7 o' I always on time so I'm going to meeting to order and before I get started I want to introduce our new commissioner Sam a yes our thanks to Michelle Peterson she recommended him to me and we talked and he was approved at Le at less mons counsil meeting so welcome Sam thank youcome this this is a good group I know half of them and we thank Michelle for recommending Michelle's My Pal so I asked her to to join but she said she wants s be on I so okay uh call to me order before we I introduce my Our Guest I need a a motion to approve the January 24th amendments which are always able prepared by our two Junior Commissioners they do a good job I look at them and I do a little change but not too much so can I have a motion I'll make a motion I'll make a motion that week have a second a second okay thank you okay um I always tell the guest present that we're going to call on him or her first so they don't have to stay for the entire meeting although they can it's it's an honor that I once again introduce to you our police safety director and also our Police director um I always confuse Mayweather or it's qu qu everybody call me Maya go in the emails sometimes I get it back I'm so this is C I asked her to come for our annual meeting she's going to go over her aims and uh goals for the year and tell the HRC how yeah we can help her I hear very good reports about it from everybody so the FL is yours K so good evening everyone good evening I would first like to say I think when I met most of you in the HRC meeting on Zoom um we were during Co and it was sleepy Franklin but Franklin is alive and well right now very busy a lot going on a lot of good stuff um going on uh I think maybe you've heard about our arrive together program where we're responding to mental health calls with a clinician and a police officer uh when I first came I promised to do um something like that within our town and in addition to having the arrive together we also are aiming to train all of our police officers in crisis intervention by 20125 so and it's not easy because um it's a 40h hour class so that means the cop has to go for the whole entire week and um the county and they have classes but they limit the size to like 30 35 people so imagine everybody trying to train their officers at once it takes takes time but we're getting there we have right now um more than 10% of our officers have it I think we're more closer to 20% and every class we're just going to keep pecking away at it but the good thing about the whole processes that the officers learn from each other even before they get the training because they see how the trained officers and our AR together officer deal with mental health calls and so far uh with our mental health calls um with this arrive together program since December we've have now almost 200 calls of service which is tremendous because previously the years we've tracked we only had 300 calls for the whole year so either either we got more popular or you know we're using it in the right way uh instead of dealing with people you know charging them with criminal mischief and things like that um but I just want to keep it clear that sometimes even though it's the arriv together officer and we're trying to not arrest people sometimes that has to happen um especially if um there's injuries still involved you know cuz someone can go through an episode and we know that they need help but if they cause damage especially physical damage to a person you know we have to go to the prosecutor's office and be guided and charges um cuz I do get calls about that like it's like I get it I get it I know the person sick but you know during that episode if they you know the cop sees any type of bodily injury on another victim then we have to do we have to do but we're the first in Somerset County um first Township to do it think North planful is trying to come on board a lot of police departments you know they claim they don't have the numbers that we have I personally think they just don't look at it the way we look at it because you know um I give you a perfect example when I came we had a young man in stopping shop who was stealing but after they approached him he said that it was his stoping shop and he owned the stocking shop and he was going to get dinner get food to go home to make food for the workers and for his family so obviously that tells you he was having you know a mental episode but that whole incident so normally what they would do grab them charge him with theft shoplifting whatever throw them in jail and that's the end of it you know he was acting normal by the time they finish that process and a lot of people do but obviously there's an underlying problem so I think that's pretty much what's happening but we we're working with the county to help help other towns in this County jump on board and I'm like a business home first um talking to the county I know they have a grant I'm like we need a piece of that if we're going to help you teach other people how to do what we're doing so they're gring which is good they're going to compensate part of our officer salary because like I said he is helping also recruit other departments does everybody know what arrive together program is okay excellent yeah so uh March 1st this Friday we will have another Police test um we did one last year and let me explain the process to you and in other civil service tests they get a list of thousands of people and you might out of that list of thousands of people get like 10% viable candidates then once you do the physical the background check blah blah blah that number goes down like to you know end up being it's low it's low I will say we were lucky um our first round I think out of the list and and keep this in mind we have 300 people on the list but only say 100 people meet the test score and then like I said going through those processes it dwindles down some more I'm planning ahead because I know the list that I have I think I might be down to about 5 or 6 candidates so I know guess what's going