[0:03] I call this uh meeting to order can we
please stand and salute the
[0:09] flag I pledge Ali to flag of the United
States of America
[0:15] and stands one nation God
indivisible andice for
[0:23] all Jamie could you read the sunshine
statement please be advised that prop
[0:30] notice has been given by Township
Council in accordance with the Sunshine
[0:33] Law in the following manner notice
advertised in the buring county times
[0:36] and Camden carrier post on January 8th
2025 and post it on the bulletin board
[0:40] on the same
date would you uh call the roll call
[0:45] please Mr Morrow here here Mr here mrny
here
[0:53] here uh first up is ordinance on first
reading ordinance 202
[1:00] 5-1 calendar year 2025 ordinance to
exceed the municipal budget
[1:05] appropriation limits and to establish a
cap Bank njsa
[1:12] 4.4
4514 may I have a motion please
[1:18] motion have a second
second roll call Mr Morrow yes mrso I Mr
[1:26] Smith I Mr Jenny I Mr lion
H all right next up
[1:33] resolution uh resolution
2025 d25 appointment of environmental
[1:40] resolution Inc as Township engineer can
I have a motion
[1:51] please seeing no motion resolution is
failed Okay resolution fails as of a a
[2:00] no motion uh next the consent agenda uh
Council you've had a chance to look at
[2:06] the consent agenda agenda any questions
on the consent
[2:14] agenda call um can we get a motion on
the consent agenda please
[2:20] motion I'll
second roll call Mr marrow yes mrsu hi
[2:27] Mr Smith I Mr Jenny I Mr all
right all right next up we have public
[2:34] comment um rules of the Quorum if you uh
wish to speak please raise your hand and
[2:40] you will be recognize at that time you
may approach the podium and state your
[2:44] name and address for the record all
remarks shall be through the council
[2:48] president an individual speaker shall be
allotted five minutes all statements are
[2:52] a part of the public record both written
and video recorded and cannot be
[2:58] redacted any anybody wish to speak
please raise your hand oh I need a
[3:03] motion to go into public I'm sorry I'll
make that motion I'll second
[3:08] all all in
[3:14] favor yes
sir yes sir thank you sir
[3:19] [Music]
[3:38] yeah
[3:44] maybe where's the uh I person how you
going all
[3:49] right don't don't touch
what whenever you're when I'm
[3:57] ready all right we on
Mr Morrow oh I'm sorry spech williamj
[4:04] 518 Brown Street Del New Jersey the
Cambridge
[4:08] section starting from uh let's see we're
going
[4:14] from left to right Mr Morrow how many
projects are now in progress with
[4:21] CME as of this moment as of right now as
of the beginning of this year I
[4:28] would questions through the council
president please council
[4:32] president what are the current jobs in
progress with CME I do not have a list
[4:38] of every single project that's in how
many are to the best of your knowledge
[4:42] how many are in progress um Joe would
you like to feel that I do have some
[4:47] list here but Joe would have a more
comprehensive list I think it it would
[4:50] be safe to say we have at least 20 uh
projects either ongoing or in the design
[4:55] stage or nearing completion and U Mr
Bina what has the projected time frame
[5:01] on these in the year 2025 going forward
for the next four years for the next
[5:07] four years for the next four years yes
with the for what projects with CM CME
[5:11] yes sir uh I would venture gu with
everything that's currently been for
[5:16] which they've been engaged um that
probably be see many of them done within
[5:22] the next 18 months uh there are few that
will probably go on for three and four
[5:26] years very few though all right most
project will that list be made available
[5:31] on your site yes it will all right sure
it's public
[5:36] yes say yes or no answer thank you sir
carry on do so you don't know Mr Morrow
[5:43] you said you don't know how many
projects are actually in progress that's
[5:48] correct Mrs uh what is that address to
the council oh I have to go to you first
[5:54] yeah that's just the rules
okay Mr Council may I speak basically
[6:00] you're trying to grill the Council on
I'm not grilling anybody I'm asking a
[6:04] question a yes or no question sir okay
all right may I proceed now sure Mrs
[6:12] appid all right how many projects do you
know are you aware of I would defer to
[6:16] the uh admin you're deferring to the
administrator okay so you have no
[6:20] knowledge of you're deferring to Mr
bolina he's the
[6:25] expert yes ma'am he's the expert right
all right moving down that M back to you
[6:30] sir may I approach Mr Smith now you can
ask a general question yes all right
[6:35] same question sir do you know how many
projects are in currently in action yeah
[6:39] believe what Mr Bina has stated is most
accurate I didn't quite get that could
[6:43] you speak up sir yes I said that what Mr
Bina stated whatever Mr bolina stated 20
[6:48] projects that are either in progress or
um but you personally do not know how
[6:53] many projects are currently in progress
uh I just just gave you a response I'm
[6:58] not sure okay thank you
sir Mr Jenny Mr spitch Mr Jenny I I
[7:05] don't count the number of projects we're
working on uh it's up to our engineer
[7:09] and our business administrator to manage
those and that's what they do I so I
[7:13] concur with Mr bina's answer okay all
right and you represent our district
[7:19] what what district I'm councilman ofar I
represent the whole Township thank you
[7:24] sir how about you 15 pages 15 there's 15
pages and on those 15 pages that
[7:30] contains how many projects roughly
somewhere around 20 20 all right but to
[7:35] me to say exactly how many I okay very
well 15 all right thank you for your
[7:42] time I appreciate that I have a minute
and 15 thank you very much thank you
[7:47] have a nice night you bet
[7:51] you anyone else um like to uh reach the
podium yes ma'am
[8:06] good evening everybody uh Chris Adrien
55 Spring Crest Drive in summerh Hill um
[8:13] I have a couple questions my first is a
procedural question what does it mean
[8:18] that you nobody chose to vote on this
change what does that mean uh basically
[8:25] the council didn't want to move that
resolution so you're keep the status quo
[8:31] um I will defer to our attorney but my
understanding is that if that resolution
[8:37] goes down then C would stay in place cor
okay now um my understanding is these
[8:45] positions are under the purview of the
mayor with advice and consent of the
[8:51] council however from all of your
responses that you just made it appears
[8:55] that all of you are saying you really
don't know what CME is doing that you're
[9:01] leaving all that under Mr bina's
guidance now it is common common when
[9:08] there is a change in Administration in
Corporate America for Consultants to be
[9:14] changed to the new
Administration we have a change here in
[9:19] our leadership as mayor and it is his
prerogative to choose the
[9:25] engineer and by deferring to Mr bolina
you are not doing your job so the
[9:32] question is why are you not willing to
bring this to discussion and vote if
[9:39] you're going to say well cm is in
progress on this everything they have
[9:44] done is work product that belongs to
this community it's our work product
[9:48] we've paid for it if we have not paid
for it that's problematic and that is a
[9:55] question for Mr bolina if we have not it
is our work product we have a right to
[10:01] change and it is common to do so now we
have issues such as storm water issues
[10:09] that have been going on for years
decades that have not been
[10:14] addressed I have stood up here and
mentioned things that I know for a fact
[10:19] were not done appropriately
environmentally by CMA which puts us at
[10:26] risk so they have shown us that they are
either not advising us properly or we as
[10:33] a Town Council and an administrator are
not listening to them which means they
[10:38] are not being forceful enough I think
this is doing a disservice to both the
[10:44] voters in this town the residents in
this town and our newly elected mayor
[10:50] not to consider his choice or to have
open debate about why you're not
[10:56] considering his choice what happen here
was not fair to the voters nor was it
[11:03] fair to our mayor nor was it fair to the
recommended
[11:10] engineer I'm
disappointed very disappointed I could
[11:15] sit here again and list other things
that I have seen that this engineering
[11:21] firm has not done appropriately I'm a
constituent I am not a professional
[11:26] engineer and yet I have this knowledge
that can say this to you so I certainly
[11:32] hope you will go back and reconsider and
vote for who our mayor
[11:38] recommends thank you thank
[Applause]
[11:46] you do we have anyone else um I'll go
lady in
[11:53] I yes yes
[12:02] [Music]
pth pomerance 21 Alden
[12:06] Avenue may I ask why no one wanted to
put that resolution
[12:13] out why well it did get red it just
didn't get moved
[12:17] why the
council the council I have listen you
[12:22] ask me something if you your minutes I
apologize no you don't have to apologize
[12:27] I just
um we've had discussions over this and I
[12:34] have a statement I'm going to read in my
report that goes through why I believe
[12:39] we should keep saying me the rest of the
council will have that opportunity and
[12:43] their reports to do as the same but we
have discussed the fact that we do
[12:48] believe at this time CMA is the right
option and we want that them to work
[12:55] with the new mayor and get a year under
the belt with the new mayor okay and
[13:00] I'll
elaborate elaborate more on that in my
[13:04] report but while we appreciate the mayor
wanting to invoke a change right it's
[13:11] his prerogative we also represent the
whole town all 177,000 people and at the
[13:19] end of the day we have an obligation to
