##VIDEO ID:ZRkMkpLeuKA## e like to call this meeting to order it's 6 o'clock this is a regular meeting of the township of Washington in accordance with requirements of the New Jersey statutes regarding open public meetings notice this meeting was legally advertised in the carer post in the South Jersey Times as well as post on the bulletin board in the Miss building fire exits are located through the double doors to your left and right please silence all mobile devices this meeting is being videotaped anyone does not wish to be seen on television may be excused this will be shown on Channel 9 every week Saturday Saturday at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday at 7 p.m. Friday at 10 p.m. and Saturday at 10 p.m. we continue until the next meeting this meeting is also being live streamed you can see the live stream right there uh now presentation of the color guard by the by presentation of the color by the Wasington Township honor guard e pledge allegiance flag United States of America please remain standing for singing with the national by the dawn's early light what so proudly we H at the Twilight last stripes and bright stars through the per fight for the ramp parts we watch were so G and The Rock red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that Star Spangled bner yet way for the land of the free and the home of the brave thank you officer Pini mam roll call please Council bet here Council vice president Brown here councilman Harris here councilman yurus presid council president Mr deell here mayor Jalia here Mr Russo Mr Rooney here now we're g move on our presentations Chief You' like to step up good evening everyone it's my honor and privilege to stand before you tonight to recognize an outstanding member of our Police Department detective Matthew Len slagger has been selected as the 2024 police officer of the year one of detective Len sloggers stand out achievements this year was his exemplary work on a complex and heartbreaking fatal hit and run case on fres Mill Road despite having limited evidence at the outset detective loud and slagger employed Innovative investigative techniques secured critical surveillance footage and worked closely with the community to track down leads through Relentless effort and determination he successfully identified and apprehended and arrested the suspect leading to Second deegree charges for leaving the scene of motor vehicle crash resulting in death this case just one example of the commitment and expertise detective loun slogger brings to the job every day on duty and off duty he continuously goes above and beyond the Call of Duty embodying the core values of our department and making a lasting impact on our Washington Township community on behalf of the entire Council our police department and the citizens of Washington Township is my great pleasure to present detective lens slogger with the 2024 police officer of the year award Detective L slagger thank you for your remarkable service and congratulations on this well-deserved [Applause] award e yeah e [Applause] is Tony Viro here and Tom Viro come on up please we're Rec recognizing for um residents for the 2024 Distinguished Citizen Award these are for you gentlemen and Sky Robertson and James denado tonight we come together to recognize the extraordinary contributions of four members of our community who went Above and Beyond in assistant with a critical investigation into a tragic pedestrian crash when faced with such heartbreaking incident it's vital to have the support of our community these individuals displayed an incredible commitment to Justice and Public Safety providing invaluable assistance to our police detectives thanks to Tom virtuo Tony virtuo Sky Robertson and James Donado our detectives had unfiltered access to hundreds of hours of security footage from virtuos produce and Woodmont Town Center their willingness to cooperate and Grant access to their systems allowed our team to piece together vital evidence and make significant progress in the investigation our detectives have personally shared how much your support meant to them during those long and challenging hours your actions embody the true Spirit of community caretaking you've demonstrated how powerful we are when we work together toward a common goal is my honor tonight to present each of you with our 2024 Distinguished Citizen Award as a token of our deep appreciation for your selflessness dedication and partnership ensuring Justice and safety for all thank you Tom thank you Tony thank you sky and thank you James your actions made a difference and we are deeply grateful let's give them a round of applause perfect one more sure yes than can I have Leeland Christensen and his family come up [Applause] come on up I come up are you really hi so leeland's eight years old he goes to um elementary herfi elementary school he's in Miss agustin's class well it was December 23rd um like most kids you should probably playing Roblox right I mean it's not Christmas time right getting ready for Christmas well his mom had medical emergency came unresponsive um unlike any other 8-year-old I know Leland pick up the phone called 911 got medical attention over at the house then after he got done there still kept his bearings called his popup right and then he called his mom's boyfriend to get some assistance while he waited there patiently which people my age can't wait patiently he looked after his sister um medical help came and obviously everything's great so we're grateful for that but we want to recognize Leland I mean kids that age to do what he did is heroic so Leland great job and congratulations this is for you so so Leland how did you know to call 911 who taught you that