Come On Let's Get Cozy hello good evening going to call the regular meeting order times now 7:00 requirement of the Sunshine Law been met the meeting was advertised in Brunton County Times on January 7 20124 electronic notice was given to the njc 5 39-15 we will now start with the Pledge of Allegiance I would ask that we have uh fita lead us from the pleasure Allegiance that's okay oh great to the flag the United States of America indivisible andice thank you I know recently we uh there was a loss of a State Trooper so we're going to have a moment of silence as we always do but just keep having this family in thoughts and prayers roll call committee woman Berkeley pres committee man Carr pres committee woman  committee women right mayor Henley present also present Township solicitor Township administrator clerk assistant Township administrator Police Chief Fire EMS Chief we will now start with a presentation for our 2023 Police Department Awards officer of the year and Chiefs award take over Chief thank you good evening person Chief the police department so back on March 26 we had our department Awards the time we had order some PLS to our special I wanted to do a presentation at a meeting um recogniz service um we did get some other Awards another award for Sweeny but he's un available for future so the first award uh um is the chiefs of so during the year 2023 our department um policy has gotten larg young I've had my hand many the hiring Crow Department that we have this board is not only a recogition of individual Excellence but also Sy the department appreciation for the off contributions to the community and dedication to uping law this officer has demonstrated on a daily basis that he understands what is expected of him interact with the youth in our town that are doing C our duties we're stopping by by C for child I've had teachers in the public of this officer do of AES therefore the 2023 chief of police award goes to left [Applause] Craig can you get a few pictures for us please going down there I'm the police officer thank congratulations second off of the year um overall the Poli of the Year award is that underscores the recip exceptional service commitment to maintain Public Safety service Community it serves as a source of inspiration for fellow officers and positive impact La enforcement professional our society this award is given for consistent outstanding performance that has refle credit upon the department and the of West therefore the 2023 your award goes to tr Nicholas my [Laughter] thank you Chief thank you gentlemen and congratulations we now have executive session resolution number 57224 resolution authorizing the township committee and support staffs to meeting private session and authorizing exclusion of the public from that portion of the meeting dealing with specific issues requiring non-public discussion attorney client privilege count negotiation do we have a motion so move berley second any discussion Roll Call Berkley yes car yes mayor Henley yes motion carries 3 Z we'll be [Applause] back everyone we're going to start with the approval of minutes so April 16 2024 regular meeting minutes do we have a motion I move to approve the regular meeting minutes of April 16th second Berkeley any discussion nope roll call Berkeley yes car yes yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 4 Z April 16th 2024 executive session minutes do we have a motion Berkeley move second any discussion Roll Call Berkley yes car yes  yes mayor H yes motion par passes 4 Z we will now open the meeting for public comment on agenda items only please remember to state your name and address for the record and remember it's for common only Hello Lori F hou that's 14 canobi Drive I just have one question um ordinance C8 d224 about the alcoholic beverages the only thing I I have that's concerning is if someone overdoes it which most people do behave if they drink at an event if it's Township sponsored who's liability if they get drunk and get in an accident that's the only question I have is we need to think about that um just real quick so on the ordinances there's going to be a public hearing on each one of them a second reading so we'll just respond to that comment address that comment during the public hearing thank you ma'am now pleas we now close mayor I'm sorry um I would like to make a comment by proxy for Mr Gary Barbarian at 138 wedad he would like to convey his congratulations and best wishes to those being honored by the PD this evening thank you we will now CL for public comment all in favor I ordinances in second reading 32024 in ordinance by the township committee amending the Westampton code of ordinances to repeat ordinance 13-27 to adopt a new ordinance of 3224 to adopt flood Hazard maps to to designate a flood plan administered and providing for sever severability and an effective de so move Berkeley second now open for public comment Roll Call Berkley yes car yes  yes mayor Henley yes motion carries 4 Z 6 2024 calendar year 2024 ordinance to extend the municipal budget appropriation limit and to establish a cap Bank thank do you have a motion motion so motion second it's now open for public comment mayor Henley I will again um respond by proxy for Mr Gary Barbarian at 138 WN drive he wrote please convey my support of the budget and urge the township committee to vote Yes in adopting the ordinance I note that the this apparis aspects of budgeting that is endemic to politics is not so easily seen in the body politic I.E the citizens re of our community so I appreciate the Fidelity to dis positioning budgeting as seeking to make investments for the present and the future that this budget seeks to offer so I'll add in quotes well done Roll Call Berkley yes car yes yes mayor Henley yes motion carries for real 82024 ordinance amending chapter 82 of the West Hampton Township Code entitled alcoholic beverages do we have a motion make a motion for 8 24 amending chapter 82 of the code second open for public comment again by proxy for Mr Gary Barbarian 1381 drive he would like to note that he