from the United States of America to The Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all good evening and welcome the March 12th 2024 meeting of the Jackson Township Council will now come to order councilman brelli here councilman Bernstein here councilman Chisum is absent this evening Council vice president Sergeant president and council president cun here also present this evening is our business administrator Mr Terence wall and our Township attorney Mr Gregory mcgucken as Clerk of this meeting I hereby publicly announce that in compliance with the provisions of the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been advertised in the manner prescribed by law we open with opening comments from Township Council council president cun thank you madam clerk at this month's economic advisory meeting we discussed the potential development of Jackson Township app for your phone um Additionally the economic advisory committee brought up the idea of having Jackson business directory on the website and the app I believe this is a fantastic suggestion we are currently discussing ideas of how to obtain local business information for the directory the vision is to offer businesses the opportunity to be listed on the township directory to get more local exposure creating a Jackson Township app could be a valuable resource for the community by by consolidating all Jackson related news updates permit applications ordinances and other pertinent information and to one accessible platform we can significantly enhance the convenience and efficiency of accessing important Township related information moreover having a dedicated app would facilitate better communication and engagement with the residents of all ages promoting greater Civic involvement and awareness of the town's events and uh initiatives this aligns perfectly with our goal of fostering multigeneration generational growth and ensuring that all Jackson residents are well informed about local opportunities I believe that developing a Jackson Township app has the potential to be a transformation project that benefits the entire Community I'm excited to explore this further and work in unison to bring the vision to formation we also discussed the Jackson mua which is its own entity we had some questions when does the MUA plan on supplying Water and Sewer to the rest of the town we have received quite a few questions that are not able to be answered that being said we would like to see the residents ask the questions directly to the Jackson mua at their monthly meeting so that we can answer why water and sewer hasn't been provided to match the growth of the town we keep hearing the demand of water and sewer needs are not being met we encourage people to go to the Jackson mua meeting on March 28th at 5:00 pm so your questions can be answered by The Authority I myself will be there as I have been at the last couple meetings with councilman Bernstein we are still awaiting for a response from the MUA in regards to a member that would be appointed to the economic advisory committee this is the only seat that has yet to be filled open space as you can see we have the map of the open space currently we have over 2,883 Acres that have been preserved for open space thus far I currently working on creating a spreadsheet of some sort to let the Jackson residents know we were currently with submissions properties that are in attorney review and properties that we are currently looking at thank you all for coming and have a great night thank you Council vice president Sergeant good evening um I concur with all of uh president cun's comments as always she does her research exhaustively and um I just want to uh make that comment because the work that she does should never go unnoticed she's a hardworking woman and she deserves that praise thank you thank you thank you sir councilman barelli uh thank you clerk Moss um as we may have all heard by now the Jackson Township School District was forced to borrow over $10 million from the state of New Jersey to cover a budget deficit caused by yearly state aid cuts to Suburban school districts like ours so because of this loan the state department Department of Education is requiring the Jackson School District to be assigned a state monitor who will oversee and can overrule the decisions of the duly elected School Board in whose $160,000 salary and all other expenses we taxpayers will have to pay not a good situation for schools to be in thank you to council president cun for including resolution r143 d24 on tonight's agenda which I'm introducing in support of assembly Bill a 3589 which former colleague and former Jackson Township councilman and assemblyman Alex siwicki of the 12th legislative district is sponsoring that would require the state of New Jersey to pay for the salary of State monitors assigned to school districts not local school districts like ours the state of New Jersey mandates many things for municipalities and schools but it doesn't pay for it why should Our Town School District pay for a state imposed monitor if this is an issue that they caused and created as a result of drastic public school aid Cuts over the last several years in school staff and programs for students it's not right and it doesn't make sense the legislation proposed by our assemblyman is not an N all be all however it will help take the burden off of Jackson taxpayers imposed by the state and helper Town School District with their budget lows and while the liberal