##VIDEO ID:ApdON7ga8Dk## is being conducted in compliance with the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertisement in the Cap May star and wave on the township website and post it on the bulletin board to township hall we request anyone wishing to address Council please wait for the mayor to recognize you please state your name and address for the record and please remember all comments must be kept to 3 minutes or less oh thank you please stand for pledge the lead a moment silence [Music] Al to the flag of the United States of America to the repic for stands Nation indivisible and justice for all roll call please council member Conrad here council member Wham here council member here here mayor here okay uh for today's meeting on a work session we actually have a presentation to uh honor recognize Don Blackley recently retired from the township we have a swear of a new patrolman we have the state of the township addressed by myself and a presentation by fire district number two Luke connley so with that being said I ask Donna and your family whoever you have here with you please come up from I got you man you're really smiling okay we have a proclamation here for Donna I'm going to read it Donna was born and raised in Upper Township and attended O City High School whereas Donna then became a flight attendant and later worked as a dental assistant and whereas Donna married her husband Jay they have two beautiful children Cole and Devon and chose to reside and raiseed her family in lower Township and whereas Donna be began her career with lower Township Fire bu in the year 2000 then she became a secretary to the fire Bure after working for that temporarily in 1999 and whereas Donna attended fire inspection School in 2003 and also took the Fire official course she attended fire investigation School in 2013 it was named lower Township Fire official in the February 1st 2015 now therefore it's great pleasure that I mayor Frank Sipple a lower Township council do hereby congratulate Donna well-deserved retirement and thank you for your dedicated years to service the citizens of lower Township and wish her continued success in all future endeavors signed this third day of February 2025 mayor Frank Sipple [Applause] congratulations you want to bring family over for a picture come on Jay Family come on over how you doing B good good good you want yeah your family AR no kids no more but uh and I just want to say just a couple things I see fact the fire staff's here with you today so thanks for coming out you know and I think a lot of folks are realize how busy our fire office is and if I'm not mistaken they do over 3,000 inspections a year when you add up all the different types of inspections so that's a lot of work and they have an important job I just want to thank you for that okay okay thanks for coming out congratulations [Applause] you guys can stay down there I guess what we got trying to get your steps in Chief you're up Chief with your patrolman kushman and family and your staff you've done this before I hope somebody's protected the township tonight young man how we doing he's going to read the bio first and then we swear in okay okay you're good right here you're good right he's going to talk about kushman man you're number 29 is a lifelong res of lower toship and a 2013 graduate from the Regional High School he joined the US Navy in January 8 graduating from hospital Corman a school in December 2018 followed by Dental Assisting C school and finishing with basic Dental labor laboratory technician SE School in September 2019 chman kushman was stationed at Naval Hospital yasuka Japan from October 2019 to December 2023 he separated honorably from the US Navy in January 2024 and was hired as a full-time police officer by C Police Department August of 2024 patrolman Coachman graduated from the basic course of police officer training at the Gman County Police Academy in January before we swear me see if I just want to make one comment I know he's a Navy guy your army I'm Army so none of this Navy beat Army stuff okay tonight can't be talking about that kind of stuff okay so okay uh can you hold the Bible and hold it maybe okay your left hand raise your right hand and repeat to me I state your name where support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the constitution of and the of the state of New Jersey St of newey I bear true faith fath and allegiance to the same Al and to the governments established the government United States and in this state on the authority of the people I will faithfully and partially and justly perform and all duties of all du of position of police officer position of police offic for the township of lower according to the best of my ability ACC to the best ability so help me God help congratulations Young [Applause] [Music] I did that before right very informal just come on up and have fun wherever you want to be it's your night yeah [Music] everybody any side you any side that's any side you want get out of my way no you're good Robin yeah come on now good job oh no bird oh yeah definitely all right thanks everybody thanks for coming out okay good job with that p man like you know you're talking [Music] about man [Music] ask Kevin to spell that when he said that what side I was going to ask Kevin spell that spell most of the time Kevin reads everything for us School teachers can they can pronounce words that I can't pronounce that was just an easier one than I just I already read the pration said there stuff in there was was going to trip me up I yeah I was a special teacher some of the things I had to read and try to decipher