oh yeah M got some Road and stuff oh yeah one second please we're we're perfecting the technical here okay thank you okay I call to order the meeting of the
West Windsor Township Council for March 3rd 2025 Allison can you call the roleas here Jers here Mandel here Weiss here Whitfield we were tically noticed uh on
January 17th 2025 to the times in the Princeton packet filed with the municipal clerk posted in the West wisor Municipal Building um here at Clarksville Road and on the website please stand for the salute to the flag States
stand indivisible we have several ceremonial matters tonight uh first one is a proclamation for colon cancer Dan would you like to read that certainly thank you um for those following along this is um very meaningful to me as I'm in my
sixth year now of recovery from colon cancer and since Proclamation really talks about how um how important it is to to stay on top of one's health because colon cancer is very much preventable so the proclamation for
colon cancer awareness month um whereas cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in men and women in the United States and whereas colon cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented with timely screening uh but one in three eligible americ
Americans are not up to dat on screening whereas colon colonoscopy which is a procedure that detects small growths or pops so they can be removed before they develop into cancer and screenings find colon cancer early enough where treatment can be most
effective uh whereas screening for colon cancer should begin at age 45 or younger if at high risk and continue at regular intervals recommended by Health Care Providers whereas observing colon cancer awareness month provides a special opportunity to increase awareness and
offer education on the importance of early detection and screening of colon cancer now therefore be it resolved by mayor marate and the township Council of the township of West Windsor that the month of March be proclaimed claimed as colon cancer awareness month and that the mayor and Township Council shall
call upon all citizens to ask their healthc care provider about this potentially life-saving screening thank you Dan and I'll read the proclamation for women's history month and that one's very personal to me too and I'll talk a little bit about in
um Council comment whereas women have made substantial contributions throughout American history in the building of our nation our freedom our culture our Commerce and our families and whereas the historical and current contributions of women are
celebrated internationally nationally and in the state of New Jersey during the month of March and whereas women's History Month provides us with the opportunity to honor celebrate and learn about the history of women through many events and activities that recognize the
trailblazing achievements of women as they faced and overcame obstacles and continue to break down barriers and whereas women have major roles across all Fields including Science Education medicine law politics government
military business culture Sports and More and whereas West Windsor strives to encourage our diverse women of all ages and backgrounds to achieve their full potential in all Endeavors and encourages all our young people to
pursue their Futures with freedom and whereas women in West Windsor historically and actively serve in all levels of government including elected office volunteer Emergency Services police management and staff positions
and whereas women in West Wind contribute to our community every day as volunteers Educators medical professionals service Personnel business entrepreneurs technical professionals business people artists military service
members and managers across many fields while serving in their crucial family roles as both nurturers and providers and whereas we stand together as both women and men to recognize women's history and accomplishments now therefore be it resolved mayor heathi
and members of the township Council hereby recognize March as women's history month thank you next for our um uh priority consideration we have um gay Yuber who's going to
speak to us for the Historical Society of West Windsor and give us an update for 2025 thank you thank you Council and mayor um first of all the Historic Society would like to thank the administration especially Miss Schmid and M arenson for all of the assistance
that they give us each year um our we've been working on so many projects that they have helped us with over the past year we were able with your um passing the uh architect the historic architect which is going to give us a
great view of what needs to be done um hopefully give us opportunities to be able to get uh on the national and state registry which would then allow us the township and the Historic Society to get grants which we're all working for last
year we had a couple of new events that I just want to highlight and we'll be having them again this year we had a farm day where we worked with the wof House Museum the mammoth County 4 the appleget and the Howard how living
farm this was a success we had hundreds of people who showed up uh and we were planning to do it again this June we had our first classic movie night I think there was a couple of council members there uh we are planning that again this
year in July we had our third annual of Festival C cultural Festival in August we will be doing that again this August um we were a stop for the bike fest in September we had an apple day in
September for our open house we had a fall festival where we had pumpkin picking Museum tours a petting zoo and crafts uh and then we had our annual holiday open house and all of these events and more will be continuing in
2025 in 2024 we also started our youth engagement Council um and this is made up of about a dozen um youth that are from uh 7th to high through high school and they are working on various projects
and learning to be dosen as well um so we're uh honored to have them they're really helping us out our board meetings became public so the public can watch them on Zoom or attend each month at the uh at the I was going to say
Firehouse the farm and we've installed the historic markers which you all knew of last year the four that we put in and then we're also working with the Baran City neighborhood association in raising funds to have a a metal sign put in
