##VIDEO ID:kasynJzCB-U## [Music] do I need the soft I think you had it you have the list I have the list okay I have to sign um good evening everybody thank you uh for attending the June 26th Township of long hill meeting um we are going to start it at 7:33 would everybody please r and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Megan could you take Ro please in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included in the meeting that was electronically sent to the echo Sentinel Morris da record and posted on the township website the agenda public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www. lill nj. a public common perbly held in the orderers listed on the meeting agenda committee man dorsy will not be joining us committee man ray present committee man verza will not be joining us Deputy Mayor lavender here mayor Pia present okay this is the best part uh of being mayor we are on item number four uh we have several proclamations to give this evening and if I could turn the meeting at this point over to Deputy Mayor lavender he will uh introduce the Central School softball and baseball teams and uh Deputy Mayor sure um so first off we'd like to honor uh Central School softball uh they had a 13-0 undefeated season this year it's the third year in a row uh winning the Central Jersey Junior softball league championship and uh what's really amazing they only gave up 12 runs the entire season uh coach hawm will you stand up please um come on up to the mic uh is there a mic up [Applause] there this is coach Peter hawm of of Central School how many games games are there in uh in the regular season we have about 14 or 15 with the rain outs you never know it all it's less than one run per game oh absolutely how what was the most number of runs in a game one two how many we give up one one don't give it five one maybe one or two that's about it yeah we had enough s pitching staff that just didn't let it happen that's amazing how many pitchers do you have a lot but we have uh three or four dominant pitchers that are probably best you'll see them at the high school level and then probably a few that are going to college like it's that good and and how many runs per game were you scoring roughly uh I want to say we scored over 170 runs this season holy so you put that into perspective it's well over probably 13 14 runs per game that's awesome and how how many are going on uh up up to uh we have eight eighth grader that graduated so at least I know five or six of them will be playing J probably at the JV level next year if not the varsity level and how many will be returning next year of of the team I mean probably only about six or seven okay so about we reloading don't worry about it we'll be back here next year you'll be back you have the core in there yeah so so I want to read off the names here and um I think I know a lot of these that's why Mr Pia gave this to me because I actually pronounced the names correctly so mateline faly why don't you stand up as I call your names mateline faly not everyone's here not everyone's here how about ell Ellie Clark yes hey Ellie DED Dedra Vander Street no is Dedra here no D okay uh Micah pritzl no Micah how about Leah Saras uh Bella Wiggins uh Riley Hall you're here your Dad's here Dad's here noing soft okay she's playing softball They're all playing softball right now that's the great that's why we're so good Lena Storer uh Katherine Wanamaker uh OA Butler here we go H El jamb Bron yes there we [Applause] [Music] go Paige Anthony is Paige here yes Paige is here hey Paige Ariel Ariel varvar no not nope okay and uh Ava Mayo yes hey Ava so uh let's give a hand again to everybody here girls congratulations which one of you are going on to high school and who's returning next year all right you guys got to carry the weight next year this is great no pressure so uh thank you very much coach awesome job and thank you guys for you know look it out for us we every year it's outstanding and we really do appreciate all the support thank you all the parents as well thank you we're going to do baseball and then we'll do uh some photos okay yeah okay okay so next Central School baseball team so they had a great season the boys win 10-0 in their division they finished the regular season 10- one with that loss coming in and out of conference game where they lost 7 to8 no seven to six uh the boys earned the number one seed where they went on to defeat South hunterton in the first round 8 to three in the semifinals uh the boys found themselves down 5-3 in the fifth inning to B down Brook and they scored one in the bottom of the fifth to cut it the 5-4 and then in the sixth they tied it and then took the lead 75 with a two- out two-run triple by Brady Simo good job uh in the final they played Valley View and the boys did what they had done all year they won they had hits from simoen Camy Hansen Kerwin and OK Conor solid defense from the team and another great day on the mound by Lucas Shion the final was 10 nothing and a great way to end the season so um are the boys are very proud of the way they carry themselves the coach is very proud of the way the boys carry themselves all year and for what they accomplished so coach Simo are you here okay Coach Tim Simo is not here but I'm gonna I'm going to read the names of the boys if you're here please stand up Dylan Braverman Joey Camy Jordan Jordan hotra Michael Martinez Lucas shien Brady Simo Tyler Diaz Tim Hansen Dylan Hurley Patrick Kerwin towns o Conor Mason hotra Michael Anthony and Gavin Maharaj [Applause] boys congratulations uh now which one of you guys are going to high school next year all right and the rest of you guys you're going what what grade are you in now you're going to be in eighth grade next year seventh grade okay all right so you're you're the core of the team you're coming back well great job we appreciate you coming here we'd love to um recognize achievement like this good job so everybody give them a round of applause and then we're going to do some uh let's do some photos [Applause] Mr Pia can we go down yep we can go down okay you got softball you got baseball okay so up the two months some up two mons this is the hard thing all night being here [Applause] congratulations what they congratulations one two three [Applause] and now we have uh uh Believe It or Not fre Eagle Scouts and I won't read the entire proclamations I'll read uh the items that are specific to the Eagle Scouts themselves uh first brief description whereas the Boy Scouts of America is a volunteer organization and is one of the nation's largest and most prominent values-based youth development organizations so the first of our Eagle Scouts is John deck he has been announced a member of the Boy Scouts of America troop 56 John earned 30 merit badges some of his badges or his favorite badges being climbing cooking shotgun shooting rifle shooting plumbing and it takes years and of dedication to reach this level what is it 5% uh or less three 3% 3% of all Boy Scouts ultimately go on to earn uh their Eagle Scout uh our former uh Congressman Congressman Lance uh was an eagle scout and he was very very proud uh of Eagle Scouts and he often made every effort to be here uh when we present then we will invite him to any uh special events that you guys have John deck has demonstrated the spirit of volunteerism through his Eagle project constructing a fire pit and Patio on the Elks Lodge property the fire pit and Patio will be used by the local CB Scouts and boy scouts as well as the Elks Lodge members Deputy Mayor lavender's an elk yeah anyone who's been to the Elks has seen what a fantastic job it is it was um really an awesome project de Mary cut me off before I said I'm an elk too what was that on purpose yeah you are an elk uh John deck graduated from seatan Hall Prep and will be attending Fairfield University to study electrical engineering with a concentration in computer science so please everybody round of applause for [Applause] John and I think congratulations we we will have everybody come up together or okay have them all come up Gavin Gavin come on up Sean stand up here yeah if we're going to embarrass you let's let's really go for on Gavin raise your hand there he is all right Gavin edgers has been an outstanding member of the Boy Scouts of America troop 56 Gavin earned 36 merit badges including merit badges for environmental science camping and traffic safety as we said earlier it takes years of dedication and commitment to earn the eagle scout rank reminder 3% of all that enter Boy Scouts actually earn Eagle Scout Gavin has achieved the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout by demonstrating the spirit of volunteerism through his Eagle project by building bird boxes in the Great Swamp nine bird boxes were constructed and included Easter Phoebe boxes a crestal box and also included a written plan on how to take care of the boxes Gavin will be attending trade school for HV vacor congratulations to Gavin and by now we know which one Sean is raise your hand now there you are uh Sean also has earned 38 merit badges along with three Eagle palms and has logged 158 service hours 133 hiking miles and 81 camping nights Shawn has demonstrated the spirit of volunteerism through his Eagle project by beautifying the senior center and anybody who's been there sees what a beautiful job Shawn has done by enhancing the landscaping and signage at the facility Shawn recently graduated from Wang Hills Regional High School and was a part of the National Honor Society and art Honor Society Satan Hall will be attending Ruckers un University I attended seat hle Bo undergrad and grad but I won't will not hold that against you this evening but when basketball season starts you and I can have a conversation he will be majoring in biological sciences everybody please a nice round of applause for [Applause] Sean did you want to do it now before Jim okay okay fair [Music] enough right you stay in the same order all right there you go congratulations congratulations that's a scout handshake the other ready two and the reality is none of these young men would reach the level of Eagle Scout or even enjoy being a member of the Boy Scouts without the leadership that goes along with it I see many who are here this evening including Deputy Mayor mayor lavender uh but we do have a special Proclamation for one uh particular person and I will read this one in full whereas the Boy Scouts of America is a volunteer organization and is one of the nation's largest and most prominent values-based youth velopment organizations and whereas the Boy Scouts of America has been active in Millington since 1912 and Troop 56 sponsored by All Saints Episcopal Church in Millington has been a charted troop since 1932 whereas Jim caparoso of Sterling New Jersey affectionately known to past and present troop 56ers as Mr cap became a scout master of troop 56 in Millington in 2011 11 and officially retired from that position in May of 2024 whereas Jim caparoso executed his responsibilities as scoutmaster and youth program leader in an exemplary fashion helping to developed the character and well-being of local youth according to the principles of the Boy Scouts of America and whereas Jim amassed 4,749 days of scoutm 577 days of camp camping countless miles of hiking including the 250 mile award and countless hours leading youth in community services whereas the strongest evidence of Jim's mentorship is the fact that 53 and remember we said only 3% 53 young men attained the rank of Eagle Scout during his tenure and even I can do the math you talk about 201 that's 13 1353 divided by uh uh 13 53 do to math for me that's uh four four yeah four per year four per year pretty good yeah not bad one year you had five now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and the township Committee of the township of long hill in the county of mors state of New Jersey and on behalf of the residents of Long Hill Township on June 26 2024 that Jim caparos will be hereby recognized with deep gratitude for his service to the community and to the Youth of lill Township uh Jim [Applause] Jim would you like to say a few words I think it's appropriate well um all the years I had such a good time I mean I'm just glad they took me along long for the ride I mean Mr lavender was with me through a lot of this um you see the young young guys come over in middle school and then getting to the rank of Eagle is is a very proud moment for for me for the troop for the township so a lot of us know uh troop 56 through our flower sale every year so especially when we're right up front you know in the uh the middle of town and Gillette there but um I I couldn't be more proud you know of of what we've done with TR 56 our leaders and all our Scouts I I just really uh appreciate that I got to do this for tro 56 and and the uh the Scouts in this troop thank you so much thank you [Applause] I as I said earlier that that everything that we did just now for the last half hour or so is the best part of uh of the privilege of sitting up here so thank you everybody and I think uh with the the outstanding uh accomplishments by our Sports programs by our young men uh young men and women in the sports programs and in particular this evening the Eagle Scouts uh it's obvious that Long Hill Township we may be small but we punch above our our weight so uh congratulations [Applause] everybody a little bit more M mundane stuff going forward I don't know uh you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like um now we just have to carry on with the business of the township um item number five Capital ordinance 54624 this is first reading introduction providing for various improvements yeah I'm getting bored even reading this so don't don't you worry can I join [Laughter] you uh by the township of long hill in the county of mors New Jersey in appropriating maybe if I said it with more exuberance well yeah 2, 570,000 therefore from various funds of the township now I don't know Randy can you give a brief highlevel overview of what I just said yeah this ordinance uh puts into um for first reading puts into our Capital program for 2024 uh which will include um some Road overlays uh reconstruction of Long Hill Road a section of Municipal building parking lot caner Park Pathways uh purchase of some equipment for police and Emergency Equipment for the fire departments and uh does some Recreation improvements and um at the uh Recreation improvements at Sterling lake and uh the park and the senior and some senior building improvements uh also includ cludes repaving of a parking lot for Millington train station and the um Cafe uh parking lot in front um also uh include some D DPW equipment okay since this is first reading I'll look for a motion to approve ordinance 54624 so moved second committee man ray yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes ordinance 54724 first reading introduction updating the police department organization chart by clarifying the duties of the public safety director and in law the law enforcement executive and amending chapter two of the Township Code entitled Administration Brendon I know you have to recuse yourself from voting but uh yeah I there's no no issue with brenon sitting he can make the quum okay that's right I yeah I think ultimately you would obain but sorry to put you on the spot like that uh Jack if you wouldn't mind just uh outlining what we're doing here this evening yes mayor the purpose of this ordinance is to clarify the duties of the new public safety director as well as what we have been calling the officer in charge but in this ordinance it's referred to as the law enforcement executive at the request of uh Director people just because he said the term officer in charge is never defined anywhere in the statutes uh so the purpose is to make it clear that the uh public safety director it really manages the department except in purely law enforcement functions in which case the law enforcement executive will take over an example would be uh an accident scene or a catastrophe scene of some sort in those cases when we're talking strictly about law enforcement functions than the law enforcement executive will in fact be the