e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e all right at 6:30 we're going to call the meeting the order everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance indiv andice
so public notice of this meeting pursuant to the open public 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 essential record in the Burlington County Times on December 27th 2024 and
posting notice on the official Municipal bulletin board on December 27th 2024 oh we ask that everybody please place all phones on mute to alleviate the disruption of the meeting roll call ter Mr Kaufman here miss NES here Mr Simon here Mr zadnik present mayor T
Rico here right so we're going to have the presentation of the uh fire prevention poster contest winners good evening can you guys hear me there you go I barely have a voice left my apologies I'm not still sick I promise I'm not contagious it just hasn't come back yet my name is Dan Kerr
I'm your interim Fire Chief and Fire Marshall and uh thank you guys for joining us tonight annually the division of fire safety in the state of New Jersey has a fire prevention poster contest it starts on the local level with the individual fire departments uh Fire Marshall offices uh getting into the schools and working with the schools
to try to come up with they they use a theme from the National Fire Protection Association and every year the kids have an opportunity to create different posters the winners on a local level level then go to the county level and the County Fire Marshals office will will judge based on the entire County
submission and then from there they go to a state level so there's actually three opportunities uh to win Awards and be recognized and at the end in the state if the the winners will be uh actually published in the uh State uh fire
prevention um publishing that they put out every year so it's a really great opportunity for us to get involved with the schools and the kids in a different way and it's not just in October for fire prevention month but year round um so this process doesn't happen with just one person uh it's a team effort um I'm
going to ask the Ladies Auxiliary president to come up because the Ladies Auxiliary uh is the backbone of judging this because we're firemen and we have no artistic ability whatsoever so uh we want to be fair to the kids as much as possible so what we're going to do next
is we're going to call up our first individual our first kid here meline GST if you and your family could come up along with your teacher Mrs Melissa Roberts Robert still
here mine's poster is all the way to the left Maline mateline thank you I was I was I wasn't sure a guess mat aline's poster is all the way to the left there mateline won the division one uh for kindergarten and mateline is currently attending Howard Yokum Elementary School
so for mateline we have a certificate and also a gift card so thank you very much nice job and your poster will be entered into the county [Applause] contest congratulations
Marine nicely done thank you guys just so everyone knows this year's theme was smoke alarms make them work for you all right next I'd like to call up Salma Giddings did I say that right awesome once in a while it happens
and then miss Alysa Dey okay [Applause] Salma Giddings is the winner for division 1 first grade she's currently
attending Howard Yokum Elementary School and for her we have a certificate as well as a gift card your poster will automatically be entered into the county level contest and then you will hear from us or from the county um after that okay nicely done thank you guys
[Applause] to give everyone a little bit of background we had uh almost 250 submissions this year so it took uh took the Ladi ugs early a little while to go through all of that they kind of narrowed down to five winners so they did a fantastic job we appreciate them
for that next up I'd like to call Amelia Moon did I get that right want a roll and Miss Christina ston if she is here no
okay Amelia currently attends ma Wilkins Elementary School and was the winner for division 1 second grade nicely [Applause] done awesome
job next i' i' like to ask Jacob McLoud up Jacob and his family and his teacher Miss Arin W congratulations Jacob is currently attending M Wilkins Elementary School
and was the winner for division 2 third grade nice meet on Jacob and we have one more winner Molly juet and Dr Marcus Woods if he's present there he is Molly currently attends mod Wilkins Elementary and is the division two
winner for the fourth [Applause] grade thank [Applause] you and uh the posters will be um copies
of the posters will be presented here in the municipal building on the walls and where they will remain for quite some time for everybody to view thank you guys very much for your hard work we appreciate all of your support for fire ition and uh let us know if we can help out in any other way appreciate you thank
[Applause] you thank you Chief car all right so this is going to be the public portion for the consent agenda items only if anybody has any comments on the centage item please come up seeing none motion to
close second anybody second is John thank you all in favor hi okay we are going to do this in both resolution number 2025 d-51 through resolution number 2025 r-
62 motion to approve the consent agenda so me second comments roll call yeah sorry I'm sorry too fast I'm voting no to 53 okay and to
59 okay anybody else roll call Mr cofman yes M noon yes Mr Simon sck yes Mr zarnik yes mayor T Rico yes all right approval of the expenditure list Susan thank you current
fund Bill list $27,988 124 Utility Fund bill is $1 15,841 Capital fund bill is is 87 8,745 utility Capital $484 75 our trust fund is
$7,800 21 and Grant Bill list is $500 $547 I have reviewed the above Bill list as submitted and recommend payment when funds are available okay thank you motion to approve submit second comments roll call Mr Kaufman yes M NES
yes Mr Simon sck yes Mr Z yes mayor Taro yes approval of the January 2025 minutes motion to approve I'll make that motion second comments roll call Mr Kaufman yes his noones yes Mr simonick
yes Mr radnik yes mayor tallo yes okay this is the public portion if anybody from the public would like to come up please come up and state your name and address we moved the podium on you sorry oh sorry Joe Walters 163 Fredick
