I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States stand [Music] indivisible all right roll call please okay mayor michak here council president caran here councilman K councilman CA here cman Dodie here cman Quinn here cman Rex here okay administrator repl here and attorney corini here okay okay tonight we have no presentations no appointments no proclamations but we have some ordinances for introduction uh Linda we have ordinance number 27-24 and ordinance amending chapter 420 zoning so to update the industrial Zone based on the recommendations of the burrow Administration all right this is uh for the fire headquarters property uh do I have a motion motion second second okay all right roll call please okay council president Conan yes councilman K yes councilman dinina yes councilman doie yes councilman Quinn yes and councilman re yes all right motion passes uh number two February 13 February 13th will be the hearing I have ordinance number 28-24 in Nance amending codebook section 24-10 the filing fees Within Chapter 248 Land Development so as to provide a reasonable increase in escro fees for development applications motion second all right roll call please counc president Conan yes councila yes cman corns yes cman Dodie yes cman Quinn yes and cman re yes okay okay uh the uh public um sorry I'm reading that's my own fault hear the public hearing will be on February 13th next one please yeah have ordinance number 29-24 and normat amending and supplementing chapter 4 the entitled fire department to add section 4 40.5 to be entitled employees for members of Volunteer Fire Company or resting Squad we have a motion motion second right roll call please counc president conahan yes councilman cors yes coun dinino yes counc doie yes coun Quinn yes counil M Rex yes all right the public hearing for this will be on February 13th all right next we have ordinance number 21-24 an ordinance Amendment chapter 6 the bylaws of the council at the municipal code of the burough of middle SE all right this uh is the one that sets up the council itics we made a couple little edits that we had to because we had a couple things lined up incorrectly um do I have a motion motion second second right roll call please council president Conan yes counc Corin yes counc Deo yes Council doie yes Council Quinn yes councilman Rex yes okay all right the public hearing will be on February 13th okay ordinances for public hearing and Fin adoption we don't have any of those but now we're up to the adoption of minutes we have approval of the December 19th 2023 regular and executive meeting minutes I have a motion motion second all right all in favor I okay number two and I have approval of the January 2nd 2024 free organization meeting minutes do I I have a motion motion second on in favor I okay very good all right we're moving down to the mayor's report just bear with me for a second we got a couple of things going on tonight um for the most part this month's been a setup month just trying to get the technology and everything else uh switched over but we have a couple of things that I would like to uh address um I'm going to read this because it's just a lot easier to make sure I don't get Tongue Tied uh the question remains unanswered about the cultural and Heritage Committee Member Exodus uh in public we have not responded due to absences from the liaison who was absent for a period and would be in the best position to answer this matter as it is customary for the liaison to have knowledge of the committee activities of the committee activities uh we have delayed a response for months now it is our responsibility to address the issues that have been raised at this point with the necess necessity to have a response I took it upon myself to try and get answers as a process I sent a request for information the councilman cor who was the liaison for the committee I requested his opinion of why the last five volunteers left I also asked that that as he did go public with a statement about the whole story and its deepness for councilman corn to tell us what the whole story and deepness is he asked for an opportunity to talk with our attorney before he responded in detail which was granted at at this juncture I know meeting with the lawyer occurred but as of this writing and up to even including now no response has been received I conducted a series of exit interviews with Bob Edwards Emily danenza Shirley Penrose Judy levenson Dan isra Michael hes and Chrissy George my notes and correspondence are kept in a separate file but to summarize two two respondents simply said availability of time was the reason for the departure Five respondents Point pointed to leadership and Le aison not providing direction or not listening to desires of the committee this created frustration as this impass prevented real progress for being made there was a struggle between the group which was more interested in pursuing the the Heritage aspect rather than the culture portion of the committee which seemed to be the liaison interest there seemed to be confusion with the liaison role to the committee there was clearly a clash of personalities between the committee and the liaison uh for those of you who are interested you can read through my notes and the members submissions for your own conclusion my conclusion and recommendation the cultural and Heritage committee as it is right now will continue to languish with no real results if continued as it is the damage relationship with the volunteers and the liaison is unsalable we need to move on I propose the following I believe we are looking at two distinct areas herriage which is in essence the history of middle sex and culture which in this instance is really intended to be more of a culture and Fine Arts look at middle sex's offerings Heritage should be handled by the library they have this project underway and have already committed resources to seeing this through it makes no sense to have two separate groups working on the same thing Additionally the library should be our Burrow's archive currently we have a mayor's representative on the library board with our newly formed Council mads we have a council the aison to collaborate with the mayor's representative to keep us up on this most important project the current cultural andh heritage members will be contacted by the library once they are in a position to need additional help the library is currently going through a lot of media and information to get a start on this project but this will be entering the next phase within six months the business administrator council president and I have met recently with the members of the library and the library board to discuss the feasibility of this option as for culture Fine Arts for now this should be handled by a Rec Department which is intended to handle items of this nature and not only Sports this area can start to develop here with the plan to eventually be Standalone as we continue to move towards development of a true Community Center they already have a committee and a liaison which will be tasked to push forward these items I feel this is the most efficient and effective path to move forward the business administrator and our lawyer have been have counseled the councilman to hopefully Garner a better understanding of our roles and produce a more successful result as we move forward as we are all Partners in the leadership of middle sex I am hopeful for your consensus as we move forward respectfully submitted Jack Mich okay um when you have your report if you will care to respond can all right um right now the second item that I have up in here is that we have an opportunity all right uh we've been approached by news12 New York um New York New Jersey to do a Main Street New Jersey um feature featurette uh this this I've contacted them this will be will be conducted on uh the last Friday in March and basically what they do is that they come in and every half hour like at 5 5:36 all the way through to 8:00 they feature different locations in our town which will be part of a I guess like a one to three minute featurette is what they what they've explained to me um you know it could be food places it could be some things that we that we want to that we want to basically feature um this