on the Brooklyn good evening everyone it is now 6 o'clock requirements of the sunshine law have been met uh through the Bronson County Times and trying to know this was given to the NJAC
539-1.5 bernita can you please lead us with the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all we will now have a moment of silence roll call committee woman Dr caldwell here committee woman Miss Madison here committee man Mr clark here committee woman Miss Long Mungo here mayor Henley
here also present township township clerk the council administrator the uh township deputy administrator and the PD is here in present and that's it we are now going to executive session
resolution number 55-25 resolution authorizing counselor committee and support staff to meet in private session authorizing bless you authorizing the exclusion of of the public from that portion of the meeting dealing with specific issues requiring non-public discussion attorney client privilege
collective bargaining FOP supervisors we have a motion so moved second any discussion roll call Dr caldwell yes missantine yes Mr cor yes yes Henley yes five yes motion passes thank
you Uh welcome back we did a motion in a second in private session to come out so we now have a presentation for recognition of the winners of the West Hampton Intermediate School Women's
History Month essay [Applause] absolutely all right he's taking care of it just one moment while our students come in to be recognized please all right i'll proceed so the West
Hampton Township Committee is pleased to host our first women's history essay month um contest um this month we selected our West Tangent Intermediate School students grades four and five and they were prompted to write a thank you
note to a woman who inspires them and they had to say why and highlight her contributions to society so at this time we'd like to invite all three of our finalists up to read their essays aloud one by one and then after the last person is announced can all
three of our finalists come back up for a gift from West Hampton Township Committee so the first person I'd like to call up is our third place winner um just a little bit about her essay it was very uplifting and she talked about how
this person has made major contributions in her life in so many ways so I would like to call up Cassidy Fromhold from history i want to thank you for advice here i want to thank you for class you
inspire me because you work out to stay healthy you are also very positive and help me be positive too you are also always there for me encouraging me to do things i want you to say thank you to my such a wonderful thing to do mom you're
also creative i think that mark I got my creativity you working for the correction above me and you help me get your life and that will even I think too because they still you inspire me because you do
stuff for the family even though you don't have to but you do it because you love us you also inspire me because you have great passion and that's why I look great every night you inspire me because you come to cheer me on at basketball softball game or
even practices you also inspire me because you work so hard by my little friends and my brother to make us happy you also inspire me because you bring foster kittens up here and that makes me so happy because you put them
in my room i got an experience of a lifetime kittens being born in my room my teach had a cup that was so fun remember the end of the day I took all my own because of you mom I love you i
feel like I'm the lucky star because excellent job Cassidy from hole thank you so much for sharing that and I want to say I feel the same way about my mom who's here with me tonight so there's no age limit on how we feel about our mothers um second place I want to tell
you a little bit about this essay as well i want to commend this person on their presentation i was completely blown away they went above and beyond and so can we please have Avery Schmidt come to the front read your essay
dear mom mom is too small of a word and it doesn't make to cover all up to me you are more than just my mother you are my best friend protector and greatest children you are a special hard worker and I admire strength and edification so
much i also look up to you because you are stories that make completely no sense at all you are such confident you are such a fault positive because no matter how hard things get just when I think I cannot reach my
goals I hear anything is possible your kindness makes me want to be a better person you are the reason I made myself I know you always have my dad no matter what
mom being a mom is so job well at least That's what he's telling me and I know it isn't always an easy or me and my sister but we work so hard to take care of us and I want you to
know all that you do for me for me and our family and others i am so blessed to have you in my life and I hope to be as inspiring as you mom you have changed my life for the better and I hope you
I love you with all my luck thank you for Thank you Avery Schmidt we really appreciate you coming up and reading your essay about your mom excellent job last but not least um the only thing I'll tell you about this essay is that the person who this
person wrote about would be extremely proud and touched so can we please have our first place winner come up which is Daniel Oenini I want to know inspiring determination possible
and you may fly across their people you broke their motivated others to reach the sky and women
create organization for women so the more women I love and I'm learning science and technology and sports i sometimes feel that people don't
expect me to succeed in certain in certain fields but you inspire me i actually never let other people go prevent achieving my dreams you never allow them to enter the change you
remind me that I could be I could achieve my goals no matter what thank you for being alone tomorrow and showing the world showing the world that dreams are going to
keep and never give up to my dreams thank you Daniel for sharing your thank you note to Amelia Heheart excellent work mayor West Hampton Township can we take a minute to just um hand our awards to the finalists and a photo if they
would like to yes um Superintendent Donado if you're still here would you please join us they're going to have us pictures my job [Applause]
thank [Applause] you glorious [Music] thank you you ready uh now so we're going to present a
proclamation to West Hampton's campus Pastor Lori Freeman what I would say um prior to reading this I've always been um upfront about some of the things that I've seen change
do for our community uh as far as you know giving back and creating opportunities for those and and making people aware one of the things they made me aware of is our is a DCS school for pregnant teens and you know they presented them
with a check uh a significant check and the one thing that stuck with me was that the people who run the school were say saying that they never ever had any money right um and they never even had a place to hold a graduation like they they didn't have a place to hold hold a
