##VIDEO ID:4lx4QfXiQP0## in compliance with the open public meeting law I wish to state that on January 10th 2025 notice this meeting that the upper Cate committee was posted on the official Township bulletin board the Upper Township website the town hall FL mailed to the K May County Gazette the Atlantic City Press the Ocean City Sentinel Ledger the Herold THS and F with the township clerks tonight's meeting is being audio recorded up to the Clos session portion of this meeting will be available to the Upper Township website here why direct that this announcement be made part of the minutes of the meeting will you please call a roll Mr caceo here Mr nappin here Mr Sam Palumbo here Mr Zach Palumbo here may coron pres oh I'm sorry flat please stand to the flag of the United States of America to rep for which stands one nation God indivisible and jusice for all all right sorry about that book uh we've already done a roll call what's your pleasure on a minute there uh I guess um make a motion that we approve uh regular Clos session minutes from SE 16th and the reor we should probably do them separate because I think there was only two of us present at the meeting Mee for the 16th so I guess that well and I would say this mayor coron in the event that those that are now on the governing body were not on the 16th as long as the minute the the meeting was watched and then the minutes reviewed if you agree with them you can vote on them at that point but if you haven't done those things I I recommend you don't exactly we're both in the audience and they stay for Clos session so I still think we should do them separately absolutely do them separately but they are able to vote on them in that that sense all right so I guess we have a motion in second did somebody second December 16th I'll second it all right please call the rooll Mr caceo Mr nappin yes Mr Sam Palumbo yes Mr Zack Palumbo yes M Corson yes motion Carri with four in favor okay and then we're going to I guess January third minutes what your pleasure joh uh make a motion to approve January 3rd 2025 reorganization second please call the roll Mr caceo yes Mr napin yes Mr Sam Palumbo yes Mr Zack Palumbo yes coron yes no sh okay moving on to report of governing bodies 'll start with Samer great happy to hear it um had a wonderful meeting this morning with parks and R department uh a lot of exciting things coming up potential project coming up uh that kind of got the ball rolling this first meeting um obviously collaborated with Ryan and obviously you mayor it's been it's really exciting uh you know it'll be a great asset for our community I'm talking about uh basically changing two of the tennis courts in calwell park um into pickleball courts which is a rapidly growing sport uh someone called it cult these days but um it's really exciting for our town potentially even expanding that into additional courts um just kind of getting the ball rolling seeing uh basically what we can do um working with Ryan to see how we can get that done but great meeting with public works and obviously parks and rack thanks sir along we come back to you okay all right uh so I want to give very big kudos to the public works department for the job they did with the snow um this past weekend it was awesome I I know um uh I as a school administrator appreciate the fact that you have safe roots to school you know making sure that bus RADS are able to go there so Upper Township unlike other districts were able to go back to school on Tuesday which is a big help because you never know what the next snowstorm is going to be going there Craig I want to thank you for taking my call as always and then uh you know we got very fortunate on the uh dusting on Friday Friday afterno Friday night into Saturday um I was at a social event yesterday uh and I had nothing but complimentary uh uh you know reviews from uh from actually members of Strath Meir who were there and they said that the fact that they were able to get get get on with their day on Monday by Monday afternoon was awesome so great job public works as you guys always are doing a great job of make sure that you know we can have the accessibility here in our Township well uh it's been a great first week here just getting my feet wet getting everything set up and getting ready to roll here um we have our Upper Township free R these clinics coming up here Saturday January 25th and sary Saturday February 22nd 1 to 3 be at the Shore Veterinarian Hospital in seille there and looking forward to getting everyone get their dogs vaccinated and get some dog licenses acquired while we're there and uh get ready to start negotiations hopefully with Dennis Township they'll uh reach out to us so we can get our court situation under control going forward right thank you okay good evening everybody thank you so much for coming out as always I'd like to uh also piggy back off what Zach said the snow removal was incredible uh when Facebook is happy with the job that you're doing you know you really did well every comment section was people um just very very excited and happy that they could get out on the roads so quickly uh EMS which is my new department is impacted very much uh By the snow and uh we just want to thank everybody that did a great job although we did have some issues on County Roads and uh we're being asked to talk to the county about remedying some of these issues and making sure that we can get our people to save lives um also uh just going back to the reorg thank you so much for everybody that came out