Good evening everyone. Welcome to the meeting of the mayor and council of Princeton, New Jersey. Today is August 25th, 2025. Uh madame clerk, could we have the meeting statement, please? Notice of this meeting was provided in accordance with the requirements of the
open public meetings act and state regulations governing public meetings, including the time, date, and location of the meeting and clear and concise instructions to the public for accessing the meeting and making comments. In addition, the agenda and all related
materials were posted electronically and made available to the public on Princeton's meeting portal in advance of the meeting. >> Thank you. Uh Leighton's going to do the uh land acknowledgement when he's back. Thanks for talking to Adam in the back room.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. We gather here today on the land of the Lenny Lape. As members of the Princeton community, we aspire to show appreciation, respect, and concern for all peoples and our environment. We
honor the Lape and other indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters, the elders who lived here before, the indigenous today and the generations to come. >> Thank you. Can we have roll call, please? >> Mr. McDonald >> here.
>> Miss Peron Lamrose >> here. >> Mr. Cohen >> here. >> Miss Saxs >> here. >> Miss Braa >> here. >> Mr. Nulan >> here. >> Mayor Freda >> here. If you'd like to and you're able, if you would stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance.
>> I pledge 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. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, first item up,
approval of minutes from the June 3rd, 2025 close session. Leticia has got the motion and David's got the second. >> Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. >> I.
>> Announcements and reports. Council, announcements or reports. >> Okay. Leighton, >> I just want to thank the Princeton Police Department. uh the hierarchy and uh board of the Princeton Housing Authority, the residents uh for a grand
uh barbecue celebration uh last Saturday. And just particularly want to give a shout out to the police department who uh manned the grill again and cooked great hamburgers, hot dogs, and provided great fellowship and a good time was had by all and we just
appreciate uh the way we build community here in Princeton. Just want to thank again uh captain, lieutenant, chief, and everybody who is out there sweating and cooking burgers and hot dogs. Thank you. Thanks, Liam. Oh, and one more thing.
Want to give a shout out to my colleague Leticia Fragger, who is one hell of a face painter. These kids reacted to her with uh all the further fervor of uh good graces and hallelujah times and we
all had a good time and again Leticia, thanks for being out there. It's always a pleasure having you and you are a very creative person. Appreciate it. >> I enjoy it. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Okay. Any other council announcements or reports? All right. How about the uh police
chief's report for June 2025? Captain. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. Tonight, I'm going to be presenting the June police report and which is highlighted by the graduation of our third citizens police academy. Over the past three years, the community members have taken part in this program. It provides
residents with a behind-the-scenes look at police operations, policies, and training. It has proven to be a valuable way to build trust, strengthen relationships, and create ambassadors for public safety within Princeton. This program has also benefited benefited
from strong support including both current and past council members who have participated and shared how impactful this experience was to them. Our next citizens police academy takes place in the spring of 2026 with applications opening up after the start of the new year. Please keep an eye out
for police department social media for this opportunity as well as all other police events and community initiatives. And again, I will also second that uh Mr. Nuland's comment that Mrs. Frogga is an excellent face painter. Um, having seen her this past Saturday at the
Reading Circle Barbecue. Um, but and that's another one of these great police initiatives uh in partnership with uh Princeton Housing that allows us to interact greatly with our community. So, thank you for that. >> Okay. Do we have um any questions for the captain? David,
>> um just a quick one. I was looking at the June summones and pretty much all of the vehicular summones are are pretty much in line give or take with uh
previous years except for the speeding summones which really plummeted uh year-over-year from last year and we're literally onetenth of the number of speeding summones from 2019. I'm just curious. I'm I'm hoping it's
because people are obeying the speed limit, but I wonder if you want to reflect a little on that change. >> Yeah, we we saw that thing too, and it's uh not uncommon for numbers to fluctuate from year to year, month to month. Um, one thing that we spoke about in public
safety and other venues is that uh staffing levels for the police department have been down with recent hiring putting us at a position where we can possibly address this through um uh greater uh traffic enforcement and other uh traffic safety measures. So, I would look in the uh coming months uh for the
police department to be in a better position to uh uh dedicate more selective enforcement to speeding complaints and other identified issues. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Yes, Lucia. >> No questions, but comment. I want to
thank the police department for their another great uh and successful uh citizens academy. My husband actually took part this year and couldn't say enough good things about it. He was just really excited about the opportunity,
all that he learned, the experiences and I would highly highly recommend uh to my colleagues to consider taking part next year. I think every one of us I did it the first year but every one of us
should uh have it's a great opportunity should take advantage of it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anything else for the Kathine? All right. Do we have any other staff reports? Okay. Uh I guess next up is we have a
work session on the transit study. Who is uh leading that effort? >> Can I um have the screen please? >> Sorry. >> Adam, I was asking Adam to
>> Oh, you're waiting for this to come up. Okay. Good evening, council and mayor. Um, I'm here to present on the Princeton community transit plan, uh, and where we are today and request some, uh,
decisions from council as to where we go, uh, after this evening. Um last year, uh Princeton contracted with Nelson Nygard to prepare a transit study that would include a needs and demands analysis, community engagement, and preparation of short and long-term
transit recommendations. Um the community engagement consisted of meetings with four stakeholder focus groups, a community survey, and hosting pop-up events at strategic locations in Princeton. Uh the key findings from the community engagement are that there is a
