e
okay I'm going to call to order the meeting of the Board of Health of West Windsor Township of February 10th 2025 Allison can you call the role please gaas here Jers here Mandel here voice here and had
we adequately noticed yes we've been adequately noticed on January 17th 2025 to the times and the Princeton packet filed with the municipal clerk and post at the municipal building and on the township website please stand for the salute to the flag
and I'm going to now open public comment and this is for the Board of Health meeting only so I'm opening public comment for the Board of Health meeting please Begin by stating your name and address and you'll have um three minutes for public comment I see 30 seconds my name is Warren mlac I live at five stonely Drive um I
just want to ask in the future um I just picked this up outside theual report I wasn't able to find it on the site I would have like to see ahead of time because to see what's in it and uh I did see a maybe I look in the wrong place there's a report from 2019 that's on the you know health section of the website but I didn't see this one thank you thank you does anybody else wish
to speak public comment for Board of Health seeing none I will close the public comment and at this point I'm going to open it up to Jill um Jill we did get the um report uh we thank you it's very very comprehensive very easy to read at the same time so we really appreciate um the information and Report thank you oh you're welcome um the report will be posted to the website I have three
Board of Health meetings this you want pull that a little closer I guess a yeah okay is that better CL okay so we will post the Board of Health um annual report to the website I have three Board of Health meetings this week and I wanted to give each bard of Health the opportunity if there were any suggested additions or changes before we posted it final the final report so this this is more like a draft report um this
point I wouldn't call it a draft but I would like the opportunity to address any concerns that the Board of Health in any of the three towns may have and revise it if necessary before posting to the public thank you okay I do have quite a few uh things to go over tonight um but in regard report a few things I'd like to point out um I won't go through the entire report since we have quite
a few things to discuss but on page 21 we talk health education and Outreach and you'll notice this was um somewhat robust compared to the past we had 192 health education activities in 2024 43 community events 31 Senior Center events 75 lessons at schools daycares and 17 clinic tabletops and this was feasible for us because
we train transitioned um this Outreach staff and disease investigators that were on boarded during the covid-19 grant funding cycles and we transitioned them into health education and Outreach um doing preventative health and health education throughout the some of this in um Outreach was related to infection control and some was preventative health more chronic disease related we are seeing Federal funding um come
to close at the end of June June 30th 2024 so just a heads up that we will not be able to maintain this level of health education that we have in the past and the second thing I wanted to highlight is our overview of the goals and objectives for 2025 our plan is to continue partnering doing community health Improvement planning both with the greater Mercer
Public Health part parnership and Pen medicine Princeton um those are two separate um initiatives for health education and planning and Community Improvement we are also working we began working on a risk communication plan development continuation of the digitation of the block and lot files Workforce Development for leadership training for our inspecting staff and nurses and continuous quality Improvement
our health educa our health department website resources we have a lot of information on there but it's not necessarily easy to find what you're looking for so we really want to improve the quality of how to tap into that and then of course um ensuring that we have an easy transition through this grant funding cycle and other transitions we're expecting in the health department and part of that will be ensuring that we have
departmental standard operating procedures is updated and um those are our primary objectives so just wanted to highlight out those few items and if there are any suggestions for the report or the quarterly reports I'm happy to receive them either tonight or via email and we will incorporate them moving forward does anyone have any suggestions at this point for the reports we go on it's very comprehensive so thank you for
doing this and pictures charts which we like we like that in color even any I guess on maybe another topic about bird bird flu another top right yeah that's on my list of items to cover yeah also like to comment on your point about um up upgrading or enhancing information on the website um it you should probably know that a new website is being developed into our Township so it's important for you to get that feedback
into that process so yes give you a heads up about that yep thank you okay um we do also have two resolutions on um for um the business session and one is the resolution appointing Jee Ward as a regist and we have renewal of the shared service for the Robinsville Township Public Health Services any questions regarding those items before I move on the
only thing with with um shared services is is that I would want the township to be covering our expenses um you know just basic salaries are upwards of 4% annually three and a half four so that's that's my only concern you know we have to have you know new vehicles and different things so so it's a lot of costs um understood understood um there is and there has been
historically every year 2% increase Incorporated um a further more in depth cost analysis could be conducted in the future um public health is difficult to quantify um as um as we've seen over the years there are some years then certain communities may require more attention than others and that flows from year to year so it's it's not a set um
formula but we could certainly look at some of the costing analysis that is out there for public health moving forward it's not something that can happen overnight um but it something that we can plan for the future yeah all right appreciate that I will note too that um in the past when we've had discussions with the um shared services contracts there have
been um programs that we provide historically have provided in public health that the other communities have taken on whether it's in their Code Enforcement office um or Housing Office such as nuisance enforcement housing code and the other towns they they own those programs as opposed to the health department conducting those in those communities Vital Statistics pet licensing um things like that are also conducted by their clerical staff
and those offices as opposed to the health department so over the years we have um kind of reallocated those responsibilities back to those communities to keep the cost contained and the hours hours dedicated yeah okay I will move on to an update a brief update on respiratory illness um just a few highlights from the state's report um respiratory illness
surveillance bance report for the weekending February 1st this is the most upto-date One released um emergency department visits and Hospital admissions remain elevated through influenza stable for covid-19 since last week and decreased for RSV the levels of covid-19 and influenza A in Wastewater have been increasing over the past months the past month the sharpest increase in influenza A
covid-19 levels are elevated but remain lower than the summer of 2024 Peak and there are recent declines in RSB levels in waste water and in note for those who have gotten their flu shot and covid-19 updated shots the predominant covid-19 variants are covered in the 2024 2025 covid-19 vaccine and the predominant circulating influenza A subtype is included
in a 2425 influenza vaccine so if you have not been updated this may be a time to consider doing so but that's that's good so you're saying you can get your shots now if you haven't gotten them but it's still okay to move forward to get them yes it's it's a bit late in the season for the flu shop but it's still recommended if you have not gotten the most up-to-dated
flu shot to consider doing so yes um and a few notes on Aven influenza we are seeing a lot of attention around this topic lately um Aven influenza wild aquatic birds are considered the natural host for bird flu the virus can also infect other birds and mammals sporadically currently in the US sporadic outbreaks have been reported in poultry an ongoing multi-state outbreak in dairy cows
and sporadic infection and mammals human case reports include a total of 68 confirmed cases in humans this is across the US One resulting in us and seven probable cases the majority of human cases are associated with exposure to um related to commercial Agricultural and related operations and this is current as of February 10th today um based on CDC um reporting currently the
risk to the general public remains low no human cases are reported in New Jersey and no person-to-person spread is reported nationally people who work in close contact with animals um Birds Wildlife or livestock may be at increased risk and should follow recommended um recommendations that are specific for that group recommendations for the general public at this
time time is to stay informed and monitor for status updates both New Jersey State Health Department and his CDC have specific websites that provide information new jersey.gov h5n1 um is the website for New Jersey and cdc.gov bird-flu for the CDC website and there are links to the multiple different agencies that are monitor ching um this current
situation as well as guidance for specific groups and um second recommendation is to avoid contact with wild birds and other animals infected or suspected to be infected report dead or sick Birds domestic birds so if you have backyard chickens um or you know someone would back yard chickens they're sick or um there's been recent death the
Jersey Department of a is the reporting agency and for wildbirds the New Jersey D hotline which is 877 Warr DP um we will get those numbers I know um that was a concern we'll get those numbers more front and center they're on our website but they're buried on under the health um website so we'll get the a link to that on the main page and we'll put an e bulletin with some of
