e e so whatever you need it I'd like to call for a motion to reopen the meeting and turn the tape on I'll make that motion John made the motion anybody second second
second okay all in favor I I okay so we um had one decision made in closed which was to accept the affidavit that was signed by Heather Torico mayor Torico um concerning her employment and
it needs to be read into the record so I'm going to do that I Heather Tarico having been duly cautioned and sworn hereby State the following based upon personal knowledge I am a member of the Maple Shade Town Council with the township of Maple Shade I am also an employee of Key Bank National
Association and serve as a taxable Municipal Bond Trader Key Bank Capital markets is a subsidiary of key Court I am not officer or employee of key Corp I own stock in key Corp which represents less than 0.1% of the outstanding shares
of that company in connection with my commencement of service on Maple Shade Town Council for the township of Maple Shade I am providing notice of my association with KeyBank and plan to withdraw from all decisions and deliberations related in any manner to matters related to my employer and she
signs it and it's a notorized document so it's in the minutes for the future thank you okay we're going to go on move on to the presentation the unlisted student climate challenge I've made copies for um
Council they have everything so yeah but just give me a minute because I have your um presentation hopefully it worked earlier no okay I'm going to it's I don't know it's think wony okay so why don't you go ahead and start
I know uh Council has copies and I will get you all looked up here thank you all right so uh we are students from Maple High School my name is vua oh my name is James and my name is k so we are mentors in our school's unless project so uh
we'll go into a little bit about what the unless project is um but for 20242 our mission is to help save the mcor box so the UNL project is a club uh made up of students from grades 9 through 12 uh who are interested in Environmental
Conservation so every year we aim to work together with the Philadelphia Zoo to help reverse the growing numbers of injured species um we have been participating in this project for almost 10 years uh we've taken first place on numerous occasions and I think ever since we started we yeah we've been in
like the top 30 so awesome congratulations thank you thank you we're really excited for this year too since our numbers have grown from I think like 10 15 from last year to like about 30 so yeah um
yeah thank you um this year we're focusing on the um cords box turtle it's a turtle found mostly in the southern parts of China it lives in wetlands and bro Le Forest this animal has been classified as highly endangered by the
union for conservation of natural of nature due to poaching for medicine and habitat loss of course box Ser as a predator uh eating insects and small amphibious life forms um while Serv is
prey for uh larger organisms basically it keeps its ecosystem check while also being extremely culturally significant for China it's very important for that area I think okay there are a lot of local
animals um similar to The mord's Box thr such as the spotted Turtle it faces many of the same issues um as the mord's Box thr including habitat loss and poaching spy Turtles can be found in many areas across New Jersey and shallow aquatic
areas and wetlands um we also have the Eastern tiger salamander they're found in many are around New Jersey mainly in forest and wetlands the animal is facing poaching habitat loss and damages from littering all around the bog turtle is
also curly endangered species living in bogs wetlands and wet Med wet Med sorry across New Jersey this Turtle has been endangered endangered since the 1990s so those were the connections like to our environment so those are the
animals that we're going to be directly trying to help um since the L's box turtle isn't in our region um the overarching theme of the UNL project is climate change uh I know everybody knows about climate change but uh it greatly
affects our GL every single day um this past decade was recorded as the um hottest decade on Earth since thermometer base observations have taken place sea levels have risen around 6 to 8 in um wildfires and floods I know we
can all see the um extreme weather that we've been experiencing so our program focuses on reversing the growing issues related to climate change we so we focus on these endanger animals but also how to uh prevent like their extinction
extinction in addition to um like over like a you know overall habitat destruction and water loss um we have a few goals for the 2025 year um we want to focus on reducing
waste conserving water and rebuilding the habitats and policy inflammation as well possibly um we are hoping to have a seed distribution where we will make little seed packets and distribute them to students throughout our high school
um and these will be a native spe species to New Jersey so it won't be anything new but it will be things that we find around New Jersey already that could we have more of in the future that can start growing
more next we are collect collecting plastic bottles with lids to make self-watering bottles where we will poke a hole into the lid and pretty much put it in the ground and the water collects and it goes naturally it works very well
and we're hoping to collect a lot for that that is one of our main progressions through this year it will help reduce waste and conserve water a lot so this will help climate change because
when you're reusing a plastic bottle like instead of buying a new one you save six 50 to 60 gram of carbon dioxide emissions depending on the botle size and recycling process evolved essentially most of the carbon footprint of plastic bottle is generated during
its initial production so reusing significantly reduces emission by avoiding the need to manufactur a new bottle each time you use it um imp planting the native species will help reduce carbon dioxide by absorbing it in their environment and
redistributing as oxygen so another thing we very briefly want to touch upon is we would uh so with the get back to this like kind of touch back on the impation part of it so um it's still in the works but what we want to do is kind
of maybe imp like so the ideas that we have are Implement and signage around town so like if there are any areas that are particularly you know in dangered or they have like specific species that we want to protect then we hope to uh Implement signage there um also planting
more trees in our town uh and perhaps including like a blur on our website um about climate change and about the name species sh to to about our presentation yeah um you have any questions yeah any questions
for us thank you so much thank you so much anybody have any questions so you're looking for help from us for signage for around town or to identify species or animals that
would be so we just wanted to inform you like what we were doing as a group this something that like we're super passionate about so yeah in the future like I think policy could be like aut that was like a we want to touch base on that because we will
likely be reou to see if anything could go further with that it's okay awesome good luck thank you good job let us know how we can help thank you for coming up and showing us course thank you for having us have a great night than thanks all right moving over to uh
ordinance interu uction and first reading ordinance number 25-01 an ordinance amending salaries and wages of certain officers and employees of the township of Maple Shade County of Burlington state of New Jersey effective January 1st 2025 need a motion for the introduction
so may second comments roll call call I'm sorry I think with the with that we should table it and look at all the numbers into the things when we go into
the budget I think it's it's it's mixing contractual things that we're obligated to with things that we might not be obligated to and I think we need to have more of a discussion about it okay so we do already have a motion
and a second on the floor um so that has to be voted on you have to vote on that first okay so roll call on the motion for introduction Mr Kaufman yes Miss NES yes Mr Simon sick no Mr zarnik
yes mayor tal Rico yes so that motion carries okay so the motion carries um publication date is February 19th 2025 and the public hearing is March 13 2025 so this is the uh public portion for the consent agenda items only if
anybody from the public would like to come up regarding the consent agenda items only please come up to the microphone state your name nobody okay I'm going motion to close Mo so
made second I'll second okay John second all in favor I I roll no all in favor all in favor that's an all in favor for the consent agenda okay all right moving over to
consent agenda I we wrong sorry resolution number 2025 r- 44 authorize the appointment of Joseph Raymond as Deputy tax assessor resolution number 2025 d-45 authorized for aerial larval mosquito control for the year
2025 resolution number 2025 r46 authorizing Grant application submission for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs local Recreation Improvement Grant and execution of the grant agreement resolution number 2025 r-47 resolution to declare block 41 lot
