[Music] I'm calling to order the first budget meeting for West wi Windsor Township of March 5th 2025 Allison can you um call the role please gaas here Jers here Mandel here
wh here Whitfield here and have we adequately noticed yes we were adequately noticed on February 21st 2025 to the times in the Princeton packet filed with the municipal clerk and posted at the municipal building and on the township website please stand for
the salute to the thank you uh this is the 2025 budget and capital budget uh John would you like to give us some opening remarks some summary please yes good morning everybody introduce yourself
please uh my name is John Mor and I'm the CFO West Township John just speak really close to the microphone yeah have tilt good morning is that better is this on yep push it upward it's green should be
on I don't think it's on testing all right good morning um my name is John motor I'm the CFO West wsor Township this is one of scheduled meetings for the 2025 budget um the second meeting is on March 11th at 10:00
a.m. and the third meeting is scheduled for March 13th also at 10: a.m. the good news for the 2025 budget presentation is um mayor's proposed on a zero tax increase uh for um this year's
2025 budget uh it was a very good year for revenues um across the board matter of fact they were historic in the sense of uh collections that's something I'll go over on the third meeting on the 13th in more much more detail but for now um we're looking at a
zero property tax rate increase for the residents of West wior Township um our budget is going to is going up 6.35% compared to 2024 budget um which is a little over 53.4
million um I will be recommending um again this year that we passed the C Bank ordinance for Appropriations um by doing so um if we pass the budget as um presented we would
be able to bank around 762 th000 as you well know the last two years we were very tight with our appropriation cap we were down to 9,000 two years ago and 999,000 last year um because of um new construction we were able to um bump
that figure up this year so it's highly recommended that we uh pass this ordinance for for this year so we can bank that for the next two years in case of any emergency situation to approach us [Music]
um total salary and wage budget increased by $72,900 million I will go in further detail in um meeting three on on the details of those increases um the amount to be raised by taxation
is actually going down by a little less than a percentage 89 percent um because our assess value went down by that same amount uh due to some appeals from um
um office conferences commercial correct commercial appeals for offices they seem to stabilize a little bit but um as you know the that market is little soft for the last couple years um the budget would presented to Council
on February 28th the emergency I will be also giving you guys a emergency temporary resolution for March 24th so we can continue operating until the budget's approved um as of now the schedule for the budget introduction is for the April
7th meeting and the public hearing would be for May 19th subject to change but as of now um a big footnote I just want to let everybody know as you as you all know you've you've been through a couple of these um
no discussions on salary wages we have a closed session scheduled for um the March 13th meeting on Personnel um some miscellaneous open items I I like to just make you aware that sub to change
between now and the introduction would be if we are approve for any type of Grants that's the only right now any open items that I can foresee so um as you all know when I give you the state format budget I give you a Reconciliation sheet that ties what this
book was presented to what's actually in budget for your review um I have some initial information on the sto recovery trust fund but I can discuss that when the Public Works comes up and we discuss their budgets which one the storm recovery
trust f fun I'll make some comments about that when Public Works comes up and part of their their snow is one of their budgets if there's any questions please feel free to ask otherwise we can move on with Recreation
yeah are we going to be doing uh local this year as far oh no um that was one of the resolutions I'll be giving you on intruction we are self-review we meet the qualifications we were reviewed last year and um we passed but no changes everything went well so that we're we
can do self- review for the next two years as long as we meet certain criteria and we have met those criteria okay and we have to we have to pass a approval on there yes there's a resolution that you have to pass with the um um cat Bank ordinance before we
introduce the budget and I'll work it out with the Clark that those items are on the agenda before we do do the introduction of the budget and um can you just tell us how how close does this budget come to the um the
cap uh as far uh it will leave us if you pass the ordinance 7 162,000 that we can carry over subject to a little bit of change um if we don't do the cap we would only have 379,000 okay so if we had the 1% then it's with
the 7 62,000 yep okay the um we're introducing April 7th correct um I mean that's the schedule um how how many days St 20 or 28 days and unfortunately the next meeting is exactly that amount of days so we have to go to the next
meeting because it has to be like full days there's can't do it no unfortunately May May 19th May 19 that's late it is yeah maybe just the way the calendar unless you want to do a special meeting that's up to
you takes so long by the time pass the budget and then there's a certain when would we yeah it doesn't really affect the taxpayers because unfortunately the County's always been late with their budget so by the time they approve it um
is usually around even early August so our tax bills will definitely be late from prior history um I know they're trying diligently to improve that process but um I don't see them because they they're tied to the state also they
have some other issues so we need 28 days so we'd be something like May 4th or 5th anyway yeah we only would be right but I'm saying even special meeting that's his that's his you know by pass it and then then you want to
start on the capital budget it's usually May June well if if we approve it in May I can give you a draft copy within two weeks which will be early mid June let's say and then you can introduce the first meeting in July
we're looking at maybe two weeks so yeah two week yeah project done you want to get that money well we'll we'll see we'll we'll figure it out we we'll see what looks right discuss okay um does anyone have any
other questions if not we can move on to Recreation I believe Ken introduce Ken you want to introduce yourself pleas thank you let me try to get this there we go I know mine's on uh Ken Jacob I'm manager
Recreation and partners um so our 2024 was um an interesting year at least it wasn't like 2023 the weather in 2023 was probably the worst weather year for outdoor activities especially whenever I
scheduled them um we we canceled three or four movie Nights we canceled Community Day in 2023 this year we got them in so I'm very pleas I was very pleased with that um you know typically our summer programs are a summer season
is our busiest season with the pool complex and our summer camps going on same as it was same as uh in previous years this in 20124 uh the weather was much more Cooperative like I said uh Community day
was held on the day was scheduled which was great um the bike fest was uh taken over by a volunteer Group which we actually assisted uh staff was there actually on the day two uh to help with
registration but we'll continue to support the bike fest committee but they had uh very good numbers for the bike fest as well uh we did have our movie Nights one of them did get cancelled because of weather but we rescheduled it
and we again showed a Bollywood movie um in September uh three idiots with was shown and it was a very good crowd uh like it was the year before um the Trunk or Treat uh didn't happen we could not
get the support for volunteers to do their uh the trunks we are going to partner this year with the Historical Society to run that event at the skank house uh so we will be doing that in
conjunction with them uh this fall uh we also held our first the wall celebration uh at the high school what a turnout that was that was tremendous um we we need a bigger venue well I believe if we laid it out a
little bit better we can we can do a little um have less crowd uh in certain areas so I think we're gonna we're going to hopefully use the high school again because you know that way we don't have to worry about weather um if we had it outside then again you know weather
seems to be not in my favor uh at any time but um that was the dwali was a great um great turnout uh we did the house decorating contest again as well and of course the tree lighting ceremony
with the Drone show which was a a big hit um which we did that because the fireworks were not allowed at the time that we had to schedule this so um hopefully we can get some sponsors and continue with the Drone show going
forward um we'll have to that is yet to be determined um for that program um we expanded the basketball program uh youth basketball program to grades three and four so now we have grades three through
eight um there's discussion about uh adding the high school um next year uh division so um we're looking to possibly do that I might need some additional help for
that we do have a a coordinator for the current leag but we may need somebody for the high school leag but uh everything we've heard from the basketball folks has been positive so uh that we will continue to do um and that
is wrapping up uh in a couple weeks the uh basketball program so given that that's what I have for um little brief synopsis of our 2024 if Council goes to the summary budget sheet page
two under Administration um this is the line item called administrative miscellaneous on the top lower part um can't hear you John if you go to page two in the budget
summary um under Administration the last line it's called ad mid miscellaneous this is the line item that we use for West wsor day Community Day Community Day um last year we had $7,500 um and we're increasing it this
year to 10,000 um Can it ask for an increase because the costs have have gone off the last couple years so um it it was granted so we put $10,000 in for that okay yeah I know it's been 75 00
forever right yes for far too long we we actually can't get some of um we we actually budgeted $10,000 for the for the rides and a couple companies said they they couldn't even give us a price because what we asked them to stay at
was was uh something they couldn't mean so this will be good this will allow us to uh maybe even add another ride or two as well so all right the next the next page would be page
five under Recreation OE as everyone knows this is really you know now U the pool section um when we brought it into the current fund under the recreation um we are asking for a 12.9% increase due to various cost
increases and um we are transition in from a longtime employee who has who has retired as of March 1st as everybody knows noren has retired so um we're relying a little bit more on a consultant at for a transition period to
help out um so that was the majority of that increase and there seems to be like a 50% increase on the pool supplies is that the price of the chemicals correct that was the other increase and then if you noticed up under um repairs and
maintenance um and Consulting of the Consulting budget stay the same but repairs and maintenance consultant budgets are basically two of the same so maintenance 166 those that's where the majority of
the increases are okay other fees going up no we're not rec we didn't recommend um any increase in our fees for this year and revenues were rather strong last year we more than exceeded the anticipated um from the prior two years
so have we been getting good memberships coming up yes yeah y do you have an idea what percent are West Windsor residen is compared to from year to year it's about 5050 okay yeah sometimes it's a little more on the West Windsor side sometimes
a little more non-resident but uh it's about 5050 is is there an increase and day passes no okay the question about the first item advertising looks like there's 2K in
there is that specific to Waterworks or is that for the entire yes and so it's not for the entire Rec grp no is there other items or ability to do paid advertisement for other some of the
other wreck activities yes it we could do that through the the trust fund through the trust fund yeah okay so um the only everything in wck is basically through the trust fund other than Community day which is part of the mayor's office and then the pool is
actually a West windser owned and so that act that's now come to our budget and if you saw the past Year's budgets they're zero because before we took over the pool um then it really we we never got to see any of these numbers until the
township took the pool so now now they become part of our budget um do we have any plans to advertise for sponsorships for the Drone show yes yes I'm putting together some a packet that um I want to get out soon um
for not just the Drone show though but for um Community Day other other other events I think it's a good idea to see if we can um because there are many local businesses I think they will happy to get their name out right we we were
able to get some sponsorships for the dwali event too so the the costs for the school were were were pretty low and that event covered its own expenses which was tremendous yeah and and we probably could do a little bit more with
letting people know about Community Day I think um it's you know letting people know that there were rides and what type of vendors and what what type of displays and there and um it's I know with no newspapers it's very hard to get
any word out around here I think today we had um more vendors than previous years yeah yeah I'm talking but yeah vendors but I'm saying to to the community to let them know ahead of time right so um yeah because that's probably
our big big event for the year um all right and the pool are we going to um um are we going to be putting in somebody running the pool and bringing somebody in at this point without getting into Personnel we're all set for
for okay so the revenue that you bring in from from the programs right how does that how does that impact like the budget like it's plus 12.9% increase it's it's just part of the
overall budget we have a revenue line item for recreation it's not like when the old days when the pool was self ficient it's just part of the overall plan um so uh we have two line items for recreation uh which we go over in the third meeting um yeah yeah I was just
curious how it offsets is it offsetting um it's pretty close it's probably a little bit in the ne but nowhere near what it was during the pandemic it's it's probably almost pretty close to break even um but um give or take between now and last year probably real
close which is which is a mark improvement from from uh 2022 when it was probably half a mill in the red right right so and and when you did the revenue I guess I don't want to go there yet but looked like you took a threeyear average of the last
three years I didn't have to do that this time because the revenues were above the projected oh okay that's the way it's listed in the revenue section yeah it's listed in there um it's just the placeholder from when we did it in 22 but we didn't um have to use the three-year average we just you know used
the what we got last year so that number was the actual okay because it said threee average yeah it was the actual okay that's good y I was going to ask what the actual for last year was but that is the actual okay and when we do community day do you have a table like for water because it was very very hot a
lot of people getting dehydrated Community um well actually last year um the weather wasn't too bad the one year that when we did it in may we got some really hot days and we did bring out water jugs and we had water uh stations
out there if it's looking like it's going to be really hot we would do the same yeah it it was hot I know a few people that were just you know what it was I think I think it was the people who didn't have a tent that got really hot well yeah and that's what happens and you had a t it was water water at
big events like this like one table first a whatever you want to call it right we could we could certainly do that yeah if you could cuzz um I was I was actually running around trying to get water for people who were in trouble at the last one so we we probably should have some water on the side doesn't have
to be it doesn't have to be pristine whatever it could be regular drinking water so it could be out of a hose it could be clean drinking water it doesn't have to have a brand name on keep it at the W table itself yeah you don't have
some somewhere know to yeah I know we have our um Fire EMS and EMT is out there too so they were that area if could have they were hosing people down they were yeah open your
mouth yeah so we should have one place yeah we should have one place where there's free water that people can get hope it would be nice if they brought their own things to S but but yeah it was it was an issue yeah like a thousand 2000 people whatever we'll take care of and put it on that brochure so people
know you know where to go to find it right yeah I mean the vendors were people had the vendors were yeah but that's not right and and people had to go wait for half an hour to get what it it's better if we just worry about People's Health
and give it to them okay good thank um anything else for recreation which is essentially the pool but any other questions anybody wants to ask pickle ball courts is that um well we opened them we opened them up
last year and we had um lessons we had several um lessons that filled up very quickly um and knock on wood so far they're holding up we're right we closed down our Courts
for the for the winter um because if we keep the Nets up that can cause early cracking so they're still locked up and I know we're supposed to get some um warm weather next week so I'm going to hopefully get those things back open um very soon because we're already getting
phone calls you know they'll play in if it's sunny if if it's sunny in 30 degrees they'll play but yeah we've brought this up before um that there's really people go to the pickle bulb Court somebody stays on that pickle Bow
Court forever there doesn't seem to be a we we instituted a rules and at the uh pickle ball courts we have rules with the paddle hangers for them to to uh you know put save their spot they have to rotate that's all taken care of we we
came up with the commission came up with rules for the pickle ball courts and uh that's all done the res residents West Winter residents get priority on the courts no we don't have something like that because we don't we don't have
monitor yeah like you know you need some somebody monitor that but with the addition of two extra courts too I don't really anticipate it being as bad as when we only had two courts now we have yeah now that we have four um and we had some talks about possibly converting um
the tennis courts at Duck Pond Park tots is that something that we are looking at so our next our next Project's going to be redoing the courts over at Duck Pond the basketball and Tennis Courts I I believe that the commission they didn't want to just convert them they wanted to
keep tennis so we're going to line those for pickle ball great which is a great segue into the capital budget there you go oh you want me to do this or you no you do it I'm just going to tell them where it's at if you go to your Capital
section under Human Services page 55 okay so this is um the general Park Improvement fund um it's used for you know unexpected unfunded repairs to the equipment um
we've had some repairs to that we needed to do to the playground equipment um you know if we had to replace a bench we we can we take it out of um this account and of course this is part of our overall plan where we put
money away for a rainy day in case um you know there's anything major that we have to pay for this kind of helps us along the way yeah we we've had to replace the sewer ejector pump for the bathrooms at the Little League um in the past and we we were able to do that
quickly with our with the money we had for uh in the budget for that and when we redo playground areas um do we make them inclusive um for for all children well Tech technically the playground mulch
that we use is certified for um for inclus inclusivity they're Ada um compliant so you can wheel over the playground mulch right so we don't have
a fully inclusive playground in the in in one of our Parks I hope to be able to do that at Duck Pond Park uh as a next phase to duck Park um along with possibly you know bathroom and um you
know electric and everything in there so uh that is on our plans for for future that's yeah I'd like to see more inclusivity um that definitely I think the league of municipalities had a a cover story on this in the past year you
remember that that's definitely thece the the latest Trend in in playground uh replacement or even you know installation of new ones is to make them totally yeah the equipment too not just the most but the equipment right well so
so to make something completely inclusive there's the port in place surfacing which is very expensive but there are grants um available for that kind of thing so I am looking into that there's the it's called Jake's law and
it has a a money that will help pay for um inclusive playgrounds good yeah do that yeah believe me I'd like this I'd like to see that so right now are there like ouses at Duck Pon Park of any sort we we have P John P John okay yeah
because we're actually planning on doing the the um clean up the litter clean up there in h April so just want to have be good there'll be a port John in the back by the soccer fields there okay I mean it's not a
people are there for a couple hours but in case somebody needs we want to be able say there will be do we know what the acral balance is for this fund excuse me balance the ACR
balance um yeah I think it was around 65,000 65k yes so you had this to it to be bring you know close to 100 well 85 90 90 sorry it's early
I he has to had a second cou no I only had one today I'm just going late yeah I know the path that we have in vanest park that takes you from parking lot to the boardwalk yes um I've received complaints that that Park that path
needs work because especially if somebody's um on a wheelchair or something that yeah that bad shape the yeah the trees The Roots have really that's something that we may be able to take care of with this 25,000 so um uh
or with the balance of that so that's something we could certainly look at um I'm not I'm not sure how you know how that repair would go because it would involve cutting the roots of the trees and I I know
we're against that so I'd have to see and check with engineering like what they would suggest to do if there's any other alternate way of doing it because that path is walked by many especially since the sidewalk was done will walk to
the park yeah and seems like that path from the parking lot to the lake to the pond is yeah I know exactly I know exactly what you're while you're at that the one the path a lot of the paths in Nash Park have essentially disappeared um I don't know if that's
your that's really yeah that's more of a like an open space kind of thing that I haven't really been involved with uh at all okay that's a yeah I know it's a difference not yeah W it's this fine line between when it's wreck and when
it's DPW so yes sometimes it sometimes it's very blurred line yeah um but they but if you go go through them they were at some point some gravel and they pretty much like the stone dust type of path there um it's just it's just pretty
much pretty much nothing there at this point in a lot of those areas and I think it was like a gravel was a gravel yeah and the gables is right near there so you have seniors that might want to go through the park so just something to think about okay
um okay on to the next project um open space section of your Capital page 127 okay and I do just to bring up the pool which I guess would have here because it's not um we keep looking at
this thing for the splash pad and it's always into the next few years is that is that something that we're actually looking at or is it something we just seem to carry um if you go to page 128 we miles to jump right in the pool
finish that and then we'll jump back to that I'll go in order here if you want to start um on 128 um this is the $100,000 we do a year we've been able to accumulate um close to 300,000 because so we've been very fortunate and kept up on the
replacement and maintenance of the pump room which is the major expense at the pool um so you know just a word of caution if a pump if a pump goes it could be 50 to $75,000 so uh we we we do
have a replacement schedule where we pull them and re and rebuild them which gives them another useful life of up to 10 years um that's weird my whole deck that sometimes that interference my tech support says it's from cell phones that are too close to the
microphones to do your provider airplane mode works all right um so the capital budget um do we have the money like 2025 motor pumps shade structures other things yeah these are
just general items they're just general General items we put down um it's anything that's over five a useful life of five years at the pool that we can use this money to keep it functional um the next page is your splash park that you're talking about it
was pushed out to 26 um because if we go one more year we may have enough money just to fund it without actually putting a separate line item in depending on how things go if not then that's something they want to look at next year possibly
um at least at a very minimum hire an a firm to come and do an assessment on on some specs do do we have on page 128 do we have the swing pool General improvements how much money do we have left we have around two between 250 and