that information so everybody have that sure sure um further recommendations are do not consume raw unpasteurized milk or milk products cook your poultry eggs and beef to Safe internal food temperatures if you have any questions about what they are give us a call um we'll we'll be happy to go over those safe temperatures with you um get your seasonal flu shot um the seasonal flu shop protects against other strains of influenza which are currently circulating the SE seasonal flu vaccine
reduces your risk of getting sick this season and the potential for co-infection would both bird flu and seasonal flu at this time this is is important because having both types of flu at the same time could allow the virus to change in ways that enables it to spread easily from Human to human which is what we're concerned about or one of the main things we're concerned about um it's also been brought to my attention that there's been some questions
from a few residents who enjoy walking and playing Outdoors but find it hard to avoid um key strappings it's important to remember that the majority of human cases of Aven influenza occur in people who have prolonged or close contact with sick or dead animals there have been no reports of human cases associated with exposure to bird droppings on Sports fields or playgrounds however it's always important
to take care and avoid contact with feces from Wildlife droppings can carry many types of viruses bacteria and parasites if recreating outdoors and areas with large concentrations of water fowl and other water Birds please take care to wash clothes and disinfect Footwear and Equipment before traveling to other areas with domestic birds or pets Footwear and equipment may be washed with soap and water then disinfected with household bleach diluted one
to 10 parts with water for at least 10 minutes follow up with hand washing and of course encourage children to wash their hands frequently and especially after playing Outdoors human infections are rare symptoms range from Wild to severe treatment is antivirals if you're ill with flu like symptoms and suspect that you may have been exposed to sick dead birds within
the prior 10 days discuss that exposure with your physician they are the best person to evaluate um the need for further testing and often they will call for consult with local health or State Health Department at that point in time any questions on bird flu before I move on just um the dead birds that are the particularly can Canadian geese that I think they've been finding Robinsville and a couple of nearby um if you
do spot one of those birds what number should some people call so um if we so in Robinsville we it was nearby to Robinsville where there were some dead birds but not necessarily in Robinsville there was concern because it was in a nearby community um so um I would ask that if you are in town and you notice some dead or sick Birds the state is asking
the notice to go into D which is read it again it's 1877 Warren DP I would also ask that you call the local police department at the non-emergency number so in West Windsor that would be 609 7991 1222 and the reason for that is so that we have a local awareness of what's happening in our
community um we will have response from D some birds may be tested some may not be may depend on the species the number um in that area there are a lot of factors in evaluating whether the bird will be um tested or not and locally we need to have an awareness of what's happening and where the birds are so um if you could make that dual report it would be appreciated and would somebody pick up the
bird or is the home say say it's in somebody's backyard will that be picked up by D by our local or those those are questions where we are still trying to get definitive answers um from D it may be a case by case um evaluation of whether they want to Res whether the state wants to respond to that bird or whether Animal Control would be responding
in and bagging that bird and and getting rid of it um we're telling the homeowners not not to do it at this point we wouldn't recommend the homeowner do it if a homeowner feels so um inclined they feel that they want to do that immediately um there are steps you should take to protect yourself use tools use protective gear put the burden a double bag secure it before disposing of it so there are directions on the
fish game wildlife website on how to do that safely as a homeowner if you're choosing to do that I I think um you know it's um the the number of birds that are being called in it's it's difficult for um The Fish game in Wildlife to be able to respond to every single report of a bird um from our perspective so we are still working out those details and at this point I would say it's Case by
case on how that bird will be handled but we'll continue to look at the um guidance that we receive from our state Partners I know they're working hard at trying to find some um Solutions on handling the number of calls that are coming in and now a question I don't want to ask um do you see any issue with people continuing to put out bird feeders uh now it's winter time A lot of people do like to put out seed
and stuff for the bird so there have been no reports from connecting um bird flu to Backyard bird feeders and that that activity um it's always wise um because birds have drive you know um other concerns besides bird flu but it's always wise when you're cleaning that bird feeder and cleaning up around the area to use gloves and to use care not necessarily specifically for the
bird flu con ER but for other Bal thinking also like of not only us catching something but any reports that this is helping spread amongst the birds you there isn't anything local with that issue not with you know most people who are putting bird feeders out are targeting more um different types of birds than the waterfoul okay yeah any questions from Council um
there's any um geese droppings let's say at a a school something like that is observed do they call um the health department first they call the school the for geese droppings there are let's say schools there's geese droppings prevalent throughout New Jersey so no there you know there's not a recommended Approach at this time for clearing properties of geese droppings you know
just concerned about the kids you know they're in the right so again you know the handwashing um if the shoes or the clothes are contaminated following the recommendations for cleaning with soap and water and the bleach disinfection yeah anything further on that did you have more to talk about I do I'm usually quick I apologize but there were few sorry for
sorry for the list of questions um I was also asked to give an overview of the lead Safe House housing stats so at this point as you know by July of 2024 um anyone renting a home um that fell within a certain timeline was required to have a certification either a l safe certificate or a lead free certificate um so at this point we
have 70 six rental properties have obtained the lead safe certificate and eight have lead free certificate both are acceptable certificates that's a total of 84 38 it's about 50/50 38 properties used the um Lou the township facilitated contractor and 46 used private contractors we estimate that this is about 44% compliant and we base that
on some estimates since we don't have a rental registration in place in town we are estimated this this based on 190 properties according to the tax records have an owner with a different mailing address from the property location so we're assuming those are all um rental properties and they fall within the timeline for having to have this certificate um we did Issue notices last fall the second
notice to those Property Owners um if identified in the future the non-compliant owners are subject to $1,000 per week fine um if we once we are aware of them we will give them notice they have 30 days to comply and a failure to cure would be um dealt with with a Summons and it's $1,000 per week for non-compliance any questions we have any kind of time frame
as to when we think we'll get to everybody that we think might have the difficulty is that we don't um we're not necessarily going to knock on everybody's door and ask them if they're a renter we're making an assumption that if the tax rep but we can't go into court with a Summons based on that assumption we have to have either a renter come forward um and indicate that the landlord is non-compliant or become
aware of that rental in another way sometimes we will have a neighbor complain about a rental property um or a tenant may have an issue and other than that um we really can't prove that it's a rental property and these are most are like single family type houses or couple of family small it's either single family or two family which is falls into this group yeah so it's it's a bit
difficult to enforce although over time um I believe it will come closer to compliance and one last topic if no more questions on that um dog licensing um an update on um the dog licensing stats um we compared 2015 uh or 2016 with um 20
24 and 25 so in 2016 we had 1,043 in town in 20124 we ended the year with 707 and right now as a Friday we had 534 um which will come close to the 707 they do straggle in over the year um but more concerning is the town is growing from 2016 to 2024 and we're seeing a drop in dog licensing so
um we are increasing our messaging to try to get compliance we've developed a Peters guide for residents which will go on the website there's a few cop way um we just finished this today so it's not quite on the website yet um and this will be distributed to homeowners associations management companies for different complexes throughout Town um trying to see voluntary
compliance rather than enforcement with residents um and um our past strategies to keep those um numbers up was a in-depth dog census and enforcement in court for non-compliance so um you know that's an investment both of temporary staff in the summer to do that census and then the associated Court actions for enforcement
and the fines are are not all that high right now um so I would suggest if we consider going back down that Avenue we look at our fee structure for licensing and enforcement it's surprising to see the numbers drop because during covid we know for sure certain that a lot of residents who were not pet owners also became pet owners