and supported everybody that night it's a very exciting time for the township it was great to see everybody dive into all their roles up here and are learning their new departments um I myself have a a meeting coming up I'm going to do some touring uh in the EMS building and make sure can see their operation understand their operation uh seeing everybody take that Hands-On approach say I'm going to the uh recck meeting uh things like that was uh was really wonderful to see so I think the Township's moving in a great Direction that's all I have thank you um I just want to Echo what every my colleague said here the Public Works job they did on the streets was phenomenal I had one small issue or two small issues I talked to Craig that got resolved almost immediately and that's the way I wish the county could take a page out of our book it's was a our guys did a phenomenal job that they spent a lot of time out there Second To None our guys are probably the best in the area of cleaning up Snow and uh just want to take a minute our lieutenants here Lieutenant do you have anything for us tonight for state police no I did not I just wanted to meet all the new faces see everybody um again if you ever need anything I'll provide my numbers to you guys be on email CH so you have some information from me but feel free to reach out to me if you need anything and thank you State Police for the wonderful job you did and I'm sure through the snowstorm you responded multiple times and uh thank you very much for the hard work you guys did and uh I guess we'll be talking later Sam and I did have a great meeting this morning it was a lot of lot of information there and a lot to digest so it was a we're actually getting our budget done too and just set up meeting times tonight for everyone to sit down with our auditor be brought up to speed on the the budget process and how it works think I are familiar with the budget Zach for his job is a little bit familiar with Bud well he's very familiar with budgets but Municipal budget versus School budgets are two different analist so it's going to be uh interesting and I'm sure there's going to be many questions and don't embarrassed or afraid to ask questions we've all asked questions and we still don't know any all so all right that's all I have at this time we're going to move right along there Gary do you have any question yeah I just want to Echo everyone's thoughts so the the meeting was fantastic today uh it truly was uh supposed to be a half hour I think we went to 11:30 or so by the time we started to get through all the issues so um it it's it uh arrived around that the grant that we have the LG Grant plus some Bond money and I'm I'm sure that uh Ryan will talk a little bit more about that but there was a very exciting project I gave uh Sam Palo chair Palo the meeting times so we're going to start looking at some some of the special events that are coming up for 2025 um affordable housing on the affordable housing L on so we have the uh the monitoring reports that are due within the contracts we made sure that there wasn't any additional expenditures see how Barber kind of looks and Gars over at me so we're not any extra um wanted to say again congratulations and internally how nice it worked so one of the decisions that the board had made is to mimic the school systems so when the the teachers were out the school was out when the school was back on the city hall was back on and that worked really well we we we uh again like uh chair Deputy Mayor nappin said we used the Facebook messaging and Facebook U um posts so we had a closure on Monday and then we did a late opening on Tuesday which mimicked the school which kept you know everybody safe and S Ocean City I mean Corbin city was very very happy and the residents feedback were very very happy so congratulations again to our public work that's all I have Joan do you have I have nothing thank John you nothing right now thank you thank nothing this evening thank you and Ryan's got a little thank you Mr Mayor um as mentioned I'll start with athletic Court resurfacing project uh we did have a great meeting today uh primarily to discuss in increasing the scope of the project to include additional pickle ball courts um I will provide additional information later on in the agenda under unfinished business um next one after that is reconstruction of putam Avenue this is our Municipal Aid project uh we are essentially 90% through the design and we'll have draft plan to the committee before next meeting uh for the review and some feedback before we finalize and submit to do and then ultimately send out to bid uh construction for that project is likely anticipated fall in 2 uh essentially trying to construct before the summer may not be a good idea in tra um last one up on my list is living Shoreline so we have a meeting on Friday with strafer fish and environmental Club really to First discuss permanent status with act engineers and then two to discuss our funding through strair fish and environmental club which essentially received it from Noah and then also talk additional grants that we could seek for the project is that meeting Zoom or will we be here that is I believe a zoom meeting I could circulate that yes I'll be on that okay that's all I had for tonight for now okay thank you bu all right uh at this time we'll open it up to the public for the agenda items only so if you'll see on our our agenda here there's an opportunity for the public to speak twice the first time if you could keep it directed