New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of County Board of Commissioners was provided in the following matter published in the Press of Atlantic City and mailed to The hamton Gazette and has been posted on the Bolton boards in the county office building in l City The Still Water building in Northfield and a county clerk's office in M land okay um this time we're going to have our opening prayer and just you know while we do the pr keep victims of crime and everyone's prayers and those who are in the middle of Harm's Way due to Wars and natural dis dister Lord God we ask for your blessing on this meeting and for all those assembled here may our actions be righteous and kind and may we always be mindful of our obligations to each other and to you amen amen amen stand for the of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all chairwoman commissioner Cory is unable to attend today commissioner bertino and commissioner G are attending virtually I also pled Rino here Burns here B here G here Parker present grizzley here K here Commissioners have had an opportunity to review the minutes from April 2nd 2024 I'll entertain a motion to adopt the April 2nd 2024 minutes as presented so second uh moved by commissioner Ballas second by commissioner rizley we'll have a roll call Ballas yeso yes Burns yes B yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes may anyone attending in person who would like to speak regarding an agenda item or at public comment please come to the podium speak into the microphone state your name in the town where you reside you'll be provided up to three minutes to speak if you're attending virtually and would like to speak please raise your hand dur the agenda item or at the public comment at the end I will call upon your name and a request to unmute will be sent please state your name and the town you reside you will be provided up to 3 minutes to speak now we have a presentation in remembrance of former County Executive Richard Dick sers resolution 199 are you going to read that is somebody from the family here oh I so Move Motion made by commissioner rizley second by commissioner Ballas elen County Board of County Commissioners resolution in remembrance of Richard Dick Squires whereas born in elen City The Honorable dick Squires grew up in Egg Harbor Township and received his education from Farmington and cl of schools and graduated from Pleasantville High School and whereas following his graduation di Squires enlisted in the United States Navy serving in the Korean War board the USS Wass wiconsin bb64 until his honorable discharge in 1955 and whereas transitioning into to civilian life di squ worked for Coca-Cola before pursuing his esteemed career in public service and whereas dick Squire served as a candidate for the New Jersey State Police and subsequently took the role of tax collector for the city of Northfield and whereas the Squire's passion for politics led him to join the Northfield men's Republican Club and later hold the position of Club president and whereas in 1967 dick sers became a licensed New Jersey tax assessor contributing his expertise to the cities of pleasant Pleasantville and Brigantine and whereas in 1974 th Squires assumed the presidency of the aara Township Tax Assessor's Office a role he fulfilled for a decade and whereas his dedication to public service and further Evidence by his election to the Atlantic County Board of chosen freeholders in 1975 eventually becoming the Atlanta County Executive the position dick Squire's held for 16 years until his retirement in 2000 and whereas during his tenure as County Executive dick Squire spearheaded various projects but two he was most proud of to of include the creation of the Atlantic County Office of veteran services and the establishment of the Atlantic County veterans cemetery in estl Manor and whereas the Squire's family in the county of Atlantic have experienced a great loss with the passing of di Squires who has left an indelible mark on the community being remember for his honor service and unwavering dedication to improving lives and whereas his legacy serves as a testament to the impact one can have through a lifetime of public service and may the memory of Dick Squire Inspire others to follow in his footsteps and make a positive difference in this world now therefore be it resolved by the Atlanta County Board of County Commissioners that this board does hereby convey its deepest sympathy on the passing of Richard Dick Squires and joins with others in remembrance of a dedicated public servant and be it forther that this board does now send a heartfelt goodbye and thank you to Dick Squires may he rest in Eternal peace at the very Cemetery he founded the Atlanta County Veteran thank you any comments or our commissioners altino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes rley yes yes motion carries is there anybody here from the family yes we have a couple plaques we like to get and if you would like to say anything be proud very appreciative very appr and we Al have one from my County Executive i' like to say a few words about dick because I serve with him I'm the only ones left to serve years ago we're all getting older but uh about dick dick loved this County very very deeply but I can tell you and I know he went out early in the morning looked at the roads and uh uh he was great to work with he will serve this County perfectly as the county executive uh and of course even after he was done serving as County Executive his level of the county extended over to the historical aspects of this County as well which I certainly appreciate he was a straight shooter um loved the county and the Veterans Affairs we were able to get the veteran service office open that was very important because there's a lot of vs that simply and my dad was one that's how I know that don't know their benefits yeah don't know what they're entitled to and that was a vitally important thing was to get that office open exactly exactly so uh Kudos your dad he lived a great life and I knew him since I was about 178 so that's been a long long time I remember when he first ran 7 4 okay and he lost he was the only one that lost that particular year okay and the very next year he came back and won and he kept on winning from there so it was it's great legacy and he served the county extremely well so I was a young patrolman when he first started okay brought the county into the new century really yeah we could wait for the traffic signal toix signs be reped or whatever we l him he Lov the county thank you thank you so much for being here great appreciate it thanks we have resolution 200 resolution declaring the week of April 21st to April 27 2024 as National Crime Victims rights week in Atlanta County and recognizing and supporting assistance to victim of crime sponsored morning second by uh commissioner da any comments from the commission seeing hearing none any uh from anything from the public welcome prosecutor thank you appreciate and this was requested by the prosecutor yes so before I get to the uh National Crime Victims rights week uh two things I like to do one is acknowledge Mr Squires and his passing uh I met Mr Squires when I was 12 years old at the CL Construction shop on y Avenue in Atlantic City with my father and Eddie fine and uh I think the stories that I've heard Peg who the who the guy was he really cared about our County uh in fact one of the employees that from the staff from our office Christy garders in the victim witness uh unit that's here with us today she actually made a mention of Mr Squires in a meeting that we had when we were talking about uh the prerogative that we took to get the street lights turned on Atlantic City and she said when we did that together that reminded Remer of of uh Mr Squire so it's uh a great legacy that he's left behind I just wanted to acknowledge that I felt remiss if I didn't say something uh secondly I appreciate the opportunity to come for all of you I want to introduce the uh staff members that I brought with me today I have the director of victim witness advocacy uh Patricia Hayek she's over in the corner there and then her uh her second Christy Gardner who I just reference who brought Mr Squires uh also in the back of the room all you guys come forward so you can see you is uh Captain Tom finan uh Tom's a Brigantine guy Holy Spirit father's club uh Elizabeth Anne seatan with uh Mr Ferguson myself and uh spent most of his career in major crimes and now he is a captain in our special Victims Unit and also with Tom is Ryan Ripley who's a sergeant Ryan spent what about 10 years on the FBI task force yes sir yep 10 years on the FBI task force he's now a sergeant in the Special Victims Unit and uh when it comes to uh addressing those type of cases you know children women people with special needs and disabilities and uh our veterans those those two uh have been Aces uh both of which actually everyone that's here with me has been promoted under our Administration I'm surrounded by uh true uh dedicated committed professionals to Public Service I'm I'm blessed to have them with me thank you um one of the things that I really like to do is put perspective on what our role is and uh sometimes I have to remind myself what my role is as the uh chief law enforcement officer of the county and one of the things that we did Upon Our Administration taking over is let's focus on what is the actual mission statement of the Atlanta County prosecut office so for the purpose of not only sharing with all of you as a message to not only your constituents but the public that's watching I going to take the liberty of reading the mission statement because I I think it falls right in line with what national crime victim right week is so mission statement Atlanta County prosecutor's office by the way we created these for every single person in the uh in the organization and myself and Mr Bergman and my secretary seal went to each person in the organization and personally handed them and ask them to display it promptly on their desk to remind us every day why we show up to do this job so the mission statement reads to provide professional leadership and guidance through the coordination of law enforcement resources to safeguard and protect the citizens by detection arrest prosecution and conviction of criminal offenders so National victim crimes right week protect the citizens our role as the prosecutor's office is to protect all citizens right regardless of race gender Creed religion culture language color of their skin doesn't matter our job is to protect all citizens and one of the things that we take most serious is that if there is information that's provided to our office we're going to act upon it regardless of who it is and one of the things that I really pride myself on is making difficult decisions and know uh County uh administrator Mr Del Rosso and County councel Mr Ferguson have indicated on numerous occasions in our conversations that we've held a high standard since we've been in the office that we resolve things prompt and efficiently and fairly without due regard for any bias or uh favoritism right and everything that we do has been to further this mission to serve not only the people but also to serve the county and to make sure that we Safeguard The Entity the organization the county I know we resolved many employment issues without litigation that probably could have been resolved with litigation but the handling that we got with County Council and count administrator to make sure that we Safeguard and protected you know the rights of not only the employee or the now the ex-employee but the agency and the organization on the county so with that being said uh April 21st to April 27 is National Crime Victims