"Return on Investment" Announcement

Given that there's a lot of you and I want to be careful, we thought it'd be difficult to put everybody in one close location on uh so we wanted to be safer by doing it this way Uh I'm kinda I know you got plenty of space behind you there. We could have done it on that field. Okay And now with that and then we'll we'll get going now uh from my team or you guys um who's looking to chat function will tell us we are live and ready to go. Okay. We are live and ready to go you guys. we'll put in there when you're ready. Yeah. okay great, but it appears that we're live. so that's great. good morning everybody. Uh Thank you very much for joining me today. I'm Josh Gottheimer uh your congressman here in New Jersey's Fifth district. Um I'm very lucky today by joined by such an. Group of colleagues of mine and leaders from the community uh Park mayor is here at Fairlawn Mayor peso is here Lodi mayor and I will double acknowledge him. Scott Luna Oakland. I know that I've got a few others who will be joining out by Hall Mayor Tom Francis. here say he's always in that uh so room of his there, which is a great room very jealous about that room. You've got Sussex County Community College President John Connolly is. Hackettstown bid director Director Lori is here I know uh fire chief I think is joining us from Park Ridge um Sussex Borough Council president all I will be here. I know at some point it is joining us uh Mansfield Fire Company president and the number one President Charlie Smith. I see his name here. It's so thank you for your great service. Mister Smith um presence Smith and um I'm hoping I'm not missing anyone at Oakland Council president I believe is joining us uh uh ring. Council president Spear uh I can't see uh spear I can't see him, but I know you're you're. I saw your name so thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it and if I missed anybody else, I apologize. I'm just looking to make sure I didn't miss anybody um if I did, I apologize uh in advance um Oh Uh Teaneck Fire Chiefs just joined us. Thank you very much Chief. Um so originally just so all of you know we're going to be in live in Park Ridge for this event today, but we thought it might be too difficult to everyone who's online. There's so many people in one space given social distancing. so I wanna thank uh Park Ridge mayor for forging ahead and making it all work virtually and uh suggesting that we do it this way and I'm grateful to all the mayors and non-profits and college presidents and first responders for being here and for all of your remarkable leadership in our community. Uh I'm. For all you do for all of us and the people we represent uh technically we're supposed to be in your community today. I just wanna give you an extra thanks for helping claw back so many of our federal dollars back to uh Park Ridge from DC and helping to save our taxpayers their hard-earned dollars uh Park Ridge has greatly improved their part of patient in this program under Keith leadership winning grants from multiple programs this past calendar year, which is truly outstanding. I will tell you that the other people on this call today. Today have also done an incredible job Um fighting for all four of our counties that I represent and um you know every county has done really a great job and over the last 4 years, especially stepped up and worked incredibly hard to bring these dollars back um so before I begin uh and I'm gonna have two people speak and then anybody else who wants to speak and also, of course, just raise your hand and jump in uh I'll start with uh mayor since we're supposed to be in Park Ridge. so it's like a virtual visit there. One Sec, We gotta make sure you're on sorry. that's on the uh yup there you go there. I'm live. Alright. Um I appreciate the opportunity to join you today um Uh Josh you've been a great partner for Bark Ridge and uh the whole fifth district uh um it's nice of you to say that uh uh my hard work is Claude back dollars but without your partnership we uh we just would never get it done and uh I always. Even though I'm technically on vacation right now, I never miss an opportunity to thank you for that cuz it's a pleasure you've been a um not only going back dollars, but when I when I needed assistance just this past year, which has been a bizarre year with this uh with this pandemic and the virus uh I'm a small town mayor and uh when I found out there was uh that's happening in our senior center. I was at a loss as to what to do. I was not getting people to pick up my phone calls and uh I have to acknowledge. I called you and you immediately picked up. you got the owner of the facility on the phone for me and we got people there to check things out. I think you saved lives so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that and uh and I thank you and you are always welcome in Park Ridge. so um we just wanted to spread that spread that virus anymore. so anytime wanna reschedule this, we would be honored to uh to host you thanks for helping. Thanks for the numbers out here and take care of everyone. I really appreciate it. Peluso definitely won't. This town, so it's fine that you have. I'm really grateful for that. Um II wanna turn also to uh to uh our Hackettstown uh director uh Laura Beard for a few words for their incredible work um Uh with USDA grants to focus on economic development, their community and Keith will talk a little bit more later in the program and all the stuff you clawed back and the kind of equipment you and the fire chief and others help get back to the district. Uh