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Yeah. I'm going to start this meeting and let you know that this is my actual voice for tonight. So, I'm kind of Barry White going through puberty and I apologize in advance. Sometimes she comes in full, sometimes this is as good as it gets. So, it's going to be a very long meeting and I

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apologize in advance. Shut up. >> An executive session was held at 6:30. We are now convening. Good evening. Welcome to the township committee meeting of April 28th, 2026. Miss Break, please call roll. >> Committee Bing >> here. >> Committee woman Gomez

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>> here. >> Committee woman >> here. >> Deputy Mayor Leani >> present. >> Mayor Payne >> here. Ferrer >> here. >> Attorney Willard >> here. >> Please join me in pledge to the flag to the flag of the United States of

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America and to the nation. I have a motion and a second to approve the regular meeting minutes of March 24th, 2026. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> Committee Brit. >> Yes.

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>> Committ Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committ H. >> Yes. >> Depan. >> Yes. >> Mayor P. >> Yes. Okay. [clears throat] Mayor's remarks. We're gonna try and get through this. Mayor's Wellness Healthy Town Award. Hillsboro

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Township is proud to share that has once again been named a healthy town by the New [clears throat] Jersey Healthcare Quality Institute through the Mayor's Wellness Campaign. This is the fourth year in a row that the township has received this recognition, showing our strong commitment to keeping residents healthy

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and connected. This award reflects the township's continued efforts to support a healthier community. On April 6th, I stopped by ShopRight to congratulate the team for raising over $13,000 with the help of their loyal and generous customers. This enabled a

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$2,500 donation to Feeding Hands and landed our famous locals on their very own Cheerios box that can be purchased in the store. on the evening of April 18th. So sorry you guys, I participated for a fun line dancing night hosted by the Boy

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Scout Troop 1776. The scouts are raising money for their trip to Scotland, thus the guilts. And contact the troop to learn more about their fundraising activities. This last Friday night, they also did a yoga um at also at HS. Um it

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was super fun. Um I don't do yoga. So on the 20th I participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the Hillsboro Libraryies renovations. Most notable was removal of the 20-year-old carpet which will be recycled into building insulation and its replacement

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with sustainable echofriendly carpet tiles to reduce landfill waste. They're completely um bio-engineered. So it's really pretty awesome. Also on the 20th I visited Norris Farm to meet one of Hillsboro's newest four-legged residents. This is Luna.

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She's a water buffalo. She's super cuddly and she can be fed um at noon and 7 pm weekly. She's adorable. I highly suggest that. Um I was joined by Gary and Pickles, their two goats who very much wanted

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Luna's milk, but we did not share. On April 21st, I attended informative presentation by local historian Greg Gillette at Flounder Brewing. The presentation was part of the New Jersey Studies of Academic Alliances Talks on

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the Tap series. Really like packed. If you've ever been to Flounder downstairs and upstairs, we're very lucky that no fire marshals came. >> Oh, sorry. Hi. [laughter] I I meant >> You're okay.

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>> We were at Bel Mara. Sorry, Jeremy. >> [snorts] >> On April 23rd was Take Your Child to Work Day. Children of our township staff enjoyed a fun, informative morning at the municipal building. Highlights included learning about municipal court, visiting the mayor's office, and getting

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an upclose look at some pretty cool trucks, cars, and tractors. We have a couple announcements on behalf of the mayor's wellness program. The first is the mayor's wellness program. at Hillsboro Recreation are promoting an initiative to walk 250 miles for

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America's 250th birthday. Also, the mayor's wellness program and Hillsboro's Rotary Club have teamed up to host a blood drive on Tuesday, May 5th, here at the building. Please see the flyers in tomorrow's e-news for more information on both programs. [clears throat]

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Every May, the Hillsboro community comes together to honor the service and sacrifice of Hillsboro veterans and active duty personnel during the annual Salute to Military Breakfast, Memorial Day parade, and the Garden of Honor commemoration program. [clears throat] It is our honor to

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invite all of Hillsboro's military to participate in the Salute to Military Service breakfast, followed by the parade and garden of honor ceremony. We also hoped for plenty of participation from community groups, businesses, and local organizations in the annual

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Memorial Day parade. Committeeman Bernie will have more details on that, thank God, in a few. Um, I'm missing my queue here. Hang on. Okay, we're going to go in order. So,

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committee woman go miss, please. Deputy Mayor Leon is up next in the order of the slides. >> I don't have any notes on who's next. Okay. Deputy Mayor. >> That's okay. I'll try to talk softer. No. >> Okay.

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>> Good evening everybody. I'll uh blow up the mic here and hit the thing. Um, as we approach our 250th anniversary, uh, Hillsboro proud as always to celebrate America's 250th anniversary through generous, um, support of our community.

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All commemorate activities are funded entirely by private donations, ensuring that these events come at no cost to the taxpayers. We'd like to extend our sincere gratitude to the following businesses and organizations for making this milestone celebration possible. and in no immediate order other than the

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Hillsboro Rotary Club who are here today to make a presentation. York Fence Construction Company, Central Jersey Nurseries, Concus Corp., the Hillsboro Republican Club, HUDMed USA, Sherwin Williams, New Jersey American Water, and

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Avalon Assisted Living. Any additional business organizations that would like to donate can contact Deb and stay right in the front in the clerk's office for more information. and we're celebrating our semisquentennial. Now I got it wrong. I get cocky.

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I can never say that. It's the inside joke. But anyway, thank you to all those who donated and there's still time to donate from the building department. Letters have been mailed to residents without with outstanding open permits providing instruction for closure. Should you have any questions, please reach out to the

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building department. Engineering. Uh the permit a permit is required for all tree removals in Hillsboro Township under under ordinance 2024-16. Depending on the size and species, remove trees may need to be mitigated with replacements. Please contact the engineering department for details

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before beginning work. And lastly, from the planning and zoning department, Hillsboro is updating its master plan, a roadmap for a vibrant community covering land use, transportation, and open space. And we need your input. Following our first two surveys, our latest questionnaire focused on identifying, projecting, protecting current and

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future open space throughout the township. Would you like to learn about the master plan? The planning zoning team is hosting an interactive master plan workshop on Wednesday, May 13th at 7 p.m. See the township's e-news and website for more news tomorrow. Thank

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you. That's it. >> Thank you, Committee Bing. >> All right. Good evening, everybody. So, we'll start with the health department. So, Autism Awareness Month. Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder affecting social, learning, and behavioral skills that currently impacts

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one in 36 children nationally and one in 35 in New Jersey. While the condition is diagnosed uh in boys, four times more uh than in girls. It transcends all racial, ethnic, and socio socioeconomic boundaries. To thrive, this population requires equitable access to education,

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housing, and medical treatment. uh needs addressed in New Jersey through a robust network of specialized support services and organizations. My wife Kelly is a speech language pathologist and she really did appreciate that we were recognizing this this month. She works with children with autism regularly. So, it's a great thing that we're recognizing. Um mental health awareness

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month. May is mental health uh mental health awareness month and the 2026 theme is more good days together. Focuses on defining what a good day looks like for individuals and communities. By sharing these insights, we can better connect with people to timely support and improve adv advocacy

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and education. And I know our our our local website here too has a lot of information here. If somebody needs some assistance, it's a great place to look and and use that as a resource and please use it if necessary. Uh next we have uh recreation. All right, so pavilion permit rentals. So we have a

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lot of parks in Hillsboro. We have a lot of uh a lot of um um uh uh pavilions. The Parks and Recreation Department rents out its two pavilion parks on a first come, first- serve basis. Both parks feature a playground, heated restrooms, covered pavilion with area with tables. Please note, you're only

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able to reserve one pavilion area. The park and playground are still open to the public. I know the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and sporting teams and other groups do that all the time. It's great and van's a place my middle guy Christian goes with his uh his um his Boy Scout troop all the time. So, registration. Next one. Registration

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open for salute to military service. This is the one that you said you were happy that I was going to take on because your voice was dying on you. So, I'll take this one for right here. So, registration is open for the annual salute to military service breakfast uh taking place Saturday, May 23rd. Please, everybody, line the streets, be patriotic, have a good time. It's a

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positive day. We are recognizing people who have who have sacrificed and who have worked incredibly hard for all of our freedoms. So, so please be there with a smile and American flag. Everybody, next one is bring your pat so again bring your patriotic participation to the parade. Attention all youth-based

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organizations and local nonprofits. This is important if you know somebody that may be interested in this. Help Hillsboro celebrate America's 250th anniversary and be part of the Memorial Day parade. Create a float, march, and showcase your red, white, and blue spirit. The more the marrier. Everybody wants to see everybody out there. So,

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get out there and have a good time. Contact the recreation department for more information on these events. And they are one of the most digitally savvy groups in the town, so you can get them online as well. Uh, next one, social services. So right out there down the hallway a little to the right, the senior activities room located in the

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municipal building is available for use by clubs whose member are Hillsboro residents age 60 and over. Please contact the social services department for more information. Be surprised a lot of people use that room very often. So it's a great place to rent out if you need that for for that that segment of the population. Just want to take another 15 seconds to recognize a few

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students in Hillsboro High School that I think that have been on social media that I've come across. wanted to just uh just first of all the Hillsboro Township public schools the committee and the schools are two different entities but I did want to recognize that they've been recognized as one of the 2026 best communities for music education uh by

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the nom nm foundation that's a really really big deal and it's six years in a row for the for the for the for the school system and for the kids music's a big deal helps culture helps you think helps you grow it's a great great thing um two others Liam Rotary and Julia Bruette if I'm hopefully I'm saying that

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right name correctly They're recognized as Skyland Conference Scholar Athletes and I chose that one too because sports and education need to go together. Can't have one without the other in my opinion. My boys know you're not doing well at school. You're not playing in the game. So that's how it's going to be. Um also want to recognize last year

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is the Rotary Club of Hillsboro and also Hillsboro youth sports football and cheer. A good friend of mine uh Bill Murphy was there recognized there and um they are doing um they presented they presented Mr. Murphy with a donation in support of their NFL game changers flag

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football program for children with physical and intellectual disabilities. It's just another wonderful social aspect that we have for children and sports and other ways to to help people grow and thrive. So, just wanted to recognize those people off the cuff. >> Thank you, >> Committee Woman Gomez.

