e e e I of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um I'd like to invite alen
uh assistant alen Muhammad bakar from the Willingboro Muslim education Circle to lead us in prayer good evening Madame mayor good evening mam clar the township manager let us
PR alhamd alhamdulillah we say all praises and thanks due to God Almighty lord of the world we thank you for the blessing you have bestowed upon us and the guidance you Prov provide our Lord grant us wisdom and
understanding and guide us towards the path of peace and Justice oh almighty God we ask you for your guidance in the decision we made here today grant us the strength to serve with honesty fearness and
integrity almighty God guide our leaders our communities and all who serve here that we may work together to build a just and harmonious willing B we pray for all those who are sick those who are in difficulties and
all those who have passed away may you grant them peace you alone we worship and you alone we ask for help amen thank you thank you assister m'am uh bakar we appreciate um you coming to our meeting
this evening and Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim Community Madam clerk um the compliance statement for this evening notice was provided in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 to the
Burlington County Times Trenton Times and Philadelphia inquire stating the date time place and the agenda to the extent it was known additionally notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk all right thank you madam Clerk and um
moving right along with our meeting we will go into our Municipal updates from our manager Mr Harris good evening mayor council and members of the the public uh we have quite a bit to present to you
this evening so I will get right into a a summary of of activities that have been happening in Willingboro over the last couple of weeks um our Revenue as of February 28th was totaling 16, 88438
6.82 we made an allotment of 3,278 1118 to the Willing bough Board of Education along with a payment of 2,325 65 to uh Burlington County for
first quarter County taxes um we have completed our 2024 annual financial statement some of the highlights our tax collection rate was 96.97% which was an increase of 31% over
uh last year our fund balance increased by 8% in 2024 to 18 m872 6682 our Revenue collection um we received or achieved a 105.3 n% of
collection of our anticipated Revenue while our expenditures um was only 96.1% of the Appropriations expended so we are in the final stages of preparing our 2025 Municipal budget which will be
presented to the governing body for your consideration um and adjustments uh on April the 1st our inspections department completed 796 inspections issued 405 violations 40
summonses and collected 94,6 3437 in Revenue some of the key updates uh they're continuing to aggressively enforce um commercial parking vehicles in residential areas and we are
researching um regulatory measures for convenience stores and smoke shops here in willing Barrow as well as as well as dealing with an increased complaints regarding Airbnb rentals there are four properties that are listed online and
that have been cited by our inspections dep department and uh also we have uh one business AFC urgent care that op on us 130 without proper approvals and the property owner is now
working to get the necessary approvals and permit to rectify that situation and our Department of Public Works spring is here um beautification efforts are underway uh planted flowers in the Parkways and various locations around
the township will begin to happen uh trash and litter abatement is a continuous process um during the month we collected or during the last couple of weeks we collected 123 bags of trash um and from the streets and the
roads and 15 bags from our Parks um DPW has been working on infrastructure repairs pothole repair are ongoing they did a catch Basin repair at nine der Derby Court um there was an uprooted tree that was removed
out of broo park and they're continuing to clean up leaves and debris and doing fence trimming along pageant and Pond Lane and BN L BN Well Lane in the drainage area and like I said earlier the planter cleanup is underway in
preparation for our Spring plantings our fire and EMS have been very busy they have responded to 133 calls um in the month of February our EMS squad has responded to 395
calls on March 9th there was a an a fire incident where one of our firefighters received or sustain minor injuries while battling a fire at 16 Raleigh place and that fire is under investigation um by the county and State Fire Marshals and
uh and just so everyone knows Reg rtion for the fourth annual citizens fire academy opened on yesterday March the 17th is that yesterday yes and uh the classes will commence on April the 23rd and run for
eight consecutive Wednesdays at the firehouse so if anyone is interested in participating in the most excellent program I would encourage you to um go to register on the fire firemen's website and our Police Department our
February 2025 activity there was a total of 306 3,680 calls for service our traffic and Patrol Division um handled 50 accidents uh C they completed 856 traffic
stops um they issued 345 summonses impounded 13 vehicles and made 35 arrests so we thank the police for all hard work they do especially in our traffic and Patrol Division uh joint
civil Response Team Willingboro offers officers participated in quarterly training at the emergency services training center in in Westampton this is a a joint um commission um of a few
municipalities who respond to civil unrest incidences riots um large events like parades and and things like that so this is what the the Civil response team does and we have committed five officers who participate in that program
collectively with other departments here in Burlington County and uh finally for our police our efforts are underway to compile update business contact information for uh emergency purposes related to our uh
business uh emergency contact list uh Recreation I just want to give a special uh thanks to the twin Hill PTA for their $100 donation towards the uh Township's basketball program and those monies will
be uh um wonderfully put to use uh for our recreational purposes and just to highlight a couple of projects that are current and upcoming uh our sidewalk Improvement program has begun
um with the clearing of the weather uh I hope the residents observe that the sidewalks have begun to be repaired and replaced in large segments along Veterans Parkway and JFK Boulevard outside of the Kennedy Center uh Earl asphalt we be will begin to uh work on
the phase two of our road resurfacing project which I believe contains 15 additional streets that we will be um be Paving curb to curb and uh we are finalizing plans for our pickle ball courts and Jake's Place at mil Creek
Park so those are just some of the highlights um my highlights for you I would like at this time to bring forth Miss Jackson if she will share with some of the other events that are going on here in Willingboro good evening mayor Deputy
Mayor members of council and all assembled so we just have a few items we want to bring to your attention on Thursday March 2 20th will be our neighborhood watch meeting uh at the reaper Foster senior C that's at 6:30
p.m. and as we uh approach the Easter season our annual egg stravaganza will be held on Saturday April 5th from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Kennedy Center children between the ages of 7 and 12 are welcome and then the following
Saturday April 12th the younger children are invited to the Easter egg huntt tastic will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and this is open for ages 3 to 6 all children must be accompanied by adult on April 26th we will host Earth
day and this year's event will Encompass the opening of the community garden from 10: a.m. until noon that's a collaboration with go grow as well as nature walks and photography Rec sessions at Crystal Lake and then the month will conclude with our annual
phenomenal women Awards event on Sunday April 27 at 3M and more details regarding that coming thank you thank you Miss Jackson thank you Miss Jackson at this time I would like to uh call to the podium Mr Russell
chapaa who was our Township engineer to give us just a briefing of some of the things he's been working on good evening mayor deputy mayor members of council and solicitor I'll go through a bunch of
things but they're pretty well short on on March 5th we received five bids for the Reconstruction of Buckingham Drive as part of our ongoing Road program the low
bidder or the project was Earl Construction at a cost of 266,000 13 and we have a recommendation of award from our consultant CME engineering um which was forwarded to Mr
Harris for execution we have uh I'm waiting on two prices from think pavers to do some repairs to the uh potential um uneven unevenness of our stamp concrete and our
logo in front of the municipal building entrance at the bottom of the steps U we're going to look at either raising the stamp concrete portion or um potentially replacing the um the logo
the large square logo and we're also going to get a price for a raised asphalt crosswalk from sidewalk to sidewalk right in front of the municipal building on MLK we issued a notice to
proceed effective March 10th for the Reconstruction of Marshall lane roadway it's part of our njut fiscal year 2024 Road funding program I was notified by
penon Associates that they will start work on M Monday March 24th and this project will consist of the Marshall Lane complete length between MLK and milbrook drive we have
also a as Mr Harris was saying um an ongoing project for concrete sidewalk reconstruction I talk with penon project manager Frank Harris just just a little while ago and he said it's going to be about four to five more weeks for the
total project completion and again that would include all all areas of the of the contract I put together a list of about 21 current roadways throughout the township that are currently being worked
on or have been worked on recently by PS as part of their ongoing improvements to their to their gas line we may have a potential of 10 more roads to add to that list um the
township was kind of Lucky this year because a lot of those roads are already in four condition so we didn't have to go out and add any additional roads those roads are going to be done as part of the psng uh program I estimate between $3.5
to4 million for these roads and that would include engineering inspection costs uh concrete curving repairs sidewalk um I'm sorry um curb ramps and any ancillary work and
again this would be for our phase three ibank program I spoke with the project manager from penon regarding the Performing Art Center renovation and we currently have a payment request
or payment um yeah I can't get the word out request for payment number six from p uh from the contractor Levy construction it's in an amount of $64,500 and I was told this was mainly
for the additional uh sheetrock work which was installed at the art center of the chair for all the auditorium complex there will be on or about June 12th as
far as their arrival date before that though we have to get all the fire protection electrical power supports for the truss lighting hbac seiling and painting done above the JS before they can be installed
yesterday I um personally attended a meeting with Alo Associates out at the Kennedy Center for the Kennedy Center Library relocation and Senior Center renovation uh we I spent about two hours
at the site and I left and Lio and their group was still there basically what they were doing was just taking uh measurements ascertaining exist in conditions and they had the group of their team including the HVAC and electrical engineers and Structural
Engineers on site and they were looking all around throughout the project scope to U you know verify existing conditions uh they said that concept drawings will be 100% complete and submitted To Us by March end of March
March 31st and I was just told that the ASB bestus inspection was completed recently by aara consultants in addition to that
um come to add to what we discussed at the last meeting regarding USF track and field facility Al Lio is currently working on two concepts concept plan number three and four concept plan number three includes a
synthetic turfield and a usatf class five track and field facility they said they're still waiting on confirmation from usatf on the required seating capacity and the Press Box requirements
concept plan number four is a synthetic synthetic tur field and a running track without any of the usatf field events um components and this track would be used for recreational purposes by the public as the current track current Uh current
