good evening everyone I would like to call the May 21st 2024 Hamilton Township council meeting to order this meeting is held with the benefit of public notice as required by the open public meetings act Madame clerk will you please call the role Mr paparo yes Miss Phillips here Mr Ty here Mr parabell here for uh Mr whan is absent ladies and Gentlemen please rise and join us a salute to flag and please remain standing for the invocation the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all dear Lord we look to you for help and advice renew your grace and your power in our lives so that we may have light even in Dark Times help us to be ready to take on anything upon ourselves and serve with all we have have mercy on our times and our world and finally bless our country and Township of Hamilton may we as council members promote honesty and integrity in all that we do we make these intentions and those in the Silence of our hearts amen amen ladies and Gentlemen please be advised that there is an update to the agenda this evening that is different from the agenda that was posted on the website so we are adding an executive session this is 24-232203 231 this is a resolution authorizing a memorandum of agreement between the township of Hamilton and the New Jersey office of emergency management to participate with the New Jersey all Hazard Incident Management team and also amending title of resolution 1 24-230 by removing wording amendments to zoning map now shall read resolution referring proposed amendments to the code of the township of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 550 Land Development to the Hamilton Township planning board for review persuade to njsa 40 colon 55 d-26 can I please have a motion on the amendments to the agenda some second roll call Madam clerk Mr PaPeRo yes Miss Phillips Mr Ty yes Mr parabell yes [Music] so can I have a resolution for my Council colleagues um uh entering us into executive session pending your anticipated litigation negotiations and Personnel matters so moved second we call Madam clerk Mr Papo yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr parabell yes folks we'll be back in a few minutes I momentarily it shouldn't take that long now hour cool thank you very much yeah I co [Music] ready [Music] [Music] [Music] okay let [Music] this yeah I wasn't sure [Music] suff [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] yes she got that yeah okay I [Music] 12 so that's [Music] [Music] PR Shel [Music] [Laughter] apprach [Music] oh you read the reports yeah read I think just some of like okay then I see the but I think I'm missing a lot of a answers a sometimes I miss a bunch sometimes I don't care the second one was just it's like they there's no they try to like they just same we're just leave so now there dog that so [Music] so we [Music] they work I had one one after 15 I'll take the up to 15 I'll take for 15 for rest of life when I years ago October of 2014 was when there were 32 dogs and 48 dogs and 36 PS many many years and so it hit me when I did a post last week and one of my friends commented then I realized with them having 12 pages in the same situation and I was part of the res we took doop Lor and I looking each without I know situation dogs over a lot I didn't an email every animal that picture and bio so they they everyone on the email you put animal on the no pictures no like your owns that's what the has never issu but you know they promote this draw to we the in the are and it's never going to be they don't promote dogs they don't bios they won't let anyone help the shelter manager that's all this Administration restrictions put on managing the shelter I effort that Tre just for trying to get dogs out with their time stamp scenario I know but' no actually I Wasing to don't know that it got aded but you don't it yeah he's been there for four months and still says he's not today all sudden he has a nice picture whys [Music] you hold up scared pretty much Wasing all needs to get more involved at me time I brother remember [Laughter] all [Music] right reinstate reinstate ourselves to resume yes to resume the regular meeting yep that's attorney Cent privilege yep we're good [Music] sorry about that everyone I'm totally legal's fault no I'm I'll take it so I'd like to um bring us back into um resume our council meeting so can I have a motion to do that and take us out of executive session I make a motion to resume our regular council meeting I'll second roll call Mam clerk Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes uh for your consideration we have the minutes of March 5th 2024 and March 19th 2024 regular council meeting minutes motion to pass minutes M1 and M2 second roll call Madam clerk Mr PaPeRo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes next we have communication C1 is a joint commodation declaring the first Friday in June as gun violence awareness day I'm going to have uh councilwoman uh Phillips do the honors for this joint Commendation thank you council president declaring the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day whereas every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence and more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 177,000 gun homicides every year and whereas gun violence touches every segment of our society and impacts people of all ages it increases the probability of death and incidence of domestic violence raises the likelihood of fatalities by those who intend to injure others and among those who attempt suicide it places children and young people at increased risk of physical harm and injury and disproportionately affects communities of color and whereas support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens goes hand inand with keeping guns away from dangerous people and whereas anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 7th to help raise awareness about gun violence and whereas by wearing orange on June 7th Americans will raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives and lost human potential of Americans stolen by gun violence and whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep Firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe now therefore be it resolved by Mayor Jeffrey s Martin and the Hamilton Township Council that they do hereby Proclaim June 7th 2024 as National Gun Violence awareness day and urge all hamiltonians to support Community efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value your human lives that's great councilwoman Phillips anyone else wishing to comment from my Council colleagues um so on June 7th we uh traditionally hold a a photo up outside and and um make a little bit of a presentation with those individuals that are involved um I noticed that we're wearing