project as I see it you know fits pretty well well and we should have actually a little subcommittee to do it but this kind of fits with the film committee uh I'm going to task Jeremiah corn to make sure that this gets handled um I am expecting that he will report for this project with the business administrator because we do have some definite deadlines that we are going to have to meet in order to make sure that this is handled um I think uh with those two we we will be able to push this forward you know and I'm figuring by the middle of February we should have a decent plan of what we're doing who we're going to see how we're going to go about it and to be quite honest I'm hoping that it happens by that time and if not then we'll have to come up with Plan B but this I think is a real U feather on our cap for Middle sex and I think we should do it and I think we should do it right uh mayor is this businesses focused on businesses it's it's basically it it sounds like it's focused on businesses I mean we can actually you know expand on it basically they had um they had an example on the email they did South Amboy I believe and it was you know like a bagel place a bank uh you know a bunch of different things so you know there's eight of them I mean we would actually have to go solicit some businesses because you know if we're going to feature a pizza place or whatever I mean a restaurant what they're asking for is you know have a sample of the food out there so at 6:30 in the morning a lot of these places aren't open so this will be like a diner drivers and Dives type thing we they'll have to do a little prep work for it um but I think it's it's it's something that will be a boom to towards middle sex and uh that's all I have that's all I have for this month it's been been kind of busy for sure all right let's go to uh council member reports council president conahan thank you mayor I I want to uh welcome home councilman Rex um he's on the on the speaker here on a phone call but uh after two long months he was in the hospital and then uh reab and he he just got back to Middle sex last uh on the 17th which was last Wednesday so well welcome back Doug uh congratulations to uh Kelsey Meisner our new uh Deputy clerk um I also want to take a moment and thank uh another councilman Bobby dinino uh he just entered his second year on um on the council and I've seen no one in in in this position do a better job than he has after one year that first year is always tough sometimes it takes a couple years but Bobby has uh has shined in in a lot of different ways he shows up when he's supposed to he follows up with anybody that reaches out until the task is complete he puts the burrow first uh doesn't care about any of the personal recognition he's he's involved with a couple different projects and most importantly he puts in the work each and every day so I just wanted to thank Bobby so far I appreciate everything uh budget time is here our CFO carollyn Benson she's not here now but um she's been in contact with all of our department heads and uh she's getting the process started I think by the end of uh this month right Michael that's yeah the 31st everything is due so February yes information already' already started good good good um I want to thank our entire DPW Department led by Wy FAL I happens to be here tonight for an excellent job done last week during the snowstorm that was our first storm in a couple years um it was also a garbage pickup day and DPW did not skip a beat uh all the garbage got picked up just like it always does every week and the uh all of our roadways were successfully plowed uh throughout the entire day with very little to no overtime at all so again it was it's it's it's unbelievable where uh we can get our kids into school late sometimes where other towns I know my wife heard some Rumblings at Hazelwood that U for instance boundbrook was Clos you know they can't plow the snow and do their garbage like we can and that's why we open after 90 minutes um congratulations to all of our new fire department leadership uh led by the we have a new fire chief Kenny bartuk they were all sworn in back on January 1st this is just my my first report since then um thanks to all those who participated on the 1 and also attended uh lastly I'd like to read uh this info into the record and I know I know this goes online I guess tomorrow the next day on YouTube for all those that will watch this online a letter of support from our Senator new Senator John bramnick for the njdca resilient communities grant that we successfully applied for late last month um he sent a letter in right away and I'm going to read that it's it's not too long uh it's all related to a $5 million grant that we appli for in December for Heather Lane uh to whom it may concern I trust this letter finds you well I'm writing to urgently bring to your attention a critical situation faced by homeowners in Middle sex particularly those residing along Heather Lane residents in this community are currently dealing with severe erosion issues that pose an imminent threat to their properties the erosion exacerbated by recent weather events has resulted in substantial damage to private properties with residents facing the alarming possibility of homes collapsing into the nearby Creek despite their attempts to seek assistance from various government agencies including schima and the Army Corps of Engineers these homeowners find themselves in a challenging situation with limited avenues for support I have met and spoken with the residents on multiple occasions seeing firsthand the environmental impact of their homes and families recognizing the severity and urgency of this matter I urge the NJ DCA to expedite the review and approval process for the Heather Lane Bank stabilization project the affected residents are in desperate need of support and a swift response from the resilient community's grant program is crucial to prevent further loss and Devastation I appreciate your immediate attention in this matter and trust that your intervention will bring much needed relief to the residents facing the imminent threat of property collapse sincerely John bramnick state senator that's in there all right thank you all right Council M cars um a little caught off by the long rambling you did I didn't wasn't able to catch up there apologize um I I don't believe I was questioned or corrected in my behavior how the treatment of any exit a um there was no real thing I want to say honestly after talking to our lawyer and our administrator um things were not done um I believe friendship outbeat government in certain areas and me being new it kind of uh I didn't know how to handle it the right way a lot of Gossip won and slander one and beat a few things and other than that really have nothing to say I'm willing to I mean the meetings are open there are two new members that are actually interested in joining um that are coming they're coming back but I don't really know right Mr Fortini like in regards to the culture and Heritage what's the question the mayor mentioned something about how I was talk to about how I spoke or something like that never happened there was nothing ever that was unprofessional that happened so that's why I'm trying to figure out yeah I don't know J okay so no I have nothing to say okay do you have any other questions May or uh me no I he sent me a pretty long email I figure in public is there any I went through the email I did my exit interviews and I think my did you interview the chairman and vice chair chairman cray and vice chairman Lisa bomo I did not did not okay is there the the the specific request was we didn't reach out to the chair people we just bypassed them the the specific request that was made was to exit interviews on the last five people and that's what I did but the chair people Vice chair they could have given good but okay sir that's fine thank you I mean at the end of the day it's it was it's not my place to do the interviews with that I was expecting the liaison to take care of I hear you talking about separating the committee which is an ordinance which is the power of the council not the mayor and I get confused with things so I'm try clarify I'm just I'm thrown it out there and that's what