track does the synthetic turfield um could be rented out for additional uh funds for the township they're going to submit the concept plans three and four as soon as they finalize the construction estimates which I'm hoping is in with the next couple of
weeks we also had a a teams meeting last week regarding the installation of all the fitness equipment at the fitness court at the JF K Center uh we expect to get started on that at the end of April
or early May it's a 4-day uh anticipated installation period and they need at least um three and a half to four days of weather um that's going to be above 50 degrees constantly above 50 degrees so
that's the main reason why we can't started any sooner uh we received um over the period of the last couple of weeks four proposals uh for the Reconstruction of edge Lane as
part of our fiscal year 2025 njd Municipal aid grant program uh we received quotes from tnm Associates penon CME and RV Engineers I'm currently
working on the um apparent lowest cost proposed from tnm associates they originally had some things that weren't included which the others did so I've talked with their project manager and they're going to
update their proposal to make it equal in scope for the other other three Engineers so we can compare apples to apples and regarding the Big D Marina project I
spoke to um a Miss Rachel stopper she's a hazardous discharge site remediation fund coordinator I hope I got that right HD srf coordinator at the New Jersey D I'm supposed to meet with her possibly
this week but more than likely next week to go over the process of getting this site uh recognized as a Brownfield and also any potential funding that the township and be eligible for it's uh sounds like quite a process so I I want
to sit down with her and go over everything in person to get a better idea what's going on and that is about it all right does anybody have any questions any questions for engineer it was a lot
so very thorough thank you Mr cha all right you're welcome thank you thank you MK thank you Mr Chapola uh next I would like to bring uh to the podium our tax assessor Mr Justin Lam michella who is
going to give us an update on the Township's revaluation project um and other things as well good evening good evening good even evening mayor council um yeah first I just
figured I'd go over uh kind of our workload U I guess what we're going to see in in uh projecting for this year similar to what I I think we saw last year with the uh reassessment project um as far as our uh the deeds and and
processing for sr1 uh we saw about 479 of those uh we had about uh additional property reviews uh at request for about 540 uh of those were receiving a high uh obviously call volume due to the uh
inspection rate and appointments um so we're looking at about uh this past year I think we we have about 9500 uh calls annually so we're we're looking at about the same uh for PX year 2025 uh we have about
432 uh tax searches uh record requests uh to fill out uh for specific agencies also inspections uh this year we did 3,516 uh those inspections include part of the reassessment and additional
inspections uh as far as the added assessments uh evaluations uh that were completed uh this year we had about 245 uh it was about 8,637 th000 Dollar in the assessment uh
the current Equalization ratio is 6907 that's our ratio uh from assessed value to market value uh we reviewed about 1129 uh permits uh expert appraisal reviews and and Analysis we had about uh
15 uh cases um additionally uh to the inspections and record updating uh we had roughly about like 3,800 uh of those uh we had about 400 uh plus or minus appointments uh visits in
2024 bless you uh uh uh and additionally uh the net valuation in in 20 uh 25 was about uh 1,9 uh excuse me uh 1,922
m148 300 um additionally um by class uh we have about uh 91 vacant land Parcels 10,699 residential Parcels which what we've completed in phase one as far as
inspections for uh this past year was just for class two uh inspections um so that's where we're working now uh towards the later end of years as we'll work towards the more complex properties uh we have uh about a 179 commercial
properties uh 10 industrial uh five apartments for SE properties gives a total of about 194 um class four properties or commercial properties other than residential uh that gives us about
10,988 uh properties which our uh taxable properties additionally we have uh 651 uh exempt Parcels uh the last part of my update is uh just the status on on the
reassessment project as you know last year uh we completed the 2,99 uh inspections that we were required to um I had a uh a meeting in phone call I want to say may it was like January or February uh with the state
where they look at and audit and go through uh the tracking to make sure we comply uh we are uh we were a little behind I think starting a little late but now we're uh we finished pretty much timely um so now we're in year
2025 which is the next uh percentage um additionally to that 2909 in the first numbers that I gave you which is the data entry um and uh Records that were updated uh those uh that portion of those numbers are directly related to uh
the assessment program uh this year we're uh starting phase two um we we have a little bit of an earlier start I think where we are uh we got 619 uh inspections completed in data entered um
also uh just as far as a layout um to try to give some information which in in year three the process is the same at that point we're going to continue on the inspection process uh which would be through 20 uh
through 2026 tax year the same in 2027 tax year um and then that's going to get us into uh 2028 so the 2028 tax year is when inspection would be ongoing and also that's when valuation analysis uh would be conducted
at that time the valuations and the net valuation would be completed for the 2029 tax year um what that means that means that the net valuation would be as of January 1 2029 which would be based off that net valuation from the
valuation and assessments the the reason why as the inspection process the heavy workload why that's broken down and phased in uh is because the large amount of parcels and and the size of municipality uh we have about a 12,000
um unit municipality uh I I would say we're T we're towards a a larger end definitely not not smaller I would say A medium larger size municipality uh that's why that portion is phased in uh the valuation and the
analysis would be analyzed from October 1 um 2027 to October 1 2028 so that's the segment in the period where the analysis wants to be done um where obviously now there would be um no analysis or anything done because we
can't predict what's going to happen in in that year time period um or if I can I probably wouldn't be uh maybe standing here if I was that get of predicting the the uh the market in the future um anyway so that that's the layout um in
in a short picture as far as the reassessment plan um also uh a few other notes I think I have here for you uh let me see that 12- month period I stated um just a little bit
maybe analysis of the current markets today uh where they sit today um you know I think the the class twos which are typical residentials one to four Family Properties are are stable uh to to increasing still um the markets has definitely cooled I think we're looking
at about a 3% increase annually it's about a quarter perc uh per month uh last year uh the analysis where the uh the increase the increasing rate was was more aggressive uh we're probably somewhere between like a six to 10% annually so a half percent almost to to
to uh to 1% per month um so what we're seeing now with with interest rates and the way the economy is uh there's there's definitely some some cooling there um in this area but I would say going towards stable but still increasing um definitely not decreasing at the current time the uh the class
fours which is retail uh that's the the class 4 a uh that that's stable and and flat uh that Market's seen some some struggles um we don't have many uh retail or or class where we have about 200 a little over 200 commercials um so we're not heavy in commercials uh but
the retail Market over time has has seen some struggles um I think that is uh in relation obviously to to technology uh and the change in the uh in the commercial markets um same with uh office uh which is also considered fora
but but office rates um those vacancy rates have increased obviously um something due to covid and and um remote working uh that market has seen uh High vacancy rates which also has dropped capitalization rates uh excuse me increased capitalization rates the higher the cap rate the lower the value
lower the cap rate the higher the value so capitalization rates have changed um due to uh the vacancy rates and I think that the change in the economy when it comes to uh to uh office uh industrial uh is pretty much stable that OB seen
some some large uh increases uh again um with changes obviously with more shipping and uh and Retail has seen Down uh indust have seen uh increases from from Shipping uh having some of the lowest capital capitalization rates they've seen in history uh over about in
about 2021 um where they are now they're slightly increasing so you would say that Market's actually maybe going down uh stable going down and uh for Seas is always uh which is Apartments Apartments is is uh one of the strongest Investments uh historically um so I'd
say that's uh probably stable and and always increasing um that's the current market uh that we're in now um none of that analysis uh is is being done at this time because it wouldn't be relevant or be accounted for uh for a
2029 tax year um so that's pretty much where we are the the current Equalization rate is 69.0 7 which is the relationship of assessed value to market value in terms of where we are now thank you L um Mr lella any
questions from Council no all right thank you so much for your report sure thank you thank you Justin lot of information this evening Council uh Council uh last but definitely not least we have had the
benefit of working with Miss Elizabeth Treadway of wsp on a storm water utility uh project uh we were the recipient of a grant through the state of New Jersey which provided um Miss
Treadway and her firm uh the opportunity to come and uh talk about or or study the feasibility of a storm water utility here in willing Baro we've been working together for several months and um this
is the culmination of I shouldn't say the culmination the end point of her work uh here in willing Barrow because of funding issues um on levels higher than us so I'm going to call Miss
Treadway to the podium at this time and um thank you for your hard work good evening M sh good evening mayor Deputy Mayor Mr solicitor all members and an audience that I don't get
to see behind me but I hope that they don't mind having to look at my back uh there is a presentation that goes on with this and I think that the cue is next slide please that's the key super
uh the whole purpose of this feasibility study is to look at your storm water operations how it's currently funded what is not getting done in order for us to give you a picture going forward so
regardless of the funding method the first part of the study really focuses on who you are what your services are what the system does how well is it performing what are gaps that need to be addressed what are the
pressures on it and we're going to talk about those things so let's take a look at the next slide should be a summary of the agenda uh it really is important to recognize what goes on within your current storm water
program okay so realizing that you have leadership that is delivered by the town manager through your direction it is important to recognize
the gentleman over here on my right your Public Works operation I'm an old Public Works director well you know I'm old but I'm an old Public Works director and and I just love what he does for a living um which is why I have the passion to bring
to you our thoughts on taking a look at your program having a Township engineer inous is a really value ad for you and something we see is important to the program and recognizing that this is an
integrated set of services so planning's involved Public Communication is involved the mandates that come through this program uh are really important to recognize that there are lots of pressures being put on you so let's take
a look at the next slide and in that one of the things that we found is that you have a very complex but distributed system and you are just like everyone else in that
perspective storm water systems aren't like water and sewer it's not all nicely connected you've got a start point and an end point you've got all of these pieces that get separated right it's complex all the component pieces are are
um interconnected working together and need to work efficiently together we did a cost estimate on the value of those components in your community today somewhere between 45 and $50 million
