session. Regular meeting of the township council is called to order. This is a non senior meeting, right? Yes. Okay. In accordance with the open public meeting act of the state of New Jersey, adequate notice of this work session
regular meeting of the Franklin Township Council was made as required indicating that this meeting would take place at the municipal building at 700 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025. We're going to stand for the pledge of allegiance and council member Ed Pasnik
will lead us to the invocation. 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.
Let us take a moment. Let's take the few Hold on a minute here. Somehow it's Oh, that's better. Let us take the next few moments of silence to each seek our own way, whatever sources of inspiration will grant us the strength and power in our
thoughts and our decisions to be in the benefit for all people at all times. Amen. Thank you. Madame clerk, please call the role. Councilman Embarrison here. Councilwoman France here. Councilman Karazzi here.
Mayor Kramer. Councilman Oni Jaka. Council member Batazik present. Deputy Mayor Redine present. Councilman Vasinella here. Councilman Wright. Okay. Next on the agenda is accommodations and proclamations. Copies
of the agenda are by the clerk on her table if you need to get the copies of that. We're going to start with Earth Day proclamation by council member Petaznik. He's much taller. So, um, so folks from the environmental co commission, come on up. I see at least three people. Four. There we
go. Come on up. So, happy Earth everyone. Today is a wonderful sort of um blending of a council meeting and Earth Day. And so, I thought it would be really helpful for us to highlight some of the things that we're doing here in Franklin Township thanks to the work of
the environmental commission, members of which are behind me here and doing an outstanding job. And I think on the agenda, we have a presentation about some of the work that's been ongoing from Tara, who I don't see just yet. Um, oh, she's away. So, we're not gonna have
the presentation today. Okay. Oh, we will. You guys are going to do it. Oh, wonderful. The environmental commission will do it. You're doing it. Oh, wonderful. So, um, earlier today on Earth Day, uh, I got to go to Essex County to celebrate the 10 years of the
corporate business tax dedication dedication for open space preservation at the state level, which uh, provided about $2 billion for farmland, forest, parks, and uh, open spaces across the state as well as historic sites. So, that was really exciting. And then I'm happy to be here today in my role on
council. Um, Earth Day is an event that's celebrated every year uh, on April 22nd. Um it was signed into law to recognize that day by President Nixon. Um whereas the township of Franklin recognizes responsibilities to the environmental equity and of our natural
resources and conservation, sustainability and resiliency through strategic planning efforts, education outreach and the development of land use policies and projects. Whereas through its work, the environmental commission and the shade tree commission, which you're going to hear more about, the
advisory boards of health and recreation as well as the open space advisory committee and many other municipal boards and commissions and committees. The township has implemented many environmental and sustainability initiatives and projects, including but not limited to, this is an exciting one here, certification through the
sustainable Jersey program at the silver level since 2016. And former councilman Dr. Ted Chase has been very instrumental in getting that going. The development of the award-winning Franklin Township local health assessment and action plan. The planting of thousands of native
trees through Franklin Township Shade Tree Fund. Thank you, Chairman Cahulie. We appreciate all that you do. Uh annual stream cleanups and community tree sales programming for people of all ages and abilities on local open spaces and
preserves. the preservation of lands that are both agricultural and open space for habitat preservation and protection and the enhancement of our tree canomy canopy and lastly here designing and installing green infrastructure strategies um at at municipal properties to help reduce
flooding. Whereas the township of Franklin is dedicated to bettering our earth and advancing principles of sustainability, resiliency, and environmental stewardship by hosting educational and outreach efforts such as expanding the network of electric vehicles, reducing the single-use
plastics, increasing the practice of food composting, cleaning our local water bodies, and more. and amending the municipal ordinance to increase our tree canopy, reduce light pollution, and increase the generation of clean electricity, making sustainability,
resiliency, and health the cornerstone of all the projects and policy. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed the township of Franklin and here in Somerset County on April 22nd that we celebrate annually Earth Day. Be it further proclaimed that
the township of Franklin in Somerset commits to continued work in achieving environmental equity, environmental stewardship, pollution prevention and mitigation, sustainability, resilience as a standard practice in all of our projects and our policies and our programs. And that comes from myself and
the mayor who couldn't be here tonight um because he um little time change from his international travels. I think he bit off more than he could chew um flying in and thinking he would be ready for today. And those of you who have done that from across the pond know it's difficult. So, um, he wasn't able to make it tonight, but um, you know, he wanted to be here and say thank you to
everybody and we'll have a presentation a little bit later, but on the but you know, I get to go to those meetings and I can tell you they're reviewing a lot of plans. Um, every project that comes before the zoning board, they're making comments on it. It's quite an undertaking. There's a lot going on in our town, 47 square miles, and they're
spending a lot of time. So, on on this Earth Day, we just want to appreciate everyone for the things they're doing. Um, I know the shade tree commission is next, so you guys will get a chance to stand up here, but thank you. Great job. Who wants to keep it? You going to do the presentation? Okay, great.
Easy. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Arbor Day Proclamation. Council member Vasa. Did you get that? Thank you. Yes. Okay. I'm going to ask Chairman Gilholi to come up. Uh Mr. Goi is our chairman
of our shade tree commission as you heard like the environmental commission very busy with a lot of things and everything trees. So it might be the same one as last year but I think it's worth reading again. Arbor Day
proclamation. Whereas in 1872, Jay Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees where the holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees that year. And
whereas National Arbor Day is celebrated annually in April by communities nationwide as a time to promote the benefit of trees. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, lower our heating and cooling cost, moderate temperatures, clean the air, sequester
carbon, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuels for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our township increasing increased property
value enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community. And whereas trees wherever they are planted or a source of joy and spiritual renewal. And whereas the township of Franklin has recognized the value of trees by creating a shade tree commission to promote tree conservation
and planting and maintaining uh trees on public properties throughout the township. Whereas in a 2016 proclamation, the township of Franklin adopted a tree canopy cover goal of 42% to preserve and increase its valuable tree canopy. And whereas the
township of Franklin has been a proud Tree City USA for over 23 years. And whereas the Sha Tree Commission in partnership with the Franklin Township Board of Education will host an Arbor Day event on Friday, that's this Friday, uh, April 25th, 2025 at the Township
Gazebo, which is right out in front of Municipal Building. It's a beautiful place. Please come for that ceremony. Now therefore, we James Dustinelli, I councilman and Philip Kramer, the mayor of the township of Franklin of County of Somerset and great state of New Jersey,
do hereby proclaim Saturday and the entire council do pro do hereby proclaim Saturday the 26th of April, 2025 as Arbor Day in the township of Franklin and urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands for this and
future generations. There's a lot about Arbor Day. Um, I'll let Mr. Goi um say a couple words. He's going to be given a report uh uh highlighting uh the role of Sha Tree Commissions, lots of it projects. So, he may be short here, but
I did want him to mention about Arbor Day. And just in general, there's so many things out there that we do and things you can buy and a lot of high-tech stuff. At the end of the day, though, trees is something that's accessible usually at a reasonable price um for everyone. and whatever you could
do to plant trees. There's also the proper maintenance that comes with it and we want to keep them alive and healthy. But um when planted in the proper place, trees really are truly uh kind of like a blanket. I don't want to
say solution, but helpfulness to all things conservation, environmental. So please uh consider coming out for Arbor Day and in general think about trees. Mr. Ghoulie Oh, thank you, Mr. Vasinella. I think uh
you hit all the the major parts, which is that trees are an important part of our environment. They give back a lot of uh uh shade as you said, property value increases, oxygen, they absorb carbon. So, they're they're a great asset. They need to be cared for. We work very closely with open space and with
environmental and with the council, our partners in DPW and engineering to uh put more trees in the ground, keep the ones we've got, and replace the ones that we need to. So, more details coming up in our update on the for the council, but uh thank you for all your support. Next, um I would like to make a
motion to amend the agenda and add council discussion item, which is the number eight. Second the motion. Thank you. So, the first thing we have is environment. Oh, I'm sorry. Roll
call. Yeah. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Say nay. Okay. Carried forward. We have environmental commission report. No, we're moving it. We're going to do
that first. Stan, just make sure the mic is close to you. You can you can stand this way facing us. Yeah. Yeah. This has to be really close to it. Okay. Um good evening. Um um it is my
privilege to be here on behalf of uh of Franklin Township Environmental Commission. My name is Daniel Raj and um um it's because Tara Kenyon who is our consultant, she's not available today and our chair uh Paul Witzki and vice
chair Robin Sudam, they are not available. So the commission uh decided that I will present it. So it's it's really my privilege. Uh and because I am so much environmental, I don't print and I'll try to read everything from the screen. Um so, uh some of it that that
I'm going to say was already sad because of uh of deputy mayor uh Patasnik. Uh so, um our environmental commission is here is is working to preserve and protect our precious natural resources
and quality of life in all parts of township. One of those things uh that we do is that we review and provide feedback on site plans. We advise, inform and educate municipal committee, staff and the public about environmental legislation, natural resources
conservation, clean energy generation, sustainability, resiliency, and more. We advocate for environmental protection, sustainability, and equity. And we act. We do act. We maintain sustainable Jersey certification, hold education and
outreach events, support environmental legislation and other causes. We create and participate in public outreach events, master plan elements, municipal ordinances, etc. We have four committees, site plan, review committee,
education and outreach, communications and energy and infrastructure. There are nine of us and we do have some volunteers. We are very grateful for the volunteers. We meet uh twice a month, every first and uh third Monday and last
year we had 22 meetings. Among our accomplishments in uh 2024 is uh we had 34 site plan reviews. Uh we were using green
checklist uh to that effect that we developed on every application. And some of the comments that uh we submit, they include requirements for solar ready roof space on warehouses, requirements for EV charging
stations, including charge ready for warehouses for trucks, installation of pvious pavements, installation of anti-ing signage, installation of bike racks and simple bike repair stations and use of native plants for landscaping and
buffering. We conduct annual stream cleanup. Last year it was on April 13th. Uh we did a series run. We collected 750 pounds of garbage, 285 pounds of recyclables and
over 100 volunteers participated. This event was coordinated along with the lower Roritan watershed partnership with Americaore watershed ambassador program and uh this year we were doing cleanup in my run and for that we
partner with New Brunswick environmental commission. Completion of the Franklin Township community energy plan and the Franklin Township micromobility study is another thing that was accomplished last year.
$10,000 funding was awarded to the township by the NJBPU and we used that money to uh develop the community energy plan. Environmental commission agreed to do more work on the community energy plan following the templates available
and resources we already had in order to better allocate the grant funding. And the microbobility study identified two priority routes to move people from the eastern side of the township towards the municipal building using existing
trails, connections to public transportation and important destinations. We launched uh the save the mo till earth day which was mo motivated by no more may in our jurisdiction in our geography. uh we
figured that it has to be done earlier in the year. This is all volunteer program to promote habitat for butterflies, insects, birds and other pollinators by delaying mowing on a section of people properties until April
22nd. We have numerous education and outreach events. We have film screenings. We had like three screenings last year and we do partner with other organizations like Montgomery uh environmental commission and Hillsboro green team and we invite uh our
residents to uh to each other program. We have information sessions on EV charging the green unmen. We have tableabling at Franklin High School green fair day and more. We promote home energy efficiency programs
through PSCNG with our new website and materials from sustainable Jersey. We have social media posts throughout the year and we have new and improved logo for environmental commissions. Uh the goal uh the goals
for this year are uh food composting pilot with canal work residents. We are very excited about it because the program is run by by students uh the the new generation. Um we are also applying for
sustainable Jersey silver certification as uh uh had mentioned. Um and uh also actually in the health category we are applying for the gold certification. We are very proud of
that. We are finalizing uh recommended amendments to the tree ordinance. Um and we assist we are assisting the planning board with the development of sustainability elements and the required climate change related
hazards and vulnerability assessment. We are implement we implement projects from the local health assessment and action plan, community energy plan and micromobility study. And we do continue to partner with municipal
boards, commissions, committees as well as outside groups and among them is trail advisory committee, recreation, board of education, lower right and wershed partnership and and the others um and
also New Jersey Electric Vehicle Association. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Next we have shade tree commission report. Thank you Amory. Thank you. Uh council members. Uh my name is Steve Galuli. I'm
the chair of the Franklin Township Shade Tree Commission and I thought we'd come back here. We haven't been back to you in a couple years. just to give you an update on what we've been doing with trees and how we're doing against our goals for this year and what our goals are coming up for the next couple of years. So, as you know, our commission is uh made up of volunteers. Um we're
appointed by the township manager, Mr. Borlocker. Generously lets us do this work. Uh we're established by ordinance to take care essentially take care of the trees and shrubs on public property in the township of Franklin. We don't have anything to do with private property or the school uh properties.
