We'll call the meeting to order. Stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Public notice of this meeting
pursuant to the open meetings act has been given by the township council in the following manner. Notifying the township clerk December 27th, 2024. Mailing notice to the Carrier Post, Central Record, Burlington County Times on December 27th, 2024. Posting notice on the official municipal bulletin board on December 27th,
2024. Um, please place all phones on mute to alleviate the disruption of the meeting. Roll call, Terry. Mr. Kaufman, here. Miss Nunes, yes. Mr. Simons, yes. Mr. Zadnik, present. Mayor Terrier, here. All right. We have an ordinance, second
reading, and public hearing. Ordinance number 2025-03, an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in Burlington County, New Jersey, authorizing the private sale of certain township owned land no longer needed for public use to continuous property owner. I know I spel that said that wrong. Michael Mccclure
in accordance with the local lands and building law. NJSA4A semicolon 12-1 is open to the public. Anybody from wish to the public? Anybody want to come up and speak? Okay. Motion to close. I made. I'll second comments. All in
favor? I. Motion to adopt. So made. Second comments. Roll call. Mr. Coffman. Yes. Miss Nunes. Yes. Mr. Simons. Yes. Mr. Zranik. Yes. Mayor Tarico. Yes. Ordinance number
2025-04 calendar year 2025 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank NJSA4A semicolon 4-41. It's also open to the public if anybody has anything. No seeing none motion to
close. So made second. Comments all in favor. Motion to adopt. So made second comments. Roll call. Mr. Cauman. Yes. Miss Nunes. Yes. Mr. Simon. No, Mr. Zadnik. Yes. Mayor Tel Rico.
Yes. Resolution number 2025-R89, a resolution to read budget by title only. Uh motion to approve. Or do I have to read all? Mayor, you do have to read that. I'm sorry. Sorry. For the budget, you have to. Okay. Whereas
NJSA 40-4A semicolon 4-8 as amended by L205 C9514 2015 provides that the budget may be read by title only at the time of the public hearing if a resolution is passed
by not less than the majority of the full governing body providing that at least one week prior to the date of hearing a complete copy of the budget has been made available for public inspection and has been made available to each person upon request. And whereas these two conditions have been met now
therefore be be it resolved that the budget shall be be read by title only. Motion to approve. So made second comments. Roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Just I believe you cleared that up. Uh Madame Mayor that everybody in the
public has had a chance to view this if they if they've wanted to and Yes. So it goes immediately goes up on our web page and then if anybody calls and Terry gets anything and that's basically what the mayor just read. That's what we just read. Yeah. Thank you. Available. Anybody else? Roll call. Mr. Kaufman.
Yes. Miss News? Yes. Mr. Simons? No. Mr. Zadnik? Yes. Mayor Jar Rico? Yes. Resolution number 2025-R90. Authorize the resolution for local examination. Motion to approve. So made. Second.
Comments. Roll call. Mr. Kaufman, yes. Miss Nunes, yes. Mr. Simon, no. Mr. Sernik, yes. Mayor Telerico, yes. All right. This is the budget presentation. Resolution number 2025-R71 is the to approve the 2025 municipal budget. We will have an open
public hearing of the 2025 municipal budget. After I read this summary of revenues, surplus 4,725,000. Total miscellaneous revenue $3,879.99. Receipts from delinquent taxes 600,000 local tax for municipal
purposes 12,883,361 addition to local district school tax tax zero total amount to be raised by taxes for support of municipal budget 12,883,1361 total je general revenues 21,216,2160. Summary of appropriations. Operating
expenses, salaries, and wages 7,993,41524. Other expenses 7,71,814.75. Deferred charges and other appropriations $2,68,421. Capital improvements 50,000. Debt service including school purpose, $2,753,780. Reserve for uncollected
taxes 1,278,7851. Total J general appropriations 21,216,2160. This is a public hearing if anybody has anything. Come on up. Mayor, I do have the budget presentation that we do as well. I can run through that. I know there's not a lot of people in the audience, but it will be placed up on
our web page and it'll there'll be a link in our newsletter as well, but okay. I do need to go through it. So, um my sorry you went by. You went so quick. Sorry. Sorry. Got it. I deal with numbers. That's okay. No, it's great. It's great.