I think that we that we should go forward and that's uh if it comes up as a resolution I will just defend the committee saying that the members that have been there have been amazing members and that have worked diligently to do things in a lot of ways fine duly noted thank you sir councilman dinino yes for the public um I'm happy to say we talk about the SEC meetings that we do have firewood available um if the council approves we will put it on our website tomorrow is everyone okay with that saying that there is going to be what what I'm talking about is when I said a few meetings already we're saving money by not having R3 company chip the wood so we brought the wood back and we split the wood we have a stock pilot wood start giving wood app at the at the recycle center uh 10 pieces of Resident at a time are you going to log it so you don't have the same people come back or are you just going to take it on there's a lot of Wood mayor sounds like a plan I think it's a win why limit it to 10 pieces of that serious 10 pieces per resident so if you want to come back every day have at it that's fair listen that that's on you guys to figure out what's the best way to make it it's we've never done it before I think it's a win for the people that have fireplaces and stuff you know let's let's you know good it's good to see coming back people it's a smart way to do it all right Bobby what else you got storm we had Ros salted foud last storms like Mike said we did a great job uh during the flood prior we foret about the flooding that we had prior to the snowstorm um BL had some guys in we had 12 roads that were barricaded and closed during two rain events also there's been a problem on four e and Drake about uh water infiltration into the sorder system Lenny had his guys out Cameron he did see some areas where a lot of water's coming in he's talking with the engineers possibly lining that line so we can probably save some way there it's an option down the road but he he does have a camera so that's good thing so it's something very similar to what you did on George Street where they ran the it's exactly similar to what we did okay um they did a lot of P work South AB Sherman War um that's some of our main roads now a lot of things that we pl had Pig so we have less roads with puddles but these are our worst areas right now as far as the Heather Lane yeah we'll talk about that during May the workshop so leave that and also both pickup begins February 1st I I have papers in front of everyone about where what our protocols for salting the bring course there's been some issues on social media why didn't they Sal why didn't they do this this is the breakdown of what Lenny and his guys do um to us it's common likey go do the mains go do the secondary roads guys on Council you may not know what we mean by that and here it's broken down um we broken down North side and southide of 28 our main roads you see secondary roads we'll do if you guys get called in in the middle of the night we'll come out and we'll s the main roads we won't do the secondary we'll take care of that in the morning the reason we do the secondary roads is because they're cut throughs when people cut throughs go and if the traffic gets beats that down we don't get it up when turns to us so that's why we have Mains and second and uh second page will see that if there's school we you know we will Sal around the schools and you'll see the roads that we do around all the school so uh it's not just the road the school is on it's all the roads getting to that school so it's it's important so I did this ly and I did this past couple days and this it's a great thing for you guys to keep someone says why didn't they soft why didn't they do what we did the main secondaries hereen okay I do have a a quick question what's a lane mile so a lane mile so a lane mile there each Road you're going one way and another way so that's a lane mile one way is one lane Mile and the other side so middle six has 736 736 yes sir wow so that was calculated uh probably about 10 years ago from actually our council member who used to operate the sweeper and he sweep he sweep every road so yes uh it seems like a lot and I you know we even though we're three and a half square miles you have to think about the 10 districts and all the arteries all the roads going towards them so yes so we came can't physically salt every single Road in this town the county doesn't have enough salt for that so that's why we came up with this so everyone is aware on us providing and you know staying on top of the means in the secondaries okay that's all I have there I I question the 736 it doesn't sound right if you have 53 miles a road but it's still a lot when we were campaigning we walked it so we could tell you there there there's there's a lot of lot of distance um um yeah we I had a I went to the fire meeting on the 15th and um the chief didn't have his report quite ready he guess he's still getting his feet on the ground because obviously it didn't come over here uh in December they had 49 calls for service and up until the 15th of this year they already had 28 calls that they had responded to so this fire department is an integral part of this t and they do respond to a lot of costs um they did have concern about the safety lights on the two firehouses on Route 28 I saw video from the Beachwood House people just blowing right through the red light as they were trying to back in and couple cars stopped very close to them I didn't see anything Parker they didn't have anything on them but it is a con concerned that we're going to have to address and figure something out for these guys they don't want to put a person out there either because the one car you could see coming down heading westbound car stopped and he swerved around him into the fast lane and never even break until almost ran into the side of the fire truck backing up so we have to try to get something done for these guys you know I don't know different kind of light something and the light was red they they he put he stops you can see in the video the the truck pulls up it stops the light goes red and then he pulls out to go ahead and back in and it's it's been an ongoing issue and they said it's just people just have no regard and go flying through that area got a pil of it several yeah they can't it's not that good because it's on the firehouse you know what I mean like they would need to put something unfortunately out by the road to really get you got to put it on the light you got so that's their concern at this point uh so I'll have more on that when I talk sit down talk to the Chiefs about it we had just come up with something I'm going to uh get with Chief guys maybe we can do some kind of tra do something we got to do something for maybe the new bols K or maybe even the signage if you look at yeah like LED lighting because it's just and the orange signs yellow orange whatever it says fire signal now and it's uh they're faded they're not bright they're really faded we have to go to state do for this 28 just getting it fixed the last time it's forever the may just com that this has been brought to the attention of Staff we've already spoken with police department and Engineering um it's really a symptom of a bigger problem the way rout 28 um the entire length of Union and B Brook Road Union Avenue and B Brook Road are currently constructed they're Built For Speed basically it's a wide straight road so we have to look at the whole car but we are taking the light of both firehouses on 28 consideration they you know like they they just mentioned it's been progressively getting worse right you know just disregarding I just wanted you to know that yeah we have already started working on it okay also I have the police report for uh December and for the to year they had calls for service in December 2097 14 adult arrests two juvenile arrests three DW eyes summonses were 277 Radars were 35 and MB crashes 35 for in the year they had 2,682 calls for service that is a lot in a four square mile to uh 183 adult arrests uh summonses uh 4 4233 um they sent a report for the detective Bureau for the year and just some of the things that they did they have five AG aggravated assaults that they did simple assaults 20 sex