Lori uh Thank. Much for joining us today and for all you've done for the community. Thank you congressman and thank you all for having us here today. Um I am the Hackettstown business improvement director and right here in downtown Pakistan. um I feel like I'm riding the coattails of the people who came before me cuz I just landed this position in April so great time to start a new job, but um you know we're doing the best we can to keep our little town running here and um I will say. Um I've been asked to say a couple of words about the USDA grant that was given to the Hackettstown bid. Um what we're doing is uh well what we received was $28000 um from this grant and what we're doing with it is uh doing a feasibility study to see whether or not Hackettstown is ready for a food hall. I don't know if you guys all know what that is, but it's very exciting and again I feel so blessed to be coming in. Unique time a bad time, but a unique time because the feasibility study that we've just had done Unfortunately, the gentleman was supposed to come in and share his results. Last Tuesday, We all know we got hit by this horrible storm. he got stuck in the airport never made it to the little packets down so he is scheduled to come back in September um for the next board meeting, but I'm proud to say that the feasibility study has shown that our town is ready for a food hall so we are really going. Moving forward, I'm very excited to be a part of it and it's gonna be some place downtown Hackettstown um bringing all kinds of specialty little shops almost like a Chelsea market um and it's it's really very exciting. There's one hack that is phenomenal and there's great beer there by the way Yes, there is yes there is so um I just wanna Thank you all for the opportunity. Uh we were awarded. Last year, we're using the funds up very quickly with this study um, but there's a lot of great stuff going on here and again. Thank you for allowing us to speak about it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate Lori and I'm glad you're there in that position. It's gonna be critical to the economic development that I also see that Uh swagger has joined us and Mayor swagger good to see you um I know many of you have been dealing with uh the last week and in fact, all of you I've been on our calls um the how tough the storm. So I just wanna pause and thank you all for the the mayors for your incredible leadership during a tough time for our community and it's good to have everyone's power nearly everyone's power. I got the numbers again this morning nearly everyone's power back on. we're still waiting to to get the and broadband and uh some phone connected for a lot of folks um and pushing I've heard from many of you in fact this morning again about that and we're working on that. So thank you so much. I just wanna make that note um any other uh mayors wanna say anything. I don't wanna talk about anything before we go on if you just raise your hand cuz we'll get you on if you do um okay. Well, I'll get to it. I'll talk about your communities and uh and thank you again for your leadership. Um we have a slide deck. We're gonna pop up um I just wanna you know remind you that uh that we're here today to highlight the incredible dollar returns we've received from Washington that working together all of you uh we've been able to accomplish and claw back for our counties and communities here in uh. Northern New Jersey uh incredibly important, you know when I ran for Congress 4 years ago, it became clear to me pretty fast that one of our greatest challenges we faced was our overall cost of living and while we have so much going for us in northern New Jersey, we all love it here. It's a great place to raise a family and safe communities and excellent schools and brilliant workforce and uh you know really uh great people proximity to the city of New York City Lakes Beach. You name it. Of course, we've got Springsteen in the state um but we all know that our taxes at every level, federal state and property are are too high and it's the cost of living. you know forces a lot of families out of the state discourages them coming here and also uh discourage some businesses from coming here and staying here and growing here the other big realization I had at the same time back then was that one way we can help get our property taxes down with the claw. More the dollars we send to Washington every year back to our communities. Because there's as you as you heard a little bit today and you'll hear a lot more um uh there are all these grant programs out there for everything from firetrucks to security grants for our to protect our churches and our temples and our mosques. Um there are uh a grant for to help uh to help our our firefighters and to our nonprofits our colleges as John as John knows Uh who's Uh runs our our community College in Sussex County, which is really an unbelievable school. We we just we just hadn't been applying for them and uh. We should have and and really the person who was my predecessor, my seat uh didn't believe we should fight for them and part of my job is to make sure that not only that we work together on applying but that I fight very hard to get these dollars back to New Jersey and work with you to do that So the result was that in all these other states, frankly that paid far less in federal taxes that we do, I call these states States you know they kept getting these grants year after year and giving relief to their taxpayers because if they're able to get a fire and support for a firetruck, which could cost more than a $1000000. It's a firetruck uh those are dollars that don't cut that federal tax dollars we send they come back and instead of being local property tax dollars that we have to allocate so the more things we can apply for more grants we can get back to our communities to the less cost that our mayors have to add to the property tax line to cover those items and you know those are huge huge line items for our police departments our fire departments our nonprofits uh other community organizations. You heard the USDA on the economic development and they're talking about economic development grants for our colleges. you name it those dollars really. Up our roads and bridges um and when you start to add those dollars up if you can get more back from Washington claw those dollars back instead of going to the States that really helps our community our taxpayers our families so fast forward 4 years and working together with the folks on this call and with so many others, mayors and councils and first responders and colleges and nonprofits religious institutions. We're now up more than 108% in terms of our federal tax dollars. We've Claude back to Jersey helping to lower our property. And improve the fifth district um, for example, just last week after the hurricane devastated so many of our towns that we were talking about many of our communities, I heard from utilized generators that they've received to keep traffic lights on and in the winter they use those generators to keep to have warming stations for families. I mean they use bucket trucks to help clean up trees and debris on power lines and our first responders at the roll-out fire trucks and ambulances to help people as they have now um, of course, especially during the height of the crisis as well and by the way the. Percent, ROI, return on investment that I'm announcing today is only through 2019 This past calendar year cuz the data lags it doesn't include the fire trucks and nonprofit security grants who receive this year or the hundreds of millions of dollars we fought to get North Jersey during the pandemic so far for our hospitals for our first responders, families and businesses and counties and communities. These are dollars that have gone to every single county hundreds of millions of dollars to all of our families, small businesses um that have benefited from it in all counties um. Community and, in fact, I released a report in 2 weeks ago, now just how much each family has gotten back through, but that again is not in this report that will be in next year's report aside from helping to lower our property taxes, increase safety and support our local institutions during this normal times, these dollars are particularly important now with our community in our town budgets are being stretched to the absolute Max and our mayors can tell you this uh uh firsthand you know with local municipalities facing revenue shortfalls and. I've heard from and talked about how that could affect the schools, which you will also come through. you know they're not on the uh I mean the the town that's not their budgets the school budget um, but it's the the revenue comes through the town. A lot of towns are concerned about being able to pay for other schools given the dollar shortfall. So it's it's been a huge focus of mine always getting these dollars back. It's more important than ever while our local communities combat the crisis. uh you know, it's also why. In Washington to the state and local tax deduction, which is the most recent house package, the package that we passed does it helps reverse the provision of the 2017 tax hike bill to actually lower our taxes and stop double taxation. That bill is sitting in the Senate now and you know as you know we've been waiting for action out of the Senate on there's been negotiations that are right now stalled that in my opinion better get we gotta get those back up and running immediately pushing for that both sides coming. A table um you know that that tax bill in 2017, which we've all talked about a lot in and local tax deduction or salt and effect raising taxes on our district. I've now passed two bills in the house uh this past Congress to fully reinstate Salt to give the lot of people to fully deduct again what they were able to in the past, so you don't get double taxed and will actually lower our taxes here in northern New Jersey. We sent those bills over the Senate again crickets waiting for them to act now. I've also. To change the transportation formula that wax Jersey at the federal infrastructure investment, It's an old formula that makes no sense. Um you know II again gets back to this point that you've got states like Mississippi and Alabama they get $4.38 and $4.32 respectively for every dollar in the Washington's getting that 67¢ historically, it doesn't make any sense and this infrastructure formulas are based on that that they that they the fact that they expect us to pay their bills and and many of. The cost of living is too high here uh we're just not in the position to be able to pay all those bills. We've got to take care of some real serious challenges that we've got in Jersey. You know it's just this continuation of this idea that the state think where they're piggy bank and we pay everyone else's tab for their roads and bridges and first responders for our taxes. keep going up. So this is why it's so important this 180% they're climbing back and you see that $448 per household we've gotten back so you know the whole. She was a joke in terms of what they get and why we're fighting so hard with with the folks on this phone call