You're on. All right. Good evening everyone. This meeting is being held with the benefit of public notice as required by the open public meetings act. Madame clerk, would you call the role? Mr. Caribelli here. Mr. Whan here. Mr. Papero here. Mr. Ty here. Miss Phillips.
And would everyone rise for the salute to the flag and the invocation. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Could we just have a moment of si of silence for um the passing yes uh this morning of Pope Francis. Thank you. I just want to read a quote um that uh that was one of Pope Francis's quotes um that was pretty
famous. Rivers do not drink their own water. Trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself. And flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We all born to help each other, no matter how difficult it is.
Life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you. Thank you. Very good. Thank you, Councilman Caribelli. All right, Carrie, you're up first.
Department of Water Pollution Control. Hurry up. Pressure now. Would you rather go last than we can? I don't know how long they take. Oh, I know how long I take you. Well, we've
got you first in the order. So, unless you want to. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. Uh, do you have opening remarks that you'd like to start with?
I do. Does this automatically work? Do you see a red light? Yep. It's I have to keep it pressed. No. No. If the red light's on, you're being recorded. No, I have to press I have to press it for the red light to
go. So, just tap it a little lower. Don't hold it down too much. It should just stay on. It's working. There we go. All right. Good evening, Council President Tai, Council members, and Hamilton at large.
Thank you, Mayor Martin, the administration, and yourselves for providing WC providing for WPC so that we can keep your wastewater facility moving forward. Statistics. On an average in 24, we
process 7.1 million gallons per day of wastewater. This number isn't fancy, but if you put a few gallons of waste water in your basement, you'd agree that what we do every day protects the public health and the environment. That is over a 100,000
residents between Hamilton and Robinsville. We do this while the part parts of the plant are over 85 years old. Take pumps for example. Did you know we we have close to 300 pumps that we operate and maintain in the utility
altogether. Last year we also collected in 24 over $830,000 just in connection fees. Operating expenses while prices continue to increase we were able to stay within budget. I'm proposing for 25
a.3% decrease in our operating budget. That's overall salarying wages. An aging for workforce is still one of the biggest challenges facing WPC. We can continue to try to fill vacant positions with
motivated skilled workers. Such a challenge. We know that this is a challenge not only around the state but around the country. As Mayor Martin witnessed at the United States Conference of Mayors in a recent Lancaster
conference, the rest of the mayors around the country were saying the same exact thing. This is aggravated because licensed operators in New Jersey and in the country are retiring faster than can be replenished. I'm asking to maintain the current total projected headcount of
68. The second biggest challenge is the aging infrastructure. And you will recall the last couple years I've talked about both these two as our biggest challenges. The department continues to work hard to plan, bid, and build those
upgraded upgraded and replacement projects. A few highlights for 2024. We g began construction to replace six of our RBC's. Okay, let's get excited.
You know how I roll. Picture time. Let me start passing it around while I talk. Here, you get to see too. This is one on a tractor trailer bed that just pulled into the plant.
RBC. RBC. Rotating biological contactor. Thank you. We have 48 of them in the plant. They cost about $300,000 each. Over the next six years, six years, we hope to replace all of them. That's a lot of money, but it is
the heart of our biological treatment process. It is necessary. And in fact, by now, it's April. They're all in and running. All of them. All 48 of them. We They have been failing slowly over the
last five, six, seven years. So, this is very, very good. This is a big deal. Six out of how many we're replacing? We're going to replace them all. This year we finished replacing six. I know. What's
What is all over again? 48. Thank you. Our our next eight are already under design. Another accomplishment for 24, we uh we enlarged the NJ DOT pump station that
was completed. It's Route 130 and Kiser, allowing for more commercial growth in that area. Also, a new rolloff truck arrived in 24. This will enable WPC to haul our own wastewater sludge to the landfill.
So, prices have astronomically increased exponentially. So, now we're going to do our on our own. And we figured that payback is about a year and a half. So, very, very good. What's on the horizon for 25? We expect to start hauling our sludge by the end of the year. Master
plan is it's is expected to be completed by the end of the year. I have been saying that it has been delayed, but this year we really do believe it will be completed. That will be incorporated into our capital budget next year. Uh we continue to launch regulations for the
potential NJD requirements to nearly eliminate ammonia and PAS from our effluent, the water we discharge to the creek. Uh I talked about those last year, you've heard about those in the news, all that type of thing. Uh and lastly, more construction to bolster our
aging infrastructure in the plant and in the collection system. In summary, D is requesting the following budget for 25. Total operating expenses, including salary, wages, and statutory expenses, $24.8 million. That is less than last
year. Capital projects 202.4 million. Now, that's a lot of money. And we've had we've had a challenge spending every year all the capital money, but only one project in that takes up $5
million by itself. It's almost an emergency project. It has to move forward. The administration in Eugene are aware this $5 million project is for the replacement or the rehabilitation of the Yardville Groville force main which
brings the waste water from the pump station out there uh right at 130 is the pump station all the way back down to the plant. So that needs to be re rehabilitated. In closing, I would like to thank the men and women who work at WPC for being
ready 247 to respond to emergencies. Thank you. What questions do you have? Carrie. Carrie, I just wanted just a clarification. You said um 68 full-time employees. Yes. Okay. I
just wanted the budget. The budget is for that. We have less right now. We're having trouble hiring. Okay. Do you know some good people? [Laughter] So, I did see 70 though on the one page. That's why I was just a little confused. 70 was last year.
