Good. I had that on. I got seven seconds. Right. 7 o'clock. Good evening.
This meeting is being held in accordance with the public laws of 1975. Chapter 231. An adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a notice sent to the star ledger to local source and posted in the main lobby at the
municipal building and on township website. Pledge of allegiance uh led by Carl Ostster Junior Vice Commander American Legion Post 228 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. Please remain standing for servicemen here and for Thank you. Roll call.
Mayor Yuber. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alfur here. Committeeman Capid here. Committeeman Kaiser present here. Ann announcements. Springfield 55 plus
residents calendar is out for July July. for July. Uh national night out and fifth annual touch a truck is Tuesday, August 5th from 5 to 8 in
Johnson Dayton the parking lot. Rain date next clear night. Meet your first responders. Enjoy the food trucks. Next committee meeting is next our next committee meeting is Tuesday, August
12th at 7 pm right here. Uh the township extends its condolences to the family of former mayor Bill Locco on both his and his wife's recent passing. Bill dedicated 40 years to public service, serving on the town
committee for 15 as mayor in 73 and 83 and deputy mayor in 75. I I knew Bill and he was very very dedicated to Springfield Township and bid music and car festival
is next Thursday July 24th 6 to 8 town hall lawn music by the characters free ice cream and hot dogs while supplies last one per customer. All right. Um, I'd also like to thank
the governor last night called me to make sure Springfield was okay and I was very I'd like to thank him and today Tom Keen also called to make sure Springfield was okay. So, I'd like to thank both of those gentlemen.
Um, Mr. Mr. Mayor, before we go to a public comment, may I just make a small announcement, uh, on a somber note, uh, on behalf of the township committee, we would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the Echar family and the,
uh, family at Halo Roers, um, who lost one of their co-owners recently over the Fourth of July holiday. Uh, our deepest condolences to them. If you don't know the Eharts, they've been a staple in this community for a very long time, and they have their own family-owned local
resident business uh in our in our center on Mountain Avenue. And we just wish them the the uh our serious condolences and uh you know, our thoughts and prayers are with them and their family and all the employees uh in that business at this time.
Thank you. Anybody else have anything? All right. Um, public comment on agenda items only. Seeing none, closed portion of public comment. Our reports. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First thing I'd
like to touch on is we're having some issues. If you look at the screen there, we're having landscapers or residents leaving debris in the gutters. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but when we get a rain like we did last night, it washes into the basins. Next thing you know, the basins are clogged and that leads to
some flooding. Tamar, would you go to the next one, please? You can see on that one, you know, this is kind of what we're seeing on a regular basis. It's I think a lot of it is the landscapers are not carting it away. They're just dumping it. So, we're trying to catch them and get after them. But, as a
resident, please don't do it. We have 840 basins in town. We try to clean them on a on a regular basis, but again, 840, it's just we can't keep up with everyone every day. So, help us out a little bit, please. The other thing, Tamar, could
you go to our the pumps also? I wanted to show you guys the pumps that are coming in for our pumping stations because I think people probably have the impression we're talking about like a sump pump kind of thing. I mean, Tamar, go to the next one. I want the one where we've got one of our workers. It gives
you kind of a perspective on how large these pumps are. The other ones have lasted us over 40 years. Both both pump stations. Now, the pumps are in the DPW facility. We have already started work on the stations themselves. So, we're we're on schedule. Was there any more or
is that it on the Go ahead. Just flip through. I mean, you could see the size of these things. They're they're huge. Okay, we're good. Thank you. Um, I wanted to make a note also, we got noticed that Route 78 from Drift Road
down to 124. They're going to be working on the state DOT. So, you may see some closures. You may see some delays. So, just be aware. We got a note the other day, uh, Deputy Chief Mrron called me and said, "Calwell's going to be
closed." I said, "It is." He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "I'll send you the text." So, um, New Jersey American Water sent us a text that they're going to be working on Caldwell Thursday and Friday of this week. They're doing test pits.
So, I called the construction manager up and I said, "Tell me the story. We We don't know anything about it at this point. We're digging some test pits because we have to replace some valves and we have to replace some water lines." I said, "Okay, what does that entail?" 15 foot by 15t, two test pits.
