okay we're going to get started in compliance with the open public meeting law I wish to stated on April 19th 2024 the notice of this meeting the Upper Township committee was posted on official Upper Township bullet board and the Upper Township website mailed to the Atlantic City Press the Ocean City sent ledger to Herald times and followed with the Township Clerk tonight's meeting is being video recorded up until the Clos session portion of this meeting and will be available on the Upper Township website I hereby direct that this announcement be made a part of the minutes of this meeting would you please rise for the five SE to the United States of America and to the stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all oh I'm going to make you call the roll on on your way over there you call the RO Please Mr Corson pres Mrs Hayes here Mr napin pres Mr panc here may Newman here all members are present you good now pleasure the minutes we move we approve the regular Clos session minutes from April 8th 2024 second call the RO Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes yes Mr nain yes Mr fos mayor Newman yes motion Carri okay uh reports from govern body members at I'm sure the administrator is going to be here some at some point you start out you to start so it's been a busy couple weeks um I had the pleasure last week of attending shop R they were being honored for the work they did with the partners and caring with the Community Food Bank um two of their employees were recognized for raising I think it was the top number 45 in the whole nation of all the um areas that shoppr serves that was like where they where they ranked so as a result they have their picture on a Cheerios box which I thought was pretty cool the presenter talked about how they were uh you know they're kind of like the Avengers right they get to be on the on the we's box but they're on the Cheerios Bo so I'm hoping that we can maybe bring them in and recognize them um in addition because of their efforts because they ranked so high in the nation they were able to pick another charity to donate to and they had donated $1,500 to um par which was pretty cool um I would like to congratulate our baseball and softball programs for two very successful opening days and I would like to thank softball program for inviting me to drop first pitch it was a strike but it wasn't underhand I can't do the window though that's all I have thank you uh Victor good evening everyone thank you so much as always for coming out uh as I say my Department's quiet is good courts are running smoothly animal control everything quiet uh new business open up in town I did get a chance to stop by this week Simply Sweet it's located right in the uh shoppr Plaza that had some really great stuff uh there was a post today by the upper business Administration so we welcome that new business to town and uh today's my wife's birthday so on the record happy birthday to Danielle that's all I have thank you uh thank you mayor uh public from the desk of Public Works uh they're finishing up their Le collection uh about ready to head over into strair um take care of that crossover and uh also we going to paint the town yellow so they're going to be refreshing the yellow curb no no parking signs over there um also uh I did at our last meeting uh blanch Adams who's the president of the upper Council Business Association um during public comment she she mentioned uh the connections that this this board has uh made to the business community over the past couple years and recently um their Upper Township Business Association membership and Community guide was published um you can find in the laas and also at City Hall um and in there um there's a lot of great stories um about what we're doing up here um especially mayor and Deputy Mayor um you know being in the face of this board and out in the community daily uh weekly um and taking care of a lot of these issues that we've had that have come up over the past couple years um it's good to actually see it in writing it's good to see the pictures um there's a bit of history in here of Upper Township um there's a bit of future in here of Upper Township with the the Fe Point project and also um you know the roads and things like that that we are taking care of a lot of the things that we do behind the scenes that aren't aren't always in front for everybody to see um is in writing and it's nice to see that and it's nice to see the recognition given to us by The Business Association so I just want to mention that that guide is free it's circulating around the lawas and also the town hall here so that's all thank you just uh real quick we have uh be Patrol number uh two two is our item on their uh agenda is we're bringing back some beef Patrol people and going to start getting things cleaned up here ready to open up so look forward to that and Public Works I'd like to thank them for their assistance to the beach Patrol and the equipment I think you guys will be helping move some of it maybe or maybe not thank I see that one of the guys on there is Blake baa which is always my favorite guy from upper town to football hardest hitting pound-for-pound guy I ever Coach and he's myze yeah he's a great guy great guy great local kid y um yeah good kid uh okay I have a couple things uh tonight F first and foremost I'd like to um cordially invite everyone once again to mentioned this last week but this is the last meeting we'll have before this uh the Upper