Good evening and welcome to the April 8th, 2025 meeting of the Pakonic Township Council. Miss Marsh, in accordance with the requirements of New Jersey's open public meetings act, notice that this meeting was included in the annual meeting notice which was filed in the office of the township clerk, posted on the bulletin board of
the municipal building, published as a legal notice in the suburban trends and daily record newspapers, and distributed to all persons requesting notice in accordance with township policy. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance followed by a prayer and a moment of thanks for individuals serving our
nation. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Most gracious providence, we ask you
bless this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding so that every deliberation will result in actions which will promote the common good and the general welfare for all the people of the Quanic Township. Amen. Amen. Amen.
The clerk will please call the role. Mrs. Lawrence Lynch here. Mr. Cole here. Mrs. Russell here. Mr. Syracus here. And Tracy, I am here. The next item on the agenda is the 2025 municipal budget presentation. Mr. Bro, all yours. Thank
you, Mr. Mayor. This is my favorite meeting of the year, and I'm glad that there's an audience to present it to me. So, that makes me even happier. Uh, Mr. requested that I double the number of slides in the presentation. I we'll have we'll speak with him after.
I will not I did not heed that request. Yeah. Bear with me. We are having technical difficulties. It's warming up. Please stand by. Cable bill. It's It's Think of a car 30 years ago. You didn't just jump in, turn
it on, and go. You let the oil come to temperature. are circulated around the engine are rotates. All right, there we go. We're in business. Carol's got it. So, thank you very much everybody for your brief patience. As I mentioned,
this is certainly my favorite meeting of the year. Uh brief presentation on the 2025 municipal budget for the township of Pquanic. For anyone who has not seen or is not familiar with this process, it takes a lot longer than you realize and there
are a lot of people involved in it. It actually initiates in the early fall and proceeds to this evening as the first possible opportunity for legislative action to introduce the budget. But the time in the middle is taken up by staff, board commission, committee chairs,
volunteers putting together requests. Everything is reviewed, put together in a package for presentation to the governing body in January and then for a period of a couple months reviewed with the council uh and questions are answered and direction is given. Ultimately, if the budget is introduced
this evening, the public hearing and potential adoption will be scheduled for May 13th after the required time period has come and gone. Some quick highlights. Uh total current fund general appropriations of $23,60,967. Uh the township has an open space and
recreation uh tax of six ten of a cent per hundred of assessed value. One of the benefits of having that tax is eligibility to state and county funding. So recently we acquired a property through the floodprone uh acquisition process and you're required to have an
open space tax. So as of uh the end of this year there's roughly $700,000 in the trust and that will generate approximately $213,561 in additional dedicated funds in 2025. There have been some preliminary
discussions because the allowable uses for that are governed by referendum. So there may be an opportunity in the future if the governing body so directs to use that for additional purposes beyond simply acquisition and historic preservation. Uh overall the municipal
tax levy is increasing by 3%. That's somewhat of a misnomer as the libraries portion is included in that 3% and not controlled by the governing body. uh if excluded is actually a 2.3% tax increase without the library
changes by categories highle summary items. Uh for a more detailed explanation if you look online at the packet that's published there's a lot of detail down to the uh line item salary wages up roughly 2.5%. Other expenses, principal drivers of the increase in
cost of other expenses. Insurance is a biggie as noted beneath it. Um, our health insurance is going up 6.73% in the budget, but actually the premiums went up 15 and a half. Uh, just to understand health benefits, which went up over 17% this year. Pensions
increased. Uh, debt services associated with the home elevation grant program. There's an asterisk there that references the fact that there's offsets that help pay this. Essentially, when we get reimbured by the federal government, it goes into a trust and we use that to offset the cost of how it's carried. Um
challenging times to keep budgets within certain parameters and uh luckily we've done the best we can to have a nice good stable budget and those are the large expenses. Uh the other thing just to point out with some folks involved with the fire department, the governing body
did give significant increases to plugin allowance as well as uh the the events activities and um apparatus acquisition. So there's a lot of funding that was added to this budget in order to support the volunteers
revenues. 2024 uh tax collection revenue was roughly 99.2% 2% which is pretty good. Uh we also had a lot of revenue realized through our investments. When the money is in the bank, if you have higher interest rates, you earn higher interest. Unfortunately, that higher
interest isn't going to stay forever. So, staff did an excellent job of negotiating as much as possible with the bank when it was there. And the revenue that was collected beyond what was anticipated in 2024 assisted us with satisfying a significant tax appeal without adversely affecting operations.