7 as tax exempt and to to cancel taxes for January 14th 2025 through December 31st 2025 resolution 2025 r48 authorized road closings for municipal events resolution number 2025 r49 approve appointments of planning board to the
planning board resolution number 2025 r-50 resolution to amend the resolution to support of support for Mr Nice greens LLC to identify applicants name change motion to approve the consent agenda so made second
comments y yep the uh first resolution 44 is it possible moving forward that if we're going to have new hires historically I know that you're in charge of The Hires but to bring the
people in at the meeting and introduce them to us so that we can meet them we're just talking about that that uh you know they can kind of tell us where they're at prior prior to hiring them or yes
well the appointments of this this appointment specifically is a Township manager appoint I'm well aware of that I'm just asking as a courtesy um no I know that you're aware that you're in charge of that but it would be nice for them to come here and you know the town
in my opinion to uh let them come up and talk and just introduce themselves and uh and meet us as well just just a thought yeah we can uh possibly work something out I don't necessarily I know that it needs to be done in front of a in front of everyone at a public meeting
but definitely have them meet um Council beforehand I can we can try and work something out yes if that's what council's uh wishes okay any other comments the uh the road closing um the uh I noticed that the holiday uh Festival wasn't on
there correct um is that getting put on at a later time or that will go on a later time when we get confirmation of their date and then when Main Street gives us the request that's when we do it and then the last thing was the uh the Grant application the Grant
application can go through there but there's a lot of concerns with that I know we kind of briefly touched on it um but the residents of that area um weren't aware of anything that was going on and from a transparency uh point I
think if we're going to be doing projects that we have to notify the people and let them get involved and have their input you know one of the the uh residents the neighbor to the to the uh Park they have some serious concerns
and I do too so so this is just authorizing the grants that we can I understand that I'm just saying that you know there has at some point in time you know maybe the engineer needs to uh you know maybe you need to sit down with the
engineer and and we need to relook at it because there's a lot of safety concerns in my mind for kids for the park as promised that's yeah this yeah again this just authorizes the grant which you understand but those comments that were taken at the last meeting were brought back to the engineer specifically about
the parking and those sorts of things and they are looking at it so so before anything gets approved as far as site as far as the plan in general that will come back before the council well I went back I went and walked to site so this the property is huge um and it hasn't
been taken care of for some time and you know I know that there was talk about cleaning it out um but I think we really need to evaluate the whole site and one of the concerns that the neighbor has is that it was it was initially donated to
Township as a birth Sanctuary not a park so um they're trying to obtain information through the town and the county um and it's becoming challenging for them so before we do anything I think we really need to have a a hearing or have something with the people to
come up here so that they can voice their opinion and we can look at it objectively I believe and that was part I know and that was part of the reason that we had the hearing for it to begin with so those comments did come up and then they were all put back into consideration and will be in consideration going forward absolutely
I'm just putting the comments on the record absolutely any other comments roll call you yeah Mr Kaufman yes Miss noes yes Mr Simon sick yes Mr zadnik yes mayor T Rico
yes okay approval of the expenditure list thank you current fund bill is 5,497 63933 that does include two months of the school tax payment uh the two School tax payments uh equate to $
5,222 se2 Utility Fund Bill list is $324,400 , 5861 utility capital is $1 163,164 trust fund is $341,000 and the grant fund bill is
62,700 I have reviewed the above Bill list as submitted and recommend payment when funds are available okay thank you a motion to approve I'll make that motion second comments roll
Mr Kaufman yes M noon yes Mr Simon yes Mr zarnik yes mayor tallo yes all right approval of November and December 2024 minutes have a motion to approve so me second comments I have
comments you're allowed thank you I I'm just wondering if the new council members read the minutes and were they here for the meeting I read the minutes I will abstain and I was in the audience okay
I'm just wondering now I also was in the audience okay I don't were you in the audience November and December yeah okay all righty roll call Mr Kaufman yes Miss noones yes Mr Simon s yes Mr zarnik yes
mayor tallerico am I abstain there okay abstain thank you all right this is the public portion of the meeting anybody that wants to come up to the public can come up and state your name don't okay and your address please and be
polite so many your name and address please all right Mike Stevens 47 Cherry Avenue um it's it's it's not a complaint but yet it is a problem on Maple Heights there's a restaurant
there when people go in there especially the delivery people the track and trailers they run over my grass now if you go over there right now you'll see a big mud hole where they just dug all the grass up they broke my fence and the
street itself now it's my third time I'm saying this the street itself they fixed the restaurant side right in the middle and went over and fixed it this side they got not potholes but
cavens something has to be done pretty pleased Susan did you look into that before I know he's been up here a couple times I did yeah and I did speak with our director of Public Works about it so it's definitely on his radar and they will get out and fix it all right no disrespect the tenant I know
they came out okay they through the cold patch probably yes yeah guess what week later there was all back again it's G it's got to be dug up like the people that they hire I don't know who hired them I don't know it was the restaurant or the
owner but they actually got to dig it up and then resurface it pretty pleased yep thank you everybody thank you anybody else from the public like to come up and say hi hello hey uh Emily Wallace uh 453
Alexander a I'm here to ask um that Council amend ordinance number 21-5 um which makes it illegal to own
hens we would like um it's the zoning code section 205 j7 5G um so we're hoping we could get maybe an ordinance pass that allow hens um I've brought two different ordinances
one from Delano and one from cinamon as example ordinances you mean chickens backyard chickens just hens just backyard hens backyard hens gu there's a difference well there's roosters which are not nope
no roosters um I believe this I didn't take no I have them I do have them so it's something that's been looked at before the previous Council had looked at it we looked at it for chickens um Delano and cinnamon is one of the ones that we have I do have a spreadsheet that we can go uh the last Council had agreed that we
could look further into it um so I had reached out to all the people that had reached out to me and said that they would be interested in and I said you know let's get together and that one responded back so um yeah it was quite interesting and then I heard then we saw it all on Facebook but if this is
something I can pull that ordinance the [Music] 2001-11 Jen because I know that you you because you had reached out but the email I know at least four other people who did we never heard anything Jen can you just come up and state your name and address for rec please thank you Jen Gunther 39 Orchard Avenue yeah not with
me the ones that I have I still I have my file and I would be happy to share that too so um but yeah so we'll look at I think the best thing is we will pull the ordinance I'll make sure the council has a copy of our 20015 ordinance um and we can go from there all right thank you thank you thank
you anyone else no all right motion to close the public portion so me second all in favor I I all right we'll move over to staff and professional comments we'll start with Mr Council
Sim I always start that way so I'm starting this way this time comments no no no comments for operations or staff no just getting our feet wet okay councilman zeric no I have no comments at this time
thank you Council woman well if everybody's going to Philly tomorrow just be safe uh you know go celebrate the Eagles I know everybody's excited in the our whole area but uh just try to be safe and uh
keep your swivel head on and that's all I have to say go Eagles and that's it councilman cman thank you mayor if you would bear with me for a few moments as many of you may know some of
you may not know I lost my wife back in December uh in January January I just want to thank everybody that had the opportunity to come out sent a card came to the funeral you sent
