e e e e e e e e e in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act we advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7M on Tuesday May 7th 2024 meeting details and the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to the flag stands na indivisible andice roll call vote Please Mr Cen here M Rus here Deputy Mayor Sandy here Mr Stoler mayor Romano here may have a motion to approve the agenda may I have a second all those in favor any oppose no okay may have a motion to approve the April 16th 2024 regular Township committee minutes may I have a second second all those in favor I I have a motion to approve the April 16 2024 special Township committee minutes may I have a second all those in favor okay now I would like to introduce um former mayor lieberberg uh from the community service award committee to introduce and provide background on our Proclamation for this evening yeah good evening members of the township committee I'm gonna have my colleague Jen man Rose blad do the uh honor of this award this evening thank you former mayor Jackie uh my name is Jennifer man rosenblad I am proud to represent the township Awards committee and tonight we had the pleasure of awarding this recognition to the Charles T King Student Loan Fund and I think it's very important that we are recognizing this amazing organization especially now because in light of the fact that their application process closes on May 20th we wanted to draw attention to the incredible service that this organization does for our community and I would venture to say that a lot of people do not know what they have been doing over the 92 years that they've been in existence so we're really proud to be able to highlight the work that they've done the 850 students they've supported with over $3 million in un um in subsidized and Loan um no free uh loans so for um higher education for our students in our community and you'll hear a lot about what they've done in the proclamation that will be presented but what I think before I introduce Lily Lee who is the um president of the board of directors what I wanted to do was read a some of the feedback from a recipient and in that person's own words what this award has done for her and her ability to pursue higher education and I'm assuming it's a her because I don't know but it could be a him or a they but um also what's important to notice for me to point out is this the um the board of the F fund does goes through enor enormous lengths to keep everything confidential and they don't want anybody to be dissuaded by knowing somebody on the board to be able to apply for the for the fund and that's really important point to make so here I go one second so when asked about um how did the um Charles T King Loan Fund changed your ability to pursue higher education this recipent answered the CT ctk Loan Fund gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams in higher education debt was always a big issue on my mind but through the Loan Fund I had a nons small amount paid towards my education because I knew how the Loan Fund worked with repayment that was incredibly reassuring and helped me do better in school without having to worry so much about what will happen What will financially happen to me the Loan Fund made my education and future less uncertain and I'm incredibly thankful and then the other answer I wanted to share with you what do you want the residents of Milbourne sht Hills and donors to know about the loans the loan funds impact the ctk Loan Fund has changed my life for the better and continues to as I work to pay off all of my loans and debts I'm incredibly thankful it helped me out and I hop I hope it helps other students out too so with no further Ado I would like to introduce um Lily Lee who is the president of the board of directors for the Charles T King Loan Fund and her colleagues Terry I'm sorry David I'm so sorry David and Jane Gomez she's gonna read the proclamation oh okay sure that would be great whereas the no Township committee values the contributions of Volunteers in the township and wants to recognize outstanding volunteer efforts that reflect the giving spirit of our community including Township residents and whereas the Student Loan Fund a nonprofit organization was founded in 1932 officially incorporated as an independent 501c3 in 1942 and renamed in 1974 to the Charles T King Student Loan Fund to honor the positive impact of one of the school district's longest standing superintendence and the Charles T King fund was found was founded to provide interest free loans for Township residents by lessening the financial burden of college and has awarded over $3 million in interest free and no fee loans to over 850 students since its Inception and whereas the fund is completely self self- sustaining and has been fortunate to receive generous support from all the schools in Milburn and the parent teacher organization Council the fund is grateful for the philanthropic efforts of Milbourne shills residents through their tax deductible donations and relies on the commitment of the recipients and their families to repay the loans so that the loans can continue to fund the students that will follow them and the fund's diverse board of directors is is comprised of volunteers from the milour Short Hills Community who each bring a specific skill set and pride themselves on their dedication to confidentiality and it is a very forward-thinking organization and whereas the fund the funding the current sorry the fund is currently supporting 40 students and awards approximately 12 students with interest free no fee loans each year members of the board holistically review applicants and provide a thorough discussion for recipients and their families recently the fund increased the yearly loan amount and is now higher than the loan amount provided by the federal government in addition to repaying their loans many former recipients embody the pay forward guiding principle and assist the organization with other needs like development and implementation of software infrastru infrastructure assisting with fundraising efforts and fund promotion now therefore I andette Romano mayor of Milburn Township on behalf of the township committee and members of the Milburn Community applaud the continuing efforts of the Charles T King Student Loan Fund which has significantly benefited students throughout our Township thank you thank you very much this way you can kind of see everybody [Music] um thank you very much Jen thank you very much Jackie for this uh honor the board and I are very grateful for this recognition we are we also truly appreciate this opportunity for the town to get to know ctk better as you as you guys know that ctk started in 193 2 during the Depression when two siblings from Milbourne could not afford to return to college so the community held Bridge parties and raised $300 to help the students return to college in the 1960s the Comm a community of dads was formed to help raise funds they asked every graduating senior to donate $5 to help this fund be sustainable thereafter the community held Progressive dinners where where families would get together at one where people would get together at one person's house and then at the end of the night everybody would gather at one place to celebrate as you as previously mentioned we've given over 850 loans to students and this is roughly $3 million worth of loans we are currently supporting 40 kids through their college Journey um what you what you hear about our background our organizational background is the commonality is that we are a Milburn organization we started we were started by by the Milburn Community we give to Milburn students and we continue to run the organization with Milburn board members um I'd like to give a little more detail on us so our loan the maximum loan amount that we give is $6,000 per student per year up to a maximum of $30,000 uh per student our repayment period is six years and currently it's interest free and has no fees uh we have 15 board members I'm one of them there's 14 board members and we and I'm am so fortunate to have these board members here these board members they're very uh they're very passionate about helping the Milbourne students attend college so if you guys don't mind I'm just going to point them out at Point them out if you don't mind so I'm going to start out with Tiffany farbach uh Courtney paner uh Robin finklestein new Sue suan coai nailed it um Robin shanberg uh Sali ganty is our newest board member you're going to hear from her because she's going to be working on the Progressive dinners restarting Progressive dinners sck Wang who is our Treasurer one of our treasurers and then there's David green and Jane Gomez so if you guys don't mind I just want to spend a I'm going to give you a couple of quick stories about what we do so recently back in October we had a Milbourne uh mom approach us this Milbourne mom uh told told us that her son was unable to her son is a sophomore at a nearby college and her son was unable to pay his uh tuition for spring and the reason why is because he had full financial aid his freshman year and he had full financial aid his sophomore year F fall semester but what happened was was that the mom had made a little bit too much in overtime so that they didn't qualify for some of this financial aid so she needed they needed $6,000 to so that he could enroll in a nearby college for spring they approached us oh the other thing you should know is that the mom was injured so she couldn't she couldn't go out and work overtime so a as as a team our uh our board approved and helped this kid attend college in his spring semester that's one story The Second Story and again is going to be a brief one um so several years ago when we had just closed our application and uh and we found out about a Milbourne dad who had a heart attack it was a severe heart attack so we opened up our application and we uh we had we encouraged the family to apply for student loan be because uh you know the dad was the so provider for the family and um the the dad had two Milbourne seniors going to college so we knew that they were going to endure a lot of financial distress going forward so we encouraged them to apply we were very happy to give both of those kids loans so that's my couple story so that you can get a sense of what we do as an organization I've asked David green and Jane Gomez to share if they had any stories or comments with you guys I just wanted to address one particular idea that you look at $6,000 used to be even less than that like $4,000 what can that do for somebody well we had somebody who really did pay it back it was a member of our community took the loans went to school gradu Ed came out paid the loans back early as I understand it and came on our board so he was he was a big help unfortunately or for us fortunately for him he's left us to go to the West Coast to get his PhD so that shows that we can't have an impact and he in particular one night we were sitting around talking about well are we really making an impact with having loans and you know three four5 th000 when tuition is ranging up to 50 60 70 80 even some $100,000 and he promptly said yes I would not have eaten during my four years in college had it not been for Charles TK so I just wanted to add that to show that even though we sometimes don't think we make a difference we obviously do you can just stand there we good yeah okay hi I'm Jane Gomez you've all seen me around town I've been on the board for 14 years and I just want to thank you all for recognizing the work of the fund and to also thank the generosity of the Milburn Community who has kept the fund going for 92 years and the students who graduate and pay it back as as David says um over the past 14 years I've had the opportunity to interview over a 100 people to um you know to make qualifying decisions on our interest free loans and it never gets old and every single year I come away so inspired because our students are hardworking and resourceful and optimistic and driven and they have dreams and it is truly a pleasure to be part of this fund that will help make their path easier so thank you again so in closing I ask two things of you guys first if you know of a of a student that's going to college please ask them to take a look at our website charl king.org and and think about whether or not they wanted to uh they would like to apply we are uh we are um need-based and our applications