all of them and and I'll expand on more
[13:25] of the track record of CME and
everything like that and that's just I'm
[13:30] not going to speak for the rest of the
council but when we put it out nobody
[13:35] wanted to move on that resolution that's
a simplest way I could put it and you
[13:38] know what whenever there's these issues
there's going to be some people that are
[13:42] disappointed some people that are happy
some people are in bibl all right but
[13:48] that's just the nature of the of what's
going on here right now and it's no
[13:52] knock on ER penon Alo or anyone else
[14:00] so just to add to what the previous lady
said you know she talked about the storm
[14:06] water um we can talk about we won't but
we could talk
[14:11] about the uh flooding down in Riverside
Park that CME has been working on with a
[14:18] variety of council people for over 13
years okay um if I had the time I would
[14:28] go back through through all the minutes
for the last 14 or 15 years and we could
[14:35] add up what we've paid CME to date which
has got to be millions of
[14:41] dollars I think it's time to allow the
new mayor the opportunity to
[14:48] succeed in what he campaigned
on he promised this town certain things
[14:56] in order for him to get those done he
needs to have the people who are going
[15:00] to support
him and you five don't look like the
[15:04] five who are going to support
[Applause]
[15:16] [Music]
him oh anyone else yeah uh I'm going to
[15:21] go over here um I jumped over her last
night I'll go to do next
[15:27] [Music]
hi Jen reer from Daran um so I'm just
[15:33] here in support of the mayor and um him
being able to hire another engineering
[15:39] firm I just wanted to remind you all I
sat here when you all sworn in or Mr
[15:44] Maro and Mr Jenny that you promised you
would all work for it with together and
[15:49] that was a big thing that all went on at
the last meeting so I don't see that
[15:53] right now that you're working with him
if if anything you're putting walls up
[15:57] to to stop what we the people voted
again so for me and I've say this when I
[16:02] speak to you people it ain't about you
it's We the People it's our town you
[16:05] work for us you do what we say that's
how this works and again the whole
[16:10] country is tired of all this like to me
CMA is part of your swamp that you have
[16:14] they you go to dinners with them oh yes
listen I'm kind of I know I kind of know
[16:19] what goes on myself I'm not that stupid
so you you sit there and laugh on my
[16:22] face I I I understand how you people
work so again you don't don't bite the
[16:27] hand to feeds that's what this is about
so again the people wanted a new
[16:31] engineer firm I go around to the town I
talk to many people myself also and the
[16:36] people are fed up with the crap in this
town they feel as so the infrastructure
[16:39] this town is like going down the tubes
I've said this many times the
[16:43] infrastructure is falling apart you have
these people down at the river the
[16:46] nightmares and also the the roads the
people on Bentwood I've watched Time and
[16:51] Time and Time Again people calling up
here crying about the floods on Hanes
[16:55] Mill the Bentwood that the the the
streets all the problems there nothing
[16:59] gets done again this man is coming up
with a Bonafide solution for the town
[17:04] and you're not you're you're not even
going to vote on it or anything just
[17:07] because again don't brep the hand that
feeds thank you thank
[17:12] [Applause]
[17:20] you good
evening I'll be a little more calm could
[17:25] you just uh state your name and yes my
name is Carolyn Seuss I am the current
[17:29] mayor of Delano Township um here tonight
dis to discuss your uh engineering
[17:34] appointment for 2025 um I understand
obviously that mayor hutkins would like
[17:38] to appoint ER as your new engineer but
does not have the support of the council
[17:43] I just wanted to speak a little bit
about uh ER and how they've been our
[17:46] Township engineer since
2013 um The Firm was appointed actually
[17:50] by a democratic majority back then and
has served our town for the last 12
[17:54] years um going back and forth between
both parties uh to me this is not a
[17:58] political appointment and the town's
need should be uh the first priority and
[18:02] what the firm has the experience to
handle the immediate project needs we've
[18:07] never really looked to change our
professionals based on what their party
[18:12] is um obviously your flooding issues are
a major concern and the residents have
[18:18] echoed that as well Eli has involved in
several projects in Delano that included
[18:22] the Army core of engineers and the D
both of these agencies are who you would
[18:27] need to work with to address these
concerns this past summer our Township
[18:31] was able to install a 500t um vinyl
sheep pile seaw wall along Delaware
[18:36] Avenue along the Delaware River uh ER
designed and oversaw this construction
[18:41] project it was a very large project
almost $700,000 and it went on for
[18:45] several years uh because of the issues
um and E was was excellent in working
[18:52] with them to ensure that the project
moves along
[18:54] smoothly the seaw wall will uh protect
the historic Zerg mansion along the
[18:59] river and to ensure that all the homes
in the area are protected from the river
[19:02] flooding we were losing feet of land
every year due to the erosion because of
[19:06] the river and the Water Rising um it was
a very difficult project and we were
[19:10] actually really happy with the in with
the outcome and how er worked with all
[19:14] of our professionals they were also
involved in check valve installations of
[19:18] various storm water Outlets uh to
leviate Backwater flooding that's when
[19:22] the water comes up through the storm
drains um they designed an oversaw
[19:26] construction at several Street ends uh V
sheep pile sea walls at several our
[19:30] street ends along the river um they
obtained the permits from d and Army
[19:33] Corps worked excellent along with them
um some some other project they've
[19:38] worked with in our town the dunes they
assisted in litigation with d and army
[19:42] Corp to preserve the dunes if you don't
know what that is it's a beautiful
[19:45] nature preserve along the Delaware River
near the border of Beverly Township uh
[19:49] they worked with uh our um planners with
the Field of Dreams uh Sports Complex
[19:55] they helped with the design of the
soccer fields installation of the
[19:58] parking lot they oversaw the
construction of subsequent phases of the
[20:01] parks um you know different things that
included the park design they also were
[20:06] involved in uh one of our development
storm water outfalls they oversaw the
[20:10] Reconstruction of a failing outfall
structure to the ranus creek um our town
[20:14] borders the creek and the river they
oversaw some construction at our fields
[20:20] that are along the river as well um they
were involved in demolition of a huge
[20:24] property along the creek uh five story a
five-story industrial building now
[20:28] they're working with us to ensure with
the planners that we have a u a a park
[20:34] design that makes sense to ensure that
there's no flooding there that a seaw
[20:37] wall will be installed so you obviously
see the theme here they're involved with
[20:41] flooding they're involved with with
storm water management um and they also
[20:46] prepared our our storm water mapping and
our ms4 permitting system which is a
[20:50] comprehensive map that the state
mandated and they prepare our annual
[20:54] permits as well they're also involved in
our lead based pain inspections which
[20:58] you know is now a requirement and uh our
road programs they've they've done over
[21:03] 20 dot grants uh CBD Grants County and
state grants for the roads and did over
[21:09] 35 Road programs over the years they're
professional they do they have timely
[21:14] responses which is really important to
me um I kind of took on the role of the
[21:17] project manager our uh administrator is
part-time and we didn't have someone to
[21:22] to manage the professionals on a project
level so I kind of took that over and I
[21:25] worked closely with them for the past
two years um specifically Mr Fox and I
[21:29] was really happy with that relationship
he was an excellent Communicator um just
[21:34] on a financial aspect they're really
fair with their billing um I know a lot
[21:38] of times you know you get these these
crazy bills that are inflated but I
[21:41] always thought they were really fair
with that and there are the firm that is
[21:45] the engineer along a lot of these
Riverfront towns they are the the
[21:49] engineers of choice and I think it's
important that all these towns come
[21:52] together and work as one because we all
have the same issues and if we all have
[21:55] the same engineering firm we can all
kind of work together to help alleviate
[21:59] these flooding problems that are only
going to continue because obviously of
[22:02] global warming and Rising water levels
so thank you for the opportunity to
[22:05] speak than good
[Applause]
[22:14] luck uh
[22:21] sir yeah Jone uh 306 High Street Jim f a
z z o n e 306 High Street Burlington New
[22:27] Jersey uh I'm actually the former mayor
of the City of Burlington uh and uh
[22:31] again I see went through was elected
official for 30 years one thing you may
[22:36] consider uh and I know that you have
your engineered record and I I think
[22:39] that's a good thing uh sometimes what we
used to do uh in the city of
[22:43] burlingtonon was give someone else maybe
a chance to get involved in certain
[22:47] projects just because someone's an
engineer of record uh doesn't mean some
[22:50] other folks can't get some work also
gives a chance for uh maybe the the new