to happen we're going to need it again probably by uh the end of the year beginning of next year so you have to do it now start now the test will be in the spring and also I'm hoping that we get some Franklin graduates what do you think about that you know I went to the high school already telling them that we were going to have a test and um you know a lot of people worry about the requirement for a college degree uh when I came here I recognized that we hire police officers from other townships who don't have a college degree but we make our own have a college degree so the process weeds itself out because if someone does not have a college degree I'm not saying always a lot of times they don't score as high maybe as somebody with a college degree there'll be something else it kind of evens out it makes up for itself but I don't think that's always a um oh how do you say it a determining Factor because I mean I think most of us here are from that generation where we know most people who had jobs didn't have college degrees my grandparents didn't have college degrees but they go on and they're very successful in life yes but but I think the college degree requirement for all corporate jobs have gone away the I'm recruiting I can tell you 60% of the corporate 60% of the corporate who are using college degree to hire those those requirements have gone up in the last 2 years mhm so yeah you was explaining the criteria to become a police officer yes that's what you was do and that's what the arve program is no no no no no I I changed I finished with the arve together when he asked if you knew what that was arve together is just the mental health program with the police officer or we're trying to make sure if someone if it's is is it a crime or do they need mental health right right that's one program I started with March 1st Friday we're going to have a new police test oh okay now I see you yeah I got to confused okay okay it's okay so um U what were you saying you said something so who approves that that you need to have a college degree for Franklin residents to is what my question uh the council it's in ordinance the requirements for the test are in ordinance yeah and is it a 2ear or 4 year you do not need a college degree oh you do not I'm saying you do not do not okay so that's why I thought no no you used to need a college degree and I found out we were hiring people from other departments who did not have a a college degree but we wouldn't hire from here that way and um I'll say this and you know how it works with experience our best candidates without a college degree are candidat who have been working you know they've had jobs they've worked security jobs they've worked this job they worked that job and I remember someone said something to me about a one young man that um you know well he's had a lot of jobs he's 24 but consistent jobs and overlapping jobs he was you know he showed us he's a worker he was in good jobs he was doing like garage doors he was fixing refrigerators here and you know when we interviewed him he said you know I I can work well with my hands but I want a career you know I've always wanted to do this job so and he was so great that we hired him and then he went on to another department which is always unknown caller listen which is always after 2 years that is a risk as well so is there a retention program then um well you know what it is part of my retention program is trying to get people who are more homebased more dedicated to Franklin because the common factor with officers being hired here and usually not always cuz a lot of officers do live somewhere else leaving are those officers that live far away they live in Ocean County but they work here 4 days and soon as something closer to home opens up you know what happens they want to move closer to home so um I've actually been giving preferential treatment to officers who look closer to home um right right now right now the only one I want to think about like not hiring anymore is Edison residents cuz seem like they come here get skilled up and go back to Edison I'm like you know try Edison first we'll see I have a question I have another question you was talking about the mental health program that you have yes okay I'm quite interested in and one based on what you've been doing so far M what percentage of Resident where do they come from basically from your programming what you're running where do the the rest yes I don't understand your question my question is this like what part of town yeah all over put it that way all around you going to see all around all over Okay the reason I'm asking you this is because in the fourth word we have been absence of a community based Organization for quite some time time now so we haven't had that type of training for our young adults set up we haven't had that compassionate amount of training or mentorship towards young individuals that may be causing the arrest problems and they could be mentally they would need some mental health you understand what I'm getting at no I understand and that's what that's what this program is about and I can tell you this um since I've been here our arrest of Youth and juveniles has really tremendously deine good that's what I'm I mean well during when school was out we have almost none and all the most of the complaints we get are through school other than that outside of school we our our youth program our youth being in trouble are minuscule but the AR together program also helps young people it's not dedicated to just I know what the police Community racing bu I know the role they're playing in terms of the this is beyond that this is another phase of it right I I just want to know if the mental health does go play a part in that particular their particular job and I want you to understand that some of us people understand that and we just want to know if it's that we know some of the reasons why you might be a with somebody that would be uh able to to be introduced to your mental health program as opposed to going