Uh with respect to onetime revenues that are included in the budget, we currently have reserve for insurance funds, capital fund balance roughly $150,000 on a $23 million budget. That's not a significant crutch, but it's nonetheless the crutch I call out and look forward
trying to get rid of in 2026. This is the story of the township's fund balance. uh primary sources of lap of of the fund balance in 2025 at the year end of 24 laps appropriations money that was appropriated that wasn't spent. Uh that
strong collection rate and the significant revenue realized through the interest rates and the interest on our investments. This is one of my favorite slides of the deck. It is typically something that surprises a lot of people when you
explain that we collect a h 100 cents of every dollar, but we actually only keep 21. All the rest of it goes to other entities. That's how the state of New Jersey and the legislature structured it. So you when you look at the municipal budget and with the municipal
budget increases, uh understand that it is less than a quarter of every tax dollar that you pay in your property taxes. capital improvements, another area that received significant discussion and direction from the township council. Uh,
a lot of improvements to parks. Uh, we want to reserve enough money to buy fire apparatus cuz we know that's coming. Improve sidewalks. Many municipalities do not appropriate public funds to do sidewalk projects. They compel homeowners to do it. Um, there are
issues where we need at times to compel homeowners to do it and if there's a specific hazard, sometimes that's addressed that way. But much like our rolling roads replacement program, we have a sidewalk replacement program associated with a uh risk study prepared by the engineer identifying the worst
sidewalks and we're working down the list from worst to best. So every year there's an appropriation and we move forward. Additionally, we're reserving uh more funds towards the acquisition of an ambulance. In addition to the current fund, we have three utilities. the water utility, the
sewer utility, and the solid waste utility. Uh the or the garbage utility, excuse me. The auditor just gave me a sideways. So, we have the water utility, the sewer utility, and the solid waste utility. Thank you, Mr. Sarinelli. Mr. Sarinelli has joined us in case anybody did the
same. Hi, Ray. In case I say something wrong, he throws tomatoes at me. Uh the word utility, the overall budget is a decrease. Reason for that is there was roughly a quarter u million dollars of deferred charges dating back to 2003 that we were
we were working to satisfy. Uh deferred charge is is essentially a debt to yourself. So you have IUs that are outstanding. That's fine. It's not something that's unheard of or necessarily improper. You don't want to leave them outstanding for long periods of time. Uh so we've satisfied the
existing IOU which is why you see the decrease in the overall budget. The most challenging issue the water utility will face this year will be the construction of the POS mitigation filter which I refer to as the giant Brida at the water
treatment facility over on West Parkway. Uh it's roughly4 to $5 million construction project but it is something that we haven't had imposed on us yet because we don't have any water that exceeds the PAS levels due to taking one of the wells offline. So, we look forward to getting that constructed,
taking more water out of our aquifers rather than buying it from the city of Newark. Um, but that is currently out to bid with bids back on the 15th of May. Project is through the NJI bank in an effort to secure positive uh interest rates as well as the opportunity for any
sort of principal forgiveness. Additional capital plane is included in the water utility. Meters need to be replaced. Hydrants are always getting knocked over and uh other improvements. sewer utility overall increase of just over $60,000.
Uh the principal driver in the sewer utility budget is debt service. The other major line item is the sewage treatment. It's one thing to collect it, but it's got to go somewhere. So, we send ours to the two bridges sewage authority. Uh that's the largest line item within the ser utility budget. And
with the uh capital projects that we just finished, the village uh project a few years ago and the route 23 project last year, uh new debt service coming on is is is the other principal driver this year in the budget process.