my whole family family well great job let's give him a round of applause family e [Music] said he knew you were here kept scanning for [Applause] hey buddy good job you police officer yeah get AB you did a great job oh is it that's great which one is that yes all right before we get started on today's agenda I think we wanted to have Brian and also Frank come up and give us a little update of what's going on with some of the the snow removal and some of the things happened these last couple storms uh good evening mayor members of council uh for those that you don't know that don't do not know me I'm Frank alamir I'm the director of uh Public Works um although every storm is different uh from year to year um and and been a member of the town for uh 34 years so I've uh had some experience myself but I want to give all the credit to uh two supervisors Brian mcaffrey and Adele riff and the whole Department of Public Works uh for doing a great job so with that I can uh give you Brian mcaffrey and go in more detail tough act to follow officer of the year in a real life eight-year-old superhero now you got to listen to me bore you about snow removal so um so usually every year I come come out and and see everybody councel uh we had a few quiet winners but uh this one's starting off with a a bang you know Frank gets Frank gets a promotion and now every weekend it snows so but anyway just to give you a little overview of of what we do in general kind of a break down the dynamic of the equipment we have and and um what we do with each storm so we have uh 20 trucks available inhouse um and 10 of those trucks are capable of throwing salt um um and Washington Township consists of 720 roads 200 courts it's an approximately 170 linear miles of roadway so it can't all be done at once um you know it takes time to clear the roads so specifically with the last storm we had uh and like Frank said every storm is different every storm is dynamic we have a a plan that we follow but you have to tweak your plan for for each storm um this this past storm it started out in you know rain sleep kind of just a little messy and then all of a sudden within two hours we got banged with you know almost 4 Ines of snow so early on uh on Sunday evening it was warm it was 31 degrees 30° uh so when we started out that um that operation the snow was peeling off the ground beautifully uh but as the night went on we were in at um 6 p.m and as the night went on the temperatures consistently just kept dropping and dropping and dropping so you know we've gotten a lot of questions as to you know why does one road look a certain way and another road look a different way um basically what happens is when that wet snow is sitting on the the asphalt those 720 roads and courts and you know we have 20 trucks of our own we also called in 25 subcontractors uh to help us so we had 41 pieces of equipment on the road but it took us until 5:00 a.m. to plow every street so the streets that we were doing later in the uh the day I should say the morning um as we were plowing we were just uncovering a Sheen of ice so um but at that point it was like 15° so salt becomes very ineffective in those temperatures um I wrote this in an email response to a resident today uh with the mayor and council president copied on it I always use the analogy of take a bowl of ice cubes out of your your freezer put all the salt you want on it dump a whole container on put it back in the freezer overnight where it's dark and cold you pull it out you're not going to have a bowl of water the next morning you're going to have a little bit of melt and you know ice cubes so we haven't had temperatures that have gone over 20° or 25° since that snow stop um so we were in all night and we took care of uh every street was plowed with the 41 pieces of equipment um so we were here 11 hours we went home for four hours to get some rest because we also have to abide by uh Maggie's law which after 14 hours on the road you're required to pull your people off the road uh and rest them for a minimum of 4 hours um so we knocked off as soon as we finished um plowing and we wanted to get people back in when the sun was up so at you know 9:00 we started bringing our people back in and we were revisiting all of our main roads with salt uh and it did very well uh because it was very sunny on Monday on Martin Luther King day so all of our main roads were taken care of and and uh you know down to the black top but a lot of the side roads uh had that Sheen of ice still on it so so when we came back in Tuesday and today we've been Fielding phone calls from the public um you know for requests for salt and we've been trouble uh hitting trouble spots for the last two days but it has not gotten above 20 Dees and any road that's shady without the sun in 20° temperature we just can't knock that that one thin layer of ice out so it's not for a lack of effort it's not for a lack of uh res resources uh every road was treated one way or the other either with a plow uh most of them were plowed and salted um and I think overall the result was good but we had gotten some questions as to why there's still that Sheen of ice on the ground and it's simply a matter of science uh salt is not super effective under 20° um calcium chloride is an option but not many dpws in New Jersey use it it's $350 a ton compared to $65 a ton for salt we would have went through 3/4s of our snow budget in two storms if we were using calcium chloride so we need a little help from Mother Nature to get that last little bit uh melted off and uh you know I think by the end of the week the whole town should be perfectly clear but when it's this cold you know our our what we're trying to do is make the roads passable