Guess we should have opened up the uh back door, huh? the wall. >> I'm sorry. >> We're streaming right now. Yep. Who's actually doing the presentation? Who is it? Mary Rosey.
>> Betsy. >> Okay. >> Are we How are we doing? We ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Good evening everyone. I hereby announce 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 bulletin board in township hall and filed in the township clerk's office on January 6th 2026. Mayor and Prevadutoo >> here. >> Mr. Foster >> here. >> Mr. Bontempo
>> here. >> Mr. Romano >> here. >> Mr. Vanderham >> here. >> Mayor, you have a quorum. >> Thank you Wendy. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Moment of silence, please, for our men and women in uniform that keep us safe at home and abroad. >> Thank you. Should we do the the minutes first?
>> Yeah. First on the agenda is the approval of the minutes for the March 10th public session and the March 13th executive and public sessions. The minutes were previously sent to the uh township committee for review.
>> Can I get a motion? Motion >> second. >> Mr. Bontempo, >> yes. >> Mr. Foster, yes. >> Mr. Romano, >> yes. >> Mr. Vanderham, >> yes. >> Mayor Prevadutoo, >> yes. >> Both minutes have been successfully passed. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Wendy. Uh we're
going to start off with a presentation from the Homeell Green team. Those folks want to come on up. >> You're welcome. >> Bill, can you give them the microphone? >> I got it. Mary Rose, you have to point it over here.
>> Oh, good to know. Thank you. >> Where? >> You have to point it over here >> to the computer. I think >> it should work from there. If not, it's working. >> Yeah, that's what I thought. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, yeah.
>> Okay, you're up. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for making time for us on the agenda and making room for our posters. Um, I'm Betsy Shelton and this is Mary Rose Little and together Is it working?
>> Red dot. >> Okay. >> We are both the co-chairs of the Homeell green team. The green team is an advisory advisory committee to the township committee and to the Homedale residents. We research and promote sustainability issues and activities to
strengthen our activity or strengthen our community, save money, and protect the environment and the air that we breathe. Tonight, we're here to introduce a draft of um Homeell's emer community energy plan or
C is how I'll refer to it. A C helps a community identify opportunities to reduce energy use and emissions and to increase renewable energy usage. Homedale CP is supported by a grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
Clean Energy Program. The township committee approved the grant application two years ago by resolution and therefore confid committed Homeell to creating this plan for our grant requirements. The final C report is due
to the New Jersey BPU by 7:31 after being accepted by township uh resolution. Once the plan is accepted by the town, we are eligible to apply for a C implementation grant of up to $250,000.
Then we can implement the C over the next three to five years. I'd like to briefly explain uh the process used to choose these energy initiatives specific for Homeell. After we were awarded the planning grant, the green team assembled
a team which selected energy initiatives based solely on the needs of Homeell. The team includes township officials, municipal staff, environmental commission and green team members, school staff, interested residents, and local businesses. The slide shows we're
up to four. Oh, okay. There we go. So, this slide shows the initial It is small, but we'll get through it. It shows the initial list of 42 suggested energy initiatives based on
New Jersey's uh energy master plan. These were called to 16 that the team thought would benefit Homeell the most. Homedale's draft initiatives are there in blue on that slide. Looks kind of purple there. Yeah.
Um the the green team researched those 16 initiatives drafted this report and held stakeholder meetings to gather input from the general public. Go to the next slide. Our posters have the our Whoops, here we
go. Uh so we held uh stakeholder meetings to gather input from the general public. Our posters have the results of voting done at Earth Day on Sunday. The response was fantastic and all the green dots which you at home
can't see but on our two posters here the green dots represent the highest priority that people thought initiative should take in our plan. So I think it makes it clear that these uh energy initiatives are important to our residents by the amount of green
dots on our uh posters. Uh we will also do a survey of potential lo we also did a survey of potential locations for public EV charging stations in Homeell and those results are posted over there as well. Number six, in selecting initiatives, we
considered data about causes of emissions in Homedale specifically and in New Jersey overall. The most recent data of available from 2022 shows that transportation and commercial and residential buildings contribute most to greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey.
And that combines to 64% per this slide. Most of Homeell's initiatives relate to these two areas. As you can see on the posters and the handout which we gave to uh people up here front on the deis and was um near the agenda.
Uh the areas of Homedale's initiatives are transportation, clean energy, reduce energy use, make buildings greener, and energy efficiency outreach for low and moderate income residents.
There we go. The benefits uh of Homedale's community energy plan are as follows. One, a consolidated list of the township's energy accomplishments to date based on the green team's research are included in uh the report. A clear
agreed upon set of energy initiatives to implement over the next three to five years. Number three, reduced energy costs for the township, businesses, and residences residents. Four, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and pollution locally. Five, increased energy safety, resilience, and reliability. And last, enable the township to apply for energy grants and incentives. So, the green team has a few requests of the township committee tonight. Number
one, please review the draft C report using the links emailed to you last week to ensure that you're reviewing the latest report. Uh, please send to the green team questions, comments, concerns by next Tuesday, May 5th, to green
team@homedell.gov. That address was not in the email. So, if that could just get make sure you guys get that. You could also probably directly respond to the email as well. Um,
and our last so after we receive your feedback, the team will get to work on finalizing the plan. Thirdly, per the grant rules, the township committee has to accept the final C report by resolution prior to 7:3126.
So, we will have that final report to you in June for your review and get approval by the July 21st meeting. So lastly, the green team would sincerely like to thank the committee for creating a community energy plan for Homeell and
providing the township staff support for the duration of this work. They are awesome and so very helpful. Uh if there's time, we will gladly take your questions and comments now. So we have some of our green team members here to help. Um or we can chat later. uh or we
can meet separately if there's some issues that you'd like to uh uh discuss in uh more detail. So again, thank you for your time. I I do have one question um to what we spoke about before we started the meeting. I'm not sure everyone's informed about it. So if you wouldn't
mind speaking a bit about community solar and the opportunities there for residents, I think that'd be great. >> Yeah. Do you want to answer that? >> Sure. >> So, community solar is a program that's overseen by the board of public utilities. So, it's a regulated program.
Um, it's an opportunity for people who do not have the inclination or um opportunity to install their own solar panels to benefit financially from solar energy, which is generally less expensive. So the way it works is the
board of public utilities authorizes that community solar projects be built and there usually the solar panels are are installed on tops of large buildings, warehouses, whatever. Um
so they have these solar farms basically sitting on top of large buildings but these solar farms need customers and that's where we come in. So the way the program is designed, 51% of the clientele must be low to moderate
income. The other 49% can be the general population. It's not low to moderate income, but they need customers to stay in business. So the benefit of becoming a community solar customer is that you get a discount of about 20% on your
electric bill every month. It varies depending on how much uh electricity was produced that much. you get a slice of the pie of the farm essentially and you see the credit on your uh JCPNL bill. So, it's a pretty uh painless way to
save money on your electric bill and it encourages the installation of more clean energy in New Jersey. So, local clean energy, it's not we don't have to buy it from another state. It's going to be less expensive in the long run. So, it's a way for New Jersey to build its
um to increase its percentage of locally um generated renewable energy. >> Thank you. And and do you know offhand how someone if a resident was interested how they could reach out or and >> Sure. Um if you you can Google um
community solar um what do they call it? Portal I think it's called the portal. Um it's um a website that's m maintained by our friends at sustainable Jersey. Um but we also have a link to it on our green team web page. So if you go to the
green team web page and you look at the links down the bottom and look under I think it's energy um there should be links to community solar and Chris is looking it up right now. So what did I call what did I call it Chris?
>> Oh it's there. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um and several of us on the green team have signed up. We've been community solar customers for two years now and it's working pretty flawlessly. It was a pilot program. Um this is it was made a permanent program last year and they
worked out a lot of the kinks. So, um it's it's a pretty that someone said to me it's a no-brainer. I said your words, but I agree. >> Mary Rose, where's the farm that you're a part of? Um, it's on a rooftop in Hlett somewhere. I've never on a extra
storage facility in Hlett. It's a tiny one. Some of the ones like the ones in Neptune are gigantic. They're on top of these big warehouses, but that's a small one. Um, it was really convoluted when it was a pilot program. Uh, you had to be within a certain geographical area closest to the But then they realized
that doesn't make any sense because the electricity is all going into the grid. So, as long as you sign up for a um a project that serves your zip code, and there's about a dozen that serve home zip code right now. Um so, is it on is
there a link to it? >> Wish we knew who ran this place. >> Yes, it is there. It is on our or they can send an email to um green team@homedo.gov and we'll help them navigate the application process. We'd be happy to do that. >> Excellent. Thank you.
>> So, as a next step to that, one of our initiatives is to install municipal on-site municipal buildings, uh, solar or other renewable energy. Um, so there are other ways that and and that is something we want to look into. I know
we've talked to Chris about it. you know, get somebody in, do an energy audit, see what where we can put solar um arrays, whether it's on this building or one of the parks buildings. We, you know, um and then get the the town would
get the advantage of that reduced energy price because it's solar versus the residents, which is the community solar. >> I I I love that idea. It's It's been a I think I was saying to you earlier, it's been a be in my bonnet for a little while now. So, um I'm glad you guys are
talking about it. >> Y >> perfect. >> Any other questions from the Dis? >> All right. Thank you very much. That was great. >> Good job. Okay, we are moving on to a presentation around uh Robert Wilson Park from TNM
Associates. They're going to talk a little bit about some of the work that's been done, you know, some of the exploratory work and then uh what's coming in terms of next steps. Good evening, Mayor. Is that better? Okay. Good evening. I'm Fran Mullen, the township engineer. I've
been asked to uh come and give a very brief uh presentation and an update on the progress we're making with the plans of improvements at the Robert Wilson Park
uh Crawford Hill. And um I can tell you that we have been uh the last uh few months has been focused on uh doing an inventory uh reviewing the basic contents of some of the buildings uh
taking a look at the uh underground utility arrangements and preparing for those elements. Uh as we put uh the proposed improvements out to public bid. Um, we expect to uh finish the plans in
the next several days actually and and and advertise for bids uh with the uh intention to award a contract at the May 26 township committee meeting. If the bids come in the way we expect them to,
uh that's our hope and then construction will uh follow after that. Uh the scope of the work at this uh point in the process includes the removal, demolition and removal entirely of uh up to 19
existing buildings and other assets, antennas and uh other elements that are uh up on the on the hill. Uh and then there's going to be uh those buildings demolished, their foundations will be
removed. The utility services that uh are supporting some of those buildings will be cut and capped and uh there will be um that demolition will be the first phase of the work. Of course, uh we will
also have the uh preservation uh temporary protection of the uh five or six buildings that are going to remain. Uh that's actually buildings one through four on this uh schematic
plan that you see here. The buildings uh colored or shaded green are all scheduled to remain. And of course uh the horn antenna uh is to remain as the uh centerpiece and protected during the time of the
contract. Uh we will have some uh site improvements that include uh the required uh handicap accessible parking spaces. uh some fencing to um ensure that the folks that visit
the site um travel only where uh they're expected and intended to. And we we're going to run a a fence along the ridge line to to uh ensure everybody's safety. And we are going to uh restore actually
remove some pavement in this upper quadrant here after those buildings are removed and we will replace the pavement with uh gravel for uh parking of vehicles and we will also include the restoration
or rehab of the uh two volleyball courts. So, uh, we, um, we're hoping that the bids come in in line with the budgeting and the estimates that we've been putting together. Uh we do uh we have
been working very closely with the project architect Anthony Ivino and uh we are of course uh going to uh obtain the soil erosion permit that's required and do things um as required by
Shipo that has provided some grant money and I can uh answer any questions that you may have or anyone on the deis Well, I think Fran, so the the point is right now is to try to get this thing sort of up and running so people can go
visit and and get and on their own time and not have it locked down. Is that that's our first sort of phase for this, right? >> That is correct. To make it the destination that folks are interested in. Uh it'll be available uh as soon as we can move them through the
construction. And um we're thinking that the construction will there'll be probably the first four weeks, five weeks will be some uh testing of the interior of the buildings by the contractor to determine how he can de you know demolish and remove and dispose
of all the construction debris. Uh so there'll be some lull at the very beginning for you know several weeks. Then once the demolition starts that really should go fairly quick. uh the removal of the septic system, cut the
utilities, it's all pretty uh expeditious, but that might take a month or two. And then the site improvements, the fencing and things, that shouldn't take uh very long at all. So, we're hoping that we get the uh the the late summer, early fall season, uh where
everything is finished and available for visitors. >> No, that would be great. That would be great. I mean, I think it's, you know, we've been waiting for a while on And I know you guys have done some work to get it going there. And then, you know, just just for the public's benefit, you know, the work France's talking about gets it usable, gets it to start being an active
park. And then we'll talk, you know, about further designs as time goes on about what we can do to invest in it and really plus it up and and make it a real destination. So, thank you for that. >> No, you're welcome. So, I don't know if you want to open it to questions. >> Yeah, I think we got a few out there.
