I literally changed there's no way I'm the meeting big you yep good evening everyone I hereby announc that pursuant to section five of the open public meetings act that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the notice which was sent to
the Asbury Park Press the Two River times and posted on the Bolton board in township hall and filed in the township Clerk's Office on January 3rd 2025 mayor Foster here miss L Mountain here Mr imprev dudo here Mr LCA relli here Mr
Romano here mayor you have a quorum excellent can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands nation under God indivisible
liy and justice for all please just remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops at home and abroad Service Tire tirelessly thank you sorry we're running late a little bit we had a bunch of things on the agenda but when do you want to kick us
off the proclamation for the hell uh D12 cheer team all right again sorry to keep you girls waiting long overdue whereas the hell ayc D12 cheer team competed in the Jersey Shore
American Youth Cheer competition and the Big East Regional American Youth Cheer competition this season and the sixth grade through eighth grade members of the team won Grand Champions and first place at the Jersey Shore competition and earned first place in their division at the Big East Regional competition and
the hell ayc D12 cheer team went on to compete in the American Youth Cheer national championships in Florida hitting zero with their routine and competitive cheer is a sport that requires the execution of a routine that has been practiced for countless hours
and the hell D12 team members and their family members put in a great deal of time and energy into the team's shared successes throughout the season and the players were LED supported and encouraged in their own Endeavors and successes by coaches Gan barardi Chris
Jaris Michelle marach Marino Amy Munley and Lara primov and assisted in their routines by demonstrators Sophia Deets Mia Marino and Ava pescator and team parent Aaron Balano now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and Township
Committee of the township of hell that congratulations be extended to the following Brinn balanco Juliana barardi Kaylee Carbone Sienna carry Emily chalub Parker Drake Zara drogaris Francesca
green labat Gia lotenberg mateline Marino Madison Marino Alexa marav Valas Amelia moley ree pla Evelyn primov Sarah reaj Isabella Riley and Josephine serini
personally and officially on behalf of the residents of the community for their outstanding achievements be it further resolved that a suitably engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to the team as a small token of the esteem in which they are held and be it further resolved that all the best wishes be
extended to all for continued success in their future endeavors Proclaim this 25th day of February 2025 congratulations [Applause] girls how about you guys come up and
take a picture congratulations girls great job any the parents like to come up to pictures with the team the team abely but they didn't want us CP conat than thank you congratulations
[Applause] ready okay moving right along next would be be public comment on agenda items only for this evening Mr CH and girls from the cheer team you guys aren't required to stay unless you absolutely want
to it would not be we would not be upset if you guys all decided to take those proclamations and head home congratulations again guys and thank you very much for coming out [Applause] Pat I'm I'm sorry I just cut your
audience in half that's fine Patrick trus 56 Line Road I fully support the resolution for Homedale to apply for a grant through the uh New Jersey her Heritage uh fund uh
historical trust fund for $100,000 which uh hopefully they'll throw in 75 and and home will throw in 25,000 and that'll be used to preserve the home horn antenna it's time that we
do that and get moving on that project thank you thank you Pat anybody else agenda items only Mr lupy not off the top of my head but it daylight hours pretty much we're to1000
lighting are uh you will be able to play when it's darklands yes that's the idea with the lights once to get start don't know9 I believe most of the conduit has been laid already Bill do you happen to know uh no but we can check with Barbara
with that thanks we'll have to get you but we believe the conduit was late already all of infrastructure should be in place and it's just a matter of now getting it lit pretty sure it's all pretty sure it's all complet it's the the project is completed it's just not lit when is this to be
done uh once we approve it they'll start moving forward I don't think we have an exact date on that yet we have to do this part of the process for us to move along we got to approve the money first and I'm just I ask all these questions because as I assume why everyone else is
standing or sitting behind me that money could cover I don't know off the top of my head so we just at this at this moment no we do not well Lance I this was approved to
probably two years ago disree with the entire when I was there was called anybody remember ret was when I we don't bill when was this budgeted for I believe it started with ordinance
201901 when everything started with that uh date wise uh be 2019 when all the stuff started thank you I think the just for public consumption half of the original cost was covered by an existing Grant I think
it was a recreation I think we had leftover Recreation funds yeah some recreation grants we applied for us so I just question dir our Mone right and you're you're fair and and and we welcome you to do that
Lance app who's in Dire Straits we're not in Dire Straits no spending 310,000 on oh the school is okay you didn't say that uh yes it's part of the it's part of the townlands yes your children go there my child goes there so I'm
concerned about understood thank you Lance and we don't even know how much it's just I'm just trying to understand process well let's do this okay was allocated so doesn't you can't change your mind right we didn't say we're going to see an increase of 50% by
speaking to the microphone some of the people can't hear you in the back there's a button on there thank you thank you now it's on you okay so I just question we we we made a decision
to spend $310,000 we didn't anything to like say we're going to see a 50% increase in usage this is so great for the town we just decided Well we have the money so let's just spend it when I think it's the discretion of the committee members to direct where that where the budget
goes it absolutely is we voted on it we built the park and we believe it's going to get excellent usage it is the wi W widest growing sport currently and I believe the facility will be used but I and we thank you for your questions you got thank you anybody else with comments on agenda
items only seeing none okay Wendy let's move forward please sir the next items are the consent agenda which are resolutions 20272 to 2025 82 anybody have any questions from the