Democrat majority in the New Jersey state legislature are busy mandating things for towns and school districts to do without paying for them cutting millions of dollars in state aid to public schools and Suburban Republican districts s like ours now they are considering and proposing Senate Bill s 2930 and assembly bill a445 which puts restrictions on the open public records act which is supposed to provide transparency to the public and their ability to access the public records of their elected appointed and government officials the public should know what their government and representatives are up to and how they are conducting themselves especially in a state well known for corruption to find out more about Bill numbers s29 30 and a445 regarding modifications to Oprah the op public records Act and the reach out to the entrenched Democrat state legislators sponsoring these bills please visit the New Jersey legislature website the legislature may vote on these bills I last read regarding Oprah this Thursday so reach out to them in the next couple of days they seem to love to Ram controversial legislation through that is not good for New Jersey and when no one is paying attention take care and have a good evening thank you councilman Bernstein thank you clerk um so I just want to also go over a couple things that have occurred since the last meeting um firstly I had the opportunity of bringing to tonight's council meeting um a resident dropped off and asked me to bring to the to the town hall and I'm going to give it to the clerk after the meeting a petition signed by 250 residents asking the township while they're looking into allocating various funds um for sidewalks in the future to to um where exactly some of these residents would make that request so we always welcome residents um being vocal um and petitioning their government and I'm going to pass this petition onto the clerk so she could enter it in and I guess distribute to the to the council and to the administration after um additionally I also had the opportunity of joining with council president gun um by the economic advisory committee meeting it was so it was wonderful to see a group of of well-meaning engaged um residents and I also very much looking forward to working together with the administration hopefully on this app and giving residents a a more clear and up toate with what year were in opportunity and how to find out more information about our Township and it's something that I know the Administration has been working very much on whether it's on the town website whether it's on the town News website so kudos to the administration and um looking forward to being part of this uh um groundbreaking and um wonderful app um I also had the opportunity um last week in going to Atlantic City and joining in a conference over there and one of the the themes that I had opportunity of discussing with many assemblymen and other state legislators throughout the state was the school funding issue um I think as a town we need to build more alliances with other towns and other people who are finding similar issues I see in the crowd two Board of end members and I'm hoping they take take the podium during the open minutes during the open open comments at the end of the meeting because I know this is something both of these two wonderful people are passionate about and I'm looking forward to being part of that um part of that team and hoping to continue to advocate for all of our students here in Jackson Township additionally I just want to throw out a special thank you again while the state did as um councilman belli mentioned before massive cuts to our Township um at least we got back a little bit before um but it's never enough and we definitely need to continue fighting so building more alliances throughout the state of New Jersey is the way to go and I'm looking for to be part of that and also thank you to the administration for updating that map which is on the um I guess on there and I guess whatever Clarity we could have what colors each one's mean maybe we could we could distribute cleaner we just wanted to get something to present that we could show so we can distribute that and um I'm looking forward and thank you everyone for coming out I see some new faces so um thank you for coming and we're looking forward to more participation in our meetings thank you thank you council president I believe ordinance 11-24 has been tabled this evening yes uh ordinance D1 11-24 is going to be tabled and Revisited on the next meeting um once I spoke to all of the council members I think we all collaborated together and agreed that it needed a little work um what I'd like to see is some security for Jackson residents um in these usion that they have to have a certain amount of residents from Jackson on these projects and employ our Union uh Local Union uh res presidents it's very important I think uh that was consistent throughout the board so I wasn't going to sit up here and put something on that was going to pretty much get five NOS uh we actually worked together I think really well and uh made some changes and we' sent it to our attorney so you could look forward that with the changes on the next agenda thank you did you say that's going to be on the next yes it'll be on the 26th March 26 I've already kind of allocated the spot for it so we will get you out too like we have been meeting all the deadlines so that you can review it and you can see the changes and um you can hear from