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>> Thank you. First up, some news from our administration. Here are some important dates as they relate to the upcoming primary election. The ballot box at the municipal building is currently open for mail-in ballots. The voter registration deadline for the primary is May 12th.

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Sample ballots will be mailed on May 20th. Early voting will take place from May 26th through the 31st at the municipal building. That's a great time to come and vote because the lines are usually nice and short. It's easy to get in and get out. There is no voting on

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Monday, June 1st. And then primary election day will be Tuesday, June 2nd. Up next, some updates from our economic and business development. The Hillsboro Business Association and Somerset County Business Partnership announced a networking event on Monday, May 11th

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from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Flounder Brewing Company. This session offers 90 minutes of dedicated networking with professionals from across the county, providing a prime opportunity to expand your reach beyond Hillsboro. See tomorrow's e-news for more information.

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Thank you. Back to you. Thank you, Committ Hand. [clears throat] >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Um, a couple a couple shoutouts. Um, and then I've got uh two updates. So, the first one, congratulations to Coach Scott Ror.

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He is the girls flag football coach. So, this is the first year. First of all, the flag football team, the girls, they are six and0. They are number three in the state. So, kicking butt, taking names, I think is the technical term there. Um but the coach was named as the

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first um New Jersey girls flag football coach of the week for 2026. So the New York Jets um recognized him. So that was super exciting. Also a shout out to Scott and Drew. They are representing Hillsboro High School theater at the

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state level. So we've got it going on in sports theater. We heard music. Um, and just a real quick comment on Liam Rotary and Julia Bruette. I actually coached Julia. I don't know if that's why she is the student scholar. There could be a connection there. We haven't done a

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clinical study. I'm just saying there is a relationship there. So, you know, but I was her coach for a while. All right. And then, um, just one more shout out to, um, Somerset VOTE High School. So they do a skills USA and um one of our

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very own Hillsboro has won the gold and will be representing the school in Atlanta. And again um uh this is Aiden who and I'm trying to think um and I'm sorry Aiden Yoder. It is Aiden Yoder. So Aiden Yoder

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of Hillsboro representing um Hillsboro in Skills USA. And that's from a law enforcement standpoint down in Atlanta. So, congrats to all of them. Very proud of our kids of the community. Um, OEM. All right. So, this is a great way. So,

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so you're that you're aware all the first responders in town, there is in a there's an emergency response team, right? Um, you know, police, fire, uh, they're all OEM, they're all working together for emergency response. You from a community standpoint can also get

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involved. There is a community emergency response team and it educates educates residents on disaster um you know preparedness, awareness and how to um respond in these situations if there is not a professional first responder

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immediately available. You can learn to protect yourself, your family, and your neighbors um during local hazards and emergencies. So Somerset County um has training. You can go to the official website at Somerset County to register and find out more about how to

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participate if you would like to step up and and be more involved in the community. And then also a message from the police as it is starting to warm up. We're just asking that as people are out, you know, we're going to see more people walking and biking. Um hopefully

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especially on on Amwell and and other areas that are conducive. So please with that in mind um be respectful of walkers and bikers as drivers please be aware and if you are exercising on the side of the road if you're the walker the biker

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the jogger um please be aware of your surroundings including approaching vehicles and keep it safe. So thank you mayor back to you. So I just want to add to that today. Um a couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was at Woodford for their uh book fair and one of the things

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that I offered to auction off was lunch for two students. So today we had the windows open and we were uh doing a lot of talking and chatting at lunch at Woodfern with two students and two of

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their friends for two separate lunches. So, I'm not sick, but I do have a very bad allergy reaction and my house is under construction and it's not helping. So, that's my plate. I apologize. So, I just wanted to add that. Um, thank you to my new friends at uh Woodford. It was

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a really fun day. So, moving on, we have some personnel items. We have uh I'm sorry, I apologize. We have proclamations and presentations. So, we have a proclamation recognizing teachers and educational professionals of the year. If you guys can all come forward.

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[applause] >> [clears throat] >> Every year, the Hillsboro Township Board of Education recognizes one teacher and one educational service professional from each of the district's schools as educator of the year. These individuals behind me represent the best of the best in our schools. The township committee

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looks forward to recognizing these outstanding individuals each year with a proclamation. Tonight we have with us a few of the educators who were recognized. They range from elementary school teachers to technology and STEM teachers at the high school, AP English teacher, as well as an instructional

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assistance. We are proud to honor and congratulate the following educators. Please state your name, the school, and your position. You get to kick us off. >> Good. I get to go first. >> Um, my name is Eric Puma. I I'm a high

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school English teacher. Um >> okay. Um I want to thank the mayor and the and what I teach I teach English at the high school. Uh AP language and composition to juniors. Um thank you to the mayor and the township committee for

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taking the time to recognize all these teachers. Um there's so many wonderful teachers at uh in Hillsboro and particularly the ones I work with. high school. I really appreciate their support. I appreciate the support of my principal, uh, Jeff Dolo, and the

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support of my students. I love working with my students, but most of all, I appreciate the support of my wife, who is also an English teacher at Hillsboro High School. We started together in 1996 at Hillsboro High School, so it's been

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nearly 30 years. She's a natural. She's twice the teacher I am, and um, I just appreciate her being there. for the past 30 years. >> Hi everybody. My name is Katina Dranis. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Amsterdam Elementary School and I just want to

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thank everybody here tonight for recognizing us and a huge thank you to everybody at Amsterdam, all of the staff, the amazing students and families who I get to work with. It makes going to work every day so special. And I actually like have been in Hillsboro my entire life. went to school kindergarten

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through graduation here and then kind of came back and I always wanted to be a teacher. So my life has kind of come full circle for me and I'm really honored to be here and thank you. I'm Julia Libiskind. I'm a speech therapist also at Amsterdam if you can't tell because I haven't been home yet

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today. And um like um my colleagues before me said, I do not live in Hillsboro, but it's been my home away from home. Thank you. It's been my home away from home since 2007. And I am very fortunate to work with an incredibly

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dedicated, talented, creative, loving staff with awesome kids and a awesome families. Good evening. My name is Lucinda Ferreri. I am the proud recipient of the teacher of the year award for Hillsboro Middle School. I am the seventh and eighth grade literacy coach and

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interventionist as well as the former teacher of Miss Lily Hand and Mr. Thomas Break. Um so this is my 31st year of teaching. I'm very honored uh for this award. I'd like to thank uh Dr. Joseph Trabolski, my principal, Deborah Prowski, John Chikaron, my vice

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principles, and the staff for this award. Um and thank you so much. I'm truly honored. Thank you. Hi, I'm Kim Wright. I teach second grade at Hillsboro Elementary School. Um, I've been in the district since 2007 and I am retiring this year. So, it's been a my

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25th year. So, I'm out. Hi, my name is Christina McKver. I am a first and second grade special education teacher at Woodford Elementary. Like everybody said, I'm so honored to be up here as teacher of the year, but it wouldn't be possible without my amazing

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colleagues, my students that I work with, the families, and my instructional assistants who are such an important part of my classroom. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Stephanie Pryler. I am the math specialist at Woodford. I've been in the

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district since 2003. I want to thank the mayor, the committee, my husband Scott who also teaches at Woodford with me for everything and all the support. Thank you very much. [applause] Hello, my name is Linda Hook. I'm an instructional assistant at Hillsboro

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Elementary School. I work in second grade. I have um a wonderful teacher that I'm working with this year. She's so good to me. I'm very grateful to her. And I'm also very grateful for all the previous teachers that I've worked for. I've learned so much from them, too. I

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would also like to thank my husband Keith, my son Colin, who's here, and my son Adam who's away at college. And I'd also like to thank my principal, Mrs. Sue Xstein, and the wonderful staff and support and for always believing in me.

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And I thank you very much. [applause] >> Hello. Uh my name is Nicole Janick. Uh I'm a fifth grade uh literacy and social studies teacher at Auton Road Intermediate School. Um like everybody else has said before me, I'm honored um be teacher of the year. Um I've like

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others have said too, I've wanted to teach since a little kid. Um so you know it's just amazing that I'm able Yeah. living the dream totally since I was you know as old as my my daughter. Um and my whole career I've been here in Hillsboro. So this is my 13th year.

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Thank you. Thank you to the mayor. Thank you to the um council for having the committee for having me. So yeah. Um hi, my name is Dorian Shimei and um I am an instructional assistant over at um where we are Sunny

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Mean. Thank you. We're over at Sunny Mean School. I've been at Sunny Mean for 11 years. I love it there. Um it's kind of a full circle for me too, but in a different way. Um my children all went both of them went through their whole

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schooling through um Hillsboro. My youngest son is special needs, so he's been with the the the schools from preschool all the way through high school. So, I started out as a parent

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and now an employee and I'm actually um signed up right now to uh become a teacher. So, I'll be taking some classes and see how we do. Hi, my name is Connie Zang. I'm the computer resource teacher on the road

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intermediate school, but I started actually um as a mandarin teacher at Woodsro and HS. So actually as some of um many of the township committee your members I have a lot of your kids here so I'm just really honored to be here um because I haven't been in my role for too long but I felt like u my colleagues

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they're very supportive and the students that I work with they're all very nice kids and uh even the town the family I always tell people like hey if you're trying to raise a family come to because we're definitely one of the best towns to be in. So um yeah I'm just uh thankful and thank you mayor and the county committee for um recognizing us

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tonight. So thank you Good evening. My name is Megan Jadro and I'm the proud music teacher at Sunny Mita Elementary School. So, we're also basking in the glow of receiving the music um award again this year. I've been teaching in Hillsboro since 1998 and I feel that it's been a wonderful

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place to um to teach and we've been given such a rich environment and I've been able to bloom and so have all the students over these years. So, thank you so much for recognizing us this evening. Thank you to everyone. Please, just one more round of applause, PLEASE.

