There's nobody here now. You ready? Look at this. I got I got Are we live? All right. I'd like to call to order the June 25th, 2025 Longhill Township meeting. Please rise for the Pledge of
Allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Madam clerk, in compliance at the Open Public
Meetings Act of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting, specifically the time, date, and public call and information were included in the meeting that was electronically sent to the Echo Sentinel Morris daily record and posted on the township website. The agenda and public handouts can be viewed online at www.longhillnj.gov.
A public comment period will be held in the order it is listed on the meeting agenda. Committeeman Lavender, I am here. Committeewoman Riker Elen will not be joining us. Committee Verza will not be joining us. Deputy Mayor Versia present. Mayor Dorsy here. All right.
So, first order of business is ordinance uh 572-25, an introduction for an ordinance providing various improvements in and by the township of Long Hill and appropriating 2,266,200 for various funds of the township. Um
Randy, this is what capital stuff. This is capital improvement. Okay. Um I have a motion to introduce the ordinance on the to pass the ordinance on the first reading. So moved. Second. The public hearing will be July 16th.
Committeeman Lavender. Yeah. Yes. Deputy Mayor Peria. Yes. Mayor Dorsy. Yes. Which says on first reading? Yeah. Second reading. Oh, okay. Uh, next we have 570-25, a model ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits
and establish a cap bank pursuant to New Jersey statute. Um, we'll open this for a public hearing if anybody has any questions or comments. [Music] Uh, is there anybody online? If anybody online would make to like to make a public comment, please raise your
hand now. I don't see anyone, mayor. All right. So, I like a motion to clo close the public hearing. Can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 57-25? Second. Committ Lavender. Yes. Deputy Mayor Peria. Yes. Mayor
Dorsy. Yes. All right. We have a resolution. Um 25-172. Do you want to do the presentation? What presentation? My's got a present. Oh, okay. we could introduce introduce the uh budget um and
then open up for public hearing and do the presentation. Okay. All right. So, uh resolution 25-172 is the 2025 budget to be read by title only at a public hearing and 25-173 is adoption of the 2025 budget. So, at this
point, I'd like to open it up to the public for any questions or comments. Limited to three minutes. Anybody online? If anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand now. Don't see anyone. Mayor. Okay. So, we do
the presentation. You want to vote first? How do you want to do this? Oh, I think uh presentation. All right. Then we'll do the presentation. All right. Megan, can you put it up on the screen? Okay. Um I'll start it off and I'm going
to hand it off to Randy. Um and so, you know, this is the work over the last couple of months. um and you know like we have um the last couple of years we're going to use the same format. Uh next slide please. So very uh very briefly um we'll talk
about how the budget process works you know the timeline the considerations and guidelines. Uh we have a financial report card um uh based upon where we see ourselves at right now. Uh Randy will go into the municipal revenue plan
and compare 25 FY fiscal I think I'm at Oracle here 2025 to 2024. Um he'll also talk about the tax levy uh what are the sources the assessments the tax rates where your dollars are going
uh from a a uh easy to understand perspective and then get into appropriations and spending. What are the budget allocations by category? how we're funding the departments and accounts and uh he'll touch upon our six-year capital plan.
Next slide, please. Okay, so the budget process in uh nothing's changed this year. Um in the fall from September to November, our departments work on their budgets. Uh starting in December, a preliminary budget is created. Uh that process goes
on for the next three months until February. Um, starting in March, April, and May, the finance committee um starts having those conversations with Randy. This is where uh the numbers are inspected. They're moved around. We
figure out where we want to be and that brings us up at the June where we introduce the ordinance for the budget uh in our public presentation. Um I think you know on first we adopt this in July. Is that how that works? No, we we
uh we actually are on self-re. So, we don't need that was uh anticipation of uh needing state approval. We do not need state approval. Um they have a copy of our budget and we'll get a copy of the adopted budget um once once you guys
approve it. Got it. Okay. And you know, as always, uh our budgeted revenue should not exceed the prior year actual revenues. And by New Jersey state statute, a municipality cannot spend more than uh what is budgeted for appropriations. Next page, please.