orange this evening um anyone wishing to make comment from the public regarding this Comm Commendation thank you thank you uh do you want put my name here yes if you would just state your name sure um do I have it's on it should be on if it's a okay hi I'm Rea Holly I am I'm from Pennington New Jersey and I'm the founder of Moms Demand Action here in Mercer County back in 2016 and um you guys have been Hamilton has been supportive of this effort and this awareness program year after year and I we are making a difference um we've had some wonderful um laws set by our by our elected officials over the last over the years that we've been doing this work and we have proven that in New Jersey is one of the safest states to be in the country with regards to gun violence um we still have a lot of work to do both at the national level and at the local level um we have a a high suicide rate as as more guns are being purchased more suicides are being um I don't want to use the word accomplished but but more suicides are resulting in down and so we need to Now work on safe storage issues we need to make sure that people are aware of New Jersey's extreme risk protective order law which allows uh family members and law enforcement to remove guns from the homes of somebody who is in crisis temporarily until the crisis is is uh has passed but um as far as this uh this effort on your part goes we are so grateful that every year Hamilton is in support of our efforts to make this world a safer place so thank you very much thank you Ru thank you for coming this evening anyone else and we hope to see you on the 7th um may I have a motion to uh pass this uh joint Commendation I'll make the motion to move uh communication one I'll second that roll call Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr carabell yes next for your consideration we have resolution 1242 I'm sorry 24206 resolution authorizing temporary fee waiver for all adoption fees at the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter and adoption center for the time period of wnes May 22nd 2024 through Sunday June 30th 2024 so I I want to thank the compliment the administration and the mayor for being proactive on this uh once again this year I know we have uh many dogs and cats we're we are full to capacity right now at our shelter um so we like to find everyone uh all the animals in there uh obviously a home so um this is going to take place from Wednesday May 22nd through Sunday June 30th this waiver um any other comments from my Council colleagues regarding this matter it's great time to get a dog or a cat anyone from the public wishing to comment yes Lisa Lisa Williams finer L I just want to ask that this be massively promoted as of a couple hours ago we were at 48 dogs and 41 cats we have 36 kennels the from a I don't know how many cat cages we have so we are 12 dogs over kennel capacity and it hit me when I figured that out on a friends Facebook post when we were going back and forth this is the same situation the Hamilton shelter was in in October of 2024 when we had 32 dogs and 20 kennels and the rescue group tried to pull every dog out of the shelter that they could it seems as though we don't have rescue support like we do we shouldn't have dogs living in cages for as long as they are so I just ask that the council and administration and anyone who can do anything to promote promote promote South Jersey Regional animal shelter is doing the dollar adoptions and they've got news2 New Jersey sent a an article out so if we could get the same help that would be great thank you thank you Lisa it's it's a very reasonable request right it is I agree any other comments uh from the public seeing none can I have a motion I make the motion to move resolution 12426 can I have a second second roll call Madam clerk Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes Mr 4 next we have consented agenda items ca1 through ca24 okay everyone I just want to provide a quick uh summary of tonight's agenda items before um we review them uh we have several qualified candidates for consideration on the mayor's Commission on persons with special needs that's up first we have a resolution for the an annual Accelerated Tax sale which will take place uh for delinquent properties on November 11th there are also several cdbg Grant subrecipient agreements um cdbg stands for Community Development block grant agreements uh this is grant funding that we've receiv received from the federal government uh these are going to um several selected nonprofit organizations one is the YMCA and their summer program uh for kids uh another is a a really good organization um for basketball training they have a training camp it's called fan favorite located here in Hamilton on Whitehead Road um I know personally because my two boys get their training from them um and then we have the Wilson Center to assist with its homeless prevention programs for Hamilton Town residents so those three were the three for cdbg funding um you also find a resolution placing an important item of revenue for the Hamilton Public Library this is over 1.5 million in federal uh dollars that we received for renovations uh that have been set aside for the library so uh the main bigger ticket items that I I remember uh going through the facility with and this was um achieved through the congressman's office Congressman Kim's I want to thank them and I'm sure my Council colleagues will as well uh for ensuring that we received this allocation and it came to fruition but it's going to make some improvements to the for the windows the bathrooms if I remember correctly the children's room and the children's uh room um which I was able to walk through and and see some of the um plans that are are going to be placed uh going forward um we have roughly uh the other resolution that's on our consent agenda for your for our consideration tonight we have also roughly uh 75,000 in local public health grant money for outreach preparedness um we have a PS one which is smaller it's only 2500 and then but we also have a firefighter Grant through arpa funding for cleaning services for PPP PPE um there are also two solicitation proposals um for proposals for the management of the Golf Center and also uh our uh annual Municipal calendar uh finally you will see uh that there's several refunds and a release of a performance bond for 861 Sloan Avenue uh for those of you in the room that is the former congolian site across from the Hamilton Train Station um that pretty much covers most of the items on tonight's uh consent agenda um does anyone from my Council uh body have any comments or questions um I'll just jump in to just comment on the library and again thank um Congressman Kim but as a mom who use utilizes the and I'm sure we're