close on May 20th I know you mentioned that earlier Jen um and finally when you guys are thinking about your your donations for this year please consider us because we we you know we would like to help even more Milburn students thank you very much I appreciate your [Applause] time yeah all the board members should go up for picture you're gonna are you gonna are you gonna take a break so they sorry you guys can all just come up right here and take a photo is got everybody [Music] G to take a quick three minute break for anyone that wants to leave e e e e e we're gonna get started again okay we're going to um reports right now and I'm going to begin so just wanted to let everyone know that um I did speak with our um JCP and laa on last night and while I can't make any promises of when the work is going to be completed up on H Fairfield marale um I am in communication with her and I put it on my weekly task list to check in with her um just to make sure that we stay on the top of the radar just want to let everyone know that um with flood mitigation the township has made an application for the fiscal year 25 Community Project funding Grant through Congressman Cheryl's office uh for the uh bypass at the orange Reservoir this has been a conversation that's been going on for a couple of years so uh we're very excited that we were able to get support from all the stakeholders and Mr McDonald can add to that later if he wishes uh the art advisory committee the um the art show is currently happening at the library until till May 30th the art display I'm sorry the they honored they they they announced their uh annual scholarships with 33 pieces that are um on display at the library there's going to be uh an award ceremony later this month where they're going to give the uh recipients gift certificates that will help for supplies for college and uh certificates of achievement that ceremonies on May 21st founding day reminder May 18th from 11: to 4: they're still in need of volunteers the email to volunteer is M msh CED gmail.com and we're also going to stuff the bus again this year for the food pantry um just a reminder uh please we don't accept glass open items or expired items the uh parking ad hoc an issue did come come up uh last week I believe with uh an employee of a resident receiving a parking ticket um outside of their place of residence in the morning hours um other factors were involved but uh we do understand that this can happen so I just wanted to make uh the community aware that it has been brought up with the parking ad hoc committee and we will be looking into it further and then a final reminder the Memorial Day Parade is three weeks away at Milburn High School on Memorial Day at 11:00 a.m. and um this year's Grandam Marshall is our town resident uh Raymond Wong and there'll be more information uh presented for him uh in the future and um that is my report Deputy Mayor would you like to go next sure um so the environmental commission will be having a meeting on May 23rd to discuss potentially phasing out two cycle gas powered lawn equipment a large number of landscapers will be in attendance anyone that's interested in the subject is encouraged to join um the EC will also be presenting their native plant resolution tonight in the hopes that the TC will uh take up the coordinance uh this is something they've been working on for quite some time so encourage you all to listen closely and uh encourage my fellow TC members to support their efforts um on Saturday um I was invited to a private Gathering of about 40 residents uh from from the winr up Keen neighborhood to hear their concerns about crime uh and much to my delight uh our assembly woman Rosie boli showed up um and she and I spent uh a couple hours talking with the residents about their concerns I see many of them are here tonight so uh you know I'm sure they have a lot to say uh so I encourage all of my fellow TC members to listen because I think um you know residents are are really fed up with what's going on with crime and we need to start to find ways to make residents feel more safe one thing that assembly woman boli pointed out is that she is the co-sponsor of a bill that's moving through the assembly it's called A2000 and this bill will establish mandatory minimums for juvenile offenders that are caught stealing cars or crimes you know relating to car theft um this would be a big step forward in helping to establish some actual penalties so that it's not just catching belief uh I would encourage the township committee to maybe consider doing formal resolution in support of this bill and I would cons uh encourage all members of the public to familiarize themselves with the bill and if it's something that you think you can get behind please write to both of our assembly members uh and our state senator and let them know uh that this is something you want to see move forward because there'll there'll be a similar bill in the Senate um and uh just in closing um I think the residents uh also made it pretty clear that they'd like to have a forum where the police chief is in attendance and to have this be a live in person for him much like we did last year uh so I would hope the committee would consider that um thanks thank sure hi and uh I certainly agree with the on the on the crime piece also Jamal uh Boer the councilman and some had also reached out he reached out to me to get introduced to Raquel depner on what they're doing and the strides they're making in the neighborhood watch so if you're not signed up for your neighborhood watch in your certain District please reach out to them and make sure that you get all the goodies and uh uh stickers and and such and uh they're just doing a fantastic job that other towns are actually reaching out to us uh to get some footprint of what we're doing here as well so that's good um jumping into my committee reports a lot of committees um Recreation committee uh you guys might might have noticed on Saturday we were busy downtown got to spend the day with Chris Ducker doing the fishing derby 130 uh kids registered uh one yucky one young lucky uh uh kid won he was very happy uh there's a Four Mile at gero Park on Sunday June 2nd and then the pickle ball court uh construction has started at at Juro Park uh with the hope that the project will be completed by July and everybody can uh enjoy pickle ball uh for the rest of the summer uh special improvement district Sid uh Morris Turnpike hardscaping project uh they the Explorer has hired Sid based actually a member of the Sid Clark service professionals to conduct hardscaping on Morris Turnpike Turnpike any areas with broken rock and ashalt will be replaced over three days starting actually tomorrow if you see it on the street uh then we also have a districtwide cleaning program also provided by Clarks uh which is a 12-week uh sidewalk maintenance contract where they'll go through and clean all the streets hose them down pick up litter Etc uh you'll see starting uh on September 29th uh Tom actually today uh that through September 29th we have sidewalk cells all storefront businesses are able to display their Wares in front of their space during normal normal business hours so we encourage everyone to shop local and then the founding day um 100th anniversary of the dedication of Taylor Park is on May 18th from noon to 3M at the bower Center uh not a pass committee meeting goes by we we don't mention girls night out uh which will be on uh June 6 um affordable housing update I'm gonna defer that to Jared uh also the U Board of Education liaison uh I don't know if you guys saw about our school system had the very best SAT scores in the state so big Kos kudos to them I think 1378 or so was the average score which is amazing uh our school system was also ranked second in the country nationally behind Massachusetts um and then uh just a sad note Christine Burton has announced her retirement on October 1st so we want to thank her and we'll sure we'll have plenty of time for her dedication and success over the years uh one other part of the Board of Education that came up was uh this busing contract which has basically doubled in the last two years 100% increase uh due to just enormous cost in maintenance and wages and gas uh and finding drivers actually so there's a lot of discussion on whether we could look at the sidewalk programs and if that would increase uh reducing the busing cost uh a lot of people don't know but we actually received a $599,000 sidewalk improvements uh called safe routes uh it's a grant that we received uh and it's going to be an old Short Hills Road to better connect everyone to Deerfield Elementary School so as a committee we're we're absolutely committed to looking for Grants and ways to improve the walkability to the schools nothing to report on the joint Fields uh emergency dispatch nothing to report there um we did receive the $750,000 Green Acres Grant for the playground which is the groundbreaking I believe is is coming up in later this summer so we'll announce that and then um the $2 and A5 million uh Grant from Orange Reservoir bypass that uh the mayor announced is is fantastic because we've already got Buy in by East Orange and Essex County those are the two big stakeholders that we needed and we have those two fully on board uh which means uh that uh congresswoman uh Cheryl will will hopefully run this through so and that's it for my reports thank you yeah I just mentioned that this weekend was the library book sale it was a tremendous success and um thank you to all the volunteers and thank you to everybody who came to purchase uh books to support the liary um just wanted to let the community know that the 2024 road paving uh project bid is out um we expected to receive that uh later this month with a hopeful award in the first meeting of June um just to provide um some insight as to what roads are a part of that list and um an expectation of of when those things will start will probably be in in July uh with the exception of marale place and Fairfield Terrace which will be the first things to to start uh in terms of curb replacement uh Mechanic Street Ocean Street Dogwood Drive Church Street Colonial way Oak viiew Avenue Allen Drive Orchard Street um Sunset Drive merrywood Lane Brook Haven way Featherwood Lane Deerfield Road Del Barton Drive and Lake Road is a drainage Improvement project uh as well as a um um a road Rec construction um so again hope to receive those bids at the end of the month and award at the first meeting in June um the other uh questions that have been coming up about the psse and G plates at the intersection of Spring Street and um no Avenue um this is the last part of I will say next the last part of all of their gas main Replacements in the Washington section and as many of you may have noticed those roads have been uh resurfaced as well as the roads that were some of the roads that were impacted in the Glenwood section um those plates are the tie into to the main that runs down Milbourne Avenue uh there is a special company that comes in and does that work unfortunately uh that will have to be daytime work in which that intersection is going to be closed and detoured around uh we expect that to be done within the next week or two uh that one day of tie-in then they will move down to Taft and Main Street where the other tie-in occurs uh and will be a similar exercise down there um but just wanted the the community to be aware that those plates are there uh psng has put them there they're safe they've done this um hundreds of times if not thousands I'm sure um and although they're inconvenient and a little bit noisy uh we should be getting rid of them in the the next week or two um we are going to have a uh information session on May 13th at 7 pm here in town hall regarding um a potential renovation of of this building um and I just encourage the public to come out and hear uh some of the the initial work that was done to look at the uh look at the building and things that uh may be able to be done to better utilize the space create more conference rooms create a new uh environment for uh this governing body and uh potentially move the court from the police department over to town hall all those things will be discussed um in addition on Thursday night of this week uh May 9th we will have a hurricane preparedness meeting we do this on an annual basis to get the um the community ready for Hurricane Season which starts on June 1st uh the office of emergency