All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to the June 16th, 2025 commissioners action meeting. Uh, in accordance with the OPA public meetings act, notice of this meeting has been sent to the retrospect and posted
on the burrow website, burrow social media, and posted on the bulletin board in Barrow Hall and is being held in person and as well as via Zoom. Um, could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Commissioner Cole, present. Commissioner
Troy, present. Commissioner Sidell present. Um on the agenda we're going to uh have mean the minutes and approved I'm going to ask for a waving of those minutes and approve them as submitted for the
commissioner work session May 27th the commissioner meeting on May 27th and the close session on May 27th. Can I get a motion? Motion. I'll second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I.
Commissioner Troy. Hi, Commissioner Sidel. I uh next up, uh we're going to do certificates of appreciation. Uh so this is the time of year u well it's not the time of year and it's sad to say, but uh we have some people stepping down from our boards that have served us
really well and uh I would like to call up their chairs or or their design to recognize them. And we'll start with zoning. talk to the mic. Sure. I should know that. Um, yeah, you all know me. I'm
Wayne Partner. I'm a chairman of the zoning board and uh Kate recently resigned and then Bill just turned in his resignation. So, we will miss them and we appreciate their service uh to the zoning board and to the burrow. No, no, thank you. And thank you, Kate.
Yes. Yeah. Move this over a little bit. We'll put you all right there. It's hard to move sideways towards you. Oh, you might as well just stay up here for the planning board.
All right. Super, please. Mayor, thank you for this opportunity to recognize Doug Mallister, who has served the planning for 18 years, influencing generations of planning
board members. Doug's extraordinary knowledge of land use, of affordable housing will be sorely missed and hard to replace. I'd like to express my personal thanks to to Doug who's been a great mentor and influence to me. Thank you.
Good shot. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys go first. Your legacy will be the 25. Hopefully it doesn't Well, hopefully who has served the Shady Tree Commission
well and Scott. Yes, thank you. Uh I would like to take this opportunity to thanks thank Ann Kelling. She has served for 16 and a half not quite 18 years. Um but an uh single-handedly took our commemorative tree program and has just taken taken it to a whole whole another
level. For those of you who aren't familiar with the commemorative tree program, it's all the trees on Kings Highway and slightly off with the plaques and names. That's an uh so an thank you so much. You will be sorely missed in that program. We'll miss you, but thank you for all your years of service.
I thought he said he was coming, but we can come back to it. Yeah, Bill and Ed. Thank you. Thank you all for your sir. They have proclamations. Proclamations. We'll take a minute. Thanks, Doug. I see
Doug. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda are some proclamations. Uh the first one is the Junth day, June 20th, 2025. And the proclamation reads, "Whereas
it doesn't read anything until I put these back on." All right. Uh whereas Junth, also known as Junth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an annual federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the day on June 19th, 1865 when Union soldiers
arrived in Galveastston, Texas, and announced the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. Junth is a day of celebration, remembrance, and a reflection on the
struggles and achievements of African-Americans. It is a time to honor those who fought for freedom and equality as well as to recognize the ongoing work towards racial justice and civil rights. Now locally, the preserving blackfield History Project has worked to achieve
acknowledgement and celebration of all those black community members and historical sites that are at the heart of the black experience in our burrow. So let it be resolved by the board of commissioners, Burough of Hadenfield, County of Camden, state of New Jersey. We hereby recognize and proclaim June
19th as Junth day. Thank you. Is there any? And the second proclamation is the Hadenfield Japan exchange month of July. Uh whereas communities across America are welcoming many new neighbors,
friends, and citizens from countries and cultures throughout the world, people for whom English is not their native language. And the Hadenfield Japan Exchange, which was originated in 2006, invited the first group of Japanese students to explore and appreciate the
richness richness of our unique Hadenfield community in 2007. And the program welcomes students from Sai International School in the Miyagi Prefecture for a two-week period in the United States in the month of July who
stay with residents of Hadenfield in their home away from home. So, be it resolved that the board of commissioners of the Bureau of Hadenfield do hereby proclaim the month of July 2025 as Adamfield Japan Exchange Month.
Thank you. Um, next we'll move on to monthly departmental reports. I will be the briefest in revenue and finance because we have a presentation of the budget with Alex Davidson, our CFO. So, uh, stay tuned. Um, who would like to go
first? Frank. All right. Uh, we'll do I'll turn it over to um, uh, first the public safety. Why don't we start off with uh, we'll start off with Chief Cutler tonight. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Commissioner.
Uh, for the month of May, the police department uh, answered or initiated 1560 calls for the month of May. That's about average. Uh we stopped 175 cars and we wrote 427 tickets. Uh that's
parking and moving violations. Uh we had one burglary for the month of May that happened to be a commercial burglary to uh the Tavistock Country Club and uh we arrested the gentleman that was inside and he was remanded to the county jail. Uh other than that,
there's nothing really to report except uh last night we did have a motor vehicle theft. Uh that that vehicle has been recovered. Um it was stolen last night in the 600 block of Washington Avenue uh with the keys were in it. Uh and it was unlocked. So we have to
remind everybody to lock their cars, take the keys, and hide all your valuables. Other than that, there's really not much to report. All right. Thanks, Chief. And um we've had some inquiries about uh uh well I guess the the request for adding stop signs along
Wood Lane. Um but we are uh putting other uh traffic calming measures in place there to include uh the thermoplastics as you're approaching the uh the intersections there on the cross streets like on Windsor and uh and all the other streets the in the estate
section and then uh clearly putting a stop on the street as you're approaching those stop signs. So they'll be taking place in the next couple weeks. Uh they are under contract but we've had some weather related issues. So, more to follow on that and we'll update that on the app and we ask everyone in that
neighborhood especially while we're redirecting traffic with Haden under construction which will be taking place the next 6 plus months uh to uh be very careful on those cross streets because um you know there's still 25 miles an hour. You do have a lot of people
walking through there. We'll get some relief with schools being out but when we come back in September there's going to be a lot of a lot of foot traffic along the way there. So, uh, thanks, uh, Chief. And then we'll turn it over to Chief Gorman. Also, tonight, a total of 64 fire calls
for the month. Um, we had, of the 64, there were eight mutual aid calls and that we went out of town to assist other departments. Uh we concluded our ISO that's insurance um service office rating um periodically every uh so many
years they come and re-evaluate the burrow. We went through all the paperwork. We're just waiting to hear back from them but they were very impressed with our amount of training that we do uh drills that we do certifications that we have um how forwardleaning we are in our officer
training. Um and certainly a response time of 2 minutes and 4 seconds um average. So that's something uh noteworthy. Um we didn't have any big fires um for the month um of May. Uh even though it was uh kind of a little
dry out there, we kind of skated some of those forest fires. Um EMS had 70 calls um and uh of the 70, 15 were mutual aid. That's going down, which is a good sign. The call rates are also going down for EMS because we do not dispatch them on
every fire call like we used to for years. Um we just didn't really see the advantage of doing that. So we stopped doing it. So you see the EMS calls go down a little bit. Um and they're available to respond out for EMS. Um conversely we dispatch a fire truck now
on every motor vehicle accident, every pedestrian motor vehicle accidents as well as every unconscious person. Um and it serves it works out very well and very successful program there. Um that's pretty much it for me and listen you
need anything else sir? Uh just to add one uh piece of commentary there because you'll probably cover it next month but uh there were two calls yesterday happening simultaneously uh which required dispatching of a lot of our folks and uh as a reminder yesterday was uh Father's Day. A lot of
our volunteer firefighters are in fact fathers uh you know and mothers um you know as well. So uh just a reminder that for those volunteers they get interrupted from their celebrations, festivities, barbecues, uh watching a Phillies game, whatever the case may be
to take care of us. And also hey look look you take the you take the good with the bad, right? If my wife had a honey a honeydew list, I probably would have like ran out to the fire and fought it myself. But uh no, it was a it was a you know low uh obligation day for me yesterday. Um no,
but just as a reminder, we are always looking for volunteers. So I encourage people to uh to join the force and our our numbers are growing and uh you'll be in good company if you if you join the team over there. So thank you chief and uh Joanda, if you want to give an update
on uh communications. So with May, we had the new election. So, um, we're going to be starting some, um, new things, uh, people may have noticed already that we're trying to put out before business meetings, a little info highlight information sheet, but it
goes a little more in depth than what the ordinance and resolutions are. Um, we'll also do a post after the meetings if we have to put something out about, you know, a recap of what the meeting um, happened. Mostly we'll do that for business meetings, um, for work sessions. We're trying to, you know,
we're going as we're learning. Uh we had the Memorial Day parade. Um and that I think those were our highlights really for uh for May. We um we did health and wellness festival before the election which was actually really well attended and we got some new publicity for that.