>> Okay. in the back. >> Yeah. And just really quick, Jay, this is for everybody with any public comment. We're going to let you guys do your thing up to three minutes and then have a seat and then we'll allow for the response. >> Oh, so just present. That's it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. Fran, um, this is a quickie, believe it or not. Um, I'm always amazed at projects, whether it's I see homeowners projects or other commercial projects where there's an amazing plan, architecture job, great landscaping, and then people throw up a crappy looking chain link fence. So, do you know is it
going to be a chain link fence? Would it would it be, you know, broken up with some landscaping or something? I'm just uh concerned. We have this beautiful spot and we have a crappy looking fence which ruins the whole thing. >> That's that's my only question. I can I
can address that. We understand the concern. Uh the plan will include uh around the horn antenna. There will be a what we call a decorative fence. It'll be aluminum tube fence. Uh it'll be um
nicer than a chain link fence for sure. It'll have a gate. It'll have a locking mechanism. And that's really uh envisioned to go on both sides of the horn antenna and across the front of the property just so there is a sense of
entry and direction uh for visitors to go through that gate if they're interested in getting uh closer to the horn antenna. There is how there is also as a a lower uh tier sight fence that we
want to run. Um, just to be cautious along the ridge there, there's a bit of a drop in the topo. After you get past the the horn antenna right at the back of that site, there's a pretty dramatic drop in in the uh the topography in the
woods. So, there will be a six-foot chainlink fence. I think it's going to be black vinyl clad. It'll blend in with the, you know, the trees. It will be out of pretty much out of, you know, people's view, but it's just a security fence so people don't wander down into
that area. But we but we have that other fence that will look nicer around the facility itself. >> Understood. Yes, sir. >> Thank you, Fran. Uh Ralph Blumenthal, 41 Stony Brook Road. Two comments. First of
all, I want to thank you for the presentation. Uh planning for this has been a long time coming. I'm happy to see plans moving forward. It's a little bit hard to read this all just off hand. What I
strongly recommend is this be posted on the township website. And this may not be quite consistent with your time frame, but there should be a comment period. give people a two three weeks or something to comment before you start locking up the plan.
The other thing comment I have is there's one thing that is without looking closer I can't tell but I suspect there's something missing from the plan and this goes back in my case four or five years ago when I first heard from
Bob that the property was now owned in private hands and they were looking to develop it. And I said, "Oh my gosh." The more I thought about it and I put on my hat, having been worked with open space property list back since 1998 when
the environmental commission put together the first open space list. And one of the conclusions became, how do you prioritize these things? You have to have a reason for wanting to preserve a property. And the more I thought about this
property, there were two reasons for to preserving it. One is the horn antenna and its the implications for the world of what had done and that's being addressed. The other thing is Crawford Hill is
known as the high point of Mammoth County. There are people who are highpointers. There's a national highpointer club, highpointer foundation which supports that. We've been members of it for 20 years. And to me that was a another
reason for preserving Crawford Hill independent of the horn antenna and all the Bell Labs work that went on. One difficulty is it's not certain where the high point is.
Crawford Hill in the 50s was higher than it is now. When the labs took it over, that flat part on top was created. So, I've been up there a couple of times and you just look around. What's the
high point? I think it's in the woods here shortly where the road goes back down. But that's not a professional assessment. I think what needs to be
done and it should be done before one starts digging and moving dirt because you might knock the high point off that you get a surveyor out and just do a look around. is the high point here.
It's a different step to determine what its altitude actually is. That's more complicated. I'm not going to get into that. At least you know where it is. But as part of the plan, once it's identified where it is, there should be
a monument there. Simple concrete survey monument and eventually as part of the plan, maybe a kiosk with some in labeling. and I talking about it but a bench or something but that doesn't h it doesn't have to be buildings doesn't
have to be anything complex but I think identifying where it is what you want to preserve should be the very first step and before you do any earth moving >> thank you I I like that idea um Chris we can can we get these up on
the website so people can see at their own time on their own time >> yeah absolutely I believe I have these slides you sent them to me ready. I'll have uh Brian Ali put them up. Um he's coming. I think he'll be here in a while. So, I'm going to have him put them up. >> Great. Thank you.
Um Karen, Karen Strickland, 26 Hayward Hills Drive. Um, I was wondering if there was going to be bathrooms up there and like um like a museum type of thing or like a welcome center. Are there plans for that kind of thing?
>> That's so just for phase one, not yet. We still we want to get into sort of thoughts on designs and those types of things as this progresses. The first thing we wanted to do is just get it open for people and then we'll get into sort of we want to understand a couple of things, right? What do we want? What
do the residents want? What do we think's appropriate? And then what's the cost and then what's it going to take to get there? So, uh I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Uh will there be like a committee of residents that will participate in like visioning this this thing? >> I've been thinking about two things. I I
think actually what I think would be interesting and this is just my own personal opinion and people are welcome to shoot it down. I think um it's probably helpful to start with an architect that does design for a living and have a committee look at that
and then put it out to everybody to take a look at, you know, with options. I think that's one. I think two, I think what could be really interesting, and I've I've um this came up in one of the mayor's office hours, would be an ad hoc committee to see if we can get sponsorships or donations from large
technology companies that might be interested in investing in in uh Robert Wilson Park given its historical significance. Um and so I think that can that again just just an idea and it came up during one of the office hour meetings. So that's how I kind of see that playing out if that makes sense.
>> I'm sorry. And then that fence, it's not going to be so high that short people can't see over it. will be restored. So we are just uh clarifying that the fence around the horn antenna will be 4 feet high in
height and it won't be a solid fence. It will be an aluminum uh pipe type of uh picket fence that you would see on a residential scale. Okay.
Any other questions for Fran? Mr. Tuskea. I know you have no interest in what we just what we're going through. >> Patrick Troska 56 line road. Very interesting plan. Excellent. Um I'm glad to see it's proceeding uh very quickly.
Um I do have a a question that uh of course the horn antenna and building three was designated a national historic monument uh and site in 1989 by the um US National Park Service. Uh, looking at
the plan, I think it's an excellent plan, but I'm really confused and taken back why three non-historic buildings, building one, building two, and building four are being kept. They're in lousy
shape. They're not historic. And um I don't see any value. And to me, they actually take away from the National Historic Monument. Uh these three other I'm talking about this building, this building, and this building. They're
really not historic. They're um they in 1989 when the National Parks designated the site, they designated this as the National Historic Area, nothing else. And it's really the horn antenna is
there and the discovery uh was made there. And that is the site we're commemorating. So, >> thank you. I lost the argument with the architects um as part of it but um no there's a
there's a project architect who is uh very established and well known and there's a specialty architect as part of the design team that uh analyzed the buildings one at a time uh tried to look at the broader context I'm not lobbying
that they're historic uh specifically um but there there was a determination that they were part of the uh the history uh they were scheduled to remain but uh they're the type of buildings that if
decisions get made or we go in a different direction uh as the park evolves and develops over time uh these are simple matters to uh you know remove and uh eliminate uh any step of the way
uh in the future. You know, it's not a all or nothing. Once they're they they're decided that they stay this at this time. Uh it doesn't mean that they have to stay uh going forward. So, I offer that
man of the hour. >> The only thing I'll say about the other buildings is that they were part of the echo project. which was the world's first communication satellite. And in that sense, they have some historic value.
Maybe not as much, but they were all put up there for echo. >> Okay. >> I have one brief question. I think an engineer was looking at the horn reflector and asking what needs to be done.
Are there any plans for restoring or cleaning up the rust or anything like that or is that left for the future? That type of work and uh improvement is uh definitely a high priority definitely in the uh vision for the overall park
and the horn antenna for sure. Um, this is simply as as indicated, this is the very first step of a series of steps that will no doubt occur. This is really just to kind of set the stage, eliminate the things that uh need to be removed,
do uh a little bit of site work so that folks can get out there and visit uh this uh be this will become a destination and folks can visit later this summer and fall. Uh but this will be an ongoing process. So I I'm sure
that restoration work uh will be in the in the program, you know, in in future phases. >> Oh, I see one more hand in the back. I thought you were off the hook, Fran. Mr. Gengh Street. Um, I just want to follow and
and echo Dr. Wilson's point. The Echo project was very significant in the sense that that was the first time they actually bounced a a radio signal from California through a think of a gigantic pottery balloon that you guys see all the time, but that was in um the middle.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that. And then that was relayed all the way to Homedale here. So, that was quite an accomplishment. Um my my question really is that um could you share what the thinking or the rationale for a chain link uh for whatever fence it is
around the horn and tenner because when that was designated as a national historic landmark I believe it wasn't just the structure of the horn and tenner but there was a certain radius and whatever around that in addition to the building that Patrick mentioned. So, it seems to me that for something like
that, um, and it's just a personal opinion, one person's opinion, but having a fence around that, um, kind of destroys a little bit of the the view or the the ambiance or whatever you want when you're up in the park and, you know, you could be 100 feet away looking at that structure. I wonder if you could
share that. First, let me I I just want to clarify and uh I probably was not very clear before. The chainlink fence that I mentioned is going to be uh basically run in the
woods along the tree trunks that's well under the canopy of the trees basically along the ridge before the topography falls off dramatically. So that's going to be set as a backdrop, you know, in
the woods in the tree line. The fence around the horn will basically start in the back corners connected to the chainlink fence, but the rest of the fence that comes up and envelops the
front of the horn site itself uh in the across the front and both sides going back to the rear corners of the space will be a uh much more residential looking aluminum tube or pipe uh type picket
fence of a residential uh appearance uh 4T high just enough to uh we think it's appropriately scaled. It'll you know you'll see through these pickets. Um it's it's not a chainlink fence
that's going to be uh out in front alongside the building when you're looking at it. It's the only chain link fence would be in the backdrop. Um and again as the site engineers, the site designers, uh we we
have deferred to the arch, the project architect and the specialty architect who is versed in all of the shipo requirements and the uh aesthetics and the uh lines of sight and the you know the the atmosphere they're trying to
create at this special location. Um so we we did defer to them quite a bit. Um, and that's how we ended up with the uh the fence elements that we have. >> Miss Blumenthal. >> Hi, Jenny Blumenthal. 41 Stony Brook
Road. I I understand the fence going down in the woods because there's a pretty street uh steep drop off there and you don't want small people falling overboard and ending up in in the woods. But what's the purpose of that fence? Is it to keep people out, to keep the deer
out, to keep people from uh poking on the antenna itself or who are you trying to keep out or you? Well, I I just I think there's I mean from my vantage point, you know, having been there and you know, before without supervision, it's a pretty dangerous structure. So, I
think that the point of the fence is just for that reason. Um to ensure that people get causing trouble. >> Yes. That would be my assumption, Fran. I I don't know if you agree or not, but it's a pretty dangerous structure if you don't know what you're doing. >> How far back will the fence actually be?
You know, you're poking on the map, but I don't have any idea particularly of scale. Um, you know, is it going to be 25, 40 feet back from the road or the edges left and right, east and west? driving into it. >> What's shippo?
spaceond. So that foot Ah so so it is it is surrounded on four sides of >> fancier. >> Okay. But the deer can't come in and
chew on the horn antenna. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Franco and then Mr. Blumenthal. >> I can't get this. >> Uh, Peter Franco, five Hopper Lane. Um, that property from the Horn, was that
once the same property as an Nokia building? Was it subdivided? >> I I don't What's the >> So, to gain access to this park, you would come through the front or the back side of that building. >> It's already been planned out. Yeah. >> Okay. Because according to the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 791 Homeell Road is on the list of known contaminated sites. Uh site ID 4611, PI number 008313, uh remediation level category 2. Um were
any soil samples taken? Uh were you guys planning on doing any of the work over there? Is it safe for people to be walking through there? >> Yes, the investigation That that one works. >> This one works. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Actually, Peter, is that your only
question? Because it's you got to read them and then have a seat and then Fran will answer. >> Uh those are my only questions and you know and if it is contaminated is there any remediation plan uh you know did we factor in for this and you know and that's about it.
>> So the um properties have been uh subdivided I believe and the lower uh property uh is a separate lot with the existing laboratory buildings uh still
there. And there was uh research done and some uh inventory by other environmental experts and scientists for all of these lots. The other two lots are what is now the park
property. The contamination, as far as I know, was all uh identified in the lower lot that is still in private hands and was subdivided off from the park property. >> Okay. >> Yes. So, there's no issues,
>> Mr. Blumenthal. Not another issue, but I just want to come back to the same question, the same one of the high point. Since your schedule is pretty quick, what can be done about identifying where the high point is so that it is not disturbed?
>> Raf, we'll get back to you on it. We'll we'll >> I didn't hear an answer. >> Yeah, we'll we'll get back to you on it. It wasn't part of the consideration set. Yes, ma'am. name, >> address, etc. >> Hi, uh my name is Sarah Cho, uh for
Putnham Court. Um I'm very new to kind of understanding what's going on with the historic um Horn Antana. So, I wanted to ask for your confirmation if um this is indeed the same TN TNM
Associates um that has um a former associate Mark Nisser who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. >> That's not an appropriate question for this discussion. You can ask it in public comment. >> Okay, I'll ask later. Thank you. I just
wanted to know if that was it. Yes, ma'am. >> Victoria Scott Olivino, eight hidden hollow. >> I feel like you might have turned it off. >> I turned it off. Is it on? Okay. Um, the cost. I haven't been here for a number of weeks to these meetings. Is there
anything about cost and how much all of this will cost? Um, and I'm raising that specifically because we tend to start projects without a full plan and then we end up needing more money, leaning on the residents, finding issues in the
water and other contaminants. So I would like to know what the overall plan is, the timeline, the cost, and to Blumenthal's point, seeing a plan before everything gets started so we have a voice. Thank you.