crimes there was a total of 14 that the detective Bureau was investigating or some of them are still current um theft and property offenses burglary trespassing 18 theft 82 motor vehicle theft 10 and they have forgery fraud and bad check 75 that's just some of the highlights for the year for our Police Department which our detective Bureau is doing a fantastic job they like dogs with a bone it's thrown out there they are really good for lack of a better way to put it um currently the chief is in Washington DC with the State Chiefs of Police Association as he's one of the board members and I just talked to him today and he sent over his itinerary and they are meeting with quite a few people um I can get back to the right place on Monday they met with Homeland Security investigations uh and the Marshal US Marshall service today was the Pentagon Force Protection Agency uh and the Supreme Court Supreme Court of the United States Police Department was today those two Wednesday will be the FBI and the Washington metropolitan police Thursday will be the United States Secret Service and United States Park police so they've gone there as a Del delegation for New Jersey and talking about the concerns in this entire State plus how it affects us locally so it's something pretty good that he's involved in that he is a board member and very respected at the state level um also he has a retiring clerk over there Sharon schmigel schmigel schmeel I'm sorry if I'm destroying it she is retiring at the end of this month he has been doing interviews and has come up with a candidate yet when he does he said he'll send it over to us for approval okay last thing is as he talked to me when we met about these uh alpr cameras which we can which two of them are going to be put up by the county at uh River Road and Lincoln Boulevard areas okay they are the same ones that are on the police cars that read every single um license plate okay it's the same type of camera but it's mounted permanently pointing a certain direction at the r and it'll read it it goes to a central location they would know immediately if it's stallen vehicle stolen plate what have you if they're doing investigation somebody's leaving they can see the car that is leaving so it's a good thing and they're putting them up absolutely no cost to us to them okay they would like to get six additional cameras potentially and the the first two years it's Z absolutely zero cost to us and it's zero cost for the cameras and the installation that's the other thing and it's no cost for us for the first two years after that it would be $958 per year per camera for maintenance fees from the company that they're using okay which is totals 5748 a year for six more Cs and we pay that for years three through five the question I asked him and he's going to find out um is what do it cost after that and what if we don't want to do it after that so he's going to get back to me on that they're investigating it but this seems like a fairly good thing I know he had talked to the council president prior about this last year late last year about it and it it it's another tool for for us you know and it's not a it's really not a lot of money for us so like six more cops yeah yeah and it saves you a ton of time for detective work yeah I think what he's looking for is just a consensus to move on to get more information and come back with exactly everything here you know I'm good yeah good two three yep I would just expect the chief to be putting this in as part of his budget proposal be discuss yeah it'll be years three through five he's got to do it which is if we get him if we get him this coming year which would we'd be lucky to you know but who knows so I'll let him know to keep moving forward and get us some more information on that he said when he gets back he will come in and talk to us about it when he has it all gathered up okay anything else that's all I have thank you okay let's go on to uh councilman Quinn okay so I went to uh both the shap Tre the commission and the Board of Health on uh the last meeting they're both scheduled at the same time and the same day a different so it's not yeah I can't buy Council madx will help with that hopefully so um so the Board of Health the president this shair is going to be K Greggs and vice president is going to be Steve Ember um for the shap commission the president is Jason Bond the vice president is Shan Johnson the next meetings for both committees is on the 8th of February one here in the courtroom and uh one in the rec center the uh Board of Health is the rec center that's all happen tonight um Board of Health I do not believe so I think we're fulling this point okay councilman Rex oh yeah maybe yes uh yes mayor I'm sorry I don't have anything to record tonight I have plan on having a report for the next meeting okay very good uh just to to finish up on this when we talked about the liaison appointments I'm just going to go right down this list to just see if there's any updates on any of these other items uh Board of Ed council president conahan uh no we have a uh first meeting of the year will will be in February I don't have the date handy but on on one of those February Council meetings I'll give a report all right uh councilman Rex just so you know it's the county swack and the and the HUD committee the Housing and Community Development we'll be looking for a report on that uh councilman doie OEM OEM they me once a quarter I have sat down with Jack but not he had floods and other things going on so we really haven't had a chance and rescue squad I've reached out to them we trying to set up a meeting with their new officers so we can sit down and have a good discussion about where they're going thank you um Council dinino JB JB we meet again tomorrow um last meeting we had was just reorganization so this is our first one we have two things on the uh agenda for tomorrow okay very good um councilman Rex the recreation committee next time uh councilman Rex the swim pool commission uh councilman Quinn yes uh zoning and code enforcement nothing to report there that's okay we're going to um we talked about Recreation already hang on Administration councilman cors anything to report Mr administrator anything to report um no I'm good I'll do to my report all right um keep you on the edge of your Fe that's okay uh councilman Quinn construction same same thing all right okay uh councilman kin disabled in Senior Services I have tried to talk to Miss Del Marino about it um I have not yet been able to make contact okay I will get back next time all right um councilman Theo environmental commission anything has been anything happen just just going back and forth with Claire I've seen those emails okay um two left here film committee uh you just got tasked with the that little project there so that'll keep you busy I'll listen to the task again thank there you go all right and uh last but not least the parks Improvement committee councilman conahan uh yes so we had the reor was last week and uh chair one chairwoman Shannon Quinn was reelected and uh that was it so there was nothing else that was just re all right it's early days but just so you know this is the type of thing that we're going to go through every every meeting we're going to go right down the list to make sure we update and we don't want anything to fall through the cracks okay administrator's report please uh thank you Mr Mayor members of the council members of the public um we've had a smooth start to the new year so far even with snow and ice and and rain storms and I want to give a big thank you to our Department of Public Works for keeping the roads clear and safe for all of us uh there will be a special council meeting which will be a workshop focusing on ethics and goal setting for the new year I have lined up the speaker for the ethics portion of the session but he isn't available this month so we're hoping to do this special meeting in February I'll keep posted on that Council resolutions on the agenda this evening include ones to approve the purchase of an aquatic plant Harvester approval of a 7-year lease agreement for a sewer jetpack and for the approval of the middle six buau emergency action and Fire Prevention plan there is also a re resolution this