Solid waste utility. We are in year five of a 5-year collection contract. And anybody with Google or paying attention to the news on the recycling and solid waste contracts knows they've gone up significantly. 5 years of locking it in protected us,
treated us pretty well. Unfortunately, the contract includes the curbside recyclables collected to be the possession of the contractor. There's risk and reward there. The risk is if you have to pay to get rid of stuff, it
costs them money. If there's value to it, they can derive revenue. Currently, the only materials that are really paying money in terms of the recycling market are aluminum and clean office paper. So, everything else that you're putting in your recycling bin, unfortunately, incurs a cost to get rid
of much like the tipping fee of roughly $100 to get rid of garbage. So, we've insulated ourselves in the volatility of the market over the last 5 years, but now we're going to have a contract coming due for that service. So, those bids are out. Uh they will be due back on May 22nd
with the utility. will do an analysis of the different levels of service corresponding impact on rates that will be presented to the governing body for decision-m and direction will be given in terms of what what service levels to continue with and what the corresponding
costs will be. I would expect there will be a rate increase in 2025 uh with an effective date of January of 2026. To what extent, we have to wait and see what comes back. I typically like to end on high notes. That wasn't the highest note to end on.
But again, this process goes back to September and there's really only a couple of few months that uh Julie Koopa, the township CFO, hi Julie, uh isn't worrying about budget, working on the preparation of the budget, but as I say every year, many hands make lighter work. And in the township, there are
quite a number of people involved with the preparation of municipal budget. This is merely the culmination of a process of all those hands doing all the work. So I appreciate all the effort from the volunteers, the staff and department heads uh especially Julie and the town of council who gets to suffer through me talking about this which I do
with great any questions from the governing body. That is the conclusion of my presentation on the 2025 budget. Thank you Mr. Any questions up here? No. Yeah, we would like to say thank thank you for putting this together. Julie, I know you do a lot of work with this. I know a lot
of people in the town do a lot of work work with this, including many of the the volunteers with their budgets. So, there's a lot that goes into this. Thank you. Thank Thank you for your help with this. It was uh it was uh it was good for both go this
year and I get an audience and you get an audience. I don't have them clocking though, so no do that good of a job. No, no, you do what you can, but it's it's tough work. I I don't Thank you. Uh, next item number six, report of volunteers. Is this time are there any reports or
comments from any of the volunteers serving our community? Yes, come on up. Hi, Bob Freeman with the uh historical society. I just want to let everyone know that on say Saturday, May 3rd, we're having an open house with the Martin Berry House. This is part of the
Pathways Tour, which is Mars County's uh kind of nonprofit museums. All have an open house, so there'll be a lot of them across the county. Um the railway station is under uh refurbishment construction, so that won't be open. Uh but everyone's invited to Martin Berry
House and we'll be giving tours and uh hopefully set up some collections for people to see. Uh so I also wanted to thank the town for doing some clean up of the grounds this week. Uh so that's very much appreciated. Um also understand that there's a landscaping
evaluation going on, so we kind of look forward to that. We hope it'll improve parking and lighting and signage in the plant. Okay, good. Thank you. Any other volunteers? Yes. Come on.
Uh, good evening everyone. Good to see everybody. Randy Shamber. I'm here tonight on behalf of Propel, which is Quantronic Residence of Pride, Equity, and Leadership. Uh just to give you a bit of a report on what we've been up to for the last 6 months and what we're
planning coming up in the next couple of months. Uh we had a very large initiative that we instituted um starting last fall that went all the way until recently, a couple months ago. Um
we developed for our website um what we call our QR code to mental health. So we developed a QR code and these signs and flyers are up around town stickers and anyone can you know take a picture of the QR code. It leads to the Propel
website section which um lists 80 different um mental health resources for people. So, we want to make sure that searching out mental health um is just as
easy, common, and accepted as going to your doctor to see if you have a cold or sinus infection or whatever. No stigma. So, um what we wanted to do is get the word out even more to the residents of Pquanic. So, um, as the owner of
Shamrock, I, uh, Shamrock School of Music, uh, we did a concert to celebrate our 16th anniversary, uh, last November, and we've always done that concert to raise money for various local, uh, charities and nonprofits. And this year
we decided to help Propel with um fundraising so that we could do a direct mail campaign piece that went out to 6,500 uh township households with the QR code on it so people could access that.
