[Music] the meeting is called to order at 6:31 p.m This is the uh Franklin Township Authority board meeting on April 1st
2025 Please call the role Dr Yes Yes Commissioner Ambonson here Commissioner Farugi here Commissioner Francois here Kovac
here Commissioner Davenport here And that completes our role for now Okay Please join me in the pledge of allegiance Allegiance to the flag of United States
of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
Okay I have to read my statement now if I can find it Just a second I thought I saw it somewhere here Yes this is Tamit Faruki Yes Hi everyone I know April Send it to me
I'm looking looking still looking Can you hear me commissioner do you want me to just forward it to you right now that way it's on the top of your email Yes Could you please absolutely Hold on one moment Bear with me folks Okay I just sent it to you Okay All
right Soon as it arrives there it is And I'm also sending you right now the updated working agenda Okay So you'll have both All right 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 couer 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 Okay Next item on the agenda is a motion to open the meeting for public comments Do I have a motion motion to open Any second second Second
All in favor say I I I Anyone saying no all right motion carries If anybody from public is present this is your
chance Please state your name address and take five minutes at the max Uh chairman there's uh no one except for the Franklin reporter and advocate frankenreporter.com is on the line and
uh no other members of the public Okay In that case uh may I have a motion to close meeting for the public comments so moved Second Second Thank you All in favor say I I I I Any any
nays eyes have it Public comment section is closed All right Next would be the approval of minutes of the monthly board meeting dated March 4th
2025 Um has uh everyone gone through those minutes and any does anyone have any com comments i'll make a motion to approve first Second motion I do have I do have one comment
on page four on page four under safety committee says it was noted It says no report and then it says it was noted that there had been no injuries since the last board meeting Isn't saying that it has been noted there have been no injuries Isn't that a report in itself
therefore the words no report should be removed Agreed Dr Ro can you make the change absolutely Thank you Okay Uh can we uh approve the minutes with uh the change
i move to approve Second All right All in favor say I I n the meeting minutes of March 4th 2025 have been approved Okay Next item on the agenda is
the reports by the executive um for the executive project status sum by the executive director Take it away Joe Uh thank you chairman Okay Um so under the project summary
status I've uh rehighlighted um the solar electric vehicle uh project and considering that we know the electric rates are going to skyrocket uh this year this project becomes more valuable
or more interesting um in the long term That being said uh I will have uh I will begin scheduling meetings with our engineer to see where we left off It's been a while and uh what opportunities
we could begin looking at under our finance platform upgrade and migration project which is being completely managed by Dr Roach uh phase one which is our finance uh portion of it is showing positive progress moving forward
and our phase two which includes the utility bill billing that does have a tenative training date for May 19th and a tenative go live date of June 5th our high bay garage project Uh this
is the only project not in the green and we anticipated that Uh we are working with the Delaware Rarity Canal Commission on a stream quarter preservation waiver agreement that's in pro progress Recently we did propose a
new onampus one for one conservation event uh that hasn't been submitted to them uh a a draft site plan was created and um we're going to try to determine if it conceptually that would be
acceptable to them So this is that is basically somewhat administrative So the let me just point out to the board that the conservation needs because the building we built kind of falls in the stream
corridor So to compensate for that we have to promise or provide an easement to the DRCC Um and that easement it will be a a a portion of land that we will never build on And we do have that area It's
kind of a long rectangular shape If that's not acceptable if they want a 1.5 to one ratio then what we'd simply do is try to buy an easement from the owner o that owns the detention basin right next to us and kind of use that land instead
So we're going to try to use our own land because we're not going to build on it anyway and uh move forward with that The Somerset Street pump station rehab and the Brookline Avenue sewer rehab projects that are kind of related So on the Somerset uh street pump
station side um that's almost completed The electrical finished work was completed The pump station is fully operational and there is a final punch list of items uh that needs to be completed that was sent to the
contractor and uh the work remaining equates to about one day's worth of work Everything went very smoothly with that portion of the project The Brooklyn Avenue sewer rehabilitation project is also going a
much bigger project also going by very smoothly The manhole to manhole uh 100% of that uh the manhole to manhold lining 100% of that was completed uh as of March 5th the manhole uh the main to house lining 7% of that has been
completed and the cured in place um uh lining 206% of that has been completed I will remind you that I reported last month that there was a defective section of approximately 45 ft of 8 in uh cured
in place line in pipe Uh we did do an on-site um meeting with some of the board members and our staff We did try to have a meeting uh with the township that had to get rescheduled We think
we're already mostly in agreement but our staff our team will get communicate with uh the township team just to uh come up with an understanding of uh the eventualities that could possibly happen
