2025 this is the meeting of the mayor and council of Princeton New Jersey ah and our technology is now working terrific perfect timing okay could we start with the meeting statement please sure adequate notice of this meeting was
provided in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act including the time date and location of the meeting 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 michelle's going to do the land acknowledgement for us tonight thank you we gathered today on the land of the Len 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 is going to be attending via Zoom mr nulan here mayor Freda here okay if you're able and like to 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 announcements and reports council
members with uh Michelle uh yeah a couple of uh quick announcements um just one second so in the recreation department the early bird discounts are available i love this time of year when I can say this for the pool
memberships and day camp registration through to the end of this month April 30th and um we're uh we've got a lot of our summer hires already uh taken care of so uh it's just right around the corner which is really exciting uh and
then in terms of an event coming up I'm very happy to report that this sustainable Princeton the Arts Council and the um pedestrian bike advisory committee are working together planning on a cyclia for Sunday June 22nd from
9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m uh this is uh an open streets event this is the first of its kind in Princeton uh that temporarily repurposes a street to be more inclusive for all people to walk bike roll and scoot so mark your
calendars look for more information and we'll tell you all about the roots and the location uh in the coming w in the coming weeks thank you thank you Michelle brian uh yes I just wanted to put in a plug for the hardworking Shade Tree Commission um during Porchfest they
will be handing out shade tree saplings at Hines Plaza free of charge if anybody would like to get a sapling and plant it in your yard that would be wonderful and so please stop by the Shade Tree Commission during Porchfest thank you okay thank you Brook David yeah uh and I
just have a brief report on the um flood and stormwater commission meeting from last Friday um the main item of interest to the public is that we are going to be starting up an adopt a drain program in Princeton where individuals can um take
responsibility for a storm drain near your house and name it uh so start thinking about your names and this would be really helpful um for the municipality in meeting the requirements of our new
um MS4 permit our storm water permit so um details to come thank you uh Leighton yes thank you Mayor just three real quick things number one everyone we are in some challenging
and very uncertain times here in the United States and we all need to take care of both our physical and our quote unquote in parentheses with borders around it mental health and well-being so when you go get your annual physical
think about also getting an annual mental health checkup as well and if you know someone you know is struggling ask them to go get a mental health checkup number two if you happen to be traveling the central business district or anywhere in Princeton a pedestrian on a sidewalk and you happen to see someone
riding by you on a bicycle kindly ask them to move into the street or walk their bicycle for safety reasons and lastly if you see a Department of Public Works worker cleaning in the next two or three weeks Bloom local trying to get
our city clean give them a heads up at that boy and thank them thank you thanks lady okay any other council announcements or reports all right seeing none any thing of the
staff anything at this point okay uh we have the uh police report there you go Chief thank you mayor um I just wanted to point out in February um we hired uh five new police officers during February
to fill um vacancies from retirements they're uh they're all in the Mercer County Police Academy they're doing well um so that was kind of the highlight of um February and then I just wanted to kind of plug one thing an event we have coming up and kind of go on Leighton's
point um on June 12th at 6:00 right here in this room um we have a group coming in to give a presentation about traffic laws and people friendly driving it goes over the laws for drivers uh bicyclists
and pedestrians it's a free event it's posted on our social media um I encourage as many people as we can to um to sign up to promote uh more safe driving habits both vehicles pedestrians and um bicyclists that's all I have
thank you thank you Chief any questions for the chief okay next up Salamander Brigade Report hello my name is Eningga Reagan i'm with the Friends of Herrentown Woods um I'm introducing to you today the
Princeton Salamander Crossing Brigade it's a group that I started three years ago under advisement with the Sarlands and that group has grown wonderfully we have students now and we have teachers and we have university
professors we have four amazing advisors and I would like to we'll have a brief presentation for you uh with Bavia and Karina here in front of you if I don't know if they want to turn and wave uh they are Princeton High School students
who will give you a short presentation of why this group is important for Princeton thanks thank you so to start off we'll discuss why spotted salamanders are so important to our ecosystems they are a keystone
species so there are both predators of spotted salamanders such as snakes and raccoons as well as prey like insects and worms and if we think about the analogy of a keystone within a building that's what is holding up the entire
structure and when you take that keystone out it'll collapse the whole system which will apply with ecosystems and the role that salamanders play in them salamanders also help with nutrient cycling by doing things such as eating insects that convert plants into
greenhouse gases so they play a critical role in nutrient cycling and we can look to the life cycle of spotted salamanders so they are both aquatic and can survive in terrestrial environments
which furthers the critical role they play in a variety of domains throughout ecosystems furthermore they are the only vertebrate um algae relationship to exist which shows how unique they role of a role they play with different species
throughout their ecosystems but lastly and most importantly these salamanders need to migrate to lay eggs in the ponds that they were born in which is exactly why we need to help them cross the roads the Harrentown Woods Crossing Brigade