cannot find the definition of the term quote alcohol I wonder if it is necessary to further amend chapter 82 to define the term alcohol this could be useful or helpful as the ordinance specifically enact that section 2 enacts this new sub subsection that all alcoholic beverages must be in a plastic cup I have no objection to that language only that in today's modern viticulture Brewers offering a variety of non-alcoholic beverages so for example when an open container of an aluminum or glass bottle of a non-alcoholic beer be exempt from the Ambit of of this ordinance it may help to add the additional necessary language so the public can be guided accordingly that's it mayor I've uh also talked to many many many residents because I am split right down the middle and there are some people that think it's wonderful uh and some people who are very afraid of some results uh the people that like it were more um more um looking for things like beer gardens and they said because a beer garden you can rope off an area and then it's the drinking is only in there and then you can definitely tell who is over 21 and who is not instead of walking around and uh I know I shared a question with our administrator and she said yeah it's up to the people selling the the drinks the alcohol to make sure they don't give it to someone who's under 21 but we all know that that can be shared later and so my concern is people drinking under 21 and how we could work on that I talked to the chief who thought it was a good idea which made me feel much better because if the chief of police doesn't see any problems there might not be any problems um and he said that it really wouldn't cost a lot of extra time uh because a lot of the police who were there take comp time um but it is a concern and also there's one place that says it's a plastic cup and everywhere else in this uh ordinance it talks about um oh I wrote it down it uses a different a different um it uses an open container so I don't know if a plastic cup way down the bottom is going to see people if people see an open container um is an open container that's plastic like a gym thing that you take to the gym and drink water out of uh an open container is anything that's not permanently sealed so what are we defining as an open container um the other thing that I I talked to the chief about or at least I let him know uh there's been there was a law and it got re redone that said basically if a policeman smells alcohol on a a youth and smells marijuana on a youth they cannot go and talk to them they cannot ask to see what's in their cup they they have to have better proof that the that the youth is drinking um I just I have a problem because I see good and bad and I don't still even know how to vote um I don't want to take away people's enjoyment but I also am concerned about uh what could happen if it gets out of control at the Pacific Association we used to have drinking when we rented the building and there were times that people had fights outside they went to the neighbors and wrecked their bushes and we even had a gun that was that was shot off so after that we said no more alcohol at the at the community center were the kids um the underage kids that did that when we no when we rented when we rented it out but no were the underage kids no but they were adults who were shooting off a gun so yeah I I don't know what to do so so the only thing that I would that I would give feedback about I think we talked about this previously um there's places where they have carnivals in the summertime I think we'll start seeing them pop up you know around uh a lot of those places do have you know beer gardens meanwhile you know you do have kids that are there to enjoy to enjoy the carnival uh so you do have the mixture of young kids and parents who will Who will have a few I think the responsibility is on the people who serve the alcohol to make sure I think that they have some licenses that can get damaged or taken away if they they serve underaged um people so they have underage kids or underage minor adults that can't they can't drink so I do believe that the owness is on them um to make sure it doesn't happen and I do believe that it's something that they take uh very seriously as far as uh when I've been to uh carnivals and may have had a beer or two maybe three but um they check your ID prior you even coming in to an area where they're going to serve alcohol or before giving you alcohol so that's you know obviously your decision is your decision but that's just what I've seen in the past the same as if you go to a bar they allow kids to sit at the bar but they won't serve them right I don't allow I wonder if we could do what we did with the chicken not put it in but just say after two years let's go back and look at this and make sure that it's what we thought we were getting into I mean I feel Comfort I mean feel like after each event you're going to evaluate how that event took place and how it was and maybe you don't ask certain ones back to come to an event if it was not the way that we wanted think it's I think we have control over it as well like who we have here and who we don't have here if they're not doing a good job then you know then we kind of move on from that like the chickens it's a it's a new process right and I think that we have to try to figure it out but you know West Hampton is trying to keep up with the times as far as even having um you know I think they there's a there's a a team that's contacted us several times about having a huge F food truck event where they want to have band and they want to have beer gardens they want to have all these things but some of some of the things that they want to do we exclude them from but it's still some of the things that our community asked for so um I support the amendment I support the amendment I think it's going to uh contribute to our growth as a community and our participation with one another also our chief of police is a pillar in our community and I believe that he has more than anecdotal insight into the effects of the