desire for more direct and frequent bus service in Princeton and that the Princeton shopping center, the dinky, the library and Palmer Square are the most important destinations followed by the route one corridor and pen medicine. In addition to the Nelson Nygard
findings, residents and management of the Alice, Avalon on Thanet Circle, and Avalon on Harrison indicated that there is a desire for a link to the Northeast Corridor rail line from the shopping center. A survey of the first tenants of the Alice showed that 13 of 15
respondents would use a shuttle to get them to Princeton station or Princeton Junction. Nelson Nygard presented several short-term scenarios. Their focus was on developing recommendations to provide community access to safe, affordable, cost-effective, and lowcarbon
transportation. Understanding that there is a limited budget with specific short-term needs in mind, none of the scenarios are what an ideal system would be with higher frequency and more coverage. They had goals of uh community access to safe,
affordable, cost-effective, and lowcarbon transportation. I repeat myself. um adding in solutions to traffic congestion, creating employee uh opportunities to remote park um and move to a less car centric town. Um they had
some evaluation measures included in their um uh evaluation of estimated ridership, estimated cost per rider, number of residents with access to transit, vehicle requirements, administrative and technological requirements. Um they did come up with
some short-term scenarios. However, those short short-term scenarios fall short because they all relied on delivery of the two electric vehicle shuttles that uh might be appropriate in
the long term, but are not going to be delivered until sometime in 2026. Um and and we don't anticipate that being January, but more likely middle to end of 2026. Just as a reminder, the current service
is a fixed route 80minute frequency that connects multi-unit residential communities with shopping, social, and educational facilities. It is a single vehicle. It is a one pass 114 passenger cutaway shuttle. Uh it runs Monday
through Saturday. Uh, it serves from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Uh, it costs 362,164 for this year's service. Uh, it does see um some pretty good uh ridership numbers, 89 boardings per weekday, about
seven boardings an hour. Um we have uh seen a steady increase in ridership um lowering the uh cost per rider significantly. When we first started this a few years ago, it was $24 per
ride. It's now down to around 11 or 12. As I said, of um um all of all of the scenarios that Nelson Nygard put together, the most viable one for the immediate future is to provide a direct link between the Princeton
Shopping Center and the Dinky. Um they had that included in two of the four scenarios that they came up with, but again relying on the EV shuttles that are not going to show up anytime soon. um with a second bus. Uh the two we
could create two fixed routes. Uh one that would run as a shuttle between the shopping center and the dinky on a 50 50minute frequency. Um, it would include uh stops on Harrison and Nassau and could run from 6:00 am, which is um the
earliest time that makes sense for commuters, and up until 8:30 p.m. to bring commuters home from uh the Northeast Rail. uh the second that we would continue using the current service
loop um with the the current bus um but with but adding a second bus. That second bus would cost about $33,000 a month. 32,930 is a number we got from We Drive You. we
would have to go out to bid for the service because it exceeds over the next few months would exceed the uh bid threshold. Um the annual cost of that second bus would be $395,000
and so the total annual cost with the two of them would be $758,000. The other scenario which was um looked at um was having
come on two fixed routes with the single vehicle that we had. Um that was the one that was presented a few weeks ago to council. Um this scenario would serve the two routes but was deter determined to be undesirable due to the inconvenience
placed on the current riders. Uh this scenario resulted in a later start of the current route in the morning and the loss of um some uh circuits in the evening. Um we looked at adding in a
final run at 7:45 to um pick up any pe any of our customers who had gone out to events later in the evening. Um it just wasn't working. Um but it is it is still an option. Um that would uh continue to
have the dinky shopping center shuttle on 50-minute frequency but only for commuters in the morning and the evening. Um and then we could modify the current service loop to break up uh start it later in the morning and break
it up in the evening. Um that additional cost is shown here as uh $1,500 extra per month um at a total annual cost of 395160. We do have funding for whatever scenario uh we choose. Uh we have uh developer
agreements in place that uh the developer agreements the developers of the shopping center housing um contributed to a sustainable transportation fund of uh $800,000. Princeton University has uh agreed to
contributions for transportation purposes over the next five years that total up to $1.5 million. Uh we have an ARPA grant uh already awarded to us for 75,500 to expand the service. Um associated
with that we also have a Mercer area transportation improvement program grant to um uh erect electronic bus stop displays. Um until we decide what we're doing uh we don't know where those bus stops the bus stops displays will be.
But we have $105,000 grant from uh state of New Jersey um for that. Um and then of course there are funds to be determined from that could be used from our parking utility for mid to long-term
um expansion of the um service. So what we're here today to ask about is what are our next steps? Um Nelson Nygard's contract expired and we uh we did not renew it. Um they are done with
uh everything that we thought we could get out of them. We have received a a proposal from a company called Telos Advisors that is a professional services organization that provides advice on implementation strategies, funding
opportunities, startup of u of programs. Um they are former uh employees of New Jersey Transit. They have extensive experience in this and their proposal fee is approximately equivalent to the remaining funds from the Nelson Nygard
study. Um their fee is below the bid threshold. So we can award that contract with a council resolution or without a council council resolution. Um, ideally having Telos on board as as we look at
um, expanding the service uh, will help us fine-tune what we do. So, we have a few choices we're asking uh, council to give us direction on. Um, we could continue with the status quo and do nothing. Um, we could have the two fixed
routes with two vehicles. Um, that will require us to issue requests for bids. um we could go with the two fixed undesirable route of um one vehicle that we had set up as a pilot at an additional $1,500 per month. Um and we
would like to move forward with uh authorizing Telos advisors uh who have all this experience to really tell us what to do in the long term. And that is the request that we have this evening.