committee can we get a motion move second Mr imprev dudo yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor Foster
yes resolutions 2025 72 to 2025 82 have been successfully passed thank you okay moving right along to departments uh Chief do you have anything as administrator please go we had a bad storm a little over a
week ago um a lot of trees lines down DPW did an outstanding job coming out working through the night clearing roads that didn't have power lines caught in them we lost power on most of the southern side of town uh our PD did a
great job with uh Manning traffic lights and and the intersections that were down and even to that fact JCP did a real good job when they came out with their linemen during the night and the next day getting everything cleaned up so that we could get the roads open thank you Chief and I know we've been going
back and forth with jcpnl a lot they've been pretty responsive lately we're going to try to meet with them later this week and just try to figure out to continue moving forward there uh Bill Chief Financial Officer please I have nothing at the moment mayor thank you okay thank you moving along Michael
thank you mayor one item uh from our executive session for the committee's consideration would be a resolution approving a scope of work for tnm associates uh to perform due diligence relating to open space procurements in the amount of $9,500 um if the committee would advance
that okay can we get a motion motion second Mr impra dudo yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Rano yes mayor Foster yes the resolution for the scope of work for tnm has been successfully
passed thank you and that's all I had thank you mayor okay thank you Ed do you have anything from engineering uh just we've been in pretty much constant contact with uh administrator uh and uh and Mike just
ongoing projects catching up and uh starting to advance a lot of initiatives that uh need need a little lubrication so I think we're in pretty good shape thank you very much Ed then moving along we'll start the boards and committees uh DJ how about you get us started please
yeah right thank you mayor so uh it must have been from my last prior announcements but the uh it it the daddy daughter and the mother Sundance is sold out so obviously there must have been a lot of people listening
to me um but that's wonderful news this is always sold out it's a it's a great um great event that the recreation department puts on so I'm real happy to see um that this uh this event is still going strong um to to today I remember
actually took my daughter to the first one they ever had and it was in the uh Indian Hill uh lunchroom it was real exciting um we sat on the uh the cafeteria benches and everything and um it start that's where it started and and
here it is we're selling out a nice catering hall so uh great job to the recck department uh Swim Club registration as I said last meeting is open now I'm sorry it's open March 4th so uh get get on there be uh be a early register for that summer Recreation um
will will uh programs will open soon keep an eye on the recreation website for updates and uh Our IT department um did a great job uh we had some issues with our um systems went down and Our IT department did a great job getting all
that back up and running um they actually also had responded to 157 help Des tickets to assist employees in the governing body and residents uh on different technology issues um other than that I have nothing else for you
mayor thank you thank you very much Mr lucarelli Mr Romano thank you mayor uh so starting with the hell Library the majan club will be joined by a new bridge club so now Thursdays will be game days consisting of bridge club followed by Ma maang club and ending the chess club
iell the therapy dog made two appearances for special programs read to a dog and doggy dos and don'ts which was a presentation for children on how to safely interact with dogs and this month's book displays included blizzard of books Lunar New Year emergency workers and Community resilience and
groundhog days also we had a very nice letter from the the library um just as an aside uh Trish and the entire staff at the hell Library wanted to personally thank last year's mayor and prev dudo for helping facilitate all of the new library displays the township provided
uh to Hell Library they're all now delivered received and set up so if you haven't seen them yet they look great librar is looking good uh on the board of ed side the 2025 2026 Career Institute the school counseling department has begun planning
the 2025 2026 Career Institute which is a series of many career days each focused on a different Career Cluster hell community members are invited to participate and share information with students about their career field more info to come soon congratulations to the Marboro hell Mustangs hockey team on
winning the shore Conference Championship this is the first time since 2011 that the team has secured a Championship win congratulations to the hell High School fencing team for producing two District Champions at The District Tournament congratulations to the indoor track team who had an outstanding winter season
setting several new school records and qualifying multiple team members for State Regional and National Championship meets good luck and postseason for all those who are competing from the veterans committee uh the veter the veterans committee held its first event of 2025 earlier this month the event was a great success with over 20 veterans
attendance attendees were able to connect with fellow veterans and engage engage in great conversations the next coffee and conventions will be on Thursday March 13th at 10:00 a.m. at the senior center any veteran or gold star family members who would like to be placed on our email list please contact
the recreation office that's all I got thank you mayor thank you Joe Mr impr thank you mayor from the homeo police department a reminder that applications for the citizens Police Academy can be found on the HT PD website and are due this Friday February
28th the hell police department has always been at the Forefront of community policing and is committed to developing Partnerships with all citizens of the township the citizens Police Academy provides members of the community with a background and understanding of the htpd policies and activities as well as the structure of
their duties and limit of police power Goal Zero high visibility enforcement will take place Thursday February 27th from 3: to 7:00 p.m. focusing on highway 34 and M will take place every month in collaboration with other departments in the county the goal of the enforcement
is to keep drivers alert and free of distractions while driving from the Department of Public Works whenever snow has fallen and the snow has covered the roadway a snow emergency exists in Hell during these snow emergencies parking on any roadway throughout hell is prohibited please
ensure that your vehicles are parked on your driveway or property so the snow can be removed DPW does not pick up brush or leaves during the winter months please do not Place brush or leaves at the curbside or on the roadway for collection during a non-scheduled