rights week I'm also proud to announce that our director of victim witness Advocate has been selected by the Attorney General we just got uh notice of that this week that she's receiving the endurance award and we're going up together next Friday and I'm going to have the opportunity because I nominated uh Trish for that award and she was selected I'm going to be able to have the opportunity to introd introduce her and her great career that spans uh what 22 23 years 25 years next 25 years next week and the endurance award has nothing to do with about the amount of time that Trisha spent in the office but it's about the quality of work that she's done the service victims that we service in our office and I'll tell you uh this goes so near and dear to my heart that in January I personally took over the uh the supervision administration of the victim uh witness witness advocacy unit myself uh it's so important uh it's underst staff it's underfunded it's funded only through grants to the Attorney General's office we literally deal with 20,000 30,000 uh victims of crime per year then the stats are astronomical and I can tell you on their past administrations where where especially the lower level crimes were not being prosecuted and were being remanded they were punching bags they were the ones who would get the phone calls and say why is this case not being prosecuted was one of the things that we took into consideration on their our Administration and why we were Prosecuting those cases because every victim matters every victim matters and that's one of the things that we really pride ourselves on so uh the week is April 21 to 27 we're actually having a a victim of crime resource fair at the County office building on April 23rd from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. and I'd ask that all of you share that with your constituents we're going to have uh social service providers and uh and other agencies that deal with victims of crime including obviously our office is spearheading it and we're having some private Ceremonies for victims of crime and victim survivors of crime that we're bringing to the office and we're going to honor them for their uh really their their ability to stay steadfast over the course of years to be engaged in the case and make sure that the person who does commit that crime does pay the piper right and and actually face justice so we've been very blessed to do that in closing uh this is my message for everybody who's listening at home for the general public and you can take back to your constituents two words for people that uh become victims of crime here in L County number one we hope that they are able to not only survive right and even sometimes the secondary trauma right the being revictimized when they actually are are exposed to have to go through that trial or go through that investigation where they're revictimized over and over and over again right where we are there for them we not only hope that they survive but they Thrive and become a a you know a a member of the community that's proud that we represented them and represented their interests that's number one number two I want the community to have faith faith that if you your family member your friend your relative is a victim of crime know that our office will be there for you regardless of whatever the consequence may be we are going to stand by you we will investigate it we will run down every lead and we will absolutely prosecute when appropriate to the fullest extent of the law and we want every single person to know that there is no mincing in my words that we will do that regardless of who the person is on the other side of that case so I thank you so much for your time and I appreciate it do you have a for that out we can that as well and thank you all you do we're take out awesome thank you so much I I I I appreciate the uh consideration and the time if you can't tell I'm passionate about this right we we're living it every day and uh you know when I when I see the work that the team in this office has done and what they contributed to this community and we've been in the office together for 22 months feels like it's been about 22 years right but we're we're doing it for the purpose of letting people know we care people have to know that we care yeah thank you no thank you this is very very important you know to our our constituents throughout the county so thank you for caring and being there we actually have a um an event at that not even meeting at our hotel today and uh it's um the crime uh Crime Victims they have to all the dogs all the canines which is very very interesting to watch this with there's so many different kind of dogs but they're they're um trained for comfort and to uh like I know one of them like a victim of Brave this dog good size dog too would just get up in bed andur emotional support dogs yeah yeah yeah I mean some big dogs some but they're all you know wonderfully trained and greats too so um on that note uh Trish and I both shot public service announcements for this National crime victim rights week and I know one of the the takes that she had actually had some dogs in the upper corner they were messing around in the office making fun of me soever get more likes than the actual one thank you for that pleas thank you we'll have a roll call bastino yes Burns yes St yes G Parker yes rley yes turn yes motion carries Trish you're receiving the thank you partnership you guys are perfect you got 1 three one two three thank you so much oh yeah thank you thank you so much a good thanks guys appreciate your time how about you just move those seats put yourself in the corter I can em to I sorry any on road County Route 561 alternate in the township of gilee final reading by commission Day seconded by commissioner ballot any comments anything from the public alaso yes Burns yes stay yes g g Parker yes Grizzly yes F yes motion carries brings us to ordinance three for the final as well ordinance amending county code chapter 97 entitled Parks concerning alcohol use and special events involving alcohol within I'm sorry is that what it is within Atlanta County Park final reading second commission Parker second by commissioner days any comments from our commissioner seeing hearing none anything from the public okay have roll call palas Cino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 174 resolution determining the form and other details of not to exceed $1,115 th000 General obligation bonds of the county of Atlantic state of New Jersey and providing for its sale of the New Jersey infrastructure Bank pursuant to the New Jersey Transportation infrastructure Bank financing program move second move by commission rley seconded by commissioner Burns any commissioner comments M CH B yeah I just have one um in reading the backup information it said that there was public hearings on this and we reviewed it does anybody know about that this is uh I do know it's the ventner lone for Margate um like accessible curbs drainage and traffic lights Jerry yes that's it yes that that was the essence of the program we we explained it to the budget subcommittee we the I Bank individually ran the the I Bank came down made a presentation to us about the financing and Bonnie's here she she met with uh or on Council and financial advisor yesterday to go over you know how how this will work you know in terms of we we've done the project I'm pretty sure we we've done most of the final uh pieces of of that project Rene's on she can tell if there's anything left but so the financing now this 12 this $12 million B's going through now how how the financing will work and yes we had to do public hearing and we we did that that was back I think when John Peterson was and Mark schs were still the you know working for the county we did that and you had to vote on on Project be a long time yeah it was okay thank you any other commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public roll Alice yeso yes Burns yes B yes G yes Parker yes rley yes F yes motion carries that bring this grants for today with resolution 175 Grant application acceptance from the New Jersey Transit Corporation through the Corona virus response and relief supplemental appropriation Act and the American Rescue plan act for the 2022 section 5310 grant funding amount not to exceed $81,400 please Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Office of the Attorney General for the federal fiscal year 23 stop violence against women act funded amount $745 County inine match $256 by commission by n Alo yes Burns yes B yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes yes motion carries resolution 177 for application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Office of the Attorney General for the federal fiscal year 23 victims of crime act funded amount $692,500 396 sh move second move by commissioner rley second by commissioner D any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public we have call Alo yes burs yes s yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes yes motion Carri resolution 178 adopting New Jersey Department of Transportation contractor pre-qualification class codes as a County's own pre-qualification regulations for all public works construction contracts valued at more than $5 million second move by commissioner T second by commissioner rley any commissioner comments we're GNA have expain yes yes Rene yes we had the public hearing today so we hel the public hearing today Renee fa our department head for planning and Engineering we we'll go through that you there hi yes I'm here um good afternoon this resolution applies to a particular subset of the County's Transportation projects through uh for the New Jersey administrative code for all projects that are funded in whole or in part through the state aid program um each bidder on a Construction contract that's valued at more than $5 million has to be pre-qualified by a DOT so over the years we and other Counties have met that requirement ensuring that contractors on our state projects in excess of $5 million are on that NJ doot pre-qualified list um an issue arose last year where one of our Northern counties um the Office of the State Controller basically flagged one of their Pro projects and said counties can't just use the Dot's pre-qualification list you have to go through a process to formally adopt the nj's pre-qualification class codes um for your own project and then obtain approval from the division of local government services so that process requires a public hearing and an authorizing resolution which is what you're considering today um as Jerry mentioned the hearing was held today at 2:00 in the commissioner's meeting room um it was um publicly advertised but no public attended and following commissioner action today will take all of the documentation um of the hearing the notices and the resolution and we'll send that to local government services for approval to use the NJ do pre-qualified list I don't see any questions comments questions any from the public okay hearing none we have roll call basino yes Burns yes J yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries thank you for being here for that um information explaining this um uh resolution 179 amending resolution number 586 adopted on November 14 2023 a grant from the New Jersey Division of mental health and Addiction Services for the county opioid epidemic Innovation Grant net increase $2,212 second move by commissioner Parker seconded by commissioner Burns any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public okay we'll have a roll call Alo yes Burns yes C yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries resolution 180 amending resolution number 419 adopted on August 15 2023 a grant