[22:56] mayor and Council to work together uh
agree on some things uh and and and uh
[23:02] see if uh we don't like several you went
through the who's who of Engineers or
[23:08] when you when you mentioned all of them
and you know could could be a situation
[23:11] where you might want to just give
someone a chance on a particular project
[23:14] develop relationships uh not only with
some other Engineers but with each other
[23:18] you well and if I could interject yeah
yeah you running the show I'm
[23:22] just I'd like to give everybody their
five minutes without me taking it up but
[23:26] we did offer up um
a a res a solution um to the new mayor
[23:34] where um er would get involved with a
piece of our work and um he and I listen
[23:41] I commend him he wants ER for everything
and he's steadfast on that so it's not
[23:47] personal it's just business it's not
Republican Democrat but he didn't want
[23:51] to go in that direction which that's
fine he's the mayor right but we did
[23:55] what you are saying we have offered up
and I think that's a good thing what was
[23:59] tip O'Neal's quote was politics is an
energetic Clash of conflicting ideas so
[24:03] uh sometimes there's a there's there's a
happy medium there somewhere and uh
[24:07] maybe next week uh mayor thinks a little
bit different you guys think a little
[24:10] bit different uh but good luck r i i
I've always been impressed I like your
[24:14] town like your restaurants uh like
driving down 130 always seems safe to me
[24:18] but uh uh thanks that's all I had to say
thank you
[24:23] [Applause]
sir uh yes ma'am
[24:36] my name is Samantha I live on Chester
Avenue um you just mentioned that you
[24:41] guys offered up um something for uh the
mayor's appointment ER what was that um
[24:48] what when we were having discussions um
that um what we could do is we would
[24:53] keep CME as our Municipal engineer and
er would get all the the sewage
[24:59] Authority work and that way they could
start working in town on the sewage
[25:04] Authority work and obviously our sewage
Authority is down by the river and
[25:07] whatnot and I thought that's okay soth
that was a compromise sewards Authority
[25:13] okay um so I'm sorry sewer theart SE
okay either way sewer um you said the
[25:20] mayor wanted um er for everything
question uh who is
[25:25] the engineer for the planning board
uh turret Consulting and who is the
[25:32] engineer for the zoning board that I'm
not I'm I'm not on the zoning board so I
[25:36] I'd have to defer to somebody that knows
who's on the zoning board they haven't
[25:41] done their re you said it's CME Mr Pina
it's been it's been CME that they
[25:45] haven't done their reorder Thursday
Jamie and who is the tree
[25:50] expert C okay so then only okay so CM or
um CME wouldn't be out of the town uh
[25:59] Eli wouldn't get everything um and then
also who is our special
[26:05] projects we don't have special projects
okay so it's my understanding that the
[26:10] appointment belongs to the mayor um was
there another
[26:15] company that the mayor could have
proposed other than CME that the council
[26:20] would have voted yes
to um he could have but um we were
[26:26] pretty steadfast I will do that in my
report why we were wanted to stay with
[26:31] CMA but we were offering up then the
Sewer Authority I heard the Sewer
[26:35] Authority so but it is the mayor's
appointment with cons what is the word
[26:40] advice and consent of council with cause
so without cause and only the council
[26:47] coming together and saying well we heard
you but we want CME that falls under the
[26:52] definition of coercion that's not
offering up the appointment that's not
[26:57] saying that the mayor actually has the
right that's saying this is a formality
[27:02] and the appointment's not a formality
the appointment belongs to the mayor if
[27:06] there's a reason that ER should not be
the engineer then that can be discussed
[27:12] um can and I address Mr bolina is that
okay yeah sure uh how what was the RFP
[27:19] submitted for ER the the uh hourly ver
versus
[27:23] CME ma'am I I don't know all the hourly
rates off the top of okay and that's
[27:29] there's hundreds of rates that are
submitted over through that process so
[27:34] it would be hard could you say off the
top of your head if if one was less than
[27:37] the other no no recollection that's and
without me knowing the exact amounts
[27:44] they were except for a limo they were
all kind of in the same B so then then
[27:50] that's fine so that goes to the things
right so I mean not it wouldn't cost
[27:54] necessarily more or anything else so I'm
not particularly seeing
[27:58] a causal reason which in then that takes
this again to a formality and the
[28:04] appointment isn't a formality the
appointment belongs to the mayor and by
[28:08] saying no but this is where we want to
stay that's not really how it works
[28:13] that's taking from the people which as
you can see I've been to these meetings
[28:17] and our our mayor said he was going to
give the town a
[28:20] voice our town is here our town is here
to support the mayor and I will say one
[28:25] other thing that has nothing to do with
the El already anything else but I've
[28:29] been it's not very long I've been coming
to these meetings but if you guys could
[28:34] look a little bit like you care about
the people I mean just a little bit I
[28:38] mean M ran I've seen you something check
you're looking at something every now
[28:43] like every couple seconds just pretend
like you care at least okay that's all I
[28:48] can say thank you very
[Applause]
[28:56] much any one else yes
[29:06] ma Joan kter 10 River
Drive uh thank you for coming out the
[29:13] lanko and Burlington and letting us know
exactly that there is hope maybe if we
[29:19] could get new people in they built that
wall over there work with the arm Court
[29:25] of Engineers we've been being told for
since 20 11 that you know government
[29:29] takes a long time so you know we we're
13 years into this and call me selfish
[29:36] and I know the uh Engineers do other
things in the town besides flooding but
[29:41] I'm going to say uh yes call is selfish
because we have to fight for the riv
[29:45] residence in Riverside Park because
that's where we live we've been there
[29:50] over 60 plus years and not much is
happening and as far as CM goes um I
[29:58] have a couple little things that we
could uh look at uh when we built that
[30:06] they built that bike path was Samy the
engineer in involved with that with the
[30:12] county I I couldn't because that's a
county project I don't know if the CME
[30:20] was yeah I I I believe I believe they
were look at the records and and like
[30:25] them being experienced with the
riverbank down there they probably
[30:28] should have let them know that you know
eventually it's fallen into the river
[30:31] because we lose foot feet of the burm
every year and now all the any of the
[30:38] Landscaping they put down there the new
trees they put down there the new
[30:40] flowers they put down there they're gone
they're washed away that uh little fence
[30:46] down there well there's the water so
like CME should have been a little bit
[30:51] you know better advice on on that so
again uh in J in July of 2020 the
[30:58] emergency stream bank erosion study was
done uh CME provided pictures for the
[31:04] study according to the the paperwork
that I have the problem is the pictures
[31:09] were from
2012 well that was nine
[31:14] years between the 2012 and
[31:19] 2021 the landscape has changed
drastically in 9 years no updated
[31:25] pictures like didn't quite understand
understand that one uh the St Avenue
[31:31] project uh we went back to one of the
sidewalk panels was damaged in the very
[31:36] beginning it took me coming to the Town
Council to add to ask can they fix it
[31:42] because originally the I went up to the
CME guy and I said uh hey you know uh
[31:49] they ran over my sidewalk smashed my
sidewalk don't worry all the sidewalks
[31:54] all the curves are going to be replaced
on both sides of the street
[31:58] no
problem fast forward a year and a half
[32:01] when they finally get to the sidewalks
and the curves I go to the different CME
[32:07] guy and I said uh you know don't forget
over here we got they ran over they
[32:13] damaged my
panel oh I I'll have to ask about that I
[32:19] said well I was told that they're do
they're going to replace all curbs and
[32:22] sidewalks no we're only replacing the
curbs and sidewalks of where we removed
[32:26] the trees and there was damage well
that's on the other side of the tree the
[32:30] other side of the street so we weren't
getting anything so I had to come here
[32:34] and bring it to the attention of the
council which yeah it got done my
[32:39] neighbors there's uh handicap woman her
panel broke well she had to go through
[32:45] this that and the other to get it taken
care of well they replaced it and broke
[32:50] the one next to it when they replaced it
like does anybody walk up and you know
[32:55] these Engineers are walking up and down
the street in this project nobody saw
[32:59] any of this was happening my other
neighbor the uh it's a water box uh the
[33:05] water meter box cover is that far above
grade here's here's
[33:10] your the uh the grass and here's this
metal cover that wasn't like that you
[33:17] wouldn't want that in front of your
house again did CME did it those guys
[33:22] are there every day most of them were
Watchers uh I I didn't uh you know
[33:28] we we when we ask questions you know the
one kid says well I'm going back to
[33:32] college in two days so I don't really
know and the other guys like well I got
[33:36] pulled off of a a job in Mount Laurel
but you know I like your dog and you
[33:41] know open your eyes peeps uh you know
and it just little frustrating things
[33:47] like that um the the the best one was
