[Music] good evening everybody and welcome to the state of 26th March 26 2025 long hill township committee uh 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 thank you madame clerk in compliance of 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 egg of Sentinel Morris daily record wow there it is in compliance of the open public meetings after New 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 Echosinyl Morris daily record and posted on the Tang website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www.longhillnj.gov a public comment period will be held in the order is listed on the meeting agenda
committeeman Lavender here committeewoman Riker Elaine will not be joining us tonight committeeman Verza present deputy Mayor Persia present mayor Dorsy here all right so first thing we have a proclamation a lot of you are here for the first pro the only
proclamation so Nancy Mink where are you come on down [Applause] no do you want to go do it down there yes I can go down there where do I go wherever you want wherever
Matt tells you to go which one actually that one's best one we have I think did you put this one up this is the best one we have right here this one's better yeah it doesn't go for those of you who don't know or never went to the senior
center Nancy was the administrator for how long almost 10 years almost 10 years now i worked with Nancy because I'm the liazison so I dealt with her more than a lot of people do but I just like to thank Nancy we have a proclamation she's retiring as of what february 28th 22nd
22nd i'm sorry so um this is from Alice Brit wrote on behalf of the seniors nancy Mink our dedicated administrator was an indispensable pillar to our club and the broader community her unwavering commitment and tireless advocacy for the senior center and its members made a
profound impact on countless lives nancy was not only a leader but also a source of strength wisdom and compassion for all who knew her the seniors in the community at large relied on her for guidance support and a comforting presence her boundless kindness deep
knowledge and genuine empathy enriched the daily lives of everyone she touched leaving a lasting legacy of care dedication and love i also like to add Nancy at least from the township perspective was an asset for us she was a great liaison between town hall and the senior center um she was great in
coordinating outside resources for different um different people that would come in the nutrition program blood pressure screening the n visiting nurses association and and as as Alice said those people helped our seniors and anybody else that came in the community center on a weekly basis um and she
planned to help plan a lot of the trips that the seniors went on helped coordinate the busing things like that and worked in tirelessly with Shane our community services coordinator and for what a lot of people don't know is for the disadvantaged members of the community both of them would coordinate
helping them get rides or get their driveway shoveled out or help meals on wheels so a lot of these little things that don't go unnoticed made a huge difference in the lives of the seniors and other members of the community that went down to the senior center so Nancy we have a
proclamation i don't read the where's but it said uh uh the township of Long Hill is deeply indebted to the dedicated individuals who volunteer their time and talents to enrich our community uh Nancy is a resident of Long Hill has consistently demonstrated exceptional commitment and service to others through
unwavering dedication and advocacy especially for the senior citizens ny's bound boundless kindness deep knowledge and genuine concern and empathy towards others enriched the daily lives of everyone she touched uh NY's contributions providing guidance for
community resources direct aid and assistance to others organizing events fostering social connections significantly enhance the quality of life for our senior citizens and our community as a whole and obviously now it's proclaimed that on March 25th um we
hereby honor and recognize Nancy Mink for extraordinary contributions and thank her for her service so Nancy thank you [Applause] [Applause] [Laughter]
ready one two three do you want to get a picture with Yeah if you want the seniors come on up no come on come on up Alice come on up it's nice to see all of you here
come on i I know i know here's all your peeps oh my gosh come on Bill are they out there public service doing
the connections i might have to back up now [Music] facebook you know I don't kiss people so this is great news so we'll wait right here
look here my man ready one two three very nice [Applause] wow bill I see you got the announcement up there on the sign yes I did thank you
for mentioning it to me well thank you for letting us know just a matter of getting the resources out at least notify him what's your phone number uh 908 what do we have next
oh the boot oh ready you need a different mic megan will bring another microphone yeah you just put it right back you want to stand all right all right next on the agenda is Joe the
Vouch VOC he will be discussing um the the vouch V he will be discussing uh the Mars County flood map which they recently changed and more interesting the Central Park um vision for what we might design behind Walgreens with
Central Park we've talked about for many years so Joe it's all yours thank you uh apologize to the public my back's going to be to you so I can present from the screen um so I am the township engineer Joe V i'm also the board's engineer last
couple years for those that hadn't met me um so briefly we're going to start um with a quick discussion of the FEMA draft flood map so FEMA is in the process of updating the flood maps they do this by
county um and that effort had uh had occurred 2016 with preliminary maps in Morris County and then was stalled out uh and never came to uh promulgation of the the maps the adoption of the maps um so we currently on on the screen we have
our current um FEMA flood plane map which is a 20 thou early 2000s map um the the darker areas are the existing FEMA flood plane and then the white areas being areas that appear to be
unregulated um but when we zoom in on them we see that there are some areas notably zone X which is essentially 500year or greater floods that are are present in some of that upland areas that we traditionally see on the map as
not regulated um FEMA had has worked through the county to issue draft maps and these these maps were published made available through the county uh and and then uh meetings were held with all of the administrators and engineers in in
the county um that public release notice was issued by the county uh back in mid January and then it was copied to our township website so this is what it looks like on our township website currently it is the exact press
release from Morris County and it is um on our website in the news archives currently what we're going to do is we're going to republish that to the top of the page so that residents can quickly access this this press release and in it you'll follow right here in the middle of the screen the online
viewer link following that link is going to bring us to uh GIS dynamic mapping system online um and so you'll have over on the left hand side a tutorial on the user guide for the map and what some of the icons
mean to help you uh get through the quick learning curve uh and then the opportunity here obviously we see the full extents of of Morris County and we can quickly zoom in identifying on the great swamp and down to our municipality
with the yellow boundary um and so what we see here on the map we see uh shading of of blue and then a brown shading as well and um which is representative of the 100year
in blue and the 500year in in brown uh along the river itself we'll see a delineation of the flood plane uh the flood way of the river which is the more critical um port part of the river where the flooding the flood storage is held
and the primary amounts of the flow are then conveyed through the larger larger profile of the Pak River as it navigates around our municipality um now in this map what we see on the viewer in default is the draft map
that's being presented by FEMA through the county and down to the municipalities um over on the layers on the right side we have the opportunity to drill down and and actually get this map that I brought up
before our current map is only in the static form so there is a digitized version that has been made available into the GIS system and you'll have to navigate through the counties
layers and all the way to the bottom of that list of layers you'll see some you'll see some information on preliminary maps with 2016 dates you'll skip over those those those maps were never never advanced past preliminary and they've been superseded by the
current modeling um and so we get down to the bottom and we see Morris County core logic base flood elevations and flood hazard zones if we turn on the flood hazard zones again core logic flood hazard
zones we'll see another layer in blue come on and that layer in blue is the digitized representation best fit of where our map our current map shows the flood plane now that flood plane
being the dark areas on on this printed map so that's the 100redyear flood limit the zone A in the FEMA map um and we can you know we could look at areas this is probably one of the
more significant areas of change is on the southern end of the great swamp as we look at properties that were you know in this blue area of shading that was where the flood plane was anticipated to be and now we see a receding of the
flood line now it's important to understand that that that receding of the flood line is not representing a change in elevation of the flood uh it's more representative of better data in lidar which is uh over like flown over
aerial topography so we have better more accurate data of what the ground topology actually is in those areas and so in these areas which are predominantly wooded and and wetland habitats undeveloped we have the ability
to um to pull back and have a more accurate mapping now as we go around the Pak River through our municipality we'll see there's a lot of similarity between the prior areas and the new areas now up in
this northern corner near Whitebridge right Lord Sterling and Whitebridge and down through Carlton um as we come into the the river here we see again some differences in the flooding the flood map now that difference is again representative of
just the change in accuracy of elevations the original map um the current map 2001 is in an old datim from 1929 the current maps are published in a more
modern late 80s datim and that reflects a change in in sea uh sea rise right so the mean elevation of sea level has risen and so as it rises from zero to in our state is roughly 0.9 to 1.1 ft so we
average at one that one foot increase translates to a lower number on the FEMA elevation of flooding right so what was what was seen as say here 229 elevation of the of the 100red-year flood that 229
you'll correspond to the prior map and it'll it'll appear as a difference of one foot in elevation but it is in fact the same the same point in the same elevation it's just in two different datmss so we're in the more current datim now um so if you're comparing the
two maps and you see a difference in elevation that drop in the number is representative to sea level going from what was zero to what used to be one and is now one now zero um so you can dynamically interact with
this map online this map viewer go around the municipality and see these kinds of differences and how they may affect your area again these are best fit mapping approximations the most critical part of this mapping is
identifying at different cross-sections what the elevation of the 100red-year flood is and so as you go through the municipality and you come down river you'll find that those those cross-sections are
going to change and more commonly you'll see numbers in the 213 214 range um if if I turn off in this area in the southeast southwest corner of the municipality I turn off the prior
mapping and I turn it back on here you'll be able to see that there's not a lot of change in the in the in the map presentation and that's because all we're doing is refining the accuracy now that's all trusted back through to the
methodology and the routing through the models that FEMA did so they have better more accurate information that's reinforcing that the the flood plane was the accurate flood plane it was the hundred-year it still is the 100redyear um but they're able to better define the
