[Music] adequate notice of the February 27th 2025 special meeting of the township committee has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act by posting written notice and agenda of the meeting on a bulletin board Municipal Building 1000 Route 10 Township of Han and by hand delivering
mailing or faxing such notice to the following newspapers Mars County daily record The Star Ledger H eagle and by fin the same with the Township Clerk roll call committe kill committe farasa commit francioli committe Mahal mayor
Gallagher five members in attendance thank you please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance and if you would please remain standing for a prayer led by our Deputy Mayor Mike Mahal I pledge Ali to the of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liy and justice for all almighty God please watch over and guide this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding to help make the best decisions for our residents please bless our First Responders and Township volunteers who
help keep us all safe also bless our Township employees and residents lastly let us play pray for the men and women of the US Armed Forces who stand vigil over as always amen amen thank you Mike
[Music] you I told 6:30 yes yes thank you sir good evening ladies and gentlemen first on the agenda I'm going to hand over this part of the meeting to
business administrator Joe Georgio you'd like to read a proclamation into the record thank you Christ This is a proclamation of the township Committee of the township of Hanover congratulating Anthony Michael
lentine on the occasion of his 100th birthday celebration and recognizing Anthony for his love devotion and dedication to family and friends whereas Anthony Michael lentine
a longtime resident of whiy and affectionately called Tony by his friends was born on March the 5th 1925 in Elizabeth New Jersey and whereas in 1944 at the age of
19 Tony enlisted in the United States Navy and initially was stationed in Groton Connecticut and later served as part of the Japan occupational Force following the conclusion of World War
II and whereas on May 13th 1946 after completing his service to the nation Tony was honorably discharged from the United States Navy and whereas after returning to
Elizabeth Tony married Lena Graziano and in March 1956 relocated to whipy where they became active parishioners at Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church
and whereas Tony is the proud father of three sons James in Parish Florida Thomas in Mount Arlington New Jersey and Joseph in whiy New Jersey and
is the proud grandfather of nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and whereas a dedicated member of council 6904 of the Knights of Columbus and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars Tony continues to reside in his beloved home in whippeny and whereas Tony exemplifies the values of service commitment and Community
involvement that have greatly contributed to the character and quality of Hanover Township as a place to live work and raise a family and whereas the celebration of 100th birthday is an important
Milestone which few people attain and as such the township committee the governing body believes it is a fitting tribute to bestow this this proclamation to Tony and whereas the celebration of a 100th
birthday is an important Milestone which few people Attain now therefore being resolved by the township Committee of the township of Hanover in the county of marrison state of New Jersey one the governing body considers it a privilege and an honor to
recognize and congratulate Anthony Michael Tony lentine who will celebrate his 100th birthday on March 5th 2025 the governing body officers offers a big happy birthday salute to Tony for
continued health and happiness and further acknowledges Tony's many contributions as a devoted and loving husband father grandfather and great-grandfather and humanitarian whose love and inspiration
have touched the lives of his children grandchildren great grandchildren and countless friends and neighbors throughout his long and continued productive life signed Thomas Ace
Gallagher on behalf of the township committee Miss Christen may we have a vote to accept this Proclamation committee man kahill yes committee man PR mosa I committeeman francioli absolutely commit man Mahalo yes mayor
Gallagher I thank you very much welcome uh are there any members of The L family present if they would would you please step forward may present pleas yeah John around Mike Brian we have items for you
one is the resolution the proclamation in a uh when you the person's voice like if you did that I'd hear you voice to the left to the right first
we'll go right to left actually thank you congratulations I that was a nice picture syia Lexi thought you were so she on the
record sorry scratch I know she said to say she's [Music] sorry I'll just sit here I got you I told you sure how are you what's going on bud
so don't worry bud I'll take you hand you look to take care your business done Jo okay start okay ladies and gentlemen you are more than welcome to stay for the finishing of our regular meeting next on the agenda I have a
letter of resignation from confidential assistant Kina Simmons effective February 21st 2025 may have a motion to accept her resignation please move may have a second second all in favor I resignation accepted next on the agenda we have the
public hearing and Adoption of ordinance number 3-22 proof of publication that the ordinance and the notice of introduction appeared in full in the February 10th issue of the Daily Record in accordance with law at this time may I have a motion to
convene the public hearing on ordinance 3- 2025 motion second is there anyone in Chambers wishing to be heard concerning this ordinance if so please state your name and address for the record motion to close
second may I have a motion to adopt ordinance 3-22 so move second on roll call commitment K Hill hi committe farasa hi committee man francoli hi commit Mahalo yes mayor Gallagher hi so
adopted next on the agenda we have the introduction of ordinance number six I'd like to read the title into the record ordinance 6-22 an ordance of the township Committee of the township of Handover in the county of Mars and state of New
Jersey amending and supplementing section 26732 schedule to speed limits under Article 5 entitled schedules of chapter 267 of the code of the township entitled vehicles and traffic of the code of the
township of Handover with the inclusion of new speed limits for the entire length of whiy road which is designated as County Road 511 may I have a mo oh I'm sorry so um ordinance six and the notice of introduction will be published in full in the Daily Record in accordance with
law and the public hearing will be scheduled for March 13th 2025 at 8:00 P.M if any member of the public would like to speak regarding these or this ordinance they will be given the opportunity to do so that evening may I have a please have a motion to introduce
ordinance 6- 2025 so move second on roll call commitment kahill yes commitment farasa commitment francioli I commitment Mahalo mayor Gallagher hi so introduced next order of business is the
approval of resolutions number 50 7-22 through resolution number 62-22 does any member of the township committee have any questions regarding any of these items may have a motion to approve