management in particular your fire chief Robert jaia who is the coordinator of of OEM uh will be here to present to the public um and provide uh information we'll also hopefully have members of the flood mitigation advisory committee uh here as well to share some of their experience not only on the committee but what they've gone through in terms of flooding in the township and how they've prepared prepared themselves for that uh so hopefully everybody can join us both those will also be uh on Zoom as well thank good evening mayor thank you um so just a brief update on our prare housing matter um those of you who've been following it uh the court entered an order um appointing a special master um with written to to identify a realistic site which mber could build to 75 units downtown that was uh instead that was we had the N9 Main Street which was an agreement which was 75 units all exclusionary uh the court ordered a special Master to come in and find um a realistic alternative site potentially um as part of that process um fair share housing Corporation and the township are providing reports to the special master um as to Alternative sites and why we believe those sites uh are realistic and better than the nine Main Street um that report is due tomorrow to the special master and uh will be submitted um so I'm not going to get into what's in that report until it's actually submitted to the special Master due to confidentiality um in addition uh RPM who was the designated developer of the N Main Street project uh filed a motion um which is returnable currently returnable on May 24th um seeking reconsideration of the Court's order um developer wishes to enforce that the township built an IM M stre project and is asking the court to reconsider his decision to allow the township uh to find a realistic Al alternative site um our Township's opposition is currently doe May 16th subject us to adjournments but currently again the motion will be heard on May 24th I have no further report lers any questions from the committee thank you mayor thank you okay we have a special presentation tonight from the environmental commission so I'd like to introduce Renee perian as the chair and I'm I'm sorry good evening so um my name is Mark Robinson I'm an appointed member of the environmental commission uh Renee of course is here as well uh who is our chair of the Milburn environmental commission uh tonight I going to be um I think we have a presentation is that available no all right um we have a a few uh supporting visuals along with uh I don't know how legible this is going to be but uh I did try to make the type very large because I know the conditions here so um basically uh the environmental commission has passed a resolution called the building native habitats resolution that is now in front of the township committee we've written this in such a way that we really hope that it can be adopted quickly as an ordinance but I'd like to take you through the highlights of this resolu solution this evening and at the end hopefully uh if you have any questions I'll be able to answer those for you I'll give it a moment to see if we can get the uh presentation may take a one minute recess just so sure we're just going to take a two-minute break minut e e e American birds has dropped by nearly 30% since 1970 this is down by 2.9 billion breeding adults and uh if you advance uh 96% of our terrestrial Birds rear their young on insects you'll see where this is going here in a second um over 90% of our leaf eating insects native to this region specialize in one or a select few species of native plants to survive additionally as is popular in the news if you go ahead to the next slide um since 2017 some B populations have fallen by more than 80% and as a result of much of this and and all those factors don't have to do with native plants but uh that is a a big part of it uh so the National Wildlife Federation recommends plantings to be 50 to 70% native plants to provide multi-season Bloom including flowers shrubs grasses and ground covers and trees so to summarize why native plants uh they really are the base of our ecosystem on which pretty much every native indigenous uh plant animal Bird and Animal lies uh an increasing loss of natural habitat has removed a lot of native plants from our environment they've been displaced by exotic species and invasives many of we've we've introduced into our Landscapes um herbivore pred predation specifically deer eat a lot of our native plants um native plants are good because they're adapted to our region require less maintenance once established require less water and resources improve water uptake and water quality quity specifically storm water so it's it's very good for actually sucking a lot of the water right out of the ground after large rainfall events which we're in because of climate change we're increasingly uh experiencing and they also reduce air and noise pollution and with that these are a few of the highlights or or the primary asks within the resolution would be that we resolve the township of Milburn to require that at least 70% of newly procured plants shrubs ground covers and flowers in each category as well as 70% of trees used in public places be native in order to protect and promote appropriate native vegetation be a leader in addressing the biodiversity crisis promote microhabitats and Suburban areas for the conservation of pollinators and birds and create larger more connected plant populations uh in order in other words uh try to reduce fragmentation to allow for these uh animal and bird populations to have a something to feed on now that being said we want to be realistic about this so there are specific exe exemptions here where uh the use of non-native plant species shall be permitted in places where vegetables herbs and fruit trees are grown on public property public lawn areas and athletic fields planter pots and hanging baskets in all Commercial Business districts in other words everything that the township beautification league has always done they will continue to do um dedicated areas within the Township parks and park signs flag Poes memorials all of those places and additionally there's a carve out for any areas that are managed by the Short Hills Garden Club specifically the wallbridge Rose Garden and any other areas that have historically been under their care so regarding Street trees uh Street trees benefit our environment it weighs beyond their ecological value Street trees mitigate Urban heat island effects the heating up of asphalt and and pavement um by providing shade they mitigate storm water runoff through large scale evapo transporation they absorb and sequester carbon at scale uh they provide aesthetic value uh the Arbor Day Society has several um citations of how it dramatically increases property values and there's even studies that show that it improves mental health and well-being for this reason well we'll get to that reason in a second but Street trees have their own challenges though uh these are these are typically planted in right of ways and have challenges including overhead wires limited permeable surfaces that allow for wind water infiltration some species um are not appropriate because of their mature size their weak wood or a propensity to be attacked by different types of diseases or parasites and sometimes uh homeowners have requests for the street you know a particular species to be the street tree in front of their home for all of those reasons um the resolution entitles the township Forester and the DPW great latitude and discretion in the selection of street tree species so as written um the township would maintain a target of 70% native species to be used for all new shade tree plantings with in a calendar year but this is completely at the discretion of the township Forester Andor the DPW as Case by case it may not add up to 70% in order to maintain a healthy and robust Township tree canopy uh which is also very important environmentally and then very quickly um invasive invasive species these are species that were introduced to the landscape Escape into natural areas through seed dispersal romes they displace and out compete our native species they provide little or no ecological value for Native insects pollinators and animals and they TP and in in in some cases create monocultures a few examples on the next few pages and you can quickly go through this this is becoming a more common site this is garlic mustard which escaped from Gardens in colonial times and if you go to the next slide I'm sure you've probably seen this around town but they can create monocultures and really out compete our native plants well there's probably little we can do about that but Japanese Barberry on the next is a common landscape plant that uh is planted in public areas as well as in private Lawns uh if you go ahead finally this is the last highlight from the resolution but if you go to the next page um there would be an invasive species prohibition on public lands uh what we Define as an invasive species are those species listed on the New Jersey invasive species Strike team list uh don't plant list and would be banned from future procurement and use on public lands finally um there is a clause that allows for adaptation we understand that with climate change and and various environmental effects continuing to change uh the environmental the Milburn environmental commission by way of an annual memo to the township committee would review the above exceptions and procurement percentages annually and make recommendations to the township committee for changes as the marketplace for native plants and trees evolves to meet demand and then finally in closing uh commi that the commission respectfully requests the Milburn Township committee to support these considerations by the creation of an ordinance and the commitment of Labor and money as requested for the execution of this resolution thank you thank you Mr Robinson does anyone have any questions or comments question um have you discussed this first of all you talked about public land so I would this apply to the hard arborita as that is public land you're 70% or they you made some exemptions but I didn't see that that was one of them yeah there as far as I in my visits there I think they're almost exclusively native if they are not entirely native already so uh but we could certainly carve out an exception as they have their own governance Ive to get there but I you know you know as far as I know they're not they they they have some areas that are non-native and they're looking to redo them but they're big and so that's a lot of work to to do that and this resolution would be only new native or new plantings excuse me and the other thing I guess that they they talked about with me was that there was some specific case and I'm sorry I don't remember the exact species where the native the native version of it was subject to some fungus but if it was combined with 16 16 17 native and one 17th non-native it um it was resistant to the fungus and so I guess all I'm saying is as a major public land here I would think that you know that they should be that they their executive director should you know review what you're doing and and I would be interested in getting his opinion on it as it pertains to the over absolutely as far as I understand that their their governance is completely in line with our intentions so yeah that'd be great you sure I have one uh comment um did you guys redo the pollinator garden and for anybody who hasn't visited our pollinator Garden was that on the the east side of Taylor Park uh you guys should all take a visit and walk a Mountain View it's a traffic triangle adjacent to Taylor Park yeah correct so if anybody hasn't visited it's fantastic and I really appreciate that uh did you guys redo it or I saw there was a it was kind of a it was a new pattern of some sort no new pattern I went and cleared away we let as um it's recommended for everyone that you let your um plantings remain as is for the winter to allow for insects and some Little Critters to overwinter in the leaves in the stock some bees or other insects are they live over the winter in St do so we did that in the Native Garden and thank you all for understanding that there's Beauty and what looks like a lot of dead plants they're not dead um and then I went and cleaned it up and I had one lovely woman who helped me so as I cut down she carted away we piled it where I was