Caldwell is a hard close. So I said, "Well, stop the presses because until we get PD, fire, DPW, everybody's on the same page. You can't just randomly close it like that." So we have a meeting with them on the on the 17th with the county
because the county afterwards is going to do the covert, but that's not going to be done until the fall. So I'm anticipating a mess uh at that end of Caldwell. Luckily, it's all the way down at the very end, not towards Walton. So,
the chief's going to have to help us work on a detour to get to school. I think we're going to have a little issue there. So, we'll check with the county. I'll be back to you after the 17th to let you know what's happening there. Uh, we ordered the lighted crosswalk
flashing signs for pedestrians. These are the ones with the bars on them. The signs have lighting all the way around them. So when you come up to them, you push the button, this the lights flash and the sign goes on. They should be in within the next two weeks. There's one going to be at Evergreen and the others
at Wabino. And they are um just so everyone knows, you know, I wish they were more reasonable, but nothing's cheap. I mean, these signs cost us over 10 grand for each crosswalk, so they're not cheap. Uh we are going to go out, we
have a program to repaint all our crosswalks. We're starting with the the major intersections first. Then we're going to go to wherever there's a crossing guard and then any other crosswalks that there are. They will be done before school starts. We're also checking and making sure that all of our
speed bumps, the little arrows going to them are painted so you know that they're there. That'll be done again, you know, within the next month. We should have those done. We met at Ruby with a contractor to look at doing new infield clay. So, we're getting prices
on that to get that taken care of shortly. Uh, we walked Mars Avenue week or so ago with Committeeman Weber with JCP and L representative to try to clean up some of the wires and some of the telephone poles are kind of in bad
shape. They're leaning and they're warped and but uh would you like to add because I we had extensive talks with JCPNL. Yeah. So, um JCPNO was very receptive. We we met a
representative there and our our our case is number one um the poles are are degree way past straight. Um some of them are damaged. You have wires that are hanging low. You have wires that are obsolete
that are just not even there. For us to accomplish what we want on Morris Avenue, we've been pledging our case with JCPNL right now for a while. Um, JCPNL wires, ironically enough, are not the problem. It's Verizon and we can't Verizon will not pick up
the phone. You know that already. Yes, we were trying to get that cleaned up for years. So, the way we're thinking, they're going to give us a few um options. And option one is to bury the wires underground. They
do have a rebate program where if we pay for this due to the amount of electricity that the township uses, we can get money back and actually get reimbursed yearly to offset the cost. That's that's option
one was to bury the wires. And we're not talking a whole lot. We're talking less than a quarter mile. We were talking roughly from Church Mall to um Caldwell because as soon as they hit Caldwell, they cross the street and they go
straight up Morris Avenue. Okay, so that was option one. Option two was if you go to Union, they're called transformer poles. These things are 80 feet high. They're massive, but they take the wires out of the sighteline. we would only
need about six of these transformer poles. That cost wasn't so bad. That cost, I think he had said, was about a h 100,000 or so. It it wasn't crazy, but we're hoping that if we did that or or
that was one of them, that would also force Verizon because with the replacement of the polls, Verizon's got to cooperate now. Um, and then option three was um running them along the back behind
dominoes. I thought they had a problem in presented that building to the public or not. So, the issue that they had with running them along the back and and we all really liked running them along the back, but that was something that could not be
done really until redevelopment of all those buildings were done because you would have to have new electrical services in every building go placed from front to back. It it would be a pretty heavy cost that either we would have to absorb. I I we just don't know
if that was the bang for the buck. The the the the two ones that we were interested in were the transistor poles, transformer poles, sorry. Transistor transformer transformer poles and the bearing of the wires. He was very helpful. He did give
us an, you know, inside number to call for Verizon. Hopefully, we get something. But when when I say we walked it and wires were bundled up into just almost tiresized bundles ready with the wires cut at the
end just on nothing. Then we spoke to them about the big hole and crater for the hundth time on the corner of Mars and Mountain where the boards are and the cones are.
We've had, you know, talks with, you talked with Bramnik, correct? Um, we have been told by Verizon. So, what you guys can't hear at home is that um Verizon has said that they will be fixing these
wires in 60 to 90 days. But how many times have you been told that already? Yeah. Two, three years. I don't have a lot of faith. 3 years, four years, 5 years. It's been forever. Used to be I can't go up this pole because this isn't mine. I can't go up that pole because that isn't mine.
