purchased water included and all of our own treat uh under that new uh revised MCL by the EPA we have five years to install treatment so that's why we are currently in the design phases at our four largest wells to get that treatment
installed and the treatment is active filtering of so treatment for uh performate compounds you can either use an ion exchange or or carbon uh We've done a feasibility study um which we
should be getting the results of I would say within the next couple weeks uh where they analyze to see which of those two treatments work better for each of our treatment plants. Um we because of the production from those four largest wells, we will be using carbon
filtration. Um so we've proceeded with the design of those treatment facilities. Um and also more capacity but from a different angle. The uh I noticed when we had the sphere drought last year and even droughts before that a lot of the
surrounding towns put down water restrictions but we somehow never really need it. Do they are these wells really well performing in drought condition? So knock on knock on wood we are lucky with our wells. They are well performing. Uh
and last year actually because of some maintenance that was going on at our surface water treatment plant we through throughout the summer our surface water treatment plant was not in service. So we didn't touch our res. So the reservoir was
overflowing come the fall most utilities were struggling. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Great presentation. It's interesting to hear. Just a couple questions. Please forgive me if they sound naive. Um, how do you decide where you drill the wells? Like when you need to drill a new well, how
do you decide where to drill? So, we're bringing experts uh in groundwater to kind of direct us where we should be. I guess yeah, the hydro geologists look at all
the the aquifer maps for the state and they kind of direct us where you should driven. Okay. Interesting. I have a friend that runs a well company and he's always, you know, told me stories that go right over my head. So, it's interesting to connect a little bit. And then I must ask, so every month my wife
reminds me to put salt in our water softener because of the hard water. Is there a reason you had mentioned like in this area specifically, it seems to be there's more hard water than other areas. Is that the formation of the aquifers? So, it just picks up naturally calcium, magnesium from the from the
aquifer. But as I said, we're going to be adding treatment for PAS at all of our sources. And as part of that, to improve the bed life capacity of the carbon, we're going to treat for the hardness as well. So, we will be receiving software once those
treatment facilities are installed. Interesting. Okay, that's cool. I I'll check in with my wife and see what she says once. Give her that answer. How much have No, but it's it was interesting because um yeah, I always wondered about the hard why certain areas have it over others when some do
and some don't. So, yeah, well answered. Thank you. Hi, thank you again for being here and it sounds like the styles project is going very smoothly. I know we had a rough start with the blending so I'm glad to hear you haven't heard from a lot of residents about the styles
project. So, that's a good thing, right? Yeah, it's been good. Yeah. And I would say the info session that we held prior to the kickoff of styles project has helped a lot and we are planning on implementing that all of our projects. Now, next week I actually have a presentation in Mars Township uh before
we start the harder road project. So, great. That's a that's a great implementation. So, thanks for doing that. Uh so, I have questions about your like redundancy plans. It sounds like you have a lot of different water sources. So, I'm sure you have all the emergency plans in place if something should fail or something should have
contamination or something like that, right? You have a whole I'm sure we can't talk about it, but yeah, we do have a lot of resiliency in our system having the 10 different definitely serves us well. The purchase water supplies help. Uh, another key capital improvement that we made, uh, last year
we purchased a portable diesel-powered pump so that if there's ever a power failure at one of the booster stations that move water between the gradients, uh, we can pull that pump, the mobile pump station up in front of the the booster facility, connect to two
hydrants, one in each of the pressure gradients, and transfer water from one gradient to the other. Interesting. So you said that the water pressure in Mars Plains is established over the Route 53 tank. Yes. 1.5 million gallons. It's a 1 million gallon tank
with an overflow at 568 ft above sea level. So regardless of where you're getting the water sourcing it, it's going there so that it can create the pressure that we need. It goes there. It doesn't necessarily come all from there. So the
predominant source right now for Mars planes as I said was is our Malipartis booster. Uh depending upon what wells are in service at any given time uh can vary what source Mars planes receives because of the location and the volume produced from our largest well our wing
well on Ridgel. Uh the majority of water in Mars Plains comes from that well. And I kind of want to echo what Mike said about it kind of drove me crazy last year when I knew we were in a drought and you know the sprinkles were going, you know, and this was like in October. The grass was going to die in a
month anyway. She was calling me too drought. People I was keeping an eye on our well level. Our well levels maintained fine throughout the drought and as I said our surface water reservoir we didn't even touch. But also I mean as a homeowner here the water
bills add up when you have your in a drought every, you know, other day. So, you know, I I've been encouraging my husband to like, oh, let's look into the rain barrels and the rain gardens and all the other Well, the rain guards help, I guess, the water supply, right? More than it does the homeowner, right?
Uh, but the rain barrel idea. So, does your do you offer any kind of incentives or any kind of like information for people who want to look into these other water conservation efforts or anything? So, right now the only I would say thing that we offer is based upon the rate of
You pay a lower rate if you use less water. Interesting. Is that on your website? Uh it's on their tariff which is located on our website. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
In the business of selling. I know. I know. But I mean it's a resource. You know, we have to make sure we have enough to future generations. All right. Do the wells ever get contaminated with salt from the roadways? So yes, over the
years we've seen uh the uh chloride and and sodium levels increasing slowly in in our wells and uh as far as salt sodium is uh considered a secondary. It's not harmful for you for the normal person if they're not on a sodium
restricted diet. Um, so New Jersey has a recommended upper limit of 50 milligrams per liter and several of our sources do exceed that 50 milligrams per liter. Tyler salt. Um, would they abandon a well
because of that or no? No, not for the the levels that we're seeing. If anything, if if needed, you probably do a treatment rather than take a well out of service or something. One who makes the bow is the worst offender of the state. So,
um, so I'm a volunteer firefighter here and when I joined 28 years ago, one of our members was an engineer and he designed it was a map of Morris Planes with different lights. So, when you got a call in the middle of night, it hit whatever street it was on, it showed you the location of the Highens.
So, I'm pretty happy and excited to hear that you guys have uh the technology to even give the location, but let other than that, but the pressure that comes out pressure. We've I fought a few house fires and then you hit the hydrant and there's not enough pressure to draft or
get from the hydrant to to the engine, the pump to the ladder and it was always kind of frustrating. So, it's good. Then one of your former employees uh was on the alter fire department. So, you like hit this, you knew where the all mains were. We hit the hydrant on a different street. So, it's I like I love
technology and that's how it's going to benefit T fighting fires in the future. Um, and that's accessible to it'll be accessible to all the firearmacies. It's on your website or they have to get an app or just So, it's it's we're going to give them the link for the website and
the password and and walk them through how how to use the tool. Yeah, because we have uh tablets in our engines and trucks. So we log on the county knows we're on scene and so forth. So I'm sure with that or talk to each
other that's all I thank you Drew. Very very impressive you did all that from memory. I was very very impressed. That was uh quite the presentation. Um so uh I was actually I'm I'm a resident in Glen Brook. So I was one of the the first ones. You may have joined the Zoom call early on. I
was other residents are on it and um you know I do appreciate the feedback you took from that. I did actually go to the info session that you did for Styles. I thought it was uh you know just great. You did you learned the lesson right and then you applied that to the next
project which is great. Um so I appreciate that. Uh just a um uh so you said you you're looking to replace two and a half miles of main per year. Is that right? between 2 and a2 and 3 and a half miles per hour. Okay. And you have a total of 460 miles. Is
that right? 380. 380. Okay. So to date of that 380, how how much of that have you replaced already? Do you know? So it's a rolling Okay. thing. But they last how long? 150 years. 150 years is our target. Yeah. Okay. So it's it's
rolling. But like how much have you done? I don't know the last 10 years or so. You know, I don't have that figured, but I I'll give you my business card and shoot me an email and I'll I'll figure that out. I was just curious. 30 miles. What's that? 30 miles. 30 miles. Good enough.
That's great. That's great. Um, so just a question on uh the wells, right? So, you said you were um I guess you had done a well over at Simon's Park, but then it it wasn't good. It didn't produce as much as we had hoped for. Okay. So, when you do
drill new wells. What does that look like to the residents? The impact. Are we going to see anything? Is it, you know, this thing that sticks up out of the ground or what does that look like? If if a new well comes up, you'll see probably a week or so of the uh the
drilling rake out there. Um, but as far as the water that you're receiving, there's no impact. Okay. And when when you're all done drilling, right, is it just like a manhole cover or something that's there or what is it? What does that look like? So for the short interm period, yeah, it would it would look kind of like a manhole cover and then we
would construct a wellhouse around that. Okay. So kind of like what you see it's over there now. That's the old house. So it could either go in that one or depending on where they move it to, they'd have to constru that's the abandoned, right? So it is so
it is a structure of some sort. Okay. So there's not that this would ever happen, but there's no danger of somebody walking into the thing and falling down. Got it. Okay, understood. Um, that's it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, so I I
think everybody learned a little something, but it's certainly good to put a a face to a name now. I just have to tell you, you know, we all know Brook was not so good, right, of a project, great project, but how it was implemented, but that was quick. It was
But everybody learned, but just the uh the responsiveness that yourself and Sophia have given myself and and the residents, you give out your your number and they call you directly. Well, what other executive director gives out the their number for residents to call? So,
I really have to commend you on that. But, uh, it's it's been a pleasure working with you and you've only been director now for how long? Uh, or do you even want to remember? Yeah. So, I think you've really stepped in into these shoes and and you've done
a terrific job. I know it's a learning as you go kind of thing for some of this, but I think you really stepped it up here and I think the residents have been happy with with the service, what's going on with the with the projects and how progressing and and again
respons you and Sophia and the rest of your team have your attorney here Dave we didn't have to open his mouth so that was tough question but no Drew I really appreciate you coming out here and just giving an overview it's part of our best practices and just it's good to hear from you at
least thank you for everything and the opportunity for coming this evening thank you the hot seat appcate Oh, thank you. Okay, excellent. Thanks. Is that good, Dave? Great, man. All
right. Archers is still open. So, Drew is Drew's hungry. Don't Don't put salt on the table. Does anybody from the audience have any questions while they're here? I'm sorry.
Oh, I just would like to know because of like all the affordable housing that the state has mandated, does the state ever ask the water company to say like, oh, could you really handle this?
