[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] All right, we're ready to go. Lane, John, and folks, meeting the order is my little rubber gavel.
[0:06] We'll, we'll, the further pledge of allegiance to all back together again. Earlier, we received the minutes from the March 3rd work section on March 10th meeting. I will take a motion. There's minutes. So, so moved.
[0:21] second. Second. All right here we go, Donna. Hopefully we can make this quick because you
[0:30] have some future issues.
[0:34] Hi, for your consideration approval for the general fund and the golf club
[0:37] payroll checks in the amount of $28,732.31 and payroll vouchers in the amount of $324,414,19. Also consider
[0:49] approval of the payment of approval of court in the amount of $502,159.80.
[0:56] Thank you. Any questions without the bills?
[1:02] Your amount, I'll take a motion to approve
[1:04] the report of bills. So moved. And a second. Second. All in favor.
[1:11] Hi. Hi. All right. Item Board Department report, Mr. Bopes.
[1:16] Okay, I will highlight a couple items just before I get to the agenda items the first item being
[1:22] With the boards approval and adoption of the barring ordinance last month
[1:26] Today we closed on the 2.5 million dollar capital borrowing
[1:31] That was approved through Webster national bank out of Rhode Island
[1:36] Based upon that closing the funds were deposited into a separate interest bearing account with a township
[1:43] So we are prepared to move forward on those projects
[1:45] I know tonight we are requesting permission to try to take on the largest project as part of that borrowing, which is a region's park
[1:52] Rehaving, which we can discuss and Eric and TJ can kind of tie a team that one because there's going to be some sewer components in with the
[2:01] the paving component with that.
[2:04] But again, we closed monies in the bank and we are ready to move forward with our project.
[2:08] So
[2:10] next month in working with Mr. Vallejo and Dan from Sean's office,
[2:17] You will have a draft of the false alarm ordinance for commercial properties in the
[2:21] township.
[2:23] Mr. Value is going through some last minute items, I believe, with Dan to look at the current
[2:27] ordinance that we have in place and be sure we're not overlapping anywhere and then making
[2:32] sure we have updates for the fee schedule as part of that.
[2:34] But we're hopeful that once you have it for review, you'll be any questions that you might
[2:40] have.
[2:40] We'll answer at that point.
[2:41] And then hopefully we can have a motion to advertise that in May if the board has no major
[2:45] objections to the ordinance. On the financial side, and I mentioned this at the work session,
[2:52] on March 30th, we put in a spending freeze for the township, given the financial impact
[2:59] that we're seeing from or anticipating from the COVID-19 and the business being closed
[3:05] and our township residents not working. What that necessarily means is any spending has to be
[3:12] approved by myself or Kathy before I came in the place, outside of a wall, our typical
[3:18] expenses like our phone bills, electric bills, and also our medical bills, our medical
[3:23] premiums.
[3:24] Anything other than that, we're doing our best to try to hold off or delay anything that
[3:29] we can do.
[3:30] There was one item at the golf course that we did approved, only because we did it, have
[3:34] a savings.
[3:35] That should, we pre-order our chemicals at the golf course in the beginning of the year
[3:38] and then that bill comes due in June, we get about a 10% savings if by pre-ordering that,
[3:44] so if we would have waited we would have spent more and we had enough money in the cash reserves
[3:47] for the golf course to handle that. At the end of this week I'm going to get with Donna and we're
[3:54] going to go through the current receipts we have for our earned income tax and see if we can marry
[3:59] them up to where we were at this point last year to see what the impact would be. We did see
[4:04] is an impact for the month of March, the Pride for the last two weeks, which is that we
[4:08] were about 15,000 behind where we would have been for the month of March in 2019. Looking
[4:15] at the month of April, normally it's a small deposit month, about a heart of 70,000. So we're
[4:21] going to look at our halfway point at the end of this week to see where we're at for falling
[4:24] behind. Obviously we'll come back with some other recommendations, but if we can, you know,
[4:30] So if the governor starts to come out with a slow rollout of reopening the economy, obviously
[4:35] that could be impactful for us on a positive side of things.
[4:38] The one thing I was going to look at with the stimulus packages that came down from the
[4:43] government is whether we could apply for anything through the golf course because the revenues
[4:47] that were lost as part of that.
[4:49] So we're in the process of trying to investigate that.
[4:51] We might have reached out to the Representative Dean's office for some guidance if we do qualify
[4:57] for that.
[4:58] But other than that, I think the Department had to do a really good job, especially given
[5:03] the circumstances.
[5:04] We're still trying to accomplish as much as we can, but I'd be happy to answer any questions
[5:08] on that when the board sees fit.
[5:11] But under the Department, under the agenda items, the first item on the new business would
[5:18] be adopting Resolution 20-1652, declaring the local disaster emergency in regards to COVID-19.
[5:24] Again, this was an item. I pulled the board on. Commissioner Miller signed it with his position as president.
[5:32] We're just asking the board to ratify this resolution. Item B would be a motion to adopt resolution 20-1653, extending the real-state discount and face period on municipal taxes.
[5:43] Again, this is in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This would extend the discount period to May 31st and the face period to August 31st with penalty beginning on September 31st.
[5:54] November 1st. The one item we are looking at and are waiting is there's a bill before
[5:59] the governor for his signature that could extend these deadlines further. So if the governor
[6:06] does sign it, we might be coming back in May with an additional resolution. I don't know
[6:11] if Sean has heard anything on that, but I don't believe that the governor has signed that
[6:16] yet. So, Sean, you're muted. Yes, Sean, you're muted. There you go.
[6:23] I think we would have, yeah, I haven't heard one thing in another, and if the ad sign that I'm sure would have gotten an email blast by now.
[6:32] But we do have a backup resolution in place once that does come into place.
[6:36] If it does pass, so it would just simply be a new resolution to the board.
[6:40] Again, further extending it. I believe taking the face period to December 31st.
[6:45] I believe is one of the components of that.
[6:47] So once we hear the governor signs it, then let you the board know and then maybe in May we would enact a new resolution if that's the case.
[6:55] Item C would be a motion dot resolution 20-1654, which is the ready for 100 renewable energy.
[7:02] This is based upon the presentation from the member from the Plymouth Township EAC.
[7:07] The EAC has provided recommendations as part of guidance projects as part of this resolution in which you'll see as a three listed in there.
[7:14] that doesn't mean anything, we can't do anything more anything less, it's just
[7:18] examples of projects that we could take on. The one item that we can as part
[7:25] of this project, we do have money in our escrow funds for from the rebates and
[7:33] the tax credits received from the street lighting upgrade, and I believe it
[7:36] totals about $30,000, which if the board is wants to discuss that we could
[7:41] transfer that money into a green fund as a seed money for that and then potentially any other
[7:47] additional money that would come into the township from other non-taxable or EIT revenues and
[7:52] things like that could potentially be deposited into that but we at least have something that could
[7:57] get this fund started based upon this resolution should the board adopt it tonight.
[8:03] Item D would be a motion to adopt resolution 20-1655 authorizing the sale personal property
[8:09] This was a 2015 Dodge Charger that was listed.
[8:14] I believe it is going to, sorry, my word document opens
[8:21] a quick, would be to mark Bisconti in the amount of $8,300.
[8:25] And that would be for the 2015 Dodge Charger from the police department.
[8:31] Under item E would be a motion to authorize the advertising
[8:34] and the bids for the Regents Park Paving Project.
[8:36] The updated cost estimate is here that now includes the sanitary sewer manholes as part of this, and the estimate is a little lower than what we originally requested as part of the borrowing number.
[8:48] I can have TJ and Eric talk about that when they get to their reports.
[8:53] Item F would be a motion to have deputy chief Mike Kelly appointed chief of police upon the retirement of chief Dale Mayberry and after approval of an employment contract.
[9:04] Again, this was an item that we discussed at our work session, and it was at the request
[9:10] of Commissioner Miller, but I believe it is the board's willingness to appoint the chief
[9:15] of my Kelly to be the next chief effective July 1, 2020.
[9:19] And then item G would be a motion to begin the hiring process.
[9:23] If item F is successful to begin the process for the position of deputy chief of police, obviously
[9:29] we have a testing firm lined up for this.
[9:31] there's a process that the Chief Maverick would then execute as part of this, would be
[9:36] notifying the eligible candidates, then submitting an application or a letter of interest,
[9:42] and then walking that through, I believe tentatively have the test schedule for May 28th with
[9:49] a recommendation to the Board for the June meetings.