Township National Day of Prayer ceremony going to be right here um uh at 10:00 where God meets government so uh right here out in the front front front uh porch and uh it's usually a good ceremony and fairly well attended and look forward to anybody that can make it I certainly appreciate you s being there and participate time is that 10 a.m. 10 a.m. 10 a.m. um also uh would like to take the time to uh uh to us uh we have our new superintendent of schools Alison pesano here uh she can certainly uh get up and introduce yourself to on of the township committee but the the audience as well um I know you've been here for a little bit and we've worked together in a couple different things over the past nine months or so and I'm sure that that's going to uh continue we're going to continue working on that so if you want to uh uh stand up and you can certainly address the uh the crowd and us if you'd like to everybody um I'm sorry it's taking me so long to get to a meeting I been meeting to come I was saying to mik every I have it on my calendar like every other week and I just having conflict so some of you I know and I've met before but I just wanted to take an opportunity just to formally introduce myself um and thank the you know the township I know the Township in the district that had great partnership over the years and I look forward to continuing that and I know more recently you spoken on behalf of our district knowing where we are with our budget and trying to you know um encourage the community to support reaching out to our legislators we get some sort of movement with um some State funding we're in a pretty tough spot right now um but we definitely appreciate the support like I said I just wanted to take a chance to come out and say hi and you know actually make it to a meeting for for our district you're you're actually you you went to offerer school I did I grew up here y I lived on sport um I went there through 8th grade I actually went to boarding school for high school but my sister went to oce City my went to yeah a lot of years here very good all right thank you while you're here tonight miss too Al I just want to thank you for all and and make sure the teachers hear this from from all of us the events that they've had at the school the past few weeks uh taking my son to those events the teachers volunteering their time it really it's great getting the teachers out there doing a heck of job it's a great district and the teachers really do step so much for kids um I try to get to as many of those events as I can need the community and if you ever need to come back or in case you don't know the public should know we have partnered with the school district in applying for safe roots to schools Grant that's sitting out there that's a lot of money if we get that Grant hopefully we will receive it it'll it'll really improve the uh pedestrian and vehicular traffic uh patterns in the area the Elementary in the primary school um and that's sprad up it's all been applied for Gary And I know Lori worked with you and your staff to get that U to get the information that we needed for that Grant to move forward so we're we're really happy with that and good stuff good stuff thank you and thank you Alison and if you ever want to come back just give us a call I it on my agenda every there you go uh also our touch base with the interaction between the schools and the township and the public safety the whole shoot match as everybody knows we had a difficult we probably had a pretty diffic difficult couple weeks uh within upper Cy of residents with um emergency calls and and the like that has happened uh it it's pretty well publicized that a uh uh a preschooler uh student from uper Township uh was severely injured a couple weeks ago on um on an in an accident ortley Lane the latest update that we have is that that he's is doing as well as can be expected I guess that would be the case without divulging too much and I don't know too much but just let's leave it at that he's doing uh he's doing good um and uh hopefully he'll make somewhat of a a recovery we also over the weekend and it's been published size as well in the papers there has been a there was an accident in Ocean City also involving a um a eth grade student I think from is eth grade from upper schools promotion City Upper School Upper to uh that um was also severely injured in an accident in uh Ocean City and I don't know any of the details of that but other than what's been made known in the paper uh and that their relationship about Township so apparently some of the last uh updates that I've seen are okay as well and should make a recovery but we'll always try to keep those children in our prayers and those families in our prayers for support and we really like the way the upper countship citizenry comes to together when when something like this happens very very U positive and it always makes my heart feel good uh additionally I'd like to introduce Lieutenant uh Chris M Neil McNeil from uh the New Jersey State Police who is the new station commander of the State Police um we' already had several interactions with with State Police since he's been here fact K Deputy Mayor haes myself met with him to go over what our uh Public Safety and our contact with with with met with Gary as well uh went over you know several of the public safety issues that are in the township and uh so that he understood what was going on not that he wouldn't anyway but go ahead Lieutenant let us know