So, as you recall, at the March 27th council meeting, the 2025 budget draft was introduced, highlighting the financial challenges and strategic decisions facing the township. This proposed budget calls for a 2.9 cent increase in the local municipal tax rate, raising it from 0.938 cents in 2024 to an estimated
0.967 cents for 2025. This increase, which follows a previous rise from 0.925 cents in 2023, is expected to equate to just under $50 per year for the average assessed home valued at $162,95. Our uh CFO, Adrien Mckendry,
has provided you all with a breakdown too of what the average assessed homes will see. That's what was left in front of you. Um there's a breakout that kind of, you know, gives the Thank you. That gives the your average assessed home. We'll say the average is 190,000. Um in
2025 that means taxes will be $7,4705 um is the total. It's just approximately about $5510 is the local increase to uh our budget. That is something too that we will include um in our newsletter and on our web page as well. The 2025 budget
totals approximately 21.2 million. It's about $31,000 larger than the adopted 2024 budget. New Jersey budget law requires a balanced budget and the council discussed the anticipated revenues that will fund the $21.2 million in appropriations. These revenues currently total 7.96 million,
which is notably lower than the 8.6 million that we had in 2024, but that's due to the reduced grant monies and the absence of onetime revenues used in the previous year. Key revenue sources include surplus savings, alcohol licenses, fees and permits, municipal court fees, interest or delinquent on
delinquent taxes and investments, our hotel occupancy fees from the state, local fire safety fe fees, energy receipts, which is our state aid, construction construction code fees, and shared service agreements. One significant revenue challenge this year is the absence of the cannabis related income, which was anticipated when
planning the 2024 budget, but is yet to materialize. The council has encouraged the efforts to support the on opening of cannabis business as their revenue could benefit future budgets. So that's something that we're definitely going to work on again this year. The 2025 budget sets the local purpose tax levy at 13.2
million up from 12.5 million in 2024. This increase reflects the needs to balance reduced revenues from other sources. While reducing spending is one of our approaches to lowering the tax levy, the reality is that significant cuts would have needed to be made to make a substantial impact, which would also have meant that we would have had
cuts to our services. To reduce the local tax burden, our focus continues to and remains on increasing sustainable revenue sources rather than relying solely on spending cuts. Tonight is our public hearing on this year's budget, which is what the mayor has just read. And our presentation here will just give
a quick breakdown. I'll go through it quickly because I know everybody gets tired of seeing this stuff, but this is the 2025 tax rate allocation. You'll see the Maple Shade School District is 62.7% that's represented in the blue here. Our township tax rate is 25.1% which is
represented in green. And then you have open space which is this orangey color sliver there. Burlington County which is 11% which is the yellow. and then our Burlington County Library which is about 1% which on that screen you really can't see it but it's right there and it's a little gray
sliver. This just represents the total state aid that we've had from 20 to 20 2020 to 2024. You'll see that it has raised every year in 2024. Last year we had just a little over $1.9 million. This is just a slide of our municipal budget comparison from 2020 to
2025. You'll see that in 2020 we were at 19 million, just a little over 19 million. And today in 2025, you're seeking to adopt and approve the 25 budget of $21,216,216. If you look at the increase in local municipal tax rate by year, you'll see starting back in 2017, there
have been dips and and increases each year. Notably, everyone normally says, "Oh, what happened in 2020, 21, and 22?" In 2020, we were obviously hit with COVID. Um, but there was a slight increase that council had adopted. And then 21 and 22, the decisions were made
those years to keep the municipal budget as or tax levy as equal to zero, which we did. Um, as we were all coming out of those and the economy was just so unpredictable at the time. So, we wanted to make sure that our residents received their uh that tax relief. There's also been a lot of
questions about surplus and what surplus is and how our municipality uses it. So, I put this slide in there just to explain that the surplus is the amount of unexpended funds that a municipality will have on hand for the next following fiscal year. Why should a town work towards accumulating a surplus? By
accumulating a surplus yeartoear, a municipality can help protect against unexpected revenue losses and can be used to help reduce the need to increase the municipal tax levy when faced with substantial costs increases. And what is the Department of Community Affairs position on surplus? The DCA encourages
municipalities to have an established policy concerning surplus accumulation and its sustainable use in the annual budget. Rating agencies want to see this, which helps with the municipalities bond rating. These are things our municipality has in place and has for the last several years. This is a Maple Shade surplus
balances by year. You'll see the first column in each year, this greenish color, is what the beginning balance was. The darker blue in the middle is the used and then the year-end balance is the gray. So, you can see how it is adjusted throughout the years. In 2024, you'll see where we were with the
beginning balance and our year-end balance being just about equal. At the end of year of 2024, we had an $8,251,481.61 uh surplus. That's up slightly due to the increase in deferred school taxes. We've used that some of that surplus to
offset our tax increase to our residents. And why not use the surplus for infrastructure? This is a big question that we've gotten over the years and basically because once it's used, it's gone. You're never going to get it back. So, we're we've tried to use the surplus to offset taxes and provide new programs such as the rental
registration inspection program, hopefully with cannabis, the reassembuishes surplus. Our road programs, we've really focused on doing NJ do grant funding annually. So, that helps as well.
I've also done comparisons by town at the end of the year. Unfortunately for 2024, I haven't been able to get the other towns. Uh but I will before I put these slides up on online. Um you can see that our surplus is just around it hovers around our other towns
neighboring to us. Morsetowns, Delran, Burlington Townships. Mind you, these towns are all, you know, they're different from Maple Shade as well, but everyone is about in the same boat. So you can see how those uh those numbers change from year to year. So this is our 2025 budgeted revenues.
You'll see that 60.7% is to be raised by taxation. That's this yellow portion here. We have surplus of 22.2%. We have shared services agreement of 1.8, local revenues of 2.6% and then state aid, uniform construction fees,
grants, receipts from delinquent taxes, and other make up the rest of those budgeted revenues. This slide just gives you the breakout. just shows you what those actual dollar amounts are. So 12 point almost 12.9 million will be a raise by taxation. Surplus we're using is
4.725. Uh state aid we're looking at 1.73. Um and then local revenues, shared services, delinquent taxes and our grants and other all get our total budget of revenues to the 216 216. This is just another slide that just
shows how our monies are our budgeted appropriations are being used. Largest portion, which is probably no surprise to anybody, is public safety at 29.8%, our insuranceances at 9.6%. Public works at 9.3%. Statutory expenses, uniform
construction code, parks and recreation, general administration, government, that's all of your administrative staff 6.7%. Shared services, landfill solid waste at 7.2%. 2%. And again, this slide two will just show it shows the breakdown that our public safety
department just little over 6.3 million. Capital and debt services, we're at 2.8. Our public works department, trash and maintenance, just under 2 million. Insuranceances over 2 million. Statutory expendit expenditures, which are pension, social security, just over two
million. Um, so it this really gives a breakout of where those appropriations are being spent. And then this slide basically is is one of the last it just gives versus where we are in 2025 verse uh versus 2024. So in 2025 which is this
first column looking at six to 6.3 million in public safety. That's a little bit of a just over $154,000 difference from last year. Our capital debt service also is being reduced this year. Public works were increasing a little bit. you're going to
find the big uh increases in our insurance and our statutory debt. Insurance at you know we're just over 181,000 increase from last year and our statutory debt of 76,000. Um I will tell you that I have already started uh conversations about health insurance. Um
that's something that we can control but we can't control. So we are looking at that. Um I won't be able to really get any numbers until June. I need six months worth of our um our experience rating, okay, to be able to get new rates. So, that's what we're waiting for. Um and then again, you can just see
the differences in the reserve for uncollected taxes, our general government administration, our shared services, UCCC, court, parks, land use, and other miscellaneous. So, that's a breakdown. And again, all this information will be available to the residents. They'll be able to see this slideshow presentation. Um it'll be up
for everyone to see. That's it. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody from the public have any questions on the budget? Seeing none, like a motion to close the public hearing. So made. Second. Comments on the
motion. All in favor? I. Motion to adopt. So made. Second. Comments on the motion. Roll call. Mr. Cau. Yes. Miss Nunes. Yes. Mr. Simon? No. Mr. Zerick? Yes.