commander okay uh brenon can ask questions or comments or no nothing at all he should not he should not okay Scott any questions or comments I'm good so I I'm good at this point I will look for a motion to approve 547-2421 this ordinance 54724 uh 54624 and 54724 are scheduled for second reading adoption on July 17 2024 looking for a motion for approval so moved and I'll second it and ask Megan to please take committee man ray abstaining Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor pgia yes so ordinance 534-2450 Mobile retail food establish establishments commonly know known as food trucks and supplementing and amending chapter 4 of the Township Code entitled General licensing so what I'd like to do here is level set a little bit so we know how we got here this evening um sometime last year and I don't know if I see Gary uh gianakis the president of the chamber out there but sometime last year the chamber approached us uh because I think there was a food truck uh uh coming into town at the where the Sterling Liquors is and we were trying to uh the chamber was trying to figure out how to best serve uh the community and what would be fairest to the uh owners of U other places in town and you know so we started having some dialogue about that I believe in January uh there was a a a proprietor of a food truck that came in looking for a license we didn't know the derivation of that at that point uh as as time went on we realized uh that the owner of Oak flour uh was interested in having a food truck uh show up uh one night a week I think when it was first discussed at uh I don't know what meeting it is we have that date somewhere Megan I don't know if you know it off hand but whatever it was the discussion came in public uh as to what the desire was of Oak flour and we had some dialogue back and forth in public uh I think the original ask was one night a week Jack if you're recol one night a week and I think uh committee man verza said well hold on a second why don't we try to make this a little bit more of a holistic solution and we came up with the idea that it might be three or four or five days a week evenings a week or Etc uh the owner of oakflower uh my recollection in public here stated that he wanted to be a good neighbor with the Millington Cafe which was across the street for all those that uh that um are customers of Millington Cafe their hours I think are 7: to 3 but certainly 3 300 p.m. is when they close so the ask became can we have food trucks when the Millington Cafe closes at 3 p.m. and I think the township committee went back and forth we had to figure out parking uh so all this was at the request of the owner of oakflower uh as to what can work for them and we tried you know a little bit of um threading the needle what would also be fair uh to the Proprietors of the Millington Cafe so what we ended up coming up with I believe uh was I don't know why two hours parking we certainly could have made it longer uh for the Food Truck starting at 300 p.m. on whatever days the food truck would be there uh and that's what we agreed to now about a month ago uh a concern was raised to us that the food trucks had started to arrive uh earlier than 300 p.m. and so at that point we added a line that said the food trucks could not be open open for business if a an a food establishment was within 100 ft and open and so we added that line I think it's important to understand there was no ordinance regarding food trucks until now this is not an additional restriction this is an ordinance that is being put in place in part because the chamber approached the township committee sometime last year long before uh state law by the way I should point out state law changed in January I believe so to allow uh food trucks or to allow some type of accommodation it was for the brew pubs or for the brew pubs specifically uh and I'm well aware that there are some brw pubs that have food trucks outside for example there's a a place called untied in New Providence I had a lengthy conversation with the mayor of uh New Providence last night mayor Al Morgan he's probably watching right now um and in in untied is in a uh Industrial Park type area there are no food establishments near untied the other one that was brought to our attention is Twin elephants so I went online it's pretty easy to figure this out uh the closest food establishment to Twin elephants is River gril and that's 6 00 ft away from Twin elephants so the ordinance we're proposing would in no way affect either of those breweries the the evolution as to why it is where we are was specifically requested by the owner of oakflower and we we've tried uh as best we can to accomodate that request in fact we made it a little bit more liberal by instead of one night a week we suggested anytime you're open I I think I don't think we limit it to days or no we do to three days to three days okay but the original ask was only one day so I want to make sure everybody is aware how we got here this is not an ordinance that's been in lill Township for years this is second reading the first reading was I don't know when the first reading was it just kept rolling forward a little bit but we're in June the first time it came to our attention was a food truck per uh person coming in in January looking for a um a permit and it is true we have no issue with the food trucks arriving earlier because they have to be inspected um it's just not open for business while a food establishment uh is open within 100 feet but specifically that is the Millington Cafe uh and they close at 300 p.m. and we absolutely Ely want people eating if they're going to be enjoying a beverage or two um but we also have to be fair to everybody we have to be fair to the community that surrounds that area we have to be fair to any uh proes that exist and and I'm sure a lot of people here have uh have attended ohas I hope hopefully I'm saying that uh correctly that's a business that came out of nowhere we did not know um that was uh coming until it moved very quickly and I give a lot of cud go uh to Township uh employees because everything worked the owners of uh OAS have said remarkable things about the people here who help that uh Move Along quite quickly uh business there is is booming so good good on them uh they're going to be great uh neighbors for us here in this community so if anything I said is inaccurate I'm willing to be corrected uh but my memory is quite good when I ask it to be and I'm pretty certain what I just said is factually accurate with with the one exception I don't remember the first date we discussed it here in public but we have a link to that meeting uh and Megan if you could I think I have it uh in in my phone I can look it up I can point anybody who wants to watch that meeting when the ask was first made of the township committee and that's how we ended up here the only change in this ordinance was that one line we added 100 ft because we became concerned that food trucks had started to arrive open for business before the Millington Cafe was closed so Brendan Scott if if anything I just said in your recollection is inaccurate please correct me no I i' I'd like to um ask Jack um to oine um and Jack I want to walk through this with you just to make sure I understand it yep absolutely and um I apologize if this is tedious for anybody but I think it's useful so the first thing this thing's doing is establishing licensing for a temporary mobile food establishment a food truck right that's correct it defines what that is and I think we all know what it is but it very specifically lays that out in um 472 in 473 it talks about what kind of information is required and the fee for that license that's correct and I'll kind of summarize the gist of it it sounds the way I read this you can apply for that permit for that truck anytime during the year that's right and it's valid until December 31st of that year that's correct so if you apply for it in January it's good till the end of the year almost 12 months if you apply for it in October it's good till the end of the year maybe four months um either way the cost of that's 4 uh is $100 for that license that's correct all right and you need to submit that 14 days 14 calendar days prior to when it's going to go live let's say yep all right so that's the process for applying um and I don't know if it's in here but obviously there has to be uh a health inspection right that's correct and that's one of the checklist items there's a checklist item so health so that's standard that's a board that's required of any restaurant right a board of health inspection that's right and a second thing would be a fire inspection that's right right and so both those would be required regardless right and so the fire inspection is required I don't know if you've seen some of these trucks they have these large propane canisters hanging off the back um and to have those within so many feet of a building is a potential Hazard so the fire inspector needs to needs to check that um now is there a cost for the health inspector or the fire inspector here Megan I'm sorry is there a cost incurred by having to do a health inspection or a fire inspection correct there is either a $30 fee for a temporary temporary mobile no temporary food establishment license or they can opt in to do a $110 license which will last them the whole year okay how does that how does that fit into the $100 fee here they're two separate fees two sep this one is more letting us know where and when they will be at the different locations um because what we were seeing that was happening with fire and with the health department is they would just show up and we wouldn't know and they NE they wouldn't necessarily be licensed with the township so this is just kind of letting the township know where and when they will be just to make sure that they have those licenses and those protections so this is effectively like a registration correct right and then the um the fire inspection fee so that you can do every time you show up it's one amount so back at the I believe it was the May 24th meeting you guys adopted um a a second option for them which was a $500 um type one annual permit which basically said that you you only had to fill out the permit once but you had to alert the Fire Marshall when you would be there in case he wanted to go out and INSP Ed because technically every single event that a food truck has there's you know like you said the propane tank moves around so he so the fire inspector so so this kind of prepays for him if he optionally wants to come out but you still have the option to do the onetime fee of the 54 right so you were giving them optionality there right so the town would be covering its costs either in advance were on a a per trip basis cu the fire inspector called process money right okay so let me keep moving Deputy Mary can I just interject interject one thing and this is a big moment for me don't don't don't take me too far off my trajectory this is a big moment for me I get to correct Megan which is almost impossible to do uh the dates of the meetings I said I had them and I I'll repeat them when we were moving along with the first introduction and we had interaction with members of the public uh owners Etc was April 24th the meeting that you referenced was May 22nd not I think you said May 24th so I that gives me joy to be able to say that and the uh last meeting was uh May 11th I would would add something on a more serious note the health department did reach out to me and their concern is they do not believe the $30 fee covers the expense and they are recommended that we increase it to 50 Megan I think you've had conversations to that point as well but that's not part of this ordinance that's part of the health inspection that's correct all this all this ordinance is covering is the registration of the truck that's correct and so Deputy Mayor I turn it back to you so so then there is a a bulk fire inspection fee or a per visit fee if if they opt for that and then there's a uh Department of Health INSP one time fee or an annual fee now I'll ask you a question shooting from the hip here and you didn't expect this the these kind of fees are also fees that restaurants in town would have to incur right correct yes we have a fee ordinance for um uh any any sort of restaurant they have to pay based on their square footage they get inspected annually by the Board of Health correct and the fire inspector yes correct okay all right so so fairness there all right so then the next section um is a long section uh 474 which establishes the rules and regulations so Jack you're going to we're going to walk through this together and you're going to help me understand this sure so um these are all these are all the lines painted on the road so to speak the Restriction so um shall operate between 7 a.m. it no it should not operate before before 7 a.m. or after 10 p.m. yes not more than three times a week nor more than eight hours per day the preceding paragraph and that's 7:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. doesn't include a 30 minute grace period on either end for setup that's correct okay um um so it may operate legally on street parking locations or from a legal off street parking uh yeah that gets into parking I should back up a little bit because the at the front of this it talks on some it it talks about some restrictions on property so first off it brackets it to non-residential zones so that means commercial properties right that's correct except later in the ordinance it does allow them for special events in residential zones right but that's that's less confusing than it just sounds that's correct for all intents and purposes what we're talking about here is commercial property yes and um Property Owners May invite a temporary Mobile retail food truck no more than three times per calendar week correct all right and then the the truck's got to be moved when it's done yep um okay this this is number e number e letter e section e temporary food establishments shall not operate within 100 linear feet of a brick-and mortar retail food establishment while that establishment is open unless the owner of the brick and mortar retail food establishment cons sense in writing so if if if if a restaurant says it's okay and they wrote it down and I assume an email is okay or a text absolutely um then it's okay yes but otherwise can't do it if if that other restaurant's open but as soon as that other restaurant's closed if it's within that 100 feet that's correct and we discuss this at length right this whole provision right and so if somebody's 105 ft away that doesn't apply correct okay thank you um but the thing that that that caught my eye is that as long as there's an understanding between the business owners they can figure it out themselves so we don't have to litigate this exactly um not obstructing with the free flow of traffic blah blah blah sight triangles this is all you know motherhood and apple pie as far as safety um so not solicit business from pedestrians that's Infinity with our solicitation laws no Amplified music or louders I think that's fair at least my opinion that's fair no lighting except localized lighting um there's a restriction on signage 12 square F feet um not obstructing traffic uh limited to the sale of food and beverage assume that's non-alcoholic beverages that's correct uh well it says right there no sale of service of alcohol um at least one trash receptacle Associated equipment self-contained it all makes sense that's consistent with the definition um oh can't hook into any on-site utility so you can't run a gas cable right or an electric cable right correct okay you have to be selfcontained all right and we just require that they have their documents on in in in them their their license Etc uh and then it says the Board of Health license the the valid safety permit okay that's where that restriction came in so then it gets into 475 which talks about insurance an Indemnity agreement uh blanket coverage of a million dollars for liability I think that makes sense um a hold harmless a properly executed Indemnity and hold harmless by which the sponsor agrees to hold the township harmless that protects