Okay. Don't go by that. Okay. All right. And do we uh for the individuals that you're bringing on obviously they need certain specific licenses and certifications for some of the positions
I'm sure right some um we could look a closer look at the training budget but um you feel like you've allocated the funding for some of those some of those training and seminars throughout the year that need to happen. Correct. Yes. and and we're
making an effort to uh promote from within into those positions that require certifications. Correct. First firstly, yes, that's what we tried. How is your um O and E down this year? What was like some of the uh just give
you can give a couple highlights. I mean, I'm I'm loving what you're saying, Chief. Tough act to follow here. No, I'm but less is more. Yeah. Um but how's you what were some of the any highlights that you want to mention on the O and
that you wanted to bring to our attention? OE in general. Um we have uh I think it was two years ago we had to transfer from uh wages over into one of our objectives. This
year we did not have to. We were okay in all of our objectives. So that was good. Uh I mentioned a few highlights earlier. Um that that's overall um o O and uh I think it was good overall. I think that the history now as I press the uh
superintendent if you will to to be accurate with their budgets and to plan the work and then to work the plan. That's that's what they say. Um that's what we need to do. We get tripped up because of emergencies and they happen
all the time. Small, big. Sorry. Um I didn't mean to cut you off. If you wanted to finish your thought. Um you had mentioned you're you're having some difficulty uh spending uh capital
um authorization previously authorized capital funds. Uh what's causing what's causing the holdup there? manpower. Is that right? Just because you've been short-handed. Um, so like are there any particular
projects that you've you've had earmarked for completion that are not getting done? Uh, there are projects, right? Prioritizing. I I I know that it's
always it's always triage with with you. I you know I have high confidence in you you're going to make sure that the most pressing need is going to be filled. All right. So we continue to uh talk to
people to get applications in individually. Uh last week one walked in. We get them from the personnel office etc. uh we interview, we call, we talk, we try and there's all kinds of factors. Um
our engineer for the plant, we have two basic engineers, one in the collection system, one in the plant. He left and he went to be pretty much an assistant director for the water supply authority, which is up
where's that in uh not Warren County, Sussex County, maybe Warren County. I'm not. Anyway, he's uh he left he's by Spruce Run, Brown Valley. That's where he is. So, I think that was February or March of last year. So, I get to wear two hats and that's very
difficult. So, as a as an engineer myself, um I appreciate that you brought in a tight budget, but are we are we paying enough for these positions? If we're having trouble filling the positions, is that something we have to consider?
The answer is that we have found in general by other uh you mentioned mayor sees a nationwide trend with this right it's it's what do you want to say that all of us all of us are gracious and grateful
for the work that everyone does and working in this blank stuff sometimes is not very nice so it is a challenge um Um some people, you know, people don't always want to go into this industry. I mean, how did I get into it?
I environment the environment kind of thing. Um so they we have found pretty consistently as far as uh what do you want to say? Um the word on the street is that Hamilton does fine. They do probably above average as
far as wages and benefits. So we are very much competitive in this arena and people will come. But there's other factors like how far do they live? Um, and some various other factors. Okay. I'm a big proponent of increasing
union member salaries. Pardon? I'm a big advocate of increasing union member salaries. I'm sure. So, um, and the other piece of that is once, you know, Carrie gets bodies in the door, she's really terrific about
offering training and, you know, for them to get better and better, go for their different uh, certifications if they want to. She's very encouraging with that. And so, she's had a lot of staff members that have taken advantage of that and gone on to get the
certifications. They're very difficult to get. So that's the other thing. They take some time and you know um we give them as much time and and assistance as they as they need. So um so that's been really good. But it's also a double-edged sword sometimes, right?
Somebody gets trained, gets another certification or license, and then they're wooed by other, you know, systems, other municipalities, other authorities and such. And so a lot of times it's, you know, they're getting
something special from somebody else and they go sometimes you've had folks come back, but not many. So, uh, so it's tough. It's tough to keep them. We try to retain them as best as we can, but um, and you've got a great crew over there of of folks. So, and they're
dedicated and and most are very loyal to the township. So, they do a good job. And you do, but I'm maybe I'm confused because you're saying you have capital projects that you have money earmarked for capital projects because but you can't get them done because of say
manpower shortage. Yeah. So, so my which leads me to okay if that's the case are these projects that are upgrades to the facility? Yes. Why not outsource it then if you don't have the manpower? We do.
Okay. So, we're continuing to outsource. Oh. Oh, absolutely. We But we we get the engineers to design it. If we need a small study, that design, then we need bid. Then we need bid to construction. So then you have a a consultant again on deck for construction services, resident
inspection, and you have the contractor. All that's fine, but you can't just say, "Okay, it's fine. Go over there and do your job." We have to have somebody that's dovetailing in. There's always going to be something. Even during design I need the past engineering drawings. Go find them. Transmitted
there's just a lot of internal coordinate. Not I mean a lot but and you don't have one project to work on. You have many projects inside and outside. So okay. So it's more more an internal problem. It's not outside the um
department. It's more internally that you don't have enough Well, I think you mentioned it earlier, right? You're you're you're you're wearing two hats. I I am. So, and the out and the outside engineer, he is helping. He's helping, but he can't he's working on the outside projects and they're they're they're
gang busters. They're doing a great job and they're moving forward and they're spending their money, which is great. Um I have talked with the administration. We had several meetings, looked at different options and things like this. other mayors on board. We're all together and um we're looking at design bid
consideration, a different platform for uh getting it out into the public instead of just the design bid build, right? So, we're looking at that option. Um not the small engineering companies don't really do that. The bigger ones do
do that. So, I'm going to get Eugenia, talk with her. We're probably going to go um uh get Michelle and Michelle and we'll go meet with the trust which is the I bank at Trenton meet with them and say what do we need to do if we have to I mean there's I bank money always has
some hoops if we can stay inside buildings that means we don't dig therefore we don't have to do environmental studies for artifact artifacts like Indian heads and things like that so we won't have to do that and we have plenty of construction inside we're talking instead of the
standard as you can imagine say a3 $4 million bid bid project right three four five six right if I do several of those each of those takes all that effort if I do one for 20 or $30 million it's it's a
lot it's a tremendous amount but it's still a little easier to process one pay estimate that month month than three or four for small projects so this conglomeration In addition to uh a design bid uh design
build project which means that the engineering company and the contractor are together as far as phasing it together starting construction while some stuff is released and some stuff is being uh continued to be constructed uh
designed designed. Okay. Thank you. I just had um two quick questions. One was um you mentioned in your um presentation the idea of I know we ended up purchasing a hauler for the for cake the
sludge to take that. So [Music] um how how much are we projecting in savings from that? Do we know like is it is it significant? Is it going to be then outsourcing that like we did in the past?