275 it says 185,000 here so what's yeah but it's it's increased again that didn't include the 100,000 um from last year we have in addition to the 2024 fund so if you add 100,000 to that
brings it 285,000 but there might have been some items I'm always conservative and give you a little lower figure just in case because this is just a snapshot as you all know yeah but um it's been trending good it's been trending good and maybe the showers will actually
be yeah we got we got new hot water heaters out there uh we'll see when the pool yeah when the pool opens yeah I was I that one was going to the last to the end of last year like no this isn't working so right
the the goal is for the splash bad hopefully look at it next year yeah to at least put money in it to have a firm take a look at it and do an assessment and and give us some estimated cost because either way we're going to have to do you know bid specs okay okay and and I understand
when they took a look and they thought they had water running to it but that stuff was so old that that's not necessarily through anymore yeah they have they have some um they had designed it for like a lazy Susan so there was some infrastructure that was laid um
down but it's been over 20 something years so that infrastructure probably isn't too good okay so first step would be to have an engineering firm do an assessment correct spend the money for that yeah like an architectural firm coming in that specializes in pools and
is that still what re group is interested in doing oh absolutely I think that would be a really big feature for that facility and would draw in you know way a lot more U crowds for the
closest Splash Pad I think is in mer county park park now or Thompson Park all the way there is the one by Panera in um Nasa Park doesn't work anymore they haven't turned that on for a while yeah opened that up for
yeah so can you get after the developer I mean it's their their property and it was an amenity oh for everybody the I guess Recreation if that's not not working then go to the developer and say it's not working they need to fix it let Sam
do that Sam yeah Sam knows um would it make any sense if we did want to move on this to think about and and it sounds like there's a lot of interest to think about putting money in now to have this done to have it looked
at so we know how much the real number is going to be because it wouldn't make too much sense to go into next year put this amount money in without having an idea if this is high or low just thinking I I think we have a
pretty good cushion already set aside so it's something that um the rec commission could recommend I would recommend sometime like toward the end of the summer once we're through the pool season and we know where we're at as far as our infrastructure is for this year and if we have a pretty good Hefty
balance then it's something that we could do this year maybe in the fall we could we could um get appoint a contract for an architect to come in and and do some work so you would have money available to do that without us putting it special at this point the amount that
we build up on the 100,000 which is you know 285,000 we could use the hire an architect to come up with a feasibility study and do do some specs and take a look at because usually the way this thing works is that takes that study takes months and months and then
it has to be the right season to do it and then we have to put it out the bid so but I would just caution that we uh let's get through the season and if things go well then that's something we can do in the fall okay um the other page 27 and this is
the annual Park development program okay so um this is from the open space tax it's the portion of the open space tax that's used for development uh or um actually it says it's the annual Park development program
what I've been a uh used for you know the courts at um community park and we also redid the courts at um um Hendrickson drive with this money this will be um what we use for duck pond
park and if we bring in utilities from the road those are big ticket items it'll probably come close to wiping what I have in a balance um which is I think a little over a million dollars um I think this will probably go a long way
to wiping all that out so but this is also being funded with a grant from Mercer County yes for partially from that yeah as you know we we moved the Mercer play money over to duckpond which I think is 500 500,000 yep and we could
have running water at Duck Pond Park we my hope is to get bathrooms there with like I said the inclusive playground and another Pavilion um over there so my hope is to move um the big events that
we hel hold uh besides the township events the other events that are held at um Community Park um to have those at duck pond because that's not as active of Park as Community Park is and so we
we run into issues sometimes with people who want to have some like small events at community park and and the sports going on over there you know in the walking trails in the Pavilion and bathrooms all that kind of stuff so um it was always my intention to hopefully
get Duck Pond Park to be our um other community park that we have that we can do those kind of events at that location what's the balance on this C do you have the balance I it's close
to a m um plus the 500,000 from the county but um when you're talking about bathrooms and infrastructure Ken says it's probably going to wipe out the full amount is is the estimates that are coming in when we do the
bathrooms who's who cleans them we have a private company that comes out each week or they they clean them three times a week Monday Wednesdays and Fridays so if you're going to go to the park you know which day to
go yeah I mean if and if we have some if we have an event on like a if we have a Park rental on a Saturday and a Sunday we'll have them come in on Saturday afternoon and clean before the next uh event too so if we have if we know
there's a lot of activity we will have them come in and and clean the bathrooms they usually look pretty decent I mean let me let me tell you I've been a lot worse yeah i' I've uh I was an Umpire for a while and uh I've been in
bathrooms that the towns have and I was like wow those are terrible compared to what we have we we do have good facilities well we pride ourselves on that being clean and we try
yes we Doo okay any questions on that anybody um don't think and I think that's it for recreation thanks Ken thank you thank you what page um if you go to the summary
for the budget page eight okay Tony introduce yourself hello my name is Tonyo director of Public Works 2024 year was a good year for us
very productive the uh Department comprise the three divisions as you know division of facilities in open space uh division of sewer maintenance and division of streets and Roads the facilities in open space
provides maintenance to our Parks playgrounds Playing Fields uh Municipal properties and open space div vision of sewer maintenance provides oper a to our eight pump stations Township own sewer system and
one private own system the uh division of streets and Roads keep roads safe the division repairs potholes performs Street sweepings bicycle path clearance roadside mowing
rush and leaf collection white goods and they also maintain the equipment and vehicles at DPW all the divisions assis in the uh snow
removal uh when the uh snow falls and actually that's always under emergency conditions making it safe for the motorists and EMS and everything within as I said 20124 was very good we accomplished a
lot um first time in many years that the road department was able to complete Russian leaf collection prior to the new year um we had got some new equipment in New Leaf machine everything that was a big plus Crews were working
hard we were able to Street sweep over a th000 miles a road in 2024 which was a huge improvement over the previous years our street free program we were able to trim over 200 trees last year
hoping to improve that in the upcoming year um as with all of our numbers um the uh sewers we have a lot of projects going on as far as sewer rehab in the township couple of our pump stations so we've been working hand
inand with engineering um hopefully those projects are done in 20 25 improving the sewer system the sanitary sewer um sanitary sewer correct
yes the parks they work uh directly with uh Recreation uh maintaining the community parks and stuff U special events and anything that's ass pickle ball quarts everything with the Nets and
everything we're all on that and keep the township moving absolutely okay you want to go over okay yes so roads correct yeah page eight is the
Public Works OE and um that's flat budget no increase from the prior year any questions on that no could curious how you kept it flat um so they're um so it's it's
basically a flat budget but I assume there have been some increases in fuel and um you know other yeah that that those items aren't charged there they're charged in a central location and that that line item has increased for fuel um
electric all our utilities have gone up a little bit if you look at the sum sheet on the very first page I mean if you look at the first page it breaks down each increase and decrease of both Appropriations and revenues and our utilities of definitely all the line
items have increased as as our household items have also increased as you all know um you know so yes those items were taken care of there what about check um special equipment maintenance um
we're budgeting 20,000 but we what we spend last year yeah that's you know that fluctuates from the year to year and they were fortunate enough to make internal transfers to cover it um historically um it it averages between 10 and 15,000 so he brought it back to
the same um and we'll see how it goes yeah it just seems like there's a lot of variability in what was spended compared to what was budgeted there is you know know you need stuff around to balance it out and and the fortunate thing is um each department is um we
give them a total budget and and they they can trans do internal transfers to cover any shortages and so there's certain lines that you don't spend anything and you can use those to make up the difference and that's how the the budget works from year to year and then we don't have to come to you and ask for
in external transfers which require resolution you go from one Department to another you need a resolution if you do internal you don't need a resolution and then there's one we can't do till November those are the external transfers November December at the end of the year yeah I just want to make
sure if we increase staff that you got enough for physicals enough for uniforms yeah the physicals generally come out of a different line item so we should be good uh the um physicals medical doctors is more have having to do with um the cdl's requirements and things of that
nature so when we have new hires they go through uh HR and admin and we should we probably have some more people with CDLs now you know there was a move to make sure we've um you know have CDLs Andy I don't
want to get into employees yeah yeah but no we um the last contract that you approved you gave stiens for people and it's been a very successful program and a lot of employes right yes yeah because we put in extra to try to encourage people with CDLs to sign up for jobs so
correct so that's been working well yes yes yes I noticed that one of the one item that's not included in services that we're providing is U food waste
recycling so any given any thought of considering that as a option residence that was discussed years ago um I believe Princeton held a program
but it was shut down because it wasn't productive it wasn't viable and they lost restarted it they lost their sourcing yeah right um they changed their model they started it last year yeah that's something uh we can discuss with the recycling coordinator
but um uh I think there's an appetite for it in the township um I have no idea a license though to do that correct whatever lot of departments to do it my point being is should we the chances are
make the effort to take a closer look at that that's viable um working I mean I know there's a lot of nonprofit organizations that would participate and you provide services if they had the proper licenses and stuff like that they would need they
would need D and without saying but yeah but um the chances are if we did that it would be similar to recycling that we would get a contractor that would that would um handle that and it would be collected in a similar manner so I guess
that would be yeah in the past it's been very cost very costly to provide the services that's why Princeton stopped they lost the local Farm in the area that used to take the waste um there's a lot of regulations to it yeah it's a heavy lift I think the one that
Princeton used it turned out there it really wasn't they they lost it and one of the problems was D got more and more um regulating on it there's there's there's a company in Trenton now that does take it I don't know what their capacity is on how much to take and I
think that's what Princeton's using now um that they've set up so Point here is not to have a debate about you know validity but to to open up a discussion to to look at it more CL
we can't decide whether it's sounds good take a look at the costs and stuff like that and then see where you know if there's any savings involved um would be really nice if the county just kind of did it like they do with mcia
and but we we'll see we can the next line is the snow removal budget which is flat uh we generally um put away 59,000 for salaries 63,000 for OE um uh as you all know we
have a storm Recovery Fund that we set up years ago um so we don't have fluctuation in our um snow re budget as we know from year to year in 2003 we had practically no expenses for snow removal
uh this year we've hit got hit in a little bit harder the fortunate thing is any monies on a two-year cycle that are not spent are automatically transferred to the snow trust so we have accumulated at the end of 24 a $741,000
balance um I've been here over 20 years and the worst storm we ever had cost us about 325,000 so um we're in pretty good shape as far as that balance goes uh you've just increased some purchase
orders for some contractors for salt and snow removal totaling about $200,000 in the last two meetings and that's to set us up for theault just in case um even allocating that amount still leaves us with about 621,000 which is more than
enough um going forward so I recommend we keep it flat um and any monies that aren't spent at the end of the year either move forward or we cancel um and it always goes back to the fund that it came from so so far we have 621k in that fund
corre now that give yeah I was just looking at the fact that we were adding all that this year and there really wasn't a lot of snow yep it seemed like a lot of what we spent on was was salt and preparing for ice and are we and now
we've we've sort of moved which I guess um a lot of a lot of places have moved from throwing salt down afterwards to pre-s salting with a brine correct and that's what yeah that's what we've moved to in the last few years it's considered
more efficient safer environmentally friendly assuming that there actually is a storm um so is does that is that shifting at all that we're now doing so much pre-work is that com are we coming out ahead behind and and do we have to
adjust our numbers that's pretty I was looking at we do own a brine trailer um excuse me we do own a brine trailer to pre-treat the roads prior to storms um that saves costs on salt usage
um right now our salt we it's under Co-op it's at a fixed price naturally I'm sure two go up in the years to come um our storage facility holds about 1350 tons of salt so naturally we always want to keep that full so that we're ready to
go um and we don't bring the salt in until we need it so we don't actually pay for it until till we need it if I correct well well I'm saying until we need to put it into our storage shed we have a contract
but we don't we don't um take money against the contract until we actually bring the salt in correct corre correct so we don't prepay for the salt or anything it's all just what we use as what we purchase and and replenish and and it's always been a tp's practice to
keep the salt Dome full right okay and when we bring that in uh do we bring that in a salt or we bring it in as some liquid or how does uh through the salt contract um that comes in as rock salt
road salt one that we use for the brine the brine we purchase we have a contract with Hamilton Township we have a shared service with HT okay so that's a different that's different than the RO salt that we yep yep okay I'm I'm just want to make sure that we're since we are sort of shifting a little bit
towards the brine that we're putting enough money in there to make sure that we've got where we need it yeah it seems like more ice kind of storms no we there storm the storm trust fund is in in very good shape so we're
we're good the next would be on page nine and that's the sewer system and I wa he's also recommended that we keep the budget flat and this is for the sanitary store system it it
is so we go from area to area in town put the cameras down to see there's any issues or or we just wait reacts when there's an emergency so we tried to be proactive as
far as Jet and cleaning the sanitary surine televising naturally if we see issues we make repairs consult with engineering to keep the system flowing to prevent any type of sanitary sewer overflows yes and this is more of a capital
question but um right now we have to physically go open up the manhole put the cameras down watch the cameras are there any systems we've looked at that would be a little bit more automatic that we could put in some of the main
areas anything like that as far as televising no or any kind of measuring of whatever would would make sense to measure slow monitoring to be remotely that could be done on the sanary sewer system but if you're televising or
jetting or cleaning it's actual physical objects in the sewer which would need to be removed to prevent clogs and such I know some of our our residents um there was flooding Indian Run Road okay that's that's some Wellington I don't know if that's a Francis more of an
issue or sewers that that's not sanary s that storm s so which they do also but I'm just um and and um do you do any of that for the storm SE to yes so we we maintain
this uh storm system throughout the township um where we Jet and televised the sanitary sewer I'm sorry the storm sewer system when needed um open space parks department maintain
the flow channels in the township owned retention basins now would seem to be something because the storm sore is more of a periodic issue that if there was something that we could leave in there
that would Monitor and perhaps even transmit or record in some way issue you know even the flow rates or um you know anything that when when one of these problems happens we we're
kind of in a like OG what happened and sometimes it's very hard to find out what happened under a heavy flow condition afterwards so is there something that that we could look at that would do uh an ongoing in a couple
of points that we have or even something that's portable that we could install in certain areas where we're seeing problems and then move it around or something like that to help with some of the flow issues because we have been getting some higher flow storms and um the more we could find out
what's going on the better we'd have a chance of fixing it so there there's equipment that can be uh installed as far to uh monitor flow a lot of these retention basins in areas that our Township
own maybe under the open space contract through engineering so it could just come down to uh more maintenance and inspections to prevent any type of blockages and one of the things with
those retention basins is sometimes a bunch of leaves goes and blocks the great and that would probably be relatively easier to put a ring camera type camera well you know and and quite frankly um residents shouldn't be
driving through roads that are flooded right that's the biggest issue generally when that happens it's pretty quick and it and it kind of takes care of itself so you know they always tell you don't drive through don't some people learn that lesson yeah well sometimes I live
at the shore so trust me I'm aware of it it may not look like it's deep and it happens quickly and within 20 minutes it's drained yeah but you just doesn't take a lot for the car it does not that's why flash flooding is so dangerous that we want to try to that
our systems can manage that but something like a like a basin that's essentially controlling the water coming out the water goes in there it's supposed to hold it for a certain amount of time to slow it down then put it into the system when that gets blocked that
suddenly creates a issue sometimes you have the perfect storm where things things all come together and then have a slight flooding in then um you know you just try to be diligent and do the maintenance right anyway I'm just saying that I'm sure there are systems being
developed or systems out there and in some cases it might um you know we we could probably put some things in some of the bad acting systems and see what's going on um and uh either plan on fixing
them or plan on freeing them if it's a once a year type of thing and whatever whatever works out to be more efficient um we should probably think about it as a future project I that come under public works or maybe engineering
or yeah it's probably more of an engineering but that's good um I think we're on to Capital go under Public Works and
the page 104 this is a Turf tank field liner um it is an automated robotic unit that we runs off of satellites an iPad you can
fill it with the paint set your Fields up and it runs automatically so it it's um new technology it's a oneman operation um they time on man hours and such for
the township and so much more efficient did you just make a grid and put it in and it yes so for example the soccer fields you can overlay your whole all your soccer fields and it programs and links right to this unit and it operates off a
satellite and so is it a GPS yes and is that precise from the so all they got do yeah yes yeah right now they're out there by hand somebody stands here somebody stands
there yeah to lay out a field they they have to run string lines and such under the old style running golf carts that we've converted to stripers and field liners so that eliminates the manh hours of running string lines and and
everything it's all GPS and set the rec department had um rented one last year and that was very efficient the uh soccer the soccer association did that right that they introduced it to us and we were
operating it for them and it's it's amazing so will this one machine be able to do all the fields yes you know so you can program it for uh soccer fields baseball fields uh lacrosse football fields and
yep and you just uh impose it over top of a satellite image of your property and you hook it all up and it just goes and there's a person on there so if there's a suddenly amount of dirt in the way they they'll see it right yeah some
someone's always there monitoring it re is it a bride on or do they it's just a small box unit so it's a drone it's a drone okay it's a robot they just got to make sure they keep painting it and they'll get a signal it's Roomba yes
exactly yep you get this on state contract it's not on state contract yet so we're hoping that uh the company moves towards State contract or a co-op that we are part of to make it easier when it comes
to purchasing is is there one manufacturer whe as of right now yes that I aware of so okay sounds good next page is
105 that's what we just did no 10 that was 10 post pounder sorry 105 what is that 105 is a hydraulic post pounder um we use this equipment to install posts for our snow fence throughout the town um currently we are
using a post pounder from 1970 uh parts are very hard to get now um so I saw the guys out there taking the fences down and knocking and yeah does it help them take it out too or
just no it's just to install Okay the next one would be page 107 this is a brush cutter attachment for our Bobcat Um this can be used to cut back on our sewer easements um
and within our parks and our walking paths and such um once again it's just an attachment on one of our Bobcats we do not have a piece of equipment like that uh so it'll be a new
equipment to public workers okay so that's gonna okay the next page would be 108 this is a new loader um this loader is used throughout the town for brush collection Leaf
collections uh used within the yard moving uh materials like stone and gravel and mulch um this will be replacing E39 which is a 20
um more fuel efficient decrease in uh costs fewer breakdowns with the new purchaseing the all all equipments once replaced we'll try to get something for their parts or thing or what what do we
do with the uh send them to an auction and then the funds from the auction go back into the general fund yeah next page would be 109 this is a request for
a two pickup trucks uh in 2025 the two vehicles that it will be replacing are both 2008 um we've definitely gotten our money's worth and use out of the vehicles um naturally uh lower annual
operating costs and maintenance costs and you'd prefer to buy two at a time instead of one each year or something it it it seems to be working that's what we've done last year and trying to get some as you noticed on the schedule it
um you know there's four 2008 so you do two now two next year and then the following year there's 209 to update the fleet and and yeah imagine you got a lot of and he'll keep a couple of those trucks as spares and sometimes we rotate
them through the township and other departments when needed um you know we don't get rid of anything until it's pretty you know beat up so yeah I was thinking the um like construction department when they go out
with permits go out on sites instead of buying new maybe they use this um they're they're they're in their own they need probably stuff a little newer and they have their own old stuff that we're replacing we do like a vehicle or two a year um because they're in it all day long you know making