has is made up of well-informed and equipped volunteers to help throughout this process of road crossings they're all very well trained we have crossing guard waivers as well asformational assessments before they go to actually help with the crossings to make sure
everyone's adequately prepared furthermore there's training sessions such as at the Sourland Conservation where there's more professional sessions for volunteers to learn the process we also have strict rules such as always having to be with a buddy on the night
of the crossing and we also have road closures this year which was really helpful but even with all of these precautions that the crossing brigade takes we still have high mortality rates for amphibians like spotted salamanders when they try
to cross the road when there's still cars going last year even with so many people on the road trying to help the salamanders we had 40% of all amphibians die and so the picture is the Swiss cheese model which is brought up a lot
when you discuss change over time if we continue to lose 40% each year this species which is currently threatened could possibly go extinct in the future which is especially um detrimental because spotted salamanders can live up to 30 years so
if we continue to lose 40% of the adult population every single year then spotted salamanders despite being keystone species will bring down the entire ecosystem so this is a sideby-side comparison of why the road closures matter this is
these are both data points from this year but when the road is open you can see that we had eight times as many cars as when the road was closed and we had 40 total amphibians die and we were only able to save 49 versus when the road was closed we had none dead at all and we
saved 119 amphibians so the reason why this is so important besides just saving Princeton ecosystems is that it brings together people of all ages into a cause where they're purely united just by their love for nature so I've spoken at both um Prince
University and like preschool classes and in both of those situations people are equally as surprised that we have such a unique species in Princeton as Karina said before this is the only ver vertebrae in the entire world that has a relationship with an algae and that algae photosynthesizes so if you think
about it this is the only vertebrae in the entire world that can photosynthesize and we are so lucky to have this animal live literally in our backyards but the issue is that most people have never heard of this species and they don't know that there's a way for us to save them
so so we have some cards written by preschoolers through third graders from Community Park thanking um the crossing brigade thanking the council and thanking police officers for helping us save these amphibians
okay is asking me to say something i don't know really what to say so I'm Lisa Bologange i'm a professor at Princeton i'm a herpatology nerd um and I have these salamanders in my backyard i live on Herrentown Road and so the crossings are mostly done for this year so we're starting to gear up and get everybody trained up and ready for next
year so we will see you next year we're looking forward to getting out there and saving some more of these unique animals thank you thank you very much are we allowed to ask questions yes we can ask questions
i'm just curious if the roads are closed what is the role that the crossing guards play being a crossing guard I'm particularly interested yes so I can I can help with questions if you want so if the road is closed then we collect data so we uh we have information about
the different species are there we take counts and we learn kind of how large is this population how much is it changing over time um so it's a data collection opportunity and we report it back actually goes back to the New Jersey Department Department of Fish and Wildlife they keep centralized records
so we know just how unique this population is and how it's doing over time okay thank you Michelle thank you for Thank you for bringing this to us and bringing this to our attention um I was just curious too
as far as this year when we did close the roads how many nights did we do it for and how did we know it was just one it was one night and so we were able you were able to tell us and predict what night uh to close them and it was 100%
effective in terms of 100% effective yep so fantastic yeah the prediction is slightly tricky but at this point as long as Noah holds together and we still have good weather reports we can predict when we know the conditions we know the exact conditions when it's warm when it's rainy and the rain is falling in
the dark yeah great that's great well thank you so much for for bringing this to us i'd also like to add that in other towns they have boy scout troops do the vol the crossing and like volunteering so even if we've completely closed down the road it's still a great opportunity
for people to go outside and actively engage with nature i saw a bat for the first time while I was doing this so that's pretty cool something to check off a bucket list and and just so you know it's usually no more than five maybe six times somewhere
between the end of February and beginning of April so it's just a few nights yeah thank you yeah i just want to say you know congratulations thank you you know I know the salamanders are grateful but so are the people you know
for you caring for such small people animals and uh I I just How do you know you you said there's there's a certain time that they're going to do it but do you actually stay there all night and watch them and make sure that when they do
decide to cross the road that you're stopping cars so we don't usually stay all night which does mean we miss a bunch of data about who's crossing but we also know that the risk from cars gets much lower as it gets later there is one really terrible thing that happens though on nights when it rains a
lot which is River Road closes and then all that traffic diverts off of River Road a lot of it comes down Harrington Road and so exactly on the nights when we really need to protect those animals we have more traffic so we usually only stay during the peak traffic hours maybe 7 to 9 do you know why it is why not
just stay where they are and do they do they go across the road to breed what why are they crossing i know it's not not trying to be funny why do salamanders cross the road we should make a t-shirt of that that's really great um that's a great question no so these animals are mole salamanders