Uh and that mailing went out sometime in the middle of January to 6,500 homes. So, I don't know if any of you saw it, got it, had a chance to go to the website and check it out, but again, we've expanded it to now 80 different uh organizations that provide resources on
all different subjects of mental health. Um, Propel also uh participated in several events uh since last fall. Uh we were invited to and attended the first national night out that the township did, which uh I know was last August,
but uh you know, we really enjoyed being there. It was a beautiful night and I hope that they do that again. We'd like to participate. Uh we also attended the hoown. Uh and then we just attended the library fest this past weekend. Um
through our fundraising, we also uh do a couple of other things to donate to the community. We donated to the Boys and Girls Club as well as Newbridge as they align with our uh goals, missions, and initiatives. Um, also this time of year
we review applications for scholarships at uh Township High School. We're going to be awarding two scholarships again this year to uh Quanic seniors um one actually we selected both of them and
those will be announced um at u the scholarship night which is the first Wednesday in June. Uh and then we're also going to be announcing them at our Pridefest which is Saturday, June 7th. But one is a kindness scholarship. So if they want to apply for this scholarship,
they have to write a 500word essay or shorter on what they've done in the community uh to promote kindness. Um, and uh, I kind of look forward to this now because I sit there one weekend and I read 50 or 60 essays on how our young
people in our town have promoted kindness and you get all different kinds of answers. But they're always heartwarming. They're always exciting and we've selected someone for that and that'll be announced that night. Um, what some of our seniors are doing are
incredibly impressive. um helping less fortunate people is really how they mostly help with kindness, but they're also helping with their their own students, uh friends that are in trouble. Uh it's really heartwarming
stories. Um so, um again, announced at scholarship night. Um and then of course coming up is the Pride Fest. Uh this will be our fourth annual PrideFest. It'll be Saturday, June 7th. Uh we have a record number of sponsors for this
year's Pridefest already on board. Our title sponsor this year is going to be Scanland's uh where life is celebrated. They are the title sponsor. In addition to them, uh, we have Atlantic Health and Chilton, um, TD Bank, the Chamber of
Commerce, uh, Birch Tree Psychology, Christina's by Design, and Rita Zeiss. And Shamrock School of Music is also a sponsor providing music all day long at no charge to Propel. Um, the vendor sign
up is still strong. Um, we provide booth space for nonprofits or local township organizations at no charge. Uh, businesses and crafters are also welcome for a nominal fee, which helps raise money for all of these initiatives that
we do throughout the year. Um, and we made a really big point this year of trying to get the PrideFest more well noticed uh where we sent out a press release. We've done some interviews and you're going to be seeing some of that press coming up over here uh in the next
month or so. Um at this time, uh this has become an annual tradition. I come and ask that the township council issue a pride proclamation for the month of June as that is pride month. Um so I'd like you to consider that. Again, um I'm
coming here a little earlier this year so we can have it done and issued prior to the month of June. And again, once the proclamation is issued, uh you are all welcome to come and celebrate the PrideFest with us and read the proclamation on stage. Uh it's really
powerful that the residents attending see that our township leaders support the Pride Proclamation. Um and um the last item I'd like to request is that we have the pride flags once again uh put
out in the garden in front of town hall. Um this action has been approved already by the First Reformed Church who owns the property. So I ask that you approve that as well. Uh thank you very much,
Randy. Thank you. Um any other reports or comments from volunteers groups? Seeing none, move on to item number seven, public comment. Uh this comment period will be limited to a total of 30 minutes. Additional time is reserved later in the meeting. We welcome
comments, suggestions, and questions during the comment period. However, the purpose of this is to allow public comment, not to engage in dialogue. If you have specific question, please feel free to pose it and then follow up with staff via telephone or email. Comments are limited to three minutes, please. If
anyone wishes to address the council, please wait to be recognized and come to the microphone and provide your name for the record. Anyone for public comment? Yes, come on up. Good evening. Megan Dempsey. Um, I just wanted to speak in support of Propel's
request to have the Pride Proclamation again this year. It's become a great annual tradition signed by most of the council in the past years. Hopefully all of the council this year would be fantastic to really show that unified support also for the uh pride flags out front. It's again it's a great thing to
do in our community. Um very small compared to what a lot of communities around us do to show their support for the LGBTQ plus community. So really not too much to ask. Um and hope to see you all at Pridefest as well. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public
comments? Yes. Come on up. Hi Tina Ikeo. Um I just wanted to uh say thank you to Mr. Brewer, um the CFO, the auditor, any everyone who's involved in the budget. I just finished the budget myself for a school and I know how incredibly challenging it is in the economic status and it looks like
there's a wonderful mix balance in there of forward thinking uh for reserves as well as you know paying down debt and so forth. So and and really I was just going like this that I beat you and I'm 2.99 in mine. So, um, but totally different ball game. Um, I appreciate,
uh, the detail you provided and it looks amazing. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment? Yes. Come on up, please. Will.