guess we won't have too many questions tonight because there's not that many people here right it's okay the important ones are here right Chris there you go I'll start good afternoon Deputy Mayor councilman and members of the public today I'll be giv the state of the township address we'll be looking back to 2024 and some accomplishments and other various actions taken we also touch on some items in 2025 I like to thank all the Departments for providing information for this address our clerk's office Julie Bard along with her staff compiling this presentation some slides will just scan over and others I'll get into more detail this presentation will be posted website for others to see they cannot make it here today I would ask everybody to hold the question to the end of the presentation okay first slide little bit about lower Township I'm not going to read every word for word on this slide uh lower Township is the largest yearr round population in Kate May County it's home to roughly 23,000 residents it was incorporated in 1798 consist of historic towns including C spring Irma Fishing Creek Phillis Diamond Beach sha Crest SC Landon North Kate May and Town Bank the township is home to K May County Airport K May L Ferry it's sites including the Fishing Creek School na Air Station Wildwood historic Cold Spring Village and the capade lighthouse other great attractions are the Atlantis a concrete ship from World War I which has a beautiful Landmark at Sunset Beach in the coxo creek Wild Life management area just to mention some of the great places to visit lower Township was adopted the Council of manager form of government 1984 the council is composed of five council members mayor Deputy Mayor and three Wards the mayor presides at all Council meetings has a voice and a vote in proceedings the manager responsible for the day-to-day operations serves for the indefinite term of cice at the will of council here few of the uh actions we taken in 2024 we actually approved a land auction in which 101 George Avenue home of the previous Rescue Squad was auction all for $152,000 that was put back on our tax rolls scer Landing uh we've done a lot of work down there with some traffic common measures uh the last thing to be added there are the solar power fishing flashing beacons that are scheduled to be installed in the next com months on October 7th 2024 we had a town hall meeting in the lower C Regional pack Center over 800 residents came out to learn more about the D flood map regulations the township continues to fight against the proposed regulations from the D which may increase homeowners flood insurance in December of 2024 Council established a full-time position of a deputy Township manager uh being the largest municipality in K County we had no Deputy many other towns have it so we thought it was a good idea to to to establish that position it's working out well uh just some of the 2024 points of interest I'll touch on the budget from last year hibe Beach prodject Capital Improvement projects to highlight special events 911 ceremony various Recreation events and slide from the township engineer last year we approved the budget of $34 million $688,000 and if few dos after that that was approved by the budget last year the Higby Beach project even though they started last year and they'll be continuing to 2025 uh the important thing from this project it's a $33 million project funded by the state and federal government there's no Township tax dollars involved with this project uh for those who did not see the presentation um from the US fish and wildlife that came here was you can go online the township lower under the council meance and watch the uh video it was from back in February 2024 again that presentation to council was on February 8th 2024 some of the completed projects we have are the recreation playground Ada accessible behind here Diamond Beach Park and playground upgrades you know we had some pick a ball courts put over there it's a big hit for that earie park playground upgrades we had reconstruction PVE and drainage at Bay Drive Francis Avenue drainage project Beach path updates upgrades rather and Tom Bank pedestrian handicap ramp access some of the special events we had in 2024 was a special concert that benefit the Youth of the community was August 20th of 2024 over a th people attended we raised money for the children's assistance fund over $2,600 was raised that night we had our annual lower Township annual Veterans Day Parade that parade also be done in 2025 that was a big hit the entire Coast Guard Leadership pretty much was here for the parade we want to thank him for that the 911 ceremony the township hosted a remem ceremony to observe the 23rd anniversary of 911 which was held at naval air station Wildwood uh it was the largest and most attended 911 ceremony in Kate May County and I thank the staff for putting that together Easter egg hunt it's a spring activity we do for the kids every year the annual trunk and treak event is fun safe interactive Halloween event we do that every year also the Hornet Trail walk the important thing is it's a free event for everyone over 50 volunteers participated in the Hornet walk and over 1500 residents enjoyed the hor Hornet Trail walk this year the engineer report uh the Blasio Associates uh they actually worked on 34 different reviews for the plan in zoner board he does their work for them in addition to the lower Township uh capital projects we had 12 12 capital projects last 2024 and he helped initiate six grants for the township we'll do a snapshot of 2024 by Department I'll go through a slide from each department until we