when don't quote me on measurements but
[33:55] we're guessing approximately 200 to 300
ft yeah I'm I'm going to talk fast 2 to
[34:01] 300 ft of the U storm drain piping was
installed we're like they they're that
[34:09] much further down the street we can get
out our driveway now we're moving on
[34:13] well guess what they came back a couple
days later and they dug it
[34:16] up what
happened um CME right I shouldn't say C
[34:23] but I'm going to say C the prins were
wrong um the pitch and and and your
[34:28] time's up but if I have your email yeah
right and that email just hang on a
[34:33] second and that email has already been
addressed with all your concerns yeah me
[34:40] and and and I said I'm going to need a
response and we're going to need you
[34:44] know all these things what how they
transpire so I I do appreciate your
[34:50] email because I got it yeah no I sent it
everybody except the ones that weren't
[34:54] working so it's already been sent to the
CMA yeah so we do appreciate okay but
[34:59] that wasn't on
there this this one because this was a
[35:03] major
cluster you know when they had to come
[35:07] back and dig it up and and that
contractor we said what happened well
[35:11] the specs were wrong the the prints were
wrong how were the prince wrong who went
[35:15] over the blueprints see I mean okay
they're going to have to address I know
[35:18] but that you didn't know about that
because I'm just telling you now but
[35:21] man' right your your five minutes is can
I have somebody else's five minutes here
[35:26] can I get can I borrow please because we
have okay the other question who paid
[35:32] for that to get redone excuse me but um
we have other people that do want to
[35:37] speak okay yeah oh here comes the cops I
got to
[35:44] [Applause]
go she's coming up to speak for me no it
[35:54] doesn't work that way um
[36:01] thank thank you very much though for
your comments uh is there anyone
[36:13] else hi my name is Nancy Evans I live on
Art Street in Delan and I'm going to
[36:18] keep this pretty simple because
everybody really gave you all the
[36:20] information that you guys should be
considering and needing to know but none
[36:24] of you do um first of all you talked
about this is a thing that the committee
[36:29] has agreed on but nobody here on the
committee knew what the hell is going on
[36:33] in as far as CME is concerned they don't
know how many projects or how or what
[36:38] the what they're working on so how can a
committee make a reasonable and
[36:42] acceptable decision they
cannot number two number two is you said
[36:49] you're working for the residents of the
town but you are not working for the
[36:52] residents of the town you aren't doing a
damn thing for residents of the town and
[36:57] number three why do you have a five
minute ruling when people want to come
[37:01] up and speak that is absolutely
ridiculous that's one of the first
[37:04] things if I were the mayor I would
[ __ ] get rid of thank
[37:09] [Applause]
[37:20] you any other before we go out of public
yes ma'am
[37:32] Diane sealer 128 Jaclyn Avenue I just
have a general question about your
[37:40] parliamentary
procedure because when I look at this
[37:45] motion and nothing was
said it should have as far as I know
[37:50] from my experience it should have been
moved and seconded and you should have
[37:55] had a discussion so everyone here
tonight could know how you feel about
[38:02] what this resolution is and the only
reason we found out about what's
[38:07] happening is because of the people that
came to this meeting tonight so that's
[38:13] all I have to say you should have
discussion down with a motion like this
[38:19] and it and then we know how you feel
instead of having all these people have
[38:24] to find out by questioning you how you
feel about this cuz we don't really know
[38:30] why you didn't want to move on this
motion so you should have been open to a
[38:35] discussion thank
[Applause]
[38:42] you sir
sure I stepped into a hornet mess here I
[38:49] think
but um hang on one second and your name
[38:54] how you doing I'm Joe samaro um I
actually live at 633rd Street in
[38:58] Riverside but I am on Chester Avenue I'm
on the corner
[39:04] um is it my understanding now that Delan
Township Now controls Chester
[39:11] Avenue it's no longer a County Road it's
now Doan correct yes up to St Mill and
[39:18] it comes northchester and then it's
Riverside okay um many years ago I spoke
[39:23] here when Simon and Schuster was
building and there was plenty of issues
[39:26] along with that I had issues at my house
um obviously with Chester Avenue that
[39:32] was a mess um it's still rather bumpy um
are you guys planning on doing anything
[39:40] about the tractor trailers going up
Chester Avenue I mean it's there there
[39:46] they speed horribly and I feel every one
of them that goes by my house like my
[39:51] house vibrates I I know that that issue
has been brought up and that something
[39:57] the police are going to have to monitor
yeah but um because if they're they're
[40:01] they're not supposed to be on that road
or they're speeding that becomes a
[40:05] police issue and the chief of police is
here what do you mean they're not
[40:09] supposed to be allowed on that road if
if if there's a weight restriction on
[40:13] the road well there's not at the moment
well but I'm just saying if there were
[40:18] they weren't supposed to be on that road
but if they're not violating the weight
[40:21] restriction and they're allowed to be on
that road they do have to conform to the
[40:26] speed no I understand um are you open to
considering maybe putting a weight limit
[40:30] on that road I mean tayor Lane is
obviously a County Road and more of a
[40:35] truck route it's no it's not residential
and they could come in that way um like
[40:40] I said they don't stop I mean it would
also help with the congestion at tayor
[40:44] or at uh at Route 130 as well on both
ways uh the traffic um but as I'm not
[40:51] opposed to looking at that's for sure um
because like I said I get the vibrations
[40:55] in my house when they built that Simon
and Shuster Warehouse uh I brought this
[40:59] stuff up and I guess the engineers came
out and I imagine it was CM CM me or
[41:07] whatever but they absolutely whoever it
was absolutely dismissed my concerns
[41:13] they dismissed that my house may have
been uh impacted uh oh it was my
[41:18] 70-year-old house or well it's older
than that now but oh it was settling
[41:22] well my house had long settled by then
but anyway that was my concern thank you
[41:26] very much thank thank you
[41:30] [Applause]
[41:35] sir uh yes
[41:39] [Music]
ma'am hi ien blin I live in camenson New
[41:44] Jersey um again with the formality of or
the rules that you're supposed to follow
[41:50] to to bring up a motion um I think it
was very cowardly if you not even to
[41:54] make a motion and then vote no against
it you know you didn't want to have that
[41:57] on record you wanted to keep your your
firm and you know when you took that
[42:02] oath you remember the power is in the
people and I just wanted to make sure
[42:06] that you are aware I've been to these
meetings a lot I live right next door in
[42:10] next town I've never seen this many
people show up for a problem except when
[42:14] there was the flooding and um you really
should listen to the people you should
[42:18] know what's going on in your town
especially if you live right there you
[42:21] should know all the problems of the
people and it's really it's it's very
[42:25] disturbing that you don't know job and I
think that you should listen to your
[42:30] mayor these people elected a mayor and
we stand with him so thank you thank
[42:35] [Applause]
[42:48] [Music]
you um Patricia Griffith 518 Brown um
[42:55] after listening to all the different
problem s that people have had and how
[42:58] long it's taken to get any of it
addressed and it it's all the stuff the
[43:03] CME has to do with and then we hear from
a neighboring town that they have
[43:09] another engineering company that can get
things done I don't feel represented if
[43:15] you're not even going to hear it out
about having another I mean you're
[43:19] supposed to represent us I don't feel
represented if you won't even hear what
[43:23] the other company has to offer or what
like you automatically are already made
[43:27] up your mind that we're going to keep
CME and we're coming up here and telling
[43:31] you time and time again we don't think
they're great they took forever to
[43:34] finish that baseball field was a joke
now we've got a sinkhole where the sewer
[43:39] is on Leon and that's going to be a
bunch of money and then the constant
[43:43] flooding I don't know how come other
towns can get it fixed and it's taking
[43:47] forever with us and it seems like CME is
the Crux of the matter so I prefer if
[43:51] that you would take a step back and
remember you're supposed to represent us
[43:55] and we're here saying that please
represent us because we don't want CME
[44:00] we would like a chance to try something
else that's all we already know what
[44:05] they can and can't do it's already been
proven and that's why we're all here so
[44:10] please keep that in mind if you happen
to discuss it again thank
[44:15] [Applause]
you yes ma'
[44:34] Jane mayor 88 stort Avenue Del New
Jersey um on to finish with my what my
[44:41] sister was saying Mr lion um thank you
for responding to my email thank you for
[44:46] the email I do appreciate I I do believe
I got personally think seven yes and you
[44:53] know what you're the only one that
responded I give you credit for that
[44:58] I know you didn't because your email
don't work but he was forwarding it
[45:01] forwarding it to because I told him that
I was going forward it to him but
[45:06] because he didn't have the email I
