Calling this meeting to order. It is 6:32 p.m. Dr. Roach, will you do the roll call, please? >> Yes. Mr. Anne Baronson. >> Here. >> Okay. Mr. Farugi. >> Yes. Miss Francois
>> here, >> Mr. Schmidt >> here, >> Mr. Kovac >> here, >> and Chairwoman Ford >> here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, >> indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Liberty and justice for all.
>> Gosh. Okay. In accordance with the provisions of chapter 2, I'm sorry. Oh, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 231, New Jersey public laws of 1975, the open public meetings act.
Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the giving of notice to the corer news posting the agenda in the public lobby of this building 48 hours prior to this meeting. delivery of this notice to the Franklin Township clerk at least 48 hours prior to this meeting and
mailing notice to those persons properly requesting to be mailed notification of meetings at least 48 hours prior to this meeting. Is there a motion to open the meeting for public comments? >> So move second.
>> Okay. All in favor? I >> I >> Any oppose? >> Okay, the motion is carried. >> Seeing no one present from the public, is there a motion to close the meeting
for public comments? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Motion's carried.
Uh, we all received the minutes. Are there any corrections or any amendments to the meeting to the minutes? Okay, seeing that there are none, is there a motion to accept the minutes as is?
>> Motion to make to accept the minutes >> as is. Is there a second? >> I I'm sorry. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Okay. All in favor?
>> I >> I. >> Any oppose? The minutes are accepted as is. Now for the executive summary. Um, executive director. Thank you, chairwoman.
All right, for our list of projects, uh the solar electric vehicle project, the solar venue, uh uh vendor did complete its data collection and we are waiting for the vendor to complete its business case report and submit it to us for review.
Our finance platform upgraded my migration. Um I'll report maybe I'll um I'll ask Dr. approach to report anything else. I I don't uh phase one uh uh I'm sorry, phase two is a utility billing.
The utility billing training uh of three days took place in October uh th this month uh last month and a final data pull from the Harris utility system is due uh occur on December 1st and the
utility billing go live is scheduled to be December 4th. Uh Dr. Roach, do you is there anything else to report? >> No, that is all all correct. All correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> High Bay Garage project. Uh we're we're
in the uh we've been in the final stage, but it's administrative entirely. The on andm manual has been completed. We're awaiting the meets and bounds to be completed from the land surveyor and the conservation easement template has been
sent to our attorney for review. Upon that review, uh that will be completed and sent to the Delaware American Canal Commission for Somerset Street pump station rehabilitation. The file final pay application has been processed. An
engineer engineer reports that he will be uh submitting a uh request to um authorize additional funds due to his time uh spent on the project. And once that's received, we will review it. the
Brooklyn Avenue sewer area rehabilitation. Um we've gone from 46 to 51% of the service laterals are completed. The manhole rehabilitation has uh is approximately 30% completed. The
production rate is still remains slow but better. the contractor uh will probably complete this project if they continue on uh at this rate of production. However, we will be addressing this uh with the contractor.
Um again, traffic safety costs uh did uh go up and we are addressing that by eliminating uh those costs through uh uh getting rid of unneeded uh presence from law enforcement.
the ARP uh Brookline grants from the county and the township. Uh we have received from the Somerset County $3 million in those grants and that grant is now exhausted and Franklin Township
uh those payments are coming in a little slower, but we are receiving money from them. We just submitted the last um uh requisition of $114,000 and change. We have uh submitted so far
to them uh $716,000 and change in requisitions and we still have $1.2 million of the grant remaining. We have received from the township $629,000
and change and that seems to be going good. When the municipal uh administered grant is exhausted, then the rest of the monies will uh will come from the I bank as a short-term loan which will then be
converted to a permanent loan. >> Can I ask a quick question, Joe? >> Yes, sir. on that. Um, isn't there a time limit for the ARP money to be expended >> by this year?