all up here library is such an essential part of our community so to know that we're going to have these improvements especially to the children's room and what we have to offer I think it's fantastic thank you councilwoman I I couldn't agree more yeah uh I'll just jump in and say uh also grateful to uh Congressman Kim for his uh assistance the the library is a a crown jewel of of our Township an important uh piece of our infrastructure and the services that we provide uh also hopeful that uh putting out uh the management of the Golf Center will uh improve the quality of services uh that we're providing through that facility and possibly even increase the revenue uh that we're realizing uh from that uh from that facility okay anyone from the public wishing to comment on uh this evening's consent agenda yes Jenice oh my God it's low uh Janis CL 432 Trinity Avenue Cornell Heights exactly what is uh ca23 24229 Stone Avenue exactly what is that the Telecommunications audit no she's talking about the oh Avenue oh and by the way with the Telecommunications audit um that uh only we would only see a cost for that if the um if we realize the savings from that from that audit Savings in the first year yeah but as far as ca23 which was your question Home Improvements or something really so I I I spoke beforehand with uh Alyssa on this one this is um that they met certain requirements in um preparing the site for um they they placed Curbing and and some sidewalking sidewalks am I am I right uh Alissa to say that the the work has been completed and approved so um where pration for the conium site for development we're talking about the uh existing building this is for yeah 861 so so essentially what happens for every application they have to put certain money into a fund and that money stays there until they' finished certain parts of the project they've completed certain parts so we're issuing them money back there's $35,000 they're getting back because certain criteria was met this is the um one building that they didn't turn tear down and they um built parking lot and a new driveway from uh from clockner supposed to be a place that was selling school supplies school supplies that's what originally was is that still remain I don't I don't know what it was concrete curve uh signage pavement striping it's been slow coming Rail and treatment frankly and then I don't know if this is a dog house type B Inlet around that building then yes I believe it's the major improvements right around that 100 I think it's 115,000 s foot building if I remember correctly it might have been 150 but it's either 115 or 150 I remember that that being the size of that building and they they kept that building up um and I believe that these are performance improvements um around that building and uh site preparation around that building um to finally have an end user access utilize that property so there still going to be the school supplies or is it for like whoever want it Alissa do you know the answer to that one I don't believe it affects that I I don't know and that actually doesn't matter for for this purpose okay so just fixing that because also wasn't there supposed to be a big Warehouse to be put in there that's truck Warehouse that's not this building which is behind that's more a long Sloan and so that's a different story oh okay so this is just about that one building I believe so okay thank you thank you Jen anyone else seeing no one else can I have a motion council president seeing no other members of the public wishing to comment I move that we close the public comment portion and uh vote on consent agenda items one through 24 all second roll call Madam cler Mr Papo yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr carabell yes an agenda passes 40 or ordinance 24-19 ordinance authorizing the lease of a portion of Hamilton Township property known as hell Recreation Center to campfire New Jersey block 2077 Lot 1 535 East Franklin Street specifically the first floor this is second reading in public hearing so anyone from uh Council wishing a comment uh glad to be seeing the building being put to good use I understand there was even well I might be jumping ahead which one's in the basement I understand there was even some renovation work done uh for one of the tenants that are moving in there yeah there he is we have a grant ined right now the exterior of the building as well that be done this and and just for uh um just clarification transparency these are lease agreements um that uh are for a dollar but the um the tenants are responsible for the on this is 24 019 through 24-21 uh are responsible for the utilities so um but we have some great groups that are in these um going to be utilizing home delale Rec Center anyone from the public wishing to comment on Ordinance one on Ordinance one council president see no members of the public wishing to comment I move that we close the public comment portion and move ordinance 24- 019 on second reading second the motion roll call Madam clerk Mr pero yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes score Z ordinance 2 24 de 020 is an ordinance authorizing the release of a portion of HRI property inale Recreation Center to the James raly Foundation block 2077 l 1 535 East Franklin Street specifically the [Music] basement anyone Council um I just want to commend this organization too just being able to see the progress um actually watch the progress on Facebook which was wonderful to see the pictures of the transformation from where it was to what it is now and I've actually had a chance go on into tour of the facility it's an awesome facility and impacts so many young lives so um anyone from the public wishing to comment seeing none uh council president I'll make a motion to close the public comment move on ordinance 224-232 24-21 is an ordinance authorizing the lease of a portion of Hamilton Township property known as homel Recreation Center to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mercer County block 2077 Lot 1 5 535 East Franklin Street specifically the second floor anyone from my Council body another a great organization yeah anyone from the public seeing none I make a motion to close the public comment portion and move ordinance number 3 24021 on second reading I'll second that roll call Mam cler Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli 4 Z ordinance 4 24-22 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Hamilton New Jersey part two general legislation chapter 215 fees section 25-1 municipal clerk and section 25-8 Department of Public Safety and this is another example of us just bringing our code into conformance with stay law anyone else from Council no sir anyone else from the public see none council president uh seeing that no members