Avenue mayor I sent email turn okay sorry can't sh i' sent an email to you and our Township Clerk asking for consideration council's
consideration to repurchase the rescue truck uh that the township had sold last uh July um do you want to elaborate on that with Council i' like to see if that could be put on one of the consent agendas for
discussion okay anybody have any comments okay for what purpose for consideration to repurchase the the rescue truck why what are we going to do when we get it that would be uh for you to discuss that I could go into some details if you like I I just
we don't have one right now for example there's no rescue truck right now um believe we've had 22 instances since I purchased the truck uh and took possession of truck on July 3rd the first one was July 13th in front
of fox me in Route 73 there's been 22 inst instances to to where we needed a heavy rescue operation in town or a an extraction type of res uh rescue we don't have the equipment or
the vehicle to do that with right now I understand a Township is considering a purchase down the road but that truck's not even on order if it were ordered today to my knowledge it would take three years to get that truck so in the absence of that it would be beneficial
to uh have the rescue truck back now if I may Mr man you and Miss noones were on Council when this truck was sold could the two of you elaborate on why you felt the truck was sold we would have to look into into
that we did have the information put forward by uh our fire department Dan cerr and and the like and we have certain reasons why it was definitely sold I believe it was an older model and also was having a problem getting parts
for it and also that I just off the top of my head but you know don't I'm not going to swear to it uh but we did have coverage from other uh townships that come and do U uh firework here with us so I believe
there was other reasons why we didn't do that that would probably be something is Dan K still I believe he left for the evening but uh Council can surely they can consider this um we could look to put it on I do want to make notice uh and reference to the fact fact that we would have to check in with the state
with the division of uh DCA with Finance because um it would be over what Mr uh Walters is asking for the price of the vehicle it is over the bid or over the quote threshold over the pay to play um and I'm not positive that we can make a purchase like this without getting other
quotes um so if you're going to consider it at all we would definitely need to look to see if the if a purchase would even be possible from a private entity wouldn't that be a state contract in the past if I if I may in the past used vehicles
can be purchased we've purchased some this town it's purchased used vehicles from other fire departments from other means without having any discussion the council approved it and we bought the truck so Mr Simon sec I would just like to say that I am the qualified purchasing agent it is my license that's
on the line so I would like to at least be given Council can certainly look into it but I would just ask that I think that we should reach out to the state toensure Miss Danon wasn't here at the time when this truck was originally purchased uh I don't recall cuz I wasn't on Council or
it on on the fire department but it came from mortown originally as Mr is saying and if we did buy it from mown from we can buy it in between in from a municipality to a municipality inter government transfers are permissible this would be a private entity we' be
purchasing it from a basically from a citizen from a resident and I am not positive that those that's permitted so all I would say is that let's do some research before there's anything to say let's put it on the uh on the agenda but okay more more research okay and
then of course too we have to look just at the whole value of it and whatnot so and Joe the value and everything was in your email I believe so we're okay yes it is um and and just for the so the public knows I I want to get this on the record the truck if it were to be purchased back from the township there's
no profit whatsoever not one cent to me this truck is more or less purchased from the township as a private citizen and I did the taxpayers a favor by doing so because if this truck would have left town it would have never come back the
value of the truck far exceeded what I even paid for it there was no minimum bid threshold on on this there was no Reserve when this truck went out for bid that was disturbing in itself I told our manager that Council knows my feelings
on that a vehicle a piece of equipment like this going out for public auction certainly should have had a reserve this thing could have gone out for $1,000 if somebody was out there sleeping at the wheel and there wasn't other people bidding on it it could have gone for much less than what it was purchased
for now to answer Miss noon's question I just want to I just want to go over a couple couple facts here I already told Council that there was 22 calls from April 12th
to January 28th there was 22 calls where this vehicle could have been used right in our own town if this was one of your loved ones this could have been this truck being on scene in town may have I'm not going to say it would or wouldn't but it
may have been a difference between life and death Miss NOS to answer your question Parts I just compiled a list and I stopped at 13 different places to get
parts for these trucks American Le France has been in business since 18 something they were a manufacturer in the United States from 19 I believe 17
up into into the 70s late 70s they started to have some financial trouble dler Chrysler got involved with them there were some investors in involved with them eventually they went def funct in 2014 if I'm not mistaken this is a
1998 vehicle there's a lot of people there's a lot of people driving Vehicles out in this world there's people in Cuba who have a lot of our cars you're you're not kidding about that tell that to them that they can't get parts for them cars what do they do make them they retrofit
them they make it work they find parts they get them from a junker they search the internet I'm sure they do whatever they have to do do they got friends maybe they smuggle them in I don't know there's a lot of smuggling going on anymore but this truck we're talking about is in tiptop shape now again to