told to part to uh pile and DPW took it away so you just saw clean [Music] up anyone else yeah just Alex we we were we received a memo from the town Forester that I would say had some reservations about this Ordinance do you want to discuss that or I mean she wrote it to you yeah I mean I can just I think there's only one reservation quite honestly is that um was the percentage of of trees um currently it's at 70% and I think she had asked uh and had worked with the environmental commission to see if that could be put at 50% um giving you know her her uh experience and expertise in in in in this um and you know I just I I actually had a couple questions if that's okay by the township committee um one of those being what you know whether that consideration was made and whether um or or what what the answer to that was uh in particular uh given um I know that you put in there I guess it's an exception for fruit trees so when somebody says cherry trees they mean fruit trees the the fruit tree and exception was specific to areas for basically gardening for for fruit gardening community garden since that's correct correct but the street tree um to to to address your your first comment um on December 6 uh priia from the environmental commission and I had a conversation with uh December 6 2023 had a conversation with the Forester to address some of her preliminary concerns we made several adjustments including the Clause that I read here and what we decided to put in there was a target of 70% so that understanding that um hers or the dpw's decisions to plant trees are sometimes on a case-by Case basis for those environmental commissions and therefore if she wants to decides to put in One Tree here and there it's going to be difficult to uh necessarily always manage that 70% so there's a lot of latitude built into that if there so there's nothing binding in the hopefully potential ordinance that if it comes in at 40 or 50% there's there's no repercussions there at all should we change that to a target of 50% we could do that well so I guess I guess my question is if so the ordinances I mean there's obviously there's a degree of binding in an ordinance so that you can you know hold something accountable and that you're sure and and this pertains to the township right this is not necessarily private property correct public land strictly public land and so so the idea is that that you're you're providing Target because you want to hold people accountable to whatever Target that may be and that's why you put it in ordinance right so um I guess my my further question on that is with regard to the 70% and I guess there's a whereas in the resolution or ordinance or however this will eventually live is that there's a check of the data the plantings the the allocation that I assume you're saying a memo goes from the environmental commission to the township committee and thus a memo will go to the environmental commission from the Forester to let you know what they've planted where where they've planted it and what species and stuff like that correct we could include that as well that's fa we we do not presently have that as written but how are you going to have the information that's a great question yeah yeah so so and and and so I guess my just because there's a lot of different players and all these different things so the Forester currently works with the shat Tre Advisory Board and so how does that integrate into sort of this and talking about trees because I think that you've had convers I've had conversations with Stacy shrubs like all that's F I think there's a there's a an understanding and a full commitment to that um and if not already trying to do that um in in in certain places but um but it's it's it's kind of the trees that trip me up on this from a and and honestly this we have gone over Stacy's concerns um Mark and Priya discussed it and then she had a I guess she emphasized her concerns again in a memo that was shared with the environmental commission right that was addressed as Mark I think if you take your concerns and you take a look at the presentation again and read the resolution you'll see that every single one of her concerns has been address and she shouldn't have those concerns any longer with the resolution written the way that it is it was it was tailored and if the Forester or DPW does then we would just simply request that very specific feedback come back what what would you like to see changed in the resolution because well I I've seen the memo and I it's hard with anything in the menu memo but I don't see any specific requests as it relates to the language of the resolution I think you know as we kind of whatever the committee also kind of working out what that process looks like because now the Forester would be a you know in that in terms of that is that a report she's giving to both the state trade Advisory board and the environmental commission or does it just go to the environmental Comm so I just like in terms of process and how that works internally I think it's just important to to to to work that not necessarily something that needs to be spelled out in the ordinance but definitely something that needs to be understood by all that absolutely yeah so I'm think before we move forward should we have those conversations with um Shay tree hold and I'd also like to speak to Tor with him from the Alum I'm sure you're right but you know as a as a custodian of the major piece of public land I want to make sure I don't want to have pass a resolution that he hasn't seen as a trustee of the AR I don't think as I am I don't think that's apram so I'd like to hold off the next meeting yeah and we're aware it was it the beach trees that the arbino is having um problems with right now the beach trees so we're that's what we're talking about that's why disease you know was concern of stasis it's a real concern and that's why it's addressed in the resolution okay sorry just one more it does it specify public land owned by the township of mburg it's Municipal property I believe that's stated several times so no I understand but but we have several uh government entities that own land in the township of M so you have orang Beast r m Township so maybe just a specification that it's our public land that would be that makes sense yeah thank thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Rene you're welcome hopefully it will be by orans thank you okay public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector clearly state your name and whether you a Milbourne resident and or property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in and would like to comment pleas please press star 6 now if you are attending by computer or electron device please click the raiseed hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted when there is 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter and that this is a time during our business meeting for the public to offer comments I will now open the public comment period uh good evening everyone uh my name is uh Rob fredman I live my wife Julia and uh I just I just want to start off by saying that the waves of some really bad federal and state policy are really starting to lap at the shores of the towns such as Milburn I don't think it's hyperbole that crime in Essex County is reaching crisis proportions just in our little neighborhood there's been about seven carjackings and home invasions in the past six to 12 months excuse me carjackings oh yeah meaning meaning they're stealing cars and breaking our home was latest it was broken into two3 23s ago why we're eating din din at 9:30 at night people were still walking their dogs now is the time in my strong opinion that the town primarily the police chief participate in a forum to meet with all the neighbors of of Short Hills and Milburn who are willing to participate to come up with innovative ways to prevent this crime wave that's going on here anyway I have a brief targeted question I don't know if the township attorney is here um yes um would you be willing to do some research because in the spirit of thinking out of the box is getting so bad in our neighborhood that our neighbors have been thinking should we actually put gates gates open and close at the Ingress and egress of our neighborhoods at the very least could we do some deep dive Research into seeing whether or not that is an option that is how bad things are getting you don't have to to have your house robbed to must understand what it feels like the anger the frustration the fear that we now have before we go to bed every night I I thank you for your time thank you hi my name is Matthew Nola I live same neighborhood and I want to say one thing you guys discussed a lot of things this evening but nothing is more important than the security of your life and your home home nobody in our neighborhood feels that we're safe the police attempted to do something this past week very frankly I'm not going to go into it today there was a possibility of an incident and I think they found the people who were doing it we need help from you guys okay everybody you you were talking today about wonderful schools SATs everything else nobody gives a damn about it if you're not safe living in this town real estate values are going to go down not up this we live here for a reason we want a nice life we lived here many years and it's getting worse and we I know there's legislative talk about changing things we can't wait for that this is reality let's move on it now please okay that's all I'm going to say thank you thank you hello good evening my name is Puja travetti Peri um I'm a resident of Short Hills and I also happen to be a licensed mental health professional and this is mental health aess month so I hope that everyone um you know takes a little bit of time out for themselves for their emotional health but what this really also ties into and what I just heard previously from uh the two gentlemen that spoke is the concern that we're seeing is psychological safety and that is highly tied into our mental health if we don't feel psychologically safe it's hard to feel physically safe and present where you are um I'm also here to just speak about the increase and escalations in the patterns of crime that we're seeing I've been involved in following uh this for quite some time now and because it was affecting um my neighborhood of poet section for quite some time now we've had some very um large scale you know identity fraud thefts to breaking and enterings as well as um escalations with you know forced entry so I you know would just love to Foster some thoughtful dialogue and see if there's ways that we can further uh the work that we've been doing and to increase the support and collaboration with our police and for our police because I do believe that if we cannot give the proper resources and I'm not saying that's the case but if that is an issue then that is up to us to try and um address so I have a few questions that I'm hoping will just sort of give me some clarity because I'm trying to understand and make sense of everything that I'm seeing so while it may sound like you know um heavy questions on data it's really just information data is information to help us make sense of what we're seeing and what we can do about it and to see what we're doing is working um you know I'd like to know what parts of towns are targeted um what types of cars are being targeted are there any specific demographics of people being targeted what is the shift uh minimum Manpower especially overnight for our police force and if it's possible you you know I'd love to get some sort of monthly stats on specific crimes like residential burglaries versus retail theft auto thefts and I think it's important to also include attempted versus completed um burglaries and I'd like to understand the percentage increase in gun ownership and only because I think that might help us to understand how unsafe people are feeling um and I'll come back with my second thought thank you so much you still have 30 seconds oh awesome um okay so you know I just want to emphasize this is not to blame or or belittle or shame anybody at all and I think the point is to really accept that yes it's not unique to Milburn and I think we have to do something about it because we can't keep continuing to act as if we're immune to it it is happening and I'd love to figure out how to be a part of this um support and help move it forward and continue to build on the