evening to approve revisions and updates to the bureau's Personnel manual and this was recommended To Us by the Central Jersey joint Insurance Fund uh these changes involve the following subject areas anti-discrimination policy access to personal files absenteeism and tardiness use of burrow Vehicles sick leave family and medical leave and the overtime compensation policy we will Begin work soon on the master plan for Victor Crow Park this plan will address engineering and environmental issues and the sensitive incorporation of the parcel of land at 302 Union Avenue which the council the burough purchased last year into the Historic Park uh staff is going to be preparing our request for proposals in RFP in order to select the appropriate firm to work on this really exciting plan I'm also in the New Year bur departments will be working with the middle sex Public Library to accelerate the development of a local history room and archives at the library another initiative this year will be to develop a landscape plan for Lincoln Park we hope to fund the Lincoln Park plan with a grant so we're going to be aggressive going after grant funding regarding the B Road Route 28 streetcap unification project I'm taking a big breath uh the proposed Street lighting is being reviewed now by the New Jersey Department of Transportation since R 28 is in fact State Highway our Municipal Engineers are working with do to resolve these last issues so stay tuned there are two topics for discussion during the agenda Workshop session this evening the first in tether Lan and the Residential Properties that have experienced dramatic erosion in that area The Bu is finalizing details of a short-term approach to stabilizing the bank of the brook while also working on permanent solution to the problem hopefully with other levels of government uh the public works department has informed me that when all materials are received and when the weather permits work will commence on this Brook Bank retaining allw that we've committed to do the second topic for discussion this evening is renaming of two the proposed renaming of two project sites in the buau uh the first one is the property at 302 Union Avenue which is uh locally known as the foreign Express site the parcel that we bought last year will be incorporated into Victor Crow Park and the second site is the middle sampling plant site on Mountain Avenue at South Avenue um so we'll get into that during our workshop and then finally tonight executive session this evening will be having a discussion uh regarding real estate at 1190 in Mountain Avenue all right thank you uh one quick question just so I'm clear the special meeting next week is still going to occur but the ethics portion is not in there it's going to be strictly goal setting or is the whole thing moving the February I was going to move the whole thing to so that I don't want to take up too much time and have you have to do two special meetings so it's okay with the council we would just move the February if that's okay early February yeah early February what I might do is send out information to the council to get you thinking about go setting so we have that actual discussion we can kind of hit the ground running I know you're anxious to get those goals set for the year yes we are okay does that sound good yeah I'm fine with that uh everyone else sure all right thank you all right thank you all right uh moving on to the next item privilege of the floor uh like to open uh let get a motion motion second all in favor all in favor I all right please state your name and address for the record Ste LS please approach the mic please are you a gentleman this evening it's funny you're speaking of Ethics your name and address please I'm officially homeless mayor I think we've spoken before we have what's your name stepen alexar okay thank you I was electronic forare technician intelligence officer in the Navy I saw some horrible things sacrificing of men and now I've been to uh a couple courts here and I told everybody about the judges erasing court documents which is anality we have policemen lying under o we have policemen calling up civilians threatening them if they tell anybody the all I have recordings right in my pocket if you like hear this no thank you no see that's the problem nobody wants to hear it nobody wants to listen to it nobody wants to do anything about it so I'm ask you gentlemen to make sure you have a budget because I'm going to be stilling the hell out of you okay thank you have a good day hi guys Mike compes 5 count I'm my question is on the resolutions that is for to ask question yeah I'm think so um the resolution where you're releasing the performance B for Route 28 it's not finished and I understand that deal with the state we've done that before dealing with the state as far as getting their approv but if you release the performance bond and it never gets done you have no recourse to go back to the people who contract so no we got to keep it open just give me one second everybody keep the door open please you can't shut it um I can address that question sir um I had the same concern I don't want us to lose any um control over this project that we you know we want to get it done get done right it turns out what's being released is a portion of the project that's already completed basically the footings for the lights and other things so rest assure that the portion that this company was responsible for has already been completed okay thank you should we have a maintenance Bond yeah they're working on a maintenance Bond right so you'll have the maintenance Bond too two years yeah but a maintenance bond is a little different than performance bond right that's maintenance that's not that's not getting work done initially yeah that's true but you have security if something goes wrong he that's performance bond you no longer have that security right you can't the performance bomb right that's why you can hold performance bomb for as long as it takes to have a project be done yeah theine set the way this they just don't want to pay the premium to extend it for another year that's what it's coming down to and they say it's the state W and maybe it is but if you release them from the performance bond and the work never gets done you have no recourse against the contract that is typical the motivation as you describe it 100% you're right nobody want to pay the premium it's a valid point I would suggest at this point that we separate it when we go to the the consensus and if if it gets voted down it gets voted down and I just wanted to add I didn't mention it before that for the street lights uh which are actually the last component of the street skate project in addition to our Engineers talking and working directly with ngj do I reached out personally to the uh Department of Transportation and I want to speak to someone um in a supervisory position over there because I I think this is this project needs to be wrapped up so we keep I I'll tell you that prior to you being here when I was on Council um we were doing the streetcape on the other side in front of the old a shopping center all the brick work and stuff that was on the same problem and I personally as a council member called the Department of Transportation whoever was appointed by the state we because we just weren't getting it yeah so I started calling them every week saying when are we getting these things approved it really is ridiculous have to do some the state agency and I'm telling you my next step is to drive to West trans to their headquarters so we will we will get those lights I I appreciate your thank you Kev 4 couple of things um well one was one comment uh Mr do was mentioning about the police I guess there's money being sought to get these cameras or it's being discuss these play Breeders I do know WatchON has put them in and if you want to have any discussion with anyone about the value of them have somebody called watch on police department they have 78 run through that town they have a big problem with uh stolen cars them and Warren and watch chunk has found them very valuable plers we don't have the same problem sing cars here as many but if if the chief wanted to consult with anybody on the value of them I think