So uh the developers that are before they plan uh their development they have to come to us and ask for the allocation and then they tell us how many units they're looking to install, what type of units and that all goes into the calculations against again our peak uh
production day and what we already have set aside for developments that we know about. But the state doesn't ask that gets reported to the state annually because have a master permit. Yeah. But when the state says, "Okay, Morris Points needs this much affordable
housing." The state has not come to you and said like asked if if there's enough water for that. So they don't they don't directly come to us and ask if we have the water, but we do every quarter have to report our
allocation what we've produced um every every quarter to the D. So the the state I guess through the DP if they're communicating with each other have have that information. Okay. Thank you.
This is really interesting. You mentioned that one of the one of the wells was overflowing back in November when everybody else was under drought. Is there an opportunity to sell that water so we get prisons get a discount? So it wasn't the well it was
our surface water reservoir. Okay. And and no, we can't sell that water because we actually have a required amount that has to bypass that reservoir that makes its way to the Whippony River eventually to the Rockway River to Pay Valley Water Commission that sells it back to us. So,
so the water that goes into our system. So, it go So, the water that comes through our system gets sold back to us. The raw untreated water passes through our system and Gas eventually does make its way back to us. So back to us. Funny
how the world goes down. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate you. Thank you guys. Um so I just have one more thing for uh the conference session is Davenport Village is going to be for the CDBG
grant for $150,000 in which they will be doing contributing $28,000 for the uh installation of a new sprinkler system over at the city. They probably won't, if they get
it at all, they won't be seeing the money until 2026. Just so you're aware of that that I've signed their application and once they get it corrected then s you have
no just a quick inquiry sort of I had a resident um on Franklin reach out to me um they were a little concerned just saying that like it seems recently there's been a little bit more um after the garbage people come I guess
like kind of garbage in that parking lot behind Arthur's um is that like is there something I can So the road department is back there regularly picking up um but I've noticed all over town people
put their recyclers out I don't know whether this stands true there but it's been very windy so the night before people have been putting their stuff out uh so I've been asking Johnny to go more frequently picked up, but he is back there often. I don't exactly know how many times a
week, but back there often, but you can certainly talk to him. Yeah, I was just curious if you know bring it up and help and step up needed. So, thank you. Yeah, that helps. I'll circle back there. That's it, though. Thank you. Good.
Thank you. So, I wanted to ask the council to evaluate a possible resolution on energy receipts to go to the state. The taxes on gas and electric utilities were originally collected by municipalities to be used for local purposes and
compensate the public for the use of their right of way, you know, our things like that. Um, but the state made itself the collection agent for those and promised to dedicate the proceeds to our local budgets back to us and that hasn't
quite happened. So, um, LA this year we did not get a certain they call it municipal aid. Municipal is that it's called municipal relief. Yeah. But it's really our money. It's our money. They're acting like it's they're giving it to us and they're using it to to plug
holes in the state budget. So, the League of Municipalities is asking municipalities to pass a resolution encouraging the state uh assembly and the governor to return that money back to the municipalities where it belongs. So, I'll circulate the the draft and you
guys take a look at it. Um, just on that, I certainly have no problem doing it. We we've done it several times in the past. This comes up almost every year down at the League of Municipalities to everybody. We did get some in years, but not because
of resolution or anything like that, but it's certainly something that the municipality should be getting. And whether this does any good or not, I don't know. It can't hurt, but It's just frustrating that they're using our phones to plug their holes. Yeah, we're
stuck with our voice where we can. Um, also you'll see on the consent agenda that the burough clerk Roseanne has given her six-month notice as required by our personnel manual. So, her retirement will be effective October 1st. Um, and the finance committee because of vacation has not had a chance
to meet to discuss filling the position. So, we will be meeting on that and then reporting back to you. Um, also to let you know finance that uh Mayor Carr and Anna our CFO and I are meeting with two different insurance brokers to see about how we can save money on our state
health benefits plan that provides our employees health coverage. So we have we have one meeting next week uh on May 7th at 3:30 if anybody from my committee wants to join and May 19th at 4M with another broker if anyone
financation committee that requested goats to come over and eat some poison ivy and Japanese knwood and some other weeds that I forget and it was pretty successful. It was exciting. It was different. We didn't use chemicals to
control the weeds over by the water. So, they're asking again. So, I just wanted to see what the our my committee was all agreement. Bill actually has pictures and videos from last year. Said he might be the biggest goat fan out there. Love what the other council members
thought something was the same. Where is it? Where is it going? Let's ask the chief what he thinks about. I know. Ask some of the officers. You could take one a few times. It's okay. They wanted
to come home. The uh they recommend uh three years in the same location get over at community park in the same spot. I didn't ask specific. So, I walked down there today and I'm going to report back on the poison ivy vines are growing up those
big trees that line the roadway. Like they're like thicker than like the big poison. Yeah, but that's on the other side of the road, right? No, they were last year. So, they're they're growing back up and this is the time when they're going to go up that tree. They're going to eventually kill those trees. Um, not to mention that the kids
are walking through there with flip-flops on the way back and forth to the pool at camp, right? And all that baby poison ivy is in the grass. So I'm in favor of doing something about it and I'm not in favor of poison. So right I said my committee was my
committee was progressive. See what the other members thought. Just make sure that we have that fencing and some of those other added things that we had the adjustments that we had to make last year was over with with the chief and uh who else
was involved with that? I forget. Maybe Johnny or somebody. And They got to be a little bit better. We just added some snow fencing around electric fencing to avoid any potential signage. I'm good. It's only a temporary
No, no, no. I mean that the the weeds come back. Yeah, we need we need uprooting goats. I don't Yeah, I'm not a goat expert, but they supposedly punch pretty well. I am sure there is no other council in this state who's talking
about goats. I think the only other thing I know an email I think Mike replied the beautifification committee was also concerned about dog waste in our parks. There is signage for no dogs at Simon's
Park, Robert's Garden, but they were saying, well, since people are going to be walking in, maybe we put up some dog waste dispensary units, what, you know, that was a good comment that maybe we're encouraging people to walk.
It was good feedback. I know. I was thinking like try to prevent the dog waste because dog waste will pollute our rivers and waterways and stuff. So, I'm not sure what the right answer is. I know we do have waste dog bags at certain places and certain parks are no
dogs or no pets allowed. Um, you know, is that going to create put it in the bag and throw it back? Are they going to take it now? Are they going to do it? There's a lot of questions, right? So I know are you encouraging people to to go into parks where they're not supposed to be going into parks as well? Sure. We've
all seen involved St. Simons Park and even at the school. Yeah. I mean just it's something else just you know it's something else that the DPW will have to do. Not they can't but if it's empty or something empty
out or providing I think you guys should talk about it and back to the council. people. I chased a dog and a turf get together.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, a couple things for council for our comments here. Um, so, uh, at at your request, um, I you asked to, uh, put together a committee for the tech upgrades that I
was considering. Yep. Um, we haven't had a chance to talk about it yet, but um, I still Okay. Well, I I did reach out to a few people that I thought would be good and just curious your thoughts on it. So, we can sit down and talk about that.
Okay. Well, for example, um you know, Paul Sraki was one of them. Um Roseanne because of her knowledge here in this uh you know, with the system that's here and then another gentleman, Eric Hendricks, um both Paul and Eric are
professionals in town. Um and they they do broadcasting professionally. So, um, I thought it'd be good as an initial committee, but, you know, I'm looking forward to sitting down with you and talking to you about it and see what your thoughts are on it. So, okay, great. Thank you.
Um, let's see. Uh, you asked last time about the the lead paint. Um, I did send you over some information about it. You have a chance to read through that? Yeah, I did. There's only one there couple. So, just a question. if if um anything that exceeds $1,000
uh we have that we we should get quotes. Okay. Even if the bureau isn't paying for that because we wouldn't be paying that service. Um that's a question. The bureau's not paying for I don't think but we do have u there should be an
administrative fee right tacked on to that too which you have to look at. something is there. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's a nominal fee. It's like $25 $30 or something to process the applications. Yeah. I have no problem moving forward
with that. That's all. But he's got some sort of agreement with him. Okay. So, this is all going to work. Okay. So, I have all the info. I got the email from the gentleman. I spoke to him uh last week. Um I sent you the info. But um is there anything else
to compare it to though or I mean is it just one person? I mean it seemed okay. I don't know what other people do or um or offer. Right. Yeah. When I when I talked to him when I did some research right he his his prices are right in line with everybody else's. Um you know
we can we can get some other figures if you know that would interest you. But I think that you know I think it's best to kind of just get a consensus maybe of maybe different services. I don't have a problem with what this guy's doing in one person.
Again, it's it's a service, right, that that we need um I guess just to kind of back up, right? It's for the um apartments that are being rented and turned over um if anything prior to 1978, right? So, they need to be
inspected. Um and you know, so it's a obviously it's a safety thing in the town, which we're all in favor of. Um, but uh, you know, I'm I'm happy to go out to to find other people if if you like, but that's that's up to you guys really
if you want. I would suggest it just to see whether this person is in line, but it's okay if you don't comfortable with this person. Okay. I mean, he was just to for the rest of the council to understand. So, the fees that um that
he's charging is roughly. So again, this is to do a lead inspection, right, for a lead paint inspection u for for any house or sorry, any apartment um that get that gets has renters in it. Um and when they um if it was built before
1978, right, which is one that existed um in the paint, um they have to they do that when when it turns over. Um it's a New Jersey state appliance thing that we have to do. Um this this gentleman is charging his rates are roughly $250 a
house. um $200 a condo or town home and then for a two family is uh uh it's split 250 and then 150 for the second second family. So we'd have about 60 units. Uh I think it's less than that 33. Yeah. Yeah. And then so this would
so this would be um something that's discussed with the the landlord, right? Um and then he takes over everything though. He does everything. He does everything. The only thing that we would have to do because when the state comes looking at it, the state not going to hand him the state's going back to municipality. So we would have to file
it, right? So we would be able to charge a um administration fee to do that. But then we file it um and then we we register it all. So it's a it's just something that again it's state requirement that we need to do. We collect the money and pay the state,
right? Correct. Yep. So anyway, if the No, I thought I didn't think that we collect any money like Well, the administration fee. Not not the fee for the inspection. No, administration fee. The administration, right? We collect the administration fee, but then as far as the the other
fees, that that's all handled between the resident or the the landlord and the the inspector. He pays the state, correct? Yeah. We don't have to get involved in anything. So, but the council's, you know, I can I can forward the rest of the information over to you um for you guys to take a
look at um you know, again, it's something that that we need to do. So, I'm familiar with it just Yeah. I mean, it'll be familiar to me and from what you said, pricing sounds about right. It's usually anywhere from like 150 to 250. So sounds
um and then the last thing I don't know if we want to talk about in conference but um just the um the the fee or the salaries for the camp and the pool we discussing that now or doing it later. John, can we discuss it now? If you'd
like to discuss you can discuss it. Okay. So, I think um S I did see what you had sent over um as far as the proposed schedule, right? I think the
one I'm looking at has the yellow down. Yep. So, it lists like a first year counselor as 1455 an hour, right? Um 1505, 1530, 1555, 1655, right on down, right? Um, so my understanding is that
seasonal minimum wage in the state of New Jersey is 1453 an hour, right? Regular minimum wage is 1549 an hour. So So I'm just curious how how you guys came to what what amounts to 2 cents more per seasonal
um minimum wage for a first year counselor. Um, and so you're looking at council final that that correct? So what the the email that I sent the analysis that it is that I wreck proposed. Yeah. We were suggesting that we give them what had proposed that column starting
$15 and on down. Okay. So it starts at $15 an hour. Yes. Um and so for everybody know I ran the budget model using some of the information that J was able to get me about the actuals from last year to model how things would look this year.