if they are black top that's a fantastic result but it's not always going to be black top um so you know we we we treat every road the same but we don't always get the same result on every road it requires traffic Sun um you know another question we get why is a County Road look so good County's got 15 roads in town and they can drive straight down and do every road seven or eight times in the time that it takes us to do the whole town we have 720 roads takes 10 hours if we just did them twice now we're into 20 hours math is very simple so we do everything we can to improve conditions um you know I think overall everyone was happy with the job but we just wanted the opportunity to come and give you an overview some of the challenges we have with this storm um and if anybody has any questions I'm available to answer them I I I just want to thank Ryan Frank and Adele and all the Public Works guys did a great job um I mean three weeks in and I think we have three storms so far so I've talked to Brian and Frank non-stop um I started call him Frank Snowman by the way um but guys did a great job we we appreciate all the efforts of Public Works and you guys so thank you we're thankful for that and uh you know on leave on this one of the resources we use um for weather amongst others is nor Eastern Nick I know Pat speaks to him regularly and uh you know we follow his forecast and and he put out something I'm I'm at work that night in my r ring doorbell starts going bananas like what's going on you know it was like 10:00 I look on the ring doorbell my wife's out there shoveling the sidewalk which never happens all right never ever ever ever happens so I call I said what are you doing she says well nor easer Nick said we got to get this up quick or it's going to freeze and then we won't be able to get it up well he was absolutely right that's what happened on the roads too it what what stayed longer really froze and became a real pain in the butt for it so that was the challenge with this storm but uh norter Nick was right all right thank you thank you guys appreciate you guys all right moving on to the bill list can I get a motion to approve the bill list from January 22nd 2025 motion second roll call please yes Harris yes yes vice president Brown yes president yes can get a motion to approve the regular minutes from December 17 2024 special meeting minutes from December 30th 2024 and the reorganization minutes from January 3rd 2025 motion roll call please yes Harris yes Benn yes vice president Brown yes president yes moving on now resolutions the following resolutions are for consent agenda only and only require vote for all listed each one must be read by the title if any member of the council wishes to have one remov and heard separately please indicate prior to the readings does anybody need anything heard separately or remove yes um I'd like to have resolution 492 second all favor hi hi okay so the reason we're tabling that one is because we have a executive session after this to discuss that so we we might be taking action on that afterwards if anybody has any questions about that M CL please read the resolutions resolution 37 2025 resolution appointing Bowman and Associates as the auditor and authorizing the proper officials to execute an agreement for Professional Services for a term of one year 38 2025 resolution appointing s non advisor LLC and economic devel and authorizing the proper officials to ex agreement for professional service for a of one year 39 2025 resolution appointing Ron Snider buer sub official for the township Washington for term of one Year 40225 resolution to appoint Jeep as OEM coordinator and met logger as Deputy coordinator 41225 resolution consenting to mayor to the red leveling board for the year 2025 4225 resolution appointing members to the Washington Township municip author3 resolution appin velli as alter to the Washington countship planning board 44 resolution approving the mayor's appointment book for 2025 for Det Washington 4525 resolution authorizing refund of tax 46 resolution accepting a maintenance guarantee from AR Paving Company for fy21 NJ do trust fund B Lake improvements Phase 2 project 0818 42 48 resol resolution authoring a change order and accepting a maintenance guarantee from South State in to Washington Lake Park improvements project C418 48 resolution approving the release of a safety and stabilization bond for Walmart located at 351e 42 Turnersville 1101 23188 537 resolution amending the employe procedure manual for the toship Washington 51 resolution requesting approval of Revenue and Appropriations from the Department of Community Affairs Washington Lake Park inclusive playground project Grant in the amount of 450,000 52 resolution appointing members to the Zoning Board of adjustment 53 resolution approving agreement between the township of Washington and the chief of police Patrick gersi 54 resolution awarding a bid to Earl asphalt company for FY 2024 trust fund alter Drive improvements Phase 2 project 0818 447 55 resolution authorizing the submission of the amended and updated Recreation and open space inventory to the njde Green Acres Program thank you m clerk can I get a motion to approve resolutions r37 d225 to r055 d205 except for r49 d225 motion yes 47 wasn't read okay yep yep we'll make that change uh can I get a motion to approve resolution 037 d225 to 0055 d25 except for 0 49-25 motion roll call please councilman yurz yes councilman Harris yes councilman Bennett yes vice president Brown yes president deell yes moving on to Old business new business reports start with councilman Bennett got to have something I know you do now the snow SP all the Speeders is that what happened always do that I do