towards things on the agenda and then there's a second opportunity at the end for general questions concerns things like that yes uh Natalie n block 456 L 13 47629 um on the agenda um I heard what was said here but I'm not sure I was wondering if you could speak uh more to number 11 and number 17 um the try out Associates I'm not sure number number 11 is a renewal of contract for TR for our it's additional it's additional services for for the grant we're applying for a grant so it's their services to apply for the grant that's what number 11 is can it be used for the senior center no the scope is not for the senior center of this grant for this grant what is the scope it this the scope is for the athletic field resurfacing okay and number 17 then was 14 me or 17 17 is a resolution we had a mistake on our uh reorganization meeting on a salary ordinance and we've actually you have another an employee that is taking on additional duties and this reflects that and then um I know number 20 is under closed session I'm just wondering if that planning consultant is Tiffany or if it's someone else so we're going to discuss that in closed session when we come out of closed session we'll be open again so if there's any action to be taken I I mean mayor if you'd like to tell them who it is that's fine but um that is something will'll be discussed in in the back I my recommendation would probably be to just stay quiet on that at this point till we're ready to take action on who it is after our close session we'll come into the public and address it well just to be clear the um public comment session will have ended thank you is there anyone else with anything on the agenda would like to comment hearing no public any more public uh comment on the agenda we'll close that and we'll look for a turn it back over to Joe all consent agenda items listed below are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion if the mayor or any Committee Member wishes a particular agenda item to be considered separately it will be removed from the consent agenda and acted on separately somebody like to make a motion I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda I second please call the r Mr Cassio yes Mr nappin yes Mr Sam Palumbo yes Mr Zach Palumbo yes M Corson yes motion carried under unfinished business we have the athletic Court resurfacing project and we're going to turn this back over to Ryan so as mentioned a couple of times tonight we obviously had our meeting today um for the athletic Court resurfacing project the original scope of the project was to resurface the existing basketball and Tennis Courts at cwell Park as well as resurface the hockey rank at Amanda's Fields uh we discussed today uh instead of just resurfacing existing expanding upon the um Athletic Field athletic Court area adjacent to the existing tennis courts essentially to provide additional pickle ball court areas which is seems to be the need uh within the community State and Country um so again we had a great meeting uh it was determined that next steps for the project I'll be finalizing a concept plan that shows 12 pickle ball courts um plus two tennis courts with two pickle balls overlaid so essentially 14 pickle ball Courts at cwell Park this will include an expansion of the pavement area uh adjacent to the existing tennis court um so obviously the scope of the project increased uh we are now looking at items to pull out of the scope to remain under the budget as well as seeking grant opportunities uh first one being the local Recreation Improvement grant that is applications due by the end of the month we've been working with Triad to allocate or apply for the grant uh for really fencing as well as the resurfacing improvements at cwell Park um so really to add to the overall budget for the project we'll be requesting $100,000 where typically anywhere from 75 to 100 uh is awarded for that Grant so on top of the grant The Next Step would then be finalizing the concept which I'll have the committee before the next meeting uh and then proceeding with updating our Co-op contract quotes with our Co-op contractors for the resurfacing and color coding work and then finally we'll have to go out to bid for the fencing improvements before we're moving forward with construction and part of our meeting today was we established what Public Works can do to bring cost down too they're going to do a lot of the site preparation a lot of it we can do in house ourselves so it's going to be a good project and it'll enhance our Recreation which for all ages pickle ball I've done a little bit of research here on pickle ball the average age of a pickle baller was 55 years old and uh it's quite a unique and different sport it's uh really I've never played it I'm sure a couple of my colleagues have I know Sam has oh I've played I'll dominate you mayor whenever you want yeah so again I I think it's definitely an improvement from the original scope of the project uh and we'll have another concept plan for final approval before finalizing scope and finalizing budget and we're trying to tie the existing Pavilion we have with the complex which will be nice it'll provide shade cover for the summer or like storm whatever people have to get off so it's actually you we use some of the assets we have and enhance our Park overall yeah went through a lot of uh you know permutations of what we were going to do uh this morning so really put Ryan into work there's a lot of drawings over drawings that he made in the he brought I did a lot of