Great. Thanks Joanna. Thank you. And that is all I have Mr. Mayor. All right. Thanks Frank uh here. I'll pass it over to our superintendent of public works, Bill Ober. Uh for the month of May, we had all our
uh normal routine tasks, picking up vegetative waste, recycling. We had our chipper out. Uh we're mowing grass. We're continuing to mulch. Couple of highlights, we had our Arbor Day tree planting, which that was there for. Uh we installed the
outdoor instruments at the library. if anybody's seen them. Uh we had our pothole machine out. Um had our flags out for Memorial Day. We uh had the election boost put up and taken down for the elections. Upcoming projects, our
street sweeping will get underway. We are working on seating our playing fields and getting our Maple K building painted. The door looks awesome. Happy with the build. Yeah. No, it really did turn out nicely. Uh, you
didn't see it. I don't know if you've ever seen a door as red, but the blue door at Mabel K. Yeah. So, yeah. No, good job. Can I also have Is it Doug in the room? Yeah, there you go.
Uh, good evening. So, um, later this this month, we'll be submitting for the DOT municipal aid grant, and that'll be for, uh, Roads Avenue from Nicholson Lane to Gro Street. This is kind of the yearly, uh, DOT application we we do for the the burrow. Uh, we're also working on the Hatton Avenue uh, road
reconstruction project. So, that those will be the road improvements that follow the uh, utility work, and we'll look to finish those plans uh, this month to get them over to uh, the county for their review and approval as well. Um, also the road improvement program for this year is on the agenda for
tonight for award and then conversely we are working on a few uh topographic outbound survey for some of the affordable housing pro uh properties within the burrow. Uh looking to start that this week but hopefully the weather stays clear enough to do that work. So that's all I have unless there's any
questions. Thank you. Your lips to God's ears on the weather tell you that. U so thank you. Uh one note on the uh on the uh communication side uh give us a little patience as we learn uh the new processes of posting videos to the
website uh or actually to YouTube and then to the site. So we'll we'll keep working on that. Um it's not as easy as it looks even though uh especially when the meeting's almost 4 hours long. It's a really huge file. So give us a little patience so we get them all up uh and
catch up. So, uh, the next we'll move to public comment for items listed on the agenda. This is your opportunity to address the the commission on items A through M or A through L or actually M,
it doesn't really matter. Uh, and we'll give you five minutes. If you think of something else or if if if the spirit moves you from someone else's comments, you can have another three minutes to speak. Uh, can I get a motion
to open the floor to public comment? Not do it afterward. Okay. Uh, motion to open public comment for items listed on the agenda. I second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole. I. Commissioner Troy. I. Commissioner
Sidell. Hi. So, anyone who would like to speak uh at the lectern for public comment period on agenda items may do so. Now, you would like to speak. Yeah. All right. Bill, if you'd like to sit, that's wireless mic. We can bring it to
you. Okay. I want to thank the uh name and address, please. Okay. Bill Brown, 114 Center Street in Hadenfield. Thank you. I'd like to thank the mayor and the commissioners for approving the uh Lions
Club sponsoring of the fall festival and we're looking forward to it. and we have uh a lot of good people helping, a lot of people involved. I'm sure it's going to be very successful. I have two other thoughts or comments I
like to make. I don't know if Go right ahead. I don't know if the population of the town warrants it, but is there any chance that we could have five commissioners instead of three?
That's one thought I just want to share with you. And another thought I have too is I think this year's election being very close, it might be a good idea to consider or at least think about
having a graded or ranking sort of voting. In other words, uh your first choice might be three points, second choice two points, third choice one point. Because the way it is now, if you have three votes, your
favorite gets the the one you feel is the best for the mayor gets one vote and the person you think was least likely to win gets a vote, too. So, I think the ranking might be something you would like to consider. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Bill. And the way we're going to be working this is you you can make comment, you can ask questions just to save your time. We'll take all the questions and then we'll either address them as points of order during the agenda item or we can just address them, you know, if if if the
spirit moves us. U anyone else in the room. All right. Seeing none, we'll move to Zoom. Anyone on Zoom would like to make comment on agenda items, please raise your hand or just unmute and uh start speaking.
Oh. Oh, good. Thank you, Chief. Thanks for protecting us. Zoom bombing is a real thing. All right. Seeing none from the online audience, I will move to close public comment on agenda items. Um, I'll make
the motion. Can I get a second? I'll second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. I. Commissioner Sidell. I. So, uh, Bill, you made comment on five commissioners
in ranked voting. Although, you know, I'm never going to say no to you. It wasn't a jet item. So, we could address it right now if you'd like. Um that's not up to us. That's up to the citizens. Um if if if the citizens so move to want to do that, that's a referendum type of
item. Uh collecting a thousand signatures, I believe some Yeah. statutory mechanism for that. I I I don't have Yeah. Well, the first step would be draft it. Second would be collect a lot of signatures and then
third, we'll get it on a ballot. Uh but that is not something we decide. That's something that the public decides. And ranked voting, I think the same way. We you could even cover that both in the same uh in the same resol, you know, in the same ballot motion if if you so chose. That one. Thank you. If you're
going to hard stop, if you're going to start the hard work of referendum vote, can you also include um a liquor license in there for us Irish men? Be greatly appreciated. I don't know. One might take the other one down. Uh so
um next we'll move to ordinances. Uh ordinances are items that require two readings. So tonight they are all first readings uh meaning we read it and then there is a 28 day just for the budget is 28 days. Oh just 28 days. So it's just
two meetings ordinances. So uh budget ordinances need 28 day com public comment period. Most ordinances need a first and second reading. So tonight are all first readings. So, the first ordinance uh 2025-04
preserve a cap bank and can we get a description of I'll read them all and then we'll ask for descriptions of some of these. Uh ordinance 2025-05 amending chapter 232 entitled vehicles and traffic a first reading.
Ordinance 2025-06, chapter 54, entitled Senior Citizens Commission, first reading. 202507, a salary ordinance for non-un employees of a first reading. All these items are in your packets and have been online
since Friday midday for review. Um, the bank cap. Sharon, could you explain the ca the cap for us? Since we have our CFO here, we'll let him do it tonight. pass the buck to the guy that holds the buck. All right. Thank you, Sharon. Um,
the first reading of the of the cap bank ordinance is in reference to uh one of our cap laws. The township operates under two tats two cap laws. One is the 1977 budget cap. The other more familiar cap is the 2010 tax levy cap. The
ordinance that's on the agenda this evening is in reference to the 1977 budget cap. What that ordinance says essentially is whatever room we do not use in our budget cap, we can bank it for use in future year's
budget up to two succeeding years and if not used in those two years, it lapses. Uh what this is essentially is good government and gives us maximum flexibility for the succeeding two years. So in a year where we don't think we might need it, the next year we we
might might need it. So we in a high inflationary environment, it's imperative we we uh introduce and adopt this ordinance. All right. Thank you, Alex. Um the vehicle and traffic first reading. Frank, do you want to describe what's coming to the uh to the bar? Do
you want to um vote on each? Well, we can do we can vote one at a time. I just want to go through them all first. Uh this is installing two stop signs on Lake. Uh and the cross streets are Chief Cutler
uh Colonial and Friends. Um we've had uh some requests from residents there about uh speeding and uh we have done a speed study there. It didn't meet exactly requirements for speed bumps. Uh but with a school nearby um this is an
approved traffic calming measure and so uh and it is a rather narrow street one way. Um so we are putting these in place as a way to calm the traffic down in uh in that neighborhood. Um there are a lot of other um um streets in town where
people request other stop signs uh and we don't have the flexibility just to put a stop sign there. Uh Chief can maybe go into some detail on that. New Jersey follows the manual on uniform traffic control devices by the federal
government. So we have to follow that. There are certain warrants or or criteria that have to be met before you can place a stop sign. Uh we did a study on Friends Avenue uh because of the uh complaints and it does meet two of the warrants basically the narrowness of the
street and the pedestrians in the area due to the school and the traffic volume that the school creates. So we just thought this was a good way uh to try and quall that problem. All right. Thanks chief and thanks uh to the residents in those uh those um on
lake and the two cross streets and residents in that neighborhood for bringing to our attention. That's all. Right. Thank you. Chapter 54 the senior citizen commission first reading. This is uh when I was chair when I oversaw senior citizens commission. This is a recognition of the
great work of Sher Seagull uh to upgrade the title from a coordinator to director. Uh we have another director of recreation and this will be the director of senior citizen services uh as an edit as an update to the ordinance. Uh and
then the salary ordinance for non-un employees. Um that is no you can explain it that one Sharon. Certainly. So this is the um legal way for your employees to get a raise.