and they live underground they're what's called fossoral so they live in burrows underground all year round this is the only time they come above ground and we see them and it's because they are oblate vernal pool breeders what does that mean it means they need these pools that basically dry up in the summer
they're pools that don't have any fish they can't breed in places where there are fish the eggs would all get eaten and so they have to go back to these pools and through mechanisms we absolutely do not understand they go back not only to the pool where they were hatched but the same side of the pool where they left people have put
radio trackers on them they are incredible at homing and so they are going but Herontown Road used to not be paved and we paved it and now there's a lot more traffic there and the road is between some of their habitat and one of
the biggest pools in Princeton thank you thank you all mia so I can relate to the salamanders and so can many of us up here because we come back to raise our families in the
exact same town that we grew up in um but I hope that next year we can you know augment enhance build upon the partnership with the town so that we can um you know figure out what's necessary
for maximum protection for the salamanders and and as uh my colleague David Cohen mentioned he's a crossing guard for the schools and I aspire to be a salamander to go through the training and be a crossing guard uh for the salamanders um and so I can put on my
resume and um but I um also just want to mention to my colleagues that you know we we recently worked really hard to save um the this landwindin property which is on the other side of where the salamanders are and um you know I
listened to a great deal of testimony when I was on the planning board about vernal pools um and it turns out it's not an abstraction it's a reality and and we have actually by saving this property made it possible for these
salamanders to continue to come back um so thank you Princeton High School students and thank you so much for making this possible and you know it really as you said this is a heartwarming presentation and you're
right thank you thank you all okay moving on next up on the agenda public comments for items not on the agenda if anybody's here and wants to talk about something again that's not on the agenda this would be the time to come forward all right seeing nobody for that
we'll close that part of the agenda and move on next up is the municipal budget our CFO is here and Sandy do you wish to give us a little primer before we start on this yes of course thank you
mayor so we did um introduce our budget back in March um I went through a similar presentation at that time so I've scaled it down a little bit but I still want to hit on some of the key items for this uh 2025 budget so the
budget overall is up about 3% um you can see on this slide the salary and wage uh how that's gone up and that's attributed to um cost of living increases for both non-contractual and also our bargaining units and other expenses are up and I'll
hit on a few things that have increased uh pretty significantly for this year so the the key question always comes is what is what are the taxes going up so the municipal rate is going to go up slightly um to by
0124 which equates to $106 a year and when we add the library tax on it which is part of our municipal budget it it becomes $134 a year so what drove this budget we had a couple of revenues about a half a million dollars from state state aid
that we had from the 2024 budget in addition to um a loss of revenue with one of the other uh grants that or one of the other pilot amounts that we have so what we did was we increased our use of surplus we increased the use of our investment of what we made um in our
investment account from the prior year and this also includes the university increase so what drove the budget again it's you know it's the same things i think I I feel like I'm just on repeat every year they're the same things that we talk about every year it's garbage
and trash it's the insuranceances debt service library and our uh participation in Stonybrook but we did make some strides as we went through this budget process this year which we have done the last couple of years um administration met
with all of the departments and you can see from this list the departments that had their budgets reduced and that was almost $900,000 so that was pretty significant that saved us about a penny um and the other things we did um in
addition to the reductions we increased our use of surplus by a million dollars um when we ended 2024 our surplus was up pretty significantly over the year before and uh so I felt really comfortable with bringing in an
additional million dollars in surplus and then we increased a bunch of other revenues um individually to account for another 1.5 million and these are the things that are the non-discretionary budget items they're the things that we're obligated
to cover it's our liability insurance our workman's comp our group insurance which is medical dental and prescription for not only our employees but for retirees as well um utilities you know we have to pay to keep the lights on and the phones working and of course
pensions goes up um just about every year i mentioned Stony Brook and our debt services up so the things that we cannot control in this budget are about 43% of the total overall budget so that is uh my presentation for tonight and I
know you have a couple of uh things that you'll go through a couple of actions that you'll take um next thank you any questions for Sandy at this point okay let's get up to the first ordinance
202504 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank NJSA4A4-45.14 david thank you for the motion is there a second thank you Leon uh questions or comments david yeah I
just wanted to make a comment um this um ordinance uh was reported on in Tap into Princeton this morning as being required uh because we're exceeding the 2.5% cap that's established by the state and
that's actually not correct um while the overall tax increase is about 3% or not tax increase the budget increase is about 3% as Sandy mentioned um a lot of those items are exempt from
the cap and so we're actually under the 2.5% cap however what this does and we do it every year is that it allows us to sort of bank in case of really bad circumstances in a coming