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[applause] We're not >> [applause] [clears throat] >> Now we have uh a pro I'm sorry a presentation from Ro Washington Rashambo.

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Did I say that right? Brad >> Roshambo. Good. Thank you. So you can use that mic and you can face the audience. >> You can face you kind of do it. Yeah, sideways is good. >> So mayor and council, thank you for

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inviting me. I live in Franklin Township. Um but I'm also working with the Washington Roshambo Revolutionary Root Association. It is a nonprofit that supports the trail from Rhode Island to Yorktown,

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Virginia that was marched on by American and French troops as they uh made the march in 1781 to victory to win our independence as a nation. And this nonprofit has a program called Victory Towns. There are roughly 200 towns on

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this 700 mile long trail. And you're one of them. And we are delighted to be collaborating with Hillsbor in recognizing your part in the history of winning American independence in this our 250th anniversary year. And we're

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delighted that uh with support from the Rotary that you've decided to to work with us, we have a marker that you'll be able to be putting up. And also we've uh had our trail historian write do some research and write a letter. He is the

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expert on the trail. and I'd like to read that letter to you and present it to you if that's all right. So, this is a little bit of history for you all. Um, but I think it's local history and so I think that makes it especially interesting.

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So, the letter to your town starts off a Dear Mayor Payne, I'll use glasses. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis to General George Washington and the Comp de Rochambo at Yorktown October 19th

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1781 rang in the end of the American War of Independence. In the summer and fall of that year, thousands of American and French forces had walked, ridden, and sailed almost 700 miles along the eastern seabboard. In 2009, Congress

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designated the land and sea lanes through nine states from New England to Virginia the Washington Roshambo Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail. The hundreds of cities, towns, and hamlets they passed through, we call them victory towns, stretched from Rhode

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Island to Virginia. The Continental Army and its French allies marched from Newport and Providence, Rhode Island through Hartford, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, and they marched through Hillsboro, earning your city the designation as a victory

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town. Hoping that the capture of New York City, center of British power in the nent United States, would win America her independence, Washington had concentrated Allied forces north of the city in July 1781. When a letter from French Admiral

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Degrasse brought news that he was sailing to the Chesapeake rather than to New York City, Washington on August 14th decided to deploy to Virginia. To keep the march hidden from British General Sir Henry Clinton, Washington ordered the construction of large ovens near

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Chadam to bake for the troops, reinforcing the idea of a siege of New York City. The need to feed thousands of men and their animals on the march through the war savaged New Jersey posed challenges. During August 1781, the Allied armies crossed New Jersey on

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three parallel routes to assure access to food, water, straw, and firewood, as well as to hide the scale of troop movements from British spies. On the morning of August 29, units of the Continental Army under General

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Benjamin Lincoln left from Springfield. They reached Raritan landing by afternoon. Concurrently, units under Colonel John Lamb left Chadam for Middlebrook. French forces lay further west at Whippony. Early on August 30, Colonel Lamb's column, some 550 men

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strong, including the Canadian regiment, the artillery park stores, a small wagon train, and maybe three dozen women and their children, marched to Bound Brook and cross the Milstone River at Peters Mill into Weston. That's now Manville. Here the column took the river road to

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Hillsboro. Marching past Somerset County Courthouse, today's Milstone Burrow. They re-entered Hillsboro toward Griggstown. From there, they continued to Rocky Hill and Princeton to their camp on the road to Trent Trenton. General Lincoln's units, about 1500 men

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strong, also departed from their camp along river in Raridan Landing early on August 30th, but marched directly to Kingston and set up their tents. The next day they marched to Trenton to cross the Delaware. The first brigade of Roshambo's forces departed its campsite

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at the English farm in Basking Ridge early August 31 and marched to Manville where they followed Lamb's route into Hillsboro Township. Having spent the night camp between the Reformed Church, the Vandor House and Milstone, French forces continued on River Road to Growntown where they crossed the

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Milstone to Rocky Hill. Here they crossed the river again and marched down Princeton Avenue and set up their tents in Princeton. The following day, the second brigade took the same route. By the time French forces as well as Colonel Lam's column had marched through

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the township on September 2, 1781, the inhabitants of Hillsbor had witnessed the march to victory. 550 American soldiers, dozens of women and children, and hundreds of horses and oxmen, as well as 425 French officers, and

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possibly up to a thousand servants and 4,500 soldiers, some 1500 horses and 1,800 oxmen. Imagine the movement through this town that year. As the United States prepares to recognize its 250th anniversary in 2026, the victory

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towns of the Washington Roshambo revolutionary route have special reason to celebrate. During our founding era, they witnessed one of the great military maneuvers in American and world history. A march to victory that helped create an independent United States of America, the world's longest enduring democracy.

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Sincerely, Dr. Robert Celig, trail history. >> Amazing. >> [applause] >> And and I'd just like to also mention um our efforts to commemorate this trail um are in having other manifestations in

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Hillsboro. I know in a few minutes you're going to hear from Flounder Brewing, Jeremy Lee's about a collaboration that we have with him the quite unique on the among the victory towns here in Hillsboro and so I'm looking forward to hearing his presentation as well.

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>> Absolutely. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> We we we framed the letter. >> I love that. >> And I wonder if I can >> Absolutely. >> [applause] >> We're a little discombobulated tonight. So, can I have someone from the Rotary?

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>> Yes. So, not so fast, sir. So, do you want to talk about your uh we're we're happy to present a check uh for $2,400 to the 250th uh anniversary club and to uh do the

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the plaque I guess the marker on the trail. Um, it is we were supposed to have more people here, but they didn't. So, I'm thrust into this. But, uh, from a personal standpoint, I've always been very proud of Hillsboro's position in in our history of of our country. You know,

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obviously, we just celebrated our own 250th anniversary a couple years ago, but uh, there's so much history in this town. I just feel it's great that we can recognize it and teach our younger people how important this town has been in the history of America.

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>> [applause] >> to as the chair of the 200 Okay. And I'd also like to call up Jeremy from Flounder Brewing. [applause] [clears throat] >> Um just in what Brad was uh referencing for uh we're we're doing a lot of

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history uh history programs at the brewery this year. Uh if you haven't been to the brewery, um we're over on carriage farm and we're in an old 250-y old barn uh that was built right around the time of all these celebrations are celebrating. Um so in collaboration with the Washington Roshambo uh trail

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designation for Hillsboro um and the association that does a wonderful job spreading the history of that important uh trip to uh winning our independence. Um we are launching a collaboration beer which will be available on May 17th. It is the Washington rombo uh trail beer

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with Hillsboro front and center on that label and it will be um we'll be releasing on May 17th when George Washington arrives at the brewery on horseback to also celebrate. So come on out. Um and portions of the sales of this will be going to the Ro Washington Ro Shambo um organization to continue

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with the history and spreading the history. So thank you. >> [applause] >> Jeremy, did you bring samples for everyone? >> Can Can we We We would have We would have bought it tonight, just so you know. >> I will say um for those of you who

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missed it, it was on tap during Greg Dlette's um tap night. So, it was phenomenal. It's a good beer. There's no Oh god, this chair. I know. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to take a little

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break. If you need to leave, feel free to do so. Um, we'll come back in about two minutes. We now have some personnel items. So, we're going to be um taking comments first to keep it consistent with how we do the consent agenda.

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We will hear all comments first. After that, if any committee member would like to vote on any personal items separately, I will give you the opportunity to do so. There is no need to take items separately for the purpose of commenting or questioning. Other comments from the deas

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just on personal resolutions one through four. Yes. >> Hello everyone. I just wanted to personally congratulate George Graawitch who's joining. >> No, we don't. Sorry about that. [laughter] Again, want to congratulate you for joining us uh on our environmental

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commission. He also recently joined our sustainability steering committee and it's really helpful to have him on both. Not only because he's enthusiastic and has great ideas, but also it's great to have the synergy between the two of them. So, congratulations and welcome. I also would like to congratulate Mark on

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his new position here in our IT department and I wish him well in his new role. >> Perfect. Anyone else? >> Thank you, mayor. Um, just to echo committeewoman um

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about uh resolution one, but Mark Mlan, just want to congratulate him. Uh went from part-time to full-time uh through succession planning and we're super happy to have him uh take over assistant manager. And also

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consideration number um two I'm sorry three uh Taylor Mud uh fill in the vacancy as building inspector as uh we anticipating additional building and obviously building department brings in revenue to the town. So uh back filling

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that position is uh super important. So want to welcome uh them both the board as well. Thank you. >> Any other comments from the day? So, I also want to um I'm super proud of all the appointments that we get to make and the volunteers that [clears throat] step up to take and fill those seats.

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So, I'm thankful for you as well. And also welcome to all of our new joiners who um are, you know, doing different roles within the township. Um would anyone like to take the item separately? >> Oh, sorry. Comments from the floor. I

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apologize. Seeing none, anyone want to take the um item separately? >> Seeing none, can I um have a motion in a second to approve items one through four? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call.

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>> Committee Bing. >> Yes. And welcome everybody. >> Committ Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committ H. >> Yes. And welcome. >> Deputy Mayor Lani. >> Welcome all. Yes. >> Mayor P. >> Yes. Thank you.

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Consent agenda 1 through 15. Again, we're going to hear all the comments first. After that, if any committee member would like to take an item from the consent agenda for separate voting, I'll give you the opportunity to do so. There's no need to take items separately for commenting. Comments from the day is on consent

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agenda 1 through 15. >> So, I had a question on number three. This was um for an an amount not to exceed 150,000. Does this was this bid out and was there a requirement to have

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this bid out? Do we know? >> Administrator Ferrer to Bill. I don't think >> I'm sorry. Bill, we have the back on that because not um >> I guess third time's a charm with Bill

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on the backup on that. Um because my >> civic clerk >> the phobianics >> Yeah. I'm I'm my assumption is that obviously um for that type of dollar amount not to exceed they would phobionics has been part of the township

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for many years as we uh continue to uh to take care of all the digitizing for room but again today no sense of bringing my laptop here because I can't get on civic clerk Sorry, Bill. Pass it on to you.