Without this authorization, we are we don't have the authority to provide the employees their um cost of living raise. This follows the contracts. Uh it's one and a half% in April on April 1st and one and a half% on October 1st.
And overall, because of the spread out in one budget year, it's one and a half% increase. Correct. The cost the financial cost to the burrow is only one and a half%. Yep. Thank you. So now Diana will will vote individually on these ordinances. Yes, please. Uh, so,
uh, I'd like to make a motion to approve 2025-04 bank cap. Can I get a second? Second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. Hi. Commissioner Sidell. I. Uh, ordinance 2025-05.
Can I get a motion? Motion to approve 2025-05. I'll second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole. I. Commissioner Troy. Hi. Commissioner Cidell. I I'll move to
um accept 2025-06 senior citizen commission entitlement. Do I get a second? Second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. I. Commissioner
Sidell. I. Um and ordinance 2025-07. Can I get a motion? Motion to approve ordinance 2020 2025-07. I'll second that. Booting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. Hi. Commissioner
Sidell. I. Uh. Next on the agenda are resolutions under the consent agenda. Resolutions below have been placed on the consent agenda by the board of commissioners and will be enacted in one motion. There will be no separate discussion of those items unless requested by one of us. Uh so we have
item 84, authorization to pay vouchers. 85, authorization to grant total exempt veteran deductions and cancel the remaining 2025 property taxes on three properties. Authorization for Celebrations Association to hold the Independence Day parade. Authorization
to close Kings Highway for the Partnership for Hadenfield's Halloween night market 4 event. Uh, authorization of number 88, authorization to approve general event permits of various types. Number 89, authorization to approve appointments of various types.
Authorization for number 90, the award the bid for the 2025 road program. Number 91, authorization to award the bid for solid waste and recyclable material collection services. Number 92, authorization to approve
change order number three to the 2024 road program. Item number 93, authorization to approve change order number one of removal of hazardous materials within Kulie Hall location block 13, lot 25. That was for the
demolition. My my apologies. I had had misunderstood this one that uh the resolution actually says it's for the demolition. I put the wrong title on the the uh agenda. It's for the demolition of Kulie Hall located at block 13, lock 25.
It just needs correction on that. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, removal of hazardous materials to demolition. Right. Okay. And this change order. Well, we'll get to that in a second. And then number 94, authorization to submit the application of the state transportation trust funds
under the safe streets to transit for Kings Highway and Washington Avenue pedestrian improve improvements along Kings Highway from Tanner Street to Warwick Road and Washington Avenue from Kings Highway to Lincoln Avenue. Can I get a well any discussion before
we make a motion? Uh I will point out a couple things. uh the authorization for celebrations to hold the independence day parade. Celebrations is a valued partner to the burrow uh in terms of entertaining and providing um
services for the entertainment of of our town. Uh the Independence Day parade is a very big part of that. Um so uh I wanted to point out and thank Celebrations for their work in holding the parade. Uh, I'd also like to point out in the general event permit
applications is the fall festival, Mr. Brown. Uh, so we'll be approving that for October 4th. Um, appointments for various this is a very important part of citizenship and volunteerism. Uh, as you
noticed tonight, we recognize some of some folks who have done meritorious service to our boards and are stepping down. uh those those will be filled by alternates that have been sitting there learning the ropes uh and and taking full seats on those boards and now we have to replenish that. So, anybody
who's interested in um giving their time and talent to the burrow, uh take a look at the various boards and and sign up for something you might be interested in. And we'll post uh a link to that uh on social media and
u you could always walk into B into the clerk's office and and request information as well. Uh and then no, that's all I had. Can we get some more information on demolition of Kulie Hall for document?
Sure. Absolutely. So when they were demolishing Kulie Hall um they found we had done a whole project before that of removing all the asbestous in the building um so that it was an easier quicker demolition uh and
ensuring that the the asbesus was properly removed. the when they demolished it and they were removing portions of it that are underground, they came across a pipe that had asbestous. So that was a change order to the contract because that was not in the
contract. That $9,200 is the removal cost specifically for that pipe. Got it. And Sharon, that's why that that transformer kind of thing is sitting on the is still sitting on the property because that can't be removed until the pipe is remediated. Correct. Okay.
So, the original contract amount was $763,000 and now it's 772 with the additional correct. Okay. Thanks for the explanation. Can I get a motion to approve resolutions 84 through
94? Motion to approve uh resolutions 84 through 94 under consent agenda. Second that. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy I. Commissioner Sidell. I now we'll come to the section of resolutions that will
be introduced and discussed uh one at a time. And the first up is resolution number 95, the authorization to introduce the 2025 burough budget. And for that, I will ask u our CFO, Alex Davidson, to kind of walk us through the
budget. Uh if you would give us some highlights so that we can understand uh how the bureau spends the money. And for those on Zoom, we're opening the document and sharing it out so you can see. Share screen.
Share the screen. Oh yeah, don't forget to share the screen. Yes. Okay, thank you everyone. Thank you commissioners. Uh on tonight's agenda is the introduction of our 2025 municipal budget. Uh we always like to Next slide, please.
Well, one second. Can you move that bar? Or actually, you can hide that bar. See that little pin symbol? There you go. And then that you can reduce down to nothing. Right. There you go. Thank you. So, we always like to start this presentation with some T
statistics regarding our current year budget. Uh the 2025 average assessed residential property is at $535,000. Uh one penny to the average assessed home value is $5357 annually and one penny on the tax rate
generates for the municipality $242,000 in revenue. Tonight's budget is intro is introducing with the increase to the rate of 4 and 2/3 pennies, bringing the total municipal tax rate in 2025 to 63 cents per $100 of value to the average
assessed home. 2024 is the last year we have fully year data for the taxes and we thought it was important for the public and everyone to know the breakdown of your taxes where the municipality has the responsibility of collecting
everyone's taxes. Everything you pay to the municipality does not stay with the municipality. Of the municipal to the average municipal resident, 17,000 of tax is collected. And of that 17,000 9700 goes to the school, $4,000
to the county, 3,100 to the municipality, $53,000 $53 to our open space, and $212 to the library. So, why are we going to propose an increase for this evening? Well, from 24 to 25, the state has slashed our state
aid by $102,000. Additionally, we've hired a full-time police officer, an additional full-time police officer. We had a nonpartisan election expense that happened this past May. Our fire stipen increased for
year-round fire protection. We had our health insurance premium rates increased. And as everyone is well aware, we had a high interest rate environment that's driving up our short-term borrowing costs. Uh we we'll have comment. Sure. The
nonpartisan election was the election we just had from a cost standpoint. Yeah, we comment. Yes. Go ahead. So, some of our highlights for the municipal budget, it is just over $25 million. Um it includes $1.8 $8 million of self-funded road reconstruction. I
stress it's self-funded because we are not taking any debt and not incurring any borrowing costs or interest costs for the reconstruction of these roads. We're also paying down $1.5 million of short-term notes. Of that $1.5 million, we are use utilizing $1.4 million from a
state grant. Uh fire stipen is paying for 247 coverage for a full year. This coverage started in May of 2024, which goes back to the previous slide on why the increase for this year for the full year of coverage. We created a traffic
officer in the police department and the road program includes streetscape improvements for Hatenav as well. This is a graphical representation of where the municipal appropriations land. As you can see, the largest uh segment
of our budget goes to debt service, followed by public safety and public works. So, it's paying for police, it's paying for trash, and it's paying for capital improvements is the majority of our budget. And lastly, we fund our budget not solely through
municipal taxes, but also through surplus, which is our own fund balance regenerated every year that we use to fund partial part of the budget. local revenue, that's our uh fees and permits. Uh state aid, we do receive just under a million dollars from the state annually.