flowers special thanks to the police department and EMS who worked very hard and uh special thanks to detective Jericho who stayed with me the whole time while they were working on
my the only thing I can say is that and you have to forgive me I'm sorry very emotional keep those that you love so very close you never know what may
happen thank you thank you all right well with tomorrow being Valentine's Day we have a lot of local businesses offering so many specials so please check them out some have heart-shaped pizzas While others have fun desserts and dinner specials um our Wellness fair is next Friday the 21st up
here from 10: to 1: um there is bingo this month uh it's February 20th at the fire hall and I'm also proud to announce that the township of Maple Shade has been designated as a healthy Town up and coming for 2024 our recreation department handles the mayor's Wellness campaign and has done a great job with
this initiative I'm excited to be part of the program for 2025 so look out for some great events coming your way um sry no thank you I have operations all right so moving over to Old business operations thank you uh
just a reminder to all of our dog owners that now is the time to register your dog the township will once again be sponsoring the annual free rabies clinic on Saturday March 15th and in accord in accordance with state law all dogs must be registered within the municipality also for those who own rental properties
in Maple Shade we just want to make have a reminder out to you that you must register as a landlord and your rental must also have an annual inspection the state also requires homes built prior to 1978 must also have a lead paint inspection that all goes through my secretary Karen you can uh reach out to
her if you have any questions DP W has been kept busy with that dirty four-letter word that starts with s and ends with W so um but we do want to thank the residents who have responded to the call for help helping us help you and removing vehicles from the roadway so our crews and Equipment can safely
and efficiently navigate the roadways during the storm operations by removing the vehicles and things from the roadway so our crews can get through also help our First Responders so they can get down the roadway safely as well snow removal though is not all that DPW has been doing on the days where it has been a little bit warmer and no threat of
precipitation our crews have been out making repairs and cleaning up around town I will make sure that they get to Maple hikes again for you so thank you yep uh our Recreation Department as the mayor had said is sponsoring a healthy Hearts Fair on Friday February 21st 10 to1 up here at the municipal building uh
there's going to be vaccinations clinical screenings health education other resources and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that participants are probably going to be able to walk away with some pretty nice giveaways too so uh come up and see that uh our next council meeting on February 27th we will
be recognizing the 2024 fire prevention poster contest winners there are five winners from grades kindergarten to fourth grade and each will be presented with a certificate and some gift cards and lastly our municipal offices are closed on Monday February 17th in observance of President's Day our
closure will have no effect on trash collection or recycling so those will stay the same and that's the end of my operations report thank you thank you police report thank you mayor uh so first I just want to thank everyone who reached out to my wife and I during my
medical emergency um I was out for a while uh Captain W did a great job stepping in as the active Chief the acting Chief and uh taking care of the team keeping the operation moving forward so I appreciate all their efforts I appreciate everybody who reached out to my wife and myself um I
feel good I'm glad to be back and uh just finish what I started here uh before my time comes to retire and other people move on on February 6th our team participated in the career fair at to Maple Shade High School giv us a chance to talk with interesting students about
a career in law enforcement and then on February 7th our team hosted Coco with a cop at Maple Shade High School serving hot and cold beverages and a light breakfast um Corporal Misty Weiss estimated we had over 125 kids stopped by in about 45 minutes which is pretty
good turnout uh the largest we've had yet so it was great to see the kids interacting with our officers there earlier today we hosted Pizza with patrols at crust and fire uh we were serving up uh free pizza and drinks to those who stopped by we had uh a nice
collection of folks who uh came up to sit down and eat lunch with us and had a chance to talk with a number of people uh we appreciate all their efforts and I appreciate uh PBA local 267 who helped fund all those activities that we did as I'm sure you're aware Susan
covered at the last meeting we ended the year with 26541 calls for service which is about a 7% increase over last year's call volume listed to 24,99 one where repeated call after call after call uh to the officer finally had to
arrest and charge the individual many of these folks are struggling with addiction and mental health issues um myself and Lieutenant Brian Davis we sit on two boards in the county one is the arrive mental health working group and we also sit on the County Mental Health
working group uh we are a designated pilot program for arrive at the request of the burlin County prosecutor and the Attorney General's office um currently they are trying to to fill our position it is a contract position through Legacy treatment services and that worker ended
up resigning her position with Legacy so they are waiting to backfill that position for us but generally speaking we had somebody here working 5 days a week to be able go calls with our officers for anybody who had mental health issues and we are working hard to put all of our officers through Crisis
Intervention training it's called CIT uh we have a significant portion of all the supervisors are done now we're working on on our Rank and file officers as well and that's one of the criteria to work with arrive the officers need to be CIT trained so we're working hard to accomplish that for 2024 officers made
287 arrests they also issued over 2,000 uh summonses and it's about a 35% increase over last year approximately 700 more summonses and written warnings I balance this out with my earlier commitment that I had made back in 2020 that we will not engage in policing for
profit we're going to Target it areas where we're receiving complaints and we know we have uh problem Speeders or people doing motor vehicle actions that uh violate the law so we're to continue to go out there both in town and on the highway area to enforce uh traffic
violations in 2024 agency received eight Internal Affairs complaints filed against 11 officers five officers were exonerated meaning they filed proper policy and procedure and did nothing wrong three complaints were sustained for minor rule violations which the officers face minor discipline that
could be uh counseling or an oral written reprimand and three cases are carried over 2025 for continued investigation and lastly on Tuesday February 25th from 11:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. kaba's Italian Grill will be donating 15% of all proceeds raised to
our chaplain nonprofit known as the maple sha police chaplain Association or the MSPCA we are celebrating our 10th anniversary uh the founding of the Chaplan Corps and the MSPCA for those who are unaware the MSPCA funds the
National Night Out that is the driver to make that happen and that has become uh one of the largest events in the township we are uh set to put that on again this year and working hard to do that so I just ask everybody if you have time on Tuesday February 25th to stop at
at kabas and um order some food get some take out or stop it and have a nice meal and again that's just going to help us offset the cost for anybody who's unaware the National Night Out is a free family fun event we charge nothing for anyone to attend everything that you
have there is free all the giveaways all the food all the drinks everything is free so we just ask for your continued support and it's a great event for the community and that's flyer for that or I do have a flyer for that yeah it's already been broadcasted out mist's on top of it it's on the it's on the
website it's been put out there all right thank you Andrew S plan so we had uh five applications come through um the first one uh was on pun Vista Avenue um
they wanted to basically convert a one family dwelling uh to a two family dwelling uh which we explained to them uh really was not going to be possible um so it's back in their Court um they
have the opportunity to go to zoning if they choose to do so but we think it's this point that they just appreciated the information that was given to them and they're going to just move on uh we also had a application for uh
Route 38 at the uh Self Storage um for solar uh there was a few changes that had to be made and they're going to be moving on to uh zoning to finish up their application uh 14 Mars Avenue Eastern