the township right that's correct all right uh and then it has some things that are exempt from this so Frozen confection vendors going from place to place on the street so your Mr Softy trucks I guess IAM trucks ice cream trucks does anybody remember Mr Softy I do yeah pretty good um it's okay to have in front of a a site that has active construction to feed the workers right I was very thoughtful of you jack um special events that have obtained licenses pursuant to for six of the code explain that that's c yeah that you can have food trucks that special events even in residential zones so they're only subject to those enumerated paragraphs uh of the rules and regulations set forth earlier uh to go back and forth I believe that that was referring to the special events like the Sterling Street Fair yep that's correct and the same thing for block parties and stuff like you could have a block party and have a food truck at your block party as well okay and then it talks about enforcement the police will enforce this um and the code enforcement officer and it talks about penalties and violations according to our standard code all right so Jack what did you use as the model for this I I looked and I gathered ordinances from a number of other towns uh in my experience most Suburban towns do not permit food trucks uh usually it's cities like Hoboken you know that allow food trucks on the waterfront uh this was I think Branchburg or one other town was the one I used primarily uh for a lot of these Provisions uh that I wouldn't have thought of um so and then we we discussed it a number of times here at the tangent committee level and we tried to adapt it to Long Hill Township and to Ser of our purposes to both allow the food trucks and also protect owners of of restaurants who have to get zoning approvals and pay taxes on their property so yeah let me stop you there so without this ordinance if this didn't exist there would have to be a planning board site plan approval to have a food truck for instance say in a parking lot yes in in my opinion because that business say it's a a a brute PB uh they they got planning board approval to run that business as the primary business on the property uh in order to have a second business uh they would have to get planning board approval for that additional use in addition the planning board site plan approval would specify the number of parking spaces that are required so if you have a food truck there on a semi-permanent basis it's going to use up some of those parking spaces and therefore you'd be in violation of your site so this so This ordinance would be um really protective of the ability to put that food truck there because without the site plan it could be challenged yes and with respect to the on street parking uh they take up more than one parking space so they're in violation of our traffic regulations so really this ordinance allows for food trucks as opposed to restricting right because in a vacuum if someone didn't like this they could challenge it and and point to point to law and say this is out of bounds correct and in my opinion without this ordinance food trucks would not be permitted for the reasons we discussed right so we really don't have we really can't kind of look at this and say well let's just look the other way and be lenient that's correct what happened was when the first few came in Megan and I talked and we didn't want to shut them down while this was being discussed so we decided the best way to proceed was to allow them with fire and health inspections while the T committee came up with a policy got it okay I'm done I I think I am understand it Jack thank you that was that was good so Jack just a couple of followups if you br well actually I apologize br oh no no please I I'll I'll aain later I think well the Restriction where no food is allowed at BR PS is that a local ordinance or a state law that's state law state regulations so I think everything we are have been doing going dating back to last year when you first when food trucks first arrived when it was brought to our attention by the chamber to today is to is to help businesses in town not to restrict them that that was the sole purpose of this ordinance let me ask you a question too something that that just came to mind so like the firehouse has had food trucks charitable organization is that covered under this or were they exempt from it anyway it's private property I'm sorry it's private property so as long as so it be so it'll be a special EV special special event EXA so they're covered by that same same like if the Elks wanted to do it exactly they could have a special event whenu come in right all right and and here's a a little trivia uh does anybody know who wrote The brw Pub Bill Tom King it wasn't any of us that's for sure that I like your answer better but Deputy Mayor lv's response is correct Ben Senator state senator uh Tom Kane now our congressman is is the author of the bill uh which led to uh what is a very good thing that's happening throughout the state so uh Congressman if you're listening we remember yeah he's glued to his TV right now watching us no no doubt about it he never misses yeah yeah yeah so may be taping it could be May right um I mean you know great discussion of the ordinance great discussion of how we got here right but it seems to me that there's really one sentence here that is uh the issue which section you at that would be uh e section e of 4 7.4 okay yes where the temporary food establishment should not operate within 100 linear feet of a brick and mortar retail store V open and um you know whenever we were we had so many discussions over this it all sounded great it's all sounded wonderful 100 ft great I think that's the issue here and you know on reflection I really wonder if this is a a wise decision to have this in here [Applause] because no um I what we're doing here is we are curtailing the ability of the residents and visitors to Longhill Township to have access to multiple kinds of uh uh food right when whenever when whenever they come it's especially important whenever it's a it's a it's an establishment serving retail serving alcohol that everybody should should should be able to eat what they want when when they want and everything that we can do to make that happen and give them as much Choice as possible for me that makes more that makes the most sense and and I think this is a great ordinance but for uh but for that so you you what you're saying is you're good with the whole thing except the yeah and you would strike out E I would strike out e and I think you have a uh I think you have a a a good ordinance that that that that meets all of the objectives that we just laid out it it was actually in the ordinance then we took it out then we put it back in and we changed the linear feet over the course of our discussions I mean the other thing too is I mean you know I you want to protect your businesses I mean maybe that's a default but is that really a good thing because you're your stifling competition comp competition brings quality that's to me that's that's what we should be doing so my recommendation strike that strike that section so what we what you're recommending is different than what the ask was the ask was very specifically when any food establishment there's only one there at the time or there was only one there at the time uh was open the ask was and and the dates are 24 February 14th uh was the first time we discussed it March 13th intro 424 amended 522 uh and then this evening I want to be clear what what you're recommending is completely different than how we got here to see oh yeah yeah I mean and and that's fine I mean how we got here is one thing but we're here and you know there's something that doesn't entirely make sense to obviously everybody's here and to me so uh the rest of it is is is very good let's just take it out and let's just give visitors and residents Long Hill the biggest Choice possible when it comes to food that's [Applause] it I would counter that by saying to my knowledge and I'm not saying it doesn't exist to my knowledge there is no Brew Pub that has outside of say what was it Branchburg cities Hoboken moristown parpi Big Towns I haven't found one town that allows food trucks directly counter to an open food establishment moris Plains does have a brw pub I spoke to the mayor in fact I was with the mayor last night uh they don't allow a food truck near an open food establishment I mentioned chadam uh which is twin elephants I referenced untied New Providence Industrial Park uh and I can name there 15 towns in mors county that I spoke with not pipany not moristown none of them allow food trucks outside of special events mhm and inside parks so what you're suggesting is maybe I don't want to say revolutionary well no I mean well I I I'm I'm I'm all ears please somebody name one town that allows a food truck outside an open food establishment I know but I mean I mean hold on you'll have your you'll have your chance to talk I think one of the things I you know I would see guy is you know you've you've done done an extensive analysis I'm I'm sure you're you're 100% right but I think it's uh just because you know my father used to say you know would if everybody else jumped off a cliff would you do it it's like no it's we we have to we have to make a stand for something that actually makes sense right and for me uh I would say that all those other towns are perhaps misguided because again they're in this default as to hey I've got to protect our brick and mortar businesses um but is that really the right thing for for for everybody because because of competition competition breeds quality and and and and actually brings more people in once you have that high quality of food every people are coming into the town and by the way I don't necessarily disagree with the context of the ask if that's the ask now okay let's have that conversation but I want to be exceedingly clear that was never the ask when it was first brought to us the ask was one night a week it was this committee oh yeah that recommended three yep no no I absolutely I mean I think we've I think we've worked in concert with everybody to try and try and make to to try and make this the best it possibly could be and you know I see this as uh you know I see this as an evolution right of of of a of an idea of a you know that that that started off some months ago but you know we are where we are today we have this we have a good ordinance in front of us in my opinion but for this one section we delete it and and I think we're uh I think we're leading the way um in in this in this H area where you know 10 years ago food trucks weren't that popular nobody really heard of them uh but now they're becoming more and more mainstream they're becoming part of the culinary culture and so brew pubs wer I I honestly don't know when when were brew pubs approved in the state of New Jersey years they've been right but but you know so so this is really an and yeah so we what we're doing here is you know maybe we are leading the way here amongst municipalities of our size but just because they're not doing it doesn't say that that let me um Let me let me let me kind of jump up and jump up jump in and maybe bridge between the both of you here um because I understand the concept of how you know ideas can evolve and I am sensitive to commitments that are make made between businesses um the situation changed changed a little bit down on that corner when the Turkish restaurant came into into into the picture right because for all intents and purposes you could walk to the cafe you could walk to O oage you could walk to the food truck and get something to eat I understand that um and I understand you know the chambers um intent to protect businesses that do pay taxes right and um you know make Capital Investments to you know grow their business and stuff but things did change a little bit when the Turkish place got in there but how so like how did it I think it introduced I I I think it's become more of an open competition now which I'm I'm kind of like agreeing with you okay yeah oh yeah okay it wasn't sure um but but where I kind of Mor he's agree with you right but where I'm where I'm stuck a little bit is I I you know it just feels to me as if certain commitments and handshakes were made that are kind of being reneged a little bit and that's outside of the what we do here on this I mean I might wait hold on hold on I might be okay with taking e out of here but I'm making a statement carry on Deputy Mayor I'd like to hear from both sides both pro and con I'd like the mic to go of the public and I like to hear some arguments on both sides and I don't want to hear any insults of this committee during the process I want to hear facts I want to hear ra rationale so mayor open it up to the public I'm all ears I'm objective and just and just to add a little context and and Brendan I appreciate what you said and how you said it m that's a valid point the conversation from when we first started talking last year year to what we discussed early this year to this evening has evolved oh yeah absolutely and I I probably still am thinking in the context of we have permanent businesses versus transient uh and that's not necessarily a great word but a business that could come and go and it's entirely possible by the way with a place like oaz and and and and in the cafe if the cafe would have decide to stay open later and when the development happens on on the uh uh at the milon train station and other food stores come in honestly I think the competition that you referenced may actually push out the food trucks maybe it may not be worth it to them to come when they have popular uh restaurants in town like oh yes many of you were probably there already we were there uh it's outstanding so ironically the very competition you're referring to I honestly think will'll push out the food trucks oh yeah I mean it could very well we could very well but in time right but right now we have what we have trucks and so I appreciate what you said and how you said it that's well said and certainly worth discussing the fact that we weren't discussing it in February I can see the point it's it's June we've had a conversation and I hear you I hear members of the public but understand there are members of the public that have reached out to us that aren't happy and that's fair too uh I'd love to hear from the chamber but I don't know if the chamber is here this evening although I don't know that they'd like to jump into the little okay there we go I don't know if the chamber wants to jump into a food fight that was okay that maybe that wasn't so funny um so anyway I think it's worth having a conversation and I also agree with you just because no other town is doing it doesn't mean they we shouldn't and it doesn't mean that they won't but all I can say I'm good at facts and facts are what I said absolutely true I I went down the line of 20 mayors of towns that like us for Park Wharton on and on and on and none of them allow food trucks period outside of special events and and Parks I actually think that's a little bit too restrictive um and I understand what chadam did I understand what New Providence did and again I'm open to any other town I don't know if Morristown and pany are good reference points or Hoboken or Branchburg we're not those towns um but I I'm willing to listen to you know you know an open-minded conversation what was important to me is I wanted the public to understand how we got got here and I appreciate you pointing out what I described in my memory is accurate that's all I ask open dialogue open conversation listen to members of the public so at this point I'd like to open up the meeting and I'm also open to the idea that we carry it because I I'm not particularly happy we have two members of the committee not here tonight and for something that I think is important this is important I'd like to hear from the other two members as well the floor is yours I'm even going to put myself on mute for you Pamela oens Millington um I do have a question if you can look at your uh ordinance at 4 d7.3 after Point number seven I wondered if you