to jail or being arrested so I'm not so let me explain a little bit maybe a simpler way so John if somebody calls the police department right now they will answer it they will assess whether or not they should go an officer and a mental health specialist should go to that place good and with the police goes with the plane clothes I understand they're both in play CL they play yes and then there's no Sirens or the person when they see them they think that they are just too regular helper to help the person and then they will talk to that person well no we have to tell them where the police oh our still correct but it's not like they see the flashing L and everything be scared and do something something stranger so I think part of your program part of your question also where I'm going also is maybe a lot of you have heard that Franklin we got opioid settlement money from these companies and we got the largest amount and listen I'm being stalked by people who want me to spend it and a certain way and I'm like I haven't done anything with it yet because I want to be very intentional when we spend that money that's Mo of Education huh Mo of Education you said Boe opioid opioid I thought you said drug I thought you said I understand with the opioid got sett oh no kidding okay so I'll be watching I want so but I want to be very intentional when we do spend that money I mean easily we need cars easily we need this easily we need that but um I've held off because part of what you're saying about young people and you know I've had companies Rehabilitation companies call me and just and I'm like okay pause there are a lot of drug treatment programs for adults and I'm not saying we don't need them I'm not saying eliminate them I'm saying fund them yes yes yes but there are little to no programs for young people for prevention of drug use and to deal with mental health so I'm trying to find that perfect marri if you say with someone who could help us do that so when people start coming to me asking question where our company do like well do you deal with you well no no we don't deal with young okay and you know they that shuts it right down for me and you know they just have built uh you guys don't know they just have built three marijuana stores in the hood okay that's a whole another topic I know but but it all relates to what she saying now I understand I know you say no no it doesn't I know better than that no it doesn't it doesn't I don't and I I tell people this I am a mother of two young adults I don't want them doing anything but that's not the world we live in you know and we have to focus more on preventing it and you know I'm more concerned honestly with the young people with the vaping um yeah yeah yeah I have no problem so what do you see out there in the world about vaping I mean I know they have an anti vaping program in school right I have seen it happen notably in bathrooms although it's deined actually surprisingly in the past couple of months either due to fear or the actual programs that Franklin C High School puts in place Dr Solomon has been Dr Solomon has been focusing on that and that's part of the thing I'd like to work with them and fund things through the high school to try and listen we say high school but I mean last week we got a call about uh Samson G I mean it's happening at different levels different AG it has the CL in the street too in the classrooms vaping has changed a little bit there um because all the mechanisms they put in around school but also I think the marijuana is increasing with the Govern things like that now it's not visible as much you know how' your hand well um same thing as Franklin Franklin does a really nice job there with allance they're doing a good job there no doubt about it mpal Alliance and Franklin doesn't ni and that's right he's right too that's another reason why the basing has know I'm On Top you know because of the the more they start KN supposed to Bas they always Bas last summer man some full you know what I'm saying so I have a qu go ahead go ahead no go ahead uh director I think one of the questions that most people probably have their in mind is uh considering the high number of burgers that happening in town yeah and uh I know the police department is really doing a great job and doing their best maybe you can shed a little bit light on what are the specific things that is this Police Department is doing to help to reduce or educate I know as far as education small group and I could say it it's like sell your Range Rover in BMW cuz that's what they're talking the expensive cost and por and poru and the conver um Cal converter seems like a big thing not in Fr that comes in spurts that's a whole that Nationwide problem it is and and not that I want anything to happen I prefer to catalytic converters um I'm very um what's the word squishes no I'm very I I'm going to just say it's at the top of our list right now the burglaries because you know hearing a 911 call of a woman running through her house trying to hide because someone just broke in the glass door and you know not that just because wherever it happened in town but 5 minutes from where I live you know I literally when they told me the call came in and what was happening I got out of bed got dressed because it's down the street and I'm like are you kidding me and not kidding me because my town my my neighborhood but yeah my town meaning Franklin um and um Matt will tell you like I was very blunt with my cops about you know there's sometimes babies about being held over and over time and stuff like that and I'm like imagine us telling that woman we had nobody to send to her cuz I let everybody go home cuz they were crying about working too long imagine if she had no one the calvary came but the thing is I don't want that to happen to anyone that is very traumatizing to any person any family it would be traumatizing to me you know to wake up to the sound of somebody coming into my house so I say that to say and I preach this every week just about it's important