from the New Jersey Association of County and City Health officials to support continued covid-19 response and enhance local Health Department infrastructure to extend the term date Mount not to exceed 2,466 412 second Mo by commissioner B second by commissioner da any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public call palas yes Latino yes Burns yes C yes G yes clker yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries resolution 180 amending resolution number 61 adopted on February 20th 2024 a grant from the United States Department of Justice through the state of New Jersey Department of Law and public safety for the Edward burn Memorial Justice Grant to adjust a salary funded amount $793,000 see n Dallas yes fortino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes yes motion Carri resolution 182 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs through the local efficiency achievement program to enhance the Sheriff's Office K9 unit funded amount $122,500 County cash match 37,00 $500 move second move by commissioner Burns seconded by commissioner Parker any comments from the Commissioners sh and our unders sheriff is here Mario would you like to make any comments on this no I was waiting for the sheriff he was going to make a comment but you guys can go yeah when he get is he going to be here shortly okay late okay any comments from the public seeing hearing none uh roll call Al yeso yes Burns yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries Professional Service agreements with resolution 183 amending resolution number 626 adopted on November 21st 2023 a Professional Services agreement with angels in motion NJ to provide addiction recovery service services that increased $2,212 move second move by commissioner B seconded by commissioner Burns any commissioner coms see hearing none anything from the public palas yes patino yes FNS yes da yes G yes clker yes rizley yes K yes motion carries resolution 184 amending resolution number 7 2018 adopt on December 19th 2023 an alternate method contract with traffy software Group Incorporated doing business as trip spark Technologies to provide software maintenance to the transportation unit that increase $30 by commissioner D second by commissioner Parker any commissioner comments amazing just eat the $30 any comments from the public D hearing none call Bas bino yes Burns yes St yes G yes clker yes rizley yes sh yes motion Carri resolution 185 inter local agreement with the Atlanta County approvement authority to provide bidding and construction management services at for the Still Water complex payement restoration phase three Mount out exceed 1,143 move second move by commissioner grizley seconded by commissioner B any your comments hearing none anything from the public bastino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carry resolution 186 resolution number 569 adopted on October 17th 2023 and Inter local agreement with the Atlantic County Improvement authority to bid and manage Community Development block grant funds for Ada improvements to the Hamilton Library net increase $ 56,600 second look like Mr par second Dave any comments he not from the public baso yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes km yes motion carries resolution 187 amending resolution number 529 adopted on September 19 2023 a shared services agreement with Ocean County to Place Atlanta County Youth at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center net increase 9,125 second by commissioner B second by commissioner rley any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public B yeso yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries resolution 188 inter local agreement with the Atlanta County Improvement authority to bid and manage construction of the Interior renovations to the Atlanta County Animal Shelter amount that to exceed $32,000 second by commissioner bur by commissioner da any commissioner comments just have well uh there was a we had a we have an inspection um safety inspection through our risk manager and and Perma who is is you know is uh through our Jo Insurance Fund so let Chris tell you exactly what they're going to do but they had to deal with um the noise that that that's created in the facility Chris you there yeah can you hear me we can can hear you now okay so there's a noise issue that we're having inside the kennel units so we're going to put sound of tenation blankets on the exterior walls and we're going to put a uh sound drop ceilings in there now in order to do that we have to adjust all the electrical and all the hbac has to be brought down from the ceilings to a lower level the purpose of everything is to reduce the sound that's inside the Cs now this is going to be very very involved project yeah and we think it's it can be completed with 32,000 that's the construction management portion how about bar cers we get more col instead it's the uh but it's actually for protection of the tech so Cherry this is the result of an inspection how often has this beened why has this never been mentioned before I I probably they didn't they probably have not gotten probably the new level that they are right now that's probably what it is because we've been we go there every year the risk manager is in there every she goes every single building every year how the noise level was it when they were there this time and plus we we also have now through the joint Insurance Fund we have another agency called Perma so they they go in and they do a pretty a pretty good safety inspection on every building the anim shelter more in the past we just have more active anims or it's a b day there more animals in here moon was the eclipse there are no no there are many more animals ironically I had to call out there today for something and they are yeah well just I mean I I won get into but but there have been a number of U situations that the prosecutor has you know interceded in and so therefore they they've had a lot of dogs that they've had to take possession of and so we we are the the supposedly shelter for those those animals any other cheaper just add might be cheaper just to add on take I mean if you add on if if you had to add on today you'd have to added on today after what what we've gone through we would have to probably you know the design would be much different different than it was I mean Chris will tell you he's he he's he's very knowledgeable Chris why don't you do you know the metal building whatever okay okay very uh any comments on the public Al yeso yes yes G Parker yes BRZ yes yes motion Carri um I do see our Sheriff here now so before we go into resolution 189 you'd like any comments on our previous uh resolution Madam chairman and the Board of Commissioners I'd like to thank you for this um help that the sheriff's department needs this dog will supply a second bomb dog that's utilized for our schools or any Gathering to include religious facilities it's been a tremendous amount of calls that we've had from other police agencies to assist with the bomb dog we have one but as you know we have 23 municipalities recently we were called out of County to assist Franklin Township and unfortunately we didn't have the dog to send this happens a lot now this is of no cost to the taxpayers about $2,000 I believe and the rest comes from within our budget and from a Federal grant that was obtained we appreci appreciate the cooperation this is a community uh Builder and the dog is used for strictly bombs we will have the training completed the sheriff's department is ready willing and able to bring this forward and we will check all buildings including our County buildings and Facilities to make sure that everybody's safe and secure these are troubling times and we want to be ahead of the game this will give us the upper hand and give us the ability to give everybody the service that should be given to our citizenry and I wanted to run down here after work and thank you for your support on this matter because it's greatly needed and I'll take any questions if the board has any uh I think it's 37,500 by the way yes ma'am it is it's 37 but I understand it comes out of General budget issues that we might have so yeah and as I mentioned last evening at an event you know we were at um I saw the need for that dog you know recently in Summer's point where there was a home that they went into on it was narcotics and as they went into the home they found 82 Firearms some of which were loaded and they also found chemicals that they can make bombs with and other things throughout their home so they had to leave and wait for a dog so that's that's protecting the neighborhood uh it protects the officers that have to go in there uh but they handled it they were there for quite some time and uh there's a great need for these dogs it's explosives that we well there is and recently we've been called as you know to egg har Township school systems and other school systems when they had these bomb threats and these terrorist threats so we have to make sure that our most valuable children are protected that's above all and certainly our County buildings so we want to make sure that Frank bis is protected in here as well and uh every body else listen I I just wanted to thank you for your support as we always need that but we want the citizens to know that it's well spent that will come to Great use and it protects our most valuable assets as I said our children right as you mentioned also you know 23 municipalities yes ma'am schools uh our buildings and you know I'm sure I'm missing a few our court buildings this building all the county buildings and um not to mention the County Municipal Court building that has had some issues some threats uh that are viable came through on a federal level so we want to make sure everybody's safe as we can be and we use them as we also have utilized them for drug confiscation vehicle checks and as you eloquently advised for firearms we have a big problem with that so that's what we're working on we work in conjunction with all police agencies and when they call we come no matter what what time what day thank you Sheriff thank you mff sir you're not out of the hot word yet sir wouldn't be the first time my friend I just I just have one simple question is sure with the addition of of this dog does that bring your department to a sufficient status or is that enough right to handle the job or are we still are we moving in the right direction is we moving in the right direction we are in a process of hiring five new employees to fill five vacancies that we have and as you know that's an arduous process because take a look folks look at our culture and Society now there's a reason that people don't want to do policing anymore they feel for a lack of a better term unwanted and that is not the case we had an officer in Galloway that was cut very severely in the face the other night answering a 911 hang-up call this is now and without public support we can't do this job we need our public to support us as well as our commission board and our public officials but more importantly we need public support we need to know that you want us to be here want us to do the job none of us come on this job with intent to do anything other than to protect and to serve and those who do are quickly weeded out as Frank he weeded a few out so he knows he was our P sheriff and we do great painstaking investigation which takes weeks to make sure these officers are qualified and ready for this job so I can assure you we are doing the same we've continued what Frank bis left in that aspect and we will continue to do so and I just want you to know we need you to one US hope do yes we appreciate you I know commission what is what is that level like what how many