[Music] thank you good evening everyone calling this meeting to order it is 6:30 p.m dr rose please do the roll call
mr anne Baronson here mr farugi think we lost Mr farugi thank you microphone is not on yeah he's muted mr farugi I'll come back uh Miss Francois muted
and Mr kovac's let me know he would not be joining us this evening miss Davenport here and Chairwoman Ford here okay I'm here also thank you no one cares
councilwoman Francois are you there councilwoman Francois can you hear us she might commissioner Fooi can you hear us franis I can hear you now my my uh laptop was on mute okay you're there for
I have a hard stop today's my mother's 90th birthday and I can't be there with her but I'm hosting a Zoom at 7 so I have to I have a hard stop at 7 okay well there's nothing new or exciting it's just regular business
commissioner 90 years old is pretty uh good yeah my mother's birthday is the same day as Joe's mother's birthday march 4th yeah congratulations to her congratulations to both of you god bless mothers
commissioner Faroogi I saw your hand raised with the little emoji thing so I check I'll put you in [Music] okay please stand say the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to theublic which stands one nation under God indivisible indivisibleible with liberty liberty and justice justice for all you
okay 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 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 a meeting for public comments so move motion to open the meeting okay is there a second
second ram all in favor i any opposed i see the Franklin reporter and advocate here but I don't see anyone else here from the public
with that said is there a motion to close the meeting for public comments second Smith okay all in favor i I any
oppose motions carry now for approval of minutes reorganization board meeting from February 4th 2025 dr roach did you receive my I did i did i've already made that correction
before our meeting so we're good okay um any questions any changes to those minutes i have a couple of comments okay Commissioner Schmidt yeah let me
just get to it on page five we have appointment of the consulting engineer and then on page six it says the chairperson and secretary are hereby authorized and directed to execute the attached contract with CME
Associates unless I'm missing something I don't see an attached contract dr roach was there a contract attached to the original resolution item we do i will check into that they should have
all been attached though so that they would be part of it i will be more than happy to go ahead and send the attachments out so that everybody has a copy well it's not necessarily a matter of sending the attached comments out i mean these minutes are supposed to be
for the public and so the public should be able to see those contracts I believe okay and I have the same point about the appointment of the auditor and which is on page six and
then on page seven it says the attached contract then for the for the B bond council services page 14 and on 15 it says the attached contract
okay i can re I can send them out again and if if uh council uh finds it appropriate then we can uh table them so that I can um have I believe those those contracts were part of the package you sent out and of course they would also
be already on our website is that correct Dr roach i don't recall exactly Joe okay all right well yeah I don't recall exactly we'll make sure we'll satisfy all that commissioner Schmidt you make a very good point well received
as well as they're available for the public to see that's that's important okay what I what I can do is I can send them to our website uh host i can send them out so that they can attach them uh as early as tomorrow thank you yeah glad to do that thank you
all are there any other questions regarding the reorganization minutes and with that said is there a motion to accept those minutes
um pending not pending but with the attachments of the contracts so moved is there a second second
all in favor i I any oppose motions carry regarding the working session regular board meeting minutes of February 4th 2025 are there any questions regarding
those minutes is there a motion to accept the minutes as is moved is there a second second okay all in favor i I any oppose motions carry okay now to
for the executive summary professional reports executive director Thank you Chairwoman okay uh for the uh summary of of projects the executive uh report uh
I'm going to start with the finance platform upgrade and migration this a project that's being entirely managed by Dr roach uh all the aspects are moving forward positively and as expected i I would like to just ask her to give a few
details to the board on it okay uh we are at the a very tail end of the migration under the finance platform uh right now we are bringing a conclusion to uh doing the pro the projects in there escrow and uh and I think we're
we're doing pretty good with that um as far as the utility billing we have a tenative uh date to start the training in May at uh for utility billing and then in June we're looking at a June 1st which will actually be June 2nd for that
Monday go live date so I'll update you at the next meeting if Joe uh would like me to do that but that's where we are we're moving forward with both and and I'll also just remind everybody that uh I'm going to have uh our auditor
uh at the end of everything audit the platform as compared to the old platform so we have uh we know we have an accurate continuity of book uh bookkeeping records okay the high bay garage uh that
project is completed with the exception of the approval from the Delaware Delaware Rarity Canal Commission and that's what's been been uh lingering and in progress for the last year and a half we are working with them on a stream
corridor preservation waiver agreement uh we have uh basically we're going to have to agree with come to an agreement with them to preserve land a certain amount of land equal to the amount that we disturbed and we're either going to
preserve it on our property or we'll ask the owner of the uh detention basement next to us to sell us a preservation easement on that land um and that just means you know whatever gets preserved can never be built on or
disturbed and and it they may require us to improve it like uh plant trees and bushes and so forth so street pump station rehabilitation project um it's really an upgrade project the pump and crane were
were set up there are some min minor outstanding items that are on the punch list the new grinder is in uh production and last week we did conduct a pump startup on uh on the 28th and everything