graduation for these for these kids that had to overcome this adversity but the person who made me aware of that was uh Pastor Lorie Freeman she reached out and asked if I wanted to come up while they presented the check and just something that she made me aware of um she's she's
let you know people on the committee come help when they were handing out book bags made us aware um of that and the amount of people that they were able to touch i will say even in in her selflessness I got to get you Bill so
Bill her husband tells me that you know there was a point that there's so many people coming to the church that the streets everything is filled and you know and the residents are are are not happy so you know Pastor Mory
reached out found an alternative where now people park at the school and they get shuttled from the school over to the church and she's the campus pastor and she parks over there and takes the shuttle in when she can park in the
front which I've done so you know the fact that you know she's done these things for our community and she's a West Hampton resident to boot um is something to be extremely proud of especially in in the month where we
celebrate women so if I may um I want to read the proclamation and then present it this is recognizing the West Hampton C campus p campus pastor Lorie Freeman whereas Pastor Lorie Freeman has
dedicated her life to serve others with unwavering faith compassion and a deep commitment to spiritual growth and whereas Pastor Freeman has tirelessly worked to uplift Change Church fostering a community of love support and encouragement and whereas Pastor Freeman
has demonstrated exceptional leadership inspiring countless individuals to live out their faith with integrity kindness and generosity and whereas through her teachings Pastor Lori has provided spiritual guidance comfort and wisdom helping others deepen their relationship
with God and navigating their life's challenges and whereas Pastor Lori has become a beacon of hope and strength in the lives of many making a profound impact at James Church her West Hampton Township community and all those she has
encountered in her ministry and whereas her selfless devotion to her calling and to the service of others have brought about positive change exemplifying the love and grace of Jesus Christ in all that she does now therefore we the c the
the the committee of Westampton Township do hereby proclaim this day in honor of Pastor Lori Freeman recognizing her extraordinary contributions to the faith community and compassion spirit and tireless dedication to serve we commend
her for her commitment to God's work and extend our deepest gratitude for her continued efforts to spread a message of love hope and redemption and witness whereof we the committee of West Hampton
Township here unto set our hand and cause and cause this proclamation to be presented in recognition of Pastor Lori Freeman's outstanding ministry and community leadership thank [Applause] [Applause]
you amen yes I'm sorry i'm sorry i'd like to take a picture with members of our team that are here because all the accolades that you have just put on me I cannot do would not be able to do
without them so I just told them about this today because I didn't want to make a big fuss because I'm a little embarrassed because I noticed I can't do it without them so I I would just like to take pictures [Music]
okay come on [Music] [Music] i want to thank you all and I just pulled on this act as well [Music] [Applause] thank you
[Applause] [Music] and before we go don't forget we have an event on Saturday saturday 4:00 so everyone goes they held the fire department police department they're
showing the movie The 68 we're going to have one descendant of the 68 there to speak as well so please everyone in the community you're more than welcome thank you [Applause] what we got
as promised we have our director Dr felicia Hopson available for uh if you have any additional questions about the emergency shelter that's being built in town
what we would ask is Bob how many minutes is the It's what three three minute time three minutes speaker do we have anyone that has any questions or any comments come on up come on
up hi Lee Canals uh 34 over road um I just was here to see if there's any kind of update um so maybe Felicia could offer that to inform us the latest what's going on there obviously the ground is broken but any more
information would be helpful and little side issue there's still a lot of homeless people in the library picnic area is that I care about people but is
that something that could be addressed i know the homeless shelter is going to do that but just today you can't bring anybody well they do have the hope van that that will come out and I know that from the time that we had the first um
the first round that they've had the the hope vehicle come out and address those address those needs a little bit around the raw area which I have seen a vast improvement so what I what we can try to do and I can't obviously speak for Dr hopson or Charlene but maybe we can get the hope vehicle to come out and offer
some help in the library area okay i didn't know how you're working together and that would be more to the question too is how township and the counties working with it well we're always working together okay um but that is you know obviously it's public there it's public area though but our human
services department has been out there several times trying to help uh the individuals that are out there but you know please be mindful it's still their choice right some folks don't want help and we can't make them obviously but yes and to your point the homeless shelter
will solve for that but there's all there's there's services available so if human and I can get an update but if human services has been out there you said Volunteers of America and Human Services both have been out there so it's not as if it's going you know
unnoticed or unadressed so we are offer but I could just give you a quick level overview so yes we did break ground so we anticipate Oh go ahead with your question before I Oh okay i just wanted to know is there
any um type of connectivity to find out um are some of the homeless veterans and do you have services reaching out to for veterans that are you know that so we have a we have our veteran services
division in the county and if there are service if there are homeless veterans our housing hub and human services team would work directly with the veterans division for county right so we always try to do our best and and that's one of
the first areas that we started with was the veterans um and what we found and I don't have concrete evidence but what we found um was that a lot of our veterans did not want the help yes um but what we did was
just made sure that they understood the information how to get access to the information and making sure they had the telephone numbers if ever they decided they wanted to to get help that's one of the primary things that we found okay great you're welcome um I just had a question for you too
it's not just exactly West Hampton either i work at Acme overnight shift mhm and I don't know if you've heard about that but last week it's getting worse um we had a guy drunk homeless sleep on the ground all