Uh construction permits is $400,000. We have just under $200,000 of shared service revenue coming in. We have $200,000 of grants at the introduced budget. And finally, we have $395,000 anticipated for delinquent taxes. And
that completes the 2025 municipal budget presentation. Could you scroll back up to the dollar for a moment? Absolutely. Uh so if you can explain u what are the most variable sections of of the of of our
budget? Variable sections. The most variable that are out of our control is mostly employee benefits and pensions because we're contractually required to provide those items to our employees, full-time employees. And no matter what's within our control, the state
governs primarily with the pensions, how much we have to fund towards the pension. Um, health insurance, it's not news to anyone in this room what the health insurance environment looks like right now. And while we take steps to uh mitigate those impacts in hiring
part-time employees as much as we can, full-time employees require the fringe benefit of health benefits and employees contribute to their insurance under uh chapter 78 and other collectively negotiated agreements. Um but those
alone are the greatest variables in the budget that the biggest cost drivers really. No, thanks Alex. Yeah, absolutely. Any other questions for Alex? One of the items that we did talk about at the work session was uh as you said
about benefits uh was that we have a younger workforce that are marrying and so they're converting from single plans to to couples and then also having children. So then their their plans are going up. Uh of course we encourage that but but it does come at a cost to the
barrow. Uh and as you said unanticipated and and hard to plan, correct? Uh thank you. Can you explain to us the debt service? Sure. So debt service um is primarily generated from our capital improvement plan. Um when uh capital
ordinance is authorized by the commissioners, uh it is determined at that time how those capital ordinances are funded. Generally they're funded through the issuance of debt. uh when the debt is issued that goes to fund the capital program. Then we'll issue bonds
andor notes and we'll pay that over the period of time. Um for notes it's one year bonds it's however the whatever the useful life of that bond issue was and other variable things and this will answer a question from the audience uh you know something like our senior
citizen commission and Mabel K the budget of our Mabel K is around $30,000 a year. uh a municipal election itself just with labor and then transaction fees are almost $15,000. So so in one action or one day we're we're almost half the budget of of the Maple K
center. Uh so that that kind of give you the answer of how expensive an election is is around $15,000. Um seeing no more questions. Wait, did that answer your question? Well, so here's the thing about the
budget. So, uh, this is the first reading. This gives you a whole month to take a look at the documentation we have online to the images and then we will have what's called the budget hearing at the July 28th 28th meeting. So, you have a whole
month to come up with all the questions you want and this will have its own public comment period on the on the budget hearing. So, it's it's its own special thing. So, please bring your questions. I'm not trying to discourage them now, but we don't have a public comment period right now. You can have
questions at the very end of our agenda. We'll have another open comment period. You can ask now and you'll give us a month to answer them. We won't answer them then. Uh or you can come to the budget hearing. Uh so that's because yes, this you'll find many things in the budget where you want to have questions
for. Uh so thanks. Um any other questions from the from the commissioners? All right. Uh well then I will move to uh I I'll I won't move. I will ask for a motion on the authorization to introduce
the 2025 bureau budget. Uh motion to introduce uh the 2025 burrow budget. I'll second that. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy I. Commissioner Sidell
I. Next is the author authorization to introduce the 2025 business improvement district the bid uh and the partnership for Hadenfield budget and we have Michael Maranti. Michael, can you say your last name for me so I can hear from the horse's mouth? Mercanty. All right.
Thank you. Like a sea shanty. Oh, well one of my favorite uh things is the summer shanty. Uh oh. Thank you, Michael. Good. All right. Thank you, commissioners. Uh this is an abbreviated uh presentation of what you have in your packets. The full packets available um
at the clerk's office. Uh and I'll be happy to make it available to anyone who's asking. We are looking to put it up on our website, but those pictures are very heavy in terms of weight, so we're figuring that out at the moment. Um this is our current board members. We are mostly full. We have one retail vacancy at this time. Uh many of these
members have served for uh quite some time and they're very dedicated to what they do. They put in a lot of hours to manage your business improvement district. Um just to give you some highlights of the things that we uh are focusing on this year. Um as always the events are
some of the highlights throughout the year. We have a considerable budget u put aside to have new events. um have reoccurring events, traditional ones, and to enhance some of the pre-existing ones. Uh one of the major projects that we're looking to do with the visual
enhancements committee is to implement a new wayfinding sign uh pointing down south of Chestnut Street to some of the businesses we have down there. Uh we have uh some ideas in place. We haven't had a chance to present it in front of you yet. Um our retail retention and
recruitment um committee continues to um review um accept and ultimately award retention and planters grants applications. This is a very scrutinous part of our board meetings to make sure we are spending bureau dollars responsibly.
Um we also have a considerable budget put aside for our marketing and promotional efforts. Uh the one that stands out of course is the uh Patco advertising campaign. We have three flights happening throughout the year. Uh we currently have our discover
downtown flight happening. We are also utilizing um different types of QR code scanning to have better analytics of some of the folks who take the train and how we are having an impact on them. Uh marketing is also focusing very much on content gathering in which we are making
available to the businesses. So acting as like a professional photographer or videographer assets that they can use for their own promotion. And finally, of course, we are working with as many nonprofits in the areas as in Henfield as much as we can. There's just some
examples of our projects. You'll see that's Petco advertising uh banner uh some of the photography we've taken at events and just a poor uh rendering of our new wayfinding signage. This of course is the breakdown. Um so
new this year is that we are uh able to incorporate revenue taken from sponsorships and events into our actual budget. Of course we have our appropriate surplus and of course we have a money market account at one of the uh four banks here
in Hadenfield. The interest rates have not been so great. So we have reduced that. Uh just breaking down the spending most of the budgets are uh relatively the same uh with uh a reduction in marketing and public relations. The reason for this being is uh just in the
competitive market that we are currently in, we are not seeing return on some of the large uh traditional ads. So we've actually taken the time to reduce our uh budget to focus more on localized more effective forms of marketing.