seems to be uh moving positively forward the Brooklyn Avenue rehabilitation uh project which is cousin to that one uh is going well the manhole to manhole lining is at 66% completed the main to
house lining is at approximately 4% completed and the cured in place uh point repair uh is at uh 12% completed uh we it has been reported that there is
a defective section of pipe lining of approximately 45 ft of lining within an 8 in uh pipe and that defection that defective uh section is going to have to be dug up with a trench in the middle of
the road uh upon further inspection of that road area uh this is a road by the way that uh had work done uh from the water department and that water department put
new pipes in the ground i I believe there's new pipes however there's a defection uh of road work that's basically cracking and crumbling and deteriorating which is not expected
because it's only two years old the road so we're concerned with that because that would probably only happen if one uh they didn't compact the uh the road correctly and the ground is basically falling in like a sinkhole
or worse there's a water leak down there and the water leak is uh creating an erosion pocket and that is creating you know making the the road collapse in any case why why do we care because if we have a trench that's supposed to be 45
ft long and that's right up against this uh defective area of the town the town may try to get us to fix that whole area when really they should have uh they should be fixing it so we uh we went out
there to inspect it me Commissioner Kovac commissioner Farooqi couldn't meet that day but we went out there inspected it we took pictures and so forth and we decided to have another meeting that
involves the uh township um water department or the director of DPW and some of our commissioners and myself and staff to go out there and come up with a a contingency agreement with the town so
um the proper owner of the work is assigned correctly other than that the project's going by smooth and uh as expected um those two projects are under a federal grant being administered by
the county and town for the month of February we have submitted to the county $185,99 giving us a total to the county that we submitted $268,5461 we also submitted to the township under this grant the total of
1,55,699.78 we have yet to receive any of that money but I can assure you we are running after it the Wessed Canal pump station rebuild and move project that's the big project meeting was held in February with
PSENG the access license agreement that was submitted to NJP is still in legal review uh you know we're estimating this will take to the end of November but we are going to take additional steps to rattle their cage to see if we can't get
this um an answer from their legal department sooner and a engineer uh of the project CME um has uh submitted a draft RFA for the NJD flood hazard area and freshwater
wetlands permit acquisition phase services um the next project is a Commerce Drive pump station rehabilitation the shop drawings are still in prog progress and being reviewed by staff and we still
anticipate long lead times for materials uh these lead times were reported and now to be expected shirley Avenue pump station uh upgrade project the attorney uh is performing a title search and getting a
title insurance policy because we are um we intend to purchase a section of that land approximately 20 ft and we want to make sure they have a clean title and that title search gets insured the next
steps on this project once the title search is completed would be to send an offer letter with our documentation under general engineering um the category of New Brunswick the water data was sent to New Brunswick for the 2024
reconciliation flow study number two at Harrison Towers ends in March then after that will be the data review of that flow me uh flow study and flow metering for the New Brunswick interchange manhole hasn't progressed but CME will
be contacted Mr doulus uh of New Brunswick to arrange for its implementation that concludes my project summaries and if you would like chairwoman I can move right on to the executive director report please do
okay thank you the revenue report as of January 31st we received uh checks that were deposited 3,224,6343 which is uh average year to collect year collected we have 14,341,566.74 which is also average
we have an open balance due of non-metered sewage of 10,364,56152 for the month of February penalties generated was $19,195.98 which is uh high above average so I just want to bring to the board's
attention um that this month we are not providing yet an expense report um it's not available today so I'm just interjecting as some
of you know our bookkeeper resigned to take another job uh after six months of working here and that void required us to bring in a temporary bookkeeper that need needed also training and we're in between the Edmonds and the Harris
platform so we couldn't get everything done by tonight which uh would include the finances so uh what I intend to do is to have the expense report generated between now and the next meeting and
I'll send it out and we could also individually report this month's expense reports next month along with next month's expense report so again apologize for the inconvenience but I wanted to uh give you full transparency
why that's not available tonight uh the the next financial report is our cash position effective February 28th 2025 in the category of unrestricted we have
2,678,878.75 under the restricted category we have 14,720,557.14 and under designated we have 4,582,8424 giving us a total net cash position of 21,982,278.13 uh under discussion items
that I've noted uh for our budget the budget uh process does begin this week um our fiscal year budget does begin June 1st and it will you know starting this week uh hopefully we'll be able to
get it um completed before June 1st uh worst case scenario August 1st the user rates uh under that category user rate increase uh I'm I've just marked it as possible and I'll keep the board updated
as we go forward under land acquisition uh we are still in the process of acquiring land from PSCG um and and part of that process includes the land access or acquisition
from NJD for a sliver of land in front of that parcel and also the Shirley Avenue uh pump station which as I reported we are awaiting a title search through the attorney's office i will also note that uh uh we are under the
volunteer firefighter response policy it did uh it is now I submitted it back to the attorney's office for the final legal excuse me legal review and then when that's completed I'm going to uh