Okay. So, here is the uh financial report card. So, if we take a look at 2024, um we budgeted uh 17 million, but we collected 18 call it 18.4 billion million. Sorry. Um I think I'm at Oracle
today. Um we spent 16 uh 3 million uh which is a a surplus of 2.1 million. Uh in terms of our reserves
uh you know this illustrates um you know what our um what our balance has been for the last uh three years. We we were up half a half a million in in 2023. uh we uh went down a little bit uh by
about a quarter of a million the next year in 2024. This year we go down a little bit more um by 321,000. Now, you know, we've car carried a fairly substantial uh surplus the last several years because of the uh uh the sewer
sale and the fact that we're we're operating um very close to or under budget. Um this is the reason for the surplus to keep our tax rate um within uh an acceptable limit. Um our debt as
as a percentage of assessed value um is is phenomenal. Um it's down from uh 2024. Randy, this is a fantastic number. Can you explain why it is a fantastic number? Yeah, the the amount of uh debt
that you're allowed is 3.5% of your uh average um assessed values over three years. So over the last three years you have uh this year two billion last year 1.9 billion uh 1.8 billion. So
if you take the average of that in 3 and a.5% um as as spoken in in percentages we're at 083%. Right. Um which is virtually nothing compared to our debt limit that we're
allowed to have by state law. Right. So you know as far as a report card goes um you know I agree with the green on this. I I I could push back a little bit on financial reserves and say maybe a little bit yellow there. However, um over the next few years, we should have
some new racial coming online that'll help us gain back uh some of that uh surplus as well. So, you know, for the rest of the committee, we're in extremely strong position. Um I think this is a a a really well-run financial plan. I'm gonna hand it over to Randy,
but thank him for all the work he does. Thank you. Thank you. So, so uh where do we get the revenues from? Uh if if you look at the percentages, um we're the percentages don't change vary
much from year to year. One thing that I I will um I want to point out which is which has been a a stickler for me for many years in 2025 our state aid is 1,370,000.
That state aid has been the same for the past 15 years. However, last year, uh, the Murphy administration gave, uh, if you will, a little bone to all the municipalities, um, and and for two years that we had a
little higher, uh, state aid. Now, this $1,370,000, I I call this true state aid. Okay? Um, and I I'm going to tell everybody to to go home tonight and take a look at your
utility bill. In your utility bill, there's a comment that says on there, this portion of your your utility bill goes to local municipalities for what's called gross receipts and well, it used to be called gross receipts and franchise. I believe it's called gross
energy uh receipts. Now, we do not get that because as estate aid grew, they took away energy receipts tax until you had none left. So, all those energy receipt taxes that municipalities used
to get are are being collected by the state. So, I would argue that there's money down at the state that they owe every municipality by collecting uh energy receipts. And many years ago, municipalities used to collect them
themselves. Uh the the utility companies went to the BPU because you can imagine cutting 567 municipal checks at that time. I'll correct at that time uh was
much more has much more um work if you will for the utility companies than to send one check to the state. And then so the state uh agreed to do that then it started diminishing what the municipalities got over the
years. So um you know I wish the state if if anything out of that give us more state aid. We we we deserve it. We uh we should we should get it. We you know help us offset the property taxes. People in New Jersey pay way too much in
property taxes. Um I just noticed that I spelled levy wrong. I apologize. So, so the headwinds that you saw here were the headwinds that you saw here was a reduction in state aid and uh little bit of a reduction in grants as well. Yeah,
grants is is that's also an ongoing thing throughout the year. So, you know, while we're low right now, um we we are working on a couple grants that will put us over those amounts uh if we're successful uh throughout the year. So,
uh, that is a con grants are a constantly rotating, uh, number. So, it just happens, we happens to be that last year we had $72,000 in the budget because of timing. This year we only have 26. Right. That's a timing thing. It's a timing thing. Yeah. And then
revenue other than taxes. Could you are you going to kind of double click into that? Yeah. Can you So the other taxes are or um everything that's there um you know these are what
they what they consider local taxes if you will. So we get money from licenses, fees and permits, court fines, um interest on delinquent taxes, interest on investments. We have uh two different cell tarot rentals that we have. Um we collect money and for construction code
fees uh we do collect some money from the parking utility surplus to offset expenses that we have uh for employees uh cable franchise fees. Now you know one of those things and I don't know if people uh are are doing this but they
are um because our cable franchise fees went down. So, as people move to different uh types of of media where you're not using cable anymore, you might be using something else. Um we'll get less franchise fees. Uh the
Great Swamp, we get uh money from the federal government. Um we don't, you know, it's part it's a portion of uh uh ticket sales, if you will. So, we'll be getting that uh we usually get that in July. Um we anticipated 130 last year.
We ended up getting 123. So that's what we budgeted this year. Uh reserve for debt payment is uh some FEMA payments we received. Uh shared services is the the various uh monies we get for shared services with um Harding and the
library. Um the sale of municipal assets is is a portion of the um sale of the source system and also other assets that we sell throughout the year. And the miscellaneous is just a small amount of other other cash. Okay. Um so what
portion of that sale of municipal assets if you know is the sewer sale versus and this is where we're selling equipment and stuff like that. Yeah, the majority of it's the sewer sale obviously. Uh you know the the the other stuff we haven't sold property or anything like that to
to make major impacts. uh but as we as we sell equipment and and so forth that uh those monies go into that category of sale of municipal assets and the other the other um thing that I want to get clarification and I think I know the answer to this but construction code
fees uh you know that's a big hitter up here that goes from 290 to 325 but that money stays within the construction office right correct the the construction code fees go to pay for the enforcement and uh permitting of the
construction uniform construction code, right? And that's an important point to make. I know we've seen some things on social media where um you know some folks have this misguided understanding that we're actually making money on that. We're not. We're simply funding the operations. Correct. And there are
there are individual audits done every year on that. not only by myself as a finance officer doing a report that we have to file with the state, the our independent auditors also are required to do an independent audit with the construction code also to send to the
state. So what what's in here that's good for 2025 that would be um maybe not available to us in 2026? Well, the reserve for debt payment is not going to be available in in uh 2026.