work that we're doing thank you hi I'm Adam Shanker 41 Kean Road and I'm here with my wife ju and our neighbors from the Keen Road in winr Road area and I want to thank our deputy mayor for coming and visiting with us this last week and it's very helpful and insightful and um you know we just have a big problem and um I think for a while what was happening was everybody was stealing the key fobs and everybody's cars because people were leaving the cars unlocked and the key fobs were there and it was easy for them to just take the cars now everybody's on to that and everybody's locking up their cars and keeping their keys at home so these guys are coming and they're actually like breaking into our houses and it's just incredibly dangerous you know and at some point people are going to get hurt you know and so um really all we have is as our neighbor said is our safety and uh it's the most important thing in our town it's more important than the school system it's more important than the environment it's more important than anything because you know if we don't have our safety do we have here you know there's no reason to live in a beautiful time like this so um we had an incident today that I was involved in a little bit and the police came and it was excellent and the police did a great job and um but basically people were casing us out and um you know what I was talking to the officer I was saying that you know I really want to see more police presence in our neighborhood you know we just don't see it especially in the evenings when people are going out and when it's an easy time to Target us and uh I walk my dog all the time and I literally do not see police presence in our neighborhood ever and uh you know unless we call for the police so you know I'd like to have that kind of conversation I was here for the last meeting when when there were break-ins and the town called a meeting about about these problems and you know I don't know if it's gotten better or worse but you know we don't feel like it's gotten better so I appreciate your time and um I also feel like uh any way that we can think out of the box uh it's a very big concern for our neighbor and I know that there's a lot of other neighborhoods that are have this having the same problems so I would think that this should be top of mind for this committee and everybody in town really to help figure this out so thank you very much thank you oops oops I guess it's not made for short people you can hold it you can hold it that's um my name is Eileen Klein and I live in the same neighborhood as the my neighbors that just spoke and I don't really have anything additional to add other than you know we are all pleading with you guys to be advocates for us and the rest of the town because safety is the utmost thing I'm a nurse and you know my whole life is dedicated to safety and this is you know very personal as well as um Global so please do what you can and please um try and get the police on board to be cooperative and speak to us freely um because apparently some of the the police department aren't willing to talk to us so please thank you very much thank you hello everyone this is Char short president and I'm concerned as well of you know increasing crimes and especially break-ins I'm from Deerfield section and there was an attempted car robbery car theft few months back and after listening to the residents here I'm much more concerned as a parent I moved from Jersey City to this neighborhood because I felt it would provide a safe um environment for my kids and for myself and for everybody who are living in this town but I have seen too many incidents now and I'm really concerned as a parent to even leave my kids alone sometimes like I'm working I am I'm even volunteering in the town for most of the part my neighbors are there to help me but sometimes there are times where my daughter is alone at house as well I'm concerned my son who is eight years old to to go out biking because I normally don't see that much police presence and there was an attempted car theft just just a block uh where I live so I I just I'm just asking if we can have more police prisons if we can have more Street lighting which is very dark in the night um on Silver Spring Road or shortless Road and if we can have more licens plate readers on the main exit uh which which would enable us to to feel more safe and would deter all of these crimes thank you thank you I wasn't going to speak tonight but I didn't know all this was going on um but I am going to request again that the township Institute nixel I happen to subscribe to Summit nixel and Maplewood nixel um Milbourne Short Hills doesn't offer this but I'll just give you an example um from Summit I got a u alert within the last hour attempt to enter cars in the north side residential area wouldn't that be nice if you knew that that was happening I think it would really be helpful regarding plate beers I think that's awesome and it's a great thing but I notice and I don't know if anyone else is aware of this um there are so many more cars driving around with no front license plates and windows that are tinted beyond what is allowable by law and I don't know if Milbourne can um start to crack down on that or if the AG has to send out some kind of guidance or um but I think I always see look at those and I wonder who is in that car we can't see them and I presume they're up to no good but um so the license readers aren't going to do much good if there's no front license plate is my point and um I don't know if the police can just stop those cars but thank you thank you oh did I did I say my name I don't know if you Leah Cruz Whitney Road thank you mon s uh win up Road resident 23e resident of the town and I'm here to demand and more police presence you guys have ensured the safety of this meeting by having that officer back there we expect the same for our neighborh thank you thank you so I'm Julia Yang I have been the resident for past 15 years in Milburn both our boy grow up here in the school system we loved Milbourne and in the past 15 year we never really felt so unsafe until recently what happened in our neighborhood so I just want to say 9:30 April 25th they breaking our alarm was alert okay we come right back but right at that time you know uh we call the police and police arrived like seven minutes the criminal there four or five of them in a white van they come from the backyard and break into our house uh and really like basically broke the glass lighting door and the glass was everywhere on the floor they came in and they went up to the room grabb everything they can grab and we lost a lot of valuable just for four minutes okay they're in and out in four minutes this is organized crime and that's just happened to us and we appreciate the community listen to us and the police arrive quickly but this is you know we're the victim and every day um we're still Co you know trying to cope with the fear because they were in our house okay and they were in the room they broke in from the room where I study every day that's the study room they broke in I still work there every day I trying to to you know calm down about this whole thing okay and what happened to my neighbor after this incident where neighbor are much more united we have another neighbor um on 58 uh Windthrop at 2 am the the criminals went into their house from the garage and went to the first floor in the kitchen grabbed the key knob and grabbed the um you know the purse and the bag okay and they laugh so this is what we're dealing with and their family is sleeping upstairs okay and they they just came in and grabbed the stuff and so this is really uh concerning in in the neighborhood of Livingston uh their families um there three people with guns arrived in their house at 3:00 am. asking them to turn in the key knob and drove the car away so this is what's happening in our neighborhood uh and we again ask our Township our leadership here to consider protect the citizen here and the mbour um you know people who live here and love the town and our best school like as I I heard number two nationally so thank you so much for listening okay one more thing is a lady in chat and this is what we heard from police who arrived basically uh in the middle of the day at 12:30 she arrived at house and someone is watching her she went upstair so someone just went into their uh kitchen grabbed a purse with the car key drove it away so this is what's happening just few few weeks ago okay um and and my time is up but we have glass people come to our house and she who fix our glass and they said there are several cases like this every week he's fixing in our neighborhood from broken glass thank you thank you so much my name is David Klein I'm in the neighborhood I wasn't going to say anything but I recall something that happened when one of my children was playing soccer and he just he ran just fast enough not to get to the ball you as the township committee and the police can't just run fast enough or appear busy and not get the job done people explained how it's changed their lives one neighbor talked about what happens if it's a tra tragedy it it won't come back um having been in the military a short time and certainly the police are aware of it the idea of concentration of force um we need that now we need that soon I don't like what it'll do it might drive them out of our section of Milburn Short Hills into another section or even another town but the time to act is now the other thing we are the farthest from the police station we're not in the area because it was the cheapest or the easiest to get in we're one of the more affluent sections of the town and if four minutes isn't fast enough it's got to be three minutes it's got to be two minutes and if we're the farthest from the police station maybe there should be an auxiliary presence or a greater presence or someone closer we also are one mile from one of the best hospitals in New Jersey we don't want to be just collateral damage or part of their revenue Source we need your help and we need it now thank you thank you good evening Christine best milour Township um I actually was out campaigning this weekend and everybody over here a lot of you I got to meet and hear your stories and I had no idea that this was going on in their neighborhood I just heard about one robbery through a check chat that my neighbor sent me um we have a similar problem though is definitely not as bad as yours um in the Fairfield State section and I brought this sign tonight just to show everybody I borrowed it from my neighbor um so we actually probably 30 to 40 homes in in our neighborhood uh have these signs out because people have gone ahead a gentleman in our neighborhood's wonderful person has organized a private security company and some people are choosing to participate and some people aren't it's running people about I think I spoke about at last meeting I sent you all an email and Mr Cohen responded to me thank you Mr Cohen um and I know that there's a vehement disagreement with my viewpoints about prioritizing police presence versus spend on other items and I just want to make that clear because I love the Papermill and I love the police too because so I don't this isn't about police bashing okay for me it's about prioritizing like prioritizing the safety and everybody talked about that tonight and it's just really really important so I just want to talk about some quick stats I did look up and I might be wrong with some of these we have about 44 Patrol officers of Patrol I've heard that it's probably close to three people that are on at night correct me if I'm wrong please fail to do that um that represents I don't know five to seven percent of what should be on at night probably 20 to 22 officers and I also think as after I spoke to some of the neighbors actually prioritizing areas that are hotpots would be a really good idea like having cars stationed there so they can get there in a minute so that whole Smash and grab you're talking about that happens in four to five minutes can be interven when I think that's a really that's something that could be done now and if officers don't want to work at night which is the possibility I'm making an assumption here of course then perhaps we could look at you know allocating additional funds to private security um for because private security officers want to work at night because they make about 102,000 a year um annually approximately up or down