sit down and um have all the managers uh review it before its final release under PSNG uh I highlighted that because I would like to everybody note that PSNG rates are going to be going up
approximately 20% maybe as high as 30% this is not only true for us and not only true for the entire state of New Jersey but it's probably true for 13 states including Washington DC so it's
13 states in DC uh you can expect huge electric bill uh rates going up uh starting probably June or July so that will impact uh our operations
budget and I'm going to need to reflect that in our upcoming fiscal year budget um additionally uh that being said I jumped down to connection fees i just um modified that
today and I marked it as they may go up um once we do the financial analysis uh it's absolutely possible they're going to go up under internal uh engineering uh we had uh one connection for the
month and we do expect an increase of connection between now and June um staffing strength and discussion uh I did schedule a personnel committee meeting for Friday with the personnel
committee members um Schmidt and um and Barrison one of the things we'll be talking about of significance is the uh bookkeeping office and possible uh reconfiguration within there
i will note though part of the fill the void of our bookkeeper um leaving employment here is the cross trainining that I instituted uh through uh Dr roach a couple years ago is paying off as one
of our uh billing staff members is now going to be participating in the bookkeeping office as well i reported on the Somerset County and the municipal grants earlier don't have to redo that and all projects are
moving forward as expected uh under standard resolutions tonight uh commissioners uh we have all standard resolutions with the exception of North Track there will be no resolution and under additional resolution we have one and that uh that
resolution is to authorize us to reject uh a public bid and readvertise that public bid for the pump uh replacement for school avenue and chairwoman that concludes my reports thank you uh regarding the committee
reports negotiation and personnel committee is there anything to report not now nothing to report thank you yeah nothing to report we I think as the executive director uh reported out uh we are
meeting with him to go over uh the the personal matters thank you municipal liaison commissioner Francois the uh financial oversight subcommittee of the council has been meeting weekly
to go over the new fisc year budget and we've been discussing um requirements from the sewage authority as well i don't have anything to report at this point but I may have something to report at another meeting thank you
thank you and uh uh Councilwoman Francois uh I have some ideas that uh in that area if you can you will maybe call me after the meeting or some other time like to fill you in okay i'll call you tomorrow thank you okay at your
convenience i I'm sorry i got to drop guys see you okay bye take care happy birthday to your mom and you too Joe
excuse me well I was saying happy birth telling her to say happy birthday to her mom i don't think she heard it and I said "And to you too Joe." Thanks my My birthday's uh not till the 9th but I'll take I was talking about your I was
talking about your mom oh my mom she's in heaven so she hears you okay i don't care about your birthday i care about her okay for the construction committee is there anything to report okay uh the safety committee I don't see that
there are any issues with safety we got no injuries for the month uh chairwoman thank you now for the resolutions the approval of the resolutions will be done by consent agenda all of the items listed
below are considered to be of 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 me at this time which resolutions need to be handled separately and they will be
addressed and voted on separately resolution number one the payroll account $146,11.65 resolution number two the operating expense account $185,21854 resolution number three the
general fund $191,665.83 resolution number four renewal and replacement $164,3364 resolution number five the escrow fund $2,444 is there a
motion to accept these to adopt these resolutions you're waiting for a a motion waiting for a motion to adopt the resolutions yeah I made I make the motion i was trying to unmute my phone i mean the
microphone okay is there a second second that second that all in favor i any opposed resolutions are adopted resolution number six is an additional resolution
it's a resolution authorizing the authority to reject bid and readvertise for the receipt of bids for the school avenue pump replacement project i have I have a I have a question on that
um is there I'm sure there's a valid reason uh can I just some get some background on that executive Director i'm sorry Commissioner what was the question the
I'm sorry go ahead Commissioner and Baron okay now the there's a proposal to reject the bid uh um and then revertise i was just wondering um what transpired with the bid and the reasons to I'd like
to ask Scott Nero to jump in here he's uh expertly positioned to answer that so basically the um the the pump bid that came in the equipment that was submitted was not the direct replacement and or the same manufacturer as we
currently have at the pump station so uh looking at the submitt asked CME for their attention to uh to look at it as well and we basically came up with the same thing some of the dimensions are off uh which means it will not be a
direct replacement um since it is an in-house project uh and our staff would be doing the work it would be simpler if we had the uh same equipment as we currently have um just a newer version uh so that we can just remove and
replace in kind got it thank you Scott you're welcome sir any other questions no with that is there a motion to accept to adopt this resolution okay is there a second i'll second
all in favor i I Any oppose the motion is adopted excuse me the resolution is adopted um is there a motion is there need to go into executive session okay there is not Madam Chair no
okay uh with that um are there any other items that need to be discussed during this meeting i don't have any chair one okay if there's no nothing else to discuss is
there a motion to adjurnn the meeting is there a second don't all jump in at one time okay is there a second i second okay all in favor i
any oppose i doubt it you guys are very fast with the motions to adjurnn that's for sure all right thank you everybody have a great night have a good night folks good night everyone good night
[Music] everybody [Music] heat heat
[Music]