Okay. Uh because uh that is the last of our FEMA reimbursements for for police for the uh police headquarters. Um the other the quite honestly the other fees are going to be
roughly the same unless we have uh large um impact on on uh interest on investments um because that's driven by um obviously the interest rates and so forth. Uh but other than that these these fees
unfortunately stay pretty stagnant. Got it. Okay, very good. Next. Next. So, where does your tax dollar go? So, um here's here we here's the breakdown. Uh
as expected, uh the local school district is is the highest at 44.6%. Uh the uh regional high school is at 17.02. So, together those are at 61.63.
uh municipality is at 24% and county is at 11. The open space we I combined with the county and municipal open space for 1.18 and the library is 1.55. Next.
So the where who makes up the the municipal taxes um and what percentages? So you you have different categories of of property classes, residential, commercial, vacant, business, and farm. Um you know,
the bulk of taxes are are charged against residential. It's it's the makeup of the town. uh we have a very high residential uh ratio compared to um other uh the other property classes. Uh we'd really
like to obviously see commercial higher so that to try to alleviate um the taxes to the residents and you know over the next couple years uh you know the the the new ratables that uh committee man Lavender talked about will fall into the
commercial area. So you're going to see a I I think you're going to see a little uh more balancing on those on on that property class. So, question on that. So, for some of this um development that's um being geared up, where where
does that fall? Does that fall into residential or commercial? That'll fall under commercial because basically it'll fall under apartments because uh it's anything above a four family. That's the cut off. Four family is still
residential. five family or higher is um considered commercial. So, it's considered an apartment complex. So, you could have a a five five apartments in a building considered an apartment complex and you could have one with 150 apartments considered apartment complex.
There's no distinguishing size of apartment complexes. Above five, that's an apartment complex. And does assisted living qualify as commercial as well? I don't know. Yes, it does. Okay. Thank you, Megan. So, the property tax assessments, uh,
each year we we do an annual reassessment. Um, annual reassessments help tremendously in in, uh, preventing tax appeals uh because you're using uh a more accurate assessment on different
various properties. Uh, you could see the the um year-toate change overall was a 4.43. 43 how that breaks out. Residential right in that ballpark 4.4. Commercial did increase a little higher.
Um vacant land, you know, usually is a little less than the actual um and we had a a little larger increase in the farm assessment. Now, I want to emphasize and you'll see this on a later slide. Um
because your assessment increases doesn't necessarily relate to tax increase. Okay. Tax taxes are based on the needs of what needs to be raised in taxes from all the entities and then is
is brought into the assessments and a tax rate is struck based on new assessments. Now on average the assessments went up 4.4 4%. If your a if your average uh it went
2.2% you you won't see as much of a tax increase as somebody that went up 4 point uh 6%. So um but again if if there was no adjustment
in taxes needed from all the entities and theoretically everybody was at the average of 4.43% 43% you would have the same taxes as last year even though your assessment increased. So a lot of people
believe that an increased assessment is is an automatic tax increase and that's just not true. Now you have two columns there 2025 allocation and 2024 and I noticed um that they change and as I look at these
numbers then the way I would interpret that is the increase in commercial relative to residential put slightly more weight on the commercial. Yes. And and that trend will continue over the next three years I
would imagine. I believe it will. Yeah. Okay. Next. So, you know, this is exactly what I was talking to you about, and I'm not going to sugarcoat anything because, uh, you know, I've been doing this way too long, and I have too much respect for
taxpayers. I could say we had a tax decrease. We went down. Our tax rate went down. Simply not true. We did not have a tax decrease. Okay? From 2020 to 2025, the tax rate in 2020 was 0.597.
In 2025, it's 0.529. doesn't mean the taxes went down. As you can see with the bottom number, you know, uh we this is an average increase based on uh average residential home to average residential home. And you can
see we've had increases, you know, as as little as $31 and and as high as $65 for for the year. So, um, if you if in the budget your tax amount to be raised by taxation is higher than last year, I'm
sorry. I don't care how you try to spin it, that's a tax increase. Only when it's lower is is it a tax decrease. So, um, even though the tax rate is lower, it it went down, it's due to the 4.4
what was it? 4.4% uh 4.43% 43% increase in assessed values. So, can I can I just interject one thing? What's remarkable about that bottom line? So, you see the uh the average municipal tax increase. So, it's 197145 and you work your way to
the left probably comes out to an average over those 5 years of 175. If you went back another 10 years, it's going to be about 175 over that 15 16 year period. The reason I highlight that
is on the previous slide you saw that the uh the portion of uh the tax levy that comes from u uh commercial ratables is 10 whatever it was just just below 11%.