inspections so it's a little different um recently um Tony was able to give the zoning officer a vehicle a old pickup truck to do because he's five hours a week so doesn't make sense to buy a new vehicle for that person yeah yeah so
that's kind of things we use it for the inspection usually uses little SUVs I think yeah well I like that because it's they out snow or rain or different things and if something breaks down or getting serviced they got an old one they can use you know good for backup
there you go next page would be 111 this is for a dump truck salt truck CL truck um Allin one this will be replacing uh truck s which is a
2011 uh naturally uh updating the spreader controls for salt um and naturally uh lower maintenance costs the uh salt really tears things up on the equipment well
time very gross which is which trucks do the brine because it's a whole different so so the the brine itself is a trailer so we have two trucks that have the controls in that to operate the spray system on the
brine tril so that would be a 27 and truck four so truck 4 is slated for 2027 and truck 27 is in 20 29 so okay those years we will make sure that we we have the proper controls in the trucks to run
the Run trailer itself next page is 112 this is a request for uh for Mason dumps uh one a year for 2025 26 27 29 9 UM 2025 will be replacing a
2008 once again to uh lower uh the annual operating costs and maintenance such next page is 117 um go ahead street sweepers until 2030 so we do have the new street
sweeper and how's that working out that's working well um some of the state Rags are changing in 2026 uh we will be required to uh Street sweep the town uh three
times a year so uh that every road now for DP yep so so that'll be a full-time job with one employee running the street sweeper so by 2030 the latest I'm sure it will have to and that's one street sweeper that we yes is there any grant
money for for all these for the Mandate I mean they're saying we have to do this so so unfunded mandate part of the ms4 yes yes it's part of it's part of the actually I I believe we're setting
aide out of our uh clean communi some funds to help in the past um you're allowed to use uh clean communities for street sweeping and when the um old um street sweeper was broken um or down we
would we would lease a street sweeper so we kept our D mandates okay and we used the clean community's Grant through the trust fund sorry through the Grand do we do anything which I don't I know we don't
um people leave their cars on the street um and then we wind up driving around them when we're sweeping the street is there anything where on certain streets we'd want to tell people it's very minimum of uh the residents parking on
the streets it's I don't see that that often maybe maybe it's just my block um okay or or take a you know or say one of the streets where people put their leaves out at the same time um
yeah do like the zones we try and then the like it would follow after they pick up exact so if we're in zone one uh we complete that this week we'll send the street sweeper out right in that zone right after there's P out
and then you'll know if somebody puts their stuff out right after they pick the pickup too which is another question okay good um I see for next year we have the oneman leaf truck how's
the one that we currently have going I saw one in my neighborhood this morning oh really gave up the Lea TR yeah I've seen on 571 but I've never seen one in the wild locally saw one in our on our street this morning we are Zone one so
so s like you know myself send a reminder to the neighbors don't put it out tomorrow our leaves got picked up today we still only have the one right with other on water is very well
um are for most Parts people very good at separating the brush and leaves yes they've done well I I think that was a a uh big part of last year's success with getting everything cleaned up prior to the new year uh as far as the residents
listening as far as separation and following the rules and uh DPW having the proper equipment and the the manow to do it and you know it was a success sure so we've been like what percent are we able to do now using the leaf truck
so we just started brush and leaf collection this week you know it's a 10mon operation uh we're still required to do separation for the next month and a half because a lot of residents will still have leaves put out and it's just
too much for the recycling center to accept commingled so for the next month we'll probably send out the leaf machine and picking up the leaves that the residents are putting out and then actually brush so okay so we don't we
have to separate all year though yes but the after April the residents aren't really putting out any leaves anymore because they've cleaned up so then we can just go with our trucks and our cloth and pick up the brush the BR but then when we go back to leave so right
now with just the one truck we can only do a certain amount using the using the mland Lea so by so at this point we'll have three of them eventually yes that's pretty much 100 close to 100% of the leaves will probably go through the
trucks then exactly is that the is that going to be the fleet at that point and then we just have to keep replacing that that's our goal yes you know and I know that there was talks last year you know maybe uh going back to separating brushi and leaf
collection dates or are limiting brush collection and and concentrating on Leaf during Leaf season um but that that's a talk for another time I'm sure so okay page 117 this is a enclosed landscape trailer
for The Parks Department um this will be replacing um a a 2013 trailer uh this trailer is used to for equipment as far as mowers uh field
stripers equip question so that um you can't use any open space money um this item is used for all of the town so parks and not all the parks part of the open space so um
at the present time now we we do we pretty much wind up using most that open space money that we have available for maintenance uh we do pretty close to to our percentage that's a conversation for
another time um I know um some of the concerns for Council as where we at as far as that goes um as far as funding we're in pretty good shape but at some point we may want to uh allocate more of the percentage of the revenue that comes in yearly to U maintenance and
improvements um I think we're only allowed to use 35% of it and the rest s used for purchase um but as you know as we um getting close to being built out that um that's something we might have to address in in the future uh maybe just and that would have to be done by a
referendum vote Yes you know where you you know ask for whatever it is you know yeah a lot of towns have it 100% either way um the council makes that decision as they go from year to year so that's something we can have a discussion in the future but we're not there yet yeah
that's I know that the county couple years ago maybe a year about a year ago changed and put more of the money into maintenance and stuff and that's where everybody seems to be going because that's you know you purchase all the stuff and then now there's a maintenance call you develop Parks ad parks and all
this so we're heading out that path some point also but it does give us less money to buy land when it's available so um yes to a certain point but then again you know um our balance is running pretty well um right now we're probably at $4 million because we're we just got
uh several Green Acres funding put into that Fund in the last year granted they're 10 12 years behind all right and they still ow us a lot of money but um we're starting to build up a little bit of reserves so right so you can do a whole analysis of
the whole open space tax yeah that's something for another discussion next year y sounds good yep okay thanks page 118 this is for the uh Public Works building for General improvements request 25,000 to for the
improvements there for Public Works yeah this is just part of our program where we set money aside so um we're not hit with a big Bill that we have to rush to council to fix uh you know if an air condition unit goes or something of that
nature so what do we have in that now um you know what the top here no I don't that one I'm not sure um if we ask for 25 then we feel we probably have a good balance so generally we try to keep 100,000 roughly um up there so you know
like I said it's a snapshot so that's a moving picture um but um 25,000 seems to be an okay at the moment okay okay um and then here's another one on
one 19 which is not till next year yeah it's more of a placeholder as far as you know um just to let that part of the our program that at some point we're going to have to expand the public works facility so we just kind of like
want to make sure it's part of our six-year plan um and at some point you know we might have to hire an architect and we're kind of limited with that site so that's a whole another issue because of D um restraints so if we do anything
it's probably gonna have to be go up which is a little more expensive than going out um so that's something for the future it's just more of a placeholder that's that's another one where where we would like to actually start in a certain year we might want to think
about do we want to do the uh design work the year before or something like that yeah we've actually started doing a little bit of design work um and that's when U you know I think the the concept is that I think the only way we can
expand there is to go up um and we've got some rough cost estimates they're pretty substantial building up versus you know out uh really changes your cost perspective Wetlands there right yeah
yeah the wetlands it's problem we we can't make the building footprint any bigger so that's yeah you know okay I me we pick another location for satellite that's something in in the future yeah and you can't do it too far in advance because all the rules change and the
money changes there you go and the next one is the 121 that's uh part of our sanitary sewer Improvement program it's a requesting for 250,000 a year and right now we have about 900,000 we try to keep it close to a m as you
know um in case we do have an emergency break this is for emergency repairs and things of that nature well when about was it three four years ago we that we came close to a mill yeah we did on that main line we were able to fund it without having to come to you for an emergency and and we've been able to
build that back up a little bit so that's good so hopefully that won't happen again but we're ready for we're doing a lot of improvements to the Sewer as you know through the town the next one would be
122 and this is for the storm sewer improvements uh throughout the town we request 20,000 a year once again it's a placeholder also yeah I think around 80 80 80 change
um you know and this is just to rep place the grates and things of that nature that are required to keep the system functioning properly when when they're doing the um the ms4 they're doing all the outflows and inflows and there somebody's actually going and
they're looking at it which engineering is doing um are they coming up with oh by the way while while they're while we're there this doesn't look good and that doesn't look good because yes so naturally on their inspections if they find anything that needs repair or
replacement we'll handle that so we going to be okay with covering what we find with this I know there's another bigger uh number in there which I think is engineering there is an engineering and put in a substantial amount CL I think two million plus for sewer
improvements which is separate well that's a that's that's the main that's the Improvement project and then there's also a general Improvement cor that they also accumulate funds for that thing type of thing okay any other questions for Public
Works questions anybody have any other questions or general questions for Public Works just a quick question there was something um on the the sewer department page uh it said maintained eight Township pump stations and one privately
owned Pump Station successfully with grease removal and pump maintenance re repair um so it's privately owned what what is where is that the privately owned pump station is in Village
Grant they own the system uh we are the operator for the system um that resolution was passed years ago way before right um when that project was first
done um they maintain it and any costs associated with it were reimbursed from Village brand so it's a 100% cost reimburse right from Village BR so they get fix it and then they just send us the bill we fix it and we send them a bill oh we so we we send them we're the
licensed operator of the pump station right so sometimes we will put Village Grand uh h OA people uh with our contractors and then they pay directly to if we don't if we don't do it we'll
we'll we'll tell them what has to get done and then sometimes they'll hire their own contractors um but if we're required to do then they reimburse us so then when we go around doing our maintenance doing our inspections we include that yes and do we build them
for the um operating expense of doing that too or is that part of some contract we have with them remember it's just part of our process for the sewer system based on the agreement it's for anything that's U reimbursable and reimbursement means for
repairs we're the licensed operator unfortunately that's how the agreement was done years ago so they can't change that so we're the operator we are responsible for the day-to-day looking at it any small but if there's any kind of large then we can charge them back
for it of some yeah and and um and Tony will tell you it's been a pretty good partnership absolutely over the years there's been no issues whatsoever they're they're on top that's good and I assume it all all the stuff goes into the same place
eventually yeah yeah it always amazes me how there's all these little deals and things in the history of West Windsor that oh there's this but then there's this and there's this one little property with something odd and that kind of thing
so any other questions on this or anything else involving Tony sewers um garbage pickup it's a it's a big piece of the town so anybody wants to ask a question now's a good time oh okay thank you very much
Tony we we appreciate we appreciate the guys out there and the girls out there and the cold and the snow and the rain and the yeah whatever it might be in the middle of the night so it's uh yeah and we we get a lot of
complement thank thanks okay it looks like we're moving to the clerk's office so um at this point I'd say after the clerk's office and engineering and land use is really big we'll probably do our
break um which will be like a half hour lunch break after this and um then we'll come back for the Community Development does that work with everybody okay yeah thanks good morning still uh my name is
Alison Sheen and I am the Township Clerk longtime listener first time as clerk at a budget meeting uh with me today joining me to my left behind me is my Deputy clerk Joey Goden okay okay so
2024 okay so 2024 started off um with our prior Clerk and myself as we awaited the um the Ral of Joey back to our office um and in addition we also hired
um towards the end of the summer our secretary Don oconnell um during the year we um prepared to transition our staff um because we were moving into three new
positions um for three employees so each one of the positions were new to us so last year um we continued uh with our operations of coordinating the primary and general election which last year included a public
question um we continueed operations for oer requests which also included new statutory requirements so that was else something else that was new to um be knowledgeable about um in addition uh to
uh continuing our licensing of 41 taxi licenses 95 um limo licenses 20 solicitors 47 raffle and bingo licenses our 17 liquor licenses and 46 landlord registrations
we did over 1,027 Oprah requests and we also so destroyed uh approximately 8,775 pounds of documents um to to adhere to our record retention schedule to keep up to date um
we also worked alongside Administration and Council to prepare for Council meetings which included 32 Council packets and four Board of Health meetings and the three budget meetings
of course from last year um and we um uh we did have some new additions of two notary licenses in the clerk's office uh Joey um got her notary license and so did Don so we now have three notaries in
the clerk's office um and let's see so see and um so for this year um we're going to continue to work alongside the Board of Elections and the county on preparing for election for this year which will include two council member seats and
mayor um we have Don our secretary is looking forward to starting the first class of the municipal Clerk's um classes um so she's going to be starting her first class this year
um and we're going to continue with alongside our licensing and open requests of course for this year um preparing for elections preparing preparing the agendas for Council and Board of Health um continuing to work with all departments on our storage
destruction um and storage and destruction requests um let's see and we're going to continue to acquire um Joey and I are required to acquire cus for our RMC licenses we'll continue to do that and we're also
looking forward to um looking to streamline processes in the clerk's office um and to um reduce some paper usage and waste so we have okay you know how many like do we have a
countown Oprah yes oh how many opras we did last year last year we did 1,27 opras is that way up which it's not way up it just slowly increases over the years um a lot of them are standard over requests
it's time consuming um but still manageable for the clerk's office and um yeah we stay up and responsive to all the requests um and it's and it's not just the clerks the clerk's office you have to go out and ask engineering and
everybody else to clerk's office is responsible for coordinating with all the Departments so we coordinate all um uh getting opras out to all the Departments and then uh coordinating responses back to the request or they're all funneled through the clerk office the clerk is responsible for um those
Oprah requests including the police ones right including the police ones for West or Township yes the clerk is responsible for the police ones also we have an excellent staff um excellent communication between all our departments um so no complaints um we
like to do everything um uh we don't use uh any automated systems uh we handle all the open requests ourselves through personal emails um so everyone's uh gets a personal response from us I know it's a lot of tedious work it is
Jo and I are both trained to do that so we back each other up it's um we're all we're both cross trained in in opras and and every time they pass one of these laws like they have to start redacting for you know police or names or addresses then that's another whole
operation theing of police even the videos oh yes that's a that's a whole different level right yes our police are o trained in that um we also keep up to date on all the webinars that are available all the laws that have changed
and in coordination of course with our Township attorney yeah yeah um have we looked into I know a couple years ago the school district had contacted us about uh possibly trying to um get the
the special needs students um some sort of job training help like it could be simp as um shredding of paper and all of that stuff I know at that time we were under construction so we didn't um continue to work with like we
couldn't work with them but is that a possibility now that we could because I know that there's an interest um in the district um the teacher has reached out to us okay few times yeah now they're all settled in our new spaces conru yeah construction
is not there it's not unsafe for anybody to come in I'm not sure how appropriate that would be for the clerk's office we do handle a lot of confidential information a lot of personal phone numbers Social Security numbers and things of that sort so as far as our documents go I'm not sure if that would
be an appropriate department but that might be something look forward to for maybe another department or um maybe Administration could be funnel I think um when gay Huber I think was in contact with one of the teachers um who had
reached out to us so something to think about and see how we can help them with that that's a possibility it's something we can look into absolutely maybe DPW oh I mean that's all right and I think our our budget or we don't have any Capital
requests you do have you do have one um we'll start with the regular Budget on page page one um the clerk's budget is flat um any questions on the clerk's budget elections seems to be yes that's
also flat um our Billings came in slightly higher so we're anticipating a little bit higher but we should be fine with that as far as our cost for the elections that's something that the county bills us and we're required to reimburse them
for um what is the nature of the Consulting fees is that legal or the consulting fee is what we reimburse the county for the elections for election so the
line talking about um 1051 21 2110 yeah5 okay we're back to the clerk's off okay yeah the Consulting fees are no that's legal is a separate budget line item so that would probably
cover any type of Consultants they would have to hire like the uh laser Fish Company laser Fish Company story yeah I'm just get yeah things of that nature yeah um the Consulting budget under the
election budget which is also flat is the one where we reimburse the county for um election cost are rated to us okay and then the third budget that falls under the clerks is your budget
which is also flat any questions on your budget no I think we did see that um and thank you Allison for you're helping uh we're trying to get um we're
trying to get early voting location West Windsor and I know Allison's been very active talking to other towns talking to people at the Board of Elections and um um also finding places that we could
do it so hopefully we'll keep put pushing on that but um hopefully that'll happen yeah I appreciate the effort because voting we want to be able to vote here yes I think a lot of our
residents would appreciate that okay she um Alison does have one Capital item under Administration page 18 and this is something that we set aside every other year um for 15 grand
it's mostly for the laser fish system replacing scanners and the biggest thing is to increase the memory yes um you know as we go more more and more less paper it requires more and more memory so this this is a part of the plan
um yeah we find laser fees crucial to our everyday operations and it's one of the systems that's approved by the state so we can as this a strict requirement for record for transer yes as long as it's an approved um system by um the ad door so
we have as long as we have our records in the laser V system scanned um you know then we can destroy paper copies okay and this is part of the replacement for the scanner itself the capital and it increased memory when
needed yeah those have been really really useful and you can find stuff a heck of a lot easier and faster it makes Oprah response is very easy for all departments yeah okay is there any other questions for
Allison no thank you okay we'll um it's 11:42 um why don't we plan on 1210 you want want a couple extra minutes all right 12 why don't we plan can I have a motion to have a recess until
12:15 so moved second all in favor I I okay we will we are recessed we will return at 12:15 and um at that point we're going to be going into the um Community Development thank you thank you
John see you soon e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e thank you minut okay all right well thank you yes we do yes we said 125 I don't know I'll ask him yeah Sam
come was that a SL machine were running that's not machine that's a what what page what page okay I mean I like all right page eight Sam tells me
page eight we are live okay we are it's 12:15 we are out back from recess and we are continuing with our um budget meeting for uh the 5th of March okay thank you Jason please introduce
yourself afternoon I happy to see you all again and I thank you for the opportunity to uh be here I'm Jason Harris director of West Windsor's code enforcement division as a chief administrator of the local enforcing agency I and my staff are charged with
enforcing the uniform construction code within the bounds of the township to ensure the safety and Welfare of the public as it relates to construction 2024 represented the busiest year the code enforcement department has had in
its existence uh and 2025 looks to be shaping up to be very likely the same we are doing our best on a daily basis to keep up with our duties and the workload and I am very proud of each of my staff on a daily basis for their
professionalism and commitment to their duties and the township uh in relation to our budget my office's capital budget represents an incremental increase for 2030 to be utilized for the purchase of
replacement vehicles or vehicles take a lot of abuse on the job sites and uh they they gain a lot of miles on them uh in the U action of Performing inspections uh in relation to our line item budget it remains flat except for
the new inclusion of Monies to cover the annual cost of Permitting uh our per permitting program sdl in addition to the use of sdl for my offices processing of permits the sdl portal is utilized by the public
247 to access their permits and inspection results uh if you want to speak more about the reason um this came about is as you can see if you go on page eight under uh Technical and special Supply uh
it it went from 1500 to 475 uh we used to charge that to the computer line item okay for the sdl um software requirements um so it was built into um
our it budget but um every year I have to do a report for uh the state of New Jersey and this is a cost directly related to um construction so by me moving it over here I can uh report it properly to the state of New Jersey so I
took it out of the it budget and slid it over here um and that's the yearly cost for um Jason's uh Department to have um iPads and um set of the service and things of that nature so they can do