over the place two or three people attack me right in Man here we have them every night i feel so bad for them is there anything I can do if I call the police what are they going to do for me i want to see that they're going to take them somewhere that they're going to get them help not just put them somewhere
else you can call 211 so 211 is our emergency services for homelessness domestic violence so any type of emergency that's not crime will they come out in the middle of the night absolutely that's what 211 so 211 is a service that we have um extended for a
year round service at first do you remember how we used to do Code Blue very in the winter when it was a real cold months well we extended that service it's now called 211 so we pay for it um and once we call that number one of our partners will assist in
whatever the situation they will come they will come yeah you can call 211 you're welcome are there any other questions before I give the update okay so we did break ground um the we did this at be January
so January of this year we broke ground so we anticipate without any problems or anything like that if any horrible weather we're hoping that the facility will be finished next late summer fall of 2026 that's what our anticipated
um completion date is so um I know last time that I was here it was an environmental impact study was asked about so we did not have to do one and it was because one the property was already owned by the county and two 90%
of the 90% of the construction is on um unpenetra [Music] unpenetrable ground meaning concrete so it's no way for anything to get in there so we did not have to now this is from our county engineers office they
confirmed for us cuz several people asked me about this so that's why we did not have to do one so that that is the reason why we don't have one um we anticipate that once we are ready to cut the ribbon and open the doors we will
have um another organization running the day-to-day for the homeless shelter for the county as a county government entity cannot oversee the day-to-day so we will have um whatever organization will go
out for RFP so whatever organization you know winds up getting that contract they will be the ones in charge of the day-to-day for the shelter so what that will look like for us and obviously we'll talk more as we get closer to this
date but what that will look like is the organization that oversees it dayto-day it will be their employees there 24/7 so the shelter is open for 24/7 but while it's open that doesn't mean there's in and out in and out after
certain time the way we are um expecting it to run will be once you're in after a certain time you will not be allowed out until the next morning but we will be open 247 for intake we'll be open 24/7
for intake and that intake will be the organization whomever they are it'll be their employees there to do the intake round the clock we haven't solved for who will be giving or providing our
24-hour security but we still anticipate and will require 24-hour security at the shelter so we don't know yet what that will look like whether it'll be a private security firm we just don't know yet but it it is still a part of the plan to have 24-hour security at the
location as you all already know it's a 60 bed unit it's a 60 bed um facility um what else can I tell you about where we are um I just pou concrete we just pou concrete so you know we're we we're
getting you know they send us pictures and we're we're we're checking it out on a regular basis um you know it's going to be right behind the human services building so we don't anticipate a lot of uh traffic from the front of the building so once they're in and they'll go walk back towards the facility where
they need it so we don't anticipate a huge need for a lot of transportation services once we bring our um once we bring the folks in who need the help they will be in until they receive their help so we don't anticipate a lot of back and forth traffic um that's that's
where we are i don't unless you guys have specific questions for me I don't really have any other updates yes yes please i just know that a lot of residents had concerns before about the overflow i
feel like 60 beds is going to be filled like that when you when you open it up to the whole county um so what happens when there's 200 more people from around the county in the parking lot waiting for a bed so that's that's not typically
how it works so the overflow so I'm I'm going answer your question then I'll go back to how I u how it typically works so we would we still are going to have our partnerships with all the partners that we have today so today when we have someone and we cannot um find
um we can't find a place for them to go we call our partners whether it's uh whether it's um um whether they go to Camden County to that shelter um what other places do we use Christian Care Volunteers of America
who who we those relationships are still in place okay so if if we ever find ourselves full which I don't think that we will so if you recall when I was here last time we talked about the data about how many um um homeless people were
truly in Burlington County we talked about housed homelessness and unhoused homelessness so we had at the time this was the middle of November of 2024 we had approximately a thousand homeless
people but there were only six 1717 that was unhoused so you can be homeless without having So homeless means you don't have a permanent permanent um residence for 6
months or more so I could be sleeping on my aunt's couch and be considered homeless but I still have somewhere to sleep right so when we when we think about homelessness it's grouped there together but then there's categories of it so the
emergency shelter is solving for the citizens that are unhoused homelessness that's what this home this emergency shelter is solving for not for the general population of homelessness if that makes sense yeah i
mean I just think in the county in general I mean there's just I mean you go to shop you see the guy sleeping there you go to Acne there's a lady with her shopping cart there's like it's just it's it is a but but homelessness is a that's a problem within our entire society so bringing bringing the shelter
will definitely help but again as I stated previously these folks have got to want the help right and today they can get help you can call 211 we have partnerships that are in place for us to help any and everyone who needs it but
if those folks aren't willing to get the help right and you and and I'll I'll just share a story i think it was maybe a year and a half ago we we had a homeless woman middle-aged um living out of her car uh she had a job but we knew
she was homeless we tried to offer her help she didn't want the help because she didn't want her income impacted yeah do you understand what I'm saying so all we could do is offer let folks know about the services that are available but if they don't take the help there's
really nothing we can't force ourselves on them so you understand what I'm saying so I'm not So it's not you know we definitely will do any and everything that we can to help everyone but there are some situations where some people truly do not want help and we have to respect i think I think me and a lot of