wanted to add add an eighth point with the name of the sponsor you do mention the sponsor for liability insurance so perhaps we need to in the application process include the name of the sponsor because they're it sounds like they're the liable party what if the sponsor changes I I think I think the application I would think has to be updated I I think the idea was that the sponsor would be the property owner now in the case of special events that's covered by the other ordinance so it would not be covered in this ordinance uh so the sponsor will always be the property owner proper yes maybe that just needs some clarification when you talk about sponsor in uh 4 d7.5 until the sponsor maybe SL property owner something like that I leave that to your discretion I know I have three minutes and I have more cover I please Carry On by the way thank you I you more than anybody in town keeps us on our toes you actually read line by line I read it I do my homework I don't stand up here unless I know what I'm talking about which leads me to my next Point um I did spend several hours and I look through the uh ordinances and codes of six towns I kind of randomly selected those six towns but I did look at them all I looked at the towns of Bernard Township Berkeley Heights moris Town chadam the burrow and the township which one was that one I'm sorry what was the second one oh the the last one you mentioned the first one was the township of Bernards Berkeley Heights Heights moris Town chadam bur the burrow and the township and then I I just randomly took Rock away because it was convenient um in searching these I found doing a search under food doing a search under trucks doing a search for some of them they um have any references under things like um it was really kind of bizarre itinerate EST establishments um I could find in none of these six any reference to any distance to any brick and morar Mayors share information I have the ordinances I couldn't find anything in these six so please take uh take note of that I'd also like to just mention in the master plan the master plan says this master plan this is for Millington Village this m master plan looks to restore the central commercial area of Millington Village as a vibrant walkable Village Center where residents and visitors can come to stroll shop work attend cultural and entertainment events enjoy food and drink and conduct Civic and other business activities I think to be in sync with our master plan we need to be welcoming to our food trucks um I think that no one expected Oak flour as an example to be as successful as they are and I'd like to I'd like to see that um that continue for them so miss ojans can I ask you a question thank you for the research you've done the towns you mentioned are those ordinances that are specific to food trucks no nobody seems to have a specific okay so so I referenced everything now you could you could argue that you want to be ahead of the curve that you want to specify that out but I I no I please let's stay on that point for a second I believe Jack said and I'm not a lawyer actually without the ordinance and in their cases they don't have an ordinance technically that's not legal or whatever oh yeah they have references under things like their health and safety they have things like their fees they have it with uh I'll be happy to share my research with you but I don't you know I didn't commit it to memory for sure um see our concern is this what happens if somebody would have Challenge and I think that was what Jack was getting at without this ordinance and we can talk about the specifics of the ordinance but without this ordinance anybody uh a res you could challenge the food truck being there and and be right and the food truck would have to be removed maybe I didn't make it clear I'm not questioning the entire ordinance I'm not telling you to throw the baby out with the bath water I am questioning the 100 ft with the the 100 feet I'm wondering um how how many hours overlap between the Millington Cafe and the oak flow Brewery um how many hours well certainly o Yas is is new and that's that's great their hours I know are 11:00 a.m. they have extended hours 7 days a week uh Cafe the cafe I believe is 7 or 6 maybe but I know it's 300 p.m. mhm uh I'm actually not sure of the opening hours what are the opening hours for oakflower it's 12:00 on Sundays but other than that it's a later opening that I know of you know somebody from oakflower can explain what the uh the hours are when they come up so I don't think we're talking about a huge number of hours of overing and uh I actually would think that oaz is more than 100 feet away but I'm sure that somebody must have measured this accurately to come up with the hund 100 feet number um I I did in looking at this ordinance and and Jack you know a lot of these things are included in in our ordinances already like traffic is in chapter 7 under traffic and and lighting and is under codes for land use and signs are under the police regulations and and alcohol beverages but not in the context of a mobile food establishment no there's it's spread out in all of our ordinances so there's there is certainly more detail in this I I it sense I'm sorry I thought you were done it is elsewhere a lot of this is addressed elsewhere in our codes and regulations I just thought it would be helpful to have it all one place so people can go check I can understand that uh two points one is and I take no position with respect to the 100 foot requirement but it wouldn't just apply to Oak flour in the cafe oh I know so just so other people understand that it wasn't only that uh and with respect to your comment about the uh the insurance the use of the word sponsor I agree with you maybe if we change sponsor to operator uh because sponsor is not used anywhere else in the ordinance operator to me sounds like the operator of the food truck yes correct so the operator the food truck is responsible for the um insurance for carrying the insurance right now if if the property owner wants to provide that that's between them but at least we have somebody providing us with that okay yeah that would be good because uh that was a that was a little confusing with the word sponsor yeah thank you okay do you have any questions for me no thank you thanks P thank you for your time thank you thank you as always I'm Gary dakis I'm the president of the Long Hill Chamber of Commerce and um I want to try to set the record a little bit straight also from what happened Mr purea what you were saying at the beginning of the year I was contacted by a member of the township committee when a food truck uh was was spotted at the liquor store and I was asked to try to get kind of a sense of what the chamers reaction to that and uh my comment was I'm not the chamber I'm the president of the Chamber of Commerce the cham of Commerce is any member who's the Chamber of Commerce you're a member of the Chamber of Commerce you guys are member of the Chamber of Commerce so they're the chamber so I went out to a couple of the members of the Chamber of Commerce to find out what the Chamber of Commerce thought about food trucks and is a diverse opinion um I didn't ask any of the food trucks what they thought thought about food trucks but they're also not members of the Chamber of Commerce so I just wanted to kind of put that in context um I'm not going to be deciding what this ordinance is that's what you guys are going to do and I know you've got a lot of uh of opinions kind of being tossed around here um do I care about the brick and mortar restaurants that are already in town and and I think that's what you're trying to kind of protect with this with this thing um do I like competition and and fair play sure um the food trucks the food is a competition a healthy competition for other restaurants in town but it's an unfair competition in that um they have a high visibility at that one location where the other businesses have no visibility when the food truck is there right the food truck can pull up to any restaurant and be a competition but the restaurant can't pull up to wherever a food truck is I don't know how to solve that except for when a food truck is at if a sponsor is sponsoring a food truck to be at their place whether it's Oak flour or private citizen or or another restaurant wanting to you know have a food truck there having the other businesses that would be in competition with that having a visible presence or their options available to the public that has the option of the food truck would be a great thing to have so what I'm saying is like a menu of the other restaurants in town available readily available for the people that are seeing the food truck that's right there now I saw some comments online that you know the food truck was there it was a Wings truck I don't like wings I went over to the Turkish place that was easy it's right there they see it but if we have some visual representation of the other restaurants in town I don't know that you write that into an ordinance uh when a sponsor is sponsoring something that might be a healthy uh Act of um making a Fair competition um and the other thing that's not fair about the food trucks is from a competition standpoint is that they they clearly don't have the expense of a of a local business so their prices can be the same but their expenses are completely different um and the the whole food truck thing I mean there's no I don't know if there's any food trucks here but there's businesses that sponsor the food trucks here in in force so you know uh I think we should hear from them and and the SP and I want to understand if the sponsor is the property owner or the business that wants the food truck there well that's why I suggest of changing it to the operator uh because really it's the food truck that is needs the insurance and the indemnification now if the owner property owner wants to pay for it that's between you know the food truck operator and the property owner or AI of the property a businessing the business is where the food truck is going to be located uh and are they paying to be a sponsor or are they just on the application we're going to take that term out at Miss oan recommendation uh and put operator so that the food truck has to provide the insurance in the inity agreement okay all right thanks any questions and thank you for attending this evening okay good evening gentlemen ladies good evening try to get this microphone up um my name is Bill Kaufman for those of you who don't know me moved my business to LGH Hill in 1998 26 years we've been at 1932 Long Hill Road the subject of many many appearances before almost every board in this and that this Township has the offer with the exception of the Court uh fortunately um we're the third owner of that building since 1915 my wife and I built a residence there in 2019 came back before the board of adjustments um we've done what we think has been tremendous strides to improve the lower downtown when I should back up and say when we came here in 1998 that building had been vacant with the exception of the post office and three Apartments upstairs for almost a decade the bank had owned it since the 1920s 1930s bought it from the corel's and um vacated the building to build their new building next door the Millington Savings bank now Carney Bank um and did not lease that space on the first floor for many years in fact the reason that we didn't rent it earlier because we were relatively local was because downtown Millington was so frighteningly desolate to us we felt like we were living we'd be working operating a business in the middle of like this a ghost town so we weren't necessarily the ideal business to be in there we're an architecture design and construction firm but we did fill the walls uh and we did support local businesses and many of you know we've done many buildings and and projects in town and and tried to serve this community alongside some of the other businesses part of the chamber Etc so I came here with a thought a good understanding of what was going on and now I have more questions than answers or more questions than statements so I just want to start with um a couple of clarifications because there's been a lot of talk about taxpaying businesses brick and mor businesses um one question I have with respect to when we got started with this uh let me back up to our 2019 plan uh Board of adjustment approval uh our property is designed and approved for a a fully operational restaurant I'm not sure if this committee is aware of that um that is a permitted use and the design of that space and the parking and all of its use uh was intended for a restaurant had it not been for the pandemic there would be a restaurant there today and it would be in full operation and it would be open far more than just a few hours and it certainly would not be sympathetic to the neighboring hours of restaurants in fact with all the research that we did with restaurants and restaurant tours and restaurant owners including probably the largest restaurant in town which is the Sterling Hotel um the idea of competition was absolutely paramont to the success of every restaurant a restaurant can't survive as an island they all know it that's why they all build and buy next to each other and they mix up Italian with Chinese food and now we have Turkish food and so that wasn't happening in downtown Millington there was no life in downtown Millington for many years um contrary to what people thought um Kelly and I my wife did meet Colin and Leanne the owners of of oow and we did believe in their Vision um and for us in the middle of a pandemic or the end or the closing out of the pandemic the idea of doing a brewery was a little bit of a scary Adventure so we did a lot of research we were now living in this building ourselves um have residents living above this so there was a lot of things that we were concerned about um needless to say um we feel that with the that renovation that addition and that prosperity of that uh little business has breathed a whole new life into downtown Millington it's lit up at night you can walk down the street we've got people sitting on a Terrace we have you know there it's almost it's almost like town it's almost like a town center um and you know I'm trying to be factious about it but give a little credit to where credit's right the nobody was running to the old you know dry cleaners and hanging out in front and the other restaurants have have struggled to some extent so what I find a little disturbing is we hadn't even finished building out that Brewery and and the first person to knock on my door was the tax assessor and you know hit us hard for a restaurant uh type atmosphere because he didn't understand what a brewery was so he had ta as a restaurant so a question I have is one uh the Millington Cafe sits on a New Jersey transit property is that correct are they not exempt um Mr pigeon yes they are so they don't pay taxes part of dis ordinance not it's not part of this ordinance this is a public hearing for this ordinance it was brought it was brought up that there was that the neighboring brick and mortars were taxpaying entities and we were taking away from them so I just want to be clear that our business our building is a taxpaying entity and we have pay dearly um and to make public claims that other businesses are contributing financially to the economic bottom line through taxes it's just a false claim that's all well as I said earlier this this doesn't just involve Oak flour and the cafe it's meant to be townwide well I would agree with that the cafe is a unique situation I would agree with that except that were there food trucks prior to dis ordinance I think that we discussed that they were they showed up and there was an idea of putting them putting them uh getting permits and I were their permits issued for these food trucks but they've only appeared within the last year that we're talking about so we made them in order to allow the tent committee to come up with a policy Megan and I required that they have fire inspections and health inspections so essentially a permit permission in the interm yeah but there was no there was no so this ordinance