their job out in the field and um keep it um I think it's downloadable but it's locable on real time yes uh so uh any member of the public can access their permits the details of their permit
inspection results uh the uh plan review comments uh basically anything is available 247 365 a year for them so uh it's a uh great asset for the public it keeps them very up to date most inspection results
are emailed to the applicant uh so they don't have to worry about handwriting or anything like that of the inspector so things are very clear most of the inspectors include photographs of any uh violations that they find so the
applicant can tell very quickly what um what issue that they're dealing with and how to resolve that issue also um this line item I just want to give you a little caveat um the state is in the process of mandating um Jason's Department to have
all applications uploaded uh so there is a um there was a electronic processing a permit processing law that passed but there are some issues with it and the implementation of it uh the DCA which is
the Department of Community Affairs is having issues with the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Consumer Affairs will not let professionals such as electricians and plumbers sign and seal electronically
their documentation so the implementation of electronic permitting submission is styed because the small DCA as they call them is uh putting a roadblock in front of the allowance of that program to take or the uh uh that
law to take its full implementation it's very frustrating our our in we would very very much like to have electronic submissions of designs if you've ever been down to our department before there's Sherwood Forest of roles of
plans several hundred pages of designs that are in paper form uh and all of that would be enabl to be uh uh submitted electronically uh it would help with our document retention it would help with plan review comments everything so we're
very much in favor of electronic permitting uh submission of permits but the uh the state agencies just can't seem to get into agreement so we're sty at this time so we don't anticipate addition this year but they
do get their act together probably next year to yes the software to add cost so that's not in here yet is not every municipality can't do it then
right every municipality in the state there were some pilot programs in the State uh but the um across the board a full imp implementation of the law is not in effect currently so uh the DCA when you call the DCA
independently argue with each other and they uh there was a children's book called two Zachs where they were uh walking in the same direction they couldn't get out of each other's way it reminds me of that they just can't seem to get out of each other's way for the betterment of the public and I have zero
control over It ultimately uh but the the moment that it is effective and we would be able to receive a full Perman application a full permanent application protection forms by those professionals the designs and appliation
uh we will be happy to engage with a software company to allow us to to uh process those permits but at this time we're just unable to uh accept a full construction permit uh because of the issues with those State departments that sound like a a letter a resolution or
something we need to on to our state legislators uh there's a lot of power back and forth about it so you can add your voice that but at this time I know that there was a lot of pressure and they just seem like they're not moving out of the way it would seem that the
building trades in the whole all the all the developers would want this to happen and they have a lot of power so I'm trying to I think it's just uh government is slow moving uh and it will happen but it's just not ready yet so I
I'm expecting within a year that it may happen but we've also been waiting for the last so how long do you think it would take us once this thing gets passed to get into it uh well uh whatever time it
would cont and then to sta I would say it will take several weeks up to speed on the perit on that application I will say that I guess about a month and a half ago uh we had
spoke with sdl regarding this and their program is not up and ready so because these issues we couldn't even engage with them to buy the program to test it it's just not available this time because because the software companies are waiting for guidance from DCA
because they haven't cleared their own internal hurdles they don't yeah so once they do that then they'll they'll have to clear Direction and then okay forward so is the intent to expand ourl as opposed to Reinventing the wheel and
going out to other companies at this point uh that's very accurate at this time uh we now we haven't looked at other software programs because they're just not functional as of to date as of today that I'm aware of but uh Our intention is to stick with the uh stick
with the horse that you know withl and uh utilize their program for that to expand its capabilities so again we are very much looking forward to it we've been very proactive and trying to learn as much can and be Pro active in
communicating with the software company but uh they came out did a presentation and told us it's just not ready to go so you can't even do it if you want it to so it will happen I I just I can't project if it's a year or two years from now okay but we'll fully welcome it when
the time I mean I love the whole sdl system the idea you can look everything up uh when when that if this goes up there and I know that's going to be a legal issue that's another thing does that mean everybody's drawings and everything will be available to everybody else there are restrictions in
my ability to release designs there's a little bit of um there's a little bit of disagreement in some ways not with me but just interpretation of that regulation but uh the idea is that somebody your neighbor should not be able to access your designs for your
home uh they concern they can just take it and put it on yes so it is a so at this time I work with the clerk's office to Ure that plan are not released to the public but there's there's the other process besides Oprah uh what is that
common law common law where the applicant could petition and argue a case for a receipt of those designs I don't think we've had a scenario where we've actually released them or not but we leave it up to the attorneys leave up to the attorneys yeah to make the final
so right now there are things we don't put on there because of this even now yes so laser fish to my knowledge is not open to the general public so designs but for opras we do not currently releas designs that so for the
so if this gets done then essentially there will be allowed submittal on sdl Portal they'll be allowed to sign the U some safe signing just like you do with the docu those the different doc docu
signs and stuff which will a big help because one of the complaints we get is oh our you know we put everything together and they didn't put the right seal and then they sent it back to us and and it's well why didn't you put the right seal to start with But but so little things like that become this
whole thing and in this case there'll be a there'll be a way of of that everybody recognizes to sign it online and will that be will this be something um if the law goes as it is that will be um optional so that some somebody who maybe
is doing their own little thing at home could still do a yes so uh if you want to use a paper application it's more than welcome the electronic is an option it will be an option at this time and and if I look at the way a lot of other things go eventually that option does go
away yes it's a slow creep and it unfortunately uh uh I do believe that it may at some point uh hopefully not my tenure but uh uh there are applicants that are uh very archaic uh in their functioning so we have uh applicants
that only uh want to use paper don't even have cell pH you know smartphones so I think uh I think the state recognizes that and there's a lot of municipalities in the State uh that are still just completely paper uh and uh
have very uh very minimal computer programs so they have to take that into consideration but it is an option for an applicant to utilize the electronic if this happens it sounds like it will be a much a speedier process so you'll be automatically I mean if something's not
right it's not right but you'll be that we won't have the whole thing where somebody has to get here by five o'clock and they have to have all the have three copies and and anybody who's in this system it'll automatically go into uh into your office and then you could put
it into the Queue at that point that will certainly facilitate their application process so yes not shipping or uh mailing documents to us or dropping them off and I and I would welcome that so I would welcome the ability of the staff to just process
things electronically uh it's um uh it's very labor intensive handling the paper moving through the office and like I said some of those designs are eight or 10 inches in diameter uh and they are uh they're giant logs that we have to haul
around so I would uh I would welcome the U electronic fir so at this point there is no electronic either review or permit application at this time we are not able to because we do not have access to a program the state's program in effect uh
in addition to this the state's program that they were developing hasn't got off the ground so even the state by the electronic permitting uh or um electronic permitting law was required to develop a software program to uh
provide to uh local enforcing agencies and that thing stalled they can't get it up and running there's issues with with it so it's it'll work itself out it'll work itself out but uh that's the most that I know at this time regarding it and um it's uh it's ultimately above my
pay grade what they decide to do with it but I will uh we're we are welcoming it when it when it comes along for sure um one thing I think you could do is make people aware that they can um apply for which I think a lot of people aren't
because I if I get somebody saying to me I'm having trouble setting up an appointment and I did to go through the sdl point port and then they do that and that works better for them um maybe helping make people more aware I think we've done some of that on the website and done a few things with that that
they can ask for appointments through the uh electronically and then not have to uh So currently we utilize there was an inspection law that was implemented last year that really changed the Paradigm of our uh my office is
functioning regarding inspections it's a very aggressive law uh and I'll I can go into detail if you want regarding it but at this time we're accepting uh inspection requests via email the inspection requests have to be in writing so the applicant has a choice of
either providing us a paper request or it comes directly through email the state has not clarified yet to us if the sdl program is is acceptable in written form so we're utilizing an email and
we're utilizing paper application so the applicant can do it electronically they can request their inspection uh my staff will respond with them uh to them with a couple of days as an option available to them and it has been working very well we actually implemented it prior to the
uh law becoming effective to work our bugs out of it and it worked very well so okay there was a way where you could just go on sdl and pretty much pick a day when that new law was adopted the language was uh not clear regarding what constitutes a written request so to
ensure that we're in full compliance with the law we are uh we're utilizing email and utilizing paper uh paper applications at this time so uh for inspections uh and that's just to ensure that we're in full compliance I have
requested several times from the state and they have not provided a written interpretation of uh whether or not an um an inspection request through sdl would constitute a written request um that inspection law uh puts an uh
responsibility on my office uh we have one strike so if an inspection request is submitted to us we have one chance to get to that inspection if we miss that inspection or we miss the three-day window the applicant can go to a
third-party agency a private inspection agency and contract them for the remainder of the project the Township would be liable to refund refund any cost incurred by that applicant and very
interestingly the state has weighed in on this if that applicant pays more for those inspections than the permit fees alone the township would be civil responsible for paying them back even if it exceeded the permit value so there's
can you back up on that again um you're um you're saying this new law gives you one chance to do a to put an inpection yes so does that mean somebody requests the inspection and then you have to give them a date within three
days is that what you're say yes ma'am and if we don't perform that inspection so if there's some issue and I'm short staffed and we don't get an inspector out there we're done at that point so the cont they can take the rest of the life of their project over even
something the size of Avalon or something just try to say yes ma'am one strike so in baseball we get three strikes and uh in this we get one so if we miss a single inspection the contractor has to petition the DCA for the allowance to go to the third party
but we have been told directly from the DCA that they would allow anybody to uh utilize a thirdparty inspection agency and this the township would be responsible for refunding those permit fees uh those inspection fees even if it
ex exceeded even if it exceeded the original permit permit cost then Jason has a plan in place yeah let's in case there's like and things yeah I'm not trying to scare anybody
this has been an effect for over a year yeah and I've I've heard a few little things around about that and so now if your inspector shows up and then there's nobody there or the door is locked they have to really document that and yes ma'am very very much so
uh it's um it's a complete change so the uniform construction code's been in effect since 1977 and nothing like this has ever result been uh um been adopted so this is definitely a change in our functioning well I did say that the
builders have a lot of power in this yes uh so we have very professional staff members uh that take their duties uh very responsibly uh and we've uh hired uh some perdum staff members so if we if somebody's out sick or we
have multiple staff members out sick um I can go out the subcode officials can go out we have per DM staff that we can call in so we've implemented as many uh safety measures safety measures as we can to that we don't agreement you also
have some informal agreements with other towns to do some CWS so uh with inspectors from other towns we don't have any formal agreements with other townships because we're very large uh and I we have not um at this time I have
not taken the uh the action to uh generate a like a formal agreement with another Township for fear that may draw more of our staff away and put us in a tight spot so at this time we're just uh we're proceeding with what we've uh
implemented so far with perdum uh with and a use of overtime and the use of overtime for sure and I um that seems to be working very well for us you haven't not missed the three-day window yet we have not missed three-day window in over a year uh and I credit my staff
completely with that I I credit my staff 100% with that they are fully committed uh to uh uh doing their job professionally and uh ensuring that we get there to perform this so with this three-day window um do the does the um
applicant have to take whatever time you have available within that 3 days or they could say I only want noon on Thursday or something the day uh they they do request a specific day and we accommodate the best that we can it's very rare it's a very rare occurrence I would argue that if an applicant
requests a specific day and they may request five days away so it's not the case that they have to request within the three days it's the option available to them to request a day and we we very likely will accommodate that so if they say next Tuesday and it happens to be
two days later uh currently we're to my understanding we're mainly one day uh so if somebody requests an inspection on a Tuesday we can get inspectors there on a Wednesday uh the only thing is with our fire inspector he is a part-time
staff member so it takes a little bit more juggling with the fire inspections uh and plumbing and mechanical are just so overwhelmed uh with the inspections that they perform those are really the only disciplines that we may have to say
uh we'll perform our inspection on Thursday or Friday but well within the three days well within the three days and if they request it for next week then you would document that so yes so that's why it's in writing so we have that so it's no uh there's no he said
she said it's in writing they are asking for uh next Thursday which would be six days out and that we have that documentation so and this is true for even a residential or small business that's just doing their Plumbing or whatever but you
have to you have to inspect within three days yes ma'am yes ma'am okay so you've addressed um the your ability to be successful by using prum and overtime um so far so far so far that's
that's what have you I mean consideration of increasing the staff size well that's the discussion for later and over the last couple years we have increased the staff um so we can have that discussion in close but um
it's difficult to find Personnel at the moment but um so this seems to be working the best that's an understatement it's an understatement we have multiple positions open in that department all right year out it takes us anywhere from six months to a year
and a half to fill a position it's if we have a vacant position we've had an electrical inspector full-time position vacant for over a year and we've had two app forunate to have you know dozen perm what's the underlying issue there just
uh there's a vacuum in this industry of qualified individuals uh I teach uh for a community college and out of the community colleges uh where building inspectors the building inspector courses there may be 20 or 20 or 30 that
come into the industry every year uh most of them are scooped up by engineering firms so there's a um when that building collapsed in Florida that tragic uh Condo building collapsed in Florida there was multiple laws that
were implemented because of that and also insurance companies got very cold feet that was a billion dollar uh and a very high loss of life so engineering firms are performing ongoing inspections of existing condo buildings throughout
the state and they're utilizing code enforcement off officers to perform those inspections so all of a sudden our pool that we were drawing from now has somebody new a whole new industry that's drawing from them so the pool gets smaller and smaller every year but out
of the 560 some odd municipalities I think it is in the State uh there's probably 20 or 30 individuals that come into the building discipline alone on a yearly basis between all of the and that's the higher license level so yes
the lower license levels there's three license levels for building discipline but if we're talking about West Windsor Township which is a Class one Township uh we're really seeking the highest license levels HHS because the types of
construction builds we have here and that pool is very very very small un usually like if somebody's a plumbing inspector they're probably a licensed plumber to start with or typically yes so that that means somebody who could be doing a very lucrative Plumbing business
is now going into being paid by the hour as an inspector and that's maybe not they face a uh without a doubt they face an impact to their uh um salary uh when they come over to this industry uh for sure so uh there's there's just a multitude of factors that impacted
unfortunately um but I'm very lucky uh we um work with a lot of inspectors around so that we're covered as uh as much as we can uh but um I'll let you guys discuss Staffing so okay next page would be that
very informative thanks thanks for giving us all that detail anyone have any questions on this before we move on real quick uh go to your Community Development tab in the capital page 19 and he had mentioned this earlier but
this is his request for a um vehicle um which replaces his Fleet on a year-to-year basis that one vehic um or I mean that's yes but um it could be two um this year
it took us for the last two years we couldn't get vehicles um so we we were buying Broncos at one point and they were running in the low third 30s so we had money set aside over for two and a half years for vehicles and then for
some reason a lot of Ford um escapes became available Ford Escapes became and we were able to buy three of them at the cost of what two Broncos would have been so we bought three you guys since approve approved did they already approve it yeah right yes so that has uh
moved forward so we're expecting three vehicles but that's over Jason yeah was over a two-year budget cycle um and um so you know we'll see where it goes we may be able to get two if we combine two years worth of funding sometimes we can
get a third vehicle it all depends on the pricing and what's available at the time um I do notice that this looks like it's going up 10 to 12% per year yeah and that's just the placeholder you know this is a management tool um you know with the cost of things so uh next year those figures will change you know going
full we had also faced at one time where we didn't have enough Capital to purchase a required vehicle so this was a preemptive move in expectation that prices could increase like covid increased vehicle prices substantially and we couldn't even with the uh Capital
line item we couldn't even afford a vehicle to replace so that's why we had to go to the second year and then we were fortunate that the pricing for some reason on the escorts had dropped yes the and we were able to get an extra vehicle so we put in here a number and
then you go to the contract usually to State contract around that's what we actually pay yeah so and then would that money go into some sort of a status for next year because can only be used for that item so we keep it you know in the
capital fund and moving forward and the only way we can get rid of it is to cancel it by resolution uh consideration Also regarding this is uh if we do additional uh hire additional staff members beyond what our number is we need vehicles for them so that's to
that's to protect may need to buy two vehicles in a year also and combine any excess that was left over and like Public Works he Jason won't get rid of that vehicle if it's still running he keeps it as a you have extra pickup use that okay any other questions
that's his only Capital that's the only Capital other questions on permits or anything no no good thank you very much very much thank you appreciate it thanks we're switching to back to land use
now Sam you know the drill when you're ready just give your name and who you are and P okay uh his current fund budget starts on page seven good afternoon council members my name is Sam CES I'm the township land
use manager and Zoning officer uh my responsibilities are basically three line items one being planning board one zoning board and one the land use division itself um just a little background of what my division is responsible for we provide the staff
support either in-house staff or consultant staff to do any reviews of development applications um or variance applications in front of the planning and zoning boards um we're also responsible for um master plan revisions updating the master plan uh updating the
various elements of the master master plan um and as you're well aware many of you have sat as a council member on the planning board that the master plan is the vision for the community there's several elements that make up the master plan um one of them that we're working on this year it's required every 10
years is the housing element fair share plan and basically what that does it sets up our affordable housing obligation for the next 10 years from the 2025 to 2035 period it is also the only element of the master plan that the township Council o has to adopt um state
regulations indicate this year all the towns in New Jersey 560 Plus have to adopt their housing element by the end of June of this year which means that my staff is working diligently to um come up with our projected number um and then
also determine what properties in town would have to be reson and designated as affordable housing receiving areas that would all have to be incorporated into the housing element fair share plan um planning board adops it and then immediately after that the township Council would adopt it and then we have
a certain amount of time we have to get that down to DCA so we can be protected from any Builder lawsuits that may come into play with that but in a nutshell pretty much that's what my office is responsible for also open space preservation as you know we've had a
pretty active open space uh program since 1995 uh We've preserved over 2500 acres in town uh that in addition to the the County Parks and state parks over half a West Winds or over 8,000 acres is preserved in the community um right now
currently and we do have I believe it's a two cent open space tax John uh yes on that there are other properties that we're targeting for preservation either through Green Acre funding and County open space funding through um you know parks and so forth and then there's a
secondary funding source through the sadc which is the state agricultural development committee and that's to preserve um active farms in the community as the state a board likes to say um their money isn't used to preserve the open space it's used to preserve Farms so the
Farms have to be working Farms they just can't they have to produce either the certain amount of crops on the property they have to either produce livestock it just can't be let's say uh you know a horse farm where they're doing horse shows it actually has to produce something there's certain criteria that the state requires for that um and we