get to get to the end there so Public Safety is first slide uh they procured the field of the stationary automated License Plate Reader throughout the township to assist investigations and solving crimes basically their stationary uh devices that reads the license plates of the vehicles as are going by 24 hours a day and helps us when investigations they implemented the axon air program uh they collect data for the with the drones um they actually fielded two more drones in 2024 they're listed on the slide they also procured a ram proas utility van which be converted into a command operation vehicle which be used most of the time when the drains go drones go out they also did 16 background investigations for the police officers there's a new requirement they have to be licensed now and every three years they have to renew the license of the police department they do a third of the officers each year to keep Karen lower Township courts the township of lower and bur Wildwood Crest have entered into a share service agreement for theal courts the Wildwood Crest Municipal Court is now being heard at the lower Township Court the airport lower Township Court held 46 weekly Court sessions in 2024 which between 45 and 75 cases are heard each week lower T saw a 19% decrease in criminal followings and a 52% increase in traffic followings where while Crest saw a 6% increase in criminal files and 28% increase in traffic files the grand total of files for both courts was 3,314 which you can see they're very busy in 2024 but Public Works uh you'll see some more slides to the I guess the big takeaway is the last bullet there there'll be construction of a new uh Public Works office and facility services is currently on going through a design phase right now the clerk's office you can see they're very busy throughout the year and I'll just go right down the list it was uh over a thousand short-term rental licenses issue there was 288 business licenses 971 dog license issued 400 resolutions 411 resolutions 19 ordinances passed and I know Mr sister is involved with all those I want to thank him for that we had a bunch of permits issued for yard sales we had some Street open permit issue and register vacant properties and some marriage license so if you see by the numbers they're very busy I want to thank them for their work the tax assessor office they captured 130% more added assessment value in 2024 than they did in 2023 which amounted to 37 billion in added rateable over $37 million added rate BS which the important takeaway here it added almost a half a million dollars into our tax rols as the assessments and our total rateable base rate down the township is a little bit more than $3.7 billion the tax collector's office they collect over $76 million in dollars in taxes and other mpal charges such as loot clearance fees commercial trash payments mpal service fees the unordered tax collection rate for 2024 is 99% so they're able to bring in 90 9 99% of the uh into the township the township of lower has 15, 391 taxable properties and 714 non-tax for properties mostly due to uh veteran status the treasures office our year end fund balance a little bit more than $9.4 million we had a great year our cannabis tax that we get in each month we are able to collect over $40,000 in cannabis tax and the yacy tax most or short-term rentals that was close to actually was not $122,000 close to a million dollar uh we also have seven grants at at the cost of $64,000 uh they're basically for low income to moderate income for emergency repairs roof heating systems those kind of things and we brought in over a million dollars of Grants grants list on the right hand side of the page there in the slide human resources in January 2024 we establish human resource office in the township and you'll see all the different functionalities they have listed and they've come a long way and made the township much more efficient by um clarifying different job descriptions Emergency Management had done you retired last year we appointed Gary Douglas and the new Deputy katd Greer we also just to reminder we have worming worming shelter located at seity church on seir road and irit during the winter months we also have two Emergency Shelters located direct Center and M Center if needed plan and Zoning we had 19 use variances were approved 2024 22 site plans and 21 subdivisions for Construction office we had over 1400 permits issue we updated 114 more we had over 4,000 inspections completed during 2024 with The Grandin total permit fees collected close to $700,000 code enforcement we received 612 complaints we issue 54 summons we responded to 56 dogs on the Beats infraction throughout the summer months the goal is to obtain compliance through verbal warnings we looking to issue summons we always give everybody a chance to rectify the uh code violation first Recreation I talked about some of this already the Rotary Park Renovations we did phase one phase two is coming soon uh we talked about Diamond Beach and some renovation we did they did start a youth flag football program this year and they have lacrosse program also they kind of did some facelift that Rex Center replaced a sign and they reinstated the summer concert series for the community to hit me Lis Ferry last year and we'll be doing it again this year it's new this year for 2025 we're looking to have two summer camps Target AG group of students going into first grade through sixth grade there's going be two four-week sessions there'll be two camps four weeks a piece we're looking to get 60 students per session in this camp fire safety office I kind of touched on this when