To put that in perspective relative to surrounding towns, most towns around us, the Chadams wa uh well watch is even much higher, but Warren, they're about 20 25% from commercial. Berkeley Heights, I think, is 30%.
for this committee and past committees to average 1.75% when such a small portion of uh the property tax bill uh comes from raidables is really commendable and and I know that sounds a little bit self but that
that goes back for 16 years to have accomplished that under those circumstances and to Scott's point and to Ry's point when we project and we're going to do a more granular uh uh uh research project into this. But when we look at the commercial development
that's coming in, whether it's high the the uh uh the residential multif family uh buildings and uh what has been discussed in the past perhaps a an assisted living uh that will definitely
help uh the portion that's coming from uh residents and perhaps maybe even uh reduce as opposed to even 1.75%. Um it's a a little bit a little bit uh convoluted and and as the I think in
slide even before that about 24% of the property tax bill comes uh is is decided by this committee you know for whatever reason uh the average person and I understand that they're busy they're not going to focus on this they don't
recognize that what 62% uh is is for the schools 11% or So is for the county and then you have the library in the open space between local and uh and and county as well. And that's held relatively constant over those 16 years.
The um uh the 23 24% which is what this uh uh elected body decides on. Anyway, sorry I went off on a little tangent there. That's okay. But I think it's important to understand that nuance.
Okay. couple more slides. So the budget allocations by by category um we overall from from budget to budget we had a 4% uh increase in in expenses. Um you know some a lot of those are driven by um
controls outside of uh of our control. uh the employer pension cost uh uh reserve for uncollected taxes um solid weight waste disposal um you know one thing I want to talk I I should mention solid waste disposal we're on our last
year of a contract that uh we've exhausted our extensions um we're we're we're genuinely concerned about solid waste heard uh some nightmares with people that have been going out to bid
about the large increases they've gotten. So, you know, we're we're going to keep that in mind as we go out to bid and and try to try to do what we can. Um insuranceances is another thing. You know, the state uh uh state is is
looking at another doubledigit increase in in uh health insurance. Um so, you know, we'll deal with 2025 right now. Um, I'm I'm working on a on a uh a five-year
forecast um plan uh to go forward. Um and we'll see how that works out. So, a couple questions on this. Um you know, and I'm looking at the big movers on this. So, the fund ordinances um what what what are those? That's to pay down
our debt. So basically we have two portions that um are not fully funded by cash. Those are the purchases of the uh three fire trucks that we did uh I guess we finally finished them last year and
the uh remediation of police headquarters. Uh while you know some people were saying we were going to get 100% uh from FEMA, we did not. So, uh, we need to raise, uh, we're going to need to raise some money, uh, from the
taxpayers to pay the rest of that. Got it. And then the salary and wages, I would imagine that some portion of that is due to us rightsizing, um, salaries of employees. Uh, that's that's the Yeah, that's all the total salaries are wages for the whole town.
So, you got contracts involved in there. Um you know you you have uh the administrative staff um the uh um increase in the police staffing that we followed through uh the FARNo report. Uh so all that's included in there and uh
other than that um materials and services you're obviously dealing with year-to-year inflation as well. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So this breaks it down by admin with the various categories. Uh administration
encompasses all of the municipal building except parks and and uh community service. Uh library we always keep uh at at at by itself. Uh but it includes uh all the statutory costs of pension, social security um and all
that. So that that's why that number is is larger. the largest one, uh, public safety obviously includes police, EMS, fire, fire prevention, um, fire hydrant services, and the, uh, capital deferred
charges and, and reserve deferred charges is what I was just talking about about paying down ordinances that are not fully funded. Uh, the reserve is the reserve for uncollected taxes, which is a 1.285 hit, and capital improvements. uh that
we um will talk about shortly. Uh public works obviously speaks for itself. That's it's uh all of what a's guys do. Uh buildings and grounds, uh solid waste collection, um and and the public works,
roads and and guys, um utilities and bulk purchases. Um, you know, that's right now, uh, not that bad of an increase from last year to this year. Um, I don't expect it to go down though
next year. So, it won't go down. I don't think it will. So, here's our capital plan. So, uh, you know, we have, um, the 2025 funding plan. We we're on a basically a six-year funding plan. Um the future year
fundings are or what what is there? Um so this year we're talking about a $2.8 uh million dollar capital program. A lot of this is is um facilities um road improvements. Um
and and you know in the future we'll we'll be looking at the building improvements in the future does incorporate uh police a new police headquarters. What's what's in recreation facilities? Recreation facilities is a couple things. Now this
is not this is not all cash out from us. This includes grants, right? So that is the um Central Park trail construction. Uh that is uh we have to put some more money in our capital budget for the
repairs to the tennis court. Um what else is there? Tennis court. Uh that's about that's about what's there. Basketball court is is included with the tennis court. Thank you. So, uh, we're we're we're working on what what you'll be passing tonight is work to be done on
the on the basketball court and engineering work, uh, to to see what the issues are underneath the tennis courts. So, we want to make sure we fix the water issues underneath the tennis courts because I don't want to
have to uh explain to you guys in three years why there's cracks in the tennis court and we just spent $500,000 to mill and pave it without taking care of the water issues. Right. So, we need proper drainage. So, that that that 2.8 that's the funding plan. That doesn't
necessarily say that there's money in the bank behind that because you're going to correct you're going to funnel in grants whatever money you can get. Yep. There's there's actually two large grants incorporated in this this year's funding. Okay. Thank you. Next.