season also all curbside recycling receptacles should be clearly marked recycling to to obtain a hell recycles sticker for your container please contact D DPW at 732 946 2820 extension
1953 thank you mayor thank you Mr mudo Deputy Mayor L Mountain thank you mayor um Community Development Department there's uh no report for this meeting the hell Green Team held their second
meeting of the community energy planning which was very productive they met on February 18th decided what initiatives to investigate and broke into small working groups and these working groups will meet independently over the next
few weeks with a next scheduled meeting of Thursday March 20th at 6 6:30 where everyone will share their progress any hell resident that's interested in exploring how our community can work toward a better environment for all residents by reducing emissions and
conserving energy is welcome to participate by contacting the Green Team the green the green team also submitted an application for review to sustainable Jersey for bronze level recertification the next Green team
meeting is Monday March 3rd and is open to the public any residents any residents that are interested in joining please feel free to email the Green Team homedel township.com you can also email
them to learn more about the Green Team or to send any sustainability questions or suggestions our hell Heritage committee is getting ready with a St Patrick day display the committee along with some
local Irish families will be setting up a display at the homeo library to celebrate St Patrick's Day and educate the public about various Irish Traditions the display will begin on Tuesday March 4th and if any residents are interested in contributing items to
the display please feel free to contact the hell Heritage committee at Heritage committee homedel township.com thanks thank you Deputy Mayor just a couple of items here uh winter storm recap I'd like to start by
thanking the office of emergency management the Department of Public Works the hell Police Department the fire department and the first aid for all their hard work and dedication during the series of winter storms that we've had over the past few weeks thanks to these dedicated employees and volunteers our roads were plowed
emergency information was communicated safety was ensured and those of need of medical attention were able to to receive it we are truly fortunate to work alongside these committed and hardworking individuals as a reminder I will be hosting the mayor's community cleanup day on Saturday March 29th from
9:00 a.m. to 12: p.m. residents can volunteer to join us as we clean up the township no pre-registration is required volunteers should meet at the senior community center to check in pick up their t-shirts and supplies and receive their assign assignment of which area of town to clean up on behalf of my
Township committee colleagues I want to offer offer my condolences to our neighbors in tinon falls on the passing of their mayor veto Perillo mayor pillo passed away over the weekend at the age of 100 he was a veteran of the second world war thoughts and prayers of all of us here in Homedale Township are with
mayor perillo's family and friends today may he rest in peace additionally before I make a couple other comments I would just like to make a motion to introduce an ordinance by title as follows ordinance renaming and dedicating the Arts Center Access Road in honor of Billy Deo can I
get a motion MO second Mr impra dudo yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli absolutely Mr Rano yes mayor Foster yes please okay the ordinance will be set for public hearing thank
you okay so before we get to uh the public comment I just had like to read out a few things so I'd like to address a recent request from the board of education for funding the township committee to support their 20252 6 operating budget over the past several
years the township committee has always worked cooperatively to address requests in the board of education for support with capital needs and in areas that involve the Township's jurisdiction I would like to point out that started largely in part during mayor Lucarelli's term and Then followed with mayor and pro prudo term these have included
supporting the lights at sat school funding for the Duncan Smith theater and fully funding our special law enforcement officers at each of the Township's schools in addition to these efforts this past year the Board of Ed said its top priority was improvements to the Crawford's Corner Road Long
Street Road intersection which has become a bottleneck ever since the Boe decided to move SATs and high school to the same start time the township committee promptly acted on this request we applied to the state for Grants and have received a commitment for 3.5 million in funding we have also directed
the township engineer at township expense to FastTrack this project current estimates are that this project will be potentially 1 million over the grant funding at the same time the Boe has asked the township for funding to help with the budget Gap that they have this year and anticipate having in
future years the township committee has agreed to consider the bee's request while setting some parameters and asking for documents that support this request as mayor I look forward to working with the bee to support where possible by also balancing our residents
interest on the township side including the need to invest in our infrastructure which we saw in our storm water report last year and the need to protect our open space from Trenton mandated housing as a parent of four schools in the school parent of four children in the school district and a former member of
the Board of Education I want to do everything possible to support our Public Schools while also protecting the interest of all residents who are served by our municipal government I look forward to having further discussions with the Board of Ed to address both the Crawford's Corner Road Long Street Road
project that that they requested as well as their request for funding for this budget year I just want to say that the dialogue is still open we are hoping and continuing to move forward with everything this board has shown himself more than any
board in a recent Township and I'm only here 13 years but I also served on the board of ed when every one of the calls when I was on the board of red went ignored completely ignored we will continue to discuss and we hope to work with you guys the best we can that being said I'd like to open up the floor for
any public comments no no no Wendy's got to read her Spiel before I say to seeing none in accordance with the open public meetings act this is a public comment period for public comment on any governmental issue of of public concern in accordance with resolution
20227 public commenters are asked to raise their hand and wait to be recognized by the mayor before coming forward and making public comments commenters are asked to State their full name and address before commenting public commenters are limited to one comment not to exceed three minutes