We are just an advisory just we're just an advisory board for preservation and expansion of tree canopy in Franklin Township and we have uh advanced training in shade tree management and urban forestry management through uh the state uh D and through Ruckers urban forestry. What we're not we're not
certified tree experts. We're not arborists. We're not tree inspectors or enforcers and we're not the controllers of any funds. Uh we have the shade tree fund as you know but we do not allocate the funds from that. We make recommendations for that, but th those uh expenditures go through the township
staff. What we do is we promote conservation and stewardship of trees throughout the township by advising township officials regarding planning, care, and maintenance of trees on township owned and controlled lands. We maintain the town's community forestry plan and its continued accreditation. We monitor the township's tree inventory
and tree management plans. We contribute with the environmental commission and open space to the documentation for sustainable jersey certification and the public health assessments that we've done. We assist township residents to increase awareness of the benefits of trees and provide advice and information regarding selection, planting and care
for trees that are already in their properties. We work with the department of public works to plan, plant, and maintain trees in the public rights of way. We work with environmental open space to address any issues that come up related to our tree canopy. We work with planning and zoning to encourage developers to preserve, improve, and
replace trees that are impacted by projects in the township. We maintain all of our training records and we work to secure grants to pay for all of this stuff. We also now this year we're starting to work with grant funding opportunities with the board of education. There's some new funds that I'll mention later coming available from
the state. So, a few things we've done in the since we've been here last to give you an update. Uh, I'm very proud to say that the Shade Tree Fund funded and planted over 155 trees on Hamilton Street in partnership with Township Engineering, DPW, and the Hamilton Street District to complete the plans
that were started back in 2016. And if you drive down Hamilton Street, I think you'll see now it's a very different view, especially as you get past some of the parking areas and some of the new construction. Now you're seeing trees that are blossoming instead of just sidewalks and parking lots. We're going to continue that plan on other streets
in the township in years to come. We planted over 30 trees on uh Ridings Parkway in the southern end of the township in response to community requests. We added 40 new trees to JFK Boulevard to replace some that had passed away. Uh all at no cost to the township. That was uh done through a
partnership with uh one of the utility companies that had to replace some trees. We restarted our annual tree sale where we make trees available uh mature trees available to township me uh residents at our wholesale cost. We work with experts to develop an updated tree inventory as part and supporting our
renewed community forestry management plan and tree health uh focusing on wards four and five. And we just received our tree city designation for the 23rd uh year in a row from the Arbor Day Foundation. We worked uh we had a special project this year. One of our newer members worked with Ruters
Forestry to complete an inventory of the Hutcherson Memorial Forest off of Aml Road. They contributed data to the state's heritage tree inventory. That forest now as a result of that inventory and some of the work that they're doing at Ruters has been uh accepted into the old growth forest network as one of the
three oldest forests in the United States. There are trees back in the back of that forest that have not been touched since the early 18th century, some of the late 17th century. Some of the largest trees of their species in the whole state of New Jersey are right there on Emel Road back in the
Hutcherson forest. We're working with Township Engineering to update the tree the fee that is in the ordinance for tree replacement. If you recall a couple years ago, the the council uh increased the fee for developers to replace trees that are removed as part of their uh work uh up
to be a market price. What we found since then is the market price for trees as you can imagine has increased substantially as as a lot of things have in this world. Um, so we need to keep the ordinance up to date with that so that the cost of replacing those trees uh and the funds that go into the tree fund represent the actual cost of
replacing a tree. We're doing uh much better with uh our annual reports with the state of New Jersey and the Arbor Day Foundation to maintain our accreditation. We're doing better coordination with our DPWTS DPW teams that specialize in tree care. Uh Connor and his team are just absolutely
amazing. These guys have advanced certifications and skills and equipment to maintain the trees along our roadsides and and uh uh roadways. And if you've ever noticed as you drive when you see one of those Nixl alerts that a tree branch has fallen in the road and you see that the tree has been cleared in an hour, that's Connor and his crew
out there working very very hard. Uh we're also working with the township to enforce uh to support enforcement success when there have been a couple of illegal tree removals in the town. Uh those are more sensitive matters, so I won't be able to go into those, but Mr. Born locker can give you those updates if you want. And and here's why this
stuff matters. Honestly, uh back in 2016, as we mentioned, the township passed an uh a canopy goal uh of 42% coverage. That means that at that point in time, there was 39% of the township was covered by trees. The goal was to increase that 3% up to 42% uh to try to
get more greenery in the township for all the benefits that we've talked about with trees. Unfortunately, since then, starting at 39%, we are down to around 36.5%. The latest numbers we have from the state are from 2023. To put that in perspective, that means we've lost the
equivalent of 156 acres of tree coverage since 2017. And to give you a sense of what 156 acres is, that's five times the size of Middle Bush Park. So, we're planting all those trees. We're working very hard, but we're kind of losing ground. We're work we're going to work
on larger projects to try to gain on that. But but the key to all of this is going to be preserving the trees that we have in the spaces that we can preserve. Uh so some of the other benefits as you know of trees neighborhoods with trees are 7 to n degrees cooler than those without. Trees
reduce energy cost by up to 25% by shading buildings in the hot years and allowing sun to come through in the cold months rather. Uh generally speaking, 15 trees will offset a human being's total carbon uh contributions. Uh trees and landscape plantings impact property values with a
4 to 5% increase in value and 20% increase in sellability in neighborhoods with mature trees. So that's why we plant trees, not just for the health, but also for the economic improvements for our town. And so coming up this year, we're going to focus on a few new things. We're going to continue to
preserve and replace the trees uh that we have. We're going to focus on some of the more developed areas in our towns to reduce heat islands, urban tree deserts, and lack of green canopy. Focusing on wards four and five with our updated uh community forestry management plan. We're beginning with a tree inventory in
those areas this spring. Actually, it's underway right now. Uh that data is going to contribute to the uh both the sustainable Jersey reports, but also this is a reflection of what we learned from the health assessment that the town did. What we found was that we needed to add more trees in the areas of town that
are most densely populated in order to offset some of the negative health effects that we saw in that study. So we focused on that this year in partnership with Mr. Vornlocker and the town. Uh it's really nice to see that we did a study, we saw some results and then we all coordinated on taking some actions to try to mitigate those negative
effects that we were seeing in the study. We're adding more. We're going to add more trees to schools and parks. We're going to partner with the board of education. Uh the D, the state D has made funding available to plant trees on school properties. The school department can apply for those funds. We're going
to support them in those applications by recommending what kind of trees, how to plan for the tree plantings, and how to achieve uh the right information in those applications so they can get the funds uh and start putting trees on school properties. Um so we'll we'll be advisers to that. That's not something we can do directly through the
DPW. Uh we're going to continue to update. This is the year we have to file a new copy of our urban forestry management plan. So, we'll do that with uh the Ruters organization at the end of the year. We're updating our tree maintenance programs and tree maintenance standards for the town so that we'll have documented standards. Whenever someone needs to put a tree in
the ground, there'll be a guide that tells them how to do it and what the what the ultimate perfect tree is going to look like in Franklin Township. And we're going to continue to work on the things that we're we're challenged by in Franklin. As I mentioned, we're losing some trees. says, you know, there whenever there's development going on, whenever there's someone in town that decides to take down some trees in their
yard, we're going to continue to focus on public awareness, public education to try to make people aware of the value of trees and how to get new trees and what trees are appropriate for the climate in this area of the country. Uh we're going to increase public awareness of tree planting and uh tree uh
availability, increase our sorry, lost my place here. Continue to increase our uh cooperation and coordination with the DPW and engineering to plant and maintain the trees that we already have. and we're going to work with uh the planning and zoning boards to try to help make our developers and property owners more aware of the value of trees
and to preserve them wherever possible. So, thanks very much. It's been a busy couple of years, but we have a dedicated group of volunteers. One of our members is here in the back. Uh he's been on Bob has been on the board on the commission a lot longer than even I have. And uh we're looking forward to another busy
year this year. Thank you. Thank you. Now we're at uh item number six, public discussion. Do we have a motion to open to the public? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Oppos say no. We have five minutes. No yielding of time. Come up once only. Discuss
anything related to government. You may come up now. Good evening. Uh, Michael Bryan, 40 Brian Court. Uh, I have cons I have some concerns about the increased uh, truck traffic on Schoolhouse Road. Uh,
recently we were getting about 50 tandem dump trucks a day hauling dirt to a to a construction site. I called the police department and they referred me to the traffic division. That was on March
27th. I left a message for the traffic division to call me back on that day. I did not hear from them for four days. So I decided to call them on March 31st. I left a message again. No call back. On April 2nd, I
called again and I got a I told them I was unhappy that they were not responding to my calls and I finally got a call back. Uh the call back did not make sense to me. Most of the things the ladies said I
totally didn't understand. So I decided I'm going to go to the police station and hopefully I could speak to somebody and get everything clarified. So I went to the police station. There's no receptionist and the lady in the tax collector's office gave me the uh number
for the traffic division. I called and I left a message. I'm still waiting for a call back. So, I decided to get my questions answered, I'll come to the town council.
Uh I when I spoke to the woman at the traffic division, the only time I spoke to somebody, I asked her when the cameras are going up that the town council said they were putting on schoolhouse road. She said to me, "We know nothing about cameras." Secretary,
we know nothing about cameras. And that's kind of strange that the traffic division knows nothing about cameras. I question the signs. There's a sign on Schoolhouse Road in the corner of
Randolph heading toward the canal that says no trucks over four li over four tons allowed. The sign coming from the canal on Schoolhouse Road has been removed. There's a sign on the on
Western Canal Road heading toward Manville that says, "No trucks of over four tons, no left turn permitted. Coming the other way, there's a sign that absolutely makes no sense to
me. It says trucks." Hold on. Trucks over four tons access to schoolhouse road ahead. I don't know what that means. I wish somebody could tell me what that means. Uh the woman I spoke to have no
idea where the uh restrictions for trucks over four tons are on schoolhouse road. How could the traffic department not know that? So my questions are
what happened to the ca cameras. What are the boundaries for the limit of four ton trucks? And I'd like to see a copy of the ordinance that that says where trucks
are allowed. I was told by this lady they could go through that uh restricted area to make local deliveries. I don't know what local deliveries are. I like the legal definition of the term local deliveries. It's getting worse as the
more warehouses are built. The trucks uh it's nonstop and the town is doing nothing to suppress the situation. You get your answer when you're we're all done. Everyone's done. No, not when
you're done. when everyone at the public is done your question. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Uh Norman Roberts, 15 Benjamin Street. I could not have asked for a better introduction by the prior speaker for my
comments. I attended the planning board re uh meeting recently where there was a discussion introduction of the new ordinance ordinance or the updated ordinance on warehouses. I had several questions. I came to this podium and I
was told that my when I started my questions and the word traffic came up, I was told that basically I should stand down. They're not relevant to the meeting that night. But I do believe that with the members of this council
come dealing with the upcoming vote on the new ordinance, they should have these questions and answers in a concrete way from the planning board. Uh the my understanding of the traffic study which the town spent a great deal
of time and effort on was that the result by the consulting firm was there were a number a large number of failing intersections that could not handle traffic.
and the consultant had said that one solution might be to reroute traffic to local streets, but there did not seem to be an answer at that point. So my question with regard to this new ordinance is how does this
ordinance integrate the traffic study uh and reviewing the ordinance and listening to the discussion or discussions at these meetings. I don't really see where there is an integration of the two. Uh as the prior speaker mentioned, there are a lot of traffic
issues and I was told by when I used that word traffic, I was told very abruptly by Mr. Orsini that if I have any traffic questions, call the police department. Well, the prior gentleman
indicated that uh that's not always the solution. But I think in a much broader sense before we adopt a new warehouse ordinance that does kind of embrace small and midsize warehouses, we have to
have an answer as to how does the traffic study integrate with this ordinance. Uh I also wanted to ask and I think there should be an answer as to why the study does not attempt in any
way to deal with warehouses built on spec that if a warehouse is being approved I think it would be tremendously helpful to know what the end use of it is. Uh, also I wanted to uh ask I did not get
the opportunity what was the segue to go from the prior ordinance which prohibited warehouses in the township to an ordinance where we now have a broad acceptance of a large number of warehouses.