Good evening. Uh, Will Suit Maker. Um, I was just coming uh forward tonight to uh just voice my support. I think it's on the agenda for tonight, but uh of the the fire department's proposed turkey trot. Um I got a letter about it in the mail cuz of my location and uh I just
wanted to uh say that I think this is a great idea and um that this will be a great way for the the fire department to raise a lot of funds. Uh I did some math and like uh the Rotary 5K had like 250,000 uh sorry 250 people and uh that
could raise almost like $10,000 for the department. So I would just urge you to support this and uh thank you. Definitely are looking for help out there. You're signed up. You're signed up. Anybody else for public comment in the mail? All right. Seeing none, um we're
going to we're going to move on with a Jenna. Is there any comment from council on anything for Mr. Brew or anything that was said? No, I just had one comment. I I don't know that it affects us that much, but I think relay for life that they're doing in Montville that
they want to participate in is the same day I think as your price. I don't know if it matters, but I just figured I'd tell you that. I don't know if there any conflict. It's over a month. Although they were here last meeting trying to get us to do relay, so
I just figured I'd mention that. Do I have those names correct? I don't know. I didn't sign up for the team yet, though, but I will. I promise. Yeah, we're going to have a team performance for the real start till 5:00 where I just figured I'd mention that.
Okay. All right. Uh, next on the agenda is the manager's report. Mr. Mer, thank you. I get to come back for more. Um, as written in my report, we have the municipal budget presentation. So, thank you everybody for your attention to that. Uh, with respect to potential legislative action for the council this
evening, we have an ordinance authorizing the sale of 101 Chatfield, which is a mically currently municipally owned portable unit. Uh, that is for public hearing and potential adoption. We also have an ordinance uh for public hearing and potential adoption. three partial recreation fees. That was just
to maintain compliance with the fee schedule. I'm emphasizing that so the auditor hears it. And then uh the council for three fees, Mr. Three fees. We don't want to get in trouble. And then uh lastly, there is a resolution scheduled for the arrive together program which is
a little bit of an unusual thing. This is an initiative being requested by the prosecutor's office. There is additional detail within your packets from chief commune articulating what it is and and why we are being asked to participate. Uh essentially this is the assignment of
mental health resources to support police departments and those individuals who may be in need. So this is not a situation where there's going to be ride alongs. We've heard about that probably in the press and other jurisdictions. This is really just a resource being provided at no cost to Quant Township at
this time. Uh but it is at the direction of Mars County prosecutor who is actually the chief law enforcement officer in the county. So this is any questions then? Yeah. No, I was going to say it sounds good. It sounds like there's going to be more like things available at the fingertips
of the police to refer and stuff. More resources are always a good thing. More resources that don't cost us tax dollars are the best thing. Very good. Any other comments? Nope. Moving on. Next on the agenda is public hearing on ordinance 2025-03
this March. Ordinance 2028503 is an ordinance authorizing the sale of certain property owned by the township of Aquanic 101 Chapfield Drive not required for public purposes pursuant to NJSA 48 1213 and
second. Great. Are there any comments from council? Is there a motion to open the public hearing? I'll make that motion to open the public hearing on 2025-03. I'll second. All in favor? Anyone in the audience has any questions or comments on this ordinance, please
come to the microphone and identify yourself for the record. Seeing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing? So move. Second. I'll second. All in favor? I. Is there a motion to adopt this
ordinance? I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance number 2025-3. I'll second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Florence Lynch, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor Dy, yes. Next on the agenda is public hearing on
ordinance number 2025-04. Miss Marsh. Ordinance 202504 is an ordinance amending chapter 152 of the code of the township of Pclonic and re revising fees for certain parks and recreation activities and programs. Any comments from council hearing? None. Is
there a motion to open the public hearing? I'll make that motion. No second. All in favor? I I. If anyone in the audience has any questions or comments on this ordinance, please come to the microphone and identify yourself for the record. Seeing none, is there a motion to close
the public hearing? I'll make a motion to close second. All in favor? I. Is there a motion to adopt this ordinance? I'll make a motion to adopt uh ordinance uh 202504
254 second roll call please. Mrs. Lawrence Lynch, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor D. Yes. Next on the agenda is the introd introduction of ordinances. Miss Marsh.