is being crafted after the fact no it's in response and and yeah so there were food jucks and now we want to regulate and I think it's by the way I'm not here the food trucks are more concerned as a professional architect and um someone who does a lot of downtown planning I'm more concerned with the with the appearance of spot zoning because it only really affects this one business and this one building the way you know it's being touted as this blanket idea that it's going to protect all these I don't I'm not sure that that's exactly what's happening here I think what's happening is they're saying we have one brick and morar restaurant that's open for breakfast and lunch and we're talking a lot about their hours as if it's somehow relevant to a business across the street which I don't think personally it is again I'm not in the food truck business I'm not promoting or even uh uh necessarily A proponent of the food trucks in in an isolated uh Silo what I'm really really concerned about is the idea that this is somehow protecting a single brick and mortar business but at the expense and Peril of one that's really contributing to the community in ways that I don't think any of us ever predicted I mean I there all the time every time I come in and out of there there are people walking about 60% or 70% of the people that are patrons walk there's baby carriages there's dogs there people sitting outside I mean isn't that what we're trying to promote and so the food truck add Vitality to that and now we're saying well we're not going to allow them on this particular site we're going to move them you know what down the road 200t that's going to you only opposed to paragraph E Bas is that what you're getting I'm really not opposed or for I'm just concerned that that the idea that we're taking the idea that the chamber said this is a problem we just heard from the chamber I don't think the chamber represented it's it's a concern we're plating a whole entire town ordinance or Municipal ordinance to one business and it's not even I mean I don't want to call out names because it's not really a personal thing for me I just I'm concerned that it's just like benefiting too so it's I do want to interject important to me that my B you mentioned one more thing and and then I don't you can have the mic back yeah I just you know there's talk about oh well you can't have multiple businesses Jackie mentioned I don't think you meant that because I've got a post office I had a retail shop I have a business I have the the we're just talking about the brewery he just one of my tenants there's nothing that says I can't have a food truck in my garage there nothing to do with the brewery and the state laws it's convenient for them I'll granted and it helps their business and it helps the community but these are independent ideas I understand okay so it's not what was said though what said and the public hears what you guys say and they take it to heart like oh you're not allowed to have more than one business I just want to as I say it's a universal ordinance it's not just for hooker it's not just for the cafe it's townwide well I guess the point there is a food truck could just show up would somebody sponsors it appropriate right across from what did you say the most popular restaurant in town Sterling Hotel you could do it next door to the Sterling Hotel yeah so to to that point uh Mr Mayor like Tom and Dory have a food truck on their property New Jersey transits La property where are we measuring from the front door wa okay you know I'm not I agree you say I'm not supporting and not supporting and and my response to you is I'm not for or against anything it was very important for me this evening and I think it's been clear clear I don't think anybody disagrees with it the first uh person that tried to accommodate the one brick and water business was in fact Oak flour the recommendation to us was I want to be a good neighbor to the cafe I've discussed it with the Proprietors at the cafe and what we would recommend is we will not have food trucks until they close at 3 p.m. that wasn't our idea I understand it was presented to us Mr lavender's Point that's between the businesses right that shouldn't be written in what if they decide to open that like that they don't like each other and and they decide to open an hour later just to me mess with them you know I like what you said about basically capitalism right competition I want I'm a flag waving capitalist to paraphrase Winston Churchill uh I cheat I cheat a little on it because he was talking about uh democracy what is it um capitalism is the worst form of Economics or economies except all others I I live in Myersville as you well know and we have a new restaurant coming in and I have no doubt that restaurant will lead to more business to the other two restaurants that are right on that Circle so I agree with everything you're saying the challenge we've had for everybody including the uh the owner of oakflower is trying to figure out what makes the most sense for what I think uh uh uh Miss oens pointed out in other towns is called itinerate it's not necessarily a nice word I maybe they could have chosen a different word we're trying to figure out how that fits into the ecosystem and frankly I think uh committee man ray made a very valid point I I I I understand that you know what what is it what is this saying uh when facts change my opinion changes honestly I can be I'm open-minded how about that and and and to your credit I think everything that you have written in you've got restrictions you're not 247 7 days a week with you know with an independent little food truck that could be competitive you're talking about select days of the week couple of days a week select hours you know specific fees and inspections and everything else in terms of the public safety you've got all the it's just out of nowhere it came this well except in that location in that location you need someone's permission and that gives one business owner a little too much power don't you think so so basically if I just kind cut to the chase with you you're you you'd like to take out e i just It just strikes me as a little inappropriate from a lot of reasons that's and yes I think it's let me let me kind of amplify comments I said before so I'm a little bit more understandable I understand the handshake agreement the understanding whatever there was between oak flour and the other end of I I I understand that and I'll also say the whole perspective changed when the Turkish place came in right and so therefore I'm more inclined to say take e out for that reason alone right plus the fact that it's really unenforceable when you think about it because he raises a good point where do you measure it from the stoop the curb what happened if the wheel is turned on the truck you measured from the tip of the wheel on the truck I get it but we don't want to be in the middle of your your your food fights right right and and personally I resent some of the things that were said by me no I'm not saying by you I'm the wait wait wait let me finish let me finish I didn't think I tried I was try not to all anyone I'm just here to try to be the property owner that's been here for 30 years nobody here this evening said anything offensive nobody here this evening said anything offensive but I don't like people taking these the social media before they come in here and have a conversation with us because I think we're very reasonable yeah this is a listen I don't know what that's all about but um I'm here because it's greatly affecting my brick and mortar business I think what you're hearing is what G yet likes to say is uh don't argue a call in your favor all right well those are some of my questions I appre I just a little anote between friends here the the funny thing how we ended up in Township I we looked at like 30 homes and we you know friends of mine had moved out here earlier so property prices in St chadam Etc were a little bit cheaper so they were there when we looked we sticker shark we couldn't afford right so I said I can't look at any more homes and I I said to my wife I said you go you go find a home and she I think it was a pay phone from the Millington trade station she calls me in the rain and she said I think I'm in petticot Junction and that's the that's uh early '90s right and so that was the what you're describing we don't have a downtown right and you know we've tried to main Main Avenue but we have flooding towards Main and Valley this is the first time you're starting to see what could be maybe not a downtown for the htown but certainly for Millington so honestly I I'm very open-minded about the vision for what's going to be there um I I I just want to to make sure that we're all on the same page and I agree with you let's keep a good thing going I all I just felt like that one provision was a little too personal um for an ordinance yeah thank you thank you thank you Bill good seeing you by the [Music] [Applause] way hi good evening I'm Anna Mar Mena I live at um 1812 Long Hill Road in Millington I want to thank you for even hi for having the opportunity um to speak tonight I am an objection to this ordinance uh I've been at um Millington for over 30 years and I don't see having food trucks as enhancing our neighborhood you know we see food trucks in New York City or Hoboken on the waterfront or in carnivals or special events you know food truck two three nights a week um is not what Millington or lill Township has been set out to be known for even on um our Township page you know we're known for our excellent schools our great Senior Center our great um Parks and Recreation and our Great Swamp and our community and to be walking the streets uh where the oak flow in the um food truck is displayed um it's just not the bucolic place that we want Millington or Long Hill to be known for you know we we see this on Instagram you know we know where Long Hill is now well yes but we don't do we want to be known for having food trucks you know it's not the place where they belong and um to be seeing you know children and toddlers um parents walking into a brewery and sitting outside you know and now the food truck I mean I don't see as being responsible to our community and to our youth I think it can be presented in a much better way in a much more enhancing way for our growth of what's coming in the future in Millington but food trucks is not a place um for lill Township and um I hope that we uh can take consideration to the neighbors as well as the you know food establishments and um you know the the cafe and all who's been here for so many years we shouldn't lose sight of how much they've contributed um to the well-being so thank you very much for your time thank you thank you than you for your thoughtful comments I know that everybody here you can be doing other things with your Wednesday evening and so even though there seems to be a little tension in a room I do appreciate everybody coming out and thank you for having this and thank you for uh your respectful uh presentation no problem hello uh I think it's passion rather than tension but uh my name is John hulahan I Sterling uh registered Republican uh moved my young family here I saw a couple of comments so good to see you uh first time caller longtime listener let's say uh so since we've moved here it's been really exciting to see the the growth of the town and oakflower I think in particular has been uh a bright spot in the community they've been recognized as one of the best breweries in the region I think with time probably one of the best in the state and uh I've witnessed something that I never thought I would see happen which is people take the train to Millington and then get off and go to the brewery from other towns who would have thought uh beyond the beer I think the food trucks have been a welcome addition so I'm here as a constituent to uh request that you eliminate section e of the ordinance um again I don't need to keep selling sounds like you guys are kind of already considering this that new restaurant across the street is really good but it's only one option not necessarily to everyone's liking uh allowing food trucks without that 100 foot limitation would give people more Choice uh more uh options somebody called out eating while you're drinking is a good idea right safety um but the ship has already sailed on fairness to Brick and Mortar delivery apps like Uber Eats means that I could get from hundreds of restaurants dozens of miles away food delivered right here right now so that state of fairness doesn't really exist in the first place um so I think that that you know section e would be adding restrictions but wouldn't also be helping that fairness situation and again just because those other towns don't have those restrictions doesn't mean that we should lill is a unique town as you pointed out there's no Central business district right it's a collection of villages so we need uh you know something that might work in Madison or Summit or wherever it's not going to work here because of the unique physical layout of our town we need Creative Solutions so I think that eliminating e will help businesses Thrive uh it won't cause harm beyond the competition that already exists through those apps uh so that's what I submit as my request thank you thank you thank [Applause] you good evening good evening my name is Shannon de jamus um I'm a nine-year resident of M inton um do do we put the address on record um I'm at 12 Elliot Road in Millington New Jersey um very proud to be here for nine years um I am not a business owner I'm a mom I'm a very happy resident of the town I have four children um but I came from Hudson County and uh moving here town uh Jersey City very proud from Jersey City um tell by the ACC I'm sorry tell about the accent because I'm from Bon I'm originally from Buffalo New York so I'm surprised you'd say have a Jersey City accent but but we interrupt no that's fine um when my husband and I moved here um we loved the town but I think getting used to having all of these restaurants at our fingertips when we were in Jersey City and moving here was a huge culture shock there was a lot we loved about Jersey City um and there's a lot we love about lill Township and I have absolutely no regrets about moving here I'm very very happy here but um you know I want to see as a resident um I want to see more restaurants and I don't really care what shape or form that they take I want more places to call when I'm rushing my kids from school to a to a baseball game um and whether it's a food truck or somewhere else I don't I don't really care um but there were a couple of points I did want to make um just in response to a few things um um you know one of the things that's come up tonight um and it just seems um that the Town Council doesn't want to bring up what was shared on social media today and I did not um I I read a lot of what was shared on social media today I did not respond that's not my habit um but um Mr paseri I I believe you did suggest that one of the reasons that we should consider brick and mortar um and and give them perhaps a little bit more Credence is because their property tax owners of the building like Mr cof right right um but that you know that they're paying property taxes and it sounds to me from if I heard everything correctly that the Millington Station Cafe is actually a tax exempt entity so they're not actually paying property taxes that contribute to our town is that correct can I yeah absolutely answer that question it's somewhat unique and I don't know if there are any other structures in town but the Millington whoever operates the Milton Cafe we rent it to them and I don't know can you explain the exact way this works that that would actually be great I would welcome that yeah and as I said earlier just to preface my remarks I mean the ordinance is meant to apply not just to the mingon cafe and Oak flour so I understand but the the train station is owned by New Jersey Transit we tried to buy all three train stations and New Jersey Transit will never never agree to that so we lease it from New Jersey Transit and under the terms of the lease we have the right to