And in reviewing the ordinance, I did not see although there was a mention and definition of fulfillment centers, uh the fulfillment center issue and the large volume of traffic was not really addressed in terms of some kind of carveout or special treatment. Uh it
seemed to me just in reviewing it that if they qualified under the square footage requirement and several other requirements, then a fulfillment center would be okay. So you know we wind up in a situation where we have a very very
intense traffic study concluding there are many many problems with the existing warehouses as well as warehouses that have approved around the pipeline let alone a new ordinance that does in a sense embrace new warehouses coming to
the town. So I don't expect answers tonight from any of you. I'm not soliciting answers, but I do think that it's imperative that before passing this ordinance that you ask these questions and get really concrete, strong answers
as to why this ordinance is addressing the pro problems that have been raised over and over again. I thank you for your time. Hello, council. Doc Cunningham, 11 style court. Excuse me. Wanted to stop by and share an update on the upcoming civics
forum set for May 29th, 700 p.m. at the right here in the in the council chambers. The uh as you know the two headline speakers are uh Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman and uh New Jersey Senator Corey
Booker. I uh wanted to um Sean Heb and I are working from an actions items list and so I won't go over the list now but I'll mention a couple of things that we have already
kicked off. For example, we provided a link to a Google doc that all the participants can view and get a sense for what the program of events will be like. And for example, we're asking uh
township manager varner and u mayor Kramer to kind of open things up after the anthem is sung by a high school student, a ROC high school student from uh Franklin High School. I want to uh
quickly thank Councilman Karazzi and Vasinella who have provided us some information to help us connect with the community so folks are aware of this civics's forum and it's a two-part
strategy. One is we're inviting people to attend in person obviously because we want to fill uh fill the building and and I'm not sure and I think Sean is going to be meeting with uh uh with township manager on this. I'm not sure if overflow is something we need to be
concerned about, but it's just something that uh I mentioned to him when we had our last conversation. So, it's a two-part strategy to invite folks here, but we also recognize there are those who might not physically be able to make it here. So, we're also encouraging
folks to organize watch parties where they can view it amongst family and friends. and uh we're making some headway uh with that. And again, thanks to uh Councilman Karazzi and Councilman Vasin. The last thing I want to share is
there are a number of upcoming events in the township and in central New Jersey that I think uh would be helpful in getting the word out. I for example I believe there's a there's an a power an
energy town hall tomorrow. Uh that's something that we would like uh the opportunity to get the word out. So whether that means having flyers to hand out there or having a minute or two where where where someone can uh make
mention of the upcoming event so the so the community aware is aware. There's also a town hall in North Planefield that Bonnie Watson Coleman is is hosting and that's something I also uh uh plan to attend. So, I'm sharing all of that
to say this. When I when I when we plan to attend these events, we're not going there necessarily as if we're representing the council. But since this is event, this event is supported by and made possible by the council, I think it would be great for someone to be there.
And I plan to as best as I can attend some of those events. So if the council can assist us in getting copies of the flyer that we can whether share at tomorrow's energy town hall, at at a future event at the high school, a
future town hall uh being held by Bonnie Watson Coleman. Uh we'd appreciate it. Thank you. Debbie Stewart. Debbie Stewart to Farington Plaza. Um, getting back to warehouses. I've kind of lost track of
time and how things have moved along since the ordinance of no warehouses, whatever it was actually called. And I know we had Rahm and Sheepa to our community the other day and I posed the question, what happened to that
ordinance? Why couldn't we stick with that? Now, I don't know all the details in the new ordinance. I think the simple answer was we could we can't do that. It just is not feasible. It was not an ordinance that could work. So, my
question really was why did we put that ordinance into effect to begin with? There has to be maybe not all of you, but I would say some of you probably understood it wasn't an ordinance that could work. So I'm just what basically
I'm asking why did we do that to begin with if we thought it could not work and will the new ordinance is any of this going to go to the zoning board? Do they still have to go to the zoning board or it's just going to go to the planning board? I
kind of lost the details. That's it. Thank you. Jan Jan Brandt, uh, 22 Bryant Court. and kind of to tag along about um what Debbie was saying. So with the um uh with this new ordinance going on. So
uh I guess it was maybe about a month ago and the mayor Sheepa I was there. There were some residents from Canal Walk. Councilman I mean um Assemblyman uh Joe Danielson was there and pretty much you know testified of how these
warehouses in Franklin have been a um there's been so many things about them that are hazardous to our community and um and so you know and and saying that they there just needs to be more done about it. And then when we have this, I
guess it's going to be next week on the 29th on Tuesday, which really hasn't been advertised. I just happen to know that this ordinance is going to be presented on the 29th because I was at the planning board meeting. But um you know, people in the community don't really know that you all like I was at a
meeting today at Canal Walk and I told the people at the meeting, did you you know, I have to go to the council meeting tonight to talk about this. Did you all know that the I guess it wasn't a no warehouse ban, but it was where warehouses for development had to go to the zoning board. And a lot of people
don't realize that this is being taken away. And not only is it being taken away, also it's um you know some of the things where it's only 200 feet away from a development is um really unacceptable. And I know Debbie asked the question about um you know why was
it there in the first place? And I when I attended one of the planning board meetings where the traffic person spoke about it, he said that it wasn't sustainable because of uh lawsuits going on. And I know I I go to the lawsuit site and I check and the last lawsuit
against the planning board or the township is uh B9 Schoolhouse from a couple years ago. There really hasn't been any new warehouses. There was there was one um Lion um but I believe that that was given permission, but there hasn't been any new lawsuits that are on the New
Jersey court site against the township planning board or the the township council since B9. So, I'm I'm I'm not sure why it's not sustainable. And um just so everybody knows like right now
6,443,567 square feet of warehouses in Franklin Township have been built or are in the process of being built and 749,000 have been approved but haven't been built yet. And then there's over a million that have completed
applications. And that's just this is a list that Mark Healey sent me um of what's going on with the the present warehouses. So, it's just mind-boggling that we had a traffic expert come to our community and say that once the ones,
and I'm not talking about the ones that haven't been built or approved yet, just completed applications, but pretty much the the traffic experts said that um once the ones that have been approved and will be built, that all the traffic
intersections are going to be at an F. And an F means that it's going to be standstill traffic. And um and right now it it's pretty bad. So, you know, we were led into believe that this traffic expert was going to help us with the situation with the warehouses and all.
However, now they're taking away something. And I remember the mayor was running for reelection um when they came up with that ordinance that Debbie was asking, you know, why did it get taken away? Um the township of Mansville, Burlington County, actually had 5.1
million square feet of warehouses um in their township and they realized that this was affecting their community. And um and I'll I'll give this to the deputy mayor afterwards, but they actually developed an ordinance to say, "Let's hold off." They didn't have a no warehouse ban or anything like that, but
they said, "Hey, let's hold off. let's not build anymore and let's see how the present situation with what we have going on on the docket is going to affect our community and all and and that makes more sense to me, you know, to follow a model like that. Why have it
that, you know, you're that we're going to keep on building and keep on building and we already know we're in a bad spot? Talk about taking away trees. you know, the the warehouse that's um that was built behind the shop, right? I think it's 1,600 trees were taken down for
that. And I want to tag along to, you know, what Norman said also. We don't even, you know, there's warehouses that are empty, you know, as far as, you know, just giving people permission to build warehouses. You know, they're building them and they don't even know who's going to be occupying them. and
the way the um you know right now warehouse the warehouses rentals are definitely um they're not what they used to be as far as people are dying to get them. They're really going to be less so of a a commodity. So, thank you.
No, give it clerk. That's her job. Good evening, uh, council. Been a while for me. Shirley Tolman, 57 Tolman Lane, and I really don't have anything prepared, but I just
wanted to comment about enough has been said about the warehouses and I certainly agree with everything that has been said and I think you owe us some answers. Okay. Whether that comes from the planning board through you or
directly to us from the planning board, you owe us some answers. But I want to talk about metlers because um when someone previous to me brought up the issue about the cameras, I haven't forgotten the
cameras. Manager, you yourself said to me at this podium very directly, you said PS&G is going to put the things up. Mhm. Well, I called PSEG. It's been a while. They said, "We don't even know what the heck you're talking about,
lady." Okay. So, end of that story. But maybe maybe a crazy wild idea that I had one evening sitting at home listening to those trucks going down because evidently something happened on the
interstate and they had to go around and take some shortcuts to avoid being held up on the interstates. They're coming down metlers. The only thing, forget the signs. The signs are
not going to work. Forget the signs, people. The signs aren't going to work. Okay. What I'm wondering is, could we build an attractive
structure that they cannot pass under? You know how I got that idea, manager? Going through Manville. Fire truck. Yeah, Manville did it. But they didn't have to build a structure.
They had one, right? I think a train goes over it or used to. And I'm not saying we have to build anything like that, but you know, Metlers is a very special place. We know that. So why not? I mean, I'll be happy
to have a rendering done to get your input to hopefully get your approval, but don't tell me no because you don't have any better ideas, do you? Okay, that's it. That's all I've got to
say. Benjamin Guy, 35 patent drive. Um just wanted to bring up something highlights just so that we know what uh sometimes we pay for. Uh as I stated before um you got a workforce program that you're doing in the um school district which is doing for the kids and one for adults.
The next cohort for the uh adults will be probably in May. Um I'll get more details to release that. But the current program that they're actually doing um just in case everybody wants to know cuz I don't see it ever highlighted here or brought up at the town council meeting. Um, so the things that are being taught
at the uh workforce program for people that might be interested or need special skills that live in the city of uh uh or the township of Franklin, which is uh they do CPR aid, they actually do uh OSHA 30 training uh basic uh basic safety for construction skills and
actually confined space. And then there's a civil uh civil construction program uh civil construction portion that's actually there. So this is open to residents actually if you live in Franklin Township. So, this is sponsored by the town council and um it's offered to uh people that might be in or out of work during this period of time frame.
So, I'm just leaving that open to to all residents so that they know that because um in order for the uh this to be used properly, we need to actually explore and advertise this and market it right and sometimes it's not done by the people we put in place to actually do it. So, I just want to bring this up and I'm just going to keep highlighting
that. Second thing is uh this is for township manager just because I didn't get a response from um response from uh Vince Dominic. I was just trying to find out because I missed the meeting um from the last uh uh Hamilton Street board meeting that we actually had for uh we had an open forum meeting that was here for a study that we were supposed to do.
I think it was March 12th. Um I didn't get the report. So I was just trying to see whether or not you can um you can actually get that uh you can actually uh contact Mr. Dominic. I contacted him twice to actually get it, but I didn't get the report from that meet from that open meeting during that time frame. And I'm not sure why. So I was just asking
you talking about Okay. So that's fine. What study are you talking about? Well, it was supposed to be a public forum study that we actually had openly here that was open to the public. Um, one of the town council can probably comment on it after I finish, but there was supposed to be open forum uh meeting that was here and we were supposed to have a a study meeting. Uh, uh, what's
the name? Vasinella could probably comment on it after we finish. That's something. So that's fine. Um, the second port the next portion that I actually want to do is um just bring up because it's getting summertime and springtime. I know we're parks and wreck is actually uh going to be putting programs out. I was trying to see if they're going to highlight them and come
out to one of these count council meetings to actually direct people on how to sign up for the programs because that is something sometimesformational wise it doesn't get passed down to the community and it's we should probably publicly push that out more and more because if we're trying to keep the residents keep the kids active and keep
them off the streets this will be actually activities that we I think they should be a highlighting at these town council meetings also as they push that out. So that that is another thing. um uh state appropriations. This is a real key key thing that that I actually talk about. Um because we create these forums
in the town council. Sometimes we get uh the reason why we don't get money and we don't get support the way we do from either state senators, state assembly people or what have you is because we hide when we need have needs or we hide when we get money from state people to hide out what programs we actually get that that are supportive. So, I'm asking
for certain programs that the town council is supporting and get money get money from state people whether or not it's state assembly, state state uh state senators or anybody else. Those reports should be done at this reported meeting so that the public knows what they can do because in order for you to keep those programs going, you have to
have numbers. And if the public doesn't know what you're doing, they're not going to be able to support those programs and keep you keep getting funding to actually keep going. So, that is a key indicator that is actually being done. And sometimes we we don't highlight those enough at this specific portion of the town council meeting to actually highlight these things and the
public doesn't know so the public can't support it so that funding will go away because the whole portion in government is that if you don't use it you lose it and that is a key that's a key indicator that we actually do. So, we need to start doing that and holding our people that are directors or accountability partners to highlight those specific
things to put these out in the public so that we can continue to get funding because as these budgets get closer and closer and we get tax appropriations and raise and got to raise taxes. The only way to offset that is to get other money orever other revenue tax you pay for certain things so that the government doesn't have so our local government doesn't have to pay for them. So, we
don't do that. So, again, that's one of the things I want to just say that we should highlight that more because Franklin is growing. it will continue to grow because we have to build more more housing units as there as Councilman Wright and uh Ram is actually doing now is that we have to we're mandated to actually do more affordable housing in
this area anyway. So again those things have to come about but to offset taxes we need to do something else to actually bring in other revenue at a certain time frame and we need to look at that as we go along. So that is thing and the last portion I just want to know is that we we have a cannabis tax that is here. I
just want I know the CRB or whoever else is managing this. I just want to know what programs we actually are um going to be using that for and designating that for in the future. So that's about it. Thank you. Yes, correct. Everybody benefits.