dogs do we need how many employes do we need where what is where what is that level where you feel the department is fully staed en able to respond to what we're saying out here and you don't have to answer now you don't have to answer that I don't want you to you know just come up with an answer I'm just saying and moving forward how do we have that ongoing proactive conversation so that it w we're not waiting for situation we have dialogue right we the sheriff has to appear here and explain to both you and the public what the need is and if you're willing to help us do that and accomplish that goal and if we can and it is it always comes down to finance that's the issue but first and foremost dedication the men and women of this department are very excited now overly dedicated they're staying and they're doing shifts you know we we have stocked in college which has been very vulnerable in its policing and we've had to support Stockton College both in Atlantic City and in Gala and these are our kids this is our future so without the policing there they're with everything going on they're vulnerable we have to try to help this was passed on from the last year we continue and the only way I can answer that is what we're called to do if you call us we'll come all we ask is that you give us the tools and the ability to do that job and we I promise you we'll be there you could see warrant list that we had it's published weekly we are executing warrants to include child support warrants and I've had people sometimes criticize that my answer to that is tell that to the victims of these heinous crimes that we shouldn't arrest people tell the people the children and the parent that they shouldn't get the child support to support their children if that warrant's issued we're going to execute it and that includes Municipal warrants so with having said that we're entering into new territory but it is so needed we were left with almost 7,000 County Warrants UNS surmising it's it's unrealistic not to think that we have to work hard but we're willing to do that and even Mario Suarez I have him out working at night he's not too happy wife called me she's not too happy either I'm sorry that's the job we took and uh we appreciate I want to say I want to thank the board as always especially to our prior Sheriff Frank B who always is willing to take my calls give us Direction and help us with our endeavors by the way it did pass I was called up thank you for that appreciate any other questions from it was actually Frank that said we should vote it down because you were late I just wanted you to know that he was a sickler for that so Sheriff um this is for $1 to I know it's two vehicles well and what's and how many dogs does this bring as you know we we have actually a vehicle that's in disrepair terribly it's not suitable and it doesn't meet what we need for our dog so we're alternating cars and doors and and interiors and things like that whatever we need to do and we're hoping with this amount of money that we can get two dogs trained and have the cars that we need or the equipment in the vehicles that we need to do that and I believe we will it's a substantial amount of money for for this project I don't know if you have the numbers in front of you but $2,000 yeah $112,000 plus the 37 so that'll you know and it'll mean a lot because the agency is very anxious to do this job I mean they they're going out all hours of the night our Canan officers have been called out tsed about at least every other day if not every day and when we have two calls we don't have the people to send so that's why we're requesting the assistance orders but like I said the Federal grant paid most of this and that's I think that's a good thing anybody else thank you so much thank you ma'am appreciate it thank you members of commission thank you folks okay that brings up resolution 189 the US contract with insurance agencies Incorporated to purchase a storage T pollution liability policy including terrorism coverage through crumb enforcer for the County's four above ground fuel storage tanks amount not to exceed $2,445 move second move by commissioner rley second by commissioner ball any commissioner comments hearing none anything from the public okay we have bastino yes Burns yes St yes G Parker yes grizley yes K yes motion carries ra resolution 190 resolution accepting the assignment of an agreement from the from WJ Castle PE and Associates PC to child's Engineering Corporation for the replacement of mossell Road culverts g108 and pr10 and to extend the term date no additional cost move second move by commissioner Parker second by commissioner days any commissioner comments yeah Jerry I mentioned this at the last Ros of bridges meeting and I knew that the I guess the previous um company have been purchased up right this is saying that we're exting the contract for 6 months you know I noted at the time that we're closing in on two years if these have been under development so I mean is there an update on the process is there any way we kind of I don't want to expedite I want it to be done correctly but I mean this is just delay after delay after delay for this yeah well soon as they put the beac in you there you hear that question yes yes I did um yeah we are uh we've been working to try to get this uh assignment for the last few months so uh that's kind of been part of the delay uh there's also some issues with the permitting which is uh causing us to have to change our design slightly um hopefully now that we have uh the assignment done we could get um the consultant out there working and uh move this along as quickly as possible are those environmental permits because there there's Wetlands on on either side obviously yeah it's Wetlands it's stream encroachment um we're also in a CA uh zone so uh you know there's several permits that uh needed to be looked at and um the original design had significant enouragement on Wetland so we are adjusting the one CS of that um we don't have as much issues you know I mean thankfully like I said again in the Ros of riches meeting we had a a fairly warm winter but previously you know we on that on that curve right there especially on mosow between Pitney and and oldport I would say it it was it was fairly dangerous situation and I know that's why that steel plate was put down but you know I mean if there's anything that can be done to kind of move this along before and hopefully we don't have a a cold winter but that that's a pretty dangerous curve right there yeah we'll uh we'll work on Expediting as best we can any other commissioner comments none anything from the public alas yeso yes Burns yes St yes Parker yes grizley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 191 amending resolution number 75 adopted on February 20 2024 an alternate method contract with health for the provision of medical treatment services rendered to the inmate population at the Atlanta County Justice Facility net increase $38,000 so second move by commissioner B seconded by commissioner Parker any commissioner comments see hearing none roll alas yes fortino yes Burns yes St yes Parker yes rley yes her yes motion carries at this time I'll entertain a motion to combine B and adopt resolutions number 192 to 195 there are appointments second move by commissioner Parker second by commissioner rley any commissioner comments being hearing none anything from public Callo yes burs yes yesy yes turn yes motion carries and I and again as we do the commissioner the Board of Commissioners thank these people that volunteer their you know for these boards and commissions okay um also now entertain a motion to combine and adopt resolution number 196 to 198 for roadway Madam chair I may have those for a second there did we vote on approving the last we voted to to uh bring them together but to be vote on their approval combin and adop com and adop combin and adop you we got uh mooved by commissioner Bell seconded by commissioner days any commissioner comments yes Burns yes St yes Parker yesy yes yes motion Carri that brings us to written commun ation and petitions uh any commissioner have any Rel none uh report to special Committees of the board any report to special Committees of the board M chair Comm Parker from the library committee I just wanted to report that the Ed caret Township H track and generated project should be completed at our last meeting it was close to near completion area think it's completed now yes the eggar town Library project with the HVAC and the generator okay and we also have the maze landing library will begin HVAC and Generator project so we're doing a lot of work on our libraries in in the county uh you know we've been receiving gold silver and bronze best of the press libraries here in our County for the last few years so we are making significant investments into our libraries which is a good thing also from the library uh the schedule change for 2024 just a little bit uh Lincoln we normally have Lincoln's birthday off we we did not have link they did not have Lincoln's birthday off but they're switching that for Black Friday so they'll have Black Friday off and they switch those two holidays I just wanted everyone to know that so Black Friday there the libraries will be closed in the county uh what else is there there is a amazing the library has a butterfly garden and they're asking for voluntary help for anyone out there in the public that would like to help out with the Butterfly Garden in maze Landing uh they're soliciting The public's help so reach out to maze landing library to help out there and there's some preliminary discussions about moving Summer's Point Library uh so I just want to put that out there starting now and Jerry I don't know if you wanted to go into that at all but I just wanted to mention it for the conversations have begun about possibly moving that library to another location in Su point and I believe the new location they wasn't moving to or considering moving to is one of the old schools school buildings New York school one of the challenges that we spoke about in committee was the building itself you know School building is not exactly you know if you look at the interior of a school it's classroom pleas and that's not exactly the the the structure that you want for a library so I don't know there may be some challenges in terms of that but you know to be continue that's going to be discussed El can I say something on that real quick so in um lywood is a former school and as you know our libraries have become community centers so it could in advantage to the Summers Point Library where a lot of people want meeting rooms your sports organizations meet there um technology rooms right now so keep that in mind absolutely one thing I did want to ask Jerry U Madam chair through you to Jerry it came up again there was a reduction in the the reduced rate due to the leap year for our employees of the library and they were waiting for some sort of response from Administration to just and and the library Administration to your uh to that point they said they knew but I think the employees were looking for something so that they can have a little bit of Peace of Mind from from our office to explain to them why because they were getting Less in their check that's all they saw there was their check was was was reduced and so they needed some sort of explanation of how the Le gear impacted their pay and then we we're having a meeting about internally and then we'll we'll give them something you know more more concrete got it thank you education and schools committee we met if I can switch over since I still have microphone we met with Insight um that's a provider they they claim to be the largest provider of psychiatric care South in South