the residents I'm going to remind Council mayor you weren't here at the time uh it's it's been brought to my attention that well over $100,000 was spent on this truck in the last s years the light package alone I
understand was $60,000 if we thought this truck couldn't get part where it was going defunct and American LEF France went out of business in 2014 why the hell were we spending $60,000 in lights on it well maybe
that's because it's still a valuable asset to our town to our residents maybe that's because it only has 14,000 miles on it 14,000 miles I drive the truck it rides like a champ it needs nothing it's
been maintained well until we get a new vehicle I'd like to see this back in service Joe can I ask you a question I I guess I'm a little confused you're not talking about the heavy rescue truck that used to be with the rescue no this
is the fire truck that's in my driveway and anybody's welcome to take a look 163 Frederick Avenue here's the photo 10 days after I purchased it okay I have these I can pass I'm sorry you have a question I was confused about what you're talking about
because there was a whole Rescue Squad sure and all those trucks went so I to do with yeah all right it looks similar to this one here so this was on July 13th 2024 this was probably the first uh call
for a rescue extraction ENT trapment I should say uh right at Fox Meadow in Route 73 and there in this picture I showed it to our manager over the summer this picture shows Mount Laurel's rescue truck very similar to ours on
scene I don't know what happened this day I hope everybody was okay but I just look at this and makes me sick to know that possibly it could have been our vehicle that responded to that I know we're having issues with our fire department different things but that's beside the fact that we having the equipment to respond with and having
Personnel to respond with are two different things lastly back to what Miss noones had indicated one of the reasons you felt you sold the truck well again I'll give you the reason we're talk
we're talking a few months ago so I'm just yeah I'll give you the reason okay hit me with it I'm going to hit you with it I was at the meeting when Andrew Simon SEC Jr came up to council the night you were selling the truck and his one question was why are you selling the
truck because they still wanted it Claire vulpi out of the five of you in council at the time was the only one who responded Claire said this was her reasoning because she's aren't trained to use the truck do does that ring a
bell one of the reasons that's one of the reason so obviously it's one of the reasons so what I have here I had to put it in a box I have big paper clips and mayor I know you're unsustainable but this is AR Rema paper
here these are all rescue only certifications for the members of the IFC in the fire department how many members do we have in our fire department Mr Simon SEC you have an idea how many
members we have 60 total and out of those 60 there was 25 that were active okay and I get the nail on the head because here is only the records for 24 of the
members that are trained to use the vehicle that I'm speaking of all different this stuff will blow your mind if you thumb through it and you're welcome too I have it digitally and I have it if you want to copy it kill another tree some of this
stuff here rescue in tight quarters ice rescue extraction from Vehicles all kinds of stuff CLA vuli said you're not trained to use the vehicle this is it right here this is just the 24 most active members
it doesn't mean there isn't others that are trained this is just the ones that are active so one would start to think was this truck sold out of spite was the previous Council putting
our membership was this membership was this Council putting our Township at risk our residence at risk when this vehicle left and I purchased it are they still at risk I would say
yes so to cover your asses I think you need something before you order that next $ 1.1 million truck to replace this one and maybe the residents need to know about that to replace this truck now you're talking
about a million one and just so you know what what they're talking about now the email that I sent them $331,000 to replace it right now put something on the road to protect the citizens of this town thank you Joe that's what I would like on the Cass
agenda we will put it on there and discuss it if anybody else wants to come up when Joe's finished you can come up thank okay is anybody else from the public please state your name and your address Michael Stevens 47 Chevy
Avenue um I remember that meeting where Miss Nos and miss Mr kman didn't have a reason why they wanted to sell the truck they had no idea what the truck was used for they had no knowledge of the importance of the truck all they knew
they want to sell the truck that simple the truck is very very very important to for our citizens it has a Cascade machine in it which helps the firefighters and a
fire it has lights when we have fatality on a highway protect the police and the fire why one location it has tools to breach any vehicle or any home it's de
Bas so this truck was sold out of spess that's all it was okay thank you thank you anybody else want to address Council May Council thanks for the opportunity to speak to you here tonight can you just state your name and your
address please my name is Kate Delany and I am a political organizer with New Jersey food and water watch um I live in Collingswood but I actually grew up here in town on rro Avenue um and I'm here tonight to ask for your support for the New Jersey climate super fund act um and
a resolution that we are using to help move our state legislators towards adopting this important law um I know that a resolution was shared with you mayor and I have copies if I could give them quickly thank you to everybody I also have a really short one on this
bill so if you can look at stuff and also listen to me at the same time um so this legislation the New Jersey climate super fund Act is um modeled after identical legislation that has passed so far in Vermont and New York um and the
idea is simple it's to make sure that fossil fuel companies are on the hook for the damages that they have done to our communities um it's being described by our lawmakers as a cost Recovery Act so the idea is to get funds from these