to have an alarm system it's important to have cameras it's important to have lighting around your home I know we live in a neighborhood where honestly I never really thought much about it the past 3 and years I've lived here but that has made me think about it multiple times a day because of what I do but every day every night I go home and you know I'm driving around looking at all of you it makes me think about it like I want to sometimes ring some people's bells and say what are you doing Turn The Lights On You Know above cost you it cost you roughly a dollar a day to run lights around your house so it's worth it you know you buy buy A700 $800,000 house a $200,000 house you don't want to install you could probably get a free alarm which I'm working with our friends I'm not going to say their name the a word since you've been giving us all me all this Havoc I feel that's at least they could do is give us some discounts on alarm systems since they also Amazon and ring partnered or something apparently but you know seriously it it's important that you think about safety you can't just go home and turn off the lights and go to bed anymore you have to make sure I I've I've heard it all I know too much no lock your windows lock your windows close your windows lock your doors lock your back doors not all of these like that was the one horrific one them breaking the glass door um and doing that that may have happened in all the cases maybe two times a lot of them the majority people leave their doors unlocked they leave their Windows un un locked they just climb right in can I share a story what just happened to me yesterday morning I'm in Atlanta I get a call my phone is off my daughter was ringing my phone I didn't hear it then all of a sudden the alarm company calls now I got the police at my house yesterday morning this just happened and um he said your alarm is going off but they slowman told me that something was walking around well my daughter had just dropped the dogs off to the house and didn't put the alarm on away she had it on stage so any motion going on so the police officer was nice enough to um talk to me cuz I was talking to him through the ring you know if you have a ring doorbell you can talk to anybody outside so I was talking to him and I said well just give me a second to look in my house cuz I have cameras that I can actually look inside too so I said oh well I could see my dogs walking around it's okay so he said you don't need me to do anything I'm like no thank you it's okay but well just think if I didn't have the ring doorbell or cameras I could have said okay maybe somebody else is you know in the house but that's what I'm saying should get and I I had my house broken into about 10 years ago now it's been a while and I did have lights on cuz I've always been crazy about lights and timers I'm a city girl I'm from New York City um and still I mean that was the first clue that there's something was wrong cuz we entered the house and all the lights we that would go on normally were off so we knew something was up and and they broke in through the back door which was locked so even doing those things but if you take extra precautions obviously any number of those things you know lighting as well as so when I moved to Franklin My Neighbor Next Door a nice older gentleman he said he had been there 20 something years and I mean before my furniture and kids were moved in I started putting in cameras so he's like something I should know I was like well I'm just different you know I'm just different I did the same thing in Got Away everyone of my block didn't have an alarm and I'm like what I mean we're different we we have to have certain security measures just because we have weapons and things too what part of town do you live in now excuse me what part of town you liveing in there area 2 Ericson area two okay anything else well it's area okay for us sorry any other questions for Q but just you know keep in mind if an alarm is important I'm I'm just everything you can and if you need help with it like I said we're working on a program uh with Amazon and ring to try and help people you know at least get a discount that's what I asked them for um you know listen we're asking for everything we like sha could come out and do a promo whoever you know will you share that with us at some we will as soon as we have it he'll bring that here we'll have it social media we'll trust me we'll boom we'll tell everyone cuz we want everyone to do it we thank you and the police department because we are seeing more patrol cars so without saying it um I was I I was being modest about it but we have like a 24/7 detail now just for the burglaries and um quite frankly until I know that these individuals um are um arrested um um we probably going to keep it going for a while but just to tell you this last part Gary I know something they I just came I went to New York today visit NYPD commissioner because they kind of pushed it over here cuz they this was a big problem for them last year and now that's a big problem in New Jersey and they like oh that died down I like no he didn't he came here and then they joked and I said and they seem to steal the cars and run back to you guys with them so um we're working with them too in their real time crime Center because they they have more toys than we do they have facial recognition software they have um like um a vehicle recognition software they have things that you know little tools and gadgets that we need help with so that we I mean honestly we can't afford it and we really don't need it on the level that they have it they have it so that if a car passes they know is that one of the things they can identify they oh yeah yeah we we have that that a question I just going to say um I live in a 55 and over community and anytime and there's many committees and clubs in in there police are always coming over speak to the uh residents there's never a question about making themselves available whether it be the detective apartment or