Council on that with that being said if I can just make a comment um we have our tnm engineer Charles here uh Madam clerk I do apologize I we were a little crazy we didn't have executive today so I didn't get to sit with you we actually have um our engineer that is going to be here and he is actually we're going to start start rolling out some education on the ordinances that we are implementing uh we want to do me and the business administrator met for a very long time and said you know before we just roll out you know ordinances we want to make sure that the of Jackson understand them so um Charles from our engineering tnm has come and uh is you know going to give some education regarding the County ordinance I believe or just title 39 I think we're doing justonight title 39 which is a state that is not anything that the town is implementing that is a state ordinance that we are just looking to enforce to clean up our neighborhoods thank you for having me tonight uh council president and council members Charlie conm Associates licensed engineer planner certified Municipal engineer state of New Jersey um as a council president um alluded to this is tle 39 it's a state statute um it's been in place for a number of number of years uh it's not something that is specific to Jackson Township it governs all 564 municipalities in the state of New Jersey and it generally uh regulates traffic um movements uh on public roadways throughout the state um many of them are geared towards Public Safety pedestrian safety um and what we've prepared here is just a general um schematic gener um illustrating a number of the restrictions that are in place and I'll touch very quickly on the ones that are on the periphery of the sketch um that aren't more concentrated to the intersection component but um on the lower right hand here you can see uh this is a fire hydrant you know typically in other times you might see them uh colored in red Jackson Township you'll find a lot of those are silver shaft with blue top so we've shown it as blue here in this exhibit um tedo 39 does not allow parking stopping or standing within 10 feet of a fire hydrant what's the purpose of that if you have a fire emergency you know a fire truck needs to be able to pull up in proximity hook up um and fight a fire um uh up in the upper right hand corner here um parking within proximity to curb uh tile 39 uh requires vehicles to be parked within six inches of the curb the reason behind that as you can see as you f move further off the curb line if you were to have two cars parked you know say two three feet off the curb line that chokes down the vehicle you know travel way uh so if you have two emergency vehicles or a school bus and a delivery vehicle coming in opposite directions it creates a con conflict you know possible for collisions um in emergency with a fire truck or ambulance or things like that there could be issues with them in response times um upper lefthand corner here parking in front of a private or public driveway uh same kind of principle for emergency vehicles they need to be able to readily get into private structures uh If This Were a driveway from a firehouse or an EMS facility um clearly you don't want that block because it's going to impact response time um also parking in the wrong direction of traffic you can see um you know going to the bottom hand of the page here we've got one two three vehicles parked in the right direction of traffic and you have this one here parked in the incorrect direction of traffic facing up uh what that happens if you know obviously you have to pull in the wrong direction of traffic to park there but then in close proximity to an intersection if you're done trying to pull out there you're going head on um you know greater chance for Collision you know if there's pedestrians involved uh you know conflicts with pedestrians when you get more close and localized to an intersection um that's where you know pedestrian safety comes a little bit more into play uh we'll start on the right hand side here proximity to a stop sign so no parking stopping or standing is permitted within 50 feet of a stop sign um I think you'll find with many of the roads that have recently been paved over the last five or 10 years um the Township's been doing a good job in making sure that they stripe a dou double yellow Center Line 50 ft from a Stop Bar that helps um with public awareness and then also enforcement with Police Department to be able to know if someone's parked within that distance within the double Yellow Tail they're not supposed to be parking there and and you know it can be an issue for for uh Public Safety um uh once you get in the upper right hand corner here uh crosswalks you're not allowed to park within 25 fet of a crosswalk on the opposite side if you don't have a crosswalk you're not allowed to park within 25 ft um of the uh intersecting uh edge of the traveled way and then also uh we call this within the T so on the upper hand side here you're not allowed to park within the entirety of the intersection you know on on some drive-throughs that we've had throughout town in some of our neighborhoods um we've seen a lot of vehicles parked within a lot of these areas um you know overnight this might not necessarily be um you know an issue especially if you get further west where Lots get larger and things like that when you get higher density with more vehicles um during the am and the PM Rush Hour you know going to and from work when school is