and the mayor's here and so many others who are in our first responders who are helping to get these grants and resources to help even the field the playing field here and I just wanna say again on this piece because we're working very hard on this called the piece the fact that the Senate majority leader and others from red states from states are actually refusing to help states like ours during the pandemic. I think it's it's crazy. It's outrageous, you know, we're always there for other states when there's a flood, there's a hurricane or a tornado. We show up. We help people out. That's what you do in our country, but now when the when the eye of the storm has been over our area and was over our area lost nearly 3700 people and so many others sick it causes cost us a fortune economically um and and it's been a massive health crisis. It's a heartbreaking crisis, the idea that some people will turn around and say not our problem. It's your problem to me is outrageous. um so I just wanna be clear that many of us are pushing very hard and I've been working in the problem Solvers Caucus to actually get something done there um and uh and I really really appreciate um what everyone's doing to make sure that we try to get these dollars back here uh for co-working together utilizing grant programs in ways we have in decades. I'm very pleased to. Um, as I said, it's in 2016, we're up 108%. That's for every county. Sussex Warren, pic and Bergen every county has received resources a massive rise in AFG. That's the uh assistance of fire Grant program um Uh a nonprofit security grant program the federal agriculture investment, Lisa and other key grant programs. um by clawing back more, we've lifted significant cost off of our town budgets and help provide tax relief to our residents. Uh we'll put this. So people have it. We've also been sending these dollars out despite the fact that our road infrastructure to work in the country um we are how we're making some headway parts of the gateway project that preliminary approval, which is really important to move forward. Um that's by Uh by this administration finally approved that um but you know, it's still just part of the gateway project. We still have to get the tunnels going and the third of our bridges are still considered unsafe. So how have we increased things by a? Let's explain it at the core of it is it's something my dad always said, which is taught me if you don't ask for things you don't get it so the key is to make sure that everyone on this call and every mayor on this call, I just want to acknowledge and plus our first responders plus Mister Connolly a present Connolly Everybody has asked now for resources understands all the councils the mayors the police departments the fire departments. everybody is now Um fighting for uh these tax dollars. That they ask so we can get it um and and we really put together a plan. We've got AI hired a director of return on investment of ROI, um who's done a great job scouring for every nickel that we could get that we deserve to get in our district and I'm working with with all of our uh all of our leaders with our non-profits our first responders our towns um and I think you all know he does a phenomenal job um and you know federal grants are complicated. You gotta dig around. You also have to fight for him right to find that agriculture brand or. The that is key to finding homegrown terrorism and making sure that we are safe as we need to be um you know since 2017 We've held twelve mayors summits most recently our mayor's day in DC in February and fifteen grand workshops. We've had a lot of mayors coming to DC and meet with the departments straight on to actually get help and uh what's the best way to apply and ask about their needs, which has been critical. Uh we've shipped more than 4000 letters and scores of emails both to local. But of course, also to these agencies these agencies um making sure the town's know about the approaching deadlines and best practices for federal grants. We've had several mayors uh as I said the DC to meet with these grant-making departments um and let me be clear. There's nothing partisan about this right. There's there's this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is just good for the fifth District of New Jersey, and I think that's that's really the key here getting our tax dollars back home as I said is is uh is the key so over the 2019 calendar year, you'll see some of our top performers uh the 108. As I said savings of 448 for every household, those are dollars, we've pulled back from and sent straight to us to help put out a blaze help protect our communities from terrorist protect children in our schools. 100% more federal tax dollars for storm cleanup and generators and trucks boats for floods repair gear to help EMTs and help emergency management. It's a team effort and I just wanna thank everybody. We've had some new comers uh first timers this year, which I'm really thrilled about my lawn. Franklin Borough Allan. I just wanna thank them for um joining the crew of those who have been fighting for the dollars um and a lot of people you see on the phone here on the zoom right now these mayors of just a consistently year in year out their community has been fighting for these dollars and I just wanna I just wanna thank them so um and there's a huge wins by the way as you see on the screen, there's a real every dollar there are dollars to help our offset property tax uh issues right those are go right to the budgets and the towns um so that really helps. Things that otherwise the local