scribbling I'll say that um there's a lot of questions about C numbers of Courts potentially practice walls that will all be shown on this updated plan um again goal is to have it ready for you guys to review before the next meeting any thought for a community input uh I know sometimes we do things and then a pickle ball as you call it s say you should have put this here there we are going to reach out to a couple pickle ball people if you have somebody mind that knows pickle ball and would like to reach out yes we are not going to turn it into a committee project or or we're not going to appointed Committee of residents to overse it because we'll never it'll never get yeah we we did mention essentially getting input from residents that we know have uh are fan of pickle ball so that that would be the goal is to get some Community input on the project before going out to bid essentially just like we talked about with the skat Parks same kind of deal you put the half pipe in the wrong spot or something there we don't want to do that Co great all right thank you Brian um okay what's pleasure on the [Applause] bills read the ru I here I move that all claims submitted for payment at this meeting be approved and then Incorporated full in full in the minutes of this meeting second please call the r Mr caceo yes Mr na yes Mr s Palo yes Mr Zack Palo yes M Corson yes motion correct okay this time we'll open it to the public again yes uh good evening Natalie nce block 45613 block 47629 uh mayor Corson you and I met back in 1990 91 at Upper Township planning board meetings maybe you don't remember I don't remember specific time and date but yes we I'm sure we did um but it is my opinion you taught me the definition of minor subdivision in Upper Township you said to me I just landlocked all my relatives I note the Halper grape Farm or the Johnson deed not in my backyard 2005 you participated in the process to preserve 5.23 Acres the Upper Township Donald Reagan residential property after 1998 went to Upper Township Tax sale $50,000 15.8 acres 100 dennisville Petersburg Road blocked 476 slot 17 then came to the Kate May County 2018 CAD simmerman Misty Meadow manure form and I have the newspaper article where you Mr Corson said after the meeting the Upper Township committee meeting um the article is dated April 11th 2018 you sold feed to simmerman yes I did and I abstained from a vote on that because I had done business mayor if I can before we just continue on Miss Miss n just a second you're gonna be able to continue but just advice for everybody on this is the public comment portion I know you all understand what that means but it's not the public discourse portion so question and answer aren't going to be tolerated I know there's allegations being made mayy you can respond to them if you choose but if you can't recall with specificity some of the things that are being said my recommendation is that you stand pack don't put yourself in a bad spot there but please continue thank you Mr amazer um now in my backyard is uh pal s FF I'm a guest January 3rd 2025 Upper Township reorganization meeting what you said Mr Corson I grew up in manam toship Lancaster County I come from a long history of medical doctors Engineers my grandfather was a noted inventor Swedish he crossed the ocean six times by boat 1800s early 1900s my mother had dual citizenship this Upper Township block 476 Lot 29 and block 456 lot 13 the William and Martha Boon property of littleworth Upper Township k m County Petersburg is just down the road Highway 50 from tuah Williamsburg I hear out in the public Ryan mcneel our Upper Township engineer is brilliant Gary dearo our Upper Township administrator brought millions of dollars grants to Upper Township something our forefathers never did to my knowledge I have been attending Upper Township meetings planning board zoning board committee and also Master planning since the late 19 1990s I had to leave Lancaster and relocate to my family vacation spot Petersburg second home to keep up with you CIS Corson Jr the K May County mapped subdivision 4556 my point tonight my property taxes went up $1600 this year it was me who brought the concept of town centers to Upper Township I campaigned on it and lost to Andrew mccrosson Upper Township mayor I believe he was jailed incidentally I took a master planner course 1996 1997 my suggestion to you mayor coron is you consider building a k through 12 private school you could be planted across from the Upper Township Middle School make see tremendous cut in infrastructure cost to the Upper Township School the public system honor your 13 Generations in my opinion and Mr Amon Houser I publicly welcome you and to be clear you were a practicing lawyer in The Firm monzo cantony hilligus where I am a client and prior to your jump to the upper Township Republicans thank you and I have this article if you want to see it thank good evening everybody Barbara Larry seille um I just want to say thank you so much to the committee for first of all changing the times to a consistent time so residents know when the meetings are and for also um really encouraging more transparency and public engagement by allowing um members of um Upper Township um citizens of up for Township to get up and speak and ask questions regarding consent agenda items and then at the very end prior to um you um adjourning and going private session I think it's really important it's a great first step that um you're advocating for transparency and further engagement from the community