year um we could go over the cap in the coming year because we've sort of saved uh some money or save some money uh for rainy day so to speak so I just wanted to clarify that for anybody who had read that article
okay thank you other questions or comments on this anybody from the public with a question or comment on this all right can we have a roll call vote please mr mcdonald yes miss Peron Lamrose yes
mr cohen yes miss Saxs yes miss Frogga yes and Mr newan okay thank you all right next up is resolution 25134 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton to adopt the 2025 municipal budget is there such a
motion thank you mia's got that brian's got the second questions or comments brian uh yes i just wanted to uh thank Sandy for the very helpful informative presentation and for all of the financial data that is included in the agenda packet it's very transparent and
thorough um overall I think that the budget is well constructed and especially appreciate the efforts to squeeze out almost $900,000 in reductions i do have two concerns which I've mentioned before the first is the library budget the library
is one of our crown jewels and we need to sustain its excellence they did an admirable job of controlling costs during COVID and deserve praise for that but this year will be the second 5% increase in a row which exceeds the growth of the overall municipal budget
and is about double the tax levy increase i'm concerned that this is not sustainable and offer any help that I might provide to assist the library in working to manage the growth in expenses which I know they already work very hard to do i also hope that we can continue
to support and encourage them in their efforts to raise revenue above and beyond the municipal allocation which they already do very well my second concern is the growth in debt service which is budgeted to rise by $900,000 i know that we have strategically increased our investments
in municipal infrastructure and that the acquisition of the Westminster Choir College property was a once ina-lifetime opportunity but I also know that we need to be careful that our debt service does not rise at an unsustainable rate over the coming months I would like us to take a hard look at our borrowing
capacity and that the projects in the existing six-year capital plan and ensure that they will not overburden our taxpayers and also that they are carefully prioritized to align with our town's values thank you again and for this presentation and thank you and to
thanks to all the staff members who work so very hard to assemble it yeah Brian thanks i I will um mention that since as mayor I sit on the library board um I think like two meetings ago two or three meetings ago with that board I mentioned when they were
reviewing their budget before it came to us that the rate at which it was increasing i pretty much made the same comments you just made to them so I told the director of their CFO and the chair of their board that we cannot we the town cannot continue to shoulder that kind of burden year after year and that
next year would be a very different I assumed next year would be a very different story with Westminster coming on and other things happening that they should not expect that kind of increase again so our finance committee may want to start chatting with them sooner than
later to help them prepare for that um I think that's a that'd be a good idea because that has pretty much been a budget that is just what's the request and you get it and that's not healthy for for us or for them actually so other comments or questions
okay oh I'm sorry oh that was it so um the library increase was 5% and and um can you give a comparative analysis of what the increase for other inst for other can you put that in a comparative
uh setting well it I mean compared to the municipal budget the municipal budget was a 3% increase so you know it was 70 70% greater increase than the municipal
budget and what about the schools this year um the schools would be limited to 2% unless they have a little I think they have a little bank cap which they may be taking but I they will pass their budget
later this month um but they're almost always under 3% and sometimes at exactly 2% yeah and I think if we look at our own departments when we met with our own departments for the operating budget I mean Sandy's going to know better than I than I do as far as what the percents were but for a number of departments
they were flat for some departments they actually got less than they got last year so um I think we were pretty darn aggressive with our own departments so to see and I I don't mean to pick on the library that's because that's a great I mean it's a great institution in town and it obviously takes money to make it
that great but you know if you can't afford to live here having all those great services is kind of meaningless because if you have to leave the town because you can't pay the taxes at some point you got to be realistic about everything but I would say comparing that 5% to our own
departments that far outweighs what we did internally so was when you were at the the uh meeting that you just described recently was there um a plan to address that because I know
that Michelle had you know had those discussions with the library a number of years ago well there's a different cast of characters at this point uh so I think they were receptive to the concerns and I think they will uh be not surprised
and be more than happy to enter into some discussions with our finance committee to on how to prepare for next year that was my perspective of what they their reaction okay great well that was a good discussion actually
thank you other questions or comments okay uh that's a roll call vote also Mr mcdonald yes miss Peron Lamrose yes mr cohen yes miss Brager I'm sorry Miss
Saxs i'm sorry yes miss Braa yes mr nulan yes okay next up we have public hearing on two ordinances ordinance 202508 an ordinance by the municipality of Princeton concerning fees for zoning
permits and amending chapter 2 of the code of the bureau of Princeton New Jersey 1974 and chapter 10B of the code of the township of Princeton New Jersey 1968 would someone like to move that thank you Brian david's got the second questions or comments from the council
members david um I just wanted to comment that um I think this is a really good change kind of overdue um essentially in a nutshell the zoning permit fees used to be flat