exact limits of it to give people a better first approximation anyone's property who's in this mapped area or is tangential to it in in immediacy to it you whenever you're doing a project for construction you're still going to have
to do your due diligence at the state level you're still going to have to have a complete survey identify on that survey exactly where that elevation of the flood plane is and then approach D about flood hazard area um permits that might be
required the this is the FEMA's map FEMA's map and this map is for the purpose of insurance so it's it's about repetitive loss and replacement of loss and protection of private property so this is it's important to understand that this this is a hundred-year flood
for that purpose and specifically backing mortgages in the area right in the flood plan that doesn't translate to the same health and safety concern at the state and our state in the last two years promagated a rule for inland flood protection that where the prior rule
used to add one foot to the FEMA flood mapping they now add three so there's a translation between where this map falls and if you're doing a construction project developers in our town or residents that are doing improvements to their property are going to have to look
at if you're in proximity to this it's important to know what elevations are on your property that might affect your ability to obtain or require you obtaining a permit from the state joe can I ask you a question yes and so that's the they're basically building in
a buffer correct so well so it's layering in what the state has determined to be um an increase risk from what we've seen in in
the trends of uh climate change and and others so the intensities of rains there's been a lot of studies that went into the inland flood protection rules many of them out of Ruckers and studying the the rainfall data the intensity of those storms the duration of the storms and what they found is that they're
seeing more frequency of highintensity storms and that translates to quicker and faster rainfall and then the water getting into the system to flood so so if I could rephrase that then they're anticipating the need for this buffer for the future yes so part of that flood
rule was to look out to as far as 2100 year 2100 and plan for current modeling and future modeling to be able to plan development over that life cycle so that we're not continually promagating new changes in the rule and new elevations
to the map and then second question and so this map is based on what satellite data yes LAR um satellite data for the topography available a lot of it's available in two foot contours some of it's in higher accuracy when when uh the
federal government gets involved and then how were how were the previous maps done um a lot of that was done with early flyover technology it wouldn't have been to the same kinds of level of accuracy we're talking about like you know laser accuracy as opposed to flying
and shooting steady points um there was also whatever available mapping was able to be compiled during those prior studies and then in the river they would have detailed a riverine study so so if I think what I hear you saying and you
can correct me if I'm wrong this map does not represent a material change correct in the flood plane it's just a different representation of more accurate data yes um and the standards going forward will
be to build in a buffer to accommodate an anticipated change if that happens over the next 75 years right from the state's perspective and the NJACT rules that have been being promagated and where I'm going with this is I don't think residents really need to be afraid
that there's big changes here that we're going to get flooded out other than what we're already familiar with correct yeah i mean what what we know and as flooding in our municipality is what we anticipate it's what the model is
bearing out that the same the same model run differently now as opposed to in the 90s that promagated those maps um we're seeing it vetting out to the same the same impacts with greater level of accuracy of understanding where exactly
the flood way is the most critical areas of flood risk and then the 100redyear as well as really I think the best the best thing to take out of this map is the 500year that's that brown area and so if we look at say down into
Sterling and I'll bring up well you could even see it with with turning on and off the old map and it's more evident on the paper map mhm right this this area on the map this area on the map is is actually
designated zone X which is which is the 500year flood but it appears on the map as if it's not regulated and the map now better shows what the 500year areas are and these are areas that we would see when there's a high-intensity storm
around a 100redy year we might see some flooding in that area and then it recedes more quickly and the other areas in blue would be more permanent um so it's important to to see those brown layers in the map and understand that those areas are areas for example at Valley Mall we're maybe familiar with
that flood limit extending into the parking lots more at other times when we have some of those heavy intense rainfalls so this will seem like maybe an ignorant question but I'm sure others are thinking has there ever been any evidence of a 500year flood in those
areas um so 100 500 years floods they're they're they're theoretical floods like the what we call design floods right we we look at them at a certain distribution what we see is evidence out out in in our communities is we see
what's closer to more than five more than 100year storm that may actually have rainfall that equated in volume or intensity to less than 100 year and it's because of the way it distributes the way it then collects and so part of the
reason for the inland flood protection rules being promagated is not only the change in climate that we're seeing a change in the precipitation and the intensity and the frequency but also that as we develop our communities we have infrastructure that has to be able
to drain freely out to those locations and some of the errors made in policym over the decades and I I'll say this because it comes from many of my predecessors not directly me um is that we we didn't listen to the engineers
talking about volume control in the 80s we didn't we didn't listen to our state at the state level of how to promagate rules that address development across the entire state so that essentially what we've done is we've created storm water rules that allow that hold back
the water but everybody's holding it back for the same amount of time and releasing it at the same time so in a way it can propagate an extension of the flood plane maintaining itself for longer as opposed to disposing of itself and so those are some of the things that
get worked into the newer regs over the last decade and we're still working on getting to a better solution but that's why when you're familiar with the map and you're familiar with your neighborhood and you know that it floods further than that map that's that difference that difference is the
actuality of how it's draining out more than what's coming down got it thank you so that would conclude my brief presentation on the flood hazard area maps i will quickly transition here over
to Central Park so so Central Park um has been a topic conversation in planning for a number of years now predated me as your municipal engineer and it went back uh a good almost 10 years with with Ferraro and
what is now Boswell Engineering um through those efforts there was an opportunity to create a passive recreation trail um a nature trail right through our central pro property it has access from the corner out in front of
our our facility here at at Valley and and Morristown pedestrian access from that corner in the intersection and then also always contemplating access through the property itself and what would more traditionally be known by most as behind
the the existing dormant garage that's on Valley Road and and adjacent to the Walgreens property um and so what we're looking at here on the screen is a fully designed set of
plans that has permits from uh freshwater wetlands and flood hazard area um and for riparian disturbances from the state as well as then uh approvals that are pending right now at soil conservation district that should be out
in a few days and uh county endorsement for completing the planning efforts of what was our Morris County Trails planning grant um that was a grant that was a essentially a 20 20% match grant
that was able to fund the design and permitting of this site getting us to the point of being bid ready now the the county grant process is two-pronged there's an opportunity to get money for soft costs your engineering and design and then there's an opportunity to get
construction costs covered and those construction costs have to be shovel ready so you need to they they encourage you to use this process the way we have submit the first grant work through and minimize your soft costs get to a point
of being shovel ready and then they can they can endorse closing out the first grant and having you apply into the second grant program we're perfectly aligned right now in timing that we're coming out of that closeout with the county working right with the program
manager and closing out that grant and they're fully endorsing us to step into the letter of intent which is for um the the first week of April and so we're we actually I tenatively have a a brief call with the program manager for uh the
end of this week we just haven't penciled it in on what time on Friday and from there uh we'll be transitioning right into the letter of intent for the end of ne the end of um what is it april 4th the Friday yeah April 4th the end of
next week uh and then from there we have a an opportunity to then prepare the complete application and submit for the grant for the construction of this project joe what's the uh what's the distance on that loop trail if one were to hike it um it is
Looking for a length here there's the stations on it so we're at about 4,500 ft so just under a mile and then where would the trail heads now that's that's the total length of trail if we're down into the loop we're
probably in probably the 2/ird of a mile range so if if you do that loop through through the area down there and and where would the trail heads be so the trail head would be accessible from the the ADA ramps on the corner at the signalized
intersection right out front here and this is the corner of Valley and Morstown and then that'll bring you into a break in the trail here for the loop and then um there's a system of essentially nature trails with some some
small bridges over open water areas um and some opportunity for signage to uh provide education for those walking through the area understanding the habitat and that's like a wood chip trail yeah right um and
and then you're going to have some boardwalk and and kind of bridge sections very small and then that all comes out as you go north um sorry west you then come out of the regulated areas
on a spur that brings us up into the top corner of Central Park and so the the intent is to have a trail head here that can be an access point from potentially greater project for
active recreation where that Joe thank you that ending part where you're pointing at right now is that railroad or where where is that no no no so the power lines out here okay and the railroad no I'm Railroad Avenue oh yeah
and um and so this is this is the Walgreens oh okay right here that's the parking lot of the Walgreens this is the intersection coming in and then this is what probably people are familiar with the path that went through the undisturbed part on that site um and
this is where currently the CSH uh senior living has an approval for a facility at that location um and a easement is obligated under uh under the conditions of their approval to be provided to the township which would be
right here to provide access into this this future park so we can access directly from a signalized intersection as opposed to from a driveway on Valley Road would you mind Joe trying to outline a little bit the the dry area
the area that can be developed which I believe is around eight acres yeah so what I could do real quick here is So this right here where my my cursor is is a wetland line mhm and then this is a
transition area that I'm going to kind of see if I could roughly got the area that is what I would traditionally call the uplands the unregulated areas is that roughly eight eight acres or change
um it probably is right around there yeah um I I haven't looked at quantifying that exactly but it's going to be in a in that ballpark over six acres um so so the intent of this first phase what I'm calling first phase of Central