Hello Sophia George's Three Hunters Crossing Road. Um, I wanted to get some more clarity on the property tax assessments. Um, I'm a real estate broker, so I get this question a lot. Um, people would like to know what's
going to happen to our property taxes. Are we going to be paying more money? We got our little white card assessments and some of the increases were obscene. Okay. And I noticed the land increased, you know, significantly in some of them.
Um, so my question to the uh council here is what is going to happen to our tax rate because I know that we all would love our homes to be worth a lot of money, right? But at the same time, we want responsible budgeting. Um, and
in and when that happens, our tax rates should actually come down. So that's my question is will our tax rates be coming down? um which does lead into the conversation I know this evening where we're looking to appropriate a lot more money to the town. So that's a question
that I have in in this scenario where we want our tax rates to come down. Why are we not trying to make more responsible budgeting in order to keep our taxes as even as possible for to make Franklin a better place to live, right? To have everybody want to move here. We don't
want to have an affordability problem here, right? Um, also I would like to know if we can get more transparency in the data, how the data to support those increases came about. I know I do it on a daily basis.
I do market analysis for my clients. Um, I can tell you that a lot of those assessments I can probably not justify. Um, so I would appreciate if we could get some more transparency in how those numbers came to be. I know there's a whole procedure, people can contest it
and so forth. Um, but I think it would help and benefit everybody in the town if we could know how those numbers came to be. Um, because I know that there is when you do those those types of market analysis, you can't blanket it. You
can't look at the entire township and say, you know, homes rose a certain amount of money, so I'm going to increase each home in the town the same percentage. Um, you know, towns that are down in Franklin Park, uh, homes that are down in Franklin Park versus homes
that are up here by Middlebush appreciate at different levels. Um, and there's a lot that goes into a home as far as improvements go, location of the home. Is it in a culde-sac? Is it, you know, so all those things factor into um, the value of a home? So I that's
what I mean by transparency to make sure that there's not a number that's just being blanketed across all the homes that there is some sort of um a science to how those numbers came to be. Um and then the final thing I want to
talk about because I know this is a topic um in a lot of other towns is the affordable housing. Um, are there lawsuits currently in our town by developers um, as far as affordable housing goes? Um, I didn't hear of any,
so that's why I'm posing the question. There's other uh, places in Somerset County that do have a significant amount of of um, those kind types of lawsuits. So, I just that was my question in Franklin if we do have any because that would also be an added cost and what we were doing about them. So, um, so please
let us know what our rate our taxes are going to be. People want to know, inquiring minds want to know, are we paying more money? Thank you. Good evening, council. Elecky, 167 Alorn Street. Um I am a local minister in the area. I
serve as assistant pastor of transformation international chapel and I'm also a chaplain candidate with the uh army national guard been a resident in Franklin since I was 12 years old. Uh my family moved here from Ghana in08 and I graduated middle school, high school
valley Ruckers and so I'm I'm in the area uh and I'm currently a masters of divinity student at New Brunswick Seminary. Um I also serve the local NAACP and in my spare time whenever I have I substitute in the district I've
been to all 10 schools. I am here today to raise my application to the Hamilton Street Advisory Board. Um, I submitted it on April 1st and earlier last week, Councilman Charles and the mayor uh
forwarded my application to the clerk and so unfortunately they couldn't be here today because they're on vacation. But I spoke to a lovely lady outside in the clerk's office and she told me to just bring it up and y'all let me know what to do. So that's all I'm here to
do. All righty. Thank you. Hello everybody. Uh Jack McLaclin, Larson Road. Grew up here in Franklin. Love this town. I hate that. I don't even want to have to do this. Kind of nervous, but uh basically, you know, I'm a union member
and I feel it's my duty to speak up. IBW local 456, but it's nothing to do with the union. It's um to sum it up, I don't like how the cannabis licensing went in the town. So me and my partners when we heard about the social equity and the
small guys having a chance, we started the LLC and we applied in New Brunswick. Now New Brunswick did a RFP process which is a very stringent scoring rubric and they put a cap at three from the beginning and um you know we were one of seven. Of course we got outscored by the
big guys. One of the good things they did was 51% employees, no matter if it's a micro, has to be New Brunswick residents or the surrounding towns. And um you know, when I see Thank you Franklin reporter for putting out the numbers of these dispensaries, it might
look like a wow. As a whole, that's not really net. And uh you know, multi-state operators, they just came in, saw the articles. Franklin was so receptive to it. So I'm sure you guys have been getting bombarded from all over the country of people trying to get a shop here. And uh you know it's a little
disappointing when I see people defend you guys and you point the finger back at the state and saying oh we have this many opening like I feel like like one of the senior conservatives is going to want it in the town and I'm a pro weed guy. It should have been a cap from the get-go and don't blame the state. You
could have made the ordinance a cap from the beginning. Yeah the two big multi-state operators they're going to want you can save two for the small guys. you know, social equity. Some people might not know there's a conditional application process, which is basically like a halfway there process. You don't have to have the
property yet or anything. Then there's annual. That's what the big money people have, the annual. They're ready to go. So, I heard the 18 people that are grandfathered in for the annuals. You didn't you didn't have to grandfather them, man. Look, you got bleachers already closed. You got these
other places already going to close. These people aren't from our community. And the most disappointing news and I was going to try and save it to the end is you know two years ago I believe he was here Andy Wallace maybe three years ago told you guys let's hold off make
let's make sure it goes to the right people and you guys were so gungho and you got your 400 grand in taxes so you guys are all happy but I got some bad news for you. Uh one of my friends works at Herb Dispensary and you know you two council members were there for the grand
opening. This guy called my friend the n-word, used it in front of other employees, and if you go to his public Instagram page right now, we got screenshots. He's saying the nword 18 times. This who you give a license to does the grand opening, for instance,
Ferraris, Lamborghinis, familyowns dirty gas stations in the tri-state area. And you know, I asked the council like, you know, these are the pe I'm curious, is there any family connections? Do you guys know each other? Like I have these outside people with big money and they're not they're not a multi-state
operator. These are just some rich people. And now they put a dispensary on Franklin Boulevard, our most diverse area, and they're using the nword. And on social media, you're public. I'll give you the Instagram. You can go on this guy's page in front of this Ferrari, nword this, nword that. The guy
loves using the nword. So complaints going into the CRC, a union labor lawyer's getting into it. We want them shut down and you guys should be proactive and shut them down before the CRC does. And honestly, even if this number came up, looking at the numbers,
they're going to be closed in six, nine months like bleachers anyway because none of these people are from the weed community. Who wants to shop with you? Who are these people? You go to the about us on their websites, they don't say where they're from, they don't say their name. It's all the same chat GBT. Oh, we want to build relations with
community BS, you know. So shame on you guys for pull pointing the finger back at the state. You put a could have put could have put a cap on it from the beginning and made sure you know we'll give two for block and the big money people but let's save two for the small guys and gives ourselves a chance. You
know this France why I know your son wasn't an angel. You know what I mean? I know like I've been arrested for weed in Franklin. You know I'm speaking for many people. I got my friend another friend he got a conditional. He's paying rent. I feel bad for him because anybody who got a we didn't even bother with Franklin because we lost New Brunswick
and we saw 30 people approved for conditional. So why even bother? You know the first 10 are going to go to people with money. So like there was no consideration for conditional applicants and you know I didn't apply for Franklin so it's nothing against you guys but it's a shame. So, I really want to know how these two council people that were
at the grand opening, do you know this guy who using the nword on our residence on film and you guys were at the grand opening? Do you guys know him outside of this? Like, how does this guy They're from uh what's that town outside of Newark? They're from Hillside. How do
these gas station owners from Hillside get a dispensary on Franklin Boulevard, the most diverse park? Like, come on. You should be ashamed of yourselves. And I know all of them are going to fail. just blocking all the big funny people. They got enough money to not fail. But
shame on you. Your time is up, Mr. Jack. I have time. Thank you. Seeing no more stirring in the council chambers, I move we close public comment at this time. Second. Moved and
seconded. Are we uh all in favor say I. I. Oppose say no. Motion carried. We are now closed. Um, we are at item number seven, address public comments and questions. Any council members want to address any of Oh, sure. Bill, you're
going to take some. I have to Yeah, you can do your part. I'll do the I was going to go just in order of questions. What I have answers for. So the first thing is and I I just want to maybe put some clarity because I know I understand that the land use process is complicated
but I I think that what happens is that in an attempt to try to create a narrative people try to simplify it. Um and that narrative usually is and and I apologize for saying that. The narrative is always well that you're not doing enough. So I've simplified it to make it
sound that way. Here's like some facts. Council passed an ordinance creating 500 foot buffers for warehouses. Some months later, the council passed an ordinance removing warehouses as a permitted use in
um any zone. As a result of the first um laws uh the first ordinance, there were approximately nine lawsuits filed. as a result of the second one that grew to something like 12 lawsuits. Um, none of
them have been settled. So, so we understand they're all still pending. So, if anybody who goes on to e courts, if you don't see the consolidated cases, you're not looking in the right place because they're still consolidated. So, they all still exist. There are also other ordinances that were adopted, ordinances with regards to
hours of operation. They've also been challenged. um some of those are on appeal to the appellet division already as a result of court decisions. So that's the that's the actual facts as to what's happening with regards to the original ordinance. But that ordinance
is in effect never was stayed. Um it has affected and I think everybody who has been watching what's going on, it has affected the flow of warehouse applications. it pretty much brought them to a stop because nobody could file an application without going to the
zoning board. And I know that there may have been a couple have gone to the zoning board. Um but once again, pretty much it's put a stop to all of those those um um applications. I heard two or three people come up tonight and say and talk
about a draft ordinance. There's no such thing. There's no draft ordinance. Ordinances get drafted here at the council chambers. There's no other body in town that has the ability to adopt an ordinance or draft an ordinance. So there are other there are bodies out
there, the environmental commission, the sha tree commission, the planning board who can make recommendations, but their recommendations are solely their recommendations. The only thing that's in the public record is a study that was done by the planning board that has
recommendations. There is no ordinance pending before council. So when folks come here and they say we don't understand why you are drafting an ordinance that's doing XYZ, it's just not true. Just not those are just
preliminary uh recommendations by the planning board. And unless and until there is a two a council person who wants to introduce an ordinance or direct me or the staff to draft an ordinance, there aren't any ordinances. All there are is
recommendations. So, I just wanted to to make sure that that that's the case. I heard heard some other things here today and I just want to kind of talk about it because there these are things that are out in the ether. this issue of spec warehouses.