>> So Chris, do you want to talk about the grants that we just went for? So yes, we uh last meeting you guys approved us to uh put in for an imple implementation grant that will cover uh a good portion of the cost for this. We also have money left over from the
original uh purchase when the county I guess when the county assisted in buying this uh there was $700,000 put aside. I believe that we have a high-end cost of of this phase to be over just over a million dollars. Um so we have leftover money there. We have money coming in
from a grant and we have open space money since it's a park. So therefore, it falls under open space. Um but because of the way um this kind of work is done, we're not going to have exact costs until we get bids. Um if bids come in and they're not not where we need them to be, we may need to make
adjustments and rebid it. Um >> on that note, I'm going to say we obviously have an internal engineers estimate, but we're not going to disclose that because that would help the biders out. Exactly. It's important for us to have that because, you know, if it comes in well in excess of that, that's a legal right to reject bids. But, um, those are all certainly the
funding sources. And just to clarify it, I believe the $700,000 you were referencing was when the township acquired the property, um it was worked out with uh the property owner that uh $750,000 would be contributed into an account that would be used towards upgrades to the property because that
was part of the mutual benefit because they continued to serve as redeveloper of lot 7. So that helps ensure that the park came along which was a material interest of theirs and obviously a benefit to the township with the funding.
There you go. All right, with that TNM, Fran, Bob, thank you. Yeah, we're going to do it here. All right. So, give me a moment here because we're going to try to record this. This way, it can go up on the website as well tomorrow.
Just want to make sure I'm doing this right. There we go. Hey Bri, if this is blinking, is that right or does it have to be pure like green the whole time? >> Do you want this? >> Uh, sure. Yeah, that'd be great.
>> Make sure I know how to use it. All right, >> Brian, let me know when we're ready. All right, thank you. So, folks, we uh we got good feedback two years ago when we did we called our state of home
address or presentation or whatever whatever you want to refer to it as. Um the purpose of this is to is to provide transparency and context. I mean, that that's really it. Anybody that's looked at a municipal budget or wonders what we consider or how we consider it when we're making decisions and the things
that go into that, you know, that's what we try to sort of clarify and and uh and exhibit here. Uh in addition to whatever trends uh we can identify as well to show progression, you know, over a number of years instead of looking at
things in isolation. So um so went well uh two years ago, we're going to try it again. So, for those of you that are not familiar, we are your governing body. Uh, I'm Mayor Prevadutoo, Deputy Mayor Foster, Committeeman Romano,
Committeeman Vanderham, and Committeeman Bontempo. Before we get rolling though, I do want to thank a few people. Um, so one, I do want to thank Eric Silvergold for the work he's done providing invaluable context um, and information and analysis
on the financial trends of the town. Uh, as well as comparables to others. Um, and I really do want to thank everyone in town hall and the hard work they put in. Bill Antonities, our our CFO, Barbara Kovaleeski, Chris Trebini, Steve Wyinners, Bob Ward, Brian Ali, Brian
Nagel, Chief Aerson, excuse me, Chief Fernando, and uh Chief Troska, even though he's not in town hall, but uh everybody was able to, you know, contribute a little bit to this and and help us out as we pull this together. Um I also overall want to just acknowledge the finance committee. You know, we're
introducing the budget tonight. There's going to be a month where everyone can sort of evaluate and analyze it, but that's also where our finance committee comes in. These are folks with backgrounds in finance and trading and mathematics and economics. Uh there's a small business owner in there as well, so he's very particular about uh the
puts and takes of a budget. Um so you know we do have really great uh citizen representation when looking at our bud our budget process overall and we have really good and interesting analysis in terms of you know again how things are are uh progressing as we go forward. So
big thank you to all those folks and and truly appreciate it. So this is our town at a glance. We have over 17,400 residents. We're on about 18 square miles about 125 road miles. more
than 6,500 homes. And as Mr. Blumenthal said earlier, uh although our friends in Atlantic Highlands like to disagree with me, we are the highest point in Mammoth County. We have incredible landmarks that make our home a place that uniquely marries world-defining events and American
history with modern entertainment experiences. Um, Bell Works on its own is a truly innovative um, experience for anybody that's been in there and and uh, and used it and you know gone through and seen how it honors our history of innovation but also uh, allows for
different types of activities and use. And then of course we have the home to horn antenna which was a world-defining uh, invention you know providing evidence that the big bang theory was the start of the universe. Um, and then we anchor to our history with Long Street Farm. Uh, we honor American
history with further with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and then of course the Art Center in Homeell Park. So, we are a town people don't always realize it of really incredible landmarks that we should be very proud of. In addition to that, we have amazing parks um that decorate our landscape and
they're they're a reminder of our ongoing commitment to recreation and open space. Um, you might recognize the names of Laco and Aerson um on those parks. We also have Bayonet Farm Park where we had Earth Day there uh just this past weekend, Veterans Park, Phillips Park, uh Alex's Paw Park, which
honestly whether you have a dog or not is absolutely fabulous and the family there has done such a wonderful job. And then Labby and Cross Farm as well. And then of course coming soon for access, uh Robert Wilson Park, the site of Crawford Hill.
So, some of the information you're going to see today is repetitive from a couple years ago because not much in terms of our perspective has changed. Some things will be different and some things will be focused on differently. You know, we look at the town in terms of what we we view as our cultural pillars, public
safety, open space, recreation, fiscal responsibility, innovation, and education. You know, our job is to best serve the interests of Homeell and our residents by embracing and enhancing the characteristics that have made our town one of the best places to live in New Jersey while maintaining fiscal
conservatism within our governance process so we can ensure the financial health and well-being of our town. I want to dig into our demographics a bit here. Um, it's it's an interesting thing as we started looking at it more and more from the finance committee
perspective. You know, the town has changed over the past 15 to 25 years, if not more. So, number one, home delar surpasses, as you may expect, Mammoth County, New Jersey in the United States in home value, median income, and mean income.
But going from the top down, um, our median age is about 49 years old. So, we're older than Mammoth County, New Jersey, in the US. Folks that are 65 and older comprise 23% of the town. You know, we're older than most.
We have about, as I mentioned, 6,500 housing units. There are about 2.7 people per household. Less than 31 of our 31% of our households have kids, which is an interesting change. And we'll talk more about that as we go. The typical home
value sits, you know, nearly $1.1 million. Um, and we are a well- educated town and we are proud of that with 67% with a bachelor's degree or higher and a median income and a mean income that is again higher than Mammoth County almost
double that of New Jersey uh and far surpassing the US. And against Mammoth County and New Jersey, our population per square mile is is far lower. We're a less dense uh municipality than many others. So the population growth is slowing
after a period of significant development in the 90s. So if you look at the period from 90 to 95 the population grew about 20% from 95 to 2000 it was 14% and from there we started leveling off and you'll see 4% 2% and really over the past five years
now we we've flattened out to about to to less than half of a percent in population growth. Um so we're sitting in that 17,400 range overall. Um our efforts to procure open space and mitigate the impact of Trenton mandated housing um will help keep that
stabilized. You know, as as we'll talk about later on, we do place a priority on finding ways to procure open space and prevent development. So, speaking about our uh our population and our aging, you know, we not we're not only just we're not just a bit
older, we're aging faster than Mammoth County, New Jersey, and the United States. So, it's a it's an interesting dynamic about and you'll see this later. Wasn't too long ago we were nearly 50/50 with homes that were that had kids in
them and homes that didn't. Um, that's changing. It's also a sign from my vantage point that Homedale does a great place to live and people don't want to go and we certainly appreciate that. >> Oh, something didn't pop up here. Wend.
>> Huh? >> Yeah. All right. >> Yeah, that's okay. But this is it's okay. We'll we'll I'll speak to it. So the the circle that's half blank um that uh what that's indicative of is the 46.5% in 2010 were homes with kids in
them. 53.5% had were homes that did not have kids in them. Back in 2000, that number was almost 50/50. Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's 61 or 31% against uh 69%. So, almost 70%
of the homes in town do not have kids in them anymore. So, the demographic of the age demographic of our town has changed dramatically over the past, not just 25 years, really over the past 10 to 15. So when you look at the trends that that
come of that um we know Mammoth County's birth rate has declined by approximately 20% since 1999 which is not dissimilar to national trends. Um and in line with those macronamics and our aging population enrollment in homeale schools has declined by 21%.
So, you know, back in 2003, if I recall correctly, we peaked at close to 3600 and we're now sitting and so the the left axis is the orange line. That's our school enrollment. We're now uh down around 2,800. And then the right axis is
the is the birth rate and how that's changed over time as well. There's a pretty interesting correlation to the two. And it's really just again sort of a a an alignment between macronamics and and overall an overall aging population. folks that like Homedale and want to stick around.
So, that's the complexion of our town. Um, and you know, what we see in terms of the trends and our aging and and and uh and where we sit relative to Mammoth County in terms of our affluence and and education. From a financial standpoint,
I wanted to just provide some understanding of what we laid out here. When you look at a township budget, the township budget includes grants. Okay? Those grants get added to the budget after they've sort of come through and then the budget is higher than what was
originally proposed. What you're going to see from a financial overview and trends perspective here is our budget without grants applied to them because we wanted to have a clear look at the dollars coming in and how those dollars are being spent. dollars coming in via
the taxpayers and and our other mechanisms of revenue and how those dollars are being spent. So, this is just clarification on why you might see some differences in the budget that we're introducing this evening and then when we have a public hearing on it a month from now, you know, versus what's being presented on these slides. These
slides are simply for the dollars that are coming in the door and how they're being spent. So, our financial health, the headline here is that it's strong, but we may have headwinds looming in coming years. So, we're continuing to spend intelligently while battling
non-discretionary costs. We're still AAA rated. We have a stable tax rate. We have a $9.1 million fund balance. And the pilot, as you'll see, has declined, but it still sits at about $7 million. Your property taxes contribute to three
separate and distinct budgets. They go to Mammoth County, Homedale Township, and the Homedale Board of Education. 70% 69.6 of your tax dollars goes to the Homedale School District, which is a little over 72 million. 16.6 of your tax
dollars come to the township. That includes 2.3% for the municipal open space fund. And then a little under 14% goes to Mammoth County, which goes into their budget uh for library, health, and open space. Overall
home those tax levy is approximately 104 million. So that's the composition of it and we'll put this all online for everybody to see of course and and pour through tomorrow. Um again this is this we're doing this for transparency purposes. Oh no. I'm going to have to read this one. Wendy, what happened
here? >> Bear with me one second folks. >> Where's the next one? >> Oh boy. >> It's on here. >> Is it? Okay. So there it is. It just came back. Okay. Almost came back.
So your property taxes only account for about 44% of all township revenues. The budget this year will be about 33.6 million. Um and it's comprised of four distinct revenue streams. The blue box you see at the top is actually the miscellaneous box. Um and we'll explain
that in a moment. But the rest is taxes, pilot, and surplus, which is really our appropriation of fund balance. Miscellaneous are one-time benefits and ancillary fees received by the town. So, state energy tax receipts, uniform construction code fees, receipts from
delinquent taxes, interest, you know, income on interest, excuse me, interest on income, etc., etc. But those are the four main buckets for the dollars that actually come in. Those revenue streams fund the entirety of our operating infrastructure. Public
safety comprises nearly 30% of the overall budget. So it that includes fire, police, EMS, which not in the EMS case, but includes personnel, certainly equipment with EMS. Public works is about 10%. Uh that's roads, central
repairs, snow removal, and recycling. We have general government, which is 9%, IT, administration, finance, and legal. And then community development and recreation. So, as you can see, departmental spending is responsible for 51% of all township expenditures. Non-EP
departmental SP spending is comprised of debt service, employee pension plans, insurance, and then sort of a remainder, which is a mixed bag of tax reserves, utilities, shared services, and capital improvement. Breaking it down by revenue type shows
that nearly 60% of our expenses are tied to salaries, pensions, and insurance. So if you look at the top three rows, salaries and wages are nearly 12.5 million that's 35%. Social security and pension about 4.2 million that's sit at 12 a.5% and
insurance comes in at nearly 3 million at 8 and a half%. So that's about 58% or so of all of our expenses. The rest are comprised of debt service. And then you look at public works, general government, and public safety, which are all non-wage expenses. So you think
equipment, you know, etc. that goes into that. Then our tax reserves and our utilities that ladders us up to that 335 336. So when we look at our budget for 2026, we look back at our trend line. And so we want to continue a more conservative
approach to municipal spending. And what we did here is we lined up the top line has been our is our budget since 2017. The bottom line is sort of a hypothetical what what we'd be spending if we were in line with inflation. Okay,
so over the last 10 years, our municipal budgets increased 55%. Inflation's increased 38%. The key spend drivers for the township are salaries and wage increases, debt service, pensions, and insurance. Most of those things are
pretty locked in, especially when you're you when when a large portion of our uh of our salaries and wages are tied to public safety, which is our police. So, the budget, however, it is increasing 1.2 million year-over-year, but the municipal tax rate is going to remain flat year-over-year. So, the
municipal tax rate is not going to increase, um, which is something we've held to for the past several years. Our debt services fluctuated in recent years. So, we're working diligently to quickly pay it off so we can move on to other priorities. You'll see there was a
substantial spike from 2020, excuse me, 2019 really to 2023 going from about 10% to 17%. We've paid some down. We've also procured some property and it's come back up a little bit. Our debt service in relation to the revenues coming in is
fine. Our bond rating will stay AAA. There's no impact. There's no concern. There is nothing related in in line with our in regards to our debt rating that is causing us any concern right now other than we want to pay it off. We want to pay it off as quickly as we can. Um that'll be better for everybody and
it'll allow us to dedicate resources to other areas. So principal and interest are high, but we're going to rapidly work against that to get it down. So for the first time, the pilot revenues fell and that was in 2025. And
our budget is, as I said two years ago, heavily reliant on that revenue stream. The pilot dollars since their since they started coming into the town eight years ago, nine years ago were rolled into the operating budget. So while they rapidly increased from 18
to 24, we saw our first decline. That doesn't mean Bell Works isn't troubled or the 55 plus community uh is having issues. Things are filled to the capacity they need to be filled at. Um Ralph and that team are working to ensure that there are leases and subleas leases that keep going. It's just it's
it it it declined this year and it's starting to level off a little bit. Okay. So, we've got to plan differently than we have in the past, which is to plan for a budget that's not going to see, you know, a constant increase coming through, but one that's sort of plateaued from this fund and is going to
level off in the future. Now, where the pilot revenues have been beneficial is that it's allowed us to hold taxes down while spending on the municipal level has increased. Um, so if you look on the left, you'll see a slight increase, I think, from 14.3
million to 14.8 if I'm not mistaken. I can't see very well from here. Excuse me, maybe 14.5 over the past nearly decade in terms of the dollars that have come into the town and the taxes raised. But when you adjust it for inflation, you're actually paying less than you did
eight, nine years ago. Um, so you know, the pilot has been been beneficial to everybody in the community for that reason. It's not only allowed us to fund and do different things for the township and make improvements, but it's also allowed residents, particularly as you see a demographic that is aging in town
and increasingly on a fixed income, hold the taxes flat. So the municipal the municipal taxes do remain our largest revenue source at 42 44% but their share has fallen sharply from 66% in 2017. Um the revenue streams
that have come in have helped us do that. Um by comparison Mammoth County averages 60% right so the taxes uh are 60% of of their uh other towns municipal taxes are 60% of their revenue source. We're far lower. pilot revenues have
increased marketkedly and they represent about 16% of the revenues that are coming in and the surplus fund balance um contributes about 22 and a half 23% of revenues which is basically the dollars we have to pay our bills while the tax dollars come in. Um so that's
the sort of composition and those are the trend lines uh over the past again nine to 10 years. I think you know looking at things year to year in isolation doesn't always get the point across. So, we like to show everybody how we're trending and how it's going forward. From a prioritization standpoint,
um again, we anchor our priorities to the six pillars that we mentioned earlier. Open space, recreation, fiscal responsibility, innovation, education, and public safety. So, to responsibly enhance our town and provide more for our residents and preserve our culture, we really look at
procuring outside funding and grants. and Barbara Kovaleeski in particular has done a phenomenal job with this. And so we have grants that are uh that we've submitted for and received everything from the improvements to the high school uh at the entrance way to the high school to Robert Wilson Park to the
community uh energy plan grant uh to the safe streets grant that we just passed at the last meeting. In all, over the past couple of years, we've we've received about six million or so in grants uh for the town to help us see
through these projects. Um and it's really important. So, it's an incredible lift, an incredible help, and it's great to have the right professionals in our town on those things. Received or submitted, I should say. The township also continues to maintain
a strong relationship with the Home Board of Education. We are collaborative, respectful, and we have an open dialogue with them. And we're focused on helping our students thrive. So over the past three to four years, school security, we've covered the cost of school security, which is annually
about $500,000. It started escalating after 23. That's a total cost to the town of 1.4 million. We provided capital relief last year that defayed the cost of courtesy busing to the tune of 600,000. We added lights to the athletic fields at the high school in Sats. that
was around 400,000. Uh we made repairs and structural improvements or we paid for repairs and structural improvements to the Duncan Smith Theater which was under 85,000. We restructured the entrance to the high school uh and improved traffic flow to eliminate the daily choke point that had
occurred when start times were aligned. We received a $3.5 million grant and we had another we supplemented that with another $ 1.5 million bond from the town. And then we recently moved to purchase the Lupard house um and the three surrounding acres which has ties
to an original Homedale family that was a one-time purchase a little over a million dollars. So the total over the past few years when you include the grant is about $8.5 million from township to the home school system. Without the grant it's a little over 5 million.