sublet it to another use which we've done at the current time or at least expired years ago so we're in the process and so we're a month-to-month tenant and the subtenant the cafe is a month-to-month subtenant uh but we're in the process now we've reached out to New Jersey Transit we met with them two months ago more Randy about two months ago um and explained our situation to them they promised to get us a new lease for our consideration uh within a week weeks have gone by I've emailed them several times uh the last response I got was about three weeks ago I followed up since then and they said it was under review by their Council we still have nothing until we get that lease from New Jersey Transit we can't go out to bid again for a subtenant um as soon as we have a lease with New Jersey Transit we will go out again to bid so the current sub tenants May in fact be successful and remain there but it will be a public bidding process and it will go to the highest bidder for uses specified in this you know in the bid documents U so it's not just you know we don't know who the subtenant is going to be six months now but if but if I understand that correctly that also means that the tenant could change and there may not be a tenant in there that closes at 3:00 p.m. is that correct that's correct okay so so that that limitation in provision e is actually quite limiting because um because those hour those operating hours might in fact change that's correct okay I'll give you something else which honestly I didn't know this until relatively recently Jack can you explain what the somewhat unique law is regarding alcohol at train stations yeah there's there's a provision in the state liquor laws that allows for a concessioner permit in state or other governmental owned buildings which is the equivalent of a liquor license U I think and the I think the annual fee is $2,000 which compared to you know a regular liquor license which it could cost 500,000 or whatever when you purchase uh so that whoever the subtenant is will be eligible to apply for a concessionaire permit which would allow them essentially to have a liquor license so so that's to suggest that there might actually be another open tenant another business that's correct which would bring more people into the community which would be open later in the evening which would give me options when I'm coming back on the train which all sounds like a good thing correct no you're absolutely right okay okay um and then I you know one of the concerns one of the other concerns that I have is that because there's this limitation about hours already you know and hours the business is already open it really suggest that there's a first in time first in right sort of approach to these businesses which is really stifling to competition and as a resident again I want there to be more restaurants I want there to be more businesses I mean do you all see that as the the limitation that I see it as as a resident it's a first in time first in right sort of approach I don't know what you mean what do you mean well if I understood section that section correctly that um that it's the opening you know a food truck or a mobile establishment can only be open I don't have the text in front of me that um within 100 ft of when there's another restaurant um that is uh excuse me another restaurant during their opening hours right you see what you see what I'm saying so it's all dictated by the by the business that's already there it could be a new business yeah here's my respon but if they leave it in we didn't have anything to work with to point as Brendan pointed out just because somebody else is doing something doesn't mean you have and and so what we we were you know what is that without a a net or however it is so we were trying to figure out and as I said we came to that it is true it's limiting the way it's written but we came to that because it was brought to us it wasn't our idea so again to Commitment raay point I'm willing to evolve in my thinking we were just trying to be fair to everybody I I I understand that but I think I think legislating according to a legislating according to a a private agreement between two business owners is a little odd I mean the business owners can still come to you know a private agreement but legislating it just seems a little bit odd to me and I want to be I want to be respectful of time um so just to just to kind of if I could summarize you're you'd like to take e out AB Absol absolutely I want to take I want to take e out but I also want to call out that I also want to call out that um oakflower is a women-owned business and this just seems um this just seems like really unnecessary Hassle and limitation to a women-owned business and I would imagine that a Town Council of five men might be want to be a little bit sensitive to being you know Crea creating limitations to a women owned business I'm not suggesting that was an intent I'm suggesting that you should probably think about it a little bit because I think your constituents are probably thinking about that um but I'll close with this I mean as a resident we just I think people want to see more I've talked to a lot of people that are busy parents they just want to have more options they want to have more options to get something quick and frankly I want a lobster roll with my Ros Seltzer so I hope you'll consider that thank you [Applause] was the Applause for the lobster roll or Ros Seltzer it wasn't clear to me good evening hi Mr pasare it's good to see you Mr Ry um it's been a long time since I've been here I am Christina Mel uh melion and I live in Sterling uh on Railroad Avenue and um I am here tonight uh as a character resident if you will um Oak flour has been a wonderful establishment for me and my family personally um I do live down the block from the Sterling Hotel I can hit it I listen to the bands from my we go there all the time I'm a mom last time I was here a mom to one I'm a mom to three now and thank you and um Oak flour has presented opportunities for me as a parent um in capacities that other establishments haven't my kids eat everything on the Hotel menu we they're all the time it's nice to have her ey so the food trucks for us are a big pull um I want to also mention personally I don't drink beer um I don't go there for that I go there for the community I go there for an opportunity to move my body in a meaningful way when they host things like yoga events and pilates which are also um led by people who live in this town and it allows them an opportunity to use their expertise to help make our community better um my mental health has improved since attending these events I found camarad in the families that own Oak flour the two women have guided me through my postpartum phase they were pregnant with me they helped me um heal my body and they have been outstanding friends um but to the point of this Mr lavender I don't like e [Music] [Applause] um I think that we're we keep going back to um the new establishment of oaz but it was a restaurant prior to that wasn't not it was a Chinese restaurant MH right yeah okay sorry the hours were a little bit different though weren't they oh undeniably I'm sure um I love weren't open till 11 they weren't I don't believe so 10 10 I don't think well I'm not going to comment no okay they open at 11 they close at 10 yeah yeah oh yes we're talk oh yes um so so the the building uh the use of the building in question there as well and again I understand that this is not specific to Oak flower we're talking about the community in Long Hill as a toll um I think that it has been a wonderful Institution for so many different things they've given back to the lill Education Foundation which I've worked with um I know that they give back to the Raptor Trust on their first year and a half we're like you're barely out of the red right like they're doing so many amazing things for this community and I know that some people feel children in these environments but my kids go here and they see their friends they have opportunities to play and communicate and be themselves outside of um school and things like that so Oak flour has been so many things to the community in such a short amount of time and specifically the food trucks again I'm a tired mom of three some nights I don't want to cook some nights my kids do not want Tom's lasagna you know so we need that I cook I cook um I'm Italian I cook but um I just I love that the variety and the options and I thank you for your time thank you Miss Philips and I appreciate seeing you all and allowing us to speak tonight so thank you thank you for attending thank you [Applause] I might be the last one on this I'm not sure uh leanen for those that don't know me 6 iron Drive Millington uh my family and I have been a resident uh for the last 10 years similar to Mrs dejamos we moved from a well populated area of Long Island super used to a lot of food choices one of the things that we loved about lill was more of the family nature more quiet a little bit more s dud but the thing we deeply regretted living here is the lack of food Choice the lack of hours the lack of camaraderie around food um I love oakflower I love Millington Station Cafe I second what pretty much everyone else has said but what I wanted to bring up is the food trucks in the area on Milling in Millington specifically has given an outlet to a lot of our middle school and high school age kids kids who can't drive yet kids that can ride their bikes kids that aren't not necessarily allowed to cross valy or have a small perimeter that their moms like me allow them to go so after school they'll or early in the evening they'll ride their bikes they'll grab a slice of pizza they'll hang out they'll clean up they'll come home very happy and so I don't want to lose that not that the rest of this wasn't important because I agree and like everyone else I would like to request e be removed but I don't want to lose sight of a place that kids can go and get an additional food option that is not in downtown Sterling or having them ride all the way down Valley so I think food TRS give those options to other kids as well in addition to thus parents so I didn't want to leave them out thank you thank [Applause] you I don't see anybody else Mr P oh wait no we have one more you don't have to run we also have online oh that's right no I won't forget that okay good even gentlemen my name is Hillary Tate and I am a resident of Millington at 1829 Long Hill ro hi um I may have previously introduced myself as Hillary Tate living in a very small town in Bas or next to Basking Ridge because that's how I came to find this place and um yeah I first of all thank you for the ordinance thank you for coming up with a way to organize the food trucks I do appreciate that you don't want loud music I appreciate that you don't want blinking lights because I live down the street from there and I well my neighbor is not here anymore but I share a similar feeling to her that I don't want to have a Glitzy Glam downtown I moved here because I like that it's quiet and it's a really lovely place to bring up a family um we do spend a lot of time at oakflower I am a big fan of choo Cho pancakes and the sausage miiro as well and I'm looking for my favorite oaz it's not an ore for me it's an ant and I welcome the opportunity to have something else downtown I will continue I promise to watch the trains at the Millington um Cafe and I will look for my new favorite at oaz I will enjoy my beer at Oak flour and um you know now when I get to tell people where I live I can tell tell them that I live in a small town next to Basking Ridge that has a cute Cafe for breakfast it has a great Turkish restaurant for takeout it might still have food trucks and I am so super duper proud to say that I live up the street from oakflower thank you thank [Applause] you time to go online anybody else here this evening who would like to speak absolutely [Applause] abely colum MCD uh the uh correction uh thank you Shannon for pointing it out I'm not the owner of vflower the lovely redheaded lady over there is the owner of vflower so everyone pointing at me it's not me that she is the one who deserves the credit uh it was a lovely women-owned business to all the ladies over there um I had a whole bunch of things to say I'm not going to say them uh we'll all be cool here um I just want to say that I uh am deeply deeply touched um by all of the support we've had uh online from everybody who actually spent their night coming out here and and sitting this long to hear everything and to uh speak up in support of the little Brewery that we uh decided to open here in Millington that we just happened to luck into some uh fantastic landlords which I don't know how many people can say that um we we did and uh we did happen to create uh the I will say yes the uh number six highest rated Brewery in the State uh nationally recognized [Applause] um Tut two uh yeah uh I everyone who knows me knows I will throughout the week I put my head down I make beer I am a you know janitor for most of the week I'm wet I'm cleaning tanks I'm sanitizing things I am again making some of the goddamn best beer in the State uh and I often miss um you know a lot of what goes on uh over the weekend when we're actually open so um to hear from everybody to hear uh The Amazing Stories and uh how much community and camaraderie they have found there um is is beautiful and is all I ever really wanted um out of oakflower uh and and I'm just happy to to see it come together so uh if we could get rid of section e that'd be great thank you thank [Applause] you anybody else here this evening who in in person that would like to speak if not Megan online a Dion would like to speak Dion Oh hands down Dion just left Zoom uh Tom grosof would like to speak good evening Tom you there Tommy you may be on mute I am unmuted now there you go oh thank you thank you for having me this evening um and uh kudos to oakflower for all of the attendees they have there tonight and for the obviously great business they have going uh good business practice brings out good people that's wonderful um Mr Mayor I I would like to hearken back to what you said to start this off is that this ordinance uh was the attempt of the township committee to open up uh an Avenue for Oak oakl and for the rest of our Township to have food trucks available um in somewhat of a regulated manner perhaps section e needs to go I'm not going to opine on that I can't tell you what 100 fet from the front door or from the side of the building will really do to its business my concern here might be though how many food trucks is enough and what if um I've heard people say that they you know they like the opportunity to rather than cook their own food uh get food from a food truck um which seems a little odd to me but um maybe maybe the times have passed me by but how many food trucks is enough uh what if the selection is not up to people's um Ary pet for the evening maybe it's Italian food in the food truck for the night and they were looking for Chinese uh this I don't think this ordinance is going to Plate everybody's wishes for what they would like to see um case in point back in New York City when uh when I lived there uh Mr Softy did used to come by until they invoked an ordinance saying that they can't just sit there and ring that damn Bell the whole time come on we all know the T um so maybe this ordinance is looking for a little relaxation on the 100 foot limit but perhaps it should not be so that it's open to allc comers at all times and we have no restriction on it at all I heard earlier that you were going to possibly table this and bring it back to a discussion when you might have a full Township committee I think that's probably your best bet at this point see I I the only thing I would say out to Mr kofman's comments earlyer and I think to Mr pigeon's comments as well we can't spot Zone and that and and and that would be the concern but but this is not a zoning ordinance right fair enough police power ordinance yeah fair and for that reason too that no food truck will be non-conform in use which will be permitted to continue even if the ordinance is changed so