of the public wish to comment I move that we close the public comment portion and move ordinance 24- 022 on second reading second motion roll call Madam clerk Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr carav Val yes pass is 4 Z ordinance 124 d023 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the C of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 485 vehicles and traffic Article 2 parking section 45-19 handicap parking this is repealing spaces established at 18 Bismark Avenue by ordinance number 21056 16 Charlotte Avenue by ordinance 24-2 184 Main Street by ordinance number 20-8 and 434 Schiller Avenue by ordinance 20-2 this is first reading and introduction can I have a motion for this ordinance 24-23 I make the motion uh to move ordinance 12423 on first reading and introduction second thank you roll call Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carelli yes cases 4 Z ordinance 22 24-24 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 485 vehicles and traffic Article 2 parking section 45-19 handicap parking this is establishing spaces for 18 bmark Avenue 179 Main Street and 1126 Williams Street can I have a motion on ordinance too I move ordinance 24-24 on first reading can I have second second roll call Madam clerk Mr PaPeRo yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes Cas is 4 Z ordinance 3 24-25 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Hamilton New Jersey part three land use legislation chapter 577 storm water control and repealing the previous chapter 577 in its entirety council president I'll make a motion to move on ordinance three of first reading introduction for 24-25 I'll second that roll call Madam clerk Mr Papo yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr Carabelli yes 4 Z ordinance 42 24-26 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 550 Land Development Council president I'll move ordinance 24-26 on first reading I'll second roll Co mler Mr PaPeRo yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr carabell yes 40 resolution 24-230 is a resolution referring that proposed amendments to the code of attach pel to New Jersey chapter 550 Land Development to the Hamilton Township planning board for review for went to njsa 40 55-26 now this one uh we open up to the public so this one here any questions uh or comments from The Count Council first so again my understanding is we're bringing our law into conformance with state law that's the intention of Y of this ordinance very well so thank you any other comments from my Council no members of the public wishing to comment just state your name for the record Hi how are you hi I'm wonderful my name is Katherine Ireland I'm a dedicated environmentalist and they really truly care about the people of Hamilton and our community um Hilton I'm sorry sir you you have to have prior permission to record it'll be on YouTube tomorrow morning it'll be on YouTube tomorrow morning yeah so good to know um we're just concerned that there is overdevelopment happening in Hamilton and that the environment is being you know brought into uh the council's mind as much as it really should be in our opinion and you know we want to make sure that our community and the neighbors that are going to be impacted by the developments are informed and are aware and um we just want transparency and everything else and you know care so um yeah I'm glad we all agree I'd love to have the other people on my team come up and comment as well though sure thank you thank you thank you K I don't think they want to talk she wants talk are you going to nudge them up we're friendly we're good yeah we're easy going this up hi I'm Chelsea Schultz recently the town saved 10 acres in ker woods from becoming a warehouse soon and we're trying to fight and prevent conservative protections from being overturned on the h acre bat Creek Farm property it's 10 times the size of what the other one was so that's not an issue right now though yeah this uh you can talk about that during public comment but that's we we we stay on topic when we're in the agenda oh excuse me council president that's okay you can come back up and and have that's okay you know what just intruction that was a good introduction um this is this ordinance is strictly on the storm water but we will call you back I'll call you back up first when we go into um or a public comment which is right around the corner all right sorry about that anyone else wishing to comment on this ordinance that's before us resolution a resolution I'm sorry okay council president see no members of the public wishing to comment I move that we close the public comment portion and move resolution 24-230 can I have a second I'll second roll call Madam clerk Mr pero yes M Phillips yes Mr Ty yes Mr carabell yes this is 4 z um how I'm G have Chelsea come up first I know you just get into a rhythm you can come back up nice shot did it fall the floor went right into this okay so go um just state your name for the record if you would mind Schultz thank you Joel so yeah it was essentially just about toac Creek Farm and we just want to know that you won't allow the conservation protections to be overturned with that area where what is the Black Creek Farm it's in yard vone and they're trying to build a warehouse there and a lot of people that live there weren't made aware that it was happening and it's like I'm not aware of the Back Creek Farm so at this am is going to tell us all about it I I don't know I don't know which property but I just know I grew up in Yardville we know they're trying to build a warehouse there it's like my backyard none of us want that we like the Farmland we don't want any more warehouses that's pretty much that but I mean they know okay all right thank you Chelsea I appreciate it nice um let me just go Ames you're up first go ahead just if you could state your name oh good evening am Hoy 29 Country Lane and long time no see am and uh Mr Carelli uh belated uh congratulations on your presidency oh thank you and it was a smooth a smooth transition he gives me a lot peaceful he gives me a hard time so the the residents of the mer of the Veterans Park area and many other residents outside of that are very grateful and thankful that this Administration has preserved the Ted Acres known as ker woods and that's great and so thank you very much the um if I may just kind of getting a little off script here and some okay excuse me sorry about this so and as I said we we are very grateful but there is there was much less uh public awareness about 100 Acre Back Creek Farm now where that is if you know where stury way is so it's where the Amazon warehouse behind that that is the rural resource conservation Zone area and it is in danger of losing its protections it is an