So, you know, the net net as we sort of, you know, get to this part of things is we've been able to do things for the town. We've been able to support the schools in historic ways, ways in which they've never been supported before. We've been able to embark on new projects. Um, and we've also been able
to keep the tax rate flat. Um, again, adjusted for inflation, people are actually paying less than they did 10 years ago. From a recreation standpoint, the courts at Bailey Lane, um, we launched that in 2024. They've been incredibly popular with pickle ball, basketball, tennis,
and volleyball. You know, Bob, you know, has the, uh, uh, what do you call it? The reservation system, and folks can just go there without, we don't try to tell too many people out of town that, but, folks can go there without reserving time, but it's been incredibly popular over the past couple years, and we're pleased with that. Um, and then
now in 26, we're replacing the old playground at Crossfarmm Park with a new inclusive playground that allows children of all abilities to play together. I've seen some of the work done. It's beautiful. It's going to be amazing when that uh when we unveil that in a couple of weeks. We have numerous activities and events celebrating
America's 250th birthday, culminating with final celebration at this year's Harvest Fest on October 10th. We're going to be resurfacing the main pool at the swim club and replacing the basketball stansions and backboards. And we're going to continue to work with our veterans to provide a more experiential
and so social and informational opportunities as well. So, our recreation team, much like our public works folks, they work when nobody else does, right? So, those are the folks that are working nights and weekends to put on these programs and to do these things um to the benefit of everyone.
And so, they do an exceptional job. Preservation of open space is really paramount to us. Um we want to ensure to the best of our ability um that we're honoring our agricultural roots but also preventing overdevelopment. Over the past three years, we made preserving Homeell's natural beauty a
top priority. The results speak for themselves. The gateway to Homeell and the home of the Homeell Horn antenna are among the history defining acquisitions we've made. And our approach follows one simple rule. If there was a development before, there's likely going to be a development again.
If property has never been developed, we're going to do everything in our power to prevent new development. You know, I I I go back to this, and this is just a personal comment by me. I'd love for the town to look as close to what it was when I graduated high school here. You know, and we all know change
happens. Um we know things uh you know, progress and evolve. Um but to the extent with which we can keep Homed Doll Home, that's our goal. So over the past three years alone, we've managed to preserve to procure nearly 70 acres between Crawford Hill,
the affforementioned Crawford Hill, Potter's Farm, the St. Cathine's track, and the Lupard House. So we also were the first committee in nearly quarter century to actually use the open space fund to acquire open space. Um that had been used um I think to maintain some
open space and and maybe for some other things as well. Um so we're able to leverage that appropriately to try to prevent overdevelopment in our town. Um and we're continuing to work toward acquisitions with Papus Farm. Uh something that we are paying very close attention to and engaging with uh to try
to procure that next as well. So we're not we're on a roll and we're not stopping. Our continued focus and investment and and enhancement to public safety actually has yielded measurable improvements. And I wanted to to show this because it wasn't terribly long ago
that it felt like every other day, certainly every week, someone was dealing with an attempted break-in of their car, an attempted theft, uh, or or having their car actually stolen. As you can see, you know, attempted thefts are
the lighter box and actual thefts are the darker box. Um, we had about 27 in 2019. that skyrocketed to almost 90 in 2023, excuse me, 2022. Um, and that steadily reduced over the next four years. Under Mayor Foster, we were down
to 15, excuse me, down to seven. Um, and this year, there's been one attempt through the first four months of the year. Um, that comes from the state-of-the-art equipment, uh, like license plate readers and cloud-based recording equipment we've funded for our police trainings and new hires to
maximize the reach of our police force and the upgraded facilities and trainings that go with that. Um, you know, we're investing here because public safety is paramount, right? We're also this year going to move to county dispatch. The county dispatch
will provide us with better technology, more consistent staffing, tighter coordination with neighboring towns, and alignment with the Homedale Fire Department, who's already on county dispatch. When I say better coordination with neighboring towns, every town around us is on county dispatch. We
shouldn't have to go through disparate systems. What if someone were to steal a car and we have to communicate with Middletown or Hasllett or Cold Stack um to make sure that we're, you know, appropriately trying to find that person and stop them from going further away. You know, we need efficiency. We need
speed. Um and this will help us get there. It's going to be a better service to our community and to our residents. Um so the work we've done and listen the credit goes to the police chief Alco and at Aerson um the police force overall
and I'd say the increased vigilance of our residents as well but this incredible spike in in 21 and 22 came down rapidly and I also want to credit former mayor Lucarelli. He introduced an ordinance in 23 to constrict I'm pretty sure it was 23 Mike to right Brian
>> to constrict the ability for people to even attempt to steal cars. And it was a little bit of a supplement to uh the normal laws, right? Not allowing people to peer through windows of cars on other people's property and and things of that nature to sort of try to further blunt
uh the efforts of folks to disrupt our township. So really great work here by the police chief and we're proud to keep, you know, we're proud of the of the work we've done to fund uh these improvements. Similarly, you know, we have our our fire and EMS with our EMS. Um our EMS
team is fantastic, led by chie uh Chief Tracetta. Um we brought in MedStar about a year ago. We were having trouble a little bit with recruiting and we're having a little bit of trouble uh in our response times for times that weren't covered. MedStar came in, which is a which was brought in by which was
something the county started up and it was brought in simply to supplement the times and and and moments when we can't respond as quickly as we need to. Um it doesn't come at any additional cost to the taxpayer. It's already covered through the money we pay through our county taxes. Uh last year alone, they
responded to about 30% of our EMS calls. Um and they've been a nice supplement to what we have. That doesn't mean our EMS is going away. If anything, we're seeing even better recruitment for our EMS now than we have in in in years past. So, when we need it, MedStar is there to supplement. When we don't, it's our
folks, our volunteers that are doing it, and they're doing a fabulous job. There's not quite a super clear trend line where you see increases. Not as stark as you do with fire, but it's a fairly consistent 15 to 1700 calls a year these folks are doing. Um, and then
of course, we did uh uh fund a full EMS facility upgrade as well. fire, you do see it with fire, you see a clearer trend of an increase in calls since 2016. We don't have any data for 18. That's why you don't see anything there. We just couldn't find it. Um, but
about 60% of the calls are a fire alarm going off. About 30% are other hazards. Other hazards are faulty wires, gas leaks, a motor vehicle crash, uh, a smoke or an odor investigation, things of that nature. And then thankfully only
10% of our calls are actual fires that you know the the the team has to put out. Um so we do see again a little bit of a a more direct trend line from about 411 up to about you know 600 and change last year. Um but it's been handled
exceedingly well. I've gotten I've heard nothing but compliments from the the not only the professionalism but the speed with which our our uh our firemen and women are responding. Um so you know things are going well there. the investments we're making in new trucks, state-of-the-art equipment, um they're
making us safer, right? Whether it's an incident, um uh criminal activity, uh or or a fire, you know, the investments we're putting into public safety are working. Um and I want everyone to know that and understand it and the data shows it.
So, with all that sort of said and done, um you know, at the end of the day, we're working hard to make decisions based on what's best for the town. Period. full stop. We're balancing budget constraints with challenging state mandates and the needs of our constituents to keep our community among the very best in New Jersey. At the end
of the day, Homedale Township remains in excellent fiscal health. We have a phenomenal CFO because we proactively monitor and manage increasingly challenging economic conditions. Our age related demographics have changed dramatically over the past 15 years. We're getting older, which to me is a
sign of a great place to live. Our household incomes, mean and median, combined with excellent home values, remain a key indicator of homedale status as a premier town in Mammoth County. Despite non-discretionary expenses driving budget increases, we will not be increasing the municipal tax
rate once again. And the governing body continues to be on an unprecedented path of both providing support to our schools and procuring land to prevent development. So, you know, again, folks, the the point of this was transparency, context, trends, um to give everybody an
understanding of where we've where we were, where we are now, what we focus on, and why we focus on those things. So, with all that said, that's my little AI graphic there, but uh that's about it. So before we uh move on to public
comment for agenda items, Chris, do you want to speak uh about just do a little intro on the consent agenda? I know it was uh might be beneficial to everybody and provide a little bit of overview. >> Thank you, mayor. Um I'm going to go and skip down. So, and Bill's going to come
back. Of course, the two first ones are the bills pay bills payable list. That's self-explanatory. Then, um the resolution for um authorizing refund of COA, that was just an overpayment uh after recalculation um that's a developer or a house builder
um put out. So, they had to be they have to be refunded that. Um I'll let Bill talk about 102 and 103 in a minute. Um, we have a firefighter, a new firefighter that's joining the fire department, which is always helpful. Um, appointing of uh two new police officers. These are
two police officers that are replacing Chief Alco, who we haven't replaced yet, and then another officer who did start with us recently, but he decided he didn't want to be here anymore, so he uh he left and we're replacing him with another officer. Both these officers, one is almost about to finish the
academy and one is coming from another town. So, we are saving significant amount of money because they already are going to be trained or close to being trained. Um, awarding a contract for demode. That is equipment that the homeware library has been trying to get for um a while now. Um, it's uh I
believe a new return box for books. The one that they had was uh in not in good shape. Um so, they needed that. Um we're hire hiring right now just our first one. We're going to ask for another one eventually, but hiring a temporary uh extra public works employee this summer.
