everyone in accordance with section five of the Open Public Meetings Act be advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding the to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at town
hall at 7 p.m on Tuesday April 1st 2025 meeting details in the draft agenda were posted on our township website please stand to salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands one nation under God indivisible roll call vote please deputy Mayor Cohen here mr posro here mr sakamandi here mr stler present mayor Romano here may I have a motion to approve the agenda may I have a second second all those in
favor may I have a motion to approve the January 15th 2025 special township committee minutes may I have a second second all those in favor i may I have a motion to approve the March 4th 2025 township committee minutes so moved may I have a second
second all those in favor i may have a motion to approve the March 4th 2025 special township committee minutes so move may I have a second all those in favor i Okay um reports uh committee would you like to start sure
all right recreation committee golf course is open for the season today April 1st um we currently have 327 resident members and 205 non-resident memberships so uh far exceeded our expectation and we probably will get
some work um at the March Recreation Commission meeting uh we discussed the uh Short Hills youth baseball program they're interested in field A uh which is a smaller field at Geral Park putting in lighting uh and there are some parents who have come forth and asked to
do a fundraiser for that uh so you'll be seeing that under new business on the agenda uh I think it's tonight is that tonight yeah excellent um Special Improvement District Explore Milurn Short Hills just finished the third annual restaurant week and I saw some
people out and about a huge success 30 restaurants participated uh KPIs will be coming soon but uh it was better than last year and then the next big event is Girls Night Out which everybody seems to love uh Mnt
Bank uh in the downtown uh is doing an annual food drive to benefit the Military Support Alliance of New Jersey food warriors program uh that's March 21st through May 2nd they just drop it off at the Mnt branch and Sidewalk Cafe
licenses are now available uh so any interested parties uh food establishments or businesses should put in go to the website and put in their application uh great kickoff to the sponsorships i was I wanted to mention this uh you know last year we started doing sponsorships i think we did just
over $50,000 100% paid uh and this year we're off we're already over uh half of the 50,000 from last year with a much improved goal of uh about 25% higher than that so that's good um board of education nothing to mention we
mentioned Dr myron resigning last time uh that's been pretty much the hub of in the BOE of late um personal announcement here um I just wanted to mention that Antonio Braa who's a longtime resident grew up on Mechanic Street uh he he passed at the
age of 47 uh you know he was great guy friend husband father uh lived with an infectious smile and zest for life uh he really did embody what it mean meant to be a friend and uh and he was a dedicated member of our community um you
know funny thing I I just you know he's never complained always smiling he actually trounced through slog through the rain with us a couple years ago and I just he will be missed um missed the beers with him at St james Gate uh so he always enjoyed that um the
funeral will be this weekend uh you can go to ww.bradley funeralhomes.com for the schedule i think the visitation's on a Friday with the uh uh with the funeral on Saturday uh joint fields no update mountain Valley Emergency Centers we had
a meeting no updates flood mitigation a ton of going on we went through that laborious last laboriously last meeting uh I'll let I think um Annette's going to mention a letter of support from Essex County we received for the Orange bypass great news we got that actually in the mail today thank you for sending
it to me Annette uh affordable housing i'll defer to council that's reports um Deputy Mayor Cohen sure um first the library the the renovation on the second floor continues i think the big issue that the library is facing and people
often say how does how does the federal government impact us well the Institute for Museums and Library Services a federal agency has now put all of their staff on administrative leave as part of the Doge cuts um how does that affect
the library well they're the ones who supply uh tech infrastructure to the library in fact they host the library's website and they also provide several databases that are available in the library more to come on what that actually means but if all the employees are on administrative leave it's not
looking good um at the arburetum we held a uh a 4hour uh planning session looking at short and long-term goals for the uh for the organization and uh figuring out um you know where they want to be over the next two to five
years uh there was also a meeting of the zoning code advisory which has an unbelievably long agenda of uh zoning issues that are being looked at probably the one that's furthest along is the one that red that makes clear the definition
of multifamily houses that one had um come up here before and was sent back to the committee because the township committee felt that it was still unclear um other things that are being looked at are accessory dwelling units as well as
the definition of buffer requirements for a commercial property that sits in a residential zone thank you um can I be my second sure um so the Milbourne Environmental Commission is partnering with Great Swamp Watershed Association to make it
easy for members of our community and friends to select and purchase from a large catalog of native plants the sale went live today and will run through April 18th only to peruse the catalog and make your online purchases please go to great swwamp.org or to find Great
Swamp Watershed Association's fifth annual plant for pollinators native plant program catalog or go to the Environmental Commission's website popular species have been known to sell out early so do not wait go online and make your
purchases and select Short Hills as your pickup location all plant pickups will take place in Jurro Park on Sunday May 4th from 9:00 a.m to noon uh second please mark your calendars and save Sunday April 27th to join the environmental commission in Ter Park for
a celebration of Earth Day there will be education stations where you will learn how embracing sustainable living habits is not only simple but helpful beneficial for you and the environment don't miss the chance to take home free giveaways like a sker stopper
kit to the first 50 families that visit that station uh and native plants and seeds the high school environmental club will be hosting a sustainable thrift shop dc is looking forward to having our community gather in Taylor Park from 12 to 3 p.m sunday April 27th um the
affordable housing committee has a public meeting scheduled for April 24th and that's going to be held at Giro Park uh we will have our uh township uh attorney and um our municipal planner uh attending as
well so if you uh want to find out more about the fourth round of affordable housing please attend uh planning board has a uh meeting tomorrow as well um it is still um the high center is still the
uh only application um that they're hearing at the moment and uh I predict that uh this may be the last or second to last meeting on that um but don't hold me to that obviously that's it commandos yes thank you um two reports
on the historic preservation uh commission there's a meeting this Thursday at 7 o'clock um there's four matters on for me memorialization there's three new matters um Shade Tree had a meeting shade Tree Commission i missed it but I do have a report they've
been very busy so um the Davy Tree Company you know completed their township survey uh 7901 trees and 2,000 vacant planting sites um so that data is going to be incorporated into an interactive map that people can see and
use um for spring the forester is going to plant 28 trees on residential streets um where they've been requested by uh by people that live there and 28 on Milurn Avenue um so I know people some people have been here about Milurn Avenue and
trees so that hopefully helps somewhat um there's a notice that the New Jersey is still in a drought condition so please remember to water your trees uh particularly do um there's an arbor celebration Friday April 25th uh from 8:30 to 10:30 at the DPW you can get
free trees free saplings there and go plant them um and the um shade tree advisory board's also looking on it that you'll add an update to the tree preservation thank you thank you um Mr mcdonald uh sure
thank you uh PSENG and New Jersey American Water uh will be doing work on Main Street um during the week of spring break thankfully um the New Jersey American Waterwork is
on the inter on on the uh part of Main Street between Melbourne Avenue and Essex Street there is a uh a water service connection that they've put asphalt on they're going to replace that with concrete uh it will shut down the right hand lane of Main Street for some
time while the concrete cures uh but it will not be a full closure uh once once the slab has been poured um and and replaced the good news is is that PSEG and their contractor Rockburn will be repaving Main Street from the
Springfield border to Milbour Avenue this will be night work uh over the week of spring break uh there will they will also be attending to the intersection of Spring Street and Milbourne Avenue at that same time so uh that again like I
had mentioned the weather is starting to break we've we've got the ability to do this work at night so that work will be taking place and thankfully uh the vast majority of it will be over uh spring break um while hopefully you know things are a little quieter um just an update uh for the committee and for the public
on the police staffing study we are uh nearing the end of of the staffing study uh there's been a lot of data gathering and information uh the the company has been uh quite thorough um there is a question uh that was uh posed to me
about uh you know you know whether there is a public participation uh portion of this study so I went I'm going back to the consultant just to ensure that uh if there was that we make we get that uh we get that scheduled and and can have that discussion uh with the public um on that
so but we anticipate you know that should be very if that is the case very soon um we could be wrapping this up uh very shortly in terms of uh in terms of the study we we were also waiting on hopefully getting some comparative data from other communities uh like us um not
only within New Jersey but also throughout the country um you know sort of communities that have a you know a regional mall you know um that that were a little bit more like for like um it does become difficult i don't know that the responses were great on that but you
know certainly whatever we do get will be baked into the um to the study um an update on the Forgotten Victory Trail uh we had reported um a while back that uh the um that a kiosk was being uh
put in at Taylor Park regarding the Forgotten Victory Trail which includes Milurn Township uh and a history that you know maybe a lot do know but I'm sure a lot do not know about our role in the Battle of Springfield and the the last thrust towards General Washington's
headquarters in Morristown uh and so this will be a kiosk that is going to be uh commemorating that and and describing that and sort of uh uh providing the rich history that that uh that Milbourne has um there will be a um a web page set
up on the township's website as well as uh you know again a small a small campaign to uh to help fund that that improvement um we you know we do hope that um you know there are a lot of history buffs out there and perhaps uh people would be willing to contribute to that but but there will be more
information on the website people can read it uh and go through it for themselves uh and what all of that means but I just wanted to update the the idea is to have a commemoration of that kiosk on Sunday uh June 22nd which is the 245th anniversary of the Battle of
Springfield technically the anniversary is June 23rd but uh June 23rd is President's Cup so you mark that in your calendar too uh that that's a downtown race and it's not uh always a good uh time to be in the downtown unless you're a runner uh so we are gonna have that uh
that kiosk commemoration on Sunday the 22nd uh just a an update on the uh town hall renovation we're 17 days out uh from moving uh from town hall to 22 East Willow things are things are uh
following the right path right now um one of the critical sort of timeline pieces was the furniture delivery to 22 East Willow we got good news that um that will be in time we were very tight i think the furniture is being delivered
on April 15th and put together um uh at that time by the uh by the company and we'll be moving in you know moving in on the 18th and sort of reestablishing our temporary location on uh Monday the 21st as I had mentioned to the public before we are going to be closed Wednesday the
16th Thursday the 17th and Friday the 18th friday the 18th will be a pretty outofpocket day for the township uh with uh with computers being moved phones being moved everything being set up down at 22 East Willow so we just appreciate everybody's patience and understanding