comments should be directed to the mayor and Township committee if appropriate the mayor may direct and recognize a staff employee or professional to respond to comments either at this meeting or in writing after this meeting thank you Wendy Mr deari thank
you Chris Chris Mari 7 Oaks uh before I get started with what I was going to say I appreciate your message there mayor Foster and I do agree that you this Township committee over the last few years has definitely opened the communication line which I think is very important for this community so that does not go unnoticed I do just want to
note also that there's always been bottlenecks going into and out of all the schools just the population and the roads not being modernized all these years we're working towards that I appreciate it I also just wanted to note I appreciate some of the comments before the hell school district is not in Dire Straits we just have Financial
crossroads right now and I just want to open the floor to the whole community so hopefully Wendy will be easy on the clock here so I I I I serve as the I just want to let the hell Community know my name is Chris deari I serve as the hell Township Board of Education president which I'm proud of and I'm
here tonight to to not just talk to the hell Township committee I'm here to talk to hell I'm here to talk to our community of 17,000 residents that positively are impacted by our incredible schools um since Cove and I appreciate some of my board members here these dedicated volunteers that are here
with me tonight since Co and in today's challenging economy many New Jersey school districts have struggled financially the cost of running even a decent public school system has skyrocketed yet in hell we haven't just weathered the storm we've thrived while the district has managed to absorb these
exorbitant increases in expenses over time we are now at a financial Crossroads and some impactful decisions will need to be made so I'd like to take this opportunity to reintroduce the hell Township school districts and what's been going on over the last few years since
covid we've overcome instability turnover and some poor decision makers decisionmaking prior to covid and at once and at once set our district back thanks to our board administrators and staff homeo one amongst one of the first to reopen schools during covid mayor Foster was a part of that and I
appreciate that we made critical Investments to ensure students continued learning safely in the past three years since under superintendent Dr Cason's leadership we've restored stability accountability and a positive trajectory hell high school ranked 106th out of
about 450 public high schools in New Jersey has catapulted to the 34th spot as a public high school in New Jersey since Co over these years our K througha program is equally strong laying a foundation that produces top forming students While most districts have about
one to two students that are accepted into our vocational schools here hell consistently has over 25 a year being approved and attending earning spots in five of the top ranked schools in the state with this in my eyes home to high school is undoubtedly one of New Jersey's top 10 Public Schools supported
by an outstanding K through2 program system that continues to raise the bar but rankings alone don't tell the full story our success is measured by the students we shape and the Futures we build thank you to our administrators our teachers and staff for their dedication and commitment as we
approached the 2526 budg deadline we remain committed to the full transparency sharing 15 years of of historical data to our community that demonstrates our responsible Resource Management our board and administration have spent countless hours analyzing the data and developing a strategic efficient approach to strengthening our
schools while keeping hell's future secure I attended first grade at Village in 0 1983 and graduated with the class in 96 when hell high school was at its peak for five decades my family has proudly invested in hell and through every challenge one thing has remained constant our phenomenal schools hell
education system has Resto has stood the test of time building leaders since the 1970s and today we see tomorrow's leaders in our hallways a great schools and investment not just in education but in our Town's future strong schools Drive demand for hell I just want to
note like let's not forget that just four years ago many of our students in the Halls today started their education remotely in masks and behind plexiglass and we've worked tirelessly to get them back on track we have the momentum now we have the right team in place and we
can't afford to backward our children deserve Advocates we need to work together as parents educated and community members to keep hell on the right path we have an Administration and staff committed to progress and we believe in them change takes time strategy and commitment especially in
the complex world of public education but we only have one chance to set an example for our children and that's why I'm here tonight I invite the entire home Del Community to join us in finding solutions to preserve our schools and securing our Town's future let's move forward together for our children and
for hell's Legacy I appreciate the time to send that message to our hell Community thank you all thank you Chris any other comments ma'am in the back good evening can you hear me okay good evening my name is Al S medo I live
at seven Hillcrest Road uh I wanted to just take a moment just to ask about the pilot money and I see all the work that you guys do it's incredible we love this town I appreciate this town and it's a lot of money coming through the pilot
program and I asked this of what happens with that money where does it go and can some of it be used towards the courtesy busing uh I did post on the home Resource page an article about how courtesy busing is is going away in towns across New Jersey and part of the
charm we moved from messic County here part of the charm was how great home de is it's a sleepier town open space great parks and our kids are getting bused to school my husband and I are both working parents and we rely on the courtesy busing it's incredible just for programs
for our kids after school to get there but without courtesy busing what does that mean are we going to now our tax is going to go up because we have to have infrastructure for for sidewalks hiring crossing guards we have County Roads versus town roads um then what happens
with the money if the courtesy busing is taken away will that five million spent in busing go towards the school is the township going to take it like what will happen but there was over 114 comments on my post clearly the town is concerned
about courtesy busing and will you truly consider helping the Boe and our budget to make sure that courtesy buzzing stays it's part of the charm of this town are you all set yes I think I'm all right Alexander thank you very much as