there as well along with a few other area um that we're going to do we've done a lot of work throughout the house as some of you who've been there have seen um we've done some Plastering some painting some fixing of the porches that
face the north side most people don't go around to um we repainted and repaired our double seat out house which I never knew there was a double seat out house but it's it's a highlight we have we installed Shades in our in the um
Schoolhouse to help preserve all of the um artifacts that are in and there and we're in the process of also getting shades for the house so we're preserving everything we're also working on an inventory numbering system of all of our
um artifacts so that we have exact and we've been working with many girl scouts and boy scouts for their eagle and gold projects so please come by they one student did our um repainted half the garage we have another boy scout is
going to paint the other half we have a new Garden that was put in uh we have one working on signage for stuff in the barn we have another one who's going to paint half the fence because it's a lot of fence to do so we are proud to have them with
us um we are also grateful for the work that uh the township has done for us with the maintenance and the new roof on the barn and other items uh and we look forward to the architectural assessment coming out and being able to make a plan
going forward along with the township uh we received our first grant uh which we were kind of proud of because we've never done one so we um it's a small Grant from the Mercer County cultural and Heritage commission
but that will help us with um interpretive signing throughout the farm as well as some archival storage materials that we need to preserve some of the AR IES that we have so we are continuing to do all of
this and more and we thank the council the mayor and administration especially for all their support thank you thank you very much k um are there any questions did anybody no I mean gay this
being budget season since there was a a draft architectural report um do you think we'll get it in March or early April that would be up to I'm not sure if that's working with uh I think though that Brian or Mr Aronson has worked some
of that into the capital from the conversations I've had with him um so it's I I we're anticipating right I'm not sure when we're going to get the final uh report but um we've seen some of us have seen a preliminary um we're
very pleased with what they are coming out with we had some questions we're back and forth with a few things um and hopefully because of this and if we get our designation either at the state level or at the national level it will open up avenues for all of us to get
grant funding and then take that burden off of the taxpayers okay and I know we did voice I I will call it voiceovers yes um so you got that too oh I still owe M some of us are waiting for our voices
to we have a lot of projects in the in the going on so oh the one I did mention was the Revolutionary so we have connected with most of the nonprofits in West Windsor we've had a couple of meetings uh the recreation Ken Jacobs is
also on our meetings for this so we are working on a calendar of events that will happen for next year and our main goal is to probably use the events we already all do and just put them uh more of a theme for the
Revolutionary War um so maybe at the Memorial Day Parade we'll do a little something different or at Veterans Day we'll honor uh one of the projects I'm working on right now is the Revolutionary soldiers who lived in in West Windsor that we know of doing some
history on them so that we can work towards maybe putting them on the Centennial and then and make be doing uh having something posted so good work yeah a lot of work it's my new full-time part-time job yeah and um you also did
some of the work on that Moses toomy Trail yes also yes so um yes and I understand there's some uh um major changes coming to the museum um that Dave is we have some new
uh in the Environmental Center there is a new um exhibit that everybody should come see of artifacts that would be found in this area um so and yes Paris has um and that just opened up this past
week when we had our open house so our next open house will be the first Sunday in April from 1 to 4 okay okay thank anybody else thank you I'm happy you took a new job since
you left the corner office so no I want to thank Paul you and everybody to make it it's very nice to see a active Historical Society not too many towns have that and we will do whatever we can to support you she was
asking you if you need any money every always given the so it's out of my hands you know how it works I know how it works but hopefully if we get those designations that will open up a lot of avenues for us since I'm sure or Mr
Herbert canest no I was happy to see a lot of high school kids and middle school kids getting interested that was very good to see we're uh actually collaborating with Lawrence and Plainsboro as Historic Society which both have youth groups uh along with our
youth group so it brings a different perspective to the Historic Society in fact they're working on some little booklets for about third grade level for uh the history of West Windsor so we're excited to see what they're going to so
it's it's been youth giving us new life yeah thank you thank very much thank you very much thank you gay I was actually going to remind all of you but it's a perfect time now that mayor and Council um one of our high school students is doing a project for the Historical
Museum we have to do our voiceovers I had sent an email a couple weeks ago about the instructions on how to do it so if you can do that that would be great thanks Dan and yeah okay thank you very much and now I'm going to open to public comment
public comment is a three minute maximum up to 30 minutes do we have anybody that signed up list is there anyone in the public that would like to speak please come forward good evening everyone on this cold late winter night I hope everyone's
staying nice and warm at home uh John Church 11 finston place I just have a few minor comments here uh thank the mayor for posting the budget uh I plan to attend the budget work sessions as much as I can and at that time uh
assuming I get an opportunity to speak at the end of the session usually very tight you're ready to go eat lunch and everything but I'll try to make a few comments on the various items at that time I wanted to publicly thank the staff at the senior center for all the wonderful work that they did do uh