Park is to get through that prior planned project get it constructed now the grant cycle would give us an award at the end of September October would be the awards announced and then in December we would have our grant agreement in place so
from that point in December early December we'd be able to take this right off the shelves it's bid ready put it to notice put it out to bid in the winter and then be able to be prepared for construction you know obviously with the endorsement of the grant to you know to
to have the funding um go out to construction next calendar year be able to complete this trail system have this open to the public as an amenity next year so kind of from the moment we're speaking right now one year yeah pretty
much and what what's construction time um 60 days or so a month or two really um it depends on how fast a contractor can mobilize and get out there that's why what we'd love to do is bid over the winter have a contact contractor that's already queued up in February that wants
to get out there in a soft winter and start clearing and mobilizing and then it's really about just getting in there and getting it done it it's all you know it's all accessed by the equipment and smaller vehicles to get through the trail they have to build it in front of them so to speak do you have you have to wait for like a dry season to get in
there uh you're going to need some reliable dryness yeah uh so if they can get in they can start mobilizing setting themselves up in Central Park at the west end and then cutting themselves in from the other end um then they can get to a point of getting some progress
before they get to the point that they have to depend on the dryness so best case maybe June we could be walking on it worst case the fall yeah i think in the summer we could be opening it and then in the fall we can have it as depending on the depending on the weather and the rain exactly yep joe can
you explain why it would have to be wood chips in most places and then of course an elevated wood or walk as opposed to Macadam so most of this this system is in regulated areas so we we you know we can't we
can't be introducing asphalts that have the potential of contaminants that are going to come out of that oil product sheen and introducing them into habitats right and we could be creating um detriments to the habitat in the area so we have a natural stale trail system
that's what is endorsed by the county for these trail grants and they have uh a very in-depth process where they make recommendations for consistency of all the grants that they give that go to construction so what you see in our municipality is going to be very similar to what you see in my municipality i'm
in Randolph we have an extensive trail network we've used this program a number of times through the same engineer Mr ferrar your former engineer for a lot of those projects um and all of us that work in the county we're familiar with
these these requirements and this consistency of this natural trail system how difficult is it to maintain a natural trail i mean it's going to be um it's going to be an effort in terms of replenishment so it's it's going to be
essentially by G let the record show out shaking his hand yeah let the record show that no problem is is crushed if you guys want to work an extra gator or two into the budget for a couple years out that might not be a bad idea is crushed gravel permitted or not um to some
extent when you're out of the regulated areas you're going to have like a more compacted and more and some of that could we're going to see that at the top of the trail head probably um but as you get down through this system it's really about cutting and blazing a path and
then keeping it clear and having some level of um back fill and placement of material that can that can stabilize and pack in boy Scout project well it does it very often becomes an Eagle Scout project for maintenance in
future decades that would be great does it is it a little bit determined by the county that it's wood chips or Yeah yeah i mean there are there are cross-section requ I'm not trying to ambush you here but the the county park uh over in
Warren and Wong uh is massive for the first time I went over there uh but they have madam in many places throughout that and that looks like a wet area as well uh it most of the more open active recreation areas or like of the park
where it's more manicured and things than um it's more acceptable but if if you're out into the woods and traditionally the count the county requires pre-application meetings they require you attend their workshops and the point of that is to show you the
details that they know work and they know work at a certain price point so that they can have designs that come to them to get grants that reliably are going to be built with money that's a good use of their funds a good return on their investment so they want consistency of that cross-section of the
trail same with you know the uh educational features those that signage those packages those are things that they complement over to us to use as opposed to letting us all find it on our own right because there's plenty of consulting engineers that do what I do in this area um and all of us are going
to be representing our municipalities to get these grants so they want to make sure that we're all certain level of consistency of return on investment thank you um so from there I'll transition over to phase two a active recreation
preliminary concept so this concept here is something that my office worked on uh with our recreation department as well as our open space committee um and this is a vision for active
recreation on what we were just discussing the upland areas of the site um now you can see what I I've laid in at the top of the screen here is is the the site plan from that approval at CSH Senior Living and right here where my
cursor is you see the you see the proposed access that would be granted as part of their site plan and then um once they perfect their approvals um and there's a retaining wall system of a few feet along our our boundary
with that property um so the the vision here is to have a parking lot at the entrance free flow and the opportunity for um what we we're showing is is close to 80 parking spaces with a drop a
turnaround area for circulation of that heavy turnover that we see in programming right whether people are coming on and off the fields every 90 minutes two hours dropping off for different teams and the ability to circulate out and with equipment and then go park so that the kids are on
this the fields on time um and we have some accommodations preliminarily for storm water management because once we do these improvements we're going to have storm water to detain and we're going to have to treat you know water quality treatments on what comes off the
the roadways um the programming overall um has been prepared in this preliminary concept based on what we've seen in recreational surveys over the last um five to eight years of what's working
what's not working where there's a need where where there's a draw of uh people to different things so um specifically we see some of this introduction of pickle ball right we had successful pickle ball system down at Myersville the opportunity to try to expand that
with some courts over at this facility uh providing additional opportunities for basketball because that's something that's um easily created as a pickup opportunity for a lot of kids that are over there maybe older kids while they're while they're their younger siblings are on the field for another
programming um we have a fieldhouse with restrooms and some storage and then a turf field this this darker area is the limits of the astroturf or I guess what you just call synthetic turf nowadays i
guess that that term dates me um uh so uh what we have is the footprint of a full-size soccer field now it's hard to see with all the layering over top right but we have a full-size soccer field under there so that's a 330 by 195
that's um sufficient for any level of soccer in our state it's shy of maybe um couple of high-end programs that feed the US the US national team through Carne and some of our other our other staple areas in the state um they they traditionally like to go a little wider
than 200 um but this is full size the ability to have a full complement soccer field there the programming over top of that is the short-sided three fields right for the the uh younger training as they work up through the systems uh and
then we have the opportunity to have overlay of baseball so we have what we have here is a proposed like the for the 46 right and 60 and a 5070 overlay so we have what you would call like more like
the Babe Ruth level and the pony level overlaying on top of each other it's a system that does work i've done it in other municipalities um an opportunity to have flexibility of that programming um and what you wind up with there is a portable mound opportunity to be able to
move that mound around and with that you can you can coordinate softball as well with that same lower size right for that that Babe Ruth level Cal Ripken level what would you do for uh fence so
fencing um it can be both it can be either open right using the natural grades and the break off the field out on this this outer edge is going to be a pretty clean edge to the natural areas or then portable fence
systems so there are sectionable fences that can go up and be sandbagged uh or even uh post stansions that go in through plugging through the field and then there are plug caps that go in those so that you can have seamless play
over them without knowing that they're in those locations they essentially have little orange grass markers at those points so that you know where to pull them from and set the posts um and those are the kinds of things that you know when we look at a property
like this to make an investment in a recreational complex for active wreck on this magnitude you're you're talking about a a mid six or mid seven figure number right so you're talking in the millions that investment can sway very
significantly by over a million in either direction based on how much we need and then how much we desire right and one of the best ways to approach these types of projects is to
identify what we need in core for recreational programming get that built as an early phase and then we can supplement the facility over time with other amenities right so you can get the fields you can get the courts in and be able to utilize
them with the parking and then you have the options of determining when you want to bring the fieldhouse in or if you need the bathrooms right away with the fieldhouse storage you can add um batting cage areas right near and other
amenities you can have uh removable stands uh benches other amenities that go with the facility can all be or for example the the fence can be an open fence now and then within year a few
years you're planning for installing it so you're you're planting the posts but you're not investing in the rest of that until later so it gives you an opportunity to get to the point of activating a little earlier and then continuing to invest over a little bit
further time to find other grant opportunities to find the other amenities as a former well I used to play baseball i'm looking at that and saying you hit a ball into the gap in right center it's a home run every time that's not really uh where I was going with that you were you fast enough to
Willie Maze Hayes it you don't I had a couple of those in my career no you don't have to be that fast once the ball hits a astro turf field it's gone the county the county open space program does uh allow for funding for
construction of fields which sounds counterintuitive but I was on the open space when they transitioned to that so so we have county open space we have um opportunities through state open space right but anytime you're going through
those programs we have to be mindful that they all come with conditions so if a propertyy's on your Rossi Mhm right you qualify to get into that but what does being on the Rossi means it means it's there in perpetuity now when you're making substantial investment into recreational con facilities that's
that's a conversation it's a conversation we have to have but those dollars come with certain things now fair enough whether it's in perpetuity or not that that might not be the question the concern may be more that when you take money from the county you take money from the state you open
yourself up to being obligated to issuing permits to people from outside our community and and and right and counter to that is what we've learned and our recreation director Lisa Scan is right here and she could speak to that if if somebody wanted to hear it do so the field that was built back here has