Are we going to go back to bidding it so that somebody else will haul it in the future? No, that's not my question. He's he's asking how much are we saving with bringing that inhouse. In house. That's what Thank you. I can get that information. I don't have it on me
tonight, but I can tell you what used to be classically a box. We call it box. It's a container, right? Oh, I remember of Okay. Yeah. I had my pictures a couple years ago as some of us who were so graciously given a tour have seen
okay a box a a rolloff container right filled with sludge cake right that box used to cost us $350 to haul from Hamilton to Gross landfill right 350 haul it one trip one
trip come back get another box take it out we're average students say used to be say more than a half to two boxes a day. So that means one day two boxes, the next day one, then the next you know like that kind of thing. Now the bo the
price per it has exponentially gone $1,000 a box. So from years it was 350 4450. I think this year at the end of the year we're going to be paying $1,000. I have to go get the numbers, but that's that's not that far away from
real. And that's that's just crazy. We talked to our old hauler, the one before the last few bids, and they said unnecessarily high. It It's It'll pay for the truck then in a short amount of time. Abs. Absolutely. That's what I said. A year and a about a year and a
half payback. Yeah. Sounds like Horizon bought the uh bought into this industry too, right? They're jacking the price up on there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm saying it sounds like price all the time. I know. Same thing with garbage pick. And I guess the final question, Kathy, I
guess um our relationship, our ongoing is it an annual agreement that we have with Robinsville for the one um so that they can I guess what it is what is the relation water treatment into our
facility? Yeah. Well, one is the master agreement which is for us to treat their waste water. So that means they collect it all in their own pipes. They will send it through a meter chamber which is on the edge between our Hamiltonville. We will meter how much it is and then
they will send it down through our one main pipe all the way to the plant. It goes through the uh it goes through one pump station. So to treat that waste water to convey it and treat it that's one contract and you saw a resolution
the beginning of this year. That's right. Which is quarterly. It's it's they pay part of that. Okay. So that was an agreement between the towns and there's resolutions on both sides. So my I guess my question was though for 2026 we have to renegotiate again or is that in writing? I forget when that contract
been going year to year on that one and there it was originally renegotiated of sorts back in 2020. Okay. Uh with the new administration and then there's been a built-in um escalator, right? Escalator in there. So, but it it
usually is, you know, done on an on an annual basis, yeartoear. So, it's before the end of this year, we'll we'll do it again. We'll have discussions again with them. Okay. Yeah. So, the consideration for that in the future is with regard to rate studies and revising the contract
that contract needs even how this fee will be created in the future. The whole thing that's being reviewed and that will be redone cuz that contract has no expiration. So it needs to have one, etc. So that's that's that's just
ongoing. The other fee that they pay is for us to operate and maintain their pump stations build separately. It's it's materials and labor. So our trucks, our people, our time is directly paid.
Okay. Thank you, Gary. I'm looking at um revenues. Uh little spreadsheet looks like this and Uh, we've got Okay.
So, sewer connection fees are up. They've almost doubled. Can you explain that? The easiest way to say is talk to Fred. Oh, just because of because that's
development. Correct. Right. All those things that are happening, you're talking about big either buildings, complexes, that type of thing. That means more flow. You got people, you got wastewater. That's how it goes. Now, I am I sit on the environmental
commission. And we haven't seen an application for several months through through the environmental commission. So, that means that things are slowing down. Maybe they they sped up in the late fall to get things in, etc., but now they're slowing down right at the
moment. So, um, couple of things. I want to square a couple of numbers. We have a decrease in the reserve for debt service from 850,000 to 100,000. But then on the very next page, we have an increase in the payment of
bond access note principle by 279%. So how do we square that? So, uh, I want to get the second piece of that, but the reserve for debt service is really only brought in from
reserves that we have from the prior year. So, we probably had a larger reserve for debt service. When we go out to bond, a lot of times we get that reserve from a premium that's paid. So, it basically is a
one-time shot. So it could be different every year depending on what you're bringing in to supplement that that budget. Okay. And then what was the second piece? The um well the payments on the B on the ban principal bond access notes uh we've
gone from 54,000 in 2024 budgeted to over 200,000. So, and and that will end up being I don't know how long we had the bands in 24 or why it's gone on so much, but it generally is a pay down of some of the
bond anticipation note and then the rest is interest on that ban. You don't So, it's partially principal, let's call it that, even though it's not listed as principal, but it's a pay down on the ban and we're paying more in bond principle. But then we have
money um that we've authorized to be borrowed that hasn't been borrowed yet. Oh yeah. Okay. Yes. So that might need to be reallocated depending on I think what we're looking at this year and we work
with Phoenix advisors on that in order to know what the market conditions are and all of that. But we have a an outstanding bond anticipation note um currently that's coming due next month I believe. And so we're going out to
market, but we're going to roll over the the bond. So we'll we'll again have maybe a pay down of some of that small amounts and then um the interest on that that ban as well. And in addition to our other debt service, her other debt
service includes some loans from the I bank and then from past bonds that we've done um that a lot of them are almost ready to be paid off like they've been it's been a long time since we did some real permanent financing there. So, and
you'd mentioned the I bank earlier and they're always strings, not strings tied, but certain u requirements that you need to fill, certain caveats, conditions that need to be met. You were saying indoor work versus anything
outside uh in order to be able to get the I bank financing. I'm I'm assuming there's u substantial savings for us when we're able to go through the eye bank. Absolutely. So in some cases you get um 75% of the loan interest free and
then the rest of it will be at their market rate which they go out to bond for and they get similar rates that that we all get too because of our ratings. So um it really does pay off. I I think the the um the least advantageous one
was still a 50/50. So the half of the loan that you're getting is is interest free. So, it's it's really worthwhile to do that and we've had several meetings with the I bank just to see what's available and they have made their
process a little bit easier, but it's still it's very involved and technical and they have to approve each project. So, it does take a little longer sometimes to go through that process and get that approval, but they've got it to the point where it's not that much
longer than traditional financing. So, um, it's it's really a great way to go. Thanks. Uh, let's see. You guys want to go to capital? Just go through. Yeah. All right. We're going to jump to capital. Okay. Okay.