important part of the rural resource conservation plan your plan to Res Zone it um to commercial why why is that why whose plan did you say our plan well the because there's no plan before this Council to do what you're saying at this time it was in front of the planning board how how good is this for anyone but the developer and I normally do not get forceful with my comments but I'm going to have to do it because this is really a breach I think of trust my first thought was it couldn't possibly be true yet it seems that this body is in favor of putting developers profits over health and safety sorry you're speaking for this body because we haven't debated or voted on the prop I'm sure that maybe I should be include the mayor and the planning board but I would think that you may know of this situation and we'll probably learn about a little more we do know of about the situation we didn't refer to it as the Back Creek Farm we didn't know it by that name we okay so so if you go ahead with the plant go ahead and remove protections for Back Creek Farm it means that none of Hamilton's protected land is safe it means that protected has no meaning and the rural resource conservation zone is in danger of becoming commercialized or industrialized if you want to State your position on this in preservation of this and the rural resource conservation Zone I would encourage you to speak up now the lifting protections for developer profit is not a reason to destroy valuable open space and farmland tell us tell me explicitly and US explicitly that you will not reone any part parcel in the rrc zone tell us we can tell us so we can all see you are really you you are and really remember what we need but remember when we need to vote you out of those seats never heard me talk like this before but I I find this a serious breach so I would like Mr uh president Carabelli to show your support for the rural resource conservation Zone and the preservation of the 100 acre parsel of land Mr Hoy I'm going to advise Council not to respond specifically to those questions because I believe you're probably getting set up to do a litigation and so I don't want anything on the record that would be adverse or in in favor or anything with regard to a future litigation that might be coming down the pike Alysa I expected that response thank you thank you thank you okay up next we have Edge Fifer members of the council I'm at Fifer um fory Drive Spruce Farms development speaking as a resident um and I guess you know what's going to be coming next basically no warehouses on Back Creek Farm okay and um let me just um I'm going to put a question to you but as I was thinking about this a little bit and I mold over in my mind a song came into my head an old Union song I heard you know I think it's probably Woody got three or something which side are you on and that's kind of the what the Crux of this um this question that I'm going to put you and ask you tonight and um you may not respond to it but I you know feel like I have to ask you the question so um the important question is to each and every member of the council will you keep the protections of the um rrc Zone in place on this 100 Acre parcel of land in the RC Zone which is near the Hamilton Marketplace if you need any more it a picture of where it might be when you said Stanberry way yeah then we were with Stanberry way and in between the crosswick uh crosswick Hamilton Square Road you know heading towards crosswick and Crossing Back Creek so um excuse me a second while I refin my place so will you keep the protections of the RC Zone in place on this 100 Acre parcel of land in the RC Zone known as Back Creek Farm will you vote against any proposal that comes to you uh any proposed ordinance that comes to you that rezones this property from the rrc zone to um an R&D Zone allowing for intensive an R&D Zone would allow for intensive development uh IND intensive Industrial Development commercial development and and to the detriment of the Prime Farm excuse me the prime Farmland U with green forests and wetlands which would be lost uh be paved over um some of it might be protected or in some way shape or form but we would certainly lose the big the greatest chunk of it so that's the question that I'm putting to you Mr PaPeRo Mr Tai Mr carabell and Miss Phillips so which side are you on it's as simple as that again my same uh recommendation not to say anything for against in favor against just because I I I see that there's anticipated litigation going coming down the pike so I'm just going to speak in general about you never know we might not do something like that there's a history yeah and I'm just going to speak in general um that this these members of council that I serve with and myself have uh preserved hundreds of Acres of open space at this point in our time on Council and have voted to preserve open space at every opportunity that we have been given so our track record is A+ 100% on preserving open space and let's keep it that way thank you thanks next we have uh Steve Cay Steve hi uh Steve CLE wolf peek wrote uh I haven't been up here in a while to talk about Animal Control issues but I'm back welcome back so on May 9th around 11 just after 11:00 at night um police received a call a dog had managed to work its way into a resident home a large a large brown dog um in the attempt to get the dog out one of the children in the home uh leashed it with a piece of the rope and tried to get out and got bit on the way out apparently the Rope got caught in the door and that's where the dog was um police called the health director and health officer to get the animal control respond they got permission to call out none of the acos responded uh they had a new employee who I'm assuming is an animal attendant with an ACO certification he didn't answer either um they called Trenton to get some assistance and Trenton obviously cannot um but this was one of the issues we brought up for regularly for years what happens since we don't have animal patol on call what happens when none of them respond in this case the police had responded and according to their report they wouldn't even get out of the car because the dog um had obviously bit somebody and was stuck there they had to call the residents to speak to them um so the residents are trapped in their house the dog tied their front door police could not get any help from Animal Control and as near as I could tell from these reports when they had nothing else they could accomplish they left and the dog was was left there um and and no indication Animal Control responded about 4 hours later there was another call um at a different address with a dog in a driveway barking um police showed up and their only notation is that's the same dog we dealt