Donna was here how busy they are if you do the math you'll see um it was over 3,000 inspections that their office did in 2024 sum of 2025 Capital Improvement projects here on the pipeline is the Dave Douglas Park improvements project um we're working through the county open space on that uh waiting to hear any day how much money they can contribute to the project uh the roadby park Improvement phase two should be done this year we're working on Delware Bay outfall extension project reconstruction of Richwood Avenue the stormw stormw GSI m in Project which started last year will be continued this year till it's completed the a high Avenue Pump Station upgrades a lower Township pool the 2025 budget we anticipate introducing a 2025 budget the March 3rd council meeting with a projected increase of two cents uh so if if you do the math a penny where one cent is like $377,000 so if you times that two that rate now is a projected increase for 2025 I think it's 754 th000 if I'm not mistaken that concludes my presentation or any questions or comments I know CLK I'm assuming it spell wrong right the okay no no Chris we actually put that here purposely to see if You' catch it did a really good job tonight well thank you for that that's all I do okay t l n t us us okay I'll fix it before we post it just so you know it was spelled wrong last year too you weren't here last year were you there you go so any other questions or comments or Miss felons okay thank you and I'll let the manager kind of just chime in here because there's there may be a little bit of a delay with that there's a lot of delays on that so I'll let the managers conr can speak what these to Chris we had just gotten final um approvals and permits from the the D and got C outfall pipes however distance of the size of the pipes now it requires Army Corps approval and there's going to be several different entities that will be involved in that permit phase at this point we're looking to have one emergency outfall completed uh because the one outfall is uh there's a lot of sand equation around the one outfall um near Ohio Avenue in between Ohio and Avenue and New York Avenue that could be considered an emergency of course that hasn't been approved yet but we're securing an e Council car anything he pretty much covered it we've been trying to get this done it's just been on our side we're ready to go we've been ready to go we've been wanting to work but we've had delays everywhere and I want to say it's unacceptable but it's dealing with bureaucracy elsewhere that's the shame of it it's affecting a lot of people's lives in different streets this stuff needs to be done yes the last time we did them really it's been longer than 10 years the first time I dealt with them I think we did it in 2008 2009 and we extended a bunch of those but mother nature takes things away over time Chris we we we had just uh started with those surveys of those areas to uh come up with a a plan to do 11 of those more recently um I know that that's been something they've done over the course of many years when they replace outfalls or extend extend those outfalls but we've been out this one for about maybe two and a half years specifically for these for this one yes and have designs in place to to do the work any other questions okay that concludes the presentation Mr cin you're up next [Music] thank you mayor for those of you who don't know for the record my name is I am Secretary of fire district number two lower Township and have been Donna for the last 25 years GL to see that we we honored her and such way tonight that was very ni uh the reason I'm here is fire district elections are coming up and and I come visit you every year uh just to remind everyone that the Commissioners uh have a a budget that has to be voted on every year by the public and that voting time is the third Saturday in February by Statute we didn't pick it but this year it'll be easy to remember it's the day after Valentine's Day so you could all come out as you all do always and and support us we would appreciate it we have two questions on the ballot this year we have one to approve the budget the second you need to buy another fire truck and that just seems to be an unending story uh but we can do that without raising [Music] taxes in the ballots when you take a look at them and they're available at the clerk's office they're available excuse me by mail by mailing to the clerk's office El runs on strange hours Again by Statute it's open from 2 to 99 p.m. and the voting will be at fire district Firehouse there are two other fire districts in the township their elections are at the same time and at their fir houses you don't have any questions I'll get out of your hair and thank you very much again for the time to bring this out to the public and let them know thank you Mr col you may have any questions L the point being made is for fire district 2 town bank there is no tax increase again this year correct correct all right that's important Point people should be happy to hear that is if you want to be real technical there is aund of a cent increase purely by virtue of the way it works so if if you turn that into a real look $100,000 would be $10 yeah wish we had that problem here all right I I don't want to lie I want to tell but in all real numbers okay thank you all right thank you thanks Mr okay we're going to move down to Cass agenda and before we actually move forward to consent i' like to ask the solicitor to kind of touch and expand on a board's attorne 25-4 the ordinance amending chapter 90 for the police department if you can so we have a clear understanding what that's for