as we stated we're in negotiations we're trying to move forward we're trying to help figure all of this out and and that's really all I could say at this moment uh Mike would you like to add anything uh sure through you mayor on the particular issue of courtesy busting I would note that it's a function of the
Board of Education courcy busing falls under the school statute specifically njsa 18a 39-1 so the decision whether or not it's furnished is by the Board of Education um the township committee earlier outlined that in response to the board of Ed's Outreach about looking for
some financial assistance that it would engage in that conversation um we did set parameters on that conversation and one of those is that the Township's financial support wouldn't be Tethered to any particular cost or expense that the board of education has while the
committee would look holistically at you know the budget situation um it wouldn't be specific to a particular line item so you know people may be speculating about different budget decisions that would be up to the board of education to make the township committee is looking at this
from an overall perspective and we're having further conversations that we really can't com comment upon further out here in public well I look forward to your decisions coming up in the future thank you for your comments Alexandra any other comments um Tia Cunningham 8 Canyon Woods
Court um I just I'm so glad you guys are entertaining the courtesy busing um funds because um it's a great town and uh we
all moved here for the schools and I think we support our Township and it's it's nice to hear that you guys are even thinking about supporting uh the school so thank you and I look forward to
hearing what your decision is thank you T you appreciate your comments and as we stated earlier through mayor lucarelli and mayor prev dudo and and hopefully continuing going forward we will support the schools we have supported the schools and that's what we're in the process of figuring out exactly what we're going to do any other
comments come on up Karen Karen Strickland 26 Hayward Hills Drive um three things number one thank you for appointing a storm water coordinator past time we needed to have one done well done number two um one of the best private Public Partnerships that we have
in Homedale is our Earth Day celebration that is done with the community group citizens for informed land use and the home environmental commission is happening on April 27th from 12:00 to 5:00 a Sunday we invite all the township committee members and everyone from the
community to come join us uh three um I don't have children in school anymore my four children are raised here and graduated from here and I just want to say that I think I want to support these parents that we need to have courtesy busing if there's anything I know that
you guys are working on it it doesn't come from you it will come from the board of beds so this is to to the Board of Ed but courtesy busing also has an environmental impact if we're going to be having people walking to school you know the children aren't going to be walking to school their parents going to be driving them we're going to be having all these cars lining up we're going to
have uh emissions we want to have an anti-idling campaign in town and yet the emissions are going to keep growing um we need to protect our town and we need to protect our children and make sure that they can get to school safely so thank you thank you Karen any other
comments straight up back hi everybody I'm Darcy Penny 17 Al gonin Road um like most here I have children in the school courtesy busing I am less than a mile from Village School uh I also am very heavily involved at Village School
I am currently the president of the PSA I appreciate all the work that our Board of Ed do and our Our Town Council so appreciate you know any sort of consideration um really wanting to get an understanding of if there is any sort of consideration for formalizing a
shared service agreement to share the pilot Revenue um the schools really are the back blown to our community and we need to make sure that they are taken care of um courtesy busing me just one of the many issues uh when it comes to the budgets
that are concerned uh we don't want to lose teachers we don't want to lose programs we uh try to do everything that we can to support them um just trying to get an understanding of what we can do thank you Darcy thank you very much for your comments and also for your uh
help out at the school that's a it's a big role as well being ahead of that at this time there there's no consideration to that at the moment as we've stated the past few years and this year as well we will continue to look and see what we can do to help out and assist we're in those discussions now we're going to keep moving forward so thank you for
your comments Mr yanella you make out storm made out well jcpnl restored the power in four and a half hours which is a win um I was going to start on the other topic but since you're there you Jay sorry jay enell 18
L would drive as if you don't know but Mr Mayor Foster you you teased about a meeting with jcpnl um Friday 930 Chief yeah I obviously I would hope you're going to cover the street light issue 100% yeah a
and not just get smoke back yeah I you're probably not going to be able to do it but I would love for you to walk in with a list of the God knows how many hundred lights we have actually probably four 500 or 600 lights that we have out um speaking of Lights I I mentioned if
you go on Route 34 and then mayor past mayor Prevo you mentioned 34 something about 34 today the zero 34 yeah I find that funny I also find it fanc ful that aine mwan has a pot dispensary opening up on 34 that's a
priority but the 50 to 60% of the street lights that are out on 30 most of their main street is dark because the street lights are all out I know that's not on our town but I find this all laughable we don't want any accidents on 34 we want a pot Dispensary on 34 but most of
the street lights out and no one gives a damn just for clarification again for the people watching at home the pot dispensary is not in home I know that and by the way I was going to say thank you again for not opening one in hell um just really quickly and people are going
to be laughing because this is an old refrain of mine but I came at a Fitness Factory yesterday and I was driving home on Middletown Road and I looked to the left and I said I must be imagining things and I slowed down and I probably shouldn't have but I counted there were 30 deer in the pasture today when I left
for this meeting there's two dead deer out in the outside of ladwood drive it's not getting any better I I know what your answer is going to be we can't do anything about it but at some point we're going to need to do something about it I'm just bringing that back to the surface and I agree with you it's