people were just worried about people coming from around the whole county and then you know instead of and then the shelter's full and then they're at the library too yeah that's not how that's not how we envisioned it and and we've had a lot of conversations will have
we'll have the partners in place again those partnerships will not end so coming from all around the county uh I I not unless it's something substantial like I just don't I just don't see it happening but if it
does and we get full we will then lean into the current partnerships that we have okay i I mean I think that will make a lot of people feel better awesome yes you're welcome excuse me that's okay it's okay you could just stay in your
seat [Music] get her oh my god watch out for the Move the Move the podium back move the podium back [Music]
sit back can you Nancy sit down just give her the microphone while she's sitting down sorry about that no no no you don't owe me an apology auntie i want to thank you for that explanation of homeless versus emergency shelter
because I think most people hear homeless and they don't understand that is as you said emergency shelter and unfortunately you use both terms together does that make sense so I can understand emergency are you referring
to me using both terms together or over the last two years cuz I remember talking about this in 2022 with you sometimes it was called an emergency shelter sometimes like tonight you used the homeless shelter um is there a time limit where you're trying to get these
people into a more permanent home so they will leave your building yeah so with the restaurant services typically um wraparound services is you slip out 90 days for wound services so it depends so when they come in they do their intake let's just say someone is
suffering from drug addiction so what would that look like so are we going to get them to a facility to help in the past and how long would that process take it just depends specifically and when I say background services do they need mental health services do they need medical care so all of that stuff can be
assessed throughout the intake and then we will have a time frame for addressing each one of the issues for this particular whatever person um and then the 90day time frame is typically what I've seen now this is based off of just
my general research of what happens throughout the country when folks are getting help when they're facing homelessness um folks who currently live in temporary transitional houses is usually about the 90 day turnaround time for them to get on their feet find a job
find some place permanent to live so I'm basing it off of that i don't have actual facts from the Burlington County perspective this is what I know from a national perspective okay so I am assuming that it's going to be somewhere
around the state but if we can turn it around back to the will and they have to be willing to that's the whole purpose and then just to address your comment about emergency versus homeless I use them interchangeably
because I feel like homelessness is an emergency right but I'm talking about the general public well the general public I I don't I I can't you know no but you you just explained it which is what I mean but I homelessness in my opinion is emergency
so you can be facing homelessness from domestic violence so one day you can wake up and think everything is okay you don't know that your spouse may be trying to kill you the next day so that is an emergency or your house catches on fire and you have no house when you're facing a home you're facing an emergency
and now you are homeless so it's not never in my opinion not ever it's always an emergency homelessness is an emergency in my day if you don't mind I'd like to deviate from the shelter a little bit but it relates still to poor people i'm involved with two pantries
poor people people who are on say SNAP i involved in two pantries and what we found is people have SNAP money for food but SNAP does not cover things that they have to have such as toilet paper and female products and soap and things like
that and I was wondering if when you have your county pantry not pantry uh you know uh days for food distri distribution you could also try to get more of the non-nap things out there because people have to use their own
money they can't use SNAP to even buy a bar of soap or wash their clothes or Yeah we don't drive home anymore oh you don't okay not offering we offer grants to some of our partners to offer the
food to our um residents that's one and you know SNAP is a federal program and we recognize that it doesn't cover everything so our partners are aware that that SNAP doesn't cover everything and we have partners who donate those
types of things and we always find um like last time I was here the um the lady who runs the beloved project she is someone who is who would be available to partner with say okay she would
be one one person and say okay they have this hand they have that but they also need clothes they need products they need you know so she's the one who make sure that those types of things are provided to
which we all need that's right thank you are you okay yes yeah sometimes I know I'll pass you the mic do we have any other discussion for our director
hi uh it's Gary River 138 Winstead um so later on our agenda we're going to see our police reports and sometimes we see that the police are doing Megan's law notifications so that's obviously a concern um I guess
my question or maybe you can talk about this is what's the eligibility because that obviously is a crisis for someone who's experiencing a crisis and they happen to be on the registry what's the protocol for that andor since you did talk about the security aspect of this
um how do we protect the you know the residents of that facility from someone who's on the notification somehow trying to gain access to that facility so I don't quite understand your question so are you saying someone who is on a Megan's Law
trying who needs help like are they help homeless or are you saying that that person who's on that registry is trying to get in and hurt someone who is in the shelter it could be both right so for example someone who is on the registry they're they experience some catastrophic personal crisis and they
try to apply for services at the facility would they be eligible or would their status as a person on Megan's law registry render them ineligible for service at that yeah I don't know if they'll be I don't know if they'll be eligible to come into the shelter but we would refer to them we would refer to
them to um our partners who help offenders like that because we do have partners who help offenders so it's it's very relevant so I don't know but also the shelter is not going to have children so the shelter is just for men and women no children so but we will do
our best to help any and everyone thank you hello i guess to put a end to the mystery it's not going to be like a freefor all like you take for me instantly instantly if I just stand in front of um shop right
every day yeah and then I come to your facility to um get bedding and then I just go back out it's not going to be like that correct that's that's my understanding that it seems like you have to be working or falling on some hard times or something like that so so