[9:53] And then we can discuss the next steps of that, but hopefully we could have both positions
[9:58] filled and in place by July 1st, upon the retirements and the promotions that would
[10:03] fall from that, and then the next step after that would be the eligibility list for
[10:09] Sergeant, because obviously the sergeant would be promoted, which would create no position
[10:13] and there's a domino effect or approval becomes a sergeant, things like that.
[10:17] It could set in motion a couple of testing cycles as part of that.
[10:22] Under schedules and meetings, we have none for the month of April, I requested to the committees
[10:27] is based upon the issues surrounding COVID-19 in contact
[10:32] that we suspend those meetings.
[10:34] So the only thing that I know is for the month of May,
[10:38] the planning commission will have the text amendment
[10:41] and map change for the Fishburn property.
[10:45] The board did receive those drafts of that comment.
[10:49] It is before the county planning commission
[10:52] for the Act 247 review.
[10:54] When that comes back, obviously will circulate that
[10:56] the applicant to the board. I know Eric worked on that and maybe he can go over. That's part of his
[11:02] report too, but it's something that what we drafted I feel hits the points as it was given to
[11:08] the board. And from the commissioners I did talk to, they seem to be supportive of it, but obviously we
[11:13] have time until May, before it goes to the planning commission to have further discussion on this,
[11:17] we can discuss that, the work session in May, but we can gladly do that. I don't know if Sean,
[11:22] if there's anything else you want to add but I know we were shooting for the May planning commissioning
[11:26] for them which would be the third week so we could at least have it for discussion at the work session
[11:30] in May if the board sees fit. That definitely makes sense. Yep.
[11:37] And that concludes my report.
[11:39] All right. So I have two questions. One, regarding the spending freeze that you mentioned.
[11:45] Yes, assuming the we put out the bid for regions park tonight and that passes is that spending free is applicable to that?
[11:56] No, because that money has been borrowed and already set aside so it's not tax revenue, so it's not something we have to
[12:02] I think worry about on that spending size, if anything, we might get better pricing with the issues we're facing, which would be hopeful because then that could free up additional projects for capital.
[12:13] But no, the money we're asking for Regis Parks comes out of a separate borrowing number that was done, that service would be less than what we've actually barred for this year.
[12:22] And then the full debt certificate will take it in 2021.
[12:25] Got it. Okay.
[12:26] And then the second thing is not really a question for you. It's more statement for my fellow commissioners with respect to item specifically item G.
[12:35] I know there was some talk last week in our work session about us possibly interviewing
[12:40] the prospective candidates for the deputy chief role, assuming item F. Pass is with
[12:45] regular will. I would just encourage my fellow commissioners to kind of reconsider that.
[12:51] I just want to, you know, for hiring an outside firm to do interviews for prospective
[12:58] of candidate I am concerned that it would be a bit of an overstep on our part to then subsequently
[13:05] interview those same candidates. You know I think that we're in the position of putting the staff
[13:12] and firms we hire in a role to succeed and I think we're going to I would suggest and I certainly
[13:22] am not assisting there's only one voice that we allow those folks to do their job and then
[13:29] possibly interview the candidate who was most highly recommended by that board for our own
[13:36] education.
[13:37] So not really a question, more statement for my thought missioners that think about.
[13:41] And chew on while we until that item comes in front of us again.
[13:45] Thank you.
[13:46] And I have, I have a related question, Marty.
[13:50] And that is who makes the recommendation?
[13:55] So the company we've used in the past is called safe cities. They've done our promotional tests for the previous deputy chief when might miss when officer Kelly, sorry, deputy chief Kelly was hired or promoted from sergeant.
[14:09] They've done corporal boards for us. They've done sergeant boards for us and the current or the proprietors of that company is currently a chief of police and town men's and township.
[14:18] So it's a very well thought out process, especially with the oral board and what we're going to call an in the box exercise where they're randomly assigned questions and rated on that.
[14:31] So I think it's very objective.
[14:33] I don't think there's a lot of subjectivity to it because I think it's going to be a very black and white process where it comes to their answers and how they present them.
[14:40] But I don't know if chief or deputy chief want to know, I know Mike has gone through it so he can he can attest to
[14:46] So the answer to my question is that the company that makes the recommendation. Well the chief
[14:54] I mean, I've also then have done an interview with that person
[14:58] obviously
[15:00] With the chief, and then based upon their results, we asked further questions and kind of get a better feeling, and then we, the chief and I would then present you with a recommendation at that point. We use the basis off of the testing and the recommendations to then make our own decision off of that. But you don't participate in the out of the box questioning. No, we can sit and listen to the oral boards, but the out of that.
[15:28] But that company handles the out of the box and all the chief or Dale or Mike on the kind of add to this stuff.
[15:37] Yeah, it's an inbox exercise and what basically what it does is it presents, it's like having an inbox on your desk with different situations
[15:48] and what you handle first, what you, it all goes in the priorities and the frail curveball once in a while to see
[15:57] you have to juggle your priorities. You know, what you have to do right away and what can be maybe
[16:03] assigned to a sergeant or a patrolman and how you handle that and you're reasoning behind
[16:11] what you did, how you handled the inbox exercise. That's what that is for.
[16:18] Sorry, it's sort of seeing how they treat other things. That's exactly how that is.
[16:23] It's a number of questions and how you do it and you know, what priority do you take it and how do you send mess?
[16:29] You know, how do you correspond with the it's you know, we teach with managers with your cells and it's definitely for Matt manager
[16:36] You know, administrators is you know for above the rank of sergeant so rose a good indicator
[16:42] So Jason and the chief do you watch that listen to that or you're not
[16:47] No, wait, the oral interview we watch, the inbox exercise, the candidates actually do that in private, then they come out and they are questioned on their reason behind what they did by the board.
[17:06] Okay.
[17:07] And normally it's a three-part person hiring board as part of that.
[17:11] Okay. Yeah. That's thank you. Okay. Can I ask Marty how can you understand how like if we get involved with the commissioners at some point whether just be for the person who's recommended you're you saying that it's kind of you know I'm not really understanding how it how it interferes with you know the company's making a recommendation but you know if we you know just want to see if we're comfortable with you know the person obviously you know I'm not going to know
[17:41] anything about policing but you know just you know whether it's you know the kind of individual that
[17:50] so where I'm coming from on this you know why I said what I said is you know the three people
[17:55] who have been more or less presented to us as possible replacements for promotion rather are
[18:04] expert long tenured sergeants. I don't know, I just don't know what value us
[18:13] interviewing them, all of them, any all prospective candidates whether it's one,
[18:18] two, three, or some other number. I don't know what value that would add to the
[18:25] whole process. I think it would be reasonable for us to whoever the recommended
[18:29] did candidate is, whoever is presented to us, for us to then interview that person to
[18:34] ensure that, you know, it's kind of a less step. But from what I'm hearing and chief and
[18:41] deputy Kelly, correctly, if I'm wrong, I have a fairly intensive process where there's,
[18:45] you know, between the testing and the world aspect of it, it seems fairly rigorous.
[18:50] It's very rigorous. It's very rigorous. There's a lot of stress, even though, like you said,
[18:57] They're all seasoned police officers, testifying court many times.
[19:02] It puts a lot of stress on the test takeer.
[19:06] It really does because you're sitting there, you know, in a lower board, you know, with
[19:10] the, you know, three chiefs sitting there in front of you and posing questions to you about
[19:15] your policies and whatever else they come up with, and we're going to meet with the Chief
[19:21] Dickinson before that. He always likes to have an idea of what route we want to take
[19:29] in the questioning, are there certain things we're looking for? So they give us, they'll
[19:35] give us a lot of, I don't know, I say this, it's not really a final score that you're going
[19:43] to get, but you're going to have what they consider the best candidate, right, who performed
[19:49] the best out of the inbox exercise and the oral board, they will give us the best candidate available.
[19:58] And then like the manager said earlier, the way we did it when when Deputy Chief Kelley was
[20:03] promoted, Jason and I had our own oral interview with that with with the candidate then also.
[20:11] I guess what you know what I had mine, I hope you'll indulge me since I know it this, but I just
[20:15] what I heard when we were talking to my Kelly and stuff is that they're also looking for more
[20:22] community policing and more reflection of what the community is like and that type of thing.
[20:28] Of course, you want a good police and you want somebody to skill and to react appropriately.
[20:35] So I guess that's just kind of what I was picking up.
[20:39] And just picking back off of Commissioner Miller said, I mean, I don't think we would be opposed
[20:44] in the board interviewing or at least meeting with the perspective candidate and hitting home on what your priorities are as a board.
[20:53] Okay.
[20:53] Your priorities are community policing.
[20:54] I think it's, I have no problem and I'm sure the chief and deputy chief and future chief, you know, let us know what your priorities are.