appreciate doing abouts people coming up this year I will be back on the historical preservation commission biggest event will be last sat aprils Sports advisory advisory there'll be stuff coming up on all these different Council Harris yes thank you um first of all I just again I want to thank the residents of Washington Township for trusting me to make important decisions on their behalf uh and and help elect me as councilman that being said uh I am the liais on to several boards myself um one of being the municipal Alliance uh senior citizens the parade committee as well as the economic development board I did have the um pleasure of sitting in on one of the meetings of the economic uh development uh committee and um and I think uh I think we've got some really good creative ideas to help generate you know some income in the town and help uh help some businesses in town that being said if uh if you're either present here online uh if if you're a business person in town and you you want to just talk business please please reach out to me I'd love to uh have a conversation with you about how you're doing in town how the town can help you uh possibly even introduce you to some other business people in Washington Township to uh hopefully you know combine services and and bring uh new business into Washington Township that is uh it's my heart that's part of or at least one of my passion so please reach out to me if you're a business person in town or or looking to open a business in town thank you Kus thank you um number one I wanted to let the residents of uh Wedgewood Forest know that we are aware of a pothole Bo Parkway in the back um this was brought to the attention of Department of Public Works last year it's an ongoing uh observation point at this point I've talked with Frank Al real about it Ryan they're aware of it um we're not quite sure what it is and why it's happening so it's going to be monitored least stay away from it don't play on it don't drive on it uh let us work it out so that we can try to get it fixed in a timely fashion without spending an arm and a leg I congratulate those gentlemen all their on their achievements and their promotions for this past year they truly do deserve it they've earned it uh they really know what they're doing we've had many conversations uh in the past year and I don't think you could ask for better people supervising a fantastic our Department of Public Works people work very hard and they're out there when you and I are sleeping uh and uh Sheltering from the storm so please pass along to your crew big thank you um also um I'm on the space committee and at the last meeting Leon congratulations was voted back as president and Vicki as vice president they work very hard hard and keep in mind that we don't want this to be a concrete jungle we like we like open space this was known as a farm community a lot of peach Orchards and when William Penn outlined Philadelphia he had four quadrants that were supposed to be open space shade trees one's Logan Square even in the city of Philadelphia so we need to keep this open space we did acquire one on herel grenlock road last year that estate we missed out on another one we didn't that quick enough but these members are dedicated to this Township remaining green which I think we all benefit from so I want to thank them for their continuing service on that committee and they're putting in a lot of hours going out there looking at things um in our best interest also um we discuss plans for this coming year which I'll get into at subsequent meetings um I want want to congratulate officer Matthew lurger officer of the year um he put a lot of work into that something that almost looked impossible and he made it happen along with the cooperation of the of the people that received the awards tonight and then the young gentleman Leeland Christensen who quickly thought called 911 reminds me of the movie Santa Claus where Tim Allen says you know the number to 911 yeah it's 911 but how many people think of that they Panic that young man did not panic so I think uh he might have a future there with the EMT Squad who knows um and I think that's it all right thank you appreciate anything Mr council president um nothing extraordinary to report at this time which since I'm the Township's lawyer is usually a good thing yes um I continue to get up to speed um in this new role Consulting with Township's various attorneys and also our appointed attorneys for various ongoing uh matters and I'll I'll continue to do so and uh again I hope everybody stays safe in the ongoing winter weather appreciate youo anything mayor thank you council president um also want to congratulate uh Tech Lan slider is a great honor um for him a chief great job at your your Force um want to congratulate Leland again um great job a young kid it's the future of our town right there yeah um want to say we were over at this soft opening for Julio on Maine so if anybody likes uh Mexican food their grand opening is going to be January 31st great food um it's an echo Plaza so make sure you go over there I believe the opening is at 11: they open that day so um if you're around looking for lunch it's good spot to go um and I just want to say uh about three weeks into my new seat and I want to thank all the employees uh they've been great getting me settled um help me find my way even though I've been here four years getting new things and everything else I mean Joe I think he's tired of talking to me already and it's only been a couple weeks but I just want to thank everybody for all their support and last thing I'm going to say is Go birds so thanks vice president this year I will be Library local also library from the library