what other department so very you know very happy and we see quite a few of the police cars through our uh community so you know I just wanted to you know commend you on that you know what I mean and the other thing was um I think it's great that you're as you're hiring the hire kids who went through lived in the community they have a lot more pride in the community whether they you know whe whether they went to college or not you know me they couldn't and but as you said they were working or something like that they can always go back as are in the working on the police department but I think that's great that you're hiring within I think uh you goes a long way they they know a lot about the community lab where things are and get some good yeah and we went to the high school for what was that we were at um oh for the uh driving safety yeah driving saf Project Graduation Project Graduation yeah we were there for Project Graduation on stage Y and we reminded them you know that we're having a test and who knows maybe we can come back and get back to your community any other yes yeah what's the balance between your new hires and your overtime like how how does that work out what's better to hire more people so that you don't constantly need the overtime or so I'm not hiring like more people I'm trying to reach my to cuz right now my table organization I'm not full like I had that for like a hot minute and we were so happy so proud at the end of 2023 no 2022 sorry we were full and then it was like d it's like retirements transfers so um we're not full so I'm not um you said what's the balance between the higher and overtime if balances out it does because like asking them to put in overtime would you need that if you had more guys and girls on sh be less overtime I know what she possibly less overtime possibly because you know what's going to happen the more cops I have on shift right then it just how do you say this um will meet the minimum but my goal is still to have like 8 to nine cars each shift and then do overlap like the double that's always my goal so does it is it more costly to taxpayers to have all overtime or is it better to just add more to the Shi so that balance so this is how it balances out because benefits cost a lot benefits are in the realm of$ 55 to $60,000 a year just for benefits I'm not paying that overtime so that's why I said so that's how it balances that's how it balances yeah you know and then think about this my younger cops are not making what my senior cops are making and I've I've changed that like a third of Department of younger cops now so so we're saving that way too because the older cops they top pay is 1 30 my newer cops are making like 50 you have to go to the council for more policeman so did the report to the council so there's things there's things I'm there's things I'm requesting and just just real quick and I'll oh you have a counsel I know just real quick so there there's some people and if you work somewhere you know how this works if someone's ready to retire but they're not gone or if someone's on no Pace status for an extended period of time and really we know they're not coming back but we have to keep them there we're not paying them we're not giving them benefits I'm not doing anything for them right now and I just know it's just a matter of time before they're completely off the books I'm asking to fill those people in okay cuz that those numbers matter too if I have three or four people like that that's three or four additional people I could have hired working and again these people are making like a third of what my more my most senior cops are making so and their overtime is half of what the senior cops are making so that's why I said it balances out it's it's not if I had all 109 cops and they were all at top pay I'm going tell you right now we be i' be stressed about that they to go up to that top they deserve it what attrition it it just since I've been here I've always seen like about like we have three columns I've always seen like at least that one column is new people yeah I mean it's the nature of the game question what is capture rate after burgies what was the question capture rate so can I tell you this and I'm going be fully transparent they have not been arrested here but they have been arrested and it's not capturing them it's keeping them in with bell reform a lot of them come out on ankle bracelets a lot of them are released I in recover it because my home was broken into in 2006 M and uh we were on the neighbors called us that you know there were PR in neighborhood and they broke the front door that's how they got in it was a stormy weather and neighbors did not hear what was going on and they had the whole weekend probably in our home when we come back it was like a tsunami G through our you know my well and that's another thing that we've been pushing out to Residents to make sure that you call us and tell us if you're going to be away if you're going to be away tell us so that we can do checks um and that's what I told the guy yesterday I'm going to be away until the day he said you'll make sure and we do like doing the snowstorm one house in particular was driving us crazy because we're like you know we checked around the house I don't know you you check in it too room yes yeah so they all their cars in the driveway when we had that big snow everything's covered with snow no walk marks in the snow which was good mean and nobody went in but we're like you think they're in there you think they're okay like those are the things we deal with too we're more proactive and we're like you think they're okay like so we start making calls come to find out they were away they didn't tell anybody and but it worked out so we'll do that that's one thing no I just want to I just want to tell you know I I just want to tell uh Miss Mayweather that uh people from the neighborhood Franklin Township has the finance Police Department in the state and I'm an example I can tell you that's the truth and because of number