Mayor Telerico? Yes. Okay, this is the public portion for the consent agenda items only. If anybody from the public wishes to speak on anything on the consent agenda, please come up, state your name, address for the record. Okay, seeing none, motion to close. So
move. I'll second. All in favor? Okay, the consent agenda. I will do in bulk. Resolution number 2025-R91 through resolution 2025-R93. Motion to approve the consent agenda. So made second. Comments.
Roll call. Mr. Cauman. Yes. Miss Nunes. Yes. Mr. Simon. Yes. Mr. Zerodnik. Yes. Mayor Telerica. Yes. Okay. Approval of the expenditure list. Thank you. Current fund bill list $269,670.77. Utility fund bill is 5,3,361 penny. Capital bill capital fund
bill list $112,14 and our trust fund $8,15257. I have reviewed the above bill list as submitted and recommend payment when funds are available. Thank you. Motion to approve. I'll make that motion. Second. I'm sorry. Comments.
Roll call. Mr. Kaufman. Yes. Miss News? Yes. Mr. Simon? Yes. Mr. Zerick? Yes. Mayor Tel Rico? Yes. All right. This is now the public portion. Anybody from the public wishing to come up? Please state your name and address for the record. Seeing none, motion to close. I made.
Second. All in favor? I. All right. Moving over to staff and professional comments. We'll start down here. Nothing. Thank you, Mr. Simon. Nothing at this time. Mr. Zerati council. No, I have um the only
thing I'd just like to say the football carnival's coming up next week. I hope they have good weather and um hope everybody had a good Easter. So what is the actual date on that? I have been starts Tuesday. Tuesday 29 29th to Saturday.
Great. Uh just thank everybody that attended the Rotary Pancake Breakfast. It was a big hit. We made all the numbers aren't in yet, but it looks like we made about $11,000 on that uh on that event. Um, so
that goes all to uh to the schools for scholarships and what have you. Um, you know, the other thing I can say is that in walking in in Tel Lane Park, I noticed that there was a lot of graffiti on the lights, but then I noticed somebody took it all off. So, I guess
the guys saw it and they got rid of it. Yeah, we have police that monitor it, so they have been noticing it. And DPWF will go out the next day. Yeah, it's it's that's the balance there. You know, we wanted to do nice lighting and now we get the critique. Yeah. So, okay, you're
up. Uh, I just have condolences to Cheryl Roberts and the Saskcowski family uh on the passing of Art Slowski, which is uh a good friend and neighbor of mine. So, I'm sure
everybody knows knows him because he's a shaker and has been an icon in town with a lot of the businesses and just a thought. Just a thought for that family and that's all we have. Okay. Thank you. Nothing. Thank you, Susie. That'll be
nice. All right. Um, the only thing I have is the townwide art sale is this weekend. Hopefully, it doesn't rain. and the improv comedy class is tomorrow from 12:30 to 2:30 up here. And that's all I have. Everybody have a great weekend. Moving over to old
business operations. Great. Thank you. I have some old business. Okay. You want to go first? Sure. Um the nursing home status. Has the uh appraiser gotten back
to you yet with any information on the nursing home? So, Mr. McCale is on vacation right now. Now, I spoke with his associate this afternoon. I'll have the report next week. The report is done. It just needs to be signed. Okay. And then the other thing, the Aces field project,
um I don't know what the contractor is doing. The project to me seems to be lagging on for one thing. I know that there's been some change orders, but if we're going to make contractors do certain things in
this town, everybody needs to do the same thing. Those contractors are out there with no flags, no cones, no road signs, no nothing doing road construction doing that project. And again, if something
happens, we're going to get sued for it because we got the deepest pockets. I don't know if there's full-time inspections, but that's a perfect example why this township needs to have full-time inspections so that the engineers can be on site making these people adhere to it. If somebody came
down that road and ran into one of those guys or ran into one of their pieces equipment, we'd be holding the nut for that. So, I don't know how the process is going to have to go, but that company that's doing that work needs to be brought up to speed so that we're not
liable for their actions. Okay. So, I did get the email that u Miss Mcdow sent on your behalf to me and uh Dennis and his engineer met and it's actually it's part of my report for this evening and I'm sure that Dennis will report as well. But just to answer your question, when I got Miss McDow's email, I did reach out to the police department
immediately and the DPW. Um there were cones out there. They did not have flaggers. Um the police department said that they had driven by a couple times that they didn't see anything at the time. I don't know if it was just that they were working if they were just working on the site and hadn't gotten into the roadway. However, the result of
it of our meeting yesterday is that tomorrow and next week the police department will be out there. Well, just for the record, and I'm bringing this up publicly so we don't have any problems in the future for the township itself. I was up and down that road all day moving equipment for my jobs and I can tell you
they had no cones, they had no flaggers, they had nothing. Okay. which again and and and I I take some of that responsibility. My my inspector should have uh I mean they make they make them appoint a site safety officer and they make them sign that they're responsible
for site safety but the fact that they didn't have work ahead signs and everything that's unacceptable and I agree and uh that shouldn't have happened and we're going to make sure that it doesn't in the future. So they're out there tomorrow with doing some uh uh stabilization. So there going
to be probably four hours of equipment. Uh we have arranged for the police uh traffic control during that period of time. But you know I I agree with you that having no signs there work ahead and everything was not acceptable. Are they actually working in the street? Yes. Well so some of the bigger
equipment that they're not doing work in the street but the fact that uh when they had their milling machines and everything else and they had their trucks polished across they were trans they were going back and forth across. So, there are certain days that they should definitely have uh better traffic