Oh, I have to list a little bit. I met with Eugene, Eugene, John, and Thomas several times since December's original submission to uh focus, refocus, whittle it down, become more accurate and careful with the timing uh
this year, getting it done this year versus the beginning of next year, right? because we won't have budget again till next year when you approve next year's budget. So, will it be done then or not? And to move the other projects till 26. So, this my crews have
said we will accomplish this this year. And by the way, we don't we don't expect that you're going to get everything done in a 12-month window. We recognize uh there are a lot of factors that go into the timing. Um so, Mhm. I don't I don't want to give
you the impression that we want you to rush projects that it's not optimal timing. You know, we trust that uh you're going to do the projects in due time and as as soon as is practical. So, um
station. And all of these vehicles are replacement that are listed here. Here on the list. Mhm. Where? There ain't no real vehicles. Okay. Right there. Yeah. Not this year. Not regular
vehicles. Pickups. Pickup. Yeah. Not right. Equipment. Yeah. The forklift, the lawn mower, front end loader, the rolloff containers. These are in
additions to the ones we already have. Do we already have rolloff containers? Naturally, we have no containers and we have no rolloff, but now we have our rolloff. Yes. I didn't mean to interrupt you. So, the the current hauler brings the rolloff container. We fill it. So,
he's supplying it. Yes. Okay. So, with the purchase that truck, we had to buy the rolloffs. Okay. I might be able to get a better deal on [Music] car. Wise got a big one. We got to get rid of I'm good.
Yeah. Yeah. Anything else? Thanks, Carrie. Thank you, Carrie. Thank you. We're all set. We're done. Done. Yeah. Unless there's anything else you want to add. No, except Thank you.
Smart move. I don't know. Great job, as always. Thank you, All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, Chief. Thank you for joining us tonight. You're up. Okay. Thanks a lot.
I can handle right there. We're going to come up. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. That's the vehicle information. Mike, when we started this, we didn't have gray hair. Have a lot of gray hair.
Now, it's copy for Nancy, I think. But you're welcome. [Applause] Thanks, Chief, for for joining us tonight. Any opening remarks that you'd like to kick off with? Well, thank you, Mr. President. Uh this is my second
budget that uh I've been completely responsible for, but I've been involved in the budget prep process for 15 years or so now. I'd like to thank uh Lieutenant Mike Kaine uh my uh handy budget officer here who did a fantastic job, put a lot of a lot of hours into
it. Like to thank Kathy and her team as well for uh the time and effort that um she and her team put into it uh a few weeks back when we uh went over it with uh with her. And uh got to be honest with you, I'm I'm pretty uh pretty satisfied with the operating. Um we have
a pretty austere budget to begin with. there's not a whole lot of cushion or or fluff in it. And um again, it's something that that we we spend a lot of time and effort on to make sure that we're able to provide the services necessary to the public at a reasonable cost to the public. So
really, my issue isn't even isn't even the operating. It's just it's it's one item on the uh on the capital side that uh seems to come up every year in terms of our vehicles. Other than that, uh I'm pretty pretty satisfied with how the budget process has gone this year.
Uh let's jump right to the Should we start with capital? So there's a question there and then we'll jump over to Yeah. kind of go backwards. Uh how many vehicles are we buying this year, Chief? Uh as of right now, zero.
Sorry, Kathy. It's uh as you know with our attention really to lowering the capital budget as much as possible this year we eliminated all vehicles from the budget from from the capital budget. There was requests from
many departments um including the chiefs and um so we have no vehicles in these budgets. So it's, you know, and it's all in a sense to kind of keep that so that we're not, you know, uh, we're watching
our debt service and how that's going to go over the next 5 to 10 years. I I understand and, uh, I've had those conversations about the debt service. I understand, you know, response, but the problem is the vehicles um, not to steal
your thunder, but the vehicles run 24 hours. Mhm. It's not uh, going to cut grass. It's not going anywhere and it's no disrespect to anybody that works in those fields. It's going when somebody calls 911. So, I understand we have a a certain
um obligation uh financially, but I think it would behoove us to uh figure out if we could squeeze anything in. You obviously know I'm biased. However, anybody picks up the phone calls 911 the fire department to come or the police department to come regardless
of who else shows up or who else doesn't show up. So, I think we just have to do our due diligence here. Yeah, I I share Councilman Pero's concern uh for, you know, the ability of the police
department to uh be able to respond uh to emergencies. Let's just back up a step and talk Chief. Uh, how many vehicles do you have? Well, you're talking patrol vehicles or you patrol? Um, well, we have 36 marked vehicles. Two of which are motorcycles. One is a
transport van. The remainder are used for uh a combination of patrol, traffic, and our anti-rime unit. Okay. And I know we were trying to get on a schedule. Uh we've talked about this for years, trying to get on to a schedule where
we're replacing a reasonable number of vehicles each year. Uh because what's the lifespan uh for a vehicle that's be in use 24 hours a day? Well, for for a patrol vehicle, yeah, u you're getting 2
to 3 years out of each patrol vehicle. Uh they average 3540,000 miles per year. And obviously as that mileage gets closer to 100,000 um after the after about the 2-year mark, the maintenance costs tend to rise uh fairly dramatically and uh you know
the risk of you know uh breakdown and in inability to respond to calls uh inability to have my full fleet available uh becomes less likely the higher the mileage the average mileage on our fleet goes. The problem comes
when not today, right? Because today, if you look at this list, move those cars with a 5,000 mile limit. The problem is we're a little behind the eight-ball because we just got this memo on the back. But if you look at that memo uh that we were just handed, it takes takes
uh 16 months to get it by the time you order the car until it actually gets on the road. Mhm. That's a problem. So, we've ordered a decent amount. I mean, look, back in 2021, I think 18 vehicles, right? Something like that. Yeah. The problem is the vehicles that were ordered in 2023 we just
got. So what we're looking at today is status quo. The problem is the beginning of 2027 this car with 80,000 mi is not going to have 120,000 mi. The car with 40,000 is not going to have 80. So when we start looking that far ahead we have