and um that's something to think about or reducing our police staff if they don't want to work at night because 40 to 60% of crime federally now I don't I haven't looked at the stats of Milburn occurs overnight and I would think and that's where the fear and you know um this other woman I apologize for not remembering their name talked about the psychological fear that people experience and I just I think this is such a priority um and it's also really embarrassing there's real estate brokers that are commenting to me they're like oh my God people are like I don't want to live in this neighborhood at Fairfield Estates why do they all have house signs out I mean it's it's it's really quite embarrassing for the town um and so I really plead with you to do something quickly make it a priority because safety is the biggest priority and um and really listen because these guys had great experience so thank you so much I know my time's up everyone Richie cyber Town resident wow I'm amazed how much crimes taking place in this town that I don't even know about and I thought I knew everything um the sheriff sh s they run S6 County right they can chase a criminal throughout the whole County right is that true so you know um Christine was just saying about hire private security I just thought about hiring sheriffs I mean those guys they get to the criminals quick they tell them what's going on anyway I wanted to say my pet peeve a mailbox across the street from the milour post office cars parked there they think it's a parking spot I pull up I mean seriously 70% of the time there's somebody parking there so my question is the officer or if he I don't know if he is an officer that goes around the town and gives out tickets how many tickets has he given this year to someone that parked in front of the mailbox or maybe there is no ticket is it an offense to park in front of the mailbox I don't know that's a question but if there is an offense I'd sure like to know how many tickets he's giving out for that and third I just want to say thank everybody on this committee for all they do but I was astonished tonight to hear Mr stoler's report I mean how do you have time to work take care of your dogs your family I mean seriously like every day of the week it sounds like you're busy it's like I just have to take my hat off and say thank you and thank you to all of you thank you um good evening my name is Jeffrey Phil I live in the poet section and I'm going to be talking about the agenda pre- orance section of it um I'm just wondering why we don't hear any reports from the joint County um which our mayor uh sits on and I'd like to know confirm whether she receives a stien for sitting on that committee um we hear all these other committees but we don't hear about the joint um counties where we pay a lot of money as to the bill list um I have some questions this is the second Bill list in a row where we're paying a mediator what drives us to Medi C matters rather than litigate where you litigate rather than mediate there's also an entry for Integra they seen they're appraisers what do they do appraisal for um last Thursday there was a budget uh public forum and there was a talk about 22 East Willow acquisition but I still have not been able to trace how we paid that through the bill list I don't know why um also I've not been able to trace the payment of the 19 $1,000 monetary judgment that the judge entered against us in November I don't know how we paid it like it hasn't appeared on the bill list um as to Mr caner Mr caner wears two hats he's the municipal attorney and he's the special fair share hous he has two different retentions if you look at his um Bill list there's stuff for fair share housing how is that allocated I just want to know your Trace is that coming under the special um Fair sh housing lication or is that coming on the municipal um attorney Branch um later on there's a sell Tower resolution um to put the year I think the public should know where that cell tower is going it's going the way I read the drawing it's gone near gerro Park how close is this to the baseball fields and I this might is more of a technical question when you say it's a um RightWay permit what's the difference between a rightaway permit an easement because if you give someone an easement you have to do by ordinance and if if they're really like the same type of animal that you're dealing with real estate you know should that be done by ordinance rather than a resolution that that's a technical question for your attorney um at the last meeting there was a question of a walk out a walk on resolution I follow the Civil Rights notice I still have not responded received a response I still have questions whether that I violated the open Public's meetings act your your policy in uh regarding walk-on resolutions because I don't understand what the urgency was for that flag raising and whether it violates the state public policy involved robust informed civic participation I mentioned this because in the last two days our state supreme court has issued two very important free speech um opinions thank you thank you hi Diane Eglo Milbourne resident um safety and trees so I'd like to advocate for talking traffic lights at our intersections in town Jane is a very dear friend of mine for many many years we walk in town a lot Alex we came to you when she first got her seeing eye dog and Milbourne and Main Street um is confusing and I think for a cited person it can be dangerous so especially for a low-sided or disabled pedestrian I know these are County Roads I think it's something that could be discussed with the county the intersections at Milbourne S6 and Main Street could all have I go to Newport Ro Island every year for convention and it's just so reassuring to see the lights they beep they tell you when to walk it's safe um three years ago when I was on the committee we spent a lot of time and money um with mkw about revamping the entrance of Taylor Park on mil Avenue another safety issue um putting those what it um the permeable perky whatever that's called around the the elm tree would actually be safer the incline down to the park would be safer the Pathways in the park are crumbling they're not safe we spent a lot of money on that beautiful plan and that was 1.3 million that was rejected we were going to keep the Roses because that was people's concern yet we were able to give 7 million to the paper mill to beautify and safe make their walkway safer it's not a main road but the paper mill is so I will quit talking about the paper mill but remember we just gave them 7 million but the township three years AG couldn't bear 1.3 million for Taylor Park where everybody benefits um so I also trees I know I had posted something that Milbourne Avenue has no trees if you can plant trees and fix the sidewalks on Milbourne Avenue that would go a long way for pedestrian safety Beauty environmental benefits and um that's it nice to see you all thanks good evening Phil kersch Milburn resident um I'm going to speak about the commemorative flag resolution passed at the April 16th meeting which resulted in the raising of the Israeli flag in town hall I'm no stranger to minority causes I was against the Vietnam War but not against the soldiers I was against the invasion of Iraq but not against the USA and I for a ceasefire in the conflict in Middle East but not against Israel in fact I was Bar Mitzvah in 1963 right here in milour the congregation B Israel by the rabbi Dr grald who followed the beliefs of Martin Luther King and taught his students that the favoring of anyone in group over another was not what God intended it follows that seeing the suffering and death of Israeli men women and children and the suffering and death of Palestinian men women and children as equal in God's eyes and then raising the flag of one without recognizing the other of necessity diminishes that other we are all witnessing an emotional triggering moment with feelings running High most or all of us especially in this community know someone or love someone who is directly caught in this conflict so we have an opportunity to hold our anger suppress our allegiances and exercise our maturity and Humanity it is for these reasons that I asked for two flags or no flag just equity and empathy for everyone in fact we hear the thousands of Israelis wait to return to their homes but millions of gin no longer have any homes we justifiably hear the names and histories of Israeli hostages and casualties but not of teenage Palestinians held in Israeli jails and women and children starved or killed in IDF bombings one can attempt to rationalize or explain but the imbalance is breathtaking the imbalance in military response the imbalance in resources the imbalance in financial support and news coverage and the imbalance in actions such as our Township flying an Israeli flag with no recognition whatsoever of everyday civilian Palestinians and their plight further since no time frames are stated will the Israeli flag fly indefinitely will the other permitted Flags be listed listed be put into a rotation so that no one would come to think this resolution was merely a pretext to fly the Israeli flag will the Palestinian flag be added to the list so that the government speech cited in the resolution can be more evenly balanced I hope you all will consider these statements made not against or anti anything but for what I perceive to be fairness and compassion I thank you for listening you good evening everyone hi I'm Regina Truitt I live in Short Hills earlier today at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC President Biden reminded Americans that this ancient history of Jews did didn't begin with the Holocaust and it didn't end didn't begin with the Holocaust and it didn't end with the Holocaust either he further referred to a ferocious surge of anti-Semitism in the United States in the aftermath of October 7th he also referred to propaganda on social media to Jewish students being harassed or attacked on campus I want to talk briefly tonight about how propaganda on social media can influence your thinking social media sites such as Facebook Instagram YouTube and Tik Tok posts are intended to keep you engaged by ever increasing posts on what it thinks you like which in turn causes the release of dopamine the feel-good chemical images misinformation and politically motivated news spreads easily and quickly through the internet with recipients looking at curated data data that has been selected by the platforms algorithms to keep you engaged and clicking soon the majority of your feed is homogeneous designed to keep to keep giving you what it thinks you want if you click on content about whales you'll get whales if you click on post that vilify Israel even for just a few times your entire feed will soon be you will soon be misled into thinking that this viral content is the truth rather than the politicized and often anti-semitic content and propaganda that it really is after the October 7th Massacre Melbourne Township held a vigil for the victims of the attack on Israel by Hamas I know that every one of you attended and I thank you mayor Maggie miggins reiterated the township committee support for Israel it's right to exist and its right to defend itself on April 16th the township came in passed a resolution permitting commemorative Flags to be raised as an expression of government speech along with other flags including the lgbtq pride flag the national flag of the state of Israel was also permitted as an expression of government speech Israel is not perfect but I thank you for standing steadfast with Israel our Ally and the only democracy in the Middle East I know some of you may be worried about the slippery slope of potential flag request to come every decision in front of you every time could be a potential slippery slope every current and future request of any sort mandates your consideration of its merits at that time you are not required to be neutral your values and standards will guide you thank you thank you Carol kers Milburn president um I would like to add my support to the sentiments expressed earlier by my husband although this country's military is not physically involved in the Israeli Palestinian War this conflict obviously feels particularly personal to so many Americans all over this country and for many different reasons because this is the case as especially at times like this governing bodies of all kinds have an increased