will be having this Monday night January 27th the Holocaust um come in sh shary 27m reservation ADV registration um I did have the pleasure of attending delightful event place on Saturday with represent the chamber interested small venue party great place very small elegant did a great job that located in EO Plaza there9 thank you H vice president just a couple of things one is again congratulations detective welld deserved well earned also congratulations to Leland that that was awesome you're right he is the future of this town so it's great to see that thank you again to Brian and Frank want to give somebody some some updates that are happening people keep asking what's going on with Sprouts so they've got through the whole process of Washington Township that don't forget that's also a County Road that's kind of where they're they're at right now we'll kind of get some updates from the county we'll get you some more information about that they are still coming you know I know some people were asking that's still happening raising canes again thinking Jay's here maybe the end of the month maybe beginning of February any any updates okay great so so that that's happened with raising canes and I know they do some specials I I think somebody in glbo slept outside you get free chicken for a year you know so if anybody's interested in sleeping outside and it's try to get for a free chicken for a year that's apparently available um just a couple other things too when we talk about uh this past Monday uh was was Dr King's birthday all of us were sworn in on a Bible sign by Dr King so uh his message still lives today and it's still most important today and uh just on a final note just some of the boards I'm on I'm on liaison to the zoning board and planning board but all of us kind of if you have questions for any of the boards let us know we we all work together we kind of can give you the information if you have something that you want to bring to us please let us know we get a lot of information through social media people reach out we continue to ask you to do that our phone numbers are available our emails are available reach out to us let us know we love the idea that people are contacted even if it's a problem I I know some people have some issues so so reach out if you're opening a business you thinking about opening a business please reach out we are here for that other reports are that all the dogs in the town are required to be registered and vaccinated please stop in the clerk's office to register your dog for 2025 we'll be holding a free rabies clinic that's always very busy so if you want to get there early that's March 1st from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. like I said try to get there early because that that gets that does have a lot of people that show up for that one and it'll be the Public Works garage uh January is actually National blood month uh donor month so please if if anybody I know they're holding a coming up here there's a blood drive here in the next is it next Sunday or this Sunday maybe this coming Sunday I think we have a blood drive here now we're going open up to the public please follow the public Corum posted it's been attached to the public agenda and limit your comments to five minutes once you've completed your comments or questions we ask if any member of the governing body or design wishes to address your comments can I get a motion open to the public second all in favor I and we're now open to to public if anyone wishes to please come up and speak just state your name and your address for the record please hello my name is Christy Moore I'm at 10 rigel Court Turnersville New Jersey um so I'm here today because since 2022 my backyard backs up to Dr Perry's offices that are on Egg Harbor is that Egg Harbor Road no harfield crossy Road I apologize so in 2022 I started calling the zoning office because the fence is dilapidated that separates my property from his property um I was told during that time that it was my responsibility to maintain the fence it took me about a year and some investigation this isn't my job this is not what I do to find the coordinates right I knew I was right but I had to find it so um I filed a complaint on 316 of 23 and I found code has been great I I don't have any complaints um I have called the mayor's office you weren't in office yet it was not you um I have worked with Peter very closely as well very kind very nice always respectful and concerned about my issue however nothing gets done so um I have emails texts complaints photos videos I have spoke with Dr Perry himself who has refused in writing that he will not replace that fence it is a 20-year-old wooden fence it is falling apart the wood is rotted the posts are coming out of the ground I have a pool in my backyard I also have children who play I have a dog I have a cat all of these things I also back up to a pediatric dental office which is also in that complex any person who gets out of their car and are getting their three kids to get into the dentist office could come easily into my yard and one of their kids could go into my pool that is so alarming to me so um I have waited I have been patient since 2022 again the complaint was filed 316 of 23 finally um in March I got new slaps new slacks on a roted fence that was the fix for it you can literally put holes through it Peter has the videos and the pictures um I think I sent some to you last year Joseph yeah you have them too um and I waited I was told that I would have somebody come out and they would check the structural Integrity of what was thick there this didn't happen um I sent videos again showing I can literally put my hand on this wood fence and go like