there's a gray area when it comes down to being able to qualify for services correct but let's just say let's just go with your scenario so I find myself homeless i I'm outside of Shopright i don't have a job i go to the shelter i
I'm going through that intake process so that intake process I'm I'm going to do I'm going to get an assessment of what what I need what's next for me whether it's whether it's a job whether it's drug treatment you know whether it's mental health issues that assessment
will help determine my next step if it's a job then that the wraparound services that we have will then guide that person for employment so what does that mean does that mean that that person can go out for interviews and will they be
helped with clothing and um get the skills that they need for interviewing that's what that means so will they leave the shelter during the day maybe if they have a a interview will they be allowed to come back yes but I believe there was already a
question uh I think Nancy asked "How long do we anticipate folks to be there?" I'm predicting that 90day turnaround but it could be longer based off of more recent data i don't know that this is just what I am aware of i haven't looked at data in about 6 months
so things may have changed and I looked at it from a national level not the state and then the county level okay so that may change cuz I don't know what it looks like and that's a good question and we probably should take that back to identify um how long once we do the
intake depending on the person's um you know challenges that they're having how long will it take to help with job a job how long does it take for you know if someone's addicted to drugs we don't know we really don't know i it could be multiple things it could be
drug addiction and mental health so we just we just don't know so since we don't know what we don't know it's hard for me to guesstimate but I anticipate that we're going to you know use resources that's you know available to us to make sure it's not what as you say
a free-for-all right but it will be available so you don't have to have those people hanging out in front of Shop right sleeping you know at the library you know what I mean so it's available for folks to have cover get assistance if they want it so that's
what it's really available for that's what I thought okay thank you you're welcome thank you any other discussion for our director uh good evening i'm Rick Parker 12 hi one of the things that I uh I found in terms of working at the county and
understanding how uh things work is is that transition yeah as they um have to go out of the shelter and then eventually get on their own uh so that is sounds like that's something that you're still trying to decide and work through well because we don't know again
that's the part of we don't know what we don't know so I could be someone who is on waiting for affordable housing but I was living with my aunt and she kicked me out right so I could just be needing this home this this shelter until I'm up
for affordable housing because I have a job right right so that could be a scenario for someone that's a real life situation but I could also be you know someone who fell on hard times who lost their job mhm and now I don't know I am
up for this apartment for affordable housing but now I don't I can't afford it so what am I supposed to do yeah yeah no I I certainly have a lot of credit for me for taking on this challenge i know um I would often And Dr cordwell how you doing i'm here because of her i
didn't know you were going to be here and this is a bubble bonus but um one of the things uh we used to get people who were homeless to come in right they had to be from the county they had to show some kind of residence that they had been here for period of time is that also going to be a requirement yes yes
yes that is a requirement and but but to that degree right now as we partner with Camden County and other counties when we have um out of placement county we have to also take that into consideration so today we don't have a shelter as you know but we have we often times send our
residents to another county right that's true yes you understand what I'm saying so we will have to absolutely extend that but at from the onset our requirement is for Burlington County it is for it is for Burlington County and I don't think that we're going to see that
influx of always being full and not having anywhere to send folks who still need help i don't think that we will see that influx because today the way it's managed we manage it already without partners we manage it with 211 so as
long as a person wants to get the help we will help them right so yeah I I would agree with that and then for Burlington County it's always been a challenge with transportation and getting people to and from so is there going to be any kind of u uh resource
with getting people to the center who may be in another part of the county or is their home well yeah so we're hoping Yeah we're hoping that we'll we'll definitely still have the Burlink we have Burlink now um so if someone needs to get to us we're hoping that the
Burlink will be available but often times people find their way right and then once you're there we we truly believe that just like from the neighborhood's perspective you're not going to see an influx of traffic because they're coming from human
services to the shelter or cuz human services is the building in front the shelter is going to be behind it or if they're coming you know in the middle of the night um they're arriving by foot or by car or public transportation they're going right there
to the shelter and they once they're in they're in until the next morning yeah now again I want to thank you in the county for doing this because it is a need um we certainly see a lot of people as um Dr hopson is saying who are homeless and they're right in front of
us and we don't know they're homeless so uh there is a need there there's a huge need for it in our county so yeah I'll be watching and hopefully uh I don't expect anybody overflowing into our neighborhoods i'm hoping Well that's why we're doing this though so we will at least have you know we'll have this
emergency shelter for these type of situations thanks thank you thank you sir thank you Felicia for um all the information you provided i guess the big question that doesn't get answered and I
don't know society needs to fix it is that person I mentioned at the county library that's in the overhang there if they don't want help it's not a place where I can go take my family to have a picnic there
it's gone so somehow society needs to say there's a point at which we need to pull them out of that place and and then kind of still make it available for our residents and that's a
very good point and I'm not saying that we won't solve for that i believe that we will um but is my hope that the shelter will solve for what you're seeing at the library again the real thing is if they
don't want to correct and that that's a Well I mean listen this is a human services problem right it's not just Burlington County this is a what I think is an international problem but let's just stick with United States i It's a national problem um and it's a human