you can always amend this ordinance unlike a zoning ordinance and make changes to it vested rights fair enough I'm sorry Tom I interrupted you there no that that's quite all right um I think what's what might be being lost on the uh the people who have a vested opinion about expanding the food truck parking whatever you want to call it uh is that you're not their enemy there's no enemies here we're all towns people and we're all trying to get what serves us all the best so um I read some ugly things uh the last couple of days and they were unfounded and I think I will uh I will Echo the deputy mayor in saying that it was uh some things were really disgusting so you don't need that and it's not fair I appreciate you saying that Tom thank you thank you thank you all for what you do much appreciated and uh so everybody else knows out there uh this is an unpaid position these people are putting themselves through they don't need the slings and the arrows anyway I've said enough thank you Tom thank you anybody else online anybody else on zo would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor thank you Megan so yes sir can I move us along here I'd like to make a motion that we strike the word sponsor in 475 and replace it with operator and in the uh section 474 we remove entirely section E I like I'll make a motion that we do that and pass the ordinance tonight I I think we have to no I think you can actually I hate to disagree with you Megan I don't want to get in trouble but I do think you already are I think we should amend it and carry it because when we added this we amended it and carried it to a follow following meeting so now if we're going but we're taking it out I I I honestly think if you want to and it's up to you all I mean I don't want to talk about this for the next three months I really don't we've been talking about this since January I'll follow legal counsel so if you want to that's that's always a good thing that's a good especially because we've taken it out put it back in that you could remove it tonight and certainly the other change sponsored operate we have a quorum we have the right to do it let's get this done and move on to other business you need three affirmative votes and you can pass it but first you need to do second the motion to pass the ordinance I made the motion with second I want to make sure I understand the u u the ground rules here so to speak well first on the motion that that can pass on a majority of the Quorum of three the motion to amend to amend right so we need a second for the motion to amend as Mr lavender Deputy Mayor okay I want to be clear why I'm I'm going to say I'm about to say my preference for me is to abstain not because I object to the motion it's I think it would be relevant to have the other two members of the township committee here to hear this I I've I've heard and I've listened and uh I found the comments compelling and and and I especially thank committee Ray who who brought that brought everything up yeah um but it it can't pass two in order to pass an ordinance you need three affirmative votes regardless of how many of you are here you can introduce an ordinance with two to one I would strongly recommend that we move forward on this it's hard to get a quorum in the summer we're going to have one meeting in July and one meeting in August and and I would add correct me if I'm wrong jack it if it needs to be Revisited it can be changed at any time right in fact I'm sure at some point in time we're going to find some things we need to amend it's true of any ordinance so there's a motion on the floor from Deputy Mayor lavender to amend it is there a second for that with those amendments this is something I can vote for so I second it I second the amendment now we need to vote on the motion the motion needs all three to amend no to amend to amend motion can pass two to one two to one okay or even with so roll call vote but the ordinance has to have three affirmative you you can do you can do a voice vote on the amendment all in favor I would abstain from the amendment vote I want to be clear I'm not holding up the vote to this evening is that is that correct Jack correct so the ordinance has been amended and in my opinion with the two changes the sponsor and striking e striking paragraph e and I'll make a motion to pass it okay fin reading as amended on Final reading as amended yep passing second committee mon R yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes that was painful wasn't it I I i' I'd like to point out this is how democracy works we started in one place and we ended in another so um thank you I sincerely thank you for arriving here [Applause] tonight what's next on the dance card oh geez I I forgot about that oh by the way you you're not allowed to leave you have to listen to the rest of this uh where are we um consent where are we oh 4444 oh jeez I thought we already did that all right 54-24 second reading adoption uh I'm going to read that one because I don't even remember what this one was that adopted a re now I remember Redevelopment plan repealing resolution 22- 291 approve the Redevelopment agreement and repealing oh my goodness ordinance 512 d23 that approved the pilot for one Z you know what what this is is we're repealing something that was already approved and uh for these reasons we've discussed Jack if you want to give a brief over overview that's right we had a a Redevelopment agreement and a pilot agreement with contract purchases of the car wash for construction of a assisted living facility uh that deal has fallen apart they're no longer the contract purchasers so what this ordinance does is it repeals both the Redevelopment plan as well as the pilot agreement thank you any uh members of the or any comments from the township committee members seeing none since this is second reading I'd like to open it up uh to members of who are here tonight this is uh very specific to this ordinance seeing none Megan home if anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor all right looking for a uh motion to approve so moved second Comm monray yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor pgia yes cons item number six consent agenda any that members of the committee would like to pull or abstain from seeing none um this is one that I can actually vote on without any you went what wait which one good at all right so then how about this Brendon why don't you make the motion for I'll certainly do that a motion to approve consent agenda resolutions 24178 to 24187 thank you guy you're welcome second you haven't been able to say that second committee man ray yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes okay committee reports you're going to go last uh Scott you're good yeah I um I think I can give some updates on fire there you go mingon uh ladder uh came back uh to the firehouse on uh Thursday of last week so it's back where it belongs and uh repairs have been made and uh we're hoping to get into Service as soon as we've got training which is coming up in the middle of July uh and uh all the all the equipment is uh purchased and ready to be on it so we're hoping to get it in in place within the next couple of months in in in in service um there's one other uh uh report I have related to Fire mington and Sterling uh fire companies are are extremely proud of two of their members uh two of the uh uh Tom veter from Millington and um Frank liberat from uh Sterling who spent the last four months a total of 266 man hours uh uh each at the somerset uh fire academy and they uh attained firefight the uh the firefighter one CER certification so we're uh you know great congratulations to uh Tom and Frank for doing that and uh I think from everything that was that was from the uh the reports from from the um from the uh Academy where that they were uh they were uh role models for the rest of the younger members of the class that's my report thank you Brendon Deputy Mayor lavender and remember the the exuberance that committee man Vera gives the rec report for the for the planning board update oh sorry I thought you were going into wreck yeah no first the planning board so um they met yesterday uh Brendan the um thing with the extension on the firehouse was passed so you know hopefully that whole process keeps moving forward I don't know if you have to go to the zoning board or no for variances or anything but just that was good and they continue to work through um uh ordinance changes that they'll be circulating up to us uh eventually I think yesterday there was a long discussion about sheds sheds Y and also too they're talking about um bylaws and developing a set of those that'll hopefully surface themselves on the on on the website such as is in the in the the zoning boards um fashion um all right so now reck no pressure Vic for Lea is um not here tonight uh so I'm going to give the update first summer has started Parks and Recreation kicked off summer with a performance by parrot Beach a Jimmy Buffett trip you band who played at Sterling lake Friday night the Sterling Fountain was on hand with rocking what rocking Rebel Sundays for our dog days of s I can't do this like Vick such a great way to cool off despite the heat our pickle Ballers are continuing to play on reservations can be made for free that's reservations you reserve the pickle ball court for free uh by using Community pass it's open to Long Hill residents um swim lessons at Sterling lake you notice I didn't say dink responsibly I refused to say that but you just did I did swim lessons at Sterling lake have started um the response has been great and there's plenty of time to register on community pass swim lessons will continue through the summer uh number four um our summer rec Camp uh kicked off uh there will be six weeks of programming it started this Monday the 24th campers are enjoying a week of circus themed activities this week that's circuses I guess that's with clowns um on Entertain You yeah exactly Rizzo's reptile on Tuesday Rizzo's reptiles and furry friends came to visit our campers uh campers got campers got campers got to meet a a fet a fet a fret a toad a chinchilla and lots more a ferret [Laughter] fired next go to slide five join us for our free dog days of summer concert Thursday July 11th 7 p.m. caner Park we'll welcome back lost in place a classic rock band pack a picnic dinner bring the family and have your lawn chairs and blankets great for the whole family slide six don't forget to save the date for National Night Out that's National Night Out Tuesday August 6th at caner Park that's a big deal isn't it yes it is uh 6:00 p.m. to 900 p.m. demonstrations by our police uh Department First Responders and L Hill c l Hill Chamber of Commerce businesses will join us there'll be a band forf flight Rock lill library will present a children's movie there'll be a bounce house games and much more and thank you very much to our sponsor the W wung Hills Regional Municipal Alliance for making this a uh a great family night out and that's all I have for wreck thank you Scott ferrets ferrets all right I don't know why feret why would ferret's funny I couldn't tell you Vick's job is secure permanently I'm allergic to ferrets all right okay all right so the one uh update I want to make we the first eight squads in the middle of their 20 24 um uh annual fund drive everyone knows this is 100% uh volunteer much like our F companies uh they do an unbelievable job I've said these numbers before they average two a day the last week and a half I know we see the updates as they're they're coming in they have been so busy uh three four calls a day so if you're able to please remember uh to contribute to the first aid Squad someday you will need them we all have I have and I I am thankful for for the job they do all right Randy okay I first have a public works monthly report for June 13 tons of asphalt was used to fix potholes in black top curbing uh the Public Works uh did three full days of Styrofoam processing they did two tree removals street sweeping throughout and catch base and repair throughout the township they planted uh flowers on Maine Avenue they did landscaping and mulching at Town Hall uh they did work uh over at police had uh police headquarters for the new generator which I'll bring up in a minute and uh did all the township owned properties throughout the town uh maintenance uh weed whacking cutting the grass and and uh maintaining all those properties uh we have uh two active ongoing capital projects that we're working with uh that that's been that's taken a while to get some to get obviously uh not obviously but the materials and um working through the various things the one is generator at Police Headquarters which took a long while I believe about a year and a half to get uh the um generator itself so uh proud to say this year uh this week we did the gas line uh that was approved and waiting for a final inspection from the building department we are also working uh with getting the um electronic sign in information sign out front of the building here here at Town Hall um that should be starting next month uh we um had to go we had a the contractor had to provide some information to the building department uh that was provided and so we should be starting that next month and hopefully uh by the end of J July that project will be completed that's great Randy that it it all right uh no discussion items old and new I just have a couple oh oh oh I have I have one discussion item very very quick um Jack last time around we did a first reading of of an ordinance with regard to cleaning up um permits when a real estate sale was going to happen um question came up um sometimes as as as parties are getting to the last days of a of of a closing sometimes things come up at the last minute like maybe a raidon test fails right and they've got to get some of to come in and fix it and then um get inspections done in order to hit a closing date um is there a mechanism or is it possible and maybe this is a question for Randy uh to have um an expedited process with inspections even if it were for a premium fee for extraordinary circumstances I I think we'd have to ask the construction official so it' be refer that to the construction that the answer to that is um is yes I've actually seen that in in these type of ordinances where you can expedite right uh the however ever there will be times where even an expedited inspection is not good just won't meet the deadlines and everything else uh other things that have come up is um I don't know how often it happens in Long Hill but in other towns I buy a property as is could be half built who they can't close out inspection and the inspection permits so we've I've been working on language with the construction official on creating a waiver where the seller and the purchaser would have to buy have to sign it and the permits would then sign over to a new owner they would have to pay a fee and everybody would know what that fee is so this will be a compliment if you will to that ordinance good idea just U and Jeff and I are working to see if we um either change the language a little bit to allow for that waiver and so forth but these are things after we after we introduced it that that people started that we started talking amongst the at a department Ed meeting actually and uh coming up with uh some of these things that we and in fact Warren Jeff admitted and Warren they didn't think of yeah and now they're now they're trying to deal with it nor did Bernville or any other town that I saw right so so it's a great idea at least we have the advantage of Jeff being in war and here so uh he's working through those scenarios in Warren so um so we're we're going to try and have this great idea all done so thanks good thank you is that it Scott okay we also had the holiday swap yeah that's exactly what I was just about to bring up so uh Randy I I think what was proposed and and unanimously by uh uh some of the uh Municipal workers here in town would be to swap uh Columbus Day they will work on Columbus Day and am I correct correct and uh they would be off on July 5th and and I think Randy you expressed the idea that that doesn't effective anything probably more