I appreciate the introduction like like you said we we previously M um just to touch base on your incident that you were talking about uh previously that we had um he is doing extremely well I talked to Mike P Mike parer who was our office of employee assistant who was at the debrief the other night uh Mike advised that uh they were able to revascularize some of his components awesome but as far as that's concerned he's doing much much better than the initial incident um I look forward to working with everybody here I've already met a few of you um if I call you by the wrong name I apologize right off the bat um I'll remember your face I just may not remember your name but uh again uh most of you have my number I gave it out um if you guys have any questions comments I'll be attending these meetings pretty regularly so if you have any issues or anything or if you need some assistance from us don't hesitate that ask want to to D tail off thaten I would also like to to uh acknowledge that you talked about the uh empe assistance uh whatever we have so everybody knows whenever we have a severe incident or an incident of that nature that occurred um on LLY Lane uh we have help available for our employees in fact fortunately you see right here is supervising AMT John Carter is taking a lead on that we sent him to some training and you know unfortunately we had to use it so we've done this on several occasions and that's why we don't want to lose employees we want to lose uh our people as well become the secondary to the incident so thank you John thank you lieutenant and uh very good having you AB board and looking forward to working with you thank you sir okay uh I think moving right along now that our our thank you for for joining us Gary so uh if you could uh go ahead and do the administrator overview we'll start with you the last couple weeks we spent day and night with r's going to kind of encapsulate the thing that we have been doing on the engineering reports we're moving forward with with the grant programs uh I I don't know if we touch base on it but we' been fing calls relative to the flooding I want to remind people that has been the two most or wetest months on record in Rec times but that has not stopped myself and Ryan going out to various locations offering suggestions finding uh storm gr that have been cloged so if you do have those particular issues continue to call we'll address them step by step we'll see we can get some information that uh very good um meetings with the uh Historical Society so we got some more information I don't know they came late this afternoon so I just got to to glean the email uh about the possible Grant possibilities so we little forward that the committee and the committee can kind of take a look I think we're having gallons of yellow paint on stra here now we over 100 gallons we lost right I mean so it's that giant 50 gallon size yellow yes so it looks fantastic and I do appreciate all the the signs and the markings it's going to make it quite easy for the Troopers to to Really to help so that being said I we have troopers on the schedule starting on uh Memorial Day and we'll follow through into September where we will have a designated shift we out there that lieuten I just want to let you know that your predecessor has been so supportive of that program the constructive force the support that you have given us on that island uh has really made a difference relative to just just keeping cist and the civility uh for any officer going to any kind of situation so whether it was a medical assist Direct Patrol um uh parking complaints just to have a uniform aler there to uh to kind of facilitate conclusion is very very appreciated mayor that's uh that's about all I have Ryan is going to kind of detail things we've been doing we'll let him this on that 1.2 million moving on youram y uh I just have a reminder that the last day to register to vote for the primary is May 14th you can get the applications in the clk's office or at K May County votes mayor I have nothing to report thank you that's good Barber okay there we go now the of the show um I'll start out with the ster Stow water pump project uh some good news all the pump station structures and the outfall piping have been installed and includes putam summer and Webster Street ends uh we were on site today um reviewing and finalizing the location of control panels as well as the design of the structural foundations um seems like those locations are finalized and the contractors should be moving forward with installing control panels and setting up electrical connections within the next couple weeks so project is certainly making progress and it's still in good shape to meet that uh Memorial Day deadline for construction um at least the big one being no additional excavations would be needed which is the majority of the construction work out there so just we'll be finalizing electric connections over the next couple weeks for the paving program unfortunately weather has delayed a bit um concrete is going to be started NE or this Wednesday the 24th um and then Mill and overlay should be started with with in like mid to end of May um and the project deadline is end of June next one is uh really County Road 602 which is Church Road um construction started today it's really Mill Paving and a majority of pavement reconstruction uh it will take about two weeks for all this work to be completed there's detour signage uh by the contractor uh the