as we kind of make this uh this transition uh to 22 East Willow uh but we're obviously excited about the future and and what's uh what's coming for for this building and and for uh all our residents that utilize this building and certainly for the staff as well uh but
um but so far everything is on track and looking pretty good and just lastly two quick updates uh PAB meeting in person on April 7th at 7 p.m here in the town town hall conference room u you know um
we you know we'll be here to sort of you know answer questions or discuss with community members their concerns or issues with pedestrian safety and tomorrow we have a uh 250th anniversary committee meeting and as I think I had mentioned before while we're starting
with a sort of smaller group uh it is intended that these individuals will be working on big buckets and then going out to the wider community to get more and more people involved more and more people part of this uh big celebration that will take place next year for the 250th anniversary of the uh signing of
Declaration of Independence thank you Mr king go going on concurrently with the World Cup flags so we're we're doing some events that are outside events for Milbourne with the World Cup events so it's going to be
cold uh thank you Mayor good evening um so an update on uh Milbour's fourth round fair share housing um as the public will recall or the residents will recall um DCA gave us an advisory number of 555
units uh for the fourth round um with apology um and M mcdonald's support um we reduced that obligation to 522 by resolution um that was based on topologies report um and what was
developable properties um we thought the DCA got some of those properties wrong um I think I advised uh the residents that New Jersey Builders Association filed an objection um to the 522 units fair Share Housing Corporation did not
um there was some So the way the fourth round works is any objection to a municipality's um uh present need number uh needed to be resolved by March 31st through the process in which the legislature set up
which are essentially retired judges um we got our date which was uh March 27th um we had a settlement conference and if we weren't able to settle there would have been a hearing following that settlement conference um we did um enter
into a settlement agreement uh with the builders association uh we increased our obligation from 522 units to 539 units um the idea behind the settlement was um the courts um we had the the basic
knowledge the courts were siding and find although DCA's number was supposed to be an advisory number uh the courts were giving DCA's number a lot of difference um and um and they were taking and they a lot of them were just going with DCA's number as it was DCA's number um the
judge had indicated that settlement would have been the best route to go um and most notably um and it's it's not really for public consumption yet but it will be shortly um our planner has done our vacant land analysis and determined what a realistic development potential
will be for the fourth round um which is not a significant realistic development potential those are units that we must build um and this settlement would not affect that realistic development potential so although we raised our present need the actual effects um on
our obligation and what needs to be built in the fourth round would not be impacted uh there was a risk of not selling and not only we would have gotten um the DCA's number which was um 555 um I know I don't know if anyone is
here for topologies full presentation or recalls but our district which is made up of four counties had I'm rounding a 28,000 uh unit need throughout the district um as municipalities were lowering their number um one of the arguments the
builders association made was there needed to be a reallocation because the 28,000 number was the constitutional need for the district um and that if a municipality was allowed to lower there had to be a reallocation because that number represents our fair share of what
the affordable obligation is in our district um and there was also a threat that there could be a reallocation of additional units um so the committee um the majority of the committee um decided to accept the settlement um which should
be on the next agenda uh for approval um I will also note that our special adjudicator in the fourth round um was appointed um it's Frank Vanish who was our um who was also our I don't call it special adjudicator in the last round um
but but special master um the I put a letter in we're asking the court to remove Mr banish and replace Mr banish um we cited um all what we found to be uh his appearance of impropriety in the third round his lack of cander with this
committee um as an impartial um person from the courts um his lack of cander um we feel should preclude him from being milburn special adjudicator into the fourth round uh the court did not um did not take argument on that um I did have
a conversation uh with Mr banish and we'll have further conversations um but it is Milburn's position that Mr banish should not be a special adjudicator and we're we're willing we're going to fight for that um before you move on can I just say um while Mr caner did um hold
the committee um and the consensus of the committee was to settle I just want to go on record to say that I opposed that i thought that um considering that even Fair Share Housing who was certainly not our friend did not bring us into court i I thought that we should
not give in to what the builders uh what the builders are asking but obviously other people on the committee saw it differently also I believe our number was reduced to 534 um not 539 just 533 533 yes yeah i'm
sorry and just for clarity Jenner Jared Mr caner uh based on RDP the number really wasn't a settlement it's it's insignificant in terms of how it affected our what we had to build
after RDP yeah i if I said 539 I mean 530 539 was the midpoint and maybe I was looking at my notes wrong we settled for 533 which is below the midpoint which is what we we went in with a midpoint analysis because a midpoint was offered as a settlement i apologize i'm looking
at numbers and they're kind of just um so yeah 5 539 was the midpoint there might have been an offer at 538 going in um I know uh through through the negotiation process uh we brought that number further down to 533 and I
apologize if I misstated that and to commit Stler's point again I'm not going to release what our RDP what we believe our RDP to be because I don't think that's been announced yet to the public and it's obvious it may be up for challenge in the next phase and we will obviously release that once I'm confirmed that we can but it this
settlement did not impact our RDP additionally um Attorney Caner um believe that some other municipalities that fought this ended up with not only the DCA number but then they also got some additional reallocation correct yeah there were some municipalities that
were hit with a relocation unit and we're not quite sure what the state's going to do with that um but yeah there there was a threat of a relocation addition yes nonetheless nonetheless I just felt we we really you know we we've just been made an example of over again
it was just worth fighting because because no matter what those numbers were the RDP wasn't going to change so I just didn't think it was appropriate to give into the building stir uh any further questions from the committee or any other legal matters you'd like me to address
thank you mayor sorry there is one other thing that I just wanted to to to point out to the public certainly with the move from from town hall uh we will not have use of this room uh our May 6th meeting will be at the board of education building we will a lot of our boards will be
renoticing uh particularly HPC board uh planning board zoning board and township committee will be renoticing uh for use at the uh at the board of education uh we're still you know there's still a couple things that we're ironing out um but but just making sure that
everybody's aware that meetings will be changing location um particularly even those meetings of the environmental commission um you know will be changing location as well as um I don't know if anybody follows the Lacawana coalition but they will also be changing uh uh
location so just just keep that in mind please keep an eye on the website u and and uh make note of those changes uh if you attend these these meetings thank you and then sorry one more thing too uh we talking about the special improvement district the big three guys who are
stepping up on sponsorships we always say their names live breads is going is doing great uh game changer fitness and then the new veterary emergency group which is the business going in at the old Harmon over on Morris Turnpike they've really stepped up as well so uh
always want to mention our sponsor when are they supposed to open that do you know no I think I think right now they're still going through the buildout that's great but that's a And I I also noticed the new tables in the courtyard today very nice that'll be nice when the weather gets warm um and uh thank you um
committee installer for mentioning the letter of support i know we've been trying to we've been working on that for a long time so it's just another piece of uh the puzzle for the for the Orange Reservoir uh for the bypass project so
still a long way to go but we're getting there public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the lectctor and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident and/or property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public for
the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in and would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or electronic device please click the raise hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put
into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an early meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you'll be prompted when there's 30 seconds remaining our reminder that this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter this is a time during
our business meeting for the public comment to offer public to offer comments i will now open the public comment period hi everyone Richard Cyber Milbour resident three things essex Street is going to a two-way
project anything going on there two if in November we get a different governor do governors have any power over the redevelopment and resoning or is that the Supreme Court that can only
handle that three on the weekend of March 22nd 23rd the post off the mailbox at the corner of Holmes and Milburn Avenue what the com the was the contents
was confiscated by thieves i found out because I had a check so but I mean you guys know about that so I had to go through this whole check process with the bank and so what
happened was for those that didn't know uh last year in the South Mountain neighborhood a mailman was robbed of his keys they didn't change the locks on the boxes so I went to the post office and I asked them "You didn't change the locks
on the boxes?" Postmaster yeah we're filing an application to get some money to take care of that now I know that that's we are not the post office but we have a post office in the
town here and the only people that probably use that box are residents and it would have been nice to know because there's a whole process you got to go to to it's a problem if they take one of
your checks anyway have a great evening thank you um good evening my name is Jeffrey Feld i live in the poet section for more than 22 years um first I want to wish everyone in the community because we're
about to come to a very the holidays with the families whether it's Passover or Easter family celebrations and to reflect with your families what each of the holidays uh represent um I just want to talk at this point about the agenda
items later it'll be the introduction of the budget um I thank you for your for the first year attaching user friendly budget but when you approve your budget introduction you have to I think you really have to refer to the line item u thick document that you're approving and
if you're going to tell us when the date of the public forum is before the actual second hearing on the budget that would help us u for the public the capital budget is enclosed in the more thicker um document not in the user-friendly
budget um as to the tax credits um tax appeals for transparency can you at least put the street address rather than block and lot um and in the last few years there's been cash payouts and then credits and when you look at the
userfriendly budget it reflects I think cash payments rather than the credits that were given so it's part for us to keep track of accountability what's going on um there's a tonight you're going to be approving uh consulting for Taylor Park uh the way I read the
certification u the resolution there was no availability of fund certification and that might have been an oversight and I think that's might be coming from a grant that we might have received if it's for the playground and that should be disclosed um but there is something strange this year about in the budget
process that's resolution 25101 this is I think the first year when you look at the user friendly budget that we're averaging um various um tax deficiencies and when you go to the user-friendly budget something really stuck out to me the amount of delinquent
taxes as of December 31st 2024 was 2,829,99.37 if you look at past years the delinquent taxes as of the last day of the year was in a range of about $600,000 no I think the public should
know is there someone or some company that didn't pay their tax that's a big jump like two more than $2 million in a delinquent tax i think the public should know um I know my time is limited i will come back to talk about the ordinances