[21:02] You're the policymakers.
[21:04] You're the guideers of this township.
[21:05] But that's what you want and that's something you want to hit home on.
[21:08] I don't think I think it's a good thing because obviously when you know,
[21:12] down I did the interview for Mike we hit a home on what we want but I think it's would be a good
[21:18] thing to hear that also from the board because ultimately you're the policy makers, you're the bosses.
[21:24] I'm raising my hand.
[21:27] I think maybe having heard that explanation maybe it would be better for us
[21:34] to just sit. Well I think Jason knows what we want you know first of all but I was thinking even
[21:40] before, if they're going to meet with the company that comes in and tell them the priorities,
[21:45] maybe it would make more sense for us to sort of sit with Jason and say, this is what we want,
[21:50] or just send them our comments on this is what we want, so that when they go in and meet with this
[21:56] company, they'll already know what we want, you know, the kind of things we would feel good about,
[22:03] you know, the guidelines for that. That would make more sense, and then they would know what to
[22:07] to prioritize.
[22:08] But the company will give a recommendation.
[22:10] It may say all three are qualified,
[22:12] but here's what we would take.
[22:14] And I'm going to say, I had an interview with all you,
[22:15] and you know, my views.
[22:16] But surely when somebody I can work with,
[22:18] I'm going to present in what I'm going to move forward.
[22:22] Is it deputy chief?
[22:24] And I think going back to what Anne said a little bit earlier,
[22:28] I think if I understand the structure of everything correctly,
[22:33] since we already interviewed Deputy Kelly,
[22:35] And I believe this layer this evening will will recommend him to be the chief.
[22:39] I think in that process, we got a sense of where he wants to take the department and I think
[22:45] it'll be his job then to convey that to the deputy and then cascade it down to the you know the
[22:52] sergeants and beyond to ensure that that vision is carried forth. So you know, I think that you know
[23:01] They come from the top, and I think once Deputy Kelly takes the big seat, I think that when
[23:10] we interviewed him, I think we got a sense of where some of his vision lay.
[23:16] And I think that it's kind of less important to get that for a prospective deputy because
[23:23] it's going to come from the top.
[23:25] So I would just make that point of distinction.
[23:28] I think it's certainly important to know where we're going, but I think it's also important to know
[23:34] that it comes from a top-down approach. Yeah, that's true. I'd still appreciate the
[23:41] opportunity to talk to whoever's on the lead. Well, I mean, and honestly, for you and
[23:46] commissioners mock, I mean, you're the two newest people in the board, so even if the two of you
[23:50] wanted to sit down just to talk to the person, I don't think that would be a problem. Just that was
[23:53] You're four months into this process and there's a lot to understand, especially with going through chief of the deputy chief change.
[24:02] I think we can do whatever helps you make feel comfortable with the process moving forward.
[24:07] Just from it's I don't want to say it's a fear of the unknown, but you're going into this blindly with not a lot of years of experience just yet.
[24:15] And this is something chief Kelly I believe is going to be the fifth chief of the township.
[24:20] I believe it is. I think it's a sixth or the sixth, but I guess we don't do this very often at 100 years, you had 60 complete stuff.
[24:31] Thank you for indulging my point, everybody. I appreciate it was a good discussion. And you know, ultimately whatever the majority of the board decides, I'm going to run with and support and participate in completely good faith. I just wanted to kind of get it on.
[24:44] I didn't really say my piece too much last week.
[24:47] I just wanted to kind of think about it and speak about it today.
[24:49] Thank you all.
[24:50] Yeah, I'll just tag on a last word to that.
[24:53] I'm going to agree with you, Marty.
[24:55] You know, your explanation makes a lot of sense.
[24:58] You know, the function is going to be embedded.
[25:00] We can maybe do some wrap-up thing or something,
[25:02] but it sounds like we should just move forward with the process.
[25:10] Awesome.
[25:10] Well, I mean, we'll certainly process.
[25:12] break when we come to it. Hopefully students and later, once we get back to some
[25:16] symbols of normal, but thank you all for, again, for indulging me with that. So
[25:23] any other questions from Mr. Bokes, I'm sorry, I mean, the process, that might be
[25:27] one of my longer managers reports, but okay. My fault, I apologize.
[25:32] I actually just had one question regarding the EIT. Yes. I guess by checking the
[25:41] numbers that are coming in with what came in last year you can kind of determine what businesses
[25:47] actually are shuttered and which are still functioning? Yes normally and that's the case
[25:54] we can actually request from Berkheimer for the report of the company they have collected from
[25:59] so we can get a better idea of that for me right now let's just try to figure out if we're
[26:04] going to hit our number or not hit our number and it's what if not how much lesser is that number
[26:09] going to be. And then we can probably follow up on a full or month for the end of April
[26:13] of what businesses have been closing, what businesses are still operating. So, Don, did you get all that?
[26:23] All right. Thank you all for participating in that. I didn't be public safety. Chief Avery.
[26:28] Thank you, Mr. Miller. I'll read some quick numbers for you. In March, we responded to 859 calls
[26:37] for service for a year-to-date total of 2,706 and we investigated 29 motor vehicle
[26:45] accidents for a year-to-date total of 99.
[26:49] We had 17 criminal arrests for a year-to-date total of 70 and 79 traffic citations were issued
[26:56] on 116 car stops in March and we issued 42 parking tickets.
[27:03] In fact, concludes my monthly report unless there's any questions.
[27:07] I would also like to update the board that approximately two weeks ago, our body cameras
[27:14] were all deployed.
[27:17] All the officers except the ones that have been out, we've had one officer out, the death
[27:22] and the family, and the other officers out through a medical situation with his wife.
[27:29] But everyone else has the body cameras, they're all deployed, like I said, and the video
[27:35] where the depth, you know, I've looked at several videos and they're actually really
[27:39] good.
[27:40] A little bit of getting used to, does have audio and the video, of course.
[27:45] And you know, that was, again, for a federal grant that's been overseen by PCCD and Sergeant
[27:55] in Bosch coordinated that and it was approximately $16,000
[28:00] that we received for the body cameras.
[28:04] So, that concludes my report.
[28:08] I have a question.
[28:10] I looked at the totals and I was curious
[28:14] about whether or not your calls are lighter
[28:18] because of this lockdown.
[28:20] And I was also curious if there are a lot
[28:25] to cause for, I guess it's family offenses.
[28:29] Is that with the domestics?
[28:31] Yeah.
[28:32] Yeah, and I thought that question might come up.
[28:35] And I thought about it.
[28:37] Schools actually officially closed March 13th.
[28:40] I think it was the original first day was closed.
[28:45] And the social distancing and the quarantine
[28:49] by the state came a little bit later.
[28:51] So I think March will be a bad month to look at.
[28:55] These numbers actually look pretty normal so far.
[28:58] My intent is, and I think this will probably go
[29:02] at least to the end of this month.
[29:04] I will get back to you at the May meeting
[29:07] and we can compare April's numbers from last year to this year,
[29:11] or the first quarter of this year to last year,
[29:14] maybe first and more accurate,
[29:15] and I can, I will be able to answer that question
[29:18] better at that point.
[29:19] I did notice that for both February and March, compared them to the same month's last year, the calls were down for those two months, but I mean, it's about 100 in the one case and in March.
[29:37] It's quite a bit. March of 2019 was 1100 and then this one, you know, and so it's down and I just wondered if that was.
[29:45] It's not part of the normal life.
[29:47] Does that get impacted by the fact that we're not running ambulance calls?
[29:51] No, because we still do the reports on that.
[29:53] Okay.
[29:55] Just so I, the board is aware, when...
[30:00] Whenever there's an ambulance dispatch, this is for the entire county, not just for us. They also dispatch police at the same time. We have stopped responding to most ambulance calls, unless there's a police response needed. Simply to maintain that quarantine, you know, to keep the officer safe and keep the residents safe. If there are still, we've still responded in on another ambulance call, because they've pulled for assistance or
[30:29] We've got a number of cases where people have fallen and they can't get up and the
[30:35] officers have still responded to them and assisted them getting back into their chairs
[30:39] or whatever the case may be.
[30:41] We're also handling a lot of calls which we normally do by phone.
[30:48] It's always been my opinion that the residents here should see their police officers face to
[30:55] face.
[30:55] if they, you know, if they want to file a report, you know, our policy is to go to the
[31:01] residence house. We normally handle very, very few calls by initial complaints by
[31:07] phone. But we have taken that, we have taken that tack to again, maintain the
[31:13] social distancing from our residents. But hopefully, you know, when this is over,
[31:18] you know, we'll go back to our normal manner of policing.
