um Mr zepi I'm sorry it's been very long way back to your letter now um so we have a letter from
um a friend just Lo of locked down in Stone Church um asking for portable toilet from April 10th to October 30th um it'll be able to be used um starting with their open house and
the historical walk um which they open couple with the clean communities um clean up so do them at the same time so that there would be a bathroom available there um and then it'll be there throughout the season um so do we have so uh the only point I
wanted to bring up I know we did this for for your folks last year um I had to talk to Diane I'm pretty sure she indicated to me that it was something like $700 a month or something does that sound about right I don't know sounds
that sounds out of proportion but it it does to me too so I want to go back to her and see what the actual figure was um our Treasurer said it saved us 500 bucks okay so it probably was far less expensive than that um than what I
recall so if you don't mind uh Diane is actually on vacation um I think that the committee should probably find out how much it would cost us to have that same service to you folks this year and if it's within reason I as a committee person would
certainly vote Yes for it um now you you want this by April 12th though right we uh our first event is we do an annual clean up at the trustees which is only 12 we had hope to
combine that with a roadside cleanup through the clean Community program and also to try to host U for the Explorers program that same day we were informed by Justin that the
clean Community program does not allow you to combine two events into one day so that combined so the clean Community event has been set up for May the 10th it would order to separate you know clear separation between what we we're
accomplishing on the church priority for what we're going to accomplish on Township roads okay so which which one is which I'm sorry you're the 12 the 12th of of April yes is we started which is why you know we put it in there for
the uh 10 understood okay and we hope to host an open house as part of that explorers program also on the 12 let we have the building clean up be available for an hour to give people who want to see this space who haven't seen it yet
um have a historian there to expl structure and a little bit about history and have an opportunity to walk through the building and enjoy it okay hopefully um I don't know maybe we can do a resolution up to or something
for even just a one month can we give one quote for like fishing derby and wait why are we interrupting again botties we need for that's not how it works but if we could do one quote for every event we could
save money 10 okay we we have the chief of police right here chicken wing I'm trying to save money so um maybe up to you know I $250 for the event I I
don't know how much Porta poot cost do you know Jus I'll tell you from being a business person who ordered them up for on on remote there's a Initiation fee know mobilization and mobilization fee so
generally you end up spending I've been retired since 2017 but you end up spending like 75 or so bucks to get the thing dropped off uh and then it's a a weekly rate and the weekly rate is not it's like 40 40 a week there we go okay
plus paying for the thing to be there so okay so if we authorize up to $250 that should be sufficient for that single event and then we can have a formal vote as to the extension of that well into your
October then you have to you know you'll address it in time make it 300 just to make sure okay and if I just interject again I wrote the letter because I thought you must go through an annual process for GTAA you've got these these JS being dropped off and you must do
some kind of a bu deal with them so I just wanted to have that letter out there so in your planning process say that we could be in line if fit with your objectives no we certainly appreciate the letter and um listen we're trying to make sure that we accommodate you and and all the events
that you hold so I think this is the proper means by which to accomplish that we'll have I'm going to make a motion for uh to authorize up to uh $300 for the purpose of a portapotty uh to lock
townstone Church uh for their ail I'm sorry April 12 event I'll second that Chad yes yes yes may
yes you're welcome and then we'll obviously address the full the full concert series uh prior to our next meeting that way we can put it on the agenda and vote appropriately thank you thank you all right um that's it then we're moving
on to Executive session all right thank you good night everybody a motion to go executive session to discuss contract negotiation and update on pending litigation so move
second thank you faor Part: 2
please Jo me in theed States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for [Music] allad here
James here all right approval meeting for February 10th 2025 meeting we'll move to minutes second any discussion all in favor Iain and then approve and hold of all
right approve and hold of executive session the executive session minutes a second second any discussion all right all in favor I I let
see uh police chief's report everybody okay entered into the county CAD system was 466 incidents that took place over the month of uh February for Delaware Township uh 48 of those were motor vehicle stops 26 of those resulted in a
summons uh currently we have 24 radar posts throughout the town which we try to sit in break up you know uh when we can uh we have currently 37 property checks which we normally do in the evening uh people are away you know things like that out of town uh there
were 16 uh wire or pole incidents 14 trees uh down in the roadway this month and special thanks to Justin and his team because most of it happens at night and those guys are on it no problem road department has never run any smoother
and I've been here 30 years um on 220 couple highlights now just some things that Happ happened this month on the the 20th 4:15 a.m. a 34-year-old Flemington man was traveling south on Route 29 failed to negotiate a curve at the intersection of Brookville
Hollow in 29 as a result he struck the guardrail causing serious head injuries and unfortunately he died because of those injuries on the 22nd we recovered a stolen vehicle out of Philipsburg driver was charged with hindering apprehension
as well as the theft of the motor vehicle on uh the 25th officers responded to a residence in the township for a presumed heroin overdose upon arrival the victim was found to be unconscious and unresponsive officers administered Naran
which revives people from heroin incidents uh and the victim was uh transported to the medical center drug paraphernalia and other narcotics were seized and are on their way to the lab for testing on the fifth a wire came down
this is a this month but uh wire came down um at the intersection of lower Creek and 519 and uh caused a pretty substantial fire which caused the power to be out in Rosemont till about 11:30 that night wire came down at
1:00 um just an upcoming event distracted driving is the month of April so everybody just be aware of your on your phone and a lot of people don't understand if you just have this in your hand it's a violation so if you're looking for Direction listening talking speaker holding it in
your hand violation a lot of people don't understand that first offense to 400 second offense 400 to 600 third offense $600 to $800 that's going to cross stre and three points on the third offense and it's all a mandatory court appearance even the first one so do your
best to stay on hands free and you can't be bargain right yeah um the incident that keeps coming up a lot is the animals that are down here on
523 um we got a lot of calls about it mainly because it's right on 523 and everybody can see it my backyard right whether I agree with the animals or anybody agrees with the way the animals are being taken care of it's
been investigated by our Humane officer the prosecutor's Humane officer and the State Board of a has out there many times with their vet as well they said everything is at least meets the minimum requirements for the animals now the
minimum you know nobody wants the minimum but until you can do anything about it they have to go below the minimum so at this point they're all meeting the minimum requirements so UNT what animals are there still are the pigs still there cuz I can't see them do
you know I don't know I see the little horses and the big hes and the donkeys yeah but I'm not sure but they do have water I get calls all the time that the horse is dead cuz it happens to be laying down it's not dead it does have
water uh it has an automatic feeder and it does get hay you know and grain I don't know what else but it's all been they've looked into it a million times so just so you know but that could change is there any chance we have tried