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>> Do you have any other questions in the meantime? >> So, I guess well, first of all, I wanted to know if it was bid out. And second, do we anticipate um and this is for digitalization of construction department records. Do we think this will um positively impact OPRAS as far

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as reducing OPRAS? If this is digitalized, is it going to be made available to the public? Will it have any impact there? >> So, I just want to clarify one thing. It's not for just the con um construction department's files. It's for only their large format files, back

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file conversion and approved migration path. And I can answer the other part because I deal with it in my daytime job. Uh yes, it does allow for OPARS and redacting. >> So, as long as you know if it's helpful. So again, I think we should get an

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answer though on if it needed to be bid out. $150,000 is a lot. >> It says it says right in the resolution, it indicates that it's through a co-op contract of which attachment me is a member. So therefore, the co-op build the co-op would uh bid it out and they

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would award it and then since we're a member of the co-op, we can purchase through it >> and get best pricing. All right. My other question was on 13. So this was um a resolution authorizing the utilation utilization of vendors for um

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recreational programs. I just you know as we all have the budget on the mind I just want to make sure this should really be a kind of a self-paying expenditure. I'm assuming any of the fees for the instructors for this

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resolution because it doesn't actually give pricing that that would be covered in the wreck fee. um you know sign up fees that the township is not footing the bill for this. Can someone please confirm?

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>> Yes. So the direct department, you were trying to hit the button first, Christian. So the rec department has a has a rider. Uh so all the programs are funded through um [snorts] the recreation fees. So whatever fees get brought in, they obviously pay for all

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all of the instructors or equipment uh vendors and things like that. So especially for the camps, uh bringing animals in and different things for the kids through camps and obviously the profit of that would would then be the profit for the rider. So the recreation department funds itself and those are

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the fees. So >> yep. So again, just clarifying that the township isn't, you know, paying for these instructors. We're we're >> comes out of the >> contracting. Yep. I'm just >> trying to condense that down. >> Man's Okay.

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>> Yeah. Did you have anything to add, Christian? I don't want to I don't want to break over your mic there. >> No, that was about it. Um the only the only part of the recreation department that's coming out of the municipal budget is the salary and wage for the director, the assistant director. I

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think about or so in OB. That's it. Everything else is coming out of the trust. >> Any other questions from the days? >> Just want to bring up uh two items. Uh number six, just to call people's attention to if you're wondering, this is a smaller item on a much larger project. Just want to thank Mr. Ferrer

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for keeping us informed as to the police department expansion. It's an incredibly important um feature within the township um female locker rooms and uh a lot of other components for the police department that's uh that we're working on now. So, that's a a really big one. This is one small item relative to that

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that larger process. And number 14, I just want to recognize to the Eagle Oh, no. Is it 14? Excuse me. Um 15, the Eagle Scout. Um this is, if anybody's wondering here, essentially this uh this Eagle Scout uh Boy Scout Joe is completing his Eagle Scout project and

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um he's asking uh requesting for us to consider waving the permit inspection fees for a patio and sitting area adjacent to the playground at Christian Nurture Center, kind of at the intersection going out towards Flemington for those of you that are not aware. Um, this is a uh what he's doing is not only the patio, we'll have four

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benches made out of composite material so they not deteriorate despite being outside all year round. I think this is a great opportunity for us to help support a young uh person trying to uh advance their their Boy Scout and Eagle Scout career. So, I'm glad that we're considering this and hopefully everybody

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votes yes to this one. >> I just want to add further clarity on that. Um, resolution 15, uh, this is a $35 waiver. Any other comments? >> I'll just add to the uh phobionics part

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which was being paid through the bond that we had last year. Saves all the fees that we have to pay to store these documents which is the tune of thousands of dollars a month. Not only to store them but every time we have to access them we have to pay thousands of dollars

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to get them brought in if we need them for Opas and then thousands of dollars to put them back into S. So this this is a big cost savings and also brings us to a more current um digitized state as far as that that particular cost. Uh so it's

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it's been a longgoing but it's uh obviously a very expensive uh deal to get all these documents digitized but it is a cost savings in the end. >> Any other comments from the de comments from the floor?

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Seeing none, would anyone like to take any of the items separate? If yes, a motion and a second is needed for each. >> Okay, I have a motion in a second to approve consent agenda items 1 through 15. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please.

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>> Committee. >> Yes. Comm. [snorts] >> Yes. >> Committ H. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Leani. >> Yes. >> Mayor P. >> Yes. >> Ordinance to exceed the 2026 municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank. further consideration and public hearing on May

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26th, 2026. May I have a motion and a second to introduce ordinance 20265? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> Committee Bing. >> Yes. >> Committ Gomez. >> Yes.

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>> Committee H. >> No. >> Deputy Mayani. >> Yes. >> Mayor P. >> Yes. And we are going to see our budget presentation with our CFO Christian, please. >> Yeah.

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>> Quick question too about the budget presentation. Um, is the public allowed to ask questions afterwards? >> Absolutely not. >> This is a this is an introduction, >> right? Just in reference to the presentation. This is an introduction. So, no, they can ask their questions on

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May 26th when it's actually discussed. This is an introduction. They have a question about the budget happening right now. >> This is an introduction. >> So we do the actual budget discussion on May 26 as I just read. >> Okay. It just seems silly that the

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public that's here is that allowed >> open public act here as was previously discussed before this meeting Gomez >> that was in terms of introducing the budget which I understand >> which is the introduction.

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>> This is the introduction. This just seems silly. I mean, I'd like to motion that we allow the public to make comment and ask questions. >> We're going to abide by the law, but thank you. >> I will second that motion. >> We're going to abide by the law. >> It's not a law.

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>> So, we So, excuse me. Attorney. We need a roll call. >> There you go. There you go. >> Committing. >> No. >> Gomez, >> yes. >> Woman, >> yes. Depani. >> No. >> Mayor Payne. >> No. >> Thank you.

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>> And mayor, and for the public's information, um, in all fairness, there's a comment period at the end of the meeting. Um, any member >> Absolutely. >> any member of the public has three minutes at the end of the meeting to comment on any matter that they choose to. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Christian.

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>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Can everyone hear me? Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Leani, the rest of the mayor. Uh the members of the DES, uh this is the 2026 budget presentation. Uh for those of you who don't know me, my name is Christian Buchelle. I'm the CFO uh

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director of finance here at Hillsboro. Um I've been here for about a year, about a year ago at this time. Actually, I was sitting right over there when when Joe was giving his presentation. The presentation is going to look a little bit recycled. Um because it is Joe's presentation is updated numbers. So I

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mean, as I get more acclimated with Hillsboro and actually the budget process and everything, I'll kind of make it more of my own. But since we were kind of constrained with time uh when we were putting the numbers together just last week getting into the presentation into the document um so hopefully it just uh hopefully it suits

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everyone satisfactory today. Um so I guess we can begin Sarah. Thanks. Um all right so the municipal budget uh what is it? It's basically we look at it as our checkbook right if you have finances at home which I'm sure everyone here does

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uh you know what comes in and you know basically how you're spending money and how it goes out. That's kind of what we do here in Hillsboro. Um we try to adhere by a budget that we adopt every single year. Um and this is uh this is this is it um what it means to you. This

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is basically the taxpayer dollars uh from spending from everything all the way from public safety all the way down to plowing snow, keeping the lights on, um recreation, senior activities, uh you name it. Everything that we do here at Hillsboro is actually in this in this

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budget. Sarah, thanks. Okay, so right when we started the year, we had some increases that basically we have no control over. These are statutory increases. Uh some of these are contractual increases um that are

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pretty pretty pretty large. Um as you can see, the first number up there is our pensions. That is our township's obligation uh to the state of New Jersey to fund both the Pers and the PFRS. The PRS is our pension system, the public employee retirement system. The PFRS

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being the police and fire uh retirement system. Um so right out of the gate, uh the increased bills um was about 284 grand. Uh it's an increase from 7% over last year's amount. We also had increases for our GIF and our HIF. Our GIF is our joint insurance fund. Uh our

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assessments went up by about 134,000. That's a 13% increase year-over-year. Uh and then also the HIF with our increased in health costs as I'm sure everyone here is aware of. Um the benchmark is pretty much the state health benefit plan. So what they go up the reason why

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we left obviously the plan years ago was because their rate of increase was going up a lot faster. So a lot of people have been pouring out of the state health benefit plans. We joined the HIP a couple years ago. We're clearly not immune to the rising cost in healthcare. Um, and that equates to about a $450,000

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increase in our healthcare cost, which is about a 12 12 almost close to 13% increase uh over last year's appropriations. Um, so right out of the gate, it was about $867,000 in increases, which we had no control

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over. Um, and that actually made the budget process difficult this year. Uh, keep in mind the 867,000. I'm going to come back to that in the next slide. Um, but this is makes the budget process hard. Other municipalities are facing the same types

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of increases. Um, and so when it actually goes up and you're only allowed to increase the budget by a certain amount, this these increases um have have a dramatic effect. Next slide, please, Sarah. Okay, so the caps

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here in the state of New Jersey, we are basically limited by our spending caps and also our levy caps. The spending caps kind of controls our increase in appropriations inside the cap spending and also the levy cap controls the increase in our amount to be raised by

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taxation or total tax levy. Uh so we start with the spending cap. Um every municipality has to deal with these caps. We're not immune to this, right? And we can't introduce a budget unless we are below these caps. Uh the state won't even look at it. So the problems that we faced this year was getting

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under these caps. Um but with this maximum increase that we are allowed to do with the spending cap is about 1.247 million um the reason for the cola ordinance that you guys just approved uh by law the limit is the annual budget

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can increase by 2.5% or the cost of living adjustment the cola adjusted adjust the cola adjustment percentage whichever is less. This year the state designated the cola adjustment percentage at 2%. So the cola increase that you guys just approved increased

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that increased the limit of the increase from 2% to the three and a half%. Which was desperately needed this year or we would never have been able to get where we are today. >> Okay. Then introduced. >> Thank you.