Thank you. Thank you. That photograph is the statewinning photograph from Mr. Zindell, is it not? I think so. All right. The one you have in your uh book. All right. So now we need a motion to
approve resolutions 25-172 and 173. So move, Mr. Mayor. Second Lavender. Yes. Deputy Mayor Peria. Yes. Mayor Dorsy. Yes. All right. Next, we have uh what's this? Consent agenda
resolution. We have the uh what the fair share. Yeah, but that's okay. That's uh 25-174. It's endorsing a an ordinance endorsing the first fourth round housing element fair share plan adopted by the planning board last night on June 24th. Jack, you
can have the floor for a second. Sure. We're now in the fourth round of Mount Laurel. Uh the DCA fixed our obligation at 102 units at last night's meeting. The planning board adopted a housing element and fair share plan that
proposes to meet that obligation through the following mechanisms. Excuse me. One is the uh property of 44 Planefield Road which has already received approval from the board of adjustment to build 22 total units of which three will be
affordable. Uh the next major component of the fourth round uh is the car wash site uh 11:06 to 1122 Pali Road. The proposal is to build 167 total units there of which 33 will be affordable
which is a 20% set aside. Uh in addition we'll also get 16 bonuses bonus credits for that. So that will cover 49 units of our total of 102. Uh the third component is the excuse me the proposed assisted
living uh facility over by Walmart uh Walgreens. I'm sorry I do that all the time. Uh which will have 10 uh set aside units. Uh so we'll get 10. That brings us to 61 toward the 102.
Then we have Lounsbury which as I say is the gift that keeps on giving. has now given us a number of credits for four rounds, all four rounds. Uh we're getting a total of 23 credits in round four. And the last is we have a carryover from the Warren Avenue site
which was part of round three. Uh that brings us to the total of 10 113 actually. So we'll exceed our number. Uh procedurally this was adopted by the planning board last night. Uh the town committee now needs to endorse the
housing element fair share plan as adopted by the planning board. Uh if you do that then I will file this with the program as they call it now the successor to COA uh tomorrow. Uh and then uh we'll go from there.
I make a motion to endorse it. Second. Madame clerk Lavender. Yes. Deputy Mayor Peria. Yes. Mayor Dorsy. Yes. All right. Now, we have consent agenda resolutions 251 175 to 181. Anything? There's no uh
conflicts today. Correct. I don't see any. But Mr. Mayor, I'd like to remove 25 178. Okay. 178. That's okay. Yeah. Yes, I know. Oh, I'm sorry. Which
one? 17 178 the hire of a new DPW work. Got it. So that's being removed. That's being removed. All right. Anything else that needs to be discussed in here? No. All right. I make a motion to pass the consent agenda resolutions with the
exception of 25178 which will be removed. Second. Lavender. Yes. Deputy Mayor. Yes. Mayor Dorsy. Yes. All right. Let's go to the committee reports. Guy, we'll start with you today. Sure. Just uh one thing about
the first aid squad. Uh they they commenced their annual fund drive. You probably see it on the uh on the uh the board outside the First Aid Squad. Uh reminder, and I know I say this quite often, but it's worth repeating for what
a wonderful job that group does. They are 100% volunteer. And I I just had a conversation with somebody in work today about towns and a town he lives in. When I mentioned the first aid squad, he was shocked that uh that our first aid squad
is remains a 100% volunteer group. That's uh and they are averaging I don't know how this happens but roughly between 60 and 70 calls per month right on pace for that 750 number that they typically typically come in at. Uh so
please if you are in a position to do so, donate to these uh men and women and and and we've got a lot of younger folks that are coming along. They do an unbelievable job. Uh and they can use your help. That's the once a year they come out and they uh raise an annual
fee. Uh they I was going to say almost never, but it really is never come to this committee looking for anything. We almost have to strongarm them into taking anything. So, please uh if you are able uh donate to that annual fund
drive. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No problem. Scott, you got anything? Nothing here. All right. Um we'll start with the library update. Which Which one do you have slides for both? Which one's easier to pull up? Whatever one you pull up first, we'll start with.