or got second or third exactly so which I'm sure is Li oh yeah guess more more education um to the residents about um you know the necessity of Licensing I think is important um I know last time when um we held the um U oh um I had put a message about licensing and there were some no not
R about dog licensing the deadline was January 31st we put there were a few residents who were questioning it why do we need to oh yeah I get a pet license right that was U surprising to hear that and they had to some explanations we had to go through that it's a state law we've gone through you like people there are people who are actually shocked that they are dog licenses so um yeah so I I assuming there's education I mean I can probably go on one of my two mile
walks and hit 500 dogs or something on any given day so have we we started the local wets and maybe um try to get the information out through the local vets we can try again vets are usually very good when a puppy comes in or a new dog to remind folks that they're required to get license and when they get a rabish shot at their vet as opposed to the clinic um it's pretty routine language that you know you'll need this for your
licensing um but we can certainly send a flyer and ask each practice dog licensing um on their bullettin boards or whatever I think might might be helpful maybe put a QR code to where they can just go and can they fill in the license online I would assume when thank lose this either have to do a paper um
the mail stop in in person oh okay so they could get to the website where the form is but they can print it but and mail it in yeah is that is that something we could look at make a a little easier we've looked at it the dog licensing fees are not that High um and you would um incur that cost if you were paying online you would have to pay that extra cost for processing online is
it you could probably look into providing that option you could do paper or online because people do prefer doing things online like I I got a message the other day oh it's January 31st I I can't get in to um Drive in or mailing in would be late but then like if I have to pay extra at least I get get get it in that's why they
yes um like the rec department has put just about everything online now if there's some way to get into that system I think it's actually a county or it's a it's now a whole system that you can register and maybe they if you could use the same registration uh that you do for our stuff that I think even for camping over at the campgrounds here um yeah the community pass gets you into a bunch of different things it's uh so maybe that could that that registration and
people will be willing to pay two bucks I guess I mean they'll complain about it because yeah it's a $10 license Fe so um we can certainly look at it but it would be an extra couple I mean we could charge for it but people probably want that convenience I think it's I the compliance numbers do look like they're low and I really like to feel that dogs are getting their rabies shots and and and uh
do have a license a stamp 73 so that's probably half the cost of the oh yeah I have that argument with my husband all the time about the 73 cents versus my dropping it over than that but um anyway this might be something that if we could just Camp into a system that we already use right there then it would be relatively easy and we would just charge the extra convenience Fe there issues with the timing of of shots dogs are required to get and
then and then with renewing the license there's something there that's so there's a state law that requires that the dog license is valid for 10 months of the license year so that means that if your dog license expires first the vaccination has to be current for 10 months through that year so it has to be current until November 1st so um there
are some situations where they have to overlap a rabies vaccination in order to get a current annual license shots for babies then I'm sorry so they'd have to get a second shot to be in compliance or um so let's do the scenario that you adopt a puppy in June and um the puppy gets its first first vaccination at 3 months
right June July August September so the first year that first shot is good for a year right so it'll expire the following September so when you get that following September it then has a three-year bot right but when that threeyear expires or even when that first year expires um when you come into to get
licens on that year that the September shot expires we can't license you in January even though that rabies is valid in January it won't be valid as of October 1st so we can't license you so you're overlapping that last year some individuals do not want to overlap the rabies vaccination do I think that's the reason we don't have dogs being licensed absolutely
not it may be one reason but it's not the only awareness can be another any more questions for jillan dog license no are anything else at this point no okay thank you very much Joe thank thank you thank you
okay um we do have one more public comment period for Board of Health is there anybody opening the public comment for Board of Health does anybody wish to make a public comment oh do we have minutes do have to Circle back and approve um minutes also oh we yeah we should have done that okay fine um okay can I have a motion to approve the U minutes y these are
minutes of the health uh Board of Health November 12th 2024 um I'll make a motion to approve the minutes second second roll call gaas yes Jers yes Weiss yes mandam yes all right now I'll open the second public comment minutes could have been supposed to be before the presentation all right seeing none I will close public comment and can I get a
motion to adjourn the Board of Health meeting salute SEC oh you can do second all in favor I I okay we've adjourned and we will now move into the regular business meeting and this point I will call to order the business meeting for February 10th for West Windor Township to 2025 we get a roll call
go here Jers here Mandel here Weiss here and we have adequately noticed this meeting also cor yes this business meeting was adequately noticed on January 17th 2025 to the times and the Princeton packet filed with the municipal cler clerk and posted at the municipal building on the township website please stand for the salute to the flag do again we we did well we already did it at the board of house so wave it we can wave it yeah we usually usually wave it we um we've already
done the salute to the flag ceremonial matters we have a proclamation celebrating February is Black History Month um unfortunately Martin Whitfield had a personal emergency he usually likes to read the proclamation um and uh he will make some comments about Black History Month at our next meeting and so I'll I'll read the proclamation um whereas black history month
is a time to commemorate the historic struggles of African-Americans to gain freedom and equality and to recognize the importance of these struggles to our country's history and ideals and to celebrate the many achievements African-Americans have made to our economic cultural spiritual and political development as a nation and whereas Black History Month grew out of the establishment in 1926 of negro history week by cartery Woodson and the association for
the study of African-American life and history and whereas in 2025 the national theme for observance is African-Americans and labor the focus will be on the significant contributions of black Americans to the workforce throughout history encompassing both the struggles of slavery and the achievements of black entrepreneurs and organized labor movements in pursuing economic equality and empowerment and whereas the observ of Black History
Month calls our attention to the ongoing need to enhance our understanding of black history to overcome racism and to build a society that lives up to its democratic ideals and whereas the township of West Windsor continues to work toward becoming an even more inclusive community in which all citizens past present and future are respected and recognized for their contributions to our community the county and the state and whereas the township of West Windsor is proud
to honor the history and contributions of African-Americans in our community such as our senior center and schools throughout New Jersey and the nation now therefore be it resolved that mayaha Marathi in the township Council of the township of West Windsor hereby proclaims February as Black History Month in perpetuity and encourages all citizens to celebrate our diverse Heritage and culture and continue our efforts to create a world that is more just peaceful and and prosperous for all thank
you and we will uh we will um be putting this up on the website and we keep uh these in an honored place in our our Council room thanks okay I will now open the public comment for our regular meeting um that's three minute limit per person you will notice that we have a new uh time clock up there so it'll be a little easier to realize when it's closer
to when your 3 minutes are up and um I welcome anybody who wishes to make public comment to come on up thank you thank you uh good evening always comes I'll just hold it John Church 11 Princeton Place good to see you all on this cold winter night I'm very interested in resolution r65 about hazmats for several reasons first of all I worked with such mat materials my whole career in
chemistry research and development in chemistry you name a hazardous material I have been in contact with it as along also with heavy equipment with steam and all kinds of things that you wouldn't even want to think about so uh I'm very interested in hazmats not that I really want to have anything more to do with them but just so you know that that is a special feel of interest for me I was on the Safety Committee actually at the laboratory anyway the other reason is that uh reading over the uh the
the uh shared services agreement uh there's a lot of stuff in here that uh actually is very interesting not least of which is the fact that it could involve considerable expense to the township uh and especially in terms of the Hazmat truck that we have uh I noticed on the 2025 capital budget there is an item there for purchase $1.6 million to replace the existing Hazmat vehicle which is goes back I think 25 years or so I think Council would be interested