they could vouch for it but anyway um I saw on the executive session mayor that once again we have the property next store um and based on some of the comments that I think you and and former mayor Mt made at the last meeting it seems like we're moving in the direction of pulling the plug on that whole thing I can't I can't speak specifically about that but I can tell you that it's it's looking like within and I'm going to give be very generous here within the next four weeks if not sooner there's going to be a resolution one way or the other because it's dragg on way too long right right and and that was going to be is related to my next question is especially if you if you do pull a plug on this um you know Mr Corsini spending time on this I I gather the environmental attorney might be spending some time on this you got consult during a report that mayor former mayor Matt said was over 900 Pages I'm sure that wasn't cheap how much has been spent on this whole proposal so rough does anybody have any idea between attorney fees Consulting fees I don't have a specific idea Dave but it's not as much as you think because long periods of time of Silence on the other side just don't require any action right you know the church has their own timeline okay but I would think maybe or maybe you have not spent a lot of environmental yeah the reports take time but I don't I mean it's not hasn't broken the bank let's put it that way you know consultant 900 page report which is what former mayor mentioned a couple of times when I've been asking these questions that doesn't come cheap I would the administrator yeah a lot of that a lot of that 900 Pages dependes buiness as is typical Ty loaded with pend I mean at at this point Dave I would say that our expenditures are within the realm of reasonableness of what we would have expected to spend whether this project took two weeks or six months no I I mean okay I mean that's fair but you know and if it I'm just trying to get a gig dve and even if you spent you know 50 60,000 I don't know if that's that's what you spent but to pull the plug on a deal potentially 900,000 it's better to spend 60 to find out that you know this property is not what we want than to spend 900 to find out it's exactly and our goal is to to to weigh all the options and do what's right for Middle sex at the end of the day Dave I can tell you um even though we're in negotiations private negotiations it's obviously real things so we can't be specific at this point the council is well aware that they're trying to contain cost and that's been part of the consideration that negotiation I that's kind of V but well I I know Mr cor sitting here so you have to be vag always my Council Dave always my councel thank you very anybody else bobwards 43 hawood mayor theologic am I correct in stating that each member of the governing body is issued cell phone I believe at this point we all have them I can tell you mine was a little Mia for about a week and a half because uh Kevin doie was getting my phone call forward it over to yeah but yes I believe at this point everyone has a cell phone yes has any member of the council assigned more than one cell phone assigned more than one he's trying to get to be May so when my kids lost their phone and I couldn't find any had do an insurance thing when Mara was still around that phone has been missing for a while but to the best of mine go back and rephrase your question or just say it again I how many council members have lost phones how many council members have lost phones well I mean Mr kin said it won so at least one I I turned one in and got a new one yeah I mean we think we've all done that my kid stuck finding a lake so not this one I long so all right um I'd like to talk to you tonight about toxic leaders toxic leaders speak but never listen dismiss other people's ideas belittle and ridicule others are easily frustrated by teaching mentoring and coaching constantly micr manage they lack social skills and emotional intelligence they take credit for other people's work they blame others for their own mistakes they never admit to being wrong this is what it was like being a member of the cultural inheritance committee Mr K's toage when he came aboard second or third meeting that we had go be on Mr K stated this is my committee I created it this to me shows lack of very addition and I would also like to let you know that on November 11th Mr KS and I had a discussion about lawn signs it seems the lawn signs that are in front of the library were not to his liking and he informed me that he had been given permission to start another lawn sign grouping at one of the small parks in that section of town small area that doesn't uh really get a lot of traffic I was a little dismayed at the fact that uh the Legacy Lawns signs were not to anyone's liking particularly [Music] um I feel it's important for the public to know that Mr KS tried to control voting while he was a council M to cultural [Applause] in I'd also like to make a statement that some people leave a mark on the world While others leave a state it was not a pleasure to be a member of the cultural inheritage committee while Mr KS was the council medic leaon he tried to control what he did he tried to influence votes a certain way and it just felt that it was very unprofessional for him to do that I believe he did not understand what aaon means at that time I hope that's changed that's all I have to say okay thank you I I do actually have one question come coming back from you coming back your way when you talked about the the the Legacy Lawn the signs your statement was that the signs were not to anyone's liking does that mean like us no no no that was that was what I was trying to em what Mr was putting out not anyone else oh okay yeah all right to me fantastic thank you uh Bruce Sanders 10 minut midle SE here um I want you guys to just put your thinking found for a second in um this week in Texas uh the Supreme Court denied the state of Texas access to federal land in terms of illegal immigration okay uh Upstate New York uh illegal immigrants were infiltrating a school and the kids were told to do I don't know if this was by the governor or was it by the mayor but they were told to uh remote learning um Murphy wonderful Governor uh this past week I believe came out and said uh they were looking at either state or federal lands and uh looking to house illegal immigrants what I asked you to do in the first place is put your thinking heads on do we have anything here in Middle sex to protect us for what I'll say is Rogue State Governors is there anything that we can look at to put on our books to protect this town of middle sex have you ever thought of that if you're talking about breaking the law well that I mean that basically that's you know what I see is that if there if there's a law that comes down you know like they've had I mean some of the governors and some of the other people just said well we're not doing that and that would be the end of it so in effect they're breaking the law but they just took a stand I mean basically at this point you know we're we're kind of at haven't been put in a situation where we have to break the law right and we've been abiding by the law so I mean I'm not going to pre disposed to say do we're put in a position but I'm not suggesting that but I what I'm thinking out of the box is a lot of things are going on we all hear it okay is there things that we can do in a council setting in terms of ordinance I don't think an ordinance I don't what it would be are there other towns and I I would suggest Mr corini would be maybe talk to some other towns are they doing things to protect the town for the state of New Jersey just coming in for example if the governor Murphy came to middlex New Jersey and said you have to take 10 families do we have anything in our laws in our state I mean our middle sex guidelines that says we have to do this you would go to your legislature that's I I represent Readington Township which they actually are looking at one of the sites in Readington Township well it's Northern Readington old uh psychiatric hegor which I think what's that leanon yeah heor it's in Lebanon which is one town over um and we you know they sent a letter to the