>> Yeah, we we got in before the deadline. We're not subject to that anymore because the project's been approved and and and the money's being expended. >> Okay. All right. Yeah. We just don't want to leave any money on the table. >> No, we're not leaving any money. At
least that was my understanding based upon what I was told. So, I mean, they're still cutting checks as of today. >> Okay. Yeah. No, end of the year, I think, is the deadline, I believe. So, we need to make sure that we get all our
bills in there. >> Okay. You know what? Uh, April, Dr. Roach and I will, uh, double check that, make sure we're not missing anything. >> Okay. And a good point is I mean the lion share of the money we already received.
>> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. Um all right. Western Canal pump station flood rehabilitation project. Though this is one of the projects I moved off of our five-year uh capital project schedule. Um we're
still doing things for that project that will have long-term or positive benefit for us. Uh regarding the uh updated land appraisal, I got by coincidence I got notice today from the appraiser that uh
he has his data, he's working on it, and that appraisal report uh he is expecting to deliver us next week, which is good. A meeting was held by um the uh by uh
the sewage authority team and the I bank uh in the recent past. That meeting was scheduled because uh we're looking at alternative sources for money to fund this project
and we're also looking for opportunities to reduce our debt service should we use uh the loan services of the I bank. They reported to us that we could very well um be a contender for consideration of
them giving us free money where they forgive the debt. Um plus then the remaining money that they lend us half of it will be uh debtree and then the h the remaining half
would be um at very low interest rate with those numbers. They gave us a calculator on their website. CME recalculated our debt service. Uh much better numbers uh otherwise. So what I did is I sent all those
numbers to our financial consultant and I'm still waiting to talk with her on what one of our say our future budget uh would look like with those numbers in it. And I asked her just simply, you know, kind of like as a an exercise,
take our budget that we have right now that I put together, put this project back in it with these numbers and show me what this this year's budget would have looked like or you know or um you know do a budget that she thinks next
year would look like with these numbers. So when I have those numbers, I'll I'll report that back to the uh board. But uh you know if the I bank gave us um a forgive forgiveness loan if you
will. So out of 20 million if they forgive 4 million or 5 million you know we would borrow 15 million. So 7.5 million would be interest free and 7.5 million would be low interest. And I would like to see what that 30-year debt
service would look like and what impacts on future budgets that would have. So uh you know at some point in the future when I have those numbers I'll report it early on to the board so everybody has the understanding of impact. All right. Next item on that project the
wetlands delineation fieldwork uh was completed in October and currently uh the engineer is working on the permit plans for the NJD land use permit application. The next project is right across the
street is our Commerce Drive pump station rehabilitation. Construction is uh scheduled to begin uh the middle of this month and that was due to the arrival of the supplies uh being delivered and um regarding the
delivery their storage container did arrive and it's on our front lawn and uh in that container is now our emergency generator which also arrived and is placed in on our property uh for safekeeping.
The other project uh which is uh is in good condition uh is Shirley Avenue pump station rehabilitation. All the closing and D documents have been recorded with the Somerset County Clerk's Office and the next step we anticipate will be the NJD
premeating to be scheduled uh to discuss the permitting process of that project. Uh that concludes my summary of projects and uh vendor reports and if there are no questions I'll move on to my
executive director's report. >> Is that okay with you chairwoman? >> Yes it is. >> Thank you ma'am. Okay. Under revenue, as of October 31st, 2025, we received checks and deposited
1,114,215. Year-to date collected is 5,511,819.92. We have an open balance of non-metered billing of 2,510,184.72. Penalties generated for the month of October $8,97353. For expenses as of September 31st,
expenditures for the month was $366,571.32. Year-toate expenses is 3,370,77151. our cash position as of September 31st, 2025. Um, for unrestricted funds, we have
1,485,910.50. For restricted, we have 13,675,166.70. For designated, we have 7,925,88350. That gives us a total net cash position of 23,86,960.70. for discussion items. Uh a reminder for everybody tonight under budget, tonight
is uh the night we vote on adopting the budget that was presented last month and that was based upon discussions with many individuals, our net cash position and our current capital needs within our capital five-year um uh budget and