you know pickups are happening and drop offs are happening when you have vehicles parked in the proximity to the intersection that impacts sight lines site triangles you know it increases increases the possibility of either traffic colls with vehicles or you know even worse pedestrians if it's during the AM or PM when the school pick up and drop offers happening you know you run the risk of something happening and a child getting hit um so this is a state law it's nothing specific the Jackson Township um we just want to educate residents because um you know I think we've seen this is happening throughout town and like I said it's not just happening in Jackson Township you'll see it in a lot of short communities when you have your higher summer Peak with tourists and things like that um uh we just want to educate the residents so they're aware of this um hopefully we can void you know collisions and you know God forbid loss of life or anything like that so with that if there's any questions for the council members of the public I I'd be willing to answer anything that you may have someone asked one question um with parking within the te we'll call it um does that make a difference how wide that street is in title in chapter 39 no no no title 39 so it's it's literally from the if you took this edge of payment and went directly up and you took the other edge of payment and went directly up it's that entire width so if this is a 36 foot wide Road a 40 foot 50ft wide Road it would be that entire width there and then 25 ft from the edge of travel way this way on both sides of the road in the case of where there's a crosswalk you can obviously park within the crosswalk and then another 25 feet from the crosswalk so it the area can become quite large and then you know this is a typical example when you get into some of these neighborhoods you might have driveways that are also in proximity to that so those distances can actually get get sometimes a little bit larger once you when you take into those other factors just commenting on that and you made a great point so looking at that t again and you see that Say the 25 feet just for argument sake to the left um and at that t point in some of the um high density communities there is a driveway there so what would that homeowner do would they Park to the right of their driveway looking at the if it's on the leth hand side would they Park to the right or they would park to the left like can you just explain that a little bit more because I think that that is a that's a question that's going to come up yes so so if there were a driveway within this 25 ft right you wouldn't be able to park you know if you're facing in your property looking at the street you wouldn't be able to park on the left hand side you'd have to park on the right hand side um it's a little bit difficult to show here but um you know we can circulate this as a PDF format where it's a little bit higher resolution there's a yellow line work kind of in these areas you know that could represent some towns will stripe the curb yellow some towns will actually install striping you see that a little bit more in the short towns just to help uh residents and pedestrians be aware of you know these are areas that you should not be parking and I just want to highlight the the statute it's not just parking it's parking stopping or standing so during you know the when you have your school pick up and drop off you know if you're rolling up to drop your kid off you know and you just stop there for you know two minutes but your car is running that's stopping or standing so like uh it applies to you know all that parking permanently you know for longer durations or if you're just idling your car waiting for your kid to get parked up by the school bus I would say even that is almost the most concerning time because that's when you're having a high frequency of you know Vehicles school buses larger Vehicles where um you know conflicts with pedestrians can be um more frequent so thank you sir does anybody have any questions on Council thank you thank you sir thank you thank you we're good thank you there are no ordinances um either for first reading we move on to bills and claims I need a motion to approve motion please motion second second thank you councilman belli uh have to abstain on Bill number n07 uh st01 st76 and treasure thank you yes to the rest thank you councilman Bernstein yes Council vice president Sergeant yes and council president ke abstain from rcs2 yes to the rest thank you thank you consent agenda I need a motion to approve the listed resolution under consent agenda motion second roll call councilman barelli yes councilman Bernstein yes Council vice president Sergeant yes and council president cun yes thank you we move on to public comments of any Topic at this time if any member of public has any comments to make please address council at the microphone and state your name and address clearly for the record you will have five minutes and may only speak once hello my name is is uh sir I'm first class retired Billy Webb I live at 651 Homestead in Jackson sir I'm very sorry could you repeat your name again yes sure Billy Webb thank you you're welcome um Madam president members of the board um I wasn't even planning to come here today except an incident that took place outside of my house for the 15th time today um we live at home on Homestead and and at the very end is winds low field or the Airfield remote control Airfield um for many