burden to peacefully maintain the communities under their governing Authority we have all seen the challenges that exist in this regard on so many college campuses across this country and local Municipal governing bodies are vulnerable to these challenges as well this community is very important to me it is where I have spent over 40 years of my life where I raised my children and where I have participated in many Civic activities that have been an important part of my life as such it is very important to me that balance and concern for all Humanity be the goal of this community most especially at this very difficult time and I'm concerned that the decision to fly the Israeli flag only could potentially threaten that balance thank you to go online no we're going to the online public session good evening hello Council can you hear me yes can you please turn your camera on oh my camera actually isn't working at the moment is that okay I live on um no I'm sorry I live on Walnut Avenue I'm sorry you need to have your camera on can you use your pH oh sorry thank you counk what oh okay good evening she's you're mute yeah I can't see about now you hear me there you go thank you okay I have to talk quickly because you only give us a couple minutes I'm Mike Becker my wife Katherine and I have lived in town for 49 years and we've had the subscription to the paper mill Playhouse for 40 of those years three of our seven grandkids live in town we do use an alarm every single time we go in and out of the house we have for decades you have to do that and I hope in the next minute and a half I'm going to tell you where you're going to get a couple million dollars for security to increase the police force that was a very disturbing uh piece that I heard from you people and I know how you feel and there's nothing more important than safety here's what I said at the library to the paper mill Playhouse Executives on March 12th I want to share a little analogy with you regarding the paper Mill I said you come to town you buy a house for a million dollars that's if you can find one you do your homework you get all the permits needed you hire a home inspector who gives it a clean bill of health and then after some years you find out you have to spend four million to make the house safer more livable more comfortable and more inviting to your guests that would never happen here right in Milbourne well we bailed the paper mill Playhouse out in 2018 for 9 million now they say they need 41 million more to make things safe compliant whole and comfortable four times what we paid for it did our Administration do their homework when they bought it did they know the roof was going the bathrooms are ancient boilers outdated lighting not safe the riverbank walls are weakening and coming down did they know they were not Ada code compliant did they do their due Dil diligence before they paid for it here's my suggestion they should take the $30 million plus the thousands of donors and sponsors have given them in corporations and the state has promised them 3.75 million according to director Mike stots and do what has to be done and then in 24 months come back and plead their case again to the residents if they really need a bond for $7 million it's a four-year plan why do we have to do the bond now here's something that I didn't say in the last two meetings the alternative press P published on January 31st a quote about a public meeting meeting in town another public meeting about the paper mill and I'm going to read it to you one of the two $350,000 Plus benefits executive directors Mr stots stated the following I quote we have raised 21.4 million towards the 40 million cost the state of New Jersey has made a commitment of 3.7 uh million and the remaining 17.6 million has been raised by private philanthropy primarily by the paper mill trustees he he said has ra have raised he said have raised he didn't say they have promised they've raised it so in that case why does it all have to be done in one Fell Swoop thank you I'm sorry your time's up thank you okay good evening hi good evening can you just put your camera on please y I'm trying yeah I don't know why it's not letting me but I am trying um okay there it goes thank you hi say I'm Jean Pastor knck a resident of Short Hills so yes I agree safety should always be the top priority for our elected public officials we've come a long way for sure from the Friday calls telling us to secure our key fobs yep more can be done there's been a focus on neighborhood watch efforts I put this idea out four years ago and I'm really glad it's finally blossoming but we need more ideas we need specific efforts that involve all citizens a partnership between citizens our police force and our other Township employees as well as our elected officials and other leaders in town police presence in the community is key we really don't know our policemen and women there's been a huge turnover that naturally occurs but we need to get to know them we need to feel we are one team working work together and this is not only about car thefts and break-ins it's about every resident feeling safe that when Milbourne police are called they have the expertise and training themselves or with a another professional such as a mental health one accompany them on calls especially those involving Mental Health crisis I'd like to propose tonight that there be a Citizens crime and Safety Committee just like we have a pedestrian Safety Committee um can we get that done ASAP and ask everyone here who spoke tonight to consider volunteering m i attended the budget presentation last week held by Mr McDonald and Mr larcy it was very productive and I thank them for answering our many questions and listening to us residents an exchange like that goes a really long way to better understanding after that session I sent an email to all committee members asking that a Citizens budget advisory committee be established I think now is the perfect time there are many talented citizens who come from all different backgrounds neighborhoods political affiliations who have proven that they can work together who speak on budget issues frequently and want to work together to help ensure that our budget process is the best it can be for our town we would appreciate working with Township professionals and our elected representatives to initiate a more strategic Capital spending plan process Alex clarified that there is a long-term maintenance plan for Capital spending but I am referring to the larger projects not in that plan such as the paper mill so that priorities are set based on agreed criteria to avoid the temptation to approve projects that are not of strategic importance or whose timing is not in line with agreed priorities for the town we must always have latitude for flexibility when opportunities present themselves of course but we should have a goal for more discipline and guidelines put in place for selecting capital projects that fall within boundaries of an agreed strategic plan can you address my question tonight do you support and would you sponsor a Citizens budget advisory committee to be established this year I also listen carefully to the comments made regarding paper mill um and I learned that evening that there is a need to have more scrutiny of the annual paper mill p&l financials to ensure they are going concern how much of their 20 million in pledges have actually been collected and by whom I learned that Mr Laris C our CFO had minimal input in crafting the deal and that is of great concern thank you thank you thank you good evening good evening can you turn your camera on please good evening can you please turn your camera on okay we're we're done would anyone else in the audience like to speak before we close public comment I'm sorry about that everybody Janet P are Main Street in Milbourne the Washington District um I just want to say I commiserate with these people tonight about their loss of the feeling of well-being and the loss of the feeling of being safe in your home my neighbor was robbed and I was traumatized by that they were robbed because their house was a easy in and easy out when they were robbed I got a home security system I'm going to say something that is going to make you unhappy and that is that there are over 5,000 homes in Milbourne town ship and that's a tall order for any Police Department to try to ensure safety every every day and every evening for everyone so my suggestion is because there's no Silver Bullet and there's no one easy answer is to engage in what Gan Pastak said uh police report that accumulates and is comprehensive to say you can use um motion detector lights flood lights focusing on every single entrance way doorway you can use um also um sorry I'm blocking out now um outdoor cameras security cameras all that okay thank you thank you thank you I'm sorry I'm sorry please let her speak please let her finish I would also suggest because if you may remember there was an inh home break in um close to Maplewood but it was milour town I think and the man came in the woman was there alone he threw her down the staircase excuse me everyone can you please just hold off and if you could just speak up here P thank you um he threw her down the staircase can you he was apprehended and he was convicted for attempted murder because she had interior Nanny cams that were able to help identify that man and so anything that could help deter deter deter I feel better now because I have added a very high fence so nobody can get into my backyard my I have all fenced in on every side my neighbor is now all fenced in on every side thieves want easy in and easy out and anything that can deter them from that mission is what we need to do we can't rely 100% on our Police Department because it's not practical it's not realistic and it's not going to work so my suggestion is to have the police department compile a very very comprehensive list of everything that homeowners can do to deter a Breakin in their home thank you thank you we need to take responsibility thank you excuse me I think somebody's trying to get in online okay I'm sorry but we're not going to go back we're not she we're not going to go back online we're not going to go back online I'm sorry does has anyone can does anyone wish to speak that hasn't spoken before Fran Feld longtime Milburn resident so I am just going to Echo what Mike Becker said um although actually I've never met him before but I've seen him around um about the paper mill and I first just want to acknowledge hearing about all this crime I've myself was burglarized a number of years ago everyone on street was burglarized not in Short Hills I'm in South Mountain so I know how that feels okay um the paper mill okay so everybody voted except for Frank to give all that money to the paper mill and so I don't think there's much I can do to undo that but I just because I live in this town for so many years I still feel that there's a lot of information and data that I haven't seen that one would need I would think to make an informed decision which includes the consultant that the paper mill hired to do um whatever they did write a report about why it was okay to go for 40 million to fix the place up now of course they hired the consulted so obviously it's kind of like when Nestle uh wrote a report about how much better um baby formula was than breast milk you know they hired someone to help them with that because it was for them so the payer mail hired a consultant to say how much they could use help but even with that I'd like to see that report I've asked for it I don't know where it is I feel a little bit like now Jeff Feld who always gets up here and says he's asked for things that he never gets but I would think it would be great to see the consultant and no relationship but um i' I'd like to see a report that says assuming it's it's a it's a consultant firm that's um legitimate why they think that 40 million is needed for the paper mill to go forward and the other excuses that I've heard that if we don't support the paper mill they're going to pick up Stakes move to Westfield or Sumit that was told to me by someone who's on the township committee I don't believe that and think it's an empty threat and and and if the paper mill wanted to go to Summit I really don't think that would hurt us unless I can read the report that says that $30 million is thrown off to our town by the paper mill thank you thank you anyone else that hasn't spoken okay I'm