[31:33] Thank you Mr. Miller for the month of March for public works are usual preventive maintenance
[31:38] from parent attachive vehicles staying on top of the parks and playgrounds we've actually
[31:44] started some training on a street sweeper and start cleaning the streets and attachive
[31:50] again, repaired and replaced some street signs. We replaced a manhole at Main and Light
[31:55] Hall. And of course on March 20th, we started our split crews for public works teams.
[32:01] And also, we are trying to stay out of the, you know, out of the limelight here with the
[32:06] folks until, you know, we're requested for it. So we're painting our garage inside, trying
[32:13] to clean that up. And then we also stay in the cabinets in the police department for the
[32:16] chief. Thank you. That's that's our past my public works and
[32:21] there's a question for public works.
[32:25] And then for building and zoning for
[32:29] the month of March 88 permits were issued for total of $33,000 and
[32:34] $33,780, $2.85 and that was a positive. And as Mr. Boach stated, no
[32:40] planning and no zoning for the month of April.
[32:44] Hey, Mike, how's the UNOs going down with the, you know, no, as a matter of fact, today
[32:52] we got eight of them in, houses are selling like crazy.
[32:55] Really?
[32:56] They're doing virtual, virtual, uh, sales, it's unbelievable.
[33:01] Yeah, I thought that would have slowed down.
[33:03] What?
[33:04] I thought it would have slowed down too.
[33:06] We're signing a lot of temporary UNOs.
[33:08] Yeah.
[33:08] Mike had worked with Sean's office to come up with a temporary UNO specifically for
[33:13] for the COVID-19 issues that we're facing.
[33:15] So we're tracking them a little bit differently.
[33:17] So once they are complete, we'll go out and do the inspections.
[33:20] We're trying to do as many drive-by inspections,
[33:23] at least take part of that off,
[33:25] as much as we can, but I think the temporaries
[33:30] seems to be working, and then we'll just follow up
[33:32] with them once we're allowed to go out
[33:34] and continue the inspections.
[33:36] Yes, I think we're in line with most of the other municipalities
[33:39] in the area doing the same thing with the temporaries.
[33:41] I don't think we can do.
[33:48] And then the only thing for building side of things, I'd mention it, some of the commissioners,
[33:54] Markley's farm phase two under the governor's order.
[33:59] They are allowed to complete some work under the quarantine.
[34:03] They have a couple houses that were not weather tight, that they're allowed to make that,
[34:08] so they're not taking a loss on their property.
[34:11] So they had one house partially framed, so they're finishing the framing and putting the
[34:15] second floor and putting it under roof and then putting the windows and
[34:18] sliding on. So they had a couple houses like that. I think there's like six
[34:21] lots altogether but they're making it better tight and there's two houses that
[34:26] were scheduled to go to UNO for settlement this month that we allowed them to
[34:31] finish and gave them temporary on those so those homeowners were impacted by this
[34:36] but so if anyone does see any activity on that site it's mostly to make all
[34:41] their properties whether tight all the open foundations that report are not going to
[34:44] be allowed to be constructed on until the order is lifted but there was some items under
[34:49] the governor's orders but they can go in and finish some properties that they had under
[34:54] construction. Also the townhouse is at it, Eagle Drive and Whitehall. There's another
[35:01] set of townhouses along Whitehall Road that have to be weathered in so they're permitted
[35:06] to fit to make them weather tight.
[35:10] And also what's that? They're going up really fast.
[35:15] They are on a very fast. That's a good thing, at least in Zelda. That's good.
[35:19] They said that for a while. And the other thing is you'll see quite a number of roofs falling.
[35:23] We had a lot of damage from the wind the other day via the past two storms.
[35:28] And they are permitted under the governor's order to repair those.
[35:32] As long as they were either a leaking or had needed repair, set a roof.
[35:41] Any other questions from Mr. Valio?
[35:43] Yeah.
[35:45] Awesome.
[35:45] Parks and Rec.
[35:46] Mr. Zedby.
[35:47] All right.
[35:48] Thank you, Mr. Miller.
[35:50] This quarantine has affected my department pretty heavily.
[35:58] Unfortunately, my report has a lot of cancellations strewn throughout it.
[36:03] But I do want to go through and update everyone on some of the plans we have going forward
[36:09] regarding our programs and future events.
[36:13] So I'll run through them chronologically.
[36:16] Of course, beginning with the Easter egg hunt,
[36:18] which was obviously canceled.
[36:21] But I filled that void.
[36:23] We did a little brainstorming in the office a couple of weeks ago.
[36:28] Myself, Jason, Kathy, and Jason came up with a great idea.
[36:35] And I think most of you are aware of what we did.
[36:38] we ended up putting together and delivering 362 children baskets, these are baskets throughout the township, which was pretty cool.
[36:50] We put it together really quick and we pulled it off with a lot of help.
[36:55] We hit over 200 homes is what I counted.
[36:59] And the best part, another good part about it is it was funded and pulled off with no taxpayer money
[37:07] because we had sponsorships already come through for the Easter egg hunt, for all the
[37:12] materials, the eggs and the plush bunnies and the baskets. So we're happy to do something to
[37:20] fill that void for the Easter egg hunt. I want to thank the sponsors too because they should be
[37:26] recognized. We also had a contest. We held a contest via social media where we asked children to submit
[37:34] picture of their most creative egg. And we only received a couple handfuls of
[37:39] submissions, but the ones we got were great and we ended up with two winners of
[37:44] Thai, Gia, a five-year-old, and Mia, a six-year-old, of course both from West
[37:52] Northern are going to each receive a 25-hour gift card to Chick-fil-A. Who, by
[37:58] the way Chick-fil-A has been kind enough to come in the past few Fridays since this pandemic started
[38:06] and they're feeding our township staff, which is really cool by then. They're going to
[38:14] continue to do so until this thing's over. So they bring in 25 to 30 lunches down to the police,
[38:22] police, the police and administration, public works, they've been feeding us every Friday,
[38:27] which is really, really nice stuff. Thank you, check the letterman.
[38:33] Trips, all trips have been canceled through the end of August. We didn't have anything scheduled
[38:39] May for August, so too bad, but we did the cancel through in March. So, circle, all events
[38:47] have been canceled through the end of April. Roseanne, I'm not sure, but I'm assuming that you expect
[38:55] that to go out even further. I think so. And I'm actually I'm following your lead because you've
[39:01] canceled everything until May 1st. And I just, whatever the county is, you know, whatever you suggest
[39:09] or whatever the county is suggesting, I have a feeling it will be difficult for a lot of our people
[39:13] to come together even in May. So we're playing it, you know, playing it a little at a time and
[39:21] almost, you know, let's say, but definitely April was canceled. Okay, well, we'll be
[39:26] touching on that. Yeah. West art literally got, I've gotten some questions recently on how the
[39:33] current situation is affecting local little leagues. And I can tell you that on March 16,
[39:38] seeing little league international suspended all related activities through May 11th.
[39:45] I think this will get extended even further out, unfortunately.
[39:49] And I honestly think it's going to be difficult for the kids to play regular rec season this
[39:57] year.
[39:59] And maybe there might be some sort of shortened season later in the summer, the all-star
[40:05] travel season maybe salvageable I don't know but in my opinion it's not
[40:11] looking good for for the little league seasons so far this year so needless to
[40:17] say for the first time in since it's inception the West art little leagues opening
[40:25] day parade and ceremony obviously won't happen this year which is a
[40:29] about the kids and our community,
[40:32] but it's out of our control.
[40:34] It leads me to community day.
[40:37] I'll share where I'm at with community day,
[40:39] but I'd like to check the pulse of the board
[40:42] and everyone to get your opinion
[40:44] because it's really coming up on us quickly.
[40:49] We're only four weeks out from the event
[40:52] and we kind of need to make a decision really soon
[40:55] on whether we're gonna cancel the event
[40:58] or trying to continue holding the event as planned.
[41:03] And as frustrating as it is for me,
[41:06] I believe the prudent thing to do
[41:08] is to cancel that event at this time.
[41:11] I was thinking about it today
[41:12] and I was going through making some notes.
[41:15] And it's the largest event we have throughout the year.
[41:20] There's typically over 1,000 people
[41:23] that come and go throughout the day.
[41:26] vendors need to be notified, have some notice. I think many of them are going to pull out anyway.
[41:33] To give a little perspective on that, we usually have between 50 and 70 vendors at the
[41:39] West Artunday. We opened Stephanie's center letter out mid February and I think we got the first one
[41:47] back. Help you froze.
[41:56] Can we capture that picture?