with 4 hours ago we're not touching this dog no indication they contacted Animal Control at that point just to note that hey Animal Control didn't come out before for this dog and they left so there's no indication this dog was picked up this dog bit a kit and it is now running loose um nobody picked it up it should have been picked up in quarantine for for the seven days um but we can't just have we still don't know where this dog is he may still be out there um but in all of this the question remains what happens when animal control does not respond knowing we have a legal obligation for animal control to respond so when did this happen Steve U it was a Thursday May 9th May night a little after 11:00 at night little okay um jul are are we aware of this situation notw okay so do we so we've added um Staffing um right now our protocol is voluntary on call that's we haven't changed that I believe that's the case I don't know if anybody tried to call Kathy for right there was apparently there was a call to Kathy and Kathy didn't Kathy didn't answer Chris did and he gave them authorization to call for for fairness for fair Joy can you please let her read that so you you should be able to read that just so you know she can't answer questions that she's not preparing yeah I mean we might we're not going to have answers on the spot for you Steve but we can look into it and see see what we can find out yeah yeah we'll we'll what is that document I'm sorry I what was that document those are the cad reports from the police department um for both the calls uh in the police investigating GR basically when an incident comes Poli department they time stamp when this person was called when that person so that there's some there's a record I also opener the audio that goes with this in this case um there's probably some audio missing between dispatch and the responding unit either I can harass Britney tomorrow follow up and get that or or I can let you guys track that down but I don't think it's going to change the answer I think the police could not get help from control that which I think the other question is where's the dog yeah the dog aside from what do we do when nobody shows up but where is that dog is that dog not going to bite somebody else that's an extraordinary situation I mean a dog was in someone's house how do we not yeah I mean they got and they got him out and he was Lally you know the broke got caught in the door from the description so they obviously had to do something to get out of their own house well uh thank you for bringing this to our attention and uh you need a copy of this no I have those yes Steve thanks Steve Joey can we uh can we just uh can you get back to us on on that situation I appreciate it okay that um everyone all on the signing sheet we're through that so anyone else wishing to comment from the public Lis um Lisa you can go okay I don't care Lisa go ahead go ahead yep thank you friendly in the audience Lisa Williams Bri first I thought that Homer bound was South Jersey Regional animal shelter so I stated the wrong shelter that's a dollar adoption fee so I wanted to correct that it's Homer bound in South Jersey news12 New Jersey did a social media post four hours ago so if we could get that help that would be great I just want to comment since I've spoken so often about the animal control policy that that it's clearly not working given what Steve just said if that person met the after hours criteria someone got hurt we need better in Hamilton this isn't right we're a town of 92,000 people people should be able to freely walk the neighborhoods and should something happen or an animal be an animal be loose Animal Control should be available I mean I listen to the budget workshops and many departments have standby time I think is what they called it which is kind of like on call we need that in animal control um the other thing is if I'm just going to request that someone in the administration or Council on a regular basis I'd like weekly or more often but whatever on a regular basis look at the shelter website and see what the public sees councilman paparo was copied on the email that I sent after the board of health meeting about a month ago there were 15 dogs I believe 11 cats two rabbits that either were missing photos or bios or both many had been at the shelter for a very very long time I check that website every single day and I just hope that things will resolve themselves because I don't want to be emailing every day I don't want to be calling every day like that is what the public sees that is what transfers to Petfinder and you know when someone's looking for a dog four years ago I adopted a dog from out of Hamilton because I couldn't find a dog on the social media and I called the shelter and everything that was there had a history I couldn't bring into my neighborhood but people go on social media and online looking for pets and our pets need better representation this whole situation being so far over capacity hits me hard because it was four years ago or 10 years ago in October that we were in the exact same overc capacity scenario where I adopted my fourth dog to bring a to free up a kenel I'm not in a position right now to be able to bring home another dog but we shouldn't have animal at the shelter for long periods not evaluated 4 months or more sometimes not posted with bios not promoted please someone step up so it's not always me who feels like I'm constantly bothering people but I feel for those animals sitting in cages not having homes being scared go sit in a kennel for for a couple of hours and just listen to what you hear that is so so stressful at least it brings up you know I know this is second time you emphasizing this this evening and I guess my question is and we've heard this before since I've been on Council we've heard you know it's gotten better I would think 12 over capacity but we're 12 over capacity right now and that's a situation that needs to be remedied so is there a marketing strategy do we hit social media do we because I you know sometimes I miss some of this stuff and I you know as a council person I should be more on top of it maybe but like there is an issue she's citing tonight U was brought up in previous meetings um and I think this is a also an issue I don't want you're the expert more than I am but is this across the board with animal shelters and we see this issue I see such better promotion elsewhere but you see though the capacity capacity is an issue honestly none of the shelters are probably at the capacity that of intake you're going to see coming up in the next year or two as we come out of this pandemic thing you know we have never hit pre-pandemic numbers intake wise but this capacity thing is going to continue promoting on