years when we first bought the house uh we knew they they were there the president of the club was understanding um we had a couple members that would always block our driveway always block it they wrote in their bylaws hey you can't do it anymore well that guy has switched out and the pain has begun yet again we also have now a seven-month-old child and just before this meeting at six o'clock my mom was trying to leave the house and this guy is blocking the driveway he does it every time so so I take a picture as instructed by the police in the past and he's cursing out my mom yelling making my mom cry for no reason like it's just getting to the point we've had the cops there multiple times uh the cops say there's nothing that they can do the last time that the cops were there was about two three months ago and um they told me that the town owned the property and the mayor's office is the one that rents it out to them that's what the cop administrator would you like to uh sorry was this are these the car no this is the um remote control Airfield okay um and I'm glad I came because speaking of title 39 that's exactly what they're doing they're blocking my driveway multiple times I couldn't leave I can't you know like today my mom was trying to leave couldn't leave had to wait 15 minutes and then he waits on purpose and the cops have been and they have more important things to do but nothing's getting resolved our street is very narrow as well um I mean the cops don't even know who own our who owns our street the county or the town so I guess I'm just asking for some guidance on how to elevate this we just want it to stop just it's harassment at this point well I'd say through the council president first of thank you very much for being here I'm not familiar with the issue now I am uh we'll have it addressed and also uh coincidentally the police chief is is here with us uh as well um you coming here the public forum is perfect place to air grievance that's what we're here for and before you leave the when the meeting adjourns if you have a few moments I'll make sure I have your contact information and we'll address that quality of life issue that you're exp that'd be amazing and I just want to be clear that my issue is not with Jackson Police Department at all it's just I it's okay but uh I think you don't usually come to a council meeting and then say okay well we're going to put you with the chief right it's not it's not interpreted that way every single individual who works in the township of Jackson is here to fix issues and work hard for the folks that uh that um uh fund their salaries frankly all of us right so that's what we're here for to fix problems no again I I appreciate all your time thank you sir and you have my business card so please just send me an email and I'll I'll make sure it will for your service thank you very much all right great thank you very much sir thanks thank you for coming tonight sir have a great night good evening jeppie Paul Mary I am a Jackson resident um as the school board uh as the Board of Education president I would like to give an update to our Township Council on the state of our local schools while the board of education has a responsibility to address challenges we also firmly believe in highlighting the success of our district and believe this is even more important during challenging times The Jackson School District operates with the utmost fiscal responsibility this was supported through internal and external Audits and as a board we take pride in that however we can't ignore the undeniable Revenue limitations and financial concerns we are battling as I'm sure many of you are aware over the past six years the Jackson school district has received a deduction of 18 million in state funded Aid in the infamous S2 funding formula Cuts Additionally the state froze the District budget in areas such as security multilanguage learning services and transportation during this time frame over 215 staff positions numerous student programs including some sports have been abolished the negative repercussions included High uh High student class size less stud student enrichment programs the collapse of many sports programs for our high school students and an inability to maintain facilities throughout the district last budget year with support from Ocean County Superintendent the district concluded that no more additional programs and staff could be cut therefore in an effort to balance the budget given the con to continued state aid cuts and in conjunction with extraordinary increase to our non-public Transportation costs that are beyond our budgeting capacities we opted to apply for a state loan to make ends meet thankfully as this council is aware and we would like to thank the mayor and the council for your support and advocacy our excellent School administration completed Grant fund paperwork and received 2.1 million in relief funding for this school year only which will be taken off of the initial loan amount requested to be clear this was not what we wanted to do however it is evident from Financial Audits and reviews that Jackson has a revenue problem not a spending problem the term of this loan includes a state appointed Monitor and as per those guidelines the district is to pay the monitor State negotiated salary thankfully assembly minui quickly put forth a bill a 3589 that would require the state to fund the salary of this individual the Board of Education passed a resolution at our last public