become and we thought it might and it most certainly has become a revenue generator yes so to your point you don't have to do everything right out of the gate you could provide generate rental income as as time went
on and then build the clubhouse and in fact avoid what you just described if you took county money or you took state money yes absolutely what was the reason for the synthetic field um it's I mean it's it's the trend it's what everybody's playing on and it's
what all the all the athletes elevate to that are looking to aspire to higher things so um there's a certain cost of that improvement there's a certain maintenance to that but what you'll find is when you're trying to do programming and you're trying to generate revenue
with permits um people are going to be biased to look for those types of facilities they're going to be looking for them first before they find other facilities and so unless you can provide you know the the natural turf at
Arizona Cardinal Stadium that comes out and gets perfect sunshine like it's in Europe on a soccer pitch in you know Champions League then you're going to have people comparing those natural facilities to a more guaranteed ability to play well and and so you've got wet
seasons you've got the ability to drain right through and get right to playing within a few hours that increases your programming allows you to make sure you get all your programming in on the air um and so it pays for itself in that way yeah and as athletes are going to progress with you know from they want to
play on it it's not that they want to play when they to compete whether it's from you know the younger ages into high school and into college field hockey lacrosse and soccer must be played on turf fields i mean I otherwise they're not going to be competitive with uh
athletes from other other areas i I can't think in 20 plus years I haven't seen somebody play field hockey on the natural field right and that's a and and that those those sports in particular are wonderful uh for young girls uh because that's
where the scholarships are in those in those sports in addition to basketball and so we see the game plays differently on that turf and because of that and that's where they're playing in college if they are elevating to those levels and they're being considered they they
they're looking to play in programs that give them that opportunity when they're younger because it's a faster game um so you know the intent of this is to get this out as something that as a point of our planning our steps in our planning understanding this is where
we're at it's very preliminary we're looking at really understanding what we want to invest in starting to get to some consensus on that and then starting to prepare ourselves to plan financially for it and um into opportunities for you know the planning and engineering grants
and I think I heard you say you you worked with the recreation department Lisa Scandlin and others so there there's some thought put into this this isn't just you every piece of programming that's proposed here is based on what we knew originally was a
need for synthetic turf and as much multi-use flexibility on that because we see the success that we have at cont caner on that is there bleachers there or even portable bleach well that's what we would likely propose is is to have you know portable bleachers so we look at inventory of what we have what we
need to replace and if we need to make investments and things at other facilities we could do it in bulk and do it right and that's some of that what I was talking about is if we have a couple and we can get things going but then we plan for how many more we want it doesn't have to be part of the early construction it could be what comes in
that first year after or the next year on the multi-purpose field yes mic i think I got this one on the multi-purpose field we had discussed the possibility of football we So it's it's still something that can fit on the
footprint um same with you know if we we need it for lacrosse and field hockey like we just mentioned right um we see it out out here right we we see that there's a lot of lines a lot of different colors
doesn't confuse the athletes it works right these the people that build these fields they're pros at it they know what colors to put down for what um the the footprint of a soccer field is what you work with full size because it's the largest it's the reason that right if
you if you look at the way that they were playing some of these national tournaments and they were playing hosting them here in America and what they're looking to do for the World Cup they're looking to modify football stadiums pro football stadiums figure out how to get more width to the pitch for soccer so when you work with that
wide footprint and long footprint you can do just about anything you want on it and specifically when it comes to football you can you can do one-sided goalpost right where you kick to one end and and you flip for that purpose of when you're kicking or you can have the
two and and again it's a sleeve system it's a system that you you locate where it's going to be and it's something that's removable so even if it's on one end of the field it can be removed out and put into storage so that during other seasons there is no conflict with that structure same with foul poles for
baseball down the line that might be in the way of you know the the footprint of soccer or something else also we discussed phases yes right so the first phase is the trails and we'll get those started right away and now
then afterwards we're looking to hit the other phases not in 10 years but we want to get it done in three maximum of four years having a uh trying to minimize you know what the township has to come out of pocket so we're looking to get grants
for phase we phase one is the is the trails then we have phase two hoping to put the large multi-purpose field uh and parking in right then we have phase three the basketball and um uh the basketball and pickle ball pa phase four
might be the lighting and the the um the um the stand you know the stand for for Yeah for storage so we're looking to do it in phases so that we can get grants to keep the project moving along yeah so the phase we're in
right now right is going to be dedicate to looking for grant opportunities for planning and design planning design any permitting that would go along with it right get into the generative process of planning out what we want those phases to each have
and where those lines are so we could price out different things and we can have a design package that basically we're designing it out in full and then we're perfecting the later phases later but we're ready to roll with each phase and the key to that is one you get the
planning and design grants so you reduce your soft costs out of pocket and then from there you're continually identifying the grants for construction uh and so that grant process is going to be ongoing from right now all the way through the end of these the the
facilities being built but the early efforts now in the next 18 months of finding the grants and starting the plan and design is what's going to get you to a position to have basically like we have on this other first project we have
bid specs we have a complete design it's approved we're ready to go and we're securing that funding so we can hit the ground running and then the final question that I had was we had uh a bunch of us in the open space and Lisa we had to discuss the possibility of an
amphitheater that there might be a natural layout of the land for an amphitheater what what are your thoughts on that so so the the original thoughts on that were that it would be somewhere into this eastern area down into the regulated areas and when you get into
those regulated areas um you it it becomes very dependent on D's permissions and their permits um we took a preliminary look at that and it didn't seem as feasible as originally desired okay um what we
would look at in future planning now would be is there an opportunity to find a place on this site to have something more of maybe a band shell or something that's not as naturally cut into the landscape but something that could be more of an improvement at a location
that's appropriately situated right um and that you know if it fits here or if it's a more better complement for a revision over here at Canton and and that's I think where we're going to go with with that opportunity is figuring out if it could
be done in the upland area or if it may be better suited for another vision here cool all right thank you BCH thank you you're welcome thank you thank you Joe all right moving on we have What are we down there consent
resolution ordinances ordinances sorry sorry ordinances here we go space Joe thank you yes thank you Open Space and thank you Open Space all right so now we have uh ordinance
565-25 it's a first reading it's an ordinance amending uh land use ordinance regarding fences basically from what I've been told is that the planning board spent a lot of time discussing this and basically they're matching the current fence ordinance to match that in the master plan and nothing really
changes correct Jack yeah that's pretty much okay so can I have a motion to introduce and pass ordinance 565-25 on the first reading thank you second committee Lavender yes committeeman Verza yes deputy Mayor Perio yes mayor
Dorsy yes next just residential home oh 566-25 another one for the first reading it's an ordinance amending the township code um regarding ground and wall signs pertaining to residential home office uses uh can I have a motion to introduce this
ordinance on the first reading some of second committeeman Lavender yes committeeman Verza yes deputy Mayor Peria yes mayor Dorsy yes all right this is second reading for adoption 564-25 basically an ordinance um naming
the town administrator the appropriate authority for the police department uh this is second reading so uh anybody from the public have any questions comments or concerns is there anybody online by the way okay
charles Renowitz Millington I was under the impression based on the precedent that was set several minutes ago that when we voted on ordinances we had to have everyone here because there was a 2 to2 vote several months back so I don't know if we're going to vote on this
because of the precedent you set several meetings ago that's a question oh I I plan on voting on it tonight moving forward it's gone on long enough can I question go ahead would the mayor be within his uh privilege to take a straw
vote before to make sure it would not result in a 22 vote he he could ask people yeah sure so we could so we would know we would be able to gauge whether it's going to be a 22 that's correct perfect you haven't answered my question yet
i thought we set the precedent that we wouldn't vote on an ordinance unless we had full membership no we didn't set a precedent that just happened that one instant we never said this is how it's going to be going forward it just happened whatever it was a month and a half ago okay so you're going to vote on this
tonight no matter what you did in the past correct okay comment on this this ordinance or this this second reading this is in full agreement with the MR report and the assessment done by
Robert Falseran we spent enough time going through this and debating it changing it going back and forth listen to your professionals that you all said we needed to hire because we don't know how
to manage and run a police department there's no reason why this shouldn't be passed tonight five to zero if you listen to the Cuz I want five who's not here given this I can't get it i'll take
four okay i'll take four i'll vote i got to move town first all you need is three yeah so the point is your professionals you spent money on advise
you to do this we've been running around trying to change it back to where it was causing confusion within the police department you need to pass this for nothing tonight listen to your professionals you spent our money on to
advise you it's that simple as our president has said let's use some common sense here thank you very much thank you thank you Chuck anybody else in the audience mr tomb are you coming up i'm coming up
thank you while we're whitewaiting his walk up is there anybody online with their hand raised if anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now thank you all right Mr tuma all right i just wrote down uh Craig
Tuma referring to um 1012 Valley Road uh where it currently operates as a funeral home um obviously this new project and I'm I'm going to We're only on the ordinance now you have to wait till ah