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Um so with regards to the spending cap, it required for us to move some monies which we confirmed with the state from inside the cap to outside the cap. A lot of these uh the bigger the portions were like our shared service money for our ports um and also the health insurance

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that um we were able to move outside um outside the caps. It's still an appropriation we have to pay for. It's just a different bucket of money. U moving over to the levy cap. The levy cap is a 2% increase uh statutory increase. The reason why if you look at

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the budget in the budget how we basically got to an 8.4% 4% increase. The 2% is a floor. On top of the 2% are exclusions that are allowed by the law that gets excluded from the levy cap. These are huge items like the health

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insurance that we just mentioned, the pension increases. We also had two snowstorms at the beginning of the year which were declared state of emergencies. Those charges were um excluded from the spending cap and also excluded from the the levy cap. Um, so

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this is why we're looking at the maximum amount we were able to increase was about 2.4 million. Uh, it equates to about an 8.4% increase. We came in at around 8.3% increase in the living. Um, okay. So, going back to the the

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increase in the spending cap. Sorry, I missed this point. So, the 1.247 million that you see there, if you remember from the previous slide, if we have the increases from the three big ticket items, 867,000 That's about 70% of our increase that we

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were allowed to increase our spending by. 70% of that already went to something that we couldn't control. That was the problem that we actually had getting under the spending cap. Um it just shows how hard it was because when we actually had to try to reduce we were always we were up by maybe about a

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point uh our penny over the over the spending cap. Next slide please. Sarah. Okay. So this is um In the state of New Jersey at a municipality level, we actually have to have a balanced budget. Our revenue has to equal our

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appropriations, obviously. Our revenue, where the money is coming from, uh it's basically four four buckets of money. Got our fund balance, we have our miscellaneous revenues, uh receipts from delinquent taxes, and current year taxes. Like every other municipality, the current year taxes is the biggest driver

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of the municipal budget. We're looking at around 72%. Our total budget came in around 43 million. Um on the next slide um it shows where the money went. We have um different spending categories. I try to list them listed

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them all but the four big ones the four big takeaways obviously is our public safety that's about 25% of our budget. Uh also public works is close to 10%. uh we have our insurance which is our health, our workers comp, our general liability which is around 12% and the

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statutory obligations like I mentioned earlier the pension the FICA also comes in around 13%. Those are the biggest obviously areas of spending uh in this year's budget. >> It seems like that's mostly every year those are the percentages. >> Um

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>> okay, next slide please Sarah. Uh who pays for our taxes? Um, I got these numbers from our from our tax assessor from our 2026 tax uh summary report. Uh, these seven items are classifications from the state uh division of taxation in the county. Um,

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obviously the residential property taxes is the biggest portion of where we get our money from. Uh, it's around 87%. Uh, the second being commercial uh taxes in a whopping 5%. Okay, so the next slide please Sarah.

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Um, as I was putting this slide together and preparing for tonight, I probably should have used 2025 numbers for these. The reason being is our certif certified until about July. So the numbers you see up there for the school and the county, those are only estimates for today. What I did was I took last

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year's bills, added the 2% and came up with the numbers, and that's where those numbers those numbers will probably change. Even though I spoke with the county, I spoke with the state, uh, the board of ed, they're roughly saying that the increase is about 2%, but I taking that their word and hopefully that's it comes in line at 2%. But we will be

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looking at around a 2.169 uh, overall tax rate and the municipal portion of that rate is around 14 close to 15%. Seems like those percentages are pretty much standard year-over-year. The school and the county obviously being being the biggest driver and 15% where the

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municipal tax portion lies. Uh, next slide please, Sarah. Um, this slide is this slide is a little bit complicated when I was looking at it. So, I guess in the state in the in the

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county of Somerset, um, I guess which is a good thing. We we have what we call a rolling assessment here in Hillsboro. Um, I guess every four years I guess property taxes or every year the assessed valuation goes up, but I guess maybe your property goes up every four

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years or so. Um, last year's assessed valuation was around 9 billion. This year's assessed valuation is around 9.5 billion. It's an increase of about 475 million in the assessed valuation um of our taxes. Uh, the taxes are determined uh by our assessed value of all the

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properties in town. Um so with the assessed with the rolling assessments, it keeps the market value uh keeps the assessed value close to the market value. Um if you all remember when Joe was mentioning it last year, some municipalities are so far

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gone they you know they're at 30%. Their properties assessed at like 200,000 they could sell their property for a million. Um we're pretty much close to 90 95% I think with our ruling assessments. Uh but it keeps us up in up line with the uh with the market value.

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One tax point is actually one 10 thou 10,000th of an assessed valuation. So the way to look at that is actually if you take the assessed valuation of 9.5 billion divide it by 10,000 that's where you get our tax point of 953,000.

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That's good on the revenue side because if we needed to raise revenue to fund our budget, a one penny increase wouldn't be a gigantic impact to the homeowner. Conversely, if we have to cut

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a penny, we have to cut 950,000, 950 grand. That's what was kind of problematic this year was cutting and getting below the caps. Once we were all said and done, we pretty much ended up cutting close to 950 grand.

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Um, so with that being said, the increase in the tax rate is 0.009 009 ten of 1 cent increase compared to last year's tax rate. Without the rolling assessments, it

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would equate to roughly a 2.6 cent increase in our taxes. So I guess with the rolling assessment, the increase in the assessed value, it eats away about 1.7 cents of the

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um the increase in the tax rate. So if we have a home the average home value in Hillsboro is 628,000 with the increase to of the 0.00910 00910 of one cent. Uh we're looking at

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around a $56 impact for the year for the home. Without the increased assessed valuations, if we were using last year's number of around 9 billion, we would be looking at around $162 impact on a

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average home owner. Next slide, Sarah. So, what we're looking to do tonight is to introduce the budget. Um, when the budget gets introduced tonight, hopefully tomorrow after everything gets uh certified, it'll get sent down to the

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state. We are under state review this year. Uh, so the state will go through it. They will actually then send us questions to both myself and the auditor uh to ask us for either certain items or changes or if there's amendments that are needed. they'll go through and hopefully we hear back from them in

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about two weeks so we can actually pull the items together and then adopt uh come May 26 where we have the public hearing and also the adoption. So that's my presentation.

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>> Christian, can you just explain to us what happens if we don't introduce the budget tonight? >> If we don't introduce the budget tonight? Yeah. >> Um well the the state said that we basically budgets need to be introduced by March 31st or the first scheduling

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meeting scheduled meeting after after that. Today is our first scheduled meeting. I guess you people on the day would are subject to a $100 fine per day until we do introduce.

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>> I just want to understand the impact of a no vote. Thank you. >> That that's that's what would happen. >> Perfect. Thank you. So, we have the resolution authorizing the introduction of the 2026 municipal budget and setting the public hearing for May 26 of 2026 and resolution authorizing emergency

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temporary appropriations prior to adoption of the budget. Why is there >> you did not just do them separately. Motion and a second for each. >> Okay. Can I have a motion and a second? >> Each separately, you're saying? >> Yes, each one.

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>> Okay. I'm sorry. So, I apologize. We have a motion and a second to introduce resolution one, a resolution authorizing the introduction of the 2026 municipal budget and setting the public hearing for May 26, 2026. >> So moved. >> Second.

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>> Thank you. Roll call. >> Committee Ring. >> Yes. >> Committee Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committeewoman Hand. >> No. >> Deputy Mayor Leani. >> Yes. >> Mayor Payne, >> yes. May I also have a motion in a second to introduce resolution authorizing emergency temporary

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appropriations prior to adoption of the budget. So moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Committee Bing. >> Yes. >> Committeewoman Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committee woman hand. >> Yes. And I will say I'm thrilled that this is only at we are 42%

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through the year and this budget comes out to 47% of our municipal budget which is pretty close. And that is an improvement over last year when at this time it was 70% of the municipal budget.

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So I would like to thank Christian for the work that he has done and um to to get us as as close to tracking on on par as possible because it is going to be a tough budget year. So congratulations.

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Thank you for that. And yes, >> can I ask you to expand on that though for the public's knowledge though if you're making them aware is that number um just for everyone's knowledge for you to share with them does that mean that's money spent or money that's been that's been allocated? So it is money from the temporary budget

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>> is it spent >> you are looking at I'm sorry I don't know what's your question >> I'm asking is that money spent or is that allocated >> towards a line item >> these are allocate this is the temporary appropriation so I am speaking about the

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amount of our budget that we have appropriated >> meaning is it spent or are we going to spend it as of today or are we allocating it towards line items that will be spent in future dates I'm asking. >> Why don't you answer? >> I'm asking you the question. No, I'm asking you. You're educated. You want to educate everybody. Ask answer, please.

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I'm asking you. >> I don't. >> You don't know the answer. That's why you're not answering me. >> So, first of all, I [clears throat] enjoy that we can each make comments. So, if you have a specific question, do you know the answer? Because if not, our CFO is right

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there. >> I'm asking you to answer the question. You're you're >> and I'm I'm asking you to the CFO. >> Thank you enough. I don't know what you're trying to prove. >> Committee woman here. >> Sure. >> Committee brought >> I was going to say >> I I got both of you. Both children.

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>> Thank you. >> I'm trying to hear Christian. >> Excuse me. We're done. >> And I'm trying to compliment him. So I'm sorry that that was interrupted. Please proceed >> to finish the >> public hearing 2020. >> Oh my god. See >> different mani?