repeatedly to get an ordinance that you you can't just leave animals alone you must have somebody living on the property would you would the police support that well uh I guess I would support
that if it wasn't in violation of a state law if the state law says you can do that then we're out of luck I don't know about that I'd have to look into that okay um I don't know if you can do that but if you could do that you know
it would be fair yeah it would or at least have be in the process of something being built or you know right but uh I know that's a big deal for every I got a lot of calls about it so could the attorney look into that uh I could look into it okay I'll
look into it and I'll I'll report back next I do you know I do feel sorry for them yeah yeah and there's nothing I can do yeah true I mean Jan is offered to take the horse you know everybody's
offered to take take the horse but yeah don't steal it people have said they're going to go steal it don't steal it the only other thing I have and I think uh Justin would back me up on this there's ever any uh incidents or issues
um that come up call one of us directly instead because I see a lot of stuff on Facebook a lot of it's not true or you know a stop sign's down somewhere we may not know about it and somebody's complaining about the fact that stop sign's down yet they didn't make a call
to us so I would just ask for your first stop to be either myself or Justin if it's a road situation or danger situation or if there's a uh you know spe anything that hases to do with the police department or the road department just you know I just encourage everybody
to try and start with us and then we'll go from there CU sometimes I see things that people are complaining about the stop sign's been down for days and we don't even know about you know so yeah we'll uh we'll take care of it immediately if
we find out that it happen but uh it's pretty much it does anybody have any other questions or anything thank you Chief thank you all right next up is DPW report Justin all right uh responded to 14 down trees in town remove brush and
logs from the sides of the roads of uh town we hold out two cardboard dumpsters and one mixed recy recyclable uh we continued blowing leaves from the drainage ditches in town uh sort of fixing any plow damage we created in town with the snow
events um we started working on our townwide sign survey replacing signs straightening signs and adding some signs to roads uh we replac two street signs on Stone sign Post Road one on locktown Flemington the other one on
579 uh Clean Catch Basin tops throughout Town continue with our tier a storm water catch Bas and head great uh replacement started filling some potholes in town uh we had three snow and ice events in the past month where we had to either plow salt roads and
clean Township sidewalks uh we checked roads and salt were needed daily and uh we fixed any vehicle issues we had from the snowstorms uh recycling clean communities I attended the uh County swack and
recycling meeting I also attended the monthly GIF meeting um also we had a walk through at dils Park and discuss some of the uh improvements that are going to be happening there uh met with the storm water committee and we discussed some of
the community outreach uh to comply with our TR storm water regulations and um townwide cleanup day is coming up April 19th permits will be available April 1st at the police station that's it thank you
Jus all right thank you all right public comment on agenda items only three minutes per person come yeah Chuck there's two items on the or sorry chuck could you come up sorry
two items on the consent agenda I was asking a question about the uh event um that you're going to give a permit to what what are those events Bic sorry bicc they're both bicycle
eventss and the other thing I want to mention is I've been in this Township for 80 years and U I think Justin has done a fantastic job this year in cleaning the roads to Ure that it's safe and also picking up the logs and the
brush along my road sure a lot of the other roads and I think uh you know just going on the record that I think he's doing a good job thanks thank you agre and I I hear it all over 10 thanks great work anyone
else Judy alen I I was curious whether or not uh in the future attached to the agendas at the back of the table if you could also attach the resolutions you're going to approve tonight because we don't really know what you're approving or you might have to comment on it we
don't know and we need the resolutions so there could perhaps be a packet with the resolutions and ordinances State the agenda so we all know what's being good on that great thank you anyone
else all right thank you moving on uh public hearing adoption of ordinances we're going to start with ordinance 20251 calendar year 2025 ordinance to extend Municipal budget appropriation limits and
establish a c bank all right yeah this is a public hearing so you're motion okay so we have a motion um move that we open the ordinance to public hearing I don't know if there was any discussion first no open okay sorry all
in favor all right go for it any discussion we're open for public public com sorry sorry well then I'll I'll propose that that question to you
people any questions comments seeing none seeing none that we close the all in favor that we approve the ordinance we have a second
second all in favor this you need to roll ordinances and resolutions R right roll call please okay David B Chad Bower yes Susan Lo yes Joseph yes
Andes yes ordinance 25 20252 an ordinance to amend the code of the Township Delaware County hund state of New Jersey CH 93 Chapter 93 I I usually skip through this so that's it entitle Township
committee entitle Township committee I feel like I was like missing some words on sorry okay all right so I'll make a motion to open ordinance 20 25-2 to public hearing I'll second
that any all in favor any discussion from the public what is the ordinance all it says is in Township committee that's what I was saying yeah I'm TR L to theend okay sorry and all the
weite on the board and I linked it now so this is the one where we were changing the wording so that it didn't say we had to hold our reor on January 1st it's and and then we also still had um languages that Meed two meetings per
month and that the r right all that that's all St all right I'll make the motion to close uh ordinance 225 the public hearing do I have a motion to move
in in favor I now do I have a motion we make a motion second a second thank you call hey David Chad B yes yes James
wal yes may yes ordinance 2503 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County hun in state of New Jersey chapter 190 there have entitled fees by deleting and repealing so basically this is changing some of the fees um removing reference
to the zoning code of changing some of the language motion relates to es relating to es yes thank you is this the public hearing no this is an introduction this is a motion to
introduce and set the public hearing date for April 14th okay I I'll move the ordinance I'll second discuss this please David Bond Chad B yes Susan
lockman yes James Walman yes may yes ordinance 2025 show forward ordinance to amend the code of town Delaware County of H state of New Jersey chapter 158 thereof entitled construction codes uniform and then Section 3
motion to introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th thank you show moves second in favor roll call sorry roll call Chad bow yes Susan Lockwood yes wal
yes Joseph yes right ordinance 20255 in ordinance to amend the code Delaware County in state of New Jersey chapter 162 there of entitled construction record clearance to amend
section 6 B I make a motion to introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th at 7:30 p.m. second discussion hey David B Chad B yes Susan
L yes J yes yes 2025 -6 an ordinance to amend the code of Delaware County of H state of New Jersey chapter 230 thereof entitled land use to amend section 140
miscellaneous application fees uh I think it was 20255 J no it's a it's on the next page oh my my apologies I'm sorry sir um I will uh make a motion to
introduce and set the public hearing for April 14th second David Chad B yes Susan Lo yes James wal yes Joseph yes all right so next we have the consent agenda so let me know if anyone
wants anything P so we have 25 resolution 25-49 of rizing May to sign deer management agreement so this is for and Fleming to be able to hunt on the premises 25- 50 authorizing non-fair and
open contract fourth round housing element and fair share plan uh this is cuz we hired a planner and now we need to put the plan together authorize that 25- [Music]