legislators that represent hon County saying this is what's happening this is why the infrastructure doesn't suit what you're trying to do here and you know you hope your legislators and we have thankly very active legislators have helped us on a couple matters already um that they step in and and and try to help you but there's nothing we you know there's nothing we can put in our town no nothinge preemptive can't do any preemptive and you know Jack said it well about levels of government and the legality of it yeah mayor it's important to note in New Jersey that the powers of the municipality come through the state and the state is not you know Bound By Any Municipal regulations having said that I think these facilities would be in places where facilities exist that they wanted to use them middle sex doesn't have a lot of these types of facilities certainly publicly own and I know we were trying to find some emergency sites for um our office of emergency management you know in case there's a flood or something like that we're having a really hard time finding that kind of facility in middlex so I'm not sure it would really impact this well what about the sampling plant sampling plant an empty s right but what to say they decide they want to build something on there they don't own it so yeah we own it we own it but I I mean I don't know we'd have to see um it hasn't been it hasn't been officially transferred yet so it's not available today it will be ours soon um but then again maybe I don't know Chris is comfortable commenting on this right now but usually municipalities don't you know the state isn't really um Bound by what a municipality does in terms I just figured it would delay things and make it a little tougher you just you just watch right so the samping plant we're going to own it soon and nobody's going to get involved in in that um and else like that you just kind of you have to be vigilant right but there's nothing I mean there's no ordinance that can be done uh because it would just be unconstitutional this that's right sometimes you do that to send a message but we have nothing coming on the pipe here I really do think that the administrator's thoughts are well taken we struggle to find places for the things that we're trying to do well I the other thing I look at is the state hasn't helped us EPA hasn't helped US Army Corps of Engineers hasn't helped us we have not gotten any results even the the governor as we talked to got no result results so I just you know the way things are going I'm not trying to be negative I'm just trying to be proactive and say Vigilant I mean if anything comes like towards us in terms of a request from the state um we'll ask those questions I think it's an interesting point you raised sampling plan right now the sampling plan site isn't in condition to be used for anything so there'd be tremendous amount of site work that would have to be done just to stabilize the site for anything that happened there so I think there'd be plenty of time to negotiate yeah that right here that cannot be used for anything you you know what okay right at at this point there's nothing on the horizon no one's approached us about anything and all I can just tell you is that knowing the group that that's around in us we're not going to be Les a fair about it if someone says hey by the way we're not going to sit back and just roll over okay I just want you may have to but that we're not going to it's not going to go quiet I just want to throw it out there see you know just send check you know all right thank you thank you anybody my name is Emily denza 321 Salvatore Avenue I had no intention of speaking this evening but I really um I feel this this is quite important when I was asked to join the cultural heritage committee I thought it was an honor living here for for too many years to mention I was really excited because I felt I would have a lot to share as far as the um past years in Middle sex hoping to go forward and I would hope that you would go forward mayor and council members in separating this committee because I feel under the guidance of um our head librarian our director of the library she will um put us forward in the right direction so I thank you very much for your interest in the committee and hopefully it will be a successful committee and I thank you very much thank you anybody else okay I'd like a motion to close motion second all in favor I okay let's get down to uh the consent agenda please resolution 41224 acceptance of standing reports resolution 42224 authorizing the mayor and police chief to execute the specialized investigative law enforcement equipment memorandum of understanding between the Middle sex County prosecutor's office and the middle sex Police Department resolution 43224 authorizing a refund of $750 in favor of woodfern adobe Inc 252 woodfern road to Shan Station New Jersey 08853 Pur sewer tie resolution 44224 authorizing the release of the performance bond for the route 28 Street state project to Black Rock Enterprises LLC Inc and accept the maintenance guarantee resolution 45 2024 amending resolution 35922 to reflect correct amounts to be canceled for Block 77 block 3 resolution 46 2024 approving the purchase of an aquatic plant and Harvester from we do work Bo boots boots resolution 47 2024 authorizing participation in the defense Logistics agency law enforcement Support Office 1033 program to enable the B of metal sex to request and acquire excess Department of Defense equipment resolution 48 2024 acknowledging the change of status for certain properties under the veteran tax deductions block 272 .02 Lot 2 resolution 49 2024 appointing Douglas Rex as the mayor's representative and Steve greo as the governing body representative to the Housing and Community Development Committee for 2024 resolution 50224 authorizing the tax collector to issue tax title lean redemptions on block 84 lot 21.03 resolution 51-22 24 authorizing the purchasing agent to sell Surplus personal property on an online auction website entitled mun bid.com resolution 52224 approving the GI mandated amendments to the middle section spal Personnel policies and procedures manual resolution 53 2024 approving approval of the 7year lease agreement with NC governmental capital for sewer jet back for the Department of Public Works resolution 54224 accepting the retirement of Sharon smille from the Police Department Records text of February 1 2024 resolution 55 2024 a reimbursement of dog places fees due to insufficient rabies resolution 56 2024 approval of the middle sex B emergency action and Fire Prevention plan give me a is that it yes okay um at this point uh do we want to pull any out I mean we mentioned 44- 2024 do we want to pull that one out and have it separate uh sure there number four 44-20 24 y okay any other ones no okay we need a motion motion and a second roll call please counc president Conan yes councilman KS councilman Dino yes councilman do yes coun C you can do it yes okay um just because it's like high school sometimes I was passing notes to our attorney and I like him to speak no no Jack Jack asked me to as to how the exped how fast we have to move forward with um 44 um you know I don't have a copy of the engineering report here um we did review review the project and from a legal perspective it's fine you can release these things you know from a legal perspective uh with Rel relative ease but you know the engineer really decides here right um so I would recom if you want to T it um I don't have an issue with that um I would just suggest that you interface with callers um I always rely on the engineers for this you I mean well I would I concur with the attorney the engineer the bur engineer did Green license to be released which is usually what I Engineer responsibility yeah we rely on that in terms of of an initial like we don't move forward without that in terms of our legal review we then typically you know look at the instruments that are involved we check the bonds you know we do the technicalities of it but as to whether the project is set is good to go you know I Ty you know we get a report from callers or whoever the Consulting engineer is they're also available to se about it too with there's concerns and you know lny might have