Um, ordinances don't kind of don't work that way, right? We don't when somebody says they're going to build a house, we don't say, tell us something about the family that's going to move in there cuz we want to know, you know, do
they like loud music or they don't like loud music or are they going to p put a pool in? Do they have little kids? You know, we want to, you know, pre-screen you. It doesn't work that way with ordinances. The way ordinances work are we have permitted uses, prohibited uses,
sometimes we have conditionally permitted uses, and we have regulations that deal with things like noise and traffic and other items. So that's how we legislate. So the ability
of somebody to build a warehouse on spec, let's say, or they haven't identified a tenant. What we regulate is the the land use. That's what we regulate. And it's not appropriate for us to say, well, okay, so that company
that's coming in, boy, they've been really controversial internationally, and I don't like what they're saying, so you know, we're not going to approve their warehouse. That's just not the case. I think I suspect that this thing
about speck warehouses is a product of a statement made by a mayor in another town in which he said something like, "Yeah, if you if you're if you have a spec warehouse, you know, you're not going to get really favorably considered here." Well, I read those things because
I have an interest in municipal government that's unnatural. Um, and I I apologize and um and I know that that for instance that mayor is the mayor of a town and his township code doesn't say
anything about that. In fact, his township code bans warehouses in his town just like our township code does. So, I think people sometimes get ahead of themselves and I I don't think anybody on the council takes offense to
it because they're here to listen to what people have to say. But I when the public listens to these meetings, it's important that they understand that there's not a draft ordinance that's being circulated around
here that says one thing or the other. and the council really hasn't considered or acted on any of the recommendations. And when they do, that'll happen in these council chambers. And when an ordinance is introduced, then we can have that that's a conversation we could
have. And I don't and I don't mean I'm not trying to stifle public comment here, but part of my role here as legal counsel is to make sure that we all are talking about the same things. And it's we could all have different opinions,
but we should all um everybody's entitled to their opinion, but they're not entitled to their facts, their own facts. And that gets lost in the public discourse these days sometimes. And I think it's important that we all talk about about the same thing. If I can council, uh pres um madame mayor, excuse
me, I don't even know what your title is tonight. There was also some questions about the property tax assessments. You want to and yeah, I can. And and I understand that that um um the person who came and spoke said they were a a real estate broker. Some of this stuff
is fundamental to to being a real estate broker that I assume you you probably understand, but I know you asked the question. What your assessment is is a function of what your taxes are going to be, but your taxes are really based upon
the tax rate. So that fundamentally means this. If tomorrow the entire value of this township doubled, if the township didn't increase its budget, the tax rate would be cut in
half and everybody would pay the same. Mhm. That's the way it works. Mhm. I don't think anybody who's involved in the real estate industry, uh, and I see it in the 60 or so towns that I represent believes that the values of
property aren't going up, especially residential properties, at an extraordinary rate. That's what you're seeing in the annual assessments that we get. The amount that your taxes go up is based upon the budget that will be adopted by the town. And then all that happens at that point in time is a math
exercise by the county tax board which is they take our budget, they divide it into the u the ratable base and they come up with a rate. And you know, one one of the things that happens, I know
in my home county in Mammoth County, the um they have the annual assessments and I kind of battle with them about this all the time because some towns say, "Well, the good news, the tax rate went down this year." Well, the tax rate
doesn't mean anything. It's the amount of it's the amount of money to be raised by taxes. That's always the number. The budget number, by the way, it's not that it doesn't mean some something, but it's not the number that's important. The number that's important is the number that's in the budget. It's on the first
page of the budget. The amount to be raised by taxation. So, that's that's the tax levy. If it doesn't go up, your your municipal taxes don't go up. It's not your schoolboard taxes. It's not your county taxes, but it's your municipal taxes. So, once again, always
here to answer questions. Um, everybody on the council is here to answer questions, but I just wanted I just thought that maybe we should put some of those things in context and and I just need to go a little bit further because we did have a a meeting last Can I say one other thing before you take all the
rest of my time? Mhm. Um, they rewrote the affordable housing law uh in New Jersey last year and we are in the middle of that process now. There are no affordable housing lawsuits because Franklin is in compliance with its obligation. and it is set. It has fixed
its number. It's now in the process of of filing its uh compliance plan. Once it files its compliance plan, uh there can be no lawsuits. So, the answer is there are no lawsuits. Uh Franklin is pretty um pretty proactive. There were no lawsuits in the last round either. Um
there hasn't been builders remedy lawsuits in Franklin for I'm going to say 30 years. 30 years. Yeah. So, thank you. There is no hand raising. Your time is done, sir. Um, so just a little bit further on on taxes and assessment
because I I So we introduced our budget at the last council meeting. It'll be adopted at the next council meeting. I I gave a report, the mayor gave a report. I'll give you some brief highlights to it because you asked questions. Um, so as the township attorney mentioned, the
amount to be raised by taxes, that's what determines. That's one of the numbers that determines the tax rate, right? So, you have the amount to be raised by taxes, one of the numbers. You have the total assessment of all properties in the
township is another number. And then the mathematical equation results in the tax rate. So, the amount to be raised by taxes is increasing this year by 2.63%.
It's going from um uh just over I'll give you the exact numbers just just under $38 million to just under $39 million. It's it's going up by exactly
$1 million. That's the amount to be raised by taxes is going up by $1 million. That $1 million equates to 2.63%. So that's the amount within your tax bill that this governing body up here
has control over is the municipal tax. We have no control over the school tax. We have no control over your fire district tax and we have no control over the county tax. It's simply that's the
one thing that that this governing body has control over and that No, we have no control over the library tax either, Councilman. Um, we have no control over any of those things. We have control over the municipal tax. The municipal tax is
approximately 14 to 16% of your tax bill. Okay. And as far as assessments are concerned, Franklin Township, like most municipalities in Somerset County, I believe all but five now, does annual
assessments. Once every 5 years, your home is subject to an inspection for both interior uh improvements and anything in the interior of your home. And then for the other four years on the five-year rotation, there's a a an
external driveby of every property done by an inspector in the assessor's office. And the values are are are determined. Your assessment value is determined and we we refer to them as neighborhoods. That's not the technical term, but neighborhoods. In a
development like Canal Walk, there are multitude of of models in Canal Walk. And each model is a neighborhood and comparable sales within those neighborhoods are evaluated by the
assessor's office and that's what determines an increase or a decrease in an assessment annually. So, if you live on a street that has homes that are very similar, for instance, maybe you live in the Levit development where there's a
number of models and there's over, you know, 2,000 homes. those models are are evaluated similarly that the the assessment is based on comparable sales within similar type
homes in in a neighborhood in a similar neighborhood. So middle bush homes are not evaluated alongside Franklin Park homes. They're evaluated alongside middle bush homes and that's done throughout the township annually and and
and that it it is a very transparent process. In fact, last year about this time, our assessor held a town hall meeting for anyone who was interested in the assessment process. We opened it up to the public. They were allowed to ask
questions as they felt necessary throughout the evening. And it's been done on on more than one occasion. And it it follows the law as far as how the the division of taxation and the laws
related to that at the state dictate how assessments are done. It's as simple as that. So that's assessments and that's the taxes and that's how much the tax amount to be raised by taxes is going up. You may want to mention about the appeal process or if well that and I
believe you already mentioned it. The appeal process has until May 1st in Franklin Township to file your local assessment appeal. You're appealing your assessment. You have to file with the county board of uh taxation to appeal
your tax assessment. Um and it's a it's your obligation if you do so to show that the number is wrong, that the number is too high. It's not the township's obligation to substantiate it. You have to show that there are
comparable sales of homes just like yours or similar to yours in a neighborhood like yours that the sales were less than what your assessment is. What I will tell you is my experience and I've done this for a number of years
now is oftentimes when assessment cards come out, people contact the municipal offices and and have an issue with their assessment. And you know, the internet has made this job so much easier when it comes to explaining how the values of
homes are available to you. You can go on any one of the realtor services right now online and research comparable sales in your neighborhood and it will give you the last six months or a year's worth of comparable sales. It's not a difficult thing to research and when
comparable sales are generally above what our assessment values are. We have an obligation to assess to 100% in an annual assessment program and that's what the goal is to assess to 100%. Annually we've been in
the 98 99% valuation range in the years that I've been the township manager and we've been assessing annually for before I became the manager. So that's assessments appeal county board of appeals. The information is on our website on the assessor's
homepage. Um so now back to weight restricted roads and cameras and signs. The sign makes complete sense, sir. On Western Canal Road heading northbound, the direction is to go to the next road, which is Randolph Road that has no
weight restriction. So, the road says go straight until you get to the next intersection. And at the next intersection, it says Schoolhouse Road access and it shows the right arrow. That's what that sign is for as far as weight restrictions on Schoolhouse Road.
And we'll talk about weight restrictions on other roads as well. The trucks that you saw on Schoolhouse Road that were tandem dump trucks going up Schoolhouse Road from Western Canal Road were coming from the Manville Causeway and across onto Schoolhouse Road and they were
going to 31 Schoolhouse Road. That would be a local delivery. There's a development a building being built there that required a large amount of infill for that site and that is absolutely a local delivery. Local
deliveries must be exempt from um weight restrictions that are not due to some physical restraint like a bridge per state law. There is no bridge on schoolhouse road that calls for a 4-tonon weight limit. That was a
decision that was made by a governing body of of this township many years ago to establish that weight restriction between Randolph Road and Western Canal Road. That weight restriction can trucks
have every right to traverse that section of Schoolhouse Road if they're making a delivery or a pickup on Schoolhouse Road. every right in the world to do it because someone, it was probably you,
voiced a concern to the mayor's office about the trucks. Well, someone voiced a concern and I had someone reach out personally to the contractor who was doing work at 31 Schoolhouse Road and
ask for as a favor, they reroute the trucks up to Road instead of having them come up from West and Canal Road. Initially, the company that was contracted to make those deliveries objected to it because with the large number of loads that needed to be
delivered to 31 schoolhouse, it was going to cost a considerable amount more in money for them to continue to go out of their way and up to Randolph Road to reach a point that in a direct line was shorter from Schoolhouse and Western Canal, but ultimately they agreed to do
so. That was a favor, not a requirement. We asked them to do it and they and and they agreed to do it. You shake their head, that was done. All right. If there are trucks that continue to use it, they still have the right to use it. By law,
we cannot restrict them from not utilizing the restrict them from utilizing the road to make a delivery of top soil to a site on that road. So that's the answer to your weight restricted road. Mr. manager. I think I also mentioned it last at the last
council this particular topic. We very well may we've talked about weight restricted roads and local deliveries adnauseium. I I I have spoken about this on at least 25 different occasions in this room. They are allowed to travel on
roads to make deliveries or pickups. That's the that's that must happen. As far as putting obstructions in the way of vehicles, I think that's ridiculous and I won't even address it. All right. As far as the cameras are concerned, several of the cameras have
now been mounted on traffic signals. I'm not going to tell you where, but they're up there because I don't need to let everybody know that the cameras are looking right now. The public service uh electric and gas company is absolutely positively responsible. And not only are
they contacted, they've given permission for all but one utility pole to have this the cameras installed. That camera couldn't be put they couldn't grant permission for that pole because that pole is a Verizon pole and Verizon has
now granted permission. But just because they've granted permission doesn't mean that they've run the electricity from the secondary power line on the pole down to an outlet that needs to be installed to plug the cameras in. Several of the cameras are up and several more will be going up in the se
in the ne upcoming weeks. Public service has gr has granted approval not only for the location of the pole but has also given us a schedule for the installation of the power lines cannabis tax. So the cannabis tax is tax revenue.
So therefore it goes into the general fund like all other tax revenue. Nothing more to be said about that. Um, and I'm looking at my my notes here. Why wasn't there from the beginning? There's
no discussion after you had your chance at the microphone, sir. That's it. You're done. There's no more. Well, there's no more discussion. That's it. That it's only at that public section. No, you can't.