fee no matter the size of the project and what they've done is they've tried to make them a little bit more scalable so that it relates to the amount of work that is required to actually process the permit so that's that that's what this change is thanks for explaining that
other questions or comments okay anyone from the public want to comment on this one all right we'll close the public hearing and can we have a roll call vote please mr mcdonald yes miss Peron
Lamrose yes mr cohen yes miss Saxs yes miss Braa yes mr nulan yes okay next up is ordinance 202509 an ordinance by the municipality of Princeton regulating speed limits on certain streets and
amending chapter 11 of the code of the township of Princeton New Jersey 1968 would someone like to move that thank you David brian's got the second council questions or comments uh so we're doing what we're doing Mount Lucas Road 206
cherry Hill cherry Hill okay yes Brian i I um just wanted to note that I'm off and on Cherry Hill and strongly support this change and um hope that as time passes we can look at other um streets and wonder if we can reduce the speed
limits in other areas of town as well yep other comments or questions just want just want to say this is this is only the beginning we still have vision zero coming and we are trying not
trying we will make Princeton more safer for uh walkers for bicyclists and even for drivers of cars so stand by this is just the beginning thank you Leon all right anyone from the public to comment on
this all right seeing none we'll close the public hearing and can we have a roll call vote please mr mcdonald yes miss Peron Lamrose yes mr cohen yes miss Saxs yes miss Frogga yes mr nulan
yes okay thank you now one of the high points of tonight's meeting the very first resolution 25135 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton appointing Dawn M mount as the municipal clerk leighton's got his hand up to move it
michelle's got the second any questions or comments by the council members mia we are so thrilled and so excited Don um this is this is a difficult year for the country but there is one bright spot for
Princeton which is having you as [Applause] [Music] Thank you um honor and a privilege to serve you guys in this new role and to
serve the residents of the town as well thank you we're all very happy for you and just to make it official I think I might actually ask us all to vote on this so all in favor please say I i i i all right there you go thank you sir
mayor if I may I'd just like to to welcome uh for all we haven't seen her in a long time but Dolores how are you doing tonight thank you for coming dolores Williams our former clerk of the municipality for oh my god many many
many years good to see you i just want to say that I am very pleased that you saw fit to choose a clerk that I am so proud to call my
friend my daughter um we've been together for 20 years and I know that she will make you proud and I'm just so happy and her husband and her children are here to also give support for Dawn
so thank you and Yep [Applause] yeah thank you Dolores thank you and to Dawn's family thank you very much very very meaningful to have them here as you may as we appoint you tonight so
congratulations again all right we're going to fly through the rest of the meeting so you can have a good you can go out drinking with your family uh any I'm joking i don't mean that seriously anyway 25136 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing site license agreements with
Crown Castle Fiber LLC for the following four locations ober Road one Einstein Drive 342 Nassau Street Harrison Street and Nassau Street locations and 56-64 Witherspoon Street is Thank you Mia is there a second thank you Brian
questions or comments all in favor please say "I." I i 25 thank you 25137 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a contract to VoIP networks for telephone services for an amount not to
exceed $44,266.58 utilizing Sourcewell National Cooperative Purchasing Contract number 12122-MVs thank you Leighton is there a second thank you Brian questions or comments seeing none all in favor please say I i i
25138 resolution of the mayor and council authorizing the award of a bid contract to uh Colinelli Brothers Inc for the rehabilitation/replacement of two pedestrian foot bridges in the Mountain Lakes Preserve bid for an amount not to exceed
$947,200 is there a motion on that thank you Leighton michelle's got the second questions or comments brian um I just wanted to ask I think I read that most of this is grant
supported yes okay almost half great okay i think 357,000 thank Thank you for being on top of that yep all right any other questions all
right if not all in favor please say I hi I 25139 resolution of the mayor and council authorizing the award of a contract to foronics document solutions for document management services for an amount not to
exceed $167,110 utilizing the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey contract 223-11 is there a motion on that thank you David brian's got the second questions or comments all right all in favor please say I i I
25140 resolution to the mayor and council authorizing the award of a bid contract to Clark Monahan Landscaping and Construction LLC for Community Park North Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and for uh reforestation planning bid for an amount not to exceed
$566,15342 thank you Brian is there a second thank you Leon questions or comments mia uh did we get any uh state assistance for this $552,000 is coming from a grant great so
basically the municipal cost is only uh about 30 yes it's very limited what's that about 15,000 about 15,000 yes so good good for the public to know this is uh being very
important initiative and also being covered by the state so okay any other questions or comments all in favor say I i uh okay sorry I got lost as to which one
I was doing 25140 resolution of the mayor and council authorizing No no I just did that one sorry I couldn't follow my check marks 25141 resolution of the mayor and council authorizing the award of a bid contract to Clark uh Moahan Landscaping
and Construction LLC for 2025 spring tree planting for an amount not to exceed 57,322 leighton's got the motion mia's got the second questions or comments all in favor please say I i i i
25142 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a contract to Passport Labs Inc for mobile payment for parking fees for an amount not to exceed $121,000 for the first year of a three-year contract utilizing Omnia Partners National Cooperative Purchasing