[42:02] It's going to
[42:06] have to go out and come back in, maybe.
[42:08] I believe so.
[42:10] There you are.
[42:12] You're back.
[42:12] We didn't hear you.
[42:13] You've heard.
[42:15] Oh, you've heard.
[42:15] You've heard about contact.
[42:16] Yeah.
[42:17] Yeah.
[42:18] Where I leave off, I'm sorry.
[42:20] When you got the first vendor back in.
[42:22] Yeah.
[42:22] Okay.
[42:23] So.
[42:25] We've got 20 vendors in about two weeks.
[42:28] And then it stopped.
[42:29] That was the middle of March.
[42:31] And since then, in the past month, we've had none.
[42:34] We've had no vendors submit the form to be part of the day.
[42:40] So I think that kind of, you know, gives a little,
[42:43] it says something about where people are at
[42:45] with that event coming up so quickly.
[42:49] And then you think about the amusement type vendors.
[42:54] I don't know if they're gonna be comfortable taking part in this.
[42:57] that the inflatables, the rides, the interactive games,
[43:01] the food vendors, et cetera.
[43:04] The ultimately, the decision may be taken out of our hands
[43:09] because I don't know what the school district stance
[43:12] is gonna be on it.
[43:13] I have a call set up tomorrow to speak with them
[43:17] and hopefully get a better feel.
[43:19] But it looks like they're not gonna have their prom,
[43:23] probably not even their graduation ceremony.
[43:25] So I don't know if they're not having those type of things if they're going to permit us to have an event that scale on on their
[43:37] at their facility. So
[43:40] What it comes down to really for me, and I think for all of us is a question of
[43:46] Is it irresponsible to encourage and ask people patrons vendors volunteers to be part of a event like this?
[43:55] these times. And I think we need to look at the optics of it, too, if we're supposed to be setting
[44:01] an example. But we want to push forward and have an event like that. I spoke to Mike Kinsey,
[44:09] the chair of the recommend this morning. He fully agrees at the right thing to do is cancel.
[44:15] It tends to think that the event may be a flop even if we do try to hold it,
[44:20] And what's a really positive guy, so for him to say that, it says something to, going forward
[44:27] if we do, if we do end up canceling, there's the potential, and I talked to Jason, I talked
[44:32] a little bit about this last night, to incorporate some of the events that we would normally have
[44:38] at West Norton Day at our fall fest, if we're able to pull that off.
[44:44] You know, maybe, maybe the fireworks, maybe the fireworks on Labor Day, we've done that in
[44:49] pass and that's worked well. So, you know, we can make some of these pins down the row. But I
[45:00] I think now I'd like to make a call on this by the end of the week. I'm pretty confident that the prudent decision is to cancel West Norton Day, but I'd really like to hear some feedback from everybody or anybody in this meeting because it's not an easy decision, but I just think it's going to be really difficult to pull off given that it's just a few weeks out.
[45:24] I think Anne's hands raised.
[45:28] I was going to ask, I'm really in favor of pushing it off because of like he's the D objects
[45:36] and the message that it sends and I was just going to ask if it's possible to move it
[45:42] just to kind of plan it for the whole thing plus something to look forward to.
[45:46] I mean, who does what's going to be happening now?
[45:47] Yeah, so the fall fest that we're just into really, really beginning stage of planning
[45:59] is a new event for us this year. We've never had it. So, depending on when we back together
[46:07] with the Recreation Committee and make plans, I was kind of hoping that we can roll that all in the
[46:13] want to fall, whether it's some sort of combo between this new event and our traditional
[46:20] community day.
[46:21] So there's potential for that.
[46:23] And that's what I'd like, and I'm going to try to do.
[46:25] Yeah.
[46:26] And John, when we talked, especially the fall fest, we're going to have that on our own
[46:30] property.
[46:31] So I think we're going to try to focus at a Centennial Park in with the Burnside Lock that we had.
[46:35] So it gives us more flexibility because it's space that we own.
[46:38] So we don't have to rely on the school district for that event.
[46:40] But, you know, I don't see the governor lifting his stay-at-home order at the end of April.
[46:48] I really don't.
[46:49] If you listen to the conversation, even with the press conference he had today with his
[46:52] free phase or three step, I know, to reopen this.
[46:58] You can give any timelines on that, because I think he wants to get better testing in place
[47:02] and things like that.
[47:04] And if he lifts that order on April 30th, even if he does, I don't think there's generally
[47:10] two weeks and I don't think that's the service to not only the people who plan the event but also
[47:16] to the vendors and everybody else. I mean the rec committee puts their heart and soul into their
[47:20] events and really because they're asking to do this in a two week period, I don't think it's fair.
[47:26] So I think I kind of agree with John and maybe we cancel this and really focus on the fall festival
[47:33] on October. It being the first one is just the ability to focus on that and kind of still
[47:38] or put our efforts into that and try to make that
[47:41] successful as possible.
[47:43] I think that makes a lot of sense.
[47:45] Yeah, I agree.
[47:46] I was going to say I was listening to the county update.
[47:50] The county does daily updates online.
[47:54] And Dr. Arcus was saying that she felt
[47:58] that we really were going to have to change the way we do things.
[48:02] Maybe for quite a long time now and was talking more,
[48:06] about, you know, we might have opened up somewhat, but we'll still have to be very careful.
[48:14] And today's update, you know, Wes Norton, it has, I think it's now 16 cases and that's
[48:23] very much lower than all of our surrounding neighbors, which means I think people are
[48:28] really paying attention to the stay-at-home water to just suddenly turn that around might
[48:34] not be good for anybody because we're given a mixed message if we do that we
[48:39] want people to stay home as much as they can until there's some kind of
[48:42] tour or vaccine would be best but you know that's not going to happen
[48:46] reasonably. Okay well I truly appreciate the input and your guy's support I think
[48:56] that's the direction we'll definitely move in then and by the end of the week I
[49:01] I plan on posting that and letting the community know that we're going to push this off, and we'll go from there.
[49:11] And to kind of hit on my next topic, to hit on a point that Roseanne just brought up as far as changing the way we do things for who knows how long summer camp.
[49:24] Yeah. I don't want to take up too much more time. I've already taken enough of our meeting, but I did want to just mention that this could potentially have an effect on our summer cap as well.
[49:38] And it's something that I think about constantly monitoring it very closely.
[49:45] There's a lot of unknowns right now and there's going to be a lot of considerations that we're going to have to account for and make if we're even able to have our summer camp this summer.
[49:58] Again, our hands could be tied, schools, as we all know are closed for the end of the year.
[50:13] I don't know what these school districts are going to do with the recreation departments
[50:20] in their district as far as allowing them to just all the sudden come in and us to utilize their facility for the entire summer.
[50:31] I'm hopeful that this thing straightens out sooner than later and we can have summer
[50:38] camp in some aspect because the parents, I can speak first hand, we're going nuts with
[50:44] the kids already.
[50:46] Yeah, if we have to go all summer, you know, I see Eric laughing.
[50:52] If we have to go all summer, people are really going to lose their mind.
[50:56] So we're set up, we're in place, everything's in place for summer camp to happen, but we're
[51:04] going to have to wait and see. We're basically a week to week holding pattern right now. I sat
[51:09] in on a virtual roundtable, a Zoom meeting, PRPS hosted yesterday morning and I was happy to find out
[51:20] We're not alone, every township, every park
[51:25] and rectal apartment is in the same boat almost.
[51:28] They all lie on school district facilities
[51:31] and nobody knows what to do.
[51:36] So the consensus was to wait until the end of the month,
[51:40] see what the governor says, see where this thing's at,
[51:44] and go from there.
[51:46] But I just wanted to put it out there that there's
[51:49] possibility this could this could affect our summer cap, which is which would be a huge blow.
[51:54] But again, it's something that there's not much we can do about it if it comes to that.