I think that was all of them. All of the questions that I was here for. Uh, did you address the flyers? U, Mr. Manager for Doc. Oh, he already won out. You got the flyers. The flyers. The fly the flyers were already taken care of with Okay, sir. We are going to get to
being disrupted public meeting. You need to stop. I know the Robert. No, you you need to follow. Deputy mayor, can I answer? I was just going to say so um council if any if you have any other comments. I was
going to address. You want to address Mr. Jack? He just went out. That's because Carl took him out. Carl. Okay. you want to um address it still? Um let's just start let's start the council comments and maybe he'll come
back in. Right. Okay. Okay. So, we'll went out there. He needs his um we're going to go to the council comments and then if Mr. Jack comes back, we'll address his um as he comes back. All right. Council comments. Um
we're now on item nine. Um we'll start with Councilman Karazzi. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh, good evening everyone. U, first I want to thank the environ environmental commission and the shade tree commission. A wonderful
presentation. They're just amazing the work that you guys do. Um, I can't imagine that having 100 volunteers for the uh, environmental commission. what a great team you have put together and that's just really amazing and thank you
so much and the great work that you guys do is amazing. I I had that list. It's just really impressive. Thank you so much. I also want to acknowledge uh the great work that our public uh work department has done. We had I had a call
from a one of the community members. They had three they thought there are three dead trees in front of their property and they had a concern that they're going to fall down and uh the gentleman told me that they have approached for the last few years the
Verizon and PSNG and so forth but nothing has happened. So I contacted our public works department. They sent the assessor. They looked at it. Two of the three trees were dead and uh they had to
close the the the road the Bennett lane in order to be able to cut the trees and that has been taken care of. So a great work and the the person uh really uh send a note saying that how what a great job they did. Very clean job and great
job. So I just wanted to acknowledge them and thank the our public department. The only other thing that I have uh tomorrow we have a human relations commission meeting at 7:00 across the hall and we have a
presentation by the supervisor of school equity who will review the township at uh diversity. So if anybody's interested please join us and that's going to be at 7 o'clock. Thank you. Uh let's thank you
the mayor. Councilman and Barson. Uh thank you deputy mayor. I just wanted to address a comment made by um Yes. Okay. So um the township council receives invitations from many
businesses for their inauguration. Grant you are Oh okay. Did you did you see me? Okay. Okay. So sir this is not dialogue. Okay, your time is up. So, we have uh been to many many grand openings. Uh PJ
Parker and uh Mr. Bowman could attest. I'm retired, so I have a lot of time on my hand. So, I go to many of them when I'm invited. For you to imply because we look alike, your insinuation that we are
related is really repulsive. You shouldn't assume things and you shouldn't make unsolicited accusation like that. Is that right? So we we apologies accepted. Uh so we got invited
so we went. These are businesses coming into town so we want to show our support and welcome. All right. Uh apart from that we had um a planning board meeting I think which some of you attended. Um nothing
um happened there. There was no hearing. Um we had a um death in one of our board chairs u historic preservation commission advisory commission chairman Andrew Burian uh passed away
unexpectedly about a week ago. He was only 46 years old. Great accomplished architect. Uh he was very helpful to applications that come on front of the commission. Uh he really treated everybody well. Um my condolences to the
family. May I ask the council to observe a moment of silence. Thank you. Um so I I take this opportunity to uh ask the community uh to come up and volunteer uh in that commission. It's a they do very
important work. part of our uh township is his considered historic and this commission just like the um environmental commission reviews applications for construction uh in those historic areas and uh do a very
good job of guiding them so that they can build um whatever they what they like to do. Uh other than that, I think there are two uh events coming up this week. Uh on the 24th right here at the council chamber,
we have an affordable housing seminar that we are hosting. Uh uh councilman Wright and I are hosting here. Uh the uh uh central Jersey Housing Resource Center uh executive director. Yes, you you can do this.
Sharon Clark would be here. uh providing information to uh those who attend and we will have some handouts, question and answer sessions on that. And then uh last but not the least on the 27th we have uh food bank's annual funding drive
uh to Franklin. All the bicyclists uh in town, we invite them to uh uh participate and support the food bank. Um if you hear their pitch, you know, we have they have been serving uh increasing numbers of families in town.
Uh about 7,000 people uh uh are uh hungry in town. They serve about 1,200 people. So they they need resources uh all the time. Uh kindly uh support that event as much as you can. That's all I got. Deputy Mayor, uh Councilman,
there's another event which is happening tomorrow. I believe Joe Daniels, Assemblyman Joe Danielson is putting together because the PSNG is going to be increasing their rates. I understand it's also it's also council member Petazn. Okay. So, are you going to report moving
on Councilman? Um, Councilwoman Franos, two for two, Councilman, there's a couple things I I want to address you in particular. So, there has been a lot of conversation about the tax revenue that we're getting from
cannabis. We have made a decision. We're going to put that into our tax coffers to help us to stabilize our tax rate. So, we're not using that money for anything other than revenue, tax revenue. The other thing I want to say, there's a saying that says, "If you know
better, you do better." Clearly, we did not know what we didn't know. When we started off where we should have done a cap, we were somewhat told that there were going to be restrictions at the state level. And we believed that. And then once we saw that we were being
oversaturated with cannabis applications, we decided based on free enterprise and competition, we didn't want people going out of business. And so we said, "Okay, we got to, you know, shut down the floodgate and put a cap." Should we have done it in the beginning?
If we knew better, we would have done better. So, you know, nobody's perfect, but that's kind of what happened. And, uh, you know, I kind of feel bad also because no one up here spent time looking at those applications and figuring out who was applying and who
should get an application, who should who we should approve. The staff did that. Council did not get involved in any of that. And that's why we have staff. Most of us have full-time jobs and we work. No, you can't say anything, but you could stay and you can talk to
me afterwards or you could give me a call. I'd be happy to talk to you. And the other thing I wanted to mention is that uh I have 25 trees in my backyard and and I like to hear about how wonderful trees are. And I bought that house because it had so many trees. But
I can tell you have had those trees fall down on my my my roof. have cracks in the ceiling. And on top of that, uh just this year alone, I've spent thousands of dollars getting dead trees removed, paying for termite
control, getting leaves picked up, getting branches picked up, that people charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars to clean up the debris. So, although I love the trees, they are somewhat of a liability and they do cost a lot of money. I'm not cutting down any trees.
I'm waiting for them to fall down, but I but depending on where they fall, they may cost me money. And people have said to me, you know, you should cut down the trees and you should trim the trees down. They shouldn't be over your house, but I like the shade. I like to looking at the trees, but trees could be a
liability as well. But I appreciate the report because I do love looking at the trees. So that's all I and thank you so much for the work that you're doing in the environmental commission. It was really nice to hear your report. You you guys are doing a lot. You're doing a lot and we really appreciate the fact that
you've give of your time and your talent and you volunteer and you've been doing all this work for free. We really appreciate it. It's not it's not unappreciated. Thank you so much. That's all I have. Thank you, Councilman Wright.
Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh just a couple of things that u came up. um recreation meeting. If you want to know about anything recreation, got to go to the website. I keep saying it. If you want to know about recreation,
please go to the website. There are a lot of great things coming up for the summer. Um can't say anything else about that. On the housing authority, um I talked to Mr. Toto uh today
um about what um where we are as far as housing. He's our executive director for our housing authority such as it is. And um he informed me that the waiting list he cut
off last year um because again there there's just no affordable housing. There's just no room for it here. Um, so as far as that's concerned, uh, there's a waiting list just like it's all over Somerset County, there's a waiting list for affordable
housing. And, um, I think, uh, our township manager touched on it. Um, we are the best in the state of affordable housing. We have affordable housing all over this, all over the township and places you wouldn't even think to look.
We have affordable housing. So, we are the model, as the state says, we are the model for affordable housing in the state of New Jersey. Um, oh, part two of that. Um, on our redevelopment agency meeting
last night, what we did was we sent out an RFP for property that needs to be developed for affordable housing. Now, the property is located off of 27 behind um, Burger King, and that's between
Burger King and Neiman Williams Park. Part of it is developed and part of it's not. And that's what we sent out for is to finish up that little area for affordable housing. So that went out last night. So we should be getting some
bids or prospects coming through the door. Um and that's something that we should all be happy about. Um that those three things are about
it. Madame Mayor. Um, oh, just so you know, our executive director for the re uh for the housing authority, we brought in one uh Mr. Clark uh four years ago, and we split time with him. We split time with him as he
moved into New Brunswick. So, it didn't cost us a lot of money because again, they paid half and RPM paid half, not the township. RPM paid half of his
salary and that's it. Thank you, Council Member Patasnik. Uh, thank you. Um, yes, thank you to the Environmental Commission, to the Shadrier Commission. We appreciate you guys being here, particularly in a pinch. Uh, great presentations and for
your work. We appreciate it. Um, last week about three times as many people uh that are here right now came to a workshop on coupe dreams, how to raise a backyard flock. And it was really quite exciting. Uh, Kate Brown from the Rucker
Agricultural Extension uh was joined by uh uh our animal control officer, Katie. Um, and they did a great job in sort of getting people started on everything they need to know about how to raise chickens uh for mostly eggs. um in the town and sort of the allowable uses,
etc. So, I just want to thank them publicly uh for the tremendous job that they're doing. I'm sure questions will abound. Um and we had a few uh folks there, including myself, who have chickens to help answer questions as folks get started. Um they're still available at different places uh to get
the chicks. Um and if you're, you know, interested in learning more, definitely reach out to me. Tomorrow night at 6:30, uh Assemblyman Danielson is hosting an energy town hall. Just so folks know, on June 1st, PSENG rates will increase
17%. Um, so to help explain how that happened and what's behind that, there's going to be a whole bunch of experts here. I'll be on that panel in my day job. Um, so I'm I'm pleased to share some of my experiences. Um and then also just know separately the council um is
moving forward with a voter approved energy aggregation plan to help reduce electricity rates in the wake of both the rising energy costs um through the utility um and the regional grid. Uh but also because there we've been told by
the um consultant there is an opportunity for us to meet our criteria which is to save 5% over the current energy supply and get 10% cleaner energy as well. So um that should happen over the summer. Hopefully we get bids in and they're competitive. We can award it at
a meeting and it would go into effect in fall to help saving families money. So, we have to meet at least the floor of 5%. Hopefully, we'd like to save you even more than 5%. Um, the second thing is this is for the members of the council. Um, in your folder, thank you
Anmarie for including a resolution from fire district 4. Um, and I'm going to read some sections of this, but some folks may remember that we had a meeting in March 11th where we looked at because the voters in fire district 4 rejected the budget, we had to make some
adjustments to it. And thanks to the uh folks on the administration committee, um the mayor and and and township manager Vornocker, we were able to uh crunch some numbers and get to a fair equitable piece. But just for the public, um uh I'm not going to read everything here, but um whereas the
Franklin Township Council through their diligent and thorough analysis during the work session on March 11th played a critical role in establishing a fair and equitable budget allocation for Franklin Township Fire District 4. And whereas the council's efforts successfully
clarified the financial complexities and demonstrated significant imbalance in the previous proposed cost sharing agree arrangement with South Brunswick Fire District 3. yada yada it's a whole bunch of stuff in here. Therefore, now be resolved. These are the things sort of
at the end. Um, Franklin Township Fire District 4 acknowledges and expresses its deep gratitude to the Franklin Township Council for its meticulous analysis and determination for a fair budget allocation. Recognizes the council's role in relieving, excuse me, revealing
the significant imbalance previously proposed cost sharing agreement. acknowledges the council's fair valuation led to the end of a contract negotiations with South Brunswick Fire District 3 due to their unwillingness to further negotiate the contract and
affirms the council's efforts have protected the financial interests of Franklin Township Fire District 4 and ensured that the residents of the Kingston community receive full fire protection services at a fair share reasonable cost. This is half the cost that the budget was. Um, and I wanted to
let folks know they did make uh enter into a contract on time with no disruption um with Rocky Hill as their primary fire provider and then secondarily with Griggstown and Little Rocky Hill. And I know that there are folks that are still disappointed because the Kingston Fire Company, which
is in South Brunswick, has provided over a 100red years of fire service to the community, separated by uh highway, the Kings Highway 27 in two different counties and two different towns. Um but they definitely were being overcharged. The voters had gotten it right and they
were able to secure um you know fire services at the price actually a little bit cheaper. We authorized I think 38,000. The contract was for 35,000. It was a two-year contract with a 2% escalation. So I just wanted to you know sometimes we don't hear the end of the
story. Um and so it's nice to sort of close the loop on that. uh the appreciation from the fire district and the taxpayers of paying about half of what they would have. So, thank you all. Thank you, Councilman Benella. Yeah, I have a bunch of things. I'll try to get
through them quickly. Um I'm going to piggyback on a couple things Councilwoman Francois said. So, seriously, uh and I did emphasize trees in the right places, and that's what we're doing. I mean, there's places we actually have to take them down because they were planted and they're damaging curbs and whatever ones the town's
responsible for. So, we are carefully looking at that and uh I'm sure you're going to see some plans coming forward that asking for council's approval on uh I'm going to call little mini micro whatever. There's all kinds of names, but forestry uh basically going to where
it is safe and uh filling in when we have public right away that it's safe to do it or a park or open space. So, it really is the devil's in the details, but um uh we we're going to keep fighting to get that number up. So, we do have the canopy in the right places.