Lift Truck uh same thing um just working out a few things uh with their plan uh which they produced uh there was some recommendation about cleaning up all their sites and uh they're working with us to do that and then uh there was a
request for uh milroad to uh put in a garage they have their setbacks they just have to get a variance for the size uh they'll be moving on to uh to zoning as well and the last one was
Alexander Avenue for booth um they also will be going on to uh to zoning um there were some recommendations made to them uh but they seem to have everything in place that they needed to go forward and that's it okay thank you thank you
the EDC report sure uh well we meet the bedc meets every two months so we have a few things in the works and this is the report for the last meeting that we had uh we have a p dve going on and as you know there's
plenty of pavers up there on on Main Street that we all have you know worked on through the years but now this is a new batch so the uh younger people that haven't been involved in that can get their names out there and we'll see what happens with that they're doing very
well it's $125 for a p and and this will be a fundraiser for projects that the bedc are working on uh there is an order form and you can pick that up at the tax collector's window or download it from our website at Maples shade.com under
the business and economic development section uh and right now uh we are working on upcoming initiatives and goals for 2025 this has sent been sent out to uh all of the people on the board and there's still
returning some of their information of uh anything that they want to add but right now we're reviewing uh a out out outdated ordinances to support new businesses and opportunities uh attracting and retaining business uh and different
areas improving business Outreach uh visits forums and Partnerships uh and supporting economic growth uh let's see we're working on the master plan Aesthetics traffic flow and
Commercial development we'd like input exploring funding strategies uh along with the grants uh for the fav grants favor drive and grants for uh infrastructure improvements uh including some Street
Scapes that uh that have been brought to our attention Through The Years uh enhancing communication and support with small businesses including vacant studies vacancy studies resource workshops and uh we will be having an annual bedc report for
everybody uh right now we have two open uh at large positions on the commission so we invite you if you're interested uh to sign up with us whether you're a resident or a business owner and you can uh get that also uh on our
website it'll be citizens volunteer program tab at Maples shade.com and you can sub submit your application uh any input would be fantastic and thoughts and ideas so we doing a very good job and working well together thank you
perfect thank you all right moving over to the Green Team sustainable report I will give that uh the clothing Drive is going to be February 23rd from 9:00 to 11 at the municipal building and February 24th from 5:30 to 7:30 at Fox Meadows opening day for the community
garden is going to be March 23rd all are welcome um we also added two new recyclable bins to the recycling center downstairs one is for the plastic can holders and one is for the food pouches and the little bite bags uh sustainables next meeting is March 11th if anybody
wants to come see all the exciting things they are doing moving on to trash collection yes so the bid speec is just uh just almost finalized it's going to be sent up to the state for review before we put it out I expect that that will go out uh
Sometime Late next week 60 days is when it will return and then we will have those uh those bids back so just wanted to let you know just give you that update on it and then I will explain the rest uh in our new business section okay thank you U moving over to new business
uh conflicts Township attorney uh Andrew I believe you wanted that on there yes um I wanted us to have a a solicitor a conflict solicitor in place so that uh
if there's issues that we have them in place already it doesn't cost the township any money to uh put out an RFP to get them and if something comes up we have them in place and trying instead of trying to scramble to go find somebody I think it's uh just
good business for the township good government and I think we should uh send out an RFP for it Alan do you want to explain anything on that yeah I mean um there are going to be issues where I
am not going to be able to represent the township for instance when I have a client who um has an issue for instance right now there's an easan issue related to Laurel lanes I've represented Laurel Lanes in the past that issue uh started
um before I was appointed um I certainly can't represent the township with respect to that because I was representing Laurel Lan when it arose and so there's going to be have to be another lawyer if there are any issues um that are still outstanding um there
may be issues with tax appeals where I have clients who wish to appeal their taxes I wouldn't be able to um represent them in those appeals but nor would I be able to represent the Township in those um situations so um I think that the
idea is that if there was an attorney who was familiar with Maple Shade who could step in at any time at drop of a hat a phone call um as Andrew said there wouldn't be any charge for that person uh unless there was a problem that came
up as a result of my having had my office here for 29 years and represented many of the people who live and work and have businesses in this town okay and do you want to um explain how the RFP already covers that yeah so um it's my opinion that
since the RFP went out for Township solicitor and we had several uh people who responded including myself obviously um that the same duties would be uh covered by that RFP meaning whatever I
would ordinarily do for the township but couldn't because of the conflict so I don't I think that we don't even need a new RFP if few folks want to move forward with just um appointing one of the people that that applied as um the conflict solic we could do that if a
conflict comes up like we don't have to go out and do anything like we have it already there is that correct that is true you can the way I understand it and and um I spoke to Susan about this is that under Uh current ordinances if there is an issue that comes up I can
bring it to council's attention and Council can approve that retention at that point in time the difference is having someone who was already there in place an authorized act that that's that's what the the difference between
the two roads is okay mayor if I may that and that is correct our our ordinance under uh the Office of the Attorney under special counsel 4-31 does say whenever the attorney deems the interests of the township is so to so require the council within the limits of
available Appropriations May appoint special councel to assist him or her in the preparation trial or argument of such legal matters or proceeding as here or she may determine so if there is a conflict in what we had explained with Ellen Ellen could come to council and explain that I have this conflict this is who I would like they have that
specialty they're able to um they're able to hand so this special conf is already put in place special council is already put in place um if Council would like to go out for another RFP or use one of those people then my suggestion would be obviously typically how it was handled you do a up to not to exceed
amount for the contract you would know probably ahead of time kind of how much work was was in there but there's no need to go out for another RFP Ellen as our Township solicitor does have the ability to come to council and say this is who I think would be good for this um but obviously that's that's council's
you know decision if you want to go for another RFP okay to expand on Andrews uh councilman Simon 6 comment would it be better I I guess this is a question for Ellen and for Susan would it be better to have
somebody in place already or when the conflict if the conflict arises then put somebody in it was my opinion that it would be helpful to have someone who was already appointed already in place to stand
ready to to take action rather than having to come at you know to a council meeting for each particular uh issue and getting approval because you could have a blanket approval for a certain dollar amount as Susan said um not so that that
you would know ahead of time and of course that's work that I would ordinarily have been charging for but it would have to be someone else charging for so it's not a duplicative charge of any sort right the only thing that's different is then if there's a specific uh expertise that's it so if there's some and I don't even know if let's just
use tax appeals if it's somebody that Ellen has a a conflict for tax appeals and Ellen knows somebody that is you know that has an expertise in tax appeals Ellen could say I've worked with this person before you know I feel that they would be good for the tax appeals so it might be somebody different each
time it could be somebody different each time based on the expertise right it could be different every time so the the thing that we just spoke of earlier um it has to be authorized through us anyway so it has to come to us so it doesn't make any sense to get a conflict