of assets are in your storm water system that's an important thing to remember it's 60 years plus old in general it's aging when we get old you know I'm like
all metal metal shoulder metal hip metal knees we just have to replace these parts right if we have to do it we need to be able to do it to the system as well so in the next slide we reflect
on the fact that you have looked at this system you have a management plan the only challenge we would say back to you is that it's old it has not been updated since 2007 and the world has changed in
storm water since that date the way that we manage systems the way we invest in them lot of technology has changed in that time period And so it's important to update this but not
only simply because of its age but because the state has um kind of a gun aimed at you that says you're going to do planning your new permit requires that you do that so
this is one of the documents that you really need to uh update and and direct through that document how storm water should move forward from an engineering analysis from a performance perspective
so that's something that's important that we update in the next slide now let let's skip past that one that's for public information it it's important to recognize what's happening in New
Jersey uh I'm sure all of us can recognize what's happened with the extreme events that have hit not only you but so many communities the kind of flooding that we're seeing the consistency of that flooding on a
frequency basis the fact that in the last 50 years New Jersey's been hit with 42 extreme rain events if we plotted that on a graph you would see that the curve is going upward to the right the
frequency of those events are occurring not just once every decade they're occurring now once twice three times every year your storm water system needs to be able to handle a portion of that
an extreme weather event is is typically um a flow that no one system is going to do away with flooding there aren't enough dollars out there to
prevent those extreme event flood consequences but your system needs to perform optimally even when it's under stress and right now that's not what we see happening in the next slide let's go through those
challenges next slide SL please so one of the thing that we identified was getting the public involved in solving some of the problems the state requires you to
investigate your system you have over 200 points of discharge 20% of those are to be evaluated every year under dry weather conditions what we're looking for is there is a flow that shouldn't be
there right so when you have uh the public involved in the sense of being educated about what's happening we can avoid things like debris or leaves trash
being uh dumped into an inlet things that will cause uh a backup potentially a flow in place that you don't want it to be and so it's important to recognize that the public has to be a part of the solution
in the next slide please great example of what we're talking about that's an inlet that should be open that should be able to take inflow the next slide I think also demonstrates a similar kind of
thing when your inlets look like that your system is obviously not at capacity now I will tell you those pictures are not taken in willing bro I don't want to lead you to believe that that that's the
case we have a pleora but I would bet that you could probably find one or two that might look like that not Not Unusual uh unfortunately not unusual regardless of how hard your Public Works
operation is going debris is going to especially after heavy events occur and look something like that and our next slide we talked about the extreme rain events we talked about their frequency we need to understand what
your objective then would be for the system what is the rainfall event that you want to see that it can handle and perform optimally so it's important in your planning process to be thinking about your
objectives what you're trying to protect both in life and property damage and how you can go about doing it the next slide please and Along Comes the federal government in
1990 after mandate from Congress in the water quality Act of 1987 we now have water quality permits issued on probably about 13,000 communities in
this country and you're one of them in 2014 the department of of um Environmental Protection issued the first round of what we refer to as the small or phase
two discharge permits for storm water from its original form in 2004 to the permit that was issued to you and renewed on January 1 of
2023 the complexity of that permit is significantly different the last 20 years we have now seen and was intended by the regulations that things things will get more and more difficult every year for you to achieve and protect
water quality New Jersey has moved into the game of including your maintenance operations in your water quality permit so it's no longer just good best
practices in public works it is now mandated and there are increased requirements our final report report documents all of the things that you need to take on either brand new or
expanded through this new permit and it's quite a list of activities our next slide please some of the things that are emphasized in this new permit that I want to just point out here the infrastructure
cleaning is one of the those priorities so what does it mean starting next year you're to increase your sweeping program by 50% that's not insignificant that's new equipment that
you need to add that's likely a new crew that you need to hire to go from where you are now to a 50% increase in frequency is really significant and this is coming through a
mandate this is not something that is just a good idea it is a good idea that the state has said you will starting in 2026 increase your sweeping program by
50% now we looked at a pretty ugly picture of what an inlet can look like obviously an increased sweeping program is meant to Target that kind of activity so that you can reduce the amount of debris fines dirt that builds
up on the street that then when it rains gets picked up and brought to those discharge points so there's a list of things that come with this new permit two things I wanted to point out in this slide is the
sweeping program and something called Watershed implementation plans again starting this year through the permit term in 2028 you are to have completed an
inventory a map a study and developed a strategy to address water quality protection throughout the community it's not just to have a plan because then intent is that every two
years you will update those plans and implement the projects that are recommended in them and most of them at the Watershed level are going to be capital projects they're not going to be simple they're
not going to be inexpensive and so you have this permit cycle to do all the planning you'll have the future permit cycles that you have to report on your progress every other year
and accomplish what's in your plans again this is a much more complex permit than we're used to next slide please so you have the basic Focus areas of the permit this is what's required of
you the public education the public involvement the illicit detection I talked about you needed to inspect your discharge points 20% of them a year the whole purpose is to find things that are connected to your system that shouldn't be there construction oversight post
construction management which means making sure the private sector that's invested in storm water systems is keeping their systems operating and you're responsible to see that they are now you have a great working agreement
with the county in that way from an inspection perspective but it is still your responsibility to make sure that those inspections occur and then Good Housekeeping is basically saying you're a business
too and so we expect you as a business to manage your infrastructure your buildings your facilities your Parks all of your activities that you have invested in you need to make sure that
they're well taken care of that they're not p contributing to degraded water quality next slide please these are just visual examples you can go through these slides pretty quickly please uh they're just examples
of what retrofit or post construction facilities can look like they can be very attractive right again some details and we'll keep that I added some things not to for us to have to talk about and we're not
going to read what's on that slide but I wanted it for the public record so that anyone could go back and take a look at this in detail and and see some more information so let's go to the next slide and
that's okay so what what are the challenges now that you need to deal with we talked about the screening we talked about the fact that you've got to do that maintenance you have to make sure that your
conveyance system is operating optimally next slide please and we're not going to read all these details they really are there for for good information again your street sweeping is increased by 50% starting next year you have to make sure
your private management facilities are operating efficiently if they're not you need to enforce on them you need to maintain a map of the system and that map comes in important role when you do that planning when you
update your management plan and when you initiate your Watershed studies next slide please and then you have Capital Improvements so one of the things that happened in the industry about 50 to 60
years ago was the use of corrugated metal pipe a lot of it we've got a lot of it all over the country well unfortunately it has a very short life compared to your reinforced concrete
pipe and it's now coming home to roost all over the United States the bottoms will actually rust out you'll get a collapse pipe you'll get a failure you end up having to invest a lot well you have a significant
amount of it and you really ought to Undertake and think about having a long-term plan for how to deal with the potential failure of those components in your system next slide
please so what is a storm water utility if we've got all these issues and I'm sorry to like just bring Doom and Gloom um but what do you do then to fund it well the state in 2019 pass
legislation and I will tell you I do this work all over the United States and Canada and this happens to be one of the best pieces of legislative Authority on this subject that I've ever worked with
and I say that to compliment the state whoever wrote it we're really thinking about you because it is so flexible it gives all the power to you to make these decisions and that is Absol absolutely critically
important so why think about a utility well the critical thing about a utility is everybody gets into the pond the river with everybody okay when you fund an infrastructure
based on property value and use general fund tax dollars it's only those participants that have tax property that are involved in funding the solution in a utility just
as in water sewer Solid Waste we in the public works field do a lot of fee based funding this is the same principle everybody gets to participate regardless of tax status including the
federal government the state government local governments all of of your nonprofits schools everybody gets into the game of helping to share in the cost going
forward a tremendous benefit to the overall Community let's take a look at the next slide please so residents can benefit from this on all kinds of levels one is they know that there's a plan out
there to fix problems when problems occur we look to our utilities to be sound and financially sound and being able to actually take care of things when we need to take care of
them so that expectations can be met so that long-term planning can be done so that folks can know that what's happening at the corner of Smith and Elm is going to be solved and they don't have to deal with it forever because
there's a dedicated resource it's not competing for other initiatives in the community it is required to be spent only on storm water next slide please as I said this is a wonderful piece of
legislation you're late to the game there are thousands of storm water utilities in the United States you now have two in New Jersey the first two New Brunswick and maple wood I believe I believe I'm
saying that correctly um and you're going to see them pop up there are studies going on all over the state because this gives you a solid platform for going
forward next slide please we don't need that slide we just talked about it we can go to the next one this is really important in that these funds can only be spent on storm water and all things
storm water so if it's even tendentially storm water um I'm often asked well what about snow removal well guess what snow isn't any
different than rainwater it's just in a different form right so anything storm water that relates to the capture and disposal of rain