companies that again have endangered our communities and to take those dollars to make them available on the municipal level to towns like Maple Shade and across the state um for all kinds of projects um New York estimates that they will have $3 billion dollar in Revenue
per year via this piece of legislation and that can be used to address funing um to upgrade critical infrastructure um to address climate issues in the community so really a whole host of projects so what we want to do is pass
resolutions as a show of support to to show our state lawmakers that this really does matter to local government um so far food and water watch has successfully passed 11 resolutions across the state we just passed one on Monday night and had a Township there's
some under consideration in Collingswood Merchantville and Cherry Hill um and again the idea is to build support for this piece of legislation that would really again make funding available for communities because we know that you know flooding is an issue everywhere
right that a lot of Southey has infrastructure that needs to be upgraded and if this would you know be a source of of revenue for community so that taxpayers on on the hook and that you know it's not something where you're going into your budget but the funds are available okay thank you Revenue where
is it what's the source of the revenue so there's about 44 companies that have been identified as doing damage to communities in across the state um so that's still being ided and again we you know assume it be similar to
okay sure um similar to what um New York estimates so again billions of dollars okay so it's coming from the polluter exension yes and then it'll be a dedicated fund and then that fund will be you know there'll be allocations made to municipalities they're actually
they're they're fined already but where the money gets ends up is not where you're saying it where it should be exactly right so this would be specifically a fund that the state would create and then it would be you know know again the individual towns getting money and the the projects that will be
approved if you look in the resolution are really broad so it can be put to a lot of different uses um but again it's the idea that you know we know storms are getting more intense there all these concerns and you know otherwise it's taxpayers that have to pick up the tab um I also had a chance to bring this to
sustainable Maple Shade and there's some members of the group here tonight to support it um so I'm happy to ask to answer any questions you might have anybody else have question Andrew is it it's is it under the EPA for the
state that that that is going to be govern and run yeah so D would be yes would be D not the EPF right it would be the state DP y okay are they linked in any way with the feds um I don't think so
okay okay anybody else thank you very much thank you anybody else from the public please state your name and address for the record Robert Turner 170 South Fellowship Road I I too support the two
gentlemen that went before me saying we should reconsider getting the rescue truck back and my understanding of why it was sold is pretty much was already said uh that thing is useful to have it take holds a lot of weight that would otherwise be put on the other trucks to take the weight off their suspension
tools and equipment so please seriously consider repurchasing it thank you okay thank you anybody else I'm D burn I live at 66 South poer Avenue um I agree with Kate um about the
super fund and the thing I like about it is it's not only going to help it's also going to prevent future polluting um so great thing to have let's let's support it thank you thank you anyone
else seeing none motion to close made second all in favor I I I okay moving over to staff and professional comments start this way councilwoman I have nothing Mr Coffman there thank you okay
nothing um just uh to add to the points about the uh truck um that truck is considered a support vehicle for every other vehicle in the station it goes out on every single call
and services what the engines and the ladder can't Service uh it also is set up that for different typ types of calls and responses that the critical equipment that is on it gets to those incidents
first which was stripped away from the township when it was sold there's nothing wrong with that truck they have spent over I think $20,000 for the trucks to be upgraded to put new lights on it because that truck serves a huge
purpose for the police department when they need lights on scenes for accidents as it was alluded to on the highways um so it wasn't just some it wasn't just us that it affected it also affected the police and their operations
and I don't think anybody really took the time to find out what the truck did or what its use was it it it's just a critical piece of equipment that we fought for to get um and it's not something that should just
be taken away and and gone away because as a fire company you don't depend on other townships having equipment that you can use at your uh disposal because if they have a call and they're using that truck that means they can't bring
Theirs to our town which means if we don't have one we suffer for it and we have one so I want everybody to think about that please that's my comments thank
you councilman all right I have n thank you mayor okay um I guess I'll go all right I want to take a moment to address the firehouse and the resolution that remains before the court um I know this issue is important to many in our community and I want to Ure you I want
to assure you that it remains a priority for us we are here to serve the people of Maple Shade and that includes making the best decisions for our Town's future uh the last council meeting I voted no for a mo on a motion uh the two main reasons behind my vote first the matter is still litigation and we must allow
the legal process to play out second as a new Council we are committed to following the proper procedures for discussing and deciding on complex issues like this these things take time and we want to ensure we are making informed responsible decisions we will be we will be discussing our options for