especially last year I I play pool there twice a week and they managed to they they they fix the pool table Yeah they hired somebody to do that wonderful put new cloth on the table a level that it plays much better than it used to we used to have to correct our game because
the balls would curve so now we now we got to recorrect because the balls run straight I just wanted to have a shout out to the seene set up for that uh uh we have new right no right turn on red sign at the corner of Clarksville Road in pen L uh I spoke in favor of that
some time ago that they've been installed but not everyone is obeying them I I I use that intersection every day I come up and people still come up there and they make the right turn on red when they're not supposed to some of them start and then they stop they see the sign and they stop but anyway it's a
great addition and it's going to really make that as intersection a lot safer uh and finally uh if it's not in currently embroiling a legal controversy I'd like to ask the status of the 400 steps project the mayor can probably comment
on that nothing has happened there it was approved a long time ago by the planning board and yet that wrecked building in the back that rundown building is still there and nothing has happened there's going to be a big project so assuming that you can talk about it maybe the mayor can say a few
words about 400 steps so that's all I have for now and thank you very much for your attention thank you John um and just so you know um when the land use when we do the land use portion of the budget on um Wednesday this Wednesday uh
Sam is going to be going through a number of the projects in town with a short uh status on them also so um if you have any want to hear what's going on with the different projects that would be a good spot good time for it on
the website um well the land use portion is it's something that we've informed yes the agenda agenda's up uh We've informally had asked for that to be discussed so um uh that that'll be part that'll be part of our budget discussion
so we know that what's going on um anybody else wish to speak seeing none I will close the public comment uh there will be another one available at second public comment later as you know and we'll go to ad
Administration comments good evening um we have a couple updates tonight uh first I'd like to give an update on the um status of the upcoming new Township website um we are finishing up the initial design
phase so it's just kind of the general layout of the website and we are currently working to update the sitemap with the provider and hoping to help streamline the website and make it more user friendly and efficient to find information
and so everything's not all over the place and maybe to link everything more together um the sitemap is kind of like an index or blueprint for the overall website so once we get a little bit further we'll bring in um the different
departments to make sure that their pages are set up accordingly we'd like to bring in Council to make any feedback and but just really trying to streamline it and make it easier to find information so that is the status
currently on the website um we have a couple upcoming events um the senior center is still offering uh free ARP Tax Services on Tuesday Mornings uh through April 15th appointments are required and you can
contact the senior to do so um on March 10th so upcoming the tax collector office will be hosting a property tax relief information session for homeowners and renters 65 and older
information on the following programs will be reviewed senior freeze anchor and stay New Jersey benefits it will be at 1:00 pm on March 10th at the senior center pre-registration is required so call the senior center 6 69
79924 extension 391 um and also the tax collector's office cat licenses registration and renewal is coming up registrations expire at the
end of April so April 30th the fee is $7 for spayed and neutered cats um and $10 for non-pay um non-neutered cats and the application is on the Health Department's website and once it gets a little bit closer we'll also post it
under news and notices um Public Works is resuming yard waste collection uh in zone one this week and yard waste can also be dropped off at the Public Works site Monday
through Friday 800 to 2m or Saturdays 8 to 12 um the schedule will be reposted under news and notices it's currently just listed under um Public Works website and they will also Public Works will also be hosting
their spring cleanup day on Saturday May 10th and accepted items and more information is also on the public we Works page under and under news and notices the annual Burglar Alarm
registration is due on March 31st so the end of this month um all Burglar Alarm Systems must be Reg registered on an annual basis the fee is $25 to register your burglar alarm and you can do so by stopping at the police department during
regular business hours or by downloading the registration form and mailing it with a check for $25 to the police department you can contact the Police Department Records Division at 60979 9282 for more information and then
finally um the league of municipalities uh um annual 31st Annual Lois Lewis Bay second Municipal leader scholarship competition for high school juniors and seniors due date uh submission due date is this Friday March
7th and information on how to apply and participate are posted under news and notices so if you're interested in this scholarship please um go ahead and apply for it uh by this Friday March 7th that is all of our updates thank you Curry
and just a um the scholarship it's just writing an essay so you don't have to go get anybody's uh references you don't have to put your grades in it's it's a very simple form and then submit an essay on
the topic uh under the rules and uh so I do encourage everybody to um that's I believe it's 11th and 12th graders to submit for the scholarship yes mayor thanks Andia uh uh Mr Church
there's uh 400 steps as you know is a complicated project it did come back to the planning board once so um they're just proceeding at their at their Pace nothing is holding them up or anything
um it's just a complicated project so initially as you know because the property was condemned it took a long time to settle through the cold um there's some uh tax purpose and stuff so the the previous owner had to keep