wasn't sure with the okra laws if I
[45:11] should send it to his private one so
yeah but yes I appreciate you responding
[45:17] and I know you didn't because it didn't
work so everybody told him to forward it
[45:21] to you so there you go we had all bases
covered you said you were going to sent
[45:27] an email to my sister when she was
talking about the
[45:31] stuff she was up here Jo K she was up
here talking you said about an email and
[45:36] we'll discuss that later uh that email
that she sent me went s right but the
[45:41] reason she brought it up again is
because the public needs to be aware of
[45:47] the situation that happened and I can
tell you a little bit about it um the
[45:52] prints were wrong they dug it up again
it was like 300 ft was very
[45:58] inconvenient and you know
what who was overseeing that the one of
[46:03] the equipment operators said in all
their years they've never had to do that
[46:09] they've never dug up Pump pipes that
were
[46:14] installed
so and then um I'm just going to read a
[46:19] little bit about what one of the
suggestions was from CMA was about the
[46:25] glorified water balloons to prevent the
flooding down in our section you don't
[46:31] have enough employees public work to
clean off the storm drains yet they're
[46:36] going to drag out tubes filled with
water than when the flooding is
[46:41] predicted they don't even clean the
storm drains drains when flooding is
[46:46] predicted
here we don't always know when the creek
[46:50] is going overflow the last one it was a
fluke it just
[46:55] came Mother Nature doesn't let us know
ER was involved with the Delano and the
[47:00] Army Corps of Engineers my family has
been coming to these meetings since 2
[47:06] since
[47:08] 2012 and nothing has been done until
this year when they
[47:13] finally signed the agreement with the
army courp of Engineers but there was
[47:18] and I don't have the dates but my
sisters do where Delan Township and the
[47:24] Army Corps of Engineers both drop the
ball on the project to prevent the
[47:31] flooding the one person lost their house
almost because of that so but the public
[47:37] needs to be aware that's why not just
emails that being sent to people the
[47:41] public needs to be aware because we
voted for you and it was an
[47:46] overwhelmingly and it wasn't just for
the president it was because people
[47:50] needed to change they want to change and
you know what sometimes a new set of
[47:54] eyes to give a better perspective just
give somebody a chance that's all thank
[48:00] [Applause]
[Music]
[48:15] you sh's
[48:21] working it's it's working on our side so
I I don't know if there's a problem out
[48:26] there um we'll take a couple more before
we move on the rest of the business is
[48:31] there anybody else that
[48:39] sir Jack Moore 133 Kathleen
Avenue uh this is a bit of a change of
[48:45] pace from the uh topic of discussion uh
lately but I think it's one that it's
[48:51] the right time to bring it up uh we've
had a change in leadership and uh
[48:56] hopefully this is something that can be
in the Forefront of your minds as we
[49:00] continue through the year when I first
moved to Del Ran in
[49:04] 2017 I I looked around for my public
library we don't have one we haven't had
[49:11] one the towns around us Doo cinnamon
does morst toown does but Del Ran should
[49:18] not be going to other towns to use their
resources we need to bring a library
[49:25] here Library liaries are Community
Builders and I think we have a great
[49:32] Community but we can be stronger and we
can bring people from diverse walks of
[49:37] life into our community through a
library and through the resources that a
[49:43] library can
provide they serve diverse communities
[49:48] you know and with Del Ran's you know
thriving communities Turkish population
[49:52] Brazilian population having something
like a library to bring people together
[49:57] and share their cultures would be
fantastic there are great financial
[50:02] investment a library every dollar put
into a library gives you back $3 worth
[50:08] of value they serve as a first stop for
job Seekers a resource for the internet
[50:13] for our teleworkers who may have lost
internet connection at home their
[50:18] connection to history a library for
Delran could serve as a permanent home
[50:24] for the Delran historical society and
Ensure Our Town history is preserved
[50:30] libraries are effective third spaces a
meeting space and Community Gathering
[50:34] space can serve as a resource and
attract prospective residents that may
[50:39] consider availability of a public
library in their relocation decisions so
[50:44] it could help our town grow uh and
libraries also serve as language
[50:49] learning centers as inclement weather
weather shelters they serve so many
[50:54] different purposes and I think it's time
that we need to have a conversation
[50:58] Earnest conversation about whether a
library and the funds available for a
[51:04] library should be spent here in Del Rand
to bring a library to our town thank you
[51:11] thank
[Applause]
[51:16] you one more anyone are we good
[51:26] hi uh Kim kuster uh 24 uh 24 Norman
Avenue um yes I would just like to uh
[51:33] piggyback on what Jack had said about
supporting um a community library I
[51:38] thought of you when he said it because I
know you brought it yeah I came here uh
[51:41] I think about a year and a half ago um
I'm a new resident in in in um Daran and
[51:47] I came from a town that had a library
and my Fondest Memories of being a
[51:51] little kid is going to the library for
children's stories and it was just a
[51:55] place that you met
it was a quiet place as our
[51:59] neighborhoods get a little bit noisier
and congested we have a lot of
[52:03] development around us now and it's an
asset I think that Delan really does
[52:07] need um I would I'm really looking
forward to working with our new mayor
[52:12] because um I did have some meetings with
our former mayor and it just didn't seem
[52:17] to want to get supported um I think a
library I think we need something in
[52:22] this town to feel good about I think we
need something to feel good about
[52:26] politics and bringing people back
together and I see a library at least
[52:30] getting the committee together having us
sit down and actually work for something
[52:35] for the community for the for everybody
thank you thank
[52:39] [Applause]
you all right
[52:44] um Le there's anyone else we're going to
move on can I get a motion to come out
[52:51] of public please
[52:56] I'll second that all in favor I any
[53:03] opposed um so moving on with our agenda
we have our reports I see we have um
[53:11] members of Emergency Services um you
want to be first up I saw some P folks
[53:18] also I don't know if they split but um
Brian's here
[53:22] [Music]
[53:33] good evening Chuck M from the chief Del
emergency Squad just wanted to kind of
[53:36] give you guys some statistics for last
year since it's
[53:39] 2025 congratulations welcome to uh the
mayor position um and thank you to the
[53:44] council uh Winterfest was great um last
month and we were very happy to
[53:48] participate with that uh for 2024 we did
end up with uh we budgeted for 3,300
[53:55] calls for services we did end up with
3,681 calls it's 12% higher than what we
[54:00] uh anticipated which was great we're
able to do that it's averaging 10 calls
[54:03] a day for the Emergency Squad that's 10
calls a day um out of those calls 546 of
[54:09] those patients that did refuse so a lot
of times we go help people up on the
[54:12] floor make sure they assess somebody has
motor vehicle accident on Route 130 just
[54:16] make sure that they're okay so um we've
been kind of busy with that um we did a
[54:20] total of 21575 hours of career time and
we also did 396 hours of volunteer time
[54:26] so we do have volunteers that are still
Staffing the ambulances along with 38
[54:29] hours of training that we did for this
year um in 2024 we did our fund drive
[54:33] towards the end of the year we did
collect about $244,000 and we are
[54:37] investing that money into two uh
mechanical CPR devices they're about
[54:41] $118,000 each so we have a little bit
more money we're going to be putting
[54:43] there but it also helps embrace the
additional scope practice that we did
[54:48] for last year for 2024 so we're really
excited for what we're doing for 2025 um
[54:53] we uh are A51 C3 have been serving since
1939 you guys know that we really don't
[54:59] take anything from you guys uh the
township does Supply us with fuel and
[55:03] also the insurance for the ambulances
other than that everything else is were
[55:06] covered through billables uh for
patients and insurances uh we do have a
[55:11] global forgiveness which we do not put
anybody in collections and we do write
[55:13] residents off if they're not able to pay
that bill and last year we wrote $
[55:17] 46,8 for residents so we're making sure
that they can feel confident when they
[55:21] need to call 911 they can call 911 and
they're not going at the collections and
[55:24] not going to be built for the services
so just want to say thank you and
[55:28] welcome and if you guys anything less
thank you
[55:31] [Applause]
absolutely uh moving on to boards and
[55:39] committees no all right um next up uh
administrator Joe bolina no report this
[55:47] evening Mr President thank you sir uh
clerk Jamie edar I also have thank you
[55:52] Jamie next up mayor thank you uh first
thing I want to talk about is uh just a
[55:58] little piece of business Joe and I
talked about with the new website um if
[56:02] you guys can check it out when you go on
there there's a new popup for you guys
[56:05] to report
potholes second I'd like to actually
[56:09] address this resolution if that's okay
I'd like to uh I'd like to see the the
[56:14] council relook at this obviously you