to look at what we're going to have on the road at that point. And there's a there's a certain attrition too with uh with vehicles invariably. We drive so many miles a year. Uh we get we get into car accidents. Cars are down for a while. Occasionally they're totaled. So that
has to be uh has to be factored in as well. So you know my my 36 uh vehicle fleet is rarely at 36 on a daily basis. So Council Member Pavo mentioned uh 24 is that typical 24 months for us to get a vehicle once we
16. Yeah, they they actually take about a year for the vehicles to come in, but then they go to winter winter Ford, which is in uh Cherry Hill, and they they don't come in. For instance, we have eight vehicles that are due uh due this year in the fall. Is that what we ordered last year, right? Didn't we do
eight last year, if I remember correctly? Right. and they'll come in peacemail in ones and twos to Winter Ford and they'll change they they change the uh the largest equipment for instance the cages and the light bars things like that they change all that
over we'll retire an old car uh they'll remove that equipment from from the old car transfer to the new car if it's if it fits in the new car for instance like uh the cages occasionally uh if they change a design of the car we'd have to buy new cages and so on uh and then the rest of the uh rest of the upfitting we
do back at our headquarters and then also all the vehicle striping and and so on is done in uh East Windsor. So even though the cars might come in after a year, by the time all the upfitting is done, it's it's another two to four months. So the cars that are ordered in November 2024 aren't getting here this
fall. They're getting here January or February of 26. Right. By the time they by the time they're upfitted and hit the road by time they get it'll be January February of 26. Yeah. Yes. It's a tough turnaround even though and you already know you're already eyeing the vehicles
that you want to replace in this the eight vehicles that you want to replace. They'll jump off the page at you. There's a couple of miles in in that 80,000 milei range that that are and and when we when we remove a patrol vehicle from from our patrol fleet, they get sent into other units. They're not just
retired and and and put out to auction. uh the the the other two stages where these vehicles go to are our school resource officers and also our side job vehicles. Now, our side job vehicles, I mean, if you look at them, they're on the they're on the B last second to last page. I think there are 120 140,000
miles. They're they're on their last leg and even those miles aren't reflective of their use because a lot of them are used for traffic assignments, for example. So they might sit at a traffic assignment for six or eight hours. You're putting more more hours on the on the on the motor, but it's not showing
up in uh on the mileage. So those cars are really really at the at the at the back end of their useful life. Chief, do you have a uh do you have a dollar amount of what those um what those vehicles for the side jobs have brought in uh between administrative fees and
vehicle fees? I can look I have it on my annual report. somewhere's in the 300,000 range, I believe. So, the town when every time a police officer is sitting on a traffic job, the town um not makes, right, it's cuz it's paying for the vehicle, pays for
administrative fee for the person to do the the f bill filling and payroll. Um just revenue. It's revenue that comes back to town. They're bringing 300,000. You said I I that's that's totally off the top of my head. I I should have that in my annual report here somewhere.
Can can I ask a quick question just um Kathy on on the O and E there is a budget line item uh that pops up that's uh 25-240 purchase of vehicles and it says undercover vehicles that's different is that different Mike is that so those are
for our anti-rime narcotics officers okay they're regular vehicles they're not upfitted with lights or sirens or radios so they're easy purchase for you a quicker turn. Yes. Okay. What number was that? That's uh I'm sorry I jumped. I went cuz I marked this on my my sheet.
Yeah. 25-2400- 0001-05. I have Sorry, John. I don't mean to interrupt. I I have now these these are fees generated by our offduty assignments. In 2024 is 348,000. In
2023, it was 400,000 and change. Now, that's uh road jobs and other security jobs. So, that's the vehicle, right? Correct. Yeah, because they're not all vehicle jobs. Thank you.
Ideal world, what would you like to have? Uh I would love to have 10, which is what we us uh in the in the in the current budget year. Um, I can manage with eight. Um, in in in an emergency, which it appears like, you know, if if there
is such a thing as a budgetary emergency, uh, probably three or four, um, I can manage with a commitment, uh, I I know it'd be hard to ask for this, but a commitment from the township to make up for the difference next year, uh, such as what was done in 2021. I
realize that that was a massive purchase of vehicles. That's a lot of money. It's hard to, you know, uh, in debt yourself, you know, to a different budget year, but, uh, it would be the same. Whether I get zero cars or five cars, it's it's going to cause the same issues just in different magnitudes somewhere's down
the road. Yeah. And that's, um, sometimes you'd rather bite the bullet, not inter bite the bullet now, then all of a sudden next year we're asking for 12 or 14 again, 18 like we did in 21. That's what we're trying to avoid. I think that's what
we're trying to avoid, right, is down the road, suddenly it's going to be, well, we have a bunch of vehicles that aren't, you know, suddenly it's like an emergency need as opposed to how much how much of these like uh
mark vehicles. Are they like 60 70,000? They approach approach 80 after with all the equipment. Yeah. I don't think you'll get a promise, right, of any kind except we will promise to do the best we can. Oh, no. I I I understand that. But it the
it's it's an observation more than a more than an expectation of a commitment that either you're going to pay the, you know, pay the price this year or you're going to pay it next year. And there's no guarantee that the Explorers aren't going to go up in price, you know, in future model years because that seems to be seems to be
significant the way we're going. Yeah. And that's that's that's another aspect of this, right? like a vehicle that could cost us 80,000 this year might cost us a h 100red next year uh at the rate things are going and with tariffs
now on parts for these vehicles and and everything else um you know it could be that we're robbing Peter to pay Paul or you know however you want to however you want to say that it's just it's a concern and maybe it's something that we
can talk about a little more Kathy just see if we can find room for some vehicles. Um, it's something we can we can we can discuss it. I mean, it's, you know, we're gathering information tonight, Chief. We're not making any promises. Um, right now, you're at zero.