are working with one um property owner in the community along with the state to preserve their Farm um and hopefully that'll come to fruition by the end of this year with that um unless there's any questions overview on basically what my Department's um involved with I can
go through the line irem accounts on the budget if you have any questions you mentioned farms and on your land use page it says adopt new housing element um and farmland share plan is
that is it under land use for your land use um sheet the very last 2025 goals at the very very last line Farmland share does that mean it should be housing El and and um beir share PL
share fa share point okay all right I just want to make sure I thought so but but my attention yeah Linda reads every word yes yes hopefully I was good on the periods and Colin and semic well you
know I'll let you yeah you know you sure will um with the three budget items land use planning board and Zoning Board back in 2024 last year's budget for land use was $127,800 this year I'm looking for a $116,000
increase in that to 143,144 7,800 um reducing it by 36,100 this year to 234,00 700 and the Zoning Board of adjustment last year was um 10,700 I'm increasing it by 4,100 to
14,800 uh overall it's a $116,000 reduction from last year's budget for those three line items um to this year with that I can go into more detail specifically if you'd like or I can jump over to Capital requests the um on the
planning board litigation so it's it's down 2.26% uh are you anticipating any litigation regarding affordable housing and the number that we believe it should be versus what um Challengers believe it should be we are and um affordable
housing litigation cannot be charged to the uh trust fund by State Statute so we have a separate line item for affordable housing and we have budgeted the last three years $200,000 a year for litigation and expert WI es so that
would fall under that budget line I well we spent well that's that's as A6 this year 2 correct that's that's for planning board if you recall we had some um litigation with the warehouses and things of that nature so just want to
make sure we're budging enough if the question asking yep I believe besides the affable housing and as John mentioned the existing litigation that we have regarding the warehouse project um there's also the board's been sued
over the Quick Check application out on the gric in 571 that's something I'll go over when we go through the development activities so we're in current litigation U with um an adjacent property owner over that board approval so it's not just affordable housing it's
defending plany board's action over development I think the question is that we dropped it by 54k for this year so that means that you have some insight that there's going to be less demand for legal some of the lawsuits we had last year we no longer have so I indicated we
didn't need to have that that money in the budget okay and you put in some more money into the legal fees so correct yes so where so that's separate from litigation that's having Jerry give an opinion on
something I would assume it might not only even be Jerry because his budget stayed at 25,000 it was more edme's budget I think it was at 5,000 and I upped it to 7500 for legal um there's a lot of interpretation issues coming in there's different uses that aren't
permitted by W and some of the potential developers or assiting different state statutes they have a right to supersede local zoning so I've been tapping into our zoning board attorney to do legal research on that and provide legal guidance whether or not it could be the application could be handled
administratively through a zoning permit or whether it would trigger uh a variance application from the zoning board so we have several of those type of applications pending from last year that are carrying over into this year I think the nervousness a little bit from
what I'm feeling here is that um I think we already know that there's a couple of uh lawsuits on this affordable housing already the um the builders have just gone after everybody that tried to correct what the DCA didn't do right um
and then there's the fair share housing and then there's God knows who else um so is that is that going to be enough to for us to protect ourselves this year I did speak with uh Jerry Muller our planning board attorney and hme our
zoning board attorney and the $200,000 I had set aside for litigation we feel is adequate enough to get us through this year plus we have the 200,000 for the affordable I do have an email from Jerry uh estimating about 100,000 uh you will have a resolution John you will have a
resolution at the next meeting to increase this contract by to 100,000 um so we'll be all set for those lawsuits going forward so the but that's coming out of that's going to be coming out of this money correct uh no that would come out of the affordable housing budget you have this line item plus you have
another line item called affordable housing oh okay that's coming out of that correct that's another 200,000 that we can use so we can't use the trust fund but it's coming out of that lineup correct yep correct and we isolate it for the affordable hous have we received any legal challenge to our numbers for
affordable housing have we been like noticed with the challenge what the bo what the council certified back at the end of January yeah yes we have can you send Council that information if so that we're we can do that if Administration says it's fine
we can send that in I would think it should be public I would assume so uh it's litigation so let let's see where we're at with it um and this is you know something it's confidential whatever legal I mean I think it's it's already out there in the public then like to know I'm sure everybody
would like to know objectors had into the end end of February to file and we did receive things like the 27th and 28th yes we expect sure they sure they the big date is July first to the big thing is June 30th we have the council and the planning board have to adopt the
housing element grer plan that is a requirement right and then the lawsuits will come after that the real lawsuits well there'll be more it'll always be going on that's why but all these are through the DCA correct follow the process there's like a special master and you know it's this is not techically
well and and anybody can kind of do what they want so the come sometime after July first yeah yeah I do I I I believe that the state statutes indicate that once the plan is
adopted um objectors have to August 31st to follow their objection so they'll have two months once the plan is adopted um by the township and the planning board um to litigation over what our housing element affordable housing number is and also whether or not the
properties that the housing element recommends rezoning to meet that obligation if their properties aren't chosen then they can sue us over um us not picking their their properties for well they've tried that believe in the past but so the township has the right
that town right we have to justify it supposedly that's harder but it seems like everybody's going around what those rules are anyway so um so for June 30th where we would have to approve by that
point the master plan housing housing element of the master plan um but that's not an ordinance so then the actual zoning ordinance comes at a low low later date to make to make that happen well the housing element fair share plan
as part of it we have to have draft ordinances for each of the properties we're going to reone to show that they we thought it out and we know those properties can produce that amount of affordable units so we have to have a draft ordinance it's not an ordinance
that has to be adopted at this time but it has to be made part of the housing element we have until March 1st 2026 to actually adopt those ordinances to implement the recommendations in the housing element so we have to vote saying that we have the intent to do
those ordinances at that point we've done enough enough analysis on the staff level that we believe those properties can produce the number that we feel they can produce and the actual ordinances which will require an introduction and then a um and then a hearing will come
later to all have to be adopted and implemented and enforcable by March 1st 2026 so that'll be the next step after that so basically we have to know what we want we're doing by the end of June correct I'd like to get updates each
each month I mean we hand things in on this day if there's legal challenge who it is whatever like all the information because everything is moving very fast because that's that's the law we have to follow that otherwise we get ourselves in
trouble right so if we can give us maybe a memo with the different dates explain what's going on how this how the suits losses in impact the dates sounds good justful to keep track of I mean most of these have sort of
been in the news already so we we need no I'm saying we need to find we need to officially be told them so that we're not all reading different sources official Doc and the other thing would would be some sort of a commentary on what that means does that mean that
nobody can do XYZ because that this date is passed just something to lay it out a little uh better for us so uh because there's a lot of interpretation right and the litigation if the litigation isn't resolved in the numbers by Jun
30th and do we move forward with what we believe are our numbers ores that has to be it's twofold the certification that the council did at the end of January um objectors had the month of February to far an objection with the town several
have done that now it goes to the program in quotes which means DCA so during the month of March DCA will hear all of the objections for all 560 Towns how many objectors is followed it how they're going to do that in 31 days I do
not know but that's what the state statute says so we'll know by the end of March whether or not the program DCA agrees with our number or doesn't or agrees with an objector number and theoretically the state did not address
what happens if everybody said that their number is lower and now the total that is being put in there is lower than what they say is the um is is the minimum for that particular set of districts for for our three um counties
and how does that get made up or does it get made up and there's all kinds of questions on that going on right now so you come also with that I don't know if that number ever was realistic because that's another housing whether it's realistic that there's a need or the
ability to produce that number in the state it's 80 some thousand units um also and there is a lawsuit from what I understand number there certain towns that are exempt from providing any affordable housing in the state too but um when we work on the housing element
fair share plan in the state statutes we do get bonus credits for example if we were if we had a um an office building that was underutilized and the town wanted to rezone that property for affordable housing and that office building got knocked down we're we're
allowed um a 20% bonus should be 25 I think everything's 25 25% of Our obligation so we're allowed to get a bonus of that so those bonus credits aren't actual units being built so that's going to reduce the
total number by Town multiply and that's always been that's been since the it's it's been calculated different ways this is the first time they're calculating it that way so we're going to take advantage of that when we work on our housing but we're only entitled to a
maximum of 25% bonus no matter 25% of Our obligation yep okay all right well well we will get through this um you have a capital budget you want to do yes if you go through open space to
community agage 51 I don't have you me it's the treat again we always miss Dan Dober milsky our former landscape architect typically Dan handled that so I would just put it in my budget based upon consultation
with him and then he would go through the explanation on on why we have that amount of money and what the projects are he's working on I do not know whether Mr gzik through engineering will be able to speak about that um but I had a couple of questions on this one but
Francis is probably better okay sounds good and then I I think the only one is now you go to um open space correct and that's page 123 I have $10,000 down for that
basically the co those costs are associated with um any potential open space properties that we haven't preserved that's part of our planning incentive Grant and it's part of our open space Recreation plan element in the master plan um in case that property
owner decides they want to negotiate with the town that they decided they rather preserve their property rather than sell it to a developer this is kind of this is soft cost money I can use to engage the services of our uh Township attorney in writing up a contract to
have an appraisal done so we can get an estimate on what you know what our negotiating abilities are um to acquire the property so if it's not used it will'll just go back in the open space fund so I wanted to have that available this year in case there's anything that pops up is there anything can tell us
that's being discussed right now nothing it would be it would be contract negotiations still any said this is soft cost so this is not going into the acquisition this is just the support services correct
appraisers legal or just looking at it you okay any questions on this before we I I guess we're ready to go into the the um uh res the development status does
anyone have any other questions before we go into the development status for Sam no okay take it away we start with residential sure I what I wanted to do is maybe start geographically into town kind of working from east to west and
kind of go through everything I I handed out a um a colorcoded map if you do that can you let us know what number that's the map that's up on the screen it's also the map that's on the website so all the documentation the council has and what I'm going to talk about today is currently on the township website it
gets updated when need be when we get new applications in or there's a change in status of what was approved I'll update that um that map but everything in red would be commercial development everything in yellow would be residential and if it's yellow with red
lines through it that means it's a mixed use development like the Avalon project down by the train station on that but just kind of start in the Eastern End Town um T is the um jdn Warehouse
application like tell us what number it is on these it's it would be letter T on the it's on the second on the second set that talks about non-residential development status and we're I think I've seen some
walls going up yeah yeah it's going vertical out there if you drive by you can see most of it's been a week since I was out there but the last time I was out there the um the walls are up and you're getting ready to do Roofing work on that um that project was part of a
settlement agreement um um with the last round of affordable housing the developer is expecting to have the project done and ready for occupancy by this fall October November um the township is in the process of upgrading
its sewer facility in that area I'm sure Mr G will go over that with you um that's necessary in order for the project to get their Co so they would have to the developer would have to um actually provide the sewer lines into the pump station to provide sewer to
that area also part of the planning board approval and the county approval since route 571 is a County Road they're going to be putting in a traffic light at the entrance of their facility to facilitate um Vehicles making a left or
eastbound turn on uh route 571 to get down to the uh Route 133 Heights down bypass to the turnpike so that also is going to have to be in and done in turn lanes and restriping of the road um before they get a CO on that project so they're moving along pretty quickly now
there's there's no pending litigation on that and um I spoke with the developer a couple weeks ago and their timeline is October November they would have be looking for a CO on that project okay on that is it possible to put the
the addresses of the property in writing like you got the I guess the developers or the attorney's addresses but um a lot of these projects hard to read like I can't I can barely read a lot of the projects haven't started yet so they're vacant
land they may not even have an address to sign to them typically what when we get questions in my office that file number is what is important because everything on there the whole file is electronically stored now so we can very
easily just if someone says could you tell me about the university and what they're doing um for item number two um we'll be able just to send them a Dropbox links for pb2 248 and or have everything in it they need on something like that can you put those drop off
links on there like like now so they don't have to call I wouldn't want to do because the files get updated a lot different things come in so I'd rather not put it up because then I'd have to be re dropping it down and and changing and uploading and putting it up there on that usually if somebody calls my office
within minutes we can email a Dropbox link over to them and they have it I know like on the planning board it'll have lot and block numbers when as far as location which tends not to change or something like that well yeah sometimes the block and
lots do change when an application comes in specifically for a subdivision or something yeah for subdivis but I'm saying it does give you an idea where something is most folks wouldn't know the block and lot and have I have problems with them too yeah you have to go back
fine um the other item there since you're in that Northeastern portion of the Town um item Q is the existing Valero station across from the cafre on 571 in Southfield um the technical Review Committee has been working with the
developer who wants to remove that gas station and put in a wall a full service wall convenience store and pumps um and they um they are not moving quickly on that I my my crystal ball couldn't say when and if they're coming in with the
next round they did meet with the TRC we've given them some comments and writing from the staff and we're just waiting for them to submit revised plans for us to review so there's no no approval or anything on that no no uh dially across from that z um
it's the properties right across from maffre um the council probably knows it as the buildings that are boarded up um right on the point of that is Dr tuttle's Dental office so it's everything but the doctor's office is that Z plany board approved a um
development application for a full service quick check and then also a preliminary cyane approval for a drive-through restaurant uh the developer at the time of the planning board application did not have a name brand going in for the drive-through restaurant so they only were seeking a
preliminary site plan approval once they do have a user they'd have to reapply to the planning board for final site plan appr actually wasn't the original approval was going to be a sitdown restaurant and then it became a drive-thru or something like that um it it it kicked around for years Andrea but what was eventually approved for the
preliminary was a drive-thru with outdoor they have outdoor seating out there for that and they have indoor seating but the drive-thru is is was the key thing that they were looking for on that that's the project I had mentioned earlier that the owner of Q the Valero
station is suing the planning board over their approval for the quick check application so we're in litigation over that so is that going to be held up until that lawsuit's done or how's that unless the property owner wants to
proceed at their own risk and move forward to apply for permits and start construction while the uh while the lawsuit's still going on and they don't have any indication they want to do that uh item eight is also one of our affordable housing receiving areas from
our round three um it is um it's the towns at West Windsor it's a kavanian uh project over there it's well underway it's 193 tow houses and 60 Apartments a total of 253 residential
units plus a a four bedroom group home um they have been they have submitted I believe like 10 requests for cosos already so they're already looking and folks I don't I don't know if the Construction office has issued any of
the cosos but um land use is one of the first reviews for Co release then it goes to engineering and then the construction so my office did sign off on 10 requests for cosos for folks to be able to move in there yet so people will be starting to move in pres so yes
correct yep uh project n on the list is um Eden Institute it's an approval they got to expand their campus there for several other buildings that approval goes back a number of years um I have had talks with them recently uh
beginning of this year they want to come in to the planning board and get a revision on their prior approval what was holding them up is at the time of their original approval there no sanitary sewer hookups in the area and a majority of the open field where there
are new buildings were going to go is used for on-site septic and now that sewer upgrades you're taking place in that area um and again engineering could probably tell you when those upgrades would be ready these folks want to be able to tie into that so they're going to come back in front of the planning
board and seek uh some revisions and some tweaking of their prior approval would there be any residential on that no no res residential it's not zone for residential beer it's a p Zone professional office Zone uh item U is
the existing Jeffrey Sands retail Center um it's out on Dorchester and uh Old Trenton Road um there is an approval to double the size of the retail out there again they're waiting for um um for the
ability of the tie in SE for the additional square footage that they want to do um so that approval is still valid um project 11 is a Toll Brothers project it's a um affordable housing project and it's also a age restricted so it's
senior housing and there's a item 11 11 so that's under construction I have not seen any CEOs come across my desk and again my office is the first to see those requests for that um but it's uh well underway construction perits are
issued I would expect um Co requests to come in sometime this spring or summer on that so they're moving it's 88 units out there and then item one uh that's been kicking around literally for 25 years um it's part of the overall planned uh
commercial or planned residential development for uh Bear Creek it's the active adult component of that there's the um these are basically uh rental units they're high-end rental units for seniors there will be a uh set aside for
uh um senior rentals um for low a very low and modern income uh units so they would be looking to come in for construction uh hopefully uh later this year or early next year on that but um they've come in front of Def fling board numerous times to amend their prior
approvals based upon potential uh purchasers of that property so the board just met last week last month on that latest revision are they connected with the bar Creek Assisted Living still at one point I think it was yeah
it's at one time they were but 20 years ago that's split it's actually that property is condo off the Assisted Living congregate care has its own condominium rot line its owned by a separate entity the folks who own this
portion that is going to have the 220 units is separately owned benites owns that he has a protect a potential purchaser who wants to buy the approvals after the planning board last week um amended their amended the application to
um fine-tune it for their needs on what they want to do so it appears as though they actually have an active buyer that wants to move forward and develop that property okay so that will be developed as this totally separate Senior Living it's not one of these continuing care
where somebody goes from one to the other at this separate the the yeah the entities no there are whole setups like Meadow Lakes and stuff I mean all commercial entities associated with that with any restaurant or um beauty salon
or workout center or whatever else is used exclusively for the folks who live in that development not to take up too much time for everyone because I could go on for a while here but um just to kind of give you an idea there's a lot of um development approvals and construction
taking place in the West in the town meeting from the um railroad tracks West over to the canal um towards Princeton over there on that a d is basically the SRI property um there was a general development and development plan
approval that was granted uh 20 plus years ago for three million square feet of R&D type facilities over there they have done nothing since their GDP approval to come in for a site plan approval for any of the phases so nothing's been moving on that for 20
plus years I have not heard of anything lately um and SRI is not petitioning the town since their request maybe five years ago if you remember for that uh Redevelopment area uh designation on that yeah if I remember there was a hole they were going to redo the building
yeah got a tour of the place since since covid they've reassessed what their needs are and how they how their Workforce works and they they haven't pushed to come in for anything on that okay uh W is the yellow with the red lines through it that's the Avalon
project that you're probably all well aware of down at the train station it's a mixed use development uh 848 residential units broken up into um condos for sale and the fortory condo
building there's 48 units in there some affordable units in that um that's four stories over a parking garage and they're looking for cosos for that building right away I did sign off on that a couple weeks ago so that's working its way through but there are