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>> Yes. >> Mayor Payne. >> Yes. >> Jesus. >> Thank Thank you. And I just want to take a moment to thank Christian for that presentation and I think that's really helpful for the public to understand a little bit about how the budget works. Um I think it's also would be helpful to have some more information perhaps a

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follow-up presentation or I I hope you'll be here for the next two meetings when people are able to ask questions about the budget. Um, specifically, I thought it'd be helpful to have information about our surplus fund. Um, been impacted over the year and you

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know, as we for those of you that don't know, >> could I could I please speak? I have a floor. >> No, you cannot because I'm speaking. I'm speaking. >> I asked you to speak when you vote. >> Mayor Payne. >> No, I'm going to point of order. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, you're trying to silence me like you try to silence the public. I

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see. >> I chastise the public, too. Great. Ordinance 202604, Ordinance amending Chapter 143, Vehicles and Traffic, Article uh 12, schedules section 143-30,

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schedule 1, no parking of the code of the township of Hillsboro to prohibit parking along the northbound side of the roadway eastern curb line for Dickerson Road. May I have a motion in a second to open the public hearing for ordinance 20264? >> So moved. Second, second, third,

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whatever. Everybody >> roll call before someone else calls in. >> Yes. >> Committeewoman Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committee woman hand. >> Yes. >> Deputy Ray Leani. >> Yes. >> Mayor B. >> Yes. Comments from the deas.

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>> Comments from the floor. >> So whoa. >> Comments from the day. >> Yeah. Yeah. So question on this. So I did notice on the engage site, which is where folks are supposed to speak or or be heard. Um there was one comment I saw

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on this. So I just I have a couple questions. If we are using engage, are we you know what what is the process here? Do we read these comments because we're we're using this as a public forum. So could you please address how

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we are to use engage and how that becomes part of this public discussion? >> So it depends if they're not here presently to discuss it. There's also I've in some cases gone on and um discussed it through the forum that it's on on Facebook like through the post.

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>> I can answer that a little bit too. >> Sure. Yeah, of course. >> Um so the information is posted out there and there's the the public has the ability to ask questions to post questions. Um it is monitored depending on where the ordin it's this is supposed to be the police department. So we we would inform the police department when

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comments have been posted. If we um if we need to update the frequent frequently asked questions that are posted there, we will do so as the time period, you know, before the public hearing so that the public can get their answers before coming to the public hearing um and be more informed when when they come here in person. So, it's

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it's it's it's to a back and forth conversation um if if if need be. Sometimes there's just comments they're in favor of and that that's great. The public can also read what the rest of the public has to um has to offer. It's not to be read into the record. It's

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just a tool to help educate inform. >> Okay. And and again, when we launched this site, and I'm all for the public having a format. I think this really replaces them emailing you because it seems like

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they're kind of having their voice. >> It does, but it's also posted for the rest of the public to see. It's just in my inbox. Everyone can see it. >> No. Agreed. But it's a matter of do are we as committee people should we be digging in here before every meeting to

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read those comments or is that going to be summarized? You said it wasn't going to be read into the record. So I'm just trying to understand what we're trying to accomplish >> and this process was put in place I believe unilaterally like we did not vote on this or decide on this kind of

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engage process. I know it's a system, a platform that we're using for the U master plan and I know Mayor Payne is using it for this, but you know what are we doing here? Are they always getting feedback? Because the comment that today

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had not been commented on. So there was a resident that had commented about Dickerson. They live in that area. They had commented and I didn't see any replies. Who is replying on the behalf of the township? And do we all see that? >> Do you want to reiterate? We understand >> you can read it. Yes. Yeah, it's out

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there for everyone to read. >> So, it's out there for everyone to read. And again, as the clerk mentioned, this is for the PD. So, if the PD wants to respond to that comment, they can. Or again, I have in some cases also. Okay.

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Go ahead. Are there any other comments from the days? Comments from the floor? Do you want to take a second and tie that? Seriously. >> Okay. Yeah, please.

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>> We don't need you falling. [clears throat] 22 Scarboro Road, Belme Me. Um, just to follow up on um something that uh Committee Han said, I also saw that comment today because I was trying to review for tonight and it was, you know,

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I don't know anything about that part of town. I mean, I know that part of town, but it was from a resident who lives right there and he said he had brought um this subject up prior, maybe when it was first introduced. I don't know. Yeah. >> So, it is a question though. Um, he

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wanted to make sure that it was heard and he wasn't going to be there tonight. So, I think it's a valid question. How do people participate if they can't be present? Because this is an issue. I mean, it's an issue that's obviously very important to him. You know, it's his neighborhood.

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>> Yep. So, there's several ways that they can participate and one of them is that engage. They also can email the office. Many of them email me directly or the clerk directly as well. So there's many ways you don't need to be here and present to be engaged in this process.

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>> Okay. But but the idea is he's really trying to make public comment when he's not here. So I think there is a question as to how the comments get forward into the ether. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other comments from the floor?

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>> Okay. May I have a motion and a second to open the public? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Wrong page. May I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing and adopt ordinance 26 20264? >> So moved. >> Roll call, please.

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>> Committee Bing. >> Yes. >> Committee woman Gomez. >> Yes. >> Committee woman hand. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Leani. >> Oops. like to say this has been an ongoing situation with this development and we since I was mayor and I think glad that we've able to come to an some

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sort of resolve this parking issue there to hopefully resolve some of that. So yes, >> Mayor Payne. >> Yes. Um introduction of new ordinances. We have none. Claims list. May I have a motion and a second to approve claims

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list 202607? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Comments uh comments from the DAS, comments from the floor. [snorts] >> Hello, Lea Gailis. I live in Hillsboro.

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>> Address. >> Address. >> I thought that the address wasn't actually needed, but I should just say I live in Hillsboro. >> Name. Name and address for the record. Huffling. Okay. So, um I wanted to thank you for your

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presentation also and um I just wanted to note that last year the presentation had an error in it. This is for claims list 202607. >> Oh, I thought it was just general. >> No. >> Nope. >> Okay, that's >> Thank you. Any other comments from the floor? >> On the claims list.

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Mel Pittsburgh, 22 Scarboro Road, under um construction. Um there is a a bill for it's for Eric Bernstein Services. It says affordable housing, Hillsboro Solar. H I'm just trying to figure out how Hillsboro Solar

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falls into affordable housing. >> Willard or Christian, >> administrative So those bills will be over at at planning. Um so we had obviously have a solar project that um is being hopefully >> No, but this is against the affordable

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housing trust fund, I think. >> Yeah, I'd have to >> so >> I'd have to look at a major distinction there. >> Yeah, I'd have to look. It's been >> improvement to a department. So >> here um Okay. And then there's also one

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for $2,400 for CME Associates. We're still I thought we had changed um administrators for affordable housing. >> Again, don't have the bill in front of me. Um and I know you're I know that you're very active with that and you and I have had a conversation at the last

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meeting. Um we just changed uh affordable housing agents. So, I'm not sure if that was from the last bill. I mean, they literally just started like 30 days ago. So, I don't know the bill period there on that. >> Well, it's from 324 to 424.

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So, it's I thought I thought we had actually changed a few months ago and I don't know. I mean, I know we've made payments to the new administrator, so I'm just surprised you're making payments to >> I can check with Mr. Quis on that to make sure.

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>> Thank you. Any other comments from the floor on the claims list? I would just like to comment regarding that resident's question that um Christian said I showed him the screen. He said he would look into it. As far as the um attorney Bernstein building

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affordable housing against Hillsboro Solar, he's going to look into that. Thank you. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Committee Bing, >> yes. >> Committ Gomez, >> yes. >> Committee woman hand. >> Yes. Yes. Deputy Mayani. >> Yes. >> Mayor Payne.

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>> Yes. New business. Seeing none comments from >> I would like to make a comment. Um just want to clarify something that was said earlier just so the public is clear that there is no requirement or prohibition restricting public comment at the introduction and that's what the law is.

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>> Clerk, would you like to read what you sent an email from the attorney? Sorry, attorney Willard. >> I I can read it. And by the way, I've had attorney Willard weigh in on this and Sarah, there is there is a requirement for introduction. There is

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nothing restricting public comment. This township committee, at least three that voted no against public comment, are restricting public comment from um taking place tonight. There is no restrict comes next. There is no excuse

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me there is no um there's nothing forbidding the introduction of the budget and having comments on it. >> Correct. There's not absolutely not. So to public comment we now move for matters not on the agenda.

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>> But we will now open the floor for comments. Please keep in mind this is for comments not on the agenda. Right. >> Miss break please read the statement regarding public comment. The township committee now opens the floor for public comment. To ensure a productive and civil environment for all, please approach the microphone,

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state your name and address for the record, and spell your name. The township of Hillsboro maintains a strict standard of decorum. Please ensure your remarks remain respectful and focused on township business. Each speaker is limited to a single threeminute aotment. This is a forum for public comment rather than a dialogue. Please address

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all remarks directly to the mayor. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and for treating your neighbors, township employees, and this committee with courtesy. So what I would ask >> the floor for public comment. >> So So mayor and just to clarify for the folks in the room, they can ask about

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anything whether it's on the agenda or not. Otherwise, the point is you're restricting them from asking questions about the budget presentation. >> The budget presentation is now available for comment. >> Thank you. >> In the public comment session, comments

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from the floor. Mary, come on. That one doesn't want to stay. >> Okay. So, I don't want this to take from the three minutes of what I was going to talk about because I'm just asking a very quick question about budget. Um, when will we have especially based on

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Christian's um um presentation about going back and forth to the state, when will this be posted? When can we plan for this to be posted on the uh town website for us to look at? >> Posted tomorrow. >> I allowed to answer questions. >> Yes, >> I would I would I would assume tomorrow. >> It will be introduced. Yeah, the

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introduced budget would be available tomorrow on Thank you. >> All right. Um, last month there were several resolutions for settlement [clears throat] with developers for affordable housing, both round three and four, with no backup data beyond a