control out there, but they're actually not working in the street. They're working. They are not working. It's all in the park. But there is like tomorrow there's really some big equipment that they need to do to do this uh soil stabilization. Um so, in that case, uh you know, we feel that the police should
be out there for that. But that has been arranged and it's already been confirmed as of late this afternoon. The police will be out there. That's all been worked out. So, Okay. Operations more. No. Good. Okay. Um, on Tuesday, April 15th, I participated in a call with
PSENG to discuss the proposed energy rate increases expected this summer. With rising energy supply costs, PSENG is exp I know that's Yeah, PSEG is expanding its outreach efforts into Burlington County and reaffirming its long-standing commitment to helping municipalities and customers manage
energy usage and costs. They offer educational resources, energy efficiency programs, and payment assistance options to help make bills more affordable. More information, including an affordability guide, is going to be in our May newsletter. Program brochures I've also printed out are available at the municipal building, at the tax office
window, and near the council meeting agendas. I had thought that there might be more people here tonight uh for residents to take, but we do have those out. There are a ton of programs, a lot more than we were aware of. Um, so everybody should really look to the May newsletter. Uh, like I said, there will be a lot of information there and we're
putting out as we get information around here. Um, in the building on Wednesday, April 16th, we held our solid waste pre-bid meeting with three vendors in attendance. Their participation and interest are very encouraging, and I'm hopeful that next month's bid opening will yield a very competitive outcome. This evening, we conclude after
we conclude our regular business, council will be participating in the annual elected officials training. This year's training discusses how municipal leaders can protect their communities and themselves from lawsuits. municipal elected officials, chief operating officers, municipal manager, administrator, our township clerk.
Everyone who completes this course uh qualifies for a $250 credit in our local unit 2025 assessment. So, not only are we going to learn valuable information, we get a discount, too. So, that'll be good. Yeah, we like discounts. Um, we did just talk about Aces Park. Uh, I'm
sure that Mr. Yoder is going to have a little bit more to elaborate on that, so I won't do uh that again. Um, but I do want to thank Dennis. I know you're going to talk about the the stabilization and I know that the first quote that we got yesterday was um jaw-dropping. So, you guys worked hard
to really knock them down and uh we were able to get the quote to come in 20,000 less. So, we have authorized um that that change order to to go ahead and uh again, thank you for your costconscious approach. I know Annie was a little bit surprised when my face turns five shades of red.
Um, over the past several weeks, the township has been working closely with our planning and zoning engineer, Fred Tourk, to address safety concerns at the RPM construction site. These concerns came to a head last Wednesday when the county conducted a site visit to review existing traffic co control plan. It was determined that during that visit that
the plan that was previously approved by the county was not being properly followed and did not meet the required safety standards under the MUTCD guidelines. So to promptly resolve that issue, I convened a meeting earlier today with all the parties and as a result RPM is now required to revise
their traffic control plan. The revised plan will include could include the temporary closure or portions of Lipincot Avenue while work is completed on the portion of that site. Um just want to make everyone aware that it was addressed that the safety of our pedestrians and our drivers and our community members are remaining our top
priority over there. So, the contractor was advised that he needs to work closely with the police department, county, and planning engineer to ensure that any changes implemented are safe and communicated clearly to the public. Um, at the same time, we're fully aware of how this construction is probably going, not probably, it will impact the
nearby businesses and the residents. So, we are making sure that those notices get out as well so that we can minimize the disruption to everyone as much as possible. Today, our police department celebrated Bring Your Child to Work Day. I'm sure that Chief Fletcher is going to announce more at the next, so I will not
steal his thunder, but all I know is that I want to be a kid with a parent in the MSPD because there was pizza and moon bounces and ice cream. Um, and I would take that kind of workday any day. So, and lastly, as the mayor had mentioned that this weekend is our annual townwide yard sale. Mother Nature
is playing some games on us. So, what we decided was that two days are better than one. So, we will have the annual yard sale on Saturday and Sunday. residents can shop on both days. Those that are involved uh took to it very uh very nicely. They were excited. So, um
some had stated that they were going out rain or shine. Others had said, "Heck no, I want the sunshine only." So, that's why we decided on um both days. And then, of course, next week, our townwide event is uh this annual event this weekend is followed up with our annual household cleanup day. Residents
can dispose of their unmolded bulky items at the DPW Ward Wednesday through Saturday. But as a reminder, please no commercial vehicles as they will not be permitted and we cannot accept cinder block bricks or concrete. That's it. Okay. Thank you.
Engineers report. Okay. I'm going to I'm going to run through these projects. Hopefully not be too long. Uh the first three projects on the list are all uh state a projects that we get funding through the uh state gas tax and so forth for that. And obviously this year
there's a new application in and alignment should be handling that. Uh we are receiving bids on May 1st for East Front and Alexander. So we have award for that in May. The other two projects were just submitted up to the state. They have to go through the DOT review
process. I do want to note that on North Terrace uh the water man's in poor condition. So I've talked to Susan briefly that we were supposed to do North Pine as a capital project. We're probably going to flip out North Pine and address North Terrace because uh so
I will get a proposal in for that. I don't know if that's money will be appropriate to all the budgets are through the process, but we have to October of next year to award that project, but I think we should do the water main in advance of that work. Um Yokum school bids have been received.