there are people in there right I do not know well I've signed off and I'm the first one to sign off there may be people living in the condos I'm not sure the tow houses that P's doing 150 or 60 tow houses they're definitely people living in
that so the tow houses and then the condos you you've given cosos so people can start moving in the town houses the tow houses definely people are moving in on my office again is the first to review Co requests we signed off for All 48 units in the condo it goes to
engineering and then ultimately to code enforcement and they're the ones who would issue the co to allow people to move in I'm not aware if a CO was issued for folks to move in yet to the condo buildings but definitely the tow houses there are residents living in that Community right now um Avalon also is
building um 515 apartments and those are going to be above the commercial buildings the what we call the East Building and the west building that surrounds the prominade that they're going to be building there they're anticipating um and again that's them anticipating that they'll be looking for
Co sometime this summer to allow residents to start moving into those apartments whether that happens or not I do not know but that's what they have told me is their rejection I think we brought it down to 30,000 square feet yeah commercial
retail well there was there was approval for 17,500 ft for non-residential on the first floor for the east and west building the planning board um amended their approvals to allow the developer if they didn't have retail clients to
convert 17,500 square feet of the commercial into LW departments and they've decided to do that so there's only going to be about 177,000 square feet of of non-residential over there
H when did that happen Okay so so the so the actual retail which is what was pretty much planned there'll be more like 17,500 correct and that'll be on the prominade section it'll be it'll be exclusively in the um East Building the
building closer to the SR property that's also a five story building the other one is the four-story um and it'll be all residential okay and there so those apartments will be above the uh retail it'll be on the
first floor except for the west building where they'll have the Loft departments on the first floor where the retail was going to go in that building okay all right um item two which I'm probably going to remove from the um from the list it's basically the Lake Campus for the University it's their grass school
campus it's pretty much complete the only project that they haven't started construction on yet for that that was part of the general development plan approval is the baseball stadium uh the planning board approved that last fall uh the University's dropped off
what we call resolution compliance plan staff is reviewing that to make sure they've complied to all the conditions and all the outstanding issues that were raised in the staff reports at the night of the meeting um so that's moving along pretty well University is well financed
they're ready to move forward on that so I would expects construction to start or permit to be issued with construction Department within the next month or so and potentially construction on that would start this fall sometime 400 400 steps are you going in order here so no I mean I could talk
about 400 steps uh 400 steps would be I believe it's K on the list that's 10 10 10 first yes and the residential 400 step residential uh yeah I mean that's been back and forth with um 147
units then 180 then back to 147 and currently have approval for the 180 units they are rental units um and that's in behind the Ellsworth Center if you remember there's a retail project that never really got finished it got
started and it's in a bad condition back there so that developer um currently there is a uh lawsuit that's currently going on between that developer and the prior
owner over the ultimate value of the condemnation if you remember the township um had to go in and uh the developer or preferred redeveloper paid the township basically to uh file litigation to condemn the property which
we have done once we acquired the property we deed it over to the developer and now the developer is working on um the litigation that the prior owner has over the ultimate value of that property so um speaking with our
Redevelopment Attorney Kevin McManaman they're expecting a decision on that some kind of a summer um one way or the other well that's a wrong long it's what 30 years that project originally got approval in
1986 who who's the mayor when that one started 86 would have been Mike mro I believe have no idea I wasn't here y yeah um item K is Sean ellsworth's project
that has an approval from the planning board to build to knock down some of the existing retail to reconstruct it with apartments above it and then also um the access Drive and it goes back to what we call the aora property it's open space
property that the township the county and the state purchase we all have a third ownership and that there's going to be a future Park back there um to remove those two ranchers that are there put in two commercial buildings with retail on the first floor and
apartments on the second floor Mr Ellsworth had has had approvals a number of years ago and he is back in front of the planning board to request an amendment of that prior so we're working with him on that so how
much of the existing approval is going to still be valid um that's questionable it depends on what he's looking for and what the board's willing to work with them on on that so that's an ongoing project there um is that tied with the I think cenan or somebody project next to
it or yeah Mr Ellsworth has a contract with kovanian to potentially ask for a rezoning to uh change the mix use on those two residential lots to exclusively 100% um residential with an
affordable housing set aside is that got its own number or is that part of the no that that is probably going to be in our housing element fair share plan for June this correct is that K is that K1 or is that
no it well K1 would be the kof property and then K would be the um elworth piece so the which property was K1 K1 is the kavanian so that would be the havan one
okay behind so any zoning changes then it would well require a change in the Princeton Junction Redevelopment plan it would require an amendment to the land use plan element and it would require an amendment to the housing element fair share plan those elements of the m this
approval is not really where we are right now excuse me so when it says approval granted this 10 approv that was granted that it's showing there is from what the planning board approved for Mr Ellsworth for the Mixed use development right then 100% so the new one that
havian came in was going to be all residential back there so this really is still this is what's approved in on the books okay right what is the hannanian project can is there a number I want to look at that there was a there was a
concept con there's the concept to us there was a concept I don't remember Linda whether you or Martin were on the planning board when that came I think it was you were on the planning board that came in front it was I think the fall of 23 that came in front of I I sat in at the meeting but I wasn't on the they
retail the 10 apartments for Ellsworth I remember that yep but but this other concept line was past year right I don't was it so the concept plan was in 24 yeah became in front of the board just conceptually what they were looking to
do it never got any further than that plan need that that was the one that they were looking at not having any affordable in and then they were going to have Ellsworth build the affordable uh units over in their property I guess a lot I
wasn't where can I read that is it a number or just can you I I can get you the con plan which is irrelevant now it's not it's not going to happen that way that's why it hasn't moved anymore but if you want to get a history lesson on what they came in for we can provide
you with that document so the one we saw in the concept plan that was going to be all those tow houses that's not once we work on the housing element fair share plan for a June public hearing it will show exactly what we anticipate the
affordable housing obligations going to be for both K and K1 EXC well how soon you can you talk to council about all of this like specifics of that plan I don't want to get it like that week I want to get it I want to get
it early enough to absorb so we can staff is working on it right now I would question Administration on on that in the mayor's office I mean we diligently working on that housing own I know there yeah I would just like Council to have some some feedback on
that yep you know before it's final oh what we got here maybe it might be better if um the council members if you have any questions about anything else on there I mean item v is under construction that's the uh garden homes
project it's um a residential development it's also mixed use and the garden homes is actually building the 600 plus apartments their rentals they'll have a 25% this met Road
it's Trader Jes yep and that's the one that's the on that Center there's also Hotel component that a separate developer is um working on there's a standalone pad site for a restaurant that's moving forward and then there's
about 13,000 square feet of retail that would service it's a neighborhood retail that would service the residents that within that community so it's something we can and then the one on the other side is behind the lows that seems it's the same developer that's the that's the
last phase of that part of our settlement agreement to Fair shell housing center back in 2018 and 2019 was that south side of the of Meadow Road they couldn't seek building permits until January 2025 they have those all their building for the other section
next year we're expecting to see they're moving very slow so I guess they're waiting to see what the market is before they start building the side's moving slower they o own the vacant land on the other side they haven't even applied for permits on that which she talking
about no I think on the other side of metal Road right there's one on the other side is behind on the other oh the one's behind Rose is Lowe's is a to Brothers project that's midan wall That's those are purchase units those are condos they have an affordable
housing set aside yeah and cosos have been issued on them um or my office has signed off on cosos whether the construction Department ISU to co I do not know but they've they've come in for several buildings looking for cosos to get in off of Route One to that one it's
a right in right out on Route One the other axis is out on um old um old old or old meow Road and then there will also be an access out through the Tractor Supply site which is along the south side where the Lowe is eventually
when that property gets develop except there's no longer tractors y except that and um and then what about and that project is r on the list red R that where the tra supp we don't know about
stuff's probably and as Martin brought up item nine is the meridian walk project that TOS which one item nine nine is the um M and walk is what about the new restaurant at Market Fair yeah yeah moving along I mean it's
out of my realm it would be you have to talk about where they are what about the um Extended Stay hotel that was going to be right near where NRG is nothing dead not going anywh it's dead totally after all that after all of
that foring sweets not any another few evenings of my life wasted I guess yes me both yes so there's nothing at that at this point planned for that nothing is that on here it's on here
want to cross it off it would be G2 G2 G2 is any uh updates on X Bridge Point anything new nothing no I'm aware of
no do we happen have a piece of like information because people talk about it and there's sometimes people using all sort of different maybe different facts and all do we have like one document on the history of that that could bring us up to date on that
so so there's something official I I do not have any that like the the history from like when American sment closed to the rezonings and the lawsuits and everything over the last 10 years that kind of history no everything yeah I don't I do not have any document that is
written that explains all that now and okay I'm just looking is anybody Chick-fil-A Anya that I already brief Martin on that he always wants an update on the Chick-fil-A let's move yeah they're in for uh resolution
compliance and again I would expect them to submit building permits in the near future and St construction later to spil they were they need to they first have to submit building they're probably pretty fast once they
get going I think the land's already been oh yeah is all prepared so um okay if anybody wants to take a quick look through here is there [Music] anything is that the one that was like a
little island in the middle of the Nassar at the end edge of Nassar Park uh it would be where Kohl's used to be in the parking lot closer to the ntional Park Boulevard oh so it's actually at Kohl's itself yeah it was two applications came in at the same time that one that's not going anywhere and
the other one was for those three restaurants over there by the um in Nassau Park proper that have i since since opened I guess over there yes well those are open those are they both of those came in at the same time the what we call the Call's out parser item s on
the map um nothing nothing's coming the cold out parcel if I remember was before covid and that was going to be a a little um Island over on yeah they were going to remove some of the parking that was there and put in uh either one or two um freestanding buildings over in
that area and and that never nothing's happening with that point yeah that was part of a whole Arrangement where they're going to put there and they're going to take stuff out of the other side and and all that correct because they were Lim on the F they were allowed to have there but the council increased
the F in the B3 zone so they didn't have to but they said multiple some of their right they either or they're going to have a floating F if I remember yeah okay so nothing's happening with that probably nothing will
um hey executive let's [Music] um next that's y yep that's which that's Yeah it's red and it's it's designated by the letter Y oh okay was that the one
on rout one correct yeah okay okay we know that one yeah the zoning is in place and everything for that we're just waiting for a redeveloper to come in who wants to redevelop okay any other questions on this list or anything you feel remiss that's of
interest to people you are up to datee on the ordinances are you bring that shed ordinance back we can we could bring the shed ordinance back no I was saying I mean I just read the 20205 gos I remember that the council members get
the zoning board um yearend report and the plan board members get it the administration gets it so once we get direction to move forward that there's a likelihood of it being introduced and adopted instead move forward you want to rewrite
it I sent you my comments it's kind of like that side ordinance that we spent a lot of time on and didn't that was a couple years ago sign Mr Bor was on Council when that happened I don't even I was beyond thanks a lot Sam you're welcome
all right well anyway okay I think that was it for Sam thank you very much always always a pleasure thank you the seat warm sirry all right if um Francis if you'll
introduce yourself and uh we want to introduce John if uh also good afternoon Francis gik I'm the director of Community Development and the township engineer and this afternoon I'm accompanied by John Taylor the
Francis can you either move that up or we're not we're not I don't think it's coming closer Mo move your phone away from the mic we've discovered this good afternoon Francis skic the director of Community Development and
the township engineer and I'm joined this afternoon by John Taylor the assistant Township engineer uh the priority of what we'll discuss today deals with engineering uh
mostly uh engineering is responsible for managing uh inspection of public and private improvements associated with Land Development projects uh preparing reports uh
associated with those for performance guaranteed reductions and releases and acceptance of public improvements done by developers we are responsible for Designing and preparing plans and specifications for various Township capital
projects we prepare Grant applications where appropriate we maintain the Township tax maps and the the township geographic information system GIS system we review and process Street opening permit application tree remove
can you can you maybe move the mic up a little bit because oh it doesn't go up any further I thought there's a little stand on there I I just want to make sure this gets recorded for uh
posterity yeah yeah I'll swallow the microphone good great that's great thank you so uh let's see maintain Township tax maps the township GIS system we review and process Street opening permit
applications tree removal permit applications we assist the township land use boards being the uh planning board and zoning board with plan reviews uh we assist Sam's office
with zoning permit applications we assist code enforcement with building permit applications and certificates of occupancy where the liaz on to the shade tree commission and the environmental
commission uh we assist Public Works uh Health with grease Control reviews and a number of other miscellaneous duties as assigned so where would you like to start uh John you want to take
us start with the operating budget on page six sure uh starting with the Community Development operating that's that's uh what I personally as the Director um
typically it's uh does conferences and seminars whatnot that budget is flat um compared to Prior funding um moving down to the Engineering
Services there are a few of the items that have uh an increase request in there photocopy expenses training and education technical computer supplies and Technical special supplies and I
will add um the technical computer Supply increas is a similar situation that occurred for construction we moving their HDL sdl sdl right from the it budget to um engineering budget to
better match at services and and we're also increasing licensing from two to an extra two or three moving forward for this year the it budget then should be going down well yeah no you would think so because we had to increase it for
other licensing fees that the township has deals with and we had to put some extra money in with some other items but we can go over that in the administrative it budget but but this 471 per increase is really just moving money from one spot to the other it's
with a slight increase for a couple licenses they average around $1,800 a year okay license okay and the other one is not a real and when we get to Administration I mean um every everybody's going to you know subscription Services those fees are really are the
ones that are really spiking up right that's some of the other minor more lesser increases that are still in there what we pay for the AutoCAD licensing for the gis licensing as John said it's it's an annual subscription you can't buy the software anymore well yeah
before you could stretch it a little bit and say for a couple years yeah we would much rather purchase but there's a lot of these options are no longer there right and on they get after a couple years and they just start jacking the price so there not much we can do about it soon Microsoft will be doing the same
thing so well didn't Microsoft kind of force us into a subscription a few years ago youve been able to still purchase um but that's probably going to close shortly okay okay thanks go ahead all right so moving to page seven and the
center of the page is shade tree commission that is a not a new commission but a new budget request uh they have two big events each year Arbor Day uh celebration uh which offers uh cash
prizes as part of the art contest which was just recently announced by the way uh but most of the the costs and expenses are due to supplies printing for literature handouts
um there's also uh part of community day they have a presence and same thing they do giveaways there's seedlings that are given away mostly for Arbor Day occasionally also for Community Day so this basically gives them a budget to
operate those out of instead of the members reaching in their own pockets for that and and also the conference and training that's required well it is required I guess by Statute yeah yeah the urban community forestry management so this is something new that we did add in
you know we gave the same budget as the environmental to see how it goes for the first year right and then moving down the page after zoning board is is environmental commission uh that's a flat budget
request from so guess she just had Equity between like environmental commission the same amount of money in the budget and and then that you've added to the shade tree commission to they are the same yeah yep yes yeah I noticed that
yes environmental it's 350 shade is 3,800 no it's not 3, 50 isend they had asked for 3,800 and we gave them the same amount as environment okay so you did give them the same yeah yeah and they do some similar some
different but it's fine all good yep all right so the next page would be um construction we be Capital Community Development page 20 Community Development or do we want
to do everything engineering and doesn't matter so we'll be going over to 202 five items for right so starting on page 20 the first program going straight to capital for Community Development then you're going to go back to engineering and come
back to capital for well engineering is the only one with capital there's no Community Development Capital so page 20 Community Development Capital section digal tax yeah digital tax map yeah the
gift that keeps giving yeah so this this is the uh next year funding requested for the program um as we've determined last year there uh there are a number of gaps in the parcel
information for the township so the bulk of last year's and this current budget request is for field survey for uh basically the survey
consultant to establish uh benchmarks and parcel boundaries within those areas that weren't covered by most of the uh the major development that we do have thorough records for in the township so the 50,000 for 2026 is a a
tenative placeholder um but our our hope is that this this year uh funding request covers it right and then next year this we we won't have this again hope yeah hopefully it's end of it yeah this will
be yeah I think at least next year what you may have is what Jason was talking about with the telephone pole size plan sets that'll be the new tax maps because there are certain uh reproduction scale requirement ments that the maps have to be at a certain scale and when you do
that the number of sheets is going to increase drastically from what prior sets have been so what maybe one sheet this year could be four sheets by the time this is a final map and possibly even more so
you're talking about when you actually print them on paper sheets right okay so we're still still using paper yeah still using paper uh internally uh County requires it uh couple of agencies require it for their records um is this
going to require a maintenance every year I imagine be some things changing yeah it'll be no different than what we do with the engineering operating budget we have a consultant line item in there where part of that budget is used to pay
the survey consultant to physically maintain the paper tax maps at this time so that would be uh taken over just on a digital so that'll be part of the operating budget then just to maintain it okay
sounds good to not have to to be able to use this money for somewhere else after it yeah once we establish a digital program then we can no longer fund it through Capital that it has to migrate to current F but the county still wants paper even if we go all
digital shouldn't they be going digital too it's prettyy I'm shter I probably don't need a prop for the microphone uh the county the county wants paper the County tax office still wants paper the um state
will accept digital now but the county still wants paper and residents still want to come in and look at paper uh in in town hall it's it's easier to look at a big paper sometimes Al oh digital map um they
would they would be on well they could be on laser V we could get those scanned they oh yeah yeah yeah we have them digitally we we have electronic copies of them we don't have the the PDF we have PDFs a law say that we have to provide
both so someone comes in they want a paper copy versus we'd say well it's our ordinance allows someone to request a paper copy and we would have to give them a paper copy that we would print and they have to pay for it yeah by
ordinance I think we were the were the last town to fully convert right when we started this a few years back I think that's I think that's the case yeah so it's good I think we're the last in the
county I Envision have somewhere like a station where you can view this or out in the lobby yeah right now well the paper version yes so they'll still have the paper version out there even though you have a digital you can still print
it right you know what I'm saying so it'll still be available for public and and you let people come in if they're there during the day and you and you it for free I would assume we have yeah the paper copy yes yeah it's right out here digitals on like the website they could
click on and not yet it's not yet not yet after this year will it be available to the public without having to go through a whole ask at some point or we have to figure out so right now there's
no right now I think probably the easiest would be because you can right now you can access maps on sdl and you can see where the borders and stuff are so I don't ultimately if a person wanted to go to EZ's website the the company um
or to the new the New Jersey state geographic information Network they call it NJ Jin um through that they can see the parcel information um that it sort of trickles up from us to the county to the D
eventually um so the parcel information tends to be older up on this the state's uh the NJ dp's website um the parcel information tends to to lag a little bit the update but it's up on the state's