um the the extra uh the increased fees for camp will cover this and there will be a slight surplus to be able to cover if we uh increase the salaries for the pool employees at all. Okay. So we're so I'm confused because I thought finance
and head and we came up with this finals the finance committee was okay was okay with it. Yeah. So I'm confused how we got back because we we rounded up at 1453 to
1455. So it was around you know 55 instead. Councilman Houston felt that it was too low that we should do a minimum of well I'm not putting that's one person that's not a committee. No no we took it off the the consent calendar
last week together. That's right. That's the whole thing tonight and talking4 cents between $15 and 1455. I mean, for what it's worth, right, I I I feel that even though the state minimum wage for seasonal employees is 1453 an hour, um I
feel that regular minimum wage should be our bottom line. 1549 should be our bottom line for first year employees. Um and then going up from there, you know, if you want to do 25 cents per year, um did you see this? Correct. It says in here that
you're asking that these employees be approved at the council approved rate. So the council approved rate is it 1055 that would be the committee approved rate when when it was me Tyler and uh
Mike well what what is he when he's talking about the council approved rate in this email or they I'm sorry what are they referring to? What rate which rate are they referring to? It says council final because we didn't have anything else as final.
We decided to take no there was no discussion of it. But how did they get this? I don't know. Maybe somebody on wreck. So yes, I guess what I'm questioning is like Sal and I met for over an hour and a half. We came up with this these prices. I know it went to the
council, but now Mike, I hear you saying that it's 15, but I don't understand how it got from 1455 to 15. So the I know the 1455 is where you guys met and negotiated on. One reason that I was
uncomfortable giving wreck what they proposed starting in 15 was I was unsure if the budget would be able to support that. Okay. So then once I did the model to figure out that it would support that, I was more comfortable giving them what they want, especially with trying to close that gap with neighboring
towns. Some of the other feedback that we were seeing from But if we do go higher to 1549, that's starts putting pressure on that surplus where the budget will not be able to support it. Well, just just for reference, right? So I I took the what I
thought was um your initial number. So I I thought that the it was the 1455, right? So just to flush out that first line, right? I'm assuming the math was 1455 times 2100 because that's the amount of hours you
estimated, right? 1455 is the rate times 2100 hours. That's how you get the the 30,555. Oh, I have to look at Yeah. times the number of counselors, right? Right. So, yeah. So, I I guess what I did is that I went in and I said, "Hey, listen. If we
do minimum wage and then um you know, we add on essentially 25 cents per year to that, right? It ends up with an increase of just under $4,000 over what's currently proposed there." So, and and so you're saying that the budget can't support an extra $4,000 to pay people.
If you go on because the model that I did was only for camp. We still need to give the appropriate raises to the pool employees as well. Which is what I didn't do. So the surplus would would um support the raises for the pool
employees. It just I have two I have two worksheets here. One is 37 2025 and one is 3 20. and they have outlined the cost for camp for every part of camp and what
the um what the revenue is or is that what you're talking about with surplus are one of these no no that's for expected for this year what prior numbers from last year I used last
year's numbers to these are 2025 numbers so this has 2025 but this is expected revenue and what they're planning for all the other programs and where they're going to net out. Um, but I don't know. Yeah, but
he's just going off the top fig. So, what you're talking about, does that include all these other expenses? Uh, yes. There's labor and non labor expenses that I added that that's part of what Jamie gave like Well, those are camp um
No, because those are different activities separate from the camp. There's the There's the top two rows. How old is a first year counsel the seasonal wage and they all got it. They were all thrilled with it. Um, and you know, I think that this is a
fair wage. It's a seasonal wage and it's a young child with no experience. How many years first job? How many years? It was the current rate that they were getting. The current seasonal minimum wage at the time. At the time, it could have been like 1089 $10 back then 750.
I think we're spend more time discussing what the and this is what S and I did. We looked at it rationally like if you have a second year coming back, they should be getting more than the first year. How much more how much more should a third year get than a second year? And so we allocated funding so that each
increase was fair over the, you know, the tenure of their experience. Um, and I think that those those numbers make sense and and it's based on past history of how they have the difference. the first year and second year. The other thing to note is that because the state
raised the minimum wage, both the seasonal and the regular minimum wage, these increases are much higher for one year than these counselors would normally be getting. They don't usually raise the minimum wage. So, they can get like a few cents more the next year. So,
this is a big increase over the first year counselor rate from last year to this year compared to 23 to 24 and 22 to 23. So um I think you know it's nice to be generous but it's also good to be realistic and to understand that like
the priority should be in you know fairness as they have as they gain experience and maybe even we tried to give some credence to this you know fact that the lifeguards are in short supply especially as they get more experience because they're there's competition for them. So Nancy, you talk about realistic
and fairness. Um, it's fair to give them minimum wage and it's realistic also to give them minimum wage. I don't think it's it's a seasonal job. I I I I think that that's your opinion. It's a minimum wage for a reason. It is my opinion, but in this in this day and age where everything the cost of everything is
going up and up and up and these kids for them 25 cents more per hour is a world of difference. I can tell you from my 15-year-old son, if he's making 25 cents more an hour somewhere else because he can go to a different pool, make state minimum wage as opposed to seasonal minimum wage, he's going to go there. But the parent has to drive. I'm
not driving my 13-year-old to another town when they can walk or ride their bike. I mean, this goes years old. They're going to go They need to ride for mom and dad. From what I understand, they got all kinds of people over there applying. They don't even know how much they're making. So, I think we need to vote on this. Yeah, I
mean the council votes on this. So the reason the three of us restarted the conversation was because Rex seemed very unhappy with the number that we gave and they expressed that to But what about this memo that we just got that says that they want to go with with the
council with the rate that the council approved. I mean I think then they need to speak with Jerry and the rec committee because Jerry they're hiring people here. and they can't give him a number. They
can't give him a number. This is three three meetings old now. I mean, I listen the whole point of me bringing this up is because I have very clearly very strong feelings about that it should be uh regular minimum wage should be the
starting point. If the rest of the council disagrees with me, then so be it. But that's where I that's where I stand on it. that we should start at 1549 an hour for the first year and then should go up 25 cents per year from from the uh per hour from there. So are you s
are you okay with what's in yellow on this sheet? My committees are okay with that. not the bracket 2025 proposed proposal. You know, I I saw I read through it. I like that it's supported by the funds
that are coming in. They're not taxpayers money, right? This is all coming from program. I know my friend's son, not call our son, but they're going to a supermarket under 10. I don't know if I knew they're a little bit more money than another one. So I know there is a little and and there's probably kids
like you're saying that are happy with anything right there local job. So my I know they seem passionate uh our rec director about the possibility of not having proper amount of children. So I'm
okay with the higher rate. I appreciate the I don't think I everybody's time is valuable. Um but if if if you guys feel like that's the number is going to attract have enough children. It seems like we're always
covered. I mean I know my kids in camp a long time so I don't really know the numbers but I've heard that we haven't had enough camp. We've always had enough camp but I'm okay with the higher number if it's Show me your numbers because this one
has camp as a net negative for the for the correct. Yes, revenue and expenses and the second line has after May 13th. Yes, there's two different rates for two different costs for get if you register earlier. It's a lower cost than if you register later. Okay. So if I add these
together, I'm still 5,6 I believe these are actual from last year. because there was no there there is no revenue there is no expense because registration wasn't open then so these are actual so last year they all right
so it's 8:30 continue. That was one two different versions of that they did. If you please uh stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance and prayer, please. Yes, ma'am. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry.
Is there a motion to adjourn conference? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All approved. I for the Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the
reput one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Almighty God, we ask you bless this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding so that in fulfilling their public trust, every deliberation will result in actions that will promote the common good and general welfare for all the people of Mars
Plains. Notice to members of the governing body and burough staff, any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purpose of borrow business. I'd like to welcome everybody here tonight. Uh Valerie Dolan, who is
our auditor from Missacia. How's that? Good to see you. Anna Thomas, our CFO is here. We will be uh hopefully passing our budget so they won't be with us for the evening. Um, approval of minutes, Mr. Cortez.
Yes. Approve for the conference, executive, and regular meeting of April 3rd, 2025. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. See? The eyes have it.
Also, there's a conference motion to approve the conference, executive, and regular meeting of April 17, 2025. Is there a second? Second by art. All in favor? I opposed abstain.