meeting last month in support of Bill a 3589 and we are thankful that tonight the council did the same we need to continue to be loud in order for the state to keep us a priority however with this with even with all the noise our students consistently demonstrate remarkable resilience despite the austerity that has impacted our district the Jackson School District still reports High graduation rates competitive Sports programs we continue to have amazing amazing arts and theater programs award-winning bandsmy that are teaching Real World skills all in an effort to prepare our students for their future success and due to the hard work of our students and faculty we are a resilient District we hope to get the town's full commitment with support of Bill a 3589 and as always the Board of Ed invites all in the community to attend our monthly public meetings and encourage the community to visit the district we it to stay properly informed thank you all for this time and support thank you president Peter vieno Jackson New Jersey um we're going to visit this issue again that I keep bringing up about um an issue that you had with my social media it's going on a year now March will be a year um I've brought it up at least four times at the Podium uh you claimed There's issues with my social media and that's why I was denied positions at the zoning board I sent you three emails asking for exampling you didn't answer any of them uh then finally in um January I filed an opra and I got immediately got a response I then sent you another email asking what was wrong with these um posts and you didn't respond to that either with that being said now we're going to have to do in public um also did you personally get these posts off my my social media Miss C I have no idea what you're holding in your hand sir these are they have your name on them these are the posts that you said were on my social media that you deny this position because of I can tell I've never you speak up I can't hear you yeah absolutely I can tell you I've never printed anything from your social media personally you never what I never printed anything from your social media ever and I put my hands in a Bible on that so if that has my name on it I have no idea how because I have never in my life uh posted anything from your social media so I'm not understanding this you're the one everyone for all all of these times that I've been up here in these email well first of all why couldn't you just answer my email so have to get up appear in public four emails you didn't answer four and I've been at the podium at least four times you couldn't answer me there do you have a question for me besides I didn't answer your email I apologize I'll get back to you I'll research the email look at it and get back to you would you rather do this in public or should we do it in private on by email it's a public forum I mean I'm not scared of anything that's in your hand I didn't do anything wrong I have difficulty hearing you here that's why I'd rather do an email personally can we do that okay absolutely sir yes and I want I want to know exactly what you find wrong with these posts because there and first of all I find it very suspect because I went into my social media I scoured my archives I scoured everything everything the history and I can only find one of these eight posts so it's already suspect where they came from and like I said they have your name on them so I I would like to also know who and how these were um how they were gotten because like I said I know how to use social media I'm in it for 45 years and they are nowhere to be found on in my social media except for one so can we get that information too absolutely sir thank you thank you have a great night good evening my name is Megan Gardella I'm a Jackson resident and I'm the chair of the Board of Education advocacy committee and I would like to update the community on the many ways that we are working to bring awareness to our legislators on our unique needs in an effort to get support to find long-term Revenue Solutions in the the coming weeks we will present a public resolution in support of assembly man Alexa wik bills a1286 and A1 1282 a1286 is a bill that has the state fund 100% of non-public Transportation costs for districts that meet certain outlin criteria an A1 1282 is a bill that has the state fund 100% of special education costs for both in District and out of District students you may be asking yourself why has the state cut Revenue to our own town school so deeply there have been many reasons over the past six years but one that has gained some traction lately is because the state feels that Jackson residents are not paying their local fair share of school taxes the Board of Education knows that residents do not want to solve the revenue issue through increased taxes as demonstrated in our November vote the committee plans to continue to meet with legislators and other affected towns to Advocate against the S2 funding cuts and current budget freezes in order to have a chance of the state reinstating necessary Aid we will need Jackson residents Our Town Council to respond when asked to participate in advocacy work such as letter writing and phone calls throughout the year remember the members of the Board of Education are volunteers who the community voted in to ensure fiscal responsibility strong policy development and Student Success for all of the children of Jackson we hope that the Town Council can also support Alex a