website currently yeah and you can go to the state's website and you can see where your flood planes and all the there's all kinds of stuff up there yes you have to be careful the ultimate resource uh the the definitive resource for flood planes is uh fema.gov fema.gov
at this point so if you want flood plane information for your property you would put your currently as of two days ago I was on their website it still where um you can put your street address in and it'll pop up a map that and that'll
be the femur as opposed to whatever D is doing which correct f is the ultimate resource for that because it all goes back to um blood insurance rate Maps um and we routinely help residents and prospective
purchasers with questions about FEMA's mapping well looks looks good gr you'll be happy when this is done yes okay moving on the page 21 is the annual bike lane Bikeway extension program3
21 21 sorry my my apologies 21 21 um so it's kind over in North Post Road is that the next is that the the U project that's happening right
now is that they well there's there's a number of projects in the works um out to Design Consultants so there's uh there North Post Road Bikeway there's Conover Road Bikeway um the Conover Road Bikeway is
not the contentious one that uh a number of residents closer to Edinburg uh objected to this current one stops at Jenny LAN to uh to South Post
Road um but there there were a couple requests that are indicated that were applied for um grants with the NJ doot those were not successful we received notification uh late last year um so the
ones listed on here are these new grants that we're trying to get where it says yeah those new grants were not granted oh so the ones on here unsuccessful so the ones that are listed here is pending 2025 are those the right the applications were pending review by the
do so you gotta remember this process starts September October okay and we were we were awarded this we we gave notification late December correct and um right we were denied those that yeah they were not successful they were not
accepted okay just try the two that are listed here were the ones that are not SU successful or correct under the grant funds available or other sources of funding those two projects were not uh approved by the do not accepted into
their grant program so we don't have that grant money do not no so like how far there's there's a number listed down here so how far are we with any of these are some of those on just on the list or some of those
we've figured out how much it would be um yeah I mean most of what's on the list those are placeholders on the list some of them are being uh undertaken partially like the the first bullet North Post Road between Village
Road West and Wood Hollow that's that's the one that's currently uh under design um it's that does have a do Grant associated with and that should be out the bid this spring
assuming do approves the plans and the specifications okay so the first one we're actually planning on putting out to bed what's the next one the Wood Hollow to Clarksville yeah that's a that's that's a placeholder um part of
that uh would be covered by the tatami trail portion where the trail comes out to north post and extends to the pump station driveway but that's a small part of that overall scope of Wood Hollow to
Clarksville and the ones after that have we done anything with them are they just placeholders at this point they're they're basically placeholders at this point any questions on this one page 23 page 23 sidewalk extension
program uh same bad news with the grant fund application what's indicated for the Carlton Place crosswalk was not accepted by the do into their grant program that was supposed to be part of
one of those developments that we heard are still hanging right and the ones down here again at the bottom um are you know are any of these in the works or are these all placeholders at this point uh honestly I
have to go look in a little more detail um unfortunately Staffing wise we're what we're engineering is basically me and John and our secretary uh did I
heard yeah Alex are our um engineering technician left for another position uh our replacement for Dan left for another position other Tech is out on leave so
we have a tentative um landscape architect starting later this month and we'll be interviewing for uh another engineering technician hopefully soon so right now we're just trying to keep
our heads above water trying to get the permit applications out certainly that's our priority not having people wait so but yeah any of these you want more detail on we can go back and uh get
to Administration where we are with the different projects well we'll just ask good where so we can get an idea of what's actually being done do you have five 571 sidewalk um going into windser drive because there Stu some students
High School South walk along 571 but I know uh yeah there's we we looked at it uh there's a lot of work that's required for it whether we're able to possibly
apply for grant funding for this uh the 2026 year or not but there's um one of the issues the biggest issue is that whatever is not currently
a curb or pavement or a sidewalk is private property because there's not a lot of excess right away because those developments are older so they weren't given the typical 50 feet that's requested today so to go beyond what's
there today because as you know if you've been out there there's a lot of landscaping uh that interferes with slight site distances um there would have to be negotiations with the property owners for for easements then there's removing the Landscaping giving them replacement
buffer landscaping and then there's getting the sidewalk itself extension extended which is the easy part it's more the the property owner negotiations I remember when we make certain approvals today even if we're not going
to put a sidewalk because there's nothing on the left or right of it we put right in there not only the easement but we either make them pay up front or something so that they're actually responsible for that sidewalk installation if the time comes but this
was a different time so right y Point like residents in that area probably need to First figure out if that's what they want they need to come in front I know Alison Miller had mentioned that it
seemed like it was just like the bend I know but there are Property Owners private property owners need to agree to yeah right and you know what kind of problems we have with cranberries so yeah oh yeah takes takes
time in the 571 project too yeah yeah unfortunately when it comes to a lot of these programs a lot of the simple projects have been done already now we're we're getting to the point where it is affecting uh private
property or involving private property so it would be good idea to have it there because a lot of High School South students do walk that even though it's a small section they do walk on high one to get to their it seemed like there were some sidewalks but just the
connection to bend yeah we'll see yeah there's there's sidewalks in the development there's sidewalks on 571 but they just don't link together there's um a lot of gaps and we find out the reason for the gaps
is the rightaway is not there so on the conova road one that's going from South post to which which which jinny lane because the first one the one closest to the ball fields the one closer to South Post yes so it'll be shorter version
okay okay um 25 was the Cranberry Road yep page 25 right right so this would be for the next phase of um Cranberry Road the money that was allocated last
year is um is going to be assigned to to a consultant uh and the money requested this year is the um earmark for the uh a portion of
the construction costs and once we get through with the consultant um the design phase will know better what the future year fundings are for 26 and 27 so we can refine those
uh in time for the 2026 budget request but at the present time most of those future years are placeholders but from what we know in the first three phases of this phase one 2A and 2B it's it's a expensive undertaking to do work and
this fordor and does this have the easement issue also oh yeah private private properties yeah there are some developments with sidewalks and those are the easy ones to link to it's get in between the developments where there's no no RightWay or there's
Landscaping there or both then there there I think there are four houses and then there's the nursery school right yeah before we connect to the sidewalks in that neighborhood right and then from there to Rabbit Hill you have a few few
more houses a few more a lot of mature trees some steep slopes to deal with that corner is going to take a yeah rabbit yes so do we have any update on the like you know when we think the design phase or the
consultant would be able to uh we have to put out the RFP honestly um we had hoped to have it underway but the again the staffing issues have prevented us from doing it they hope by the end of the year you
put out an RFP they do some kind of what engineering design work yeah a lot of survey to a lot of what's been done already has been conceptual so now the a more detailed survey needs to be done to figure out
exactly where the property lines are um the grading issues whatnot So the plan is to put 250 in this year with an anticipation of being putting it into a pot putting it into some pot that will
collect this money as it goes along right instead of coming to you for 750 or more it's a couple the consultant money was from last year or is so then then this 250 will hopefully be enough we'll start paying towards the project itself yeah
right right with the consultant work we could at least be able to start on permitting and acquisition costs negotiations with property owners which could be covered out of this 250 requested
page 26 26 is the crosswalk Improvement projects uh these are either for Standalone crosswalks or crosswalks that are part of other roadway Improvement projects you know top your head from last year
many year what was requested or what was well how much do we have left from what we've uh I'm I don't believe 2024 has been spent yet so I think the full balance remains yeah we generally run
about a year behind on the funding so funding to to expenditures right is pen L and in new Brook Road the trolley Line Trail crosswalks are um there's a design contract I
believe we have out for those four because there's pen L and then there's three others yeah this is right by almost like baseball fields at High School South you know pen L right in that area someone had well gotten yeah where Cano Brook comes out yes yeah so
that's being that's going to be done this year it should be yeah yeah that design was awarded on that last year so would that be okay so um would that come out of
this running fund at this point and that would be last year's money most likely so what which ones would it be pen ly and canoebrook and are there any others that are in the pipeline right now well there's again all the three
trolley line trails development crosswalks and where the trolley line crosses pen L and then also pen L like canoebrook um I know there was a couple others in
that design contract with Roberts right yeah I'd have to I'd have to get the details to to carry to get to you the TR Line Trail one is the one that goes where it's ends in the odd
spot and it just crosses in an odd spot so yeah it's always good I know members of B West Wier bicycle and pedestrian Alliance um yeah I see him back behind me yeah she is yeah yeah that that one's that one's really odd there's there's
just a road and there's nothing even not not even a a paint saying anybody's Crossing there at this point well that's the one you guys U you bumped up funding last year we continue that as you as you see so yeah we we built the whole other
extension but there's nothing tying it in there so okay or PSG built most of the extensions yeah they did the extension and uh came out the pen l so people can get across but um we had a traffic consultant do a
concept for how that crosswalk should look uh so it'll be relocated um instead of running a skew to the center line of the road it'll run perpendicular there's a utility pole right there we can add a street light onto that utility pole in fact I think
there the light's already been installed surprisingly uh so that's that's basically the location where where it would be so that concept was given to another consultant with a couple other locations internal to uh the
developments there where that trolley line continues to cross through just to update those crosswalks as well we have a list like Sam gave us a status report on um you know residential commercial projects yeah I can I can get Carrie
what we have and whether it's concept design or yeah yes I think yes yeah we could AG um 28 base 28 sidewalk repair program for Street trees okay well this
amount of money we're looking at a 6 to 12 months which given that things have to go out to bid if you you know it depends kind when you where you hit it uh when you request or will this maintain that six to 12 months so we're not falling behind yeah yeah this this
is uh this is adequate um in fact this is one of the last projects Alex was able to work on for us was to get the uh last list out the bid and should be coming to you for award if not just recently
awarded um and again we have the running list continuing to to does that contract pretty much take care of everything that's on the list as of when the contract was sent out uh I think it does through last fall
yes yeah yeah page 30 yes page 30 uh this is a street tree inventory so this is related
to um the community forestry management plan and the D requirements under the Community forestry program uh there have been updates to the rules I guess they felt left out of the D storm waterer rules so they had to do
some new trickle down rules so they're requiring that street tree inventories be more robust than are currently done uh throughout the majority of the State
uh I think this was probably mainly driven by the emerald ash for incident and the way they were overwhelmed with budgeting requests by communities to help them deal with it so what they want is better information from the towns on
making sure the towns know what they have and where it's at so that if something comes up they're not left scrambling and how to address the next issue that may come along with the a pest or a disease um so there is a mapping
requirement that has to be undertaken with the next um forestry management Plan update which is due early 2026 so I assume to do this you basically have to assign a number to every
tree it's yeah basically you can do it by street address so you have a street address and however many trees are in front of a property and how big and what what species they are so and initially what we would like to also do is get an
assessment of their current health because it we don't want to have somebody doing an inventory and list something as you know dead or diseased or a problem and then it just goes in a list so so the only way this really works is to treat each tree as a named
ENT entity of some kind as a number it's got to be a it doesn't have to be as um detailed as what we're doing with the storm sewer program where a surveyor has to go out with rod and pole and GPS each
location um but it does need to be detailed enough to know that on um Main Street there are 25 Elms and 13 beaches and there of this approximate age
condition so you just have to put the street you don't have to say you know 13 uh oldrich Road has two trees in front of it or anything like that no it it will have to be that detail so it will have to be exact location almost like a
GPS almost if you go on Google Earth and you pick at the tree and you can so I'm just wondering are you going to number these trees put a number on them or something like that so you can actually keep track of them it'll probably be assigned to the property and um maybe an
A B and C if there's three trees or one two three yeah we'll work that out with the consultant that be enough 30,000 well there's uh there's a we're allowed to when this is resubmitted next year we're
allowed to at least show progress if this isn't sufficient we can at least show that we have a plan of what we're doing how we're doing and how we're budgeting it and what we've been able to accomplish so far they're a lot more lenient than the DP land use and storm
water people are where they they won't come out and slap your wrist and give you finds um they're more willing to work with you because they know the benefit of what forestry management has for them on the state level and us on
the township level so more willing Partners this basically for the survey yes yeah it's Township owned Street trees right public Street trees I had a question on actually was under Sam for
some reason um the tree replacement uh right now we take down an emerald ashb tree or we take down a tree to turn black and it's no good anymore um and I assumed or the residents assume that if you take the tree down you automatically
come and grind the stump at some point there's a list and then you replace it at some point and is that how it works or does somebody have to call and say hey there's a stump in front or you took out the tree and and would like a
replacement so yeah there's a list of where trees have been removed and we have been contacted by owners requesting a timeline for when those trees are going to get replaced and again unfortunately do they have to contact or do you have that list and you are going
to come they're certainly welcome the contact if they want to confirm that we have them on our list but for this there is there is an automatic it just may not have happened yet is what you're seeing yeah there's so there's a couple restraints number one is Personnel uh
number two is the planting season so you have a spring season and a fall season and as explained to somebody uh who called about this I don't know if it was early this week or late last week but right now we would be in the timeline where we have to have
the spring program out to bid enabl to plant during the Spring season and we're not able to do that so most likely we're going to have a fall planting program for the street trees that we're currently aware of so somebody can contact you if they're want to make sure
they want to know when but you would have it unless something falls through the cracks you would automatically be planning on yeah from from the tree removal contract we know where're trees we're paying somebody to have trees taken out we also have a record from
Public Works where they've taken down trees or have removed stumps so between the two of them that's that's our list of what we're aware of okay so you have a list it's po but it's possible something could fall through but most of the time just taking
okay page 31 page 31 emergency road and drainage repair program so this is similar to what we talked about with cranberry where money set aside uh for if and when projects
and problems do happen uh occasionally this money is spent on surprises that come up during the road program where we have an area that needs um unexpected repairs or problems with the storm sewer
especially with corrugated metal pipe tends to be uh the biggest problem where something's called out as concrete but then when they do the work we find out it's corrugated metal with pin holes so we'll add those into a program as
needed so and how much is in this right now uh cumulatively I would have to get back to you but I know the last year's money hasn't been spent I think there's about three years of Bounce
probably so about 150 this is just for emergency repair it's not for improvements or anything like that uh we don't typically use it for the annual Road program and again unless we're in the
middle of something and there's a surprise that the budget can't um absorb then we'll use this uh page 32 annual Road Improvement program for the residential roadways uh funding consistent with with prior
years uh towards the bottom of the page you'll see a list of Roads anticipated for 2025 and placeholders for 2026 and this one again this and the next one which um there's one on
collector roads and one on um local roads is this enough money is this yeah because I mean it's it's a long long time 30 years 40 years years to get your road replaced and a lot of well honestly that's supposed to be the lifetime of the
roadway is about what is it 30 it's it's in the range of 20 plus as long as they were constructed properly okay but the bottom line is like we did a project you go they went around they said there's AB c d rankings of the roads and presumably we have
a inventory yes we have a minimum of we what we'd consider acceptable presumably and and let's say it's B+ average just throwing that as a thing out here um so if that's if that's the way we were
looking at are we falling above behind or we coming out ahead on with this amount of money I wouldn't say we're falling behind I'd say we're keeping up so we think we're just keeping up and with addition of New Roads and other
things going on and the fact that the 30 years that I guess Linda just mentioned is if that the life of the road and we have all these roads that are now reaching that is this going to be enough is basically what we're well enough not
to fall behind at some yeah I mean I could tell you some roads that are pretty bad not on this list it's gonna be so I'm thinking maybe we need to spend more well certainly if if there's a list of roads that you're hearing complaints
about you can always send them in and we can let you know where they fall compared to the other ones that are on the list you got to remember the town as of maybe four or five years ago only committed 73,000 toward roads we've been increasing this I know we we're up to
over two if you add in the grants we're going to be close to $2 and half million dollars this year just on roadway improv but a lot of development occurred in 1990s I understand that but are now 30 years to weigh certain options yeah
understood that's why we have the program survey what is that thing called yeah your road inventory oh yeah the uh just just the assessment right overall when we did that second assessment about a year ago and we had
done one like three four years be before that you had the right the color the the one with the color charts and the maps and everything uh if you looked at it at an aggregate are roads same better worse
than from the two between the two assessments I think they're pretty much the same I think the average using that program uh five was the worst condition one was the best like just redone and the average I think
before with the first time was in the high twos and this last time it came in at 2.6 so it's almost right in the middle so um i' I've heard some complaints from some residents on Channing Way because
that road was redone last year I think there was a gas leak earlier this year and PG redid some work and the road was not patched up properly so I have encourage them to reach out to you guys they
did right the patch that did was a temporary patch it's terrible it's absolutely so is that something that falls under yeah Township like us to Township to well we don't we don't fix it but we
keep on them to come back and repair it properly BG has to come back and redo it they sub a road open that and they have larger repair to do is they they actually drill holes in the basement
to where G Le is and so the patch isn't even the worst part patch is OB bad part right but the holes have also be correct right now it's in a pretty bad shape because uh you know I I went went
over there to see and it's not in good place and that was that repair was done during winter unfortunately right interestingly enough there was an enormous patch right in front of that driveway when we rid well so we thought
they had fixed uh they did not they did not right okay so but we haven't had appropriate seats for them to repair again so so come spring so but it's PG's responsibility to come back and yes most
importantly their cost right ex that's what I wanted to is like is that Township cost or is that now PG has to come back P gas and we will make sure to get okay Madam president before we go any further would you like to extend yeah we
probably need like 15 minutes what what do you guys think nice well I only extend it to three and then if we get earlier that's fine I'm not going to go extend 10 minutes at a time okay we'll do a motion I'm going motion to extend the meeting uh end of the meeting till 3
pm at this point so moved second I assume I can do a voice vote on this voice all in favor I okay thank you we are officially extended till three at this point okay so page 34 annual Road
Improvement program for collector roads this we usually use in concert with the do Municipal aid grant program uh so we had a pending request with uh
Municipal aid for Village Road West out to Quakerbridge and and the amount requested was what you see indicated the 537 600 and we were awarded a grant but it was not in this full amount it was a
portion of that I think it was about 469 some some odd number I don't know 4 9932 yeah how they came up with it I don't know uh but that's what um that's will be used for us is getting that uh
designed and reconstructed got a good amount of oh yeah considering what happened to the last ones yeah they since since the uh gas tax went in the amount of funding has improved um certainly not above 500 but
you mean the gas and EV tax yeah we used to get in the 200s so it's nice to see them uh increasing uh page 36 SP Drive Extension um so this is similar
to uh similar to Cranberry where a portion of the funding requested has been for consultant work um we are in contact with Mercer County uh about how to proceed in a manner that
allows us to possibly secure Federal funding if we're able to get dvrpc support of this roadway extension um we have heard uh informally from New Jersey
Transit that their Outreach to NJ doot about the dinky Crossing which is the biggest one of the bigger obstacles to this um that the idea of a second dinky Crossing is uh not worth pursuing because it