efficient because uh Comas day is a full week and here you well it actually it probably be more efficient because I'm finding out more and more businesses are closed on July 5th and nobody wants to come to do Municipal business when they're enjoying a holiday weekend uh so um it it would probably serve the public better uh to have US Open a full day on that uh Columbus holiday which is not a common holiday for the general public um I know my company has given off on July 5th so their their offices are closed um so and I think a lot of a lot of businesses are are closing on the July 5th for the extended weekend so I I think it would be advantageous uh for the employees these are nonunion employees just to be just to be specific Union employees have contracts employees do have contracts uh so um if if that's the case I'd ask the committee to take a a a v just ation approve by motion yeah I'm good with that Scott you're fine I'm good with it we don't need a motion right bet move in second so we have a record move in second so somebody move it I think Brendan moved it Scott second Megan take a roll call please all in favor voice plenty well done you did that well uh one other thing and I I didn't know how else to bring it up but a resident reached out to me and and actually I think the the resident made a very valid point I guess we changed something in the ordinance relatively recently for uh uh Property Owners where detention basins are there they are required I I believe to maintain them and which is because of changes in stone and weather regulations so it was not a local decision was Implement that wasn't the complaint uh you know they understand that uh the resident that brought it to my attention the concern was and it's kind of nickel and dime to to maintain a detention Basin takes time often times money etc etc and residents that have lived in town for a long time have been doing it for a long time even without that regulation change but and I I forgot how this got into the ordinance we we sent out uh $50 permit fees and and and that seems not fair I I would recommend we remove the permit fee I mean I know it's nominal but that was the purpose of the permit fee and and keep in mind detention Basin benefit everybody in that area was it to cover the cost of inspection cover the cost of administration uh and followup uh and necessary if we need to go inspect uh the um maintenance and how many of these basins are there in town we how many letters 17 we sent uh 17 letters they went out last week we've already gotten three back which was very surprising to uh Township engineer 17 time $50 which is $850 now not to say I'm not we're not saying all 17 qualify as the state um the state definition of detention Basin so if a person doesn't feel that they they uh have a uh private system if you will they should contact our engineer and we will take a closer look at those at those specific all right I'm going to cut to the chase I think it's a nominal I think the the residents that are doing this cleanup and maintenance on these detention Basin are doing a service for the neighborhoods that they live in uh if I had received one of these uh uh fees I I I would uh be questioning it yeah I I would recommend we remove it you have to do it by ordinance it's in the ordinance okay yeah I agree do you agree Brendon yep I'm I think that's good yep so we put that on the agenda for sometimes again democracy and action uh resident reached out didn't care about the $50 cared about the uh uh what do we do about the ones that are could we fund them um so two of them that came back didn't actually have the $50 check there was only one and I actually got it today and I didn't what did the other two have they send via email so they just never sent the fee so okay we we said we would reach out next week if we never received checks in the mail but it looks like we probably won't have to look if they paid and we cashed it reim refund it that's not a problem all right yet another example of uh this committee listening to reasonable requests and and we did the all right so now announcements you didn't give me do we have any announcements National Night Out National Night Out yeah we just did National do it again please if you don't mind that one you did a good job on I know there's no ferrets there that's why Tuesday August 6th caner Park 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. don't forget save the date National Night Out there'll be demonstrations from the police department First Responders Long Hill sir Long Hill Chamber of Commerce will join us forf flight Rock will be there to perform Long Hill Library presented children's Bounce children's movie there'll be a bounce house games and more thank you so much to our sponsor the W Chung Hills Regional Municipal Alliance for making this a great night out you can tell it's late in the evening that's a from a Paul Simon song isn't it late in the evening uh Brendon you have anything nothing for me no October Fest that's coming up when September OCT oh I think it's September right uh yeah I'm sorry we I don't think we have it we could say you know every everybody have a wonderful uh July 4th um especially the Municipal Employees that swapped their Columbus Day uh for July 5th now the meeting is open to the public on any issue not just oakflower one small question uh oh thank you again do I want to rece Bill Kaufman 1932 long road um question for the committee and maybe you have an answer or you can just bracket and answer can we get a status on the sewer moratorium absolutely uh progress that I I could probably do by memory so as you know uh the the referendum passed uh the sale bless you uh some time back but the actual sale itself with all the specs that go into it um uh closed on October in October of 20 20 right that's right Brendan thank you years so let's get to your question the sewer uh moratorium they are required the new owner New Jersey American Water to complete all upgrades that are necessary well actually everything in in in the contract by October 2025 I think there are some things that may bleed a little bit into a longer term for example they're required to go from 88% to 95% % of the township must be sewered there are challenges there permits etc etc but what's not negotiable is the lifting of the sewer ban by October 2025 they have to have done the upgrades that are necessary to lift the sewer ban and add capacity for uh what are our affordable uh housing obligations and we talked about one of them this evening which is over at the uh uh Millington train station great thank you did I answer your question you did there was two parts put but I didn't I didn't necessarily wasn't concerned about the expansion but the but the capacity in the sewer service area didn't have the date it seemed like October 25 there might be uh there there was some questions that there's nothing's gone before the planning board yet there's been no permits filed and they haven't started yet and process well can you speak to that I mean there's been uh work behind the scenes on this yeah they because we have to go we have to cooperate with the D and yeah no it's fine I just there's there's no public record of anything and and we know how long things take to get approved and processed and construction to get going and it's probably a fairly big lift otherwise we would have done it 20 years ago they did add a building I know yeah and I was just at a recent meeting uh with New Jersey American water and the county um sewer management plan the uh New Jersey American water is underc capacity um the the ban that we have is a voluntary ban it was not band issued by D so uh it wasn't that voluntary though well they called it a voluntary they they called it a voluntary band so um if you're in the sewer service area and they uh and you want to move forward you can contact the New Jersey American Water um they will evaluate each of the projects you may need uh what's that a tww a permit uh for specific projects but if you're within the sore um service area uh they have done a lot of work with uh what's called inii sleeving the um uh sword lines and they just got the D approval for let's say uh uh environmentally sensitive areas to go in and sore the sore lines where they're getting a lot of in inii um so they they feel that they might not even have to do an actual expansion at the S plant that this work would be enough for them to get uh where they need to be for the projects that are on the books and keep in mind I they're a business they they paid an awful lot of money well they paid a lot of money and they've put in probably double uh we have the numbers but I don't want to say it and and because I don't remember exactly what it is they've already spent double what they had projected um uh my point is this is only valuable to them if they add customers so they they're not going to delay this isn't an example of where delaying is beneficial to them delay hurts them right well there are uh to Mr Bar's Point um there are some exceptions within their within the state guidelines for sewer bams unfortunately those exceptions don't apply to any actions or subdivisions or projects that were undertaking taken during the ban which is 25 years so any projects that have been before the boards and been approved are are not are are exempt from that provision of or that exception that's in the state guidelines for them so it sounds like oh yeah just call them up but there's nowhere to go because they just say well you're beyond 650 Galls a day that's more you know then you can't do it so um that's why it's important that that date is a real date to you know members of the community and Property Owners who've been patient for can't can't change the past but the good news is there is a deadline yeah that's really October 25 and I wholeheartedly if anything it'll be sooner they indicated they're going to meet it or yeah and then and then to that end is there progress on the Millington Tia project are they they have to wait for exactly what you're describing and we we get uh uh well love letters from them pretty often every six months and we remind them October 202 sent a few love letters of my own to them by the way um and the last thing I wanted to say is thank you to all of you everyone's thanked you enough but I've been here a long time I've been before all the boards for various things it's a different township than it was 25 30 years ago 15 years ago 10 years ago um some of you have really made a big difference and it goes without saying or go sometimes you don't get the recognition I mean I know two of the members Mr Val is not here and U Mr D she's not here but um it's a different type of administration and specifically to Mr Ray who we're going to dearly Miss um uh and uh he's always in on all the boards and in my experience has been a voice of reason and logic and uh sort of a steady um Rudder and it's often times we get swept up and oh let's go with the current because it's easy and um Brandon you've got a historically swam against the current and uh it's appreciated and noticed and professional and polite and anyway love said you guys done a great job and appreciate the time tonight thank you for the kind words thanks Bill hi hi John meowski happily living on uh Cottage Place West for the last five years in Gillette um question is when the weather's nice we like to take walks uh in the neighborhood and there's been lately a lot of trepidation about crossing over Mount NV um even though there's a crosswalk there number of times cars coming down the uh Hill there's a blind spot they can't see it just last week there was um person who was uh in this crosswalk and two cars came by didn't even stop can we get those signs uh put in the in the crosswalks reminding people it's a state law to stop when there are people in them I want to make sure and I by the way just uh uh last week I was coming north on that road and it was a a family Crossing and I stopped and they said oh thank you and I went I'm required to but you're welcome right uh are you saying that the walk is not uh painted or what what's not fair there is a crosswalk but there's no sign that there's none of those orange signs that say it's a New Jersey Law you have to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk it's a that's a county road right yeah that's a County Road can we put that in without their permission we have to get their permission is this an example well I shouldn't say this publicly is this an example uh Bron your voice a reason this is an example you know ask per uh do it than for whatever I didn't think you could do it yeah yeah I mean it's not only on Mountain I mean that's a particularly busy road but I get it on Northfield there's a and that's right by the school people don't I don't know that it's a that it's a h that it's a a crosswalk I'm sure there's other roads in the towns that could benefit from having the signs up as well it's just how about this the rest we say especially where involves County Roads Randy would you work with uh director Gallow and and and so Mountain Northfield any other suggestions please there's one in uh there's another one right on Main Avenue in Sterling where it's it's kind of faded yeah signs Y and there's a number of there's a number of signs that are either faded or obscured by trees Al's got to get in there and trim them out I mean the other thing I've seen in surrounding towns is the is those orange flags and they seem to have years right and and uh they they seem to work and and they certainly give visibility to drivers it's stir cheap I I mentioned uh mayor Morgan from new Province I called him up and said how do you do that and you know I'm I'm not a very handy person as my wife likes to point out and Al said uh you get the flags you can pay maybe 10 bucks at a Home Depot or you can go to a construction site site and steal them we won't do that um and as far as the those little buckets that they're held in or whatever just want sign says no but I'm saying what Brendan said recommending maybe in certain are especially the one you're referring to that is a tough turn because that road is 35 where at least Northfield is is 25 you're supp I think the signs are more productive than somebody running across the street with a flag just my thought I mean it is true is true but when it comes to some of the situations I've been I mean I walk in Northfield and cross there and you know a sign is great but give me the maximum amount of visibility are some those cars aren't could e it could very well be but no I mean it maximum visibility is is it works to all our benefit and so um the orange flag I've I've seen it I notice it when I'm driving through New Providence and some of the other towns coming we are we're a popular town for those who live here but we're becoming a more popular town and with that comes a challenge that's why the master plan getting done was very important and I forget which uh uh person who spoke earlier I was thinking to myself how are these kids riding a bike anything we can do to improve pestry and safety in this town I think we can and should do uh and because it's only going to get we're we're going to become more and more popular in part because of places uh destination uh places like Oak flour uh we have have three train stations there's going to be one seat trips into Manhattan that's what changed South Street in Morristown we're going to change I think for the better uh but and the sewer the lifting of the sewer band there's a lot of things happening all at once people know where lill is prism was mentioned that's a real developer that's not a Fly by Night Elite same thing um the good news is people now know uh where Long Hill is yeah that but with that comes challenges so one of which I think you just uh uh pointed out so I think the answer is is Randy will take it to the Traffic Safety Committee and we'll be good to go well thank you for bringing it up yeah thanks because I know with the summer it's a lot less but certainly as it starts getting cooler in the uh fall months it's there's going to be a lot of activity so you know they can be up sooner or when they can be greatly appreciated so thank you thank you for bring