Uh, I think there's consensus here to see if we can do better. And and if you look at this mileage, I I can manage for the next year or so based on what I currently have. But again, with the lead time between, you know, 14 16 months before we get replacement vehicles, the second half of next year and early into
into 27 is going to be really bad. Yeah. Uh for us, um our our fleet's not going to be at the same operational readiness that it that it uh that it should be and that it needs to be. And I I hate to see us be pennywise, a pound foolish, that's the that's the one you want. not robbers
here to pay for. Yeah, we got we got to find balance on what what we have and you know our other obligations and what we can I know the debt service is a big is is their vehicle maintenance under um um under police go under um public works
or do they have their own line item? So they I don't know what year they started it but they separate it out and charge the different departments. We do it in some other areas too. Okay. I didn't see it in here. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, I have a $50,000 $50,000. It's under vehicle O and E. N down to 34. All right. You see maintenance of other equipment? I thought it and and you look, you're looking to just replace probably some of the move some
vehicles over to the side job vehicles. Is that is that what happens? Like cuz they're about the highest ones. For example, if we retire a patrol vehicle at 80,000 miles, I'll make a decision with my with my fleet manager to whether we need to replace a school resource officer
vehicle or a side job vehicle. And there and that's true. We did have one that we recycled into a car police vehicles. It's the very first line item maintenance motor vehicles 501
501252 24015025. We had 50,000 in last year's budget. It got charged with just under 20,000. Why mine skipped from 24 to 26? It goes from 24 26. It should It's a
separate It's a separate division of its own. police vehicle OE engine 015 025 015 025 is the last six numbers and actually actually if I can clarify one thing on that Kathy maybe you could help me out on this that's that's to
cover the deductibles for when we're involved in a motor vehicle accident that's not it says in the detail vehicle accident repairs correct okay right that it's it's not standard maintenance it's not you know changing oil and putting new tires on it's for in
I have a vehicle that's involved in a motor vehicle. Oh, here we go. Purchase of vehicles. This I think that comes out of uh public works of the garage. There should be the the actual maintenance on the vehicles, chief tells me, is still with the garage. So, it's
in public works budget. Public works budget. This is more for accidents that happen and that we either need a deductible or we make the repairs inhouse, which more than likely we send most of them out. Right. They spent
19,000 last year on all their maintenance. That's not maintenance. That's not maintenance. Deductable. The 19,000 is not maintenance. What is it? It's it's deductibles if they have an accident. It's if we have to send it out to be fixed somewhere else after an
accident. So, it's vehicle accident repairs, right? Tire or the engine blows, that's not in there. That would be in public works. Public works. Correct. it. And and just to put a um just to point this out, last year we
had 50,000 budgeted. This year it's actually 34. Correct. So you have come down on what you're budgeting for that. Um we expect they'll have less accidents. Well, I I can actually explain that, Mr. President. Um, this was first introduced in the 2024 budget
year and apparently I think it was 2023 we had a the township as a whole had a pretty bad year when it came to uh township vehicles that were involved in accidents and public works their budget could not support all the repairs that were being done due to accidents. So
this was introduced at the request of the administration in 2024 for each division to have a line item to cover accident repairs. Now, we obviously had a very good year last year if we only had $19,000 in in accident repairs. So, I can't guarantee you that we're going to stay at that level, but uh you know,
fingers crossed. Is there a way that we can keep track uh starting like moving forward? How uh how much maintenance even if it's not, you know, obviously manh hours I'm not sure we can keep track of as far as parts, right?
Maintenance as the cars break down. Is there a way that we can see how much we're actually uh after the say after the vehicle hits 75,000 mi, right? Is there a way to see how much we're spending in repairs to figure out if we can keep the cars on the road a little longer or if we need
to replace them earlier? Is that possible? Do I I believe that they keep track of that in the garage through their software. I I haven't asked them for it, but um just thinking if we need to replace a car sooner rather than later or if we can hold off a little
while, right? I mean, we could look at your most vulnerable vehicles and then see what was the repair schedule that's been on this for the last year or longer, whatever. Research by all of a sudden you're spending a lot of money repairing one vehic or it's off the road more than
it's on. So, yeah, we could And at what stage do the maintenance costs tend to get prohibitively expensive? That's that's the million that's the million dollar question. What's the usual um uh warranty? 75,000 or 100,000
on an American car. I can't answer that. 36 36 I don't own a powertrain. 36,000 right on the car. Well, the powertrain is different, but yeah, I don't even know that we get such um I can't answer that. My my my fleet man because of what it's used and when we
alter it to be a police patrol vehicle, it's it may not, you know, have the warranty that it came with with the new vehicle. I don't know the answer to that, but it's a really good question. Chief, would um the u traffic um like
those construction where we have side jobs? Yeah. Uh where the cars parked for Mhm. but running, right? It has to be running the whole time. Uh would hybrid vehicles be helpful in those instances? Is that a
realistic possibility? That's complicated because I I I I couldn't predict um how reliable hybrids are, what their maintenance costs are. I I really don't know. Can I answer that question? Sh. Fire away. Council. So, the problem, think about it from outside the box. The