Nancy and Tyler. Abstain move. Approval of consent calendar. Mr. Cortez. Resolution 2025-65 entitled Morris Plains Fire Association number one raffle license
number 349-25. Resolution 2025-66 entitled resolution for agreement for rapid rectangular flashing beacons RRFBS in parenthesis MP
46.53 route 202 and Rodale Avenue parade committee be granted permission to hold it 39th annual Memorial Day parade on Saturday May 24th 2025 the residents of Sanford Court be granted permission to hold a block party on Saturday May 31st, 2025 from 2:30 to
8:30 p.m. with the rain date of Sunday, June 1st, 2025 from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. DPW will provide the necessary barricades. The retirement of Rosanne Deman clerk be accepted effective October 1st, 2025.
Morris Springs Community Band be granted permission to serve alcoholic beverages at a band picnic to be held Wednesday, June 18th with the rain date of June 25th, 2025 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the community park pavilion. Mark BM Drive in granted
permission to serve alcoholic beverages at a family picnic Saturday, September 27th, 2025 from 11 to 4 p.m. at the community park pavilion. Maria E. Lopez will be hired as parttime custodial building maintenance at an hourly rate of $25 per
hour or cleaning of the snack stand bathrooms not to exceed 5 hours per week. Budra Tornado 171 Mountain Way defend the permission to serve alcohol beverages and a family reunion to be held Saturday, June 21st, 2025 from
12:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the community park pavilion. Is there a second? Second. Second by roll call, please. Mr. Yes, Mr. B. Yes, Mr. Houston. Yes, Mr.
Ivy. Yes, Mr. Pontier. Yes, thank you very much. And uh Roseanne, very disappointed, but happy for you. I can see how disappointed you are there. I hope they got that on video.
And um but I I want to thank you for everything you've done for for myself. you stepped into that really did a fantastic job in there all together for a long time. So I really appreciate everything
you Do you want to tell them how many years? 14. There you go. 14 years. Thank you again. Um, today is a special day in Mars Plains. Um, it marks the dedication
and grand opening 20 years ago of our Mars Plains Community Center. Um, I just want to read a little bit of history of the community center. I think it's uh something that everybody in this community has um has been there, had a
meeting there, had an event there. Uh it's a gathering place for uh young and old. Um all our baseball teams are outside in that whole complex, but the uh the community center is really something special.
the people who saw this vision 20 years ago or longer than that by the time it was initiated um really had a great idea and I I really commend those people prior for that vision. So uh just the history of the community center the board of
education dedicated uh to end decided to end classes in 1994. In 1996, the governing body put uh the following to a public question on the ballot. Should the community park school become property of Mars Plains uh and to
be dedicated as a community center for the use and enjoyment of all the citizens of Mars Plains. Uh the vote was 1,696 yes and 619 no. Almost 3 to one were in favor. In 2003, the board of
education signed a contract with the town to transfer ownership. In October of 23, we acquired the school and made some urgent repairs, fixing leaking skylights, skylights, roof, and replacing a crumbling chimney. Asbestous
removal and construction began in 2004 with a pause in the summer to allow for our summer recreation program to use the facility. This is written back then. So today is May 1st, the official opening, the official opening, although we have had our breakfast with the Easter Bunny
and voting for the school budget there already. And the museum has moved in and is open for business. The lower level of the community center is new home is the new home for the museum. And the plaque says, you know what the plaque says?
Here lives Mars Plains in spirit, its soul, its history, and its people. when you visit there, I know you'll enjoy it. Uh, and you have a lot of history of Morris PL. I see a big smile there. Fantastic. Um, also they were honored
Shirley Campbell who created the official seal of the bur Morris Plains in 1970. Shirley was born in Morris Plane and lived there all her life. She is an accomplished artist displaying her work throughout New Jersey and her children and grandchildren, great grandchildren actually still live in the
burrow. Now um three pictorial sections are incorporated in the more in the MP. One section is Tom Pearson's 18 or 1685 sawmill which was the first business in Morris Plains. Another section is the
former Warren Lambert, the past fizer site represent representing later industry. And the third section is a house and a treeine brook rep representing the beauty and residential nature of Mars Plains. Uh that's Ruben cutting a note
of uh history. On May 3rd, 1963, the park community park was dedicated. They gave out commemor commemorative wooden nickels. Due to inflation, we were giving out wooden dollars. that was back then. So, I don't know what it'll be now. Maybe $10, who knows? Uh, the
community center is dedicated, as the plaque states, to serve all the people of Morris Plains, the community caring, and that's all of you. So, I thought that was just important to read and and to bring to light some of the history here at Morris Plains and something that
we all use and cherish and talking about it today, summer camp that still goes on over there and all kinds of activities. So I just want to say happy anniversary to the most place community center. Uh moving on to public invitation for
discussion. Anybody wishing to speak please address your thank you. Hi Lee Connor to Tower Hill Road. I just had a question about the um the crosswalk with the flashing beacons
on Rosedale and 202. Is that the same crosswalk that was part of the McDonald's application? It's not. So, we're going to get two There'll be two there. Two crosswalks. One at Hillview, one at Rosedale a block
away. Yes. Two. Before McDonald's even came to town or was thought of, um a resident came up to me and to Mike and that was the plan all along. The application went to DOT state. They approved it and gave us
the grant just and so it dubtail its function dovetales with the planned uh new one as part of the McDonald's. McDonald's will be responsible for the one at 202. Thank you.
just yours is better. Good evening, Bill Greco9 Higgby Way. It's good to see the new council members and the old council members and Sal with his hand. Um I just have two items. Number
one is um an update on the lighting between American Road and the railway station. Last year it was discussed and I believe approved to be added to the operating line of the
budget for 2020. Bill, we forgot all about it. We forgot all about it. Did you know? You have to go back to Florida res. That's fine by me. tax dollars though. I will hopefully uh
the council passes the budget tonight and those are in this budget. Perfect. I thank you. The second item, as you know, I'm the president of the association at the venue in the Americans. Homeowners are concerned since the California fires
and the New Jersey fires about the brush in the treelined area of that pathway. Uh we'll have to take a look at it. Yeah. They're concerned. They think it should be cleared out. So, I bring it to
the attention of the council. Yeah. I'll have I'll have on the slope though. No, no. The pathway between American Roads, between the venue and the train station, there's wooded area on the right and left, but the one on the left, as you're approaching
American, there are homes there. They're more concerned about the one on the right. The one on the left, that's pretty the path is. Correct. The dirt path. Correct. There has been a path back there for 100 years. Understand that. You know, just been paid though
now. So, understood. We will we'll take a look at it and find out who's actually responsible. Okay. Great. I would appreciate that. That's it. Great seeing you. Question about that. So, the concern is that there's natural area that might ignite. No, it's the
undergrowth, the fallen trees, the fallen branches, uh, and so on. Their their fear is especially after the fires in South Jersey and it's been very dry now hopefully we're going to get rain next week for the whole week but their concern is anything could ignite that
and they're fearful that it would spread quickly into the venue I guess I mean it's part of the natural understory of any natural environment to have you know brush and things like that
It's considered fuel, you know, the sticks and the leaves. Correct. For a brush fire, that's where I I'm I've fought a few brush fires in town in my career on the fire department, but we've never really done any control burning. I don't know. And that's not going to happen. I can tell
you we have uh I mean, there's brush fires up on on the hill often over the summertime, you know, where those houses are, you know, in between Greystone and Power Hill, all that up there. Almost every There's there's some sort of fire
activity up there, right? Not 10 points. No, no, no. Maybe you're misunderstanding. They don't not suggesting uh lighting the fire. No, no, no. Suggesting clearing it so to prevent the fire. We'll have to take a look at it. I can't guarantee whether first it
can be done because some of that is wetland back there marsh area we certainly take that but no promise greatly appreciate it welcome back welcome to the new council members as well we'd love to have you in the community of care well honor and
pleasure to have been here for 40 years thank you better than anybody Seeing no one I close the public. Thank you. Bill reports of committees andor department heads. Finance.
Okay. A sort of subset of finances because I was on it last year. The green team met on April 21st and they released their first newsletter in last week's weekly email. The topic was electric automobiles. So you can look for that on the Vera website. It'll probably be in tomorrow's issue again of the week that
you know they're also partnering with clean communities to organize a cleanup this Saturday. It's going to be raining at 9:00 am near the area of Stop and Shop. So volunteers will get bags and gloves and they're meeting at the parking lot between Stop and Shop and Wer and all are welcome but kids must be
accompanied by a parent. The library had their annual shredding fundraiser last Saturday April 26th. When I was there, there was light traffic but the cars that did come brought than usual because I think they moved it from twice a year to once a year. Uh so they think it was going to be successful. I wasn't there
at the end, but I'll report back on that. They do rely on fundraising for their operating budget. You'll see in the burrow budget that's introduced tonight that's being voted on tonight. The burrow uh of planes again donated allocated a donation of 125,000 for the
library operating budget, but they also welcome donations from the community. the clerk's office. Our liability coverage in the bureau is through the MEL GIF. That stands for the Municipal Excess Liability Joint Insurance Fund. The MEL serves about 70% of New Jersey
municipalities. And before the formation of GIFs, local governments had two choices. They had commercial insurance or individual self insurance. And commercial insurance is very expensive uh for a small municipality like ourselves. And it was prohibitive for most local governments in New Jersey.
So, affiliation with MEL has saved New Jersey taxpayers about4 billion dollars which is great for for our budget. Um so as part of that the MEL drift requires members to conduct regular safety meetings with department heads. We get a
safety incentive of $250 for doing those meetings and Roseanne our clerk convened a safety meeting last week on April 24th which also happened to be take your children to work day. So, we had some teenagers in attendance as well as uh the DPW superintendent, Lieutenant Gil
from the police department, our new court administrator, Melissa, and Brienne from the clerk's office, and Roseanne, and myself. Each department reported out their new training and policies they are putting in place to reduce liability to the burrow. I don't want to steal the chief's thunder, but examples include use of force training
and other training for the police department, CPR training for DPW, and uh we also discuss some options to improve cyber security for council members. So, we'll be revisiting that hopefully soon. Their next meeting is July 24th. The clerk's office is also working on
preparing for the upcoming primary election on June 10th. If you've recently moved or a firsttime voter, 18 year olds, you can register to vote by mail or online by May 20th in order to vote in this primary election. Uh you can also check your voter registration
status or uh your vote by mail status online. Um and the clerk's office is also working on farmers market applications, food handler applications, financial disclosures from uh the councils of council and other members of the burough and uh opra requests.