filing a lawsuit to benefit the to get the tax benefit so that proceeded for a very long time uh but other than that there's nothing holding the project up um out of our third round obligation there only as far as I can tell there
only two projects that we have not started one is 400 steps and second is the Bear Creek uh Senior Living uh they just came to the planning board I think at the last meeting uh for the third time with minor modifications
with a different Builder and they have promised this time that they going to do it so that that those were the only two everything else has started a lot of them are close to finishing many of them have received cosos so we have done our
part in in round three um I do have updates on a few items um one was um a meeting on modified 571 was held in this room on Tuesday the we have displayed
the maps outside and there are I believe there were forms left if you want to give any comments or feedback there forms left you can fill them out leave them there and we will get it to the county that project has been on the drawing board for at least 15 20 years
as mean as as long ago as I remember and it has been languishing since I became mayor I've been uh pushing the county through two ad two County Executive and finally it's um it's ready to go out to bid they're going to bid in two sections
first one is between cranberry and Alexander Road that's expected to go out to bid this summer and then the next one probably year or two later the next one is little more complicated since they need to get some easements from people
on both sides so um it's not perfect I mean people do have questions people do have concerns but um if we stop the project now it's probably next 70 years it won't be done till um all of us have moved out uh so uh we have and and this
was based on this is funded by Federal grant based on um a resolution that the council passed way way way time back 2004 so it's not much too many changes too many design changes we can do at this point but um we hope to get it done
within next two three years and that will help calm the traffic down in that portion along with Avalon project being completed and then the two other projects on uh 571 across from uh PNC Bank being completed that area is going
to look much nicer and much calmer and I don't know if people will call it will be happy to call it downtown or whatever the uh people's vision of downtown was but will be much better than what I found 30 years ago when I moved there
um last week Andrea and I went to the commissioner's meeting in Trenton to advocate for early voting location um we both made public comments Andre as you have much more to the point I just uh supplemented them the
Commissioners were supportive but non-committal uh they don't have a unilateral Authority to approve a new location so we continue to Advocate at every level um to make sure that we get uh an early voting location and we are treated equally as East Wier and
Princeton while looking at the matter what I did realize is that if you look at the numbers West Wier has a higher population that both East Wier and Princeton not by a lot but still higher number uh based on last census we have a higher number of registered voters than
again Princeton and East Wier and we have a higher number of Voters who cast their votes in the last uh election last November last presidential election November and that counting that we didn't have an early voting location if
we do get an early voting location I do expect at least some positive impact that people can go and and and vote close by so we will continue to push um at every possible opportunity and every possible body I don't see absolutely any
logical reason why West wi should be discriminated against as far as early voting is concern so we will continue to pursue it um last Friday was the deadline to file appeal against our affordable
housing number that the uh that the resolution that the C uh Council adopted as expected we did get some appeals too from uh associations and one from a local Builder uh the Builders Association in New Jersey probably sued
every town in New Jersey and the local developer and Builders Association used the same planner um he didn't do any much work he just essentially saying whatever is the dca's number should be the number that uh that should be
counted that's not what the law says so we feel fairly comfortable that those two are those two should be uh dismissed um fair share housing center did file an appeal too um and they came up with the number of 489 uh when you look at it it's not too
bad our number was 392 so we are less than 100 apart compared to last round when their number was almost twice as much as our number our number was 1100 their numbers was 2,200 so this is much closer and we can work with it but again
this is not our final number as I had said when we go to the court in June we will file a plan identifying what we believe our number is and actual locations where the we believe that we can build housing to satisfy those
numbers so I really don't know what the meaning of this suit is or whether the suit um appeal carries any weight since we when we file in June we start all over again with talking about that number which I expect to be lower than
the number the 392 number that I that the council uh uh passed a resolution on uh so stay tuned this this goes on and I've always said being a affordable housing attorney in New Jersey is a guaranteed job next life I'm going to
take that as my career so and uh finally I did submit a budget to the council um I'll talk about in details of the budget later on once the council have had an opportunity to discuss the budget in meetings that are scheduled starting this Wednesday they are all public
meeting they'll be held here everybody's welcome to come I will I'll just mention a couple of highlights from the budget the budget continues to fund safety safety improvements for Road sidewalks bike Lanes the the funding that was increased in last year's budget is
maintained in this year's budget in order to support a growing population we are adding seven new positions to the budget this this year two new police off officers two new EMTs which will allow us to run a dedicated
ambulance between 6:00 a.m. and 3: p.m. 7 days a week the eventual plan is to run a dedicated ambulance 24/7 in town especially given that we are increasing our senior housing development uh there's lot of demand for
that we we are hiring two new extra DPW staff to address a lot of maintenance issues that residents have identified time again and one additional person for building and grounds and this is again based on the priorities that each