Ordinance number 2025 is an ordinance authorizing compensation in the form of a clothing allowance or stipen for members of the fire department of the township of planet. Mr. Brewer, any comments? Significant discussion about clothing allowance
began in 2024 with the budget process. There was a plan to try to increase it as much as the budget would allow. The increases identified within this ordinance are consistent with the requests that were put forth and recommended by the fire chiefs. So, it was nice to be able to fit in the budget what was actually requested. Sometimes I
think I'm the director of no. So, sometimes it's nice to say council supports it. Yes. All right. Any comments from council? No. Great. Glad we can do it. Is there a motion to introduce introduce this ordinance on first reading? I'll make a
motion to introduce ordinance 2025-05. Second. All right. Roll call, please. Mrs. Clinch. Yes. Mr. Cole. Yes. Mrs. Russell. Yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor Tracy, yes. Next on the agenda is resolutions approving the introduction
of the 2025 municipal budget. First is 2025-94 authorizing self-examination of the municipal budget for the year 2025. Are there any comments on this resolution from council? No. Is there a motion to adopt this
resolution? I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-94. Is there a second? I'll second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Florence Lynch, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Syracuse, would you say yes or no? Yes. Yes. Mr.
Syracus, yes. Mayor Tracy, yes. And now, resolution R205-95 approving the introduction of the 2025 municipal budget. Are there any comments from council? Hearing none, is there a vote? Is there
a motion to adopt this resolution? I'll make ahead. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-95. Second. Roll call, please. Mrs. Lawrence Lynch, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Mrs. Russell,
yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor Tracy, yes. The next agenda item is the remaining resolutions. Miss Marsh. Um, we have for your consideration R202596 authorizing an agreement between the township of Police Department and the
Mental Health Association to establish joint participation in the Arrive Together program. 202597 approving the designated special event permit application for the fire department 5K run. 202598 authorizing tax office refunds, overpayments, or cancellations.
and R202599 approving payment of the itemized claims is set forth on the April 3rd, 2025 bill list and 2018 theme and elevation escro list. Okay. Are there any comments on the resolutions from council?
It's nice to see another 5K coming in town. Health and wealth. Although I'm not crazy about running unless somebody's chasing me, but hey, maybe Jean can chase me down straight up. Walk, John. What's that? We can walk it. Oh, we can walk it. It's going to take a
long time. Yeah, we can walk it. I'll walk with you. Is there a motion to adopt these resolutions? I'll make a motion to adopt resolutions 2025-96 through 2025-9. All right. Is there a second? All right.
Roll, please. Mrs. Lawrence Lynch, yes. Mr. Cole, yes. Mrs. Russell, yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor Dy, yes. Item number 12, there are no items listed for discussion. Um, item number 13, next on the agenda
is reports and notices. This is, uh, on the correspondence, note sale award. Yes, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind. So, uh, statutoily the CFO is obligated when there is a sale of notes or bonds to notify the governing body of the sale
and what the outcome uh, of the sale was. Uh the township sold 3,5,000 notes which are are short-term instruments. Uh the lowest bidder was Piper and Sandler Company with a net interest cost of 3.146630%.
Uh the coupon rate was 4% and it includes a total premium of $25,5755. Any questions about that? We have the CFO in the order here. But essentially uh notes are are 12 month unless otherwise shorter or specified instruments
of of short-term debt. Okay. Any comments for council questions? Oh, he's got a com. Mr. Mayor, I just thought you should know. So, so we introduced the budget tonight. Who are you? Ray Silly Township. Hello. Sorry.