Jersey that's their claim that's not mine that's comes from them they want to put uh proposing to to uh I guess Jer would you like to talk about it a little bit more or just insight insight as a number of school they tell us that they have 200 schools in in New Jersey they provide uh typically for schools um ability to do virtual counseling or virtual uh or psychiatric review uh they also then follow up with the school district and and that kids the child and and their families uh they they came to us there is a question on the table is to whether or not you can recreate a psychiatric Intervention Program in the center part of the of the uh County we we discussed this with the present provider of of pip it's called pip psychiatric intervention program atantic care they have been to the state the state will not allow another pit in the county so we presently are looking at other services to provide in the western or the center part of the county so Insight wants to be part of that uh uh for the provision of the services they want to provide whatever it is we finally come up with so we are having those conversations is actually what what it is we will attempt to do so spoken to uh Leslie white Cory um and we've spoken with at landare we're going to set up a meeting to determine exactly what it is is we can't set up another pit what it is we can do and then and then obviously Insight would could be potentially part of that service foration Madam chair he did such a great job that that ends my report okay thank you very much for your report uh M yeah from uh the veterans of Advisory board so Saturday um myself and about eight or nine members and some spouses of the veterans Advisory board members um went out to the bowling Cemetery in Galloway the historic cemetery and replaced um I would say 90% of the the Ric rails that were there um it was funded by a few donations that Don walls a member of the veterans Advisory Board um got down to the tun of about yes it was around $700 for the rails and a couple posts actually need some more posts but um but those only had three so um contacted Jerry and the county came and picked up all the the discarded material that old rails and stuff like that that were there um so it was U it was really nice good good gathering for the the Veterans Advisor board members to go out and and do something you know in the community and po po veterans um as you know it's a historic um Cemetery um one thing that we that was very prevalent there and I don't know if the county did it or who did it but somebody went out then and cleaned all of the the gravestones that were there um you know they were all moldy and dirty hardly read you know what's on them and and these are gravestones that are from the late 1800s early 19 hundreds and somebody went out and cleaned them all was very noticeable to the veterans that go there all the time and see it was the county thank you but it wasn't we don't it thank you anyway exactly whoever did it thank you commission B you're always so good at finding these projects and getting in and working hard to get them done me that so thank you for all that uh any other special reports ined okay uh and The Unfinished Business mam chair I got two items Jerry where are we on the uh centralized dispatch report we have that yet no they're they're having their meetings right now they they met with the still in development yes right yes one question and the second thing in my mind was for our engineer for Doug uh there was a a broken pipe that closed the road going to the Port Republic bridge I'm just wondering if that's been resolved yet yeah the uh the pipe has been repaired the RO is back good good okay thank you very much un finish business Jerry um any updates on the study they're doing on the Rehabilitation C the new Regional Jail the only update we have is we've submitted all our material they ask for some some additional material from us and the courts are are preparing their piece the the jail is prepared their pieces already submitted and we're just waiting for the jail to give us the rest of that once they get all the material then they're going to hold a meeting I think there is a meeting in May sometime to tell us what the results of all the uh the data that they have with what they what they're looking at that that's okay so stole the data collection anal yes any other unfished business hearing none any new business hearing none anyone attending in person we going into public comments uh that would like to speak now public comment please come to the podium speak into the microphone state your name and the town you reside if you are attending virtually you would like to make a public comment please raise your hand I will call upon your name and request uh to unmute will be sent please state your name and the time you reside you will provide it up to 3 minutes to speak and that's that we do that to allow as many people that you know can speak do we have anybody in public my name is Jared Lombardi I reside in N Harbor Township on the social worker servicing the Atlant County area today I will be asking questions regarding the opioid settlement fund that was handed out to New Jersey in particular Atlanta County where do you plan to allocate doio the bait fund for 2024 um Gary I think all these going to be you do you want to do you want them go one by one oh it's I want to the time constraint so I have Fenty so where do you plan to allocate the opio abatement funds in 2024 where were the funds allocated in 2023 and were there funds allocated in 2022 there were no funds uh allocated in 2022 County Executive put a committee together there roughly 45 um agent genes represented the the agencies represented for the most part all could apply for the settlement funds so we we decided to put together a task force of individuals involved in the field but who could not apply for the funding so that we didn't have any conflicts of interest when we were deliberating um in 2023 we funded a program called the bridge uh that it's program with Atlanticare actually the so let's go back the committee itself the the members rounding 44 45 agencies requested proposals from the community so that we could get some money out on the street we had five proposals they voted on we we had we have five subcommittees of that large committee they reviewed and voted on the bridge program from at landare they thought that was the best proposal we had five five all talk that was funded that is funded until the end of 2024 in the meantime we decided uh we put this a 15 member task force together to do a survey of the community and and we did that recently I I don't know if you saw that it was on our you know website and we sent out information to you know the all the agencies in the community that that deal in mental health and or opio usage and we have the results now we're waiting for the recommendations from the from the company who actually did the work force it's called Triad waiting for those recommendations we've set up the task force meeting the recommendations we've been told by Triad we we'll get them before the end of April we'll submit them to the the task force they will look at the the results we will then give the results to the large committee that 45 member committee and from there we'll decide on where where the money should be going starting in 2024 you know going forward and May I've seen the results but I don't have the recommendations yet but I mean they have things you know like uh uh education uh sober living uh uh dual diagnosed individuals you know they call occurring whatever language you're using today so those are the kinds of things that that that were were in the survey that's why we're waiting to see what those results are correct okay thank you for that information now when it comes to multiple agencies who serve multiple clients and do not charge there was no money allocated to those nonprofits organizations during the 2023 Aid abatement funds looking at Angels In Motion looking at Hope exists and looking at South Jersey AIDS Alliance who served a th000 clients during that year no money was ever received now you look over to the agencies that charge Atlanticare in particular if you look at the opioid de batement fund you'll be able to see that $1.2 million was given to Atlanticare for this opio abatement fund now are we focused on Atlantic City or are we focused on Atlantic County oh it's Atlantic County okay it's it's atanta County I'm only saying that the the five proposals that we received again the committee uh the 45 member committee put together five subcommittees and those projects were all reviewed by those five committees that was the only project that they wanted to fund so it's not like we we we didn't look but I I can tell you this I mean there's been lots of discussions about where the money should go and hopefully after this survey you know some recommendations come to us and go back to the the Committees we we'll have a better Direction on should heads up thank you now before the money was distributed did you reach out to other municipalities who also received funds asking them what they planned to use their money for so we didn't overlap yeah yeah we did I had conversations with all the administrators I think of the I think there are seven towns with more than 10,000 people I think that that's the the criteria that you get opioid funding only only two said they wanted to participate with us so they I I believe each one of them have has a member on either the larger committee or the task force so but they they want to support both of those towns want to support whatever the when I say the county I'm not saying County government it's the Committees that the county has so whatever those committees are going to recommend to the county to go out for rfps or Andor competitive contracts they will support those projects two two of the seven what about the towns that had less than 10,000 residents did we look into a stien that could be offered for um their rescue squads that that that hasn't come up yet I mean you're recommending and I'll write that down that that has not come up yet I can be honest with one of the discussion did come up was was that whole issue with noran buying noran and then Distributing it to the rescue squats I mean that that has that was a recommendation from thearer committee I don't know if you know Chuck y uh Mr Yol is the president I think of the Galloway uh EMS service so he he he sits on that committee so and he's I believe he's also on the task force so that that has come up and that that will probably be you know one of the recommendations probably out of the survey that was done because that that has come up in the S of mar distribution now in 2023 with the abatement fund are you able to tell me how many clients attic care processed with the fund the last ISO was around 22 23 since June correct correct yes and with the $1.2 million that gave 1.2 million how much were they I I believe the contract was $266,000 so and you a batement funds when looking it up on nj.gov is that a mistake on their end that's not that's not from us I'm not sure where where you would find ours we our County Treasurer has to submit to a to a separate entity you know where those funds go so I'm not sure they're showing up necessarily showing up on the state yeah yeah so when it says to Atlanta care signing off it says please tell us the full amount of opioid abatement funds you received on June 30th 2023 1,215 18272 3 that's not necessarily much as an example if you if you look at today's agenda your opioid funding doesn't come from the county it comes from the state you have to understand the state has state has a lot of money I mean the the way the way the opioid funding came into newers was