Um we did it last year. He's a a return. Um we are the 108 is the uh the most important for a lot of people. That is our road program from last year that was approved. Um we uh we got some excellent um bids that came in um which will allow
us to do uh a good amount of roads about 25 with repairs. Um so we we should see some some good changes. Um, and then we have um the grant agreement for New Jersey uh the New Jersey Historic Trust. That's a grant we're going to for again
the uh Wilson Park. Uh just allow me to sign the paperwork for you. And then finally um a performance bond release um for uh one of our developments that uh that TNM has approved to have happen because they've completed what they've had and we're going into a maintenance
bond. >> Thank you, Chris. Uh public comments on agenda items only. Oh, sorry, >> Bill. I'm not used to having you here. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Um, resolutions 102 103, the New Jersey uh accounting requirements require that if we have a receivable
that we have to offset our uh receivable with reserve um due to the fact that the Crawford's Corner Road project was a two-year project with the state, we have a very large receivable at the end of the year, $1.5 million. uh statutes also
allow us to defer school taxes, which is basically taking accounts payable to school at the end of year and putting that in a fund balance. Um my proposal in order to um fund this year's budget with the surplus that we really technically should have um is to defer
school taxes as of December 31st 24, I'm sorry, 25 and reverse them immediately for the end of 26 because we will be getting that money this summer. It's it's basically a bookkeeping entry that um that we're allowed to do by statute. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Um so
public comment for agenda items only. Folks will ask you if you have any questions or want to say anything to come up and then when you're done with your statement or question, have a seat and we will answer. I see Matt in the back. Hey guys, Matt Weissfell at 10 Riverside Lane. I'm going to be fast because I I
got some surprise visitors. So, that's pretty awesome. Uh, really quick, uh, just a question because I deal with it also. Um, and again, I've spoken to you. I'm I'm a fan of having the backup of MedStar and all other fun stuff. Liability, like, do we have to worry about that or anything? I'm just saying
when I deal with outside vendors and things like that, local people, I don't have to worry about insurance. I got to bring in other people, I got to worry about insurance. Is there things on that? >> I will. So, we're only doing agenda items right now. >> Oh, I thought that was um, my bad. So I will now that was part of the
presentation. So if if you got a split, I'll answer your question when it comes to public comment. >> No, no, no worries. Um okay, we'll come back to that then answer. Uh yes. >> Hi Sarah Cho with four Putnham at four
punk Putnham Court. Um, so I was reading earlier because I was looking at the TNM Associates engineering firm. We want to make sure that our um contracts that we're going getting into are with trusted.
>> This is for agenda items only. This is for agenda items. >> This is this is very this is very uh >> it's it's not it's not an agenda item. >> I'm gonna >> TN Excuse me. Excuse me, Sarah. TNM is not an agenda item. You can ask this. You can make your comment at the end
when it's public comment. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was a public comment. >> This is agenda items only. >> I'm sorry. I mis misunderstood. >> Mr. Yanello, >> Jaylo 18 would drive. If I'm correct, um, Chris and Mayor Prebaduto, from
prior presentations and in follow-up discussions, the cost of health care for a municipal family of four or more is projected to be, am I correct, upwards of maybe $70,000 a year next year? Is that correct?
>> With a projected 30% increase. >> Chris, Chris, are we in the 60s now going up 30? Is that what is that what it looks like? If we were not doing what we're doing, we'd be in the We'd be 70 now. >> We No, I'm not passing. >> No, no, no. I know. I know. I >> know. I'm sorry. You know what? And I'm I'm I'm making a mistake here, Jay. If
that's all you've got, we we'll answer when you're done, but if you have more, we'll >> Yeah, I have a I have a What's I'm curious. The change in dynamic here. Why Why Why do we have to go sit back down all of a sudden? >> Um because there's a lot of people in the room and I want to make sure that we get everybody's answers. >> Yeah. I just don't think it's reasonable
to have to sit back down all of a sudden. I just want you to unload your questions and we'll answer. >> Yeah. So, so Chris, is 70 an appropriate number? Yeah. >> Roughly. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, my question is, it's obvious that the New Jersey health care system
is beyond broken, possibly one of the worst in the country. Is there any effort by the mayors to go back to Trenton and say, "What are we doing here? This is unsustainable. The schools are being broken. that, you know, this
is really bad. I I think this is a 300% increase from 12 to 15 years ago, if my math is correct, from buying family benefits in the open market. Is there any effort that you're aware of from talking to the county people or anything to say this is not sustainable? I have
my own beliefs of what's driving a lot of this. I'm not going to get into the politics of it. It's more than GP12 shots or whatever you call them. So, um, is there any effort or discussion to say this can't continue? >> There's discussions. I had a beayore mayor's meeting Friday night and it was
a topic of conversation. Um, I can't tell you that everyone's going to band together and do something just yet, but we're trying to. We were talking about how the heck we handle it because everyone's getting hit with it >> because we're going to be heading to 80,000 plus for Yeah. It's just completely It's going to break the schools. It's going to break the towns
and the insanity has to stop. I was just curious. But, so there's some talk. >> So, there's discussion, right? There's discussion right now. I mean, that that's where we're at at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? I see. Who do I see? Oh, Lance.
Good evening. Lance Lupy Line Road. First, thank you for the uh agenda item run through to give everyone kind of a general idea of what's happening. So, I I appreciate that. Um,
can I ask about the budget presentation that you just made or the >> Yeah, it's right. That's an agenda item. Is that an agenda item? Is that >> I don't know, Mike? >> Not really. >> Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm going to ask. >> Come on. Go ahead. >> Um, and it all ties back. I think that
it looks like that pilot revenue is down. So, my question will be, do we anticipate seeing the same trend on this newly adopted pilot program at Vonnage? And how do we plan to protect
against that? And how do you plan for right that you you you've made a statement's been made up there that we're going to continue to to provide the school with money and that that amount of money is going to grow annually by some amount,
right? And but now we're seeing a decline in in revenue from pilots. So I'm just concerned that there's going to be uh a decline there. And which leads me to like just again as I've brought up a hundred times, I really hope that when everyone's writing checks in the town uh
out of the town checkbook that they cross out Homeell Township and put their name at the top and pretend that check is coming out of their own personal bank account, right? So, real quick, we're buying this this uh book return, right? So, uh I see that we're paying like $1,200 for shipping. Somehow I went on
in three minutes to the website where the the it's being purchased and for some reason with no discount uh and the shipping of like $800 versus $1,200, it's still $300 less and we're getting a discount on the
printer. So, I I just wonder I I'll challenge every time. Is everyone looking at this checkbook like it's coming out of their own personal account? And I don't see evidence of it every week when I look at this when I look at these agenda items and I see the budgets and the bills that we pay. And
are we really being the best stewards of the town's money? Because all these costs like it's been brought up before, right? The health care costs aren't going down, right? our our our uh services, police, fire, all that stuff's not going down. It's only going to go
up. So, we've got to figure out ways to save money in other places and it doesn't I just don't really always feel that I see that. So, thank you. >> Gotcha. So, uh, the the first, so Lance taken the the first question with in
regards to the pilot, you know, the decline year-over-year, and perhaps Bill can speak to it more intelligently than I can, but it's based on occupancy in the building itself. Um, and there's been some turnover in the building, although that's been that's been filled up pretty rapidly. So, when you think about the SIMS of the world and the massive sort of three floors they had
there, they're now subleting that and sort of replenishing that stream. Um, I don't know, Bill, if you have further context there that you can add. >> Yeah. One of the issues if you go back um year after year they were giving us a um additional money for the prior year.
Um this was the first year where basically it leveled off. So every year that was increasing the revenues increasing and last year there's no increase in the prior year. So our billings for 2025 were the same as 2024. And until they increase the revenues we're not going to see any, you know,
additional funds coming. >> Right. Leveled out. Really? >> Yeah. So I I I can't predict if it'll pop up another 500,000 back to the prior year level based on occupancy. I know that they are at full occupancy now. Um so maybe it
will after some turnover. That's one. Um the I I didn't go on to the website about the shipping. Chris, I don't know if you have any perspective on that. But I will say, Chris, I before we speak, the one thing I didn't show, Lance, and it'll be in the budget, or maybe I could
we can just pull it out for the next meeting was the year-over-year savings we had from a variety of different line items in the budget itself. Um, so I understand your point on a sort of week- toeek or monthly basis. Um, but in order to every line item didn't increase, we're
able to reduce quite a few of them down quite a bit. Um, so in terms of just, you know, sort of managing the increases, the stuff that we can't hold back is what it is and we do try to pull back in other areas, but I don't have the specifics for you on the item you
you you pulled out. Anybody else? All right, Wendy, we can move on. >> Next would be um the consent agenda, which is resolutions 202699 through 2026 1110. Do I have a motion?
>> Moved. Second. >> Mr. Bontempo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Foster. >> Yes. >> Mr. Romano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Vanderham? >> Yes. >> Mayor Prevatuda? >> Yes. >> Resolutions 202699 through 2026 1110 have been successfully passed. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Wendy. >> You're welcome. Next is introduction of ordinance 202614 which is an ordinance of the township of Homedale, Mammoth County, state of New Jersey to exceed the 2026 municipal budget appropriation limits and to
establish a cash a cap bank NJSA4A semicolon 4-45.14. This motion is to adopt on first reading, publish on the hometown township website, and set the public hearing for May 26, 2026. Before we
vote, Bill, this is a standard practice, correct? >> Uh, yes, it is. >> Just want to make sure. Uh, motion. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Vontempo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Foster. >> Yes. >> Mr. Romano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vanderham. >> Yes.
>> Mayor and Prevaduda. >> Yes. >> Ordinance 202614 will be set for public hearing. >> Okay. Moving on to our administrator. I have no report to me. >> Thank you, Mr. CFO.
>> Uh, tonight we propose introduce the budget. Um, public hearing will be held on June 9th. Um, it'll be pub, it'll be on, not published in the paper this year. It'll be published on our website, I believe, by Thursday this week. Uh, user friendly budget will probably be up, uh, probably by next Monday.
>> Great. So residents will have over a month to pour over the budget and prepare any questions they have for the public hearing. >> Yes. And we'll also have a a short presentation on June 9th also. >> Great. Thank you. >> So mayor, we would need a motion to um
for resolution 202611, which is the budget introduction resolution. >> Okay, we have a motion. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Bontempo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Foster. >> Yes. >> Mr. Romano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Vanderham? >> Yes. >> Mayor Prevadudo? >> Yes. Resolution 2026111
has been successfully passed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wendy. >> Councelor >> either. Thank you, Mayor. >> Mr. Engineer, are you good? >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to boards and committees and business from
the committee. Committeeman Bontempo. >> Good evening everybody. Um the IT update. So the after some feedback from the last meeting update um the IT department uh web page we've created a IT web page on the home website where we
can regularly post IT new and information that can benefit our residents to help keep them sec um help keep them safe with security measuring. So, a aware of technology scam alerts, internet best practices, and safety
bulletins from the New Jersey Homeland Security's NJ kick team that I mentioned uh at our last meeting. On um April 27th is cyber security threat assessment. New Jersey kick issued the April 27th cyber security bulletin which highlight
following key points for New Jersey residents. Right now, there's a cyber threat alert for retirement benefits fishing. The Bolton identified a fishing campaign targeted pension plan members, specifically New Jersey teachers using
fraudulent retirement benefits meeting invitations. Cyber threat actors are targeting New Jersey educators with fraudulent retirement benefits meeting emails that use personalized details and calendar links that appear legitimate. These
fishing attempts aim to steal sensitive pension data or install malware by redirecting users to fake scheduling pages. To stay safe, always verify meeting requests through the official New Jersey Division of Pension and Benefits website and avoid clicking
links and unsolicited emails. There's also been a Facebook meta attack. NJ kick reported a particular cyber attack this month that targets Facebook Instagram users. Cyber threat actors are sending fraudulent emails that
impersonate Facebook Meta's legal team claiming your account will be disabled due to copyright or trademark violations you may have posted or shared. These messages use fake authentication links to lead you to counterfeit log on pages designed to
steal your credentials and personal information. To protect yourself, never click links and unsolicited notices and always navigate directly to official platforms to verify your account status. New Jersey residents are encouraged to report malicious cyber activity directly
to the NJ kick, that's NJCCIC, via their official website. Verify by a second channel. If you ever receive a suspicious text or call from vendor, bank, retail outlet, always contact the company using a number you find from an official bill or the back of your credit
card, never the number provided in the text message. Thank you. >> Thank you, committeeman. Mr. Romano. >> Yep. Couple things before I go into the usual. Um, first, I wanted to point uh bring attention to a new nonprofit that
joined Homedale. I know Saturday a lot of people were advantage. Um, but on Saturday at 40 Main Street, the church, there is a uh new nonprofit called the Village Foster Closet. And I went to their their soft opening, and it is a tremendous program. Um, it is below, I
don't know what you call it, but you know, you have the church and then you have the church meeting room. What they've done is they've opened up it looks like a child's boutique almost like you're walking into a Carter's and it is free clothing um free diapers uh free toys for foster
kids right so they can arrange it the owner there Belinda gave us a walkth through um doesn't cost anything for foster children they can go they can take as much as they like I um we took some pictures we sent them to Brian Ali contact information anyone that can
donate or volunteer. It's It's a really great program. It's new to Home Dell and I was very impressed by the uh just by the setup. Like I said, it looked like you were walking into a child's boutique. The second thing that was that was very cool that I got to do is I was invited to talk at Mammoth University.