moisture um it is a part of your program and so you want to think broadly if you want to pursue the concept of a utility next slide please the other thing that's in the legislation that's so important is that it's built on a principle and it's
stated in a number of places of fairness and Equity the idea that everyone should be involved in solving the challenges of dealing with as run
on so regardless of whether it's a taxable property if it is a developed property it is indeed eligible to be charged a utility fee for storm water
next slide please we're not going to do that next slide please let me see what's in that next slide I'm getting behind on myself okay let's stop this right at this point okay we don't need the slides and I'm going to finish
this off for you the critical question that you want to ask yourself is how do you deal with these challenges and how can you maximize the
concept of fairness and Equity the law that is established the utility structure has that built in for you the idea that everyone should be involved in funding and solving the challenges the mandates
the state has handled you handed to you are important initiatives to protect water quality to protect the Integrity of your system and it's important that you meet
those responsibilities the difference between a property tax-based charge and a utility is the who gets to pay we analyze the property within your
community tax revenue is generated by your single family homes and Residences primarily 91% of your Revenue when we pulled the property records is coming
from single family and Residential Properties when you put a utility fee in that place it drops down to 59% of the revenue comes from your Residential
Properties because everybody gets involved in helping helping support this system so the law requires that you build In fairness and Equity the concept allows you then to
distribute the cost on the basis of why you have to have a public system and that's impervious area so it is developed property by the law that if it generates runoff it
doesn't matter where it goes it doesn't have to come to the public system as long as it's generating runoff because of the presence of impervious area it is eligible to be charged this comes back to you then to
think about the values in Willingboro what is important to you what would you want to see going forward where we stop in the study is not a decision point to say
implement or not it is giving you the knowledge to say we have issues they're significant we are mandated to meet these issues we have two primary methods to
fund this program what will work best for Willingboro to answer that question we recommend the next steps get the public involved engage and get
feedback and help uh facilitate the conversation of what it is the community wants to have as an outcome so it's important in the next
steps to have an interactive process where you're gathering information and you're setting goals and you then analyze your program down to long-term objectives you're spending about $950,000 a year just taking one
year as a snapshot based on projects that you've been undertaking we estimate you need to be spending about $3 million a year our report details that out for you
that's quite a difference now that's not going from one year to the next you build that anytime you build a utility over time that's an ingame kind of number that's an up fully
operating your objectives are being met you're being proactive but it is a significant number well thank you so much Mr chway for your presentation I think it gave all of us not just the council but the community a lot to think about as we
move forward um and trying to figure out what we need to do to optimize the function and maintenance of our storm water system um this has been a topic that we've spent a bit of time on um and especially with some of the critical failures that have been happening
throughout the system we've had to invest quite a bit into them um and funding that through the public works department has been uh a pretty big cost burden um so I think the utility is a a method um you know an alternative to the
current way that we're funding and something definitely something to think about especially with all of the other mandates that are coming along with the changes that's going to add significant costs to our maintenance so thank you so much for your presentation it's been a
pleasure and I want to say that to you as someone who's been doing this for 30 more years than we need to count um you have a wonderful group of folks here and you know that I'm sure you already know that but it was a real pleasure to be
able to work with them thank you so much and we will be in touch great thank you take care all right thank you um did anyone sorry I neglected to ask did anyone have any questions on this storm water
presentation well I just want um I'm that presentation was available for further review all right all right um Mr Harris if you will um go over the um
resolutions proposed tonight thank you mayor being presented for your consideration this evening is resolution number 75 which is a resolution authorizing the approval of vouchers for payments and ratification resolu resolution number 76
is a resolution authorizing a refund for overpayment of taxes resolution number 77 is a resolution to resend a prior resolution that was adopted by the body earlier this year resolution number 20
25-22 uh this was recommended by our Auditors to prevent a an overex exendin our 2024 budget resolution number 78 is a resolution authorizing transfers between our 2024 budget
Appropriations resolution number 79 is a resolution authorizing transfers between 2024 budget appropriation reserves resolution number 80 is a resolution establishing a new petty cash fund for the clerk's office we need to
transition the current fund from the former Clerk name to our new current Clerk's uh name as the custodian of that fund resolution number 81 is a resolution author or authorizing contracts with approved
Educational Services Commissions of New Jersey Cooperative systems es ESC NJ uh for contract vendors for Contracting units pursu to New Jersey statutes this is um
or uh xtel Communications which does a lot of our uh telephony work and um to enter into a contract with fonx to do some records Management in the clerk's office resolution number 82 is a
resolution authorizing change order number 11 and change order number 14 for a contract with Levy Construction Company um for phase uh phase one of the Willingboro performance arts center
renovation um the culmination of this change order will result in a decrease in the contract amount totaling uh $ 27,41 14435 uh 35 which is a
3.28% overall decrease in the contract value resolution number 8 three is a resolution authorizing uh the township to establish a not to exceed amount for dler wiing Incorporated they're going to be
installing electronic or electric basketball court wenches on our basketball courts at the Kennedy Center in the gym resolution number 84 is authorizing application number 2025
d531 0- 0531 to the new Jersey Department of Community Affairs for Willingboro community center this is for an additional $500,000 Grant uh to utilize in our improvements in our community
center uh resolution number 85 there's a resolution submitting a Grant application through the Department of Environmental Protection uh for two new battery electric trucks and purchase and install
one um dcfc for fueling dcfc is a charging station so it's not for fueling it's for electrifying um but we we were the recipient of um a grant in the amount of
about $472,000 from the D to purchase or to offset the purchase of uh to electric vehicles through a reimbursement of the
difference of pricing between a uh diesel or gas vehicle versus an electric vehicle and the way that it it works out with the the rebate it's almost like the township getting a two for one deal on the pricing for these electric vehicles
so we um we're happy to receive that so this is the execution of that application and the um the um the agreements resolution number 86 is a resolution appointing a deputy Township
Clerk and resolution number 87 is um appointing uh members to various boards and commissions and that is all we are presenting to you this evening for your consideration all
right um now we will go to public comment for agenda items only only um you will have two minutes please state your name and address raise your hand online if you'd like to speak and please
come up to the microphone in the room public comment is now open for agenda items only good evening Pat liny Harvey U Meer Lane can I comment on the manager's update since it's on the agenda or no do I have to wait till the
um yeah I'd rather wait for that one thank you it is there any online uh not at this time mayor seeing none public comment is now closed all right Council are there any
um resolutions that you would like to pull for discussion this even evening um for the Public's knowledge there are a few ordinances on the um printed agenda or the agenda that was
advertised I updated that agenda okay Madam mayor great so we will not be going over um any ordinances today there are no ordinances on the agenda for today any items to pull all right seeing none I motion for
a consent agenda for Resolutions 202- 75 through 2025 d87 so second
move moved by mayor Whitfield seconded by counc counc sorry councilwoman perome yes councilwoman councilman Anderson yes I'm sorry councilwoman Macintosh yes Deputy
Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank you all right um I need a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by councilman
Anderson Roll Call councilwoman Peron yes councilman Anderson yes councilwoman Macintosh yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank you mam clerk we have the approval of minutes can I get a motion in a second
to approve the meeting minutes and executive session minutes from February 28 2025 and the regular meeting minutes for March 4th 2025 so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by councilwoman Peron
roll call councilwoman Peron yes councilman Anderson yes councilwoman Macintosh yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank you and Madam clerk I'll turn it to you for the municipal Clerk's updates thank
you um all right so we have a couple Updates this evening um I first wanted to start off start it off by following up with um a request from Council Macintosh from last meeting um one of the comments last meeting was
uh inform ining the public which companies um have active solicitation permits so we have um two companies right now that um have submitted all the requirements pass the background checks
um and have been uh given solicitation permits so there's two individuals from Ally experts and one individual from Home Solutions these companies um will also be given an updated list of the no knock registry when you sign up for that
registry you ALS o sign up to be given um the address you sign up to acknowledge that your address will be given to these people so they have you know something in their hand to show that they're not allowed to go to um these houses so I just got an updated
list from Miss Jackson today that I'll make sure that everyone has out um if the if you see anyone from um a company that isn't Allied experts or Home Solutions please either give us a call or call the police just
to make sure you know we stay on top of the solicitors in town and making sure even the companies that are like pending um aren't kind of jumping that gun and um soliciting before they have the actual license in hand um and I'll keep you updated every
Municipal Clerk's update I'll make sure that the public knows um who's coming around um moving forward earlier this week I sent out the council am Mo to give you guys an update on the status of the Vault dispensary um the C uh Council approved a cannabis retail license for
the conditional approval for this dispensary back in December one of the outstanding items they were still working on is acquiring all the state licenses um that are needed to open our ordinance gives them a three uh three-month grace period to obtain these
permits which is coming to an end um I just want to make Council aware of this uh so you can kind of decide what you want to do next steps the ordinance also gives Council the discretion to extend the grace period after that 3 months if that's the council's desire um the owner
Miss Victor she estimates that she'll have all the required state permits by the end of June um if just I was just trying to gauge your thoughts on whether this is something you would want to extend if you wouldn't want to extend you don't have to decide now but I do want to get a resolution prepared for
the next meeting just so we stay on top of that um so that is another update um like Mr Harris said we will be introducing the budget hopefully next meeting um the mayor and I are looking at um getting some special meetings on the book for