property tax dollars will have to pay for um if you go to slide, I guess nine put a slide nine. Here's some of the highlights of what's helped make this a reality in Twenty-nineteen Franklin borough picked up $290000 worth of equipment they clawed back to the grant programs, including two electric kayaks cuz they have uh bodies of water there and they've had uh incidents of um a drowning incidents to make sure these are motorized kayaks to help uh for search and rescue um they're on the. A forklift and you see some of that there all stuff to help out in the local community um Uh next slide I was proud to go, visit Franklin on August of of last year and heard all about the amazing opportunities. This new equipment is for the department. My I took one of the uh uh easiest steps to towns can take to claw back their their tax dollars by signing up for the federal resource program that gets equipment sitting idly and might otherwise be destroyed and help get those to local first responders a similar program with the G. A Surplus equipment from other branches of the government to local public works departments. That's how Orr is getting its equipment like a rescue truck, and that's how they got what they got a rescue truck and radios and medical supplies. We've done very well on the radio as I should say you know Odell great job on uh recently Uh I don't think this is in this year numbers yet, but they just got a grant for hundreds of thousands of dollars for I think more than $200000 for radios for radio upgrade um which is. As you know a huge expect, it could be a huge expenditure in a town um so those are the radio piece is really uh something that's uh an essential. I think we have to get done for first responders communicate but a huge expense to be taken off the the town budget the property tax budget um you know remember uh it this equipment if not recoup by our towns, we'll either go to other states taking advantage of this program or they'll be destroyed. So that's why this program is so important again. This is surplus equipment that's sitting that's sitting idle if we don't take advantage of it, it goes to other communities, so we might as well. get it back here we've. Paid for this equipment out of our federal tax dollars and it's our obligation to fight to get back what's available here to Jersey you see here in GSA again. This is all stuff that surplus that was sitting around that we go to other communities if we don't get it and things that we need office machines and power tools and boats, medical supplies trucks uh key trucks. you know to be able to you know, I'm talking about the F one 50s those kind of trucks that all the communities need um they get around the whole stuff around town furniture for our. And computers for departments hardware generators uh you you you you you name it. uh it's available um and really and again no cost. There's no cost to the taxpayers to go pick it up and grab it and then we can use it the excess equipment program as I said as flashlights and first aid kits for our cops and electrical generators for emergency first responders and families who lost power during major storms like the most recent one with those generators were key and it's got copiers or computers essential for first responders all the equipment. More of our time and resources help improve our communities and to help keep our families safe from things like crime and terror. um that Uh threaten us a floodlights the burrows like Midland Parks and ensure that first responders will know what's going on in an emergency sites or help with local construction projects These federal programs are also helping us us deal with the pandemic by distributing a surplus supplies from the program to help to fight the Corona virus working with my office. thirty new towns and now enrolled in some of these federal programs since 2016, and so the beginning of 2017 since I've been in office, it's a clawback more of those tax dollars. Relief on their property tax line, you can just see the dollars here right these are real dollars, making a real difference helping to help lower taxes for our taxpayers. Thirty new towns. I really wanna thank the community for stepping up in the leadership and first responders and fire chiefs and police chiefs, and of course our mayors and council through this equipment and resources programs and I should add nonprofits that have been phenomenal like Uh like our colleges unbelievable through this equipment and resource programs all across the fifth we've received 2.23000000 to 2.23000000. That our past return on investment that's 9.99 .97000000 state and local government budgets, 35 per household, which is saving our taxpayers since the items have to don't have to come out of the town budget in Ringwood and again we've got Deputy Mayor John Speer here with us today along with the mayor and council have all encouraged the town to participate in these programs and acquire tools to town needs. I really wanna thank the deputy mayor who's been a good friend and a good leader in his community today. We're here on video, but as I said it would be in park so let me just give a shout out to for a second and his team uh they come back more than $86000 to 2019 received the dump truck as well as several utility backpacks and $10000 from the safer Grant program. Just unbelievable. This is just in a short time that the mayor has been mayor getting two grants within a calendar year is incredible done a great job and uh I know they continue to apply for other grants and we'll. Fight and support letters and make calls as I will