Um my train of thought. Never mind. I got it. So, you introduced the budget tonight. You have always had very good long-term plans in your budgets, at least since I've been involved. Um, and I think that the that notice is proof of
that. I just recently did a sale where the interest rate for the town was uh on very similar size notes was 3.7%. So, by having good long-term plans in your budget really relates to cost savings in terms of interest when you
get into these debt type situations because rating agencies do look at your financial situation and how well you're doing and give you a better interest rate knowing the fact that you are doing the right things through your budget. So, just thought I would mention that since Adam made me come out here tonight
anyway. So, I figured I'd have to say something. But, it is it is a good thing to see. I mean 3.1 to 3.7 that's pretty significant savings on on $3.5 million. Okay. Sorry. Yes. We definitely try to do do our best to keep the outlook the
the far out outlook not just look at what's happening this this year. So good good financial planning by by the council. So it's a good thing. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. All right. Have a good night. Thank you Mr. All right. Next on the agenda is council reports and announcements. Councilwoman
Florence Lynch. I I don't really have anything new new, just a couple of uh comments. Uh the seniors uh had their bus trip to the Huntington Playhouse on April 1st. It was a success. They're going to be holding a senior dance
on June 7th. I guess you can go to uh the senior house to find more information on about that. Um what else? Uh oh, I see we're having Kyle, you probably actually already commented on
this last meeting. There's a shred day coming up June 10th. Is that correct? It's May 10th. It's May 10th. Okay. I thought I had the warm feet in here. Um let's see what else do I have on here. The Chamber of Commerce is doing a shop the town day on Saturday, June 14th. So
that should be fun with all the um businesses in town. They mentioned Relay for Life is June 7th. You did sign us up, John 13. Oh, not yet. Okay. Uh what else do we have? Um
some of this other stuff I reported on. Uh we know about the his the work going on in the train station. We have the the um Pathways event coming up. So I do plan on stopping by the Martin Berry House on May 3rd. That should be good
for a tour. Um, what else do we have? I don't really have anything else. Um, I didn't see yet whether we're having a planning board meeting on June 14th, but if we are, that's my next meeting coming up. June 14th. Oh, I'm sorry. Why do I keep
saying June? May I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's the next one would be May 12th cuz it's always the second Monday now. But, um, I haven't gotten an email yet. So, so that's it. All right. Thank you, Melissa. Councilman Cole. Uh, I don't
have anything. Uh, I unfortunately I will not be able to participate in the mayor's rural wall cleanup this Saturday. Still recovering from surgery. So, thank you to all the people that are volunteering to to help uh win that. And uh I'll see you at the next one.
Definitely. That's all I got. Thank you, Dave. Councilwoman Russell, um, none of my committees have met. The library had their first library fest. It was very well attended. Um I had a couple of questions from um
people who live in the town about the blue line in front of the municipal building. Can we That's kind of faded. Can we get that redone? I'm in favor of that. Can we? I guess we could. How do we do that?
Council directs CVW paints. Okay. If it needs to be done, I didn't notice if it was real faded or not, but if it is faded, get it done relatively. So, yes or no? I'm a yes. John, yes or no? Yes. Dave, yes or no? If I can vote, I'm a
yes. That's true. You can vote. Yes. Okay. So, we That would be great. And you have that so directly. Good. Awesome. Um, and that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Carl. Councilman Sarah Cuser. So, um I had discussion conflict last night with the parks and
recreation uh committee meeting. So, I was able unable to make it. However, they have a recommendations for the council on the pickle ball courts going forward. So, I'll be able to get that to you and you can have some discussion on that and whatever. Um, as far as the Riverwalk is concerned, I will not be
able to make it because we have um the brigade, the 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team just come back from Iraq in Syria a couple months ago and on Saturday is their big welcome home ceremony. So, I'll be I'll be there. You're excused. Thank you, sir. Thank
you. So, commenting on what he said about these pitf that that we have to approve these rules. No, I think it's really the parks and recy it's really Yeah, the parks rec advisory committee has done about 18 months or longer uh review of of options on how to do this.