Contract number 05-51 leighton's got the motion david's got the second questions or comments david i I just want to comment that um this year for the first time apparently receipts through the passport app have
exceeded the credit card correct so this is something that finally residents are starting to really take advantage of and it is it is beneficial to use the app there are um certain savings um I think for the individual and for the
municipality when you use the app so okay thank you mia why are we paying them for the app i mean don't shouldn't doesn't it usually work that they get a certain amount of uh a percentage of each person who uses
the app so we do pay a um transaction fee as well as a gateway fee um that's how our contract has worked with them since we started it and um the price for this
year hasn't changed from what they've charged us in the past so they're charging us this amount to make it possible for our residents to use it so we're underwriting the ability of our residents to use this because it's the
ease of access but if you think about it credit cards the merchant which is us also pays a fee right the user the end user doesn't pay the fee so I think this is really parallel to credit card processing and
perhaps a little bit less expensive for us yeah and I was just going to add that we average about $130,000 a month um that we collect for the passport app so it's it's significantly more than what
we're collecting versus what we're paying for the app thank you other questions or comments all in favor please say I i i i 25143 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing an
increase of $10,500 to the not to exceed amount for the professional services agreement with PSNS LLC for professional engineering services in connection with the Tune Road pedestrian improvements project for a new not to exceed amount of $153,500 is there a motion on Thank you
Leighton is there a second thank you David questions or comments i see none all in favor please say I hi hi 25144 a resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the award of a professional services
agreement to Mueller and and Ba how do you say that baly bailey bailey bailey sorry pc to provide legal services in connection with the review of development applications to be paid exclusively by escrow funds for an amount not to exceed
$125,000 is there a motion on that thank you Mia is there a second thank you Leon questions or comments david yeah um I I'm just confused that there's an expenditure for for fund or for services
that are to be played exclusively by escrow funds so I don't know if somebody can explain why we're paying if escrow funds are going to pay them yeah the money is coming actually from the application um that we collect for the escrow review so this is not this is a
contract that doesn't cost us any money it's paid for by the applicant got it okay good question other questions or comments all in favor please say I i i 25145 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing an
increase of $30,000 to the not to exceed amount for the professional services agreement with Greenbomb Rose Smith and Davis LLP for legal services a special redevelopment council to Princeton for a new not to exceed amount of $25,000 michelle's got the motion mia
has got the second questions or comments all right seeing none all in favor please say I i 25146 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing change order number three to the contract with Eastern Surplus and Equipment Company for the purchasing of
one highwater rescue truck for a decrease of $9,60 resulting in a new contract total of $257,313 and a final delivery date on or before April 21st 2025 and authorizing payment to be issued upon delivery and
final acceptance of the truck is there Michelle's got the motion thank you is there a second david's got the second questions or comments mia um didn't we just buy an high water rescue truck or what like there's just been a lot of drama and a lot of emails
and a lot of stuff related to either one or more high water rescue trucks it's the It is the same vehicle it is the same vehicle there has been a lot of back and forth and drama okay which is coming to an end very soon thank you Lisa thank you very much for our attorney for helping us navigate high
water with the uh vendor so this is the same truck same truck it is the same truck and we're going to get it soon it's actually coming wow okay that's all y want to make sure we weren't accidentally buying another one
not yet a little hard to hide this thing there's two of them what no just the one okay good question all good other questions or comments all right uh all in favor please say I i
25147 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing change order number one to the contract with Black Rockck Enterprises LLC for roadway improvements Tune Road improvement project from North Harrison Street to Grover Avenue for an increase of
$60,90.37 resulting in a new contract total of $865,37252 uh thank you David m's got the second questions or comments leighton yeah Deanna I I read this did it say cutouts is it seem like
a small small addition but I was just wondering what impact it's going to have on on the bicycle and the pathways uh the scope of work hasn't changed it's really it it was
um when we were looking at the coordination between the work that the Alice is doing for their frontage improvements and what is being done um on our half of Tur Road for the improvements um we were we shifted some
of the work from their contract to our contract and so that's what you're seeing here is that um the limit of paving changed the construction of the raised intersection a Belgium block refuge island for the pedestrians
um and then the additional rectangular rapid flashing beacon so we will still have the bicycle lanes that will be built as part of this project as well as the pedestrian improvements on both sides of the roadway
thank you other questions or comments okay all in favor please say I i i 25148 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing change order number one to the mowing contract with US Athletic Fields Inc for additional mowing services for an increase of
$18,900 resulting in a new contract amount not to exceed $114,99 is there Michelle thank you who's got the motion brian's got the second questions or comments all right all in favor please say I i i
25149 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing change order number one to the turf management services contract with US Athletic Fields Inc for an additional treatments for an increase of $1,455.61 resulting in a new amount not to exceed