anybody online madam clerk Maryanne Nunan would like to speak on this topic go ahead hello everyone good evening can we just We hear you maryanne go ahead can we just please vote on this resolution yes and move
forward um I am so impressed with the last spokesperson um I I've been taking notes like crazy because it pertains to a lot of things I'm involved in um but that was one of the most
sophisticated presentations I have seen in a long time um well we're only talk No we're only No no Mary i I told Craig we're only talking about the ordinance about the appropriate authority that is but I want
to give him credit he's blushing all right you made his day he did an awesome job okay and we all know what we're facing and let's just approve this resolution we're talking
about okay thank you bye thank you thank you anybody else online anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now i don't see anyone mayor all right seeing none um have a motion to adopt
the order so move Mr mayor second all right all right madame clerk yes committeeman Lavender yes committeeman Verza this is Yes right to make sure Randy administrator that is yes never hurts to verify yes whatever deputy
Mayor Perertia yes mayor Dorson yes moving on you got you got four nothing it's the best I can get for you tonight well Joe how would you vote if I was to vote I might just have to abstain
wise man all right now we're going to the consent agenda resolutions we have one to add which the clerk will just uh there's Yeah there's three you said no we have to add um a commitment to fund a match to Morris County Historic
Preservation Grant um uh so that will be 25-102 and I have a copy of it here if anyone would like to see it before voting on it that' be 25 106 no you have it on on I have it oh okay
because I was able to add it to the one that I printed out for you guys before right so that would be 25105 correct correct right no did you want to add the other one or Yeah do after discussion okay after discussion
oh what 106 106 you add 106 to that one which you have it listed on the uh you're talking about after the discussion item yes okay so you want to add um resolution
25-106 which is the mayoral appointment of James Maresky as the emergency management coordinator as well yes okay and the details is the appointment is for a three-year term effective tomorrow uh what is it 327 2025 for three years
at an annual stipen of 5,000 shall be prrated for the balance of 2025 uh the duties performed shall be set forth in NJSA app A9-4 and section 2-36.2 of the township code
yeah yes that one and just just so people know the previous stipens always been $10,000 so we saved $5,000 with this okay so we're going to add that to the Yes consent agenda is there anything else on the consent agenda that anybody needs to abstain from or discuss outside of that
seeing none what number was the one you just read 106 106 okay so 93 to Looking for a motion Mr may yeah sure so moved thank you second please
committee Lavender yes committeeman VZA yes deputy Mayor Peter mayor Dorsy yes all right we're going to do some quick committee reports uh let's start let's start on the right this time scott go ahead yeah okay um so first off planning board we're going to
have a discussion in a little bit about the uh state cross plan acceptance um document uh that uh they're going to um submit um second um board of health so we had a meeting of that ad hoc
committee um you know myself uh Dr redling uh Shane Dailyaly Maryanne Nunan um and we talked about uh you know really starting to make a list of things that we wanted to uh improve upon which are primarily related to communication
and so you know we had a list of items that came from that i sent a note to Dan Alen uh because he had he's running the digital engagement committee um you know basically taking inventory of the different channels of communication we have and how we can improve getting the health information out to that so it was
a very productive meeting you know the team continues to brainstorm on things um uh looking forward to getting uh some response back from from Dan second uh there's a blood pressure screening uh coming up uh free clinics so uh the
following uh dates you can get your blood pressure checked this is very important for your health wednesday April 2nd from 12:30 to 1:30m at the Bernardsville Public Library uh if you don't know where that is that's one
Anderson Hill Road in Bernardsville not that far that's Wednesday April 2nd the second one will be Tuesday April 8th a week later 12:00 p.m to 1 p.m at uh the Burnsville Township Library which is 32 South Maple Avenue in Basking Ridge and
the third date later on in April Monday April 28th 12:30 p.m to 1:30m uh all the way out in PPAC Gladstone at the Burrow Hall Council Room at one school street in Pepac so uh you know this is part of our agreement with
Bernard's take advantage of it uh second you probably uh the public's probably heard some noise in the media about measles um I know some of the other towns around us have been talking about it we reached out to Dr to Redling to get uh some information on that um she
wrote a nice uh letter Randy i'll forward that to you so Colette can put it on the on the website certainly but you know just there's you know nothing really to worry about here uh there's been about 285 cases you know across the US just recently
um you know many of us who were born in the 50s and early 60s we don't have to worry about this because we probably had measles when we were kids and we have the immunity but sometime after 1968 um not everybody was getting immunized and um uh you know it might be
recommended that you go get a booster shot for that so you know the word is if if this is something that concern you concerns you talk to your doctor see if you should be getting a a booster shot for it but um you know the symptom it's highly contagious that's the first thing
i think it's like nine out of 10 people get exposed to it get it um highly contagious it's vaccinereventable it's airborne it's an airborne infectious disease uh coughing sneezing uh runny nose inflamed eyes and that typical red
rash that looks like spots on your face um if you feel like you have that make sure you see a doctor quarantine yourself uh but you know again if if this is something you're concerned about you might want to consider getting a booster shot um that's all I have on
health and I think that's it excellent got it thank you Mr mayor uh the school regionalization study group met on Monday this is something that started about a year ago uh we haven't really talked about it recently uh but there's going to be some information that we
will receive uh and each area so this involves uh the superintendent from each uh district um schoolboard members elected officials from each of the towns and some uh uh school experts that previously served at the state level uh
so there's ultimately going to be a public meeting coming up uh and they've asked when we get that information for us to put it on the website and and uh advertise as as appropriate is when is it April 19th yeah so once we
get the board it's already there already okay so April 19th um I don't know the time we'll get we'll get more granular information and we'll post it uh and I I like uh ambushing Randy it's what I do
best so the mental health group uh which is kind of an ad hoc group of towns in in in the immediate area uh have met a couple of times and one thing that was asked of each of the towns uh is if they would be willing to put up a banner to advertise mental health month but there
might be a cost to it uh now I don't know uh I I imagine the township committee would be in favor of of that but I don't know how we would be able to fund that it's not fair of me to ask you in public but is that something we could do sure that's something we could
definitely look at that i don't see that as a problem looking into it uh the uh we had talked to Aubrey about the um the party that would be submitting the application to the county and to the town would that be their subcommittee or
who that would be so uh they just need an application that um goes to the clerk the municipal clerk and will also go to the county um for because it's a county road and and oh yeah it's JCPNL because
they own the polls so um there's a three-step application process and obviously the sooner it's done the better it is to give each of those uh entities opportunity to approve and I apologize for sandbagging you about the money thing but there there is a cost to
it and I'll get the estimate and I'll get that to you if I could we'll take it out of the maintenance of the trails at Central Point okay thank you that's it Matt all right Vic quick think quick all right the quick
today one sec did you break it Megan i always think the boots broke in [Music] all right the wreck update for Wednesday March 26th
26th is as follows this afternoon we had a formal grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the new gnome woodland fairy playground at Caner Park thank you to our mayor Matt Dorsy for being on hand to do the honors and kick off the festivities we
had bubbles galore a face painter courtesy of the Longill Mom's Club a family scavenger hunt gnome games a coloring station and refreshments the Long Hill Library provided us with a gnome themed story walk to lead all of our playground participants back in back
to the playground where librarian Amanda also read stories to the kids thank you to the Long Hill Moms Club for their support of this event to Starbucks of Gillette for the refreshments to LMB Audio Services for providing the sound for the event for
LHTV for being on site and filming the event and to our DPW team for all their their help and hard work with the playground start to finish for sprucing up the park in preparation for today's festivities
thank you to our amazing recreation advisory committee for helping with the event today it does take a village we all hope many uh fun memories will be made at this playground in the future still looking for Wong Hills area residents in grade four through six to
compete in our spring field hockey team if your child is interested please contact the recreation department mark your calendars for upcoming events we have our annual egg hunt at Caner Park on 4:12 from 10:00 a.m sharp start
starting at 10:00 a.m sharp this is a free event we have our movie in the park at Caner Park on 4:16 spring break for the kids 5:00 p.m this is also a free event new program running on Saturday May 17th
come to town hall parking uh the parking area and learn some basics about the car you drive and depend on taught by a certified mechanic register on community pass for the class the cost is [Music]
$45 enter our free photography contest by June 1st snap photos of what spring in Long Hill looks like and enter on community pass winners will be announced in June registration is open now for summer
rec camp in our little explorers little our little explorers prek camp check out the website for more details and register on community pass by 5:31 41 is the deadline to apply for summer jobs in Wreck check out the
website for more details slide number nine moving right along don't forget Oscar the Grouch and his daily message to keep our parks clean and finally remember our recreation advisory committee is always looking for
new members want to join contact the parks and recreation department for for more information and that concludes my wreck update thank you thank you i know you mentioned Bubbles Galore wasn't she at your bachelor party oh my goodness
all right i couldn't resist i'm going to segue a little bit to try to tone that one down i know we we always thank the the the recreation uh committee the and and and they most certainly do deserve it but I want to publicly thank Lisa Scandlin because she she monitors all
this none of this happens without her so thank you Lisa thank you Lisa library update thank you Lisa library update for Aubrey um ARP safe driver class in April um they're planning that most importantly the Motor
Vehicle Commission mobile unit will be here on May 1st that's a great opportunity i think they I got my Real ID at one of them in Franklin so check if you need a Real ID it's actually very efficient you make an appointment for a lot of things it's easier than going to the DMV um they will go and the registration for the mobile unit will go
live on Thursday so if you want to make an appointment by start looking at 3:00 on this Thursday for the May 1st appointments next uh look at the library schedule next here's a picture of some of our maker day approximately 350 people used