That doesn't disenfranchise homeowners um or anyone. Um so, yes, and ditto on on the comments, but the environmental and shade trees work. Um it's one of the longest committee meetings that I go to each month, but uh well worth it. Um
couple quick things. Sierra Leone Community is celebrating its independence. um a little timing issue. So, we're going to read the proculation at the council meeting in May, but they will be having and this is the 64th year of celebration of their independence. For
comparison, if my math is right, that would be where we were at in 1840 as far as, you know, we look at it differently in this country, but it is a very meaningful um um aspect. So, anyway, they're going to have a flag raising and uh a small ceremony name in Williams
Park this Sunday. um for those who want to attend. Um but um we'll be doing a pro formal proclamation at the next meeting. Um something was brought up about the uh Hamilton plan and I'm not sure uh bring your questions, but I I
know I've announced and I know we kind of bothered pushing to get it up there. We have it on our website. The manager has say I'm going to give him directions. I think I know what he's looking for. You're down that path right now. So the point is we, you know, we're not only transparent about it. We want
people to read these. We want them to get involved. And I know not everybody can come to these meetings and with uh one was on Hamilton uh last month as you properly mentioned, but uh it's there. Please go through it. There's there's links to send comments. Um you know, and
with that in mind, May 6th, Eastn Avenue has having its public session. And although I'd like to see it in person, it's convenient. They're doing it online and in a way I think that might uh we'll we'll put that up on line and we'll talk about it. I'll report on it. But point
is May 6th. Anyone interested in the what's probably going to be millions and millions of dollars by the federal government May 6th 6 to8 p.m. online, you can just watch or you can participate. There's ways to submit questions uh prior. There's a way to
submit uh our live and then there's a way to submit commentary for 30 days. That's what it is, a public commentary uh uh time so that they may go back and amend. And believe me, they do tweak it based on what the feedback they get, not only from council members and a study
team, but from the public. So, please engage and and um when I'm done, Mr. Rolocker can maybe clarify the easiest way to get to it. But um no, that that information is definitely available and anybody can send me an email if they want to know about any of the studies and I'll do what I can to to get you the
link. Um a few other items. Um uh sorry I lost my place here. Um so oh well we did have a public safety meeting. We se went to several meetings but I'm just going to mention a couple things from that. people don't
know if you travel um domestically um you don't have to have a passport if you have one you don't need to get a real ID but if you or children do not have a passport to travel domestically May 7th
is the deadline and I believe there's some brochures um in the lobby I believe um like this about how to do that and just wanted to let people know because if you do go to travel domestically and you don't have a passport report. It will it will be a problem after May 7th
if you don't have the real ID. Um, a couple other things we uh I hear the Franklin Township Police um podcast which is named a briefing room is doing wonderful. Please look that up on online. Um they're getting a matter of fact I think other towns are starting to
uh I don't want to say steal but but follow our lead with uh with that. Um there is a summer youth program July 8th to July 18th. Um we're accepting I think uh somewhere around 30 uh uh youth. It's
free. It's for ages from 8 from 8th grade to 12th graders. There's uh uh please uh look on on I believe it's on our website. The other thing I know opiate funds were mentioned in the past. We're teaming up with Middleear. Our public safety uh
um team, our public safety department is teaming up with Middle Earth uh June 24th to August 21st. Uh uh children 14 to 16 or maybe I should say teenagers 14 to 16 uh can sign up. Again, look online, look on our township website.
We're I believe we'll actually be paying them to come um learn learn about drug awareness, learn about employment uh um I'm sorry, other skills and tips on getting employment. U but that that opiate money, opiate funds I should say, is going going to good use and Middleear
is um a big part of that. So look online uh for that. Um, those are the main issues from the public safety meeting, but um, just to follow up, I know Councilwoman Francois covered it. Um, you know, I I don't know what's going to happen, but obviously the state rolled
out a major thing when they made cannabis uh, towns able to decide all these different levels of legalization. The bottom line is, um, I know we all chimed in. I know I pushed for like getting hours that they
weren't all night. So we we did tweak it. It can be tweaked in the future. The state may come out with some changes. It's definitely wasn't the perfect roll out, but um we we we did rely on very specific information from the state and
I believe uh collectively made our decisions accordingly and hopefully when when this all lands, it will um it will it will work or at least work to to a degree that's fair to everybody. Um, I think a lot of other stuff was
covered. Um, but please consider that May 6 Eastn Avenue corridor plan. You don't have to live on Easton to to or near it to do to be involved. Um, most people in this town at some point or another will will travel there. Um, and uh, that that's enough for tonight. The
rest could wait for for our next meeting. Thank you. Are you going to we talked about Oh, you know, thank thank you. One last thing. We for some reason and I'm glad it's happened. We have a whole slew of applications for people wanting to serve on various committees, commissions, and boards. And I'm not
going to talk about all of them, but with our Hamilton Street uh board, which is a very important advisory board, especially now with all the work going on, the bottom line is we have now probably a half a dozen people who want
to serve as a resident member. uh we need to go and adjust whether it's through ordinance or uh resolution to expand well we'll have to look into it but our hope is to expand a little bit the geography because right now it's very strict if you don't live like
literally within a few hundred feet of Hamilton Street you're you don't qualify to be a resident member um I always I remember two years ago brought up let's expand the residential members let's you know you we don't necessarily can't think we do it for the entire town but
we're going to book and uh try to come up with a fair uh formula that allows some of the uh wonderful people have applied to serve uh but before uh to be able to serve just because they live, you know, a block or two further than the the uh the way the map is drawn
right now. So, we're going to go back to the drawing board. I know Councilwoman Franco and the other people on the committee. Yeah. I mean, it's Well, I can tell you why it is what it is. I mean, the the line is special. I know it is. Yeah. But we are it is the SID. I mean, you can we can adjust it. You can
make the advisory board whatever you want it to be because it's simply an advisory board. No, you're right, Mr. Rodlocker. I just didn't want to get that detailed. We're following the rules, but we can go back. We have the freedom to adjust the map in in the qualifications for residents. So, now
more than ever, we want to get more residents involved. And I'm going to Councilwoman Franchis and I will work and um I I sense the other two council members on the the Hamilton board would would also be in favor of seeing more community involvement. I think it's important to address your question, sir.
I think you're elim. Am I saying it right away? Alum. Yes. So, you're you fall outside of that special improvement district, the map, the line, but technically we do have a uh residential 100% residential member slot open, but
we can't fill it with you because you don't live inside the map. So, if we change the ordinance, then we can expand the area for people like you so that you can become a member. So, that's what he's talking about. We need to do that and there's nothing stopping us from doing it. We just haven't done it. Okay.
And we could even we would like to have you on there and I provided him with Vince Dominac's contact information as the executive director for him to speak with him tomorrow. Okay. Good. Thank you. Excellent. So, we'll get to work on that right away. Um, but yes, thank you, Councilwoman, for bringing that up.
Deputy Mayor Madon, thank you. Thank you. And I like I I like hearing that a lot of folks are starting to apply and take uh notice that there are some vacancies available. So as you see it, you're more than welcome to apply for it and then um we'll take a review and and
let you know. Um I just had a few things. Um I think most of it has been discussed already by council members, so I don't want to repeat a lot of it. Um today is Earth Day and what I have done, Councilman Patasnik, you'll like this. I actually um packeted some reusable soaps
and made some hygiene kits that go out to um aids any kind of hurricane, the California fires, right? Um it was really interesting to hear the stories, but they take these hot soaps from the hospitals and they build it back and mold it and pack it up for any sort of
disaster or relief or, you know, first aid. So, it was really interesting. I I did that today. Um and if you haven't done something, you should definitely do something um to help support art. Um canalwalk. So I was there last week. I met with a couple of the residents. Um just couple things that I do want to
talk about. Um there were discussions around some littering done on Metler's Lane Weston. Um that's being looked at and um as you see it coming in definitely. Um what I I always say and this is my annual announcement um annual
spring announcement is you know we have a website that's up on Franklin Township. As soon as you go in you'll see that you can report it. It's a click. You can report anything on street maintenance um you know littering anything that has an issue. You can take a picture of it and then report it. It takes, you know,
a minute or so. And it's great because it gets ticketed, logged, um, and our, um, UN, uh, our specific departments will review it, and, um, get back. So, it's it's a really easy way to just log a ticket, um, on anything that you may
have a question on, potholes or street signages. Um, I do want to repeat that thing about the 31 schoolhouse. I know I mentioned on the last council and I was also asked in Canawaka regarding the schoolhouse road about um the dirt
trucks that are going in and out. Um we did address it as count uh township manager mentioned. Um he did reach out to the development team, the construction team and was able to reroute that out. So thank you for working on that and for them being so considerate and understanding that this
is causing an issue. Um just want to make sure that everyone understands what we had to do to make sure that works. It's also noted that there is specific lot that has um in in that area has um like a forest like a wooded lot and it
has some dead trees. Um we looked at that as well and that is currently at a natural state. U Mr. Johnson manager, do you want to say anything else? It it's it's a wooded lot. Um and and there's no requirement when a tree falls in the woods, it falls in the woods and we don't require them to go clear it out.
It's the woods. Um, fallen trees create habitat for squirrels and rabbits and you know it it's a fallen tree in the woods. It's kind of like uh you know does it make noise if there's no one there to hear it? I don't know. But we
also don't make them cut them up and drag them away. Um improved lots where you have a house uh a building then you have a tree fall down you have to cut it up and move it away. But when it's in the woods we don't require you to do that. Thank you. Um we also addressed uh
we looked at um it was a report about Dunkin Donuts on Elizabeth AB having some concrete issues on their driveway. Um township manager has already reported that. Sure. I it well that the the driveway is currently being proposed for
alterations to change the flow of traffic in that shopping center. So, we're not going to have them go out there and make concrete repairs when they're going to be in probably very short order ripping it out to put it in in a different design. So, yeah. And I believe the owner has already got some
proposals. The engineer contracted by the owner is finalizing the plans for review by the township. Thank you. And then um intersection between Elizabeth and schoolhouse. There was a report of of having no street light. That's something. So I we turned it over to the
police department to to investigate for street lights. The problem is if you go out there and look at the two poles that are at that intersection, there are and I not I kid you not, there looked to be about 30 different utility lines on each
pole. You have to have space on a pole to put a street light. Um so if there's no space on a street and I listen I I I wouldn't argue the the point that that there it would be nice to have a street light there. I travel through it quite often. be traveling through it tonight
on my way home. Um, it it is a little dark there. There's just there needs to be some place to put the street light. So, I've turned it over to the police department to investigate to see if public service can get one on a pole there. Perfect. Thank you. Um, I don't
want to talk about any of the other two that came up. Um, they are under the warehouse under legal litigation, so I'll keep it that um short. So, uh, back to Councilman Vessinella's comment on this, uh, Real ID. So, just on Monday, um, our public safety
director, Quella, and I were at Somerset Run, and we did a Real ID seminar. Um, there's been a lot of misleading information around the Real ID, and folks had reached out to me on whether their license was real because it says Real ID. And I think that's in in my
opinion it's a silly of saying real ID should have been like travel domestic um something else than real ID because it creates a lot of confusion. Um so with the help of public safety director we did a seminar and one it was a full house. We had to add more seats in. We
had like I don't know 40 people that showed up. Um so it is a real concern. Um the seniors are concerned and I and I have addressed it. I have also sent out um communication to canal walk HOA for them to distribute information. Um I've sent it out to any you know summerfields
just so that folks know and understand that um that this real ID is for domestic travel. If you have a passport, you're not fighting to get on because you are able to travel. You have a um active passport. If you don't and you're
traveling domestic to let's say California, Florida and you're trying to use your license, that's going to be an issue after May 7th. Um, so I just want to avoid of everyone going in trying to get this real ID and maybe allow the folks that absolutely need it that don't have a passport and they're traveling
the next two weeks to get it. Um, you know, I was I heard, you know, maybe if you try to do like Thursday mornings, it might be a better time sometimes and do it outside like, you know, some other locations that are nearby, you might get um block. I know Assemblyman Joel Danielson and I spoke about this. He's
trying to get a unit, a mobile unit out on um Elizabeth on May 8th. Um, it hasn't been posted yet and you know, we only have a certain amount of spots. So, as soon as I find information, I'll share it. Um, it hasn't been posted yet online because we're still working out
the logistics, but you will be notified um, as soon as I I find out. Um, cameras are installed. I'm so happy to hear that, township manager, because I think that's one thing I've been following up. I know we're we're still waiting on a couple more except for one poll. Um, and several of them going up, but it's
exciting to hear that they are finally up. Cameras are going up. Perfect. Um, what else? I think I covered everything. Um, oh, I do want to mention to Mr. Jack, um, I was one of the members that went
to the grand opening. Um, along with Councilman Unbarasan. Um, I think if you look back, you'll notice that we get invited to all sorts of grand opening. Majority of the time, Councilman and I go to those grand opening as time permits, right? Are we related to people
that we go? No, we're not. Right? But to make that assumption is something that's broad and I completely agree with Mr. embarrass that, you know, to to say that out is out of context, right? We we're not related to them. So, I just I just want to point that out that, you know, that was sad because we do look like
them, right? So, um and so I just again we we get asked we get asked to go to grand openings all the time and when we we go to majority of them and you can check those on our media sites, right? We go to majority of them. So, um I just want to put that out there. Um, that's
all I have. And Councilman Ram, you had did you have anything else you want to add to one more thing you um, Councilman Wright said? Yeah. So, uh, the, uh, affordable housing seminar on Thursday is at 6:00 p.m. right here. And I have a
flyer if and this is on our website as well. Uh, no registration required. You're welcome to just walk in. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. No, no, no. It's tomorrow. No, no. His is Thursday. Okay. Thursday. Tomorrow is the energy. Tomorrow's energy. Day after affordable
housing. Did the tree hit your head? Township in the woods and hits your head. Do you remember what day you're going to a seminar? Okay. Oh. Um, Mr. Guy left the room. I wanted to address it, but he's no longer here.