this and the entire fence shakes um so I waited right because I knew the fence is in such bad condition that I was going to need to reach out again when a major problem came about right now as of one one I have a complete panel down in the back I have a post that is not up to code that is nailed into another post to keep it stle steady but the wood so rot it that the it has pulled out and now that's leaning into the yard I have my yard secured with bungees that's what's holding the fence in place right now are bungees to make sure that everybody in the community is see so I did do that on one one I put another complaint in because it's kind of I guess the old one was fixed and I wanted to follow proper protocol um and then I reached out to Peter cuz we have worked together before and I felt comfortable reaching out to you um you I came home on the 15th I know that we said that it was said that it would be worked on um I came home on the 15th and that's when the I apologize the one was separated so I reached out to you again I sent you a picture and a video I bungeed it to make sure it was Secure um and then you stated that you would contact the mayor um and then I received a text from you on the 15th I'm sorry I think that was the 11th on the 15th um that stated that the doctor's aware and he's going to fix it I don't know what that means there's no fixing this fence it needs to be taken down and it needs to be replaced it is if anybody ever wants to come out and look at the fence it you could just have to go into Dr Perry's office it is dilapidating it literally has pieces of wood falling off um my neighbor actually put in a complaint on the 11th I believe and she hasn't heard of anything back either so I decided to call after you gave me that text um our new zoning officer because I hadn't worked with him before and I like to say you know you get more bees with honey right so I came in very polite very professional and he was not only rude but condescending to me he never came out and looked at the fence he told me that when I said the the fence is not up structurally sound he said well your idea of structurally sound and my idea of structurally sound are probably two very separate things and when I said I can put my hand on it and shake the entire fence I was told that shaking isn't in the ordinance those are the exact words that I got um I said are panels down and separation in the ordinance is that structurally sound he said it is not I was told last Wednesday that somebody would be out to to investigate once again I've already had the inspector out um either the end of last week the beginning of this week I know it was Martin Luther King Day nobody has come out and saw anything so my question is how long do I have to wait before there's technically a lawsuit before somebody gets hurt or something happens that's my question what are we going to do to make sure that businesses are accountable for maintaining the property for our ordinance that we have in writing yeah yeah so um hello ma'am hi um you know I am relatively new on the job as some members of the dice but as as as the solicitor I concernedly if that's what mayor and Council direct me to do I can speak with the zoning officer and see what's going on um are you aware of any whether violations have ever issued related to Defence there have been there's been two violations that were issued last year the third one was going in where it was going to court at that point I believe you have to wait a certain amount of days between the violations for a response um all those at one point I called the zoning office and I was told they don't keep track of how many days between and when to do another send out another complaint I was told that last year now again the slot came up that was in March of last year and I kind of just let it slide because I felt like at least nobody could like get in between the the things but now the whole posts are falling down and complete um panels well perhaps what you can do before you leave tonight if you can give me your contact information I'd be happy to and then we can follow up with the zoning officer and and see where we're at okay okay is there any I'm sorry is there anything that can be held to hold them accountable and not just fix it but fix it adequately and up to code well so let me say this much to you so sitting here as the solicitor I obviously can't give legal advisement the only thing I can say is that a governing body is always bound to enforce its ordinances right laws in the books so what we need to do is I need to speak to the zoning officer and see what is applicable in this particular situation okay okay because that's what the zoning officer does the zoning officer is charged with enforcing the zoning ordinances so as I sit here today and you'll pardon my ignorance how those rules interact with your particular situation at your property anything I would say would be an educated gas I need to learn a little more that's fine I appreciate that you're welcome thank you thank you thank you I just saw Mr sto did you want to come up and talk about the hogy sale you weren't going to get away with that I I saw you walk in I've been waiting for you he did not bring hogis no I didn't only when we when we make them thank you Council council president Del barell I uh I apologize for being late I didn't see the uh the um update for the uh the six o'cl time I apologize so um glad I made it um for those of you that don't know me Mike dilio I is was the former principal at Bunker Hill Middle School and now I'm the the director and one of my titles is community and school Outreach and I have to say um Chief gersick and members of the council have been really wonderful and