um but I am jazzed by some of the things that happened today about the round four remember we do have a case that's going on in Mercer County and I think that even though there's a settlement I don't think it impacts some of the arguments that we made in the Mercer County Consortion i'll speak later about other
issues thank you anyone else before we go online charles Bambber uh I'm not here to talk about any specific issue uh I just want to set the record straight i' I've been a resident of this town for 28 years i've spoken to
the TC on various issues uh I've been accused uh in certain circles of being backed by or partial to certain industries or market segments uh I'm a chemical engineer professionally with 50 plus years of experience
uh now I I respect the members of other committees in this town and I appreciate uh the work that they're doing uh but uh professionally I I'd be willing to bet I've done more for the environment than anyone
uh on any of the committees in this town uh the focus of my business for 50 years has been on the environment clean fuels carbon capture bofuels recovery of chemicals from waste water and the list goes on was also a safety engineer the
site safety engineer responsible for OSHA and EPA compliance personally I have no ulterior motives or agenda i only insist that the unbiased truth be told and be presented and when it isn't I post and I stand before the TC to set the record
straight i brought my expertise to the flood mitigation advisory committee beyond that I'm at your service if you ever need scientific or unbiased information on any topic please let me know i'll be happy to tell you what I
know uh when I speak about te technical topics it is not from a position of weakness so just so you know that um secondly um I have a question regarding our taxes
to the county um do we regularly monitor uh we should but I I'd like to see us regularly monitor the amount of taxes that we pay to the county versus what gets returned to us you know what does
our township get you know in cents on the dollar paid to Essex County certainly some of it goes to administrative but uh we we should be monitoring that and writing hard on that thank you thank you hello Leah Cruz
um two things um I wanted to report an instance of graffiti um I could do it through the SDL portal but um is that the best way to go about it okay just trying to save myself what where is It's on the parking kiosk picture right
across from Sunny Scrambled yeah and um once Richie mentioned the um mail issue I went on the police bladder just to see if it was reported or whatever and that has not been updated in over a month i don't know if there's a reason for that
but that's very frustrating and my neighbor also had mentioned that he was missing a check and I said "Oh not surprised but because there's been so many instances of especially at the Short Hills post office missing mail." So um if somebody could answer why that
police bladder hasn't been updated in a month that would be an interesting question thank you thank you my name is Katya Sig Cohen i live in the South Mountain section um and I just wanted to comment about the gas powered
um leaf blowers and just let you know that um I for one and others like me would love to see them uh banned completely but at least curtailed um the way the environmental committee is
proposing um there's two main issues from my point of view the first is noise which postcoid lots of us are now working from home and the gas powered blowers are really really loud and they
go right through especially if it's you know if it's nice out and you have a window open obviously you have to close it but even with the windows closed it's hard if you've got kids who are sleeping but it's also really hard for those of us who are working from home who are on Zoom meetings who you then have to try
and explain why it sounds like you have a freight train going through the back of your room um and the other is an environmental issue which um I believe that the environmental committee has already given you all of the data but I
just wanted to sort of reinforce there's this wonderful study that was done by Edmonds that says that a gas powered leaf blower running for 30 minutes which is about what it'll take to clean up somebody's yard is the equivalent of a
Ford F-150 driving um 38 8 thou 3,800 miles which is further than to get to LA it's about the same distance as going to Denver and back and even if you just let it idle for 9 minutes so you're not even
blowing leaves but you're just sort of getting things ready to go it's the equivalent of having driven for 235 miles which would get you to DC so just for the air that we breathe and the peace of mind it would be great if we could curtail them as much as possible
thank you our county lean past president um I just wanted to bring to your attention there was something posted on Facebook but I've also noticed it because I live there um the light at Hobart and White Oak Ridge that was put there by I guess the county
Essex um but we still controlling I guess we white oak bridge is the county road and Hobart is our road i'm not sure but anyway the backup on Hobart is getting worse and worse so it looks like a timing issue might be going on so that
might uh if somebody could maybe ask them to have a look at that um the other thing is I just wanted to note it's really great to hear that there's some big progress that the county is recognizing uh that the flood mitigation efforts of
the committee are are really making some good sense and I just want again say once to say once again that Frank and Ben's um election to the TC I think has had a major impact on the committee in terms of appointing people with the right credentials a number of engineers
etc to get the ball really rolling there so thank you for all the efforts there from everybody um I also just want to say something to note um Mr cohen's comments that you know I just I'm so glad that you have seen the light um
about what happened to our town with um the fair share housing settlement agreement but I just wish that you had been there in 2021 having been a member of the Democratic committee all that time uh acting as treasurer for a number of those people that voted in favor
during their campaigns on of that uh stealth fair share housing settlement agreement in 2021 that has led this town into a really devastating situation with our uh overdevelopment and with developers so I hope you'll continue to
fight and and continue to uh remain in in the position that you publicly stated this evening thanks thank you anyone before we go online good evening good evening sarah Sherman resident um I
want to say as um 25 year advocate for flood mitigation in my neighborhood and in this town that any progress that we are making right now has been in the works for quite a while so I'm going to
say that the last five mayors in this town have all worked on flood mitigation and on getting the orange reservoir project moved forward many people forget that six years ago we were shot
down by the Army Corps of Engineers for a major project in the South Mountain Reservation and we had to go back to square one we placed all our hopes in that i was at the meeting in Trenton and we believed that this would come come
through for us and that we would have a major project in hand we didn't and so we went back to the drawing board so we have to credit a number of people who are making this happen yes it took a long time to get people on board but
many many people had to go to meetings talk a lot twist arms find the right people to talk to to make this happen we are not there yet just as Mayor Romano just said this has been a very long
process so please let's be inclusive in who we credit with getting us to where we're trying to go thank you thank you awesome okay now close public comments um any
comments you want to start uh sure u so for S Sarah Sarah Sherman you know one team one dream we're all working together uh you know it's just really all coming together now and we're all happy to see it for the benefit of all residents
um Leah Cruz the SDL system by far and best because it actually has a tracker and you could it'll tell you when the tickets closed very good for potholes too by the way that's a a pro user tip there if you put in a pothole and it gets filled to let you know
um Mr cyber good point on the post office uh so I'm not sure if that's if that went out i did read an article about it actually happened in u Berkeley Heights and uh Verona and somewhere else uh and it did mention Milbourne but it
seems to be uh you know becoming very uh regular so I I don't think I'd be sending checks right now uh and I I think someone even used a ballpoint pen that's check safe which you can use and they were able to wash that check and
send it and send it back through uh uh and then this other point too uh uh to Jean and uh and uh a couple other people the way we approach affordable housing in this town needs to be done in
a conscientious uh and positive manner you know fighting every battle for the sake of fighting to me is not the recipe to be successful we need to build alliances within New Jersey we need to set our points we're not against fair share h building affordable housing
we're for doing it sensibly financially uh correctly and pushing that forward so uh you know I think from the rest the majority of the board who voted not to fight the New Jersey builders I commend you guys i think it was the right
decision um what else uh and Charles Be thank you so much for the contribution you've made to our town i appreciate it oh and one other thing too he made a point um about monitoring the taxes we pay and you guys know I get on the soap
box every time I'm up here about we pay a lot of money over $50 million a year to town to Essex County what do we get in return for it well um I'm actually going to Essex County uh Mayor Romano was kind enough to set up a meeting for us uh with the powers that be in Essex
County to sit down and discuss those actual issues uh and also discuss you know monies for flood mitigation uh monies for other projects we want to do here in town we pay over $50 million a year year in and year out that's a big we're a big customer you know so what
are we getting back in return for that how do we work hand inand uh with our county officials to make sure that uh we're thriving as well thank you sure few things first of all I also I think
we should be looking at the light on Hobart and White Oak Bridge it's very short when you're on Hobart and there's no turn on Red so even if no one's coming although you may not be able to see them if they're speeding up from the highway um it's a very short life on the
Hobart side so you know we need to look at that check fraud i I also not this incident i've been the victim of check fraud what I was told by the banker who dealt with me was if if at all possible don't use checks um keep that to a
minimum and if you must use a check don't put it in a mailbox go into the post office and put it in the slot while they're open no guarantees that something won't happen there as we know the Short Hills Post Office uh you know they broke they uh just had they left the back door open and that's how mail
got stolen from there but putting putting a check in in a mailbox and hoping for the best is really too risky at at this point uh Essex County sure we need to we we do pay a lot part of that is because of the wealth and the
property values in this town um we don't have Essex County facilities in this town and you know it's inevitable that that's where they're going to spend the money some of it is I guess shared across the town all the towns be that the courts and and the hospital and the
parks whatever but um it's clearly something we should know what we pay out and certainly keep track of what we get back and there'll always be a discrepancy but it's something we should know about thank you Committee second uh sure so um Miss Cruz thank you for
pointing out that the blotter is out of date i trust that Mr mcdonald is making note of that and uh I believe we try to have them updated at least once a month right if not every two weeks right so if we could maybe look into that that'd be good
um one thing um so uh Miss Cohen um you cited something that has actually been cited a number of times uh and I wanted to add some specificity to it um that study about the Ford F-150's emissions
versus that of a gas leaf blower I believe used a much older model of a Ford F-150 number one number two uh it was looking at a very particular uh particulate uh I don't remember if it was NOx or something else but you know
it wasn't the overall CO2 impact um it was one very particular particulate that that being said these devices uh do pollute quite quite a bit um especially compared to you know a battery operated device for instance uh so we appreciate
you uh coming out and speaking in support of the uh seasonal restriction um we are going to be having a leaf blower bake off where um the EC has been working very hard to get um a third
party uh that sells the equipment uh representatives from the companies to come and demo their uh latest electric models and we've also requested that they include one of these fabled low low noise gas blowers so that we can all see
uh and hear the difference ourselves it's my understanding that the uh the gas uh blowers uh as you pointed out they do tend to penetrate buildings more with the noise i I know I've experienced this firsthand because I have a neighbor across the street that has an electric