problem with that is we're not buying cars for those jobs. They're the hand-me-downs, right? So, when the cars are so beat up that they can't be used for day-to-day work, they get sent there. So, for example, Woodbridge Police, Woodbridge Police Department
makes so much money on an annual basis from their side jobs that they actually purchase the lowest possible model vehicle, put lights and a radio in it, and that's it. Because they're only they're not allowed to do motor vehicle stops. They're only allowed to be used for those jobs. We don't even purchase
those vehicles, right? We just use hand-me-downs. So, if that was the case, we would actually end up spending more money because now we're putting new vehicles into a place where we're using used vehicles. A great idea. It's just going to cost
more money. It's being done, right? Departments are doing this. I'm sure other departments do that and it's been proposed here before. uh I believe it was under the last administration and I think uh President O'Hare at the time had had those discussions um with the
previous administration of buying you basically strip down uh vehicles that weren't even rated necessarily as police cars, but you know, slap lights and and lights on them and a radio on them, mark them up and and use them as side job cars. Uh but again, you're you're you're still talking about putting out 40,000
for a brand new car as opposed to using, you know, a handme-down car for for side jobs. Ones that are just taken out of the patrol. Yeah. And I wasn't that wasn't what I had in mind. I was Good thinking, huh? You're saving. Well, you know, car's parked for hours, not running. Yeah. You know, then it's, you
know, cleaner air for the neighbors, you know, wherever the job is and everything else, right? So, there are benefits. Uh saves on gas. Yeah, I I'm I'm not against analyzing uh you know having having that discussion about purchasing
some stripped down cars or some hybrids to utilize uh as as side job cars. Um I I'm not sure about the practicality. Yeah, I don't I'm not sure about buying new vehicles for side job cars either. I didn't mean to suggest that. I I was you
know I I don't know the state of the art right now as far as that goes or what other police departments are doing or not doing. So, I was just asking the question really. No problem. Um, and it's we can have a sidebar conversation at some point in the future. Mhm. Walker
to it. If we were going to if we were going to take that side job money from the administrative fees and the vehicle fees and and designate it specifically to buy those cars, then that would be one thing, but otherwise, we're actually increasing the budget by buying them. But it's it's definitely a good thought
outside the buy store. Mhm. Any other questions for the chief? Oh, well, outside vehicles. Go ahead. Oh, okay. Fire away on vehicles. That's it. Um, I just just looking at the um the
overall personnel status for 2025 is pretty much remaining the same, right? I mean, we have some retirements coming up or we're pretty solid right now with our staffing levels. We're at 173 where we we should be at 174. We're in the process of hiring uh an individual who's
uh currently a certified police officer at another police department. Good. So, we should be back up to 174. Uh I always have absences. I have a couple of guys that are awaiting um the results of their disciplinary cases. I have uh somebody's being activated for the military on Thursday. I have another one
in in June that we're expecting. I have a couple guys that are hurt. It's it's uh very common. You know, I I'm never actually at 174, but uh I I can't complain about my staffing levels. The township has done a very good job in maintaining my staffing levels. Uh thank
you, Kathy, and thank you, the mayor. And um you know, we've gone through I think we had 16 or 17 retirements in the last year and a half or so, and we've been able to replace all of them, including two that we currently have in the academy. Good. Good. You've been able to
replace all of them? Yeah, that's good. The mayor from the VA have done a very good job uh even through co yes uh replacing everybody who had retired to keep the staff up. So that's a credit to the administration. Now just just as as
an aside, I'd love to get back up to our max where we were a few years ago at 182. That's for future budget years. We'll talk. Appreciate you coming in tight this year. I like the fact you're planting
the seed early. Well, we were able to uh you know, during my tenure as chief, we were able to uh raise it by three by getting uh contributions from the school board for our school resource officers. They offset the the cost of hiring an additional three officers. So, that's, you know, a baby step towards towards
getting us up to where we used to be. Anything else? Yeah. Appreciate it, Chief. Thank you. Good job on your budget. Thank you, Lieutenant. Thanks. appreciate you guys joining us tonight. We're all I think we're all set. Well, that was easy. There you go. Thank you, gentlemen.
Thanks, Kathy. Thanks, guys. [Applause] Oh, yeah. We should have probably let them go first. Why? cuz they're so small. It's a tiny thing. Stay in there like you tried to do a picture.
[Laughter] Kyle, thank you for joining us. I don't know what Christopher, thank you for joining us. Different un different uniform than the last time I saw you. I don't understand what is I'll be changing back into this year.
You guys had a meeting today. We got a Where is that in the edit? You want to talk about that? Because I'm not sure everybody else is aware that you guys had that meeting. I know mayor was very proud of the work you guys did and got a nice compliment from I'm concerned. Did we catch the bear? What
division is it in? Where's the bear? Where's that different out of our hands? We pushed them where the line. Oh, okay. Good. I understand. That's what I had up. Can you explain the rest of council meeting? We had our first emergency
management meeting which required to have Sorry, can you move that closer? Hey guys, we're Do you see what we have? It's too much background noise. We're having a hard time. Sorry. Keep talking. Sorry. My fault. Test testing. Testing. Testing. It's
just real low. Huh? The red lights on. There we go. Better. Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. So, to satisfy directive 9 from Njem, we had our first of what is a minimum of two per year of the local emergency management council meetings.