know I was voted to be the voice of the
[56:19] people and I want to be that and they
ask for a change I'm proposing a change
[56:34] so we we've had discussions on it yes
okay are we going to continue to have
[56:39] discussions uh we're always willing to
meet and
[56:42] discuss in the
[56:49] public FL is yours no it's okay I just
want to make sure we can reopen this
[56:54] resolution and have discussions again
we'll talk to Al about
[56:59] that talk about tonight or not tonight
you guys canc with the motion this
[57:05] motion is dead but you can continue to
propose same firm for as long as you
[57:09] want so these
guys okay and that's what we like
[57:14] right I answer these are the guys I'm
going to answer to that's what they
[57:19] want we'll putting it back on thank
you thank you Mr Mayor uh next up
[57:27] solicitor Almera the only report that I
would have is obviously you guys have
[57:32] some
deadlines portable house we Mr here
[57:36] tonight address that in executive
session so there there was some that
[57:42] into play that seing one to overturn the
new law but also to
[57:47] stay deadline that that January 3 the
resolution have Mr to discuss that and
[57:55] then we have that litigation
[57:59] discussing great thank you Al um next
move on to council members I go all the
[58:04] way down to my far right Mr
Mara thank you council
[58:10] president um before I get into some of
the things I had wanted to discuss in
[58:14] the in my M minutes here um I do want to
address the the residents that are here
[58:19] tonight um um dealing with that
resolution and you asked questions that
[58:24] are legit why you know you want to know
how we feel this is my time to tell you
[58:29] I served on Council from 2008 until 2014
I served on the planning board for 12
[58:35] years and in those years I worked with
CNA and I know that the job they did was
[58:40] outstanding I had no issues now I've
been away for 10 years from the council
[58:45] now when people say well how many
projects do you have on we haven't even
[58:49] had a work session here so how would I
know how many projects we have going
[58:53] right you you well I'm just newly
elected I haven't had a discussion with
[58:58] the mayor with on any of this stuff yet
with this resolution he hasn't reached
[59:02] out to me to talk to me about this I'm
more than open to talk to anybody about
[59:06] anything I don't owe anybody
anything I am a guy who lives in town
[59:13] who decided to run when almost 19,000
RIT lived in this town seven or eight of
[59:19] us decided to run and represent and do a
good job and that's what I'm up here to
[59:23] do so if anybody if he wants to sit down
and discuss stuff I'm more than open to
[59:28] do that but I did not I do not do social
media I do not do Facebook I do not do
[59:33] Tik Tok I do not do Instagram I'm old
school guys okay born and raised in
[59:38] Riverside grew up on riverdrive my
father's house was built there in
[59:42] 1958 so I know the area well so I'm just
saying I'm more than willing to work
[59:48] with the mayor on anything but there has
to be a line of communication absolutely
[59:52] but not through Facebook and not through
Tik Tok and their social media call me
[59:57] up come over my house we'll have a beer
mayor Barnes we talked before you
[1:00:02] reached out to me in the very beginning
I haven't heard from you since so I'm
[1:00:05] more than willing to do any of that so
everybody's clear on that and that's
[1:00:09] what I'll leave at
that um some of the things I talked
[1:00:13] about on on the swearing in that night
um that we working with Council and
[1:00:18] mayor going forward I would like to try
to get done in town we have a rental
[1:00:22] enforcement program that was passed a
few months ago well it's time we
[1:00:26] actually get some teeth and get moving
on that so if it takes getting a housing
[1:00:30] inspector to get something done to
inspect these housing rentals that are
[1:00:33] popping up in our Township I do not want
to see what's happening in towns like
[1:00:37] Riverside where they turn into what I
call bedroom town a town I grew up in
[1:00:41] it's heartbreaking to see what's
happening there I do not want that to
[1:00:44] see it happen in our community rental
properties lower the home values of the
[1:00:48] houses around them and they ruin the
fabric of our neighborhoods and I do not
[1:00:52] think anybody wants that to happen so I
want to try to get something going with
[1:00:57] that and getting an inspector whether
it's full-time part-time mayor when we
[1:01:01] when you start to work on your budget
maybe we can fit something like that in
[1:01:04] there also I talked about working with
the police department one thing I would
[1:01:09] really love to do is get the mine unit
that's something that the township had
[1:01:13] many years ago not only does it has our
Township grown in population growth from
[1:01:17] the apartment complexes and housing
developments and that invites crime
[1:01:22] crime is about opportunity so in order
to do that we need to to enforce the our
[1:01:27] Police Department so I'm more than
willing to work with them and see how we
[1:01:30] can get a canine unit going and and also
speeding is also a major issue we all
[1:01:36] have going through our neighborhoods
when I knocked on doors I heard that I
[1:01:39] live on pan Co Boulevard the speeding
that goes up and down my street is
[1:01:43] unreal so the police can't just be on
every corner but there are things that
[1:01:47] we can possibly look into to doing and
monitoring the speeding in the town and
[1:01:51] giving tickets enough of the warnings
it's time to issue tickets you're not
[1:01:55] racing and speed through Daran Township
anymore our kids and our grandkids are
[1:01:59] too important to have that happen also I
want to work with the public works
[1:02:03] department they're doing such a great
job in our Township when I was a
[1:02:06] councilman when I first got on here they
were still going behind the leaf truck
[1:02:10] doing the oldfashioned way well now we
started with one armed Bandits I don't
[1:02:14] know how many we have now do we know two
three je three and that's just once
[1:02:19] again investing in our community making
it more efficient getting more things
[1:02:22] done and it makes their job easier
causes less um guys getting hurt and
[1:02:27] working is Cal which also costs us money
also I would like to work on the
[1:02:31] riverfront area um the harbor District
area it's been dilapidated for many
[1:02:36] years a long River Drive there long
River Road um we have um most of those
[1:02:42] Harbors have been um closed down now but
we can try to work with those owners I
[1:02:46] know there were some rumors um about a
year ago about something about the tow
[1:02:50] houses and this and that being built out
there well I'm not for any of that okay
[1:02:54] I would love to see something something
like canoing kayaking passive Recreation
[1:02:58] being done down there bring it back to
life I think we can do that I think we
[1:03:02] can clean up that area down there
there's also we have garages down here
[1:03:06] um what I would used to call service
stations um they're turning into
[1:03:10] junkyards and they need to be cleaned up
and it's a reflection on our community
[1:03:14] and we shouldn't tolerate that kind of
stuff also I like to continue working on
[1:03:19] the community park it's come such a long
way from 2008 and 2009 when we purchased
[1:03:24] that property from a major your housing
development but I think we can do some
[1:03:28] more really good things there it's great
Sports Complex there's a pickle ball I
[1:03:32] think in discussion at some point but I
well talk to Residents about an
[1:03:35] Amphitheater something to do summer
concerts down there to make residents
[1:03:39] get more involved and they they were
like yeah that sounds great so maybe
[1:03:42] something we can do there also the
gentleman talked about the tractor
[1:03:46] trailer driving on chest Ry sir I work
at Simon in Shuster okay I've been there
[1:03:51] 26 years so I obviously there maybe a
conflict eventure maybe maybe not I
[1:03:56] don't know that yet but I do agree with
you with the truck traffic I live on pan
[1:04:00] Coast I live free houses off of Fairview
Street the Mount of truck traffic that
[1:04:04] goes down Fairy Street down into
Riverside is unbelievable some townships
[1:04:08] I know in burington Township some
streets you cannot go down at certain
[1:04:12] hours with truck traffic they can so
townships can take steps to to stop and
[1:04:17] enforce those things so maybe we can
look into that and and work on that um
[1:04:22] so I do understand your concern there
sir and even though you don't live in
[1:04:25] our town I grew up in there and I know
exactly where you live by the way so
[1:04:30] with all that said I thank you all for
being here your your comments are not on
[1:04:34] theft ear I've heard you okay so like I
said we open up our Communications I
[1:04:39] like I said I look forward to working
with you I work with past past
[1:04:42] administrations and past people I have
no problem with that so thank you so
[1:04:46] much for that thank you thank you
councilman uh next up uh nikk okay good
[1:04:54] evening everybody and been near again um
so coming to the uh comments we had um
[1:05:01] regarding the engineering firm when I
make a decision is based on
[1:05:09] facts um the engineering firm that is
being placed before us is something I
[1:05:16] don't know anything about I am not a
robber
[1:05:19] Stamper um when I got on Council two
years ago and I was introduced the CME I
[1:05:27] had no complaints
so people voted me in to make decisions
[1:05:32] based on issues that if it's going to be
there we'll fix it now I've been here
[1:05:39] two
years
[1:05:43] and I still have to find