Wiki's Bill a1286 and A1 1282 publicly that would be helpful and we hope that we can see more of you I know we've seen some of our council members and some of our community members here tonight at our meeting our next meeting is Wednesday March 20th at 6:30 p.m. in the Memorial High School Fine Arts building and we really would love to see support from everybody we hope that will bring some clarity to our current financial situation we appreciate your time and your support and we hope you have a great night thank you thank you so much good evening Dan picark Jackson Citizen in reference to title 39 there why doesn't someone take a ride through Brookwood one every one of those can can statues are I did for two hours with our engineer that's where that came from it's being violated and it's ignored and now we have people putting up orange cones on places where other people can't park so the police ignore they ride through the development never is a a a parking or a a citation issued is just ignored the same way that code enforcement ignores when people put brush out there's brush out to be picked up in Brookwood one right now there's there's trailers parked on Brookwood Parkway not one but two and it's ignored there there was a 16 whe reel trailer parked uh across the street from uh Prospect Point Apartments for two nights with no lights on in a dark area what goes on in Jackson Don't Pass new laws if we're not going to enforce the laws that are already on the book this is ridiculous it's dangerous and we have people riding E Scooters and ebikes without helmets without lights we have children riding bicycles on the street without helmets nobody for enforces anything these are quality of life issues I don't want anybody's child to get hurt and we need to do something about this yes sir I I thousand per agree with you I drove around with their Traffic Safety Bureau our Engineers for probably about two and a half hours we visited five neighborhoods um I learned about title 39 and I had asked which our chief is here and I asked our engineer to come out to start education we've been meeting for months about this before we just go out I I think we need to educate I didn't even know some of this stuff you when you when you get your driver's license you're taught to drive on the right side of the street so when you park on the wrong side of the street the only way you can park on the wrong side of the street is be to drive there you don't need to be educated you were educated to get your driver's license I agree sir but we're trying to work um to to enforce this and to move forward into phases start issuing tickets the word will spread quickly and it will stop we don't need to spend money to educate we do not need to spend more money in addition on UDA um the what do you call cuis act that's the only CES act that has a sign no parking on the grass in the C all the other cuis acts have parking either they're parking on the on the culdesac or they're parking the wrong way I mean what we have there's only one culdesac that you're not allowed to park on the grass no we've enforced that that ordinance just got passed at the last meeting um and that is now in in in the books because during the traffic when we drove but there's been a sign for two years on udica the only s the only C act that has a sign is UDA what and it's not enforced I mean what what our is here now Chief I know that you've missed when the engineer was here would you would you like to speak to the chief he is here and he could answer the enforcement of of be happy to because I mean I hear you sir it is it is really dangerous Brookwood one in particular and that's why we asked the chief and the engineer to come out so that we could kind of move forward and and clean up the streets we all agree yes sir thank you very much thank you sir may I council president thank you very much first of all Chief thank you for being here the the gentleman provided a perfect segue into the topic uh and summarized it very eloquently the engineer was here as well so there is a communication and education imperative and points are well taken so the point of uh the goal is safety the goal is not Revenue the goal is not inconvenience it's safety period so Chief if you would uh um you were able to have the benefit of the gentleman's comments if you could speak to that and if the engineer if you have any comments that duvail with that from the enforcement standpoint and how we're going to guide folks into the into the the correct Lanes legally and by the ordinance and figuratively uh please thank you yes good evening thank you for the record of the meeting Madam clerk Chief Matthew C Jackson Police Department thank you for the invitation to be here uh the good gentleman's comments are indeed timely and well taken as the council president referenced in the last few months we convened several meetings which were uh traffic and traffic safety oriented with a focus on the east side of town and areas such as the brookwoods where there are parking concerns and this also marries into the new ordinances both where uh there's a restriction on parking on a municipal roadway within 50 feet of a County roadway and um other traffic concerns for parking parking the wrong way near a stop sign near a fire hydrant and another contemporary topic that's been brought to our attention is uh traffic in and around bus stops so all of this is actually timely and relevant I see the graphic pictorial that has been displayed for the purpose