um kind of spreading the word about all the good things that are going on in Washington Township Schools um I do want to talk about the hogy sale um many of you know Mr Charlie Dow he recently retired um and uh he had a step down uh at least temporarily from his work with the hogy sale and the Washington Township education fund but um every year um everybody knows we run a hogy sale and we raise about three um 30,000 to about $50,000 for families in with um medical complications whether it be a child or maybe maybe a child's loved one and um it's something that we do um in our community and it's through the help of everybody here in the public in in our school district and um certainly with the help of all of you so um I'm just here tonight to promote the hogy sale we rely heavily on pre-orders pre-orders are due by um February the 6th and pre-orders um and Super Bowl Sunday is when we sell the hogies or distribute them um Chief gersi thank you for telling us you're going to donate the the digital sign to point people in the right direction you'll uh you'll uh be able to pick up your hogies at the Gant toown lot um 910 entrance to the building so um Council council president if I can give you this these are about 25 to 30 Flyers maybe we can distribute around the area hang up there's QR codes to order a hogi if you want hogy trays are available as well so I just thank you for the support as always um thank you so much appreciate it thank you Mike council president yes uh if you want to have Mr iio uh send us if you have a digital form we could share it on our social media as well to get it out there we could do one soon and then we could do one closer to the event as well yeah I can send it to you personally mayor tomorrow or you can go to wtps.org it's right on the website but I'll send it to you personally great thank you volunteers are welcome to come out always welcome right you can you can either be a a bread distributor you can do the cheese you can well I have done in before so what time do people need to be there if you want to volunteer approximately if you're going to be the early shift approximately 5:45 in the morning would be advantageous but um you know if you come by 6:00 or 7 we'll we'll be good to go we'll we'll put you to work okay thanks thank you thanks Mike and anyone who hasn't seen this it's it's a lot of fun we we've all we've all done it it's a lot of fun it's a huge mess right when when the kids are done but they have a great time it really turns out well and they and they do a great job anybody else from the public wishing to speak evening Brian Bailey 102 Pine Street in Turnersville I'm the past president of the Wasington Township Chamber of Commerce current president of the Washington Township veterans Advisory Board and a business owner here in Washington Township opened my retail store in 2017 over Plaza can you speak in the mic sorry about that is that bad you think you would think that uh I would know how to use this yeah you can hold it is that better yeah okay I have a issue with business registration and I was speaking with Mr yis uh since he's the liaison for the watch Township veterans Advisory board about the situation he recommended i' come in here and try to find some type of resolution and I also had a couple suggestions um a couple months ago I received a business registration late notice that was hand delivered to my studio with fines on it total of $220 I didn't pay 2023 to 24 24 to 25 so was 6060 and $100 fee now in of itself not a big issue I would have paid it but then a couple about two weeks later I got another um an email from the Construction office saying that I hadn't um got my permit to operate in Washington Township and I couldn't do my business registration until I got the permit to operate so I got to thinking because I saw you had a bunch of other papers so I went to seven other businesses in our Strip store out of the seven five of those seven got the same letter some were a year somewhere two years so I got to thinking that doesn't sound like a me issue I would have paid it if I got it usually get a letter every year I get one for the fire department and we pay that every year so I'm thinking something's not right if five out of seven got the same letter may not have been a me issue it may have been a Township processing issue so I went to the Construction office because I got the em I didn't feel like do emails back and forth and I asked him I said you know what's going on here he said oh you you have to get a permit to operate that was seven years ago so doesn't make sense I paid my business registration for five years in a row I shouldn't have been able to do that then said okay fine can I get the fees waved for the two years said no you can't you have to pay the fees like that doesn't make any sense yeah I can't register the business but you're still going to find me for it even though I did it from day one so here um so so the the the bigger issue is how can I get and when I asked if I get the fees W they said no you can't said the real and the other issue is trying to be business friendly in Township when I went to the Construction office he said well you're supposed to contact us I was like well the guy never said I failed just said here do this and you're good and I went and registered my business no big deal um but if I have to come to you then I'll come to you when I retire and be done with that doesn't make sense that we you're going to wait for us to come to you to tell us to come inspect because why would I do that then right so um so then I said okay so I went to the uh when I went to the zoning office I said hey can I get the fees away said no you know it's due every year so you're