51 uh reappointing director of Public Works upon completion of probationary period so this is because Justin was hired on a one-ear probationary period this is to get them another here
contract 25- 52 authorizing tax payment refund um so this is a tax collector ordinance just to P refund basically 2553 hiring electrical subcode inspector um so our inspector is
retiring so this is the higher replacement 25-54 authorizing hiring a police officer um so this is hiring a police officer that'll go through the academy understand yes good all right 25 that 55
authorizing participation in the state department and Redevelopment plan um so basically oh that's right yeah so Bob was involved with that's one right so basically I think we're just kind of letting the county know what's going on
with this B do you have anything to add for this one for um it's it's the plan he's you're not the planning office are you yes you are I am basically uh you want to come up if
you want if you want to explain I need to put you on the spot I know if you have anything to say about this essentially the State Office of planning advocacy has written a new state plan the last state plan I think was 2001 um the what you looking at tonight
is essentially that if there's any differences between the state plan and the municipal plans the County planning office is the negotiating agent between the two agencies and this is just saying that in
your opinion the township master plan is essentially in compliance with the state goals um the state goals are pretty much unchanged from the previous plan and the mapping is completely unchanged in terms of the PA 1 through five uh
development areas all right thank youate I'm assuming that the planning board or the planner looked at our plan and looked at the new state plan in order to make I consult
chair and they have no comments so this this is like a first step at this right because usually there's cross acceptance so they the cross acceptance plan um the head Opa is now was the previous Somerset
County planner and had been through the previous cross acceptance plan and has been a great influence on making it a lot more streamlines we no longer have to say how your plans are in compliance you're just saying how they're different uh we also had an intern
through Opa in our office that went through all the municipal planning documents the farm plans everything for every municipality and sort of we charted ahead of time any red flags that we saw and we didn't so this is just sort of following
up great thanks B absolutely all right next up resolution 2556 authorizing Insurance issuance of special event permit clington Jewish
Community Center for uh B ride um 2557 that's or Proclamation last last sign 2558 authorizing mayor to sign agreement with teamers Union um so I guess Sue and
Jamie negotiating everything's all wrapped up there 2559 authorizing um isurance of special event permit so this is also another B one all right so anyone need anything pulled for
discussion good I'll uh I'll move the consent agenda second fav call please okay Chad B yes Susan L yes James Walton yes Jose yes all right number 11 resolution 2560
authorizing payment of remiss oblations amount of 2,491 21852 thank you second roll call please hey Chad yes
Susan yes James yes next up is new business so acknowledge receipt of Tax Collector's 2024 annual report we have that um accept the retirement of Peter beanan um our electrical
inspector that and thank you for US service um friends of locktown Stone Church uh pable toilet request that's being discussed as well um next up for is the Recreation Commission 2025 summer
program so yep we're good okay all right open for public comment minutes per person regular um since you pointed out to me that the links are here for these things
if a person doesn't have access to the links computer access how would they get this information they come in and request a copy from okay I just want to make sure that all I want to know is how to get it if I don't have it yep or they could do it on the Bulet
board if they don't want to copy no Fe for it so I mean I'm sorry I know it's public time but we have this new Under new business we have this request from Friends of lown church are we not
discussing I asked discuss okay you're asking the public to no we moved on to public if if you want to go back there we can well there's that I guess my point is there's a request in here that from the for the township
committee this letter is asking the township committee to um provide portable toilet facilities we didn't answer their question I guess it's my point
not you want to finish public comment and then go back that however we want to that's fine so um so I just s your name Tim office written house I take it back there you go oh my sorry I pushed
the button my apologies that your introduction not only do I not live not so I just under under so we are open for public comment regarding agenda
items anything you want so uh under correspondence Recreation Commission Recreation program what is the can we discuss that I'd like to discuss what the correspondence was
specifically and that's this is the request to expand yeah yeah I'd like to I'd like to open up the floor to The Correspondents from the Recreation Commission we to exp so could you read the
correspond that's fine yeah yeah absolutely thank you Township Recreation Commission is planning a subber recreation program in 2025 at deler Township School the goal is to expand the program from 3 to 4 weeks starting Monday July 7th Friday August 1st there will be an optional before care
opportunity from 9:00 a.m. to 10: a.m. the program will run from 1: a.m. to 3: p.m. the commission respect request toship Police Department coordinated patrols to include routined stops at DTS accepting of course the time needed to address unexpected emergencies in the
township this assistance will address any safety concerns as well as promote excellent and important community policing and out Outreach opportunities please include this request in more s Township community agenda I don't really know that
really why this is being discussed in public for safety purposes but we can discuss it in public for safety anyway but okay so do you have do you want to discuss requests or you have anything more to
add I don't have anything else to add I just wanted to bring it up for conversation okay so we want to discuss when the patrols are coming through when the kids are there I idea whatever not when but is that going to
happen like you're asking what exact time they're coming through no is it going to happen you're seeking seeking requests they're seeking you're seeking permission to to expand this so I guess guess I guess this is
not a you know we're trying to expand the recreation program and we don't want to we don't want to spend the money necessarily to hire another resource officer so we are just as I said trying to expand the
recreation program to include a before care and an after care component okay so that's fine us I I think that needs to be taken under advisement with the chief because we do have um a human resource issue at
the Police Department that I don't want to you should not discuss that so yeah that so yeah and we the the summer Recreation program is going to be expanded which is going to be great uh it's a great program that serves the entire Community everybody loves it
we've added an extra week over the last couple years it's fantastic if it can be done I'm all for it but it really comes down to and you know there's question ENT there there's lots of other facets to so
sure when is the before care supposed to start and that's when the summer actually actually 9: a.m. to 10 9 to 10 a.m. academ starts okay yeah so crosses over with Summer Academy the building's going to
be right anything else good um I would like to discuss thege St yes just stall thank you um so the bridge newsletter comes out four times a year Township pays for
it um I would think that the news that goes in the bridge would be information for every resident such as who's running for office so last year I was running with two other women we asked to have our bios
added to the bridge and we're told no because there were two other people running and you didn't have the information for them which could have been easily collected so actually we don't do anything political with the
bridge at all you get your name listed everybody's name hold upe no politics hold up please I got three minutes so in addition to that the wre commission wrote an article that was
supposed to be that we asked to be published in the bridge it was completely cut and the information that we needed to be in the bridge was not in the bridge information such as we might not
be holding any of these events and all of that information was taken out and only events with the dates were put in the bridge with a not please contact anyone in advance okay but that's not at