Well, and that's still part of the problem, Mr. Mayor, is that when we talk to JCPNL, he starts looking and go, that's not our poll. None of them were. And and then, you know, you got to get Verizon then to come out and then take the poll down. Well, those polls were actually Belltel polls. Yeah. Oh, they were preverizon. They were all
BT polls, which I had a we got a good lesson in polls from JCPNL. Um, but we're hoping that JCPNL can force the hand. Yeah. With that. So, that's where we are with that. Trying. Yeah. We're not going to give up, but
it's it's an uphill battle for sure. Thank you. Uh, come Monday, just so I want the public to know in case you try to dial us on Monday, we may have an issue. We're getting a new phone system put in. So, there may be some disruptions here and there. So, please bear with us a
little bit. And the last thing I did want to mention to the public again is that we're going to go in for safety reasons. We're going to go in and take the stumps out at Oakland at the little park that we have there and clean that up because now we have the first phase
was getting the lot cleared, but the stumps have to be removed so nobody trips over them, etc., etc. So, can I address that for a second, too? Yes. Okay. Um, I've put them online if anybody's interested in them. I'll put them
everywhere. The trees that were cut down had holes in the center of them. They were split down the middle. They were ash trees. They had wires going through them. Um, they had to be removed. Our forester looked at them. We did not go in there and we just did not cut trees down. We do not need permits to cut
trees down. We are the township. It is our land. We do not need to file a permit for it. We are building a park for the township, right? That's it. I mean, it's as simple as that. There was nothing in there that the forester looked at that was worth saving or we would have saved it. That's number
one. And number two, our plan is to plant twice as many or or or so PL trees as we have taken down because we didn't take many down. I think we took, you know, uh, five, six scrubby trees. It was not a lot.
Everything else was was tiny in diameter and they were just messes. The other thing I want to address is that people forget that those billboards that were there for 60 years were on concrete pilings, right? We have a lot more permeable surface than we have ever had there in the last 60 years to absorb
water and any kind of runoff. And those pilings have been dug out and removed. Right now, it will have to be graded until we get to see what we are working with. Well, we're going to grade it so it goes towards the street. Yes. Yes, our engineer will the grading is is going to be done so that it goes towards
the street. It will not go on anybody's property. I think that's all I had at the moment unless there's some questions. Yeah, I had a couple. Go um security and safety at our Gome site. Do we have an update of what we're doing to maintain that? Like make sure
that we Which site? I'm sorry. Gome site. Uh yes, it was they did close off the parking garage and they did secure the stairwells. So as of as of last week sometime it was done.
Thank you. On your crosswalk list, can I add Chisum to that? I I don't know if you guys are okay with painting the rainbow crosswalk again or if you want a regular crosswalk, but it's it's it's 5 years worth. It's kind of looks a little beat up. Yeah, we could use a refresh. All
crosswalks will be especially where, like I said, we're doing it in phases. Yeah. Four main ones, crossing guards, and then anything other will be painted. So, yes, I'll make sure that we tackle that one. Also, you guys have a problem with leaving the rainbow? Oh, no issue. Okay.
Uh I don't know if this is to John B or John C. Uh we passed an ordinance I think it was February about uh changing a uh changing rules for a turn on to Mountain Avenue from Hillside. Uh during
school hours uh is that is that sign ever going to come? Like there's no there's nothing denoting there's nothing denoting whether or not it's school zone or not. So can we look into that? Yeah, I'll speak with Mr. Bcher on that.
Thank you. We ordered those signs back when we had um the next thing uh you know John Basic wanted to confirm uh publicly for the world to know one more time when we move forward outside of the tree removal as
it pertains to Oakland Park. There will be public meetings and we will make sure that the public is noticed uh and that everybody is aware of the process um as to what we're doing. Yeah. So, let me follow up on that real
quick. Will we have I mean, could we have a meeting in August or should we wait until September? What What is the feelings on everybody here? You guys I I don't anybody a correct me if I'm wrong if anybody has a plan to do
anything major before September. Probably not. Sep I like to work September. No, no one's paying attention in August. We go over to seniors and ask if they have any, you know, everybody's in agreement sometime in September. We'll do it either with a meeting or or a separate meeting.