Uh, and then of course the just the rest of the committees, like I said, are relatively the same with a total annual budget of $37,000, $550 and that's it. Thank you, Michael, for the presentation. Uh, before actually we get into discussion, Sharon, could you
just describe why the PFH is in front of us, what the bid is, and what it has to do with the marrow? Certainly. Um the business improvement district is a entity that the commissioners have authorized uh after a referendum was
passed. It is a special tax on the business district to which is the $250,000 assessment that you see in in the budget. Um that has been the same assessment since it was created in 2006,
I believe. Yeah. But it didn't start until 2006. Um, so it is, um, as I indicated, it is a special tax just on the business. There are two different tax rates for the business district. There's a higher tax rate if you are in what's considered the
core downtown, which is is Kings Highway. Um, and a different rate as you branch out. Um it the state provides you the authority to establish one of these and the focus is then to um it the focus
of that spending is specifically on the downtown. So whether it is advertising, events, cleaning, um hiring, you know, workers to come in, landscaping, all of those things are things that are allowable under that uh
special UT or special improvement district, otherwise known as a business improvement district. And but because it is an ent a quasi entity of the government, the actual budget is passed by the burough commissioners so that they have the authority to actually
there you have the authority to tax. Technically they don't. So you you appoint all of the board members. One of you actively sits on the board. Um so therefore the the passage of the actual budget has to be done by the commissioners. All right. Thank you. Um,
any discussion? Not for me. And for the record, uh, Commissioner Cole, uh, is the seat that she she sit she oversees the partnership for Hadenfield, uh, for the burrow. Uh, so I will make a motion to, uh, introduce
authorization to introduce the 2025 bid district partnership for Hadenfield budget. Second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. Hi. Commissioner Sidell. I. Uh. Next up
are two sides of one coin and that is about affordable housing. So we'll take them one at a time. Uh the authorization to endorse the 2025 amendment to the bureau's third round housing element and fair share plan amendment as adopted by
the planning board on June 4th, 2025. Um, seeing Matt is not here, it'd fall to you, Sharon, to kind of give an explanation of the round three amendment. Certainly, as you're aware, we've been in front of Judge Schwitzer to try and um complete
our third round approval process. And since we have awarded the contract to Woodmont, the final ask from the court before our hearing uh in July for for final adoption of our third round plan
was to bring the plan from future tense into existing. So, uh, all of the changes that were in the third round were simply a matter of changing, um, we're go proposed to do this to we
have done this. Thank you. Uh, and S, this will, um, the authorization for the round three will be our final uh, fulfillment of the round three obligations. Yes. From the municipal standpoint, from
governmentally, from commissioner's action, yes. The the final step will be the hearing that's scheduled by the courts for Judge Schweitzer, the compliance hearing at the conclusion of that, that will be the final step. Okay. And then from the size of the packet that was posted online and circulated last week, that's the majority of the
pages in that monster document are all of the backup documentation and and that of proof for our round three obligation. No, that that of it there was 600 pages posted online. I saw most of that's actually fourth round. Oh, most of it's fourth round. All right. Super. Well,
then I just stole my own thunder. All right. So, uh any other discussion on resolution 97? All right. Uh so, uh I will ask for a motion to authorize and endorse the 2025 amendments to the burough's third round housing element
and fair share plan. Uh motion to authorize and endorse resolution 97. I'll second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy I. Commissioner
Sidell I. And on the tail side of this coin, authorization to endorse the Burough's fourth round housing element and fair share plan as adopted by the planning board on June 4th, 2025 and adopting the spending plan annexed thereto as appendix P as the bureau's
fourth round spending plan. Me? Sure. Okay. So the fourth round technically begins um now we are required to have our plan
adoption into the courts by June 30th. We had uh a planning board hearing because it because the affordable housing plan regardless of which round it is is a actually a master plan element. So the planning board holds the
public hearing on the plan and um approves it as part of the master plan. The fourth round to simplify it is simply we had an obligation of 35 rehabilitation units which is we um
complete through our participation in the county program. Uh we are presenting our plan with an RDP of seven and an unmet need of 86. Um the RDP are the units that we have to
ensure over the next 10 10 years actually uh are actually built. How we are proposing that is we are allowed to add one additional unit from Tardi Commons. There is a cap on the amount of senior units that we are able
to apply to our plans. Uh there are still after this after we take this one unit we will still have 27 units available for the future. The Bankrooft property with agreement with Woodmont provides 12 where in our third round we
needed 10. So we're able to use two of those two additional for our RDP of seven. There were two projects that have been before planning board and have received approval which are including affordable units. One of those is is at 110 North Haden which is going to
provide two affordable units and the other one is at 118 Ellis which is supposed to uh provide us three affordable units with the bonus cap of of or one bonus unit which will completely give us nine RDPs for to
match our seven. The unmet need is ba based on a vacant land adjustment. Since we are considered a builtout town for the most part and most of our development is redevelopment, um we just have to provide the opportunity for development for
redevelopment to occur. We are doing that in our third round. We had a number of sites throughout mostly Haden Avenue um that where we indicated that those could potentially either have um a height
adjustment or some other type of adjustment with um zoning changes that would if they provide residential development in any part of the development of those properties. they would have to be required to provide affordable housing regardless of the
number of units. Whereas we have an overlay through the whole town that if you do more than four units, you are then required to kick in the affordable housing. In those um unmet need sites, you have to provide 20% regardless of
the number of affordable of a market rate units that you provide. We are adding two new additional sites uh during this round. That is the 807 building at the end of Haden Avenue which is currently a three-story
commercial building. Um what we are allowing that currently right now the zoning is only for commercial and office. So what we're allowing through this overlay zone is that they would be able to have residential in that building. Um but then again any
number of residential that they they put in there would have to be 20% affordable housing. The other site we are adding is the Wraid property, the 7-Eleven down to the um gas station and that is
meeting um allowing up to three stories on those properties. All right. Thanks, Sharon. And and to be clarified, that does not compel them to change any of those uses to residential. It just provides the opportunity if they so choose to change the use. Correct. Uh to
have a a smoother way through. Correct. All right. Thank you. Uh and just to point out, uh we did not do this as a presentation tonight. We did this as a presentation at our work session. Uh so this is where work sessions are where we do the work, where we understand the the changes that are are going to be coming
to us. Uh and the action meetings is where we secondarily explain it to the public where it's been explained to us at the work session. So thank you for both the presentation last week and the explanation tonight. Um, any other questions?
All right. Uh, then I will also make the motion to authorize to endorse the burough's fourth round housing element and fair share plan uh and adopt the spending plan annexed as expend appendix P as the burough's fourth round spending
plan also known as number 98. Second voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy I. Commissioner Sidell. I s I hope it's okay to shorten that reference to just 98 after I
explain the whole thing. All right. Super. So we don't sound 98 for the record. Yes. I think I have the biggest breath here. So I got through it within one sentence. Uh and that concludes the agenda part of this. And so I'm going to make a motion to open the floor to public comment on non-aggenda items. Is
anything you'd like to share uh for anything that you've heard or anything that you've want to bring to our attention? I'd like to make a motion to open the comment to non-aggenda items. Can I get a second? Second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. Hi. Commissioner
Sidel. I. The floor is yours. Good evening everybody. My name is Bill Kelling and I live at 47 Center Street and I'm here tonight to talk about the Crowswoods Gardens.
Just a a short uh history encapsulates for those who aren't familiar with it is that the Crowswoods was originally the town's dumping grounds. But in the 1970s, the landfill was capped using
standard practices at the time, primarily covering the grounds with several feet of soil. What emerged in 1982 was the Crowswoods Recreation Area, a multi-use
recreational area consisting of playing fields, a community garden, and a peripheral path, a bike path around the garden. But after 50 years of wind, rain,
storms, and settlement of the landfill, all natural occurrences, the Crowswoods Recreational Area is in need of restoration. To that end,
using an engineering subcontractor, the bureau has applied for a grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to remediate the area, adding soil as necessary, correcting the drainage issues and installing probably
methane vents as they're needed. The grant was submitted in September of 2024 and includes a proposed aerial view of the restored Crowswoods recreational area. However, the concept now presented
shows the recreation area now contains exclusively soccer fields. The crowswood garden has been scrubbed and the plans are now and the gardens
plans are now ex non-existent. And this was further confirmed in a February 2025 letter just a little over four months ago that the engineering company submitted to the burrow to the uh New Jersey DP detailing that five of
the soccer fields would be hopefully artificial turf and one of the uh fields would be under a protective bubble. Again, no mention of the gardens. I appreciate the information that I did
receive from Commissioner Troy in response to my email a number of weeks ago indicating that the grant will take many months to play out and that the gardens will be accommodated and accounted for in the future and that
the area is not just for playing fields. That said, I am not terribly encouraged by the two documents that were submitted to the New Jersey DP and which I have
been able to read and which show that the gardens are not considered in the plan. So I I know that uh things happen quickly and time flies and I think it's
the right time to make the point that to me the gardens are very important. Um, they've been a part of our fabric here in the community since 1982 and they've provided hundreds, maybe
even thousands of families and individuals many hours of positive recreation and sociability. We provide hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to the to the South Jersey Food Bank every summer. I've been a gardener
there since 2009. Um, the gardens are organic in terms of what we grow and how we do it. And I believe they're also organic to the to the to the burrow.