first phase extends from tucko to Stage Coach uh that will take one week and then the second phase is going to be Stage Coach to route nine that'll be the second week um so I would expect those detours for again about two weeks so all of the neighbors there have been notified was out there today on public safety Ed I was notified by Mike Jones that they had these detours up uh they have the shortest emergency vehic access if we absolutely need to get there but we also know the public safety ENT that we're going to go going to get there probably affects EMS more than anything um can um EMS those that have to go around with those cases and uh and everything we've had there they've been very very Cooperative great to hear and again hopefully they they wrap up within that twoe period um we see how that goes so the last one would be uh the emergency vehicle hybrid Beacon at tuckaho Fire Company um so essentially the signed agreement with do was mailed back to the state um we're waiting that formal approval um but essentially do has approved that installation of the emergency vehicle hybrid Beacon that will essentially be it's going to look similar to a signal um but that will be push activated um um or in the event that you need to take out the fire trucks um that would be activated and stop traffic from moving in both Direction the fire trucks to move out in the site quickly this was originally included in the the Reconstruction of rout 50 many many years ago and then all of a sudden it disappeared and through the efforts of Gary and and L and uh just pushing up the uh pushing up the chain of Man Press the but over say where is this be here just danger food that they come out on um got short sight lines there so now when they are um responding to alarm Beacon people it was truly a twoyear endeav there you got like conly stand thank you years that's all I have for tonight thank you very much uh Joan okay uh 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 agenda and acted on separately we approve the consent items number 1 through 17 could you call the RO Please Mr Corson yes Mr sa yes Mr nappen yes Mr Panos mayor Newman yes motion carried under ordinances we have the public hearing and final adoption of ordinance number 6 2024 and ordinance amending revised General ordinance chapter 20 zoning of the code of Upper Township Mr mono thank you mayor uh this ordinance uh as I stated at introduction cleans up the zoning code by creating a clear and concise definition of what hotel and motel use is and the the township zoning code uh I just want to point out that uh one of the requirements in this ordinance is adequate parking for hotel guests and public in accordance with the requirements set forth in the code of the township of upper I just want to clarify that the parking requirements include parking for accessory uses so if there's a hotel with an Associated restaurant that the restaurant use would be factored into the calculation of parking we'll clarify that in the final draft but that is the int of the ordinance and I believe it covers that but I want to make sure it's real clear so that with that change which is not a substantive change and it's not really an amendment because it's just clarification you can proceed with the public hearing on next mayor thank you very much um anybody up here have any comment on this word is my only question is the 30 days defining what a hotel motel is that a normal number um it says general public daily weekly basis but not for a period to exceed 30 days I think that's was the Public's you know have their eyes on it for are people going to be able to say that for extended periods of time and that seems like that's a no which is it wouldn't be a hotel it would become more like uh multif family uh 30 days is kind of the typical uh defining period of time for sales tax purposes as well so if you're ring for more than 30 days you're you're not subject to the sales tax tax any applicable hotel tax and it's more considered more uh year round and not transient as a hotel would be so that's pretty standard will this affect the existing hotels no no if if they're already operating they are um um grandfathered under the previous ordinance so any new hotels um that would submit an application for development would have to comply would have to meet the definition of a hotel otherwise they would have to um uh apply for these variants Mark we had this um this came before the planning board last Thursday and one of the questions was clarification on the parking I'm glad you you clarified that and actually Victor was one of the issues that came up people were concerned about the 30 days and Mr Barnes clarified that and just for for uh clarification here our current code for hotel is two lines long that's it so this is you know this is a a start or at least to to tighten up what our hotel uh definition of the hotel motel is that's what this is all about so at this time I will um open it up to the public anybody want to comment on ordinance number six of 2024 uh you can please identify yourself and step to the microphone and uh let us know what the comment is on that ordinance only so we have this time okay hearing none I'll close the public portion uh and entertain a motion to adopt ordinance number six of 2024 I move we adopt ordinance number six of 2024 second second would you call the role Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes yes Mr nappin yes Mr pancost yes may nman yes motion carried number 19 we had the introduction and first reading of ordinance number 9 2024 an ordinance amending chapter 19 land subdivision site plan and land use Administration and chapter 20 zoning of the code of Upper Township Mr well this is just a uh a standard uh ordinance that was um required by a timelines commission and so we're pretty much tracking their language and um it's it's consistent with their rules and required for the township to to adhere to the same this is something that we've done from time to time over the years next year and now it's a semi additional requirements and they send you the ordinance and say you got to put it in there yes basically okay okay we can I entertain a motion uh when's it public hearing going to be could be June 24th please June 24th somebody wants to handle that we introduce ordinance number 9 of 2024 with public hearing and final adoption on June 24th 202 second you call the rooll Please Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nain yes Mr Panos May Newman yes motion carried under new business we have the bid results for towing storage and lockout Services yes uh we received one bid from Courthouse Towing and it's [Applause] okay so uh yeah so clarification will be for next meeting okay all right uh next we have the stra miror pollinator Garden I'm going to turn it over to Gary requ to explain what we like to do here yeah that was a that was an interesting exercise I believe you both participated in and the conclusion from The Fish and Wildlife association was positive uh Chris is not here today I believe we have two members from from that organization it was it was truly a collaboration and I just want to give uh I believe you have the triangle you support the Troopers as well or is that just a decorative so I I want to bring you up and just give the board a real quick uh maybe a minute or so of what we did and what you're expecting but if we can wait for just a second just not not hold on I kind of want to explain to everybody else what's up here this kind of came as a as a as a fairly quick thing we Deputy Mayor Hayes and myself met with Chris from stra Improvement Association on what Thursday I think it was yeah so we also met with a with a representative from the US uh fish and wildlife who's stationed in Galloway um and she came down and this is a free program which will put native plants onto our d in areas where they were before the problem that we're having while we're kind of lushous rather than anything else is that they need to plant these before our next meeting or get started on moving forward to that uh The scrapp Improv association's put together and conjunction with the fishing environmental Club is coming together when they get these plants free to the township this is no cost to the township uh they're going to put these plants on top of the dun and plant them in accordance with us fish and wildlife regulations uh we are doing here tonight what I'd like to do here tonight is just um approve the use of our goons for these plantings and we're going to do it contingent upon a couple of things being uh taken care of correct so so it's called land owner agreement it is FAL sponsored I think what's important and and what should be uh given them the accolades is the ficient wildlife department does not approve all these particular so they are very selective relative to presentation and support there is a financial element that has no um connection to the township when it comes out of the feds and the the the uh exactly what you said mayor that the plants have to go in the ground relative to a time per now but this continues U to to really notify the state that we took we take our beach permit very seriously and those fines are astronomical if you violate them and if you do you can have that permit violated and Revolt so they so you really have to take caution relative to these type of of issues and that's collaboratively what we did with the with their organization so um if they'd like to go ahead a minute or so you can just kind of was it was the Golden Rod right was the golden I don't know but it but she made it very very clear it does not cause allergies yeah right there the back microphone so can get recorded and I'm Linda baitman and I'm representing the Strath Mir Improvement Association unfortunately this happened kind of quickly and Janice Connell is away Chris beom is away not together um and and Rose will will can introduce herself but she is also a member of the Sia pollinator committee and a board member of the strair fishing and environmental Club so as you said this came together pretty quickly but um I think a while ago someone came out and kind of toured the beaches with a couple people in our committee and said oh yeah this this would this would be good so it's it's really a win-win for Upper Township it doesn't cost us anything as you mentioned mention it's 3,000 plugs of golden rod and um you have a map you if they have a copy of it you have a map of the beaches that will be started in year one a pilot program and then two to three to four years um will be added to if all goes well and to plant them I understand you go like this and stick it in so 3,000 is not a lot we also have had a demonstration by people in town of their commitment to this a couple weeks ago the clean ocean sweep the rose was a big part of uh many towns postpone because the weather was so bad uh we had 20 people come out and literally Chase trash down the beach to clean it up and uh the