as far as I mean that's my opinion that everyone else has their own opinion but uh that's how I see it it has to come to us any for for authorization so each one would each one would so it it would be uh it it's already in the
code so so it's just however Council chooses to go if they want one special conflicts attorney or if you're going to do it on a case-by Case basis again where Ellen you would work with the person anyway anyway is yeah so okay Mr
cofman any comment no good I'm good so how would Council like to proceed I'm sorry well I I want to make a motion that we put one in place now I I mean I
feel that it's it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and have it okay I and are you going off of the original rfps that were or the last round of rfps
or will we putting out a brand new RFP for specifically for a special we can go off the old round well I don't I don't I don't know how you feel CH okay so there's a motion on the floor there's a motion so is there a second no I kind of agree with that one
I'm good doesn't seem like there's a second so I think the motion dies yes the motion dies okay moving over to purchase generator for the DPW yes so I'm going to lump number two purchase generator for DPW and the SCBA replacements for
the fire department just in together um these are both going to be Capital purchases um they're both things that have been in the uh in the budget for them the purchase for the generator for the DPW uh we had another power outage I guess probably about a week and a half
ago and DPW lost all of the Power there um they have no generator in that building um so we lost the gas tanks we lost everything at the DPW building um the price for this is we went out for quotes we got a price of
$18,995 um it is under the um bid threshold and it's within our purview with a with a qpa to be able to award um and then the SC ba replacements for the fire department um they came through uh interim Chief Kerr had asked uh that we
purchase them I believe there were there's 50 units or 50 uh bottles or SCBA gear that needs to be purchased this would also be the backup this would get the fire department up and uh in place they do expire in D am I right J
June May I'm sorry do they expire in May um this is a safety need so it is something that needs I'm bringing it before Council because of the cost SCBA gear is very very costly for all of it it's just about $500,000 um but again and Dan correct me if I'm wrong and Andrew I know you know
too it's it's two p sets right you get a bottle a pack and then a backup pack too correct total total in that yes so um again it is something that was already authorized capital is there um it's the SCBA gear is being purchased off of a
state contract so we don't have to go out to bid for it um um everything has been vetted through the members of the fire department they had the opportunity to to look into it and to give their recommendation so um just wanted to bring that to council's uh attention
that that will be going through we will be issuing a purchase order for that okay thank you any questions on that comments all right mattress disposal mattress disposal so I had shared with you all um I think it was like a week ago week and a half ago the county has
uh we're having an issue with collecting mattresses it's countywide uh there used to be a search charge the sear charge was I believe it was like $7 they've raised it to $13.50 that's per unit for every mattress and box spring that gets collected and taken to the um to the
site for disposal um one is is we need to make aware we need to make our residents aware about two weeks ago we had a property that put out four mattresses four box springs each for charge 1350 a piece um Pat and I have been working on creating a convenience center where this Convenience Center is
where residents can always provide it can always dump their bulk um but I think that Council needs to decide about how we are going to about going to go about dealing with specifically the mattress disposal a lot of the towns in Burlington County have now passed a resolution that in order to dispose of
that there will be a charge um for for that because we're not going to be able to sustain along with everything else um so if council is interested in you know looking at possibly charging to have those disposals or only saying you can only put one out at the curb um there's
a lot of different programs that have been coming up towns have been doing things where residents just have to come up and they have to just get a sticker the sticker is free but it's at least logged of what they're doing the sticker goes on the mattress and then the hauler knows that they can take it um you know you do the same thing with you know
perhaps you can only do so many in in a year so people are not where we're seeing these multiple mattresses is in some of our rental properties when the renter leaves the landlord is left with everything in the in the property and they what else are they going to do with it they're going to have to they're
going to have to dispose of it but it will very quickly become a problem for us the other issue is that we don't want to get into is that we obviously don't want these mattresses to just wind up on the side of the roadways wind up down in our dumpsters wind up in um wind up in
uh you know in our parks and whatnot so Pat and I are working on something there will be a plan that we're going to have out to you uh early next week we'll have everything just kind of what we're thinking of how we'd like to go on and then perhaps you know Council will be able to consider some sort of resolution
that is able to control that because it will get out of hand very quickly okay so all right any comments on that no okay thank you uh closed session agenda item so right now we have closed session
at 6:30 the meeting starts um I've been on both sides of uh this at this point but my personal opinion is that we need to go back just to a 7:00 start for me personally uh owning a business and I
think for John too it gives a little bit more breathing room um and I've been out on the other side of the doors where the the people of the town are waiting for us to come back I think it's disrespectful to the people I think they should be coming up here at 7 o'clock
and just doing the meeting and we do the Clos session uh after the uh after the meeting is over um again that's just my my opinion for it um the other thing uh on the
agenda uh I think that the uh public portion um that's uh that's there should go after new business so that the people of the town can comment on the things that we're talking about now at the end of the
meeting um also my opinion is that uh the five minutes I think we should take that out and I think we should uh you know take the the ability for people to uh come up more than once out of out of
the agenda if we're doing our job and we have good government there's not going to be I think a complaint or an issue that uh is going to take longer for people to talk talk about I think it's just fair to the people to town
uh and it's fair to us to appoint too so I wanted to make a motion that we make those changes this is just no business yeah yeah and I do just to clarify that the
agenda does say that those wishing to speak should stand up to the podium State their name and their address prior to making any comment each member of the public will be given one opportunity and up to 5 minutes unless otherwise determined by Council during each public portion to address comments so Council does have the ability to extend that
time frame and to allow it obviously um you know it would depend on what kind of meeting and how many people are actually coming up and speaking the reason for the the comments about um the agenda and about how people were going to speak I know when we were speaking once before I
believe it was a um it was one of the sustainable um actions is just about our meeting decorum and and what they have and that's how it was and that's that's typical of if you want to remove five minutes is a long time to speak it's a very long time to speak and again if Council feels that you know they would like someone to be able or they want to
give that opportunity that is completely at your discretion at any meeting um as for the public portion moving again if that's something that you would like to do that's just direction to the clerk and and that can be done um I see both sides of it definitely if you know if somebody has comments now um sort of
having that public portion there that's allowed to be anything on the agenda so if they had comments you know or something with just we'll just use the the mattress disposal they could ask it during that public portion but they haven't heard the information so I I do fully I do get that um it's not you know
maybe that's where you limit it um so that we're not going over every item again and again um once it's been you know decided but that was definitely something that's council's perview okay if you I can look at some other townships too to see I know there are
some towns that don't or if you just want to there's a motion on the floor so uh there would just it would just need a second or the only negative about moving that I think Andrew would be like people would have to sit around if people just come up for one thing like I don't know who was here today