It generally consists of us as the emergency managers, the administration, and the other folks that have signed the annexes are responsible for certain functions within our emergency operations plan. In the directive, we're also encouraged to include members of
the public such as, you know, nonprofits, faith-based communities, um members of the business community, so on and so forth. Being this was our first meeting of the year, we kept it to the folks that signed the plan and you know our staff here. So we kind of just went
over emergency management 101 from the the foundations and the principles training the NIMS concept ICS um the other directives that you know affect us as a municipality and the county and how we operate and function
and kind of our core principles or you know guiding principles for this year and going forward. how we see ourselves operating, you know, peace time, blue sky days versus if we're called in for a weather emergency, you know, police or fire type emergency or um as we
experienced over the past 10 months, issues with the power generation at the sewer plant. So, just to comment, they did a great job today. It was the first meeting, but you had everybody in the room, all the right people that, you know, would be there at
uh, you know, a real event and, uh, very informative. Really well done. So, thank you very much. Thank you for including me. Absolutely. Great. So, um, we did prepare a brief opening statement and um, you know, Kathy heard us speak for about an hour and seven minutes this morning, so we'll try to keep it to a
more brief, you know, 47 or 48 minutes tonight. X. So, um, thank you. She's not kidding. So just you know thank you everybody for having us this evening. This is our first you know go around with this process. So we're you know excited nervous somewhere in between. Don't be nervous. So where is um kind of
how we've operated the past year to two years is we've really unified the disciplines of fire police um and public works. So joining me tonight is deputy coordinator you know Chris Mole with fire uh lieutenant Mike Kane of police and Emily Batista of public works who's been functioning as our chief of staff.
So, we've worked really to chop away at some of our long-standing issues over the past year. We've worked to rewrite and now have a valid emergency operations plan signed by the county coordinator and the state police representative. So, we've accomplished that.
Um, we're in the process of moving our emergency operations center from public works to Russelling Station 13 in the coming weeks. Um, we should have the phone systems operational. So the building can function as our primary EOC. So we'd like to invite you all to
take a chance to, you know, see the facility, see where we're at, so you can have an understanding of what your roles may be or our roles will be, you know, during an emergency as we're activated. And we briefly mentioned it, but over the past 10 months from an operational standpoint, and as the mayor
called it, the silent emergency, we worked to resolve the power generation issue at WPC. There was four uh power outages resulting from some faulty components within the substation. So, working with PSCG, water pollution
control, the administration, we were able to finally get the necessary components ordered, get the repair schedule, get everything tested and work with the utility, you know, the schedule of power shut down, restore everything and move from generator power back to full
utility power. all without all without disturbing services to the residents. So that being said, we understand that our budget is nominalable nominal, but we're looking to continue unifying our core mission and principles also while meeting, you
know, the needs of our community. So, thank you and look forward to the conversation. Thank you, Kyle. Councilman Carbelli and I were were talking earlier today the um about the water pollution control the um
emergency and and you know uh that can turn into a real emergency in a hurry. Uh so we appreciate the the responsiveness and um you know we recognize the importance
of what you're doing. So So with that we'll just open it up to questions. Kyle, when when is the move actually going to take place? So, we recently met with it um Bob McQueen and as fire migrates to the rest of the township's
domain, the phone systems at rustling will come online as well. So, hopefully within maybe a month, 6 weeks. So, currently we're still functioning at public works. We had a true emergency. We'd operate out of there. Public works. Okay. What do you need from us? Let's make it
easy. our our radio system at public works that's going to transition to the reserve EOC. Um that unit will be non-compliant with you know technological capabilities by the end of this year. So what line number is that on the
it's yeah 037 is the last line of page four. under electrical communication supplies. Mhm. Where is it? Right here. Page four. Electrical communications. So,
they asked for 95. We received a revised proposal from Midstate. So, it's slightly over that number. Now, it's 98,000 or 9,834.50. So, we're just looking to navigate that.
Is there room for the additional money to cover the new quote that they got? How much is that? It's an additional $334.50. They budgeted. They asked for 11. We author Are you authorized 95? And they're asking for a 98 98.3450.
We probably find it somewhere within if we can't find it within your budget, right? When we go to do transfers and all, it's a small amount. So, we'll definitely find it. We'll get you. Very good. That's pretty straightforward.
[Laughter] Easy. your last one, Kyle. Any capital investments in rustling that you need? We um we did submit something that didn't make it to the final finish line. So, we applied for a grant through the Gary Cine First Responders Foundation. Okay. For the
technology in the room. So, the grant application matches what our proposal was for facility. When do we find out? Sometime the summer. Okay. So, and what was that for? Oh, the the dollar amount or the items. Both. Okay. So, it's um
it's to upgrade the video displays and integrate with the computer system. So, if you're working on, you know, workstation one, you can display to designated areas in the room or, you know, if we're working in the conference room, you can have certain things displayed to the group as a whole. Kind of just controls everybody's workstation
and what who can see what everybody's working on. like the PDS certain things they'll be working on a cat displayed weather or asset management you know if you know administration is working out of there any budgetary functions things like that so the dollar amount is
roughly $112,000 that much huh for that hey the grant that be is there a match for the grant that you didn't get the grant you said we They'll know by summer. Oh, you'll know
by this summer. I can we can look into that. All right. Yeah, just check out the uh the application and see want to make sure we have a match if they're going to get awarded the grant. But what was the um I I know it's it's it's
zeroed out, but what was the weather sentry online? So that's the weather forecasting service we use at public works we have two login there but the flaw in the system is if I'm logged in as user one and somebody else logs in it it bumps you out. So for working at multiple locations you really need to have the multiple you know login
profiles for working at public works you know during a weather event but also activated at rustling you would run into some how much was that was 2800 it's like it's a 2200. It's a redundancy so we can access, you know, our
meteorology and our weather services. But this is only would it only be temporary cuz you're going to eventually move all the operation over to rustling. We use it on a daily basis at public works. So we're Yeah. for because it's multiunction actually, not to go off topic, but it gives us information for when it's optimal spray herbicides or
pesticides, things like that. You can communicate with meteorologists in real time. Plus our short-term, long-term forecasting. Can we is there not room in public works budget to cover that might be for
redundancy 22 how many times do you think you'd need to use it a year I mean is it something that's yeah frequently it's not possible to just have one person logged in and then we could we could man we can manage certainly who's logging in certain locations so otherwise I'll look I'll
look in public works and you know if it's okay. Yeah. You don't have any uh capital items? No. No, they were just removed. All right.
Well, uh Kyle Christopher, thank you for joining us. Thank you everyone for joining us and uh good job on your first budget. Yeah, nice job. Thank you. This meeting's adjourned.