blower and when I'm inside my house I don't hear it running but when uh the uh guy across from him uses their gas blower even with all my windows shut I can I can absolutely hear it um so you know that that could be due to a number
of factors but I do think the wavelength of this different sounds makes quite a bit of difference um let's see uh as far as you know what we get back from our county versus how much we give you know in Essex County I feel like
their motto should be you know it ask not what your county can do for you but what you can do for your county because it seems that a lot of times money just goes out and doesn't come back so I really do hope um you know m Mr stler and and Mayor Romano I hope your
conversation with the county goes well um I hope that uh you know they finally step up and and put some money towards flood mitigation especially considering the fact that you know if you look back 20 30 years ago flooding wasn't as much of a problem what was different back
then well a number of things but one thing that was different is that complex that giant complex that bears Jod's name at Turtleback Zoo did not exist so you didn't have all that impervious uh pavement and what do you know you
know there was there was less flooding because trees absorb a lot of water so the more impervious surfaces that you have or that the county builds you know up up uh elevation wise from us you know the worse it's going to have in terms of flood impact so something that I think
they certainly contributed towards the problem i would hope that they pay to help remedy it that's all I have thank you thank you Comm uh nothing further thank you okay um Mr
um nothing i I'll look into the blue and the light oh I I will comment on the light um so it's my understanding that that post in particular um while understand that that light is short it was always going to be short uh based on the on the traffic movements and the
volumes on each of those streets uh White Oakidge Road and Hobart Gap being the primary movement and a very busy road hobart uh not being uh as much and certainly you're sacrificing a little bit of that for the safety at that intersection um it it's it's my
understanding too that that that photo and that that comment was made right at school letting out um so I think that also plays a factor into it with all of that being said um what we are um I I provided that that issue already to our
assistant engineer who has a traffic background what we're going to be doing is um where and we think that this is a great opportunity to look at this is we're going to be going down to summer uh Somerset and uh viewing what is uh
called adaptive uh traffic signaling um so that basically the light learns what the traffic patterns are and can adjust accordingly um based on you know certainly there's a human factor still in where you're setting the limits but um you know for instance if it's if it's
at night and there is nobody driving on White Oakidge Road and and Hobart and a car pulls up then the light will change based on the fact that somebody has approached the Hobart uh uh you know from Hobart so we're going to take a look at that and discuss that with um uh
with a company that has a warehouse down in in Somerset and kind of view this adaptive lighting which I think is is potentially a really good solution in in most places uh when it comes to um to to to Milbourne uh even in the downtown you know looking at when the vast majority
of our north south traffic takes place in the morning right where and and you know the westbound traffic on on Milurn Avenue maybe there's an ability to utilize this to better um you know uh time these lights based on their
learning from the traffic patterns so one other thing that was asked Alex was actually I don't ask it myself but I didn't get a chance is where are we on the two-way traffic on Essex nowhere at this point unless I mean again if there's a renewed
interest from the township committee to to continue to move forward with that uh but at this point there has not been um a lot of um interest and and and certainly there's there's a there's a there's a there's a large expense to
that a buildout of that and is isn't there a a big building going up right there at the corner of Essex and Milbour Avenue there are developments going on there Right that That's correct so you may want to have the traffic patterns embed before you start changing them
yeah i think what you'd want to do is have the buildings there first figure out what the situation is before you you go and change them and I think that's the conclusion we all came to uh a while back so fine that's Yeah yeah i agree with that we've got to see what those
buildings do that's fine fine and any undue influence on South Mountain as well i mean work the township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent
agenda may I have a motion to approve resolution 25-093 through resolution 255099 which are listed on the consent agenda may I have a second roll call vote please deputy Mayor
Coleman yes mr crossro yes mr mr sakamandi yes mr schler mayor Romano yes thank you may I have a motion oh I'm sorry uh committee second you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2703-25 we'd like to present an
ordinance entitled Ordinance Number 2703-25 calendar year 2025 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriations limit and to establish a CAT bank NJSA 4A445.14 um Mr mcdonald perhaps you
could explain um you know to the public why uh why we need this ordinance to increase the cap from 2.5 to 3.5% and what that actually means and what led to that increase um yeah I mean
first and foremost uh we have Matt Lar the township's chief financial officer here to help provide that explanation uh but the cap bank ordinance is a best practice um you know for municipalities to create uh essentially room in their uh appropriation and their ability to uh
increase appropriations otherwise you'd be um you know uh creating an a a an artificial uh cap and finding yourself in a position where you need to cut uh you know things uh where when you have
the ability to do this cap um you create room even if you don't necessarily need that this creates a bank that is sort of uh um not real dollars but can eventually be room in your budget in the future but I'll I'll also let Matt provide a much better explanation uh for
us that was that was a good explanation basically uh this is like the 1977 uh appropriations cap so it's not the levy cap the 2% that's thrown around um and kind of different from board of eds we have a cap uh that we can bank into
three future years so there's an incentive for us not to go up to the maximum every year um but if we weren't allowed to bank that for future years much like Board of Ed they kind of have to basically use it or lose it where this lets us increase the cap and then use it if we need it in future years um
we're $290,000 under this cap this year so that $290,000 will be available to us uh in future years if we need it thank you thank you i move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the township clerk be authorized to have the
ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday May 6th 2025 please be advised the public hearing of this ordinance will be held on May 6th at the Milbourne Education Center located at 434 Milbourne A may I have a
second second roll call vote please deputy Mayor Cohen yes mr crossro yes mr secondy yes mr stoler Mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 25-1000 may I have a motion to approve
resolution 25-10 so may I have a second roll call vote please deputy Mayor Cohen yes mr posro yes mr sakamandi yes mr stoler mayor Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to
resolution 25-101 i think we'd like to provide an explanation on this particular one okay um this is the three-year average right yeah so um a statute allows us to use a three-year average uh one of the large
items in our budget is reserved for uncollected taxes as you guys probably all know uh if taxes aren't paid the school and the county get 100% so the deficit falls on us so there's a statutory reserve that we set and have to include as a as an appropriation within our budget um we did have a
larger than normal uh tax liability this year uh which is due to just literally like two or three commercial properties in the JFK area um we collect 100% through tax sale at the very least after two years so it's really just a timing difference but this allows us by using a
three-year average not to artificially increase that appropriation for a one time kind of blimp in the radar that's why they allow you to do the three-year average usually we're around like over 99.5% collection this year we're at I think 98.4 or 98.5 um so that just saves us a little
bit money in our budget and this is something you can do on any revenue right correct or if you if you needed to support additional revenues you can use threeear averages as well right and and in particular uh what this would have done in our budget would would and knowing that it is a timing issue what
this would have done in our budget would immediately put a $300,000 gap in our budget so being able to use the average gets us to the to the point where correct that doesn't the properties on JFK that you mentioned have they been deficient in paying their
taxes they did not pay in the 20 their 2024 taxes by the end of the year so there was a usual delinquent total amount in a town of about 7 8 900 this this was at 2.2 million or 2 have they paid since some have paid um there's
still a delinquent balance like there is every year but it will all be paid by the end of the year because these are you know if if there ever was a tax sale do a tax sale right right and it would get purchased and we would get our money so um I believe they've all all paid or almost you know almost all up to date
now thank you thank you may I have a motion to approve resolution 25-101 may I have a second second roll call vote please deputy Mayor Coleman yes mr posro yes mr
sakamandi yes mr stler yes okay 25-102 mr mcdonald thank you Mayor um yes so tonight is the night where um Matt and I uh will introduce the 2025
municipal budget just some items of note uh prior to getting into the introduction presentation one is is that we will be holding the budget discussion and public information session on April 22nd at se at at 7:30 p.m at Jurro uh
Park again we appreciate everybody's understanding as and flexibility as we're kind of like juggling various different meeting spaces um that will be uh the location of that budget session um in addition should the township pass township committee pass the introduction
tonight uh the the uh adoption and public hearing will be considered on May 6th at the Board of Education building at 434 Milbour Avenue um with that I'm going to turn it over to Matt uh Larissy the township's chief financial officer who will go through the budget
presentation some of the slides quicker than others and then certainly we'll focus on the the real meat of uh what this year means um and um I will then help uh assist Matt in the uh capital projects and capital um budget thanks
Alex thanks Tim presentation's on the screen here um good evening everyone at any time if you have questions feel free to stop me or at the end we can just go through the questions so general timeline which we talk about every year um there's financial analysis going on throughout
the year uh that's done by myself and department heads and the business administrator we meet with the finance committee throughout the year which is uh committee man solar um so there's there's constant analysis going on um and then in November and December it really kicks
off with department heads submitting to us their budgets and we we begin to refine the uh the next year's budget uh we we kind of have more serious uh budget discussions with the finance committee to finalize our recommendation and then we get to today's public
presentation so the timeline which Alex did touch on is today's introduction our annual finance statement and annual debt statement have been filed we did introduce the capital cap bank ordinance and the introduced budget and userfriendly budget um actually as of today are posted on the website and
available for view april 22nd uh at 7:30 or that might be changed to 8 but uh at JRO will be the uh public information session and then May 6 will be the public hearing and adoption these are just our general goals and objectives and things we're juggling
when we're putting this together which are essential services um you know a big growing cost infrastructure improvements economic development planning and land use uh civic engagement culture and recreation emergency response which is
another uh larger cost and and our fiscal responsibility we take a very long-term and conservative approach to budgeting which you can see in some of the the subsequent slides has led to consistent uh performance and consistent tax increases so everything's done with a
long-term approach and sustainable approach we're not taking onetime shot items to artificially reduce anything or artificially increase anything um we have a fund balance policy that's a best practice of the GFOA which is a finance officers association of USA and Canada
that's at 25% uh fund balance as of your general fund expenditures we dropped a little bit below that this year but it's at 23 or 24% we're right around where we need to be u we take uh New Jersey in general has conservative accounting principles very conservative where we