moving forward and I encourage everyone to stay engaged as we work through the process this council is committed to accountability and doing what is best for Maple Shade I also have um something that I prepared for C all of council I prepared a draft resolution aimed at strengthening transparency efficiency
and accountability in our Township Council meetings uh this proposed policy would establish a clear fair and structured process for setting agendas helping to keep our meetings organized productive and accessible for everyone I would like everybody to take a copy home look it over so we can discuss it um and
I look forward to hearing from everyone so I'm just going to pass out a draft this is what I do in my spare time thank you yeah one spare time and that is all I have what meeting did you I know we have a budget meeting on Wednesday did you want it at the next
regular meeting or it's a special yes if you can bring it to our budget meeting on March 5th did you only advertise adver for the budget I'm sorry okay that's fine my apologies that's fine no worries sorry T it's okay you shorted me I'm sorry okay that's all I have Susan
just say do you have anything um no just that um I I understand everybody's position on on the truck but I I do ask that you know you allow me to at least call the state and at Le just find out if it can even be done um so we will do that um and we'll do some
additional research uh as well into it so okay it thank you Terry nothing thank you okay moving over to Old business operations thank you so today we held the pre-construction meeting for Aces field Improvement the Project's going to include drainage remediation fencing
safety lighting improvements and a basketball court renovation the project is utilizing funding of $250,000 which was awarded to the municipality through a Burlington County Municipal Park development Grant residents adjacent to the park are going to be getting notified by the vendor uh and the
playground will not be affected we hope we have the um notice to proceed tomorrow the vendor or the contractor today had to go back and check a couple a couple things on Monday the police chief and his team along with the engineer and I met to discuss the upcoming renovation project to the police department the Department jail
cells must be updated to align with state requirements and we have exhausted all available waivers so that's a project that's been in um in the works and that is now going to go out to bid we're hoping that project will begin sometime mid to late summer we have scheduled as we just said our first budget Workshop meeting on Wednesday
March 5th at 7 pm. I understand mayor there might be a we might look to change that a little earlier if need be we'll know currently it is scheduled for seven and obviously we will make those notifications if it does change Saturday March 14th is the annual rabies clinic from 10 to 12 at the EMS building on
Maple Avenue um at our last meeting members of sustainable Maple sheet had inquired as to a hen ordinance uh members had reached out to me last week and provided a list of people that they believe would be beneficial on the board I did get back to them and tell them that uh most likely we would defin if
Council was going to look into this that we would want somebody obviously from the municipality too from staff to sit on there what I need to know from Council is if you wish to proceed with such a board if you wanted to go that way if you would the hen uh I was well on not know the impression but this can
easily go through the zoning board and you just have to ask for a variance it can for the chickens yes with the hands they want to say so why isn't that an approach that they would consider considering the Aven flu
is so drastic right now and it does affect uh flocks that are you know personal flocks right and it's very difficult situation right now you go to get eggs It's 1999 for eggs at be DJs everybody you needs smell and salts
while they look so it's just that um there was a lot of um interest in it I believe it was 2018 before I got in and uh I believe we did some research but it's it's that's from 2018 but the slurry that comes off of the the chickens and everything considering the
Avon maybe we should just for now just let the Aven flu kind of settle in a little bit before we move forward with any decisions because variance is there the uh zoning board is there to give some want a variance in the case that they they would like hands you are correct so that's the way I would
approach it just because of the whole avian flu thing and the consideration that it could affect your neighbor it could affect our uh storm water system with what would be coming off of the chickens or the hens so but I mean that's just my opinion so just just
saying okay you are correct it can go through the zoning there we can be a variance if they can go that was our resolution to it because I was on council at the time that that was before me it was a topic that was very uh out there in in the public and lots of people come in we even had a individual from I think she
was from hien Township or town she was who uh was really into the chickens she came she made a presentation final resolution was that if you want chickens go to zon you can get it that gives the opportunity for
your neighbors to say y or n so that's that's why we went with the zoning requirement as opposed to okay um I think the committee would I
think the reason we wanted the committee you had suggested the committee one meeting before yes previously we had yeah I guess a year ago yeah I was going to say a year ago the reasoning for that was just for enforcement and yeah well at the time it was to see if we wanted to loosen the regulations
of the chickens and allow them um but yes as then as everybody started to speak about it that was the previous Council it was more to um yeah for enforcement then is what it was reached out to the people that had said something I didn't hear much about it but then of course obviously because it was brought up again last meeting that's why I'm bringing it back to just say
because then they did reach out to me yeah I I do understand that that that we did say that but there was not even flu at the time right so it's just that no I was just saying like getting a committee together just together and then we can discuss the whole flow situation I me it doesn't hurt to put the committee