>> Okay. council questions or comments. Michelle, you wanted to u I just thank you Jim for putting that together. Um I you know this we're kind of at a at a point now to make a decision. Um it doesn't have
to be you know a decision that we can do forever. I think that these things will be flexible um in terms of what happens in the in the future. But when we talked about a pilot before, even adding another bus is a pilot in a way. Um
there are there's a lot of interest. I think Nelson Nygard did a really good job of, you know, do doing the community outreach. Uh so the next phase now is really to take it off of the engineering plate and if we can move towards having
Telos help us um we could do the bid and look at you know the other stops in between and how we can also fund it in the long term but we do have funding to get started and we're talking about another 370ish
thousand a year to add the other bus. So, um, so questions. >> Okay, David. >> Yeah. Um, thanks for the presentation. I know, um, when I first saw, I guess, a draft of
the Nelson Nygard, I was curious about, um, transit on demand, either as a standalone solution or as a hybrid solution with some fixed route service and some ondemand service. Um, I like
the idea of it because it really would serve the entire community rather than uh people who are lucky enough to live at the shopping center or along the route that is proposed here. And Jim, I don't know if if you can share a little
bit about um why that was not uh a preferred solution and uh also speculatively um as technology improves and as competition increases in that sector um
I hope you know in next year or in the near future that it may become viable even if it's not viable right Now, >> yeah, sure. Um, the the Nelson Nygard recommendations were for short-term strategies that did
include microtransit, but uh implementing a microtransit program is not a short-term strategy. It would take um a lot of time and effort to try to figure that out. Um, and
perhaps Telos advisors is the right group to do this. Um going with microransit means finding possibly another firm to run um additional uh shuttles or uh we do have already in
place several transportation options that could be considered microransit. We have um uh ride provide, we have cross town, we have um what's the New Jersey
Transit? Um last Yeah. Access. Yeah. Um um and and we do have uh for those who can afford it, we have Uber and Lift and uh and even taxi cabs in town. Um but putting it all together into a
comprehensive system, we didn't see that as a short-term strategy, but more a mid to long-term strategy of adding microtransit into uh a system. what that we need something in place today. Um, and don't have the resources to put
together right now. Um, just it's really kind of a long-term strategy is really all I'm trying to say. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I'd just like to quickly respond and say I think that none of the
options that you're mentioning as existing microransit really are focused on ride sharing and that's really the um the thing that can make the difference and make it affordable.
The other thing that I'll mention um is that like I had a conversation with some representatives from VIA this morning and they were talking about really tailoring it to the time of day demands. So one of the nice things about the
microtransit is it could just run um you know from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. and similar time in the afternoon. it could be a lot less expensive than the second fixed route uh that we're talking about. But
>> Michelle, >> yeah, and just to to add to that, that is something that we're talking to Taylor about um whether it's, you know, sooner rather than later. If we get these when when we get we'll be optimistic when we get EV buses at some point that could be incorporated. So I
think bringing their expertise on will really help us see the technology, the ways to pay for it. um you know that's definitely still on the table. It's not off the table, but right now we want to get started.
>> So let me just ask a couple questions and anybody can answer that's knowledgeable on this. Uh looking at the possible funding sources for this, what else would we be using that money for if we didn't do it for this?
I would imagine we have a list I to be honest I don't know the nuances of the agreements that we have for use of those funds. >> Yeah, >> I'm going to answer that. >> Well, the the funding primarily is going
to be is a recurring revenue that will come out of the parking increases that have not been increased in six years. The other there is some support from the university um
and there is some support from our affordable housing uh slash uh development prov uh partners um but primarily this the funding for this will come out of um increased parking revenue
which is um I think um a good uh frame aim for this in that uh hopefully people will be driving less and taking public transit more but but to your point about what other things would be funding what
what other things would be funded um I don't take your pick >> okay so the the parking I'm sorry let me just go ahead >> so the parking revenue increase is an assumed thing because we haven't talked about it yet um so we have we anyway so that's not definite and we don't know
how much that increase would need to be to fund But it sounds if we use the full developers um the agreement with the developers to give us the 800,000. >> No. No. >> Can I finish? >> Oh, I'm sorry. This is just an important part. I'm sorry, Mark. I apologize.
>> All right. Well, let me finish my thought and then you can jump on about it later. >> So, the developers are giving us 800,000. We have a a pool of money from the university for 1.5 million and there's this grant for 755. So that's $2,375,500.
I imagine that's all onetime money. >> No. So yeah, it's $300,000 a year from the university. It started last year. So we already have 300,000 last year, 300,000 this year. That's six. We'd start half a year now. So it would only
be half the 390. So let's say 200,000. So we'd have a reserve just from the university of 400,000. and for three more years we'd have 300,000 which covers almost the entire 370. >> In addition to that, there's parking
revenue and we wouldn't even really need to touch the developer money. It's just to say these are potential funding sources. They're out there. They're buckets that we could look at. But that's why too it's important to bring on someone who this other company that
can help us look at grants and look at how to fund this down the road. Let's say we do this for a year and we see how it works, what the adoption is. Um, you know, I I think that we have plenty to cover just from the university alone
what we would do in the next 18 months. Beyond that, we'll see, you know, using parking revenue and other revenue sources. So, the the idea is just to say there is money that is allocated out there for transit, >> okay, >> and sustainable transportation. All
right. >> And we want to, you know, >> Okay. All right. So, I'm looking at it from a slightly different angle. If I add up those three amounts of money, it's a little under 2.4 million, which means if you look at option, the option that is the second bus, the 758,000 a year. Those three pools of money would
fund this program for a little under three years. >> But, but Mark, we're already paying half of it. It's already in our budget. We pay it out of the parking utility. So, it's not it's half of the 700. >> Okay. Anyway, um like I was saying, parking fees we haven't discussed, so we
don't know what increase would be needed or how much. I'd love to understand what things we are not going to do with this funding with these funding sources that we could do because I think we should understand what it is that we what is the the lost opportunity so to speak by doing this program versus some other
programs. Anyway, I just want to make sure that when we look at this, I'm I'm always leerary about saying, "Yeah, we got plenty of money and then we don't know what all the funding sources are for sure." But >> anyway, other comments or questions? Leon.
>> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm kind of on the fence about this now, too. I want to thank Jim for traveling over to uh Elm Court with me because when we originally talked about this uh some of our seniors were really upset because we
were going to divert uh the one MUN bus that we have to help with this pilot program. And we fought that back because we found that there was a great need uh for full-time schedule. And you know
along the way what what what what I'm also noticing and also understanding is I agree that this new route is needed because we have new affordable housing along the Carter. But let's also keep in mind that this MUN bus will travel from
the Dinky up to Nassau Street all the way down Withersp all the way down Nassau Street to Harrison a left on Harrison go to the two new complexes we have on uh around the shopping center and come right back right back to the same route. So, I just want to be clear
what we will be doing. There's there's not a lot of residences. There's not a lot of Princeton people on that route other than the Avalon and what we're doing at Vanet. That that that's the people that we are going to depend on to ride this route. That is
the reason that we are doing this. So >> my message is we got to take a really really hard look at how many people get on that bus, how many people get off, where they get on, where they get off, and how many people that are just regular people from Princeton who have been here their whole lives are using
this route. That's what I'll be looking for. because if I find that it's strictly and only for people that have new arrivals to Princeton and we're spending this kind of money for strictly new arrivals, I would come back and revisit this once, twice, and thrice.
So, I just want to be clear that this pilot program, you know, we have people who who are here because, you know, we welcome them here with new affordable housing and that has an infrastructure cost, but that cost has to be uh
scrutinized to a fairly well in my mind, if you will, because we're considering spending a lot of money. and the question you asked or Brian asked or what else could be done with this money. I'm not sure if we have an answer for that tonight, but I'll bet you we would find something to spend it on. Thank you.
>> Um, >> can I can I respond? >> So, it's not just for the residents at Princeton Shopping Center. It's it could stop at the end of Franklin. It could be for students. It could certainly be for employees, as we said earlier in the
slide presentation, for employees that want to commute in that can't park or can't afford to park. Um, it's also for people hopefully will start to get around town and go to the centers of commerce um using this. I mean, it's it's going to be an adoption. There's
there's there's no way to do a survey and know exactly. We only know what people said that they want, but we won't know until we get out there and start to market and get people on board. Experience Princeton's already aware of this and you know, we want to get from a
marketing and economic development standpoint to get them involved with reaching to the businesses, getting employees um that can't park. There's nowhere for people to park if you've got um you know, no permits available in any of the parking garages. It's very
difficult. So, you know, the idea that they would go to a parking garage that's a little further out and then use this or come in on the dinky and also visitors can come in on the dinky. So, that's the idea to >> Can I Can I ask something Mark on that?
Okay. So, Michelle, but the issue with this is that it doesn't involve satellite parking. So, how would this solve the situation with employee parking, which is definitely a priority, and I understand that it's a priority for experienced Princeton, but employees
are not going to come and park at the shopping center. They're not going to park at the dinky. So, how does this solve it? This does not involve satellite parking, which is definitely object an objective of ours. But where in this route does it and how does it solve the employee parking issue?
>> Well, I mean, it's not going to solve everything, but people who just mention that. >> I'm just saying that if people come in on the dinky instead of driving, that's one thing. If visitors that come in on the dinky and not driving and then, you know, if they
park, even if they park down the street, you know, and and and they can jump on and, you know, hop on, hop off kind of thing. Um it's a lot easier than, you know, being able to find a park in the center of town and that's what we need
to get to. I'm sorry. Yeah. You have more? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I Okay. Are there any other questions? I have another comment, but I'm just going to make sure there's any other questions first. I my my thought I'm sorry, David, go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to suggest
I think one of the data points that will be really important is to see what the wrership is during the day because you know we know there's expressed interest from the residences at the shopping center in this route. Um I can easily
imagine this bus being full uh in the morning and the evening and empty during the day and that really again might push things in a direction of a hybrid solution where we don't need a second bus but we can be providing that service
through uh an ondemand or ride share type thing. >> Sorry David, are you suggesting we do the option where it's the two routes with one bus or what were you just suggesting? No, what I was suggesting is I'm okay with doing this for a year, but
I think that we need to and if we can do it before a year, you know, if this if Tilos or whatever the name is the consultant is uh can help us figure out a way to do this even right away. Uh I
think it's worth looking at a a service that is one bus and then ride share essentially uh uh souped-up Uber, >> you know, where basically they're
smaller vehicles. You call you put it in on your cell phone. You may even pay for the service, but it's um reasonably low cost because it's a shared ride. you have six people in a minivan instead of one person in a minivan the way you have with Uber.
>> Um I I and it may be something that we can provide more affordably and without a lot of difficulty um even from day one, you know. So I'd like to see Tilos looking at that. >> Yeah. And and that's what I'm I'm I have
a lot of confidence and not that I I I think Jim and Deanna have done an amazing job, but it really like is I mean they've got so much on their plate and bringing in uh people with New Jersey transit experience I think will take it to the next step. Now we've
gotten the information that we got from Nelson Nygard but then we just really kind of we were done. There was really nowhere else to go with that. in in terms of execution and implementation and doing that you know like just watching the wrership monthto monthth
and just re-evaluating it where to stop you know you can tweak the route and you know you know and going to some type of on demand you know that's probably the future David I I think you're you're you're way ahead of us you know as as usual but you know visions you're ahead
of us know you're ahead of us on this but I think that having the expertise on board will help >> I I have another question, Mark. >> I'm sure. >> Yeah. So, Deian and Jim, you just got a huge shout out from Michelle and your great work on this. So, maybe you can explain to us how you think this route
is going to solve um our really very intractable uh transit problems. You know, we have the employee parking, we have um after school needs for students at the high school, we have commuters.
um how do you think this can you explain how this route is going to help to solve those because that seems to be the big question among the electeds. >> Okay. Um putting on my Telos advisor's hat.