All right. Library update. Library is open seven days a week basically till sun till this weekend. They'll be closed Sunday in July and August. They had a foam party last Saturday to celebrate the start of summer and the reading challenge. All ages uh can read
books and earn prizes. So even adults can join in this fun. Uh with the party and the heatwave, the library has been busy. We love it. Slide four. Ah, here we go. They're hosting a in conjunction with the Long Hill Moms Club a screening of the movie Chasing
Childhood, which explores parenting in the digital age, building on many of the themes explored in the bestseller book, The Anxious Generation. That's on June 30th. Uh they have story time every day of the week. It's uh in a free summer science lab on Thursdays at 4, plus lots
of other programs for kids, including magic, live animals, and dinos. Uh, look forward to story time at Sterling Lake. I believe this is new. And a library card registration table at Caner Park during the wonderful co summer concert series.
Free movies throughout July. We're going with an 007 theme in honor of the seventh month of the year. So, there's free movies. I don't know what date it is, but it's July. Check the library website. And finally, the adult programs are continuing, including author, history, and art talks. And some are in
person and some are on Zoom. So, check your local listings. Look like they're wreck. Well, one I could tell you about wreck. Tomorrow night is to kick off the summer concert series. Probably the most popular one we have. Parrot Beach will
be back. I believe that's 7 o'clock at the lake. It's on there. Okay. Summer rec camp started this week. Um campers had fun all around. The theme of this week was gone fishing. New this year, they're working with the Young Rem Brands to bring an elementary
drawing class to the town this summer. The program is meant for kids aged 6 to 12. It'll be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from July 8th to July 31st at the Old Schoolhouse. The program is $170. Registration's on community pass and class size is limited, so please
register early. Don't forget the Dog Days of Summer concert Thursday nights this summer. Uh you can dance your way through summer and have some ice cream, too. The Scream Chuck will be attending all the concerts this year. Uh so live music and ice cream. What can be better? The first
concert scheduled for tomorrow night at Sterling Lake. It's uh Jimmy Buffett Tribute Band. It's called Parrot Beach. And as I said, it's usually probably one of the most popular ones we've had and they come back every year. So thank you Parrot Beach. Family fun night at Caner Park. It's on
National Night Out August 5th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Come see all your emergency services groups and enjoy a free night of entertainment and it's fun for everybody. And as usual, the public service announcement. They're still picking up a
lot of water bottles on the fields. Um, and please just clean up your stuff. There's more garbage. You got you trip over the garbage cans. There's so many of them around the park. So, it doesn't take that much effort, guys. And if you're looking to get involved, you can join the wreck advisory committee. Um, obviously call or email for more information. You can check out the
website. I believe that's all I have, madame clerk. And now we go to the administrator's report. Thank you, mayor. Uh, I have a police report for the month of May. They responded to 2,858
calls for service. uh making a total year-to date 12,567. They had nine motor vehicle accidents with uh no injuries. Um during the month of May, they made 246 motor vehicle
stops and issued 104 summones and out of those uh four stops led to arrests. Uh we had uh multiple uh training going on as we do every single month. Um, one was some highlights for the month that the officers uh participated in. They were
involved with the uh um library bike parade. They gave a bike safety talk uh on May 30th. They also participated in field day at Central Middle School on May 30th also. So there they were out. The kids had a
great time with the officers and that's what we like to see. um uh officer in charge uh Chie Bella um is out of out of the state or out of uh town right now and she'll be back uh to work tomorrow.
Thank you. All right, so we have discussion items. Uh Jack's turn briefly. It's about the sidewalks. I think we mentioned at the last meeting or a couple meetings ago, and I believe this is talking about who's responsible for the maintenance and care of the sidewalks in town and shoveling and
things of that matter. Now, did did you want to did you wanna I I know this was uh council committee manza's um concerns. Did we I we could certainly talk about it. Um but I know he was very concerned about this. So, I don't know
if you wanted to hold off on it or or have the discussion and you'll probably have to have it again. I don't know where you guys want to go or not. When's the next meeting? July 16th. July 16th. July 16th. Yeah, we can wait. I guess let I have no
problem waiting. Unless you want to talk about him, we can wait till Vic comes up. What do you think? Yeah. No, it's his deal. Let's All right. Then we'll just wait till the next meeting and if he's not here, then we'll do it regardless. So, we'll add this to the agenda for the July. What date? 16th. 16th meeting. All right. So, we'll go back to sidewalks then. All right. Any
old or new business? Seeing none. Announcements. We have Parrot Beach tomorrow, 7 o'clock at the lake. Anything else? Any blood drives? Uh be December. All right. Don't forget to donate the the 12 the 12 baskets food
pantry. They need food all year, just not at the holidays. Rand, you got anything? You could always give blood, by the way. You don't have to wait till December. So, fair enough. I apolog. All right. The one in December is St. Vincent, but absolutely throughout the
year, if you can, please donate. All right. It's still bulk week this week. What zones haven't picked up? Four. Zones four and five. I think that's Thursday and Friday. If you have any bulk, now's your chance to put it out because they come back again this year. There's only one more this year. So, if
you have any bulk items, put them out this if you're in zone four or five today and tomorrow. All right. Open mic night. It's open three minutes to anybody member of the public that has anything they want to discuss. Oh, no. I thought you I thought you turned that
on. I did. Oh, hold on. Don't start. That wasn't even a half hour. You used them up here. You know, while while we're doing that, I just wanted to um mention I forgot to mention during my report um that you guys adopted a resolution for um donation of materials
to um DPW. Um Frank Liberado is here in the audience. So, I wanted to thank him for those the donation of those materials. Public works will use them. Just for background, Mr. Liberado sold I believe you sold your yard, correct?