in maybe examining the log books for that vehicle just to see how many times it's been out what it's what it's done how many how many miles it has on it and what condition it really is that's a very expensive vehicle and since we're going to be servicing many other towns besides our own I think it would be incumbent on Council to be aware of uh the fact that it is a large amount of money and uh that other towns should probably contribute to the expens is very large Capital expense for this
one truck so anyway that's all I wanted to say about r65 I look forward to further debate about hazmats in general it's a subject I really am very interested in and I thank you for your attention thank you John would anybody else like to give it up and give public comment no I'm going to close the first public comment then and move on on
Madam president I would like to make an announcement that there is going to be an additional resolution added to tonight's agenda that was added after it went out to the public and its resolution 2025 r66 which will be approving the appointment of Gene Ward as the registar of Vital Statistics uh for the health department thank you council member comments or let's do Administration comments Carrie
that's off can you press the red I think there it is now um so we have um several announcements tonight uh a reminder first um that the township will be closed on February 17th uh for President's Day um another reminder on uh sewer
rent is due on March 1st it has a grace period until March 10th uh payments received after March 10th will be charged interest from March 1st until the payment is received per njsa 54467 um a couple upcoming events uh for the township the senior center is hosting um 2025 ARP fra free tax services appointments are required and you
can contact the senior center at 60979 2400 um in conjunction with the tax collector's office the senior center is also hosting a property tax relief information session for homeowners and renters over 65 and older information on the following programs will be reviewed senior freeze anchor and stay NJ benefits registration is required and you
can do that with the senior center or the tax collector's office you can call or stop by to register and that's March 10th um from at 1:00 p.m. at the senior center a reminder that the 2025 dad daughter dance is February 21st 2025 from 6:30 p.m. till 9:30 p.m. at Mercer Oaks Golf Club registration information is on the Parkson Rec uh
web page if you have not registered already um with upcoming storms that we have I wanted to just give everybody a few reminders on snow removal and safety and to stay safe and warm as we have these couple storms coming up um please remove your vehicle from the street when snow is forecast please avoid driving on during or immediately after a heavy snowstorm the less snow plow operators
Encounter of cars and um people and vehicles the more efficiently the roads can be cleared and that property owners are responsible for snow removal on sidewalks within 24 hours after the cease of snowfall per municipal code 15218 and um we have some tips on how to properly clear your driveway um place any snow uh once you're snow plowing uh to the right of your driveway way on your own property not into the street and
by placing it in this area on the right hand side it lessens the amount of snow that is plowed by our uh snowplow trucks back into the driveway so that they can keep the snow going uh yard waste collection will resume next month on March 3rd currently yard waste can be dropped off at Public Works site Monday through Friday 8: a.m. to 2: p.m. or Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 12: p.m. the annual burgo Burglar
Alarm registration is ongoing through March 31st Township requirements for burgler alarm registration is on the website you can register with the police department there is a $25 fee to register burglar or alarms and you can contact the records divis division at 609 799 9282 um Mercer County will be hosting a public information session on Tuesday
February 25th 2025 regarding the Princeton heightstown Road Improvement projects it will be hosted uh here in the municipal building in room a from 6: pm to 8:00 pm we are getting the information up on the website so that should go out to all the residents but I wanted to make the announcement tonight and people are actively encouraged to participate uh at the meeting and you can send questions in by email or providing comments at the
meeting and then finally um the 31st Annual Lewis Bay second Municipal leader scholarship competition for high school juniors and seniors is uh information is now on the website and the deadline to submit um your application for the scholarship is March 7th 2025 that's all of our announcements thank you Curry so the route 571 presentation 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. um where did you say that was gon to be
it will be in room a it will be in room a and do you know if that's going to be a presentation or is that going to be where they the mayor will make a little more announcement on that okay right yeah because I just actually open opened that up today it was on my desk so it says you'll have an opportunity to review exhibits ask questions discuss any concerns with County representatives and their consultant so it sounds like it sounds like the one they yeah I've been to those those are those are good yeah we just received the information but
I wanted to at least get it out there so we can have it on the website tomorrow okay great mayor okay thanks uh first congratulations to eagles and their fans for an for an impressive Victory I was glad there was no controversial calls that decided the outcome um har mentioned the taxes what she didn't mention is if you have not paid you already late since it's 10th already um and I say that because I
saw somebody drop something in the box at 5:30 when I left that won't be picked up till tomorrow so I don't know if you pay tonight on online whether that would be considered today or will be considered tomorrow she was mentioning the sewer taxes so I hope so but sewers are not due for another month which is another thing I never understood should be same day so anyway um so if you have not paid please do pay otherwise we have to go back and charge interest uh
beginning of first of the month that's a state law not a Township decision um Mr church I'm going to comment about Hazmat when uh it comes to that matter but I hope you misspoke because you spoke about 2025 uh budget I haven't seen I haven't seen 2025 capital budget so unless you hacked in our system I don't know how you know what what oh
yeah yeah that's that's wish list for future years that always gets moved okay that explains it okay but that always a lot of things get moved in there that's why I was a little surprised when you said 2025 budget I was going to talk about the U presentation for 571 we they actually had promised us two days so I don't know why now they are seeing only one day but at least it's there one day it's going to be very similar if you have attended the Ed the psng presentation we expect
it to be very similar they will have display boards and you can go around and ask questions so it's not at least last time we spoke it's not going to be like a PowerPoint presentation followed by question and answer you can just come in and just like what psng did uh go around various display boards look at it the plans are actually on the township website and I will request them to post a link to that those plans on the website uh again this project
was approved by Council many many many years ago I think it's probably even before Linda got on the council so this is funded by Federal grant so it's not open for redesign it's more for informational purpose only because it's been approved and funded by Federal Grant and approved by one previous Council what it is going to be so it's not open for redesign it's it's more for informational purpose only uh
so those are comments for now thanks okay thank you mayor um going to the council now Dan you want to start sure thank you um I just wanted to make a comment on resolution um 2025 r050 which is the first on our list which is the our opposition to Sate and there's an company assembly bill this um this bill is just terrible terrible
policy that um will have disastrous impact not only on West Windsor but on on towns all across um all across the state so it's a little just befuddling to see that it's being even considered in in our state legislature I realize that the the probably underlying attempt was to to help make it easier to convert um abandoned or poorly utilized commercial properties um into housing
um although that ability exists already there's nothing that's preventing that from happening now um and the the underlying issue here is that this bill basically um overrides local authority to make decisions about zoning to make decisions um reflective of their master plan and to make decisions that are in the best interest of their own Community uh it's seems to
be a a flagrant um conflict of home rule models and it can actually have sort of uh create sort of predatory behavior by developers so I just wanted to give an example absolutely sort of I think hypothetical example just few people co-ops in New York back in the 70s people who might listen to this later but and again this is purely hypothetical but if for example the
property owner of the shopping center on 571 which is the home of worry Mart and um PJs and aljn and many others decided that they looked at that property and they said you know what we can make a lot more money if we turn this into housing so this bill basically gives them the blueprint of how to do that and without getting the town's approval they can slowly start raising the rents to the point where it's not worthwhile
for businesses to stay in that facility to the point where they now meet this sort of uh the occupancy levels that trigger this legislation not a high bar it's something like only 40% very they can basically force that to turn into housing and uh Force the town to change their zoning law and that's just not okay it's a terrible
policy taking the taking the authority from local local um like entities is yeah so terrible um thank you um Andrea for including some of my content in the resolution here um I think it's uh really important that we use our voice to let our Representatives know I've reached out to all of our Representatives um individually to let them know my feelings about this um and I truly hope that um this doesn't