capital plan. Our audit uh order uh our 2025 audit process had begun months ago and currently we are providing any additional documents the auditors are requesting. Otherwise, all their on-site
work is completed and their work is being done remotely. And once they are done, uh we would notify the chairwoman that the auditor will be attending our monthly public meeting and presenting the findings of that audit uh to the
board and the public. Under land acquisitions, we have uh two. One is PSEG which we did receive the draft easement agreement which needs my approval uh my final approval which I am
in the process of doing. It was a little my approval was a little bit delayed. I was a little confused or I misunderstood the email. the attorney has um uh corrected me and I'm in the process of
reviewing that before I give the approval and then we're going to ask the chairwoman to execute that agreement and um send it back to them. The other land acquisition is Shirley Avenue pump station which I just rep reported that
we already we now have completed the easement and those documents are now filed with the county clerk's office. Uh under solar I reported that the assessment is in progress and they are
currently um uh building a business case for our authority. The other uh note that I will add to this is our annual energy auction with EMEX will be uh held
tomorrow and that is an online auction for our energy needs going forward for the year. Uh one interesting uh note I'll make under rules rates and regulations. We've had uh I've had one-on-one
discussions in the last month or two with board members who you know had questions what we were doing with our ru rules rates and regs. As you know, we in the last year uh three years, we spent a lot
of time and energy updating them bec u to modernize them, but in particular, we updated them to address our aging private collection systems, privately owned collection systems in our
township, which are not being maintained and they're not even being inspected. and they're some of them are quite frankly failing at um expensive and alarming rates. So we uh we held as a
reminder we held a public meeting with that was advertised to the private system owners and um in attendance were seven eight nine of the management companies that represented numerous
owners. We I also um attended a private HOA board meeting in town. I won't me mention the name. Uh and I explained everything to that board and their
concerns at the end were uh a lot less if not completely resolved by the end of that meeting. Since then, we have now advertised another meeting and we're going to keep have keep having more and more meetings. We're having a meeting
with the licensed operators that operate and conduct business uh in Franklin Township because they are hired the licensed operators are hired by the owners of the light uh of the collection
systems. So, we're going to uh meet one or more times with the licensed operators so they understand exactly what our expectations are moving forward. But I I want to stress to everybody that no one's no one's
expectation was ever to lower a big heavy hammer down on the HOAs in town or even the apartment buildings. We we're not looking to put anyone out of business or or break their bank, if you will, but they need to start
inspecting their system. At a minimum, they have to start inspecting their manholes and their uh and their collection lines. uh or else our sky our expenses particularly the one that we send to
Middle Sex County Utilities Authority are going to continue to skyrocket. Uh and I I made an example to everybody that you know when I came on board we were our expense was $5 million a year and now it's $8.3 million a year in five
years. That's that's a pretty big increase. So um so nothing is you know nothing drastic's going to happen anytime quick but we we need to get these systems inspected and you know where there is
problems identified you know they need to be addressed by the private collection um system owners. No, I I'll continue to report uh as we move forward with that. Um since that was a a topic of significant
discussions, do any of the board members have any questions or want make any comments or guidance? Otherwise, you could, you know, just talk to me in private. Okay. Uh moving forward, uh traffic
safety. I I mentioned that on um on these projects, uh we're we're being very selective when we're uh scheduling um Franklin Township Police to be on these projects. There's some streets that are dead end or culdeacs, for
example, or minor uh local streets that just don't need them. So, uh we're saving money there. internal engineering. Uh we only had one new connection for the month of October. We have 83.8 to be expected and we had
uh um two TRC applications process that were sent to the town. Good news for uh under New Brunswick. So I did a a full five-year audit of our um our account with New Brunswick uh
relative to our agreement. It took me uh probably a full day and a half to do a full audit. I documented that in a spreadsheet. I sent that to New Brunswick. We went back and forth. And now they fully agree with what we owe