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one-time uh, description of the main agenda until around 4 p.m. the day of the meeting when the full resolution language was available for the public, but not the stated attached settlement agreement. That was March 24th. Last time I checked, just a few days ago, they were still not attached. So once

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these were passed, the committee or the clerk's office saw no need to get the information into the public anymore. It could be years before these settlements go through zoning, planning, and construction. These always have major implications for municipal finance, planning, and community. The public has a right to review them before they are

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voted on and to be able to refer to them later. So after they are fully publicized at the meeting, the town also needs to keep a chronological list of ordinances and resolutions as they pretty much once did with oneline descriptions so they're easil easily searchable. The town is only two months

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from having to settle on all the round four developments and with something like 10 or 11 objectors and with the extension of fair share that the extension that fair share has allotted the town. These should be getting completed. There's a lot of confusion about what the town's obligation is,

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what inclusionary housing is, what developers are obligated to pay in fees, how solvent our affordable housing trust fund is because we're still five years behind on posting that, and why some developments have leaprogged others that we actually need in town. So, I ask you to one, bring back the allowance for

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public comment at ordinance introduction. If someone can only comment the night the ordinance is voted upon, it's really too late. Um, budget is a great example because, you know, once it's registered with the state, I don't think we're going to so easily go back and change it. Um, live cast the

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planning board, zoning board, and environmental commission meetings, at least the way the township meetings are live cast, so residents can at least view the meetings. Allow public comment remotely via Facebook Live, Zoom, or some other interactive means for disabled or for traveling members of the

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public. We had this capability during COVID and many towns left it in place after COVID, but the township committee removed it in mid 2021. Issue the meeting packets for Tuesday night meetings by Monday morning, sooner if possible. Mark draft is necessary. If there's a reissue, notify and notate

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what has changed. It's understood that things can change last minute, but at least give residents a chance to review long ordinances, minutes, bill lists, etc. that likely won't change. And if there is a major change last minute, mention that from the deis explain the changes. Maintain chronological

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ordinance lists and meeting agendas with associated videos, minutes, and information packets for at least five or six years on the municipal website. So that >> Thank you very much for your comment. >> Oh my goodness. My goodness. Mayor, please

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>> Merryill, my goodness. There I Let's go back to the film. There are definitely people that go over three minutes. Merryill, you had some left. My goodness. Finish your finish your statements like this is >> someone else will read it for us. >> We are all adults. Please finish. My goodness. >> Oh, I didn't realize you got to read the meeting

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>> so that residents don't have to remember exactly what meeting something was passed in to find it. Like I said, issues can surface years after something is passed. post legislation passed by the township or maybe legislation is the wrong word, but uh ordinances passed by the township as well as resolutions

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passed by the planning board or other governing subcommittees on the township website. I actually saw a de um a developer's lawyer because they don't have privy to what the um planning board goes through who didn't know that a resolution was passed because, you know,

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and it affected them. affected the the um the lawyers and what they could say. So um anyway, very importantly, conduct a public information session on planning upcoming development and specifically on affordable housing at least once a year. Conduct a special town hall this year in

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anticipation of completion of round three affordable housing plans which was to end on 1125 and submission of the round four plan originally due in March but now granted a delay until June by fair share housing. Consider the Amwell Road senior apartment for 44 units.

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Hillsborough did not build any senior affordable or market rate apartments in at least the last 10 years, maybe for all of round three. Also, the planning passed the JSM development at Andrea Avenue for inclusionary housing that included putting a new front or skin on the old cost cutter shopping center

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there several years ago. That's been an isore for years. You see people complaining about this stuff on the blogs. Um, why was Eminem basically the same developer and Eminem is basically the same developer as JSM allowed to build Sherman Track 2 phase 2 which was

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supposed to be all affordable and then 400 homes at Glen Jerry call the whole thing inclusionary and still get the land for Sherman track free especially since they had never built Andrea Avenue please >> why don't we control these developers more

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>> thank you Yep anyone House on the floor. >> Good evening. Roy Fryman, 31 Stone Place, Hillsboro, New Jersey. Um, I'm just a little confused by the process

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this evening. um you denied the public the right to ask questions about the budget and now we're in a section um that is for comments that weren't on the agenda.

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So I am not allowed to make comments or people are not allowed to make comments about the budget because it was on the agenda. >> Correct. Because so therefore >> I think the mayor actually indicated you can make comments. >> You read into the record. >> The mayor indicated

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>> specifically that they can make comments now if you wanted to on the budget >> but you can't ask a question. >> Correct. >> It's not a question and answer period. >> So there so >> as the legislature has set up in Trenton >> the legislature allows >> as legislature has set up in Trenton there's a hearing scheduled for May

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26th. >> Senator if you want to amend the process through the legislature go ahead. I'm not allowed to ask you a question. >> But we're doing some We're doing something that all the 560 municipalities also do. >> I'm not allowed to ask you a question. This is only a comment.

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This is only So I'm only allowed to make comments. I can't ask questions. >> Correct. It's a comment period. >> Okay. So, but yet you're responding to a comment, not a question. >> So So I'm just trying to I'm just trying to understand a process here >> because you made an inaccurate statement. You indicated and I didn't

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want anybody to think that is here that they can't comment on the budget. If you want to comment on the budget, go ahead. I don't know how you're going to comment, but because it gets published tomorrow, that's the whole procedure that the legislature set up. It's introduced, >> okay? >> It gets published, it gets advertised,

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and then there's a hearing on it. >> And then there's a hearing on it on May 26th of 2026. And that's when the public comes and engages and asks questions. That's what the legislature set up. >> Let me know when you're done so I can get >> I'm done. But that's what the legislature set up. >> Are you done yet now? >> That's what the legislature set up. Why

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not? Okay. So, it's my understanding, my comment that it is permissible by municipalities to allow questions on introductions. This body has chosen, especially by

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denying tonight's motion, particularly not to allow questions. That is a choice that this body has made. That is my comment. >> Great. Thank you for your comment, >> mayor. Just so you know, um the

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legislature set up the procedure for adoption of ordinances. The legislature procedure calls for an introduction, >> an advertisement, and then one public hearing. >> I'll do what the legislature said. >> I'll do one further. I think it would be really rude of us to ask people to ask

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questions on a 4m minute presentation, seven minute presentation versus seeing the full document and educating themselves first. >> So mayor, I would object and say that what I do every day at work is watch or

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participate in a presentation and ask questions to understand and internalize that information. So I think it's ridiculous to think about a presentation and come back to us in two to four weeks with your questions that I think is ridiculous.

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>> There's no facts other than that document and I would thoroughly prefer to go through the data. >> We should have posted the high level. >> Mayor did tomorrow as soon as it's approved. >> Mayor Mayor I'm just sorry but when it's posted tomorrow the questions can start

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coming in through the public input tool immediately. Um that's why it's there >> and we would like to see all responses then Sarah all responses to engage >> ma'am your comment >> gis2 um just wanted to say uh thank you for

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your presentation and just looking at the numbers quickly it looks like it was like a little bit over 8% increase last year when it was uh when the slide had that same thing it said it was a 2.47 increase in the tax levy. Um but that was actually just a change in the in the

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tax rate. So um at that time last year it was 10.92 and then it went down a little bit when it was finalized. Um but thank you. It looks like that was one part. Um but I'm just mentioning that because I think it that last year's presentation um uh gave some uh people

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people were a little bit uh taken back by or they were miss not but um they were confused by it. So, thank you. Um, and then also I just wanted to mention that I don't believe I saw in your all of your things that are coming up uh

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that May 3rd, did you mention the May third the highway? Okay. So, I'll um so the municipal alliance which is also called Bora Aare um has this time where you clean up uh 206 about twice a year and one is coming

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up on May 3rd. So that's Sunday May 3rd. You need to or older. A lot of times we have like the wrestling teams come and different things. Um we would love to have people who like to pick up trash. Just please register. There is a tiny URL uh for that called um a tiny URL

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adopt a highway May 3 and there's a video that you need to watch as well. Um >> and that will be in the e-news just just to >> thank you. I finally put that in like last week. So that's probably about it. I think there was something else I wanted to mention um

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>> event wise. Yeah. >> If it's an event, you can always let the clerk's office know and they'll post it for you. >> Thank you. Yeah, I went through the website. So, >> okay. >> Let it reach to you. Thank you. >> Any other comments from the floor? My name is Filamino Salili. I have been

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a resident in Hillsboro for 44 years. I have been involved indirectly and directly with the Hillsboro Township Committee and other committees within this organization. Um I know most of the people who are on

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the board. Um I need to share that this is about the health, safety, and welfare of the township. I don't feel that this board at this time is taking into consideration

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becoming argumentative, interrupting, being impatient. I respect some of you are maintaining your quorum. The theme of this township is changing and I'm not happy about it as a resident of 44 years. I was on the

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board of adjustment. We had interaction directly with the people. We never spoke to each other in this manner, way, shape, or form. I feel that we need to take a look at how we're handling certain situations.

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It's becoming more political than I have ever experienced it in the 44 years I have lived here. So perhaps an offsite or some other type of interaction could take place so that we show some unity and consideration for the health welfare

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of the people of Hillsboro. I also was involved in the municipal alliance. I'm on the interfaith committee and I'm just very disappointed at this type of interaction. This is not a political discussion.

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if comments need to be made. Perhaps there's another way of doing it when there is a disagreement. But I look forward to the way this township has operated previously and that was with respect to each other and moving forward considering the people of Hillsborough.

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Okay. I would appreciate consideration to that matter. I may be offt target as far as what I'm supposed to be speaking to, but this is something that has been bothering me for quite a while. Have these discussions offsite. Don't put

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this is what I would see like happen. This is what should happen and read documents which have obviously been written ahead of time. Don't do it because it's not working. It's not working for anybody who's representing their particular place on this township committee. Thank you.