Facebook is so easy you can sit there and schedule on Monday at pick what time you have the most activity on your page and post three or 4 minutes after it you want your post to be at the top when somebody's taking a break at work and starts scrolling so you can just post Monday maybe 10:03 is your number this dog bio Tuesday this dog you can sit there and post an entire month write them on pencil and a calendar and if that pet gets adopted erase it put somebody else in that slot and they just run it's clerical but there's been resistance to allow someone to take aov bio approv picture schedule move on like it it's not that hard I mean I I did it it was 10 years ago caught me got me into being social media crazy person because seeing 32 dogs in 20 kennels and knowing most most of them was hard I feel for what Steve goes through I can't do it anymore um I just ask that someone Administration counsil please look at what the public sees so we do have somewhat of a plan moving forward we have a new public information assistant that is focusing a lot on social media um we have plans we've met recently with some of our online news organizations you oh yeah I'm not getting thank you I don't even think it's onum sorry so we have um a new public information assistant that is going to help us with the social media side um we've met recently with some of our online newspaper um partners that are going to help us um advertise more specif the dogs more specifically we are way over capacity with them like you know um and then aside from that because not everybody has social media we also have stickers that are going out to the local pizza places so we advertise outside of social also because we do need to get more out there for them and we're doing everything we can right now but we have even more of a plan moving forward okay I hope we have your thank you so much I know I'm over my time thank you Lisa I think to Lisa's point I I know during during the um um during the health the Board of Health meeting we did talk about that and it's nice to see that you're actually moving forward um with that because I know we had talked about scheduling ads to go out on social media because we all know that you know we can do that so it's nice that you're when do you anticipate that actually starts so that you know I know residents hate hearing oh you'll see it you'll see it or you'll get it do we have any anticipated timeline that maybe could I believe it was starting in the next two weeks so we should start seeing more in the next two weeks so if you don't see anything in the next two weeks you can email me please okay thank you the other thing is you I mean maybe this I'm not being original here but like maybe we can highlight a a dog or two a week or something like that just you know brief description on the dog and you know and and something like that may just spread the word a little bit better and it doesn't really cost us that much through social media I mean obviously you're paying for the salary and wages of that individual that's working on that but it it helps get the word out there regarding our um you know and we have a perfect we just passed this evening the waving of the fee so that's another topic we can bring up and so thank you I appreciate it thank you Lisa yes J oh wait Jame well you I'll go real real quick he's a gentleman um Joseph Hy uh James R Hy foundation of the Arts this is just a huge thank you to all of you at the council we are so happy to have our home in Hamilton um we have grown by Leaps and Bounds because we have a steady place where every all these young people can find us so you're making a huge difference not just to our family but the family that we continue to grow thank you Jo and in regards to the pets it is everywhere I have friends who are in nonprofit who run shelters and one of the things that we did with the shelters we'll bring a a dog a very well behaved dog down for the day and we'll play with it for a little while we'll do a video on the dog we highlight the dog so that's something that we could open up with the Hamilton shelter as well and if you really want to just drive five minutes down the road traton is just as bad if not worse just it's it's an epidemic thank you thank you Joe we be willing to help with puppies just so and Joe how how long have you been in the building there the hell I think we're at 2 and a half three years and we are fully renovated and um I think we're at now um we we're probably going to hit our 300 kid mark this year 300 kids yeah between summer programs and and overnight programs and stuff like that so yeah great and we continue to grow more so well thanks for the work you're doing yeah no I have fun so you don't have to that me but I I do have a program going on that I'm going to close up so excuse me for being rude but again a huge thank you to all of you thank you thanks thank you yes JZ JIS CL 432 Trinity a Corell Heights uh can tell the hot bodies the air is cold I know it is I better take a sweater okay uh uh was one year that good all burned down on Saturday now is that still under investigation is that why they can't clean it up it it is still under investigation by the state they've also sued us um for failing to uh provide them permits for for uh they meaning they meaning the owner of of the property but as we've responded in a motion to dismiss that um they still haven't provided us the documents and the permits from the state that they were required to give us before we give them the permit to tear down um so we are now in full-on litigation against the owners of that property um and so that is the status everything is sort of stopped until they do everything they're required to do by law before we're allowed to give them the per permission to tear it down and clean it up they had they have to clean they had to treat it as if the whole site is uh covered with with asbest oh okay so um that's costly for them it's going to take time and what makes that site more difficult than other sites it's it's it's right at that inter it's a it's a prime thorough fair that I passed by on a daily basis so I see it every day not that you know coun carabell passes but but it's it's a it's it's a it's a very visible site right the creek too there so there's particular environmental concerns well I mean I mean that building was there before I was born so I mean the bestest I would say yeah probably yep no doubt thank you anyone else wishing to comment from the public yes sir hey do good you just state your name for the record if you want Richard Richard brother CH okay so obviously we grew up in the the same area with the same issues with the Fawn land um I Liv there for 33 years in Yardville in Hamilton I've seen it just change completely basically throughout