some thought I was signal towards Mr hes in the back because he he raised some good issues but Lenny might also know so listen black their job they did everything they were supposed to do and I have tried um Michael knows um I have been on the phone with doot and PC andg every single week for probably about a year Michael since Michael came so I have been on top of this as well just so you're aware it really Falls on the the lights are there the everything's there so the contractor did everything they was I I just have a question all right you put a light in you turn it on doesn't turn on and you say gez the wiring is not wired correct did Black Rock put the wiring in or did pscg put the wiring in pcng did all the wiring so all the inspections were done already Jack the lighting inspections were all done the bases were all inspected all the permits were done and everything so this really has nothing to do with got a good point Sor 100% with Michael and Chris is it's really falling on B P mainly B the engineer is not going to stick his or her neck guy in this case his his NE gu he's not satisfied and when he is that being said you know well eventually they will sue you they won't sue you today so you have wa two weeks to you know kind of if you want to or you can do right Council M doie who's actually putting the lights up yeah the bases are in this is where you know if black Rock's done and psng is doing the balance of the work well that that's absolutely right and keep in mind not only will Public Service be installing the fixtures they're responsible for them they're not our fixtures so releasing this we black rock is done correct so there's no exposure for us two years on the mainten yeah no no but I'm saying they're done for for the bond for the construction portion of perance bond is is gone and the project is because they've done all the work they they contract did you do you are accepting the project and saying we're satisfied with the project okay you have to rely on your engineer right hand all of that all of the project punch lists everything going he sign contractor I have personally bu black rock is is responsible for everything that went on in that par from the bridge down okay so so now it's pscg will physically put the lights up them right public service is not only responsible for the installation but for the maintenance and their performance so so this black rock has nothing to do with what's left out there we already have it pulled but two weeks is not going to make the big difference why don't we just keep it pulled and make sure that all keep cross for two weeks so you're making a motion to table for two weeks yes do we have a second I'll second it all right okay uh okay this is the motion to table council president Conan yes councilman corn yes councilman Dino yes councilman Dodie yes councilman Quinn yes and councilman Rex yes I would let it go long we're gonna table it to the next because then eventually they will grease up their legal Spurs just to make sure that now let let's just make sure all the paperwork is right so we're covered okay nonent huh nonent all right we're moving on to the non-consent I need a motion motion second all right roll call please I yeah all in favor for the non consent okay we have resolution 57 2024 pay all claims motion second second counc pres con yes councilman cor Council councilman doie yes C Quinn and C Rex yes okay okay all right let's move on to the agenda Workshop item I mean unfortunately at this point I think there's not really a whole heck of a lot to talk about because the weather has not been cooperating and work is basically stuck until you can get back there I mean are all the materials in 50% of the cement block is 50% yeah they've called me um obviously due to the weather we can't get in there while so when's the rest of it going to show up can Del the rest of but Jack even the 50% even if we started working with the 50% today we would we yeah so it's not we're not being held up the weather's holding us up in the ground yeah the I could have started okay but why you're not in charge of weather too come on come on bu make it easier to get back there I'm sorry I would have thought frozen ground have made Frozen Yes it good warmed up for a couple days yeah so especially we have the equipment councilman is my issue right now all the flooding mechanism is get St yeah we're all set material set over there we have our DP burn it everything is good to go we we've been through D all our materials there the stone the crust concrete our you know geog grid everything is we're good so tomol as well we just nature okay the second item on the list is the renaming of the two project sites 302 Union Avenue and the sampling plant property uh Doug you were kind of spearheading this what's on your mind yes I think it's time to uh stop calling foreign Express for Express I it's also time to stop going the sampling plant down there on Mountain Avenue the sinking plant plus the sing plant is like a uh a a not so nice connotation for the D I know that the uh that the that the building where we bought Mario G is yet to be uh included in part of a Victor Crow Park but I I would like I would like to make a recommendation to call it the Victor crowl Annex in meantime until it get included into Victor Crow Park which I guess that's going to be and I don't know and I don't know what the I don't know what the time period could could or could not be and I I would like to also recommend to uh rename this simp to the uh Mountain Avenue facility and that way uh it won't have such a uh it won't it won't won't carry any about old uh old stuff with it as far as be anywhere where that's where all the radiation was and and and the areas that has been cleaned up so those are two my two of my recommendations um Victor Crow annx and Mountain Avenue facility okay uh just so I know uh Chris what does that entail I think I know what Linda's gonna want to do old resol resolution shismar we call it resolution shismar um so uh so you could do this really I mean Lenny could go put it Lenny could just go put a sign up but certainly I I I commend our clerk for her her uh diligence and we should have threw resolution so it would resolution so be resol well let me just ask let me just throw us out there is everyone all right with those names yeah yeah yeah Victor all right what about the other one I'll go for anything better thaning overd we can retire right so we can reti let's take just take a quick concession yes you're good good good Jeremiah didn't even hear them okay and uh good so we have we have pretty much consensus Lind you're okay so the next meeting make us a resolution meeting both be ahead okay all right guys um all right Doug we're good thanks Doug um the next thing that we're going to move on to is the privilege of the floor on the agenda Workshop items uh could I have a motion to open motion second all in favor I all right anyone have anything to up Mr Povich I just had one quick question maybe I heard wrong um I in October there was the ceremony or event at in the Library community room there was a bunch of feds here mayor former mayor mad was here some you guys may have been here Mr con may have been here I I thought mayor mad had told me that we took ownership of that of the property I thought you just said we don't yet have ownership of the sampling plant property is that do we own it yet or we going to own it or what we we we we own the property in terms of it being officially transferred you know that's why there was a public session there's still paperwork being done there's there's signing of papers survey work that's being completed so it sort of housekeeping okay so we essentially it's been transferred to the B okay there's nothing pulling back at this point we're good so anybody else offer anyone else all right pretty good anyone else on the agenda Workshop items all right seeing nobody's coming up I'd like a motion to close moot second all in favor I okay at this point we're gonna go into executive session uh I need a motion moot second uh roll call please council president con councilman K councila yes councilman doie yes councilman Quinn yes and Council R yes all right uh thank you very much uh the next meeting is February 13th uh there