get out of committee thank you much very that would be perhaps in addition to Our obligation we have a plan we have a number and then we're going to figure out where it's going to go and then all of a sudden this could be on top of all of that that that really worries me because create a higher number for you at the next round as well because if they create housing here that will go into the equation the Jacobs an equation sure she'll even have iron the next next
time and there's so many other ways for them if they wanted to do that they can put credits into the existing um affordable housing model that's I mean already there that model exist already Exel the conversion so there's lots of other ways to incent this type of change which is not a bad thing to happen but it needs to happen under the context of of our you you're going to see a number of bills come out like this is one
of them another one will be having um alternate structures in behind yes that's the other one yes we'll probably do that one next I said that'll probably be the next one of the next pres it'll be the next bill well if it looks like it's actually going somewhere this bill actually had an appointment in the Senate uh for I think was January 31st and it was taken off I noticed um so we're not sure if that's coming
back in but this one actually had a a hearing in at the senate committee so that's why we particularly want them to move quickly on this one so thank you for your time thank you thank you jam um Sonia um I don't have any comments nothing than Linda yeah I think um Andrea uh s and myself um last week we attended the ual swearing in ceremony
for the new police officers and and those officers are receiving promotion so congratulations um to all of them and you know we're proud of the work that our police do in the community uh please be careful when driving as we may get another inch or two of um snow sleep rain turning to ice and melting away you know this week couple of storms coming our way so um please please just slow it down and and use caution um and
there's also a lot of ice out there sometimes you think it's a wet pavement but it's it's ice so just take it easy out there it's you couple months we'll be getting into spring that's I'm I'm looking forward um okay February's Black History Month we celebrate All African-Americans have accomplished in addition to the township Proclamation that we just did in West Windsor I was pleased to attend the Halo race and real talk event put on
by the Dutch neck Presbyterian Church last Sunday uh they used Barber Shop music to talk and this is a female group by the way to talk about their feelings on race relations in America today Happy Chinese new year of the snake I want to thank the hakia Chinese school for inviting me to their annual cultural festival at High School North uh mayor was there too um I had a good time checking out the exhibits and the performances and I want to announce that February
is also National Engineers week starting on February 16th so I'm wearing a tal Bater pie engineering Honor Society t-shirt a favorite of mine uh I'm a past president and currently on the board of the Central Jersey alumni chapter and I want you to please thank the engineers you know for your transportation medical devices electric power food production and storage methods computers cell phones and so much more congratulations uh as Linda's mentioned to our new
and promoted members of our West Windsor Police Department uh three of us and and the mayor uh we watched uh the mayor uh swear them in uh last Monday and tonight I want to talk about the two resolutions that we had uh that have a large impact on West Windsor one of them as Dan so eloquently talked about uh was 2025 ro50 um at the last Council meeting uh the mayor had voiced his opposition I
think a number of us had been concerned about it and this would not pre empty local zoning to allow in the mixed use development to to replace commercial office parks and Retail centers uh it would override local municipality land use control in favor of developers allowing them to build housing without regard to local zoning or prior affordable housing agreements uh the resolution oos oses this and
describes current alternative paths for developers and the harm to West Windsor's wellth thought out master plan and Zoning I hope that our sister towns in Mercer County as well the as the rest of the state pass a similar resolution to stop this bill please let the governor and our state and assembly members know that you oppose it our uh 2025 R51 resolution is support of an early voting location in West Windsor Township for the 2025 primary and general elections in
the 2024 election despite written requests West Winds did not get its own early voting location this created long lines unequal voting opportunities and likely negatively impacted voter turnout for West Windsor residents so the mayor and Council are requesting by resolution an early voting location for this year in a central location in West Windsor here again please let our effect elect excuse me officials know at the state and
county level as well as the Board of Elections know that you would like this opportunity to vote early locally thank you okay moving along to regular business here um Allison did you have anything to add um I do not all right we have no public hearing so if you want to get to the consent the consent agenda is bills and claims okay this anyone have anything they wish to
pill pull from the bills and claims no if not then can I get a motion to approve moved second roll call gaas yes Jers yes Weiss yes Mando yes you recommendations from Administration and Council clerk okay 2025 D r050 resolution stating opposition to Senate bill s148 2025 D r051 resolution
in support of an early voting location in West Windsor Township for the 2025 primary and general elections 202- r52 authorizing the appointment of Amber Henry as a member of the human relations council with a term to expire on January 14 2027 2025 R53 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a grant Act application for a local Recreation Improvement Grant with
the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 2025r z54 authorizing the business administrator purchase two Sav IM 7000000 copers under New Jersey state contract 24- f0000 d-52 426 from Ro America's Corporation care of Atlantic tomorrow's office 25,000 95810
2025 r055 authorizing the increase of the second one-year extension of contract with shidler excavating company Inc for snow removal services for $120,000 for a total not to exceed $190,000 2025 D R56 authorizing the business administrator to purchase equipment and installation services for new security camera system upgrades for the municipal
court from Johnston GP Inc doing business as JCT Solutions under New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract ck4 County of Bergen subcontract 24-38 for $1 14,390 2025 r57 approving an additional extension of reservation of sewer capacity for the project known as senior
living at Bear Creek pb1 19-13 2025 r58 authorizing the business administrator to execute change order number 1f from Topline construction Corp for the project known as the Bear Creek resurfacing project for a decrease of $1 16,298 65 cents for a revised total not to exceed 6932 $
5342 2025 r59 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute amendment number one with Van Clee Engineering Associates for additional survey and plan work for a freshwater wetlands application with the njde for the project known as Alexander Road pedestrian safety improvements for an increase of $9,600 for a total not to exceed $39,600 202- r06 authorizing the
mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with Roberts Engineering Group for engineering construction Administration and inspection services for the transit Village pedestrian safety projects $497 2025-the the business administrator to purchase three 2025 Ford Escape all-wheel drive vehicles for the Department of Code Enforcement
from pamis Ford Inc doing business as All-American Ford of pamis under Bergen County njcpa bid number bc- B-24 d43 for $4,290 eight 202- r062 authorizing the West Windsor Police Department to continue participation in the defense Logistics agency D law enforcement Support Office
Leo program for 2025 2025 r63 authorizing the business administrator to purchase 15 axon fleet vehicle cameras for the police department under New Jersey state contract t106 177 Fleet -00 738 from axon Enterprise Inc and authorizing the mayor to execute said contract 223
$3,354 180 2025 r64 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the renewal of a shared services agreement between West Windsor Township and Robinsville Township for the provision of Public Health Services 2025 r65 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a shared service agreement with merer County for provision of hazardous materials response within Mercer County and 2025 r66 approving
the appointment of Gan Ward as the registar of vital statistics for a term of three years to expire February 17 2028 thank you Allison would anybody like anything pulled like to pull 2025 d65 okay would anybody else like anything else pull no um Allison can we go ahead then
and vote on everything up to R 64 and also including r66 okay so approval for 2025 r050 up to 2025 D r64 and 2025 R 66 right we're leaving 65 out just for 65 out okay can I have a motion to approve essentially everything but r65
that was just numerated salute second second roll call please gaas yes Jers yes Weiss yes Mando yes okay um before we do r65 um I would like to then have a motion to approve it do then we don't we'll discuss after we get a second so moved second
second okay open for discussion um Linda if you'd like to say something first or you can let the mayor give his well let let me go first let me I just want to make a few comments about this um shared services agreement is a brand new agreement prior to this proposed agreement the township has been operating under the intra County Mutual Aid and assistance agreement with participating units in Mercer County West Windsor Hamilton and Trenton
were all taking on responsibilities for HazMat calls in Mercer County in the past few years Hamilton pulled out of the mutual Aid agreement leaving only West Windsor and Trenton to cover Hazmat calls for the entire County uh there wasn't any agreed upon direct funding given to West Windsor or Trenton in the mutual Aid agreement number five of the mutual Aid agreement it states nothing contained in this agreement shall be construed to require a participating unit to make a mutual Aid and