They've also been taking a lot of calls about grass and brush pickup. So, for those who don't know, leaf pickup happens from September through December. There's no leaf pickup in the spring and summer months. Uh grass pickup has now resumed for for April through November every Wednesday and rush is the last
week of the month. We do have specifics on the grow website. Um so, try not to Yeah, let's see how that works. It's out there. It's available. um finance department. I attended a New Jersey league municipality state budget
workshop on lunch and learn on April 24th. Uh there's some information and that's where we got that proposal to support the energy tax resolution. Um our auditors also completed their annual audit of all of the bureau's accounting records and
financial transactions and the council will get a copy of their report in the next few weeks and then it will be made available to the public. Our CFO is also working, Anna, who's here tonight. Uh any unpaid, this is something I learned, any unpaid property taxes, uh she makes a report to the state and
they will withhold tax refunds for people who don't pay their local property taxes so we can get that money. So FYI, uh but that's never happened. We don't have that problem. People pay their taxes here in 8.8% left. She's also doing a report for
them on seniors citizen veteran deductions, who's getting them, how many, and um finalized reports for our American Rescue Plan funds, which we received uh we had to spend down through December 31st of 2024. We received
664,000 in American Rescue Plan funds and expended them for upgrades to the community center, the pool, fire apparatus, and playground equipment. So that that was great for the bureau. Um reminder that the state is offering info sessions for senior citizens about the
single application for their tax relief programs. Uh as far as the website, we renewed the contract with agile websites for upgrades to the burough website and online tools as needed. And reminder from planes talk editor to please send in photos and stories of community events coming up in the next couple of
months. Uh the next issue is coming out in May. So, those are finished, but anything else will be going on July or August issue. And I have some comments on the budget, but I'm going to wait for the budget, I guess, discussion later. Is that okay, May? Sure. Okay, that's
it. Public safety Tyler. Thank you, Mayor. All righty. So, the cert resolution passed at the last meeting. I was excited about that. There will be an opportunity for residents who are interested to volunteer. Um, Chief
Kaskki said the police department will post something on their Facebook page so the public has um, knowledge of that and then they will do a training and to my knowledge, Lieutenant Bob Gild will be spearheading that. The goal would be to try to get enough of a team together that we could have that in place for the
Memorial Day parade just to have a little bit of extra help out there. On that note, the department is planning and getting ready for the Memorial Day parade. We'll have some assistance from neighboring towns to help share the workload and assure the safety of all residents and parade personnel. There's
been some interest and questions about the police department and ridealongs. I spoke with Chief Krasi and I'd like to start to work on a resolution in the near future that would allow for more citizen ridealongs or possibly an inter internship opportunity for residents and a way to kind of see how they work and
what goes on. We had a meeting with the conceptual plans committee last Thursday. We went over uh the new schemes along with comparing and contrasting with the older ones. The committee and the mayor are comfortable to take the next step. So now the musial group will do a formal presentation to
the governing body in June. The governing body will then discuss potentially narrow down the schemes and then the plan is to present this to the public for discussion and questioning. The initial idea would be to have a session in September and a
session in October. So what would happen is the museial group would would present what they presented to us to the entire public. So all the residents would have an opportunity to see the plans to ask questions to express concerns and really just feel transparent and a part of the
process. Um after that this would be a referendum which would be on the ballot in November. So, this would also give every resident the opportunity to actually vote on whether they want this to happen and whether potentially again it would be the renovation here or the new department offsite. That's that's
just a possibility right now if we get to that point. Right. Yeah. But yeah, so we're looking into the correct time frame. But just saying in the sense that for such a big decision with a financial burden, it would be something that comes to the public it not would not be something that just stays in and is
decided on by the governing body. Is there a deadline for doing that if we want to put something on the ballot? No, it's alo a couple couple, you know, balls in the air on that one, but we're we're making our progress moving forward. The traffic committee also met this past Monday. We discussed the Glen
Brook paving project and our need for added linage. I know Chief Chief Kaskki after that had sent an email to Leon and Bill Ryden for sort of a cost quote and possible change to the current work order. This is um if it does get approved would add the white lines to the side and a couple other things. We
also went over the most recent complete and green streets policy written by Jim Hunt. The majority were in favor of some version of this being approved. They just the traffic committee itself was not exactly sure what their role would be in this but regardless they do advise that we can bring this now to the
governing body to discuss and devise a path forward. So, that is something that in the next couple weeks I'll be speaking with and sending out to the council and we'll be discussing that. Um, Chief Garaski met with the little league to discuss opening day, which is tomorrow, May 2nd. They're expecting a
very large turnout. So, just making sure that we have the proper staffing and understanding how the events of the evening are going to go. I'd also like to shoot out a quick congratulations to Officer Naquan Shaw on welcoming a new baby to the family. Was that a boy or girl? Baby girl. A new baby girl to the
family. So, excellent news there. On the firefront, we they had the live burn a couple weeks ago for the training. They are still getting calls almost every day and at a higher rate than normal. And in the past few years, I had the opportunity, I'm sure Bill will go in more detail, but I met with Bill, Mayor
Carr, Fire Prevention Chief Chris Chay, Chris Chay, and uh Fire Chief Kevin Rango to discuss the fire prevention ordinance that we've been updating. Again, I'm sure Bill will give a little more in-depth on that. Um, the fire prevention chief did finish his March report. Since I was not at the last
meeting, I'll just very quickly go over it. In March, he addressed 106 different items and the revenue collected was around $14,000. Um, on one of his notes, he said they did experience their first lithium ion ebike fire and there was a
little bit of damage suffered to the home, but everyone was there. They got it out and everyone's safe. No injuries or anything. So, that is fantastic. The new court administrator has started full-time to my knowledge and what I hear things are going well so far. Sarah Thornberry has been helping out
part-time with the transition in the meantime. And I also got the report from the summary of receipts from them. And they were they collected about $10,000 for the month of March. And I do plan on having a public safety meeting in the next couple weeks with Art and Cell just
to go over some of the pressing issues and things coming up and make sure everyone's on the same page there. So that's all for me tonight. Chief, I'll start by congratulating Rosanne on her retirement. There's probably not a day that goes by that I don't step up
the office or make a phone call. She works very well with the the police department and we really couldn't uh sustain the law enforcement agency downstairs without all your help and so thank you for for me and and for my staff. So, you're surely going to be
missing. Um prescription date takeback was this past Saturday um at Stop and Shop. We uh were second in the uh local region uh agencies collecting prescription narcotics. 172 pounds of prescription medications were turned in.
So, thank you everybody that there to stop by from the mayor and council as well as all the residents that participated. Uh, as uh Tyler and I think Nancy may have mentioned, uh, we did CPR training with our DPW members. So, two of our
officers, actually a third officer was involved. We we trained our our Spanish speaking DPW employee. So, all of our DPW staff is now fully certified in CPR thanks to Officer Kazcowski, Officer Grower, and Officer Press helping with the translation. Um, our academy police
recruits, uh, they passed their final physical assessment yesterday. We look forward to them graduating in a little more than a month on June 2nd. Uh adding to our police department staff. Uh as was mentioned previously as well, we have little league opening day
uh tomorrow beginning at 5:00 p.m. due it being a combined league with Morris Township and Morristown. I asked for assistance from Morris Township and Morristown police departments. Morris Township setting as two and Morristown setting as one officer. I'll be there as well. But if you're in the area of
community park around 5:00 p.m., it's going to be a little crowded. We're expecting anywhere between 9 and a thousand or so, maybe more um residents and kids and uh adjoining residents and their children as well. So, um we're going to do some overflow parking on the residential streets. We'll send a rave
alert tomorrow. So, just be mindful. Uh be a little chaotic over there, but we'll have enough support staff uh on their way over there. Um the final thing I have is that uh Sunday May 11 mark Sunday May 11th marks the start of National Police Week. It's a week to
honor uh all fallen police officers who gave uh their lives uh in the ultimate sacrifice to uh residents of uh our country. Um as part of that, three of our police officers will depart for Washington DC on a 300 mile bike ride to
honor the fallen police officers uh ending in a candle light visual at the police officers memorial uh on Tuesday, I believe that's the 13th off the top of my head with the three police officers, Lieutenant Gild, uh Sergeant Hines, and myself will parked Friday, May 9th on
that 300 mile journey. Um and certainly enough motivation to get our our keers there. So you're sore that it will be, but well worth it. So unless there's any questions or comments, that's all I have this even. Thank you. Thank you. uh public works,
Mr. B. Go back to public safety for a second. I received an email from a resident yesterday and she had a complaint about some speeding on Rosel. She and her husband just moved in. So, I forward that to our chief uh Jeff Pman, a
sergeant who runs our traffic division and they um said they would handle they responded right away. You guys do a great job every day keeping us safe, men and women down there. And Jeff was on his way home. from a class at Rutgers, I think you told. Yeah, traffic
engineering or traffic safety unit. Uh, just go to a traffic engineering class. So, you swung by the resident's house. Uh, they were home, spoke to them, showed them that they were doing everything they could to I know some people say the little radar sign doesn't do anything, but that radar sign does
take pictures and it gives times and a lot of data so then the police officers know when to go. Shouldn't quite tell the speeders out there when to go and look for them. Don't worry, there's plenty of them. worry about that. So, uh he assured her that they would look into and there was
one speed limit sign. It was further down the road. So, there was some discussion on that. So, um anyway, they were both very amazed that uh they got that quick attention and concerned about their their safety issues over there. So, there was some discussion about speed bumps and everything, but more to
come on that. But I I do appreciate uh the efforts that your police department does every day. So, thank you. Okay. So DKW next the bar here they have work they work on our police cars and our town bars every day uh clean out all
the garbage and the dog waste parks. Uh they packed some bottles throughout the town. They cleaned out a lot of the storm basins from the winter debris and some spring debris. Planted some trees at Robert's garden getting Robert's garden ready for our famous Memorial Day
parade. Dave was doing a great job with that. uh repaired some security cameras and reset the clocks at the community center. They installed a new basketball hoop at the community center so the kids have something that be a little more permanent over there for them. Got rid of some trees at Watnon Park. Trimmed
some trees and as it was mentioned earlier CP CPR training was done with DW and they are getting our pool ready for the season and they ran and cleaned the sewers four times this period. So we thank them for what they do. That's why public buildings and grounds Mr.