There's like 97,000 that's going to be an agenda in May for award and we're hoping to do that this summer while the school's out. uh municipal building. Uh there was a lot of the DOT uh compliance issues that you know it's it's an older building to bring it up to code. We're
probably at 90% design documents. Uh we've been working with the Chief Fletcher on that and now there's a meeting on on May 5th where we have to meet with the Department of Corrections. They're going to get a chance to look at that and then they'll be able to tell us yes, you're in compliance now if you do these improvements. And hopefully we've
been in that project later this summer. Uh, Aces Park. It's been a lot of fun. Um, we did when they removed the basketball court and we went out there and the ground is pumping and if we go back, it's a $275,000 project. We half of it is
portion of it is grant. Uh, we thought about just getting rid of the basketball court and saving the money. But since it's a grant application, we don't want to change the program. Uh we looked at we had our geotech engineer come out and look at two different options to to deal with the the subbase because if we go
back on the existing base you're going to put some have a nice course for five years and that's not the goal. Um so if we go in there we looked at we asked got prices for putting in 12 inches of stone doing undercutting and putting fabric and they came in were 50,000. So then we
went back and looked at concrete stabilization and we were able to negotiate down to we're probably more in the 30,000 35,000 range when we get done with that. But it's going to give you a better court and it's going to be something that's going to last a lot longer than if we just uh try to go back
here with existing conditions. And Dennis, that's because there was nothing in the original court too, right? That we determined that there was nothing there. That's part of the reason it was broken up the way it is. uh hindsight knowing Maple Shade maybe should have had that stabilization in there in the bid originally. So, but I
was it's a lesson learned from my from my standpoint from my view. So, you're proposing uh modified base to be put in there. Yeah. So, they're going to it's a cement uh mixture that they go in there and pulverize and mix in there and that'll that is actually I like it. It's
better and more enduring than even the stone fabric uh option and it came in cheaper. We thought it would come in more expensive uh for that option. It does pack a lot better, too. And it's porous. Yeah. And they do a pretty good job with the machine. The machines that they use are, you know, like $2 million
worth of equipment that they're going to be using out there tomorrow to do this project. Um so that's that's ongoing. Uh the the basketball equipment are the lead time on that. So we're hoping that that comes in in June and we finish this project
out here early summer. Um, obviously it's been always a safety issue. The fencing comes down. We're always fighting with the contractor to maintain a safe uh work site, but so that on be going on for another month or so here
till we get it completed. Uh, storm water uh, we have a May 1 submission. Um, the township's uh, storm sewer mapping was not. So, we've did the best we can to make this deadline and we're going to be submitting that application and we have enough there to be in
compliance with this initial GIS MS4. Um, but there are some other places that these maps are going to be ongoing that you're going to have to do some additional updates in the future. Uh, there might actually have to be survey out there to verify and things like that ongoing. But, we're going to make that
submission that you're going to be in compliance. But as far as the regs that are happening with the MS4 with your storm water outfalls and your piping, everything else, uh you're going to continue have to develop those systems and make them more accurate. Uh we're doing some storm
water u analysis out on East Grand Well Avenue in South Maple. Uh there's been a flooding issue there. We should be getting a a report completed on that. That's pretty much it on the the municipal side and parks and recck side. Uh as far as water wastewater, uh we
have a we have till 2029 to complete remove uh lead service lines in the township. Um we have an NJIB application. They've had it for quite a while. We've been pushing them. We put bid dates up for them that we we'd like
to have this project advertised and we receive bids on June 3rd. We'll see if we can get our authorization advertised for that. We're a lot of the a lot of the places that we're doing, we don't really know. They're unknown whether they're
galvanized pipes or not. So, the way the the approach is that we go where the the curb stop is and we excavate down and then we determine on the street side and the resident side whether they're galvanized. And we're hoping that a lot of those unknowns turn out to be uh um
just copper pipe. But uh until we do that test, that would be the first step. And then anything is determined to be uh uh galvanized has to be replaced. And you know, this all came out of the Flint, Miss Michigan issues years ago.