amendment and how it's going to affect our community so I trust that and at the end of the day we have the responsibility of parents as well right not for nothing but you're you know we we have parents who are responsible for their children and if they're drinking or not we can't we can't take all the responsibility away from from their parents and what what they have them doing so uh you have the the Safeguard of the or the place the place that's serving the beer and you also have the parenting that should be involved whether you let your teen out and they come home and they smell like beer that's an issue right so I mean I don't want to get into the parenting aspect um because everybody's situation is different but I think that we do everything that we can and we have a fantastic police force just seen you know we have police through the year we'll put him there if we have to I'm sure he'll get everybody Mr Mayor that uh were you going to respond to miss hou's question sir yes sorry she was asking about liability oh so generally all these questions can be addressed in uh alcoholic beverages are highly regulated industry um they're licensed by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency is who governs and enforces many of these rules so it would ultimately be the responsibility of the license that gets its license from the of alage control um the term alcohol similarly is defined under the ABC regulations so it does need to be uh um defined within the township ordinance I was also just trying to look to see if open container is also uh defined under the ABC regulations I can't find it but I would be surprised if it's not um because there are limitations in the state on leaving a license premise is with a open container um so under those regulations the what an open container would be defined there's also did I answer your question ma'am I'm just worry about this because I lost somebody this way um if somebody gets in their car drunk I'm not even talking it's the kids adults are worse than the kids are let's be honest you said adults can be worse with drinking not everybody's like that you're going to get the ones that are you get in a car you kill somebody that you were drinking at an event it could happen easy so I think your question was is the township liable or something like that Happ yeah so it it would be the lenses um responsibility um also like anything else any other legal question it depends um if there's an activity that's going on on Township property uh as we do with any other activity going on in Township property um we enter into a contract with the individual with the company that's H having that event uh and they are required to sign the contract which they uh take responsibility for anything that goes on they indify the to Township uh and they also provide Insurance um as recommended by the Township's risk manager I'm sorry you went through that so I I would think then we would only hire one company to provide the alcohol cuz you wouldn't if you have two or three companies all providing it who knows who's giving what to I think it would depend on the event and also um the type of license they have generally speaking when you receive a license um for distribution of any alcohol you have in your application uh the license premises where you have to Define where it's going to be um um I'm not as familiar with like a catering license and that's the type of license that I I I think would be used for this um but most likely you still have to Define what that area is and like you said the um ROP off were only 21 and over can go an area like that and you'd have similar regulations as to where you can carry the alcohol and where you can't um so there would be a limited scope in what their license would include and so it's not a situation where somebody can go to a beer truck get alcohol and then just walk down the street um it would be limited in scope and I would agree with you that if it's just one person or one company for the whole festival then it would be that fesal but if it's more than one you Pro you most likely have to have designated areas for each individual licy roll call um mayor I just want to say too in ordinance says that uh it could happen at the municipal complex is that I assume that's talking about this building the buildings over there and I am aware as I talked to the chief that you cannot have alcohol inside our minicipal building during working hours we probably wouldn't have it during working hours I wouldn't think you have if you have a retirement party inside this building N I don't think it that's what they're looking to I hear what you're saying that's not what they're looking the law says right they're not looking to achieve that you have a retirement party during work hours and and you have beer here or wine or I think that that first of all the the employees can't drink on the clock so that that's not something that I think would happen if they if listen if they let you work and drink first of all you wouldn't get much done but your days will go by pretty quick right I assume so with that any other questions no thank you roll call berley abstain car yes yes mayor Henry yes motion passes 301 67-4 payment of vouchers this resolution approves the payment of bills through 57 2024 do we have a motion motion second any discussion yes mayor there's a couple of things on this this bill that I'm concerned about I did ask so I've got information one is uh$ 300 and some dollar uh treadmill for the ad and and it was under the administration um and I I was told that it was from JF for safety reasons who told you that uh I think one of the even either the one of the two the Chiefs was it you Brian who told me that who else the chief of police not both of them he said it was from JF for safety reasons I know but I know that you Resto the both of them so both of them told you from Jeff I can look it up on my well on the bill it says that it's uh it has GIF on there doesn't right yeah so the if you want me to answer let me first you finish okay go ahead I apologize so my