my life you know the only time I've left is to go to Europe for a couple months and I've seen areas of Europe what they maintained for hundreds of years and my own town continues to change I see that you're amendable to preserving Farmland I would just ask that you continue to have that kind of mindset thank you Richard thank anyone else okay that brings us to council comments uh councilman uh perar you want to kick us off um can I the right now yeah sure I was trying to know why I contact teacher thing you know he just put you front and center a go I just want to thank everybody for coming out um there was uh accusations and assertion uh from from um at least one person uh that says we are a certain way or do certain things we are very open-minded there's uh several Representatives up here that have been on planning myself included I voted down in Cruiser Warehouse so I've been in this town my entire life I care about this town I don't like inferences made um we care so we hope yeah you you have you have our email addresses you can get you can get them you can email ask questions anything you want we're more than happy to answer we do a great job we listen we may not always agree but we're always going to respect you okay um somebody threatening to vote against me does nothing for me except make me better because now I'm going to do a better job right um I want to thank everybody for coming out we also believe in transparency and accountability and you have our emails if you need to talk to us send us a message and ask me to call have a good night thank you thank you councilman Phils um I'll just I want to reiterate what councilman paparo said we are here to listen we are open we we all here believe in transparency and our record shows our our voting record shows as councilman Tha um had mentioned so you know we're here to listen I know we we have received emails I don't know if those were specifically from the people who are here but we're receiving them we're reading them we're listening and we really do appreciate you coming out tonight to to be here and of course also to Ames and and Steve and Lisa and Janice always for coming out um you know these are important issues that we have to keep keep an eye on especially the shelter I know I talked to Chris myself this week and it's it is a situ dire situation we have to work on so I'm happy to hear that we've got some things in motion so with that I'll just say um I hope you all have a good night so I I applaud your endurance you came to say what what you wanted to say and you stayed to hear what we had to say so thank you for that and uh we you know I want to encourage everyone who is concerned about preserving open space in Hamilton to continue to use your voices do it more s make sure that not only us make sure the mayor hears you make sure sure your County government hears you make sure the people at the state government who control funding that we can use to preserve open space hear you so don't stop here make sure everyone hears you it's important for people to know that there are residents of this community that are going to turn out are going to vote are going to support candidates based on these issues so thank you for coming out I encourage you to continue to do so I am proud of our record in preserving open space it is true that we hear more from the people who have a financial stake in the matter than we do from everyday residents because people are busy with their lives they're not necessarily paying attention so I applaud you I encourage you to keep doing what you're doing and at the same time I'm proud of my Council colleagues and the record of preserving open space that we have uh it's an issue that is important to me and I know it's important to everyone here uh just a couple of thing couple of other things I want to just say once again thank you to Congressman Kim for the assistance with the library uh extremely important to our to our children to our community uh you know to maintain that building uh so that's going to go a long way uh finally uh I just want to point out that this week is EMS appreciation week uh I was able to join the uh EMS team over at Robert Wood Johnson Hamilton to show our appreciation present a proclamation from Council and the mayor uh to the EMS team and to uh just Express appreciation for the good work that they do and we're fortunate to have that uh those First Responders in that facility uh in our community and so with that again thank you everyone uh and good night can I jump yeah goad we don't meet again till uh June 18th looking at the calendar and uh that's 2 days past Father's Day so to all the dads out there uh to all the dads that aren't with us anymore um to all those that are listening or you know at home um that are going to watch this movie Happy Father's Day to everybody right it's uh not an easy task being a father sometimes uh but it's the most enjoyable so um Happy Father's Day to everybody that a bless thank you Pat so I don't want to be uh redundant but I will for a second I just want to Echo what was said already on this day I mean Council M said it correctly um and lisen we we I think are very uh transparent we're very approachable um we listen to both sides on the issue we I I think all of us do that on uh a daily basis I know we received emails regarding this site uh this particular site in the RC um yeah continue to communicate with us and uh I appreciate you coming out this evening um and uh voicing your concerns um the other thing I just wanted to mention tonight's agenda was full of Grants I mean we had several grants for important organizations out there um James Holley Foundation being one of them um but that wasn't specifically specifically um thank you for that uh wasn't specifically a grand awarded uh subrecipient this evening um they're just they're just doing great work in our Hamilton Township own buildings and uh that's exciting um but some of the things that we do for our youth here in Hamilton um I want to compliment the administration the mayor for pushing those things forward this evening uh on those particular Grant programs um so just want to mention June 18th is our next council meeting there is almost a a little over a little less than a month uh between now and our next meeting um and then I also wanted to mention we have two parades on Monday the Memorial Day parades are this Monday want to wish everyone uh Happy uh Memorial Day uh 1's 8:30 the Arville groveville parade and then 10:30 the Nottingham Memorial parade so if you you get a chance if you're around this weekend uh take advantage of those two parades they're great ones um and uh with that being said I just want to I wish everyone a good good evening and hope to see you on the 18th thank you is it really