I have a short report. I was out last week, so just a couple of meetings. Mayor, first I want to just thank the governing body for approving parttime. It's important that we finally finalize that we're responsible for cleaning outside groups going there little league people there
on Sundays. This is this is a really good thing. Yes, it will be operational Friday, tomorrow night when they start playing over there. Um, thank you everybody. Uh I missed the rec meeting but I everything went well and u the
family day is under is underway and everything's been uh you'll probably have it next week for the uh the approval and be more rides a lot of funds. It's it's a lot of it's a little different in March plains because I when I was in recent 20ome years
ago at the carnival here local St. V was murdered and I just couldn't sleep that night and I put in a program that was part of that to put background checks on everyone in recreation, anyone that's close to a child. But it makes
the bidding a little harder because a lot of that bid these family day events. Um they don't a lot of towns don't require it. We do them. So it's a little harder sometimes to get fits, a little hard to get, you know, pricing. It makes it a little difficult
because we are that way. Nor do I ever want to change. I don't think anybody that's going anybody wants to change that. So I I really commend the people that go out there and try to try to get these numbers to meet all our requirements. They did a great job. Um, of course I missed Arbor Day,
but I heard it went well. It was away and it's a wonderful thing. I think Frank started that, right? 30 years ago. Um, want to remind everybody about Boy Scouts this Sunday, May 4th, 11 a.m. If you guys can do it. I know I talked about it last time, but
just getting it out there. Um, we uh I missed the downtown meeting, but uh I was able to uh to uh they want to put bicycle really nice. This is Morris Lane under bicycle racks. They wanted to put them on 202 and that's where I thought
they should go and the bezel by you know scoop station. However, uh when I consulted with with Don there's a 4 foot setback that you can't do anything and that kind of defeats the whole purpose and it would have been nice to put it. So what uh today I met with him we
walked the entire street to see where we could put these racks. I also was in contact with Allison from downtown Mars Plains and his thought was to put them on those two alleyways, but they are private property, so we will be needing
permission. So, that's where I'm at with that. But, um, if we do get them, we'd like to bring them closer to 202 this way. The people can they're really nice background. They really are. I'm going to send you guys all a picture of them also. And I also going to send you an
email to the governing body uh from the farmers market committee of all the people they have. and I think they're doing a great job and they're very respectful of the local businesses that are here and I really commend them and uh I I
actually missed going to that meeting in a sense that I really enjoy uh the people that are there. They're fun, they're dynamic, and uh I just I just I was there for two hours last time. It felt like 15 minutes and then you had a couple people that always laugh and they keep you laughing. It was just fun.
Um and I think that show That should be it. I apologize for the short thing that comes away. Oh, I want to compliment the water authority, the job they're doing with everything and the communication. There's one Mike. He's an engineer for
overseeing the job. They leave cones. They leave the fences around the equipment. The streets are almost spotless considering what what what they go through. And I talked to Mike a couple of times engineer. You can see some of the residents that they were supposed to start. Of course, one job got delayed. So, we've got to go back to
the top. We're going to shut your water off. I I don't have an A+, but I'm going to give him an A. I'm in construction. They really really really good. And considering, you know, what what what they're doing. And you go on a street that was dug up looked like a World War II. I'll give you example,
Diana. And then at night time, it's pretty good. Paved nice and neat, clean, no dust. It really is a a nice thing to see. Thank you. Public health sanitation and sewers. Mr. Thanks. Uh so for a teen center uh
mystery night uh was a success last Friday uh but not without its own struggles half an hour before um the cast and the equipment was supposed to be here. We got a phone call that the vehicle was stuck in New York City, which doesn't ever bode well on a Friday night trying to get it here on time.
Luckily the staff and the uh volunteers were able to get that um event underway with minimal delay and within the a lot of time and all without having to reschedule because that would have been very very difficult if not impossible. So kudos to them. Uh the seventh grade event is coming up next. Um and like Art
said DPW installed the the permanent basketball hoop at the house. So all the kids will be able to enjoy that um for the rest of teen center and all the summer camps over the summer. Um, also for DPW, uh, we were able to allocate some of the funds from our clean communities grant, uh, that we used for
litter cleanups to offset some of our, um, uh, storm water relief and grass clean up that the DPW does. So that way the taxpayers don't have to shoulder all of it. We're able to use some of the grant funding to, uh, to be applied to some of those costs. Uh for our clean communities, uh there's 15 volunteer
groups right now that are coordinating their u their schedules to perform their cleanups around the burough with our coordinator James Merendino. And uh board of health will be meeting on March 14th. That's in two weeks uh this month.
And the shameless plug for Lily, so thank you for making it here. That's great. maybe throwing out a pitch tomorrow. Ordinances and public utilities. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, so as uh Tyler
mentioned earlier, this past Monday, Mayor Tyler and I sat down with Chief Brown Marshall Shay, discussed the mayor's questions. Um, we did all come to an agreement on the answers to the questions and I believe now the next steps are for our attorney, John Her to review. Um, issues. We look to uh
introduce this uh ordinance very soon. Uh just a reminder to the public on what the ordinance is. Um it's an ordinance to require multif family dwelling units to obtain certifications of compliance for smoke sensitive devices. Um it updates the fire inspection code to
require inspections anytime an apartment is turned over to a renter. Uh it also allows the burough fire inspector to take on the inspections of of the new multif family units. Um and uh currently there is no requirement for inspections
for or of multipectors multi-unit residential structures. So the shortage would update that requirement uh so that all our residents are safe. Um let's see just on uh so just some updates uh from the construction office. So, uh,
435 Speedball Avenue, which is friendly McDonald's. Um, uh, as of actually today, I spoke with Don Slero and Bill O' Conor. Um, no permits have been issued for any work over there just yet. Um, uh, a stop work notice has been
issued. Um, as the work that was being done was not in compliance with their codes. Um, and, uh, they did, I'm sorry, uh, they did pull one demo permit for water. That's it. Um, so outside of that, there have been no other permits pulled for
that for that location. Um, there's been no movement over at the WER site, um, which, uh, also got approved the warehouses. Um, I believe, Mr. Mayor, there is a CEO, but no tenant over there. There's a certificate of occupy, but no tenant over at the the
warehouses. Correct. The the construction is complete. Everything's passed. They do have CO. Okay. Excellent. Um, Planning board update. Uh the planning board had their meeting on April 21st, 7:30 p.m. Uh we
memorialized one application PB424 on High Mountain Way with resolution PB25-09 for minor subdivision. This uh splits the lot, splits that lot into two lots and adds a variance for a minimum sideyard setback for the existing home that will remain. Uh we also dismissed
another application PB3-23 6 Parker Drive with resolution PB25-10 for minor subdivision. In June 2023, the pling board deemed the application incomplete. And on April 5th, 2025, the homeowner notified the planning board that they no longer wanted to pursue the subdivision.
It was dismissed without prejudice, which means the application is temporarily dismissed and it allows the applicant to refile with the board in the future. Um, the next meeting of the planning board is actually a week earlier than normal uh due to Memorial Day. It's it will be Monday, May 12th at
7:30 p.m. here in this room. Uh, board adjustment. They had their meeting April 28th, 7:30 p.m. Uh, they did hear one application, BA1-25, 37 Hawthorne Avenue for completeness. They did deem the application incomplete due to some
missing information. Uh, their next meeting is also a week earlier than normal due to Memorial Day. Their next meeting will be Monday, May 19th at 7:30 p.m. here in this room. Um, just done. So, the checklist committee has finalized drafts of the application form and the checklist form. Uh they have
been reviewed by the zoning board of adjustment and planning board attorneys. Um Mr. Mayor, I believe you received the draft from Mr. Gagley. Yes. Okay. Excellent. Um uh I know Dave, Mr. Sorry, Mr. Schultz, chair of the zoning board, has circulated to his board for review.
Um he's asked the zoning board to bring their comments to the May 19th meeting. Um Mr. Mayor, once you review, I believe the next step is to bring it back to the planning board for their review. Excellent. Um so the the intent of all this is to make it easier for the
applicants. Um, essentially streamline the application whether it goes to the plane boards or board of adjustment. Um, it it is intended to be a downloadable PDF on the website. Um, and it will allow for applications to be deemed administratively complete by the bureau of professionals and the board chair
without coming to the board. So, it's going to significantly reduce the the amount of meetings that are required. Um waivers however will always go to the boards as professionals do not have the authority under the law to grant waivers. Um and as I said it will streamline the process and reduce the
cost to the applicant. And that is my update just on affordable housing. Um, we still have not received our number from from the court that we were supposed to receive on March 31st. Still haven't received it yet. the
uh affordable housing committee met this afternoon and we will be moving forward on our uh June 30th deadline, our next uh our next deadline that we have to uh we have to abide by nobody else does
but uh so June 30th is our next deadline and we'll be moving forward much more information is available. We'll give it to you in due time. We have been about a town hall, but it's kind of hard to talk about a town hall when you don't have
your numbers. But what's the deadline for? What do you have to provide? And so there's more there's more to that. So, but as soon as we get any of that information, I'll be sure to put it out there somehow. And we are going to
schedule a town hall or question and answer session with our professionals and attorneys. when the time is is is right really but I thought it would be by now but obviously it's not so keep you up to date we have no
introductions of ordinances we have no ordinances on second reading no resolutions we have unfinished business um we will do the uh the budget adoption first and then we'll talk about the full salary so we can
get salary on their way this evening. So, uh, good evening, council members, burough staff, and residents of Morris Plains. I'm here with you tonight to present the 2025 municipal budget. A budget developed with collaboration, diligence, and a
shared commitment to maintaining the high level of service for our that our residents expect. I'd like to thank all of our department heads, board chairpersons, and their valuable input for their valuable input and hard work during this process. This year we are faced with several fi financial fiscal
challenges including an anticipated loss in revenue mostly notable from permit fees. Additionally, the state has not allocated any new funding for municipal relief for 2025 resulting in a loss of
$64,000. On a more stable note, we will continue to receive the same amount of energy tax receipts as last year. Despite these challenges, our 2025 municipal appropriations remain under the allowable appropriation cap after exclusions. The overall appropriations
increased by 4.6% excluding the red reserve for uncollected taxes. However, like many municipalities, we are experiencing rising costs significantly or specifically liability insurance has increased by over 9% and the state
health insurance premiums have risen by more than 16% which we review and Nancy went over that earlier. We remain focused on long-term financial stability. This budget enables an aggressive payown of municipal debt in the amount of
$1,900,000. Additionally, it fully funds several key 2025 capital projects by reducing future debt obligations by over $560,000. for strate strategic planning. The council also reduced the original capital improvement request by over a
million dollars. Repurposing funds that completed projects from deferring repurposing funds from completed projects and deferring select items like DPW sewer flusher, a fire prevention vehicle, and a feasibility study for further review. capital
projects such as improvements to Burough Roads and Styles Avenue with a grant from the DOT, purchases for the fire department of radios and a $ 1.4 million fire engine, police department request for an external uh defibrill and speed alert sign to help keep our community
safe. in a small upgrades, adding a tennis wall and installation of light of lights on the train station path. For the average Morris Plains household assessed at $460,000, the local portion of property tax will increase by
$235 in 2025. No one welcomes tax increases. It's important to note that our ratables have increased by 2.7% 2.75% over last year, helping to balance the overall fiscal picture. This
budget is more than numbers. It's a reflection of our priorities. I'm committed to keeping an eye on future spending increases, and I hope the council shares the same view. After a careful review of both revenue and expenditures, we've crafted a financial plan that ensures continuation of all
burough services without interruption or reduction. Morris plan remains strong, resilient, and forward thinking. This budget reflects our unwavering commitment to fiscal responsibility while continuing to meet the needs of our residents. Thank you.