out what the issues the real issues are
[1:05:49] that we have to deal with that has to do
with seeing me for me to make a decision
[1:05:53] I do my research um
just
[1:05:58] because with all due respect please with
all due
[1:06:06] respect all the appointments we had from
the last
[1:06:10] meeting the major had a majority I mean
the mayor had a majority of them we
[1:06:16] worked with
him when we are working in a
[1:06:21] professional
environment it's easy to
[1:06:27] decide to make a decision based on
what's on the outside but we need to
[1:06:30] look deep and I'm doing my research and
I need to know why is it that we really
[1:06:37] want to change the
engineer what is the real reason behind
[1:06:43] that and that's what I need to find out
I'm not asking anybody a question I'm
[1:06:47] doing my public
statement everybody up there is an adult
[1:06:55] and mayor
hudkins with all due respect all the
[1:07:00] appointments you had almost 99% of
them you did
[1:07:07] not go against anything because you work
with a council president and you all we
[1:07:13] all did our research and we were all
updated when that issue was brought up
[1:07:18] with CME I'm like okay I need to find
out the real reason why we don't want
[1:07:23] them to do the work
I live on
[1:07:27] Stewart coming back to the flood we keep
hearing about the flood I live on
[1:07:32] Stewart my my house was flooded during
Hurricane
[1:07:37] Sandy and I didn't see any
neighbors to let me know that there's a
[1:07:42] way to get that fixed and like I told my
neighbor when she approached me I'm like
[1:07:46] you know what when we make decisions and
we have issues to face Let's Get the
[1:07:52] facts and make decisions B on the fact
and there's some things we can fix some
[1:07:57] things we cannot fix when we had the
last issue with quote unquote flooding I
[1:08:04] went to several homes and I looked into
those
[1:08:08] homes the water wasn't coming from the
river it was coming from under the
[1:08:13] ground that's a major issue that's a
major issue that needs to be
[1:08:18] addressed now from what I unod from Miss
pomerans is that she she had information
[1:08:27] from decades ago so I'm like I've been
on Council two years and I never got
[1:08:32] that information from her I'm getting
information as we go along so it's not
[1:08:36] that we don't care about the
residents but it's like if I'm making a
[1:08:41] decision it has to be
factual it has to be based on
[1:08:48] issues because if I'm deciding it's like
you're hiring somebody right when you're
[1:08:54] going to decide to fight somebody it has
to be with
[1:08:58] C now I can't just sit down because
um it's on the
[1:09:04] agenda and I'm like okay yeah rubber
stamp rubber stamp everything when I got
[1:09:10] on Council every appointment that made
when I first started I ran everything by
[1:09:15] the council president like I'm doing now
I'm like I don't know anything about
[1:09:19] this firm or this professional I need to
get some
[1:09:24] information one once I get information I
believe that is going to benefit the
[1:09:28] residents I make my decision so we need
to work
[1:09:39] together we need to work together I have
also offered the residents in Riverside
[1:09:45] Park that feel free to let me know
what's going
[1:09:49] on we will continue we have started to
put together a team to work on River
[1:09:55] side park because that's a bigger issue
than we all can handle over here that is
[1:10:00] something that's going to be
ongoing um the previous council
[1:10:04] president had me start with um
councilman
[1:10:08] Jenning as a team um we were going to go
forward with that but the election came
[1:10:13] up we still going to go forward with
that and we're going to look into
[1:10:16] resources that we need and how we can
fix
[1:10:19] it everybody up here I believe on
Council live in Del r so we all care
[1:10:26] about Del
Ran and we all care about for example I
[1:10:32] have W one there's a whole lot of people
in W one so when I'm making a decision I
[1:10:38] consider all the residents of Del Ren
plus all the residents in W one so when
[1:10:45] the media you know suggest something
I'll do my research I will ask questions
[1:10:50] I will look into it and then I'll make a
decision but Su just say that we are not
[1:10:57] working with the mayor I believe we
should be you know mayor hutkins I
[1:11:04] respect you a lot and like I said before
we went over all the appointments you
[1:11:10] had we did not do anything to say okay
well the mayor's not going to have this
[1:11:15] because we got to serve the residents
this one Whatever this one thing is we
[1:11:20] will work on it but I need more
information to make an informed decision
[1:11:25] and since I've been on Counsel I would
say this it's always good to give credit
[1:11:30] where it's due I have not seen any
issues with CME so I will still continue
[1:11:35] to support them for the residents until
we can say okay well CME cost the town a
[1:11:41] m now
loss but I'm like and I'm still going to
[1:11:46] ask everybody who's here to think about
it what is the real reason behind you
[1:11:51] wanting to get rid of an engine
[1:11:57] change can be negative and change can be
[1:12:02] positive when you're hire when we are
hiring I'll say this again when an
[1:12:06] employer is hiring there's a lot of
business people here when you're hiring
[1:12:10] somebody you're not going to hire
somebody because of change you're going
[1:12:13] to hire somebody because they can do the
[1:12:18] job I am making my public comments
please I'm making my report you ask the
[1:12:24] question
I'm answering the question you didn't
[1:12:27] listen to what we had to
[1:12:32] say man with all due
respect with all due
[1:12:39] respect I don't want to say anything
about how people like me get treated in
[1:12:46] this country with all due
[1:12:49] respect with all due
respect with all due respect
[1:12:56] with all due
respect
[1:13:00] unb with I know I've lived in Delan for
a time
[1:13:04] now and trust
me trust me I live in Delan for a town
[1:13:10] for a time for a while
now and I've been in Delan since
[1:13:17] 2005 so I'll come back to the uh factual
reasons for not moving forward on
[1:13:24] anything regarding the engineering like
I said
[1:13:27] before I don't have any hard facts to
say they've failed the Township in terms
[1:13:33] of costing US dollars because that's
what about taxpayer
[1:13:37] dollars
and based on the advice from my council
[1:13:42] president and those who have been here a
long time and from the administrator we
[1:13:46] will continue to look into
it with all due
[1:13:52] respect thank you um councilman Smith
yeah thank you very much uh just a
[1:13:57] couple quick things uh first and
foremost wanted to thank the uh
[1:14:01] Department of Public Works uh they did a
fantastic job with uh the snow removal
[1:14:06] with the two snow events we had recently
um always do a fantastic job also wanted
[1:14:11] to thank uh uh our EMS to do a fantastic
U service for the community I didn't
[1:14:17] know that you guys answered roughly 10
calls a day that's that's amazing so and
[1:14:23] especially with the you know all the
volunteer that you have there uh thank
[1:14:26] you very much and continue to do a great
job for our
[1:14:31] town uh now I will address the uh issue
about the uh the engineer could you pick
[1:14:38] up a little louder please oh sorry I
can't hear
[1:14:44] hey is this
better thank
[1:14:49] you so uh we'll address the issue about
the engineering uh first and foremost um
[1:14:56] I'm very pragmatic um when we have our
engineering firm they're currently out
[1:15:03] there doing jobs if we were to switch
Engineers we'd have to pay that cost
[1:15:09] twice to a new engineering firm secondly
from a lead time perspective there's a
[1:15:15] lot of projects that are underway I know
that the residents we heard a lot from
[1:15:21] tonight uh are concerned about the Le
time I know got the uh Army Corp
[1:15:27] engineer project it's taken years we
would be taking a step back if we
[1:15:32] switched out and went to another firm um
when you take a look at all those things
[1:15:40] for me it made the most sense to
continue with CME for these high value
[1:15:47] very important projects that are taking
place in uh some of our most U vable
[1:15:52] neighborhoods especially when it comes
down to uh water
[1:15:55] so that's the reason that I did not uh
support the change of the engineering
[1:16:01] firm and the report thank you Marlo uh
next up councilman Jenny thank you
[1:16:07] council president uh number one uh I
want to uh congratulate the fire
[1:16:12] department uh this past weekend Saturday
and Sunday Lake Lonnie uh they were
[1:16:17] doing uh certifications of winter water
rescues uh literally going breaking open
[1:16:22] pieces of the Ice uh going into the ice
ice and in protective suits and
[1:16:27] practicing the procedure to to take
someone out of the lake should they be
[1:16:30] in the lake p through the ice it was
really impressive uh and they had uh a
[1:16:36] number of people
certified uh any with the green team any
[1:16:40] uh one has Christmas lights that are not
functional or you want to get rid of
[1:16:44] them don't throw them out don't put them
in a landfill bring them in here and put
[1:16:48] them in the uh box for the Christmas
lights um regarding the Sammy um I'm
[1:16:54] going to keep it short because a lot
been said and I agree with most
[1:16:57] everything that's been said uh I support
uh maintaining CME because number one of
[1:17:02] their performance I've been involved
with them for four years and I've seen
[1:17:07] good performance no one is perfect in
this world um but I make decisions on
[1:17:12] facts and not politics uh the facts are
that as M as Mr Smith had said my big
[1:17:19] concern is the cost is going to cost us