once we start trenching that new road And I will keep the board members and staff updated as we go forward We just want the issue if for to remind some of you is where we want to trench
the road happens to be right next to what we believe is a problem in the road already that the township owns The problem could be either very small or it could be very big If it's anything
bigger than small the township needs to respond right away that day to fix it and or address their problem or they have to agree to compensate us for the expense if we address their problem
That's it Otherwise that project is going by uh swimmingly forward Regarding the U American Rescue Plan grants from the county and the township uh so far we submitted to the county
268,000 and change of grant reimbursement Um and to the township uh we have submitted I'm sorry that's Yes that's a submitted total To the township we have submitted uh almost
a half a million dollars and that we still have another $1.5 million total balance remaining that is available to us The Wesson Canal pump station uh rebuild project I have some good news
for you We did receive notice from the NJD that uh the state's attorneys did respond to uh after their review of the access agreement and they did incorp uh they did provide some
revisions to the agreement that would be incorporated in the final uh draft agreement to us We are still awaiting the New Jersey Office of uh transactions that's OTPA uh as of as to the next steps once
they're ready to provide us an agreement So that's very good Well once we have that that project will start moving forward at a faster pace Uh Commerce Street uh drive pump station uh we are still in the shop drawing review process
Nothing more to report on that Shirley Avenue pump station The attorney has reported that we did receive the title policy for the easement However they are still preparing additional documents that are needed for the uh easement
acquisition Uh lastly under the summary report uh in the general engineering section CME did contact the New Brunswick representative They did discuss a new proposal for uh flow that would include
flow metering um with a company called CSL uh based upon the proposal from CSL and that would be incorporated into the new agreement and they are working with the attorney right now uh the New Brunswick
representatives are working with the New Brunswick attorney to draft a proposed proposed proposal agreement to us So the big difference between the agreement we have now that's fully in
place is that they have to come up with a model that would include uh flow monitoring which we wanted you know originally uh and um which we we don't have flow monitoring a part of our agreement now
It's fair for them to want that Uh and you know we certainly will accept a fair model of flow monitoring and a new agreement Uh regarding the Harrison Towers flow metering the study the flow study uh that flow study number two that
we did post water meter replacement So Harrison tower is they replaced their water meter that was 50 60 years old We did a flow study before that And we we did a flow study after that
replacement uh and that flow study ended in March uh last month and that data is currently being reviewed The new water consumption data reports for Harrison Towers was requested from the township
Um chairman if uh no one has any questions of the project summaries I'll just move on to my executive director's report Yeah that's fine J are there any questions from any other me me board
members yeah the only comment I had uh Joe was uh I checked with the coral on the Harrison Towers meter readings and there were some marginal uh differences uh but
there weren't huge anomalies from the previous readings That is my current understanding That could change after uh some more time Uh we shall see Okay Did he do did he compare a month-to-month
uh comparison like you know this fee this February to last year's February something like that no I think he just gave me I asked him for the last three or four months of data which is what he did I didn't do monthtomonth like what you suggest So
Okay Well that's that's good But generally everybody knows that as water meters get old they get less accurate and to the favor of the consumer not the agency And um what was happening was New Bronco was just not in a position to
accept the data on a 60-year-old meter Yeah there was a larger issue as well Um there was uh many of these old buildings had bypass um uh
pipes Um you know for in emergencies they would use that but I think uh u we some of these users may have uh used them even though there was no emergency thereby reducing the meter
readings So we were concerned about that but doesn't look like Harrison Towers Uh that was the case Wow Okay And Joe I have a question Yes sir You said that Somers said pump station
is almost complete Is there any punch list on it yes I I reported that there was a a minor list of uh remaining punch list items that were minor enough that it one day of work should complete them all
according to our engineer Okay All right Thank you You're welcome sir Okay Uh so for the executive director's report uh for the uh as of February 28th our
revenue report we received in checks deposited in the bank $715,231.13 which is average for that month in the year to date collected was 15,56,79787 which is also average for
February 28th The open balance due of non-metered billing is 9,668,245,000 I'm sorry $245.94 Penalties generated for the month of uh March were $12,8841 and that is slightly below
average expense report Now I just want to note we're I'm jumping around a little bit on the dates So the revenue report was as February 28th You know we're always one month behind but my expense report is as of January 31st
2025 And uh the expenditures for that month was $473,255.95 The year to date was uh uh again year to fiscal date is $7,45,529.33 Uh uh as of that date we were
53% through uh our uh allotted budget and 67% through the calendar For our cash position as of February 28th unrestricted we have 3,939,14.96 Under our restricted we have