understanding is this and I can proven wrong is that Jif is our insurance they provide um they'll provide different things for the township they provided the the treadmill which we get reimbursed for and my understanding is is that I talked to both of them as well after they spoke to you and they stated that you know I didn't speak to I'm sorry I didn't speak to Brian but I did speak to Craig that they stated that yes it's from jff and jff pays for it it's not something we paid for but I would tell you like you see the ice maker upstairs jff paid for that right if I'm not mistaken what about the did they pay for the water too but they PID for the yes they paid for that so this has been going on for quite some time where JF adds different things to help with the health of the people who work here their work in their work life Bal so it's not anything and the only reason why I asked that is because somebody reached out to me and was the told me that you said the township was paying for tread bills out of taxpayers money but I know that you talked to Brian on Friday and you just had this conversation yesterday so I mean I listen my whole thing is this if there's something wrong and there's a fire then let's address it let's get it fixed because we're here for the township first but people just came off of a heavy heavy heavy lift last night with the school board and now we're going to now we're going to say that we're paying for Township try Mills with taxpayers money I don't know if that's I don't know if that's a great I never said it was taxpayer money sir okay I apologize I said it was GIF but I was told that it was JF for safety things my question is did GIF choose it or did we say we have safety money we're going to choose a treadmill to use with the safety money because I think there's other things for safety that we could use that were more important examp it's my understanding that Jeff also contributes to the health and weal W of our employees as well I couldn't for the welfare of this of the employes we get a certain amount of money each year from the jet um it's for health and safety it can only be used for certain things um we' used the money in the past for chair massages we've used it for fruit yes chair Mass where's the chair massager at chair massages depart I would love to get in the chair so there's a list of things that are eligible to be purchased with that money the treadmill is absolutely on the list and encourage to encourage employees on their breaks to to get on the treadmill and take good walk um so everything I said so what we did this years and done previously is know the money is available we sent Emil Police Department Department Public worksation and we say everybody gets a quarter of the money um you know discuss how you want to spend that money years p and once you know what it is'll go ahead and that's what happens Craig is this something that you run with like this is something that you did so it's not anything that the administrator that Bob or just nobody you handle this so it's from a list of things we could use it forre for the employees for staff for the employees now you are considered an employee so if you want to get on there so when you walk out the door and the the stuff that they put down for the curb that's so slanted it's a tripping Hazard that's that's not that's not part of well well he's doing in now that building all the time you can't change the rules like there's Wellness grants like distri school districts have that it's Wellness grants it's for the staff employees is different safety you're thinking safety but that's that runs under a different line like this is a for the stop to their Wellness I did try to reach out to people that's the information I got fair enough and um the other thing is I'm I'm amazed that we're still paying a snowplow company $200 an hour to snowplow and we had hardly any snow and it was $6,200 um um and we just spent $400 for cones it just seems there's a lot of things I question do we really need and I guess I need to sit down with someone and go over that do we need snow remove this just year we had a little snow that invoice is from January they just dropped off the bill that's why we're paying it now we had S I feel like I had a day off we had we had snow yeah I had to go back during spring break because we had snow yeah yes this much listen you can shovel your driveway if you want but if you want to hit them streets I didn't sh hit them streets cuz they're going to when people do it do something they're going to they're going to charge it for it so what was it 6,800 bucks if I'm not mistaken if I if I'm not mistaken on the bill like what do we budget for that like 10 grand I'm not sure what because we budget for snow removal every year right but this is from a compy company that we paid $200 an hour one invoice one invoice was for $1,700 dated January 16th 2024 one invoice was for $4,500 dated January 19th 2024 that was your snowstorm we had now you and I used to different type of snowstorms but you know there 20 in 15 in you know it's different different Community now I just I just think $200 an hour we used to be able to cost money people who worked in West Hampton who were construction workers and landscapers and we would hire them uh to do SN failing for us and it certainly didn't cost us $200 an hour what are they going to plow it they have they have plows on their trucks you know I got to get you you just said no to a $560,000 truck when don't vow we bought we bought a we bought a dump truck last year so now we have that's one truck for how many streets either so here's the thing that I would say either you do the work yourself right and then you got to hire the people fairly right you hire the people you pay their pension you pay their uh their health benefits you got to have more people to do more work oh we do we use our Public Works guys I'm I'm saying listen the public works is using an outside person to that's because they can't do it they're not doing it just because they want to throw them $6,800 right so I'm saying