would most likely not ever be granted but the idea of relocating the existing dinky Crossing to a location that works with the Drive Extension is more reasonable and worth including in the concept so that's uh that's encouraging
news and again once we have um merca County feedback on how to proceed with dvrpc and in fact I think they just did it for what they're doing on the Old Trenton Road Corridor study I think that they're proceeding on their own manner
that allows them to then transition to outside funding um so we're working on them on on copying that model for this this roadway Improvement did we do um a Consulting study at with that uh design do we have
any kind of so we're still Haven put out an RFP or how no that'll be this spring excuse me that'll be this spring putting out in RFB so page 37 signage and striping improvements it's a nominal amount for
additional signage and striping needed in the township that's not part of a larger program so we'll work with public works or turn the money over to Public Works um where things are
needed page 39 Grovers Mill Dam inspection and repairs so this is uh similarly to a couple of the other programs where funds are collected for larger projects
um right now uh we are 2025 is a year for a regular inspection with an outside consultant of the dam typically when those inspections are done they come back with a report that's provided to d
d comments on what things found need to be repaired at this time and which can be deferred and further monitored for future repairs and then that's we'll do a design contract for repair program and
use the funds collected to pay for those repairs um page 43 Wallace Road bus garage remediation um so right now as you know there is an agreement with the parking
authority to look at um enhanced parking out there for uh the public uh what has not been um I guess determined or finalized has been the
soil uh remediation there's uh groundwater cleanup that needs to happen and soil contamination cleanup that needs to happen so this funding is the
requests uh as per the um license site remediation professional there estimate of what would be needed to undertake the soil cleanup that would allow the um parking authority to proceed with the parking improvements the groundw work
can continue with the parking lot in place similar to what's already happening at the former landfill Compost Facility so this is just going to cover the soil remediation yes yes and 44 next page is the Compost
Facility landfill parking lot um well um that's the one at the train station correct at the where you go from the upper lower lot to the yeah upper vau it's sometimes called yeah um vau
lot um and um basically it disturbs me every time I walk past uh it's it's essentially a retention Basin of some form there's inlets and there's at least one outlet for storm water in there I don't know if they're in between the two parking lots you're talking about okay
um whether they're connected I can't see obviously but it looks like that's what it's there where there is Inlet and Outlet of storm water is there something we could do with that to make it a more
say um uh modern type of uh green infrastructure uh even consider turning it into some kind of wetlands in that area I think it's a I think it's an infiltration Basin yeah it's just the sand filter it's just sitting there like that is
there something we can do to make it a little bit uh nicer nicer even a little bit more environmental uh like even into some form of a well technically it is a green design it doesn't look green there's not
a lot of plant material that's that's aspect of the sand right um but it's not total infiltration I know there is an outlet yeah honestly whether it's working or not that I can't tell you that's that's a discussion for the parking authority or with the parking
authority because they paid to install that and they pay to maintain it so I think any conversion they're going to want if they don't agree to pay for the town would need to pay for but then future maintenance would fall back on them so that's part but we pay for this
here um we we pay this now right for the um monit yeah this right this has to do with monitoring the landfill the gases produced out of the landfill and also for the contaminated groundwater associated with the landfill so this
doesn't do any maintenance of the parking lot this doesn't actually do anything it's just maintaining okay I'm maybe parking it there would like to do something with that I don't know yeah so this will be going on forever then each year I we originally did it I thought it
was like five years monitoring once the project was done but it's it it all depends on the results that they get so if if there's natural attenuation meaning that the levels are the same or declining then at a certain point the D
says okay you've done enough to show that it's stable whatever is there isn't getting worse and they I assume it'll get better over time that's I'm wondering if some type of a planting thing would actually remove some of that from the soil and do away with this
issue or something where the levels are at I don't think any planting is going to reach the levels still problems are at I'm sorry they're still that high that would be an issue it I don't think it's the numbers I think it's the level that any plants would have to be at it's
not the water running off the parking lot getting into the groundwater it's the pollution from the landfill that's at the groundwater table either you have to like at the at the uh garage take all the landfill material
out of there then that would stop the groundwater contamination I think part of the process is that they they drill holes deep into the uh infrastructure to measure right yeah they go down below that and they find there right where as
you pointed out the surface water is really inconsequential to that the sand filter can infiltrate at the sand filter It ultimately all discharges to the
down because the sand filters on top right so it's not really right but it in this case the sand filter goes to an underdrain which goes to a storm sewer it doesn't sand filter to the groundwater table because of the underlying contamination they don't want
more groundwood or getting to the ground contaminated and potentially pushing the pollution migrating it further off site because it attenuates the volume of the water qualities run off from the
development yeah it it basically addresses the pavement and the oils from the vehicles using the parking lot it's not meant to address anything with the land basically protecting from the runoff water right it's addressing the parking
lot side of the property not the landfill side uh page 45 the flood abatement program uh funding amount requested same as as prior years um we have a number of
uh projects that are in the design phase uh based on residential complaints or Public Works uh assistance requests so we should and I think that we just had an email about that we should have
something out to bid this spring on the um on flooding um Indian Run Road and Wellington Road that area flooded and we we've gotten a series of of emails from
yeah Indian Run we just reached out to the consultant currently under contract to ask them either about adding that that into the current one or getting us a proposal to do it separate well have
you done that or or I just want to you know respond back to the latest it's budget season do we have the money to have currently have the money we do yeah we don't need are we doing that that's not substantial enough of an issue to
need separate funding so it would be covered with this current program yes this funding sufficient this year's program is what I mean yeah we're requesting them to look at it so depending on what work they say is
required uh which honestly I don't expect it to take an overwhelming amount of work but um there may be property owner issues because there are a number of easement drainage easements that run between properties so even though the town has a right to be there we're still
sensitive to to the people who own the underlying property that we're keeping them happy and what we do do we have enough money to do any kind of construction or make in this program yes for this for this year we do we have
several years of funding that I know there's been some correspondents back to the residents but I just wanted to be clear yes we're having a consultant look at that actively that's what we've asked them well we've we've asked
them to get us a price for what it would take for them to go out and do an engineering assessment but we you feel that we have enough money to do the engineering assessment based on my understanding of the problem and looking at it all right
let's just start any other questions on this one no 46 46 uh Emerald ashor Management program for Street
trees is uh funding requests uh for um what remaining trees we have currently um this last uh Street tree removal
program has been primarily ash trees that we had been treating uh under this program but it had always been the expectation that the treatment was not going to preserve 100% all the trees in
perpetuity it was more to delay their decline to a point where the town didn't have to come up with extraordinary funds to deal with the issue when the boore was the the bigger problem than it currently is so this
that's why the funding has gone down substantially but this is uh what we're expecting to be needed to maintain um Street tree removals and continuing treatment of those trees deemed healthy
enough to continue treating and and we did receive all the funding from the State Grant to close to 50% of this fund is it like 300,000 it's over 300,000 350 somewhere right around 350 off the top of my head yes and so we received all
the funds from that oh I know this we went beyond what we thought so it's it's been a true partnership with the state for change uh page 47 utility maintenance and Improvement program program so this is an account set up for
covering utility related issues uh primarily recently it's been used for um Street lighting expansion uh addition requests addressing areas that that were not attended to at this
point um for the most part typically if there's a utility poll available we'll take advantage of the utility poll um but where psng has to or jcpnl has to undertake an engineering design and
installation of polls those get charged to the municipality for that work but if they can if there's a utility pole out there that they can simply mount a light onto then we'll just pay a monthly service fee for those
lights but what we're running into again is all the easy projects have been done and where we have to add lights now are areas where there's no polls available are we're looking that right now we have a number of of uh areas that
we have had requests in and agreements for lighting that have not been serviced yet uh we're still waiting for feedback um right now we have uh the most recent has been Bennington Bennington Drive um
there have been a couple polls we were able to change lights on or add lights to but that being one of the newer areas newer development areas in town all the utilities are underground so there's not just freand standing utility poles for
overhead wires everything's buried so in those areas where we need additional lights they've given us a cost estimate I think somewhere around 32,000 for um the cost to extend lines and add new polls so did you say you're
adding flight pole on Bennington Drive there's there's a couple that are needed to so two you're gonna put in two new ones I'm sorry two new ones two new light P I don't know the exact number of poles off the top of my head but I there
are additional poles that need to be installed out there yes so that's for this year yes about there at least one there right what about Brook who epj Bear Brook that's been approved
using existing uh utility polls and we're just waiting on psng to actually install the lights okay so that's on the way so um speaking of of Lights I know that I gotten a complaint Village Grand there were off the top of my head I
think about 14 lights you know it's jcpnl um they had contacted them they contacted me I contacted the mayor who was contacting JCP pnl so um um if if they still can't get
anything through jcpnl caning department help them if if the mayor can't we would have the same well representative that the mayor has contact our representative from the company right and failing that it would be call on the BPU filing a complaint
with the BPU which is something their Association could do right right yeah fortunately so theyve been they would be given Direction like okay here's how to file uh I I never have filed a complaint
um I would think that there's a at least instructions on the bpu's website on how to do that file a complaint about a utility provider but that they would know to do that get back to them right 10 years ago as a private citizen
complain to the BDU about a utility and it was an online form you filled out and and last week you got a oh I'm sorry 24 hours they got back to me and within 48 Hours it resolved you have a business card you want who did you talk you
talk Consulting pce okay all accessible through the website through the BPU website yeah that's what we have to start doing because we do get a lot of PS and G okay on page 48 the sewer collection
system Pump Station improvements [Music] um there's uh funding requests for 2.5 million
um there are a number of uh the main interceptors that are need of work in the township uh Washington Road in the vicinity of the train station is one of those areas the DNR uh
Interceptor out behind can um yeah Canal Point Boulevard and the canal Point developments uh is another one so and unfortunately when you get to
interceptors they're large they're deep they're not like your typical residential line which is 8 in pipe a couple feet in the ground many of them are also along environmentally constrained areas which makes uh construction expensive and permitting
required to encroach into What lands and flood planes temporarily to to access them so so any any of those pump stations are they getting reconstructed you mentioned one two three five of them at the bottom of the
page yeah there's there's potential where work is found to be required as part of these projects again uh we'll work with Public Works who's the licensed operator to be made aware of
issues like generators no longer functioning um and then do planned upgrades for those stations currently uh with stations we have our hands full with Southfield and South posts and duck pond and Duck Pond let's
not forget Duck Pond uh but those are all um underway and should be completed this year so to all of them all those five not the ones that are listed on the page the three I just mentioned Southfield South
post and duck Bond all right page 50 Watershed Improvement plan and storm sewer system mapping uh this 2025 would be the third year of the actual mapping
infrastructure mapping that's required by the state uh I think Andrea you had asked for yeah I had asked for Council to have a little summary of what ms4 the dates that things are due and how it's going to affect future budgets yeah so the um
the D permitting for storm water discharge in the town uh with the last permit update from um from 2018 uh in the latest permit granted to
the townships all the townships in the state by the state DP had implemented this Watershed impr Improvement plan requirement it's a multi-stage
multiphase um I guess Improvement plan that needs to be undertaken the first part of which is this mapping program so municipalities are required to map all publicly and privately owned storm
waterer infrastructure uh and relevant data by 2026 and this includes outfalls inlets piping interconnections with other entities um Improvement coverage and
where the state has uh pollutant data on waterways that needs to be included for any waterways within the municipality so basically it's a starting point of knowing what you have and where it is in your town
and then the next phase between 2026 and 2027 is a planning requirement where communities are supposed to outline potential water quality improvement projects uh and provide an estimate of
funding necessary for the improvements um and if we choose to undertake any of our own water quality sampling or testing or studies that we also include that information to so basically with the mapping you
understand what you have and where it's at and what the D says is polluted and how it's polluted then you're supposed to look at that information to figure out how you can reduce those pollutant loads in those waterways by projects
within the drainage areas in your town that go to those waterways um the idea is what they're encourag ing also for the planning process is to do it on a watershed basis where it'll be a
Consortium of towns who drain to a Waterway to do a more holistic approach about what each town can do to improve the Waterway instead of just looking at your own Municipal boundaries and confining yourself to your Municipal
boundaries um there has been some work uh on on the Asen pink river or Asen pink Creek uh within the municipality there have been a couple meetings I think the Watershed Institute
had had put together about that um but with these deadlines approaching I think that's going to ramp up and and uh get to the point where towns are going to need to come to some agreement or whether they're going to work in concert with each other or
independently and then how those agreements would be structured for for working together Watershed I don't know if you read that one where Princeton Hydro presented a proposal and uh at the Watershed meeting
that um a couple months ago and they've they're trying to figure out the cost based on uh who in the what the um amount of impervious surface you have in the wers shed I think we came out at around 5% of the total so they just sent
a quote on they said something like our our contribution to get in on that report which would just be for the asup pink was $3,000 but I sent them back a note saying does that if everybody agrees to do it and then they said well yeah right
so I don't know yeah so um I don't know how far along they are with that as far as having enough people agreeing to do it so that we could get it at that price so right that might be one way one way of
um of coming in on that and getting those reports yeah it's it's similar to what we do with the sanitary sewer improvements where we're upgrading something to somebody else's benefit is we'll do a fair share allocation of the
overall cost based on what they're sending into the system but this particular case we need agree right they don't have the legislative authority to mandate each town this is your fair share they it's more of a Cooperative
where they're asking people but I think if [Music] um if people understand what the overall individual cost would be compared to paying a minor share I I think they would agree to work together at least
that's my hope but we haven't yet experienced it so I can't be sure on that I know they got Trenton in to the last meeting meeting and Robinsville i t talked to Robinsville came into the last meeting so maybe there's but no
everybody's waiting I guess for everybody else to actually sign on so um yeah I think some of it too is there's waiting to see if the D is going to offer any funding for this like right now it's the funding's been very sporadic compared to the costs of what
they're asking people to do and and they've kind of said the DP may be more willing to offer a regional funding then an individual Town funding and yeah I think that would help to incentivize and encourage um Alis it's 257 and I know we have a couple people who have to speak
do we need to do we need to extend this again yeah we should probably extend okay sorry everybody yeah yeah and yeah all right um oh um can I have a motion to extend till 3:30 so moved second okay all in
favor okay thank you I'm sorry go ahead Francis that's okay so then the the last requirement of this this three-phase program would be that the municipalities have to submit final projects uh for
water quality improvement to the D by 2028 so between 2027 and 2028 the towns actually have to um show what they're doing within their municipality and how they're funding it so at this point there's no actual
requirement until later on to actually Implement any of these programs for a while or as far right implementation would be um after 2028 so 2028 is where you have
to show what your projects are okay and obviously you don't want project and then subject to funding towns would implement but by that time also I think the next uh iteration of the tier permit is to be
issued by the state so okay they may mandate in there so is is this money just going to be covering this mapping that we're talking about which is the second which is actually the first stage or do we have a budget to cover these next two
stages that are coming up there's projections for the next two stages that are in the six-year plan but what's uh anticipated for 2025 uh would be primarily for mapping purposes map but we do need to start
getting into that next stage pretty soon but then no so is there any money that we need at this point do we have enough money to cover moving into that next stage I think with the numbers
especially you're talking about that uh with the town's portion and that's just ask you pink we millstone's probably a bigger piece for us I would guess right it depends on all the water sheds they study so there's Duck Pond Run there's the DNR Canal there's Millstone um so
it's it's how much of the information is out there and how much they're expecting uh us to Define in the uh in the planning portion of this um so I I think until the mapping is further along
it's hard to project future needs but if we need more money for for 2026 it'll be shown in the 2026 budget yeah than money money you know in the in the budget um there's nothing that Council has to um
approve as far as wait ainan or or anything just when you just when they award the consultant yeah there'll be consultant contracts that that'll come there but if there's if if that's one of the determinations in the planning that
changes to the zoning ordinance for land use coverage or changes to the storm water regulations would improve water quality in some of these Weds it it may come to that it may be showing that certain portions of the township have different storm water management
requirements for water quality eventually we have to come up with a plan to say we're going to improve the water we're sending into the Watershed and that can cost money yeah I mean there there are a number of developments in the town that were built
before storm water management was a thing like Baran city is a perfect example all those streets and homes get piped directly to a stream so trying to do something in those neighborhoods would of course result in improvements for water quality
to those waterways but um whether there's any excess room to even do something or now you have to have things done on a lot by lot basis you know that's part of what the the planning study would undertake thank you
Francis good uh Sam wanted to talk about Street tree replacement planting on page 51 so I think I know we talked about that before you had questions about whether we were doing it or not well no whether
we automatically did right if people are aware but yeah residents can always call or email uh to to confirm this this will be enough to cover our Replacements as we need them then uh to be seen I think we still have
2024 uh because Dan left in 2024 and the first person we hired left in 2024 I don't think we actually hired somebody that you actually hired a landscap architect not a landscape architect we had an engineering
technician oh okay that we were basically assigning portions of what Dan did but that didn't work out so well getting a landscape architect yes are they are they licensed yes yes good
yes yep so is that it do you need me to talk about the open space thank you okay questions any no any questions I know that the West winster bicycle pedestrian Alliance had sent us a letter regarding the budget I think
there were a couple couple things on that list I um I don't know if you have that letter no I don't with you to address or okay I'm no I'm going to ask one thing that actually for some reason is under Community
Development um there's something here for improve landscape improvements the municipal comp comp Lex and there's like no money in it till 2028 yeah that's that's in Sam's budget and that's typically what uh how it's
been funded in the past and some par avilable from3 if you look at the we um we have some money in we have some money in the ordinance for this complex yeah it was never really done as you well know we're in litigation at the moment for the final
change order so once that's resolved and we know what the outcome is then we can move forward with our final Landscaping sidewalk improvements of this location so that's what holding it up right now so all that all that stuff's being held up but it's in the plan and we have M
for it okaying on that yeah once we've resolved the litigation and we know where we're at then we can move forward and finish the project I don't want to spend that money and then have to use it for the change order and have to come back to you for more um we feel we have
good good case but you know we're in litigation so we see where we go okay thanks thank you m John thank you Francis you okay okay at this point I'm going to open up public comment so
whoever whether if anyone signed up and if not uh anybody in the public wants to come up no test test test test test there good afternoon and Clifton 18
gston Drive I just want to thank the administration for recommending the $100,000 um in the budget for crosswalk Improvement as the council had budgeted last year so we would hope that you would continue to fund at that level so
that we can continue to get rapid flashing beacons crosswalks across you know for trails that cross roadways Etc so thank you for your consideration thank you an is there anybody else that wishes to
okay she left no okay I'm going to close the public comment at this time and uh we don't have any closed sessions so I think we can entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I
okay eyes have it and we are adjourned thanks John yes