all what our article was supposed to convey so my question is the Town Township pays for this newsletter which is our taxpayer money which is $7,100 a year and sue you are on the township
committee and you are the editor is that a conflict of interest no if if you're the one determining what articles go into the bridge and you cut information that should have been given to the residents
I'm Sor I would consider that a where the township committee decided what went into that well that's what I'm asking who makes the call on what goes into the bridge and who cuts the articles we 99% of the time it's a matter of space
this time basically the township committee did not believe that your information was accurate the information basically said the information basically said that the township committee had changed its funding process and that's
why these things might not occur and we know that's not correct we haven't changed the the purchasing process has 100% changed and that's why we are having difficulty planning events so the egg hunt is not going to happen the fishing derby is most likely not going
to happen so how are you going to communicate this information other than now residents are going to have to remember like oh let me go check the township website to see if this is happening Sue I look like a bunch of
a-holes when a lot of parents with kids show up with buckets at don't and nothing could I just say something real quick sure um I thought we had set up a protocol where the newsletter would be distributed to all the township
committee members for our approval since it is in fact and no the set up a process if the mayor wanted to see it the mayor would get it in advance not the entire town see I thought never well that's being that
it's coming from the commit I would think that the entire committee should have access to the entire committee is going to be you know [Music] the the the
clerk the new I I know but the the the township committee I mean we're the governing body of so here's let me just say I never leave anything out but we don't
politics so so I'm not running you know bios of people running for office you get your name in there which why would you not you didn't even put our names in how else would anyone know who we are if we're running for Board of Ed it's not a
political position excuse me but all you had to do was tell me you never told me I didn't know that I didn't leave that out because because I was trying to keep you all out of the newsletter I didn't I didn't have the Full Slate I listen I
would recommend that the bridge from now on maybe put a disclaimer that this is paid for by the township and who is making the call on what articles go in and because I think it's a bunch of BS that we asked for something to be printed in there and then you just cut
it and again to the to the township committee we had that conversation here and the township committee did not change the process for for funding so and that's
what the article said so we I could have and again we put in there you know check ahead of time but we did not change the process we didn't change the process the process has been the process perhaps it's being perceived differently applied differently but we didn't change that
process and that's all that got that's all that I removed because I did not believe that was accurate and I was here and you were here and we said no that's not accurate I I do recall the conversation that we had that we couldn't change the
process because of the advisement of the auditor and so to to tell people that somehow we were causing them to not have these events I didn't I okay I I I understand your position and and why you
did that I I just think that we do need to be all on the same page because Chad and I had been working independently with the rec commission to try to I heard that figure out a solution to this problem that we have regarding the
purchasing orders in order to simplify the process so Etc so unfortunately I think without us our knowledge in what was actually put in the in in the news in the bridge it makes it look like it's
coming from from all of us and that's happy to let you see what the original article that I was given said and what I and why I didn't all I did was take out the front well then you should have contacted one of us and told us that we
were I agree I understand where Sue is coming from maybe from now on we'll Township committee will take a look at it never done that before I'll tell you right now I don't I don't edit like that
because most of the time to it should be called The Covered Bridge anyway not the bridge okay all right was there any other all right Mario resel um first off want to Echo Shuck's comments about Justin I think been moving great so
thank you bu um the other thing I know you guys move the committee reports to after public comment but um I know we have something on the dtmua with the construction Department here just kind of alerting us when somebody puts a
permit in NSU is the company that licenses the water plant for us and the tower uh they have to get approvals when somebody messes you know installs new water and stuff like that there's just like a lack of communication between the construction
department when these permits are applied and the dtmua to let NS you know hey you got to go out there and check the plumbing make sure everything's you know up the code there for us um so I know we sent a letter to the construction Department Sue told us at the meeting there's been a lot of
changes in there but if we can just bring it to your attention to like move it forward I don't know if you were going to bring it up there in committee group but like I figured I'd throw it out there but that's just one thing we can try to communicate back and forth that will help between the two sides cuz
there is some construction going on in that work and we just want to make sure everything's right thank you that's it thanks guys thank you and this I'm sorry real cor so that's sewer and water sewer
and water okay and that does not include Rose though right like that's separate separate just just stuff going on in network with our 18 okay thank you you got good evening everyone U my name is
Joe Wy on Lambert Road um I did make a comment I believe it was in the January meeting about the desirability of of having public information about the planning process that's begun regarding
U affordable housing and I'm hoping that has considered a way of educating the public about what the planner is doing how the process works what what are our obligations what are the Alternatives
that are being considered at the appropriate point but so may take more than one session first of all how does it work and what do we have to do and then perhaps later on what are the options when the planner has some better understanding of what the options might
be I think it could be very 60 units if that's what we really have to provide for um there could be a lot of of impact that will be concerning to a lot of people and I think the committee should be very uh prudent in terms of educating
people so that they aren given a plan to present to the public at in June when apparently it has to be plan has to deducted and no one will know what it means or how how it came about so I think it would be wise to have some kind of information sent it doesn't have to
be through the committee it could be through the planning board or whatever board is most involved in working with the plan and could I get a response I'd really like to know if this has been discussed we're definitely planing on once we're at as you said the
appropriate points okay um I know there's a lot of people in the community who have a lot of different ideas um and want to be heard so yeah absolutely I just want to say I love the new Podium thank you very much anyone
else uh Judy Allen I was thrilled to hear that you were meeting at a dils Justin about planned improvements to the Park area what are those improvs we've had no update on what's going on in the park a
plan nobody knows what's going on out there and I would love to know where are we are we at a bonding stage are we at ordered contracts uh have you know um what is going on so uh I was not present at the
meeting but Mr Balor was present uh we had folks from DTA dtaa cers uh engineering and the park planner was there to discuss sort of the timeline on how everything was going to uh proceed
for the year and it's my understanding from that meeting that they determined because of the amount of sports that is going to be happening during the Spring program you have baseball soccer girl softball um amongst other things that it
would probably be best for the process to begin in the later portion of the summer early fall uh that way that the fall program would have less of an impact because there