of factors like the young man Mr Russo and some of the other people factors that you've added to your the poce department and I know that's a job that we have to do in the community in terms of behavioral patterns so that you won't be be call you but I want everybody to know because of M Mayweather here Franklin town has the finest Police Department in the state great people I got here they just really they needed someone to kind of you know what it is it's like if you have a piece of silver you know it's it's silver it's going to be great and then it gets tarnished and then you got to buff it up and shine got to clean it off that's all we had to do sorry you could use you every six months let's move on as Johnny says we have a good police we have a wonderful Police director now that absolutely you got a Wonder okay Mr Officer Russo you're on please report I don't know if I can follow the director but I'll do my best um so just a few things that we have going on um so the chess with cops program that's going to be run out of the youth center now that's going to be starting next week on the 6th uh this have run by Officer do Rees right now we have about 15 people who are signed up for it with another 10 people on a waiting list so if you guys know any youth that are interested in participating in that chess program you know please help them Reach out or go to our website and sign up there um our Citizens Academy that's going to be beginning on uh March 27th that's a Wednesday and it's about 12 to 14 weeks I believe it is um that goes on every week uh just giving you guys a little idea of how what the police department does and what our jobs are different types of uh units that we deal with um we have a tax prep going on uh every Tuesday right now run out of crb we have a uh accountant that comes in she does taxes for free and uh helps out anybody that makes an appointment and um runs through it uh I can actually get that information hopefully bring it back to you guys at some point and send it send it to Gary so we can have you guys send it out um yeah that goes on every Tuesday usually she her hours between 3 and 7:30 what's your name uh I do not recall there's some flowers out there on the pool that's get the T preparation dat yeah you have leave out right um yeah she does it every Tuesday she's she's great unfortunately I'm horrible with names so I always forget it um but yes uh that's every Tuesday um where where at crb so 9:35 Hamilton Street crb is the community relations Bureau right next to theaa no not Cola um right next to the Foot Locker oh yeah acrossing new Walgreens um director Mayweather brought up the test uh the application goes out this Friday so if anybody you know that's interested 18 and older um with the high school deploma then you have them sign up uh the written and physical test will come out around May time um so keep an eye out for that uh our food distribution is also next uh Wednesday the 6th that starts at 11:00 at the community relations Bureau 935 Hamilton Street um no questions asked if you want a box of food or two then you drive right up we put two boxes in you guys drive off no questions no nothing you just get two boxes is the food bank or is it SE uh Food Bank come help comes to help out they help distribute it and we get uh it's another company through the food bank that drops off the prepackage you you did it today uh that's next Wednesday next Wednesday next Wednesday 11 11 a.m. somebody was asking me about okay yep uh what else we got last thing is uh the career there's a career fair going on at Keen University um that Franklin will be a part of as well as uh I believe 80 other agencies that are also there US Marshal Secret Service um ATF bunch of different Federal and local law enforcement so if you guys know anybody that's looking into getting to the law enforcement career and whether Federal Municipal what whatever may be um Keen University uh believe at 9:00 they start um what date is that that is March 13th so two Wednesdays from now at yep that um I don't believe they need to sign up um I believe they just show up and they can walk around um but there's a it's actually a sight to be seen I did it last year and uh there's tables upon tables of just different law enforcement officers and care and uh different careers that even I didn't know were were actually around and available so um it's a cool thing to see um but other than that uh I think that's about it any questions any questions I have a question that actually I could have asked the director too um and there might not be an answer for this right this moment but I'll throw it at there anyway in terms of solicitors I mean we see less of them in the winter months but is there anything that we can do to curb that I mean is is that I'm assuming is allowed by ordinance in this town no no no you can you can call the police for that but but how can we prevent them from visiting period where there is a program that you can go in and it's it's also in Township website as far as I know that you can go and put your information there and nobody is allowed to come no businesses they they they will still be in the neighborhood so my my question is I've lived in communities where that never happens so why does it happen here why is it that in Franklin Township we constantly have people ringing doorbells for Windows solar panels you name it um and and they're Viola if you put your home number in that system they basically are violating they what their correct but my what I'm saying is I'm one person so unless everybody who lives in my neighborhood on Dayton Avenue and Somerset is going to you know fill that in um we're still going to have solicitors in the neighborhood they're in said that they won't come come to your house cor I don't want them in the neighborhood period good luck and and like I'm saying I've lived in places where this doesn't happen that that places are places where the ordinances the whole Township is so why can't why can't we do that here why can't we prevent solicitors