[51:59] Yeah, and then and when John and I talked, the one thing I think taking it week to week and kind
[52:05] of waiting is we don't want to open registration and get these parents like a false hope that we're
[52:09] going to have this and then have to cancel it. So I think it's as if we can play the waiting game
[52:14] a little bit here and we're I know John and Steph are going to try to encourage the use of our
[52:19] online registration as much as possible especially with payments because if you do have your refunds
[52:24] it's easier to do that but we run into a refund period or leave that ask if we can wake this out
[52:31] week to week so like I said and John's been right his department has been pretty much decimated
[52:37] about three office prices because of all the program that he does but him and Steph had done a great
[52:41] job of you know managing this on a day-to-day basis because it's a constantly evolving process
[52:48] not just for his programming side of things but also the fact that we have to close our
[52:52] parks and you know people are saying off the equipment because of the contact issues
[52:56] with how this virus spreads so and like I said I can't you know all the departments but I know
[53:01] John's department has been hit hard with this because of the program had him placed and canceled
[53:06] things like that. So just yeah thanks Jason it just let my last couple thoughts to give you guys
[53:13] a little more perspective and what I've been thinking about as far as camp goes is you know
[53:20] some things we have to think about besides when we open registration office most of you are
[53:26] familiar with how our camp how we run our camp we go on trips two three four days a week are these
[53:34] venue is going to even be open. Are they going to be
[53:38] sanitary? Is the staff going to be exposed? We have, you
[53:44] know, buses. So that's one aspect. Even if things do
[53:48] about, again, to one of Rose Ann's point, are we still
[53:54] going to be practicing social distancing? And how does
[53:57] that work with almost 200 children? A staff of 20
[54:02] plus in a confined space so in and then our staff. Our staff is going to they're going to start
[54:11] wondering soon do I need to look for another summer job. So I have everything on hold and I'm
[54:19] telling everybody that more all systems go as far as camp is concerned but there is a realm of
[54:27] possibility that, you know, we may have to do some adjusting or may not be able to have it.
[54:33] So I'll move on from that. I will definitely keep everyone the board and everyone else
[54:39] up to date on any decisions that have been made on on all that. And then quickly on the park side,
[54:47] I think most everyone's aware of the March 16th and I shut down all playgrounds, courts,
[54:53] restrooms and ball fields and they will remain closed until further notice the walking trails are open.
[55:02] I do see people out walking and from what I see, everyone's been pretty good with giving each other space.
[55:11] PRPS and RPA have put out some guidelines and recommendations that will continue to share with our residents.
[55:18] So that's, there's not much going on on that end.
[55:23] The Bettswood Trailhead Project is our schedule to be open on April 30th.
[55:29] We'll keep everyone posted on that.
[55:32] And regular seasonal maintenance was performed throughout the parks.
[55:35] You may have noticed grass cutting and weed blacking began last week.
[55:40] And one last thing we are doing, Stephanie, Stephanie and I are working on this today.
[55:44] our Zumba, our fitness classes and karate,
[55:48] we're trying to go virtual with those as well.
[55:51] Our Zumba already started tonight
[55:54] with a virtual class
[55:56] and we're trying to get our karate instructor on board as well.
[56:00] So thanks for your patience.
[56:03] I wanted to get all that out there.
[56:04] That concludes my report.
[56:09] I just wanted to thank everybody associated
[56:11] with the egg distribution last week.
[56:13] It was spectacular.
[56:15] There was just so much energy from everyone who participated.
[56:19] I was lucky enough to help distribute some of the baskets and everyone with whom I interacted
[56:27] wasn't overly frightened of the big guy with the scarf around his face in the bunny
[56:30] ears.
[56:31] So that was a good thing.
[56:34] They took it all and tried and it was wonderful work by you and your team and the red committee
[56:39] and the staff and of course the police department, the fire department, thrilled about it.
[56:45] I know that it was a wild success, so thank you all for participating in that.
[56:50] It meant a lot to a lot of people.
[56:56] Yes, thanks.
[56:57] That was great.
[56:57] People really loved that.
[57:02] Jason deserves 90% of the credit he really does, and that's not me kissing his, but it
[57:08] was his idea, and he jumped on it, and he pushed all of us, and I know, I know Dewey will
[57:15] a test of that and Kathy and but yeah it all came together so thanks. Nice little bit
[57:22] of news on on on TV for us. Yeah I apologize for running the boss and hat during the interviews
[57:27] but yeah that's the last minute thing when she did it something bad.
[57:34] Speaking of you,
[57:35] Jessica can vote off. Okay. The monthly report from March 2020, the golf course had gross revenues
[57:41] of $39,359 and $57 and rounds of $1,312. Obviously, compared to last year, we were about $8,000 short
[57:51] and about 500 rounds short. But there is a silver lining, I believe, in those numbers.
[57:58] The golf course has only opened up until March 15th. So for the first 15 days, we made 80% of the
[58:04] revenue compared to last year. We were tracking to probably have a really good month for the month of
[58:10] March obviously because we didn't have snow or anything else, but obviously the course
[58:14] has been closed since Monday, March 16th due to the COVID-19 crisis and that was part
[58:20] of the governor's orders.
[58:22] The maintenance staff is still allowed to perform maintenance on the course because that
[58:26] is an exemption under the governor's orders.
[58:29] So the one thing that they have been doing, which potentially could increase our revenues if
[58:34] the course should open in May or June, is they've been aerating the greens in the fairways
[58:39] is while the course has been closed.
[58:41] Normally we do that in May and provide reduced rates
[58:45] as part of that, and we normally impacts us by about $40,000.
[58:49] So we're thinking by doing the work now
[58:52] while the course is closed, it should impact our,
[58:55] positively impact our revenues once the cough course reopens,
[58:58] and they should come back to a very healthy and playable course.
[59:03] One other item that we're working on at the golf course,
[59:06] and this is something we thought about
[59:08] and looked at the governor's orders, but we are going to start our stream bank project
[59:13] at the golf course in the next two weeks. Again, with the course being closed, it gives
[59:17] us the ability to perform the work on whole 17, 18, whole two, and whole 15 to get that
[59:25] project done without play occurring. Obviously, in talking with Ed Brown from Eric's office,
[59:31] the contractor is going to have to provide us supplemental plans in regards to the social
[59:35] distancing and how they're going to handle contact during the construction. If they provide us with
[59:41] the plan that we feel is acceptable and obviously we would consult with the proper officials. We
[59:46] would give them the green light to go with that project. I think with having the course closed they
[59:50] can complete it rather quickly and hopefully have little impact to the course and actually increase
[59:57] the water filtration as part of the water.
[1:00:00] We're trying to do that project in our MS-4 permits. The only other outstanding project in the course is obviously the replacement of the fence along whole two that was damaged. The materials have been delivered, but the contractors at New Jersey since both states are under quarantine. We're just waiting for those items to be lifted so they can come out and complete that work and get those done. But all in all, the course is still being maintained. I think it's going to hopefully rebound once we are able to get this open.
[1:00:27] Again, we're looking at if there's ways we can recover revenues under the stimulus packages
[1:00:32] that were provided from the federal government, and then we can report back at that time.
[1:00:38] But, and again, that said for May, I'll be sitting out to the board and email this week
[1:00:43] with the short course of information that we'll be presenting in May, so you'll have that
[1:00:48] for your review on the designs and also the operating costs we're projecting.
[1:00:52] And then we can answer any questions you might have at the May meeting.
[1:00:55] But again, that's not a project we're rushing for right now just because permitting and everything is so slow at the state
[1:01:02] But at least something we want to get in front of the board to get your feedback and
[1:01:06] Propose next steps for that project. So I can include my report
[1:01:10] Thank you any questions about the off course all right one-time hearing
[1:01:17] PJ
[1:01:18] Good evening everybody. Hope you're all doing well
[1:01:21] You have my full report on file and just some highlights
[1:01:26] is that we submitted the townships chapter 94 reports in
[1:01:31] naris town for inclusion in their annual reporting and we as
[1:01:37] Mr. Bob stood previously mentioned. We've looked at a lot of the
[1:01:42] manhole frames and covers for inflow and infiltration in the road
[1:01:47] paving projects to incorporate the work associated with that.
[1:01:51] There's some manholes in the regions park area as well as
[1:01:56] We'll continue to look at stuff for the 2020 road paving program will provide a recommendation
[1:02:02] for those manholes as well.
[1:02:05] And we're proceeding with the written house pump station force main eye and eye analysis.
[1:02:11] And we reviewed plans for the second submission for the general arm set project.
[1:02:18] Those are the major highlights of my report.
[1:02:21] There's any questions.
[1:02:22] I'd be happy to answer them at this time.
[1:02:24] And the general armistice project is the VA clinic that the federal government is looking
[1:02:31] to install.
[1:02:32] Correct?
[1:02:33] Yes.
[1:02:33] Sorry.
[1:02:37] Any questions for TJ?
[1:02:41] All right.
[1:02:42] Eric.
[1:02:43] Thank you, Commissioner.
[1:02:46] What kind of beard?
[1:02:48] It's the first time I haven't shaved for a month, so I forget to see what happens.
[1:02:52] You inspired me, Marty.
[1:02:54] Come on in the club.
[1:02:55] but it's very soft and warm.