Budget hearings um we would like to hold three budget hearings at 4M um once the budget is introduced just so you you as a council can kind of discuss um here I'm going to give you a bunch of dates I will send them also in an email so you know but just so it's on your mind so
we're looking at um some Fridays and Wednesdays in in April um all starting at 4 p.m. so we have Friday April 4th Friday April 11th Wednesday April 23rd Thursday April 24th Friday April 25th those three days we are kind of just
thinking we could bang them all out together but it's up to you guys um or Wednesday April 30th and again I'm going to send this in an email just so uh you guys are aware moving on to the special election that was last last Tuesday um I have
some preliminary results from the county um I will be getting the certified results in the next couple weeks but these are from the County website um anyone they are available to the public but just so um you know people are informed we had
2329 residents participate in the special election with 1,35 votes cast um on the actual of the election and 1,24 votes cast by uh vote by mail which was super exciting um
because I know that's something the county is uh working on utilizing more uh this totals an 88.7% turnout for the special election The Unofficial numbers from the county show that six uh 67.7%
of Voters voted yes to question one um which is 32.242262 two we had 53.95 per of Voters voting yes um with a 46. 05% voting no um again the county will send me the
certified copy in the next couple weeks but this is a pretty good indication of what these numbers are looking like unless there was a random vote by mail ballot that is somewhere voting in The Ether that hasn't gotten back to them yet um moving on to the primary election
this is my bimonthly reminder of important election dates that you will be memorizing by Heart by primary election um primary election is June 10th from 6:00 a.m. to 8 pm. voter registration deadline is May 20th um
deadline to apply by apply for a vote by mail ballot by mail is June 3rd but you can go in person to the county and apply for a vote by mail as um late as June 9th um and then early voting will be from June 6th through June 8th I'm still
waiting on the county to hear about the light library for early voting I'm hoping to get those in the next two weeks once we certifi certify polling places um and then finally as noted resolution and I'm excited to see where she's going
to um grow in this position and further a bunch of our initiatives um in the clerk's office and that is what I got thank you so much Madam clerk any questions for the clerk on her report uh Council wer thank you just one
question regarding the um solicitation permits um what's the um time uh capacity on their permits like how long is it good for um um like when they apply how I after they're approved is it so it's a calendar year so all of the
licenses expire December 31st um so we are going to be working on um sending out letters to because maybe the solicitors even though we do tell them multiple times maybe the solicitors just think it's you know good for a year from
when they get it um so we're going to send out letters to be like hey you need to come back and renew um but it all of the license did expire December 31st so the ones that I mentioned are the ones that are good they've applied this year and
they've gone through okay thank you all right any other questions Council McIntosh thank you um I don't know if you had said it when are um the petitions due petitions are due next Monday March 24th at 4M or by
4M thank you and there is a sign I know I did say this at some point but there is a um a signature update so it used to be 50 signatures and now it's 75 signatures for Willingboro residents if you'd like to put in a
petition okay any other questions from Madam clerk no saying none thank you madam clerk thank you Madame mayor and we will go to unfinished business anyone want to bring anything up for unfinished business this evening
how about new business have one for new business mayor with thank you Madame mayor um so with uh keeping in mind this um 88.7% voter turnout that we had just uh last week um
because question number two pass um the school district will begin working on their buildings um during uh the summer months and in keeping in the spirit of one willing borrow and the earlier discussion about
how the township um can assist throughout the summer with um literacy programs and educational programs during the summer months um I wanted the council to consider doing something um this summer
for the students because the school district schools will be closed so that means they would not be um the extended school year like the summer school program um Camp cab uh the traditional summer camps that are going on in the
schools um will not be able to run in the same way because the schools are going to be under construction and so as we continue to talk about how we can work together as one Community I was interested in considering what I I'll call Super Summer Willingboro Super
Summer and the Super Summer could include the township running um summer camp in a little bit of a different way where we are doing similar to summer school during the morning portions and doing more
activities and Hands-On and crafts and things like that in the afternoon um not just using the JFK Center but partnering with the library to see if we can use the multi-purpose room um working with the chief to see if we can use their training room um working with local
Partners we have alpab Baptist Church who's a partner to the school district um we have Del Val who's a partner with the School District they have spaces they have classrooms they've got Halls um maybe with Fosters and the connections that uh coun Peron has um
but looking at different places and spaces throughout the town where we truly can show up as one willing Bor and support the children of the district um different from the traditional Recreation summer these Pro this
particular program would be targeted to our Willingboro School District children and the reason behind that is because they would have access tol they have access to I ready they have access to um a lot of the the the technology where
the school district could then measure the growth of the students over the summer um see what the impact of you know summer learning could be um the township could work to hire not necessarily School teachers but students
who are at Rowan University we got student we have student teachers uh from Rowan that are in the school district doing student teaching um that's a population of people people who have substitute certifications those people already have been background checked and
screened um but I think that this unique opportunity avails itself with the community could really consider how can we work together using the resources that we have and truly come together to serve our students um typically in the
summertime the extended school year program runs for about six weeks uh I think it's four to six weeks we could look at doing something for four to six weeks we could look at possibly expanding it um but I really just want um the council to consider you know an
opportunity for us to do something that brings the community together um it wouldn't add to our expenses in a considerable way um because we already run a summer camp we would count on these Community Partners we have so many organizations that say they partner with
us we get an opportunity to ask them to truly partner with us by making their space available to us um but I don't think it would be a significant level of effort beyond what is going to be happening anyway with Summer um and so I'm just asking Council to just just to
consider um an approach like that for the summer um because again question number two we just got the results we're just now learning of it we now know that this could possibly be a solution for the students of Willingboro school district and for uh families of
Willingboro who are going to be looking for places for their children to go throughout the summer so um just asking for Council to consider that thank you Madame mayor thank you Deputy Mayor worthy um anyone have any comments on no
I think it's an excellent um suggestion um I would be open to having discussion with the superintendent um Mr Harris as well um as far as what that looks like um paper and really the the layout as far as the um instructors
for the programs of the extended school year um you I know some of some of the students are special needs so just kind of looking into it uh in further detail having a round table perhaps um I would like to um explore that I think it's a
great idea I agree I think it's a great initiative um just want to kind I guess hash it out with you know our record department and see how we can and but summer's coming up so I guess sooner than later see how we can um get that
align that's a great initiative thank you as you said Dr worthy I think this is an opportunity for us to come together as one willing bro um as we know the recent special election affects not just our School population but it
affects all of us um and taking understanding the commitment that we've made financially to the school and how that impacts the students directly um over the summer is an important consideration so I think it's um it is
due to have a conversation with how the school board and uh the municipality can work together to provide those extended school year services to our youth um or you know work with our rec department on
our current summer programming to make sure it addresses some of those needs of the students so um thank you Dr worthy for that uh suggestion and I think as we continue down um the path um maybe a
joint uh meeting would be uh due I guess um a joint meeting meeting just to start to lay out what this could look like what the financial impacts would be for both the school district and the municipality and any other partner that will
participate in this program but okay I'll P I'll um reach out to the school district and get a meeting set up um and get a stakeholder meeting set up okay okay thank you thank you any other new business okay seeing none we will move
on to public comment this public comment is our general public comment you will have four minutes please uh come to the mic and state your name and address if you are online please raise your hand public comment is now
open hello everyone good evening good evening mayor Deputy Mayor and council members I'm Mary Jane Breen from 41 gamewell Lane in Willingboro I've lived here for
50 years and I've always thought that Willingboro was one place that was one Community unfortunately for me Saturday's program I was conflicted because it was addressed as
black family wellness and as you can see I'm not black but I moved to Willingboro back in 75 because it was an integrated
community and I love the divers diversity that's here my neighbors and I are very connected we're a family and that's how I feel about Willingboro and I was conflicted because I wanted to
attend at the Kennedy Center and I didn't I decided at the last minute not to because it said black family wellness and I wondered one was it really meant just to
be for black families or was it meant to be for one Community because if not then are we having a white or Caucasian Family Wellness Expo
a Asian am workan Family Wellness Expo a you know and so on and so in a Spanish descent or Spanish Expo and um that that was my my question
and concern since I still have time left I would like to address of the issue of extended school year that was mentioned in the summer programs extended school year as a retired special ed uh Federal
project employee in Pennsylvania of extended school year is mandated still as a federal program and uh so it must be delivered it doesn't have to be
delivered in the same school it was last year it could be delivered anywhere but the services must be delivered and and that's important one of the things over the years for uh Reed Across America and
uh for several years uh Willingboro neighborhood watch was invited into the high school and one thing the high school students shared with me was they felt a disconnect with the members of the community and that broke my heart
because it takes our community our whole Community to raise our children and to make sure they have all of the skills necessary to be successful and happy as adults in our life thank
you thank you Miss Mary Jan so now it's appropriate yes good evening mayor Deputy Mayor counsel and everyone else that's here this evening um I'm Pat Lindsey Harvey I'm met Fort Lane um my first comment is about the tax assessment so when I said this last