You just do it with a regular meeting. Yeah, I think I agree. Uh we do it at a at a regular meeting. Um so so we are all on we're on on this day has agreed that there will be steps forward that are public. Uh that's great. Uh and the the second
one uh wanted to talk about the the process as it pertained to the new ice cream store because that's been a a matter of discussion in this town. Happy. Um not it was it was really it was it was
really just just one question. Um, has the town um been in touch before and since um with the business owner to make sure that that the business owner is aware of
of all outstanding processes and all outstanding deliverables so something like this doesn't happen again because what happened was regrettable. Um, and we just want to make sure that that that the business owner, you know, is is
aware of all of these processes. Yes. We started this application back in August of last year. Okay. We met with her, I dare say at least six times. Okay. And walked the owner through the process of what had to be done.
There was there's an ordinance that you can't have indoor seating because then it's termed a restaurant. She was instructed that she need to go to the planning board. We had her set up for July to go to the planning board and that would have literally would have been done in a in a very very short
meeting to get that approved. She her lawyer was not ready did not file an application. We did not cancel the meeting. Okay. They chose not to file the application. So, we met with her again last Friday and said, "As an
alternative, we would like to offer you there's outdoor dining is allowed. Take your chairs, bring them outside, and you can use the outside until you meet with the board in August." And her words to me were basically, I may just close down
until August. I'm not going to move the chairs outside. I just don't want to. So, you know, we were okay, you know, but I just we're trying to help you. We're thinking of everything we can to try to, you know, help your business. Okay. But also the planning board offered she
got all the paperwork in or came in Monday to have a special meeting. Yes. That you know, virtual and I because you know I talked to chairman and that well she she didn't notice them in she didn't still didn't notice in time for
for any of that. I don't believe she brought her application in still. So I I just So to your knowledge, the application to the planning board is still outstanding. As far as I know, unless she dropped it off to Jennifer today. Okay. I mean, I saw Craig reach for the
microphone, so I got worried. But uh but as far as you know, the application is still outstanding. Uh so so I just want to I just want to, you know, talk to Jay for a second. you've I mean you've kind of served as a
conduit between the business owner and the town and you've done a a a good job in doing that. The business owner is aware of these issues and is aware that she needs to get the application into the planning board.
Okay. I just want to make sure because there's a lot of accusations out there online and I just want to I just want to make sure that everything happened and is happening as it should. Yes. Anything else up here?
I'm good. Okay. Minutes or none. New business. Second reading. None. First reading. Ordinance 202516. This ordinance amends chapter 22 solid
waste management of township code regarding use of the township's residential recycling convenience center to update the violations provisions thereof. Mr. Mayor, I move for approval on first
reading ordinance 202516 as read by madame clerk uh for publication in the local source July 24th, 2025. Final hearing discuss final hearing is August 12th. August 12th.
I second the motion. Anybody have a question? Can I make a comment on what this is about? Yeah, I was going to ask what are the what are the updated violations? What what was happening is what we're finding is that the people that are dumping up at the pool at our recycling center are
generally contractors. And what's happening is uh Mr. Betcher happened to stop over the weekend. There was a gentleman in there with a dump truck full of grass, rock, dirt with two guys shoveling it out and dumping there. We
don't have a pile to dump rock and dirt. He was making his own. The problem with that is then we have to go clean it up and we have to pay to dispose of it. We're spending an inordinate amount of money cleaning up that site from people dumping illegally. The problem is is
when we wrote this original one up, the fine was $300. If you're a contractor and and you get caught once out of every five times, you're way ahead of the game. You're going to eat the 300. Exactly. So, we raised it modestly to to
five and uh we're going to go from there and see how that works. Can we put a camera up there? I know we have cameras. We're in the process. We're just All right. We also um we also double for second and subsequent violations. We also doubled the minimum fine. Yeah, I was that was my next question.
Can we put a scale on or is it just a straight five? It's so it's five um I'll read it. It's f it's now five as a minimum,000 first offense. So there's a there's a range which the
is useful for the judge. Second offense it's 1,000 to 2,000. Cool. And sub and subsequent offenses. And if we're getting people that are dumping hazardous material we talked about Craig also. Yeah. We're also looking into um some additional provisions to to
further bolster the solid waste elements of the ordinance because there are some more substantial violations if if someone's illegally dumping solid waste. We also even without those ordinance provisions in place um the you know if there's if there's something deemed to
be illegal dumping the township can confer with the county environmental health office and get an investigation for those kinds of offenses as well. Who's responsible for enforcement? That's going to end up having to go to
PD. Uh we're going to have to be able to give them sufficient information I I public works also has Okay. I was about to I was about to say like I mean we do we like do is there a course that we give for like hazardous dumping at the academy or something?