>> Well, I since we don't have Telos yet, how just how about just putting on your gym cap more valuable at the moment. >> Just acting like I'm a transit pro here. Um the the route from between the shopping center and the train has a
number of opportunities where it can stop say at the corner of Franklin and Harrison which is within walking distance of the employee parking at Westminster Choir College. Again that's in flux as well. Um also within walking
distance of the middle school and the high school. It could also be tweaked so that we instead of going down Harrison Street, it be moved over to go down Walnut or it could go down Euing or Lynen. Uh again, that's why we need an
expert like Telos to tell us what is the best way to operate this second route. The current route has its own purpose. It's more than just getting people from point A to point B. It is a it it it's a
social uh atmosphere in in and of itself. Um the people who currently are current ridership uh enjoy uh spending time on the bus in addition to getting to all of the um social and other events. um
a a route that just runs back and forth between the shopping center and the dinky also touches Nassau Street, touches Palmer Square, um touches Firestone Library, frankly, and the post office. Um so there's that opportunity
and there's an opportunity for us to and and Libby, don't yell at me, tweak the current route so that we don't have any redundancies. But again, this is this is why we need somebody with a little more expertise than Diana and me.
>> So is the this new I mean there's no doubt that we need something that is different than the existing route which has serves the purposes that you um just articulated. I I just want to make sure that we are not spending this amount of
money in advance of having honed in on these sort of what you described as the priorities for for the alternate transit route. So we're going to have we're going to bring Telos on board and then we're going to they're going to figure it out in what time frame and then when
will the route like how how what is the sequencing? Um, you know, we we've been talking uh of a cost on an annual basis, but if we really truly consider this a pilot, 6 months may be enough time to get uh the
wrership, find out what people uh are using this second bus for. Um, and to be able to change the route somewhat to see where what their destinations are. Um, so you council doesn't have to authorize
us to go out for bids for 12 months. We could go out for six. Um, I don't think three would be enough to determine any kind of uh numbers, but six may be the the sweet spot. Um, and so it's not 300
60 what it was or what what was the number? 395. >> Um, >> yeah, 395. Um it could be half of that that you authorize us to um for a budget. >> Can I can I add into
>> That's why I should mute you. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Let me just say Leon to your point about you know this is not to service the writers of the shopping center. It's basically any place in town where we have a a sudden and um significant increase in density as we do at the
shopping center and people are moving in before they become um rooted in their cars in in um in how they in their habits. You know we there is a lot of research to show that um habits are formed when people first reside in a new
location. So the the idea is that um before they start commuting with their car, whatever it is that they do that they would be using public transit. And so just want to >> yeah add that >> and I was just going to say even if it is a year and you have Taylor on board, you can tweak the route. You see what
the wrership is, you look at the data, um you do the marketing and there needs to be marketing with it and you can tweak it. a bus route can be changed and you know you have the electronic boards uh you have an app so you have the
ability to to to play with it and see how you know how the adoption is adoption >> so I just want to make sure I'm following this we're being asked to possibly approve one of these various
options do nothing do the cheaper $1500 a month do the second route with two buses for either six months or a year and there's some part of bringing this consultant in. But when does the consultant come in? I mean, in my mind,
I'm questioning should the consultant come first before we do something or I I wasn't clear that that's what's actually going to happen. So, who can tell me? >> That was my question, too. Yeah, Mark. >> Sorry, >> that was also my question. >> Yeah, we wanted to do some We want to do
both at the same time. do both at the same time. Okay. I'd be >> all right. I I I don't know. I think maybe it makes sense to bring the consultant in first, but and let me just say two other things. Sorry. Jim and Deanna, thank you very much for everything you've done to date because I know this has been a lot of time and
effort. And my gut as a former commuter to New York City screams at me that having a better option to get from the dinky to the Palmer Square and to the shopping center makes a hell of a lot of sense. I'm just not sure that the sequence we're doing is quite the right
thing at this time. But anyway, >> well, and just to touch on the subject of when the consultant does their work, it seems hard to me to go out to bid um with the current level of
understanding of what we want to bid out. I mean, whether it's six months or a year is a big question. what the route is. And you know, some a variable I had discussed with Jim a week or two ago was, you know, are there
regular stops along Harrison and Nassau Street or is it on demand only, which could reduce the amount of time from 50 minutes to >> 30 or 35 minutes for this loop, which could make all the difference in the world in terms of people who are going
to ride it because we know that the frequency of service is so important >> to um convenience and therefore the number of people who are going to ride it. So it feels to me like we really need some input from the experts to help
us decide what to go out to bid with. >> Okay. So we we know that the route what the we know what the route will cost. Um we have to put it out to bid, but we know what we we drive you would charge for that route. where we stop along the
way. I don't think Taylor is going to know that because it's really going to be people using it that's going to show us how, you know, how it's going to be tweaked. But what we can do is we have the funds, we have the ability to bring them on board. We just were kind of in a
hurry because we had already put out that we were going to start this in September. So the longer it takes to bid it out, the more it's going to be postponed. But I think that, you know, and Jim and Diana can, you know, opine on this, but I think bringing them on board, we could
do that within the next few weeks if we have the go-ahad and have them involved in the bid process so that they, you know, will give us their expertise in that bid. That's that's kind of how I had envisioned it. And unfortunately, we just we didn't have the paperwork and
everything done for Taylor just yet. But I think we're right there, right? I think it would be a really nice holiday present to the community to start the service in no end of November or early December.
>> Oh, hopefully sooner than that. >> Other comments or questions? Okay. So, I don't know that we've reached a consensus to help. Does anybody want has anybody else >> so sort of consensus out of this discussion so far? I don't think I have, but I'm willing to Brian. Yeah. I would
just say I think that the uh first question is whether to proceed and hire the consultant or whether to hire the consultant and wait until they have some time to do their work and then proceed.
Um so I I think that's really the central question. Um personally I think I favor hiring the consultant first. Um and um I appreciate all the work everybody's done and the fact that it this has been something
members of the community have been um wanting and waiting for um but I'd rather you know do it right the first time um and give ourselves enough time to really um work with Experience Princeton to make sure that whatever
solution we begin with understanding that it'll probably be a little bit flexible and iterative as we capture data um that we have time to promote um the service and market it effectively so that we can start it successfully rather
than just put it out there and let word of mouth spread. >> Well, that's we but we plan to do that, Brian. That's exactly what we plan to do. We just we were just going to do the bid till we drive the bid out in the public. But I mean, experienced
Princeton can work on the marketing. All this can kind of happen concurrently. It's not like one builds on the other, >> right? So, >> okay. >> Thank you. >> Can you
>> Libby, you have to come up to the microphone. We can't hear you. >> Or we can Yeah. >> Libby, come come up to the microphone. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> I can sit down. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, I am impressed by all the work everybody's done and um how complex this is. But I'm giving you a very simplified view now as a writer
who absolutely needs to get out and get to places because where I live that affordable housing unit is the only one in Princeton that does not have access to a New Jersey Transit. Everybody else
can get on New Jersey Transit if the Mooney isn't there. and they can also get to Shopright and all these other places. So, this is a kind of plea for two buildings that have very little access to the rest of the town to
anywhere else. Mainly because New Jersey Transit also doesn't stop there. I want to give you a picture of what it's like to, and this has to do with the two bus arrangement.
If I want to go to um my bank, TD Bank, I can get a Mooney. I can drop be dropped off. I can quickly go in and check something, maybe deposit something. I then have to wait 45
minutes at the stop for somebody to come back and pick me up. And that's terrible in rain, in snow, in whatever it is. That's a bad schedule if I have to wait that long.
For me, the idea of a two bus schedule is wonderful because I will be picked up in at least every 25 minutes or something. That's a lot better. So, that's a big problem for me, for a lot of us, just the timing, the waiting.
It's so long. I think that's the major thing I wanted to say that in it. I mean, you're concerned about uh the dinky and helping a lot of other people. I I tell you, I've already
written about this. I'm probably wrong because now it's three years later and Princeton has a lot more people who are at the dinky and who are giving some pressure to you to be picked up. I was on that B bus, the free Bus for three or
four years that went to the dinky because it was scheduled. One person would get on maybe in a month and nobody was happy driving that bus and it took me half an hour longer to get home. If I know some of you know this, but if the
others don't, I want you to give you I want to give you a sort of basic look at what it's like to travel this wonderful bus. It saved our lives. No problem about that. It got us out
into town to the market, other stops, but it's really not as adequate as we'd like it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Libby. >> Okay. So, >> so can I make a suggestion? >> Can you make a what?
>> Are to wrap up? I mean, we one is is everybody agreed on Telus? It sounds like you are in terms of hiring. >> Second is >> Well, I I don't >> Is everyone >> Everybody's good with the consultant. >> Okay. >> I just I just I'm sorry. I just want
everybody. >> I think I saw nods, but Leighton didn't nod that much, but I think I Okay. All right. And Brian, yes, Brian already said that. All right. So then the second the second decision point is let's not do I understand don't do the
bid but we in order to work to get to the bid need to understand if council is approving the the spend for the year or the six months so that we can move forward with a plan and you know and
have Telos help us with the bid. I always thought Tellers was going to help us with the bid, but we kind of need to move because the next meeting September 8th could actually be the res. We'll need a res I don't think we need a resolution, right? We don't need the resolution for tellers, but we'll need something for the bid, Jim. What do we
need for September 8th? >> Well, no. No. Um, our QPA has advised us they she could um issue the agreement um tomorrow uh with Telos. Telos's proposal has them reporting back to us within 3
weeks anyway to uh give us some implementation strategies to evaluate everything that Nelson Nygard has done, get back to us within 3 weeks and the the overall schedule for their total proposal is only six weeks long >> um to see us through a bid process. So I
I think it actually works, Michelle. >> Okay. um for us to to see if they agree with us that we need a second bus. >> Perfect. Okay. All right. If everyone's okay with that, then I guess we have a direction.