that if you're going to hire for to do something like that you're going to hire more people right you're going to need the equipment and I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that I'm saying that it's probably a deeper dive to figure out if that really makes sense to do it versus paying 6 800 bucks I think that you got to kind of rationalize that out but we do budget for snow removal I mean which if you can you can post on Facebook and see if anybody help removes no and everybody gets shovels and we start Rus I won't be out there but and you won't be out there either you know know the budget is what I what can I say yeah that's it no worries roll call Berkeley no car yes yes mayor Henley yes 68-20 resolution 1 you got to be quicker with that I know this is your second time doing it but 68 68-4 resolution authorizing resol author authorizing adopting the 2024 Municipal budget do we have a motion I make a motion to adopt the budget for 2 2024 I second any discussion BR mayor mayor you have to open up for a public hearing on the adoption of the budget open up for public you say we're supposed to have a hearing on the budget opening up for public comment com roll call Berkeley no car yes mango yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 31 resolution to approve partial settlement of Dolan Contractors Inc versus Westampton [Music] second I second oh discussion right roll call Ley yes car yes yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 4 Z cons agenda consent agenda resolutions resolution note consent agenda items are considered to be routine and will be enacted with one single motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by certification of availability availability of funds any items requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda do we have a motion motion second discussion roll call brookley yes car yes yesy yes motion pass is 4 Z you will now open the meeting for public comment please remember to state your name and address for the record I said I was just going to come for a quick meeting I thought it was quick okay anyway hi Berita Jones and I'm representing uh Westampton American Legion I just wanted to mention to everybody this is Military Appreciation Mom that's right so if you see a veteran see them wearing their hats or uh see a veteran somewhere just appreciate them for their service absolutely okay it's also Mental Health Awareness Month um and the American Legion has initiated um this year a program called be the one and it's basically a program to destig destigmatize mental health and peer-to-peer support resources to educate everyone on how they can be the one and um especially for our veterans that are out there you might walk past somebody and say thank you for your service but ask them how they're doing too you know they just might want somebody you know somebody to talk to and if it they need some resources or anything like that there's a phone number that you can call it's 988 and then you press one and it's not only for mental health but it's also to find resources for that veteran also it's also for civilians too if you just dial 988 so that's for mental health also um for uh W the American Legion at our post uh 509 every year we sponsor uh boy State and boy state is basically um uh a high school Civic class and we send um boys from the 11th grade from a high school we use uh do an interview process and we pick out some of the most uh well-rounded students and our school is RV that's who we get we sponsor um and we pick out the most round rounded uh students that will go there uh to Ryder University every year and they go there and they learn citizenship leadership skills they learn the work and knowledge and operation of state government and I would like to ask uh um Westampton Township if they would like to sponsor a boy from for boy State uh they attend this June the is any amount that you would like to give but for each boy is $300 we have six boys that we selected this year too so uh it's $300 or any amount any uh partial amount that you want to give for one boy and I have a letter here and it's also tax deductible it's uh is it a 50 what is it 503c yes yes it is you m thank you I appreciate that so all three of us for 300 yeah all four of us will donate for $300 each appreciate that thank you very much um so we have one boy and he'll be sponsored and we already had their orientation just this past Sunday so we have six of them and hopefully one of them winds up being the president and one of them winds up being a governor and you know and they have a whole Congress and Senate and everything else so um um usually we have one that comes back as a winner give a give a speech and that's another that's 1500 I can take my back all right anybody else yeah that's what I'm talking about all right pressure guys pressure and they go they go for a whole week they go for a whole week how many how many guys how many kids you usually send we're sending six so what you got one 2 three four five all you got to do is get one more all right all right do all right going once going twice okay so all right thank you put a little hat out that's what I'm saying look Bita could you let Wendy know who to write the check to and yes I have a letter right here and I'll pass it on to Wendy thank you and it has the check it has you right to check out great thank you very much um also um I'd like to give you a update on what we're doing um with our building um we're still working on our grant that was uh given to us by uh um Congressman Andy Kim $20,000 it is a bear working through to get this grant so we're basically on the second step we have a whole a second process and I know uh Pastor Mander Miller's been working with you Wendy and I appreciate all your help on that absolutely thank you um we have the Home Depot grant that Miss Berkeley uh uh or committee woman Berkeley recommended for us and that's that's a go right now um they we got approved um we have a list of priorities they came in they measured our floor and windows and all kind of stuff so we