certainly mayor uh so if Council recalls um in 2024 we enacted ordinance 20245 uh that increased the hourly rate that officers received when they worked extra Duty contracts those are contracts when they're off duty they're actually not working for the Department uh the original rate was $60 um through contract negotiations the new collective bargaining agreement that was executed with the police department increased that rate to $85 that was the only change that was set forth in ordinance 20245 uh when the CFO and the finance department began to run those numbers they realized that the $5 administrative fee in the ordinance um didn't cover the cost didn't cover specifically the taxes that the township would incur so we were essentially subsidizing those extra Duty events um so in speaking with Lauren Reed uh she suggested that we increase that rate to $7 the administrative fee from 5 to 7 she also identified an issue with uh the charge that was imposed for the use of lower Township Police Department Vehicles previously it indicated that uh these extra Duty um events which would pay $50 per day for the use of a Township vehicle uh that expense is actually covered by Statute there are uh state regulations which outline that based upon the type of vehicle what should be charged uh and in this case um the majority of our Fleet are Ford vehicles uh and it actually increases the rate to $22.9 an hour I Lauren suggestion was that we increase that to $23 an hour so that we're consistent with the requirements outlined in State Statute um and the mayor and I have had a conversation about this even though a vehicle may not be driving it's on while these individuals or these officers are working these extra Duty details um and there's use that obviously is incurred to these vehicles so it was appropriate to increase that fee as well the only other change that you'll note in ordinance 20254 uh I included a section in I believe it's subsection B um that the township runs this program and the uh language Endor a third-party vendor designated by the township if you so choose to do to do so um could operate and and run this program as well if you're if you'll recall we also went out to RFP recently um to request proposals from entities to manage this program for the township and that is set to um to conclude and the bids and proposals we received would be opened on Wednesday February 9th at 9:00 a.m. at which time council could make a decision to award a a proposal excuse me a contract to a third party vendor uh or you could also reject all bids but but that's that's what's before you tonight just increasing the administrative fee the vehicle charge and then the option to potentially award this to a third party vendor okay thank you anybody on Council have any comments on this n anybody from the public want to comment on the consent agenda close the public portion approval of the minutes January 22nd 2025 resolutions 2025 81 through 2025 92 an ordinance number 20 2504 an ordinance amending chapter 90 Police Department article 3 off-duty Police Services to modify administrative fees to account for additional taxes incurred by the township and to modify fees associated with use of Township police vehicles this is the first reading of this ordinance the second reading of public hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday February 19th and ordinance 20 2505 an ordinance amending chapter 583 streets and sidewalks article one excavation of streets of the code of the township of lower this is also the first reading of this ordinance this second reading and public hearing is scheduled for March 2nd 2025 okay thank you is there a motion to move us Forward Motion council member Conrad yes Council mham yes council member Roy yes Deputy Mayor Co yes mayor yes we slide under to close session or public comment oh I'm sorry sit right over I'm looking right at it okay sorry about that public comment anybody from the public want to make any comments to council okay we'll move over to our councelor comments councilman K do you have anything nothing tonight okay councilman where him um I might steal uh something Kevin might say but um this past uh two weeks ago we were uh you know given the opportunity to attend a fire district um to uh swearing in an award ceremony and I I think you guys all know we say it all the time that uh volunteers drive this community um but to be a volunteer firefighter you're you're you're volunteering your time and you're a First Responders double duties right uh it takes a unique person to do that and I just want to thank all them all the fire districts one two and three for for their volunteer and their services and their time that's all okay very good councilman Roy I have nothing further Deputy Mayor I can't pass it up e a g l e s Eagles Eagles you spelled it right you must School te e l GS e s Eagles okay you got that one okay now I have two things actually this uh just a reminder the pie of property are in Diamond Beach we have an auction coming up Friday February 7th at 9:00 a.m. that's the property in Diamond Beach and also as Mr Conley mentioned the election for the fire district is s February 15 from 2: to 9:00 p.m. that's all I have now we'll move down to the close session resolution number 2 2593 a resolution providing for a meeting not open to the public in accordance with provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings Act njsa 10 semic 4-12 okay is there a motion for this motion second council member Conrad yes council member yes council member Roy yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor yes thank you everyone no birds no birds