council member had given us way back and we went through that and identified what was asked for uh the good news uh Mr churches in spite of all these hirings there's no tax increase once again in the budget uh in fact the total taxes
raise this year is slightly I think 2 300,000 less than last year but that's compensated by slight decrease in our uh total assessments because of office properties the office Office Buildings assessment decrease so the slight
decrease it's still more than $6 billion but there's a slight decrease in assessment and there's slight decrease in total taxes rat to keep it uh same um and something that you will appreciate since I became mayor I've been open to welcoming new business to town as a
result our fund balance has more than tripled since I became mayor uh the fund balance was $55.72 6 million on January 1 2018 when I assumed office as of last January 1 2024 it was $18.24 to
million um and you will see we use more and more fund balance every year to fund the budget and based on preliminary number January 1 of 2025 it's going to be even higher than $18.24 to million um so we have essentially uh in
a very sound uh Financial condition so we'll continue to be fiscally responsible while providing increased services that the residents expect and I'll be happy to discuss about the budget once the council gets through with it so thank you thank you mayor um
moving along Dan did you want to give some Council comments no comments today no comments okay Linda I don't I don't have too much um I was on vacation last week but I did attend the agenda setting meeting with
Andrea uh and Alison by a cell phone so I was just trying to keep up on everything y Linda do a hard work it's easier to do just come back and stack of work to do so I keep up with it um I was wondering um May or um
or Carrie is there an update um on an agreement for the West Windsor Volunteer Fire company's um need for a new fire suppression sprinkler system um I know that there was some agreement that needed to be worked out so we are working on that and I've been um I have
to reach back out to them but it is a mutual agreement that we right right yes yeah I I I don't know if the time frame is that'll get wrapped up in March maybe hopefully hopefully yeah as long as they get have they gotten it yet or you're still talking all right try it's not
it's just trying to figure out the terms because it's their building and right right yeah no I I know there was something we were going to move forward because they need a new sprinkler system and all and cwn of equipment in there but um I understand that I just it's I
just want to see um if there's money in in the capital budget I haven't looked at it yet to make make sure the budget well yeah money on there yeah the money once allocated just stays there
yeah the money allocated I think two years ago yeah I remember we moved it as matter of fact it was supposed to be we moved it Forward because there was such an issue with it so don't worry that money is earning four five% interest so this so you going to give that to the
fire department much better than two years ago all right well I just want to keep keep it moving okay keep it moving um I'll mention since I'm Lea's on to the shade tree U commission uh there's there's two openings there and if you're
interested in applying just please fill out a volunteer form which is on the municipal website and you can um email that in uh to Allison uh shein our our Township Clerk uh you can also contact
the mayor uh chair Helen Rankin or myself if you have any uh questions thank you Linda Sony I don't have much to say but um I did attend the info session on U the uh
expansion or improvements on 571 it was really nice to see how many um residents actually showed up um and were very interested to see this project moving um in discussions I I I learned that the the first discussions of this
Improvement was done in 1987 we are in 2025 just you know it has taken that long from the first discussion of the improvements to 571 so nothing moves easy I guess
um um right before I came to this meeting tonight I was actually at um High School North um um watching the um High School North's basketball game um last week um they made the state championship and the first playoff State
Playoff um game was um on 27th on Thursday and the second playoff game is happening as we speak right now um and I'm the reason I'm I constantly keep watching uh my phone is because my daughter is at school and my husband is at fire station
so trying to figure out right for her to get back home um um but um on on um Friday I also attended along with mayor and Andrea the black belt um ceremony at code ninjas um
so um congratulations Dru and idant um and thanks to naven and Manisha for inviting us I think it was um really interesting to see um the games that these um you know 14 to 16 year old kids have made um they worked for I think
three years to get to a point where they were able to make their own game from scratch and it's on their website which anybody can go and play um it was fun game it was space jumpers and
first person shooter I didn't like that but that's that's my personal opinion but um but it was it was work that they have done yeah absolutely um the um um
um uh an one girl scout um uh contacted me because she wants to work on a silver project of planting trees I connected I sent um um Linda and Andrea's contact to them
because of shade tree and environmental commission liazon so if they I told her to contact you also so yeah so if she reaches out to you um because she wanted to know what what would be the best way
with Arbor Day coming up um so my my uh suggestion to her was to contact shry commission and environmental commission so if you could work with her on that y thank you thanks um as I mentioned the um
women's history month means a lot to me um we still have a way to go but we've come far from challenges I remember of male female job listings and employment offices discrimination for loans and credit cards and so much else uh as many
of you know I'm an engineer and I studied engineering back when there were very few women that even thought of doing any technical job unlike some in West Windsor I grew up in a lower middle class family that had no money for fancy
schools tutors second cars [Music] vacation you never once made me think anything I couldn't do because I was a girl and as a longtime volunteer and as a manager in my career I've tless girls