about the hens then they would have to wait for the whole meeting to be over and then speak after I mean it has its positive it's negatives I think they can't speak on something that we haven't discussed yet and if they're up here for that reason they're going to sit here a week to so they can make
their comment so I think that the first thing let and I don't mean to get away from the public portion let's first dis discuss the closed session agenda change going from the beginning to the end um do you have to break the subance it's a motion there's a motion oh yeah there's a moot sorry I forgot about that we have
to do the motion first the motion to um you put all three together all three together we should I think it's just fair to the people of this town in it's the right thing to do it gives them the opportunity to voice their opinion and have their comments after we discuss
something and like I said if they're coming up here for a specific reason they're going to they they know that they're going to have to wait maybe till the end I don't think they'll have a problem with that and for them to be sitting out the Clos session sitting out there when we're in Clos session that's
to me that's just rude that they should be able to walk in here at a set time not be sitting around for extra 15 minutes that's just my opinion that's only if there is a closed because there's not a closed every single time well if we just move them to the end of the meeting it doesn't matter we
it's consistency for the people of the town so right now the meeting starts at 6:30 and typically Council goes into closed session if you don't go into closed session then the meeting would start at 6:30 so the motion is to change the time back to 7 o'clock um and move
close session to the end we'll start there first and then we'll discuss uh we'll address the public portion part of it so I think that's is that fair to say that changed to 7 p.m. and uh we would need to read advertise which that's not a big deal but the problem is when we
have things that we need to consider be before the meeting then now we're talking after the meeting and it's not going to be settled so we there's a motion right the motion first we need a motion or we have a motion so we need a do we have a second
I I don't want to Second all of it I have no problem moving the closed okay so that motion we'll say that motion dies so now we're back into the closed session moving closed from the beginning to the end right so that
again first motion di no I'm I'm comfortable with leaving the meeting at 6:30 but like Andrew said we could start the meeting at 6:30 and go in to close afterwards okay so your motion then is to continue to start the meetings at
6:30 but move closed to the end correct so that's the motion on the floor to start the meetings at 6:30 and have closed session move back to the end of the meeting is there a second I'll second
it okay okay so motion Andrew second roll call do a roll call with us yes Mr Kaufman no Miss NES no Mr simonick yes Mr znik yes
mayor tallo yes motion passes so what will happen is the meetings will stay at 6:30 and we will move closed uh session to the end of the meeting okay so now then the other comment which we might as well go on is the public
portion moving the public portion to afternoon business is that what you're saying Mr son SEC yes yes is there a second I'll second that which one are we doing I'm sorry now we're doing the public portion do you want to take out the five minutes and
the repeat appearances also and do the whole thing in one motion no I don't want to take out the time oh okay okay so let's so let's just do the public person first after new business after new business that to be a motion or can that just that can just be a change it doesn't need to be a motion so everybody's in agreement with putting
public portion after new business no so there needs to be some discussion if you don't want it Sandy you don't want after Sandy can I ask why any reason just for advice comment say say it one more time because
this is getting very confusing so so there's no there's no motion for this it's just a discussion so um you said no I was just curious as to why you didn't want to move the public portion to the end to theend yeah it's under uh after new business I just feel it's what would they
be involved with with new business things are still it would help guide us if we have to discuss it let me talk this is the new business under new business we're talking about things that are just being presented so why would we
have input because we still haven't gotten all of the facts and we're just starting to find out what what it is new business is about it would muddle operations as to why would we do that it doesn't make any sense to me it just doesn't make
make any sense well my opinion is somebody from the audience might have some information that would help us out to make our decision and if they can't if they can't make statements on it it it's just fair to the people of this town yeah but they don't they wouldn't be making statements on something they
don't know the information about it I think he means like if they have a question on something well it's not a question it's a comment section anyway it's not for question and answer if you go to any other meeting anywhere a county meeting other other Township it's for common as we know it's a common
I'm don't get don't get confused because as when we talked about Denis when he came up you have to get used to the curve uh the learning curve is that it's it's for comment it's not for question that doesn't mean now we've talked about things and that's why we had an issue
with that so this is just going to cause other issues okay you know getting too much input in information that we haven't even gotten ourselves yet so that that just doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever okay you have a comment either way I
just think it's going to make people have to wait that's what I thought too and uh if I'm out there wanting to make a a all and we have new business this long and plus you have regular business you can be waiting forever before you make a
com well the the way it seems to me uh Mr Simon is saying that that they can have input to the all the things that we're talking about afterwards that is a problem you know that is a problem because we don't have the information ourselves so how are we going to have uh input into
things that we don't even have all the information about yet so historically the new business was just to introduce an idea and introduce a concept and then at the next meeting is probably where we we didn't make decisions immediately as to how that would go it just happens to be going that way right now but that's
not how things are usually go and I just don't want things to get muddled or put more information out there than it needs to be or someone's opinion it's really becomes an opinion well then I'll compromise at this point we can keep an eye on it and and monitor and look at it
and I think and decide later on I think two residents during their public portion they could come up and they're going to be commenting on that new business perhaps they make a comment and it is something that then you all as you're discussing it it's taken into consideration and someone can always expand because they say it on the agenda so they can comment on it during that
okay right okay agreeing to leave it alone for leave it alone and the part about the five um minutes didn't we already pass a resolution last month in our agenda theorum or our actual theorum it is it's in there right remember reading it okay
and again it it still allows you it allows Council the grant the you can you know it's at your discretion I believe it's also zoning and planning agendas it is on zing and planning agendas I think it's just okay the next one number six all
right um rfps for grant writer Road engineer and forensic auditor I believe that was you again yes it was um I think that the grant riter would come in handy for us I know there's a lot of things out there I
don't know what money has been obtained through grants but I'm sorry again all these things they don't cost us any money there rfps to put things in place to move forward you know we've had a road engine here Road engineer here
before um you know under uh Sandy enchu so I think that uh for all of it and the audit in my opinion I think we need to know where the money is for the town May especially before I go voting
on budgets and all we need to see my opinion of where all the money went or where it was spent for the last 10 years how it was spent and get a plan moving forward so so a forensic audit is detail
is a detailed audit deta so would so it's different than our regular audit but a forensic audit normally picks one thing like all the regular audit does is do the processes they check the processes they don't do the money specifically I want to have an audit of
everything that went on in this town or where all the money was spent and how it was spend everything so that we can get a handle on it me personally so again a forensic audit is when you go out for an RFP for a forensic audit it's going to be a detailed for se you want to know