the library and tried to make something thanks to the Gates Avenue knitts for teaching the community how to knit again uh just like uh Vic said they show movies every week at 6:00 excuse me Tuesday at 6 p.m they have family movies
and Wednesday two Wednesday at 2 p.m and Thursday at 3 they have free movies for adults uh the OB finally the library offers an online moonlight meditation course Mondays at 8:30 and Wednesdays in person at 6:30 uh the parks commission from
Somerset County will cross the border and present a a seminar about bears Sunday April 6th at 1:30 and finally uh anniversary events upcoming there are historical talks uh talks about owls which is the library mascot fun and
games and for most of all cake so stay tuned cake thank you all right that's the only uh that's it and administrators report Mr bar okay uh I have just a couple things I want to update uh since spring has sprung I wanted to update
where we are with a couple projects that are going on in town we'll start with Northfield uh we'll start with public service electric and gas as uh everybody is aware they they're the they are doing utility work that has held us up from uh
repaving the road uh they still have some work to complete mainly uh they need to sleeve the existing gas m gas main under the railroad tracks uh that work is pending and should be anticipated to be completed within 3
weeks they also need to mill and uh resurface the entire length of the trench that they did uh because it has settled and is poor in poor condition so they will do that uh before our contractor uh Fisher Contracting gets in
to pave the road um as far as the contractor for paving the road they will be mobilizing uh the second week of April of course all week is the all work is dependent on weather um and they will
start with their concrete work with uh any sidewalk repair curb repair and driveway apron repairs and then uh move right into um milling and and paving the road so uh it's a long awaited project
to say the least um the next what road that uh we have a lot of talking with uh some residents is longill road uh the entire length of uh the municipal owned road section has been surveyed and is
being designed at the Van Clee office um the original Ferrero estimate submitted the DOT is substantially higher than the grant award uh so I've been talking with our engineer we do have money set aside
for Long Hill Road um and we are talking possibly of splitting it into two sections to take advantage of another DOT grant we could get for the second uh part so that um we're in discussion with
um I as also CFO I love that idea of getting more money for from the DOT um but that means more than likely that only half of the municipal owned uh Long Hill Road will be done this year and the other half would be done next year the
advantage it won't be as long of a of a in between because we'll already have it designed uh surveyed and designed so once we get the award which usually comes out in November we could as uh Joe
said earlier we could um bid it out in the winter and have them uh mobilized in in the spring uh to get the the do the final uh the first section uh I think we're on target to look at later this
fall so um so that's good news yeah and and and Randy if I could so the the municipallyowned portion of Longill Road is where Myersville and Longill Road intersect east that's what we own to our municipal boundary with Chad
and that's that's all I have randy you know you should have mentioned this before so finance committee starting to get together talking about budget what's the timeline for the budget um yeah I'm going to work with the finance committee um I' I'd like to get an introduction
possibly in April um you know either u it might be too early for the first meeting but maybe the second meeting and have adoption by the end of May okay and we're planning to do that the same way Matt present in public yeah sure that's fine that's brief present i think that worked out well last two years so yes I
have no issue with that it worked out all right all right very good all right next we move on to discussion items for Millington Station uh sub lease jack I'll turn that over to you quickly yes in 1982 we entered into a lease with New Jersey Transit which had a 10-year term
with a 10-year option for all three stations uh pursuant to the terms of the lease we we awarded a sub lease for the Millington station building uh which also had the same term uh which means
that both of them expired in 2002 so we've been going on a month-to-month basis for the last 23 years now we're under pressure we have no choice but to go out to some kind of public solicitation process for the subleasase at the last meeting the TAG committee
authorized a new lease with New Jersey Transit we're still waiting for the final document from them but we have agreed to all the terms and conditions i've also prepared an RFP for the subleasasing of the station uh that has been submitted to New Jersey Transit for
their approval which is one of the requirements of the lease is that we get their approval uh we hope to have a resolution at the next meeting uh in April uh allowing us to go out on the RFP uh seeking a subtenant for the
Millington Station building that will be open to everyone it will be a fair and open process and when we have that we will release it to the public as soon as we get approval from New Jersey Transit thanks Jack all right uh garbage issue and recycling bid randy I'll turn it
over to you yeah um we are coming up uh we are in our last year of our garbage and recycling contracts uh we currently have the recycling with the MUA uh they did give us a uh proposals uh two types
of proposals uh one based on um resale value of of recyclables one based on uh not taking that into effect u they are um a good increase from this year so while
we're doing the garbage bid and what we would like to do is is do a couple options in the garbage bid automated and traditional and also have them bid on recycling okay we're also looking for the possibility we currently have
um bulk pickup every other month where you're allowed to put out two items we're looking to change that if uh and the committee please uh looking for your input uh we're looking to possibly change that to uh look at two times a
year once in the springtime when people do cleaning and once in the fall when people do cleaning and uh increase the items from two to six items on each of those uh pickups um so you know we're gathering we're getting together the
specs and so forth we'll go over them with our QPA and and our uh township attorney uh there are as you know there are certain requirements for bidding for garbage or solid waste pickup uh 60 days I believe is the is the amount that it
has to be out there for so that's two months in between us the minimum two months between us putting the bid out there and accepting bids uh we especially if we um decide to go the or if the automated and we decide to go the
automated it comes out as the best results uh we'd like to try to get a company on board earlier than later because they will have to supply uh garbage bins um so you know that's where we're
at with that i just have a quick question i don't know if you answered Al for appliance pickup that that doesn't affect the bulk pickup correct correct it'll stay safe so if you have an appliance that you need to discard just call the DPW and range to have it picked up and that doesn't m doesn't apply to
bulk okay thank you all right no it's not that's not how it's currently running well how's it currently run all right so what uh Al said is that even though the if if the bulk pickups reduced to twice
a year they will still do appliance pickup every other month correct correct okay and the res off and of course the residents can drop off at the yard anytime they want if it's an appliance thank you thank you for the clarification all right last
what oh we know he's talking about the bins no he said if Yeah Randy said if we had to get if we go to automatic then we'd have to have time to build in for the bins yeah I I think that um use your
microphone please the um the bid the bins that we would have uh you know typically they come in different sizes of course um right now we allow two two garbage cans or one bid to 90 90 gallons
um 90 gallon bin is is large um if if a resident wants to have two bins um we can certainly talk to the whatever um successful bidder there is
to allow two bins instead of one bid i don't think that's going to be a big issue who I know where I live we have to get our own garbage company and you can get different size bins depending on what you want to pay so um you know these garbage companies have different
size bins already I believe and so they can you know that I think that I I think that's I know that's been a concern in the past that the large bin is too big for some people to handle uh but I think that there's an easy workaround with uh
whatever company does the bidding i agree all right now on the final discussion item and it will be a very brief uh conversation about the cart response from I believe Mr hans is going to run that oh okay
so very quickly um just I was hoping actually to keep Joe's laptop up here because a map from the state plan would have been helpful just to visualize how they see our area well by the time we set that up it's going to take too long so I know I was hoping to try and do
that quickly so Bob's on the planning Bob and myself Tom and Don in the back the chair and vice chair tom also helped with the uh the um analysis on the state plan so very quickly so the plan is a second
version 2001 was the first 2025 is going to be the second and um they go through a number of firstly they identify an area that the township is within and Bob talks about about that in a second secondly they say these are the some of
the goals for the state plan things like housing economic development uh sustainability 10 subjects and as we cross reference against our master plan that we did in 2023 we saw a lot of
consistency so one of the good aspects of that was our master plan talked to the state plan and vice versa it sort of supported what we did in the master plan so we took that as a a level of comfort so we're happy to be able to report back
to the county on those points there's a questionnaire we have to provide and that's what we're going to send over hopefully by the end of this month because that's the timeline and um to support that we had there was a meeting in Moyestown a
couple of weeks back where they had the public session had to have public sessions to the plan and we were one of the only municipalities that turned up so we felt pretty good about making the effort and we were able to have some separate conversations so we'll come through to
some of the conclusions with that bob do you want to just talk about the plan in the area okay so uh in the 2001 plan we were designated in an environmentally sensitive planning area
PA5 uh and the state in the new plan kept us in that same area which after looking at the various areas we could have been designated in we see as clearly the best area for the township it it certainly reflects the town's
current situation in terms of having environmentally sensitive areas open space uh backing up to the Great Swamp to National Wildlife Refuge all of those things fit very well in that planning
area and so in terms of development strategies in the state plan they they recognize that as being areas of more limited opportunity for development which is consistent with our master plan
um I think that's about all you really need to say about that yeah and and also if you can picture the map which I had it up there so we're in this environmentally sensitive area long hill just north of us is the open space which is basically great swamp but surrounding us think of war think of Berkeley
heights think of even basking ridge they came as suburban and urban areas so we're vastly different to our neighboring towns and we know a lot of the reasons why we don't have a lot of building area we're you know floods as we just went through with Joe with the flood zone and stuff so we have our
issues so anyhow so at the end of the part of the question there was what recommendations can we give back and what are our areas of focus so our areas of focus were sustainability
has um flooding concerns valley more a valley road commercial district redevelopment and building out the vibrancy of the village sterling milit and Gillette which is that mixed use urban the centering as
they call it in the master plan in the state plan to say don't ne let's say the way I interpret don't ne let's say build out but build within in and repurposely reuse what you've already got if possible so you start thinking about thermoplastics you start thinking about