of the meeting our department has taken the same pictorial and we've made a few modifications to it that are almost compl complete it's in the hands of a graphic artist right now because our intention is to share these talking points as well as some general Traffic Safety talking points and engage in an education campaign first again not to put my back to the gentlemen but uh so traffic safety has three key components engineering education and enforcement uh I missed the engineer my apologies but certainly what you see here was based on engineering renderings which marries in the traffic law and next we want to engage in a in a campaign of Education before we go on a campaign of enforcement and I led that discussion with the council president that I thought it was important that you are absolutely correct you take your driving test you're presumed to know the traffic laws and you're expected to be compliant with them however the reality is that over a period of time people may not be so compliant with those traffic laws and perhaps they need a fair reminder and out of a sense of fairness or Equity to all of the residents we didn't think it would be appropriate to put out a new ordinance and then just instantly issue summonses where people may not be educated on the changes and this was a good opportunity a learning opportunity to bring back to our motorists the the traffic law of the past so what I'm saying is we're tying in the new the new ordinance we're tying in the new ordinance that'll also give us enforcement on those islands such as uh udica Etc off a Bryant Drive where there's parking and only one has a sign and I think that was also brought to the Public Work Director DP putting signs out so there will be more signage so as soon as our updated pictorial comes out it's Our intention to go on an education campaign using the resources of the Township's uh website and their email server and all those that signed up for notifications from the township we'll be using our own uh social media account to put this out then we're going to engage for a period of probably no less than a month where our staff will go out and issue warnings and perhaps distribute these flyers as well and then we feel it'll be completely Fair once we've done the engineering once we've engaged in an educational campaign to then uh engage in a campaign of uh renewed enforcement so that people are compliant with these Provisions your points are well taken they're not lost on us they're not necessarily new but we appreciate your concern that people are parking orderly and that uh larger Vehicles can navigate these neighborhoods safely I'm with you on that uh we've had some real meaningful discussions on point and I think moving forward we're going to get some success as we move to push out this educational piece and I just want to add to the chief's Point um councilman Bernstein the mayor myself and if any other council members we are planning on hitting me and councilman Bern have' already walked through neighborhoods with the flyer and did education um we are planning on doing that we believe just as everything you said sir you were like hearing me me speak because I say the same thing and I've said it to the chief for very uh for a long time now it started in September when I went to the bus stop bus stops with traffic safety and it was it was not safe it was not safe for these little kids it was not safe for anybody you couldn't get in or out of neighborhoods so we've all been collectively working together and trying to come out with you know education and then enforcement but also pretty much boots on the ground education is what we're going to do now that the weather is nice you're going to see us in Brookwood one Brooklyn 2 flare Robins EST States all all of those communities and and try and do everything and then again we're going to leave it in the chief's hands and his amazing men and women of the police department to enforce it I could actually add to that that several days ago the services division Commander Captain Mar Nelson was asked to stor beginning to address the uh warning campaign with some of her personnel as well so this is a work in progress and certainly if I didn't address any of your concerns please uh grab me after the podium and I want to make sure that we're covering all I think that's what I had and I hopefully I addressed your concerns as well council president if I may ask Chief a question while you're up here the gentleman who came before you to speak he mentioned ebikes is there anything on the books governing or regulating ebikes so part of my ignorance my last knowledge had to do with vehicles that were 50 CC's and under I don't know that there is actually anything specific to the ebikes yet I've seen some bulletins coming out of highway traffic safety that it's a a rising problem but I don't think there's any enforcement per se in terms of what can or cannot be operated on the roadway although the helmet piece I think is universal so we should be looking at that but I'm expecting to see more from the division of highway traffic safety because I saw notes that they have a committee that is looking at the ebike concerns okay thank you you're welcome thank you sir you're wel have a good night anyone else seeing no one come forward make a motion to close public comment second favor I I motion to close motion to close motion to close close all in favor thank you everyone for coming out have a great night thank you have a good night