>> Just I I just want to say I feel would feel more comfortable with a six-month time frame rather than a year just to get an idea of what the wrership might be. >> Yeah. And I and I and I do I agree. I think that we can look at this on a monthly basis. I mean, there can always
be tweaks, but um Jim, in terms of the bid process, and you said it before, we can go to six months, right? We could put a bid out for six months. >> Yes, we could. >> Okay, great. >> Right. I mean, so the other thing is we could just agree to the consultant for now and wait till we have their product
and then decide if we're going to bid and what we're going to bid, which kind of any I would I would push that myself, but it Okay, it seems we're as Michelle already asked, it seems we're all on board with the consultant. I think the
next big question is, do we want to do anything more than the consultant at this time? And people can say yes or no or >> I I just want to express support for moving forward with some enhanced service
depending on what the I mean I don't want to say a budget because if it's six months instead of a year it's going to be less. Um, but I want to say that I hope that we will go out to bid for some enhanced service once we get advice from
the consultant about the best way to do that. >> Right. So, I don't think we need to agree that that we're going out to bid tonight. >> No, >> because the consultant's going to take us there and we're going to get a product that's going to say it makes sense to do this for a month, six months, 30 years, or whatever it is. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, I think I I think we're
finally at we're going to move ahead with the consultant and we'll wait for the product to come back from the consultant. Okay, there we go. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. stop. There is no bus shed. And I have
made pictures and sent them of people standing in the snow, nowhere to sit, rain coming through the trees. That's disgraceful. So, I understood you had funding for it, according to Mia, that there was funding for it. I wish you could give them a
shed. There are sheds everywhere else, but there's no shed there. >> You mean a bus stop, right? A bus stop living in the works. Understood. We'll take a look into that. I think that was in the original proposal and for some reason, and I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. It got deleted, but we will, no
pun intended, >> we're going to get back to you on that one. And I just want to say, Libby, that your the situation with Harriet Brian and Elm Court and the bus service there is not in jeopardy. We appreciate you coming out tonight and representing
um all of the seniors at at those sites who really are dependent on the MUN bus and do not have access to New Jersey Transit. If anyone in the public did not hear that, that's what you were expressing, that is that those sites do not have access to New Jersey Transit. and we have two sites of a senior
affordables. So that is not in jeopardy. One of the reasons why we are having all this discussion about an alternate route is that as we started out, we're coming full circle here. There are different needs. There are some people who just need to get to New York or Philadelphia
in the quickest way possible. And then there are other people who just need to get to McAffries or the library and it's not they don't have to get there as quickly as possible. They just need to get there. And that's what we're trying to sort out. Okay. >> Okay. We're gonna >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. We're going to move on. We have two ordinance introductions. Uh at ordinance introduction, all we do is make sure that someone's going to move it and the body approves the introduction because actual discussion happens at the public hearing which is further down the road. First up is ordinance 25-14, an ordinance by the
municipality of Princeton authorizing the lease of a portion of the community park south tennis facility for a public purpose to the Princeton tennis program pursuant to the local lands and buildings law NJSA4A12-14
C and NJSA4A uh 12-15I. The public hearing is September 8th, 2025. Michelle is making the motion. Is there a second? Thank you, David. Roll call vote, please.
>> Mr. McDonald, >> yes. >> Miss Peron Lamrose, >> yes. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Miss Saxs, >> yes. >> Miss Braa, >> yes. >> Mr. Nulan, >> mayor, just a quick question. >> Are we going to get a chance to comment or this is just
>> No, it's just introduction. >> Just the introduction. >> I'm sorry. >> Just introduction. >> Just introduction. >> Okay, Michelle. It's it's intro tonight. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next up is
ordinance 25-15 and an ordinance of the municipality of Princeton amending chapter T10B entitled land use of the municipality of Princeton by creating the affordable housing district 14 AH14 and furtherance of the Fair Housing Act. Public hearing
will be September 8th, 2025. Latia is making the motion. David has the second. Roll call vote. Mr. McDonald, >> yes. >> Miss Peron Lamrose, >> yes. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Miss Saxs, >> yes. >> Miss Braa, >> yes. >> Mr. Nulan,
>> yes. >> Okay. Resolutions. First resolution R25-281. Resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton appointing the deputy municipal clerk for the calendar year 2025. And our new municipal deputy, our new municipal deputy clerk, almost got
that wrong, is here in the audience tonight. Carrie, do you want to give everybody a big wave and we can say there you are so we know who we are actually appointing? Uh, is there a motion? Thank you, David. Leighton's got the second. Uh, oh, sorry, I didn't see your hand down
there, Brian. Question, comment. Okay, sorry, lost track. All right, no questions or comments. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Welcome aboard. Thanks for joining us. Resolution 25-282, resolution of the mayor and
council of Princeton authorizing the submission and acceptance of the state of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 2026 social services human services food insecurity grant in the amount of $60,000. Leticia has got the motion. Brian's got the second. Questions or comments?
All right, seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. Resolution 25283, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a bid contract to Rapid Pump and Meter Service Company LLC for on call mechanical and electrical maintenance services for pump
stations and force mains for an amount not to exceed $195,41250. Mia's got the motion. Leighton's got the second. Questions or comments? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. Resolution 25284, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton
authorizing the award of a professional services agreement to Camaros LTD for phase one of a unified zoning court code update for an amount not to exceed $83,600. Wow, there's like everybody wants to
move this one. So, I have no idea whose hand was up first, but I am going to be very nice. Mia gets the motion, David gets the second. Um, and just I think everybody up here is aware this is will end up being a multi-year effort in the
$83,600 as Justin told me this morning is for the first phase one of this and there will be another phase at least one more maybe two more but anticipated it'll be about a $35,000 cost over about two and a half or three years.
>> Can I say something? >> I'm sorry. >> I wanted to say it. I just wanted to thank Justin. Is Justin here? Yeah, Justin can only see you through the screen. Thank you, Justin, for all your work in finding a great firm to do this. Really appreciate it. Very excited. Long
overdue. Can't wait. >> That's all. >> Thank you, Michelle. And and also I mean I know Justin, Derek, the staff has worked really hard, but I also want to give a shout out to my colleagues David and Mia for working really hard on weekly on a weekly basis uh on these
meetings and and working towards trying to to harmonize the codes. It's um I know it's been really a lot of work and and David your your knowledge is really unparalleled. So thank you. >> I agree. David and I are officially
acknowledging that we have taken consolidation as far as we can take it. We are passing the baton. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Resolution 25285, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton
authorizing the award of a contract to National Water Main Cleaning Company, Inc. for mini system number 36 sewer rehabilitation contract A for an amount not to exceed $1,982,858. Michelle's got the motion. David's got the second. Questions or comments?