So, as the advisory Yeah. As the advisory committee is going to provide a very detailed, very thoughtful, very very in-depth in-depth uh presentation on their recommendation. They're an advisory committee to the council. Yes. Okay. So, that's how that process works. My recommendation would be that we
digest that in public meeting. The council directs the staff to provide their thoughts and then ultimately we'll come in. So it actually came from the committee, not from from the committee. Correct. A subcommittee of the committee. Okay. Yeah. Looking forward to seeing that. Yeah. That should be interesting. The only thing I know is you hit the
ball over the net. It's got to be in the box. So someone did ask me to verify that the nets are at the correct height. Yes. the the nets that are on the courts that are also tennis courts are not at the
correct height. We're talking about the new nets. They will be at the proper height. So they're right now they're not at the proper height. They're hanging. Are they installed? Yeah, they're installed. I'll looks like they are dragging on the I'll check. Yeah. No, the surface isn't finished, but the
lights are still on. People are playing. Okay. You know, without any I don't know why they're putting on the new Yeah. Okay. I will restart that too. Thank you. And open space hasn't. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. All right. Couple things. River cleanup is
Saturday. Come out, bring your boots, your gloves, and let's go clean up. Right, Peter? Let's go clean up. Clean up. Um, with regards to this uh PV, speaking of painting, can we repaint the yellow curb so we can see them? Yes. And maybe that'll be more of a visual to
people parking and not park or parking where they're not supposed to, etc. So, and then um I don't have much. I just um wanted just to give a shout out to all um our volunteers that work on all the committees, the various committees in town to try to keep everything move moving forward um and uh do what's best
for our town. We live in a great town. Let's keep it that way. That's all I got. Item number 15, next on agenda, public comments. As a reminder, we welcome comments, suggestions, and questions rather than dialogue. Comments are limited to 3 minutes. Please, if anyone wishes to address the council, please wait to be
recognized to come to the microphone and provide your name for the record. Anybody? Yes. Come on up, Mary K. Sherman. Um, welcome. Thank you. Um, I'd like to remind people I was at the library fest
for a couple minutes on Saturday. It was really terrific and I think this is National Library Week. So, I really honor the library and I support 100% what Propel would like to do of a proclamation and I'd appreciate if the
flags were uh for the full month of June for 30 days. Um, I didn't know I was going to be commenting on this, but um, as a member of the Quanic Township population, I object to having that blue line
repainted. It should be neutral. I need to have an answer as to why it was put there in the first place. I've lived here since 1985 and the only time that blue line was made in my humble opinion and from other
people I've talked to um it was never ever having a blue line there until the election in 2020 2016. So, I would like to object and I'd like you to put it on pause before it's
painted and I'd like to have some discussion from the community as to why and no why if um so that's my comment about the blue line in front of township of Quanic. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Anybody else? Yes. Come on up. Hi, I'm Matt Ao from the fire department. And I just want to say thank you for the approval of the 5K. And um we're looking to promote a good fundraiser about bringing about like health and uh fitness to uh the town
instead of uh you know like the same old let's go out and get drunk and have the fun type of stuff. So thank you very much. And you're looking for volunteers right now. Yes. If anybody wants to volunteer, you can come down the fire department and uh we'll get you busy. Well, if you're around that day, I'll be there with you. There you go. There you
go. Anyone else for public comment? Seeing none, we're going to close this comment public comment section. Any uh any comments from council? Yeah, I have a comment. Um I just wanted to um I just want to, you know, just take notice of the um of that initiative with all the
police departments, you know, and I want to also take note of PEL, you know, for the mental health awareness because um it's a real thing, right? And a lot of people every day they suffer in silence and they don't have to because there's plenty of resources out there for either mental health or for drug and alcohol
addiction. And um you're not alone. If you are out there and you have a problem, call somebody. Uh cuz you don't have to you don't have to suffer. Please don't suffer in silence. That's all I say. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it is. It is it is a big thing. I I I think there's a lot of a lot of shame in it, but there
isn't. And that's why you need a good group of people around you um to help to help support. So yes, please please go out go out and get help if you need it or just talk to somebody at least talk to somebody cuz it helps. It does help. Um next on the agenda, there are no
minutes for approval. Um item number 17 is uh the close session. Is there a motion to approve a resolution authorizing the township council to meet in executive session to discuss the litigation of Pasak Valley Learning Center versus the Township of Quantic in
matters of attorney client privilege? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All right. All in favor? Opposed? At this time, the public portion of the meeting is recessed for close session.