So, I got to talk in front of two college classes um in front of students and kind of walk them through some municipal government and kind of what I do in in my daytime job. And that was great. And um what's also cool is Mammoth University wants to extend um
not an invitation, but they wanted me to let uh the people at Homeell know that with their summer camps, they will extend a uh employee discount to anyone any resident of Homeell that wants to join one of their summer camps. They are essentially applying their employee
discount. So again, I've had the I'm going to have them email Brian Ali, but uh any Homedale resident that wants to do a summer camp, they fill out the application, they click employee, they get 30% off all the programs. So I thought that was really great. And it was really cool to go speak in front of,
you know, two classes of college students. It was really great. And um I also got invited to speak at a Chinese school. I took I didn't know this, but I learned that a lot of mainland Chinese students in Homeell send their kids to a school. And I'm going to butcher the
pronunciation of this, but it's Zingwa school and Chongya. Ah, I was close, but I was close. I tried really hard. But but again, it was really cool to just go and and get in front and talk to
so many kids and parents of Homeells and I had no idea that this existed. So, it was really cool. It was really great to like just explain municipal government and go over some of the cool things going on in town. And uh you know again they'd love to do more with Homeell as well. On to the usual uh community development
March Madness amnesty program. So if you've had work done without a permit, you've only got a few more days to catch up on old burbing building uh old building permits without a penalty. Community development's March Madness amnesty program ends this Thursday, April 30th. From the library on May
19th, the Homedale book club will meet to discuss the book Shelterwood by Lisa Windgate. Chair yoga is going strong with an average attendance of 20. Because of this, the library has extended the chair yoga program through the end of 2026. Got a couple events coming up. We got the motheraughter vision boarding in
May, a performance by the local van band vinyl traction in June, art for the non-art in August, Fred Leote and the rag timers in September, pop down card craft programs in November and December. We have the summer reading program is
expected to begin on June 1st and run through mid August. This year's reading program's theme is dinosaurs, archaeology, paleontology, and the tagline is unear story. Public works. Um, please be advised that the township brush pickup is currently
underway. Due to unforeseen circumstances, some collections are running slightly behind the dates listed on the seasonal schedule cards. Rest assured that our crews are working diligently and your brush will be picked up. There is no need to call the public works office to verify your status or report a miscolction at this time. We
appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work to complete these services throughout the community. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Joe. Mr. Vanderham, >> thank you, Mary. Veterans Committee, uh May 14th is our next coffee and conversations. That's at 10:30 at the
senior center. All veterans and gold star families are invited to attend uh for a nice gathering with bagels, donuts, and coffee. uh the green team. I think Betsy and and Mayor Rose did a great job presenting the summary of the community energy plan uh that included residents feedback uh
from Earth Day uh as well as feedback from Sustainable Jersey on the technical support uh and nothing to report from the heritage committee. That's it. >> Thank you, committeeman, deputy mayor. >> Thank you, mayor. Good evening. A couple updates from the board of education. The
HF 30th anniversary gala. The Homeell Foundation for Educational Excellence celebrated 30 years of service with a soldout Pearl Gala, highlighting the community's long-standing commitment to supporting our schools. Indian Hill students will showcase their businesses
at the upcoming Spring Market Day at Bell Works, demonstrating creativity and innovation. This event, excuse me, uh will be held on Thursday, May 7th from 5:30 to 7:00. I believe last year was the inaugural year for it. It is an
excellent event. The kids do a great job with their things they create and sell and stuff like that. The Homedale High School will host its annual jazz festival May 1st featuring seven regional high school bands. Homedale High School senior duo Zang earned
national honors at the USA snowboarding championships. So congratulations to him. The Indian Hill Walkathon is supporting the Boomer Asiasin Foundation and Special Olympics reflecting strong student leadership and community engagement. Homedale students earned multiple Foxy
Award nominations for excellence in theater. The Foxy Awards officially known as the theater night awards are a prestigious recognition program for middle and high school theater in New Jersey. They're hosted annually by Montlair State University's Department
of Theater and Dance. From our recreation department, the swim club membership is underway. Quick reminder that fees will increase by $50 on Monday, May 4th. So, please do not wait to get in on the fun. Registration
is also open for the summer recreation program at Crosswarm Park. The program is held from June 22nd through July 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Summer Wreck is open to children who have completed kindergarten, minimum age of five, through those finishing sixth
grade this school year. Registration can be completed at the recreation department's rec desk registration page. This Sunday, the Billy Deo Foundation's 5K is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Registration for the Run Walk will remain open until the day of the race,
approximately 900 a.m. Currently, there are over 600 registered runners and walkers. The race begins on Billy Deo Boulevard and continues through the Sats High School complex and through the Falcon Ridge development and back down Crawford's Corner Road. On a related
note, Crawford's Corner Road and Billy Deo Boulevard, the Garden State Access Road and Parkway exit 116 will be closed for the duration of the race. Please plan accordingly. Information on the race and the Billy Deo Foundation can be found at billy deoofoundation.com.
We are encouraging all members of the Homedale community to to consider participating in this event. Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. So, I want to uh start with mayor's office hours. They were originally scheduled for last Saturday, but last Saturday was quite a day. So, we've
rescheduled for this upcoming Saturday, May 2nd, from 9 to 11:00 in the first floor conference room we have right over here. Um, I also want to report out that I attended the open house at 23 Main Street. Um, about 120 people came. the
response was overwhelmingly positive. Um, which I was pleased to see. Um, and you know, it sort of I think demystified it a good bit for a lot of folks that weren't that familiar with what was going on. So, that's that went well. Um,
we had a great turnout at Earth Day on Sunday with hundreds of residents and neighbors in attendance. I'm proud to report that the township committee did uh contribute to this wonderful event. I was there as was committeeman Romano. Um, thank you to the Homedale
Environmental Commission and Celu for hosting the event, to the green team, to the Homeell historical commission and to the Homell 250 committee for hosting tables alongside the many outside groups who are represented at the event. And a special thank you to Karen Strickland who gave me a wonderful tour of the
Harding House. Um, when I got on the committee five years ago and attended Earth Day, we couldn't go in the Harding House. Um, so it's now, you know, at a place where people come in, we can do tours. The floors have been redone. There's a new roof. Um, and we want to
keep finding ways to, uh, improve the house and get it up to to usable standards. Um, not that we expect anybody to live in anytime soon, but it would be nice to have everything in order. Um, Hornets Fest, save the date. HYAA Hornet
Fest is on Friday, May 8th at CrossFarm Park from 400 PM to 8:00 PM. This event will celebrate all HYA sports and will include inflatables, food trucks, music by DJ Mel, HY and HYAA coaches home run derby, face painting, and more. During
the event, the township committee will also be cutting the ribbon on the newly installed Crossfarmm inclusive playground at 4:30 p.m. That's gonna be a wonderful day. you know that the the Hornet Fest took place. It stopped during COVID. Um so it's nice that and it can't be an easy thing to put on. I'm
like the worst event planner ever. I don't know how people do it. Um so real big thank you to the the the folks at HYA for taking the time and bringing this thing back and very excited to cut the ribbon on the uh on the new playground as well. So uh please join us along with special guest Eric Lrand as
we open Homeell's newest playground which is designed so children of all abilities can play together. From the police department, utility crews continue to work on Holland Road through Saturday of this week, and it's anticipated they will be there again next Monday to Saturday until the road
project is finished. Holland Road will be closed from 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. to accommodate schools and buses. The closure will be between Laurel Aav and Takaloosa uh South Holland intersection. From 2:30 to 5:00 p.m., Holland will have an
alternating traffic pattern. Applications are now open for the 2026 Police Youth Academy, offering two sessions, August 3 through 7, ages 10 to 11, and August 10th to the 14th, ages 12 and 13. Young recruits will get an inside look at law enforcement through
interactive training and self-defense, criminal investigations, K9 demonstrations, and firearm safety. The popular program is designed to strengthen self-esteem, discipline, and mutual respect between our youth and local law enforcement. The academy is open exclusively to Homedale residents. Interested families should visit
homedell police.gov. That's homedale police.gov to apply before the May 6th, 2026 deadline. Thursday, April 20th from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Homeell Best Buy parking lot. There is a Bluetooth pairing initiative. The Bluetooth event is a
community outreach program which was started by patrolmanoski in 2022 to help combat distracted driving. The pairing event is part of a larger awareness campaign called Goal Zero. The event assists motorists with linking their cell phones to their vehicles using
Bluetooth. From the fire department, we have three members enrolled in the summer firefighter one academy that begins on May 13th. This summer program is designed for college students that enables them to compete complete the 240 hour training in just seven weeks. The fire department took on three new
members and two new explorer members in the past month. We look forward to them integrating into our team. And from the first aid squad, the first aid squad is looking forward to participating in some upcoming events, including the Billy Deo 5K, the AlexQCQing dog park anniversary,
and of course, Homeell's Memorial Day. They encourage all residents to stop by their tent and ambulances for a tour. Our first responder crews enjoy interacting with residents of all ages, and they certainly love answering questions. We are always looking for more members. Stop by, get involved, or
find information in our application on the website. In order to ensure the first aid squad can find your home during an emergency, please make sure your house number is visible from the street. Just a quick public service announcement and check at night as well to make sure that it's visible. So, with
all that said, we can move on to public comment. Wendy, if you wouldn't mind uh doing your thing. Mayor, >> in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, this is a public comment period for public comment on any governmental issue of public concern. In
accordance with resolution 2022-17, 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 com commenters are limited to one comment,
not to exceed three minutes. Comment should be directed to the mayor or 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. >> Great. Thank you,
>> Mr. Yanelo. >> Jay Yanelo 18 would drive. Um, Mayor Prevaduto, as you know, it's political season and as you also know, it's been pretty calm here in the past many years. We sort of all have gotten along. Unfortunately, this political season has
changed and um the organization that calls itself the official Homeell Republican Party is back to putting out some really dark um and mischievous and misleading and often lying things. I'm not going to get into the weeds about
all of them. It's it's disappointing to see them coming out, but there's one in particular that really caught my attention that I think needs to be addressed here. And Mr. Vanderham, it's the one that you are quoted. And unfortunately, TJ man, who I've had some nice discussions with recently is quoted
in, and that is the attack on Kristen Cero because she runs a farm in this town. And the attack is ridiculous and candidly disgusting because it purposefully
does not mention that she pays $24,000 on her taxes. And the graphic that it's on her proper on her house taxes. And the graphic that it uses has an arrow pointing to the farmland covering the house where she pays $24,000 in taxes.
Mrs. Solero is a key driver of why we are not going to be dumping 40,000 gallons a day of slightly treated sewage water into the drinking water that Mammoth County drinks that most of you that the official Homeell Republican
party backs were fine with until the community uproar driven by Mrs. Solero caused the next move which is the pipe which has its pluses and minuses. So Mr. Vanham, would you please comment about
your hit job on her that conveniently didn't mention that she does pay $24,000 in taxes because it says her property. She only pays $23,000. She's exploiting the farmland. And by the way, there are other people, other mayors that we've had and other key
members of the Homeell Republican official party that also benefit from this farmland. So, it's to selectively attack her when there's other well-known families in town that have wonderful venues use that uh tax benefit and again
an ex mayor uses that tax benefit I personally think is disgusting. So, would you like to comment on that? >> I I'll only Yeah. I mean, if you're done, Jay, have a seat. And Gary, >> I'll finish. I'm almost done. I also want to say that this is the same official Homeell Republican party that
attacked so many of us in this room for wanting unaffiliated elections. Whereas because they made us out to be radical liberals, most of us are actually Republicans. And the Republican party who was also associated with this
in Redbank actually at the same time pushed for unaffiliated elections. So I would like to know what your comment is on your hitch. My point in bringing that up is the hypocrisy which you bring up in your hit job is mind-boggling because
thank you. Because we were made out to be lunatics for wanting unaffiliated elections in this town, but the Republicans in Redbank where it would have benefited them were pushing for the unaffiliated elections. So that's my point. And by the way, the final thing
I'll say is this is the same organiza organization that put a hit job out against I believe it was Greg standing next to um Murphy during the the benefit for um COVID fundraising. But conveniently in that picture where they
portrayed him like some crazy uh Republican standing next to Murphy, they conveniently cut out the picture, no offense, Mr. Impreadudo, of Rockco who was standing next to next to the governor too. Yep. This is this is the this is the organization, Mr. Vanham,
that you are bonding with and going with and putting out these dark pieces that have been coming out over the past few weeks. And I think you owe an apology to Miss Solero and this town for attacking her because she's running a farm in this town and not mentioning, I'll say for
the fourth time, that she pays $24,000 of property taxes. and your graphic covering the house next to with an arrow next to the farmland you point out. So that's my comment. >> Thank you. >> Do you have a response? >> Are are you done, Jay?