them for 225 2025 relative to our estimated payments. U and that's all settled now. And that's pro uh that is one of the payments being authorized for tonight. Uh we I believe
I got most of the team members in New Brunswick to agree to strongly consider a flat rate model uh or a flat rate model hybrid with some flow monitoring for you know two or
three years. So it's it's very encouraging development with New Brunswick. Uh under grants, Somerset County grant is exhausted. We received our 3 million municipal grant. We still have 1.2
million. Uh and we fully intend and anticipate receiving that. All projects are moving forward uh smoothly. Everything's in a green and is moving as we have expected. Under res uh standard resolutions, we
have payroll account, operating expense account, renewal replacement account, and escrow account. We have no general fund resolution and no north track resolution. Under additional resolutions, we only have one, and that is the resolution to adopt the 2025 to
2026 budget tonight. Chairwoman, that concludes my report. >> Thank you. Now, let's move on to the excuse me, committee reports if there are any
negotiations and personnel. >> I think report. >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Chair Chairwoman. I apologize if you would part of uh allow me a personal privilege. I also failed to um mention under operations
everything was maintained and operating normally and there have been no accidents for the month of October. No accidents or injuries. >> Thank you very much. I guess that knocks out the safety committee. That's great.
Um anything with municipal liaison? >> I I just wanted to interject. We were talking about the uh ARP funding. I believe that that is extended to 2027 because we're still in the process of using some of that money for another
program in the municipal budget. So, we should be safe there. Otherwise, nothing to report. >> Thank you. >> Construction. >> Hi everybody. I inspected the commerce drive contractor mobilized over there
and I I saw the containers I and I took some pictures. Uh everything going smooth over there. I think I'll be well and I will make another trip next week that how the contractor goes with the
construction and uh nothing else to report. >> Thank you very much. Okay, that's it for the committee reports. Let's move on to the consent agenda. Uh, all items of excuse me, all the
items listed below are considered to be of a routine nature, thereby reporting requiring one motion and one second for all items. If any member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda, please advise me at this time which resolutions need to be handled
separately and they will be addressed and voted on separately. Resolution number one is the payroll account $25,92.70. Resolution number two, operating expense account 2,295,35027.
Resolution number three is the renewal and replacement account $369,659,59.50. And resolution number four is the escrow account $14,826. Is there a motion to adopt these resolution?
>> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> I >> I >> Any oppose?
Resolutions are adopted. Now for resolution number five. Resolution number five is the uh fiscal year June 1st, 2025 to May 31st, 2026
budget which was presented at the last public meeting on October 7th. Um, it's presented tonight for adoption. Is there a motion to adopt this resolution? >> So, moved.
>> Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> And I have a question. >> Uh, my question is, is there a reason why in the resolution it says that it's open to public meeting? it it was at its
open public meeting of November 7th, 2025. And it says that uh down below in another paragraph, November 7th, I will direct that attention, direct that uh question to uh Dr. Roach.
>> Uh yeah, before before she answers, uh that resolution was actually sent to us by the state and uh that was probably a typo on their part, I'm guessing. Let me see. >> I'm assuming that's a topographical
error. Um >> resolution. I'm opening up the original from the original email. Oh, >> can we do a motion to uh to do it as amended? >> Sure, you can do that as amended with
the correct date. >> We didn't catch it. >> Is there a motion? Is there a motion to amend resolution number five um with the correction of
the the date of October 7th, 2025 um in the first paragraph and in the the fourth paragraph um I will make the motion but I will
amend that that it's November uh five It should say today's date, right? >> Today's date, November 5th. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Well, that that's my motion to change the date to November 5th.
>> I second that. A motion to amend. >> Okay. Are there any other questions? With that said, all in favor? >> I I >> Any oppose?
Okay. The resolution is adopted. Is there any other business that needs to be handled? >> No. >> Tonight. Okay. In that case, is there a motion to close the meeting?
>> So move. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> All in favor? I >> I >> I. >> Any oppose? Good night everybody. >> Good night.
Heat. Heat.