have a list of priorities and they're going to see how much they're going to give us out um but it's a $1 million uh Home Depot grant that they're and they' let us know we just put a list on what we want and they let us know what they're going to give us they give you a million dollar I hope so so that for that um I also like to thank public works for coming out and fixing our um what are they called gutters gutters yes coming out and fixing our gutters we appreciate that cuz they were falling apart so we really appreciate that keeping our building up up the Cod and everything else um and finally but um and not least but um I'd like to invite all of you to come out for Memorial Day service over there um at our building right at the flag post at 10:00 on Memorial Day come out there and um we'll have a couple of Veteran organizations um I like to personally invite the mayor Deputy Mayor all the committee to come out uh Wendy too you guys yeah about everybody everybody post on the if you could post it on the township page um that we're doing it at 10:00 at the flag pool and how long you guys out there for how long we out there yeah probably about an hour say you might need to do a little grilling oh you want to do some grilling yeah okay okay well it's up to you you know so talk to the guys over yes okay hey we can talk we can talk but I have a uh uh just a thing that you to put on the website everybody invited 10:00 at the flag Po and everything else if it rains we're not going to be there okay we don't salute the flag fair enough okay can we add that to our our um our dat to remember for our next yeah thank you absolutely all right thank you good other comments now I have another Gary Barbarian 138 win I made use of the township website Personnel directory to invoke the contact us template to compose a message to a specific Township employee I have been waiting over a week for a reply I have a concern that the contact us template is not routing messages properly that could be true is there a way to check this to confirm that these contact us messages we are composing and sending are indeed routing properly thank you I noticed on the township website the GM displaying the message about the Rolling Hills street lights are being installed I want to confirm that the installation is for just Rolling Hills only or by chance does that include Rolling Hills East would someone just follow up and or clarify that message on the GM display on the website doing that would mitigate any confusion thank you regarding street lights I did a simple search for the compound term street light and as a phrase street light in the township code on the ecode site I noticed there were no hits I suppose that is possible but wanted a second set of better trained eyes to confirm that the compound work or phrase is indeed absent in the entire code if there is no such mention of street light I'm curious to know if there is a specific reason for No Such ordinance regarding street lights is this a topic that the committee has considered but not ever having risen to threshold for legislative action or the committee has considered this topic in legislation but for whatever reason the legislation fails to pass if that is the case can I get some context around those efforts also I want to know if the state of New Jersey preempts municipalities from passing local legislation around street lights if we I.E the municipality is not preempted perhaps we can give a think to having a workshop session on the need for legislation to affect street lights within our Township specifically I am concerned that I see quite a few street lights that appear to have an angle of deflection lesser than 2° if we are unable to have a rotation of new street lights installed it may be something the committee take into account as a way to at least mandate the owner of street lights to correct the 2 Dee angle of deflection thank you now we have all favor to close hello comment I eight to remember next T committee meeting will be May 21st at 700 p.m. Land Development board meeting will be June 5th at 700 p.m. historic commission may be historic commission May 22nd at 700 p.m. Recreation committee meeting May 8th at 7:00 p.m. and stop the bleeding at Firehouse is May 16th at 6:30 p.m. do we have any comments from liaison reports mayor I'd like to thank you and congratulate you on your new position at the county thank you the mayor has been appointed the chief of staff of all Burlington County I think that's number two of the whole County isn't it sir oh you know I don't keep tracking number one somewhere up there but it's a very important job and it was quite an honor to have him be appointed to that um last night you talked about the Board of Ed I did go to the board of ed meeting um it seems like they are quite in stets they had said that they had to find how to cut $600,000 from the budget and I'm sure you've You' seen on Facebook they've had to cut teachers and things like that one of the things I've always felt bad is it's it's a balancing act if someone doesn't pay their taxes we still are required to pay the taxes to the school because their budget they don't collect the taxes but if we also get more taxes during that time and we had had that problem not problem that that incident when we were doing a lot of pilot deals we would get the money and they would get nothing and the question came up and I'm just throwing this out um with the new development with the uh apartments and the um town houses that are coming in some are starting to come in I think they have 22 new students they said at the school um and they anticipate in September a lot more are going to just wait till the new school year and so they don't know what they're up against especially when they they had to cut teeth uh teachers and I was wondering when when we get the taxes from the h development what's it called Laural run if we could sit down with a school especially if the year is half over and we found that we have not used a lot of our money we saved for unpaid taxes if there somehow we could help