have to recognize expenses before they're even spent and we can't recognize revenues until they're actually received and capital and debt wise um we're AAA rel uh rated municipality um we we you know we allocate a large percent of cash to avoid overutilizing
debt that that could weigh in our budget looking at a five-year snapshot of our budget versus uh versus inflation um from 2019 to 2024 the annual inflation rate increased 22.7% while while our our tax levy the amount we're raising from taxation only
increased 7.23% um so you know we we've had some some low years in 2019 through 2021 and you know costs are increasing we've been able to keep under that inflation rate uh comparing us to the the major tax
player in in the municipalities board of education um who who do do a consistent job budgeting as well you can tell it's one of their goals um we've increased uh the board of ed has gone up approximately 10.3% over that same time span over those five years and they're
about 51% of the average tax bill this slide just shows some uh local municipal comparisons now every town operates differently we're all municipalities in New Jersey but there's a lot of differences overall so you know the comparisons um you know if you really want to get a a closer snapshot
you have to dive into each municipality but when you look at just the increase on the tax levy as a whole um as I said we've increased 7.23% two three% over five years and we're on the much lower end of the spectrum compared to our neighbors in comparable towns and just
just Matt also we we didn't aster but some of those towns out there I living Livingston have volunteer fire departments and they don't have paid services which we have you know some of the best paid services in the in the uh county right right so that's why like you know all these towns have different
sort they might have a utility whereas it's in our current fund budget so there's a lot of differences um but just looking at the tax levy increases as a whole we're performing very well as compared to our neighbors this is the same town municipal comparison but looking at our debt to budget ratio uh which is you
know which is low um there's one town lower than us in this comparison um but we're we're less than uh than a half a percent that's our debt total debt amount to our total expenditures and this includes uh this is already low remains low even after
larger capital allocations to town hall and uh roadway re rehabilitation so our total tax levy of course includes the board of education which is about 51% uh the municipality uh then Essex County which also includes Essex County open space uh the library
is a small percent but it's a wellunded library which is a great thing for the users and the library itself um because the formula they're funded by is based on assessed value um and we have some of the highest property values in the area looking back at our 2024 average tax bill the average bill was about
$25,614 um and split up in this way now to our 2025 budget um the driver is oftentimes remaining the same year to year especially the last two years um salary and personnel costs we're we're really a service business right we're
not selling anything um so all of our you know most of our manpower is is serving the public uh and costs that come up with that not just salary but health benefits and pension costs have been rising at at an increasing rate lately health benefits across the nation a lot of that is driven by GLP
injectables which you know are very effective but um costs are kind of uh you know kind of out of patrol at this point um so across you know all industries health costs are rising um capital investment we've been increasing our capital investment this is cash that
we're paying towards improvements over the last five years it's really been increasing paying and we're paying for more roads more road mileage is getting done um and you know it's just an aging infrastructure in general so those numbers are probably here to stay uh we've we've increased our investment in
public safety um that's something that's been you know kind of a talking point the last year or so here um technology manpower um and diversity in the force where we have community community policing now which I know is is increasingly uh taking off in their
initiatives and just general cost of goods um you know if you look at certain items that were bid maybe five years ago compared to now the costs have sometimes doubled tripled even more in some areas so while general inflation has calmed down a little bit some areas have not
gone down at all and they're not gone and that leads us to the the 2025 municipal budget our net taxable value that's a total value of taxable properties in the town is a little over $10 billion now um it's 93% of an
increase from last year our municipal tax rate is set at in the introduced budget at 048 which is a 3.24% increase from four uh 465 last year and that leads to an average municipal tax of
$6,254 which is $196 increase from 2024 initially we had a greater increase we met with the finance committee on a few occasions uh we sharpened the pencils a little bit and with a goal to get that down to under $200 on the average resident um and uh we were able to do
that without really pulling out any tricks uh we just you know dove into some capital needs and refined uh some other expense areas we are under the appropriation cap which we talked about $290,000 and we're under the 2% levy cap
which has various exclusions about $427,000 so we're well within the caps which increasingly municipalities and if you if you you know Google some smaller towns it's harder for them to stay under these caps with the cost of goods rising and contracts rising it's hard to stay under these whereas maybe 10 years ago
it wasn't all that difficult so that's becoming uh more of a challenge quick question while you're still on that slide yeah the the the 10 billion so the the the net value is there a breakdown on that between um commercial
property and residential yes even rough so of the of the 10 billion and I don't Vacant lands is 38 million residential is 8.1 billion commercial 1.6 billion industrial uh 62
million apartments 167 million and business personal property 6.2 million okay thank you yep and if you look at the userfriendly budget that's UFB sheet five shows a breakdown of that there's also a breakdown of on that same
page of exempt properties thank you so what that does what that leads to the the average taxpayer of $1.3 million home that's the average property which is you know definitely one of the largest in the area if not the largest
um it's a $196 increase for the year uh you know and this chart just shows the impact on other property values obviously the higher you go up the higher the increase um but you know under $200 for the
average resident in the annual uh in the annual year breaking that down a little further um you know some people like to look at it this way i think it's useful to look at your municipal bill as a monthly service bill um when you add the library in residents are paying a monthly municipal service bill of
$567 um and you know the different categories are listed there u so for instance the average property is paying $217 a month towards public safety includes fire police and all that comes with that public works is the next largest
category at $91 and that includes all the work they do capital uh you know improvements that go along with public works um not that not not annual capital but all the work that they're doing uh leave service etc um you know the other
categories are all listed there public libraries costing about $46 a month to the average resident and again that leads to a monthly service bill of $567 our snapsh snapshot of our budgeted revenues here um fund balance is our operating balance that we're then
regenerating uh each year hopefully and then allocating again in the subsequent year um that's a slight increase uh and what we're allocating to $7.725 million u municipal seats receipts are pretty flat um grants you'll see in this uh
graphic are lower from the previous year but that's because grants come in during the year and are added to the budget we do chapter 159 resolutions so as those come in we add them and it it it amends the budget the library tax increased from 3.9 million to 4.2 million uh and
the municipal tax makes up the the difference there that's the tax levy uh we had good years and some of our uh in some of our revenues construction code on the right there we we came in higher than budgeted um interest earnings much higher than budgeted uh we continue to use a mix of just our checking accounts
getting competitive interest rate but then we we we shop some other rates we have a a short-term CD and we we're using a New Jersey cash management which is a high kind of like a high interest savings account it's very liquid and allows us to bring in money when we need cash flow but that's been getting close
to 4.5% so um you know we don't have options for risky investments which is a good thing um but uh we want to get the most return we can on the money we have and that really helps this budget the golf course had a good year um hotel tax continues to increase slightly i think
we anticipated a little bit more there um but you know that might be just the new times and then u our general fees and permits have gone up as well there's a lot of activity in town so those those fees permits construction permits uh continue to increase each year on the expense side uh you see the
total budget there of 71,564,430 breaking it down generally we have uh 41 uh million in change in salary and benefits 21 million in operating expenses capital investment which is uh cash capital and debt of 4.2
million and statutory items and reserves of a little over $4 million this is just a snapshot of our tax rate and our tax levy history um so you'll see uh the tax rate is the top chart um we're basically flat uh 20 2021
there was a 0% increase it actually went down a little bit um that's due to the library tax uh increasing slightly in 2022 we had a 1% increase in 2023 and then we've gone up 3.5% last year and 3.24% this year um you know so
we've we've we've managed to avoid spikes and that's really how we're budgeting is to avoid peaks and valleys so residents can expect they might expect increases but they're not going to be uh shocking and uh they're going to be manageable now this item's really helped
our budget because we as you guys all know um we've been doing a lot right probably a lot more the last three or four years than been happening and a uh taking taking in grant funds has helped um we've been really active we brought in a grant consultant and uh a lot of
our staff is aggressively going after grant funding um and the more we do that we don't get accepted to everything we don't get all the money we want all the time but it adds up to a substantial amount of money so it's over $4.3 million since 2021 uh 2.5 million of
roadway and pedestrian improvements um that's DOT grant funding we get every year um but a lot of towns stopped getting it because they weren't doing the projects we get the money we do the projects and we've actually been beginning an increased allocation uh police operations and
technology grant funding $200,000 parks and recreation grant funding uh over $900,000 uh the fire department does a good job in annual equipment grants um which you know maybe on annual basis are small but it adds up um recycling clean community money comes in and then
substance abuse prevention and education so 4.3 million since 2021 um as you can see if that was just funded by operations that's a that's a tax increase that we we've saved and then this last slide is just noting the sore user charge it has to be
one of the lower per unit charges in the area at this year at $25 per unit which is a $7 increase um it is in our general fund budget a lot of towns have this as a utility that's self-funded and paid for outside of the tax uh we get an annual assessment we
add a slight capital searchcharge so we can pay for um any capital allocation needs that were asked uh in the future and then we come up with our rate each year the other budget we have is our parking utility which is in great shape we paid off our uh our parking debt um
in full so we're debtree here um you'll see it's a $1.1 million budget salary and wage is uh $455,000 other expenses at $425,000 and we've increased our capital investment um which was basically nothing when we were paying off debt and
now we're able to take money and allocate it back towards uh improvement of the lots kiosk etc and these two graphs just show our meter collections on the left is the type of of uh of funds we're taking in so 25% is still coins which is
surprising um 37% are credit cards and 37.5% are uh mobile you know credit cards uh you know the app um so credit cards is people swiping the card versus the mobile app uh coins you think is going down but a lot of people are still
paying with coins uh meter receipts by month you'll see the activity u you know kind of following you know weather patterns here lower in January and February it increases to about 40,000 a month during the nicer months August everybody goes
away drops a little bit um spikes a little bit more in September October and then you know it's actually free uh for a large portion of the holidays and that leads us to uh reporting our capital So like I said we are AAA
rated and some of our highlights uh for 2024 uh there was over $2 million in roadway construction um that's a combination of township funding and DOT grants um including drainage projects at South Terrace Miss Min and uh Whip