Your property. uh one of our properties, one of his properties, they had some surplus equipment um and he donated to the DPW to use and according to Director Gallow, obviously the stuff will be used and needed by our town. So, it's something we don't need to buy. So, thank you, Frank.
How long those P this is the worst. And and while we're waiting for batteries, Phil get empty time here. The All-Star game is coming up early July, Major League Baseball. Why don't you sit right there? Have a seat.
Just this one time. Yeah, you can use the microphone right down the table. Just have a seat. Pull up a chair. Make yourself [Music] get Let him sit. Let him sit. You finally broke the plane after 3 years. There you go. Okay, you still got 3
minutes of your sitting or standing. Wait a minute now. She didn't start yet. We'll tell. Don't get too comfortable. Let's see if this works. Don't get too comfortable. There we go. Okay, go ahead. Charles of Renowitz Millington. Um, I've got kind of one educational
comment and then the second one's a just a question. The educational comment is for two of the members aren't here basically Mr. Vic and Aubrey, but one's for Scott too.
Just to remind you, I see on the agenda we talk about eminent domain. Just so you're aware, Scott, our last eminent domain didn't turn out so well. It was the courage property and I'm just pause. Why are you
educating me? because I wasn't on the committee the last time. Thank you. Okay. Yes. You can educate me. Yeah. Okay. You were here. So, what happened was we were going to buy the cursed property and we declared eminent domain and we came to settlement and whether we
go to court on the settlement and we decided we'll just take the settlement on the basis some of the attorneys. And then the property owner sued us and we paid another million dollars thereabouts for the property.
No, you're you're go ahead. It's not that's not exactly accurate. Go ahead. So originally uh we had a a a valuation done and I think it was 2.8 million and then it fell through for various reasons. When it came back it was 3.3
million. They wanted five million which was based on uh a contingent purchase they had uh with the developer named Craft. Um the problem they had there is we weren't going to give them what a developer was
going to give them and that deal fell through because of various reasons. They uh Craft didn't want to go through the uh um the variance process again. So, long story short, I think it ended up selling for 4.3 million. 500,000 of it
was a tax, something to do with property tax. Yeah. Is a tax that we would have owed them. So, we did pay about $500,000 through assessed, but what ended up happening is the um
the county re up their uh commitment from 2.3 to 2.8. So, our portion, which is typically 25%, ended up being more like 30 or 35%. But it wasn't uh settled by lawsuit. It was settled by agreement. Jack, you and
I were there in at the county. That's right. Pepper Hamilton handle handled it for the township. And what happens in condemnation is you can file a declaration of taking which gives you title for the property and the only issue remaining is the amount of compensation. So, so that's what
happened. uh was filed in in and right before it was going to go before the condemnation commissioners uh there was a proposed settlement uh that the cash committee agreed to but that's typical that you know and that was an important per Chuck I appreciate you bringing it
up that was an important purchase town bottom line is it ended up costing us more money than we thought y but that moment you know what's money you know what's taxpayers money the amount of their appraisal because what happens is the property owner goes out and hires
their own appraiser who's definitely going to come in higher because he knows who he is. Oh, that's right. I forgot their appraisal was about a million and a half higher than our apprais. Right. So, what happens normally is there's some kind of compromise in the middle because But understand something. Had they not purchased that property almost
certainly you'd have 300 units going. I understand that. But the bottom line, Scott, is we ended up paying more money than we originally thought. That's the bottom line. That's the communication. Here's the question. And my takeaway is we need to be very careful. Great. That's I want to make sure you're aware.
I got it. Okay. My question. Several months ago when we had some issues with the employment agreement with our public safety director and we got the county involved and then what duties were legal and weren't legal. I came before this
committee and said, you know, this employment agreement, whoever created it, one person or several individuals, and I listed who were the potential individuals were, I suggested that we hold those individual or individuals,
multiple accountable responsible for the position and embarrassment that they put this township in with this employment agreement. So my question is based upon my recommendation to you on this faulty
employment agreement, did we hold the bodies responsible for that employment agreement accountable? At this point, there's no agreement anymore. There was a resignation and it doesn't exist anymore. So, but it's causing us some problems as well as
you're aware with the current tort of action claim. So my question for you is where was the person or persons that developed that employment agreement for the public safety director held responsible and accountable for faulty
language? And I will turn that over to Mr. Pigeon. He might be one of the parties. Actually, I'm not uh No, no. We're dealing with it. It's an agreement that is no longer in effect.