services problem it's a civility problem it's a respect problem because we have we have a lot of folks who don't who are not civil we have a lot of folks who are not respectful we one of the main reasons I came here I had to start coming to these meetings was because
folks said to my face that this shelter should be in a black town because only black people need help so we have to be mindful of the biases that come along with some of the things that people are saying and doing not
realizing that homelessness has no color it has no political affiliation it it it it it can happen to any one of us and when we don't show that level of civility that level of respect to folks who are suffering and going through
something it affects all of us right so how difficult is it for us to be kind that's probably the bigger question well and so what you're saying the shelter is important it's a great idea it's going to help a lot of
people the other side is this shelter might be a magnet to bring more people here and then they get here and they say "No I really don't want to check in here tonight it's not I don't want to have to abide by your rules by I'm going down to
the library to to live that's it just it's a bigger question we find I don't expect you to answer it it's No that's fine and you're right but these are good these are good points and and we we you know you and I could we can we can continue our conversation we can meet but I'll just say if we find that that's
the case then that'll be something that the county has to solve for right we will have then identified a gap that we will need to solve for we will do that okay okay sure are there any other questions no other questions all right
so I'm scheduled to come back in June june so I'll be back in June and then September yes deep and then December so I'm scheduled to come back on a regular basis so if you have questions concerns um please you know you can either hold
them until I come back or feel free to reach out to our public information office uh Charlene's in charge of my schedule so if I need to meet with someone I'm happy to do so um since we already have these meetings scheduled throughout the year for the end of this
year uh if you can you guys feel free to come to our meetings we meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month so we have our meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m in Mount Holly so I'm always available to answer questions address any concerns okay do you all have any
questions for me not at the moment thank you for giving your time to our community director thank you very Thank you ladies reports we have police public works courts fire
EMS approval of minutes March 11th 2025 regular meeting minutes do I have a motion motion second any discussion roll call dr caldwell yes miss Maddox Canteen yes mr cart yes miss yes
mayor Henley yes yes motion passed march 11 2025 close session meetings meeting close session minutes I'm sorry uh motion so moved second any discussion roll call dr caldwell yes miss Maddox
canteen yes mr carr yes miss Mono yes mayor Henley yes yes motion passes we now open the meeting for public comment on agenda items only please remember to state your name and address for the record please remember to state your name as well as write your name and
address on the sign and sheet on the podium with no questions all in favor close i ordinances second reading public hearing 3-2025 ordinance amending chapter 5059 of the code of West Hampton Recreation
Advisory Committee we have a motion make a motion for 3-2025 second open for public comment vote on this roll call roll call dr caldwell yes miss Maddox Canteen yes mr carr yes miss yes
mayor Henley yes ibs motion passes ordinance this is the first reading no that's an error resolution 52-25 payment of vouchers this resolution approves the payment of
payment of bills through 325 2025 do you have a motion motion second any discussion roll call dr caldwell yes Miss Maddox abstain mr carr yes Miss yes Mayor
Henley yes three yes motion passes consent agenda resolution resolution no consent agenda items are considered to be routine and will be enacted with a single motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by certification of availability of funds any items requiring discussion will be
removed from the consent agenda do we have a motion motion second calwell any discussion i just like to congratulate Chief Farnsworth on the grant congratulations Chief Good roll call dr
coville yes miss Maddoxy yes mr park yes miss yes mayor Henley we will now open the meeting for public comment please remember to state your name and address for the record remember this is for comment uh not intended as question and answer period
now now you're ready fernita Jones 20 lane uh some pictures um as of yesterday the Associated
Press says that they are going to cut 80,000 jobs for the Veterans of Affairs Office this is according to an internal memo um veteran suicide
is number one for the veterans in uh the number one clinical priority for veterans at the Veterans Administration at this time suicide is preventable everybody has a role in play in saving their lives
this year's annual report from the Veterans Administration for 2024 has just been released and for New Jersey there's been 56 suicides we only have 21
counties and so you're thinking about 56 suicides 10 of them were women and that's why I'm bringing that to attention because of Women's History Month this month um what I need everyone to do is to
reach out to your congressmen and express that we need these jobs at the Veterans Administration because I would hate to be the one that needs help that calls 988 and press one and nobody answers
that line on the other side knowing that I need help or the call for veteran service that I need on the other side and that person is gone or I'm on hold for 3 4 hours trying to get in
touch with another another line or somebody else because this job has been cut so I need each and every one of you in this room to reach out to your congressmen write down talk to them if you run into them
tell them that these jobs do not need to be cut for our veterans there are 22 veteran suicides a day in America and you think just last year we had 56 in New Jersey okay
with the veterans um uh program they promote uh different struggles for veterans promoting secure firearm storage building and sustaining community collaborations expanding craft crisis
and intervent intervention services they uh also advance suicide prevention into nonentical supports they enhance mental health care and they uh integrate the suicide
prevention with medical settings um with that I just need everyone to make an effort to make a difference and together we can create a compassionate supportive network to empower veterans
and ensure veterans have access to care they're valued and they have hope if if you need uh to get in contact with somebody get in contact with a veteran if you need to uh get in contact with
some services for them you could dial 988 and then press one and they will it's not only for veteran suicide they will get you in touch with a lot of other programs that will help a veteran
i had to use this service just last week for a veteran and it wasn't because the veteran reached out because they were hopeless they reached out because they needed some services and they needed to get in touch with