[1:02:59] Just a little bit of the silver lining which Jason touched on is that with everything going on we
[1:03:05] hope that a lot of these projects you guys have out the bid will have better pricing than we would
[1:03:11] have otherwise seen just because contractors are going to be a little more sharpened pencils trying
[1:03:16] to get some work that they're not getting from other areas. Another good thing is that even before
[1:03:22] this happened the price of oil was so low that in other municipalities road programs that would
[1:03:29] normally be $500,000 were coming in at like $300,000 and $350. So a little bit of a silver lining,
[1:03:36] let's try to find something good to come out of this. Hopefully this is like the
[1:03:40] timings everything and all this work you guys are doing with the bond issue and it's going to
[1:03:46] dollars are going to go further than they would have gone last year or a year from now.
[1:03:52] We touched on, we pushed the bets with trail opening to the end of the month, you know,
[1:03:58] we have a bunch of projects out the bid at the moment. Jason did mention the Fishburn project
[1:04:04] and we did work with Sean's office to get that ordinance put together and the goal wasn't
[1:04:11] just to allow them to pound houses, but it was basically to protect the
[1:04:15] township so that the plan they're showing you guys is what would have to get
[1:04:20] built and not some significantly different version of the plan. So as you guys
[1:04:26] get into that, if there's questions, you know, when Sean's office and myself are
[1:04:30] office, it'll be happy to answer anything you have. So with that, reports in the
[1:04:36] packets of everyone has any questions on what I highlighted or anything else?
[1:04:44] So when I was on the planning commission, they did come and do a presentation.
[1:04:51] Has anybody seen anything since then, or will the next presentation of the planning
[1:04:57] commission be this new revised proposal of theirs?
[1:05:01] When we met with them as a staff, they presented, probably, an updated layout of what they're
[1:05:07] proposing, they included a clubhouse and a different flow pattern for the roads, but
[1:05:13] I anticipate that they opened it up a little bit more because they opened it up a little
[1:05:19] bit more, but based upon the ordinance that we wrote, they're probably going to have to
[1:05:23] open it up a little bit more with that, with your requirements for putting it for open space
[1:05:27] and sidewalking and things like that and spacing of units, size of units.
[1:05:31] So I think we hit the goals of what the board had given us when it guards to open space.
[1:05:37] And things like that, I feel confident with that.
[1:05:42] I mean, we use the county's townhouse model as a base.
[1:05:46] Obviously a model doesn't work 100% in every situation,
[1:05:50] but I think we took as much of it as we could,
[1:05:53] and gave some flexibility in regards to building heights and aesthetics.
[1:05:57] The ordinance also addresses things through the zoning process,
[1:06:01] but also through the conditional use process.
[1:06:03] So it gives you the ability to lock them into whatever they present and they're not really changing it
[1:06:09] From their initial presentation without coming back before the board
[1:06:13] So we're taking away a lot of their flexibility and really trying to hammer them into a set design from the very beginning
[1:06:20] With set standards from architectural road with you know height spacing windows design things like that that
[1:06:27] I think we wouldn't have if we didn't do this ordinance the way we wrote it
[1:06:32] and I don't know if Sean or Eric won the add anything to that,
[1:06:35] but we did put a lot of effort and time into this.
[1:06:38] Obviously, we tried to do the best we can
[1:06:42] but it records a capturing as much open space as we can
[1:06:46] down there and trying to keep it as less dense as possible
[1:06:51] when it comes to number of townhouses we can put in.
[1:06:53] Yeah, the proposal that we saw, obviously,
[1:06:56] we weren't pleased with it, so we rejected it.
[1:07:00] So I'm hoping that, you know, that area gets developed properly.
[1:07:04] I think it's really like a, you know, it's a jewel there in a way.
[1:07:08] You know, I think something has to go on there that's nice.
[1:07:12] And, you know, so we'll see what they do.
[1:07:17] I'm wondering if you said the ordinance would go in and it would have standards for that particular
[1:07:25] of their development, but aren't we planning to change
[1:07:29] something in the building code to set some standards
[1:07:33] to match the counties?
[1:07:35] So what we have done with this ordinance is
[1:07:38] we have modified the component unit
[1:07:42] or the unified development option
[1:07:44] that's allowable currently under this industrial zoning.
[1:07:47] So under the current ordinance and current townhouse
[1:07:50] residential is allowed in the industrial areas
[1:07:53] is it's over 40 plus acres.
[1:07:56] There's really only two areas that applies to you right now.
[1:07:59] One being Barbados Island, two being the Fishman property
[1:08:02] currently at what we're going to call,
[1:08:05] what we've been calling on you on Phase Three.
[1:08:08] What we've done at the suggestion of Eric and Sean's office
[1:08:12] is we've taken the component unit zoning requirement
[1:08:16] and we're removing it from the industrial zoning
[1:08:19] and moving it into business and professional.
[1:08:20] And then what we would do is rezone the fishburn property to business professional, the entire
[1:08:28] track then includes arrive and the loss and keep our betas as industrial without the component
[1:08:35] unit that way we're taking residential out of our betas as an option or even like those components.
[1:08:42] So we're kind of recreating the zoning district for fishburn to be business and professional,
[1:08:48] which is an extension that comes down from up the hill from where the St. Teresa's property is,
[1:08:52] and we're going to bring it down into that property and really modify the component unit
[1:08:58] zoning requirements there. So that's where we, when we put in the building height standards and
[1:09:02] things like that, that's where that came from. Well, I appreciate that, but I also want to ensure
[1:09:09] some basic standards for building in case somebody else wants to build townhouses. I know
[1:09:16] we don't have a lot of places where that might happen, but we do have some, and I would
[1:09:22] really like them to have some strong building codes.
[1:09:28] So Rose, I mean, that's a concern that we always run into with developers, not just in
[1:09:33] Western Hornet, but elsewhere, is they show you the pretty pictures, and then what they
[1:09:37] feel it's different.
[1:09:38] So Jason alluded to the fact that as part of the conditional use requirements, they'd have
[1:09:44] to give you architectural renderings of the buildings that would then lock them in in
[1:09:47] terms of stone versus sighting or brick or whatnot. And that way, you wouldn't get
[1:09:53] significantly different looking buildings than what you're approving.
[1:09:56] Yeah, and they can't they can't be in switch you either.
[1:09:59] Well, but is that would that hold for future developments? Like somebody came into a residential
[1:10:07] area and wanted to build, you know, whatever it's approved for would townhouse area.
[1:10:12] That would probably be a question for Sean.
[1:10:14] We might have to redo the townhouse components
[1:10:18] in like the R2 and R3.
[1:10:20] Cause Mike, were townhouses currently allowed now?
[1:10:26] R3.
[1:10:27] So we would have to look at redoing the R3
[1:10:30] adding a component in that.
[1:10:31] So which, I mean, I don't know how,
[1:10:33] I mean, Sean can comment on that.
[1:10:34] Yeah, and we can look at that as staff.
[1:10:38] And perhaps you use what we're doing with this
[1:10:41] as a template and get back to you on that moment.
[1:10:44] I appreciate that.
[1:10:46] I'd like to see that go forward.
[1:10:48] Yeah, I would too.
[1:10:49] Okay, so we can come back with a recommendation on the changes for downhouses in R3, and if
[1:10:55] the board is satisfactory with what we've done for component unit, with what we're proposing
[1:11:00] for Fishburn, we can incorporate a lot of those already in there.
[1:11:03] So it's mostly just going to be like a copy and pasting kind of exercise, but if the board
[1:11:10] once they keep reviewing what we did for Fishburn provide, you can send Eric
[1:11:13] showing you an email if you have questions and we'll be happy to answer them
[1:11:17] be meeting the May work session. How about is the are the driveways longer now?
[1:11:25] The driveways we did do some shifting of the sidewalks to make them longer are
[1:11:31] concerned a lot of our concern down there is the roadway widths to make sure that
[1:11:36] But not only the Jefferson Fire Company's apparatus is operational down there, but anyone
[1:11:42] that comes in on mutual aid.
[1:11:43] So we use the standards and we reference them, I believe, was lower-marion township in
[1:11:48] regards to the largest piece of apparatus they had.
[1:11:51] So we asked them to, I'm sorry, or was it upper-marion?
[1:11:53] I can't remember.
[1:11:53] Upper-marion, upper-marion.
[1:11:55] Because they would come in on mutual aid for us if we would need them in that area.
[1:11:59] So we beefed up the roadways, we restricted parking on certain sides, we tried to get as much
[1:12:04] parking on the properties as we could. But the one thing we ran into was making sure they had adequate visitor parking down there because in the very beginning they weren't proposing like a two for one kind of issue so we came back with I think they're proposing two point for visitor spaces for each unit which is satisfactory to our needs because you're not going to move into a townhouse development without visitor spaces.