There were supposed to be principal forgiveness uh for up to 50%, but now they changed the program and basically based on the tier of the community. depends what you know you have to be one of the two poor tier communities in
order to be able to get principal forgiveness now so we'll see um you don't find that out completely until you actually get the bids in place as far as the replacement goes if there are lead lines after the valve is that on the
homeowner well where's where's the cut off for the feds so the fed said you have to go all the way to the meter and our meters are in the Okay. So, we're sort of stuck with doing that, which they threw in galvanized
toe. They threw galvanized into which is a benefit kind of because it gets choked down and rots anyway. So, and we and we we're in compliance with our lead and copper. I mean, we've done all there's testing you have to do every year where you have to do selected uh uh residents
and and go out there and actually test your uh uh water to make sure that there's not lead contact. And you know, we're in compliance. You have to be uh when you do that testing, you have to be over it's 90 95% of their homes have to be in compliance for you not to be put
into some kind of program. And we've always uh been in compliance. So we've we haven't had an issue. Um we're probably 250 homes that we're uncertain about in and so we're a lot less than a lot of the communities, but it's still
it comes out to be a you know I I think you're looking at 15,000 per home that you have to do this. So is there any database from the water department with potential? I mean because it gets costly to dig to find out what's down there at
some point in time. I mean, yeah. So, we did a meter replacement program, right? And when we did that meter replacement program, we knew this was coming and when we got into homes, we actually identified the best we could uh wherever we could identify. So, that that really
saved us as far as getting our list of known and unknowns down to smaller amounts. Um, we have sent notices out to some the homeowners we don't know uh about, but some some complied and responded and our list has gone down over time. So, when we start this whole
uh process, we we definitely had a larger list. Um, but u so there'll be less exploratory. Yes. At the end. Okay. And the initial exploratory is is probably, you know, a $2,000 effort
there, you know, going down. And, you know, hopefully we get a good contractor because now you're dealing with residents going on. So, we that's a another issue, too. So, how many definites did we have? Definitely. The
definitely it's at least 150. Okay. Last I remember it was like 174. That's the number that and you some of them did take care of things, but we were able to cut that list down. I know the list originally started at over 400 homes. So, um I was just trying to get the most recent
number. Yeah. And we've as we've done some of these streets and everything, we've eliminated a few more and everything. So, this has been going down. Yeah. Um we just started the annual hydro program. and wood and kern gives us it lists of their most uh need hydrants
most in need of replacement and we work within our our budget the best we can to be under 150,000 a year that we do for that so we just started that uh project and wellouses 9 and 10 that's part of the king's highway water plant uh we do have a $850,000 grant we've been working
with the CBD who's now handling that um so that project was just initiated uh we are still trying to get closing on purchasing ing uh uh the one site for the but we've been running into problems with a uh a deed restriction that's been
dealing on on the on the project. There's a there's a tower antenna company has sort of right over first refusal, but we've been going back. We've given them all the information we need. We just haven't got to the finish line yet. But uh u every the agreements
are in place for that. And part of the reason for that is the existing Kings Highway water plant is antiquated, really hasn't been used lately and it's in a floodway. So we really want to if we're going to spend the money for the replacement plant, we want to move it
upgradient out of the floodway and uh give it make it a little bit more resilient even though we haven't had any floods down there. So it's like rain on Saturday. You just said it. So, uh, projects in construction. Um,
tonight we're doing the tie-in out on Route 73 for the Main Street Force main first part. Uh, again, that's been a journey with Earl Construction. Uh, but, uh, hopefully we had to add a line stop to give them control because half the
flow to the in in the town goes through that pump station that we're dealing with. Uh so that's scheduled to uh start at 8 o'clock this evening and we'll be running through the night. Uh we have to do it at the off hours just because the lower flows we still have to have like
six trucks there for hauling. Um we have given notice to the residents near the wastewater plant because there is traffic now going in at night along that street. Uh two pro other projects in construction water main replacement and
main street sewer. Uh those are scheduled for construction in May and July and hopefully they'll be uh starting soon. Well 12, we had a a hole in our it's one of our main wells in well it's so our workhorse well and uh
uh there was a hole in it and we had gravel filling into our the bottom of the well. So we had to airlift that out. Uh we got approval from the state and actually the liner went in uh earlier this week. We ran a little problem. We couldn't get it down as far as we wanted. We're putting it we're putting a
12 in insert well inside the existing 8 inch casing and I don't know just the alignment of the well when you're down 450 ft. We couldn't get it down the last nine feet. So, uh instead of having 50 foot of screen, we're going to end up with having 41 foot of effective screen
which I think we're still going to be okay. We're starting a development process on Monday where we go in there, put energy in there, and we get everything to settle and then we'll do a pump test and we'll have a a better idea of the results what we're going to have out of the well. Originally, we were
able to pump it at 1200 1250 gallons per minute. That's the size of the pump. We may reduce it down to a,000 gallons per minute, and we should be okay with that if we do that. Um, but um we'll know better uh next week.
And the only other thing just bring out the emerging contaminants. Uh the POS we do have uh POS in one of our wells there on Main Street. That's the current levels. Maximum contamin levels are are 12 parts per million or 13 parts per
million depending on which con which component you have. Uh but the new rags are going to go in effect in 2029 or four parts and one of our wells is right at that limit and we do need all of our
wells. So we may have to add a carbon filtration at that plant in the future and that but that's going to be a a little bit more expensive project that would have to go through the I bank for funding. But um we probably should think about budging and starting that uh soon
because Everybody's gonna have to meet that timeline. And um any grant money out there, any grant? So So we have applied for there's there's a ton of lawsuits and uh there's already been the judgments for for 3M DuPont. Uh there's
about three other ones in there. So we have tracked we've submitted for those. Uh we've been tracking that a long time. Yeah. Well, we've been tracking that a long time. Yeah. So it it it's still going. The money hasn't been distributed. I hope it doesn't go all to the
lawyers, but uh so there's u there is some big settlements out there. How that's going to be distributed and whether that's going to be for the actual construction or the payment of the treatment over time is is on still uncertain but
uh that's you know is what it is. Yeah, we tried to get money for those wells too when Morristown was having problems with uh um TCP, right? And uh unfortunately we we were told we were
getting spill fun money and everything else. Um but then at the end of the day they said you have to have a violation and we're right at the we're at the we're at acceptable limit. we would have liked to treat. We actually had the plant ready to go, but they wouldn't
fund it because we weren't in violation. So, it's like anyway, you don't want to be, but you want to be. I I know. It's like, yes. Thank you. Any questions? That concludes my report. Yeah, I have a question, Dennis. Um,
yeah, the front street project, is that just a a milling and overlay or are you going to uh address any of the infrastructure in there? Because I know at the street that the post office on there's some problems at that intersection with front. So, as far as I know, it's just a mill and overlay
project. I know there there's some curb and sidewalk with it, but I'd have to look at and see uh what was all in the original uh DOT grant, but I do have drawings if if you want to see them, I can get a copy to you. Yeah, if you could shoot me an email or something on that. The drainage that you're talking
at at Wallace Avenue. Yes, there's an they've already they're doing a study. R&B's been doing a study for us on there. We started that. I guess what? So, that's that's part of the reason we're doing that study is uh we have till October of next year to have construction awarded for these projects.