do and I'll do for any town in my district as we fight for our district. These are all items that the borrower was gonna have to pay for out of it's budget so instead the mayor this dollars back from the federal government uh help save their taxpayers their property tax bills. I know Schneider Mayor Swer does that's a great job also uh similarly and the Haworth and I know Mayor France is also on who's joined us today his claw back more than $68000 for these programs. Uh and uh mayor great job. uh I know these are dollars that uh you get to save on your budget um and uh and uh not have to pay your property tax line. Thanks for saving your taxpayers money and I know Luna who's here, Mayor or Luna. It's also done a phenomenal job at the same time. I mean, like we're just I saw him a couple of days ago like 2 days ago 2 days ago, I saw Luna and literally we're walking around. He's like Igg dollars back here. I called dollars back here. none of this stuff in my taxpayer and we're building all stuff out for the community to help protect the community and beautify the community and unload. I just done a great job just like. Has done a great job so thank you both um Belvedere Mayor Kennedy has been a real leader in saving taxpayer money. uh he continues to participate in equipment in the GSA program. Uh you know, I'll say that Mayor Kennedy is like on every single grant the guy fights like a dog for his community. they continue uh nicotine to pursue all programs and grants that are available to them even better over the past year. Belvedere is also made money because after a period of time if you're not using the equipment, you can sell it If you've acquired it for free you. Sell it after a period of time if you're not using it, which May Kennedy did and made more money for his community that way um so he's done an excellent job Mayor Um we've also some new comers, a Golan Mansfield, which is called the Fema grants in 2019, both for the first time ever Hackensack close to Hillsdale. Lodi Fairlawn Oakland Emerson Maywood Westwood Allendale Bergenfield Dumont, New Milford in Haworth are just a few towns that have also seen tremendous success and I. So honored to work with with their mayors and what their council and what their first responders you know we've got time to go to fully leverage the equipment the GSA programs while Bell to the Franklin and Newton Vernon mayors are on board. There's some more to do in Sussex and Warren and we're working with the other mayors there and I'll continue to work with the mayors and the councils and first responders and all of our counties to see how else I can be. I can be supportive and and get folks on board, but see how many that all these new towns in. That are that are now participating overall uh I would say was sixty-five computers and generators 204 first aid kits. fourteen radios 735 piece of medical supplies uh a kayak and two sets of uh extraction tools delivered our communities again all of this without hitting the property tax line tax dollars will climb back from state here to the fifth district to save all of you money on your taxes and it's because of your mayors because of your first responders cuz you're non profits because of your colleges that are fighting for those. Dollars we've also seen success and more competitive grant programs like the safer and to grant program or AFG These grants help fire houses across the US upgrade or purchase new equipment vehicles workplace training, recruitment and other fire prevention activities here today from uh uh you know, Park Ridge uh the chief was due to be on uh I don't know if the chiefs on but I didn't see him earlier, but he might be now and I just wanna say thank you Chief they've clawed back investment to the Safer Grant program. Congratulations on your excellent work and I wanna thank your department and all of our excellent first responders. I'm proud to announce that we've. Our return of life-saving equipment here in the district through AFG program more than 2.1000000. $2.1000000 back to the fifth district since uh 2016 we've we've gotten a ton back but just look at what we've got back here in 2019 for departments received an AFG grant, which is excellent. You can see what it's for right there so monitors extraction drying racks uh the tanks um Uh fill the air compressors all things to help protect our first responders and our fire departments and help protect our community. A huge wins in communities like New Milford, where they're getting a new firetruck with more than a $1000000 but saving taxpayer money by being awarded a major AFG grant last month, I was able to visit the new truck and you gotta see this thing. It's incredible. uh you can see that's the right with the mask up there um and uh and there's the department and the mayor and the council uh and Belvedere The Mountain Lake Fire Company has done an amazing job climbing back AFG grants for uh tax the ocean in the air packs uh uh team. Got to celebrate and then back in 2019 to see the new packs and more than $175000 for personal protective equipment and other critical equipment for their fire departments again, you're seeing Warren Sussex Bergen and Passaic all part of these programs in Allentown Mansfield. Each fire department receive grants for the very first time. Here's a photo uh we took this was actually right before uh hit on the last time we didn't wear masks I visited. I know both communities were thrilled with the investment continue to do a great job expanding their opportunity to claw back resources in Teaneck I announced alongside with Congressman Bill