the areas that we know about that we don't have to expand that and this the buildout is now great to have the trails and stuff like that across the road so let that be the build out where there's commercial and uh concrete see if we can repurpose reuse what we have so I think
that helps us also focus ourselves back into that thought m mindset as we go forward okay and then the main thing one of the main things was um flooding so we talked to the director of
Morris County about how can the state help us and I think that's the emphasis here is yeah we tick the boxes and and stuff with the with a response we do this we accept we understand but really it's more about what can the state and
other bodies like New Jersey Transit possibly do to help us so flooding was the conversation that we had and there was original know there's a 10 towns there's the uh Highlands there's the Pic Valley Pic River Township committees as
well so this gentleman came up and said a few years back he started an organization to try and get the towns and state together counties because we're obviously bored in counties we're not just on our own here how can we all work together to think about the sake river in particular
the flooding so he said can we he'd like to re-engage those conversations so hopefully with Joe's help start those conversations as well so some of the out um some of the benefits of going through this process is hopefully we can put ourselves in a position to have that
sensible and constructive conversation so it's not just long hill trying to face these battles it's trying to recognize everybody else helping us address flooding and so I think I'm going to roughly Is there anything else on the flooding you
want to say for yeah I the only thing I would add is is um we we talked a lot about it being three counties and the need to get the counties the communities and the state engaged in this and that was the one good thing about our being
at the meeting because we got to talk to both Morris County and to the state planning people about this issue and one of the things that they had identified in the current plan that's draft is that our area or the great swamp area is
identified as a an area for future study and what we thought we could try to do and one of the things we did in the responses to them is is say why not push that into one of the areas that you include as in this phase for study they
have like five or six areas around the state could they incorporate like the upper Payic River watershed area as a critical area for study as part of the plan and see how that could leverage
more involvement from the counties and the state to help us with the issues of flooding around the township and my last quick point is um there is a follow on if you want to do a enforcement process which is a level
above just responding to a you know the plan itself this is actually now doing more work with the state to try and sort of emphasize some things that we concerned about and possibly with the benefit of state input and support
financial support to do some of this stuff as other towns have done especially New Jersey Transit as well what can they do to help us um Chant village maybe over the stretch maybe it's a trail on the trail on the rail those sort of things what else can we
possibly get assistance from that's not outside just very quickly that was page five now gone to page six no thank you guys i know it's Does it make sense with you guys perfect any
questions because that's what we're going to submit and I think we'll put on the website as well the response no I know it's a very tedious process it required comparing stuff I wouldn't want to do if I was getting paid to do it so thank you and I for the whole committee that helped do this i know it was very timeconuming required a lot of meetings
so we appreciate all the time and effort everybody put in to get this done because it had to get done see Pam's kicking in right away good job Pam thank you yes Mr voo real quick um just one thing to add is just understand
in context that our state is a state that governs in a trickle up fashion right we cover our land use our planning and and at a lower level and then it builds up so this process is meant to echo that so
that we're submitting the cart is us confirming the resources in our municipality and then it goes up to a higher planning document so really what we're doing is we're looking at our our master plan our planning exercises and
we're adding them to our neighbors so that they can be heard and built on at a lot higher level so there's consistency at the top because these documents these state master plans become the the roadmap for the legislation that gets
promagated so from the state and at a at an overall level of new rules and and new new concepts affordable housing and other it's built up in this process to make sure that we're all providing our
support that where our voice is heard and then it's reinforced and then it comes back down to us from the top as opposed to coming down as a decree from the top for us to conform to thanks John thank you all right so any
old new business seeing none announcements egg Hunt April 12th 10:00 a.m here next Street Fair April 27th Sterling All Day and this weekend Friday 7:00 Saturday 3 p.m uh Central School is
doing the Wizard of Oz so I know the kids work very hard if you're looking for something to do go on over and see the Wizard of Oz at Central School now open mic night at 3 minutes yeah now you can come up now it's your turn
well first of all I apologize to the committee for uh pre-approaching the podium i didn't get the tutorial from our beloved Chuck so I'll ask for a uh a little a little uh update on when I'm
supposed to come but um my uh uh Valley Memorial Funeral Home 1012 Valley Road uh and this development is obviously going around you know my current property my first question is um when we did update Caner Field which came out
beautiful and I'm very happy to see it um but there were tandemss of dirt that were moved from that property behind my funeral home and when I say hundreds of tandemss of dirt um I'm just wondering what's going to happen with that soil is
it being removed is this going to be pushed around um I recognized in your uh map that there's a retention basin for water overflow from the parking lot i think you said 80 spots um to control
the uh overflow of water from obviously you know impervious areas um uh what what's going to happen you know with the fields what's happening with that dirt is that going to affect my property um and you know I I don't want to I haven't
had a problem with water flow i bought the funeral home in 2001 um and I haven't had a a water flow issue and I just want to make sure that um you know that there is going to be either a separate retention basin or you know what's happening with that soil um
getting back to uh having turf um as a coach of the high school for many many years and um I I coached lacrosse for the Wong Hills uh lacrosse club and uh as Lisa can say I I coached field hockey for many many many years and um I I I do
advocate for a turf field i think that that's beneficial to the student athlete um but you know I I know how those are constructed you know it's a it's um tirebased under gravel and you know where's that water ultimately going to
go is my concern being that you know all of these fields and and and and and madam are going to border my property so that that that's a concern that I'd like to look into and and of course where this soil is going to go um I I just need to know and if I can have a side
conversation or something like that in regards to you know how that's going to be dispersed um I see that you have the restrooms um I'm I'm happy to see that it's not just a soccer field and that it's going to be lined accordingly for all sports that are are going to be
there and I think that that's very important seating is a concern of mine as well and I know Matt brought that up um whether it's going to be portable um seating for fandom or or or you know h how we're going to accommodate for that or if it's just going to be people
bringing chairs and things of that nature and how that's going to work um and then how much money is going to be granted through grants as opposed to how much money taxpayers are going to have
to contribute to ultimately funding you you you spoke beautifully about it i I think you did a fantastic job uh explaining this project um but we haven't really heard real numbers you know like what ultimately is this going to cost how much money are we going to
get from grants and how much money is going to be appropriated to the taxpayers um you know as residents of this of this township so um those are just some of my initial concerns if if I if I could I'm gonna leave the engineering uh Mike i'm gonna leave the
engineering responses if if they're available this evening to Joe but to to your last point um it's worth repeating uh for those who may not have lived in town at the time and who may not remember the field back here the
construction of the field um and the lights didn't cost taxpayers a penny not one penny it's all funded by rental income and the lights were generously donated by a uh an estate of a of a person who passed on and she left
money she left our house to the town we sold the house and we built the lights and that field back there uh funds those free concerts we have each year some recreation programs we have each year uh so I don't know what the plan is for
this particular field uh but I have to believe it also will generate uh income guy can you just explain rental income you mean just like use of the field like so for third parties th this field behind us and I I I mean Lisa can speak
to it in detail uh but we rent it out to a uh oratory prep school yeah uh that's a good chunk of it but in addition Lisa and her and and her department works very hard for the times that uh residents don't use it we rent it out uh
and that generates more income um so from a financial perspective I'm reasonably optimistic it's not the cost certainly won't be uh Joe's right to construct a field of that sort is is million two million bucks i
don't know uh where it will come in so did that one uh the one behind us was over a million dollars uh and it didn't cost taxpayers a penny and I would add uh our recreation programs the three I mentioned uh lacrosse field hockey and
soccer they don't pay uh to use that field which is unlike any other uh u field that I know of in the immediate area those wreck programs in the other towns pay i believe that's true Lisa
all right so I've waited into an area that's more Lisa's expertise hello um I don't believe that Warren charges or Wong Well Wong really doesn't have uh
too many amenities in in terms of uh turf fields but um there are other towns like Madison and other surrounding towns that um I would say is more the norm that everybody that participates in
recreation sports pays pays a flat fee uh as part of their registration that goes towards okay the rental of that for us we have groups that are designated as your in town recreation sports like watching Hill Soccer Association watch
hills lacrosse they do not pay anything to rent the fields the only fees they pay are for the lights that's it and it basically covers their electric costs thank you thank Also again we're we're looking to do it
in phases uh in order to take the burden away from the taxpayer or else we would just you know if we were planning on having the tax base bear the brunt of the cost and we would just make the plans and build it but we're going to do it in three phases so we can get grants build get
more grants build get more grants and then you know and and do it in phases yeah thanks Vic um and then so there there's going to be a restroom facility on on property for the this project correct
and that'll be tied into our public seour system that's the intent yes that's the intent yeah okay so there wouldn't be like part of part of what American Water is doing right now and addressing the sewer initiatives um so it wouldn't be seeptic it would it would
more than likely be tied into Yeah and so so the we're the point of this conversation today the presentation and I'm I'm happy that you brought you know your concerns forward is that everything that you spoke to are things that I'm
familiar with I anticipate in in these types of project designs and um starting this conversation now and getting into confirming that we want to make an investment into a specific type of improvement is where we then start getting into refining design and as we
start to refine through a preliminary cut and fill and grading and everything else we start seeing where the impacts would be storm water and other things and then we can work especially with you as an adjacent property owner on what to expect out of and how is notification
