May 19th Meeting Summary

On Monday we had a fairly short public meeting. Here are the highlights.

We had a final discussion on Capital planning for 2025. The Administration cut an additional $750K of projects from the Capital Budget, which now will be $10 million. We have about $1 million in grants lined up for this projects, so in reality we are looking at bonding $9 million in projects. This includes Everett Field at $4 million (before grants), $1.6 million for a new roof at the Community Center and critical fixes at the Tower Building, and $840K to repave Linden (before grants).

There is a lot in the Capital plan, and every department is getting a chance to fix critical issues, invest in much needed technology, and get new equipment that is overdue. We are still playing catch up from the lack of investment from previous councils, but I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel.

The Capital Budget will be introduced at the next meeting, and voted on on June 23rd. Please send any comments or feedback to the entire Council at https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.

Under resolutions (both in consent agenda and in our addendum), we approved several change orders to projects underway. The most significant was for the pool resurfacing project, which went up by almost 13% due to additional issues that needed to be fixed that were uncovered when the work was done. We also approved small (less than 1%) changes to the contract for the pickleball courts and PFAS well and Linn Drive.

We received our 2022 Recycling Tonnage grant at $20K, which helps to offset recycling costs. We also appointed Recycling Coordinator and a Clean Communities Coordinator.

We set the remaining dates for the Council to meet in 2025. Due to various holidays, we sometimes only have one meeting a month. We may need to schedule a special meeting here and there, if necessary. Since this is an election year, our reorganization for the new Council that gets elected will be on Monday, January 5th, 2026. That will be the date the elected (or reelected) Council members get sworn in, and immediately after that the Council votes on who will be mayor Mayor. This year the majority of the Council is up, meaning three of the five Council seats will be voted on in November.

We appointed Dujets Tree Experts as the Township's licensed tree expert, with RichView Consulting and Cuputo Bros as alternates. We also entered into an agreement with Capitol Supply Construction for suppies for our water and sewer utility.

Finally, we passed a resolution recognizing Gun Violence Awareness Day, which we do every year. Gun Violence Awareness Day is Friday, June 6th. I am so saddened that this year we join the thousands of communities nationwide that experienced gun violence in the last year. I urge our national and state leaders to do more, not less, to address this ongoing public health and safety issue.

After our public meeting we went into a very extensive executive session. No action was taken after.

Any questions or comments on anything before the Council can be sent to the entire Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.