together right I mean to have the committee I don't know I I assume that's what council needs to decide if they we want to if not you know if we want to hold off a little bit that's what I need direction on again but we need to get back to the public zoning that's what it is
there right now it's still there now ready to go but um I I just think at this point it's there's so much information out there and so many horrible things happening with the poor birds and you know everything else that I think it's bad timing you know not
that we don't absolutely want to do it it's just that it's bar poor timing at this particular time because the research will probably be coming in and see if they can figure out what's going on before we uh so why don't we do this it's now in front of council we'll put it on for discussion for the next meeting um this way we don't have a full
discussion now so we'll put it on for the next just know that it is out there it was brought again to my attention uh after the meeting uh also at the last meeting we mentioned the fee uh now being passed on to municipalities for the disposal of mattresses and box springs that did start February 1st the county is also assessing a search charge
for tires with and without rims County officials have now advised that they have held off on implementing this search charge as long as they could but the mattresses and box springs take up an inordinate amount of space in the landfill is compared to their weight County again sear charge took effect on February 1st it is
$13.50 per unit um Council was asked the time to consider if we wanted to implement a fee to help offset the cost of the additional search charge for those if it's something that considered and at your seats you were all given um the transport guidelines and it that's what the Yeah the county is actually
charged $1850 uh 1350 is what a lot of municipalities are going to this is something we want to consider putting that together there too we will make sure that we get that on the next agenda how they how do you get tagged for the 1350 how they they write your
address now when they come pick it up is that what they do yes yes okay just just checking well they don't we would have to we would have to right now it is the municipality is getting charged the $1850 and then for every mattress and every box spring that comes in is
$13.50 per unit how do we monitor that when it goes through through to the county the how do we mon we would monitor it through a resolution in which the residents what we're proposing or what Pat and I had spoken about proposed would be that we would give a um residents would have to come in and get
a permit right pay the 1350 it would be tax T and then the huler would know that they could pick it up so okay yeah so it's just something want to have more discussion about it or if I think we need to have more discussion about it
because it seems like the residents are being taxed uh with you know paying fees um we haven't really looked at the overall uh trash removal system and you know we're talking about having them
come up here I I I don't want to add more work to the road department but um there's got to be a solution it's tonnage and I'm just sitting here thinking a box springing mattress if they go into a dumpster we
could put probably 50 to 100 of them in there and pay next to nothing to get rid of them instead of charging the residents uh to dispose of them the problem is is getting them to the dump store or having some kind of mechan me
ISM for that so I realize it's an issue but I think it really needs to be looked at and discussed a lot more because there's options out there where it's not going to incur cost to the T taxpayers and the people that live here they are used to a service that they've had
forever and me personally I don't think we should be cutting their services I think we need to find out a way to get the trash taking care of without cutting services or inconvenience in them for bulk trash I mean it kind of is
dictating when they can do work and and changing their schedule based on removing a service for him so that's my opinion but I think we need to look at other options there's other options out there okay so I am in agreement with you I think that we should find some other
way to do it um County had come by and obviously had sent this information it is a fee that we are now being charged um I've asked our finance department to continue to look just to see how it's going how it's affected us since February 1st to monitor it when we get our next bill to see if it's up you know
if if our um if our tonnage has gone up if our if our weights have gone up what we're getting in those sarch charges I also do have an email out to the county asking are you going to show us on our bill what we're being surcharged in addition too I think that would be very helpful so yeah how would we know what
what was picked up if we don't have a res resolution and it's taged so they're picking it up now we're getting George so when yeah so when it goes to the dump then the dump will just the county will just automatically charge us there they're taking clean box Rings which they're saying that they can use and then they can recycle that's something too the County's doing with the program
so we'll get more some additional information um we'll hold off on the resolution I'll let the county know that we're holding off on the resolution until we do some more research on our end thank you um DPW is beginning to prepare our Sports complexes for the spring season they have been busy making repairs cleaning up grounds and are
addressing potholes throughout Town Maple Heights was asked to be looked at they did look at it uh let me finish the director of public work they are going to do some Mill and Paving work out there as soon as the weather breaks and it's warm enough for them and we can get the asphalt plant
back open so that was addressed nope Mill and pave thank you y uh lastly sustainable is looking for permission to place a greenhouse at the community garden on Collins Lane I had previously forwarded their request to you all for review their group recently built a shed on the property and this