given to me as an adjacent property owner um probably directly me reaching out and getting a hold of your contact information okay because I haven't heard from you yet no no no but that's but that that's coming because well that's because the effort that's been done to date is a very preliminary concept okay
and then once we bring this to the public forum today we introduce it so people are knowledgeable on it and then we can start engaging with essentially project stakeholders right it's going to be those that are invested in the departments that are going to be
working on it and then and our governing body but then also our adjacent property owners so we have a good relationship of what we're building and it fitting in in the community okay thank you thank you sir thank you thank you pam come on down
pamela Ojins Millington and um I'm here on behalf of the K9 community of Longhill Township the passive part of Long Hill of the Central Park plans do you
envision that being K9 friendly uh yes not asking for a dog park carry in carry out like any park facility carry in if you're in if you're in a state open you know open space park um they're dog
friendly trail systems municipal systems are as well okay carry and carry out uh you don't leave it on the trail gotcha yep you know if your dog happens to be 20 feet 30 feet into the woods off leash it's just like the other animals in the
wilderness but on the trail please carry and carry out thank you just wanted to clarify that point uh the library are they doing a shredded day this year i think they did do one recently didn't they uh no they're doing one I believe it's May 12th
it'll be on the It'll be on the website it'll be on the website i actually looked at it may 10th may 10th we'll put it on the board out front too yeah uh they don't have anything on their website but um Albi did let us know that there will be one in early May great love that and the last thing um Matt the
Real ID appointment you said Thursday as in tomorrow Thursday we can make appointments 3:00 you can start making the appointments on the um go to the uh motor vehicle website i've done it before like I said it's very easy to do and go on at 3 yeah go on a trip because
they'll book up quick they book quick and that's going to be a mobile yeah they bring it's almost like a truck it's a truck it's like a trailer they bring up they park in the parking lot it's actually very efficient i've I've tried i haven't been able to get an appointment so this is nice to hear and I will try to be Yes 3:00 on the 3:00
yes they'll book up fast okay that's all I have thank you thank you Pam charles Ren with Millington for the first time in several meetings that I have to talk about the police department thank you very much two topics tonight one is a
question on affordable housing round four and the second one is driveups drive-throughs round four affordable housing you've had numerous executive sessions on affordable housing on our round four requirements 102 units where
we may get some credits hopefully a lot with the Longhill Township housing element and fair share fair share plans being prepared by June 30th here's the question will you share with the
residents the potential slashproposed sites please keep in mind the location for prior rounds were done behind closed doors not shared with the public i had to go to the Mars County Courthouse on
December 15th 2017 before Superior Court Judge Michael Hubner to record this total disregard for public comment and get it on the court record for such an important issue
for this town so you want to answer that question or you want me to go to other comment jack do you want to handle that i love my paper we we will release it but at this point in time we're negotiating with several people uh and we don't want to jeopardize those
negotiations but we will release it as soon as possible and before the June 30th deadline so the public can come in so that we're going to change our approach based upon my discussions with Judge Michael Heapner you've been a very good influence on us Joker thank you
very much your next question oh this is a comment wow drivethroughs as you're aware the board of adjustment at its last meeting approved the fourth fast food drive-thru Wendy's on Valley Road where Long Hill
Township is now in direct competition with Wong's Route 22 drive-throughs this is something I've been waiting for for 44 years how does this sound we got a
Wendy's Luke Oil gas station Taco Bell and Burger King all in a row sounds great our 2013 master plan prepared by when Dennis Dennis Sandai was chairman Don
Richards was vice chairman Scott was on there Brendan Ray was on there and the four of you plus Brendan approved that on November 28th 2023 that recommends on page 4-40 under
permitted uses currently prohibited some of these uses listed in section 123.3 should be considered to be allowed quote I quote for you c restaurants with drive-thru windows with supplemental design regulations should
be permitted in the BD zone i said business development zone basically runs from Main Avenue down to this building long Hill can better look like Route 22 or exceed them by permitting at least two more fast food drivethroughs at the
former Chase building on Main Avenue and the second one the former Santandler Bank next to Sterling Wines the candidates include McDonald's Popeye's Chick-fil-A White Castle etc
longgo Township could permit two more drive-throughs fast foods on each side of the street at thermoplastics we could have four no four more that's eight we'll be the leaders what a town to come to in a master plan
that the goal for the last 40 years has been walkability 40 years walkability maybe that 40 years should have been drivability where we can go from Wendy's to the gas station to Taco Bell to
Burger King we like looking at other towns i looked at other towns this you'll find interesting berkeley Heights doesn't even allow and permit drive-throughs for banks andarmacies which we do to get a a
drive-thru and uh at a bank in Berkeley Heights you got to get a variance okay but they don't have any retail drive-thrus in Berkeley Heights we got four we're ahead of them
warrant they don't allow retail drive-throughs at all they got one variance somewhere they in the southwest corner of Warren there's a dunk of donuts as a drive-thru we're way ahead of the
pace we got four we got two more banks there six thermal plastic gives us eight it'd be great isn't it we don't need to walk we just go from drive-thru to drive-thru don't get out of your car what planning what
planning thank you very much thank you thank you Mr liberado [Laughter] tough act to follow yeah I I'll keep it short so we can get out of here um Frank Liberado Heritage Road uh just two
comments uh it was very good to see the appropriate authority got settled and approved tonight happy to see that that everybody agreed to it second question is just picking up from the last meeting was any thought given uh in regards to the promotion process i know they were
going to meet with the department and everyone else about my suggestion about just using the process that's in place and starting the new process down the road in fairness to everyone we are we're meeting on we're meeting with the uh representatives of the police
department this week so stuff is moving forward okay so yep that's that's definitely on the agenda for Friday all right very good thank you thank you thank you Frank i can't come back no you only get one bite at the apple no I
can't vote for the public no just I can't do it you can talk to the v outside that's all I need oh perfect talk to the v you're good thank you all you're welcome thank you so you know I had you yes thank you Stro anybody
online marian Newton would like to speak anybody else besides Miss Newton when she's done okay good maryannne go ahead yes hi um I'm going to try to be brief but I'm
just going to be very pointed with my comments um Mr renowitz I need to respond to you with regards to your comment with Valley Road um you know I run a statewide group on
affordable housing warren Township and Berkeley Heights are a complete disaster okay warren Township right now they're about to close down Hillrest
Road okay because there's going to be 400 units going up there please keep this in mind when you speak about properties being sold okay this is a bigger issue i'm
sorry it does not impact Millington it impacts Sterling and Gillette a lot more i apologize but it needs to be stated uh Pam Aden thank you very much about making the comments but there's also
people looking for cat parks on our community forums uh this is getting a little ridiculous here okay um let me go next randy um Randy um I apologize in advance
but this is a going forward statement okay with regards to the police department now that you are the liaison could you please start giving the reports there was a major report by our
police department in the Echo Sentinel okay um we need to regain these reports coming into the community now I'm going to lead into another issue okay there's two bills
which I do believe have been approved i sent this out to everyone in terms of um the township um the committee people um the chairman of the planning board
there's two bills um they're not only in the Senate but I'll I'll notate the bills they're numbers S2974 S1408 they both have been brought forth by a Senator Singleton who basically
lives in southern New Jersey who really doesn't have a clue as to what we're going through here okay what they're doing and I do believe it's passed because there were also um similar assembly bills what they're looking to
do is eliminate parking regulations maryanne I could I'm going to I'm going to cut you off because Jack can address this right now because we already told him you'd probably ask about it yeah Maryanne thank you for sending us that that information we're already aware of it to some extent well the timer went off and
Jack will explain everything else that the township committee is going to adopt the resolution at the next meeting opposing those uh both of those the mixeduse housing bill uh and we could throw the parking in too uh and oppose both of them uh and and then we'll go
from there to see what other steps we can take i know the both bills were voted out of committee on St patrick's Day uh but I don't know what their chances of passing are but hopefully the league is also going to take a stand on both bills we will have a resolution on
the next township committee agenda okay thank you will that resolution hold up legally because they're taken away home i mean we can't we can't stop this the state i understand i mean it's the
resolution will have no legal effect but it will send a message to the legislature that we oppose it and I know Hanover Township has already adopted a resolution right and they're leading the charge against the uh the mixed use bill yeah but that's all we can do is you
know together as municipalities and and make our our feelings known and and to to Jack's point the New Jersey League of Municipalities has taken a stand we'll continue to take a stand on this again the League of Municipalities does not have any binding authority over the
legislature so frankly uh I absolutely appreciate the work i appreciate the work that you have done and and for advocating on on this issue uh but I think you should also address it to the to your state legislators
um as well because they're the ones with the authority okay um with with all due respect um we know it's factual that it's um Senator uh Singleton who's in
charge and we we have no we have no legs okay whe whether or not it's our Senator Brnik and you know I could go down I could go down the the legs right now it's it's not I have had a massive
mailing sent out by people in my group regarding a number of bills okay and until you know things change in terms of our governor I'm sorry this is getting
ridiculous because um never never thought that I would move into Long Hill and have to worry about parking i always thought you know okay we have all these parking
regulations we're going to take care we're deal with the parking next week so we got we're on it don't worry okay you know me one last comments thank you for bringing it to our attention though anyone else online anyone else online anybody else on Zoom
would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now probably one more no he can ask the v he can ask the vouch too i don't Thank you i'll take a motion to adjurnn thank you everybody motion see you in a couple weeks thank you second yes somebody said second
don't be a stickler all in favor hi heat