$21,38627 it's the remote thank you Brian michelle's got the second questions or comments all right all in favor please say I i i 25150 resolution of the mayor and council of Princeton authorizing the arts council of Princeton to hold an outdoor art market or street fair
yes Michelle's making the motion and Leighton's got the second questions or comments michelle and then David um so I I love We all love the art fair and I love the fact that it's downtown
um where it is i know it's very convenient for the arts council it's uh close and it brings people into town and that's great they can you know dine shop and all that but I have to say that there was a lot of concern last year
with traffic and I'm looking at Adam uh and we've just spoken about this uh you know the concern being that you last year Chamber Street was still closed to traffic or was oneway traffic there was
still construction going on so you know I think that this year we're going to try this again and hopefully I know that you've spoken to the police department traffic and so on and so hopefully these issues can be
resolved it's not going to be perfect but um you know I hope it's going to work out because I love it we all love it it's great for the town and we want to be supportive but I do want to just throw out the caveat that um I hope that the traffic situation is not going to be
an an impediment to the businesses downtown that did suffer last year for it let me just see if there's any other comments up here Adam i'm sorry just that way that way if there was others you can address them all at once any other comments or questions David yeah um I guess it's related
um you know we spent a lot of money to upgrade Witherspoon Street with the express intention actually of closing the top block of Witherspoon from from Spring Street to Nassau Street for
events like this and so uh you know I'm not suggesting that in any way we try to change it this year but um I would really like to be having that conversation um in years to come you know it is great to bring people into
town i think it's going to be even more of a boon i mean to to have the fair on that block would do so much more for the adjacent businesses than having it on Paul Paul Rubson which has no adjacent businesses um I also know that the
parking garage that's uh under the um I forget yeah North has issues with egress and entry for the residents of those apartments and I think that's much less the case on Witherspoon Street you know
the service all happens the loading and stuff all happens before 10:00 a.m and then you know vehicles really don't have a reason to be on that that stretch of Witherspoon so I'm making a pitch and uh hope we can work together to um to make
that move in the coming years mia okay we're going to pile on um this is not new we've been asking for three years now or two years three years I don't know for it to be on
Witherspoon and you know I'm going to say it less politely than David i don't know why we spent millions of dollars to create the opportunity to close off Witherspoon and have exactly this sort of thing if we're not going to use it you know there's that was really the
main impetus for doing what we did on Witherspoon there's a lot of people who feel nostalgic about the old way that Witherspoon was and want to know why we spent this money and part of me feels like well maybe we should put it back because we're not using it for what we said we were going to use it for so um
why aren't we using it for what we said we were going to use it for so let me jump in uh two things three things maybe uh the street fair is May 3rd it is 11:00 am to 4 pm very important for people to understand that so they show up um and then I had
another great comment that has totally flown out of my mind it'll come back to me adam please jump in identify yourself so you're in the middle uh my name is Adam Welch i'm the um executive director at the Arts Council Princeton 102 Witherspoon Street though I live in
Nightstown um thank you so much for hearing me tonight and thank you for the questions uh it is something that uh we have uh thought and talked a lot about and as some of you know with my uh side interest and amateur uh history
uh one of the big reasons that we actually um stopped Kum University and haven't decided to use uh utilize Witherspoon Street is uh the amount of businesses that are affected negatively when you um set up booze in front of
their locations um so uh one of the big advantages of of uh moving it to Paul Rowis in place was it doesn't actually affect any uh foot traffic to the retail businesses uh
something that we are looking to pursue um which we have some plans for but we haven't you know pitched them yet is um more like concerts uh with the Witherspoon Street uh closure so it just brings pedestrians in uh we can have uh
music we were thinking sort of like weekend music concerts and stuff like that uh on Witherspoon Street uh up at the top part but one of the big reasons why we uh pushed for Porchfest and pushed for uh the art market the week after was um uh almost unanimously from
what I have read is the businesses were so negatively impacted by the street fairs uh because it closed access to their businesses um you know one of the best compliments we got was actually from Jessica Dura who said uh you know
during university uh events there would be lines down the street to come into her store just to use the bathroom but very negative impact on the the shopping and that's why 10 years I think before uh we uh decided not to Duke University anymore
it had to be moved to a Sunday because the businesses petitioned council and mayor because it was negatively affecting all the businesses in town uh so they it was their worst Saturday ever so um believe it or not the main reason
we moved it off of of uh Nassau Street and We Street is because we saw it as an opportunity and got rid of all food vendors is we saw as a great opportunity to um help help support the businesses in town and uh particularly during COVID
when we made this shift is uh we wanted you know all the traffic that came to town to not buy from our food vendors which is where we made most of our money but to shop in town so um believe it or not the decision was made to be sort of
a pro business decision to move it off of of Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street but one thing that you know just as we problem solved what we saw as you know an issue with community university um one thing that we thought about what