>> All right, seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Resolution 25286, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a contract to National Water Man Cleaning Company, Inc. for mini system number 36 sewer rehabilitation contract B for an amount
not to exceed 1,868,94. Is there Mia's got the motion? Leighton's got the second. Questions or comments? All right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Resolution 25287, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a contract to National Water Man Cleaning Company,
Inc. for mini system number 36 sewer rehabilitation contract C for an amount not to exceed 2,89,926. Is there a motion on that? Thank you, Leighton. David's got the second. Any questions or comments? All in favor, please say I.
>> I. Resolution 25288, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the submission of an award extension request for the Chahune Road Pedestrian Improvement Safe Streets to Transit Project LA-2024-ST-000038 to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Brian's got the motion,
David's got the second. Questions or comments? David? Yeah, I just um wanted to ask is there any risk that the request for extension will not be uh approved?
Ve very little. Um we got prior approval to submit the request. So um I expect that it will be quickly uh approved. >> Great. Thanks. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. I.
Resolution 25289, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing change order number two to the turf management services contract with US Athletic Fields, Inc. for spot treatments for an increase of $4,55520 resulting in a new amount not to exceed
$25,94147. Leighton's got the motion and Brian's got the second. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. >> I. Resolution 25290, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing a license agreement with Ryder University. Is there a motion on
that? Thank you, Brian. David's got the second. Questions or comments? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Resolution 25291, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing a license agreement with the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra. Is it Brian's got the motion there? Is there a
second? Thank you, Michelle. Uh, questions or comments? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Resolution 25292, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing a license agreement with Princeton Prousic. Is there a motion on
that? Thank you. Uh, Mia David's got the second. Questions or comments? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Resolution 25293, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing an amended license agreement with the Princeton Ballet Society. Thank you, Brian. Is there a second? Thank
you, Leighton. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> Resolution 25294, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the submission of a substantial amendment of the 2023 community development block grant program annual action plan. Leticia has
got the motion. Leightton's got the second. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say I. >> I. Resolution 25295, resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing and directing the Princeton Planning Board to update its preliminary investigation to determine whether
certain property located on Franklin Avenue designated as lots 2, 26, and 27 in block 21.04 on the TA tax map of Princeton meets the criteria for designation as a non-commendation redevelopment area. Gez, oh man. Okay. I
don't know which of you had your hands up first. Michelle's got the motion and Brian's got the second. Questions or comments? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> The consent agenda has eight items on it. If no one wants us to pull any of those off, someone could move the consent agenda in block. Thank you,
Leticia. Is there a second? Leighton. All in favor of the consent agenda, say I. >> I. >> And now is public comment for items not on the agenda. So, anyone here for wants to speak about something that's not on the agenda, come up to the microphone, introduce yourself, and you have three
minutes. Sean, coming up. Come on, man. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Sean Elwood. Uh, my address is 137 PO Road. >> Hi, I am Braden Capone. I live at 31 Lane. Uh we're part of the organizing team of the Princeton triathlon. You may have remembered we uh we came before you
guys probably a few months ago to uh to get approval for it. We're just back to kind of give a really brief um overview of of how the of um sorry how the event went. So I'm just going to go down the line and kind of uh you know give a a quick
overview. Um first of all I just want to say thank you to to each and every one of you up there. uh you know we obviously couldn't have done it without you. Um and uh also thank you to the uh all the department heads that that were involved with the with the event. Um
overall we had extremely positive feedback uh across the entire community. Uh just to kind of go over some of the statistics we had about 250 people compete in the event about uh 300 to 400 total involvement which with uh spectators and volunteers. um of the
participants we had um uh people from four different states. Uh and uh just to kind of give you a reference point uh similar events around the state uh tend to to garner only about a hundred people and uh we I mean we uh doubled that and
and a little bit more. Uh we had uh people ages seven to to 77 and every single one of them finished. Um, so, uh, just one more quick thing. Uh, it's, uh, one of only four races, uh, statewide in
a, um, a youth race series, and it's, uh, nationally, our event was nationally sanctioned, uh, as a paratriathlon friendly race. So, it's, um, uh, accessible. Uh, yeah, and many local businesses were involved through
sponsorship or partnership. Um, we're pretty proud of that. And uh last statistic uh the we sent out in a an in official feedback form and the participant satisfaction was about 9.6 out of 10 which uh it's pretty decent.
>> That was great. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um in conclusion, I just wanted to end with a quote from the Thank you from the participation um feedback form that we got which was it felt like a real community experience. So great to see all ages and abilities
compete together. I hope you keep finding ways to grow the sport in the area. Thank you for such a well done, organized, and terrific event. And once more, we just like to really thank you guys for, you know, allowing us to have the event and just making it such a great community experience. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else in the room with uh public comment for anything not for any anything on not on the agenda? Anybody uh on Zoom comment, public comment?
Okay, seeing none, we'll declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you very much for being here this evening. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I was supposed to do a motion. Can you make a motion, David? >> David. >> David, >> I I move that we adjourn. >> Is there a second? Thank you, Michelle. All in favor say I. I.
>> Now we're adjourned. Sorry, my bad.