because I would try to stop it because people have to try to make their money to live and to go house to house sometimes soliciting is a human right but one thing yeah but East Brunswick actually has it in place where you cannot if they put your name on the somebody challeng it they cannot knock on but she's not saying that she's saying that even though I don't think they should be knwn that's what she want I don't want them knocking on my you know 75y old neighbor's door either like the phone how many times do you get the phone tarkers my home phone gets my mom complains about getting like 12 of them per day at some point so and there's a way to get those off too but that's your phone that's coming back with new numbers see my phone I get sick Stu there is a way to the same time curb that at least you the phones and the and the solicitations by mail you know like credit card get so often though well mostly it's just advertisements I guess but solicitation any other question too much F police officer if not we will move on so this thank you Mr community policing the 14 weeks you said speak can somebody miss one week or two weeks and we generally like you to be there every single week but if you do miss a week or two it's not a big deal like we're like we're not going to be like oh you're out um but uh we do generally like you to be there every every week so you can just learn um the different styles of placing that we do here at the different yeah um so like if you do miss a week or two it's not that big of a deal um you just miss out on whatever we taught that day so uh I remember last class we had someone who missed the last two days uh which was the SWAT and the canine that came and she really wanted to see that but so we actually invited her back for the next class this upcoming one uh to come partake in that you got compl when is the next class start uh March 27th March 2 see last Wednesday of this month okay okay so how do you sign up for that so so all these programs uh that one should be coming out soon if not already on there but all of it's on available on the Frankin town website under the Community Rel they got they got still didn't see it then I was looking I'll follow with Rebecca and I'll send out a reminder for everybody when it does come out and how long is it uh it's about 12 weeks I believe 12 13 weeks okay I believe 6:30 yep and it goes for about 2 to 2 half hours under my report now and don't go on to as uh good seeing everybody as Alex will tell as Alex will tell you and there has been a lot of talk on this on this proposed apartment complex at the Kmart Shopping Center and the only thing I can tell you you have to be careful how you how you handle that you got to be careful it's coming to the zoning board on April 4th so if you're asked about it all you can say is that it April 4th that to the Z Bo on April 4th and and if you want to come you can come and you can uh you can talk under uh a community comments but uh so there has been a lot of talk Alex will tell you that last tonight the council's hands were really tied because you have to be very careful because it become it can become a legal issue and you got to be very careful how you handle that but but if you're asked just tell people it's coming to the zoning board on April 4th car did I ask you a long time ago when I be talking about talk did I did I talk to anything about that uh Le property that that came my property about anything that we would like to see done or anything I didn't but because what's happening is what I had talked about or proposed back when it was first talking about closing it down you have to come to the Z Bo yeah yeah yeah okay I got you all I can say I wuss it here I will blow it up I me I'll be there we we need some apartment remember we were asked to be a co-sponsor um Ramadan is starting I think this week and on a Sunday uh we were asked HRC and the Interfaith Council for asked to co-sponsor it it's going to be at the a senior C says on March 3rd which is this coming Sunday between 3 and 5 and it it would be it would be very good if the HRC is World represented Alex going to can explain a little bit about the rad on but uh we always co-sponsor it with the Interfaith Council Alex well yeah it's going to be a great Advantage at lightening event actually the Ramadan starts on March 12th but the uh the event is taking place on March 3rd between 300 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. in the senior center we are expecting quite a few people both uh officials and the community members there's going to be refreshment some good food and we have uh couple of speakers that they going to be coming they will tell you a little bit about Ramadan and so one of the programs that we have this year and this is actually the third year for just for your information there's going to be a a sponsorship food sponsorship and what it is is uh we're going to hopefully sponsor 100 families of three for the whole month to feed them and uh each family the cost for it is about $100 and uh So the plan is to uh raise almost $10,000 and uh give it to the food bank to sponsor 100 families for the entire month so that's only one of the programs that the Muslim Community is going to be doing during the Ramadan because Ramadan is a month of Charity sharing food helping others and of course uh having additional prayers and so forth so come and you'll learn more about it and you can have some food as well yeah if you come right around the I'll be there between three and five um Miss Ed you have anything else to report on the other town no I reached out to the Bound Brook uh councilman uh about so he could share his experience I have not heard back from him and I did send an email to the nonprofit organization that's involved I I have to get aggressive I guess I've got to pick up the phone because no one's getting back to me electronically so G I have a couple other things that I can share which might be beneficial to everybody go ahead one is that pretty soon we're going to have a