just our hands are tied so it's I I think by the way both of these things the the street lights and the deer I think are County issues and it's very disappointing that the county has not taken any of these things more seriously and if they're listening it's the fact
finally about the budget issue my wife is an employee of the school board so am admittedly employee of the school system I'm admittedly conflicted on this but I'm going to say one thing um I understand everyone has to have Financial discipline I understand
there's things in budgets you could point to and and not do I I've heard a witness firsthand some real rationalizing rationalizing going on within the school district on the simplest level it's a really bad look it's a bad look for this
Township committee it's a bad look for the mammoth Republican Party and I'm a republican I'm a part of it to say well you guys haven't managed your budget or well or whatever we you know I think I think less than 5% of the gross revenues that have come in from the
bellworks pilot to date have been shared with the school board maybe a lot less than 5% so it's not fair for the township the municipal tax rate for you guys politically to say we're keeping things flat we're disciplined we're
disciplined when you're being insulated from the dramatic increases in inflation for health care and everything else like that the school board is not being insulated for from this the busing we know has gone through the roof a lot of the other costs so again I'm glad you're
entertaining this I hope it could be a a really good Dynamic discussion going forward and this is one town it's a really bad look if you guys are going to line item nitpick every I think it should be a much more open
shared agreement with this now material stream of Revenue coming in that's my comment thank you Jay any other comments Connie come on up nobody's watching don't worry I'm Connie SWA I live at Lev Old
Farm Road um I'm off of rambling Brook I am actually going to speak on the deer that has been a problem problem um as well as you know the traffic on that road on Newman Springs it's it's pretty bad right now I work now I'm back to being a teacher um I will say that it's
really hard at certain times to make a left out of my street to go to to go to work to pick up my kids at school um I'm right down the road from Village School I love that you want to work with the board we have an amazing board we have an amazing town I moved here for the schools the schools have been absolutely
wonderful to me I have three children two in Indian Hill one in village and I I want you to consider really consider not losing courtesy busing I know you said that you know the board is in charge of that but what happens if they
take it away all together okay I get that they have that ability to do that but now what happens to Newman Springs and the buildup of all those cars I'm going to be sitting there for a very long time to get my kids home from school so I just want you to consider the traffic I know that the high school
has a lot of traffic going on right there so it's just another point but I know you'll do the best I know you will work with our board and we'll come up with a solution so thank you for all that you do and I appreciate you listening to me thanks thank you Connie
ma'am hi Tracy cardello 73 East Main Street I am actually directly across the street from ladwood and the reason I wanted to address the committee tonight is about the traffic on Newman Springs Road and
just the complete inability between 3 and six to make a turn out of my driveway at all let alone a left-hand turn um so I don't know if there's a traffic light being considered for Middletown Road but I wanted to add my
voice to the collection of other people who are speaking on it tonight thank you very much not that I'm aware of that would be a county thing uh we could take a look into that Chief if we can please Joe come on up hi everyone Joe Tria eight offer
place thanks for hearing me I'm not going to Echo any of the sentiments that have already been said we all care about our kids you guys care about the town you have to dou sh a responsibility we do as tax payers the board of that does for the school system um I guess my concern would be like you said the board
could make a decision to eliminate the buses a lot of parents depend on the buses growing up in more of an urban childhood in the city we could walk anywhere what would then the town do to help that out if the buses were to be eliminated it's not really like a Rumson or even a Fair Haven where you can ride
your bike to school not a lot of sidewalks not a lot of walking areas so can we even pose a question like that would that be on you at that point if the buses were to be eliminated as far as infrastructure and trying to facilitate things of that nature Mike do you want to speak to that uh state law
sure so I mean under state law you know the Board of Ed has the discretion on the courtesy busing if it provides the courtesy busing um it then triggers different obligations with respect to certain roads the way they're classified um if somehow it were eliminated which I think everyone here is having a
conversation to you know so I really don't think we should entertain that hypothetical at this point um but you know the town would work constructively to address whatever issues there are in terms of you know statute responsibility for the township if you ever having that conversation uh municipalities do have
responsibilities for crossing guards and the township actually is in the employment business for crossing guard there's one behind Indian Hill School so um the township does provide that service um so that could be a potential um Township aspect of the concern you're raising but right now we're not really
entertaining that because we're trying to uh you know address these things so that that conversation doesn't need to be had yeah not even to get that point uh the conversation that you're addressing right now whether whatever way it goes would that be instituted by the next school year can that's something I could be
answer right now would we know about the buses we're trying to move it forward as quickly as possible Joe I mean that's that's the reality of it we're going to hopefully send out some more information this week and just try to keep it moving forward that's that's where we're at at the moment all right thanks guys
Sir John P two Tilton place I have grandchildren in the school system um I just want to Echo some of the previous comments um you know we're all concerned about the courtesy busing right now from our neighborhood there's no way anybody could walk to school because of the lack of sidewalks as well as I'd like to Echo
the previous comment besides just a budget issue the fact now all parents are going to be drive or grandparents are going to be driving their kids to school is going to be the loss of the time so that's a budget issue on families it's an environmental issue and certainly although the Board of Education can make the ultimate decision