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>> Thank you for your comment. Any other comments from the floor? I would echo that sentiment. The idea of good government seems challenging and what I have to say is political. So, I'm

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here to discuss this township committee doing the right thing for all taxpayers like me. The township's currently in a lawsuit brought by Homestead Road LLC over the denial of its application to build two giant warehouses on Homestead Road. My understanding is the township

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is working to settle this lawsuit. The planning board, as you all may know, issued a 244 page resolution supporting its denial. So, I ask, why settle this lawsuit? if we're going to win, and we

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will win if we go through with it. Equally important, you, the township, are now proposing to build 400 townhouse units on this property that is not zoned for residential use. Why not leave it zone

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commercial, make the developer conform to the zone, and build housing where infrastructure exists, like the town center. As mentioned before, our tax cases 87% resident excuse me residential. So we

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need to preserve all commercially zoned properties not convert them to residential since every time you and I point to all of you convert commercial to residential zone our taxes go up. You

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did it at Glengarry Valley Road 279 Homestead Royce Brook Golf Course to name a few. It's not sustainable for all of us. Settling this lawsuit has nothing to do with building affordable housing on that property. So, the scope of any

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settlement cannot include issues of affordable housing. That must be a separate agreement with review by the public. Hillsboro is becoming unaffordable. And excuse me for saying it, it's due to the Republican majority on this township

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committee that has failed to properly manage this township. Without a coherent plan for our future, an operates on nothing more than an ad hoc basis, with no clear

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plan for for growth that's logical and fiscally responsible. I must ask, who runs this township? Is it the developers or is it you? In light of the demise of any responsible master plan for our future

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and obvious failure to make living here affordable, I propose a new slogan for Hillsboro to replace the one that's on the the plaque here. Welcome to Hillsboro, one of the one of America's 100 worst

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Republican controlled places to live. Let's put that up on a sign in front of this building. Thank you for the comment. Any other comments from the floor? >> No, thank you. >> Good evening, Netor 18 stage coach. Uh I

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heard what David said and I agree with him. Uh I'm here to discuss discuss why the ECD zone at 189 and 203 Homestead Road should not be resone to residential. poor decisions made by this committee uh in the township uh as to

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land use and our tax base is destroying any chance to make living in this township affordable. First, Hillsboro tax base is extremely lopsided. 87 87% of all taxes originating from residential units. We need more

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commercial zone spaces to bring in taxes that don't add more more children to our schools. Since roughly 66% of all our taxes go to public education. So what has been happening under this committee majority? You are using affordable

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housing litigation as an excuse to convert needed commercial and industrial zone land to make sweetheart deals to developers to build residential housing, thus permanently destroying any chance to better balance our tax base. Second, this same property was

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incorporated into the township affordable housing plan in June of 2025 as pro as proposing to now construct 43 townhouse units on the on the almost identical footprint of the two

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warehouses. Homestead road cannot support this type of intense development and the present TECD zone should not be changed. May the developer conform to this use and build housing where is best

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suited with supporting infrastructure like the town center. In addition, even after the planning board was advised to follow its own engineers conclusion and the planning board's council that he identifies stream corridor at 189 should not should be protected. The adopted

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plan still states it will be filled in. That is wrong and it must be corrected. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from the floor? >> Good evening. >> Hi. >> So, I am a little confused and I know a lot of people are about state and

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address. >> Oh, sorry. Emily Benedon, 169 Beman. Um, so I know I am confused and other people are about comments. questions about the budget. We're not allowed to to ask, but so >> you can comment on the budget

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presentation. >> So I will just comment that it seems like there's an 8.4% increase in the taxes. I could >> 8.3 >> I'm sorry >> 8.3 >> 8.3 okay just thank you and then something else because I did find it

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helpful to see the presentation. So I do agree with you um committee woman hands because it is helpful to you know, have the high level and get a feel for things. Um, there was a statement made about this year there's we're under the

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state review. Is that just like it kind of rolls around every three years? I just don't understand that. Are you allowed to answer that or no? >> It's a comment session >> that you can definitely save that for next week, next meeting rather.

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>> He's not yet. >> Okay. Um, >> I'll Google it or Um and I do want to echo what other people have said. It does come across as just very um I felt like in January there was a a lot of different comments

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made in terms of unification. Um and to me I thought that that meant respect and trust and I just honestly it's hard to hear what people are saying because there's a lot of interruptions and like you know um committee you were trying to

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say something I didn't know what you were saying. So then somebody being interrupted, I was disappointed because you have a lot of experience on this committee and then several other people being interrupted. It gets to be a lot of very chaotic and also as other people

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said it's just it's disrespectful and not sure that that's how you all want to be seen as presenting yourselves as that's what it looks like and you know having the argument you know It's just disappointing to see because

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you know if there's a question is it really meaningful and respectful doesn't come across that way. So that might not be the intent but the perception is that it's coming across very disrespectful and onetoone everybody seems very nice but then when you see certain interactions

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it's just it's just very disrespectful. So I appreciate what you said. Um I just just very disappointing hearing everybody interrupt each other especially unfortunately um several key members on on this team including

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yourself. I just really frustrated to see any other comments from the floor. I have a few questions and I don't want the answers to I'm Judy Hos of course uh and I don't want the answers to eat into my time.

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>> Can you state your address for the record? >> I also am having a great >> Can you address for the record as well? >> Excuse me. >> Your address for the record as well >> to Titus Court Hillsboro. Um, I don't want any of the time for any of the answers to come off of my big three minutes. Um, anyway, um, at the last

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meeting I asked how many employees you have in the township. You said 210. I have a letter here from somebody else's Oprah request in which you are quoted as saying Hillsboro Township currently employs over 260

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individuals. I'd like to know where those additional people are hiding. to Monday, December 22nd, 2025 >> memo from you. >> This is not a question and answer, but

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our HR >> I can't hear you. >> I said this isn't a question and answer session, right? I mean, but we have our HR. >> Well, then I am telling you and I'm telling the public that you said to me 210 employees for the township and you

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told everybody else 260. So, I'm wondering whether or not we have phantom employees that taxpayers are paying. So, as long as we don't. >> Okay. I think you should have some accountability for that. Next, I happen

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to read minutes from the Municipal Utilities Authority. Apparently, they passed their And by the way, if you don't get a if you don't get a podium up here for people who could barely stand,

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I am going to file a lawsuit against this town. Just an FYI. I have nothing to put my papers on. I can't hold my cane and I need to >> I don't want to sit down. Okay, you need

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to have a podium here. Enough is enough. You've been asked enough time. Anyway, Municipal Utilities Authority passed their budget last October. There was no contribution to the township of Hillsboro in that budget.

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They also have a question in their budget that they put together that indicates, are they providing any money to the township? What do you know? And they answered unanticipated

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and if they were providing that money they would have needed to say what services you were providing them. Meanwhile, somehow miraculously in the January minutes there's correspondence from the township. Guess what that said?

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I think anybody could figure that out. And then all of a sudden in the next month all of a sudden they're giving you 378,000 bucks. What the heck is that for? Why does the Municipal Utilities

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Authority have to pay the township anything? We pay them for their services. We have 1,400 of 14,000 residents in town, maybe half of whom use the sewer system. I have no

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idea how many people do septic and how many do sewer, but even if it's 1,400, that's $27 per per household. If it's$7,000 people who 7,000 households that use them, it's $54,

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why are they giving it to you instead of the people who are paying the bills to a private authority? >> Thank you. Your time is up. >> I know my time is up. I would like an answer to that question. is provided by statute in the legislature.

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>> Excuse me. >> It's provided expressly by statute in the New Jersey legislature. >> What? What is >> I just answered your question. >> I did not hear you. >> It is expressly provided by statute and

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the New Jersey legislature. >> Great. Allowed doesn't mean you need to do it because the result of it will be we'll just get our retired. I think the last time you raised they you asked them

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for a contribution because you can't balance your budget. >> Are you talking to me now? Because I I don't balance budgets and I don't answer. I mean, I'm just >> Well, she's not answering. >> Okay. Okay. I just answered your question. Your question to me was whether or not whether it was authorized. It's authorized by statute.

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>> Okay. >> I just didn't want anybody to leave here to think something was done that was untold or >> Are there any other comments from the floor? That's great. I'll be back next month with a nice little pop quiz for you on the budget. Be prepared,

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>> I would think. So, administer from the floor. Thank you, Administrator Ferrer. Just because that was an an that was a moment when the township did send a letter to

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the MUA requesting a 5% contribution back to the township. That doesn't happen every year. So to answer the question, could you provide some background? >> It's happened this year. >> It's happened in the past. The finance

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committee had asked me to do that with the mayor and Mr. Bard has provided you that answer >> and if that's the answer. So I'm not sure >> all of a sudden tonight is is is a revelation that that you saw that you were emailed you knew all about it and

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you're bringing it up tonight. >> So Mr. Willard has provided the answer. >> Assemblyman is in the room so maybe she can talk with him as well. So it's allowable by law. I am not a voting member of the committee. So maybe you should check with the other members of the committee who asked me to send that

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as the administrator. Just like when you ask me questions, I answer them and do those things as well for all >> administrator. I did see the letter and it said it was sent on behalf of the township committee which we never discussed or voted. I found out about the letter the day you sent it. I think

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it was like January 21st. That being said, the rest of the committee, why did we ask >> why are we asking this year and not other years if that is a 5% contribution that the township could be getting every year? It's like why is this year different than any other?

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>> Well, I think it also depends on MUA and their needs. So, again, I was asked to do that. So, that's what I what I did. >> So, I work at the pleasure of you guys. So, you can keep peppering all you want. Um, I gave you the answer and I'm not sure why you me if the township I

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apologize but the township already calls this was before you guys and you voted on it. You voted yes. >> Yeah. >> It was a matter of experience. I mean we're going backwards. >> I think there could have been more. >> Constantly going backwards. I don't get it either. >> Can I please have a motion and a second to adjurnn?

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>> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Committee vering. >> Yes. Committee Gomez. Yes. >> Committee woman hand. >> Yes. Depani. >> Yes. >> Mayor Payne.

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>> Yes. Thank you. Good night.