you want to know where the what the deposits were in the tax collector's office or you know how was the how were the deposits handled in the um in the court office or is there one thing in particular within the budget it's typically not an overview you can it's
going to be very costly yes I'm all aware of that okay I'm just I was just sharing I again um you know if you want to do again Council can go out for a forensic audit we have that would have to be an RFP um so it's what council's pleasure is but typically when you do a
forensic audit it is something that's concentrated you're looking at one thing because you have a concern about one area I'll make it a motion that we put them rfps out well well we have a we have an engineer which is Al Lio who would be doing ro
road engineer so that I don't understand you I haven't had a road engineer and again the engineer that our Township engineer is usually the engineer who
deals with road projects and also the grant writing we have uh grant writing we have a grant writer with uh Jen Nixon we uh SU does grant writing all the engineering firms do grant writing
there's there's also grant writing U that's available through Burlington County so uh we also also we have someone sustainable that's doing grant writing so I just don't see the point in that when uh there are many grants that
have been made we just had a big one from uh nor cross's office that was obtained which was $850,000 I mean so they're are a lot of things happening um and maybe familiarize yourself more with how many grants that we have brought in I was just going to answer that yeah
that would be a good thing so check it out see see you know what grants are coming in and how it works because again it's all a learning curve so understandable that you're you're asking that but there there's a lot of Grants coming in in different different areas so I mean that's just my opinion also so
so knowing that this was on the agenda I did reach out um to the New Jersey municipal Managers Association and asked my colleagues of who had grant writers in their Town um East Hampton has a grant writer they charge $165 an hour and that's to go and to look for Grants and then obviously to write the grant
Borden toown has um a grant writer and they're $135 to $225 an hour and they have they've had some success but not as much as they would have liked Anglewood Cliffs plays a flat $3,000 a month loow I pays
$42,000 a year and not to exceed $42,000 a year Hamilton and Mercer County pay $66,000 a year and Edison pays $50,000 a year um and they that's just for Disaster Recovery like fig grants that's all that they went out for a grant writer for um
the other issue with the Grant and I'm not against a grant writer it can be very helpful but as uh Sandy had said you know right now our Engineers handle our recreation grants our NJ doot grants um they've handled our cdbg grants with help from everybody in the township and
again when the grant writer comes in they will come in and they will rely heavily on on the staff right to be able to help with the grant Gathering all that information um so we also then are looking at right now with the way that the federal government is that a lot of these grants are going to start drying
up so if we are going to go out for an RFP for something like this um and we're going to do it now my suggestion is that we're very detailed about maybe about the grants that we want to go after maybe you know if we're looking at you know Public Safety or if we're looking at Recreation um and then this way we
can kind of we can kind of design it because again a lot of these federal grants are going to start to dry up because of of where just where we are just in general um so if we have something we could always go out for that one particular if we figure out a grant um you know W it incurring they
they do grants as well so that would just be that would be my only concern is that it you know everybody say oh you let's get grants grants are not free it does cost us to get the to get them to get the money um which is the taxpayers taxpayers Mone but I definitely would
not want to see like a flat $50,000 a year I wouldn't want to do I wouldn't recommend that kind of contract because then you're just paying it just to pay it if you don't get anything you don't have anything right so um again there's a motion on the
floor and this is to put an RFP out is anybody second that motion I have another comment sure these items that we've been discussing a couple times that we've said that you know Sandy brought up the comment that these this new business is discussion
items I would rather take these items and discuss them Andrew is introducing them so it's now something we can discuss um at a later date like we can can we discuss this in closed so not in closed it can't it's not a discussion
for closed but from this point what will happen knowing where it is I will get some additional information together I'll send you over what I've been able to gather and then from that information if you have additional questions we can gather that information for the staff can gather that information for you and send it to be able to have a further conversation at the next meeting so this
new business item can be moved to the next to the next I think some of these items are unfair to Andrew because we don't have all the information as Sandy said so he the suggestions he's bringing up I think we should look into correct and maybe bring them up at the next
meeting or shortly and that way we do we will have more information and we can make a better and informed decision still a motion on the pool we don't have a second right no okay motion's dead motion dies so I will put this grant this
information I've collected so far you can all review it if there's questions from there you have other questions or want to go in another Direction then I can make sure that I get that information for you we will let you know each each individual let we let you know after we get the information ourselves how we
stand on it yes all right ongoing projects from 23 24 I would like to get a summary sheet of all the projects um that have happened what status of them are um where they
were initiated out of so that uh you know like for instance I saw you down on uh on uh Front Street um you know I don't know where that was initiated out of if if it was I don't remember being
discussed last year um and if it was wasn't we hadn't given you any direction on that so I would like a summary sheet of everything that's going on so do you want so I did I do have a summary sheet which I'll be able to share with you all tomorrow um but so do you want
everything that is currently ongoing or every project that we have done say on I would like the projects that were done so that we know that they're done and I would also like the ongoing ones and the status of them so open and close for 202 you'll have that tomorrow it is
finished yes and just so you know the Front Street that was the NJ doot grant that was um awarded and that all right well yeah that was done in 23 the njd that for Front Street was done in 2023 okay well there are some things that I
want to have input with when it comes to the design of those projects and I have ideas I think for this Township for the Aesthetics to do a road do it once do it right and not just put a Band-Aid on it yes so the NJ do projects will never
just be a bandaid there's certain requirements that we have to follow under theirs but I'll have the list for you all tomorrow it's not a problem it's already compiled and done okay uh master plan review so mayor you and I had um spoken briefly about that I did reach out to
hire gr the appointed um the appointed uh planner and she has agreed yes she will be part of it she's going to give me a list of just some overall how many people should be on a committee a subcommittee um they're in they're also going to include our fair share housing attorney obviously and then Council will
be able to put a committee together for uh for that so we can start working towards 2026 awesome thank you um anybody else have new business that's not listed on the agenda excuse me no I thought you
said yeah um so the site plan board still has one vacancy um and I would like to uh uh make a motion that we uh appoint uh Jeff boo to
that uh to fill that last vacancy have they I don't know was there he submitted a form yes has to be on a board yeah he needs to be on one of the boards site plan has to be on one of the boards he can't just be on that
board Advisory board so it has to be somebody from one of the L use Sports we have bar coming manver from L use every member has to be on the board I believe okay all right I think that is that all no anybody you have more yep okay go
ahead the nursing home that's been closed uh I think it's an opportunity for this Township um to look into taking that building and uh fair market value
to purchase it there's a lot of issues down at the school with parking safety issue with kids crossing the street that building itself uh turned into a rehab which affected the neighborhood the clientele
it was there so I would like to I would like us to look into talking to the school board to see if they'd be interested in uh that property for us to obtain it level it and pass it along to