the more help financial help that the town gives the Board of Education the greater chance that the cury busing will stay so I appreciate you talking about it and letting me speak thank you thank you for coming up John anyone else comments come on up
Chris sorry yeah no this is good this is good this is healthy um Chris the Mari 7 Oaks I I I I just I just wanted to say that um uh I didn't get a chance to publicly applaud you guys I did at our Board of
Ed meeting but I really appreciate the initiatives that you took to file that Grant and get that 3.5 million doll Grant now that is a perfect example of the Board of Ed and the township committee collaborating and that's going to be a huge success for why are we
laughing no no finish I'll answer am I gon to be able to respond back to you though okay so but I'm saying like I never have viewed the the schools in the town as separate entities we are all one we're all taxpayers most
of our kids go to the school when we talk about the seniors most of their kids went to school they have grandkids in the schools they're very proud of the schools we're all very proud of our schools it's an incredible Network for our children to become a part of I know we've all um benefited from that and we'll continue to but I did want to get
up and say that that road project is going to be phenomenal for this Township and I really appreciate you moving that forward so thank you wait I'll wait for the J to respond no no no and and I'm I guess adding levity to tonight right but at the same
time I want to be serious and and as much as I appreciate you saying it's a great collaboration between the township and the school system which I guess it's one way to look at it and then another way to look at it is you know at what what is the school system financially
putting towards that you know on on a percentage basis where it looks like it will probably end up being funded you know 100% by the township no no plus the grant so the Grant's not coming out of our pocket right it's coming out of the state is that federal or state state
state so again it is a collaboration um but I think that's another just an example of where the township um supports the school system financially right and and and and
which is what we always want to do right and uh I agreed to that and I think that's that's well said and again I think that goes to saying that we kind of all operate as a partnership and that's just the way I look at it we can't file for that grant that was mammed County Roads and I appreciate
that you did it so it's great that they responded for us because that road needs to be modernized so I do appreciate it but I think it was great that the board of V initiated those conversations and told the story and we also spent a lot of money to get designs written up but we kind of got the fire started so you guys could have turned the other way but
you did you guys got it going and now everybody's going to enjoy those roads so I'm here to say I appreciate that thank you thank you Chris any other comments you coming I didn't see your hand up it was you
know everybody else's hands were up my man okay Lance L be Line Road um so first just to clarify so po choice of words earlier Dire Straits was not what what I meant so let me let me cl you know we're not we're not a a school district in our neighboring County to
the South so I yes I recognize that we're we're we're not in Dire Straits like some other towns are um but again you know not to rehash but I I hope that maybe in the future that the people that are sitting up on the Das there now and
Future Leaders up on the de there maybe there's some sort of hybrid alternative to these pilot programs that have become abundant in the over the past several years I mean they didn't ex exist decades ago I don't
believe um but maybe there's an opportunity for some sort of hybrid of that because it seems like that's the sticking point is that the school district is losing money because or losing opportunity for for revenue and I could be wrong so correct me where I'm where I am wrong I I just want to add
Lance the the pilot that's set up in town currently there's really minimal to no impact as far as on the schools now there's been mentioned in the past by some some other members about some other Pilots like Cranford and the one coming up in Red Bank they've included the Board of Education in there because
those were large housing developments that were going to I don't want to say negatively impact the schools but they were going to add large a lot of children to the schools so the the townships at that time said let's get them some money in addition to this so that they can ramp up their
infrastructure facilities in the case here the the services the Bell works and then the 55 and over Community don't impact the schools which is why it was written the way it was so we don't want to go back and be revision is what we want to do is look at it on an annual basis and say where can we help out and we've done
that we' we've clearly done that would you agree with that yeah but I'll push back a little bit because are are we saying that none of the over 55 communities that exist on Route 35 and and other places none of their taxes go to the schools there's no pilot there
I that's my point so there would be no Bell Works without a pilot program so that's where you have to start from those other developments were done those 5500 over communities were done as normal developments right that's the well that's why I'm saying that maybe there's some sort of hybrid alternative where both sides are satisfied the town is Satisfied by
getting its Revenue that it want I I'm listen I'm against the pilot program anyway and if we didn't have Bell works I you know I don't know whether that's good or bad I'm just saying I'm against it it it it would be it would be extremely bad if we didn't have Bell works as you've mentioned that not you so it seems like there would have been
some opport part of the development Lance like that wouldn't have happened all three of those sections are all part and parcel with the overall you know not just a pilot we don't know that we're suspecting that that would have been the case that's a supposition we know it okay okay and that's been legally represented you you know the lottery
numbers for next week so you know no in order in order to qualify for a pilot the the redeveloper needs to demonstrate a financial inability to complete the project but for the tax incentive so Somerset made that representation in the early 2010s um which allowed it to
qualify for the pilot so the legislature created that tool to allow municipalities to have redevelopers be financially incentivized to engage in a Redevelopment that they otherwise are not able to do I I okay I I can't imagine that all
of property and Home Dell something couldn't else couldn't have been done with it you're goingon to have a hard time selling that to me that in this populated town where people want to come because of the great school system that something else couldn't have
happened all right thank you Lance thank you Mr T Ken I'll get you next sorry Patrick trus 56 Line Road I wasn't going to speak but I felt obligated to