Um, and while Growswoods Gardens are part of the heritage of the recreational area out there and uh I would hope that in the future they will remain to be part of
Crows Woods. In short, to me, the gardens deserve to have a footprint within the remediated Crowswood Recreational Area. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Bill.
Pardon? I said thank you. Oh. Oh, you both. Okay. Uh, any other comments from the floor? Please come come to the lectern. Name and address. Just street. You don't
have to give your number. I'm Andrea Hotelling and I live on West Summit Avenue. And in the uh May 30th issue of the retrospect of regarding the coverage of the May 27th commissioner's meeting, it reported plans for the
mitigation of flooding in that area and cited was the choose landing uh road between you know but it said between Belleview and Mount the uh Mountwell and I'd like a clarification. I have some other questions but I'd like a clarification or an explanation of this
because I'm totally mystified. Belleview is at a significantly higher elevation than West Summit Avenue. And from Belleview to to Mount Well is all a downhill grade. The slope continues to the station avenue, West Summit Avenue
intersection uh with Choose Landing Road and then that's the lowest point and that's where the flooding occurs. During the infamous storm of June 20th of 2019, we were almost at that anniversary. Uh the all the flooding was at the Choose
Landing intersection and west uh in the intersection with West Summit and the station with water backing up West Summit. Uh my family was affected by that with water backing up into our basement as were many of our neighbors. Um, so besides an explanation of what
actually is happening and why Belleview and Mountwell is cited, the other thing I'd like to know if there are going to be any anything actually accomplished because the previous big flood was in 2019, but the problem goes back to 20ou
to 1995. I have information from commissioners meetings from 1995. I have newspapers back to 1995 about the serious flooding at that intersection. And so far, here we are 30 years later and nothing has
been accomplished. So, I really would have appreciate if I could learn more about what's planned and if anything is actually going to be done for the flooding at on Sho Laneing Road at West Summit and Station. Thank you. Thank you, Andre.
Any other comments from the floor? Gilmore, 37 Ellis Street. Just wondering, I think I had asked about this a while ago, um to the uh public works about when the back of the building, the windows are going to be painted, restored. Just wondering. I
mean, I walk up to this building every time for a meeting probably for the past two years now, and I haven't seen anything happen. So, just wondering whether that's going to happen because the windows are looking pretty bad. You mean on this building? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Thanks, J. Before we get to any of these, um I'll move not seeing well everyone who was here actually spoke. So uh we'll move to uh the online if anyone has uh comments on non-aggenda items or of anything. Shaina.
Hi Shaya Marshall Center Street. Just want to complement the audio and visual on Zoom tonight. Uh especially the use of screen share. It's excellent and very appreciated. Well, thank you.
Nice. Jane is a frequent flyer on Zoom. Uh, and so she would know the difference. Anyone else? All right. Following my 7-second rule, uh we will move to close public comment
on uh non-aggenda items. Can I get a second? Second. Voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. I. Commissioner Sidell. I. So, um is there any discussion that we'd like to have for
comments that we have here or we can collect them for later? Uh, Bill, I will say from the garden standpoint, uh, the gardens are a very important part of the community. Uh, and um, there is also the realization that they will have to move.
So, communication with the leadership of the Crowswoods Gardens, uh, they asked, "What about this growing season?" And we gave them uh, assurance that this growing season wouldn't be affected. We really can't say at this point whether next season would be affected or
not. Uh because the way some things move fast, some things move slow, but the the rumor that the gardens are are going away would say would suggest that that's a forever statement. Uh where they could be relocated temporarily while the
necessary remediation work at Crowswoods would have to happen. Um there's a significant cost to move the gardens uh that the burrow would undertake to to relocate the the activities and then a decision on where they go back uh would
go. The thing about online and I'll make this comment as well is when you make an application I believe we said five concepts were in that plan that were submitted to the D and concept three is what's been circulated out u you know to the public for comment and and and to
further out so the the more work that's identified to be done at Crowswoods uh requires more remediation. At one point it wasn't sure if the gardens location was part of it. Is it is now certain that the garden's location is part of
that. Uh it could even mean that the um the pavilion area would the pavilion would actually have to be removed. Right. I understand that the the point I was really making is that comment's over, but I'm going to I'm going to let him talk. Go ahead, Bill. In the long
term, uh the garden may have to be shut for a year, maybe even longer. I don't know. In the long term, I would like to see the garden return to its heritage location at Crowswoods. I can't think of a better place in town where that garden should be. There's great sunshine.
There's no roots. The trees trees don't interfere. It's a beautiful place to work with the fields out there as well. I think there should be existing compatibility between having soccer fields, whether they're turfed or not turfed, and and the garden out there as
well. So interim I I agree. I don't know what will happen Dave and I'm you know whether or not you'll even be able to accommodate gardeners who want to garden while the remediation is going on. I'm not clear about that. The thing that I'm most clear about is the gardens
need to be at Crowswoods. Sure. and and I appreciate your sentiment there. And I will say this would be a community absolute discussion because it it involves not only the the active recreation, you know, that happens at that space, but also the gardeners, the
passive uses of of the Crows Woods Nature Preserve. I mean, that's its official name, right? So, it it covers the woods as well. uh and I would love to see the conversation move to the public sphere to talk about what's best because you know the three of us deciding what's best really comes from
public input. So thanks for speaking tonight. U and I can I can speak to some of the history of this. Um so I mean there's two grants that are in discussion here. So one is the small grant that was approved that basically we submitted uh on on a parallel path
with the larger one that has the the concept drawings along with it. So the smaller one is one we're approved for. Basically it is defining the perimeter of where the original um uh where the original landfill was. So um that's kind
of step one and then uh at the request of basically um NJA they said you can submit these things um you know basically at the same time uh in the um just to improve like the
turnaround time and the approval process for it. So at least as I saw it and and maybe I was kind of uh you misunderstood at the time but it was basically step one is kind of define the perimeter of where that is and that may dictate whether what we can or can't do with the
existing crows woods gardens that if there's you know high levels of you know gases or benzene or whatever the case may may be there that may be a different discussion saying you know what this probably is not the best place for any garden. Um, so, so that will be defined by when they defined the the perimeter
of the uh the original landfill. And then two, I kind of view it as in we were requesting a lot at the time saying, you know, in a perfect world, we'd like to have all these things. I would expect the state would come back at some point and say, you're not going to have all those things. You know, you you ask for five different fields and,
you know, a cover. We're going to give you two fields and no cover or something like that. And then that's when we're going to have a discussion about what do we do with the the the remainder of the land and you know basis what we get approval for and the funds that are available.