Uh I don't know how to answer the question. The question is who created the document is causing us problems now in terms of a possible $2.5 million tour claim. So my question when you say it's dead, it's
that's the reason we're having a problem. A torque claim is a notice. It's not a lawsuit. I know. Okay. So there's really nothing to nothing to talk about. I I I think it was created by Mr. Peoples. The the the contract was voted on by the township committee. It
was voted on at a public meeting by the township committee. So the township committee created it and approved it. Wouldn't say the township didn't the township committee may not have created it, but it was approved by a vote of the township committee which you're you're
fully aware of. I mean it was it was approved. He was hired. So who created it? Mr. Peoples. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public? Mr. Liberado, I see you moving.
Do we give Frank equal time in the seat? And he's I can't follow Chuck's act. He was very calm. Very good today. He's well, very well behaved. Yes. Uh good evening, Frank Libero, Heritage Road. Um, so just a couple of quick
items. Um, any update on a timeline for selection of a chief? Rand, you want to give that? Um, yeah, we we're we're we started a process. Uh, the process, uh,
if I had to take an educated guess, and and this is an educated guess, I would say, uh, towards the end of the third quarter. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Um, next item. So, you were talking about solid
waste and you were saying that there might be potential significant increases when you go out to bid. Um, I know none of our surrounding towns do collection. I know like Summit does, Kennelorth, some of the municipalities in Union County. Is there any shared services
opportunities for collection or have we explored if we had our own trucks and expanded DPW? Sorry, I think we actually looked into that a couple before Randy was the administrator. We've looked into if if we did it, we'd probably need two trucks
in case one broke down, right? And then we need extra employees to do it. So, it might probably at the end of the day after buying two trucks and say had three or four employees, it could end up being more plus you have the tipping fees on top of it. Yeah. I mean, the reason why I asked because I've talked to a few municipalities similar our size. It was just funny. I had even
questioned them. I go, "Why do you guys still collect your own garbage?" And they said when they had run the numbers with the staff that they need for, you know, the amount of days that they do it, they have one truck and one backup like you said, and the backup's usually a used truck. They said they were
actually saving money, which I was, you know, it was two different municipalities. So, I was just curious if that's something we looked at by bidding it out or by house. They ran the numbers. I I will tell you one thing because I've had it in house in my career. They are not
accounting for workers comp cases. Yeah. No, I'm sure that's not I am sure they're not because my worst workers comp cases have been garbage related. Garbage related. Oh, yeah. Somebody slips under a truck, truck backs over back injuries. Yeah. So many different issues. Uh you deal. So yes, that was
not in the equation was in the conversation. Um next item was uh I saw the other day when I was going on Valley Road, I saw the senior van behind a tow truck again. And I know we had talked a couple years ago during one of the
election seasons about maybe leasing the seniors a newer vehicle that was more reliable to take them out of town. And when I saw it behind a tow truck, it popped into my head and I was just curious to see where you guys were at with that. We applied to the uh um county well
actually it's federal program uh for the uh community development block grants. Uh we were denied again this year. Um but it is part of our capital program this year. All right. Well, that's good. I mean, even even leasing something if you don't want, you know, if it's not a matter of
laying the cash out, we we are not we're not giving up hope. We have another uh meeting tomorrow morning for another grant possibility. So, we are, you know, we are uh actively looking for for um and and you know, I don't want to I'll
it's it's not just the the flat tire that they they they had other u mechanical issues that public works had to work on. So, yeah, I mean it looks it's a little older unit. So, as they get older, the maintenance starts to kill you and then it becomes a money pit. So, believe me, I know with my
fleet I I understand. Last question was um with all the heat we had the past couple of days. Um I was wondering do we have designated cooling centers in our town for seniors and people with issues like I was working in another town Monday and Tuesday and they actually
smaller town but they had like a community center that was open all day with air conditioning and and was staffed with somebody and and um you know do we have that to offer to Yeah, we actually use our library. So the library is so and they're open like all
you know they're open till uh 8:00 at night I think 9 9 they kick you out at 8:30 though they wouldn't kick you out yeah I was curious I didn't know if that was something where you put No we work with the library director on on a cooling uh on and uh you know our community services
director is aware of it and uh she's constant uh contact with seniors and everything. All right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Anybody else from the public? Anybody online? Anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand now.
Don't see anyone. Mayor, I will entertain any and all motions. I'll make a motion to close. Ajourn is the word. Yeah, that second. Second. All in favor? I thank you everybody. Good night, everybody. Stay cool. I didn't even have to go. Oh, sorry.