So, we want to improve do any if there's any other action needed prior that we want to make sure it's done prior to the milling and overlay. Yes. Right. Okay. Nice. So, has there been any kind of surveys done on the infrastructure on that road? Um, like the the the storm sewers, the
uh sewers themselves and the water manes. So, the usually when we're doing a road project, we do uh have water and current uh televised the sewer lines like on North Terrace. Uh it it's an older pipe. Uh we it's a a candidate to
be uh be lined uh because in it's in good shape, but it certainly would be in extend the life of that if we put a liner on that. They know what kind of quake the water the main is. It's it's terracotta. So, you got joints every 3 ft and so forth. So, but but the
televising came out that was in previous shape. So, do do you address it 20 years from now or do you actually That's the point. We're we're we're milling a road or you know we're going to asphalt it. And my whole thing is that uh if we're going to
spend money, we need to do the infrastructure first because the infrastructure is an issue. The storm sewers with the feds with all the regulations. Now, now the roads, a lot of the roads are in bad condition, but we're going to spend money to do a road
and asphalt it and then if the infrastructure fails, we're going to be spending way more money to fix it instead of looking at it and doing it in a process where it's cost effective to the township and the people that live here. So, I'm just trying to get a line
on what your process is because the infrastructure, the mapping, all that it it has to get done, especially moving forward for filing everything that we have to file on a regular basis for storm water management and the water.
So, I I mean, I'm in favor of doing a road. I'm not in favor of doing it and then having the infrastructure fail and then we have to dig it up and ruin the road that we just spent the money on. And I know that we're getting grant money, but is that grant specific to just the paving? Is it can it be
modified when it comes in? Yeah, the DOT won't fund any of the infrastructure improvements, but Right. Yeah. But what we do is, you know, when we're looking at the capital projects for utilities, there's there's two things we look at because we have certain budget that we have been expending every year for the
infrastructure for water and sewer. Uh so we either find streets where we've had multiple water mane breaks and that becomes a higher priority even if we're not doing the road because uh we're running out there doing emergencies and we're putting clamps on. Uh and then the
second thing we look at is we look at a road program. If we we are doing a road we do want to look at those pipes and make sure that you are addressing any because the last thing we do is pave a road and have two years later you have to dig it up to fix a water man. Right. Well, and a lot of the streets had work
done and then PS came in, dug it up to put gas veins in. They put, you know, it destroys the road. And and my point being is that I I want to get some kind of program in place that we're not wasting the township money that the roads are getting fixed and they're
going to last 50 to 100 years. Yeah. And have what they need and aesthetics. Yeah, I mean I've seen PS&G come in too and they do their small trench they don't think have they have a big issue and you go out there two years later and they're they're sunk they have little
sunk trenches every four clinging road from mill down to rerout perfect example I don't know if there's a way we can make them bond longer or anything but it's certainly it's certainly that they have not something that we've brought up with Karen Frier who is our uh our rep here and we've spoken to her several
times because that happened on a couple of the roadways that the township did as miscellaneous road projects Like every year we reach out to PSE andG and say hey like do you have anything going and they reach out to us and say do you have any projects going so we've been trying to coordinate that but um it it doesn't always work but that is definitely
squares down the exact but that's because it looks like quilt work on the roadways but that is something like again with PSEG that we have taken over at least the last you know since I've been here definitely saying to the like we need to know if you're coming in because again you don't want to have a road opened up and it's the same thing when we do our road projects you know we
coordinate with Dennis Doesn't matter who the engineer. Yes, last year was a little bit easier because you were doing both, but you we coordinate between the engineers to say, "Okay, you're going to do this road project, but you need to coordinate with R&B and the Woodard and Current to let us know what the infrastructure is before we even choose that road." They weren't they know where
their problems are. So they need to identify the problems in this town and work with the engineers so that we can put this all together because they they you know just like mil or for clanning road they didn't have the money in the budget and then a year later they
trenched the road and destroyed it right and that was money that we spent to do the road. We didn't get any money for that road, I don't think, at the point at that point in time. But we're doing them a favor whether they think so or not because if we're making them replace that main, they're not going to have
emergencies. They're not going to be digging 50 holes to put patches on it. And at the end of the day, they can walk away from it. They're spending less money dropping the main in than doing the repairs for the next 10 years until they decide that they're going to replace the main. So, I don't know if
there's anything legally that we can do or make ordinances in this town, but we need to get them to understand that we're serious about our road programs and our infrastructure, right? And hold them accountable. So, that's why we had the road moratorium. And I think that's what we really we probably want maybe want to look at that again just to make
sure that that moratorum is in place and that again these these companies coming in know that you're not going to do it now when we're opening the road or you're not doing it at all. So, um I know the problem is it's gas. So, if we tell them and there's a leak, they have to fix it and they're going to dig the
road up. I I'm trying to get something so that the aesthetics of this town stay that way for 50 years cuz every time a road's done in this town, they wind up trenching it to put a sewer repair in it. We have to think ahead and spend the money wisely and do everything at one
time and then the road can stay like that. We don't have to worry about it being cut open. We don't have to worry about the sidewalks being turned up. It's just done and it's good for another 50 years, another 70 years. With the moratorium in my last town, what we had, we had that if they were opening up a
certain portion of the roadway, they had to come back in and they had to repair more then. Like it wasn't just that section. They would have had to do half the roadway. Like there were That's what I mean. We need to do ordinances and make them understand if you trench that road, you're fixing it from the center
of the road out to the curb, right? Period. You're going to mill it and redo it. Yeah. Nothing personal. Any engineer that says it's it's just as good with a patch is not a good engineer. Doesn't look nice. So, we can look at that. Nothing personal does. We'll look at the
road moratorum and uh maybe if it needs to be tweaked, we'll uh we'll tweak. I I know it needs to be tweaked. We need to have the engineers go through the town with everything so that we can make a program up and it and and systematically start picking the roads and doing them
100% and moving on with them. It's the only way things are going to get done the right way and not have to cost taxpayers money later on. Any other questions? Good. All right. Moving over to the green team sustainable. We did not meet since our
last meeting. So, I have no report. Moving over to new business. I don't see any. Does anybody else have anything? I have new business. Okay. One of the things that I was talking to the engineers about was the the specs. Right
now, the township has a 4,000 lb uh concrete for doing the curbs and sidewalks. We need to up that to 5,000 lbs for new road construction. If somebody's replacing something in the town or fixing it, it can stay like
that. And if we're eventually going to dig it up, it can get changed. But when we're having road designs done now, we need to take that to a 5,000 lb psi. And that ordinance needs to be changed so that we can do that to to get the engineers to move forward with that. And
I think if you talk to any engineer, they're going to agree with that. The longevity of the concrete is a lot better and it lasts a heck of a lot longer. and the amount of money you're spending to have that little bit of strength increase is minimal in the
grand scheme of things. Okay. So, I'm proposing that we Yeah. Your your ordinance currently shows it as 4,000. Now, the DOT probably won't, you know, maybe we'll have to just do that as something later on because they these do
the grant projects they they do with the 4,000. Now, if it's a bridge, they you have your 5,000 for any kind of concrete structure for bridges and stuff like that. But I agree it's a it's a stronger concrete. It's going to be more durable. But, um, we got I'm not sure how we get
around the DOT part of that, but um, they have specs for that in the state the state specs on the highway. Are they running 4,000? They're running 4,000 that for the for that. But if they're doing bridges, they're doing 5,000.