um property acquisition and property planning there's been plenty talked about 22 East Willow and Town Hall renovations as we get ready to move out in addition 20 Brookside was purchased uh in in uh in conjunction with the paper mill project that land has a value
of over $10 million and there's been uh other smaller various upgrades including pickle ball court construction LED upgrades at Jerro uh public work equipment upgrades and safety enhancements that leads to our capital plan for
2025 um roadway improvements again is a major uh initiative the last few years we're not just putting you know a layer of asphalt over these roads it's total reconstruction from soup to nuts um which will make them last a lot longer
um and it's it's really just more responsible use of the money if you're able to do it you can't always allocate this much money towards reconstruction but if you can um it's improving the road for the long term uh police and fire upgrades of 370,000 includes uh upgrades to electric bikes
new sign boards and rescue equipment wreck improvements for Gerro Park court resurfacing Taylor Park pathway and basketball court lighting and uh we have ongoing projects including uh all the ones listed there we've talked about most of these there's also public works
equipment uh there's a new san uh sanitation truck plant to be purchased so that's really it um you know like I said we have uh the the more kind of detailed public engagement session on the 22nd and then we'll have the adoption and public hearing uh for
any remaining questions um if anybody has any questions feel free you know you can ask me now alex and I are happy to ask answer anything um but I'm around all the time here so if any questions pop up later give me a call or just shoot me an email over i'm happy to answer them i have a question i'm not
sure how you could even do it but as we plan this budget out what do you see as the impact of tariffs i'm thinking particularly on cars police cars the the fire truck that we've been saving up for that takes you know three years until or
however many years until we save up enough money and get it all built you know if if something skyrockets like the cars what does that do to to this yeah so the fire trucks enough in the future where hopefully everything whatever the
goal is is settled by then right um but the the cars are certainly could be an impact now police cars in general about five or six years ago cost about $50,000 all in and now they cost $100,000 all in so we've already seen those increases we
we basically um buy less cars than we used to to a degree um we have partnered with Enterprise for leases on our other township vehicles which in this case you know if costs do increase we'll be even more successful um but the police are
funding their cars through their budget but also from side jobs so we take a fee on all those side jobs when they're at construction sites or um road improvement sites the contractor pays that fee and we do set aside most of that for vehicle replacement so that's
helpful as well based on that question too uh it's crazy how they've gone up over the last few years from 50 to 100 100% increase um just so we know is there a policy for us to buy only American cars for our police force i don't see any i see all
American built cars yeah in general in New Jersey that's that's the standard um and the the dealers or manufacturers that are making the police vehicles are American so so part of the reason for that increase too is because many of the
vehicle manufacturers have gotten out of the business of of making sedan police vehicles most of the police vehicles you see now are SUVs most of them are Ford Explorers um so there's a very limited number of manufacturers that are
actually making police packages and then in addition they're making less even types of police vehicles as well the technology that's now in those vehicles also increased so part of the reason there's no more sedans is because there's so much in the vehicle you need a larger vehicle so there's a few few u
few causes of that but but as as as Matt said part of the strategy there is obviously the offduty work and being able to apply those fees to those vehicles but also um you know adjusting based on what is happening in the market the you know how many vehicles we're replacing uh we do have an aggressive
replacement schedule but we can also pull back on that if needed thank you thank you thank you so much and Matt thank you so much it's I run a lot of businesses and I sit on a lot of boards it's just refreshing to have you at the helm here i appreciate your
second year on the finance committee thank you thank you would any member of the township committee like to comment on the proposed budget the public hearing and consideration of adoption of the 2025 budget is scheduled for May 6
2025 committee meeting which begins at 7 p.m at the Milbourne Education Center located at 434 Milbourne Avenue in Milbour once introduced the proposed budget will be available in the township clerk's office and will al also be posted on the township township's website is there a motion to approve
resolution 25-102 i move that resolution 25-102 be approved and that the township clerk be authorized to have the budget notice published on April 10th 2025 in accordance with law and the item and that the public hearing and final
passage be scheduled for the May 6th 2025 township committee meeting at the Milbourne Education Center located at 434 Milbour Avenue in Milbour may I have a second second roll call vote please depend yes mr poss yes mr sakamandandy
yes mr stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay ordinance 2698-25 i present for consideration an ordinance entitled Where are Ordinance
2698-25 an ordinance establishing 23 uh chapter 23 Open Space Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund of the Code of the Township of Milbour tonight is a time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law i declare the
hearing open again jeffrey Feld um poet section i just want to clarify um this is an open space this is another source of funding the budget it could be a Trojan horse you look at the user
friendly budget we're talking about a million dollars for this year and I think at the last meeting there was questions because you went out to the public last November for whether we should have you know this type of tax but the public did not look at the actual ordinance there was a question
about sunset provisions and I think I think the public today you should be uh told if you want to amend or to repeal this is it based on referendum or can you in the ordinary course of of
adopting ordinances amend it because this is a different because we're dealing with referendum behind it this is a very unique part of state law and again this was not a referendum where the total actual refer uh ordinance was shown to the public i think that we need
to everyone should be uh like today at ground zero knowing if let's say we find out the uses because when you go to the board of education you know there's discussions about the fields behind the high school will this money be really used for the recck department or will it
be using um open space to preserve or historical preservations but I think the public should know how do you amend or repeal this ordinance because of the referendum uh piece of Thank you thank you
anyone online i move that this I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading and that the township clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with law may I have a second second roll call vote
please deputy Mayor Cullen yes mr cosgrove yes mr scamandi yes mr stler affirmative mayor Romano yes committee in Cosg Grove you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2699-25 yes thank you Mayor uh ordinance number
2699-25 is an ordinance of the township committee of the township of Milbour reaffirming the authorization to execute the cell tower and compound lease with Diamond Towers 5 LLC for that certain
property located on block 541 sorry 5401 at lot one in the township of Milbour uh folks will remember this is um the cell tower up on JFK tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as
advertised in accordance with state law the hearing open sorry I I declared the hearing hearing open sorry I didn't know I had the ability to declare hearing happy to learn that
anyone anyone online okay so now you move right that's it there's nobody online okay i move that this public hearing be closed and that the ordinance be adopted on final reading
and that the township clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with law may I have a second second roll call vote please mayor
Cullen yes mr posro yes mr sakamandi yes mr stler affirmative mayor Romano yes committee Stler you are scheduled to sponsor 2700-25 i present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2700-25 an ordinance prohibiting political party
chairs from serving as chairperson on municipal committees tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with the law i declare the hearing open good evening phil Kersh no resident i'll
take one more shot at this i still believe that ordinance 2700-25 regulating municipal committee chairs is ill and unnecessary first in an atmosphere in which certain parties charge the executive director of the SID of partisanship based on sign
enforcement and others accused food pantry management of all things of prejudice based on politics it seems clear to me that the motive behind the ordinance is itself political meant solely as a weapon against the current majority
second is clearly a solution without a problem as this perception of prejudice has no material foundation it is a ghost without substance i'm not sure what will come next if this ordinance passes possibly something restricting anyone with a
party affiliation of any kind from serving on a committee to repeat I feel that this ordinance which pretends to be innocent is in fact a harmful and unnecessary limitation of free speech rights one other thing in the
enforcement section of the ordinance it states that any individual who is appointed to serve on a municipal committee in violation of this ordinance shall be removed and that seems to be that anyone who currently serves was not put there in
violation of this ordinance and that they would stay and this would apply to something in the future just something I noticed but thank you thank you evening Jerry Kung Health res um after listening to Mr kersh's comments i just
wanted to quote New Jersey Revised Statute Section 44-8-17 Organization of Local Assistance Boards Director of Welfare Employees the last sentence reads "No employee of any welfare department of a municipality whose compensation is paid for from funds received or appropriated for
public assistance or the administration thereof in any manner shall hold any office in any political party if we were so afraid of this political retribution or alleged political retribution I wonder why the New Jersey state statutes also have a similar prohibition for
anyone holding office in any political party so I'm not sure I follow the logic that Mr kersh has laid out thank you thank you uh Debbie Frank Milburn resident and I want to kind of stand alongside Phil in
this it concerns me um and it concerns me and and part of this I suppose is the overall political atmosphere in the United States right now but what concerns me about this is the tendency to distill a person a person's
intentions a person's competence a person's integrity and to just boil that down to political representation i do not think that most people feel that their
party membership is determinative of how they act of what they do of what they value and that they are unable to separate those things which are um geared toward electing
somebody with whom you feel that you feel is more philosophically aligned with your position and just they are also able it seems to me for the most part of acting as citizenship citizens of a country of
citizens of a state of citizens of a municipality and do that without their party membership being the overriding determinative value thing in terms of how they act i It concerns me
because of that it also concerns me because if someone were to raise a spectre of um someone being uh as a possible taint of a party
membership for someone who is not a chairperson of a party but a member of a party an officer of a party say "Hey not even chairmanship maybe they ought not to be on a committee because as we all know I would think anybody who has been on a member of an elected board or of a
committee there are multiple ways of influencing how a committee would act on any one particular issue and also of using their membership on a particular committee as a way to frame something in
a political manner it's not just being a chair and membership is not determinative is not the whole of who a person is and does not necessarily I don't think um presuppose how they're going to act
in any one particular instance thank you thank you hello Leah Cruz Short Hills resident um I don't know that much about this topic but I do know um sometimes it's better
to avoid the appearance of impropriy and why not just exercise an abundance of caution thank you thank you richard Cyber Milbour resident i mean we're watching it in Washington DC now with Judge Bozberg
not sure which sides he's on but um I think it's I like it i think it should get passed let's see how the vote goes thank you al Carly 32-year president well 31 years
in nine months today uh exactly uh look in state of New Jersey it's the county executive that controls what happens everyone knows that that's why Governor Driscoll had the constitution he was able to get that changed so whether it's