bench in the Senior Citizens Center and what that's not a real bench sit on but is a bench which has information about alternatives to oio so if you know anybody who is perhaps having difficulty with the opioid they can go there there's a QR code and other information and they can look at for alternatives to uh to opio so that's one thing that we going to have that's going to be there for one month and the other thing that that's happened there was a stigma 3 uh meeting and it was really successful one in fact they had they thought that they're just going to have it here and they had to move with senior center because there were quite a few people that relat to the mental health so anybody has a mental health issue they can benefit from that and also the trail uh commission uh there's a lot of good things happening you know we have about 70 uh miles of trails in our Township and so the committee is trying to have a digital map and those Maps will be available for anybody who's going to be using the trail and on in addition uh in the nman Williams Park area they they have a grant of 20,000 they're going to be adding some green area and and Trail area and uh so the the whole idea is to encourage the community members to to use the trails and especially uh you know for the elderly they want to make sure that they go out and enjoy and stay healthy so look for it enjoy the trails is really great we are we have so much Trail in our Township is the trails at all um I know there's many umbrellas it could be under but is it is it somehow also tied to our uh addressing of the disparities the healthcare disparities in the township so so one of the things that okay The Advisory Board of Health uh is going to be uh having a meeting on March 7th and during that meeting we have two members of our Township going to be coming talking about that survey uh that they had conducted which basically uh lists some of the areas relating to the Community Health yeah their disparities in the township So based on that they're going to be picking a couple of items to see what we can do to help to narrow the Gap and the trail and the health is also uh one of them because that will be will definitely benefit I would imagine that the educ in the community it is a a piece of that that effort also in the trail committee meeting we talked about looking at ways that we can add trails and and other things to W four so that's the word that uh you know the Gap is the highest right so it's going to be we're going to be looking at that that team is going to be looking see what they can do to increase uh the opportunities for people to go out in enjoy the the nature are you part of that whole our whole committee the sustainable garden and he committee that that's that's a different group yeah yeah community garden group yeah yeah was sustain yeah yeah well okay anybody have anything else Pete anything I just wanted to add also that the the bahai Monta fasting also starts this Friday March 1st for 19 days B mind yes for for all the bahis all over the world be fasting for 19 days yeah so two other thing that I would will mention that there was a black history mons event I don't know if any of you had the opportunity to go last Sunday there was a great one actually I yeah I saw you there and we had a lot of performers by the high schoolers and the younger folks it was great event and uh also um I attended the second anniversary of War uh event which was organized by the Ukrainian Church and it was a really great event um you know everybody was praying for peace and ceasefire and you know just uh bringing their their lives back to normal so that was a pretty uh nice organiz organized event as well okay anything else uh next schedule of meeting is March 27th yes Johnny what's up no I just want to make one uh one observation to you guys um along with what K was talking about there is a committee being formed to for the health and uh and all the gardens around town and the you mean with safy the with uh no Mrs planner the other lady the lady that was the other lady Safi and and yeah that whole group yeah and uh and through and through W 4 and some of the other people our leader was Bo buus which is director of the recreation department now and he's a great guy he was full he was he was making things done matter of fact NE of Williams Park looks best now than it has in the past 10 years all because of the work that Bo has been doing and helping us down in the four and naming William part and we got a whole everything he's very good he's a very good and he's leaving tomorrow he's leaving Friday is his last day from the township yeah it's Friday is last day he's getting a job and so we wish him the best have a replacement Yeah Wendy white is going to be uh his replacement okay and uh she's very good as well uh we wish him the best he has been really great to the township and God he's the counil so uh but anyhow yes you know we I'm sure the Wendy and others will continue uh the great work at uh he has been doing and we will continue benefit their their uh efforts oh my goodness man okay if not I I was like contact you know should oh no I'm happy to report now since Sam was appointed we our HRC is a fully uh loed so we we don't have to have anybody we will be looking for a new high school person because um because uh graduate soon is graduating graduating soon they come from United Nations that you come from if you if you know anybody please let me know you already yeah two candidates in mind I accept the motion to adjourn welcome Sam thank you can you hear from Sam if you wants to yourself um uh I've been living in this community for 20 plus years I know few people here I worked with them in different capacities yeah at s Ma's ham a very good resume oh I know you say I got you say I used to own a business on that side of the town that people Street yes I was on the Hamilton Street with e and I was on that too yeah P 20078 I'm currently involved in the Franklin Bank got battle next meeting the 27th okay thank you all for coming