the school out with some of the needs we can hire teachers for them but if if there are certain needs that we could use some of that money that normally that percentage would go to them or even part of them that we could work together or maybe we could have share services that we wouldn't charge them as much as normal so that they could save money that way I just think that we're all one Community we're all one residents and being a retired teacher I feel and as many of you do feel the education of our students is extremely important they are our future and the school district is really having a very difficult time especially facing they have no idea how many students are going to be coming from Laurel Hill so if you would like to discuss that with the administrator and wrap it around see what you could do if that's good or bad I know legally there's things that the lawyer has to talk about well I will say this this is very confusing because we've increased our taxes 6.7 fairly I'm grateful for West Hampton schools I'm grateful my daughter had an opportunity has an opportunity to go to a four-year School my son has an opportunity to go to a fouryear school between West Hampton schools and their mother I I don't know if that would be possible so I'm grateful for Westampton schools but right now 85% of our budget are the are the people who work here how many homes are over there lower run approximately 400 about 500 498 approximately so we'll probably need more police that we got to pay for to Township we'll need more police presid um we'll need more fire presence uh we we're we're in the middle of looking at building a firehouse that's going to cost $7 million we have no fire presence across town to support that over there so we're probably going to need last. check we need a million dollars to update that I don't know that we're in a position to give away money now what I will say is that the commit that was made prior to me that we lived up to was we did the basketball courts that worked great and we also did the hockey rink for nothing for free now obviously if the school needs something we're always a place to turn with to be good partners but we also got to be wary of what we can do for for the residents as well and where we're at I mean again 6.7 cents I mean literally we just trying to cut you were just speaking of cutting you know some of some of the things that you know some people deem it find essential in order to uh in order to reduce that number now I can tell you when we talked about raising a tax is 6.7 cents I went to our tax person I went to Maria I asked Maria could she get a number and Maria sat and she talked with our our count M to kind of look at what our taxes look like for next year that we may collect from the property at L run that's one of the reasons why our taxes only went up 6.7 CS because we believe that we're going to get over $400,000 from that and they also are paying School tax as well now what I would say is that correct there are times that Pilots were done we did a pilot that was a that Pilot's injecting almost $400,000 into a budget that we still raised 6.7 so without that so to be clear this is the other thing I got to say this when you get a pilot the money that you're getting from the pilot at the township is higher than the money you'd get if you didn't do it correct the schools didn't do it but the schools don't get money from that but I personally talked to the superintendent at that time and I asked him about the pilot and could we sustain it so we were responsible even even even in doing that so I think that we have to be good custodians and work with each other but also we want to make sure that we are responsible to the end that we have to hold up we can't give away money and not have enough police can't give give away money and not have enough fire we can't give enough money give away money and we can't shovel the streets we just complained about shoveling the streets so I mean I think that we have to have a balance and we have to be responsible and custodians of the CH of West Hampton I understand this schools has an has an issue and we we've done what we can to be helpful and we continue to do what we can to be helpful um but I mean I don't think the answer is is given away it's coming so then what happens is the residents are now paying School tax right no that that that Laurel Hill does not pay school taxes once their B budget is set why you say that because I know the law once their budget is set Laurel Hill pays taxes but none of that goes to the school that's not true I know you nighttime lawyer so not true mayor there's a lag if a CO lag if a CO if a CO is issued in 2024 all the taxes collected for 2024 would be held by the township there would be a contribution to the the uh the schools there would not be however in 2025 that so it's just it's just a lag and they pay they pay I actually just talked to Maria today I knew this question was coming up and Maria said herself our tax person said no no no no and how how so you have 4 if you have 498 units they're not all going to be granted a CO at the same time they're going to be phased in so the net effect and while that's a a large development the net effect is not going to be that that that great on the schools um for that lag because some are going to be issued a CO in December and it's going to be one month's worth of taxes that's retained by the township and not shared with the schools there's going to be some others that are January and February It's a larger amount but over the probably threeyear phase of of phasing in of that development it it's it's not going to have that great of an effect on the schools but for the first year after they passed their budget last night until they pass a new budget they can't get any extra money from anywhere because their budget is already set we need extra money yeah yeah you do you get the you get the whatever tax oh no we don't get the taxes we don't get any extra money we got the fees but we got the fees last year you get whatever taxes are collected from the