we're all not going to you know agree but at least you're willing going to hear what we have to say it's very much appreciated thank John grub rout 50 TGO uh last year I believe it was January I received a letter from the state saying that route 50 was going to be paid from Clin City to I believe it's Upper Bridge Road and that was supposed to be done in March was never done we have any idea when this is supposed to be done I Ryan do you have any and actually I don't think you're going to they might go to the Upper Bridge Road on this side of the cek because they're going to redo the bridge yeah I mean we know where my house is next to the community side they're supposed to come all the way across past the community center down Route 50 it's a bad area one Route 50 there it's yes pretty bad so that's where my interested basically I'll get I don't have it on my current project list from the county but I'll get an update on the project thank Kevin we actually look into that see what we can find out we'll have it all right and then I do have another issue and uh Friday night I had to call the state police because I had an issue in front of my house uh full disclosure I've been in discussion with the township committee over my property and parking for the community center recently we've we've been back and forth in discussions but Friday night approximately 6:30 the traffic was ridic ridiculous and in front of my property I couldn't get in out of my driveway literally just got hit by a car three times and then when I finally got out of my driveway it was driving towards uh lavaris there was a gentleman that had jumped out of one vehicle and ran across the road down by the guard rail at which I almost said he was wearing all black I didn't see him I end I had to call the State Police and it wasn't to force any issue with anything our discussions we've been having the township or anything but it's to the point there's no lighting down there there's nothing and I'm wondering if there could be some sort of temporary solution until there's a final solution of how we're going to fix the problem down there because last last year when we had this issue uh the committee they put barriers out there and they put some you know police tape up and stuff like that to try to keep people from parking certain distances from the driveway everything and I'm wondering if there's some sort of something that could be done similar or along those lines in order to to keep you know the public people safety and hopefully I don't get killed going out of my yard what did we do last year right driveway driveway so we put up barrels and barricades so out probably be a prudent thing to do thank you for yeah yeah the sight line like trying to pull out is ridiculous matter of fact Mr Jones was there he was out there one day uh he was taking pictures of it at how bad it was where you you literally you couldn't see porn out of the community center or my driveway or anywhere because of how close and how tight the cars were and that's actually Craig and I had a conversation about that on Friday as well it's it's on our radar and we're going to try to get something address here allad thank you thanks K thank you yeah good evening my name is larbo I live on France Drive in Petersburg uh just following up on this gentleman's um question or uh concern about Route 50 uh the uh bumps going over the bridge the railroad bridge where people fish off of or used to fish off of I don't know what they if they're doing it now but those bumps are I think are bad enough to cause a lose control I ride the fair free transportation and that bus bounces like a ride at at Dorney Park I I I think I don't know if uh it's a Township concern but I think if it's a state highway the township should urge the state highway to at least smooth those bumps out that that bridge is scheduled for replacement I believe it's actually this summer I think they were supposed to do something we will have the information at our next meeting or uh Ryan is going to reach out well in the inim is there any way a crew could come out and and make those bumps less dangerous Ryan's GNA reach out to the state we'll see if they can uh do some repair work here okay thank you very much is there anyone else from the public at this time we're going to close the public portion and entertain a motion to going to close session and pick you're up your yes I am up this week I hearby move that a resolution be incorporated into the minutes authorizing the township committee to enter into an executive session for the following matters pursu to the open public meetings act matters one contract negotiation planning consultant two contract negotiation municipal prosecutor three contract negotiation labor attorney four contract negotiation special legal counsel five contract negotiation safe rout School Grant I also includeed my motion the estimated time and Circumstance under which the discussion conducted in Clos session can be disclosed to the public as follows a it is anticipated the matters discussed in closed session may be disclosed to the public upon the determination of the township committee that the public interest will no longer be served by such confidentiality B with respect to contract negotiation such matters will be made public when negotiations have ceased and there is no longer a reason for confidentiality somebody like to Second it second please call a roll Mr caceo Mr nain yes Mr Sam Palumbo yes Mr Zack Palumbo yes yes we're going to take a brief intermission here