and women about computers cars environmental science rockets and robot but the most important lesson I've tried to convey that you have no limits and to always G grab the chance to learn no matter where you are on Sunday February
23rd I once again attended Girl Scout thinking day where girls get together to exchange information swaps and food representing many countries congratulations on another incredible event Girl Scouts encourage girls to be leaders and to experiment in everything
from camping to stem careers and West Windsor Plainsboro has an amazing program and group of volunteers I encourage everyone to look into Girl Scouts for your daughters and please remember that girl scout cookies are on sale now for another couple weeks on
Tuesday February 25th I attended with the mayor and Sonia the Mercer County presentation on Route 571 Improvement plan and I want to thank the county the township staff and all the West Windsor residents they came out to see it and ask questions and I'm looking forward to
the project moving forward know Sona and I have mentioned how we've walked along that road where there were no sidewalks trying to talk to people about the you know signing up for the easements and every every step we took we said we can't wait until there a sidewalks
here and on Thursday February 27th as the mayor mentioned uh we went to the County Commissioners to ask for help in getting an early voting location in West Windsor we discussed our Council res resolution and I think we impress them with the need to make voting Equitable
for our voters I want to thank Robinsville uh and Allison had a piece of that so thank you Allison for passing a similar resolution backing a West Windsor location that will be accessible for their residents please reach out to
your county and state elected officials and let them know how important this is for you we'll continue to work to make this happen thank you Allison did you have a some comments I just want to let everyone know that council member and
mayor candidate packets will be available in the for pickup in the clerk's office starting April 1st and there will be two council member in mayor positions on the 2025 general election um and more information will be
posted on the website and sent of course by email blasts um this week thank you and that's two council members and one mayor two Council and one mayor yes correct right and the number of required petitions is down because of State stat
yes and that will be noted in the packets yes there has been a change to the law yeah and all that will be announced thank you and um public hearing public hearing okay 2025 d01 an
ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 200 land use part five Princeton junk Redevelopment plan regulatory Provisions in the code of the township of West Windsor article 34 land use controls section 200-260 to amend the
rp1 Princeton Junction Redevelopment plan District thank you I'm now opening the public hearing on the public hearing salute second we have a vote
please gas yes sters yes Weiss yes Whitfield Mand yes and now can I get a motion to adopt so moved second is there any discussion in Council I think we just wanted noted
that um this came out of a recent settlement agreement with um Avalon and it it will permit uh pet daycare facilities as a principal permitted use in the rp1 uh zoning District great anybody
else want comment no no um can we get a roll call vote please gaas yes Jers yes wh yes Whitfield Manda yes thank you moving on to the consent agenda can I get a motion to approve okay uh for
bills and claims so move second okay anybody wish to pull anything seeing none can I get a roll call vote please gaas yes Jers yes voice yes Whitfield Mando
yes um recommendations from Administration and Council okay 2025 D r067 authorizing the appointment of Roger Janney to fill the unexpired term as member of the Agricultural advisory
committee to expire January 14th 2027 2025 r68 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a professional service agreement with David P lonsky for reappointment as special tax councel for tax appeals for 2025
$40,000 2025 r069 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with rudderman Roth LLC for reappointment as labor attorney for 2025 $50,000 2025
r70 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with Phoenix advisor LLC for reappointment as financial advisor for 2025 $4,400 202-
R71 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with p and Associates for reappointment as affordable housing consultant for 2025 $18,000 2025 r72 authorizing the mayor and clerk to
execute a Professional Services agreement with Warren M Ki of sule Clooney and Company for reappointment as Municipal auditor for 2025 $33,000 2025 D
r73 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with MC manman Scotland and Balman LLC for reappointment as Bond Council and Redevelopment attorney for 2025 202- r74 authorizing the mayor and
clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with Edwin W schmir of Mason Griffin and Pearson for conflict Attorney Services $7,500 2025 r75 authorizing the mayor and clerk to
execute a Professional Services agreement with wsp for consulting services for the design of a new fire suppress Russian sprinkler system at the Princeton Junction Volunteer Fire Station $3,350 2025 D
r076 authorizing the business administrator to purchase four Motorola portable radios and accessories from motor Motorola Solutions under New Jersey state contract 89399 n30 for
$3,850 56 2025 - r077 authorizing the business administrator to purchase technological equipment for the police division from Shi under New Jersey Cooperative
purchasing Alliance contract number CK 04 subcontract 24-38 for $1 16,144 2025 r78 authorizing the Chief Financial
Officer to increase uh to the contract with Morton salt Inc for snow removal services by $120,000 for a total not to exceed $280,000 2025 D
r079 authorizing the reimb reimbursement of costs associated with the underground Crossing of Amtrak rail line Corridor as part of the duck duck pond sewer Interceptor Phase 2 project to the National Railroad passenger Corporation
$10,000 2020 5- r80 resolution to extend the introduction and adoption date of the 2025 Municipal buz budget and extend temporary budget Appropriations can I get a motion to
approve I said that a second oh does anyone need I'll say that after a second salute okay second does anybody wish anything pulled okay can we get a roll call vote