people that move in what are you doing with my money huh but what I'm saying is when we're budgeting for that unless I'm mistaken when we're budgeting for that we're not budgeting for that money we couldn't budget for that when I talked to our accounting we couldn't budget for that money until next year CU you're not sure who and how many are going to move in but it's the same thing right the schools couldn't budget for that money and we didn't budget for that money we didn't budget for that money and that's what I'm saying if we get money we did not budget for and becomes a lot could we work with the school to try to help them what's a lot what's the number that you think that we should do give me give us give us some some direction let's say 300 Town hes pay taxes and they're worth their their value is $389,000 each they're paying a good amount of taxes so how much what are you saying that that we should give away and that we would get so what's the number I just told you that they said that it's projected that we'd get a little over $400,000 next year from those tax from from those homes that was yes right that was an educated guest cuz it came from the people who should know it came from the accountant that does our that that does our our account work in our budget and it comes from um and it comes from our tax our tax person my my desate would be each town house will be paying $88,000 a year in taxes no no it's going to be it's going to be a little over $400,000 so what are you suggesting that we do are you suggesting that we give up a certain amount of what are you suggesting that we do I'm telling you what the num is going to be I'm saying that normally if they were getting the school was getting 30% of the taxes that people pay we look at that 30% at the end of next year and say did we really need that that the school didn't get or could we give some to the school to help them out and what I'm saying is if you got to hire more police officers you got to hire more firefighters you got a $17 million Firehouse and we're going to get about $400,000 I mean want me to pull my pockets out like where where's the extra money coming from you see what I'm saying what's what's the where's the $600,000 deficit coming from this couldn't be that's what school had and they had to lay off people because they had a $600,000 and I and listen respectfully I'm not going to comment on the schools because I'm not doing their budget I don't know their situation and I know that those people work hard so I'm not going to do that but what I'm saying is we got our own problems you know I mean like and and if they're injecting 22 people into the school when I'm all I'm saying is Nancy is this and is this something to consider I understand that you you're coming up with a plan I I understand you're coming up with a problem I just would like more of a detailed solution I know that we're going to get about four over $400,000 next year for for those properties I know that we just raised taxes 6.7 which is about $150 a household I know because we've added 498 units that are going to be eventually there that we're going to have to add more police I know that we're going to need a fire presence across town that's going to cost a million I know that the firehouse right now is $17 million these are the things these are the factors that I know respectfully I don't know where that money comes from without you then raising the taxes of the people who currently live here I just wanted to throw it out okay it's a problem and you know we're collecting what normally would go to the school and it's not because of the budget's been set do we that's okay we can't go on and on and on I wanted you to talk about it and think about it for a while I thought about it anybody else and I'm fairly I'm not the one who makes a decision we have a committee and we have a board and that's what the board supposed to do they're supposed to talk about it we're not always supposed to agree I don't have we don't have to agree and that's okay right because we're trying to think of a way to help our schools and that's the way it's supposed to be if we stand here and we agreed all the time then that's not what our government is made for what you got I don't did I talk to you I doing sir what about you want to get started so upset arm fold it um I got to do I have a question so now that we pass this can the American Legion have open containers have what open containers so why I say that is this like the American Legion over there because there are American Legions that do different things like for fundraisers so that's why I asked that question and they and they're in and they're in they're bu building up right they have some things they need to do they're getting the Grant and we've kind of said that we would give them some community redevelopment money but if they have an opportunity to be able to raise some of their own money then we have to give them less and how Hill street lights that's for like where the where the cars are parked ring H Rolling Hills I'm sorry that's where the cars are parked so the Rolling Hills street lights that were replaced are all the ones that are owned by psng that have the tags on them all we did was just replace the bulb to be a little bit brighter because the residents were complaining that it wasn't light enough yes when they were walking around at night so with the residents so why this is important because residents they complain that there like there's they felt like there were people that were parked in the in the uh in some of the side LS and there were there were some kids that were hanging out there there were people there drinking sometimes and they felt like if we had brighter lights that that would help so I don't know how exactly that happened but I know I brought it up because a resident did call me more than once and complained about that lighting so you know thank you for that we have a motion to adjourn motion second I'm not supposed to be all in favor hi good night oh we got a sign we have a black one no black talking about