year I'm very very concerned about the assessment U with our escalating costes of our homes I'm fearful that the assessment is going to cause a lot of residents not to be able to afford to live here anymore um it's very possible that some people's taxes are going to
double because of the assessment um this happened also in Princeton some years ago and it really affected one particular neighborhood um significantly that that whole neighborhood has totally changed now um so we have a lot of
residents who love this town who may not be able to stay here anymore and that really hurts me um secondly um the presentation of the storm water utility feasibility study um it's something that the environmental
Comm has been looking a lot at um thank you Miss Treadway for your presentation was excellent um and I don't know if any of you have either been victim of or seen the effects of flooding um unfortunately I had the opportunity to talk to and see
a number of residents in 2018 and just to see the sheer um pain on their faces when everything in their home is destroyed by water you know waking up in the morning and they have knee high water and everything in their home is destroyed there were residents
who had to walk away from their homes that they had lived in for years because they didn't have flood insurance they were in an area that they couldn't get flood insurance because it wasn't in a flood zone so I'm hoping that the council really looks at and really considers the storm waterer
utility the other thing is the rain Garden at the Kennedy Center when I come to the Kennedy Center I always go over there and look at the rain garden and it's constantly full of leaves it was put there to mitigate the flooding that happens on the roadway at the Kandy Center this is probably the fourth time
I've taken pictures um the water has no place to go again it's causing the flooding which the rain Garden when it's maintained will keep the flooding um at Bay so I'm gonna send Mr Mr um uh Harris the pictures
again um lastly we're in our I think our fourth or fifth week of the Wu's um water Industry pre-apprenticeship Program we have 20 students it's going extremely well uh the students are enjoying it we're enjoying it we're at the end of the month we're taking
students on the tour of the um Wastewater Plant no I'm sorry the water plant so that it's exciting thank you thank you Miss Lindy Harvey good morning evening C and members I am 74 years old my name is
Julia D Shields I live in I'm sorry I live in Twin Hill Drive can you say your name one more time Julia D Shields I live in Twin Hill Drive excuse me Toledo Lane I live on Toledo Lane um my issue is one of age
and trash I live at the top of a tea which means the streets before me and the Streetside me I get trash I just empty I just did six8 18 bags of Leave myself and they picked them up last week
that was the last day with this passing storm I go back out in my yard and against my fence it's leaves plastic bottles trash trash bags McDonald's refuge and all that my thing is there are a lot of cans in willbo now the
ordinance says that you have to have the town provided that you should P your trash must be placed and provided by Township containers with the Liz and the Liz have to be closed and they must be attached there are so many units that have open cans and have the town should
be acquired trash can but the tops are off so when the wind blows their trash blows everywhere and I'mma catch y'all my thing is we have an inspection department and I know that they're not open as as much as they used to three years ago but can they at least come by
and give people warnings about making sure that those tra they're using the right trash receptacles so that people like me don't have to deal with other people trash can you imagine picking up other people's trash it's very inconvenient backbreaking for me um and the other thing can we have the
inspectors like walk through they years ago they used to walk through now they just drive through and sometimes they don't even stop I know that we're short man wise and we're short hours wise but we need to start rebuying willbo and I say this
because there's a lot of people that moved into this willbo that don't know the rules regulations my I myself didn't know certain rules and regulation until I got a warning I have uh my address over my garage but I put a light there and blocked it I also put my address on
the street on my driveway but I didn't know that it had to be visible from the street and it had to be either on the top of the driveway not on the door the garage door or the door I didn't know that when I knew that I complied but I said that to say this there's a lot of
people that don't know our rules and regul relations so if the inspection department start giving out warnings maybe people will become aware and we'll have less trash I'm sorry our willbo used to be pristine clean now it's starting to look like Philadelphia where
I used to live north Philly and that's not good if we want to invite people coming in paying almost $300,000 for a house that's all I have to say I need help thank you Miss Shields Esther Turner 3 Wood Haven
Lane good evening honorable mayor Deputy Mayor and extrem councel I'm here to give another update in reference to my situation um with the sewer problem that I'm having it's been six weeks six to
seven weeks now and there really has not been any move in terms of a resolution I know that the um wua have had discussions and in all due respect we have the chair of the um wmua here miss
Patricia Ley Harvey so um I just wanted to give her the respect and recognizing her here in the in the mids I did receive a um a letter indicating um the lengthy lateral list
uh to place my property in comparison to the other properties listed based on the length of the offsite lateral and it ranges between SE 27 feet
to 100t but the properties that are listed in what I received mines being the longest run to the main so so I just wanted to bring that to your attention as well so we're
talking 27 ft is the is the the shortest distance for a particular homeowner to reach their to reach the main mines would be 100 feet which is a very very long distance um and you know it appears that
um it's it's suggested that I'm the one that would have to pay for this problem so I I just want to bring that to the attention and anytime anyone wants to come to my property they're welcome to do so you I don't need to be home
there's a way to access my the back of the property leading to where I guess the main is um as I indicated before it does connect with other properties along the way and it will literally um tear up and destroy their
their properties in order for us to get to to where we need to to go to fix the problem uh the other thing that I wanted to do and I don't know whether or not I need to to propose this or propose this to the township solicitor or not um I
just need clarification do we own the land in this town or not because I was under the impression that we do not own the land the township owns the land recently I was told that we do own the land so it's
it's a question that needs to be addressed and answered I think the public needs to know that and I definitely need to know as well because my position is is that I don't own the land leading out to where the main is so I should not be responsible it's not my
land it's not my property I took care of my area on my property and anything extends beyond that I'm not responsible for levit or whoever put the sewer system in um years ago thank you so much
thank you Miss Turner good evening deputy mayor uh mayor and council members good evening my name is TSH Costa I live on magnet Lane I've been in this community for a very long time you even taught my almost 25y old son how to play baseball many
years ago it's been a very long time I um my main resident is magnet line I've been here like I said for 20 years I've owned many homes in this town I've only resided in one uh from North
Garfield to Penny Packer Vermont uh two and magnet um several always had great relationships with either folks that live next door to my properties um and and also when I'm selling properties doing renovations things like that
always had a really really good uh relationship with the neighbors in my home um we have a new neighbor unfortunately as uh one of the other speakers were stating everyone who moves into willing bar one doesn't
understand the rules they don't necessarily understand uh Suburban setting especially if you come from a very uh large urban community um and just to cut this short I'm also a
contractor so I build stuff a lot of stuff um in this community as well my new neighbor who is from Venezuela and uh her husband I don't know the status of these
folks however but they have entertained illegal immigrants next door to me from Venezuela that came in through a caravan and I only know that because she told me they're coming that's not good that they're
coming my neighbor decided to erect a deck on the side of their property this is willbo so erecting a deck on the side of a property if you don't have an end unit or a corner property is going to create
a privacy nuisance because our community is Cookie Cutter regardless of the park there's no home in this town not many might be a few where you could have neighbors on your left and right and you erect a deck and not create a privacy
nuisance and which is what they've done um so just to State and I know I sent you an email Dr worthy uh just mentioning this but just to kind of highlight some of the things that I've noticed and I do have a couple of images
of the decks if you'd like to see what they actually built I'm parasite the images are in the back and so um my letter here today is to bring to your attention the issue regarding the zoning regulations while
they built a deck within zoning regulations within the side setbacks otted by our zoning laws those zoning laws have not taken into account the gray areas right of one people not necessarily using common sense when
they're erecting a deck to the projection of that deck who's going to be looking at it how it's going to be uh necessarily observed not just by yourself but how it impacts other neighbors um specifically the side setbacks related to the placement of the
decks in our community is why I'm here and what I'm asking for the council to to address as we continue to grow and develop in Willingboro a lot of homes are being renovated um continuously renovated uh we have a lot of flippers that work here I'm one of them um we
also have some new bills that are taking place in the township as well but the increasing concern about the ambigu ambiguity of the side deck requirements uh is is really the issue homeowners are finding themselves just like myself in a position where minutes is
up well I will make sure that they all get the hand out and if you want I can take your information and get that would be great I guess lastly to say you know being here 20 years and having a brand new neighbor Miss aosta I'm sorry your time is up but we can talk to you at a
later date thank you thank you all right um any other public comment uh yes mayor Bea Williams good evening Miss Williams good evening mayor Whitfield
good evening Deputy Mayor Dr worthy councilwoman McIntosh and councilwoman Peron and others the manager and so on I'm not disrespecting the men but I want to honor women's history months so I want
to just oh this is BU Williams forly living at botony Circle now relocated to Virginia but I wanted to commend the powerful woman that has
served willing Bor Faithfully for the last I mean I lived in willing for 40 years and there are several women I want to highlight because they just have done awesome jobs for Willing Bor
and before I forget I want to highlight Dr worthy Miss Mrs Foster and Miss biggen they served our country Faithfully we don't especially now that they're trying
to diminish the um the accomplishments or the the the work of our veterans I want want to say kudos to them and I know they're more but you know these especially these three I want to
highlight now I want to highlight mayor Whitfield first met her um 2016 at her health fair in Burlington and she was she represented
the the Y at her health faere did an awesome job and I've watched her work Faithfully for Burlington for Willingboro and now just 9 years later she's our mayor who does her hard work got her here um
so special mention to Mayor Whitfield um Deputy Mayor worthy councilwoman Macintosh councilwoman Peron Dr Saluki from Nami Miss Foster
Senior Services veteran Services Mrs B who under um the administration of the the um ex mayor dep um mayor
worthy initiated the first um juneth day what a wonderful Affair that was so kudos to them um Barbara B basuka who worked for our Township he's
not she's now retired but um she did an awesome job um Miss Jackson photog photographer kudos to her uh Marlin Braden the late Marlin Bren she was my friend wonderful realtor