please gaas yes Jers yes we yes Whitfield Mand yes okay introduction of ordinances 202-02 and ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 168 traffic and parking of the revised General
ordinances of the township of West Windsor to add chapter 168 d201 scheduled no parking zones there'll be a public hearing March 24th 2025 correct public hearing will be
March 24th 2025 okay can I get a motion to introduce so moved second roll call please gaas yes Jers yes Weiss yes Whitfield Mandel yes
all right and now an A additional public comment you wish to speak thank you John thank you once again John Church 11 Princeton Place just a couple of items uh last Saturday was a very fine day
warm and everything so I took the opportunity to walk through much of the uh Avalon Bay project over there by the train station and I noticed over there by the where they're building the senior housing there's an enormous pile of dirt I mean it's truly
mountainous all this dirt is going to have to be hauled away someday I don't know where it's going to go but it's just spectacular probably it's from the uh detention basins and whatever else as well as that excavation it's truly enormous anyway this is going to put additional strain on our roads
especially Washington Road it's already in bad shape they going going through Princeton Junction uh it's bumpy everybody will notice if they drive on it so these heavy trucks are going to be carrying away all this dirt at some point I don't know where it's going to go it might go in the other direction
whatever anyway uh this project uh has many good things to say about it but uh unfortunately it has caused a lot of truck problems with our local roads with the heavy trucks going through back and forth all the time now of course 571 is a County Road the county will be respons
responsible for for fixing up Washington Road at some point uh the mayor mentioned the fund balance uh and I noticed that uh the fund balance is doing very well and it's going to be $3 million uh used from the fund balance three to to help with the budget this
year just to remind everyone uh uh back two years ago in 2023 the township received nearly $3 million from the federal government it went right into our bank account now this is part of the American Rescue plan that was passed during the last Administration a
tremendously expensive thing that it does does this for us but also increases the national debt this is a heading to be a really bad bad thing that's happening these days the national debt is really out of control and uh we if we
don't pay for it our children and grandchildren will pay for it so uh I hope this isn't too political but uh uh I'm opposed to any further increases in the National that and I know the admin current Administration wants to do that so whatever I wish I could speak about
it but uh we just can't ladies and gentlemen we we can't go on this way it's just uh sorry for being this is not the Township's business except to the point that we did receive $3 million that I didn't think we really needed the federal government was very generous and
gave us this money so now we have it to help balance our budget but there's no free lunch no free lunch and we're going to have to pay for it eventually through taking care of the national debt at some point so excuse me if I you got off on a little bit of a political thing right
there but since the fund balance came up I just wanted to bring up that one point anyway I'll do look forward to coming to the budget uh sessions and whatever I'll try to repair some remarks at that time thank you very much thank you John seeing nobody else I'm going to
close second public comment go to council reports Sonia thank you um the parking authority met on February 12th um one of the things that was
discussed that um moving forward um starting 2026 um they will move their reorganization meeting to February um so that it matches with um um the council's reorg meeting on January 15th um so it
doesn't because this year they had their reorg meeting before the council could do the reorg meeting um so going forward that's what they are going to do so that way there's no discrepancy there
um and um one thing that uh parking authority wants to request all all residents um especially who want who um want to cancel their permits to do so before the next B cycle uh because um
they keep getting requests after the building cycle goes through and people get built that they want to cancel it so the refunds become become a problem there um so that's that's one thing that they want to
do uh police department responded to um the train station 17 times this past uh month um there we uh discussed um in length the new project the bus depot
project um for now they're calling it a parking Park um is is the temporary name given to that project um that project um that place will after it'll have a bunch of picnic benches and park like uh
features um they'll have about 30 um parking spaces um there um so they're working on that the um think um they're still working on some Grant application that um but uh
the that needs some zoning adjustments so I think it's front in front of the zoning board for those adjustments I don't know if mayor knows anything about that the Grant application for the bus depot project for parking authority they
mentioned there's some zoning adjustments that needs to happen so um if we working on that because uh Act is doing act has to do some work engineering before we can submit in yeah yeah so they just wanted to know any if
there is any update on that okay I can I can check yeah thank you I mean they talk to act more than we do because they use it for everything so um um they were also talking about um
this coming summer there's going to be a project the which is um tunnel canopy project um with NJ transits it's an New Jersey transits Capital project I think cost is about $340,000 um basically um updating and
fixing up the um tunnel can canopy which is the platform basically uh so that would be this late summer late spring summer project um in mean it's not going to leak that's that's the goal yes um they do um
they they are still working on the um tunnel flooding issue um the main problem of the the what what what has been um found is that the tunnel gets flooded because of the water coming from
across the street so um if we can they're trying to see if they can work with um you know seiser and because I think the the the retention Basin goes all the way to seiser property and there's a apparently there's a boardwalk