would be a secondary structure if council is approving of the greenhouse as submitted we can prepare a resolution uh for the next agenda everybody has a copy at their desk um just need to know if you're okay to move forward on considering that how are the Neighbors about it we
reached out to the neighbors that is something that I have asked and yes sustainable has said that has said that they've reached out to the neighbors and the neighbors are accepting of okay and that's all I have for my operation consensus for that for next me
can it go on for the next meeting we have a consensus yeah I mean it's under new business I wasn't sure thank you oh yes my apologies sorry wasn't sure when we were talking no that should have been there I jumped the gun I apologize that's fine um okay thank you and say plan you didn't meet
since we well we have a meeting on the 4th coming up and there's one applicant so far for that meeting okay so we will be having a meeting okay would you just say the fourth the 4th of March yes all right and utility Engineers
report had your seat ready for you yeah good [Applause] evening thank you so I'm passing around a a list of ongoing projects and some uh open issues that we have regarding the water and wastewater uh utilities for the for the
township um first of all the the township has two water plants um Main Street water plant is is our main plant that was put in in 2006 and the Kings Highway plant is very old and it really hasn't been operated in the last 5 to 10
years there an Old Iron exchange plant and the technolog is Antiquated so we were in the process of looking to replace that plant there's been studies done and the problem is a lot of it is in the floodway so You' be forced to build within the existing footprint and
with some of the unregulated contaminants which are being identified and some of the new regulations for maximum contaminant levels um we really can't completely build on that site so we've been in the process of buying additional land and that's very close to
being an agreement and complete it there's one final uh sticking point with it with a an antenna company that has a a right of first refusal so we're going back with them and showing them you know they currently they just have a bunch of satellite dishes laying on the bottom
part that's actually uh within the 500y year flood way that we wouldn't be building in anyway uh this parcel that we're uh looking to buy is right along Route 38 uh it actually be an ideal place to put a second water tank for the township right now we only have the one
water tank and anytime we have to take that down to paint it or repair it becomes a really uh challeng we have to have somebody 24 hours at the water plant to make sure if we have a fire we can deliver 3,000 gallons a minute at that time so it really becomes a
challenge um a system this large should really have a second tank it doesn't have to be a big one but it certainly would give us operational flexibility uh so this site's sort of Ideal for that and hopefully we have this uh completed here shortly um then
the challenge is going to be to probably go to the I bank and fund a a new water plant for that that site uh at the Main Street Plant uh the challenge there is um California and and New Jersey are the
two of the states that have a a posos uh requirements and right now it's been 12 parts per trillion uh we're below that and we've been good but the new Rags are coming out in 2027 that's going be four parts per
trillion uh one of our wells at that site or actually two of three Wells at our Main Street site are right around four five six the recent test came in a little bit higher uh I mean came in around those T we were trending under
the four but lately we've been uh U above that now there's a lot of uh lawsuits out there and their settlements uh 3M and dupon are supposed to be putting billions of dollars so we've been we've applied for those monies but
uh it's a little bit how that's going to be distributed and be uh given out to the communities that are need is still uncertain so we're at a point where with all these uh communities trying to put in treatment
at this time uh we probably need to get started this spring with uh the ibank application to do that now we had designed carbon for that plant a number of years ago because of uh the issue with the tetor ethylene that was that
was wor down was have those issues and when they stopped pump pumping the North Church Street well it started migrating in our Direction now it's now a regulated contaminant we've met to permit but we're always on the borderline right at uh under the three
parts per billion for that um so we have had no violations we're in compliance with our wells but again if we put a carbon plant uh there for treatment it would remove a lot of these different on known on regulated contaminants uh so that's a little bit
of background also at the water plant we're currently upgrading the lime system and we're in the permitting process for that uh as far as water system uh the water quality act requires you to replace one
150th of your Mains every year uh so we've been trying to keep up with that we have to do a report in every March of what we've done and show that we're invest in our water system with some of the older cast iron and ACP pipes uh
what we do is we track where we're having water main brakes and we also know where we from um in interaction with the fire department we know where we have some hydraulic restricted areas so we try to pick uh improvements to our system that are going to improve the
hydraulics in the system or address where we're having a lot of aling breaks we've had a lot of breaks here this winter it's been a tough winter and uh so that really U so but we tracked that and we just uh just completed a project for Alexander
because that was a a street that we had a record of four breaks over the last five years so that project was just uh completed we're in the close out for that project we also have the njo grant Pro grant for that project so that road will be uh probably paav the later the
spring or early summer we're waiting for do to give us final design approval for that project uh Rose Avenue is a project where we've had a lot of watermain breaks from West Woodland to out to Kohl's and that's under contract with
Booth to uh complete that and that's probably going to follow their they have a sewer project on Main Street uh the other thing we have on the sewer system is we have a lot of extraneous flows going into the sanitary sewer um