With that, I state the public hearing on the introduced budget is now open. Is there any members of the public that have any questions? We have our CFO and our auditor with us tonight. Hearing no further interest, I
close the public hearing on the introduced budget. Ask Councilwoman Berga to move the resolution. I move the adoption of the 2025 municipal budget be resolved. I move the adoption of the 2025 mal budget. Be it resolved by the governing body of the
bureau of marks plains county of marks that the budget herein before set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purpose stated of the sums therein set forth as appropriation and authorization of the
amount of 14,67,64611 for municipal purposes. Is there a second? Second myself. Roll call, please. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr.
Houston. Yes. Mr. Ivy. Yes. Mr. Yes. M. Yes. Thank you everybody. Thank you to the council and everybody who's involved. Anna or Valerie. Any words on the budget? Um, yeah. I just would like to thank all the
department heads and um board council people for their input on this budget and also the council members for our meetings and and all the questions and hopefully I answered everything. Um I also thank our auditor
for being the second set of eyes and making sure dotted and crossed and today and this this year was our You were in the three years reviewed by the state. The state also. Yes. So every third year the
budget is reviewed not only by us and signed off by us. It is also reviewed by the division of local government services and they came back with two very minor questions and we had our approval to adopt within hours of the
two questions. So in addition, the state has also signed off with this budget. Sure. Yes. Certainly good. that check mark. You always like that check mark. And you know, you always get a little nervous waiting once you hit that button to wait for their review because you never know what they're going to come up with. We thank you Valerie also for your
guidance and throughout this whole process. We might get a little bit of time off now, but it starts very shortly here for next year already. So again, you're very responsive. I think is very lucky to have not only the company here in the
burrow but but he was their representative and he really served the burrow well and I think the working relationship with not only myself and everybody else that touches is good. I think it's invaluable that they do the school and and the bur at the same time
so we can kind of collaborate when we need to. So I think all in all very great relationship and as counciloman said the uh audits are done. My office is just actually in the process of processing the books. They should be down here in
Bur Hall by Monday. Yeah. So I this first time finance chair so had a different u look at the budget trying to take a more high level view. And I really do thank Anna for answering my many questions and also I want to mention that Tracy was very um involved
in putting together our budget books and I know that's a lot of labor and work and so we appreciate that as well and all the department heads who work with us to get their information in in time and who even presented some of their budgets here to the council and in front of the public so we could see them. Um
that said, like I as as I said, taking a different look at it this year. I I I want to really encourage the council members to kind of take a little different approach with looking at the budget and and really start looking at
it now in terms of how we can be a little more discerning. And I also mentioned in one of prior meeting a couple weeks ago that uh I I think we do a great job as the mayor said of maintaining our services at a very high
level for residents, what they expect. But I also think that we should get some feedback on that because uh you know having an increase of an average of around $240 for the average home is is not nothing when a lot of other things are also increasing. Uh so I think if we
can kind of take take a high level view of our not just each department that we represent but sort of as a bureau what we can do to work together across departments to try to maintain our our spending or or reduce it where we can.
And um you know I look at our our rate of uh our tax rate of 92 cents per $100 of assessed value. And I just looked at a few other towns and um the other thing I looked at was the percentage of our property tax bill that is uh our
municipal budget and in Mars Plains it's it's um 36% this year and uh some neighboring towns are in the low 22s of 22% 22.4%. And they also have a lower tax
rate per $100 of assessed value. Now every town has different services and some have utilities that pay income to the town. So they get a different income stream than we have here available to us. But um I I just need to better understand as a new person in the
finance department how they're getting to these numbers and and what they're what they're doing differently than what we're doing and and also get some input from the public about what what is essential and you know what what is what what's the dollar of of their tax rate
you know mean to them and what's what are they willing to compromise on as we go forward into a difficult um economic climate I think we're in right now with a lot of tariff stress and potential changes to to costs. So, I just want to say like let's let's work together.
Let's try to dialogue and let's think about how we can reach out to the public and get some input on, you know, our priorities for spending. Mr. Mayor, just one comment if I may. Um, so I just want to say as a as a new one of the three new people here, um, I
want to I want to commend Anna for explaining how this all works because what I do at home on my Google Sheets spreadsheet is nothing like what you do. Um, government budgeting is way different than budgeting for your home. Um, and it was clear to me after the
first uh what is it four or five hour meeting that we went through uh that you you really need to have a very in-depth knowledge of how all this works in order to keep us on track. So, um, again, as the new new council member coming in, uh, I really appreciate you all your
knowledge and your expertise and keeping us all on track. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Barry. Thank you, Anna. Appreciate your time tonight and your job. Uh, unfinished business. More unfinished business is the
school where we're at with that. Well, so again, where where I was at with it was my feeling, and I brought this up, was that the base rate should be $1549, which was the standard minimum wage. Um, there seemed to be some
discussion and disagreement the council on that. So, that's where I was at. So, do we have do you have the sheet that that everybody has the We're all talking about this sheet. Is
that correct? You should have a copy in your file, too. No, I have that. But who was talking about what? What's the comparison all the programs? Well, I got I know from
No, I don't. Yeah, that's 2025. What they anticipated? And what does that what does that show? Well, it shows enhancement programs. Most of this is what they're budgeting for enhancement programs. At the top, it
shows camp revenue and expenses. And then camp after May 13th, I guess the registration price increases. So, they're expecting this much revenue and this much expense. I don't know how they're allocating the expense like that, but but I'm looking at these two numbers and I'm trying to
figure out how are we getting to a surplus. And the other thing is our budget, our town budget is holistic. So not every department funds their expenses. Some bring in funding that is used in other
departments as we've seen, you know, so it's not necessarily a dollar for dollar. I I just I mean I I think this is this is adequate. I I think uh talking about 14y
old kids, they don't have car payments. They're not making mortgages. You know, they're seasoned. Okay, they do. They come back every year. Most of them, a lot of them, okay? Not all of them. Some of them don't like doing it. Some come back. Some love doing
it. You know, it's for the town's Do you have to be competitive with a quick check or or Morris Township pool or a gas station or whatever whatever it's going to be? I don't know. I think I think it's fair. I think that's the way it's it's worked out. I think the finance
committee and S Nancy and S worked this out. I think that that's you know it's a compromise on both sides, right? It's a compromise from record. compromise from the council originally not the middle but compromise
on both sides the camps I think I talked about this earlier mayor that the camp in Mars Township is longer day uh so it's not really the same these kids get a half day off they work in the morning actually so the prices that they get
there are a little bit I guess Yeah. And also, you know, the quick check is a different job. I know my boys, they wanted to be outside in the morning playing with the kids. They didn't want to be a quick check or, you know, a shopper. So, it was a job that they wanted and they also got money for it.
That's what I mean. They're coming here because they want to be here. Wouldn't you want them to get minimum wage? I was happy that they were wanted to work and it was their first job and that someone would hire them with no experience. Take a shot, you know, take a chance on my kids. I was happy with
that. You're teaching a first year kid what to do, right? First year counselor what to do. Be on time. Be on time. So, you know, it's responsibility. It's not only about the money. It's responsibility. It's what they're learning from. It's it's being in charge of other kids or watching other kids. You know what I mean? There's a price to
that as well, right? So, so your your comment before about, you know, 14y old 15y old kids, right? So a fourth year counselor is not 15. A fourth year counselor is 18 19 years old. They have car they have car
payments. They have other things you have to pay for. And here we're are we looking at the council final number or the 4325 rec number. Which number are we looking at? The yellow column. That's what was approved. Mike Sal and I spoke this week and we are proposing at
least what the wreck proposed. So the column the yellow you guys an agreement done. So that sounds like So you're saying for for a fourth year counselor, you're saying it's $16.20 an hour. Correct. So we're saying less than a
dollar over minimum wage. Well, we're saying at least that because we face we face folks. How much can you get out of the well? push back from about the people taking care of our children and not paying them enough. And
but at least me and part is making $20 or whatever. I mean, we just we just approved the parttime custodial building maintenance person $25 an hour, right? And they're not looking after our kids, right? And so we're going to we're going to give somebody a counselor less than minimum wage to look after our kids. I
don't I don't see how that makes sense. Nobody wants to clean the outdoor bathrooms. trying to get somebody I'm being serious like these these kids they they they you know they're doing an important job and I'm not I'm not saying that the job of a custodian is important but to pay them
$25 an hour and then to pay the counselors less than that I it just doesn't make sense to me I don't get it I mean it's not I I think I think it's a you know in this day and age it's bare minimum um
needs to be standard minimum wage. We've gone over this now how many times now? So So what's the number going to be here, folks? It sounds like the majority wanted to be something.