aren't as many sports going on simultaneously it also afforded dtaa the possibility of reaching out to other municipalities that participate in the program that you know we might need to do more away games that you know your in
your locals versus ours uh also utilizing the school fields when they are available um and with that in mind my understanding is that callers is going to be going out to bid in the early part of the summer with anticipation that
that process will be completed sometime in July work to commence in August and correct me if I'm wrong here Chad but they are suggesting that the entirety of the project should be complete uh by the
spring season of the following year that's their target that's their target and of course weather can have an impact on that timeline is it being done in phases you know or is it being done like everything's being T up at once that's I think that's TBD based on going out to
bid and getting the details of the bid but the plan that he walked us through head and changed it's the same plan that was presented at the firehouse what we did was we walked the grounds with the engineer to help us better understand where things were going to be so for example we looked at the pickle ball location we made sure that we were clear on what we needed to recommend for noise
barriers uh we took a look at you know the baseball field um we know that it has to be changed around so what's in the actual plan didn't change we looked at it with Seth Buchanan to make sure that and Mario to make sure that the fields that were recommended become the master Sofer field um do conflict um we
looked at the Pavilion and discussed is it is it worth taking it down or do we need to consider um reinforcing it and keeping it as a building that the public could use um he showed us visually from the map and help kind of visualize what the parking lot would look like uh we talked about the drainage making sure that the drainage
is still you know you know going to run where it needs to run um we talked about the prefab building so we just talked about everything that was actually in the plan and the next step there is to go out the bids and start to make some decisions have we bonded for
it yes we did that process uh don't we complete that process oh we did the ordinance for only ordinance only okay well this a great information thank you very much you're welcome yeah just following up
on I I I was a little bit concerned about bonding for a whole project I'm at the point very conceptual estimates of the plan that had been uh weigh out and and I guess had been
accepted by everybody involved I would recommend that the engineer prepare a final estimate now that they are doing a design prepare a detailed estimate to confirm that there is enough money to
before they go out the bid so you don't get surprised that the bids come in way over the budget in terms of what has been approved in the B it's always a good idea in any public process like this and I think it
protects the committee uh because you had the opportunity to B things or you know maybe there's some overfill here and there in the desire you'll know about that before you get bid and then and create expectations thank
you I I feel as though real quickly Mr Wy that uh it's sort of a chicken in the eggs situation um the engineer is providing us with their best estimates of what ultimately they believe them to cost but obviously the fluctuation in
material prices fluctuation in gas prices all that uh labor prices Etc uh really comes down to the individual bids that we receive and if they are beyond the scope of what we have approved we
will pull them back correct uh we only we're only allowed up to a certain threshold by means of what we already approved absolutely well that's up to the mayor
yeah I think this is a question of I'm sorry the engineer is because I look at the estimates that you provided and to me I've been involved in publicly funded project and working with Engineers to me what it like is a what we call a
conceptual plan and therefore a conceptual process it was not an estimate based on detailed design Engineers typically working for public agencies will do another estimate after they have detailed design and that's
part of their service it's not like a big deal for I would really recommend that you ask the engineer again before you go that are you still what is your current estim as on your design your final preliminary your final design whatever
they are just to confirm that before you go to bed the engineer still thinks you it's it's in the budget because this is the time you know to change things if and and and I I understand what Mr Walman referred to of course material
prices and everything fluctuates all the time I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the difference in the technique that was used to make the estimate between what you had yearo and you yeah I think it would be wise to check yeah I mean I just I'll comment on that I think that's kind of the purpose
of that walk through yeah so there were some comments that he shared with us like they just finished doing some of the plugs um to help us understand the level of effort required against the grading and it turns out they I think went 7 ft and didn't find any Rock so that'll certainly reduce the level of effort um on the grading that was a big
concern of his um and looking at that structure he's going to go back and have to do some assessments to see um if it's actually got concrete footings so a lot of the discussion was about the details of what he we were seeing and about the details of what um he was collecting so
my understanding is that will be part of his next step you guys correct me Justin Mario you different I found um I think it was around 3 ft or 7 ft of top soil yeah on top of those fields so they could reuse a lot of that soil to regrade those
fields and regrade those areas they won't have to bring any dirt into the park which is a very good thing and it's going to help C and I haven't spoken to Adam specifically on this but typically the way that it works is the engineer will
provide um bid specifications that will be very detailed that will that will happen as part of the process and then associated with that will be a number that will help guide uh the township committee and making its determination
and if the number exceeds what the um what the estimate is the township committee has the right to reject that specification because it's it's out of bid scope so there is some um built-in protection in that the
township committee has the ability to reject it but I I suspect that that is why they're walking because in in bids um the engineer will put together detailed specifications and I I see no
reason why that wouldn't her here right anyone else moving on committee report yeah I just want to go back to the purchasing challenges that um came up earlier so I'll just kind of level set from what I've seen
and be part of a lot of the meetings they are having challenges with the way that the state law dictates the actual policy or the uh the procedures last year what had happened was they were a little bit loose on how we were going back and forth reviewing and approving
and paying out for some of the um um events that they did and what was flagged was just the amount of sales tax that we had been reimbursing and based on that um there was concern about our bond rating um being questioned by the
DCA which said okay we need to go back and follow what the law says about the purchasing of various items so Diane has laid out what the state says about what's required ired for um purchasing items for their events but I will tell you it's very cumbersome and so I do
think we need to look at a resolution or a solution um I've talked to Diane I think maybe some of you others have have have as well she's brought up ideas that include U maybe um putting in a wck coordinator that um could certainly help her because on the other end she's sorting through a lot of the
communications to help them make sense of what the policy and procedures are and it's just creating a bottleneck back and forth and it's just piling so I do that's how I see in general the issues I see both sides of what we have to do but also I me these guys are volunteers um
they have a plan but at the last minute there's certain things that are going to have to be purchased so there needs to be something you is there not a tax exemption for yes for commiss there is
when you follow the process there are C certain pre-approved vendors that you utilize that will ensure that it doesn't happen the problem is when a volunteer goes to Costco and makes a purchase on their personal credit card because it's