[1:12:29] You're going to have people are going to visit.
[1:12:30] You're going to have some real party.
[1:12:32] You're going to have birthday party.
[1:12:32] You're going to have Thanksgiving.
[1:12:33] So we want to make sure there's adequate visitor parking, but it's not dense to one
[1:12:39] area that is spread throughout.
[1:12:41] So again, we took a lot of these concerns and we've been working on this for probably three
[1:12:44] months until we came back with a recommendation and we felt, you know, satisfactory to present
[1:12:50] to the board.
[1:12:55] Okay.
[1:12:57] Thank you.
[1:12:59] Any other questions for the engineers
[1:13:04] hearing none I will take a motion to accept the department reports as provided and I heard a second all in favor.
[1:13:14] I have one regarding the census and of course my computer just went sideways so I filled
[1:13:26] up the census response and hope everyone within the sound of my voice did.
[1:13:31] Pennsylvania has responded to a rate of 49.7 percent. The good news is West
[1:13:36] North and has responded at a much higher rate of 58.8 percent as of yesterday's numbers
[1:13:43] that is also the bad news because there's a lot of meat on that proverbial bone and I hope
[1:13:49] everyone that is watching this understands the importance of this constitutionally mandated
[1:13:55] sense of it is easy, it is not particularly invasive and it is crucial to our continuing to
[1:14:04] function at the high level to provide the services that we are able to. So please, please
[1:14:09] please take five to 10 minutes out of your day and fill this out online, it could not have been easier
[1:14:16] and I can't encourage my neighbors enough to do that.
[1:14:22] Thank you, Marty. I also have a comment.
[1:14:25] I want to thank the people of West Norton for staying home and really maintaining their
[1:14:31] distance from people. It seems to be working here and the longer we can prevent people from
[1:14:41] catching the virus or it's spreading it to anyone the better we'll do so our
[1:14:47] numbers are very low we have fortunately we have not had any deaths in our
[1:14:52] poundship and I just wanted to say thank you to people for that because it really
[1:14:58] shows that you're listening.
[1:15:00] And, you know, makes our town, it, you know, it just shows that we have a good place to live and people are really, really up on that. So, that's what I have to say.
[1:15:16] Hey, public comment has been working. We had posted a dial in number and I see no one has dialed in. So, I don't believe we have public comment. We did not receive anything via the email or dropped locked at the township building. So, as of right now, we have no public comment. But once I post a video, I will again add the email.
[1:15:35] address there if anyone based upon what was discussed tonight won the public
[1:15:38] comment they can do that in writing and then we could address it at the the main
[1:15:42] meeting. Any comments subsequent I'm sorry were there any comments
[1:15:46] subsequent to last meeting between the end of it and tonight?
[1:15:50] No nothing came in. Okay thank you sorry Peter I can follow up with Mary Allen
[1:15:56] about the dog park email season. I think I'm in the process I did
[1:16:01] That is one thing I'm working on having gotten around to you, but I'll do that this week.
[1:16:05] Somebody answered her.
[1:16:09] Did somebody respond to her? I thought somebody responded to her.
[1:16:12] I responded to her initial email and just a short heard that her comment would be in the record.
[1:16:20] I have a email address. I'll write her a response to saying that we tabled it.
[1:16:24] And then if she had any further comments, she can do so at another meeting.
[1:16:29] So I responded to or as well just to say, you know, that it was brought up before the quarantine
[1:16:37] is because you've got to see the optics of it. And, you know, just kept it neutral after that.
[1:16:46] So with that, I'll take a motion to close public comment, at least at the moment.
[1:16:52] All in favor. All right, new business.
[1:16:57] Okay, under new business we have item A which is a motion to adopt resolution 20-1652 declaring a local disaster in regards to the COVID-19 crisis.
[1:17:08] Is there a motion?
[1:17:10] Is there a second?
[1:17:14] Any questions? All in favor?
[1:17:18] Opposed? The eyes have it.
[1:17:21] item B would be a motion to adopt resolution 20-1653 extending the real-state
[1:17:26] discount and face period on municipal taxes. Again, this is in response to the
[1:17:30] COVID-19 crisis. The new dates as of right now would be the discount period would
[1:17:36] end on May 31st and the face period would end on August 30th. So moved, second.
[1:17:46] Any
[1:17:46] are subject to change depending on what we might hear from the governor?
[1:17:52] Yes, if the governor chooses to sign the Senate bill that's on his desk,
[1:17:56] these dates could be further extended.
[1:17:58] But as of right now, the bill has not been signed.
[1:18:00] But I believe just to allow our tax collectors for the new dates,
[1:18:04] we were asking that this resolution be passed.
[1:18:06] And if the change will come back in May with an updated or new resolution.
[1:18:10] Back on, thank you.
[1:18:12] Okay, I didn't see it would be emotional.
[1:18:14] We didn't we didn't do. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't. All in favor.
[1:18:18] Post eyes have it. I didn't see you would be a motion to adopt resolution 20-1654 in regards to the ready for 100 renewable energy
[1:18:27] initiative. I will make that motion and I wish we were all together to do this. I'm
[1:18:34] Excited for what this holds for the township. And I'm looking forward to working with our EC and neighboring ECs and our staff in implementing this.
[1:18:42] Is there a second second any questions?
[1:18:45] All right all in favor
[1:18:48] Opposed the eyes have it item D is a motioned up resolution 20-1655 authorizing the sale of personal property on
[1:18:55] Municipal bed again. This is for mark Bisconti in the amount of eighty eight thousand three hundred hours for a 2015 Dodge Charger
[1:19:03] So moved is there a second second all in favor. I'm sorry any questions all in favor
[1:19:12] The item E would be a motion to authorize the advertising of bids for the regions park
[1:19:16] repaying projects and again, this is based upon the cost estimate as provided by Gilmourne
[1:19:20] Associates.
[1:19:21] This also includes base repair, repay of mill and overlay and also the replacement of sanitary
[1:19:27] sewer manholes as identified by our sanitary sewer engineer.
[1:19:31] I'd just like it to be in the record that this is budgeted and part of our borrowing.
[1:19:37] Yes, you are correct.
[1:19:38] So this is not tax related. This is a borrowing number that was presented to the board and executed and closed out on today actually. So yes.
[1:19:47] So is there a motion?
[1:19:49] So moved.
[1:19:50] Is there a second?
[1:19:51] Welcome.
[1:19:52] Any questions?
[1:19:53] All right.
[1:19:54] All those in favor?
[1:19:57] Aye.
[1:19:57] Opposed?
[1:19:59] All right.
[1:20:00] And now item F would be a motion to have deputy chief Michael Kelly appointed a chief of police upon the retirement of Chief
[1:20:08] Gail Mabry and after the approval of an employment contract and this would be effective July 1st, 2020.
[1:20:15] So move. Is there a second?
[1:20:18] Aye. Second. Any questions?
[1:20:21] Ballos in favor? Aye.
[1:20:24] All right.
[1:20:24] Opposed? All right. Congratulations.
[1:20:27] Congratulations.
[1:20:28] Thank you very much.
[1:20:30] That would be nice if we could have a standing ovation for you, but we'll do that eventually.
[1:20:36] Then item G would be a motion to begin the hiring process for the position of deputy chief of police.
[1:20:42] Is there a motion?
[1:20:44] Is there a second?
[1:20:48] Any questions?
[1:20:51] If not, all in favor?
[1:20:53] Opposed?
[1:20:54] No opposition.
[1:20:55] And then under schedule meetings, there are no meetings and board commissions for April.
[1:20:59] May 2020 meetings will be to be announced.
[1:21:02] But as of right now, we do have a planning commission meeting scheduled in regards to the Fishburn application for the zoning and then we will work through the process with the other boards at that point, depending on what the governor's actions.
[1:21:15] Whatever his recommended actions are for the month of May, and that concludes the agenda.
[1:21:21] Outstanding. Before we adjourn, I hope everybody had a great Easter and Passover and continues to be healthy and honoring everyone's personal space and distancing properly and continuing to follow the guidelines and like what Miss Malaza said.
[1:21:38] And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn.
[1:21:41] So moved.
[1:21:42] and a second. All in favor? All right. All right, folks, meeting the
[1:21:50] I'm joined.
[1:21:50] It's not everybody.
[1:21:52] It's not everybody.
[1:21:53] It's not everybody.
[1:21:53] Good night, everybody.
[1:21:54] Good night, everybody.
[1:21:54] Good night, everybody.
[1:21:55] Good night, everybody.
[1:21:55] Good night, everybody.
[1:21:55] Good night, everybody.