14,525,414.96 Designated we have 6,281,27068 giving us a total C net cash position of $24,745,70060 I'm going to note and remind everybody that our total net cash position needs to grow faster than we're
spending our money because we know we have a very large project coming up the Wesson Canal pump station It's probably going to be between 15 and 20 million And we need at least 25% of that to uh
float money as the the I bank assuming we get I bank uh financing but you still need about 25% of that available to float the project as that
money takes to come in and so forth Uh that's it Uh under cash position uh discussion items uh under budget uh the process has be begun Uh my departments will be
submitting their annual budget to me and we will be meeting in the next week and a half under rate uh user rate increase proposal I I maintain the the status as it is possible that I uh would I might
recommend a rate increase I hope not but uh not we won't know until we uh really look at the the numbers at the final draft of the budget under bonding Uh
our our Marcy Street finance loan for the uh long-term the uh final clo um lending that closing of that bond note will happen in June of 2025 That's in a couple of
months Um Bank of New York Melon uh is opening up new accounts that need to be created for that financing And uh as well we held a public hearing remotely with the Bank of New York uh as is
required uh when we go through these bond sales And as I reported in the past uh we were just recently notified or educated that all the bond notes must go to the local finance board as part of the process and
we have done that uh under projects as I noted I'm just noting it as well repeating it on this report that I am reinitiating our solar project to uh determine if we have a
viable opportunity with that under land acquisition I reported to PSNG um project the land next to PS&G for the bison canal pump station the access license process is moving forward with
NJDP and the Shirley Avenue the title policy and documents are being finalized Uh of of just interest note I will make is that uh under the PSNG that our energy bills are expected to
significantly increase this year uh under our electric and it could go up 20 30% uh also related to our solar project re initiative uh but this will also impact our budget
as well Um for internal engineering we had two uh connections for the month of March under staffing strength and discussion item um you know as we our
bookkeeper had resigned uh not too long ago and we brought in a temporary bookkeeper We also brought back our retired bookkeeper who has returned part-time uh to help us out So that means we have a temporary bookkeeper our retired
bookkeeper and luckily uh not too long ago we began cross-training our billing um one of our our senior billing clerk We started crossraining her into the bookkeeping operations So we have three people uh working to get that u keep
that office moving uh forward I will be uh meeting with the personnel committee tomorrow morning One of the topics we're going to discuss is restructuring the bookkeeping office Um I will also note the Mils County Utilities Authority their rates
uh are always increasing and so is their flow metering of the uh sewage we send them is also increasing That'll have a significant impact on our budget And as you know uh 50 to 55% of the our
expenses for the year is paying M uh Middle Sex County Utility Authority That's our that in that one bill that we pay them That's slightly over 50% of our appropriations of that one light item So
that's significant I thought I'd mention it Uh all our projects are moving forward as expected in the green with the exception of a a delayed uh notation on the high bay garage Uh under resolutions our standard
uh resolutions for the month will include payroll account operation expense account our general fund account our renewal replacement and our escrow account We do not have any resolutions for a north track Under additional
resolutions we have three The first one it's declaring the authorities's official intent to reimburse itself for expenses for the project uh with I bank money This is a required uh resolution from the Bank of New York and it's to
comply with our bond requirements The second resolution is also a requirement from the Bank of New York It is a supplemental bond resolution that states our increase is not to exceed 5 million
and stipulates the sale to it uh through the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank The third and final additional resolution uh is authorizing us to renew the service agreement with Privatizer Technologies LLC and that is simply the
maintenance on a the machine that does our mailing I I believe it folds or seals envelopes that we mail And that concludes my report chairman Uh thank you
Joe Are there any questions uh for the executive director hearing none let's move on to the next item which is the committee reports I'm sorry uh chairman I'm sorry May I interrupt one second sure I I I also
want to uh highlight that our operations manager uh Scott Nero he's on the meeting here Uh some of his guys got certified recently Uh Scott do you want to talk about that yeah thank you Joe So recently we had a couple guys take the state exam for
their collections license and passed um guys have been uh showing the initiative to further their education in wastewater in the in the wastewater industry which is which is definitely a benefit for the authority Um so uh good things look you know everything's looking positive for
the future Yeah we congratulations Yeah we take a significant initiative in trying to motivate them to study for it take the exam and if you recall we changed the policy here that we want them to go
through the process without any money out of their pocket So when they sign up for a class we pay for it When they take the test we pay for it The only time that changes is if they don't complete the test or they don't complete the the