not a municipal purchase that triggers the payment of a tax and then when there's a submission for the reimbursement it's causing taxpayer funds to pay for a tax that the DCA and our auditor says is not
appropriate so back to what uh committee bow is saying is there's there's a frustration where volunteers are just trying to get it done and they've laid the money out and nobody disputes it but the problem is this is a government
purchase which has certain rules because there's taxpayer monies that are implicated and the auditor is through the pressure from the DCA is saying this is reot and this is okay and there certain rules that have to be followed
but it sounds like sounds like what you're thinking of is a way to provide additional resource to navigate the red tape that cannot be eliminated the bottom line is the red tape that is causing frustration is not going away and it can't go
away requirement but maybe there's a way to to make that painful process less painful sounds like exactly there isn't a list of 10 or 12 vendors that there are there are there are but when people don't go to them and they trigger the
tax and they submit it that creates the problem if the rules are followed I know we're not in public comment section there like I run the fishing derby and the rule says I have to get a quote from three different fish provid I'm just I'm
just explaining I was on a zoom K the auditor this is not subject for debate I'm just telling you what the auditor says that's it I'm try to it's redundant and it's not practical process whether it's redundant whether it's practical
what I'm saying is there are rules that have to be followed even if they make no sense could we increase the list of vendors by a few it's not a question of that it's a question of whether the vendor on the list is utilized or not utilized it's as simple as that if you
have if you have a hundred vendors that are approved on a list and somebody goes to the first it doesn't change the situation there are vendors that have to be used and when the process is not followed and a tax is charged that's
what the problem is so committee V Bower is saying he's going to try and provide the resources to help navigate the rules because we have to play Within the red tape you're not going to get CR then why do we give a blanket amount to the senior group and we don't ask them because there's a specific statute that
specifically governs that shot me down all you want I'm not shouting you down I'm telling you what it is just need more vendors so hold on I think one of the problems here is the fact that a lot of the vendors will not go through the
administrative burden of having to take a purchase order from the township then proceed to build the township wait 30 days for us to submit payment back to them so a Costco is like we don't want
this business there's a bunch of them that are like that so all in all due respect you could be in line at Shop Right and it's your turn to check out and you have a $199 form and the cashier goes okay you're with a nonprofit I
won't charge you sales tax thank you next it's really it shouldn't be that complicated but we need the purchasing order because the auditor needs the P the paper trail we are dealing with tax doll ta tax dollars there is unfortunate
when you're dealing with public tax dollars we have a a very specific set of rules for auditing purposes uh you know to protect Jamie we give the senior group a big lump of money and we don't ask
them 501c3 that's what he's saying they 5013 special statute that deals specifically with that specifically with the seniors which is that alleviates that burden 3 I I don't
know for DTA we have a a document that set up a new vendor to buy equipment because we're a nonprofit We cannot pay sales tax same same issue uh we have a a document that our Treasurer gives us to send to that company it has our tax ID
number on it has our location all of that it's like a two-page document from the IRS we share that with the company and then they remove the tax and they send us a receipt but I need that document for my treasur to set up to give to that company so I don't know if
that's the same for the township but I I have to talk to more that you know people that are if we're going to spend more than $600 need a W9 there's a number of steps that are required that make it make it difficult
yeah I think that the difference matter you're a 503 it's different we are that's right that's what me that's what makes the DTA process easier right but but to your point I you know I I had a zoom call with the auditor and with
Diane because of the frustrations that the rec commission was experiencing and I specifically said to the auditor can we streamline the process or there ways to simplify it and it got a very long answer about no and here's here's and I
even said well can you reach out to the DCA and I and I honestly this was like two months ago or a month and a half ago I don't remember specifically there was something I asked her to reach out to the DCA to get an exception and they told her no so I've asked her to come to
a Township meeting and explain this because ultimately the end of the day all of this it's just a conversation that's not going anywhere if the auditor says it's black doesn't matter anybody says it's going to be black because the auditor is singularly in charge of this
issue if she says yes we can do it if she says no we can't do it that's the end of the discussion you can't change it cuz she's our auditor but we I just actually tonight I I asked clerk I'm like what you know have we scheduled it yet but this is a tough time of the year
because the budgets are due and she just doesn't she said she doesn't have the time to come yet because of the crunch but as soon as the budgets are done we'll make sure that she comes so that to the extent that anybody in the
audience has a suggestion like you have maybe she hasn't thought of something and then you can prompt her and if she can sign off on it we're okay with it you know it's just that we have to do what the auditor says and at the end of
the day I I understand the frustration I saw it in the letters I saw it in the emails I heard it in the conversations I had and I tried to move the needle with her and she wasn't moving because she has certain things that she's
accountable for as the auditor and there there's very strict regulations when it comes to taxpayer funds in some respect as as it should be you know but we we'll we'll we'll try we'll continue to I think the question is can knowing the
process is the process can we look for a solution that we put human capital up against helping these guys I think that's what can't you just the best step you're talking about a process can't a process be developed that anybody can follow yes that's what I think most
people are asking for what's the process no not if you don't know how to follow it not it's been not well there's a difference wanting to follow it and not having a process process follow any process you give me you give it to me I'll follow it but you're not even part of these conversations no but I'm working with other groups that spend
Township money as well and I give it to somebody else to do because I'm not in a position of any Authority I would I would you know respectfully disagree process is process I get that but when you look at the requirements of this process they'll tell you that it's very conversive and so I think back to what you know the attorney is saying is we
need to have the conversation to see if we can find ways to help take the pressure off of that but in the meantime maybe putting some human capital against helping Diane and the budgeting group process things a little quicker would bring some
resolution Diane told me last week that she was going to set up a petty cash fund for is that process started yet yes I'd have to talk to Diane but I know after speaking with Steve SP about it that we are in back and forth and
trying to allow him a Rolling Cash uh sort of fund that he can utilize and as long as receipts come back that meet the requirements to release that cash yes is something that can be rolling going forward and it's nominal but it's
nominal but you know so that's like the last minute uh you know Snapples for for the one event or whatever right or or donuts and coffee for the parents um so I think that will help um as Chad had mentioned there are some ideas that this
committee is going to be discussing to allocate human capital to you folks to be able to use that person or persons to be able to uh submit requests to where that person could possibly go ahead and
submit the PO get the PO to the proper uh you know organization that you're trying to or store that you're trying to purchase these items from so we're working we're working diligently and trying to find a solution that will work for everyone um I just hope that