Oh, that's an older one. So I mean I I'm hearing that there was pressure and some type of making you feel uncomfortable and etc. I think part of our job council members is to make good decisions for everybody in the burrow. And that means our seniors who
are subsidizing the programs as well. I I don't want to argue about 50 cents or whether these kids are worth minimum wage or whatever, but I I do think that we are going to make decisions that not everybody likes and they're going to try to pressure us. And every employee here
wants more money. Every employee in this bureau wants more money. Everyone. And so are we going to give them all more money because they make us talking about minimum wage minimum tax it's it's funded through the program right the
senior if this is a deficit I mean I don't know I read the email again that's those are 2024 actuals because those are from she pulled all the vouchers and put into that spreadsheet so those are actuals that I used last year we paid them
less and this came out negative yes they raised the camp fees this Okay. And that is where you have I don't have that. That's what I was able to get. Okay. So, nobody else has that. Well, that was in the spreadshe. Yeah, but you raised the camp fees, but you
still have other expenses. They're not they're talking about this. You raise camp fees, but that's not the only thing that gets figured in the raise of a camp either, right? Yes. I have labor and non labor. Yeah, but there's supplies. That's not I asked for
those. So, what number are you all um on this sheet? What number are we all proposing here? The the the 20 the rent proposed numbers. Yes. 325. Like, as I said, the memo that they sent us said that the council approved number was what they wanted to
go with. So, I didn't know what that was. It also says this at the bottom urges us to review the current pay structure and take steps toward a more competitive and fair compensation. Right. It also says that when we reach out to follow up, the typical answer of lifeguards is that they've received a better offer elsewhere. But have you
talked to lifeguards? Anybody talk to a lifeguard? I mean, that's one side of the story, too, right? But going based on what the people that work there that that do this job, which is, you know, it's the information I'm taking. They're saying
that retention is difficult. That's one side of the story, right? So, well, what's the other side? There's always three sides, right? What am I not seeing? But we're only seeing one side of the story. Of course, like Nancy just said, everybody wants more money. Of course, they want more
money. Maybe one or two of them did leave, but they they had a full staff. They were able to staff everything. They were staffed. They staffed the uh the uh summer camp. They staffed wreck. They staffed the the swimming guards, the the
lifeguards. They snapped They staffed the snack bar. Sure. short. Sure, they did it last year. But what they're saying is that they need to offer what I'm reading here is that they need to offer more competitive rates so that they keep those people.
We we're we're going around in a circle. So people, you got to narrow down what what you what you're going to decide on here. So So you you're the liazison. So I met with you. I thought we were on the same page. What is your proposal,
Nancy? first time I'm having a We're talking about, by the way, on 50 cents, we're talking 750 a week. $7 a week on 15 hours 50 is that much. Um I I everybody can say that that they're right because you can argue this to the
end. Totally. To make to make to make your point is that these are kids getting their first job and uh they're happy to be working. Yeah, we've heard happy to be working. Uh to Bill's point, I you know, I I I I see it, but you're
still talking about 14 year olds. Um so I'm I'm you know, I'm coming from Wreck, so uh I I seen I seen a lot of this and it eventually does get filled. I mean, people are people are well, Wreck always
wants a little bit more because they they always feel that like with lifeguards with what what came up last week was having a little harder time getting second and third year experience lifeguards. They're getting first year experience. So they're before you'd say
like you have 10% first year, 30% second year, whatever or 30 30, however you want to do that. That's not happening that much as of last week. According to recreation, a lot of the the second and third years aren't coming back and we're having more percentage of the first
years. So So let's raise those up. Let's give them a bigger increase for second and third. This is going to be another 1:00 a.m. meeting. I hope not. We're talking smaller. Tell us who you want. Um,
well, my committee has has the yellow numbers the next set of numbers. Okay. The 2024. All right. The four four I meant April. Yeah. Okay. So, 3 2025 is what what we're going with
here for what? For which year? The comm all the way down. Yeah. And even the head pool, the pool director, you're talking about all of those people. The salaries. The salaries I have a real problem with because we gave everybody
the same percentage increase last year. Now we're going to make an exception for salary employ that that would that would have repercussions across the burrow that you know I don't think I don't think that would be fair. Yeah, I'm I'm more think looking at the top for the I do agree
with you. So give me that 3% but we you and I talked about this. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm I'm essentially specifically right the top the camp 1 2 3 4 5 six and the pool employees what just not the
pool just the lifeguards in right not the not the directors should be counselors and lifeguards what about summer employee salary can't director know right no those would be the 3%
and then these last four or five on the bottom. No, is that correct? 3%. Yeah, that would that would fall under the council final. Okay. So, the first up to EMT
counselor that's 1720. Is that correct? Those those 1, two, three, four, five, six. Plus the adult Yeah, that that didn't change. Okay, so that stays the same. Okay, so
all of these here, those are the summer employee salary rates is the last the last column. Yes, 8874 and the rest of these positions are snacks and
lifeguard. Okay, and then the pool employee salary rates are the Yes. 3%. Is there a reason the swim team swim team coach went down from 4201 to 4141? That might be a typo. That's
because I I'm not That's a typo. If that's that's a typo, you know. Wait, do we do is it is it% everyone else it looks like went up 3% except for So if that goes up, what's that salary?
You have a salary that I think this is a tight one here. So it was 40 420 in 2020. Okay. So then the 4140 is correct. Yes, correct. That's correct. That's 3%.
4020. Okay. I just want to make sure. So it's the final column on all of those then. Is that right? How do we put this on here? What what have we disagreed to? I don't understand. So I think the overall
consensus is the first one two three four five six seven people seven lines are 4325 the hourly basically all the yeah all the hours the the camp director is the final is the
last column. The pool employee salary rates are the 4325 and then the pool employees salary rates are the final council's final. All right. Yeah. I just for the record I
don't I don't agree with those rules but well you can vote yes or vote no or stayain whichever. So whichever you've done everybody understands. So and you ran the numbers with what we just discussed.
Uh, yeah. I actually did it worst case scenario for 325 all the way down. Okay. You want to do a resolution tonight or is that was that It'd be nice to do it tonight because they're asking how much they're going to get paid and I can't give them an answer. I'm sorry. Are you
able to do this tonight or not? I hate doing this because this is how mistakes are made. Well, the next meeting is I understand. So, we're doing this column. What you circled is what we But they're doing all the salaries.
So is this are these offers that are going up? Yeah, those people are hired. That came from They're already hired. They're already the last Oh, the letter. Okay. 45 employees.
So, with this letter that they they submitted here, the one from Chrissy and Yes. They don't they don't submit what they what they're recommending for salaries. Is that because they're on the 4325. So that's what they're so this letter
says we hope the council approves what's or they say no we need to approve more bill for my thing with with them is they always feel that they have to go up because they do comparative with Morris
Township and everybody else and um that's all I can I I I can I can say the letter speaks for itself. Well, our residents love to see familiar faces when they arrive at the facility. Refer to the document. You know, I get it, but
the letter says that they have retention problems. They This is This year is our lowest year yet. Only four lifeguards reaches a third year plus. So, retention is a problem. I understand that, but why are they saying that? Because we're paying them a
very nominal fee. That's why they keep leaving. I'm going to guess. They're going and saying that's where the Okay, but this is how the this is where the majority of the council is right now. Everybody can vote yes or no and we'll decide it there. But at least Bill, this does increase it from where it
was. So we figure that's, you know, if we both know it stays where it is. I'm just saying at least if we can get it higher, they're getting more than they were going to get. And I'm just saying that my son had an opportunity to go $15 an hour or 1549
an hour to go get the $1549 an hour job. Yeah. for seven let's move this we can do the the following is a resolution of burrow of Mars plains setting forth to
2025 recreation summer employment hourly and salary rates whereas at its May 1st 2025 public meeting, the uh burough council, the burough Mars Plains discussed and deliberated upon what the council would
believe would be the appropriate 2025 recreation summer employment hourly rates. And whereas after significant discussion and deliberation, the Burough Council, the
Burough Mars Plains resolves as follows. Now therefore be it resolved by the burough council burough Mars plains county of Morris state of New Jersey that the 20125 recreation summer employment hourly
rates shall be as follows. For firstear counselor $15 an hour. For a secondyear counselor $15.50 an hour. For a thirdyear counselor,
$15.75 an hour. For a fourth year counselor, $16.20 an hour. For a senior counselor, $17.20 an hour. For an EMT counselor,
$1720 an hour. And for an adult counselor, $24 an hour. Two, that the rate for the summer employ Salary rates shall be $8,874. Three, the 2025 pool employee
salary rate shall be for snackstand $15 an hour. For first year lifeguard, $17 an hour. For secondyear lifeguard, $17.50 an hour. and for third year
lifeguard $18 an hour. And four the 2025 pool employees salary rates shall be for a head pool director.
$9,975 for a pool director. $9,975 for a snack bar director number one. $1,761 for a snack bar director 2. $1,761. And then for a swim team coach, $4,141. Anybody like to move that
resolution as set forth? I move that resolution. Is there a second? Second. Nancy. Roll call, please. Mr. Cortez. Yes. Mr. Burn. Yes, Mr. Houston.
Mr. Ivy. Yes, Mr. Yes, Miss Burger. Yes. Thank you. Okay, moving on. We have no new business. We do have vouchers. Mr. I move that the checklist dated May 1st, 2025 in the amount of
3,585,852.91 be approved. Is there a second? Second by roll call, please. Mr. Yes. Mr. B. Yes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes.
We do need a short executive session. Mr. Cortez. It'll be right here. Resolution number 2025-64 be resolved by the Burough Council of Burough Marsh Plains on the
first day of May 2025. The B council shall meet in executive session from which the public shall be excluded to discuss matters as permitted pursuant to NJSA 10 semicolon 4-12 subsections seven
seven the time the matter discussed pursuant to paragraph one here can be disclosed to the public is as soon as practable after the final resolution of the approet matter. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed.
Abstain. The eyes have it. If you excuse us for an executive session, we will be returning when. But you're more than welcome. Don't kill yourself. Sorry. What do you need? A light over there, Bill. I'm sorry. I do. Yeah, Steve, thank you.