class or they don't pass the test They got to give that to us back before we're going to pay anything else going forward So far it's going swimmingly and the guys are uh very happy and they're taking the the classes they're taking the test and
passing So it's it's nice and I just want to uh recognize the operation staff for that our congratulations to those who pass the test Yeah And I think it's great that the staff is willing to invest in themselves and it also in the future of
the authority That's wonderful No they're very happy to work here that they take a lot of pride in our work Uh their motto is we're not like the other departments and they're not I mean you know uh you can eat off the floor wherever they work
All right Uh for the committee reports um negotiations and personnel committee Commissioner Schmidt anything to report all right I I can report that
there was a meeting scheduled Um but that got to be cancelled because uh the executive director had us a surprise party in uh Puerto Rico and he was uh taken away from us by his
family So that meeting will be res kidnapped He was kidnapped Was kidnapped Yes Congratulations on your 60th Thank you All right Municipal
liaison Madame Franis we've had several um financial oversight subcommittee meetings and I know that there was a amount that was recommended from the authority to be inserted into the municipal budget
Okay Thank you Construction Um I I do my own visits to the running projects in the evening sometime Uh nothing to report anything right now All right Sorry Ram I couldn't find my
microphone so uh I apologize for that That's okay I figured that Um you you want to add anything Commissioner nope You spelled it out Oh okay Very good Uh safety committee
Yeah there were no accidents or injuries for the month of uh of March I'd also like to add there was a week-long uh uh transfer tech seminar that uh most of our staff including myself attended throughout the week Uh it's all training
uh classes for guys to keep up their collection licenses with the state Thank you Very good Thank you All right Um the next item on the agenda is uh the resolutions Uh the first part
is a consent agenda All of the items listed are considered to be of a routine nature thereby requiring one motion and one second for all items If any member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda please advise the chair
at this time which resolution need to be handled separately they will be addressed and voted on separately So the resolution numbers are payroll account 0412025-1 in the amount of
$145,24253 Operating expense account resolution number 0412025-2 for an amount in the amount of 2,ion499 225.02 The general fund resolution number
0412025-3 that's 1,571,000 017 017.56 renewal and replacement account resolution number 03042025-4 96,677.25 25 And the last one is
correct 0412025-5 in the amount of $8,197 even All right Are there any questions hearing none Is there a motion to approve these resolutions to approve
Okay I'll second it Very good All in favor say I I Any nays do I have to call individual votes on this
ryan that's for you Ryan you're muted All right Do we have to you have to call the role on this one or is it acclamation is okay i'm sorry I was trying I was having trouble unmuting myself Um no no you you
can uh do it by uh you don't have to call the role in this one No Oh okay All right Very good Um so all in favor say I I Any naysay any
abstensions okay the motion carries Okay now we are going to have three indiv individual uh resolutions Resolution number 0401 2025-6 resolution of the Township of
Franklin Suridge Authority declaring its official intent to reimburse expenditures or pro cost from the proceeds of debt obligations in connection with its participation in the New Jersey Water Bank environmental
infrastructure financing program Are there any questions about this particular resolutions okay May I have a motion to approve the resolution then motion to approve Anyone second second I second
Okay Uh this one is a roll call Forget this one's Yes this one's a roll call Right Right Okay Uh Dr Ro roll call please Commissioner and Baronson Yes Commissioner Farugi Yes Commissioner
Francois Yes Commissioner Schmidt Yes That completes the uh roll call Okay The motion carries The next resolution number 0412025-7 supplemental bond resolution
authorizing the issuance of not to exceed $5 million sewer revenue bonds junior lean series 2025 of the township of Franklin Sewage Authority and providing for their sale to the New
Jersey Infrastructure Bank pursuant to the state fiscal year 2025 New Jersey Water Bank Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program Are there any questions discussions about this
resolution hearing none may have a motion to approve the resolution Motion to approve Second [Music] Okay Roll call please
Commissioner Ram Baronson Yes Commissioner Farugi Yes Commissioner Francois Yes Commissioner Okay The resolution is passed The last resolution for the day is number
04012025-8 is a resolution authorizing the removal of an agreement with Privatizer Technologies LLC's Joe what that was for Um is there any
question further question on that okay hearing none May I have a motion to approve the resolution motion to move Anyone any second second
Okay Did I hear a second second Oh okay I'm sorry Um okay Uh call the role please Commissioner Ambonson yes Commissioner Farugi yes Commissioner Francois
yes And Commissioner Schmidt yes Okay the resolution passes Thank you all Uh the next item on the agenda is uh is there is there any open open executive session is there an
executive session today i don't think so Not not for me Mr Chair Okay All right So we'll skip that Um are there any other action items from the meeting
uh okay there's nothing there's no executive session so there's no action items I think we have come to the end of uh the agenda at this time Is there a motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn
I second All right All in favor say I I Any nays okay Motion to adjourn passes All right Thank you all Have a good night Good night [Music]