she was when she died it broke my heart because I didn't know and when I finally caught up with her husband I found out that she was already buried so I want to just remember her um Miss biggen of
course officer Landrum wonderful um officer police officer and Community Advocate also officer Jackson Reverend geralda um she is the
past of our host Church St Paul's United Method Methodist Church we're the Adventist but she is an outstanding lady she has a heart of gold she's beautiful inside and out and she believes in
service I wanted to mention her also Rachel her time is up already oh I'm so sorry oh my thank you Miss Williams for your comments you're welcome all right Maddie mallerie
good evening uh Maddie mallerie Hudson Place and um I too am concerned about the assessments uh that are taking place in our town uh because we already know that we're going to have an increase in our
taxes because of the passing of the referendums and of course um this too will add on to the taxes and um the other thing that concerns me is that um last quarter uh
my water bill was um 15883 and this quarter my water bill was $1 16979 and that's an increase of uh $10.96 and if we're selling water to other towns I can't understand why our
water bill uh keeps increasing and of course you know this is taking place uh constantly it's not just something that just happened but it appears that the water bill is constantly going up um the other thing is that um this
evening at approximately uh six o'clock I was on my way home on chareston road um and uh there were approximately five or maybe six police cars on Charleston Road near hathon Lane
and I'm just wondering um you know if as a as a citizen if um I can find out you know what was going on with that um there's also uh an issue across from Foster military on Charleston Road
it appears that someone has started to dump uh trash and that area across from um Foster military it looks like a tire and maybe a plastic bag and I'm not sure what else
is there but I hope that um public works or someone will check that out and you know just I don't know what the solution is as to why people uh take the privilege of just dumping trash
anywhere and uh on that note those are my comments for this evening thank you miss m any other public comment uh yes mayor Terina Williams good evening Miss
Williams good evening mayor Whitfield Deputy Mayor Dr Tiffany worthy councilman Anderson councilwoman McIntosh and councilwoman Peron Township manager Harris and Township Clerk and fellow residents of willing bar
Community I'm former resident of 8 botney Circle but still my heart is in willing bar I'm grateful for this opportunity to say quite a few things um today is Happy social I me today is
social workers day so I want to extend a happy social workers Day to all the men and women who serve the as social workers meeting the needs of so many people may God richly bless you for all your hard work work um then I wanted to
inform everyone that on March 26 it's purple day purple you wonder what's purple day purple is when we're asked to wear purple in honor of people who have epilepsy which one in 100 people are estimated to have epilepsy epilepsy is a
neurological disorder that too often than not is unnoticed but if you go on purple day.org you'll be able to get more information this was initi by a 9-year-old girl named Cassidy Mor Cass Cassidy Megan excuse me in Canada and if
we want change we should initiate change so God bless her for taking that stand for people who have epilepsy and may we all take the time to support March as you know is women's history month so in addition to my
mom's affirmations to so many hardworking and loving dedicated women I just wanted to add a couple or Miss Gwen Calder L who works for the inspection departmentment she's one of the most aring women I have ever met and I want
to say God bless you for all your hard work I want to extend special thanks to all the teachers crossing guards EMS firefighters secretaries who do so much in the background but are greatly greatly appreciated for all the hard
work that they do God bless you miss Charlene Archer of the Beloved project she's another dedicated woman a light in the community not just here in willing bar but in Burling and so many other townships I'm sure you as a counsil all
of you know her individually and collectively God bless her for all the hard work that she does willing bar SDA church had the pleasure of collaborating with her and it was an honor to help her help work together as we did the MLK day I see my time is fastly going B Miss
berther Walker of the 12th of Never Foundation she's another light to the community and she has a group that takes place at I believe it's Christ Baptist Church and the next cancer support group
is on March 27 so please look into that that's in Burlington you may know someone or your friend or sister or your spouse may have cancer and each one can reach one Trisha yo another hardworking woman of the food bank of South Jersey
she's another light in the community and I greatly appreciate her for her hard work and our friendship it's um wonderful whenever we get to work together I hope I'm not missing anyone I just want to stand all to women of willing Barrow Township
thank you so much for all the hard work that you do your time dedication and you're the one of the reasons why we keep um willing B strong oh I I wanted to make a suggestion in addition to what Dr worthy was asking about maybe maybe I
could throw this in I've always felt that it would be great if we have a career day something that can be done in the summer especially for people who don't get that pleasure to go to Florida um Jamaica and the list goes on it would be an opportunity for young people to
talk together as um as well as find out more about the their aspiring career and be reminded how God has here's what you need to know to do this thanks so much for your time God bless thank you Miss are there any other public
comments uh not at this time mayor saying none public comment is now Clos now to adjust the public comments first we had um one from Miss Mary Jane um talking about the black Family
Wellness event at JFK Mr H so I I will apologize to Miss Mary green um regarding the the program and how it made her feel it was I don't believe it was the intention to um
exclude anyone I'm not really sure the origin of that program I believe it wasn't it wasn't our it it was it was a vendor who who sponsored the program and was not a Township
program um but we we need to be um more cognizant of those types of events um that may have the impression of being exclusionary because that is absolutely not what we are about here in willing
bar yes Dr Worley thank you Madame May um I did just want to add that the lynx is an international not for-profit Corporation established in 1946 it is one of the nation's oldest and largest volunteer service organizations and committed to enriching
sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African-Americans and other people of African ancestry they're not an exclusive organization but the mission of the nonprofit itself is really focused on economic survival of African-Americans and people of
African African ancestry but it was not um at all meant or intended to be an exclusive event um but the links uh did sponsor the event and the township partnered with them um on that but of course it was never our intentions that anyone feel excluded so thank you for
sharing you know how that event made you feel so that we can consider you know how we can frame programs uh that come to the town thank you no no I appreciate it um but it is a
concern we do need to consider um all of all of our residents within the township and um I appreciate you bringing that concern to public comment um also miss Mary Jane um did also comment on the
extended school year and man the Mandate that that portion of the school year be delivered so um as we work with the school board and at that stakeholder meeting we'll discuss what the mandates are the different mandates are in delivering extended school year and
other summer programming to students um and how we can all work together to make sure that that happens despite the construction that will be happening over the summer Miss Lindsay Harvey um expressed some concern over the tax assessor but
also um her questions were about the rain Garden at the JFK Center and the maintenance of that yes so when it comes to the tax assessment I don't don't want the the residents to
feel like this is an arbitrary thing that we are just doing you know we are required by the state to reassess properties every now and again and unfortunately some of those reassessments may have impact negatively
on property owners however we are nonetheless responsible to um do what we have to do so our hope is that um it works out favorably I don't know if person's property taxes are going to
double um there is a possibility that some some will increase there is a possibility that some will decrease and there's a possibility that some will remain um constant um however we do have an obligation to fulfill our
requirements under the law and we will do all that all all that we need to do to do that in a very fair and Equitable process uh in regards to the Rain Garden I am not I agree with Miss um Miss
Lindsay Harvey with uh with the rain Garden when we entered into that uh agreement with ruter it was a duality that r ERS was supposed to come back and work with the township to maintain um that those rain Gardens for the first
year and then we would kind of take ownership uh thereafter I do not believe that Ruckers has been back since the rain Gardens were installed uh to even uh work with us to maintain um the rain
Gardens I understand they accumulate a lot of leaves but they were built underneath a lot of trees so I don't know what the expectation is but DPW is not going to JFK Center to remove leaves
from the rain Garden on a a weekly basis however we will spend more time uh and attention and give more attention uh to that as we are passing by and if they need some attention we will give it appr appropriate
attention all right um Miss uh Julie Shields had a question about the trash so again um Miss shields uh brings out some the shields I'm sorry brings
out some some very good good points um I am a big proponent of keeping willing burrow clean um this is something that annoys me to my core as I drive down the street and I see litter and trash uh all
in our community but there something that Mr Shield says was very important and it was a word that she used she said we and we as a community have to make a commitment to keep our community clean
and in order I think it is unrealistic expectation for the township to just clean up clean up clean up and continue to clean up when persons are not willing to do their part to keep the community
clean so Mr Shields I appreciate your efforts and energy and I assure you that you have our commitment to work with you in that effort but my hope is that all of willing Barrow will adopt a policy that we want to keep our community
pristine and do all of the things that are necessary to do that um Mr Harris there also was um some question about inspections and warnings for open trash lids and other things that promote the
trash blowing around so uh Mr tons who is in the audience has heard the comments and he knows that we will be having a discussion about that uh come tomorrow all right great thank you um Miss Turner thank you for the update on
your situation it is terribly unfortunate and I'll tell you that levit has done a number when constructing our fine town here um 100 feet to the Sewer Lateral is an absorbant amount of uh
space and a length for any one resident to be expected to maintain especially as it crosses um as it crosses property lines but um I'm sure uh Miss lindsy Harvey and the
MUA are doing the best that they can um in helping you with that situation and I appreciate the update and please continue to keep us updated on oh you also had another question about um ownership of the land um and Mr
Harris did you were you clear on that question I think the question um was do the homeowners own the land that their property sits on I did grasp that question and I'm not going to answer that question because I
don't have the answer to that question um you know we purchase property so I'm assuming we take title to the property but yeah okay so um I think Miss Turner it' be safe to say that we need to
follow up on that question um with you and get you a an accurate answer for that ownership question Miss aasta um you had some concerns thank you for your letter and
um your concerns regarding some of the inspections permits and side setbacks um I am seeing the pictures that you submitted and I can see how you feel it's intrusive on your home and and bedrooms in your home yeah
it's uh the packet has been given to our inspections uh director and they will he's in the back and um they will be investigating further our zoning officer does um