everyone understands that if we don't follow the auditor's rules we put our bond rating at risk and that's like a fiduciary duty that we as Township committee members have to put
first above filling the Easter eggs with candy I I'm sorry it sounds like the Grinch but it's the truth and unfortunately we we want to make sure that both of those things happen we just have to find out what the proper method
to make those things happen properly so and I think we'll get there I I I really do uh we're working very hard on trying to find out that St so I just asked for or we ask for just a little bit more time and hopefully no
events will be affected could the rec committee be a 503c is that allowed like like open space I think you you actually I did shot that down yeah the auditor said now
can I have your name commiss Steve ler I feel like this is a discussion that's happening in you know Prett much every municipality in school it's this is a common thing and I know before I work as Drive the business administrator CRA it's not you know I know it's it's frustrating is what I'm saying yeah I
specifically asked the question can we just do a lump some and then just like we do with the seniors and then let Rec do whatever they want with it and even if and she said no can't do it I grew that was that was a that was that was where I started the conversation
figuring that would be the easiest way to resolve it just just transfer one just transfer a budget and then let everything be spent and the order says no every single penny spent has to be tied to a purchase order and that's just
the way it has to be so um there's no way of avoiding that but that was that was the starting point yeah I've worked for the state and that was just asers for bigger items to get those purchase ERS every time the
process all right that's it enough so the open space um committee had a meeting with our open space coordinator and actually we spend a lot of time um
walking through the process for land preservation because pretty much most of the committee has never actually been through that process because it's been a long time since we had a coordinator and everybody's relatively new so we we spent a good amount of time walking
through because we to um we want to put that information on our website so that the public understands how the process works as well because we figured if we didn't know you know if the committee members didn't know the public probably didn't know as well and we're also again hoping
that sometime not too long this postcard is going out to invite people who might want to preserve their land to contact the coordinator so that's what we've been spending time on there also I think we already talked about the um Space
Explorers um and that's like of running um so it started started in February and it continue through till close to the end of the year I think um the environmental commission I guess
I'll just invite everyone we're having a talk on bluebirds we do it every so often um it's uh our next meeting on March 19th um the talks at 7:30 so um that's what we're working on there
among other things as Justin said the storm water Committee subcommittee of the storm water committee met with Justin um we walked the um police and um Public Works property because again
we've been sort of hoping at some point there might be a project there that we can do that will help water quality and storm water um we I think we understand mutually what we're kind of thinking on that um in the
meantime however just and did point out that there are a lot of um checklist items that would help him with um meeting the tier a requirements of the storm water permit so um the uh storm
water committee we're going to take that back to the rest of the storm water committee and see what we can do to help in that effort um and then we're thinking maybe in the long longer term um we may be able to either get
Grand funding or something to do this the pro project that we've been looking at and it actually may help more in the the next phase of our permit because then we have to do more on um have big St motor plan um for the township and
you can start to take action to help with that and the planting plan that we kind of had in our heads would actually help with that in the long run and then finally since seniors have come up a bunch um the seniors were unaware that their
funding was unclear at this point um they are also trying to plan their um mainly their their field because that's that's where they spend most of
their money on their trips and now we do a couple trips a year and they rent a bus basically so they are you know if there's something they need to do we just need to tell them because um
they I guess they've been hearing little bits and pieces but they really had no idea that their their um funding was in Jeopardy and so they are basically saying that what they do or don't do with their field trips I mean they also
have you know they also charge people for their events so their events some of them they're partially subsidized by the funding that we provide to them they also have their dues and then they also charge for their events very similar to a lot of what happens with Rec events
not really who are they we just give them a blind lump of money and nobody knows who they are go the meeting their meetings are open like everyone I don't know who your children are yeah their meetings are open public school all right I I don't believe in public
school okay they're very they're events and in fact just so you know we actually recommended because they're supposed to have a member participating on W and they one of the members there said she
had been that member years ago and and then she didn't want to do it anymore and they asked the seniors if anyone wanted to do that and we we may have a volunteer so they have a charter who are
they can we stop with the interruption this is this very apologize anyway so if there's something that we want them to do we just need to tell them and again interestingly I mean they do sort of have a budget they do know how much the
bus cost they do know how much the trips are going to be you know but and they have to do their farar in advance you know so as I said because if they're reserving tickets and reserving buses and whatever like they're talking about their events for the again very
similar for the entire year but they know kind of how much things cost it's just a matter of whether they're going to fund it at 100% themselves or there's going to be a subsidy basically from the
funding that they get from the the township I think that's just a question for Di yeah so because as I said they I mean I believe they have all the information they need they just need to put it in whatever format we want it if
that's if that's the case if there's something that they have to do um I think they'll be happy to do it but um but I also think just so you know that that they that funding they do consider that funding important for their
organization just just putting it out there um but they understand because we told them that you know there may be issues because I didn't know there may be issues with same issues with auditing issues or
whatever and how we do that so they have been sort of warned but they need to know something specific we need to tell them well um and I think that's all I have because Mario already talked about
dtn all right thanks uh since we're already canonizing Justin for St Hood this evening um I did receive a text today uh sorry I just want to read this out loud just want to let you know whatever we're paying J is not enough
that man that man is amazing I just want to remind you you're under contract this isn't the NFL we can't renegotiate contracts in existence is that Texas from his wife right yeah right very well done um on a more
serious note uh I've been in contact with jcpnl I've been back and forth with them about the various issues that we constantly have in the township regarding power outages trees down um power outages because of the trees mostly
um they have agreed to come to our next Township community meeting which is April 14th um it will be attended by the dedicated jcpnl rep that I work with regularly very responsive very
knowledgeable uh whenever I have an issue or I have a resident that is beyond what I would consider a normal restoration time uh I'll reach out and she'll send out a dispatch a crew immediately to see what's going on at that particular resent house so she's
been great she's coming um she's really the the jcpnl front person for the township but more importantly she's bringing a dedicated um engineer with her that is here to
discuss the various local problems that are in existence down on Worman Road and lower Creek Road because from my understanding of if you took the total the totality of the township and counted the number of outages a majority of the