assistance response if the response will leave the participating unit's jurisdiction without sufficient police fire ambulance Andor emergency protection end quote uh so there's no such clause in the newly proposed shared services agreement with the county I think it's important to note that the proposed shared services agreement is a contract which obligates West Windsor to hazardous materials emergency response services including
necessary equipment and trained Personnel West Winter's Primary Response area for HazMat calls would include West Windsor East Windsor heightstown Princeton and Robinsville Robinsville has been added to West wier's Hazmat service area the contract also states that the secondary response areas may require West Windsor's hasmat team to be quote uh be called to perform Hazmat responsibilities outside of their Primary Response area due to the
availability of the other Hazmat teams or a request for additional assistance end quote the only other HazMat team is now Trenton while the contract does mention reimbursements for such things as annual physicals and $25,000 annually uh to West Wier to offset costs related to the management of the HazMat team there is not a full commitment from the county to pay for new Hazmat equipment or vehicles and the Township's 2024 capital budget um as I mentioned
during executive session um it was projected for 2025 that the township would need to purchase $1.95 million for two new Hazmat pieces of equipment in addition there was projected $500,000 for a new ambulance and funding to refurbish the other two ambulances which were purchased in 20124 um and I believe they're not operational right now uh Hazmat calls can require a Hazmat truck fire
engine and ambulance in terms of increased Personnel coverage and overtime for all this it is unclear keep in mind that our Township is experiencing tremendous growth a clear plan for dealing with the growth and taking on required additional contractual responsibilities at this time is very very expensive the council will be receiving the 2025 Municipal operating and capital budgets later this month then we'll begin to have a more in-depth understanding of the
fire and EMS proposed budgets um and talking with the mayor I think it's um I've mentioned this he's mentioned it to me or to us uh that it may be time to hire a consultant to meet with our Fire EMS Chief Volunteer Fire Chiefs and Township management take a close look at how fire ambulance and Hazmat calls are being staffed and the actual costs including additional staff and overtime consideration of the county transitioning to it being the Sole
Provider of Hazmat services for the entire county is something to be looked into uh for their future um I think the mayor wanted to answer some of that and then we'll let everybody um else on the council uh ask questions and and uh also comment okay thanks I mean first thing I mean uh first thing I want to make clear uh based on Linda's comment is that
Asmat response has nothing to do with Volunteer Fire or EMS response they completely different Volunteer Fire companies don't respond to Asmat calls only the Hazmat certified Hazmat qualified people do she did correctly say that uh Hamilton West Wister and Trenton were covering the county and Hamilton pulled out that's a different reason I don't want to talk about in public um this is just I mean a
lot of people ask me uh how we how we work with the county or whether we work well with the county and this is an example of being a good neighbor um County requires this right now because they are not in the uh capacity to take over completely Hazmat and I've have talked to them that eventually they will so this is a stop Gap two-year agreement uh between that but it's essentially a 60-day agreement because if we uh we can
pull out any time with a 60-day notice um Mr church again I mean I little uh sorry to disappoint you this is not any exciting Hazmat calls uh last year we had roughly about 13 calls I had originally said 10 we roughly had about 13 calls most of them were auto accidents where the fuel spills and goes in so um I mean nothing excit
bad but nothing exciting from Hazmat calls some of the other calls were leaking propan tank chlorine leak in pool facilities and couple of calls where somebody dumped garbage in the parking lot or some place that couldn't be identified so just be safe and call as they just identified what it was put it in a drum and somebody else took away so there was no call here that was really exciting or truly material of um that would cause
damage to anybody uh so uh the other thing is whether if we sign this agreement or not we are we will have to respond to calls at least in West Wier oh by the way out of the 13 calls five were in West Wier four in Princeton three in East Wier one in Hamilton so essentially it was eight calls not 13 calls because five calls were in West wi we would have had to um respond
to those calls anyway so this uh negotiations between County and Township has been going on for quite a while it was supposed to be signed and done in 2024 unfortunately it wasn't done in 2024 otherwise we would have gotten paid in 2024 as well so that's one of the drawbacks of not doing in 2024 but I wanted to make sure that we don't commit to more than what we can do and after talking to uh uh County business administrator this is probably the best agreement
they can do at this point and depending on how much grants and other things they get we will get a lot more money than that um regarding the truck um the truck replacement has nothing to do with Hazmat um agreement or not if the truck is broken and we need to handle our H hasmet calls we need the truck anyway but it's not in the 2025 budget uh um we have that's why I was surprised when
you said that um the agreement will not require any new Personnel there's no plan and the budget that the council will get in uh a couple of weeks will not have uh any new Personnel other than um not not not any new Personnel for fire or um Hazmat calls um so um I've received a number of questions
from Council I've tried to respond as best as I can people keep asking about cost it's very difficult to estimate cost exactly especially when your sample size is so so small eight um if a call comes during the day regular hour um there's no additional cost because either the firefighter is sitting in the fire station or going and responding to the call of all the 13 calls as long as far as I could tell only one call when
somebody had to come on over time um and I forgot whether the call was in West wi or outside west I forgot to look at that but out of the 13 calls only one person so it's not as if um there's a lot of heavy lifting uh that the township will have to do um originally the county wanted a 10-year agreement and I didn't agree to that uh I think two-year agreement is a reasonable reasonable short time I mean of the twoe two months out of the first year are already gone
so one sixth of the first year is gone because somebody asked me why not sign one year um one six of that is already gone and again this is really a a 60-day agreement because if we do find really um that we are overextending more than what we have always done in the past we can always give a 60-day notice and withdraw out of the um withdraw out of the agreement um since the new County Executive got elected he has been
working well with the township um there several things that we have done together so I would like to extend our hand to County and keep us in the agreement it's up to the council if they want to vote for it or not if they don't vote for it we will continue to do um provide Hazmat Mutual Aid if a call comes I cannot morally tell them don't respond I I just can't as a person and tell them don't respond so the only thing that will happen is we won't get
paid we will continue to do what we are doing unless the uh Council passes a resolution separately and forbids anybody from leaving town uh so as a mayor I believe that this is the best agreement at this time and helps the county out and the county has worked with West Wier on various issues and I will strongly encourage the council to support the agreement um it's on for an up and down vot and and uh we
will continue to provide services uh um no matter what what their decision is it's just whether we do it as a mutual Aid or we do it as a shared services agreement where we get paid so I'll be happy to answer any questions you have but uh that's where I stand I've been very open in saying that this is a uh this is probably not the best we can do but this is the best we can do at this time thank you mayor um come Dan did you
have anything to say on the nothing nothing Sony did you want anything no I think Linda Linda brought some some good points and thanks for um some some of the explanations mayor um my biggest concern was um we need we should have a way out and I think we we do have that uh with the 60-day um notice um and I think the biggest thing biggest concern is um how do we if if the ambulance
um also goes to a hmet call do we have backup for our town and not leave the town with no ambulance service so I think that's another concern of us um that we have um and as you explained um like you know you we passed this resolution or not we will continue to um provide the service so this is um just an extension of what we are doing and
try to get some expenses covered um I mean depending on how much it's not perfect yeah you know I think I think we would I would like to see a little more of the expenses covered um well the equipment the problem is the equipment and but like you said I mean I know the capital it's it's a picture of you know from year to year of um a little bit of a road map too of what we're going to buy but um the current
Hazmat truck is this year 26 years old so um and we're guaranteeing that we're going to have the equipment that's going to be here it's going to be working um and I guess you're you're are you saying that we're not going to pay for any new Hazmat equipment in our capital budget for 2025 I mean I mean whether I say that or not you can always take if I put it in you can always take it out but we don't
expect let me put it this way because the number of Falls that we have for hasmat is not as bad as you know we we're talking about 10 to 10 to 13 calls the question is um the wear and tear of the the truck we we we we provide the service to the county or not we still have to provide that service to our our own town right even if we give the 60-day notice and pull ourselves out we are still responsible for yeah I mean it's eight calls it's not like if it