the all the entities were represented by legal firms the the head of the legal firm representing the counties and The state lawyers decided how how could we as a state get the most money the decision was made that all of the subunits meaning counties and the municipalities that the 10,000 or more would all agree that we would sign off on an agreement that we would we would we would jointly work with each other by doing that the state got more money and and the decision was the state would give all the counties and municipalities 50% of whatever came into the state of New Jersey so they have I I do do know they have a lot of money and they have been Distributing those dollars as as they as you see today that those dollars I think in two of the resolutions there was opioid funding came directly from the state not from L County okay thank you for your time thank you anybody else from the public like to speak an H Philips FR I'm reading the short letter I sent the chair last month with the request that she shared with the board during the winter of 2023 the board passed a resolution supporting a moratorium on a ocean testing for the offshore wind projects until a connection between it and the numerous number of whale deaths was or was not determined since then the board has been silent regarding the industrialization of our Coast with these monstrous structures bad has cancelled its ocean wind projects that's good news but this is no time for complain the governor keeps pushing on his quote unquote green agenda Atlantic Shores has expanded its plans and the state has approved two new projects local citizens groups and some Coastal governments have organized and come together in opposition such as dbb and the down Beach Alliance they get the facts inform the public have fundraising and they're using the law and the courts to fight back however Atlantic County government continues to be silent a nonparticipant in these efforts to protect our environment our economy our pocket books and our way of life why the claims that these so-called clean intrusions into and on our ocean help that they help our climate are false raid payers SL taxpayers will be the victims not the beneficiaries of this massive assault on our area by those with motives other than our and our country's best interests now here I'm just going to add something that uh I read just recently from The Wall Street Journal the April 12th editorial quote by our calculations electricity prices have increased 13 times faster under Mr B that across the previous seven years his policies aren't entirely to blame but most of it is a result of the left's climate agenda such as these offshore wind turbines in New Jersey and the price increases will get worse I ask that you excuse me as our Representatives do a thorough study individually and as a board of this very important issue take a position and vote on it and make clear to the public what that position is thank you anybody hi and thank you for your time today uh it was an honor to be here today to listen to the sheriff talking about our Public Safety I am Brooks Garrison I'm resident bring team I'm also a member of Def fend Brigantine Beach and I'm here today to talk about the economic impact to Atlanta County uh you all have received emails from def fend bring tetin Beach Dr Susan Moore and today I hand out to you a couple of the uh documents from that overall study and that document I think it's very important the first understand the scope of the project which is what uh the first page summarizes which is between Atlantic Shores and ocean wi um oread there are 566 proposed within the uh 9 miles and 15 Mi offshore that are within of the visual area but that's all also of course the prime fishing ground area there's a total of 1,800 proposed 6,400 miles of high voltage Electric magnetic cables to be installed all trenched in all supported the Atlantic Shores build uh project I'm an architect in New Jersey one of the things that's interesting the Atlantic Shore build project proposes 1.4 acres of stone around every single pilot every single wind turbine that will completely change predation and the natural sea Flor which will have a massive economic impact the economic impact in Atlanta county is not good news uh in the document that was handed out are the sources from the Department of Labor and statistics new jersey.gov um and the Atlantic county.org all showing the trending in Atlantic County economically down from 2000 to 2021 on the latest statistics economic Trend includes the casino revenues which are substantially down because of course the online gambling the casino business is a keystone of the industry here in South Jersey especially in Brigantine l City and down Beach communities that we represent very concerned about those jobs and we know that the other side continues to talk about jobs and the economic benefit and the environmental impact again the facts are on defend brigant beach.org our website that have all of these studies and impacts on them the concern is the economic impact in Atlantic County summarized in this report from the public information all trending down when you compare that to the K May County Economic Trend which is up substantially there's a significant difference in risk for residents here in Atlantic County Our concern again is for our Board of commission to take action to try to mitigate the forecasted risk we know the trends we have the facts and we summarize it in here again offshore wind is neither clean nor jobs for New Jersey and we're concerned about both thank you for your time for a little diagram Meera I think you want to be right here get it back you good I tried to be helpful my name is Sher leld and I reside in Margate following up on what Brook said um the whole idea of these wind turbines is it's supposed to save the environment they're green they're clean and if you read the government reports the bone reports Bureau of o otion energy management their 4,000 page report and you read it one of the quotes in there is overall it is anticipated that there will be no Collective impact on global warming as a result of offshore wind projects okay these are their words this is their research and also their studies and their data don't even include the fact that these are manufactured in other countries a lot of them in China with steel and composite materials which are very ungreen processes to make them they have to be put on diesel boats they are then shipped here they're put together each wind turbine uses 187 gallons of Grease 40 gallons of hydraulic oil 106 gallons of pure oil 1585 gallons of dialectric flid I can go on and on about and I'm not even talking about the substations that use grease fuels lubricants and they're unreliable and they need backup energy which are fossil fuels my point is is they're not green so the whole benefit the whole premise Behind These wind turbines is a excuse me for a lie I was going to say something else but um they're not green but there's a whole bunch of negatives also in their reports that they talk about and they actually talk about the adverse effects of marine life our whole ecosystem is going to be destroyed I'm going to just read a few of these things to you ecosystem destruction fish industry decimation voting industry Ru loss of Tourism let's talk about Atlanta County our County depends on tourism when that goes our real estate values are going down small businesses are suffering I'm just saying there's no NE there's no positives that they and they say in their own reports there's all these negatives you talked about having a special committee I think you need a special committee who is going to take the time and understand this because it's complicated and I got to say everyone I talk to I I have a chemical engineering background and people would say what do you think of this I'm like I don't know I got to understand it better when I started reading their reports I started getting angrier and angrier it's all in there you have to take the time to read it you have to take the time to understand it all the people I've met through these organizations are incredibly intelligent successful people and they all said the same thing how did we not know that because the news says oh look we're saving the world with our win turbines it is a disaster please put a committee together do not approve anything do not let cables run through our our towns by the way those are EMF cables and they're very very unsafe and you don't want them around homes and parks and anything like that thank you very much thank you good job Madam chair Commissioners thank you for your time tonight and by the way Sher is a member of Margate uh Margate sustainability commission uh Committee in Margate yeah so um she is definitely all about being green um so a couple things though I just want just need your name oh sorry Margie real Margate thank you for the reminder um a couple of issues that I wanted to bring up are number one the National Security issues um that we Face these projects can interfere with the Coast Guard uh search and rescue missions radar the most sophisticated radar in the country um our satellites the turbines actually sound like submarines so when you know if if in fact there is a submarine coming at us getting ready to attack us we have no way to distinguish whether it's a wind turbine or a submarine um and then also there are some stated uh health issues wind turbine syndrome includes migraines ADHD in communities that have wind turbines nearby um the state and federal government and its agencies continue to refuse to admit any possibility that the mapping of the ocean floor contributes to Marine Mammal strandings and deaths um over the last 18 months there's at least a possibility of them contributing to the disorientation of our marine mammals that we've lost I don't know how many it is over the last 18 87 over the last 18 months um you know the mapping the sonar the noises the drilling can all lead to disorientation uh which affects their migratory P patterns their hunting their ability to um you know avoid ships so even even if it shows ship strikes or entanglements these can at least be caused by there's at least a possibility of it being caused by the mapping of the ocean floor in this drilling so I just ask you to please consider joining the fight against offsh wind um and as Sher said putting a committee together and researching you know all the stated facts and you know on both sides of the aisle I appreciate your time once again thank you very much for all you do than you hello my name is Jun um I'm actually a resident of Cumberland County but I have experience extensive experience working with um residents the most vulnerable populations of Atlanta County and I just have a few questions that I want to ask you guys um so I'm going to pose a question to you to ponder on while I um kind of tell you about my personal experience so I just want to know for 179 the amending resolution um for the division of mental health I want to know how you guys are going to use that money like what are you going to use it towards specifically how are you going to map that out and um so I would just like to talk about my experience working in Atlanticare specifically um I worked previously for a suicide prevention grant that was extremely successful but was not renewed um and therefore because of it people are suffering the suicide rates you know have increased especially since covid and this impacts the same thing with like the opioid it goes hand in hand um and of course course maternal mental health especially in women of color um so I just want to know how you guys plan to kind of address those issues with this money so our Public Health officer is on so car are you still on C drop