the party chairman or executive or whatever you call it the pro the power in New Jersey as everyone knows is whether is the on the county level whether it's Republican Democrat or whatever and that's where the leadership
is now it all depends on what who does what and who listens to whom now whether it's Democrat Republican or wig or whoever that's who we're we're talking about here now whatever you decide to do
that's one thing but whoever listens or to the county executive if they listen to the county executive whether it be Republican or Democratic fine but it's not whether you're chairman vice chairman or janitor of the party that's
what it is and anyone who goes to Milbour High School and takes civics and civics is very very important knows that read the Constitution of the state of New Jersey i'm not a native of New Jersey but I did take some time to read
the Constitution as our attorney has done and you are required to do as an attorney i mean like I say I'm not a New Jersey native and I graduated last in my college class thank you very much thank you
anyone else okay um we can comment on this on this or Yeah okay so yeah so so you know as as I hear Mr kersh and Miss Frank and and other folks you know
really I just want to put for the record you know uh you know this is a mixed group here in terms of uh of different parties etc so you know as we go through this vote you know every time I hear about you
know you know trying to scale back on some of the conflicts of interest you know the there's dual roles as a polar political party head uh and those roles could create inherent conflict of interest undermining the transparency and fairness of these committees that's
what we're trying to avoid uh you know influence is supposed to represent all residents one team one dream uh we're representing the best of all of our constituents uh and these decisions uh cannot be influenced by partisan uh
agendas um you know just an erosion of trust over time if that happens and you know there's a skepticism that occurs um you know every time I talk about this issue I go back to this one letter I read a couple years ago from a uh from
from Miss Egalo uh and you know she writes "I'm a lifelong res of Milbour i have served Milbour Turnship Township in volunteer positions for over 25 years including 15 years on the MSH volunteer first squad over the last six years I've represented the township
residents as mayor and now deputy mayor and as I keep reading it it just really hits me hard that recent local events forced me to choose between the party and my conscience i had no intention of leaving the party i first noted a problem with party politics when I was
expected to hire firms that were promoted by the county uh chair etc etc etc and this letter is out there but we want to eliminate any of those appearances of impropriy and and that's what I think and believe and I hope we
do any other comments from anybody i move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on final reading of the township clerk be directed to published ordinance by title as passed on final reading in accordance with law i just want to say because I know
there's one question public hearing so uh there is no grandfathering in so when the ordinance takes effect which will be upon publication which is April 10th like close of this April 10th um that's when this ordinance will go into effect
so the conflict exists at that time um there is a if there is a present conflict at that time that person will be removed as chair of whatever committee that person may or may be on so until that time there this ordinance is not in effect but on April 10th at
close of business it will be in effect thank you thank you for the clarification may I have a second second roll call vote please mayor Coleman yeah before I vote I just want to clear something up again um I was uh it's been said that I refer to this as political
persecution and political prosecution neither of those are correct actually Dr kong did get it correct but I did refer to it as political retribution given that this surfaced based on events that happened years ago but it surfaced just after our January New York and so I will
be voting no mr costco uh yes mr sakamandi yes mr stler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay we have no old business um new business committeeman
Stler Liurro uh correct and I mentioned that in my opening comments um we're going we're looking to do on field A which is a smaller field that's not does not have the um the lighting we're pressing forward there's a group of baseball
parents in the MSHI baseball that want to raise money to put the lights on the field uh obviously these will lights will be uh similar to the lights on the other fields pointed away from residences uh and uh have timers on them
for them to go out do we have a consensus to move forward what's the what's the request here the request is for them to be able to do a fundraiser and raise funds amongst MSH over Short Hills residents for the children to put the lights to
have lights on the building andrew so instead of the taxpayers paying Yeah people that's a great idea correct okay we're all good and then the other item we had talked about this um a while back was to start a landscaper registration
uh process so as I said earlier it'll it'll give us um the capability to better communicate with um landscapers hopefully down the road incentivize them um you know when everything uh takes
place as far as um you know if if they use electric products maybe give them give them some type of discount on their registration every year and you know most importantly also we'll know who's in town so I just wanted to get a consensus that we can move forward i
think I I had a couple different towns ordinances and we could just pluck off of that and you know see what work what what works best and I know that Maplewood also they have it on their on their website the landscapers that are registered in Maplewood and they just updated that um I think yesterday so do
you have to register or is it the landscaper is going to have to register so if somebody gets their first client in town how are they going to know that that's something that they have to do register before they market i can I can speak to Yeah just just to
provide some additional background the township currently does this for tree contractors um it was part of the revision of the um um oh my gosh tree preservation ordinance and essentially if somebody you know
wants to do work in town or they're doing work in town it would be a gentle reminder you know the DBW sees them working you'd go up and say "Hey just so you know we have a registration process here's the information." You know I think it wouldn't be you know oh you're working in town get out or you're working in town here's your fine you know it would be it would be a process
like that and we currently have the list of tree contractors and and part of that is ensuring that they're licensed um ensuring that they have a uh um tree um that they have certain uh credentials and that list is on the township's website as well so that people can also
residents can also go look and see you know what those contractors are but when you oftentimes you hire you know a tree person you need a permit so that's the that's the that's that is the diff that is the difference here you know some you
know somebody recommends somebody from you know who never worked in this town before again there's consistent consensus we would have to do a little bit of homework we talk to Maplewood how has it worked for them you know what what what are the what are some of the impacts or drawbacks um but but certainly again it's a process that we
are are going through the town used to register landscapers a long time ago um so are there And you said there are fees for this registration yes um so you know obviously that will lift costs somewhat if they don't if they pass it through to
customers uh will they whatever whatever I just want to make sure we have all the information out there understand the information uh and then uh in terms of that regulation or the registered will they have to provide documentation for all their
workers and have that on file as well or is it just I don't know how I don't know how Maplewood does that we would have to this is I if again just from the little I know about it right now too it's literally saying you're doing work in town we want to be able to make sure we can contact you like "Hey you know just
an example of that is um hey we're running behind on our leaf collection schedule please stop putting the leaves out on the street when it's not your turn or we're in this section just want to let you know." So we it's it can we could communicate with them what's going on during a storm after a storm like
being able to communicate with those that work in town to better sort of facilitate what happens so So I don't think we're checking status or anything so this won't lead to electrical contractors and plumbers and all of those guys having to register to work in town i just want to understand that those those types of businesses require
licenses from the state and there and and and there's a permitting process right you know I think again the the tree issue was more making sure people have um uh licensed tree people which is important as well as people that may
have a um uh like a certified tree expert uh in in their in their company um with plumbing electrical and all that that is a permitting process that goes through the building department um and uh with landscapers it's a a little bit
of a um I I think obviously not sort of controlled in any way but to be clear you're looking to register the companies not the employees the landscaping companies the companies right so we're not getting into like ICE issues or anything like that no as as Yeah that's not So for example Maplewood
uh requires the following information when they register the the the business owner's name the address of the owner telephone number of the owner license plate of trucks used in the business type of leaf blowers used make manufacturer um but I guess they had the leaf blower man so I think that's why
they ask about leaf blower but they're asking for just basic information the owner's name address phone number and license plates on the trucks and their fees which I'm not saying our fees are $50 it's it's a common sense reasonable thing to do we should have already been
doing it uh there's a lot of upside as we heard from Mr mcdonald about being able to communicate with the landscapers um if we do put in changes or to our ordinance that affect the landscapers this will be a mechanism that we can use
to reach out to them to educate them um certainly after storms I think that would uh be very helpful as well um so I mean it's a negligible fee i just don't see a downside and no this is not going to be used to send ICE agents after employees and if they're already
registered with the state the process to register with the municipality is much it's simple and doesn't require state registered landscapers to register with them we could just make you don't have to but yeah I think makes sense just have all the landscapers be registered across the board again so we can
disseminate information uh you know as I mean it's a good way i don't think all the landscapers are always aware of the leaf collection schedule either so you know that's a way to get that information too that uh other than they rely on their customers and you know whatever people are at work they don't
see them so you know it's got value there so we're good yes okay public comment this public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the lectctor and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident
and/or property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate an early meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session
cruz Short Hills resident uh just a quick question for Matt if possible that I could get it answered tonight that would be great on sheet UFB5 um under property tax ex ass assessments exempt properties it says other exempt
properties and it says 97 i'm just wondering what that category entails because it's not public schools other schools public property church and charities cemeteries and graveyards it's another category 97 properties thank you
thank you thank you just wanted to add one more thing to the discussion you just had in our disc the uh Renee Paparian resident um in the EC's discussions with the landscapers one thing they did want was a registry
uh we didn't discuss fees so um we didn't we weren't anticipating any so that's not on the EC um but one of the reasons they wanted the registry so was so that they're not undercut by what they call the fly by
night non-marked trucks that come in you know they're in they're out and they you know so right so that that was something that the landscapers themselves wanted just wanted to add that in thank you
hi my name is Shrea D and I'm a Melbourne Shore Hills resident a current eighth grader from Milbour Middle School and also a member of the Scout Troop 19 today I'm here to talk about a very important issue which is the need to ban gas leaf blowers during summer
that's excuse me go ahead i'm sorry go ahead gas leaf blowers cause incredible amounts of noise pollution so to show when you're walking around your neighborhood peacefully suddenly you can hear a loud roar of a motorcycle the glass gas leaf blowers are louder after
1985 the United States ruled that motorcycles must be under 80 dB which is considerably loud surprisingly gas leaplowers range from 80 to 90 dB this is not only incredibly disruptive but this level of noise is said to damage hearing sometimes permanently why do we