>> Yeah, I'm done. >> Okay. I I was waiting for you to get done. Yeah. So So I apologize for that. the uh no, I'm not going to apologize for for addressing a the hypocrisy that that Miss Seno has continually discussed about uh giving tax breaks to developers
and and pilot programs for reduced taxes when she's receiving a a a sub a a subsidized tax benefit for owning a farm, not running a farm. She owns a farm farmland that has an air strip down the center of it that has an airirst strip. So that part >> this is in Terboro. She's not landing
jets there. There was planes landing there today, J. I see. Hold on. This is exactly what >> This is why we're This is why we put we're This is why we're enforcing the rule. >> But unfortunately, Mr. Roco, you're putting this rule in right after these hit jobs came out. So, the timing of it,
many people have commented in this room after all these hit jobs of this organization that backs you came out, you put this rule in so no one can challenge. >> It's not It's not about hit. >> The timing is incredible. >> Come on, Jay. What? >> I've been up here 5 years. Have I ever backed down from a conversation? Now you are after the you you guys don't want
push backs to these hit jobs. >> No. No. What we don't want No. What we don't want because it started happening in previous meetings is people coming in and not being respectful to everyone else in the audience who had questions and staying up there for 15 minutes to ask more and more questions at the end. That's what we're trying to that's what
we're trying >> are almost up. >> Okay. That's that's what we were that's what we're trying to do. Jay that's the purpose of it. Gary, I think you now are damaged goods and unqualified and uncredible to run for township committee because you participated in this hit job
and and and you did this as an unelected person up there. That's all I >> So I I do you know what, Jay? And I I want to uh I do want to address something because it's actually been bugging me a little bit the past few days. I make it a point to ensure that up on
the deis we don't you know we don't talk politics right because it's supposed to be about governance however some of the nonsense that's been posted online is
irresponsible at best reprehensible at worst to imply that there is some sort of catastrophic contamination at Potter's Farm to make it public. Like, by the way, it was public information. It's a farm. If you own a
farm, you probably got contamination, right? Because of pesticides and things, diesel fuel, things of that nature. But hold on. We're not But I'm not finished. I'm not finished. I'm not Hold on. I'm not finished yet. Let me tell you why this is an issue. Let me tell you why it's an issue. Because you are It's not
>> No, this is not politics. Here's why it's an issue. When you raise an issue, a non-issue in town and try to make it something, you have the ability to damage property values in town, not the least of which against the residents who are adjacent to that property. So, this
is information that was public information. You're making it a campaign tactic. And now, if someone were to buy a home in Homeell, what might they see? They might see someone playing politics because they want to get elected on a non-issue. That's problematic. And as the mayor, that's problematic for the
town. It's my job to protect the town and the residents. This isn't political rhetoric. This is political rhetoric that can be damaging to the town and damaging to home values by the residents. And the flip side to that would have been 105 person dementia center with 30 people managing it. And I know no residents on that in that
development wanted that either. So I just want to I'd want everyone to understand there's politics and that is what it is and it's terrible in this town. It absolutely is. But when politics start damaging the town itself. That's
problematic and it needs to be addressed and that's why I'm addressing it. >> You can't you can't Let me just jump in. So So on the on the dementia center when we were approving it and Mike was up here, the people that were adjacent to the property came and said, "Please do
not stop this from going through. We like it. We want it." >> Mhm. >> So you don't make a statement and say, "Nobody there liked it." >> No, no. said they support the fact they I said they support the fact that we that it's preserved. >> I'm just I'm just saying that people that lived adjacent to it came to the
meeting and said I never met before and said please don't stop it. We like what's going on there. >> I'm 100% aware of the dynamic. What they also said to me was they were faced with the daunting issue of affordable housing there which would have been an F. They'll take a C minus and they considered it a C minus. Instead we gave
them an A. There was >> I guarantee if you asked any of the people living there if they preferred to stay a farm or vacant land for recreation, I guarantee you every single one of them would have said, "Let's keep it open space." Not, "Let's put a dementia center." Greg, >> that's not what I said. He made a
comment that said nobody wanted a dementia center. But the people that I never met before and I couldn't even pick him out came to the meeting and said, >> "Let it go. We like this. It's going to keep keep a separation between." >> They accepted it. They did because >> the mayor's point is valid, right? If
you're worried about affordable housing, that's a valid concern. It's surrounding every town around affordable housing. >> They were worried about affordable the spectre of affordable housing. This was a C minus solution that blunted the the the potential for affordable housing. Instead, we were able to procure the
property. So, a C minus was the dementia center. An A is the procurement of the property to ensure it doesn't get developed. That's all I'm saying. They accepted the dementia center. They didn't want the dementia. >> They said, "Please don't stop it." That's what that was their words. And I said, "That's fine cuz I was going to
stop it and they said, "Please don't." So I said, "Have at it." Okay. Okay. Anybody else? >> Yes. Mrs. Principi. >> Mary Principi, 62 Bethany Road. I think this is disgusting. I've been in this
town for over 30 years and this is absolutely disgusting. I've never ever seen a committee like this before. End of comment. >> Thank you, Karen. >> Uh Karen Strickland, 26 Hayward Hills.
Um first of all, I want to say thank you, Mayor Padudo. Um, since you got on, the Harding House has really improved and I am so thrilled of the work that the township has done for the Harding House and I look forward to getting the
upstairs fixed. So, take this away. Actually, I'm here to speak on behalf of Celu, but I that's I want to say that I also loved what you did with the consent agenda. I've never seen anyone do that and it was so helpful. So, thank you very much. Okay, that was me speaking.
Um, this is from the citizens for informed land use. This letter is in regards to the township's plan to extend a sewer line to help develop the current Azora property. Extending sewers might seem like an easy fix, but it is quite complicated and has a potentially
negative impact on Homedale's future as a quasi rural community and the availability of water for future generations. A guiding principle of wershed protection is to keep the water in the wershed. Since 1985 through
December 2025, county and state planning maps all show the same central section of Mammoth County as low growth areas. They identify Homedale's southern slope watersheds, including Willowbrook, where the Vonnage property lies, as a discharge to groundwater areas, areas
where sewers are not permitted in order to recharge water locally rather than have it be exported to the ocean. In times of drought, this concern becomes of paramount importance. Homedale Township through its master plans has supported the state planning board development and redevelopment plan, the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Mammoth County, and residents have worked since the 1980s to keep Homedale's water in the watershed to protect the quantity of water available to sustain the reservoir. More than 335,000 Mammoth County residents
rely on the Swimming River Reservoir for drinking water and demand is projected to grow as thousands of new housing units are built in the eastern Mammoth County. At the same time, climate change is expected to increase temperatures and intensify drought risk. In that context,
protecting groundwater recharge is not optional. It is imperative. Routing wastewater to a sewer system moves water out of the wershed when we can least afford it. A sewer extension is not a neutral utility upgrade. It predictably
enables denser development, expands impervious cover, and increases non-point source pollution in the most sensitive part of our wershed, planning area 5. Deed restrictions have not prevented sewer extension in the past, and they are unlikely to do so in the future. Residents were guaranteed in
1992 that the sewer line to Bellabs would be sized to only accommodate the building. Then that same sewer line was able to accommodate the 225 homes on the Bellworks property. Now that same sewer line is being guaranteed to only allow
the Valen building. We know that the pressure to extend that sewer line will only grow. Environmental lines must be drawn and the Bell Labs property should be the end point of that sewer line. I got two more paragraphs. >> Town history shows that once sewers are available, pressure for additional and
higher density development increases, including additional affordable housing obligations. We support well-sighted affordable housing that meets social needs while minimizing environmental impacts. And extending sewers into planning area 5 makes it harder to do
that responsibly. For these reasons, we respectfully ask that you require a modern state-of-the-art onsite treatment plant for the Azor project and reject any extension of offsite sewers into this
watershed. Just an added note, a town incurs the cost of maintaining a sewer line in perpetuity while the cost of maintaining a local treatment plant is in the wallet of the landowner. Thank you for your consideration and for your stewardship of Homedale's water resources for the benefit of both
today's and future generations. >> Thank you, Karen. >> Mr. Troska, I think I saw a hand up. You're good. See in the back Misso Kristen Solero 5 Hot Brook Lane just briefly nobody up there should be
opining on any campaign videos that reveal >> that reveal the truth that yeah you can sit there with your incredulous face. It's acting. It's beautiful. Nice job. Okay. But um nobody should be up there
opining. Nobody should be up there campaigning. I'm not campaigning. I'm shedding light on things. Truth that you guys had all along and you chose not to tell the town's people of Homedell. We we put together truth for people. Now
you guys could say, "I didn't know it, but a very famous Republican who you guys pretend to be, Ronald Reagan, said trust but verify. learn about it. >> Mr. Truska, >> Patrick Tuskita, 56 Line Road. First, I want to congratulate the township
committee for a great first quarter. Uh, you did a lot of great things and keep up with it. As a longtime Homedale non affiliated voter, I
not really interested in the interpublican uh BS that uh goes on in a campaign season. In November, there's going to be an election. That's when I'll decide who
to vote for. But up until that up until November, please do the work of the people of Homedale as you've been doing so uh excellently in this year and in the past. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
>> Public comment, >> Peter. Sure. Pet Franco, five hot Brook Lane. Uh just want to call talk about a couple things that went on this week. Um last night I had the pleasure of going up to uh Sarahville to with a couple of people. um one from the their
environmental commission, uh the uh New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, and also uh someone from the Sierra Club to talk about a uh a data center that they were proposing on a redevelopment plan. And uh we went there, we spoke in
front of their town uh with our concerns and especially our concerns being that we share the same aquifer as Serville. And um you know as you know data centers use up to 5 million gallons of water a day. And the reason why I'm going with this is that um you know rumor had it
that Bell Works was uh you know interested in putting a data center there. And I'm not saying they are but it was a rumor last night. Uh they spoke about uh putting an ordinance that in future redevelopment even actually in that redevelopment uh plan they're going
to eliminate the option of a uh data center. Could we do the same in town here to prevent anything like that from happening? >> We could put a future ordinance in in for something like that. I don't know if we can go back into an existing redevelopment and open the books on that. It's actually probably not the
best thing to do, but I don't see a need for that though either. >> Okay. Uh, also, uh, they also spoke, which I thought was pretty cool, was Zoom capability for TC meetings and planning board meetings and such and zoning for people that can't make it, uh, where they can actually ask
questions live and and be answered live. If we have the capability of doing that, I think that would be a pretty cool thing. I did and I, again, I learned a lot from going to Saraveville last night. Um, what else? Uh, Earth Day was awesome. We went there. We had a great time. Uh thanks, you know, Robera,
Jenny, you guys gave us uh some great information. I appreciate it. And uh also, and back to the Potter's Farm thing. We weren't aware of it. Um nobody was aware of it. And to to campaign in front of it like it was the
greatest thing, knowing the environmental impact that's there. And I spoke to D. I spoke to the oversight, the people that are actually looking over it now that are in charge of it. and knowing what's there, were you guys aware of the contamination on that property and the levels of it? Were you aware of the the cost of you being on
the environmental commission? I'm sure you did. U did anybody weigh in? Was it brought up in front of the people? Was there an executive meeting about it that we don't know about? Um because I I think it's a concern for the people and everybody up here talks about transparency and and the safety of everybody. You guys are talking about a
park or open space where, you know, it it's it's it's pretty bad. I don't know if you guys looked into it, but it really is bad. as a concerned citizen and also a farm owner and know my farm is not contaminated. It's checked by Ruckers. We farm it every year. I own it
and I also help with Samaha who farms my farm also. And yes, a plane did land today. If that offends you, I'm sorry. There's going to be more planes landing there. I'm not sure I had to check it with you. If it pisses you off, I apologize. You're >> I don't think you checked your neighbors, though, cuz all the neighbors that that notified us.
>> Okay. Well, I have a licensed airirstrip that's legal. So, you know, sorry. What do you want me to do? >> I'm I'm gonna use it. It's part of my property. >> Okay, >> Peter. Yeah. >> No, no, but it's just for him to do what he did. I got it. I just And for you to diesel fuel on my farm, I I get it. You
know, you guys are whatever. But >> you're throwing allegations at me. I'm not making property values go down. I think you guys did by buying this property and not making it public information that there's a health health hazard, health risk, contamination. >> What? >> I just I know people knew people knew about it because they've spoken to me
about it. It was known people who who knew about it. Did we know about it? Did you tell us, "Hey, we're spending $4.5 million of of our open space money on contaminated property." And this has been knowledge according to D since 2020, September 10th, 2020 when that property was acquired.
>> My opinion, there was a dementia center built there. >> I'm not saying I'm for development like they're saying, which we're not for development. And we kind of proved that with the whole vaage thing that it would have been remediated by the people that bought the property. Why didn't you guys go for something like that when it
changed ownership when you guys bought the property? There couldn't have been some remediation before you guys took it. >> That's why That's why we bought it for 80 cents on the dollar. >> You you 80 cents on the dollar. You It was sold for I think 3.6 million. I think you bought >> Peter. When you're done, we'll we'll respond in full because then Chris will talk as well about
>> So, Michael, I'm not I'm not sure what I can and can't say about the >> I'm happy to speak to it after the commenters completed. >> Sure. But as as far as the contamination, I also sit on the the county parks and Rex board and I would say a large portion of the properties we look at have contamination. The
contamination on the Potter site is limited to a very small portion of the site. We did get additional money uh taken off of the contract price as well, Pete. So we were totally aware of everything that was going on with it and nothing was hidden. And the fact that we wanted to prevent development and secure
more open space is what we've been driving at for the last 3 four years and we're going to continue to go in that direction. Pete. >> Okay. I spoke to the gentleman Brian that works for the environmental firm told us what was there, what they wouldn't do there. Kids can't play on it. It's highly toxic and there's hot
spots all over the place. And again, it's all public information that we weren't aware of. We had to do again our due diligence. Same thing with the vonnagement when TNM fell asleep behind the wheel with that. No offense to you guys. It was the guy before you, but you know, it's just, you know, as a resident and a taxpayer, we see Potter's Farm and
now we think of remediation and what it's going to cost to to remediate the place and and to make it safe for people to actually use it with the money we spent on it. >> I'm not sure of the reports you got, Pete. I'd love to see them because we spoke to multiple people and as far as hotspots all over the property, that was not our understanding either. But if you have all these reports, you know, please
provide >> the same information I had access to, you have access to. Okay. And and do you want us to spend more money getting a hydraologist, getting an engineer, and more lawyers to come here and present it to you like we did before? >> Yeah. I don't know why you did that either, but I don't know why you did that either. >> What? Because these guys didn't and you
guys didn't, and your environmental commission didn't. >> Okay. >> So, we presented to you. >> No. Listen, I listen. >> We got to present to you facts that you already knew. They came to you for two years about vonnage and you guys did nothing. >> And well, what did I say at the time when we when we landed with the
solution? Things take time to develop. Things take time to develop and happen and negotiate over the course of time. It wasn't because there was a massive ground swell. We were going to address the situation as the situation progressed. >> You guys pushed the Vonnage project like it was. >> We didn't push the Bonnage project
without approval from a planning board. It was That's not rushing something through. >> No, it was a three-year project. >> Three-year project. >> It was It was a three-year project. >> From start to what to now? >> It started under Mayor Lucarelli to now. It was a three-year project. >> Oh. to now. Not from when we started.