Yes. I mean the key is the second grant hasn't been approved by any means. So the the main issue is in order to qualify for these brownfield funds it has to be a redevelopment of an area. And so the commissioner is correct. you
put in your pie in the sky wish the funding is not guaranteed to be there. So if they don't have the funds and they don't approve a concept of the plan then we just go back to still being required to then spend money our our own taxpayer dollars to fund the
recapping of the landfill and putting dirt back on top of after the cap is finished and grass seed. So high in the sky omitted the gardens. The gardens were weren't necessarily omitted. They're
omitted from where they are existing. It doesn't mean there's not still going to be a crow's woods. It doesn't mean that there might not be a better place for them. That conversation hasn't been completed yet. There's it's a little too early knowing not knowing as the
commissioner indicated where exactly the landfill is. if the we're we're fairly certain that the landfill is under the gardens. Yes, there's still borings. We're not sure how far over um back by that area because there's an area of the public
works use behind that. Um we're not sure if it goes into there. We're pretty confident that it goes under the pavilion. It's trying to figure out the existing the full existing area. That's what this first grant does. This provides funding so that it's not borne by the residents and we're able to get this work done um through the
brownfields funding. Right. It doesn't answer the answer. It answers the problem. It gives us an answer to the scope of the problem. Correct. And then we can have the conversation about that. But uh but as as Frank said, you know, you you put out a pie in the sky because you any way you slice it, we're spending
at least $2.5 million. uh and we would like to be able to effectively spend that with matching funds if possible. Uh but if not, we still have to carry the nut and and remediate this the area. So, um that's what we're looking at as the problem
statement. There's hasn't been a solution statement yet at all. So, and I know we're committed to having public input and a lot of it because there are a lot of competing interests down there. So uh
thank you to move on to u well first thanks Shaina for the feedback on Zoom u you know the AV upgrades in in late April were uh long a coming and hope and I'm glad to see that it was money well
spent so far so appreciate the feedback. Uh Joan Burrow Hall Windows um do you want me to take that? No, I can I can handle this cuz something you don't even know yet, right? So, we had put
this out several times to contractors trying to find somebody to do it. We couldn't get pricing for it. We just made a connection with um the carpenters union and our superintendent of public works, I'm sorry, wrong person, superintendent of public works is actually setting up a meeting to get
them in to determine the cost for them to come and do it. So, I am hopeful that sometime this summer it'll actually finally be addressed. Um, but that was the issue. We we couldn't, believe it or not, we couldn't find someone that would respond to us and and provide us with a price to be able to fix them. Um, so
that's the answer to that. I can also take the next question if I was going to just say we have to eat our own dog food when it comes to historic preservation. So, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um and so the mitigation and flooding the what was the action that was taken at the May meeting
was to apply for a grant. The grant is potentially to narrow the road on choose landing for three blocks and install uh green infrastructure. You are correct. Those are higher and it comes down to choose. It comes down to
station and choose. The idea is if you're out there even during a storm that's not as severe as as the 2019 storm or even the Fourth of July storm we had a couple years ago, you will see that a river of water comes
off of the one side from the all of the side streets and builds and builds and builds which causes the problem at station. So what this grant would do is it puts storage all along the one side of the roadway so that we can try and
collect that water so that it doesn't make it down to to station and shoes which would help relieve the problem at station and shoes. I completely understand that this problem goes back for years. Um part of it is trying to work with the county
because it is a county road. Um but what we have learned and to our knowledge only recently in the past you know two years when we did landsdown was we always thought that the pipes that went from choose to king's highway connected
to a king's highway pipe for the county it doesn't. It crosses over Kings Highway goes down lands down which goes down eventually to Barbar and Homestead which is which collects over 400 acres of water from town. So if all of those pipes get filled up, there's no nowhere
for that water to go. And what we have discovered and I've been trying to deal with is the we that goes into Newton Creek. Newton Creek is title along with the same as the Cooper is title. If the water is up, then there's no place for
that water to go anywhere for any of that 400 acres. Um, but even in those storms, there are four or five towns in front of us that are all putting the water into Newton Creek. So, by the time it gets to us, the last one on the line,
it's usually full. So, it's a much larger regional problem that we have been trying to address. We were hoping some of the dredging of the Newton Creek would help and be able to allow a little more water out. We haven't seen that as being too too successful. We we
installed a $2.2 $2 million um underground basin down on Homestead. We were hoping that that would at least mitigate the majority of the problems, but that fills up rather quickly. Um so it's it's
an ongoing battle with the severity of the storms constantly increasing and infrastructure that's non-existent from a town that's being been developed over 300 years. So, we understand we we are trying to solve it. Um, we're just
very limited in how we can. We also have the problem of not being able even if we had all the money in the world to install those underground tanks, we're limited as to where we can install them because there's so many utilities in the road. It's very difficult to find even a
place for you to be able to put them. So, I think that handles those two. Sure. I'll I'll share a personal anecdote about June 20th, 2019. My 11-year-old son, I lived on Belleview and Choose. Um, he stepped into the rushing water going past our driveway
and wound up washed out to the middle of Choose Landing Road. He lost his footing and the water carried him. An 11-year-old boy, you know, probably 350 ft from our driveway out to the middle of the road. That's how fast the water runs down Belleview. Um, you're right.
It all runs downhill. Uh, and it's scarily runs very quickly down that street. Uh, so that should cover all the public comment. Uh, do we have a close session tonight? Do uh for uh personnel personnel and um potential
contract negotiations. Okay. Uh from a highlight standpoint, uh if we could just review, we awarded the road program to uh APS, Asphalt Paving Systems, right? And we awarded the solid waste and
recycling material collection services to Suburban. Yep. Suburban. Uh so, thank you everyone. Uh we are making a motion to move go into close session. Uh when we return from close session,
there will be no action. So we will return and I think No, I know I haven't gotten there yet. Uh so I haven't made the motion, but uh in practice uh we are opening and only opening a section uh to
the press for unlimited time questions periods before we go into closed. On record, please if the press wants to come to the deis or come to the lectern to ask questions, be our guest. Sure. You can ask anybody anything who's up
here from the from the lectern in June. Oh boy, I have so many notes scribbled. Um, okay. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Ann, for your years of service, too. Thanks, Bill. I just wanted a couple clarifications on Crowswoods. Um, you
Dave, I think you mentioned um a circulation of concept three. Was that done by the burrow or was that done on social media by somebody else? It was done on social media by someone else from open public records act request. I see. So they obtained all of the Well,
they obtained that image. That's the one they asked for. Okay. And concept three is just one of how many concepts of three? Three of three. Three. Okay. Okay. So the other two concepts are still under consideration. No, I misspoke. Everything's under
consideration if if we get the grant. Okay. And what you're saying now, if you get the grant, which won't be till No. When will you know? We we won't. Right now, we're still doing the work over the summer. They're doing the work for the
first grant that we received, which was to delineate the boundaries of the actual old landfill because there's no final there's no paperwork on where it went. when they when they so that's that's the first part you know
jumping ahead to what's going to be finalized with a second with the second grant we probably won't even know about a about potentially getting the second grant until early 2026. Okay. And then so then the plan would be
to have a communitywide conversation about what happens there and the discussion of the three concepts. I'm sure we would. Yes. Okay. That when you know if you're notified. Yeah. Those three concepts or whatever concepts could come out of when we know the scope
of the problem. This, you know, the area that needs to be remediated and then taking in account not only community wishes but current landscape of land available. Um, you know, Crow's Woods and Crows Woods was
one nature area that we had from an open space standpoint. And in the years since the gardens have opened, there are many other open green acre spaces that are available to the burrow that might actually satisfy better. Have no idea and don't really want to render an opinion on that, but just want to offer it out for the community to discuss.