would be the good use of this uh Witherspoon Street closure and we thought you know a band you know morning bands and stuff like that on the weekends would be a good use for it but as far as street fairs um it's it's not a you know I don't I don't think that
it's um you know according to the research it's It's not a very good um use for the street fairs with the booths yeah so let let me let me just say we're not going to decide this tonight so I really don't want to get into the debate about whether to use Witherspoon or Street not tonight that's going to be an
ongoing debate after this meeting so I just want to say that but we can have a couple comments but really let's not try to have that debate this evening so I understand that that's Experience Princeton's position and that's the position of the businesses who belong to Experience Princeton and that the arts
council is a member of Experience Princeton but Experience Princeton is not running the town the council is and you know I think that the council as a whole made the decision to move forward
with what we with spending a lot of money on Witherspoon Street so that we would have more money I mean sorry more space not just for music but also for things like street fairs so I mean I just don't think it seems like the way
from what you've described that things have played out that the business community has made a decision about what they think is best for the community and the arts council I understand as a member of experience Princeton but it also is serves the entire community and I think the council as representing the
entire community should have the ability and as Mark said it's not about this time but this has been brought up for a number of years and it should not be the business community determining what's best for the whole community and I think it should be a larger discussion and I
hope that it will because I think that anything at least what was you know represented by you know our liaison to experience Princeton which our council member was that um what was planned for Witherspoon Street would enhance the
business community so this is the first I'm hearing that actually there is some tension there um it seems to me that you don't have to set up a stall right in front of the doorway of a business you can there should be a way to do it um in
a in an uh in a way that draws people but doesn't obstruct the access to businesses so you know and just to be absolutely clear this has nothing at all to do with experience Princon i don't have any conversations with them about any of
this so they had no in no I don't think there's been any discussion with any of the business community at all about this year so that is how do we know that they feel it obstructs them i mean that again that's why I've said we shouldn't have the debate here tonight we should actually go out and get facts and one of those facts would be helpful if we
actually went out and talked to the businesses on what he just mentioned one business proprietor and specifically Jessica Dury who who was it it was um since 1971 every year there would be a petition signed by the businesses that were affected negatively
um starting in 1971 for Kim University yeah university killed our business that's sort of a whole other thing but I I hear what you're saying I just I think this is a discussion we should have yep Leon yeah Mark thank Thank you Mayor i I think it is a discussion that we could
have or should have going forward but I just also want to note that in the fourth where as the chief of police findings are that the content of the event will not substantially interrupt the safe and orderly movement of other traffic continuous to its route and he goes on to say other things that this
this is not a bad place to have the event it is going to be safe the police are in favor of of the move and I would also add that while we did redirect and redesign the top of Witherspoon Street
to be street fairish uh I can see where some of the businesses there might not like that confusion there over a 4-hour period and oh all by also by the way the location
of the arts council gives it a a a Princeton neighborhood feel and I kind of like that so I I I I kind of think this is much to do about nothing i think it is a discussion we can have but it's clear that the chief
of police has you know okayed this as a good venue and you know I think we should just do what we can to make sure that this is all it can be for detail yeah I think we're good for this year but it's we need to have a discussion about for the future so that's we're
going to send the complaint calls to you Leighton on that day okay all right i think we're I think we're done with comments no another comment i just want to clarify about Witherspoon Street though i mean we did it also because we wanted outdoor dining and a
bigger pedestrian you know passage so it wasn't about having events um however you know we do need to figure out some ballards and I do think that we should have moments where we have street fairs and and various events and even just to
close it on a nice weekend afternoon to just make it very pedestrian friendly and have outdoor dining there and let the kids run around and not worry about the traffic so there's a lot of things we can do and I would like to explore
how to set it up with tents that would be more in the middle outward facing which was not what Kim University did um so you know let's continue the conversation i think we talked about the fact that last year the traffic was an
issue we have now resolved that so we'll see how it goes but I think for this or for others we need to continue the conversation about Witherspoon Street because it is a really um good opportunity for the town so that's it
yeah we should find the right event not force an event on it but Right okay thank you Adam let's take a vote all in favor please say I i i i that's everybody next up is the consent agenda there are eight items on the consent agenda if no one feels
the need to pull one off the consent agenda one of those items somebody could move the consent agenda in block michelle in block every block thank you very much is there a second on the consent agenda thank you Leighton all in favor please say I i i i thank you David i move that we adjourn is there a second
thank you Brian all in favor say I i i we are done thank you all for being here tonight have a great night thanks for coming leah Khan there you go dawn dawn [Applause]