off so the the money you see here are are dollars we're given to Public Health through our we have the subance abuse unit I don't know the particular Grant this is going to but but if you give me a second I'll go up and I'll ask our Public Health officer if you'd like to know that okay wa to move onbody also like within your unit and like among Commissioners how do you guys plan to um Advocate and care for the health mental health of the people that practice under your J well we we do have a public health you know a uh mental Advisory Board we also have the Public Health Board we work very closely with those boards they have some fabulous if you did the suicide you might be aware of some people on that Bo we have people from the state we have people from the county the state you know mental uh Health Association uh there's kayak if you're familiar with that so there's quite a bit going on with it and we are very very concerned there's a lot of um state and federal money being put towards St and we continue through that board going through all the rfps and looking for money biggest problem we have right now is people to work it's t to get people work right in that field absolutely because the the amount of money that they give the people to serve the job that they need to do is not enough because even the secondhand trauma that comes along with working with these vulnerable populations is Extreme it can be extreme and I completely agree with that something that I do believe as well because they they see that U you know throughout the state you see that they know that that's one of their biggest concerns awesome thank you so much you're welcome anybody else would like to speak M CH if I can just make a brief comment to that just earlier today you heard the education and schools committee talk about insight and part of what insight's going to be is to is to to fill in for students in those populations for our students who are suffering we don't have to send them to pick which you know that's not where they should be you know because there's so many other adult issues that you know they're dealing with inside of that facility so just to be able to move our children children that are dealing with these issues inside of our schools that's what Insight is all about coming as a third party to move it somewhere in the middle of the county say at carp City and have the children sent out there and then by doing so we'll the hope is that we'll be able to get them the service instead of sending them to pip where sometimes let's be honest nothing happens they go to pip and then it just it sits there and then nothing they never actually receive the services that they need so with with the investment that we're talking about when education and school side with Insight is hopefully the count is investing possibly investing money to hopefully help to get our school children the help that they need so that they can get the referral services they need we can hook them into whether it's Atlantic care or whoever whatever help they need we're going to be able to provide it to them you know in a better way than what we're providing it now so that's that's another level of something that we're working on okay thank you for sharing that absolutely why' you do me a favor you give me your name phone number and I'll I'll qu you myself tomorrow okay sounds good thank you yeah and thank you for what you do thank you for caring for that um there they're also um the state's also pushing a suicide um line that will go to youth because we're that's another huge concern especially after Co you know after pandemic and Co suicide the third leading calls in adolescent deaths now since Co started it's absolutely such a need and it goes hand in hand with the opioid epidemic so having that education in schools is huge because they have that resource and research has shown the amount of like how it can progress and um you know like give them the services that they need and cause less problems give them more access you know like having this equity and using the funds to allocate to really have that those services for like the need to support need that's to necessary so we did have a grant that um that we could use to publicize what we have available and what we're pushing and we're using that um you know through our Administration to get that information out if you leave your information or email it to uh Tara then um I'd be happy to you know keep you involved in some of commissioner Parker and myself are both teachers here in Atlanta County and um you know we had a had a very interesting discussion last week last week two weeks ago the mental health and I just know I see it firsthand that the schools don't have the resources that they need to provide the mental health and as you said it's increasing I see it in the classroom every day um I teach in Galloway Township they have a behavioral health specialist I think they look to add another one but they lost to State a I mean if the state really wants to help these students are in the in the they're there yeah I mean a lot of times they're safer in school than they are at home they're not going to get the help once they go home you know I see it all the time parents say oh yeah I'm I'm working on that no it may be that they are and the services aren't available outside but if they can actually reach these students when they're in school know had a healthy meal um that's something the state you may looking the funding specifically schools you know we get grants that have strs attached all the time use it for mental health of the students which includes opioid addictions and and obviously Suicide Prevention I mean that that's near and dear to my heart as well so you know that's just something to consider than you excuse me he want you to write name and phone number or email good afternoon good afternoon and um thank you for this opportunity um I just want to go back to the Opia settlement money settlement John Township excuse me you don't know who I am um almost 90 U I would say Almost 100% of the money so far has be has been spent on treatment and when we get to treatment sometimes that's that's we've crossed that line that we should have been on the other side of that line as far as prevention I I think that we should look more towards prevention um and you know Jerry brought up the the fact that towns that were under 10,000 population could not enter into that lawsuit there was no ability for them to get that any kind of that money but yet all them small towns do have schools and and they do have uh Church organizations they do have places that we could get into to do prevention and I I just want that to be aware of uh our moving forward with our task force and our ability to spend this money um numbers sometimes you know you can look at numbers on either side of it but the amount of money that an organization gets and and treats 22 people ridiculous not that those 22 people are not important because they are and and Atlanta care does a heck of a service for our community we have to look for the bank of the buck we have to look how can we enforce this how can we make this greater and use this money the way that it was intended you have to understand where this money is coming from this money is coming from the op epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people it is Our obligation to use this money wisely and when I when I speak I always end with the fact that we have to stop pulling people out of the river it comes a point in time and we have to go upstream and figure out why they're falling in the river so use this money wisely um and I'm sure that now the county is controlling this I'm sure that we can move forward and and we can get these organizations that are out there I mean uh you know Jared uh talked about uh South Georgia a lines well over a thousand people a year they they entertain as clients they don't charge the dime to these individuals you know so organizations are out there explore these organizations and and make this money do what it's intended to do thank you for your time thank you for being here and everything that you do on the behalf of this you know situation throughout in our County I know that you're very in this thank you anybody else would like to come forward anybody onine I'll go please think have to decide side I'm sorry hi very nervous um my name is Mary B gen um I reside in uh cville New Jersey so I came down from Inland today um I came down on part of Def fber Team Beach uh to discuss further for wom the situation um I wanted to just kind of uh touch based on the importance of this issue for everyone in this room um I understand that you know everybody has different political views they see this differently uh they think different things but what we know is that there's nothing good about this project nothing there are no redeeming qualities here H they do not reduce CO2 they are not going to help the ocean they are not going to do anything they say they're going to do they are not green that right is just a small example of what's going on our whales are dying our ocean is dying our beaches are dying we are going to die if we don't stand up and do something we have to do something here we come down and we beg and we plead and we hope that you as the board we go to the governor's office we go everywhere and we really really really hope that you are listening because we are talking we read the data we have the studies we are all educated people I'm sorry I'm a little emotional but we are we are Engineers We Are Scientists I am a nurse I actually managed to get my 17-year-old daughter to come down here today no small feet um we just we appreciate you listening to us we need your help we need to defend our ocean we need to save what is ours this is going to destroy everything the just the thought of having these to look at what they're doing foreign energy being control of us this is a national security issue this is a this is a resident issue this is a beach issue this is a Commerce issue this is a small business issue there is no issue this doesn't touch and none of it is good there are no redeeming qualities this is not a green deal for anyone except the green that is in there their pockets and it is not coming back to this state it is not coming back to us and it is not coming back to our kids there is not going to be an ocean for them and I cannot imagine saying to her saying to her children imagine we used to have these whales we used to have these Dolphins this is now a memory we're on Dolphin Lane in this building what's it going to say we memory of dolphin and I'm not trying to be overly emotional it's just in the last year I woke up in a nightmare I woke up in an absolute Nightmare and every day it doesn't get better it gets worse we just had the 16th whale in LBI wash up 16 in 16 months has anyone ever seen this the fishermen have never seen this no one has please listen to us and help us thank you hi my name is Tom Jones I live in Brion uh one of the original founders of defend Bri Team Beach I must apologize I've been out of the loop for a couple months traveling out of state I don't know where you stand on this issue but has the board of Atlanta County made a statement one way or the other we want turbines we do not want turbines what's the answer it let here from the no you've not made a statement why will you make a statement are you going to make a statement and if so when good job I can't tell you that okay that's a whole for decision so you know we get around there's a lot of information I do know we're paying very close attention to our state legislator as well as our Congress so there's a lot of information great information that you're giving us today and we do appreciate the