provide feedback to for zoning and ordinance amendments um and I'll I'm sure you know there'll be a review and any suggestions will come to council for review as we move forward but thank you for bringing this to our
attention um Miss mallerie um I have captured your concern about the assessments um any question about your water bill I know periodically water
bills May fluctuate based on our usage um so I'm I'm not sure why you're bill went up $10 um over the past month but I um I will direct you to the MUA to see
if there were any changes uh for that Al Al um for Mr Harris the issue for of dumping across from Fosters um if you could manage that and um there also was a question
about some police activity at Charleston Road near Hawthorne Lane good evening city council um patrols responded to Charleston Road around 5:00 this evening for domestic violence incident um it was handle then there's no threat to the public so good
thank you so much thank you all right um and then lastly uh we had the Williams family bua and Torina Williams uh thank you for all of your acknowledgement of the wonderful women that do tremendous work here in our
Township um and also thank you uh toena Miss Williams for uh the reminder for purple day uh for epilepsy on March 26th um we enjoy when you share all of those
special remembrance days um and it helps keep our community informed on um the different causes that happen throughout our months so thank you for that is there anything I miss councel all right with that being said we will
Move Along um to council comments just want to start off by saying good evening everyone thank you for participating whether you're in person or watching it via Zoom uh Miss
Terina Williams just gave me a text for clarification she stated that it was 100 people that had epilepsy when it's actually one in 100 I just wanted to give that clarification did I do good Miss Williams thank
you uh next I just want to thank Miss Treadway for the storm water presentation um Dr worthy for the great suggestion partnering with the schools looking at what it would look like uh Council on Peron discuss uh suggesting we do a round table which I think it
would be a a good suggestion a good idea actually and finally I I I could not leave this meeting without thinking Miss Tanya Jackson so if y'all got your calendar did you see the guy in the middle she had me looking so handsome I just I just
couldn't keep it to myself but thank you again Miss Jackson have a good evening thank you councilman Anderson anyone else I just have a quick thing councilwoman McIntosh I'll let it settle
down I just want to give a a a huge shout out to our police Force for their work um last week and or is it this last week um for the young lady that was missing um obviously their Precision
intact is phenomenal as always um so it's not I'm not surpris but I always want to just show gratitude um when you know they they exercise the highest precision and I'm very proud of our
Force um on top of that though I really am very impressed with our community that came together we got calls I mean people were trying to come together we're going to comb the streets for this young lady um it was one of the times that I am
proud to be a willing B willing buring willing bur person representative of Willingboro um again I grew up here and you see that you know very often but this one was one that did touch my heart that people were
really concerned about child that wasn't theirs um and were willing to do the work and put in the effort um for that week so um I have to say willing bro made me very proud this week and that's all I have Madame mayor thank you
councilwoman McIntosh Council I just Echo uh councilman councilwoman mcintosh's um statements I uh concur with her statements as well um I thought the police department did a phenomenal job and um um that's all I have for this
evening really all right thank you Council Deputy Mayor worthy thank you Madame mayor um I want to say um thank you for everyone who showed up for the Starbucks uh grand opening it was nice seeing so many community members come out we had a resident um who jumped in a picture I think she said she's been
living here like 53 years or something like that um so it was nice to see her um out as well um I Echo the sentiments about the community coming together to find um the young lady um um I was at atap foundation and it was a group of high school guys who came running like
towards the building I have all glass windows and they're like running and they've got her picture and they're holding it up and so we open up the door we put the pictures up we gave Flyers to the kids we gave them water because it was hot that day um and they were just going through the neighborhood just trying to get some energy and making
sure they got the Flyers out and so um what a positive response you know to have her come back safely um I also wanted to um to remind the residents about the election results where the 88.7% of Willingboro residents
participated in the last election of 26778 possible votes to be cast there's 26778 votes possible willing burrow showed up at 2,329 people and so the reason I think
this is so important is because we keep getting phone calls mean text messages crazy stuff on social media about what's going on and your boat is your voice your boat is your voice and so the people who came and showed up um these
are the results and so now I challenge Willingboro on June 10th to do better so that we show up and show out for this huge primary election that's coming up on June 10th cast your uh your votes make sure you do either mail in early
voting come out on Election Day we have a huge election um local School level state level um it it's a huge election and I think that we can definitely do better than 88.7% um so I just I implore everyone to
get involved tell your neighbors tell your friends tell the people you don't like everybody to come out and to vote um lastly I do want to share that all things a possible Foundation does have uh scholarships available for high school seniors if you know a graduating
high school senior who goes to school in Burling County anywhere in Burlington County we do have scholarships available we do this every year all they have to do is go to atap foundation.org it comes up on the big on the front page click it's a very easy application process um
but I can't give money away if the students don't apply so we have reached out to local high schools but we're trying to get the students to get encouraged and incentivized to to apply um we want to give the money away um we've worked hard to raise it but if the students don't apply we can't give it
away um um so if you know a high school senior who's interested in expanding their education or even going straight to work after high school it's an opportunity for them to apply for um a scholarship from AAP foundation and that's all I'll have thank you Madame
mayor oh wait one more thing I'm sorry the international women's day event were you gonna do that one no go ahead goe so I do want to give a huge shout out to the library thank you to our uh board chairwoman who's here miss Lindsay Harvey um she and her Library director and team pull together a beautiful
event for international women's day it was Saturday March 8th uh at the library catered event very nice a panel and the room was packed and I when Miss do Williams said she wanted to do it I I was excited for her to do it didn't know how I was going to go because we hadn't
done it previously but it was a great turnout and it was a wonderful discussion amongst women in the community to celebrate International women's day so thank you Miss Lindsay Harvey and to miss do Williams for her vision for that event and working through whatever challenges I'm sure it took a level of effort to get it done
but thank you so much for that thank you Madame mayor thank you Deputy Mayor all right well we've had a lot said tonight um I do want to just remind the community that we are one willing burrow there are so many issues and
topics to discuss as a community and this is one of your forums to discuss some of those topics we've had a number of things presented here tonight what we would like to do with our um storm water utility or the future of this summer
with the school buildings being closed for renovation and the summer school programs um we talked about uh other events and programs that are coming up around the municipality um but it is going to take
all of us to decide what the next steps are and how to move forward so all of our council members are accessible um please feel free to reach out to us share your thoughts even if it's not at public comment um because we are representative of you so we depend on
your voices your input um to help make the right decisions for Willing burrow um also I just want to Echo some of the sentiments that Deputy Mayor worthy had made about the election turnout not only um it was that a
critical decision for our town but also theid participation in elections also impacts our ability to advocate for our town on a state um and in a county level so higher voter turnouts gives us more
power more voice more agency to advocate for the needs and resources that are here in Willingboro so I encourage everyone and I I jump on that challenge to Willingboro residents those 26,000 plus register voters please come out
June 10th um and really show and demonstrate the voting power that willing brw has um every vote counts every vote can be funding for our JFK Center or a track project or a road Improvement program or stormwater
utility so we really need that um that participation to help us Advocate on higher levels um also if you miss the international women's day event please make make sure you come out to the phenomenal women's Awards that's going
to take place on April 27th we look forward to the opportunity to acknowledge and congratulate celebrate phenomenal women within our community and finally um continue to take care of each other
willing bro we saw great showings um of of community and togetherness as we made sure that our missing youth got home safely even on tonight's meeting we had some concern over uh police activity so I'm glad if you're if you'd like to stay
AB breast of things like that our neighborhood watch is up and open um they're always accepting members and the next me their next meeting is Thursday March 20th you can also stay connected by uh joining the Willing bro Connect
app and subscribing to the Willing bro weekly I I think that's all I have for tonight thank you everyone for coming and we will have executive session tonight Madame Clerk and um all right so for executive
session tonight we have a resolution authorizing a closed executive meet executive session in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting act this executive session is going to be for personnel matters and um contact contract negotiations may I get a motion
in a second to pass resolution 2025 d88 second move by councilwoman Macintosh seconded by Deputy Mayor worthy councilman
Anderson councilwoman Macintosh yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank you and if you would um it please put up that we will be an executive session
uh we may have a decision when we return right no problem thank you e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e just do it not like
it's yeah can I get a motion in a second to come out of executive session so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by councilwoman Peron roll call councilwoman Peron yes councilman Anderson is here Council woman Macintosh
yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes can I get a motion in second to extend the meeting so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by mayor Whitfield roll call councilwoman Peron yes councilwoman
Macintosh yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank you we do have one resolution to present after coming out of executive session this resolution will be um 5 days effective immediately can I get a
motion in a second so move second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by Council woman P roll call councilwoman prone yes C uh councilwoman Macintosh yes Deputy Mayor Dr worthy yes mayor Whitfield yes thank
you now therefore be it resolved the township manager shall be granted a temporary residency waiver of up to 365 days effective immediately by the council okay and it was seconded by Dr worthy and no it was motioned by Dr
worthy ined by Council one Peron right and I get a motion what um we need a motion to close so moved second moved by Deputy Mayor worthy seconded by we
V we voted yeah already voted on we voted on it okay seconded by uh councilwoman Peron right all in favor I I I any post any post any extensions all right good night everyone good night
will the time is now 10:43