supposed to pay it and we can't weigh the fees again if it's an invoice it's not a big deal I just don't understand why we F so first of all I guess my question is can we get some resolution now the other businesses that got the same way just they just it they're like ah no big deal again I would have too but it's just the principle of the matter you know it's not the money it's just hey you know this doesn't seem right so trying to be business friendly there should have been more customer service more resolution to the issue not just hey that's how it is if you don't like it too bad um so it really was a negative I looked at the business registration for this year and the business registration says when you register your business will'll email you a copy to say you were you're good to go usually it was a paper copy so I got thinking well you're going to hand deliver me a letter with a fine maybe we should reverse that maybe we should email me the application and then hand deliver the certificate and say thanks for being a business in Washington Township right so it just kind of wanted to just bring it out there if there's something we can do to try to make Township a little bit more business friendly because if it's happening to me and five other businesses again how many others are going on out there and that was about thank you to say yeah Brian thanks for bringing that to our attention um this is what I've done so far after I spoke with Brian and seever several other business owners I did talk to the construction Department uh Janette they are this year upgrading the computer system uh entering all the businesses in there and they're collecting emails addresses so we can avoid this kind of situation this year so they are working on that I did talk to the tax collector and this uh Municipal ability is not able to weigh fees because it's state mandated so what I had done was I talked to council president Del Bell about this and we were going to discuss it uh what we can try to do to maybe make things right um and we have new Council and I was going to discuss this with him as to what could be done because obviously if it's one person it's uh one thing like you said if it's many then it may have been a problem of delivery uh I know myself I've had problems getting things delivered uh through the US mail so it's something we're working on I don't know how we're going to resolve it yet but we are business friendly and I know that construction department is working to make it more efficient for the business owners like yourself to avoid problems in the future and I would welcome any information our new solicitor has or we'll talk later and try to resolve it for you okay but it did not fall on De years I also recommend that we look into customer service training for the construction department and maybe we need to re-evaluate uh the way that our staff is uh uh speaking and handling concerns of residents I think it's important that we protract a positive uh feedback uh and and and as as a way of resolution of making it a resolution not of making it uh hostile I think it's important that we maybe look into training for that thank you you want speak yeah just state your name your address of record please hi Adria CIA 129 lips on road and I'm just here I'm sorry can't stop smiling I've been smiling for months now went to your swearing in just got back from Washington DC what a blast um and I'm just here um and really also for what that gentleman just said um first again thank you very much this is I mean this town as we all know has been under one party rule for a quarter Century the last 25 years um so it is going to take time and for for all the people out there like me I just want to remind you it's not going to take a day it's not going to take a month it's not going to take a year it's going to take a long time to undo some of the stuff that has been going on for 25 years so be patient is what I wanted to say um and also to thank you Mr Mayor for you know doing what you did and and and fighting and being successful because I mean I've been a resident of this town now I moved here in9 one born and raised in Glassboro and I watched and I you know I've said this a lot social media I got kicked off almost all the township sites because my response to everybody when they complain is did you vote for it you know and so I'm happy I'm finally happy that people listened it was worth getting kicked off all the sites and I'm so happy to see you here and maybe I'll stay another four years so thank you that's what I want to say appreciate you thank you so much anyone else like to speak I do want to say though I appreciate her thanking me but I couldn't do this without a good team right I mean it's not just me I may have one title but it it's everybody up here everybody who works in this building so we have a lot of good people and we have a great team so I couldn't do anything I do without everybody so I just want to recognize everybody else thank you mayor the other thing too is um usually up in the front you see uh Barb Barb's not here her her dad is sick so if everyone keep her family and her father and and your prayers please we all know how wonderful Barb is anyone else to speak can I get a motion to close the public please motion second all in favor okay we're going to go into an executive session regarding affordable housing will be approximately 30 minutes and may take action when we return can I get a motion to approve resolution approve that when we come down approve okay y yep yep can I get a motion to approve resolution 05 625 resolution authorized executive session roll call please councilman yurus yes councilman Harris yes councilman Bennett yes Pres and turn round