You know, we got in what, maybe six months ago on that, but regardless, we put the time, we put the effort because we weren't getting answers from you guys. We were not getting answers to you guys. So, we as a community had to give you guys the information that you supposedly knew, right? We presented all
all the evidence to you guys and at the at the last minute, you guys came up with the force main solution. Like, you saved the day, Rocco. You solved the uh the contamination of the Willowbrook. That's exactly what was said. >> I I didn't say that. No, I mean did he not boast? Sorry, I address you. You you you boasted around
>> I didn't say I solved the contamination of the >> Willowbrook. You you were running the force mean and that you saw the contamination of the Willowbrook. >> Well, we solved the environmental concern that was >> still an environmental concern. CEO just told you about it. Okay. >> You know, there's Okay. Uh I'm done. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Yes, M. Chuck. Um, thank you for taking the time today to present. Um, name >> Oh, Sarah Cho with for Putinham Court. Um, I'm a little new to all of this, so I I
really am catching up on a lot of information. Um I was I you know went to Homedale High School in graduated in 2000 came back because I thought this town was amazing when it in 2000 it was. Um, now my eyes are kind of being open
and um, I'd like to ask, you know, this township committee, um, it looks like TNM Associates, um, the former manager, Mark Ner, pleaded guilty to conspiracy
to commit bribery. Um, in April of 2019, the former mayor of Reading, Von Spencer, was sentenced to 8 years um, in prison for taking bribes. My question is, were you aware of this bribery scheme that the engineering firm was
found guilty of? >> I have no awareness whatsoever of that. Anyway, any more public comments, Mr. Weissfeld? Matt, it's been so long I forgot your question. I'm sorry. >> Me, too. >> Well, good news. I somehow got pizza in
the middle of all this, so I'm back to being good. I know that's >> Yeah. Name and address, please. >> I'm sorry. 10 Riverside Lane, Homedale, New Jersey. Matt Weissfeld. I know. I'm very shy with all this stuff. Um, really quick, I just want to get through the good stuff. All >> I don't know. After all that, I would
like to invite all of the candidates in the room for the CUV open forum we're having over on May 14th. May May 14th May 14th 7:30 7:30. So guys, I would love to have we would CEO would be honored and would love to have all of
you join us guys and honestly I mean after all of that I mean at the end of the day I would love to see all of you come all of you all the candidates everything and and all you guys too you know mayor proudo uh all of you guys everybody to meet everybody to have so
you guys could have a chance to say your piece whatever it might be >> yeah you're okay No, really. I would love that. You know, it's And >> it is not debate. >> We We are And guys, I thank you to you
know, Mayor Perdo, Committeeman Romano. Thank you for coming to Earth Day. That was amazing. Where where it's um Darn, you retired, Jenny. You're supposed to know this stuff. But now, Roberto >> TBD, where's that? I'm kidding. But uh so seriously guys, I had such a great
time at Earth Day this past weekend. That was one of the first events in a long time that everybody, it just felt like a family community moment. There was no issues. There was no nothing. We got to do on tours. We played drums. It was great. >> 500 people.
>> 500 people. And it was raining, you know. I mean, it's which killed me. I had to run around with tents and all that stuff. Yeah, I'm trying to put a little levity into all this because again at the core of it, I'd like to think that all of us are trying to do the best we can. And we don't always agree. There's I don't even know. UH SO
MORAL IS I would love to see you all there. All of you, all of you, you know, to meet each other, talk to each other, say your piece, and you know, start the process. And I forgot. Oh, and then then the question I had going back and forth, and just because again, I deal with contractors and things like that, and I
just had this conversation the other day about how Oh, yeah. local. If it's an outside, we have to worry about insurance. That was the only question going back to the MedStar thing. I like having the backup personally. We've talked about that. But then it got me thinking like, wait a minute. What if there is there anything? Again,
I could be wrong on that. These are things I don't know. >> When we looked into it last year, there is no obligation for the township to provide the county any kind of insurance because obviously they're above us. So there's no cost to our residents. There is no insurance we need to handle. We're already paying for the coverage in fact through our taxes right now.
>> But now the coverage that's like standard. There's no additional riders or thing like literally I've had things I've passed on just because I didn't want to deal with the >> insurance. There's no cost to us. Jay, >> that sounds good. Jay, jeez, you know what? >> Sorry. >> I think I think the only difference, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. The only difference with MedStar with the county
service is not local people and they bill your insurance. Right. Am I correct? >> It's a soft bill. >> Soft bill. Yeah. >> Pause. >> Okay. It's a bill. If you don't pay, it's not a bill. >> And if you don't pay, Mary Ellen, it's not a bill.
>> Your insurance is not required to pay, Mary Ellen. >> Insurance. >> No. A soft bill is sent to the insurance company. If they do not pay it, they do not collect it. >> Don't. >> It does not affect your premiums.
>> Tell me. >> And again, guys, I don't we've already had enough moments. I I I want to go back and have a pizza. I can share and everything else. I actually brought a pancake. I won't go. I'm just being silly now. Anyway, thank you guys. May 14th. Would love it. Thank you guys, you know, for coming out. It was nice.
>> Time right at the bell. >> That's right. Ryan. >> Thanks, guys. >> Anybody else? Motion to close. Oh, I see Lance's hand up. I thought we had >> Oh, sorry. Miss Coffin, come up. You come up first. >> I think she was leaving. Oh, were you
leaving? Oh, she was leaving. Sorry, Lance. Oh, wait. >> Oh, no. Wait. I No, maybe not. >> Contrary to what you think, I'm Robera Calfman, 13 Chestnut Ridge Road. Contrary, I'm not going to harang you about the fact that you've made the
wrong choice with the sewer line following TNM's lead from 1998. They have tried to sew the southern part of Homeell. And this is a catastrophe. And if you So, you're opening us up to coercion by the state. If you've read
the briefs that have been filed against Colts Neck, who are of course more delinquent than we are, but over time that the quotas keep changing, the quotas that we will be responsible for in round four will be significantly higher. And we have that if we extend
that sewer line it opens up all kinds of potentials for greater density on credential greater density on perhaps SS white who knows we don't know and this is and right now uh the township of
Coleneck has tremendous court leans against it forcing them to produce sewer service. This is this is not what we should be doing. Please look at again supporting. I understand you need to
facilitate and help the developer produce affordable housing on that site, but please look at supporting an on-site state-of-the-art package plant with the carbon filters and the proper disposal fields and keep this a discharge what is
called a discharge groundwater area. If I may, I want to tell you that just seeing the report on Robert Wilson Park is just absolutely wonderful. And I would like to ask two things. One, that we could see the architect's plan, although they may be online and I miss
them, but you keep referring to uh Mr. Mullen to the architect's plan. We should be able to see the full image of what if if we're paying professionals to do this work, we should be able to see the full image of what they're chewing on. uh and is at the same time I don't
think I want to see us wait to start creating the museum content. This is an incredible place. 10, you know, it took Celu gained 10,000 signatures putting out the petition to save this worldwide. I I cannot tell
you. I have a brother-in-law who's a physicist. Ralph is a physicist. We we want to see the history really delineated of what what happened there and how valuable and how startling it is even from a religious point of view. It's just unbelievable. And uh so I'd
like to ask you to use part of that grant to establish and set up a plan now in this time while we're still around to uh to talk about and show images what will be in the museum. Even if you do
not have a museum building laid out yet, the the storyline, the presentations, they need to be developed and they take time and money. Many many thanks. >> Thank you. I think you know Chris let's talk uh maybe next week let's talk about an ad hoc committee around Robert Wilson
Park for just what Miss Kaufman's me mentioning. We'll allow folks to submit and and we want to certainly ideulate around content that could be created but we're also going to need to find a way to get it whoever it may be. But I think >> all the
>> Yeah. So so um we'll talk more about the mechanics of that but it wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd like to get residents more involved in this anyway, especially with folks with a with a devout sort of interest in it. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lupy. Thank you. Uh,
Lance Loopy Line Road. So, um, first, thank you for the information on the paving, Bethany. I appreciate that. Just forgot to do that before. Um, I did have plenty of notes on the budget changes, some up arrows, some down arrows. So, I I recognize it. Um, but I felt it was
too early in the process to really start. >> No, for sure. I just want >> too many questions. Yep. I appreciate you bringing it up. >> Back to the pilot. So, we talked about revenues dropping slightly this year at the Bell Works and we said that that's in part because of vacancy. Had there
not been a pilot, would we have had that decline in revenue? Question number one. Um, I'd raised a question a couple meetings ago about no turn on red at Beer Street. Just want to re-emphasize
that. um question and this I wasn't going to bring this up but you know there was a couple of questions about you know the election coming up and taxes and you know someone's taking advantage of a of a tax benefit that's available to them.
I mean I'd love to see a show of hands. I I'm not a tax attorney so if anyone is and can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't believe that anyone is obligated to take any kind of write off on their taxes. they're welcome to pay what they want to pay. Right? So
based on that and based on the fact that someone here is taking advantage of an opportunity available to them, I'd love to see a show of hands from anyone in the room on the deis of people who don't take tax returns that are available to them on their income tax.
>> I don't I don't see any hands. >> I get hammered at me. I don't see any hands back here. >> Okay. So I I I I find it hard. I mean, this this this the display that went on tonight was a little disappointing for me. Um, but, you know, to to to raise as an issue, um, that someone's taking
advantage of an of an opportunity that's available to them. It's in the law. They're not no one's breaking the law. No one's hiding anything, right? And everyone takes advantage of tax write offs. So, I don't know. I'm just confused by why that's such a a big
deal. So, question on the pilot. I'd love to hear an answer on that and if there's any thought that that the turn no turn on red on beer street is is a is a good idea. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I think I don't Lance have you brought up the no turn on red on beer street before?
>> Okay. Sorry. I apologize Chris. I don't >> we'll take a look at it. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. That Yeah. >> Yeah. It's probably already in our code book on whichever way it is now. And
you're looking to have that changed, I guess. >> That makes sense to me. >> Perfect. Thank you. And Lance, the quick you want. I was >> just on the pilot. I think the question was whether if the building were taxed using conventional taxation adorum taxes
is there a possibility that a dip in rental income could lead to a reduction in its tax and I would say the answer is yes potentially um you know unlike a home that's typically assessed using the sales approach it's entirely possible the assessor would use the income based
approach to determine the value of the building and if the incomes uh that the building is yielding were to decline that could result in a commen ensurate reduction in the um assessment of it. I think a good example of that is the 23 Main Street property which because it
became vacant uh went from being a substantial ratable to a fraction of it. So that's a reflection in how the um the rent roll can affect the value and in turn the taxation. >> Any other comment? Yes, sir. >> Hi. Peter Franco senior five Hopbrook
Hoprook Farm. I just want to say something about the farm itself. I'm sorry. I want to say something about the farm itself. When it was subdivided by Mr. Cruz and his his people, the town requested that that 25 acres be
considered a lifetime farm. Now, why is everybody complaining that it's a farm? That's one thing. All right. The other thing I happened to had 255 acres in freehold with the houses and all $8,800 on 255
acres and it was a producing farm. Same thing over here in Hotbrook. The farm produces those crops are on your table and people are complaining about taxes. It'll be envious. >> Thank you. Any other comments? We have
to >> I've got bad news for the township committee. We had something that came up today. So, we are going to need a quick executive session if if you're so willing to do it down here um to discuss a land use matter. Um we would not come back out for formal action after
>> I guess I guess we have an extra hand. Sorry. Go ahead, Ron. >> So, Mike, assuming Mr. Ama's the last comment, uh is the motion just to go to an exact or is the motion to close and go to an exact? motion to go into executive session. We technically adjourn the meeting after that concludes, but we are disclaiming to the
public that there won't be any further formal action. So, we'll ask everyone to leave the room once we uh exit so we can get that completed as quickly as possible. >> Thank you, Mr. Emma. >> Um I'm going to >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I'm I'm getting to that.
>> Okay. I'm gonna uh call myself Rhino Ron Emma because the some of your attacks were referring to me as Rhino Ron Emma. Just want to clarify one thing. I've been voting Republican for before most of you were
born. So let's just get that record straight. Rhino Ron Emma 32 Ladwood Drive. Just two quick questions about the sewer. the forest main. You keep saying that it's no cost to the residents, but we are bonding for it. We are doing a $4 million bond. There is a
cost to bond and there is a cost to float that money. So that's number one. Number two is the pilot program at Vonnage was approved well after the developer had already
bought it. And the pilot program, correct me if I'm wrong, in its definition is supposed to be for an incentive to get the developer to buy the property. So why was that pilot approved after the developer had already
purchased the project? Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. I don't have I don't have all the history. I don't know what the even I don't even know what the sequencing was. I mean, I'll just say on that issue, under the long-term tax exemption law, you cannot award a pilot
unless the redeveloper demonstrates that there's a financial inability to complete the project without the tax incentive. They did provide uh that documentation to both the consultant that the township hired as well as our assessor and it did establish that need
and that need is relative to the proposed project which has the um components that comply with the fourth round of affordable housing. So, um, that that that would be the legal backdrop to how that is. And, you know, if the person purchased the property, if
if it were a different development proposal, it's entirely possible it would not meet that test. >> Thank you. Last one, >> then Mike's making us work more after this. >> Roberto Hoffman again, I just want to say two things. Hot Brook Farm was on
the original open space inventory designated as an open space uh property high priority when I did with Rust Drone the first inventory in 1999. I know it was still on the map in 2004.
And second uh regarding Potter's Farm that also was a high priority. I received a call from mayor, I think it was Rosemary Peters of Middletown, who said that she was going to that they were going to preserve the strawberry farm diagonally across and it would be
very high priority to preserve that uh Potter Farm as a green entry to both our towns at exit 114. Thank you. >> Thank you. We get a motion to go to exec.