DPW will will probably be ahead of this. But yeah, one of the things that drove this just so so you understand is we had probably two or three weeks in a row where we end up with an entire bathroom Sure. dumped up there. toilet bowl, sink, vanity. I don't doubt it. No, I I don't doubt
it. Tile and and we can't res. We got to clean all of that up. Yeah, it's just getting out of hand. And again, I don't believe it's the residents. These are contractors. Cool. All right.
Yes. Committeeman Capid. Yes. Deputy Mayor Laer. Yes. Kaiser. Yes. Committeeman Weber. Yes, Mayor Yuber. Yes. Okay. Resolutions. If you want one
pulled out, let me know. 20 2500 2012 203 204 205 206 207 20 28 209
210 Can I have a excuse me I have a resolution Mr. Mayor, make a motion to adopt resolutions 2025-200 all the way through
25 2025-210. Second call. Committeeman Weber. Yes. Deputy Mayor Laer. Yes. Capid. Yes. Kaiser. Yes. Mayor Yuber. Yes. Right. Discussion and action items.
Uh, a request from St. James Apostle Church to wave up to $1,000 of the fee for the subdivision application submitted to the zoning board. Second. Committeeman Kaiser. Yes. Deputy Mayor Ler. Yes. Committeeman Capid.
Abstain. Um, Committeeman Weber. Yes. Mayor Yuber. Yes. A request from St. James Paza to use Chisum's parking lot for overflow parking during the festival October 14th
to the 18th as well as the turkey trot on November 27th. Old harmless and certificate of insurance. Mr. Mayor, make a request uh make a motion, sorry, to approve the request from St. James the Apostle Church
uh to use the Chism parking lot. Second. Committeeman Weber, yes. Deputy Mayor Laugher, yes. Committeeman Capes, yes. Kaiser, yes. Mayor Yuber, yes.
Mark your calendars. October 14th to 18th for the St. James Festival. They're they're asking us, but isn't that Shouldn't they go in front of the board of education for what? For what? Over at the parking lot. No,
it's Chisum. Chism. I'm sorry. My fault. I just saw finance. I'll make a motion to adopt the following minutes. Oh, wait.
I was very busy. Everybody's on a roll right now. Few days. I'll make a I'll make a motion to adopt the following uh to adopt the payroll invoices for the period of June 25th, 2025 through July 15, 2025 in the amount
of 5,710,482.33. Second. Committeeman Kaiser, yes. Deputy Mayor Laugher, yes. Committeeman Capidis, yes. Committeeman Weber, yes. Mayor Huber, yes. Okay. Uh correspondence
correspondence Westfield public hearing on ordinance 202516 amending land uh land use schedule for July 15th at 8:00 p.m. in council chambers in Westfield Municipal Building
and Springfield Zoning Board of Adjustments for applications St. James Church site plan and minor subdivision approve approval Wednesday the 23rd at 6:00
before I go public comment. Has anybody gone over toward Westfield with the new apartments because they're they're renting. It hasn't been that I was surprised it wasn't that bad. No, I didn't notice any difference in traffic. No, they and they and they went up very quickly.
Yes. As an as an aside, as an aside, they went up very quickly. They did, but people are living in there now and all that. Okay. Public comment on government
items only. Any comment? No. Seeing none, close the portion of the public. All right. Oh. Uh, were there any questions, Mayor? Oh, yes. There was one question that was answered by He answered the crosswalk, but there was another question that you had.
I don't have one. No, I had one. We only had the one the crosswalk. That was it. Sorry. We answered the crosswalk. Okay. Oh, I hope that answer your question, Michael. Okay. public com uh executive or
uh Oh, it's got to get read first. Okay. Resolution 71525. Whereas article six of the open public meetings act provides that a public body may hold a close session and whereas the township committee will during this
meeting enter into discussion of the following matters. Attorney client privilege and personnel. attorney client privilege, potential acquisition of real property and safety of public property, Department of Public Works. Whereas the
matters to be discussed in close session are to remain in the strictest of confidence by all township committee members in furtherance of their fiduciary duties to the township. or be it resolved, matters discussed at this meeting will be released to the public when reasons for discussing and
acting upon them in close session no longer exists. Motion second. All in favor? I I No action. No action will be taken tonight. Action.
Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor?