i know of this regular meeting was provided to the public address on January 19th 2025 was posted at the meeting of government meetings act NJSA 10 col 4-7 thank you
so all please stand and join with me in a pledge to our flag 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 liberty and
justice for all call please council member Lucier here council member Dento council member Higgins here council member Sarda present council President here okay this month
is child abuse prevention month owing to that that is a issue that expands into a number of areas and I thought we should
include mention of some various situations whereas child abuse and neglect is a complex and ongoing problem in our society affecting many children in Sussex County and whereas every child is
entitled to be loved cared for nurtured feel secure and be free from verbal sexual emotional and physical abuse and neglect whereas child abuse and neglect not only
directly harms children but also increases the likelihood of criminal behavior substance abuse child uh health problems risky behavior and whereas the effects of child abuse are felt by
communities as a whole and need to be addressed by the entire community and whereas effective child abuse pro prevention programs succeed because of partnerships among families social
service agencies schools religious and civic organizations law enforcement agencies and the business community now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and
council of the township of Vernon does proclaim the uh month of April as child abuse prevention month and calls upon all citizens community agencies faith
groups medical facilities and businesses to increase their participation in our efforts to support families whereby preventing child abuse
and strengthening the communities in which we live this is signed by our mayor and myself council president thank you very much we will have a presentation now uh the
presentation will be made by the mayor it's to be the state of the township message mayor was Thank you Council President good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to this year's 2025
township address it has been one year and about two months and 30 days since I've been in office but who's counting before I begin I would like for everyone to stand if you can take a moment of silence for all those we have lost Burn
Township this year thank you may be seated before I talk about 2025 I think it's important for the public to understand what it is that we have done in 2024 for many years we have been led to
believe through the fake news on so many of these local Facebook groups false information led us to believe that the employees here are always doing something wrong not qualified corrupt or not needed i took the time to evaluate what goes on in this building and the
employees who operate this municipality and learned that 90% of this information being posted is fake news this nonsense because that's exactly what it is it's nonsense comes from those who have never held an elected position or worked for any
government position definitely never worked for Vernon are they Are the employees here perfect no do we make mistakes and I said we because I've made some yes if we make mistakes we fix them and let me be
clear we are only human beings even computers make mistakes and just wait for AI to take to to make its mistake that can potentially be catastrophic i don't want any employee here to feel that they are not respected or appreciated when they come to work
that is no way to feel i worked for the largest banks in the world and I know that I know that feeling it is not something it is not good since I've been in office I have nothing i have seen nothing but the opposite every day the
employees here show up every day every day I see hardworking employees most of these employees are taxpayers too i'm extremely proud of the of the work that we have done for the taxpayers and extremely proud for all the hard
work from my administration DPW police animal control department and I want to thank all the volunteers who sit on our boards and committees for the time you give for this m municipality to make Vernon a better place to live lastly to
all of our volunteer fire and EMS teams your dedication and sacrifices you give for the residents in this town are unmeasurable as mayor I am so grateful to be part of the incredible township township of employees and
volunteers i hope while I'm in office I can change the morale in Vernon my door is always open to everyone when I when I ran for office I made campaign promises i am proud to say that I have pretty much fulfilled all of
my campaign promises which was I ended the yearly tax reassessment i cut 1.8 million from the capital items budget municipal spending i stated that I would work closely with the CFO business administrator and
department heads we continuously look for look for ways to save taxpayer money one small example is office supplies by by having to attach proof which site was actually cheaper when ordering from these three companies that
that we have access to such as Staples Amazon and WPMason and who had the lowest price do this when we do this when we spend our own money and most importantly we must do it when we're spending taxpayer
money my administration has collaborated with the unions this result in ended ended in a fair contract with both DPW and UAW unions with a fair contract foster collaboration with
neighboring municipalities to reduce overall spending to extend our shared services that will only raise Vernon's revenue that's still work in progress but I am proud to say that we have opened or the board of the board of ed has opened up that door for us and we
have made uh we have saved a lot of taxpayer money by having that relationship i also said I wanted to make business make Vernon business friendly we accomplished this by having a few key factors that is attitude
availability and determination on seeing seeing your business succeed we have also created a business coordinator role however Mindy Martin who is the acting zoning officer so these two positions kind of roll into one so it kind of worked out
most most of the time when you come open a business you you you tend to start at the zoning uh to see if that property is actually zoned for that use uh we offer incentives we have implemented the first pilot program for the new for the newly built which should
be done by the end of August September for the 55 unit for 55 and older which will which will result in nearly $9 million over the term of the program for the municipality and I believe it's not for the school either
right sorry guys uh excuse me gradables uh I stated we needed to invest in revitalizing downtown Vernon to make it more attractive for business investments we have accomplished this by kicking off the town center facelift
project by staining that god-awful red brick which is is much better a much better look we've installed stone planters and a township clock which is hopefully in the next few months we it is on order it should be here uh hopefully next couple of months this was
all done through donations we didn't use any taxpayer money doing it or at least so far we we still have the install to go and things like that i said I would encourage the development for more housing in zoning areas and offer space to increase ratables and lower the sew
the sewer cost to connected users we have 11 residential and mixeduse commercial buildings coming into town center the commercial space will consist of small businesses and a hopefully we are working on it a rooftop
restaurant mountain Creek has a ton of development that is coming real soon uh that will become a destination place i I don't want to speak ahead of Mountain Creek um I will wait for their for their permission to talk on that but it's going to be I seen some of it it's going
to be incredible transparency i said that if I was elected as mayor I will bring a spotlight to the forefront i believe I have done that by using social media as a tool to communicate directly with the residents of Vernon i have also said that I would work closely with the
council and I have even invited them to the budget meetings no other mayor has done that before not that I'm aware I guess so let me begin i think it's important that we understand exactly what we have done in 2024 because I
think the the work that has been done should be recognized but let me go through the financial part of it we paid down over 2.6 million in outstanding debt obligations we invested 1.2 2 million into capital equipment and
future purchase reserves to help reduce reliance on debt expenses and other for items with short useful lives we brought in over 1.1 million in revenues above anticipated we increased
fund balance by 100,000 we reserved funds for future expenses in in accumulated absences storm recovery and tax appeal liabilities all of these areas are helpful in reducing future needs to increase
taxes to account for unforeseen circumstances we brought in over $260,000 in grants and anticipating significant more significantly more in 2025 authorize we authorize our health
insurance advisors to create two new plan options uh for for health to to help reduce costs in the future some of those grants um is the opiate well opiate settlement housing element and fair share grant grant was
25,000 the highlands here's the highlands council uh local recreation improvement grants 75,000 recreation opportunities for individuals with disabilities grant for 12,377 now some of the pending grants we
have is New Jersey department of transportation alternatives set aside grant program so what this is it's again this is pending we we we're applying for it it's a no no match uh grant for one
up to 1.5 million and what that will do is that will connect uh bike lanes from Maple Graange to Canal Street from what I believe um Vict Tina you know more about that you were on that call um
again this is a no m This is no taxpayer money this is fully uh through a grant i I swear I wasn't going to build trails and things like that that was two administrations but u this one it's free
free is for me right so capital projects uh digital records in construction uh to make them more accessible to the public for immediate access we have an abundance amount of boxes and that's in the building department that's up to the ceiling it's it's we finally stopped the
bleeding of that we equipped our fire departments with new turnout gear tools air bottles and help to reduce their cost by taking on training to help with recruitment and standardized expenses we also saved over 150,000 on purchasing
a lightly used and I mean lightly used it still had the new car smell used uh pumper truck for pot fire department instead of spending over $520,000 for a new apparatus and waiting two three years for that
delivery this makes our department better equipped to answering calls and and keeps our residents safe this also allows us to get into those small lake communities that we can't really we have a difficult time trying to get those large fire apparatuses
in for EMS we purchased a new ambulance to replace one that was nearly 20 years old and already refurbished once we invested over 1.3 million in road improvements invested and completed 80%
of the lighting replacements at Veterans Park a multi-year project that will be completed in 2025 which on May 3rd we're actually going to have a little lighting ceremony uh which I think is the Little League opening day so we're looking forward to
that i think it's around the home time i think it's somewhere around 6:30 p.m we invested funds into a garbage compactor to significantly reduce the cost of hauling municipal garbage to Schuma and talk a little bit more about that in a minute they approved the e merger for
the annual squad now called BMS resulting in a substantial cost savings and extended coverage one of the problems that we had with our f with our EMS is we had so many volunteers on one but not on the other uh it was just best
to consolidate them uh all into vms and now we actually have coverage throughout Vernon uh so the coverage and expense wise it was this this really was was a win-win for everybody i said the board of ed shared services we've done that we
paved over 4.9 miles of road including 4.7 miles of secondary roads implemented crack sealing on several additional miles throughout Vernon we launched the DP free bearproof garbage camp program for all residents outside of our private
communities i wish I could have done it for everybody but this is what came from the D we hired two local volunteer firemen uh to fill two positions at the DP at DPW which also ensures we have coverage
for our fire department in case of an emergency uh with the help of some friends in the area raised $500 uh donations for the for the ver uh for the Vernon animal shelter we raised funds totaling 9,300
and this is no Albert by the way he's done donated the $500 a month for the animal shelter he's also donated $9,362 for two ballistic shields for our police department we he we raised funds uh for the
township project as you know and raised nearly $10,000 with with the generosity from the historical society clock we uh we successfully held the first ever uh car show in Vernon
Township which raised money to support our local emergency service teams wasn't a lot of money but I think the goal really was to actually bring a community together and that's something that I didn't see with the recreation department and and I tell this to Michelle all the time i um but the value
of the recreation department is extremely valuable again they're the ones they're bringing the community together and it's it's the value is is great uh in what they do and the work that goes into planning is just
uh it's extensive we executed and signed $105,000 bond ordinance for the Highland Lakes Fire Department resulting in significant savings on interest for the fire department for the muchneeded building repairs
i appointed Judge Peter Lamers to a three-year term i just appointed new prosecutor Maxwell Smith we extended our building department hours in the summer i think we're I believe it was six I think we're six months now i think it's more than
just the summer right yes now I think we're at like almost nine months almost nine months yeah which is great and that that's no cost to the taxpayers we we just were able to stagger the shift so therefore we we could actually have those the earlier hours because
contractors you know they need to start early they're not hard for them to wait at 8:30 a.m to come in and file it and file for a permit so they come in a little bit earlier and and get that done we contracted Planet Networks to upgrade all of our phone infrastructure at zero
cost um for the for the hardware we're saving over 275,000 of taxpayer money throughout the 5-year contract we restored the historical preservation commission which as you know has been abolished well I tried to revive the
arts advisory committee um but I think that's uh it's it's struggling i I'm not seeing a huge end for that so that committee may just fall to the wayside uh again we cancel the garbage disposal contract
saving $20,000 in taxpayer money for a year we have drafted a lease agreement between Vernon between Vernon and Mawa Township to lease a muchneeded fire tanker for Highland Lakes Fire Department for $1 per month we have a a
a great fire tanker uh that that the guys actually love very much um and it's it's been helping out because we do have one on order right now and I think that's When's that coming in a few months right august September august September
two right and I spoke with the mayor and it's like whatever bring it back whenever I I could probably I could probably offer him two bucks he'll probably take you know let us keep it but I'm just kidding on that but but you know I I really thank the mayor for that
because that's really helped us out a great deal we launched the vial of life program in collaboration with the Vernon Women's Auxiliary Group i officiated 25 civil ceremonies wow
25 we collected 270,000 in tax leans we also uh we are kicking off the uh sale of 30 properties now just so everyone knows we we have set up a new process so that we
don't sell property that we need so that it actually goes through every department head here uh they sign off on it our police department has gone out and checked the boxes to make sure there's nothing on there we have also sent our zoning to confirm and also to
our town engineer just in case there's an adjacent property we're we're just we're dotting our eyes crossing our tees and then dotting them and crossing them again because again we don't need to sell property that we need okay uh I requested over $1 million from uh
from Congressman John Godheimer's office to further expand our sewer service area which I think right we're going to be uh requesting that today you submitted tonight we upgraded and installed additional cameras for the protection of
our municipal employees as we found a fishing hook adhere to one of the pull down handles in our zone department we encouraged 41 employees to participate in the AED CPR training course implemented mandatory training on recognizing child abuse and cyber
security for all employees we promoted Harry Russo to sergeant we hired police officer Robert Bowman actually have an officer right now in the academy that will replace a sergeant
um once in I think August July August so I'll announce his name when we get closer to that date the recck department as like I said this rec department is so valuable to the town monthly engagement community newsletter
that they they continuously put out highlighting programs events special announcements messages kiosk at all facilities they survey to assess community needs they expanded the senior services for a growing population new exercise programs
art programs tech classes how-to classes matinea lunch trips city cruise cruise trip coordinated closely with county services to maximize available funding collaborated on new grant applications
for increased services and we we hosted last year we hosted the Sussex County Senior Olympics which was a great event i think this year when is it next year it's going to this year it's going to I it's I don't know where it's it's going somewhere in Sussex but unfortunately it
won't be here in Ver uh increased attendance for nutrition nutritional site programs additional low and no cost program services at all for all ages interest with focus on inclusion arts and family
activities art in the art in the park nature walks Easter egg trail astronomy astronomy events car show public competitions education group hikes archery program they also applied for the Reoids
uh grant awarded for therapeutic horseback riding program i think I just announced that so you will get information on that and how to register for that program just want to say the Easter egg hunt was a we had I think nearly 500 people that was registered that showed
up surprisingly because we were worried about that snow it was a very very successful event so I I do thank uh Michelle Meg and the rest of the Sussex the rest of the recreation board who and volunteers who who help coordinate that
and run that program on Sunday and facility update safety sustainability usability and longevity coordinated with PL for exercise equipment i don't know if you guys noticed that there's some exercise equipment actually I think uh Captain
Hall Jason Hall actually able to get a hold of this excellent exercise equipment which was got a really really good deal on it that's located at the pump by the pump track the Maple Graange Park the snack shed
renovation rebuilt playfields repaired fencing the musco lighting installed at Bellfield and snack barfield electric upgrades line repaired LGIR LG
LRIG grant awarded for senior field lighting Maple Graange Park electric to maintenance sheds and scoreboards up updated and painted lower parking lot paved snack bar uh siding replaced we al actually we actually we just did a
resolution think so someone's going to be we outsourced the snack bar so somebody's going to be running that uh whenever there's games and through the summer events so so look forward to that
community garden solar water system installed water replacement 75% complete updated memorial donation process blue star memorial dedication at Veterans Memorial Park thank you uh again from Michelle for applying for that we
actually there's only three in Sussex County um and we have one of them that's the Veterans Memorial Fund on to the tax assessor the tax assessor has a responsibility to the
citizens municipality director of division of taxation the county and the county tax administration taxor must finds full and fair value of nearly 14,000 plus parcels
within Vernon Township produces and certifies the annual tax list and notice of assessment mailing locates locates and properly describes property as described by the division of taxation the current rate
tship tax ratio right now based is 98.65% uh back in 2008 we were at 45.65 so we we're right now we're at 98.65 so right now we're we're in good shape for not having to do
a reassessment or rebound back in 2008 we were spent we total taxes lost was $329,127 20024 only
1,18 total taxes lost i'm not going to go into exactly all of this information that I'm telling you we're going to be posting that uh on our township website be on my Facebook page as well and it just gives a breakdown of all the all the stuff that we you know
the tax assessor has written down here how many farmland assessed parcels and so on and so forth i don't want to bore you with those details land use board has approved 12 applications again that list um it will
be available they're going to get very busy with all the development that's coming into Vernon i said we we we just submitted for uh one key has just submitted for a 27 unit building which is right next to the 55 unit building
there will be some affordable housing in there it's not going to be a full afford afford affordable housing building let me be clear there will be some units that will have affordable housing in it
our fire prevention 860 smoke and carbon monoxide detector inspections 117 life hazard inspections and 198 non-life hazard inspections 743 smoke certificates
totaling $10,414 166 type one permits totaling 10,000 Oh I said two $414 17 type two permits totaling
$4,419 two type three permits totaling 854 14 type four permits totaling 8,974 239 building insurance registrations totaling 18 275 non-life
hazard user registration totaling 18,700 15,25,29 in penalties and $2,500 in dedicated in dedicated penalties total amount brought in was 136,000 unregistered short-term and and
long-term rentals brought into compliance four fire departments collaborated for successful fire safety and prevention presentations at township at Vernon Township schools they've been pretty busy the fire extension especially with the short-term
and long-term rentals our building department they've issued 1,425 building permits updated updates issued 185 total number of inspections
5,55 that is a lot of inspections the number of permits closed 1,731 total certificates of occupancy issued 48 total temporary certificates of occupancy 40 construction records clearance certificates 125 total revenue
to date 689,182 which is an incredible amount uh one of the things that we we passed this year was the construction clearance certificate that was was if I sold my house to you and 6 months later you decide you're going to go file a permit
for something next thing you know you're being alerted that you have all these open permits that you're you're responsible for so one of the things that you have to go through a records clearing to make sure those are all closed out and and completed
uh 2000 uh DPW accomplishments uh this was the first season utilizing plow contracts uh it seemed like this year we it seemed like every weekend and every holiday the snow came which definitely increased our snow uh snow usage took
over the the following the five following roads for plowing hochuk Hochuck Terrace Baker Road White Oak Trail Decker Pond Trail Hidden Valley uh again they've been working on the board of ed shared service which is asphalt
patching drainage work sweeping parking lots and tree removal tree removal by the way is we're not we we only take care of trees that we can drop in the woods it's that we we power lines or
structures we're not we don't have the equipment to manage that and do that so it just make things safe along with keeping our guys safe as they're doing it they have the two bulky waste days removal of
two dial trailers uh again the list goes on of what what they've done that will all be put on on the the website as well they did some fence repair and crack i think I've already talked about that stuff uh 2025 uh over 6 milesi of township roads
some of the private communities have jumped on my offer and that is to get their roads done cheaper um for the price that we we get charged for and it comes out to about so far it comes out to about 10 roads so on top of the over
six miles of township road that we're paving there's also going to be 10 roads in our private communities that's going to be done as well new businesses like I said Vernon is growing uh it's it's going to I've been
saying it's something that you've forgotten everyone always talked about war we have over 30 businesses that opened up in Verdon Township over 30 so that that tells you that you
went to the police department we have been this is the second year in a row we have been voted out of 564 municipalities Vernon Township that's ranked number one in the safest township in New
Jersey that to me is worth to to live somewhere that's the safest and you know what that that word goes to the the residents here and to our police department every day
they run around they run over 100 square miles of road working details and and and and trying to prevent certain things so I want to go through some of the things police department has been very busy it's funny I say that they're the safest because there's a lot of stuff they they
are doing so um we they just installed the new 911 system upgrade uh the nextG 911 They completed uh days ago carry permits the brewing decision
uh New Jersey fire investigations total is total carry was 1,179 permits that was a total of $48,320 in in collecting and fees
implemented the new credit card processing portal visit pay which collects the firearm fees year to date just with the with the the credit card is 14,975 new hiring retirements 2024 build
office program sansmark Duffy and Lupinsky enterprise trading to our second round of enterprise vehicles purchased and upfitted new vehicles seamless New Jersey crash this is just a couple soft fees of records clerk time
the police licensing this is one of the things that's taken a lot of time in downstairs is the police licensing uh 33% of the sworn officers each year has to be licensed it's almost as if like it's a like a driving record that you
know it's based upon your on how you perform as a as a police officer so those things are actually uh follows the policeman no matter where it goes and that just takes a lot of time reissue police department policies and procedures we did that a few months ago we went through it we we've I believe
we've I think the last time was what almost 10 years 10 years 10 years ago so we went through that uh pretty diligently on the police uh policies and procedures and we went to help prepare for the accreditation program
police department training firearms qualifications we have a list again all the stuff will be on the website um the verbal judo training um all all police officers will go through a verbal judo training bulletproof vest replacement
rotation completed utilize grant funding rotation is five five years per vest and that is I think we we yeah grant funding um food donation drive east to fill the fill the local food banks traffic case studies so can road
Vernon Vernon crossing road church street PVL drive led uh lead program for all fifth grade Vernon Township students and they added uh this year uh in 2025 i can say we had a great time when we went there
right the kids were the kids were were loud and they they appreciated our presence there so but thank you Lbury for having us uh community involvement they're in view they're the police department is in
involved with every community uh event that goes on again I don't want to it's just it's a lot of events that we that we go through um drug takeback initiative collected and destroyed 274 pounds of drugs our jail cells audio
system upgrade Oprah Oprah's completed year to date 81 now their open request is not like Marcy's they're more because a lot of them are video so they have to be you know edited out and it has to be uh
a lot of redacted stuff upgrade to wireless gateways at uh Lake Conway Lake Panorama emergency service to housews radio interruptions or issues for fire EMS and police work through significantly
staffing issues in both dispatch and and patrol including injuries on and off police uh and family leave we still we work collabor we work with all the local uh townships uh we work
with we're very close with Warick Warwick Township Police Department Fire Department we still engage and still have very good relationships with them again we work on a on a group effort to try to help reduce and share
information again this is uh completed all state they've completed all the state mandated on time compliance with the New Jersey Office of Attorney General here's some interesting stuff detective Bureau had 281 investigations
investigations include thefts theft by deception fraud frauds assaults sexual assaults criminal possession of a weapon criminal mischief burgly endanger endangering the welfare of a minor distribution of
CVS harassment cyber harassment and various other New Jersey crimes out of those investigations they have executed search warrants communication data warrants and made 20 arrests pursuant to a database
investigation with more arrests to come from these investigations animal control five shared services we have with other other towns contract uh three-year contracts totaling 85,420 is income
significant Hilo largecale criminal investigation for animal cruelty so if you know in PBL they had uh 90 dogs that were rescued uh from a illegal shelter I guess if you want to call it uh 90 dogs i think they had 50
uh ASPCA veterinarians uh from all over the world fly in that day as that search warrant came in uh they've they've captured every dog some dogs some dogs were dead some dogs needed serious medical attention uh they
caught every single one except for one so that dog ran off we caught him about a week later and then months after court and everything went through well I adopted him he's as known as Lenny lenny is
doing very well um he has he has escaped from us a couple of times already uh but he's come back right away so he knows he knows where his belly ruffs are and he gets his food he gets his food from now so
school resource officers 34 uh 534 calls for service 83 investigations they take again we have a bunch of grants uh the chief is on board constantly looking for grants and and ways that we can
bring in money uh grants the safe and secure grant federal bulletproof vest grant state bulletproof vest grant arrive together initiative implementing injunction with the NJ A and SCPO well as you see the police
department has been very busy there's a lot more to it you guys again you can see it on our website uh once once we post it so give me this week to get it out there uh the clerk's office Marcy's office with Lauren and
Donna uh Oprah request well let's let's talk about blue light permits 19 total oper request 782 as you can see Marcy's very busy and surprised she
still has [Laughter] hair liquor licenses 13 certified copies issued death birth and marriage 1437 of those uh again that's totally
for all all said and done i'm not going to go through this whole list of license all of that stuff will be available to you could see all the licenses um everything that she she collects at office totaling $96,270 our municipal court i'm not
going to go through here this gives you really a detail uh about traffic cases criminal cases uh DWI filed DWI disposed and that total I think was well we
123,266 but paid to Vernon was 70,373 again that information will be available so you can get the breakdown of that okay so I'm going to I'm going to wrap this up guys so what to expect in 2025 we are looking
to upgrade the lighting gear in all of our buildings right now I think our electric bill is somewhere around $12,000 a month that's for all electric i'm guessing once we upgrade everything we're going to cut that down I think by 60% i'm hoping we can get
that down we're also looking into the solar solar panel project for the municipal center and I think DPW panel control as well hopefully they'll all be connected we are still working on that process uh we're we're hoping that's that is going to be
uh no cost to the taxpayer there's a lot of incentives out there there's a lot of companies that are doing it so there's a lot of that stuff that's that is is offered uh I think we may have to uh I think lay out the money and then we'll get reimburse rates of some of those
programs now i think depends on what comes through yeah right again still early but that's one of the things that we're working on it's going to take a little time um township the town the town center clock as you know um one of the things
um that we're looking to get done here is a first responders memorial this is a long overdue uh something I know fire department has one in front of the Vernon firehouse but we're looking to have one here at the uh right here in
front of the building i have already uh been told by and verbally committed for $25,000 from Joe Hessen Andy Mulahill and Jeff Kaufman at $25,000 will go to
to building this first first responders memorial i have recruited Chief Dan Young Chief Kevin Duffy from the EMS and Mr brian Lynch to be the chairman of the New Jersey State Firemen's Association
memorial so together we'll help build that memorial we'll build it the right way uh something that they will be proud of um so again that's something that's been long overdue main Street I'm working on the build out of Main Street which right now
is consisted of four four buildings we have a total of I think 11 buildings coming in here and that's going to be uh between residential and mixed and one of those uh buildings we
are looking to actually put in uh and the has agreed we're we're working through it a rooftop restaurant i think I'm super excited no promises on that but he said that uh he's all for it so actually have a rooftop restaurant on
one of one of our properties in uh on the main street like I said the 27 unit building is is they're submitting the plans i think they already submit the plans i think they're going in front of the next next land use board
okay another thing a few things we we filed a a grant for um 75 which we've just been awarded a $75,000 grant this will be for I've asked Michelle to tell me because she's the she's the rec
director she's the one who manages the fields i asked her what she thinks people would want and we want we're going with a cazebo down in the great lawn at Maple Range uh that great lawn will also have electric as well that you
can use it's multi-use so you can use it for many things uh another thing I have I don't have much information on here is that we are looking to do a an extension for animal control uh a quarantine extension it'll
be a small addition onto animal control we're hoping that a lot of it can be donated i know the laborator's already agreed to pay for the uh the air system for this extension uh the problem that they're having down there is is disease
runs rapid especially with the cats um and it's it's so difficult to to manage it when you have you have one sick cat you just consider them all to be sick it it's such an it's such an uphill battle for these guys they and you could actually take it home i didn't know that
you can actually walk in that place not even touching animal and go home with it and bring that that disease home to your animal too so it's very dangerous i don't have the I in time I'll bring I I have all the details from the sergeant and we'll we'll talk about that and hopefully we get a lot of it done on
donations uh and then again through our shared service agreements hopefully that will be paved uh that will be taken care of i I did a I posted an online poll about uh
pickle ball courts a lot of requests for um and the number I think it was like 150 people uh voted yes for it and 50 were no uh I just let me let me just state that we already
have appropriated funds for Black Creek Drive paving as 48,000 according to our engineer we should be able to pave that road pave the the walking trail out the walking trail was something and I I regret I I said something to Howard once
before about uh paving the trail and then when I got into office I sat with I sat with DPW and they're like we're constantly having to repair this um constantly having to pair the the walking trail you wash it the way we spend money we're constantly so that
leaves me like this is something that we we have to do at this point so but that 48,000 should cover all of that again it's already been appropriated and if you drive down Black Creek Drive you will see that you can actually lose a small station wagon at some of those holes that are down there it's It's
really bad so hope that will get done this year now I have something I've been working on with the D for several weeks and that is that Vernon Township come the end of summer uh maybe
in fall summer fall that Vernon Township will start household garbage at our recycling center okay there will be a fee but I can assure you that that fee is going to save you a lot of money for the people who have their garbage picked up and for
those who take their garbage to to Schuma it will still be a lot cheaper than having to run it down there we have the compactor again I worked with D for weeks on this uh it's a it's a sealed container we worked out all the details
we're still working through details on how that that process is going to lay out again this is not happening right now wait for later announcements but one of the things I heard on the campaign trail was pay all these taxes we and we don't have garbage now I can't get a garbage truck up to you guys but at
least this is a way I can put some money back in your pocket should you bring your garbage down here uh again it will be a lot cheaper uh for you to do that and finally I want to thank Michelle and Meg well first of Meg helped me put this
presentation together and thanks thanks to her thank you for your patience i will also again like I said this will be on the website uh but one of the things that that Tina and Michelle has worked on a lot was the hometown heroes uh
banner and that's something that I felt very near and dear to me that our veterans should be observed it's something long long time in the making and today the first
one that came out of the box that they brought to my attention uh was in our fire department who passed away uh uh this year oh it was a 24 or he passed away uh unfortunately and uh
so this I don't know it was wow the first one she Michelle comes to my office with was this one of Mike Bassel i I told the fire department about it and the gentleman in the back from the fire department here to to to to show thanks so I appreciate it guys uh these
will be starting uh we're trying to get these all up by Memorial Day so we'll we'll have them and I do have one more i may get choked up but this one is very near and dear to me good looking guys wow a little bit
right uh that's that's all I have uh thank you thank you council for for your patience while I must do I felt it was really important that we get out to see what what we've done in 2024 uh there'll be a lot more that
comes about in 2025 as always we continue to work and try to find ways to cut costs and find better ways to do things so thank you thank you before we move on to our next item I would like to recognize a visitor
he's uh gentleman has been here before and call him a gentleman because he is I've met him a number of times and spent some time with him he is a member of our county commissioners and may I introduce
Mr alan Henderson thank you sir please stand for those who may not know Allan is a he is our representative that we contact with uh if there's any issues
with the county that need to be uh kind of walked through or overseen and we appreciate his diligence and looking out for Vernon Township and we appreciate the efforts that you've shown us thank you appreciate it you're w You're
welcome if you have anything you'd like to say please take this opportunity and I'd just like to say for your mayor I think you have a lot of positive things happening here in Vernon i think you should be proud of that you can see obviously your community is growing i come from Lafayette we're a really small
community and not a lot of growth opportunity i will commend you for that that's fantastic and as far as employees unfortunately I think that's no matter where we go people don't show employees the gratification they need i can tell you as county commissioner my goal was
to meet every county employee so they could put their my face and everything to their name i went to every single department the county has to introduce myself and say thank you for all you guys do because you're the ones that make running happen and I'll commend all of you thank
you thank you very much thank you very much thank you i want to thank the commissioner for he he put us put me in contact with some of the county folks on the issue at 5 uh 5:15 with the overweight trucks and from
what I understand Mr sp you said it today that they were they I saw them working uh uh up in Harrison and putting the signs up new signs the new signs are more of like a picture so it's not so that they're reading so they'll be able to really get see a picture instead of
trying to read that so thank you sir for for help put that put that together and uh thanks to those guys thank you moving on to our next item we haven't had an opportunity as a council to discuss the budget
publicly and this is not a budget presentation that will come later this month at our uh at our last meeting on the 28th however this is an opportunity for
members of the council to uh query our mayor the uh business administrator and our chief financial officer about anything that may be
uh you know questioning or questioning on on this the upcoming budget so if you have any questions uh pick to make any comments floor is open there
yes the budget time is probably where I'm most interested in getting into the facts of how the township runs and how we run and why we do it that way so just as a reminder this township is about rounding it off 20% of your total tax
bill the county 20% the schools 60% so when you see an increase even if the township goes up go to the board of education that's where all the money is being spent and I'll make some comments on that at the end of the meeting but in
the meantime I decided to take the CFO and the mayor's uh offer and I put together two two uh pages page one had 28 questions on it page two had uh 11
and we sat for two hours wrote down answers got some answers of things that I really needed to know to my satisfaction there's a few on here that I'm not satisfied with but in general I I like the openness the CFO particularly
on on the questions the answers and you know a little bit of the background into why things are as they are it was a positive experience there's uh there's a couple things one on what the mayor just presented tonight this is new it wasn't even on here mr mayor you
had in your presentation that we as a township saved uh 1.1 million budgeted versus expenditures and another 100,000 so this was on this was on your presentation
tonight uh let's see which page it was it's 1 million total compared to last year's budget so find where it is in your presentation so my question would be what's happening to
that money talking about where it says we brought it over said 1.8 8 I'm not 1.1 and uh it's on it's on the slide 2024 presentation worksheet
administration ended the yearly tax assessment program you cut 1.8 million from the capital items budget he implemented the first 55 project unit uh
Let's see where else is page number here it is it's on financial overview financial overview of finances we brought in over 1.1 million in revenues above anticipated right below that we
increased fund balance by h 100,000 so you add them together it's $1.2 million where is that money so well no so 100,000 of that moved into fund balance the remainder was moved um portions of that were moved into the trust fund so
we have a trust fund for snow removal um so at the end of the year we have the option to move money into that account um we also have the option to move money into accumulated absences um so that's where a large amount of that money went okay so so money was generated so
budgeted versus expenditures and it was moved into trust fund or that's not so that's not how money is generated for the township it's um budgeted revenues so you have to remember the appropriation side is entirely separate from the revenue side so the revenue side generated more on the revenue side
right so it's 1.1 million more in revenues than we're anticipated correct anticipate so that's a plus of 1.1 million right so that 1.1 million is now in our surplus fund somewhere yes okay sort of yes so so that leads to
the second question a lot of these other questions I had were items such as that that that we needed clarification on and uh you know the big driver here was we approved two contracts last year one for the UAW workers one for the DPW workers
and my question was how much did that cost and uh that should have been asked whenever we voted on it but we didn't but it's a we we have people that work here it's they they deserve a raise everybody has cost of living so the difference on uh on the uh the
uh DPW workers is $65,000 and UAW workers is uh 31,000 and so there's there's 90ome,000 that's not counting benefits just as we have the non-union employees
and uh the cost difference is another $63,000 plus benefits so it's it's it's considerable you know there are people and we do owe them a decent living i get that but whenever we have extra funds or we we did a good job of spending less
than what we budgeted those funds are our money and the big question I had for the CFO was how much do we have in total surplus compared to the budget most important question to me that I asked
and uh we have $6.7 million in surplus and our budget is somewhere between 31 and 32 depending on what we decide on that's 20.9% in the bank for a rainy day and uh right then the question was asked the
CFO asked me how much do I think we should have and then I turned around asked her what we should have and we were this far apart and just as our auditor has come to us in the past on her yearly visit she says as a an accountant
accountants are conservative they want as much surplus as they can get that was her words that's not your words so we're far apart on how much surplus we should have but at 20.9% and Mike's statement was how much does the governor of New Jersey have in
surplus on a multi-billion dollar budget he has 10.9% but his budgeting is a little different than ours so there's a big difference so when you have 20.9% I'm going to have a very difficult time voting for an increase in taxes
that's my We'll talk about this when the budget's up but that's where I am right now thank you you have any comments on that yeah I just want to be clear um so when you use funds in the anticipated budget right the 1.25 25 which was
um in the introduced anticipated budget for this year that would reduce that surplus amount to about 16% and in our conversations you said that it was 12% that you felt was a healthy fund balance amount and I said it was 15 to 20% you said 30% no I said
the bond rating agencies would prefer 30% i said I felt comfortable with this township being between 15 and 20% so if I can interpret what you just said instead of 20.9 if we go to zero it'll bring our fund balance to 16 if we go to zero what do you mean if we do not give
a tax increase to the taxpayers and use of all the fund balance and reduce the difference between what you would like to charge to zero how much of the fund balance would be used um a significant significant amount more than what we're currently using so if we have
6.7 million in the current plan budget that you presented how much would be left if we give zero tax increase i would need to do the calculations on that okay probably somewhere between 15 and 17% that's not true if I just use 1.25 million in this year in this budget
right now it would bring us to 16 17% you're asking to bring it to for a 0% increase i'd have to do the calculations okay that's right so when we discuss the budget that's my gonna be my main question because this is just comments
right this is not voting on the budget tonight so that's my main concern and uh thank you very much so I I just want to clarify what is our current fund balance Dell 6.78 million and the budget that you presented you
and the mayor presented is using 1.2 million 1.25 million 1.25 million of that so so 6.7 you said minus 1.25 would bring us down to 5.5 roughly or
5.45 okay so that's so so we are we are using some of our fund balance and you will not regenerate that uh yeah so that and after using that fund balance that brings us to the 16.9 you talked about
okay all right i just wanted to clear that up in my head it's going to be used like it no longer exists yep and the and the over the unanticipated revenues that was moved to the snow trust so there was a large
amount that was moved to the snow trust this year um as we saw in December and January um when I'm closing the books in January you start to see what's happening um and how much money we're going to need and knowing how much we had um in the uh temporary budget etc I
thought it was uh imperative that we put a significant amount into the snow trust um notwithstanding this past weekend I don't know how much this past weekend cost but we've already spent over $775,000 in snow removal this year so we've spent three quarters of a million dollars in snow removal this year not
counting not counting April yep what's our current balance in the snow trust do you know um a couple of weeks ago was about $450,000 okay and that was with putting those unanticipated revenues in there that Okay so that so those unanticipated
revenues have already been spent because if you had over a million Well we No we didn't spend over a million it was threequarters of a million we've spent okay but you we had over a million of unanticipated revenues is what Bill was saying yes so it it lapses to fund balance but there are
other things that also lapse fund balance and appropriations okay so some of that over a million went to the the snow trust account yeah and someone went into fund balance someone went into fund balance okay okay but so remember like you used 1.75 million last year right so
you use 1.75 million yes we started with six million if you look at the AFS right we started with actually it might have been like 7 million um we use 1.75 so some of that fund balance for the 6.7 is regenerated from the revenue too okay
it's it's a mix of appropriations and revenue that move into um into the Yes and then and then things move outside of it when I appropriate it to um trust funds that they're spent kind of for what they were budgeted it just allows you to keep that funding available for
those purposes and what other trust fund did those accumulated absences when we Oh we talked about that yeah stuff payouts that are capped but they're still payouts so instead of um putting those payouts on the taxpayer inside the current year's budget we put some into
the trust funds so that we have that available and we don't have to increase our budget for those okay so those can just sit there year over year until you have the retirements that you're paying out the accumulated okay oh do you know off hand what the balance of that trust fund is um I could
look it up for you i'll get that number that's okay that's fine i mean I don't It's fine i was just curious i think we talked I know we talked about it when we met um and and we did have a conversation the mayor and Dell with Pat and I thought this and went over a lot of
things and we did have some conversations about reduction i don't know if you had any proposals or opportunities um of of uh potential cost savings that we would be able to reduce the budget to
the taxpayer um we've had some internal discussions it's okay so do you think Okay the amount of money that's in the compensated absences is $600,000 okay you found it thank you council found it faster than you just bringing
up I was now geez waiting for it to load thank you and how much do we pay out a year roughly for that like it depends on the number of retirements you know it depends on the retirements the amount of time um that people have outstanding there's a cap on sick time there's no cap on vacation time okay
depending on contracts etc you know it can vary yep okay the uh $48,000 the mayor referred to for for potential pickle ball use that's where is that right now that money so
the township council passed um a bond ordinance a few years ago for the town center park uhhuh so that's unspent money and we've got that money it's money that's been um appropriated for the use for that park okay so that could be appropriated for use for abansion um
no why not why not because of the type of use that it's for it's that's a constructed structure it's all dictated by the bond law a pickle qualifies and a band shell doesn't they're two different types of They're two different types of structures so the local bond law is very
clear about um structures and how they're built and what type of structure it is dictates the useful life which dictates the useful life of your total bond ordinance mhm if you're No I I don't I could not use funds from that
appropriation for a band shell they're they're different um useful lives does it have to be spent to keep it i'm I'm not sure what Do you have to use the money in order to keep it in our account
well it's been appropriated i'm not I don't We have the money do you have to use the money to build something to to facilitate use of that money or can it stay in our surplus account or can you do anything else with It's not in a
surplus account it's capital it's it's a totally separate fund our capital fund um in order to use money out of a capital fund you need to have an ordinance for it so you can have a capital ordinance or a bond ordinance a bond ordinance issues debt and includes cash items um for very specific purposes
that are outlined in the local bond law so if an ordinance and passed it to use that money for something as you said an ordinance for transfer it from capital to something else can't do that you can only use it for those things
for other things for what's outlined in the in the bond ordinance so a structure can be included you can do a bond ordinance for a structure but it would have to be a a bond ordinance passed by the council correct
so if in fact there was to be a uh the council was to uh require that you know provide a uh uh an action to move for on a band shelf and
funded by the uh uh by by a uh a a vehicle such as bonds then in fact it could go that way correct yeah you
could you could have a bond ordinance drafted by bond council um with an approved down payment amount in cash right and then um yes issue debt for that okay and it would be dedicated in the same fashion it could only be
used for that right looking for options that's all that's why all the questions yeah you can't so um capital is very strict you it whatever you issue those things for is what they can be used for they can't be used for anything else right mr uh snow trust account is that only
for the contractor portion or is that for No it's for it's for um a lot of things so anything that's related to snow removal or storm removal um so if there are if we have a large storm in the summertime um or windstorm or anything like that we can use it for uh overtime for that equipment for that um
so if you had a micro burst you could actually use it yes even though it's for quote unquote snow trust yeah back in back in the day when they first created the storm trust it wasn't called a storm trust it was just for snow removal and then because all the other storms that have happened um the legislature in the state of New Jersey has allowed you to
use it for other things they actually allowed um townships to use it during COVID uh as well um but that has to be you know done at the legislative but level but it's for anything storm related um our short-term rental ordinance that we have there is a tax that's generated
that is that part of the hotel tax that goes to the state and it comes back or is that tax stay here yes so um there's well there's two portions so there's the permit part which comes directly here um for online permitting um and then the tax portion does go to the state the hotel occupancy tax and then it comes here so there was a huge uptick when we
passed that ordinance um for the hotel occupancy tax uh just a reminder though that 25% of it does go towards other things so even though we might bring in um you know let's say $500,000 but that goes to um Maple Green Field
replacement so there's a reserve for maple greens fields um and then two portions go to like an active recreation component and not recreation an active open space component and a passive open space is it possible to
um have an additional fee or tax on um short-term rental and or hotel usage beyond the hotel occupancy tax that can stay here rather than go to the town because we
don't whatever we generate goes to the state and I don't think we get 100% of that back correct fair enough um I think that that would be a question for the attorney that we would need to research i'm not happen to have one here i know some uh towns have had a
municipal ordinance i'll look into that okay i'm just think you know we we are a resort community and we do have tens of thousands of visitors that come to our our town every year that utilize our services um whether it be uh you know police or EMS or or whatever and you
know I I know we we when the sewer agreement went through you know a decade or so ago or actually it was probably eight years ago you know we did uh Mountain Creek uh graciously uh tacked on a fee to their
uh lift lift tickets to help with the the re the repayment of the uh the uh sewer bonds and that's worked out very very well um as a matter of fact I think they were ahead of schedule of paying them off
correct um so I was just wondering if it's possible that we can do something like that uh or things other than the sewer to generate some more revenue because you know what we're we're at the point where you know we could talk about
appropriations all we want but we're really kind of stuck here with appropriations with benefits the way they are uh going up out of control um tax implications tax implications as far as that um you
know outside of our our services I know the mayor spoke about you know having garbage down here but you know outside of our emergency services and and our road department it's not like we can go after any services there there's not much there to go after so I think we
need to start looking very very hard at other revenue streams to generate fresh new ones that are not um that are not penal to our residents so if we can somehow um figure out a way
to create some revenue from our resort industry um I think that's something that we need to do as a council and as a township um where we can bring in um the people that own uh the resort properties here uh and ask them what what's
possible to do it's not going to hurt their bottom line either um you know we don't want to deter people from coming but I also think we need to capture some revenue for them so um I unfortunately I will not be at the um April 28th meeting
uh so I did want to get some comments in here tonight i I have to be in Washington DC for some other business um so I will not be here but uh if there's anything that we can do in the meantime to try to be creative thinking outside the box for for additional revenues I I
would appreciate that thank you can we ask some of our sister towns down in you know along the shore for copies of ordinances that they may have for u how they're handling Yeah I think I
think that they're um like local fees i don't know if you can have a local tax um but I think they're local fees so like a hotel fee or resort fee um I think that's what Atlantic City charges so I can reach out i think it has to mirror like the sewer agreement i think
that verbiage has to be kind of the same yeah because that's why they couldn't charge it tax right mhm miss Busher I think I already had my Yeah I think I'm good okay um Oh I did want to reiterate what Mr higgins said
earlier about the school board um you know what we've we've we've delivered um zero increases from the municipal budget three years in a row um and I am a former school board member as is everybody that dies here except for
the attorney um we'll make him an honorary we'll make him an honorary so um it is your school board that is increasing uh exponentially drastically every
year and that is a significant burden on our taxpayers in fact the township for the past three years has in a way supported the board of education's requirements in
terms of taxes and whatever they've chosen to do and by not raising taxes and by uh using our uh fund balance which is essentially the same
as you know developed the same way as they developed their fund balance and and the reason why fund balance is nice to have but very very dangerous is because once you use it and it's
gone you now have no way of regenerating that fund balance except through your existing budget and then by taking it out of that
budget you were only bringing it back to what you started out with so if you used a million half dollars out of your uh fund balance and that brought it down to
zero and now you are uh at no fund balance in order to have that $1.5 million again you need to generate $3 million one and a half to bring it to
sort of like ground level and then one and a half to put it back to where it was and when you do this without having any uh uh plan involved then you're then
you're running into a problem of uh digging a hole deeper that you maybe can't get out of so just thought I'd bring that up uh fortunately we we've had a fund balance that's been workable
i think the discussion on this council and with members of the administration has not been whether to have one just a question of how much we're going to use of it right okay and and and the problem that we run into there
is our council and our township our administration we go out to bond much more frequently than any other place you know and and for us to go back and to go
out to uh to uh to bond and looking at the interest rates which are predicated on our rating uh we find ourselves paying more in the long run if those uh
interest rates are higher because of a lackluster um uh bond rate so that's it's kind of where we are and I just thought I would would uh point that out
um Mrs bucheri and I did meet with members of the the administration and the mayor and we tried to work this out i I think we still have a a situation
where we can uh get close to uh maybe a single digit a double I'm sorry a double digit number rather than a tripledigit number but uh it's going to take at least three votes
in order to get that so if you have any other questions not at this time okay good all right so we'll move on thank you very much Mayor and Right and uh thank you very much
mayor's comments mr president I just um I had a complete statement um about the budget but I just want to lay out what we were forced
uh since 2022 this year's budget we were forced to deal with and recognize not only this year's inflammatory cost but also inflammatory cost of 20122 through 2024 which include the following one
over 21% in health health insurance expenses two over 26% in liability insurance increases three over 28% workman's compensation insurance four over 37% in road road repairs
maintenance other expenses and operations five over 30% in buildings and grounds other expenses and operations six over 89% in recycling operations and other expenses for
recycling disposal over 31% in police operations other expenses for service contracts over 27% for fleet maintenance other expenses for maintaining the township fleet and emergency service vehicles
over 9% increase in budgeted utilities expenses 10 over 16% in social security expenses 11 over 38% in pension obligations for public employees 12 over
28% for pension obligations for police employees 13 over 11% in capital expenditure increases for for cash capital expenses on shortlived capital items so
just to be clear since 2022 we've had doubledigit increases and we've had zero increase i'm look I'm I don't want to raise taxes no I don't want to pay taxes no more than the next guy um but I just wanted to outline the
double-digit increases we we've had to endure year after year so that's all my comments thank you i have a motion to open the floor to the move moved by Mr higgins is there a
second second by Mrs ber all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries the floor is open to the public for anyone wishing to address the council be first or last sorry be first and last name okay just turn one of those around
steen Dun sorry turn the mics around turn the mic around the other way item items yes test test you good can you hear me speak a little closer here we go steve Dunlop Williamsville
Estates couple agenda items first is resolution 2511 appointed of a Vernon Township acting zoning officer i don't know if this is a civil service position or not i don't know if an advertisement was
placed but if it was I just can't imagine what the advertisement might have said looking for someone with no training no experience and no certification um it's not the way I would have advertised for someone for an
for an important position says here that uh this employee has been serving such March 17th and now they're asking you to approve something that's already been done for someone that doesn't have her zoning administration and enforcement
certification same thing with our last one she was was a security guard at um Highland Lakes and she just got dumped into the position and then we I guess on our time got her certified just doesn't seem to be the right way to
do business so I hope you guys will discuss it amongst yourself and realize that this is probably not the way to do things and what you do you do the second point would be um resolution 25113 this is a sidebar agreement
between the township of Vernon and the UAW and it talks about hiring a nutrition officer now I don't know if this is someone that's going to go around and pass out snacks or plan people's dinners for them
i I I I I'm just shocked that somebody thought it was a good idea that we have a nutrition manager so it's something else that I would hope that the council would maybe discuss among yourself and say
"What the heck why are we doing this?" It says and I want to be real quick because I don't want to lose my time got a minute but it says that um the township has agreed the township has determined that it has a need for a new position with a title site manager
nutrition program for the love of God I have no idea why so we'll leave it at that and lastly we had a previous mayor that seemed to not know the size of our town i heard tonight the
number of 100 square miles mentioned about that the police having to patrol 100 square miles last I checked we were just under 70 square miles and have been since I moved here unless we picked up another 30% of land somewhere we're about
69.9% and I think 67 of it land and two two miles of it is water so if we're going to put the information out there we probably should be should be accurate we are not a 100 square mile township but please think about what I said on
these two resolutions it makes absolutely no sense thanks thanks how'd I do i do okay nine seconds awesome good miss Carson relative to the uh sidebar agreement that came about as a result of
communications between the um the township and the uh and the or union move your mic closer you have any comments on it this isn't a new position it's a
position we already have and it was brought to our attention from the union that this position is being put into the contract so it's a position and an employee we already have and this the fact that it's being put into the
contract is not something that we can dispute no kind of like a desk order yes for the union thank you thank you anybody else wishing to adjust the
council good evening everybody i'm Heidi Lee from Vernon and I want to take the time after listening to the presentation the mayor did i want to personally thank you i see my tax money at work and what you do and I do appreciate it and I'm sure
there are some people in our town that feel the same way but I thank you very much and I thank you for all you're doing working together because our the future of uh Vernon means we have to work in unity for the people of the
people and etc etc anyway thank you all thank you thank you seeing seeing no one else coming forward may I have a motion to close the meeting to the public moved moved by Mr higgins is there a second second by Mrs bucheri all in favor signify by saying I I
opposed motion carries i just want to make one comment about the square miles real quick it's 100 square miles of roads it's not 100 square miles of the township it's roads that equal that 100 square miles it's not the actual size of
our township but it's the roads that come out to about 100 square 100 square miles so 100 square miles or 100 miles 100 miles 100 miles review all members of the council have a
copy of our bills list there any comments on this questions on the bill list i have one more for clarification because I don't understand so I'll ask it public i see Valley Fire Department page for reimbursement
reimbursement $17,154 that's fine what's that for what are we just for my know what are we reimbursing a fire department for um it's a line item in our budget for reimbursing them um so we are allocating funds to them the reason why we do it
through reimbursement is because the state of New Jersey requires that 50% of all funds sent to fire departments are spent on um apparatus not just apparatus it could be like hardware fire panic stuff so um that's why we have them submitted this way so we can keep track of everything
that's Don't we have separate resolution when we buy or purchase equipment that goes to the fire departments so those are capital expenditures so when you're talking about a fire trucker apparatus that's outside of what would some towns call an annual donation to the fire
department so is there equipment tied to the 17,000 is it uh funding for labor what it dep I mean it all depends on what it is so it could be equipment um it could be I mean sometimes it is equipment sometimes it's
training sometimes um it is small hand tool equipment um repairs repairs things like that okay thank you i just have one stupid one 63691 New Jersey Easy Pass sweeper
repairs says sweeper repairs on your Yeah it does that is not um in the actual system it is not super repairs i don't know i don't know why it says super repairs on there um but the actual purchase order it was the sweeper going through the
easy pass when we picked it up so not all of our not all of our vehicles have easy they don't all need easy pets picking up the sweeper should not say sweeper repairs i didn't pick up on that sorry okay thank you
anyone else no thank you all men on members of the council have received copies of the minutes of our executive session of March 24
2025 may I have a motion to approve the executive session minutes that they moved by Mr sparta is there a second second seconded by Mrs bucheri uh excuse me any additions corrections
deletions uh all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries excuse me all members have received copies of the minutes of our regular meeting of March 24 2025
may I have a motion to place uh those minutes on the floor for consideration make that motion motion made by Mrs bucher is there a second second seconded by Mr sparta additions corrections deletions
or on that all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries excuse me consent agenda you have any items that you would like to have separated please let me
know and I will do so consent agenda resolution 25-11 appointing a Vernon Township acting zoning officer i'd like to remove that from the consent okay we'll
separate that resolution 25-112 amended resolution authorizing a grant um application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for
FY2025 Local Recreation Approvements Grants Program resolution 25-113 sidebar agreement between the township of Vernon and UAW local 2326
yes that is separate resolution 25-114 a resolution of the Township of Vernon County of Sussex State in New Jersey awarding refreshments vendor at
the uh Maple Graange Park snack stand concession to the scoop uh resolution 25-115 a refund for totally disabled veteran block 557 lot five
epida resolution 25-116 refund overpayment block uh 464 lot to home uh resolution
25-117 refund overpayment Block 26 526 block 381 aisha um and that concludes um we'll move we'll take resolutions
25-114 through 25-117 may I have a motion to place those items those two those items on 112 oh yeah 112 i I'm sorry that's okay 112 112 was not separated right and may I
have a motion to take items resolution 25-112 uh and 11 25-114 115 116 and 117 so moved moved by Mr spart seconded by Mrs bucheri u roll
call please council member Bushary yes council member Higgins yes council member Sparta yes council President Rudo yes motion carried resolution 25-11 may I have a motion to place this on the floor for consideration moved
moved by Mr higgins is there a second second seconded by Mrs biri uh questions or comments on yeah I'd like to follow up on gentleman from the audience Mr dunlop who asked a question so this person who's in this position
had been in since March 17th yes she's been acting acting and that acting uh award or a designation was done through a civil service process so what happens since they're acting um a notice gets
sent to civil service because we lost our zoning officer they will then in turn call out for a list we have not received that yet from civil service okay and when you do once they do then it gets posted um for um for people to
apply for it so she's acting until we have some list come off and then we can she can finish getting her certifications and in the meantime if other applicants are on that list then the mayor has the choice to pick who he
wants to appoint for that uh position so the person's in training right now yes really not functional as the zoning officer she's acting as of right now she's she still can do certain um uh job certain aspects of her job as an acting
as an acting uh zoning official was this a transfer from a previous position yes she was hold on yes or no so full-time yes but she was also been working in in the zoning office for quite some time so
she has been like one day a week she's been work working there a full-time employee that was working there for no money shared time no she was shared okay so um there was a position um a union position and this position was split among different departments and this
individual that that position spent time in the zoning department a significant period of time amongst other positions I guess correct yeah other duties right there the that's an important position zoning officer there been I've been on
the board now for a year and a half and uh there's there was all sorts of discussions on the previous zoning officer not doing the job I guess is the best way to say it there were violations that were just gone unnoticed from
different types of advertisement flags that were flying to cars in lots where they shouldn't have been or buildings that were falling apart that were left to fall apart and uh so that it's an important job you you have a zoning official and and they have to code
official as well as zoning for new buildings and all the rest it's an important position what's the rush to judgment why don't we wait for uh civil service posting see if we get an experienced civil service uh employee um as you recall during our discussion this past
week um civil service takes a very very long time to do anything um so we could have an opening for a job for a very long time um the township administration just needs an official yeah because if if we have people bringing in
applications for zoning they there's a certain amount of time that these applications need to be approved and if we don't have anyone being able to review them and approve them it's going to put a halt to any kind of improvement to people's
houses or towns or not not only that but if they're not approved within a certain time regulatory period they're automatically they're automatically approved without inspection and she's acting i mean I I've worked with her on a matter here and from what
I see she's does a very good job yeah i don't know this person at all never met her i have no idea we've gotten a lot of compliments about her and she's been doing a but but once again mayor she is acting and once the list comes out
then it's open until you know it's open all the other persons and and hopefully she'll have her all her licenses and etc if if if an alternative were to post a position and in three weeks you don't
have any applicants then you could move forward this with this plan correct but but you can't post the position until you get the the list from service they have to generate that and then you're going to have to Yeah that's the process um we talked about how like how the
administrator explained that we notify civil service that this is happening there's this opening we're appointing someone in an acting position and then at some point in the next hopefully six months social service will get back to us and they will say "Here's the posting we're authorizing you to create a posting." You can't just like create a
civil source posting ourselves right how long do you figure the the training is going to last i don't I don't know how long it's only It's It's only a se few weeks it's not It's not that long few weeks not Yeah i think she has to go to like three
separate classes or something um there's like one step and then after she completes that she goes to the next and then following at what cost is that i don't know what the price is it's it's not that I I don't know but I I remember it wasn't expensive at all not expensive
at all it's run by Ruckers Center government services who run all the certifications for the state of New Jersey good i could say probably I'm going to guess a th00and 2,000 at the most it's not it was not a significant amount
don't hold me to that number but I've never seen a not a high number at all mhm well based upon other council members knowing this person and our attorney saying "You met with her?" I I've worked with her you work with her yes that's a
reference that I'll take and I will tell you she was very thorough she knew what she was doing i I was impressed that's okay that's a reference and I am impressed with many of the the um department heads and people in your town by the way thank you i'm just curious
why wasn't on the March 24th agenda we've had a meeting since March 17th i just I didn't get it on in time i and and I I know this person well i've known her for for a decade my no vote will be
not a reflection on her it's a reflection that it should have been at least on the March 24th this we had the whole thing about the fireworks this is no different we're voting on things well after the time it happens so if it was
on the March 24th agenda I I would have been okay with it because it is a position that is needed as stated by by Mr king but um you know a month after the fact is not okay with me
if a no vote then it would be placed on another agenda in the future for the same person yes or no on that well you need the you need the um zoning
if it doesn't pass what happens right today if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass you don't have a approved uh person in that position is it a statutoily it it is a statuto acquired position so we can't choose not to have one we have to
have one unless you for me unless you go out to a shared service with another town what's the alternative shared service with another town for a period of time until we I don't think you would be able to put do all that but you could
always do a shared service with another town for different positions in the township but it would take probably four at least four to five months to do that to negotiate with another town yeah that
makes sense and that's if you could do a shared service with another town they want if they have the capacity if they even have the capacity if their zoning officer has the capacity share services with other towns for our zoning officer don't we or did
we did but she was working full-time here so there wasn't shared service it wasn't shared service she was doing it on her own right yes so why can't we generate shared service agreements with those towns
that that person was working for because I I surveyed the towns and they didn't want to do it i serviced I I asked all of Sussex County about the zoning position um shared service as soon as the former
zoning officer left and we did not get any response from any towns as far as them sharing with us or just in general a shared service just and and nobody even I think got back to the mayor at
all to for us to be the lead or them to be the lead so the idea of shared services seems like it isn't going to go nowhere so nowhere with shared services and we have no zoning officer and we then
continue without a zoning officer right and then any applications come in get approved without inspection so then you have applications getting approved that inspection which is not ideal to say it lightly right i believe
the fact that she was acting on a temporary basis you know with without council approval uh was within a period of time that was allowable by statute right
she came when it was brought up to the council and we approve it here go the you now have a an approved position i'm not speaking for Mr sparty you're making a great point this is not the first time this type of activity on the
part of the administration has taken place you know it's a it's a pattern in some ways yeah i mean that the uh agenda meeting would have been that same day that she started right cuz it's always on a Monday well no it said that she's been
serving since March 17th and had a meeting on March 24th yeah but the agenda meeting is on the Monday before so the 17th is when the agenda meet when the agenda was being drafted the agenda doesn't get released until Thursday yeah so it could have been Yeah it was right
added necessary yeah but um okay any other questions local council member Bushieri yes council member Higgins
uh no council member Sparta now you're going to make me change my vote aren't you only because I don't want to see zoning happen in this town without oversight yes
council President Rudo yes imagine it's half voted no okay resolution 25-113bar agreement between Township of Vernon UAW local number
2326 may I have a motion to place this on the floor for consideration moved moved by Mr higgins is there a second second second by Mrs bucheri um any questions or comments yeah I I have a question so the union approached
Utina and said they wanted to create this position in their contract and move this position as part of their as part of their collective bargaining agreement right so I don't know where the conversation came i don't know if it was an employee
asking to be put into the union or not but then the union approached us and advised us that this position was now going to be in the union um how do they get to make that determination if they have um if they actually have this
position in their list of approved like yes they have so that so the UAW has this position in their list it's it's based on um the job duties of that position and whether that position for example is able to hire and fire
employees um if they have input on employee review and stuff like that if they don't if they're not um privy to like confidential information and stuff about other employees um employment etc um usually in my experience I've seen
them be in the union so when they ask for something like that so we can't say no there's no if they So they have a document saying "Hey these are all the positions and this would be add this would be adding this to that." But then how do they say they have it on their list then it's well it's a it's a civil
service position right so there's um civil service dictates the the job duties um the experience all that other stuff that be required for that position they can easily anyone can look that up they've looked that up and they said we feel that this position because it's in Burton Township um should be in the
union and should not be a non-union employee we can't the right to do that people have the right to collective bargain and we can't say no and it's currently a employee of Vernon County that wants to move over to Yes so
it's just Yes it's there's no change it's it's the same person we all know i don't know if there's not a change or not so it does say in here has there been any it says the same person we don't know if there's any change refers to salary
schedule and agreement we don't know what the person was making now yeah actually the salary schedule is not on here maybe making a change other benefits may may be available to the person that's not available now
there is there will be salary an increase there will be an increase in the salary they just said yes implication and we can't say no why can't you say no i don't understand yeah I don't understand why we can't say no
because they can call for a desk order what's the job description it would it's listed it's listed on civil service website i don't we don't have it in front of us at this moment that I'm aware of nutrition officer nutrition site manager nutrition site
manager manager yeah or site manager nutrition program with CS SC title code 03716 so Mr mr king so if the if the union says this fits into our collective bargain this the the job description of
this civil service position fits into our collective bargaining unit the the union can come to our administration and say we want to include this in our contract and the administration cannot say no if you did probably go to perk right go to perk and
then yeah we'll lose okay and that's a reflection of the job position or the person in it it's just more the position it's not the person that gets just more of questioning how
the union is handling this and and how that functions okay this is just to me this is just another example of government expanding and supposedly you have no control i
just I just I think it's the union expanding no it's government expanding it's the same position but the union wants to now increase the salary and and pull it into their Yeah but it's more money correct so isn't that expanding
yeah well yeah the salary's expanding yeah by virtue of union inclusion mhm anyone else roll call please council member Bushieri yes council member Higgins no council member Sparta
no council President Rudo uh I'm going to ask that this be this item be held over i think it's we need further clarification on this before we do
something that's going to create a problem already have I think we need input from our labor secretary on this point of point of order to table yes so you pick point of order table pick
table is a motion table motion to table there's a second i'll second it vocal council member Bushieri yes council member Higgins yes council member Sparta yes council President Rudo yes motion
carries 16 thank you introduction of an ordinance chapter uh amending chapter 374 of the township code entitled nuisances public health to prohibit uh prohibitive intrusive
outdoor lighting may I have this in a form of a motion i'm sorry may I have this in laid there's a motion i'll make that motion motion made by Mrs mccer is there a second second seconded by Mr higgins
uh roll call any uh questions on it no no okay council member Bushier yes council member Higgins yes sparta yes president yes
as uh may I have a motion to open the floor for public comment on any item i'll make that motion motion made by Mrs mir is there a second second seconded by Mr higgins all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion carries is open to the
public for any item time limit is five minutes good night everyone i'm Karina you guys are kind of familiar with me that little one is my daughter Louisa is from Lbury school by the way um she mentioned that
was in her school and it's um neighbor with her best friend so yeah um so my issue with the yes the water that is still uh open no response is because of
that little girl that uh her daddy uh it's also one of the coaches uh assistant volunteer in the town for the soccer for the little kids uh and she wants to practice and we have to fix the
landscape in the backyard in order for her practice to practice to play because the way that it is is everything washed away there is nothing we can do and we feel we do something that will be washed away so it would be just a waste of
effort money and uh you know she's nine if I get in a legal case if I start to ask her by the time that this is done she's going to be double jigious she's not going to be interesting soccer and
then time will be passed has anybody been to your home last meeting uh two days later the head of the DPW was there um said that he will look up no response
so I need something is going to happen yes or no also um we spoke over the phone mayor Anthony Rossi and that was um March 12 and um I asked you um if yes
or no you asked me for a time that 30 days has passed i I really need to know if that will be solved or not because I was here in the last meeting and for me it was very painful to hear that is that is abundant house that you guys are
worried about that where I will be owning the house uh will not be able to use the yard and I live in the house and not being able to use quite clearly the concern concern not of
on the issue is not so much for anything other than uh is it in fact the council the township's responsibility to repair this uh this particular problem
and we need that before we can act and that information can only come through the department of public works through the mayor 's office and and what they find as a
uh as to whether or not the the situation is actionable meaning that the township is required or it's not meaning that it's becomes the responsibility of the the owner okay we I don't know that
no member of the council knows that and that's why I asked when did you get a visit from our DPW and now we can ask the mayor has received a report from DPW and what they
have advised him yes uh he was there and Wednesday the 26 wednesday the 26th of Yes of March yes and um he said that he will look to it he will get an answer for this and he will let me know that was the last thing the thing it is uh we
have a easy man so my my property is it's it's it's a dry land but the water that comes washes away destroy my property destroy my landscape i'm not asking for repairs i'm I'm being clear i'm not asking for repairs even though
my property is being damaged I'm asking for a proper place for the water pass because if that is dig down and create a natural place like a French train with rocks every time that rains the water will follow that path and will not go to
the other side and destroy everything that I have in my way so I think it's very reasonable what I'm asking for i'm not asking anything to be fixed i'm not asking anything to be repaired i'm asking for the town to make the proper uses for the easement create a proper
passage for the water which is not gonna damage my property and not going to make my property unusable the way that it is right now that's all that I'm asking and I think it's very reasonable i'd like to ask the mayor if he could get back to us you know between now and
the next meeting so we can have a we can make a determination on this okay unless you're capable of doing that now i I think Howie was waiting for another rainstorm to happen but I I'll follow up with with Howie
okay it's it's a work it's dig down create a passage that's it it's not it's not I'm not asking you i understand that but you anything crazy you have to put yourself in the position of the township
council we have a lot of residents a lot of homes yeah I understand we need to make an allowance for you and it's not really our responsibility i can come up here and claim that same type of Yeah I understand but the thing
is I reach out in October for the town and since then I keep reaching out to the town and I'm here because I'm not having the response from the town and I need that response so you need you need an answer one way or the other yes and
size then the only way that I'm like because like even like for a meeting I say okay I invited the the mayor do you want to come over and look in person no I have people to do that okay so just send the person who is and then the person tells me that he has to come back
to be authorized to do so I'm being like you know in this pingpong between one another i need an answer okay thank you i understand your position like members of the council as well uh one last question is not related to this i
heard you guys talking about uh pave the roads and so on there is any uh anything related to upgrade the the water um drainage from the those streets that is going to be paid because like well
they're private roads no no no i mean they said that it has like the town roads that would be so I'm just curious if there is any like drainage plan attached to this because like in my mind if you pave and then have to do drainage later so it's be counterproductive time
is up i'm sorry okay just quickly if you're living on a private road and you have you're asking that your road be brought up uh to standard for adoption by the town it
needs to be done uh prior to the adoption and needs to be done by the people who own currently own the property or the road okay so um if in fact you living on a private road and
you uh you uh own that road and you want the township to take it over it's your responsibility to bring that up to township standards and then once it's approved by the engineer then it's recommended to the township to the
council that we adopt it and add it to our list of roads am I correct Mayor yes when it comes to private roads however she she I'm not giving your address but she lives on Canisteria Road um but all that stuff goes through our
engineer who who looks at that looks at that stuff um but we've been to your house I think a number of times we we've cleared out um that easement where where the water goes um we've actually put a burm at the top of your driveway as well
we've done we've been active on those just create a problem for me and I mentioned that to uh the DPW uh the thing it is the passage for the order doesn't exist it's just dumped in the first can I feit and it stays there can
I ask you to you know engage in conversation with the mayor and is you know during the workday and perhaps you can work it out and come back to us with the Sure i will do you receive me your office mayor excuse me oh do you receive
me your office can I set up a meeting and call call my office and set something up and we can also get a report from the mayor regarding Pleasure thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come forward
hi good evening steve Dunlop again don't want to belabor the point i know it's been tabled i know there's questions sometimes it's a lack of understanding sometimes it's a way of the way it's written this uh resolution 2113 it says that uh the township in the
USA are part of a bargaining agreement and uh and then it goes on to say that the township has determined that it has a need for a new position not that the UAW came in and said "This is something you have to do and you have no
choice the way it's written it makes it look like somebody in the township came up with the idea that we needed this position the UAW and the township have agreed to create the position which will be a level four position and then the
parties agreed that it falls within blah blah blah." But sometimes just the way it's written it makes it look like who's sitting down negotiating this stuff who thought it was a good idea to sit down with the UAW and say "Yeah let's have a nutrition manager." And I think
there were questions asked tonight about what's the job description what are the duties i don't think we got any answers to that i'm not sure anybody knows and then lastly on the same
vein the following uh resolution 21 I'm sorry 114 i guess it was the vendor from vendor about the scoop yep says that
uh it's been decided to go with these people that was who was recommended but if you look at it you only got one bid so what was there to recommend just the way they're written sometimes it just makes you really
wonder what the heck they're doing can you tell me which one that is i'm sorry it's 114 2514 114 yep it says pages problem was in that Mr bella that
the concession stand has remained closed for periods of time i know that and they were the only one after advertising that was willing to pick it up and assume responsibility for whatever they were
doing i understand that okay and the township is getting a smalliece $200 a month insignificant it's not a big deal right my whole point with it is is it says the township received one proposal
well okay so we accept the one proposal but then it goes on to say the recreation director has recommended the scoop as the most advantageous it's not the most advantageous it's the only one that you got i I I just think that there needs to be
more care in the way these things are written so it doesn't look like we're doing something we're not just like the one that I previously mentioned it makes it look like somebody in the township thought it was a good idea to have a nutrition manager and I
don't think we got a very good answer tonight so I hope you guys will continue to dig into it and try to get to the bottom and find out how we got there thank you much anyone else wishing to come forward no may I have a motion to close the floor to the public moved by Mr
higgins is there a second second seconded by Mrs bucheri in favor signify by saying I i i motion carries u council comments mr higgins yeah i'd like to follow up on the previous
statement I made about the taxes and uh who's paying and who's not paying and how it all works so going back to 60% to the school board that's within 2% the 20% from municipal 20% from the government so uh you can hear that we do
our best to keep taxes down three years in a row 0% tax increase and that that's unbelievable this could be another year of the same thing it's unheard of but it only happened because of COVID and the amount of money that surplus was built
up not only here but also on school boards and the county the state the federal government gave money to everybody and the cost of doing business went down because people were not working that's where the surplus came from the school board found it within their capability of three years ago
having 11 million in surplus and blowing it in six months by hiring multiple teachers and got into a problem where they tried to justify additional tax increases without cutting revenue they didn't tell the truth along the way they
had a forensic audit they were found that they lied to the public and they there was no consequences to the people some of them quit and just took an early retirement but today it's another day and today they're capped at a 2%
increase as as a normal type of government cap on a school board the school board last year was going to go for 2% and then another 4% on a referendum and our famous governor said "You can scrap that you can go to
9.9%." So they went to 9.65 so you as taxpayers got hit with a 9.65% tax increase from a school board that was saying "We're going to start doing capital improvements and and make the buildings better than what they are
as a reason for doing that." There's a lot of reasons they did it this year the 2% became a 2% and now the governor told them they can go to 4.2% so that's the maximum so what do they do the next day they vote to go to
4.2% and now there's additional talk on additional capital expenditures that are going to be over and above that so the whole story here is we're doing our job if in fact a resident uh gets a tax break doesn't pay their
taxes we collect the money for the the uh school board we collect it for the county whenever we collect it they get their 100% we don't get it if there's money short comes out of our budget somebody doesn't pay taxes and money is
collected they get their full amount that's another thing that the town does for the school board and the county the county is projecting a 1.9% increase this year that's that that from what I read that's within reason that's within the 2% cap and uh it's really up to the
residents if you don't come to the board of education meetings they've made a statement that there's only about 10 older people here they're the only ones have the time on their hands to come and and complain about the taxes and everybody else if they're not here then
we assume that it's okay so you get what you effort you put in go to the meetings if you're not a public speaker get one person to speak for you just be there show your body put your hand up and say that you're against getting taxed out of
your own home that's that's what you have to do thank you excuse me Miss Bright how much did the state reduce the state aid to the township $194,000 plus the fact that we lost $194,000 in
state aid that uh so we lost it we lost it and they got it they got it mr spark yeah going back to the budget we talked about replenishing of U surplus and one thing that we have failed to skip over there is a way that
we can replenish it and that's with the back taxes of legends so I have asked this is my third year now on the council and I've asked each year for us as a council to do something about the back taxes at Legends so I am
going to ask once again for the council to determine some way through alternative means to get the back taxes and or well if it be if it is developed they have to pay the back
taxes to get it developed so it's more important to me right now to get these back taxes back than it is be developed but I do want that uh developed as well so you know the taxes that Legends has not paid us is um approaching an extremely high number
and that's been picked up by everybody else in this town and it's also been eroding have caused us to erode our surplus in order to pick up their tab also so if we really want to do something as a
council to help our own cause to replenish the surplus then we need to take action against legends we've already done that and it's not working no on the contrary we we don't know yet at this
point we met we discussed it and they have till the end of this month i'm not I'm not going to get into the developers agreement because that is a close session topic right however we've been kicking this can down
the road we met in February or March of 23 was the first time we met about this we met again last year we met again this year i'm done i'm
tired i'm exhausted that we just keep on being taken for fools by someone holding the purse strings i want something
done and if they if at by the end of the month if they are not make good there's no more excuses the we move on the next meeting in May is 28th no in May May 12th is that correct may 12th yep if
there is nothing done by the end of the end of the uh month of April may 12th I expect there would be a resolution on the agenda to take alternate alternative means against that property a foreclosure by condemnation
area in need of redevelopment thank you mrs for I echo Bill and uh Brad in both of their comments today and um want to wish everyone a blessed
Easter coming up on Sunday and um enjoy break if you have kids in school hopefully you'll be able to enjoy some nice spring weather and um everyone be safe thank you thank you
i too would like to see the legend situation either move forward with some progress on the the current issues or
we start over and uh move into another area for condemnation we've all we've had a discussion on this that discussion was uh in within
the the boundaries of closed session there is a time period on it once that time period expires then we can move but I I am I'm in favor of uh moving that way as well so
uh certainly if uh nothing happens then you'll see something on the agenda to move it forward very appreciative of that and it I think every community me member in this town will be confirmed that concludes my comments may I have a
motion to adjourn the meeting second move by Mr higgins seconded by Mr sparta all in favor signify by saying I i opposed motion motion carried sorry about that
i thought you were going to Yeah I was going to I just I didn't want wanting to be here i was willing