want our residents ranging from the young to the elderly to become subject to hearing loss due to a tool that is easily replaceable and unnecessary the only reason people want to keep gas leaf blowers during the summer is because of leaves but in the summer there are none we're simply using these blowers for a
few stray leaves which you could easily rake up or even get rid of using the electric leaf blower which causes less noise and air pollution um I hope this helps understand why this policy needs to be put in place and take into consideration the noise pollution gas leaf blowers cause thank you so much and
thank you for waiting thank you my apologies for interrupting i'm sorry that was inappropriate um uh you know this this I I know the landscapers seek registration uh I think
it's also important as as Renee mentioned and I I'm 100% behind her on this uh but also the the lack of safety equipment i I've seen unregistered landscapers unlicensed landscapers with unmarked trucks and their workers have
no hearing protection at all and they're going around uh you know they tend to be the ones that use the older equipment that is more polluting improperly maintained you can see blue smoke coming out of their equipment you know that's what people smell and that's you know
they're they're noisier they're more polluting and they they aren't following safety uh uh requirements uh they're not in compliance with OSHA in that respect um and uh uh uh they
uh they don't carry proper insurance on their on their trucks uh they don't carry proper uh uh I'm not saying it's it's across you know everybody is in violation but there's no
proof they they have no uh no coverage for their employees no health coverage accident coverage uh that's all a reason for for licensing uh landscapers to make sure that you know every it's a fair and
even playing field this the second issue there it keeps coming up about you know one of the issues about uh registering them is to present the landscapers with incentives to switching over their equipment and you know I hear that but I
I've said it again i'll say I said it before i'll say it again don't forget about the homeowner now I know it's it's impossible to exempt homeowners because in other townships when these ordinance have been passed and homeowners are
exempt um then uh the landscape sue uh but there has to be a consideration for the homeowner and the cost for the homeowner so if you're going to give incentives to the the landscapers you got to give tax credits or something to the homeowners also it's only fair thank
you thank you i'm Jeffrey Feld in the poet section just like five followup points first we're talking about the unfair inequitable portion of taxes we pay to the county everyone should be aware that the county has directed us to
have a re-evaluation if that occurs the amount that we're paying to the county will increase by by uh some dollars so we should be aware of that um second I'm very jazzed by some of the statements that were made regarding the regarding
round four which applied to round three and I think we should be thanking the citizens including Mr kosgro when you were on this side of the Das going after Mr banish you know especially after Perry got judge Gardner to say "I never
directed you not to disclose the terms of the settlement agreement." There's case law coming out we talk about freedom of speech where I think we have a strong case in in in round three and again I offer you my assistance with experience with RPM and various other
people about how you look at settlement agreements look at some of the case law that came out today that we have a good chance also in round three we had a present need a letter came out in round four about the um the survey you know
driving around we never did that we should be doing that because and that's a compliance issue that'll have to come up based on the letter that came out in round four um as to bear properties one it wasn't
mentioned but we have a trial on Monday April 7th however the court we're still waiting to enter a case management or a pre-trial case management order as to what evidence can come in because and I think the public needs to understand that the township is taking the position that
nothing that occurred after August 11 2020 is relevant to the case not any um directive by the state or any admissions of any documentation or any wrongdoing that was admitted um also Mr kers you
talked about freedom of speech you just heard about political retribution um there is another case bare properties 2 that's been filed uh I received two rule 1-4-8 uh notice in demand that's claiming that
my case should be we should remove the case because it's frivolous vexacious but interesting attached to one of those letters was a letter I wrote to the the planning board and that letter has never been delivered to the members of the planning board and I'm just wondering how that letter got attached to this
demand letter no one's ever answered that thank you anyone else before we go online dean Pastnack I still have some questions thank you for the presentation you that on the budget um I just want to be really clear is there going to be in
this public meeting a chance to hear what the planned priorities are for this budget in terms of capital spending and other kinds of spending is that part of the presentation and when will there be a period of feedback and then having that inter interaction with um you know
members of the public who wish to have input into how the money is being spent for next year thank you oh wait one more thing sorry um I happen to have a conversation with somebody who's very involved with the uh volunteer first aid squad and given the
amount of pressure on those people I think that they have no idea a time whatever to come here and ask for help but they really have a lot of um contribution to this town and there's no zero contribution from the township
committee to what they do from my understanding right there's no money that's that's given to them as an organization from this budget so I'm just wondering as a matter of new business if that could be considered i think everybody in town knows the value
and how lucky we are to have them but they're struggling they're struggling with volunteers they're struggling with fundraising so I I just on their behalf just listening and realizing how hard it is for them just to get that job done and then to actually think about how to come and ask for some help i think it
would be good for um that topic at least to be raised and discussed thank you anyone else is anybody online i will now close it's just about um science i speak to a number of teachers and they're not
science teachers also and they're really upset what they see uh and hear on television and what's happening in the United States concerning science and I don't know who's involved with the
school board uh but uh science a number of teachers are very very unhappy with what they see happening with government and I don't know It's what type of communication there is between the 10 committee and the school representatives
and the teachers individual teachers uh because a number of them are quite upset who actually live in town and have been teaching for a long time they're not happy with what's being told and what
might be in textbooks and so forth and I believe in science well for a long time even though I'm I was horrible at it thank you very much thank you thank you so much okay I will now close public comment um Mr larson do you want to
answer that question about the the the budget do you know what 15F is in the exemp it's a you could we could get a list but it's a variety of different different nonprofits uh like there's public lands
and then there's utilities are broken out and um it's it's kind of like other is the other category of of exempt land so there's not like one kind of you know category I could name but the list is available the tax assessor's office has that list thank you we can provide a
couple examples while you're still there um can you answer does the township give any money to the volunteer first aid there there's an allocation in the budget um the operating budget I want to say
I thought it was gas yes I mean there in kind services right that's certainly I think in addition um one you know Steve Roth Melissa Campbell they all know how to get a hold of me and can certainly ask the question in years past uh we've provided and paid
for radios for the first aid squad um so this is a a little bit news to me uh in terms of their financial um concern certainly I've always you know we've always put in the message different things the township committee has supported trying to get the word out
regarding volunteerism and the need for volunteers of the first aid squad uh but certainly uh you know Steve and Melissa can always reach out to me and have an initial discussion in which we can you know speak to the t committee then uh as well uh I don't think there's it it is a
it's never been an issue before is I think my my point i we've had these conversations in the past so thank you um commitment second would you like to respond to anything uh sure so just to follow up on that I think if the volunteer for a state needs some
assistance they should formally come and ask because sounds like there are things we may potentially be able to do obviously having a volunteer first aid squad saves the town money versus one that we would have to pay for so I think
it would be in all of our interest to uh help them uh continue operating and doing the great work they do um that's all I have cosgrove uh nothing thank you command Sto uh sure i second
uh I second what Frank said about the first aid squad i know we do announcements for them and such uh and you know just as you can see from our budget overview now our town is very very fiscally conservative uh they've done a great job uh and almost to a
point where the capital structure might might be missing a little bit more debt uh to give services back to residents that have lived here uh and you know deserve to live in a in a place appropriate for this type of house values and taxes and such such as a new
township town hall um and u and a new gateway to the parks uh as well as other things um and I'm sure we're going to use the uh open trust funds uh accordingly uh in in good ma in good fashion uh for the young girl I think
she's left already the high school student just big praise for her coming up and giving that uh presentation uh you know we want to keep our school kids in involved and to uh Mr carlin's point uh I do sit as to the BOE there's a
separation between the BOE and the uh township committee however as you hear every week when I give my township committee or every two weeks I give these updates on on that and you know I I do reference uh the changes that are going on uh for residents who who may
not have gone to every VOE meeting and such and being that I'm probably the only one on the D right now who has children in the school system it's very important to me uh for my youngest daughter who's entering as a freshman next year that's it for me deputy Mayor Con yeah
certainly the we all know the volunteer uh the ambulance squad is a is a tremendous asset both when people have emergencies and then they also provide uh CPR training and so you know I I think it would be an easy ask depending
on what it is that they need mr um I think the only other thing I wanted to add was um to the question that came up about the budget information session and you know uh our presentation of the
uh capital plan and uh future capital priorities i think that the community always has the ability to have input in in that particularly through the recreation you know open space uh element of the master plan the historic element of master plan the the master
plan itself uh we'll be there to listen and certainly hear from people you know I think you know obviously one of the big things on there is going to continue to be infrastructure which some of those things people have um you know more intimate knowledge about than than than others um you know if people want to
provide input of whether you know the the police department needs to be upgraded or the fire department or whatever I think we're always willing to listen to what the obviously what the residents want in terms of priorities but like our capital sort of goes more towards the operation of the township
and that's what we're focused on you know uh the upgrade of a sanitary sewer pump station or you know the um or the uh you know the buying of a vehicle so that we can you know pull logs and and and and and you know cut trees down or
whatever it is and then those projects that come from generally come from you know I think a a more organic place with the committee or the community and and things like that like Taylor Park Gateway didn't just come out of a capital plan it came from a downtown
vision plan that involved the community and all of that so certainly I think there's always opportunity for that and and we welcome that but you know what we're focused on is going to be much more from a from an infrastructure standpoint and certainly our infrastructure includes the buildings
that we operate in which you know are important to us but that might not necessarily be important to the residents but it's something that we're going to put forth as a as a uh as a capital uh um you know uh plan item so just wanted to provide that thank you Mr
kra i have nothing to respond to any questions may I have a motion to adjourn so move may I have a second good night everybody thank you