somebody and this 988 number referred me to multiple services for this person and they were very grateful that I did that for her and they didn't know about the 9881 so if you can see a veteran just speak to them talk to them you never
know what they're going through and you have 98 press for veterans and you got to know our veterans need these services at the Veterans Administration thank you thank you
any other comment oh yeah yeah good idea thank you i don't know if you've been following the news um but I'm sure some of you have um friends up in the
legislature you can talk to but the governor has talked to the board of public utilities and getting them to come up with a new way of charging us they would like to charge us based on our income if you are moderate income you pay a
little more if you have a high income you pay a lot more and that would be electric gas water sewer and I don't even know if they consider that cell phones and and internet but I pay enough for my utilities and yet I don't know
what they consider me a moderate income but as a single person I can't make as much as a married couple and be considered a moderate or a high income or a low income and my taxes are not based on how many people in my family or
my income my income tax is not based on how many people in my family i pay school taxes it has nothing to do with the people in my family and I think if to look just someone's income and charge us based on our utilities that means a lot of people got to be turning off
their air conditioning this summer because they can't afford it i understand and I agree totally for people who are very low income they need help i had a friend who had to go for a month in the winter without an oil bill because she couldn't afford to get oil
and they wouldn't give her a tank of oil until she gave him the cash and there are people out there to help but when the whole state is based on individual income that is absolutely ridiculous and then I started thinking why would he
care about PSNG making more money i have a feeling that if PSNG is charging 13 cents kilowatt excuse me moder and high income might pay 15 or 20 cents per and that that money's not going to go to PSG
that's going to go to the state so it's a state's way of making more money off of you and I I would like you and everyone here to contact their senator their congressman and say "We can't afford this." And Governor Murphy
is on his way out cuz he can't run again so why is he doing this now this is absolutely and if you look and you Google you'll find many many things about it okay and I I was just I couldn't believe this we can't keep affording this so thank you very much
thank you no no other comment all in favor of close i I dates to remember next town committee meeting is April 1st at 700 p.m land Development Board meeting April 2nd
at 7 p.m historic Commission is March 26 at 7 p.m recreation Committee meeting is at 9 April 9th at 7 p.m we now have committee leaison reports and comments i'll keep it short you don't mind go
ahead congratulations to Avery Cassidy and Daniel thank you Pastor Lori congratulations to your team um it was awesome to hear the mayor's thoughts and read
that also thanks to the commissioner director Hopson for coming tonight and sacrificing her time to be with us to answer our questions um again Chief Farnsworth thanks for all you do for West and applying for that grant receiving that grant but that's off the
taxpayers's back so appreciate it and uh finally if everyone would join me no what's that no I said Oh well tonight's a very special night for our mayor it's his birthday so happy birthday Mayor H
i don't know how special thank you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear
happy birthday to you i'm laughing cuz if I could be red I'd be red no I appreciate it thank you um I appreciate it thanks um just to kind of piggy back off of
um Mr carr I wanted to congratulate Thank you again Dr codwell for uh doing the Women's History um month that was a great addition yes next month excuse me um I don't have any I don't have any ideas right now maybe a summer project
while they're at home resting um um but it was great um listening to their um essays cassidy touched me deeply that was really cute um congratulations to Cassie Avery and Daniel um thank you again um Mayor for
acknowledging um Pastor Lorie she does a lot for our community so I'm glad that we were able to give her that acknowledgement um and thank you to Dr hopson for being here to always speak with our residents i want to thank all of the residents for being here and expressing um you know just concerns or
whatever it may be uh just to join in that conversation with us i also wanted to mention another date um April 2nd next week the chicken committee will be meeting um back committee we do have um I've already sent the proposal for um some updates to the ordinance for that
so hopefully we can get that on the next agenda and again happy birthday i have that on there too so that's it thank you so next um good evening everyone thank you so much for coming out really appreciate it i did invite more people to this meeting so thank you for showing
up Mr raw Mr carpenter really really appreciate that and your input um questions that you asked help us glean more and learn we're all going through this together for the first time and um your insight really helps us to get it right i want to thank every West Hampton
Intermediate School student who participated in our first Women's History Month essay contest they are officially a part of history as we as we've never done this before a special thank you to Principal Dr feldman for helping make sure that it went off without a hitch making this opportunity
a reality and thank you Superintendent D donado for supporting our initiative congratulations Cassidy Avery Daniel i had a wonderful time reading your essays looking forward to more in the future perhaps next year thank you director Dr
hopson for coming in and shedding light um she's not here now but I was going to tell her um I can tell that she's very passionate about this she's educated she's done her research and so for her to be able to share all that with us as we have concerns really means a lot to me um also an update i am now a member
of the Burlington County Homelessness Trust Fund Task Force it is a one-year term through Burlington County i was kind of volunttoled but that's okay um I will be bringing back information to the committee as I always do the next
meeting is in April so hopefully I will have an update for you by May um just a little bit of data on that on how I got chose uh or we as a uh one got chose um so according to the Burlington point in time study um West
Hampton had the third highest number of homeless persons um Mount Holly being one and Burlington Township being second um so apparently the three highest towns with the three highest amount of homeless persons they have to have a representative and so that's how I was chosen and again uh we'll be bringing
that information back to us as residents um congratulations to our West Hampton Fire Squad and Chief Barnesworth i was able to watch them be recognized for uh a rescue a rescue incident I believe uh