to change right now with all the
[1:17:23] projects we've been working on money
that we've already paid out and then
[1:17:27] money that's going to have to be spent
to catch up uh that's uh one and like I
[1:17:32] said my experience would see me has been
good uh I understand all of the uh
[1:17:37] emotion and I understand also that you
know social media politicking I don't
[1:17:42] really care for but that's why you're
here um and supporting the mayor uh I
[1:17:47] know there are a lot of other reasons
maybe why ER might be a candidate we'll
[1:17:51] leave it at that um but at this point I
don't see any reason reason to change uh
[1:17:56] we are the only Council the past Council
that I was a member of that has gotten
[1:18:01] any action on the flooding in Riverside
Park nothing's been done in the past
[1:18:06] there was some cursory Communications
with uh the uh only core of engineers
[1:18:11] but nothing ever followed up on we
followed up we actually have a contract
[1:18:16] that'll be doing uh a planning and we're
moving forward with that uh you
[1:18:22] addressed someone addressed the um
um balloon type uh devices that uh are
[1:18:29] available we've been looking at that and
it's been extremely in fact I have an
[1:18:33] article from Florida how they've using
tiger Dan for a long time and it has
[1:18:38] substantially reduced the flooding that
would be a short-term fix the long-term
[1:18:43] fix is coming from the Army cor of
Engineers as uh the mayor Delano mayor
[1:18:49] said they've been with the AI for 12
years and I don't think a reason to
[1:18:53] change is is the reason that you want to
change a major player in our Township
[1:18:58] just for the sake of change uh I uh work
I will work with uh mayor Barnes uh we
[1:19:05] work together uh a couple times in our
meetings we discussed this in fact the
[1:19:09] first meeting when I ever met um uh
mayor hutkins uh I expressed to him the
[1:19:14] fact that I thought the only thing that
was important that I think we need to
[1:19:18] pursue is maintaining our Engineering
Group and then Tom and I met with him
[1:19:22] again to discuss the appointments and
and as was stated all the appointments
[1:19:26] except for one were
approved we just do not feel that CME
[1:19:32] has done anything that requires a change
and I think it will be very costly at
[1:19:36] this point and that's my reasoning for
it um that's enough said I think
[1:19:42] enough's been said on that subject thank
you very much for listening thank you uh
[1:19:46] councilman Jenny uh and for my report um
I did put together a quick statement on
[1:19:52] the engineering uh change uh we do
appreciate the idea of exploring a new
[1:19:56] vendor for engineering while I
appreciate the initiative and openness
[1:20:00] to change I'd like to ensure that any
decisions we make are driven by clear
[1:20:04] benefits for the residents and
organization currently our existing
[1:20:09] vendor for engineering has been
performing well and meeting our needs
[1:20:13] effectively unless there are specific
issues or compelling advantages that the
[1:20:17] new engineer can guarantee to offer such
as cost savings improved quality or
[1:20:22] enhanced features it may not make sense
to transition at this time engineering
[1:20:28] changes often come with Associated risks
such as disruption in Services learning
[1:20:33] curves or unexpected costs if there are
specific challenges or areas for
[1:20:38] improvement with our curent engineer
we'd be happy to discuss them further
[1:20:42] and explore their Alternatives but if
the change is primarily for the sake of
[1:20:46] change it might be more beneficial to
focus on optimizing our current
[1:20:51] relationship instead please know that
the issues that the mayor and some of
[1:20:56] the residents have brought up are either
currently being discussed with our
[1:20:59] engineer or will be forthcoming we
expect CME to meet or exceed our
[1:21:05] expectations in
2025 please know that our administrator
[1:21:10] Department of Public Works and
Construction office have full faith in
[1:21:14] CME and look forward to working with
them in
[1:21:17] 2025 and I can assure you I have
personally told CME if you do not need
[1:21:23] or exceed our expectations in
2025 I'll be the first one going to the
[1:21:28] mayor and say dude let's do it okay but
um I do support keeping CME and having
[1:21:35] them for 2025 and working uh with the
new mayor also um you know they
[1:21:42] they they do some really nice jobs in
town and I there's a Litney list of
[1:21:48] great projects they've done and we all
know Delan Community Park is a great
[1:21:52] Park including Jake's Place and they
were involved with that the Brown Street
[1:21:57] field excuse me they were involved with
that project and that's a nice project
[1:22:02] also upcoming we have the Hartford Road
sidewalk Improvement which is um from
[1:22:08] Ashley Crossings to Fairview Street and
we got a grant they secured a
[1:22:12] $145,000 grant that's going to create a
sidewalk from Ashley Crossings up to
[1:22:17] Fair viiew where there is none so you
have to cross the road to go over to
[1:22:21] where that shopping area is since we've
had CNA they have secured 5.3 million in
[1:22:27] Grants for Us Safe Streets of Transit
1.3 million local Aid 2.6 million
[1:22:33] burington County and cdbg
1.45 million which is the
[1:22:39] 5.3
million um also we do work for the
[1:22:46] residents we work for all the residents
and um one of the one of the issues
[1:22:51] somebody brought up that uh you may not
think care because I'm looking down but
[1:22:56] when people speak while you might not be
able to read my chicken scratch I am
[1:23:01] taking notes from when people speak so
we can take a look at it and address
[1:23:06] those issues so please don't take me
looking down as not caring or not
[1:23:10] listening because I am taking notes with
everyone who spoke here today um next
[1:23:16] thing I'd like to say is um shout out
for the fire department and EMS the
[1:23:23] piggyback I was out there with the mayor
for the ice Rescue Training event and
[1:23:29] the practice ice Rescue Training it's
got to be cold and it was cold it's not
[1:23:34] sunny and 70 um they did a great job a
lot of people got certified and um they
[1:23:40] both asked they asked us to go in as
rest people and we both chickened out so
[1:23:46] um but they did a great job um also to
um the fire department and EMS and the
[1:23:53] police we've had some pretty bad
accidents lately we appreciate
[1:23:57] everything they do to take care of those
folks who who got in accidents and get
[1:24:01] them safely to where they need to be and
get traffic moving
[1:24:05] again also thank you to the DPW for the
the job they did with that minor snow
[1:24:11] event um also all the employees thank
you for the job you did in
[1:24:16] 2024 hopefully they have a great 2025 we
do appreciate our public employees a lot
[1:24:22] of times they go unrecognized and
they're unsung heroes but we do
[1:24:27] appreciate that and listen it's we we
all from the beginning we said we'd work
[1:24:35] with the new mayor and listen that all
the appointments and whatnot and we're
[1:24:42] very very fortunate that we got rfps
from a lot of competent um professionals
[1:24:48] okay
um no listen no dis disrespect to Al or
[1:24:54] your Law Firm or whatnot the Great Law
Firm I my union dealt with him um back
[1:25:01] when I was still working and wasn't
retired Maro law was not my my first
[1:25:06] choice for the law firm but you know
what it was the Mayors and I talked to
[1:25:12] council and I said it's a good reputable
Law Firm they're going to do a really
[1:25:16] good job for us so let's go with Maro
law same thing with the conflict
[1:25:21] attorney okay wasn't my first choice
chice but the conflict attorney is a
[1:25:28] reputable Law Firm they'll do a good job
so it's not like we're up here just
[1:25:34] saying H giving them the Heisman we're
not okay so but the one thing that we
[1:25:40] did say and we have agreed to disagree
on is we're pretty Resolute with keeping
[1:25:47] CME for
20125 there's nothing that says we have
[1:25:51] to keep them going forward and they are
on notice Hey listen we think you do a
[1:25:55] great job you need to continue to do a
great job and where these shortfalls are
[1:26:00] and what's being brought up you're going
to need to address this [ __ ] all right
[1:26:04] so whether and we we'll come up with a
resolution I promise you we're going to
[1:26:08] look take a look at it um already some
of the things that people emailed me
[1:26:13] have been sent over to the engineering
firm and we'll have those discussions in
[1:26:17] those meetings um so with that that's
the end of my report and what we need
[1:26:22] now is a motion to go and to Executive
session resolution
[1:26:27] 20254 to discuss attorney client
privilege affordable housing and
[1:26:32] litigation Jody Klein versus Delan
Township can I have a motion please I
[1:26:36] make a motion have a second all in favor
I
[1:26:42] anyos all right we're in executive
session we are not anticipating any kind
[1:26:46] of action from executive session but we
will come back out after executive
[1:26:51] session open back up and close the
meeting
[1:27:12] all right we're back uh can I get a
motion to come out of the executive
[1:27:15] session so moves have a second I'll
second all in favor I any
[1:27:20] opposed motion carries uh next stop I
need a motion to adjourn motion do we
[1:27:27] not have I have a second second that
excuse me we already had it we already
[1:27:33] had it that was I thought for just the
that that was like to address Mrs AO uh
[1:27:40] she used my name I want to address her
uh do we have a second to
[1:27:44] adjourn I made the second all right all
in
[1:27:47] favor any
opposed motion motion Carri
[1:27:55] I'll talk