was 800 calls then you can talk about wear and te and see the other important issue the the point I'm trying to make is that there's no additional expense equipment expense because of this agreement I'm not saying we won't have expense for Asmat there's no additional expense because of this agreement in fact there's a good chance that if you sign the agreement and they apply for the grant and we get the grand it will defray some of the cost of the equipment that's a much better chance than
having to spend money out of parket to buy something simply because of this agreement that is the point I'm trying to make no there's no additional cost required because of because of this agreement and the the only reason I'm not very definitive is I just met with John to go over the capital budget and I don't expect that's why I was surprised when he said 2025 I I thought he hacked into our system uh so no we have
a fiveyear plan in our book so so yeah yeah but I mean those get moved those get moved I mean anything that's not in last year's budget just number years uh so that very likely do I do expect not not to be in this year's budget I mean there's no hard commitment since I haven't given you the budget but I don't expect it to be in in in in uh in 25 budget just just I'm I'm just curious is
is it possible or can we even ask the towns that we would be responding to to um you know pitch in their see one of the good Services one of the good things of signing this agreement is it becomes C's headache to go let's say there's a something happens in Princeton on a private property and we go and respond and we have to recover cost that becomes County's headache to go and recover the
cost from them not our headache okay yeah but we not we are not signing agreements with East win or height toown Robinsville we signing agreement with the county so the county is going to pay us what county does with those three towns is count is issue between County and those towns right but we are not signing agreement with individual towns right right yeah so county is going to pay us whatever is specified in the agreement plus whatever whatever grants
they get and given coun finances I think I stretch them as much as I can stretch them I mean the question to me isn't do we sign this and then just keep them Mutual Aid the question would be are we want to stay in this business forever uh or not I mean it doesn't make sense for us to give free Mutual Aid to everybody um for the next couple of
years and then not get any money from anyone so uh you know so to me the um the main thing I think we want to look at as a policy which you say the county is already looking at some way of getting a where they take over this business in some man I have I have suggested to them but the Count's hands are full I mean those of you who know uh Count's PL are full I mean last year they had such a hard time just coming up with the budget they have caught up a lot
I mean they doing a lot of good work but uh I have told them that just take over the whole thing because it's a lot easier maybe some other town would like to get this good deal who knows no and and you yeah the agreement we signing is very similar to agreement Trenton signed and you saw that yeah I got a hold it's not any different than what Trenton signed so it's a very similar agreement mhm yeah yeah um so my my big thing
would be do we really want to be in this business long term and there's no way I would say let's pull out in two months because that would leave everybody in the Lurch and I don't think anybody here wants to wants to do that it it influ it impacts everybody's safety so um I would want to think you know like in a year I would want us to be looking at this and saying uh um or actually before the year is up and say is this something we want to still be
doing in a year and if it isn't then give the county enough notice to either see if another town is interested in doing it a contractor or whether they're want to do it um but I wouldn't I wouldn't want to say we're going to do this forever because two year agreement two year but something that we want that we may just not want to stay in that business so uh at some point one one of the things we did put in the in the contract is is that they're going to be giving us updates on um how they're how well they're doing with getting the grant
money and um so from a council point of view I would want us and so many months to say okay please come back to the council let us know on a on a some basis um how the county is doing with getting us money how's how's that cash flow coming in and are we still on the same numbers that we were looking at these 13 uh uh is it 12 is it 13
is it 25 where where are we in terms of of expenditures also maybe maybe what you're saying is in maybe one year before 2026 budget season maybe we can Circle back and get an update on where we are it we probably need to look in like six months what's happened so far under the contract and then that would give us a an you know a thing to say maybe in next year's budget
maybe maybe we want to say that's when we want to move out of this or maybe we'll just say this looks okay and we can we can work with this for for a while so I would I would like a you know a chance for us to get an update so we know where we stand somewhere before next budget something if suddenly six calls come and three Anthrax call comes then you'll definitely hear if it's just some car oil um I'm not going to come and
looking more for an overall broad pict yeah but I mean that are we actually getting you know like a lot of the of the it's an unusual contract because most of it doesn't say you're getting paid most of it says we're going to try to find some money for you and and I think in most cases they're going to for those grants for Trenton also and I'm sure Trenton needs them so I expect that they will be going after them but um we so we want an update just like um you know like since they're going to be required to give us
an update uh I don't expect to see that cash in two minutes in anybody's pocket you know I expect it's going to take a little while so we would want to see some of those updates so Council has an idea of where this where this is going for the future so I would suggest that maybe we put in our calendar in August or September as a reminder to call and say right well that's yeah and that's why we put that right the ladies will tell you I don't like to generate reports for the sake of generating reports we don't have man
power they will tell you I very much okay calls it should be a very easy rep well I will I will figure out a way of keeping you updated ially tell you gender reports because we don't have the man B and I don't like I don't think we need quarterly report I like I'm I'm like maybe end this year we could get at the end of the year I will give you a report as to how we have worked on the agenda and we'll give you plenty of advanced notice saying please go to the county if you if they haven't been
giving you regular reports give you you know here's here's what where it looks like we're getting our money in and then some sort of a of a summary of what kind of uh of calls we've made and uh you know whether other kinds of next for next year's budget we'll be a little bit even more ready if we're going to have to buy all kinds of equipment that isn't covered or things like that we'll know a little bit more absolutely and that you will get I mean just to prepare next year's budget we need to know too how much we expended and how much we
got back and whether we had spend out well well okay well they have and what I have so okay I'm just I'm just saying it's not totally off the hook we will we will want to watch and see what the money looks like and I'm sure you do too of the end of the year I will give you a report wait a minute okay we'll we'll work out the time no problem um are there any other are there
any other questions or comments I I just wanted to clarify because I don't know whether you changed it that you said there's no you're not going to put in any new Hazmat equipment by equipment do you mean the truck or do you mean we're only talking about this truck Lind I don't think he he's able to yes yes the the for the 20 25 capital budget then you are you saying that you're not going to put in for those two um let's
call them Vehicles instead of equipment right because it's what what what was it 100 1.6 million and 350,000 so that's $1.95 million for those two again I mean is that it in or is it not I am not making a firm commitment because I have not finalized the budget but the the statement I made and I'll stand by that statement that there is no expense that will be required solely because you signed this contract if we need
to buy XYZ we need to buy XYZ for our own use whether you signed the contract or not I don't expect the truck to be in the in the budget that much I will tell you because we did look at it and moved a few things around today um within two days I'll finalize that with John but I don't expect that truck to be uh truck to be in the 25 contract and what about new personnel fire definitely not again not because of this
uh this thing uh every one of you no every one of you because I was sitting with John and going over priorities every one of you have listed new Personnel in EMS DPW police as a priority every one of you whoever submitted Council priorities so we are going through that so again my comment is it's not if we do have new Personnel it's because the council suggested that
as your priority is not because we signed the Asmat unit ASM agreement every one of you signed and I'll bring that paperb when I present the budget well I I understand that but but it's it's begging the question this year because we weren't going to ever not do that hasm this year but it's begging the question between the county and those calls and the Count's expanding every town is building and building
more do anymore we want we want you to take over I it's just us in Trenton right now so um you know I mean that that's the I think the question to kind of look at for this this year I mean if we reach that Breaking Point I will tell the county we can do it this year and get