Well, the costing what what it costs versus the benefit you get out of it outweighs it for longevity. I'll do some research and see if any towns have it. If not, I'll work with Ellen and uh we'll try to get a draft for the next for the next meeting or at least
at least have a Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Is that okay with everybody? Sure. Okay, Dennis, I'll I'll reach out to you as well. Yeah. Okay. And then I I have the a question as far as the engineer reports. Um when the
engineer reports come in uh to the township, I'm speaking for myself here. I don't know what the other council members feel, but I would like them forwarded to me. They get forwarded with as soon as I get them like they like today I just got a Limo, so that'll go with tomorrow's activity report. All
right. Well, I had asked for some stuff and I I wound up getting it through their report and I just want to make sure that I'm getting the things that I want to look at so that I can they have all been forwarded. I know what you're asking. I have forwarded everything that was trying to get mine out. This either
comes with the activity report or if my activity report has already gone out or if it's something that we're not going to meet then like this one with Dennis was one that I knew he was coming. So I know some of this stuff is coming over from other years, but I personally want to get involved in all this for the
township. Sure. So my background, I know what I'm talking about. I know I can work with the engineers, all of them in this town, and I want to be informed about it. That's all I'm asking. And then the last thing was the ma main street building
uh that's being put up the the inspection reports. Mhm. I'm hearing a lot of things from different people in town. Whether they're true or not, I don't know. But I I want to look at the inspection reports. I want the anything
that was has to do with that building. I know what the inspection schedules are, but I want the reports. I want to be able to read them and look at them and see that they're being done and what the comments are on them because a building that size can't be being put up and not have comments of things that have to be.
Look, that building is worrying me because it's going to become a liability to us if the things that are happening in that building are true. There's a contractor from up north North Jersey coming in here doing it. And if they're getting card blanched to do stuff, that's going to be a problem that we're
going to be left holding the bag later on. Well, I I don't think that they're getting cart blanch. And I I didn't say they were. I said if they were, I'm not sure that I can just give those reports, but I will double check and I will ask. I'm not sure that's something that can just be provided. I I've never had that
request before because I think it's not a general request, but I will find that out and I will I think that I'm entitled to that as a council member with the township doing business with them. Well, we're not doing business. It's not our project. So, it's not it's a private project. So, it would be no different
than us you being able to review. And I don't know. I'm going to ask and if I can, I will get them for you without a doubt. That's not a problem. Anything else? Yeah, I have one other question about the uh the resolutions and the ordinances that have been being done
since the beginning of the year. I just want to know who's writing those ordinances in those resolutions. Just the name the ordinances get done by Miss McDow when we have those and the resolutions so long as they are generic resolutions, they're ones that we've used. They're normally just consent
agendas are ones that are in our repertoire and that's why they go out or not our repertoire in our um well this is my personal opinion. Nobody that works in this building is a lawyer. She's our solicitor and I know that the
comment was made that you know she can look at him before the meeting and and you approve him or disapprove him. But somewhere along the line I think those things are going to catch up with this town. We have a solicitor. The old solicitor wrote those things and build
for them. So, at this point, I'm I'm making a suggestion that our solicitor does all the work for the resolutions and the ordinances because that way it covers us. Well, the ordinances she does do. Those are things that we do not write. If we have an ordinance, there'll
be things that we mark up and send them over. Um the resolutions they are typically done by the township clerk and again they are sent over the Friday before to have if there's any questions that need to be done. The resolutions that we've done up until this point are ones that have been done for for years
have been ones that have been used by other towns too to kind of see what the wording some of the resolutions we get come directly from the state. So and those wordings have I'm speaking for myself. I don't know how the rest of the board feels, but that's my personal council decision. But we do have I mean
that's what your township clerk is here for too. That's what they get taught to to do. That's the way it should be done. I mean again, everybody gets a chance to review them. But and if there's any questions, they definitely can be asked or if they need to be tweaked, they definitely can be tweaked. That's why they go out ahead of
time. Anything else? All right. Uh, we are not going into closed so I don't have to read resolution 94. Right. I don't have anything. All right. So, we're moving over to the training session. So, yeah, Dennis, you can go on. We don't have to
sit through the training session. Oh, no. You have to stay. Well, if we stay open. Yeah, but no one has to stay for it. I um I actually can turn off the recording and whatnot because it's not a recorded session.