earlier in 2024 i was really proud to be um a representative of West Hampton a resident here i feel safe knowing that I had you guys so congratulations to everyone i didn't get all the names but everyone was up there to take a picture and be recognized um by the 200 club so congratulations everybody and lastly
congratulations to Pastor Lorie Freeman and her change team um I've been to her church um and witnessed her ministry um and everything that she does for our community so congratulations to her and her team thank you uh good evening everyone and thank you
all for your attendance it could have been a lot of other places and we're so uh grateful for you being here and um coming to support Westampton dr cowwell once again you have outdone yourself we really appreciate all of your efforts in
letting the lights shine of the students in West Hampton Township West Hampton Intermediate School in particular uh Superintendent Donado thank you so much for your support and being here uh second time for your students at this
particular school location uh Daniel Avery and Cassidy job well done i enjoyed listening to those essays pastor Lorie Freeman the Change Church Westampton campus pastor thank you so much for your unwavering commitment to change church and the Westampton
community matthew 25:21 says "Well done good and faithful servant well done and it has been a great job you have done and continue to do." Dr cowwell and I have participated in a number of events there um giving out book bags and just
doing so many uh things and we look forward to uh being able to continue to do that dr hopson thank you so much uh for coming out to once again uh shed a little light on what's going on not only with the shelter but within the county
we appreciate uh you coming and giving the information to our our residents and we also appreciate you working with Dr cowwell and I because we're on the phone with her a lot uh asking questions and uh doing a number of things so thank you so much for that in terms of committee
reports the West Hampton uh recreation uh advisory committee we last met on the 12th of the month and we discussed a number of different things we hosted a pizza party for the end of the basketball uh season and that was wonderful we did
that last uh weekend we serve pizza from 10 to 6:00 p.m lot of pizza uh we have the Easter egg hunt coming up on April 12th that's going to be um at the school and we're looking forward to that and looking forward to being able to uh give
out uh those eggs flag football is coming up softball summer camps th all of those camps are advertised on uh the websites and we look forward to um having full participation in terms of the sports complex the turf replacement
is um in full effect and we're excited about that uh I mentioned last meeting that on March 16th uh Subaru um in conjunction with Philadelphia Union recognized uh Todd uh Mistleman as the uh player playmaker of the game and him
along with 10 uh family and friends were at the u the Subaru Stadium and um it was great we had a box and uh being able to recognize his work with the recreation department senior advisory committee which was handed over to me by
Dr program um we will be having our uh bingo our senior bingo uh brunch that is coming uh more details to follow we're waiting for Kim to help us get some stuff done and we'll be able to do that and I do uh it we will we will have a
grand time working with Timbuktu and uh having conversations with Guy Weston looking forward to doing a spectacular event this summer probably around Junth um to acknowledge our gym in Westampton um as I mentioned Dr cowwell and I still
are acting as liaison for the Burlington um township um committee and we're going to continue to go out and get information and bring it back i'd like to thank the police department Chief Farnsworth uh Chief Ferguson excellent report um fire EMS I'm sorry uh Chief
Ferguson for the uh police department report the fire EMF Chief um um Mr farnsworth thank you so much for your report and um uh Chris your report uh Christian Taylor your report with public worth was excellent just reading the
information in those reports um I had to read them more than once it's a lot of information a lot of things going on and can tell you guys put a lot of work in those reports and you guys are doing a lot in this particular town as well as surrounding area so really appreciate
you and your efforts uh thank you so much um and uh that's it i'm going to turn it over to uh the birthday guy glad you didn't call me birthday boy but um I'll try to keep it short and brief uh because I think that committee
members basically said it all what I would say is um if I could share one of the proud moments of today is that we had a room full of people here and it was about celebrating people in our community it
was about us being able to ask questions to get some clarity on something that's going in town it's about a bunch of positive things not things that you know we're uncertain about or we we we don't want we have a lot of questions about so you know there's a a little bit was it
PST what's it called ptsd ptsd there you go ptsd of when you come in and you see a bunch of people right and then you know it's going to it could turn turn into a great session or a lot of explanation but today was really about us learning more about our community us
celebrating the children of our community and the work that they put in us celebrating you know uh a woman leader in our community it was about a lot of those things that bring us together and not tear us apart so you know that was something that I was extremely proud of today and extremely
proud of even the questions that we're able to ask Dr hopson like there are questions that you know people have obviously researched and that you can hear the sincerity in the point that it's not that I'm against homeless but I just need to ask more questions about you know where does this put my family where does this put you know my living
situation does that change anything at all and I think that those things and that sincerity comes through in like the questions that are being asked they're not coming out of malice or hate or anything like that and that's appreciated by us all um last but not least obviously thanking
all the residents who are still here thanking the children who put their time and effort into you know uh doing doing the essays and the performance with that thanking Dr dr hopson um thanking the
committee members here like uh you know one of the things that we we've always talked about we've always said is like you know if you put in the work people will see that and they'll respect the work that you put in people respect you when you when you work hard um that's
separate from party race creed whatever separations that you can think of if you work hard and you're trying to do what's best for the community people recognize that so you know I challenge not only us here but us down there to continue to do
that as a group and as a and as a West Hampton family to be able to do it so with that being said thank you again for everyone coming out do we have a motion to adjurnn motion second all in favor i
thank you thank you [Music]