so a couple years ago when we had a wet year uh we were at 95% capacity of the Wastewater Plant so we got put into a capacity Assurance program so we have to do quarterly reports and we had to come up with a plan of how we're going to
address extraneous flows and then on top of that EPA came down and they did an investigation uh because the number of sewer system overflows we had during wet weather events and we have an administrative order with them so we have a commitment that we have to do a
various improvements there's a lot of focus on eliminating uh sump pumps and that's a challenge because there's a lot of people have their sump pumps going to public sewer and then what happens is you have people who are discharging into
the street so that's complicates things too because you now you have icing situations in the wintertime so there's really not a good solution unless you spend the money putting in subdrain systems but again you know it's an issue that EPA is tracking we're going to have
to respond to them over time uh but we are showing the progress we're trying to Target things and U show improvements uh to them to keep them at a bay you know Maple Shade has been investing in their water and sewer system unlike a lot of
towns so there usually is you know $ 1.5 to $2 million capital budget for utility capital projects and that's pretty been pretty consistent so I think it gives us a chance to go back to all these regulators and say we are investigating our system you need to
give us time because there's a lot of needs with the infrastructure um as far as uh the wastewater treatment plant uh everything's operating they pretty much been in permit uh they did
have a situation with their you know they were they didn't weren't able to get chemical deliveries for their uh decl corination so they did have a violation there which is unusual but they had a a affirmative defense letter go in because it was it was a matter of
a deliveries from the chemical companies uh that caused that issue for them uh but as far as the wood and Kern they've done a good job with their Staffing and operations of this of the system we do meet with them we monitor them uh we're making sure that they're in compliance with their
contract U at the Wastewater plant we are we are scheduled to replace there's three screw pumps at the head of the plant we replaced two of them one of them had a a bearing failure soon after it got replaced so we're back dealing
with the the equipment supplier and they're fixing that so we can't really do the third pump until uh that one's back in operation but other than that everything seems to be going well we have Capital project needs there that we're looking at when we sit down to
talk about the budget for 2020 as far as uh other projects out in the township that we were were finishing uh uh as as the township engineer we talked about Asus Park we just had the preconstruction meeting for that today uh in the building here you there was a
number of issues with uh a Department of Corrections uh notice of violation so we're fixing up the sally port the holding area and the cells to bring them in compliance so we do have plans back from the architect and we are meeting with the police staff and uh making sure
that that's coordinated and as Susan mentioned we're hoping to have that out to bid this summer uh the food bank renovation Project's finishing up it's turned out pretty good we will probably have one slight change order for shelving that
we're talking about but that should be uh closing out here in the next month and that was a part grant part uh funded by the township as far as the row projects uh we have North Kohl's and Roland uh
that's in design uh will be going up to the do for their approval these are all these projects have some form of uh NJ doot uh funding uh uh for them so you have to get their authorization advertised before you go through the
process um North terce is the 2025 project and that's in design also and East front and Alexander that's up with the state for their approval and uh like we said we just did the the water main replacement and that'll give us a little
bit of a settlement period and then we should be able to do the mill and overlay of that project um Yokum school there's a project there for safety there was a grant there and we're doing some sidewalk improvements to try to uh improve the pedestrian traffic in uh
going to and from the school um so that's sort of a there's a lot of different for moving Parts especially on the water and uh Wastewater system um so if you have any questions on any projects i' be glad to
answer it will the yokom school one be done during the summer or that would be the ideal to do it during the summer because obviously that's a time where you have low traffic there I can get Heather I'll get back to you with schedule that thank you anybody
else thank you thank than positive thank you very much okay moving over to new business the greenhouse Callin Lan I dumped the gun sorry it was at the end of my report all right so everybody's okay with the green
house right okay um and then we'll have that resolution then for the next meeting yes and then the H committee um is also on here um I think we spoke about that on for discussion wave local raffle
license fees for the VFW yes so I believe the commander J Renwick is here but you were all given a letter from um the VFW they do their pull tab license and that is now up for Renewal they historically have come in and they have asked to have their local portion of
their fees waved um and that is what they are asking again from Council so Council needs to give consideration J did you want to say anything or I do not anybody have questions I don't no everybody good with that yes I'm good
with it yes Direction wave we're good okay thanks good okay anybody else have anything for new business Okay resolution 2025 r63 is the resolution to meet an executive session for the following matters we don't have any so I guess we can close motion to
close so moved second second all right all in favor we can skip that go JN if we're not going to end the session correct yep right okay all right so we need a motion to adjourn then sorry CH do it again motion to adjourn so move
second all in favor all right have a good night everyone you