Perhaps he'll listen on TV. If you're interested in any study that's currently being conducted by either Franklin Township or within Franklin Township by another uh form of government like Somerset
County, the state, whatever it might be, if you go to the township homepage and you go to the pull down for government, um, and within that menu are studies for Hamilton Street, the safety improvement
study, Eastn Avenue in Deontat Lane, there's a project there that's uh being done by the county funded by the federal government. Eastn Avenue corridor improvements, again, same county funded by the feds. the Franklin Township BI
study which is funded by the township uh and the Hamilton Street traffic study also funded by the township um are the links to all of them are there as well as for the well of it which was the um
health assess health needs assessment done by the township in conjunction with sustainable Jersey. So they're all there. Um so that's one. He also raised a a I and I I don't quite know and I was glad that Councilman Wright touched on
it in his report. If you are interested in participating in any type of recreational program here in Franklin Township, be it through our recreation department uh for adults. Uh the
recreation department also does summer camp, does youth programs as well as the youth center programs. Everything is on our website and and people in the past have said, you know, they they you know, well, sometimes people don't have
internet. Um that's true. The the 2020 census indicated that 97% of households in Franklin Township have internet. I I can't advertise for the 3% that
don't have internet. Um we we put things out in our newsletter that lists all of the programs for the the um that period of time that that newsletter serves. So that's in print that goes to every
mailing address in Franklin Township. So between our internet presence and reces which is the which is the program on our website that you register for programs with um it's social media our Facebook
pages uh through the recreation department uh the youth center uh Instagram Twitter all of those those social media outlets all have the programs that are being offered and advertise those programs. I mean, I I
think that staff does a pretty darn good job of getting the information out to the public and our public has access to that. So, I I I don't know how else but that to do it. And just, Mr. Manager, to add on to that for a quick Matt, a
couple thousand residents who may not, we do have free internet available at our library. Absolutely. No, I just want to make that mention because I I know it may be a little hard to get there for some people, but we do have uh free internet available at the library for any resident. It's a small process. You
go in and you can use and our website is available at the kiosk right outside room and I think even some at the community center, but the library is where you can definitely go get free free which I believe should be free for everybody, but it is there. 97% of No, I got you. Just want to make sure that
that people who don't have it are aware that that we have free internet and and they could also go over to the community center and get pickup flyers as well, the senior community center or they could go to the youth center and
pick up flyers. So, you know, they're they're available in all those locations. So, if you really want to participate and and I will tell you that we you know, we get website inquiries on a fairly regular basis. I every website inquiry the regardless of department goes to me which means I get hundreds of
them and I read them. All right. Every single one whether you're sending it to the public works uh construction department you know clerk's office I get them all. They come in for the youth center they come in for the recreation department and people ask questions and they're and and those questions are
responded to. Um so it's it's there. So I I don't know where Mr. guy is looking, but it's it's kind of in your face. I think I think one of the points he was making, and I probably should have addressed that, we we did get state funding and federal funding spec
specifically over at the youth center and we're put and we are implementing programs and services and that's what's paying for all of those programs. But I think that was the point he was making. The point is that at our budget hearing, we spoke at length about the fact that the reason why the youth center budget
is so low this year is because all of their programming is being funded by those grants. Yeah. So it we are telling people they just have to listen. Yeah. Yeah. I think he was specifically talking about that. So and that's all I have. I think isn't
communication also going out through like Nexil like if you have phones sometimes don't you generally put Nixl out for recreation programs but the important absolutely important information goes out via Nixl yes okay now moving on we're at item number 11
approval of minutes none submitted approval of warrants this is where we pay our bills so warrants in the amount of 15 million8 3630 30 on April 22nd are presented to the
township council for payment. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Post say no. Any discussion on this item? Madame clerk.
Councilman embarrass. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Bataznik. Yes. Depend. Yes. Councilman Vasinella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes.
Motion is carried. Um public hearing and adoption of ordinance on second reading. So we're at item 13. Um a ordinance number 44621-25 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank is presented
for public hearing and final adoption. The public hearing has been noticed as required. Um, do we have a motion to open to public comments? So move. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I. Post say no.
Motion's carried. You may come up and discuss on this specific topic. Ordinance 4461-25 5 minute. No yielding of time. See no one come forward and deputy mayor on a motion to close the public portion of hearing this ordinance. Second. All
in favor say I. I. I. Say no. Motion carried. Public is closed. A motion to adopt. Do we have a motion to adopt? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Oppose say no.
Madame clerk. Councilman embarrass. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Bataznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasanella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes. Motion carried. All right. Uh, now we're
at item B, ordinance number 4462-25, an ordinance amending the municipal code of the township of Franklin County of Somerset, State of New Jersey, more particularly chapter 180 fees section 180-2 available from collector of revenue collection fee for
redemption request is presented for public hearing and final adoption. The public hearing has been noticed as required. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. All in favor say I. I post saying no. And the public it's open to the public.
So you have discuss on this particular item only. 5 minute no yielding of time. Seeing no one coming forward. Madam deputy mayor I'll motion to close the public portion hearing on this ordinance. Second. All in favor say I. I. Say no. Motion to
adopt. Have a motion to adopt. Some moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Oppos say no. Madame clerk. Councilman. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Counciloman Karazzi. Yes. Council
member Bataznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasinella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes. Ordinance number 4463-25. We're at item 14, an ordinance amending the municipal code of the township of Franklin County of Somerset State of New Jersey. More particularly
chapter 230 massage body work and somatic therapy section 230-12 prohibited acts the forgoing ordinance is presented to the township of council for adoption of first reading posting publication in accordance with law and public hearing and final
adoption at a meeting of the township council to be held on Tuesday May 13 2025 at 7 p.m. Chamber. Uh, council chamber. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppos say no. Madam clerk. Councilman
Barrison. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Vaznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Odin. Yes. Councilman Vasinella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes. Ordinance number 4464-25. An ordinance is to acquire by
purchase of concession certain lands within the township of Franklin County of Summers, the state of New Jersey for the purpose of open space preservation pertaining to NJSA 4812-13A for property known as the Lati
property, also known as block 286, lot 14.02 and commonly known as 360 Franklin Boulevard, Somersson, New Jersey. The foregoing ordinance is presented to the township council for adoption on first reading posting publication in accordance with law and public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the
township council to be held on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. Do I have a motion? Second. All in favor say I. I say no. Madame clerk. Councilman Barrison. Yes.
Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Vaznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasanella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes. Deputy Mayor. I just I I want to just be clear on this last ordinance that was
just introduced. I know it says 360 Franklin Boulevard, which which might be somewhat confusing to people because 360 Franklin Boulevard is a church. And we went down this road one time recently about purchasing land in East Milstone that was also previously owned by a
church. The the address for the parcel is listed as 360 on tax records. It's actually the property behind the church at 360 Franklin Boulevard, which was subject to a subdivision several years ago and was was owned by a developer. I
think it's a five or six lot subdivision that would have had access off of Belmar Street. Um and um that particular property is heavily wooded. Mr. Guli just left and would have liked to have learned this. Um the the the purpose of
purchasing this as open space is that it is in fact a heavily wooded area in the fourth ward in a densely populated area that the township can purchase and preserve and leave in its current state without any other uh development. Lots
of trees. Lots of trees. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, ordinance 4465-25, capital ordinance providing for the acquisition of property for the property known as the Alcati property as
located at block 286, lot 14 14.02 and also known as 360 Franklin Boulevard in the township of Franklin County of Somerset State of New Jersey appropriating for 4765,000 therefore from the open space trust fund of the township of Franklin to pay for the
cost. Therefore, the foregoing ordinance is presented to the township council for adoption on first reading posting publication in accordance with law and public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the township council to be held on Tuesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. Do I have a motion? So
moved. Second. Any discussions on this item? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Oppose say no. Madame clerk, we need a councilman. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes.
Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Baznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Reed Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasinella. Councilman Wright. Yes. Ordinance 4466-25. capital ordinance appropriating 999,000
from the open space trust fund to pay for various capital acquisitions and improvements for the township of Franklin the county of Somerset state of New Jersey. The foregoing ordinance is presented to the township council for adoption on first reading posting publication in accordance with the law and public hearing and final adoption at
a meeting of the township council to be held on Tuesday May 13 at 7 p.m. in council. I have a motion. So move second. Um, okay. Madame Clerk. Councilman Embarrison. Yes. Councilwoman
Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Bataznik. Yes. Deputy Mary Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasanella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes. Any questions? None. Okay.
Ordinance 4467-25 bond ordinance providing for various 2025 capital improvements and equipment acquisitions by and in the township of Franklin in the county of Somerset State of New Jersey appropriating 9,959,994. Therefore, authorizing the
issu uh issuance of 9,00 9,461 999430 pond bonds of bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost there. Uh the foregoing ordinances presented to the township council for adoption on first reading posting
publication in accordance with law and public hearing and find adoption at a meeting of the township council to be held on Tuesday May 13 at 7 p.m. in council chamber. Do I have a motion? Move second.
Madame clerk. Councilman Embarrison. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Bataznik, yes. Deputy Mayor Dean, yes. Councilman Basinella, yes. Councilman Wright, yes. Any questions, comments, discussion for this
item? Okay. Ordinance number 446825, bond ordinance providing for various 2025 capital improvements for the water utility by and in the township of Franklin in the county of Somerset, state of New Jersey, appropriating
46,964,950. Therefore, and authorizing authorizing the issuance of $6,9649 950 funds or notes of the township of finance the cost. Therefore, the foregoing ordinance is presented to
the township council for adoption on first reading hosting publication in accordance with law and public hearing and find adoption at a meeting of township council to be held on Tuesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. council chambers. Do I have a motion?
Second. Madame clerk. Councilman embarrass. Yes. Councilwoman Francois. Yes. Councilman Karazzi. Yes. Council member Bataznik. Yes. Deputy Mayor Dean. Yes. Councilman Vasinella. Yes. Councilman Wright. Yes.
Okay. Any comments, questions on this particular item? Okay. Now we're at item 15, consent agenda. The items A to U as listed on consent agenda portion of this meeting are presented to the township council for adoption. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second.
Okay, Madame Clerk. Councilman Barrison, yes. Councilwoman Francois, yes. Councilman Karazzi, yes. Council member Vatausnik, yes. Deputy Mayor Readine, yes. Councilman Vasanella, yes. Councilman Wright, yes.
Okay, we're at item 16, resolutions voted on separately. There's none. Item 17, old businesses. Does anyone have any nominations for 2025 boards, committees, commission vacancies? I have one nomination uh that the mayor
for trails advisory committee. I place Patrick Murray uh to be included in the uh me regular member unexpired 4-year term ending 1231 2028. Next meeting. Do we have any other nominations for
this particular committee? No, we can do it all by acclamation. Okay, everyone in favor favor of this say I. I oppos say no and congratulations for him. Any other nominations by anyone? That's me. That's
it. Okay. There are no executive session and we are now towards the end of the meeting. Do I have a motion for journ? So moved. Oh, second. Any discussions? Any items then? Thank you so
much. Good night.