them I think we could probably Rectify a lot of the problems that the police department have by putting the parking lot in there it would give them some space to have out buildings uh for the schools um and it would once and for all
uh put an end to the uh to the nursing home um that that building has a lot of serious violations and I think part of the reason why they shut it down was they just didn't want to invest the money in it uh to bring it up to code so
I think it's something that's uh that would benefit the township long term to uh to get the building and uh I know it's easier for us to obtain it than the school board through the processes so I would like us to look
into that so um the school has offered previously I'm sure you know spoke with Beth um and then in 2023 another offer was reached out the council at that time had authorized me to reach out and just speak to Sterling matter we were having several problem s there uh the owner at
the time wanted nothing to do with it refused to even speak to the school district now may be a different time the only thing I can say is that right now we have not even been given formal notice that that building was closed and chief you'll you'll know that we didn't we found out just because we saw the moving out and we found out because
people were moving out of the facilities yeah so um I do know that it is with the controller so we would be able I would have to reach out to them to see what the plan is from that point um well the operations of their facility stop so that changes the ball game for even
coming back to start start up I agree 100% And I agree with everything that you said because it has been uh the issue is is that there is going to be some outstanding leans on that property and I'm sure that the state is going to want to be paid back uh for the for the fraud that had happened there but I can
definitely make the call to the state and we need to look into that absolutely you know being State maybe they'll wave those leans if they know that it's going to something that's uh you know going to benefit the children of the town oh yeah no school district would definitely can definitely
benefit from it and they can wave those fees yes they can can I can I uh give you a little information when I was mayor in 2022 uh I I met with the chief and the manager uh with uh Greenwall and we
already had started this in 2022 to get this to this point and then of course Kevin Walsh com controller uh jumped on board uh with a lot of pushing back from police department manager uh Council and also anyone else in between that green
wall could you know rattle some cages to get this going so you know this kind of work takes a long time so it it seems like it just it's just happening but it's been in the works for quite a long time as I just want you to know I'm not saying it doesn't take a long time but I
think it's an opportunity the building's closed right now and that changes the whole thing for them so I did reach out to um uh nor cross's office as well as a some in greenwald's office and when we found out that it was closed and just said that now is the time that you know they know
what our issues are here it's not something that has been lost on us up here we have had those conversations with it's been in the pipeline a long time you with the other politicians but definitely some push and some um probably some contacts from you all to say hey like this is something that the township you know it's a joint venture
between school board and School District um and then has start have know conversations but I will definitely make that first initial phone call to get uh who and how and what and where we are anything else yep High
Street did you guys come up that with any resolution or talk about that the chief is looking at what High Street he saying high oh high Street yeah yeah so yes that will be
discussed uh with the chief and uh Council will be made aware of what everything is okay yeah we're looking at you know some options right now that I think could address some of the issues but it's going to require U traffic engineer things of that nature it's a little bit beyond what the police
department says one way or another but all right yeah are you talking about High Street High Street uh we there have been studies done I believe in the past before before I was on also and I've been working with people on High Street also through through the last six years
so and also with the chief so uh I'm not I'm not sure if anything is new as far as any of the information or well just proposing some options that would be available to address some of the issues and as I've addressed numerous times we
have complaints that come in at speeding we do traffic studies it's not a speeding issue it's a volume issue not to say that there isn't a car that goes down the street of speeding of course that happens but when you do the volume study and you see what's happening and you may have people going 7 eight miles
an hour and agreed that's speeding but it's not hitting a measure of 12 14 15 miles an hour over the speed limit um but then we we start looking at the volume of the cars and a lot of times that's an issue buttonwood's a great example of it Dunkin Donuts goes at the
End of the Street all of a sudden we're getting complaints of speeding we're out there and in it's in large part a volume issue not to say again that there isn't issues of speeding it happens but it's the volume issue a lot of times that is
problematic So High Street being right there with 73 and again you know whatever ends up happening with Sterling manner can have an impact of what happens and the one thing that I'm always careful to advise everybody of is you address an issue on one street you have a parallel Street that's nearby
you've just shifted the problem from one street to the next so if we're going to do something I think we look at some long-term solutions that make sense and are agreeable to the people who live on the street because uh you know being a a resident on a busier Street myself I
know like you know nobody really sought my input on things um and I think it's important to give the residents a chance to say hey this is what we think this is what we don't think um and then of course you have to be careful what you engage in or what you do because then you know other people are going to want
that done on their street as well so it's a trickle down effect so you just want to be able to make smart informed decisions that are going to be lasting and have a positive impact on the community thank good
um and then the last well two more things um the uh the planner that we have um we had uh Fred torque apply for that um it was my understanding that uh
that they thought that he hadn't applied um I I don't know uh you know first who did the contracts or if they went out uh for Signature um uh but but Fred did apply
he's a local guy uh that knows this town inside and out um and I think In fairness to him uh that we uh have him as a planner as well we have multiple Engineers um um so I'm not sure
that he can fulfill the spot of planner and town and Zoning plan and land use engineer um I know that he has somebody in his office that could possibly do it but Council has already appointed a planner well I I know um but I I think
Heather was uh under the impression that he hadn't filled out an application for um I I'm just bringing up for discussion um you know we had originally talked about it and was uh leaning towards Fred
for being the planner so we'll look and we will check U the rfps that came in to see if he actually did apply he was on that sheet that you sent out to us and he did apply okay yes may you didn't know that you appli I
did I didn't know at the time when I was asked who applied I didn't have it in front of me I guess when I asked okay and then the last thing I want to bring up is uh the uh new ordinance uh for the fire department to start moving ahead with
that Ellen I'm going to defer to you on that um we're still in litigation so there yeah I don't think that prevents Council from working on a new ordinance Council can always work on a new ordinance
okay Council I disagree I think we need to start working on ordinance I'm making a motion that we move forward with the new ordinance working on the new ordinance yeah working on a new
ordinance I disagree again there motion on the floor okay second I'll second that motion so the comments would the um there's not a conflict because we're still in litigation to work on a new
ordinance for a firehouse yeah I would I I think I would like to wait until that is settled next week to start working so we have a motion in a second so we definitely need to take a vote so let's take the vote I was G my comments okay so we taking a vote Yes Mr
caufman no Miss noones no Mr Simon sick yes Mr zadnik yes mayor tell you go no anym anything else NOP no okay uh we don't have to go back into closed right no reason to go back into closed
okay 6:30 so it's going to stay at 6:30 we're just not going to go and close till after so the is be here at yes that's when the meeting will start yep all right do we have a motion to close motion second are we going CL
no closed home sleep and who made motion I'm sorry uh John did I think I second it yes oh you second it who made all right all in favor trying to get out