motion may have a second second all in favor resolutions are so approved and lastly we have one raffle application to approve and it is RL 3473 which is the Rotary Club duck race May I have a motion to approve that
application please so moved so moved all in favor so approved mayor Gallagher and the members of the committee that clears the agenda and I thank you you great job Christo thank you very much you're welcome okay we're going to can I have a motion open to the public so mov can I
have a second all in favor I if anyone from the public would like to address the governing body please step up to the podium state your name your address and take four minutes thank you very much okay up for Gary Kyer 16 ly Harris whiy
uh what's the status of the uh the walkway signs on rdale Avenue and Prospect Street and Summit Avenue you hit the flashing light the all one's been down for about 2 months is there a status when that will be back back up so
people can cross reach the Avenue safely Jerry yeah I know that's de yeah that that's been looked at by the traffic signal contractor who's going to uh replace that I guess uh they needed to evaluate whether the poles and what
equipment could be reused um and I I don't have an exact date when that's going to get up um I can get back to the committee on that one but that's that is in the work okay it's good because there's a lot of pedestrian traffic at that intersection that's why I asked thank
you Jerry did he give us a timeline no not yet I don't um I wasn't exactly involved in communication with the contractor I'll I'll speak with Dave um and find out what what that date uh is to get that install okay I'd like to get um I'd like
to get a timetable sure if if possible by the close of business tomorrow sure thank you anyone else seeing none hearing none motion to close mov second second all in
favor thank you very much okay motion to adjourn this portion of the meeting second all in favor okay now we're going to go into our open public conference and we're going to
begin oh we got to do this again okay adequate notice of the February 27 2025 regular meeting of the township committee has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting Act by posting written notice and agenda to meeting on the bulletin board in the Municipal Building 1000 Route 10
Township of Han by hand delivering mailing or faxing such notice to the following newspapers Mars County daily record The Star Ledger H eagle and by following the same with the Township Clerk okay um item a is going to be we're going to run through our
budget in pretty good detail and Sylvio I'd like to say right from the GetGo thank you very much for all your work and all your preparation uh I appreciate you taking the time to go line by line line by line to explain to the public and to us one
more time what we discussed what we agreed upon and what we're going to be looking like for 2025 so if you would please take the floor um 23 still turn your mic
on two Thursdays ago the committee went over um all the budget requests departments including Capital expenditures um at the time the original budget session we were almost at a 30% increase in the tax rate um due to the
increase in requests as well as the decrease in ratables um after a lengthen meeting the committee and the administrator um and myself along with um department heads reduced the budget to a
2.75% increase um to get there we did um eliminate unfilled positions um accounting almost half a million um small departments cut their
budgets to over 140,000 and Capital Improvements we removed a little over $5.5 million um so basically we cut almost 6 million $200,000 for the budget and it
put the Township in a a much better place with a tax rate right now we're looking at a 2.75% increase from last year okay that's it yes thank Char yeah uh
syia just I want to go over some of these numbers again when we began the budget process what was the the um estimated increase we were looking close to a 30% increase at the
time okay and subsequently you work with the business administrator the department heads you councel with the township committee and as a result of that
you're identifying that we can reduce that initial Base by $6.2 million yes and within that $62 million you're accounting for that uh
based upon combination of salaries and wages other expenses which is $632,000 yes in addition to that you've worked to
reprioritize you work to if you will cut optimize other plan Capital expenses acrost just about each and every Department that has them and that's a
sum of how much money uh 5,543 th000 okay all right thank you want any comments yeah I uh in reviewing uh all the cuts that
were done here I want to uh reach out to all the department had to help make this budget uh reality and uh sacrificed a lot of equipment sacrificed a lot of uh uh Vehicles Etc
that are so necessary to Handover uh but uh very very proud of the fact that we could bring this budget in at uh at this number and um again I want to just uh reach out to the administrator and all of our department heads and say thank
you I know U I'm looking at one of my departments here Public Works is here and I know they gave up a lot of equipment and a lot of trucks that necessary uh we're going to do our best this year uh we're going to uh certainly try our Earnest to get some roads
complete certainly not on the same average that we did in the past but the roads have to be taken care of infrastructure can't be left alone so uh this uh this covers us so thank you Brian anything just uh syia thank thank you very much and I'll Echo what Ron
said thanks to all the department heads I think uh this year the top down approach to uh to trimming the budget uh really worked out pretty well I think it says a lot that we didn't have to meet for an entire day on Saturday that's how smoothly it went and considering the deficit that we had that speaks a lot so
uh great job everybody thank you Mike I agreed you guys have said it all already um lot of good work I would like to close this portion out by saying that I am on the executive board for Demars County League of municipalities and we all discussed our
budget struggles for this year and many municipalities were faced with the same potential um problem with a very large increase but what we did was put forth what would be acceptable and again all our department had stepped up because we
don't micromanage the day-to-day in our positions that's people like Brian fan it's people like Jared it's people like sha and I can go on and on so the amount of time and the discipline and the respect that all our departments had for Han Township's residents means a
lot to us because it would be a little irresponsible if we had to go in and make these aggressive adjustments so Brian you and your all your colleagues thank you very much for your great work and this would not be possible without Sylvio espito and his
dedication I periodically joke that our job is pretty easy because we say to Sylvio what do we got to do to get to this number what do we have to cut to get this number and then we look heroic but really the emphasis is on Silo ESP bazito CIO again thank you very much
great great work I think this is I'm confident this is the absolute best we can do and the road line item is in there and we are playing catchup with our roads and we're not going to take our foot off the gas that's my comment Christ