outages actually occur on those roads uh and unfortunately the last outage on Lower Creek Road resulted in an overvolted situation that caused a lot of damage to appliances um even if they had search
protectors so the residents were I spoke to the represent and then the represent said hey we do have a claims process have all the residents submit a claim to jcpnl um I found it amusing how quickly the claim came back
denied um so I inquired further and I said can we find the reasoning behind the the almost immediate claim or not took a while for me to get a response but the response was the tree that caused that fell down onto the
transmission line that ultimately found that fell into the distribution lines which are all the lines that run to our homes caused the over voltage but that tree was located on a resident's property uh it was not within jnl's
easement so therefore they were not responsible for the removal of that tree um I did some investigative work and unfortunately that was in fact the case um so I think you know having JC pnl here um not only for you folks to be
able to ask them questions regarding the infrastructure or lack thereof that we all believe is is unfortunate unfortunately Happening Here in the township um if anything it might be an educational sort of lesson if you will
that hey if there are trees that aren't within the easement and that tree is on your property ultimately uh you should probably do your best to have that tree removed for the betterment of all your neighbors and you know keeping the power
on so to speak so anyway both of those folks will be attending our next meeting um I did post something online Mrs Allen was uh kind enough to point out that because of the issue being so prevalent here in the township we might get a lot
of of folks that want to come and attend and ask questions um we're going to work with the firehouse to see if that's available uh for over overflow um however I'm not promising anything as of now because we uh unfortunately right
now they're gearing up for what was supposed to be the post office buildout that hasn't happened and with the change in administrations and sort of the unknown uh unknown uh sort of space that the
post office remains in I'm not sure when that build out's going to begin but they have done uh some modifications to the point where I'm not sure whether they can actually host a large overflow group so we're going to find out whether
that's the case and if we can hold it there we will we can reach out to the school as well I hope we have done that thing as of yet but we will reach out to the school see if that's a possibility and if neither of them are a
possibility obviously will be here we're up to 132 people in here first come first serve um unfortunately we're going to have to try to tell folks to not come in be a nice night outside or something yeah
sure sure sit out the green put some lag bolts in yeah [Music] right I that's another issue um I'll talk to the attorney about that there
probably are some uh issues regarding that and the particip the public and and asking questions Etc so that is something that I'm going to have to discuss at the township attorney but anyway we're we're taking into account all the available
options I think it's most important we get them here to answer your questions the one thing I did want to point out is that I'm hopeful you know these folks are just agents of jcpnl they're not the people that are making the decisions to
hey we're not going to spend millions of dollarars to run wires underground or they're not the ones that say hey we're not going to send a Forest Street crew over to Worman or lower Creek R so I just ask for you to be respectful to
them um they and they gladly uh agreed to come here and answer your question so let's just be respectful but at the same time let them know uh if you're unhappy that way that they can take that back to their
superiors that are making those decision so so anyway that's that's all I have so thank you all right um Mr zepi I'm sorry it's been very long way back to your letter now um so we have a letter from
um a friend just Lo of locked down in Stone Church um asking for portable toilet from April 10th to October 30th um it'll be able to be used um starting with their open house and
the historical walk um which they open couple with the clean communities um clean up so do them at the same time so that there would be a bathroom available there um and then it'll be there throughout the season um so do we have so uh the only point I
wanted to bring up I know we did this for for your folks last year um I had to talk to Diane I'm pretty sure she indicated to me that it was something like $700 a month or something does that sound about right I don't know sounds
that sounds out of proportion but it it does to me too so I want to go back to her and see what the actual figure was um our Treasurer said it saved us 500 bucks okay so it probably was far less expensive than that um than what I
recall so if you don't mind uh Diane is actually on vacation um I think that the committee should probably find out how much it would cost us to have that same service to you folks this year and if it's within reason I as a committee person would
certainly vote Yes for it um now you you want this by April 12th though right we uh our first event is we do an annual clean up at the trustees which is only 12 we had hope to
combine that with a roadside cleanup through the clean Community program and also to try to host U for the Explorers program that same day we were informed by Justin that the
clean Community program does not allow you to combine two events into one day so that combined so the clean Community event has been set up for May the 10th it would order to separate you know clear separation between what we we're
accomplishing on the church priority for what we're going to accomplish on Township roads okay so which which one is which I'm sorry you're the 12 the 12th of of April yes is we started which is why you know we put it in there for
the uh 10 understood okay and we hope to host an open house as part of that explorers program also on the 12 let we have the building clean up be available for an hour to give people who want to see this space who haven't seen it yet
um have a historian there to expl structure and a little bit about history and have an opportunity to walk through the building and enjoy it okay hopefully um I don't know maybe we can do a resolution up to or something
for even just a one month can we give one quote for like fishing derby and wait why are we interrupting again botties we need for that's not how it works but if we could do one quote for every event we could
save money 10 okay we we have the chief of police right here chicken wing I'm trying to save money so um maybe up to you know I $250 for the event I I
don't know how much Porta poot cost do you know Jus I'll tell you from being a business person who ordered them up for on on remote there's a Initiation fee know mobilization and mobilization fee so
generally you end up spending I've been retired since 2017 but you end up spending like 75 or so bucks to get the thing dropped off uh and then it's a a weekly rate and the weekly rate is not it's like 40 40 a week there we go okay
plus paying for the thing to be there so okay so if we authorize up to $250 that should be sufficient for that single event and then we can have a formal vote as to the extension of that well into your
October then you have to you know you'll address it in time make it 300 just to make sure okay and if I just interject again I wrote the letter because I thought you must go through an annual process for GTAA you've got these these JS being dropped off and you must do
some kind of a bu deal with them so I just wanted to have that letter out there so in your planning process say that we could be in line if fit with your objectives no we certainly appreciate the letter and um listen we're trying to make sure that we accommodate you and and all the events
that you hold so I think this is the proper means by which to accomplish that we'll have I'm going to make a motion for uh to authorize up to uh $300 for the purpose of a portapotty uh to lock
townstone Church uh for their ail I'm sorry April 12 event I'll second that Chad yes yes yes may
yes you're welcome and then we'll obviously address the full the full concert series uh prior to our next meeting that way we can put it on the agenda and vote appropriately thank you thank you all right um that's it then we're moving
on to Executive session all right thank you good night everybody a motion to go executive session to discuss contract negotiation and update on pending litigation so move
second thank you faor