out in six UH 60 days I will do that and that's one reason why this has taken six months to sign I mean we started probably last August or September and we didn't get any money for 24 because we didn't have any agreement but I just wanted to make sure we don't and we also waited to make sure until Trenton votes on it to make sure we have exactly similar other other than the thing that you added our agreement is very similar to what Trenton did and you have read
the Trenton's agreement so um if if I do think we are getting ere extended I will I will withdraw ourselves but again we are not hiring any people any new people because of as men I mean for eight calls if I need a person I'm in trouble if I need a person to H hire a person for eight calls I'm in trouble there's something seriously wrong so I don't expect I don't expect to hire unless something seriously changes and suddenly the
eight calls become 80 in which case I'll withdraw anyway but if any and this is not just a one year experience we have been doing Asmat for I don't know forever so this is not just a onee experience this is a long-term experience that we have had so based on that experience I don't expect to um need any additional Personnel definitely not for ha um and there's nothing in the budget for
hmat yeah no no vehicles for hmat okay does anyone else have any other questions comments or thoughts no are we ready for a roll call vote and uh just so everyone understands this is a roll call vote that will pass um our 2022 r65 as um yes um as a as a resol 2025 d65 the resolution okay
I roll call Vote gaas Yes Jers yes Weiss yes Manda yes thank you everybody okay moving along uh we have no introduction of ordinances so we have time for a second public comment from our large audience today so U every you
know the rules um please get up thank you okay good evening again John Church Leon Place sorry for opening up this can of worms here that you you spent 15 minutes talking about so we'll look for the capital budget and uh as you know I keep an Eagle Eye on the budget so if it we'll see what we see see what happen but all I would want to say is that in the past uh there might have been more of a need for this we don't have freight trains running through the town any longer
but they were a hazard in fact some years ago a tank car of chlorine broke got derailed and broke open up in mouin and it was a huge problem chlorine gas went all over the town and all it was just awful uh however that's not going to happen anymore here I don't think we don't have freight trains anymore so in the past if this were were going to happen I might be more in favor of keep really keeping up with all the Hazmat equipment that we could have so anyway uh having that taken care of I was going to ask a question
about W Square the Avalon Bay development several of the connecting roads are not yet open maybe this is a question for the planning board more than this but the mayor's here and he's on the planning board there are three potential exits and entrances that are still not open with W Square the V Drive Extension either side of that the one going through the New Jersey Transit parking lot is not open and they can't get out of that to get onto the roundabout Road there's also the other entrance that comes from the station up through
Station Drive and goes up and merges into 571 to go over the bridge that one isn't open yet either so I was just wondering if we could have an update as as to when there's going to be a grand opening of w squar and whether these roads will at that time be open especially the back one going through New Jersey Transit parking lot is really essential we must have that road open it's an emergency exit if there were any problem in that development fire trucks and ambulances might have no other way to
get in and for people to get out other than that back door through the New Jersey parking lot so uh that's about all I have to say uh oh just a editorial comment on early voting I never have liked early voting you remember early voting came in with covid nobody wanted to go on Election Day and standing on on Long lives now Co is mostly over not completely over but it's mostly over uh I just can't understand why people would want to vote two
three four weeks earli things can happen you have October Surprises with elections all kinds of things can happen leading up to the election I always vote in person I insist on that because you might go and vote early and then all of a sudden something happens and some candidate is no good or whatever so I just don't I really have a problem understanding why people want to early vote unless they're going to be out of town or something like that so hoay for iners voting I'm going to continue to do it that way and I would encourage others to do it as well so thanks for
your attention thanks John oh and by the way early voting is in person but it's up to 10 days I believe before the uh before the yeah it's a little earlier yeah might regret either way um May me so John the road and going into the parking lot is ready I've driven over it it works we just waiting for ribbon cutting they have temporarily blocked it with their equipment but the
road is ready thanks to working with parking authority when they repaved the parking lot they connected the road and I have driven my car to test that it works it works so it will be ready we will have a ribbon cutting yeah I I drove past about a couple weeks ago too and there's a road there and there's a couple of big things blocking it but there's a road so um looking looking forward to that opening up um anything else mon did you
want to add anything mayor would you want to okay I'm going to close the public comment and now I'm going to go into the council reports um I'm going to start with Martin's report since he's not here for the human relations Council uh Martin a warm welcome to their new HRC member pram Rod ramazi pram Rod is looking forward to serve
and participating in the community work the world needs more people like him she started meeting by sharing their thoughts for celebrating diversity day sometime in June and some shared the idea on celebrating our community with diverse few food music dance and culture and one of the HRC members proposed to do diversity day at the fire station that's Martin report uh Sonia do you have anything yeah affordable
housing met on um February 6th um they had their reorg um meeting the also at that same meeting um Tom Calabria continues to be the chair and Jean Jacobson um the vice chair um they were voted in um during that meeting um members also um took a look at and they reviewed the um senior living at Bear Creek the F
final site plan um the committee did not find any um uh issues with it so um they were supposed to send a memo to the planning board I believe it goes in front of planning board next week the be Creek um site plan um that um that development is going to have the senior living two I think 220 total units with uh 51 being affordable so I think it's
like a weird 23% some is what it comes to um the um one um uh the attorney actually um um informed us that um DCA will be moving forward um I think they're going to uh put it in um in that no no no window bedrooms will not be allowed so even though we lost the
battle um you know West Wier when we when we had that lawsuit um I think um West Wier played a big role in um getting Fair Housing Act um Implement implement the no bedroom it rules so I think I think we lost the battle but we won the war war yeah yeah things I think that was um discussed in in length oh we did good so we did good um you know
we we can't go back but going forward I think that's going to be implemented very soon children from now on that have a window will be than West Windsor I hope right okay yeah that's it um parking authority meets um this week on Wednesday and the Emergency Management council is also planning to meet on um February 18 Dan the uh Board of Ed met
on the 28th of January uh two important issues to chat about um one was they presented the 2024 Financial audit which show that they're in a very good financial position the reserves are good there's no deficiencies um there's basically no corrective actions and there's very clean audit so it's good um and also um in the context of financial statements they U presented the first of probably a
many um overviews of the 2526 budget um two items of interest of where there's going to be some significant increase in costs one is in health care about a 10% increase there and in transportation costs about a 4% incre transportation is a big cost for the well it's you know it's on a 199 million dollar budget so 4% not around eror yeah um the the next board event meeting is actually
tomorrow um the rec department didn't meet in it's not meeting in in February and some continuity with the parking authority I don't you driven down on m road but the fence the fence is up the fence is up it looks put it up last uh past weekend yeah I saw I saw that to go look now let them out the the board of fed um they haven't disced just um anything about um resoning of the schools or moving to k25 yet
yeah that was the we learn a lot of Super Bowl parties okay yeah that's that's thank you Linda um the shade tree commission held a brief special meeting on February 3D uh Helen Ranken was reelected as chair and Ellen Clancy uh was elected as Vice chair commission approved a letter of support for a faa's grand proposal to the state's Green Acres Program for a
walking and Hiking Trail in town uh the trail would be named Moses uh Tunda Tatamy Trail um we already proved that they they move forward uh with the grant uh aror day is tentatively scheduled for April 26 okay thank you Linda um environmental commission next regular meeting of the EC scheduled for this Thursday February 13th which will also be their organiz reor reorg meeting
and on Tuesday February 4th I attended a meeting with Francis gzi dandel bu milski and commissioner and chair EP books and Elliot Gordon to review the sustainable Jersey recertification requirements and the timing the current points were identified as well as future points uh based on our West Windsor projects that'll be followed up by the environmental commission and they're confident they'll be able to continue uh to
be able to qualify for the U highest silver certification again this year and that's that are there any more um Administration updates at this point none nothing at this point okay Alison do you have any you didn't have anything else I have no announcements there's no closed session so can I get a motion to adjourn salute second all favor I okay thank you everybody