Okay. And Sharon, I think you mentioned um you said or when somebody said 2.5 million the burough would have to spend. Well, we're that's what we're budgeting for. Is that that's that's over and above the grant? No. Yes. The first grant that is that is the estimate cost
from the engineers at this time without the final knowledge of where it exists to replace to recap put monitoring systems in and put back dirt and grass at crows woods grass seed grass seed
correct outside whatever grant you get won't cover that the grant we have now is to finish the delineation right if if we the hope is if we can get Brownfield's money, then we would be able to put we would be
able to go a step above that and put something else and put a better product back. What that final better product is will be depend dependent upon our discussions with with D and what they're looking for and what they're willing to
pay for. Okay. So, the bureau would commit 2.5 million to this project over and above what the state gives you. We're hoping that that's a maximum of what the the grant funds are 75% of the project. So by getting the grant
funds, we potentially can put a better product down there for less cost to the taxpayers. Okay. I mean that be a one uh year budget item. Would that like the 2.5 million like would that um that would be in capital program? It would be in
capital. It would it would be bonded. Okay. Um but again until we if we when you're dealing with landfills you typically have to go through a specific portion of D that deals with landfills
unless you're trying to do a redevelopment project through the brown fields then you go through the brown fields if which is what we're trying to do so that we get 75% funding if we do the delineation and we go back
in the brownfield say we've changed our mind this doesn't qualify for us or we don't have the funding available to fund you at this time we've funded a different project then we would go back to the regular portion of DP and start a
whole long permitting process to recap the landfill at which point we would fully be on the hook for all costs associated with that. So, so I think I understand. So, so Joan, I I had responsibility for this when I was in charge of public works and
I think sometimes you have to strike a balance of giving information which I did that we were pursuing two grants which is all truthful but um you know I I think that by releasing that on social media I and I quoted on social media from my burrow site this is a situation where we're putting the cart
way before the horse of how come we didn't know about this? How come we didn't have public input? How can we like there's a whole series of if then before you get from present state to a hypothetical future state that has a field or multiple fields there and I
think to me it's a little too premature if I still have responsibility for public works but I don't anymore I would say it's a little bit too premature to even start discussing all the possible if thens and factorial events that could happen in the future you know to to have that someday be a workable field and
meanwhile they're still playing soccer there. Sure. Correct. Okay. And they're still tilling the garden. They're still tilling the gardens. And they're It's still business as usual. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Um and um Frank, I know you're just in public safety now, but can you
talk about what led to the policy change um on the fire trucks that Chief Gorman mentioned about they're now the EMS doesn't go out on fire calls, but now they go out on motor vehicle accidents. um that is new relatively new
information to me and I I probably can't speak intelligently to it but I can either it's it's best used of of the vehicles. There's um it's a change in policy but it's something we actually had done once upon a time. So each chief
has a different view on how they want to respond to different things. Um, and there was a long period of time where our ambulance would go to all fire calls and then we stopped that for a while because again, thankfully, fortunately,
most of our fire calls would not require their services. So, and it it didn't stop this way. They didn't have to go offline to responding to ambulance calls. So, they are able to just respond to ambulance calls. Then, for a while, they were going back on them. Um, and
it's a decision the chief has made using the staffing underneath him to the to the best of their ability. There there again the realization that there is very minimal need for them to be responding to fire calls and being able to respond
be available and able to respond to all ambulance calls and then the having the fire not respond to all ambulance calls like once upon a time they did at one point which again was a misuse of we don't necessarily
need that but there are some circumstances where it's helpful sometimes there you may need a couple of extra folks to um deal with certain situations so that you have a little more muscle power things like that. So
that's it's it's just the chief determining the best use of of the resources. Okay. I guess I was wondering if it had anything to do with the change in leadership but No, I think it's something that that the chief just was leading towards as time changed. And and
one thing I uh I asked Chief to present and because we switched systems two years ago, it's not easy to uh to compile the information. So, we're waiting a report back from the state. And uh what I asked for is basically a 5-year histogram of response times. Uh
which we should be able to do that in probably the coming months. Chief said it should be coming like the next couple months here. and uh we'll advertise that basically trying to draw a correlation between the investments that that we've made with like the stipen program recruiting some of the techniques that
chief has implemented and uh show the the results that has had on response time in the uh burrow of Hatenfield. So I would say hold tight for a couple months on that and we'll be able to probably asking Joanne to put that in some sort of like pictographic and uh
like a you know histogram over last five years. Okay. And then along with that, like there was a bigger um there's a bigger chunk of money going to the volunteer fire company this year under this budget. Looks like well year of the stipen program that started in May of 2024. Correct. So right this so we have
this will be a full budget year worth of the stipen program. Uh okay. So 2024 wasn't well it started in May of 2024. Not where the burrow was funding it. Okay. this and it wasn't 247 before that. Gotcha. May of May of 2024,
we started 247. All right. Okay. For for fire stipen. Okay. Um and sorry, I'm just I'm jumping back and forth back to kind of environmental. Did Sharon, did you just say that that that you thought the county dredging project at Newton Creek was not successful?
No, that's not what I said. Okay. I was just checking. I was hopeful. Again, nothing to do with the success or or not success of the county project. As far as I'm aware, the county project was successful for what they were trying to achieve. I personally was hopeful that
the dredging would would provide a little relief in some of our storms because it might be able to hold some additional water. I haven't noticed a change in that, but again, severity of storms keeps
increasing and you know, more often. So, um, it was wishful thinking on my part. It had nothing to do with the success of their project. Okay. I just wanted that clarification. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I would say that when we had the storm, was it last year showering at night? It
was, I think, 8 minutes after high tide. Yeah. At at peak high tide. So, what's that? July 4th one. That was another one. I think. Yeah. The 2019 one. No. No. He's he's talking about a storm that occurred last year. There was there was a storm that occurred last year. We had
concerns over whether or not it would be as as have such as as significant an impact on the community as some of the previous storms again because it depends on where the tide is. Um and I if it's high tide then the Cooper River cannot
let out until the Delaware Bay and so there's nowhere for that water to go. Um and as we said everything then just backs up. Um, and it was it had it was just starting to go out, so they were able to lower and we were fortunate
enough that that water had someplace to go. Have you been satisfied with the success of the underground surge tank at Homestead? I I would I I think I don't know. I mean, it's been a couple years, right? So, they're they're changing terminology. I would say that I think
it's very successful for like what has historically been called like a 25-y year storm. Uh it uh it holds it and allows it to you know to drain slowly uh back into the water table and then downstream. I would say when you have those um I don't I don't even know if
they categorize as a 50-year storm, but when you have those within an hour, you know, those deluge of, you know, two or three inches of rain, whatever the case may be, and it's a high tide at, you know, Newton's Creek or, you know, at Delaware River, it's just there's no
place for the water to go. And so all the containment you would have to have I don't know how big your containment system would have to be, but what we put in the ground there is not large enough to overcome 400 acres going into a dead head at the outfall, but it helps a
little bit. It helps a little bit for 25 years and when it's a low tide. Okay. And in case you're wondering, because it's my area of work, uh the Delaware River has about an 8ft title difference um you know, right there in uh in Camden. So it's pretty significant. It's not a uh Yeah, it's not like a We're
talking We're not talking inches. We're talking feet. Okay. Um and just um one question on the trash vendor. Is that a new vendor? Yes. And could they had a significantly lower bid than the other two? Yes. The other two um Waste
Management increased their bid from the f the prior five-year round five-year term um about 200 and some but about 216% I believe it was. and the and in the in the um budget the that's
categorized as TRA trash removal rights. So it's under the public works. It's in the public works. So we were actually able to um there was a because of the rate we received with the new vendor, we did not have a
significant increase in that particular portion of the budget. Okay. Okay. And recycling is listed somewhere else or cuz you only have 645 for trash. Correct. The trash is the only thing we were awarding. We weren't awarding anything else on that bid. You're not.
So we do we do recycling recycling. We do recycle. We do all the other factors inhouse. We put it out every 5 years so that we can evaluate whether it's cheaper to continue to do it inhouse or to do it under contract. Okay. You're
only awarding the trash part of that, correct? We accept the pricing table for We accepted the full five years of the of the pricing table for the new contract. No, we're we're we're only awarding the trash. Other ones, if we wanted to, we would have to go back out to bid for
something if we wanted to look at that again. And not everybody bid on all the different Correct. Only the one company bid on everything. Right. Okay. But a couple of questions just just I mean just to take that a step further had that new company not bid we were looking
at a 216% increase in trash collection. So that would have been significant the tax increase we have now would have been significantly more if or we would have considered taking bringing it back in house. What does the um tax increase
equate to in dollars for the average house? You gave us the pennies, but the dollar was fourth3 pennies. Okay. Do Do you have a lot of questions on the budget? I was I I have a few. Yeah. All right. Do you want to email me
them and then I can get you like exact figures instead of Okay. right now. I think we did that last year. Yeah. Yeah. Email me. Wonderful. I think we did that last year and the year before. So Okay. Thank you so much. Yep. Yep. Or I'll grab your when they throw you out.
All right. Thank you. Not seeing anyone online from the press. Uh I'll make a motion to go into close session. And as a reminder, when we return, we will be uh retiring this session uh without any
further action. No action. No action. Without any action. Yes. I just second voting on that motion. Commissioner Cole I. Commissioner Troy. I. Commissioner Sidell. I I used too many words to
describe that one. Have a good night. All right. See you. Thank you. 98. 98. 98. Okay. Hope we know. We awarded it a couple months ago. Sorry. Yeah, doesn't