uh to rebut uh any semblance of um non-success of bellworks okay bellworks was it was Bell Labs who built hell and they closed in 2007 it was a dormant
building Ralph Zucker brought it back it was a pilot program it was a community community um Outreach to do that it is a wild success Beyond anybody's uh belief that it could be it is now um throwing
$7 million a year to hell as part of the pro the pilot um sure it should be shared but it should be shared in a responsible way as um as the every um uh committee has done so I I think I just
want to say that Bell Works uh was a success and continues to be a success and it's really what hell is all about thank you well I thank you and and I'm sure Ralph Zucker thanks you as well Pat for the comments Ken
Ron emmer is not here so I figure someone has to come up for him um K GHC Street um I just want to follow up a little bit on one of the gentlemen what he said about the P absolutely right that's unfortunately that doesn't solve today's problem the the issue with the
pilate is you know we can debate whether a tax incentive is needed to launch Bell Works Regency and other projects like that that's not the issue the issue is that if a tax incentive is needed whatever pilot payments are made should
be part of the normal taxable rable base where the school districts and other entities who are relying on that tax base can get their share so for example instead of being 95% of the township and 5% of the county that should be just
part of the general taxable uh rate base where they you know school gets to 68% Township gets their 7 18% and whatever so that's a bigger issue that's we need to go to the state legislature and do that because that doesn't affect just home affect other towns but um like many
of them you know we obviously many of us came to home because of the open Nature Bal nature but in particular because of the schools so you know I fully support some of the concerns and and making sure that the schools are taken care of um Mr
deari mentioned he graduate in 1996 um at his Peak and it gone downhill since he graduated is that his fault one thing he didn't mention was that in 1996 Homedale high school was ranked number one not only that we was spec
specifically mentioned by the governor in her State of the State address to New Jersey but equal as important was that the amount of expense the school spent was less than the New Jersey average
that is not the case today so I support them but I also want to mention that there is a red hearing so there's a couple of things one is when the school district budgeted for the student transportation last year there was a presentation
made part of the presentation and part of a submission to the New Jersey Department of Education is that you have to provide the numbers for the two prior years and the immediate prior year so two years before that we spent $5.3
million in student transportation the year before that was 5.1 million and we budget only four and a half so keep that in mind so at least the current year I know that there was a newsletter that was released that they need $600 to
$800,000 that was a budget problem now with expect going forward there's a little bit of a red hearing the schools as most of you know before 20 12 when Chris Christie signed to law our elections were held for the
school district that is was held in April and every year the budget for the school district had to be approved by the voters I know some of you are been around and remember that but when the election was moved to
November part of that include a 2% cap where they don't have to go to the voters however they always have that option remember wasn't that long ago we had the 2020 referendum for 40 million bucks so I just want to keep that in mind we support them we want school to
do well but I do think that in full disclosure there is a little bit of red hearing if they want to the school district can raise whatever amount that they deem they need and if that exceeds 2% increase over the prior year they
have that option to go to the voters and home residents are not stupid so we'll see what happens but I support uh kudos to you guys during prior years there's not always been discussion and support for the schools the fact that you guys are doing it and non insignificant
amount of money is kudos to you guys and working relationship with them keep up the good work thanks thank you for your comments Ken thank you for pointing out that it was this committee that started it as well Joe do you want to make another comment come on get up here off place I'm not even going to comment on pilot I
know know that money is completely discretionary the municipality can you do your name and address again please oh I did Joe tregle at offer place sorry um and so that's completely discretionary on you guys to use that for the schools I want to go back to Chris and Mr Lucarelli's comments before um I'm sorry
and Mr Lucarelli's comments before um about the Crawford Corner Road Project um I don't Applause applaud the fact that the school board and the township committee are working together on something I think that should go without saying I find no need to celebrate that um and I hope that that project is
nowhere in relatable to losing busing and possibly staff at the school so I if I took that the wrong way I apologize but that's how it came off to me so I just want to make that clear thanks guys thank you Joe any other
comments seeing none can we get a motion and before I actually entertain that motion thank you all for coming out I mean that sincerely uh we we believe in a partnership with the not not just the school board but with every facet of this town and when we look at everything that we need to do we have to take
everything into consideration so we will continue to do that we thank you for your support Ken do you want to come back up fig so many gentlemen we have more than one shot at the uh at the by of the Apple here um one very quick thing um in case the board members from the school
district here I'm not aware I'm sure they are but just in case uh there is a car valve for the 2% cap for School District budget and one of them is the uh employee benefits and so on so you can carve that out that is not subject
to the 2% they probably know that but just in case I want to mention that thank you thank you Ken so can I make a comment mayor absolutely thank you so I thought I heard you say and Chris did you say that there was there a meeting regarding a referendum is that what you just
said I was joking that uh Ken wants to get a referendum going for the schools it sounds like that's I was just I honestly thought you were serious just then we're not ready for that we're trying to Avid that okay well you could have a special referend but right now the I think the the Gap is not big enough to go out but okay I I heard you
and I thought you were serious and I blame kin Mr G okay all right thank you Chris for the clarification how about a motion motion second second all in favor have a great evening everybody