Pascrell, the Tina Fire Department was awarded a $45000 federal investment for equipment to decontaminate Fight Gear and help prevent cancer cuz the gear. You gotta clean it uh uh it's really important the carcinogens that can get onto the onto the gear and so they got new equipment there in Dumont I've met with the EMTs to discuss how these great opportunities can benefit their their. Departments help them for the federal level you see the ambulances there we've we've helped in many of our communities across the district um great. The town is a great job and I wanna thank the EMTs EMS um in addition, all they do and all of our frontline health care workers have been phenomenal during invi and of course all the time I've also met with the new Fire department encouraged the department to apply for these grants to get more dollars back and uh and safety equipment. Um you can see like the I'm the there's got the great. There and the mayor and council is there as well. I'm just slightly smaller than the guy wearing the Notre Dame sweatshirt um Uh you know he he actually on the fire department. He's phenomenal guy and um it looks like you can put me in his pocket uh to claw back USDA dollars, Sussex and Warren Counties are both really taken the lead in 2019 alone, Sussex and Warren Communities and organizations claw back more than $1.5000000 in grants to help improve businesses. To create better access to clean water help food insecurity and improve the home of our seniors and people with disabilities and much more So borough council president who was here. I know it's good to be here uh today I just wanna give a big shout out to for climbing back one of the largest USDA grants in Jersey's fifth history more than a $1000000 to like Rutherford water improvement projects. absolutely amazing. Look at all these USDA highlights. It's incredible what we have to get back and John Connolly who. Earlier, the president of Sussex County Community College um who have lead the College and going after federal grant dollars to $50000 back to implement a new academic curriculum such an amazing job there you see us in Sussex County with Connolly and others you see uh it looks like How Worth and more and uh the uh and our council president of Vernon um Uh short way uh and so many others have just done an amazing job um Uh Mister Connolly Uh looks like you raise your hand. I don't know if you wanna speak. Are you on there before? I don't know if he's still on, but uh he'd want to say something but I can get back to that. Can you folks hear me now? Yeah. I hear you. John Okay. Great. Yeah. the the technology has got a lag. so uh Josh Thank you very much. No. I like the mayor's uh at the beginning of this program. uh just like to thank you for your vigilance on this um the claw back from the States is one way of looking at it because for the mayors in particular, this is really about the tax dollars the property tax dollars the direct budget hit if the College of that theoretically could matter for us down the road. but what we're really interested in is trying to. Gender economic development in this county and that requires investment and so this is really going back the necessary dollars that we cannot muster to invest in an economy that really needs to grow. And so, for example, I would love for Newton downtown to look something remotely like Hackettstown downtown. does we can get there? We need to do that, but it's gonna require particular levels of investment and the Newton is not well positioned to be able to do that. So the college, which is nested. Really needs to be able to participate in that and so what we're trying to do is claw back dollars, frankly from the Department of Defense, we submitted a $3000000 grant uh this was brought to our attention by Josh and Josh said. You can't not do this. You have to do it and so we muster uh resources in collaboration with Thor labs and important industry partner. Uh we pulled together where we could. We submitted a really terrific grant uh it did. Win the day They're very competitive uh but I'll I'll just say a couple of things uh Josh uh in your role you incredibly helpful in getting us as far as we did, but the old saying about determination and grit You gotta claw it back. It's not like just hold out your hand and you're gonna give it to you. so we really need to persevere with this and I would say that two items uh the first would be communication from the Department of Defense. um was. Terrific in getting back to you now what I'm interested in knowing was that bureaucratic problems or political problems because sometimes it could be either one um but I did not get the sense that the Department of Defense is communicating with you and your office very much focus. Cheryl Krause a lot about this and she was frustrated. So let's say that's a piece of it. uh if we're gonna be successful in the future that has to be better. I'm not sure whether they had something some agenda in the Department of Defense and then secondly would. We would like to submit another grant, there's an opportunity coming up. It's gonna be coming soon in another five or 6 months we think and we need to know how to improve our proposal and trying to open up the lines of communication again. Right now we cannot get any information about what we need to do to do better with our proposal. We could really use your help. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Shawn you know what one thing that I've learned pretty this process uh and a lot of our towns along as to and you. I think we have some bureaucratic uh and uh transits there in that particular grant, but what I've learned is that you may not get it the first time you gotta fight for the second time your point of great determination. you gotta keep going and a lot of our departments and a lot of our grants. We don't get the first round, but we got the second round and you gotta end what we do wherever it's possible where where the departments are responsive, which we've had great luck out of a lot of the grant making seasons. With them and talk to them to find out where the problems are and how to make the grants better for the next round and then improve it The next year so that we can uh make sure we get you get more points to help you get the grant and um you know I just wanna Thank you very much and also I wanna thank the dean of the program that you know and and recognize I just say the dean of the program advancement for new and strategic initiatives uh Dominic Carbone, who I know who who sadly passed away um earlier this year from Kobe, so I just want you to know how how sorry we were at. About that and and our our sincere condolences to the to the college community um and I wanna thank the carbon family. Um I just want to offer my best wishes to the carbon family and and and and thank again um the dean for all his work uh over the years you know some of the other USDA Grant highlights in today's announcement to support single family Housing Fifth district constituents in Vernon Stockholm Receive grants protect their homes to help community facilities. Sussex was awarded federal investments to renovate and ambulance vehicle Hackett Sound business improvement. As we heard to see the planning grant um and Lori thank you again for being here. The fifth district is also continue to claw back federal investment in counter terrorism and nonprofit organizations. This investment comes from the nonprofit Security Grant program through FEMA to invest in security for certain tax-exempt organizations like House of worship, schools and local community organizations that are at risk of terrorist attack and homegrown lone wolf uh or uh the Lo wolf terrorists and also white supremacists and other Isis. Terrorists an event last month We detailed that to date we've more than 4.1000000 to Jersey through to the fifth district through nonprofit security grants since 2016 dollars protect our institutions. uh that's the most in the state 27 institutions, schools and local nonprofit organizations again working together to make that happen, safe and secured a place of worship in our schools are the bedrock of the American ideal and we must do everything we can to protect them and that's part of what makes our country. As it is the greatest country in the world is our ability to practice our faith for the manner, which we choose and educate ourselves free from violence um in eight temples and churches receive money more money this year, including in Teaneck, Newton, Fairlawn Paramus and Park Ridge um, and we saw the fifth district's First World Temple win a grant and um we've we've put out for uh which uh which uh temples and churches and other religious institutions receive those dollars several of these organizations exceeding coming back the maximum amount of $100000, which. A great achievement So let me again just close out and thank every uh every one for joining today for your leadership for all you do Mayor thanks for virtually hosting us uh in Park Ridge today uh and thank you to all the other mayors and our leaders and uh and uh the head of bid and uh you know as as as you've heard. it's it's incredible that we've uh we've had 108% increase in my opinion working with all of you and what we've Claude back to our federal tax dollars from the state since 2016. that's $448 for every household in the fifth district and I just wanted to thank all of. For fighting so hard to make that happen, this will really help our our everyone from our first responders to our non-profits to our communities and our families and really help us deal with uh and fight the pandemic and of course the most recent tropical storm uh and I know that our communities are safer and this is all about making life more affordable with lower taxes here in New Jersey. um so thank you so much uh I'm committed to fighting to get these dollars back and of course there's ever to fight to do that all wasteful government spending to do. To cut our taxes to make sure we're smart about our government spending, but the bottom line is if the dollars are going out the door. I don't want them going to Mississippi or Alabama. I want them coming to Jersey um and I wanna thank again all of our our mayors who are here who've done a great job uh Luna and friends and Masala and Swer and uh and poo was here before Thank you all the fire chiefs who are on Thank you so much uh we'll continue to work together to claw more dollars back to Jersey from the state, but thank you for. Credible leadership fighting for fighting for what's best year regardless of party does not matter Democrat or Republicans about what's best for Jersey's fifth district, so I'll keep doing it here in the greatest country in the world. Thanks and God bless all of you. Thank you. And now Uh I know if we have any questions um Uh I think if you have any questions from reporters, have you raise your hand and I'll deal with that and I'll deal with the questions for those If you wanna stay, please stay for the questions if not don't worry about it um and I know also you can if I could just ask actually what's easiest why don't you have the media? uh if you have any issues, don't you just direct.