between um schum schum burger and seiser yeah there is there's a there's a there's a boardwalk um which goes over this swamp um so I think there needs to be some um mediation done there for the flooding to not come to um these
stations so there's some other things need to be looked at so they're they're talking about maybe before seiser red does that puts those extra buildings in maybe yeah maybe that might be an opportunity to look look at and see if there is any blockage in any of the
drainage or retention Basin or anything there is something that they were talking about um environmental commission not environmental affordable housing hasn't met since we last met um and the month
of March meeting has been cancelled um Emergency Management Council met on um February 18th thanks mayor for attending that um meeting um because it's Emergency Management um can't really speak much publicly about that mayor
already mentioned about The Hires in those departments um and we'll I guess talk about those in budget but if you have any questions the council you can always talk to me and if there is anything that needs to be um answered I can help answer but mayor is very up to
date with um everything that needs to be talked about thank you thank you some lot happening um environmental commission met since our last meeting uh there was some discussion on Landscaping
issues um a lot of talk about the sustainable Jersey certification thank you to the council for um supporting bringing back um dandel rilski on a on a Consulting contract to help to help with that and
we may get some new projects out of that too so it'll it'll be good um they reviewed the Moses tatan Trail and um there was a discussion on an annual stream cleanup uh which has now become a joint effort between uh
West Windsor including engineering F uh and the Watershed uh as a matter of fact I went out with um with Mike from uh last Friday and we uh with the Watershed and we looked at some cleanup spots so
it'll probably be like Duck Pond Park and the area on the other side of um Mercer Lake um where the where the rowing places so we're a tentative State for the cleanup is going to be April 27
so get your boots um I also attended um The Watershed annual meeting on Fe February 20th and 21st there were some discussions um about D grants uh there's a program called resilient New Jersey um
which pairs towns and consult consultants for resilience action plans uh the dp's put up a funding directory uh there were a couple of interesting presentations by various groups uh there was one on Rubble to
Wetlands where there was a T-Neck project where they went into a small Park and they actually created some wetlands and uh that was a um a nice way of of handling some of the water issues there um there was another project
another presentation at the Stony Brook Watershed is looking at a re Regional ms4 approach uh that's something that we're also a member for the uh ASM pink um that we're looking at the possibilities of a regional m M4
approach for the um Watershed Improvement um and there was some more discussions on the ms4 permit and uh so it was there was a lot there so it was a it was a good meeting so thank you for that
um and at this point are there any other Administration updates oh I'm sorry go ahead on my left hand side yes yeah we forgot I didn't call you every day me the D um brief you know um or of Ed
has met actually twice since our last meeting the first one was during one of our storms and it was a 15minute meeting so not much to report um they they met again last week um of note was a their annual actually semi annual they
do this twice a year of their um Hib reporting harassment intimidation and bullying uh there's some some slight changes to the to their procedures where there's sort of almost like a triage now where they can make some evaluations ahead of time to figure out what's the best course of action to
address some of these issues um but the sort of the Highlight was that um the number of incidents um has fallen um in this period compared to to the previous period and obviously continue to monitor it um what the little change those that
they've seen uh because of all the summer programs that they're now having typically you wouldn't think there'd be much going on during the summer but they actually have like a thousand students um in July for a various number of programs and there so there's a little
blip now in in the July time period for summer reporting but overall the numbers look um better than they did in the last period so good good news there okay you were next I'm um so I attended the shade tree uh commission meeting on February
2nd via cell phone uh due the meeting being on on vacation uh Dana Garcia recently resigned as a member um and we we thanked her for her outstanding service uh as I mentioned earlier there are now two openings on the shade tree
uh commission so if you're interested please fill out a volunteer form which is on the uh Township's website uh this year the shade tree commission will again lead the Township's Arbor Day celebration on April 26th uh if it rains that day then the
celebration uh will be moved indoors at the senior center uh Francis is getting confirmation that the senior center will be available should it rain uh the theme of the art contest for children in grades K through 8 is what trees say to
me uh publicity information will be going out soon the community forestry management plan will be addressing a better schedule for uh Street trees uh for pruning and those kind of things uh among other things Administration has
been interviewing candidates uh for the full-time position of landscape architect in hopes the position will be filled in the very near future uh Farrell Mixon was unanimously voted to be the shade tree commission
secretary uh the shade tree commission will be reviewing at an upcoming meeting some uh quote enabling ordinance revisions end quote for possible enhancements to the code for the shade tree commission uh chair Helen Rankin will'll give the annual shade tree
Commission report on March 26 at our council meeting thank you all right now I will go is there any more Administration updates of any type no thank you there's no closed sessions
so Allison you have nothing more I have nothing nothing more okay can I get a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I thank you thank you everybody