trailer park will be operational by June and the residents there just turn out in in drov to support so not worried about we have to supply volunteer power they've never we We're All in This Together can we welcome that yes we'll let you know the time and place um but it it's part of the commment of the SAA and and of our residents and and other organizations to preserve as much of the environment as we can millions of dollars as you well know in have just been washed out we planted Beach plums the Sia the sfbc and we lost most of them um but the Golden Rod and and you you know better than I the Golden Rod was once very plentiful here and now it's like oh there's some Golden Rod time we also have been very busy um the past couple weeks where we sponsoring a native plant sale and just as a we've sold over 200 plants that will be planted around town and those are just from homeowners that said yeah or people that gave us money and said buy some so it's something that we're we are invested in I think part of this is also the plan for three sites under the sign or is that separate there was there was some language that they wanted to add into that plan so that that's like the turnning has it official sent me revision so we'll send back to make sure all the sites are located do you want me to explain that or not no I think just I think one of the things that you hit on and I want to let the board know is that this is not a one time project 5e cycle I believe this is going on in seagert or will be going on in seagert and I think they might be the only two spots but I'm not positive um anyway thank you all and thank you for acting so quickly because we obvously need to planties and um it's just a super win that us fish and wildlife is is giving to us and I think we need to take thank you Linda just one question mayor um just is this is this covered by a permit by rule or something with d are they on board with it under CER yes okay yes fish and wildlife spoke for D in that language you'll have a wrer or a signature from that organization all right thank you Lind do you have a a date set for when you're going to do the planning June okay so it's not lost to me that we're talking about this project on Earth day too so I feel like it's really AO it's very timely um you know anybody who's grown up in a Beach Town knows that the dunes are essential we just paid all that money for Beach replenishment we need to make sure that we're doing things to reinfor do so thank you for bringing the opportunity to and and the other project happening now issing come back now that we have to Poss species and we've got obviously for babit and there's something in here about Predators um Fox have been brutal and and there's a lot of scrub right now get PL to push out yeah they were very supportive of of the of the type of fully inter using and being involved in the ecosystem in this entir so what I would need from the board is a motion uh to approve um with in Authority for Mr Moo that landowner agreement and then once the uh final agreement with the language that Mr monzo approves uh will be given to um the mayor for Signature and then it'll be submitted to the to the two U state agencies and the federal agencies make that motion second call R Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen yes Mr Panos yes may Newman yes motion carried thank you thank you pleasure on the billsby move that all PS submitted for payment at this meeting be approved and then Incorporated in full in the minutes of this meeting second Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nappin yes Mr Panos yes may Newman yes motion carried okay at this time we'll open the meeting up to the public anybody from the public wants to comment to the coun committee they're more than welcome to do so just step to the podium and state your name uh hearing none we'll close the public portion of the meeting and go into close session Mr C Panos he by move that a resolution be incorporated into the minutes authorizing the township committee to enter into executive session for the following matters pursuing to the open public meetings act number one contract negotiation Redevelopment agreement number two contract negotiation Norms great special legal counsel number number three contract negotiation Triad Grant consultant Services number four contract negotiation CME Engineering Services number five contract negotiation cell tower number six litigation hen versus Upper Township number seven personnel I also include my motion estimated a time and the circumstances under which the discussion conducted in close session can be disclosed to the public as follows a it is anticipated that the matters discussed in close session may be disclosed to the public Upon A determination of council committee that the public interest is no longer be served by such confidentiality B with respect to employment in Personnel matters such discussion will be made public GI and when formal action is taken or when the individuals involved consent that it can be made public C with respect to contract negotiations such matters will be made public when the negotiations had ceased and there is no longer a reason for confidentiality and D with respect to litigation matters such discussion will be made public when litigation is complete and the applicable appeal period has expired second call the roll please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr naen yes Mr Panos May nman yes motion carried we'll take a