fion you're welcome for that uh I do know we've been here before what was our first time how long's it been since year now it's been a full year and still no statement why that's crazy mean I I can tell you personally not speaking for for the Board of Commissioners that that I I I've attended all two of the meetings in in rig and teen I think the second one was by mayor Sarah I also recently attended a meeting in R and Teen um with mayor Sarah and and discussed I think he said there are some things in the works and um more details being worked out but I have I had read the B report I sponsor the resolution um Lally call for moratorium until more studies were conducted um so again I'm not speaking for the board I don't know where you know where you go in the future but I do know that I'm going to continue to stay in touch with mayor Sarah and rtin um and and you know see where where they're going I mean I know where they are now um but he told me that there are other meetings being held and and things that he was working on and that was probably three weeks ago or so I don't get to Point at you but I know uh commissioner Burns was there as well as far as I know Brigantine is one of 33 communities who requested that moratorium my fear is we're getting close to the time when the construction is supposed to start so the longer we delay the more it promotes them to continue with their plans I believe they need to be shut down yes flat out told we do not want turbines in our ocean right the sooner you can make your statement I believe the sooner more other communities will do the same and shut this whole thing down thank you for your time I have anybody else in the public that would like to come forward what okay um that ends our public sorry Charlene Natali from Margate New Jersey I live at the beach and I'm very concerned my whole family is uh we we love where we live uh we don't want to get up and walk on the beach and see these monstrosities uh my question is is um will the county Support funding and if they do uh will you support funding for lawsuits to hire the attorneys needed to fight these companies can put a committ put a committee why why can't you answer because that that is a decision between the board and administration and that has not been brought up to you know so that's a unified decision between sure the complete board is it something that you will consider board its Administration as well so well would that be something that you would consider in the future again can we have a specific community meeting for that reason or committee committee sorry committe we do we do have a committee we do have you know health and environmental committee why why put it off let the person speak I'm not trying to interrupt sir but this is her moment thank you thank you well I spose I said what I had to say I'm waiting to hear what what's the next step what's the next step for something like it's not hasn't come out of committee it hasn't been you know that long we're still waiting for more information as I said it's not just you know bring te like um commissioner da had noted there's more information coming from them there's more information com from our state senators our assemblymen as well as our Congressman so this we are looking for a direction okay so this was not the first time that you were educated on how this has got some effect you always bring more but it's not the first but you always bring more to the table okay so you will make a unified decision at one point yes when okay cuz it's Happ that's it thank you hi I'm Veronica I'm from LP I'm so disappointed in what I'm listening to this is to me crazy I can't give you an answer we don't have an answer why I mean who do we go to since you committee cannot the board cannot who do we go as citizens who do we not going to do should I go to my Senator should I go to Governor mcy Murphy's office I mean who this is ridiculous I can't give an answer I don't have a position you have to have a position we just heard all these resolutions which were passed which was like I was like what is going on but we can't get an answer I don't understand M can you help me out what's a solution I do not answer for the entire board with the entire board has not come up with going I don't answer that I don't answer for administration on that okay so who do we go to you keep going to everybody that you go to I give you that because this is a lot of passion you have you get many people you go to you get your senat you get to your Congressman you get to your you know how about the birds where where are the PE people you know aren't these turbines supposedly killing birds they get stuck in them and I don't know that's what I heard I was in Greece recently and they had a million turbines that weren't even moving if you don't have the wind they don't move they don't create energy this is insanity Insanity so I'm frustrated I don't know if anybody on the board is are is anybody feeling the same way on the board that we're feeling just a personal opinion yes okay so can you join us then do so you have power we don't have the power commissioner commissioner help us so basically here here's where we're at you know or where I'm at anyway um you know we've already we've already passed two resolutions reference to stopping the wind turbines uh putting the moratorium on them um we I've personally I know other Commissioners that are sitting in this room have been to many of the presentations over the and other places um which are were very beneficial with a lot of information um you know do our resolutions mean anything may they maybe mean a little bit to you guys that come here they mean a lot to us they mean nothing to Governor Murphy so that's wait a minute who who is invested in this right you know and these wind turbines are built he's going to make money off of that okay so you know there there's two things that need to happen one there's an election in November okay because there's there's somebody that you know on the federal side that is pushing this and then there's an election next year because there's somebody on the state side which no matter what happens he's not going to be here anyway and I you know um we need to get people that are that are against this okay because this isn't we're you know it's not going to we we can make a resolution and it looks nice and it sounds good but it means zero I can tell you we' we've sent so many resolutions to the state to our Senators to our assembly people that's right to Congress to the president and listen I don't hear it the first word I hear the first word I hear right now will be the first word I've ever heard back from any of them nothing you get nothing back from them crickets okay so we need to we have the lawsuits the money for the lawsuits so got got to go through the court it's got to go through the election so get your pocketbook get your check $150 I'll give you a check municipalities and why attorneys work for nothing Pro bonus I don't know any for free no the answer is no you're retire in Jun you got plenty of time all right a hard yes I'm going to be working part time extra money and I'm not sure your question no you your question about whether money can come from the county taxers I'm not sure whether it's even legal that's something that all the are doing sure the county has jurisdiction over this issue exactly okay like you said Frank uh and I think what you said is absolutely true you can pass all the resolutions you want but this gets controlled either at the federal level or at the state level and we don't they can hear me they don't M so wor about that thank you very much that's where we are with this you know exactly might grant money that could come from maybe either the county or the state or federal government good look for a grant in a federal government when the people that are in the office up there are for it and they're not going to give their money to you to fight them yeah listen the county still fighting to try and get money that's due from the state that the county has the county has won three times in court about the pilot bill and the state keeps appealing it and they will not give Atlanta County the money that they deserve costed every one of you in here tax tax dollars point and you know I agree with everything thank thank you thank thank you Mr B than you uh par something you want to say Frank spoks eloquent he certainly did but like you said we have done resolutions we have done things like that but uh again it goes on dep ears and it's not you know you're right it's got to go to different level and you keep the fight up that's all we to say I mean you guys we see you you go to the you know the events you know whether they're on the beach or I mean you've been almost everywhere so you know a lot of us attend them so you know we got to keep up the fight I don't know what else it's always Grassroots we got the tenacity so we're going to keep fighting that's we certainly event as well isn't there do you have an upcoming event we do so Sunday at 11 11 to 2 p.m at provincial yeah 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. we're having an champagne brunch please come but clean ocean action they're a nonprofit they're doing an informational session April 25th but that's down in Kate May Courthouse but they are a nonprofit they've been fighting for the ocean for 40 years they were literally the organization who stopped dumping in the oceans by our industry they're an amazing organization October 25th clean ocean action.org ail April April 25th go on their website sign up yeah that's an informational session yeah thank you said The more information put out there the more it gets out for people the more it helps us as well so we do appreciate that we appreciate you coming here we really do thank you thank you thank you thank you cuz they're trying to take away home rule and they're getting they're successful they're they're killing us they're trying to take away home rule and everything we know and love just add one thing you know if there's any way you can get you know the younger people involved you can see you know starting on New Year every year you know you have these polar bear plunges and you have thousands of people blocking down to the ocean to jump into the ocean okay that's a good idea what's going to happen when like you said said well you can't go in the ocean anymore because it's electrified the ocean's a distant memory there's not going to be an air show I'll tell you that with all those wi but can I say something everyone doesn't have all this information in front of them that's the thing we need education we need to educate people where are they wait who our Surfers they they go from little ones to that's an interesting question are out there we're the Surfers well they think that we're supported by the oil companies which is why we're against the win but it's an interesting conundrum that bring more information thank you the meeting brendaa has been with us for I'm like it's B voting and find I just don't want to be and I got to get my good luck you well it is one last thing uh this past weekend I had the opp um to attend the ceremony F the dreams and ab they they were honoring Jacob Jacob hack and um Jacob was also citizen of the year uh this past year but it's amazing to be able to see the children be able to participate in sports if you ever you've never been there to see a game go out and see it it's so heartwarming they have over 300 children involved in this jacob had a lot to do with it you should look him up too and the amazing things that this you know young man has done for others so uh that's all that and I just would like to say um we're not going to be back till May 1st I pass he all those in favor thank you thank