going to now close the public comment and can we just take a five minute break thanks e e e e e e e e e e e e commit Cohen and Stoler we're gonna get started everyone if you could just please be seated excuse me we're just going to get started thank you so um I apologize to those that were online waiting to be heard um uh you know n none of us expected that to happen um of course you can stay on until the second public session public comment period but um I mean in the future if you want to make sure that you are your voices are heard then you know I encourage you to come to the meetings so again I do apologize about that um so now we will take any um comments from the committee in regards to any public comment I'll start um so many great topics I'm not sure where to start uh let me start with the Israel flag Israel is our greatest Ally a democracy they're at war in the Middle East October 7th did not come on come by itself I do a lot of business we own businesses in in Saudi Arabia I go to the Middle East quite a bit it's a totalitarian regime I appreciate our freedoms of speech that allowed the kershes to come up and speak I respect their opinions that being said if you're in the Middle East and you're not in Israel and you're lgbtq probably going to be killed if you're a woman you go out without a head cut oh you're probably going to be thrown in jail Palestine is run by terrorists by Hamas I can't say it any clear if you want to support terrorists fine there's an easy way to a ceasefire give back the hostages turn over Hamas maybe we put up a internet thing for that so when I talk about Israel it's very personal in nature my daughter just came home from school she was surrounded by seven men while she was painting a picture of unity in the middle of the in the quad they surrounded her they poked her they physically assaulted her they verbally assaulted her and these are little entitled kids who were there Pro Palestine Flags Pro Palestine anti-israel anti-semitic tropes that literally she had to come home because she was so distressed what's happening on these universities is a disgrace what's happening with these professors are a disgrace so I'll I'll leave it at that just greatly personal um on the crime God I appreciate your guys' plight so much uh I only wish I was invited to the meeting that you guys had on Sunday and I was told by Frank it was a private meeting so I understand however there's a lot of things that you probably didn't hear at that meeting one is our first meeting with the police chief Frank and I ran on Public Safety the very first meeting with the police chief I know cops my entire life neighbors friends such first thing I told the police chief is how much money do you need money's No Object we ran on crime Short Hills Milburn Rich toown we can provide whatever you need cars helicopters squads whatever he said at that time he didn't need a lot any money I said well maybe you didn't hear me I said how much money it's a blank check sir do what you you have to do and he said he's got it from that point I defer to him he's he's the police officer so absolutely I think we should hear from him he just did a public speech uh if he wants him to be an open form I'm 100% for it some things we've done locally I just got a call from our neighbors from Jam I mentioned it earlier about the neighborhood watch they're all over um I've been robbed three times one once's in my house in Florida and two attempted break-ins here now my house is like Fort Knox love you come over because see I got lights I got cameras I've got alarm systems I got a Dutch German Shepherd which is basically a melanoid police dog even my friends don't come over anymore I think it's a side benefit because they're scared to death of this dog but I haven't been no one's coming near my house he can he can he can smell it way you know a mile away but that being said is there's a lot we also passed a local Municipal law about crime where it makes it where we have authority to actually put the aselin in Jael and the only really thing we can do is hard in our streets hard in our town to make the criminals not come here so that was part of that I'm sure it was articulated to you on Sunday along with our offer to the to the guy uh I love the nixel idea uh but there's a lot of things that have to be done I like the citizens action protection or Security Group too uh but we're all working together safety is the number one concern uh frankly I found it a little bit insulting and condescending that you didn't think we thought that because we do we're 100% in your camp on safety um and I would have liked our I could have articulate that this weekend uh paper mill playoffs there's so much misinformation people know this that I'm gonna go through those numbers real quick it's a $7 million $5.8 million B 1.2 million of cash was sitting on the books out of that $5.8 million $1.8 million is for 20 Brookside which is a property they purchased it's contiguous to our nine acres to complete it we have to do it so that leaves you about $4 million $4 million analyst Bond analyst on a 30-year bond is about $197 million $997,000 we've got $50,000 of their Parker revenue and perpetuity and we have an average lease payment of around $300,000 the demographics in this town are changing people are not going out to eat at the restaurants to support the restaurants I went to all the restaurants Mr cyber said how do I do it I just a lot of time and effort I drove eight hours today so I could be back here tonight and not have to fly into New York because you know how the big of a disaster that is but these restaurants they depend on the paper mill Playhouse and that actually is when you think of the ecosystem and the economic impact it lifts and reduces all of our property taxes and helps out the entire community so we don't have a blighted community um what else do we have uh what's that oh the report for the consultant it's on the website so there's a website ww. Township uh Milburn dwp.com and actually went out and did my own report to get to the economic impact on town it's not $31 million or so that's kind of it's cloudy uh and then out of the 20 million that they're raising they've already raised $17.6 million I don't know if anybody goes frequently to the paper mill gun and powder was fantastic new it's uh um great gasby is fantastic it brings so many things and the other things that we got were about 21 qualitative programs for education for our children we got free tickets for for anyone who can't afford them we've got free perform uh full dress rehears rehearsal performances for all students uh like feathers on the elbow educational programs and for the carriage house we can actually use it for meetings and such uh so that's your where's Miss Feld your answer so and I can help you pull it off the website if you like I know we've discussed it before uh Pua she still here oh she left I mean it's always what she does with the psychological Parts is fantastic and she's completely right you know the psychological effects that we see it here tonight you're jined up you're want to fight we all want to fight and that's really I got involved on two issues and I promise you if I solved them I would resign tomorrow one is crime and safety because it's a top top priority and two is the uh fair share housing overdevelop it in a nonsensical way we can do affordable housing but we need to do it sensibly and we need to make sure that we're planning for it that it fixs the infrastructure correctly and that we're doing everything correctly and when you look at it from a business standpoint I run operations I run Finance I run marketing I run sales for all the companies I have to look down and see it so I see the holistic picture you can't just narrow in on one little thing and just become distracted and so myopic that you miss the big picture and the big picture is we all want this town to thrive not survive but Thrive and we all have to work together to get there just you know clearly Public Safety is the most important issue for all of us we all feel that way unfortunately I do think as I was saying during the break I think what's happened in in your neighborhood which is unfortunate and clearly not acceptable is that your neighborhood is somewhat isolated it's at the corner of of the town it's near um old Short Hills Road and South Orange Avenue which are easy ways to get in and to get out and I also think that we previously had a big issue of crime in the poet section and they formed neighborhood watch groups and they've done a lot of good work and and perhaps that's helped them but I do think that that's pushed some of you know that's pushed the crime somewhere else and unfortunately it's landed in your neighborhood I think what we need to do is work with the chief to to look at the Staffing particularly overnight I mean I hear you know I hear rumors too about how limited it is I don't know if that's true we need to find it out and go over with him it is surprising to me I've never heard anybody turn down a blank check so if that's if that's what he told you that doesn't make a lot of sense to me um the if there across the board for all of us if there's any any request for something from the police department to proove improve Public Safety it will clearly be supported you sleep thank you um sure uh so I want to thank all of you that came out tonight to talk about crime uh and your concerns I know I spoke at length with many of you uh and I'm very grateful that you invited me to that Gathering that you guys had didn't realize how big it would be didn't realize uh that our assembly woman would be there but I think we disseminated a lot of great information um I think that what we need to do as a committee you know we say we're committed to you know fighting crime and and trying to improve safety but we need to make the chief sit here at a meeting and be held accountable by this Township committee and by the residents okay i' I've asked for this multiple times and the closest thing we got was a zoom at noon with pre-filtered pre-submitted questions and that happened recently and I told the business administrator when that was announced that that was not what I had in mind um and in fact I've requested that at next meeting's agenda under new business that we have a discussion about forcing the chief to come and address the community and answer our questions so we'll see if the other members on this deas are willing to do that I certainly hope they are I know that uh mayor romano and I spoke about this earlier and uh she certainly seemed to be willing to have the police answer for um some of the things that are the police chief uh answer for some of the concerns um I also think that several of you made a fair point that why are we spending $7 million giving money away to the paper mill so they can build a nice glass Atrium and do some Renovations uh when we're having you know all of these problems with crime couldn't that $7 million be used more effectively you know whether it's hiring more officers where whether it's paying them overtime you know if we don't want to increase the number of officers we have because that has long-term implications uh pension and whatnot health benefits Etc maybe we can do more overtime maybe we can you know are we able to uh pay cops from other towns Etc these are all ideas that need to be explored but at a time right now when residents feel in crisis and are concerned for their safety that should be our top priority we should not be spending our taxpayer dollars on upgrades for the paper mill Playhouse uh you know when when our residents don't feel safe and secure um see here the flags um I I predicted that this was going to be a contentious thing uh and I actually warned the members of the the committee about this uh and now we're starting to see it happen I don't know if whatever those out birs were were in any way connected to that um but I think it's very important that residents understand that the flags that are raised um by the township committee are an expression of the township committee's governmental voice it's not speaking for everyone else in town um you know I think that it's important for us in town to support um to show our support for for Israel um we're seeing a lot of anti-Semitism uh all over the place and it's it's really concerning and you know there are many members of our community that you know they don't feel safe in our community because of the crime but they also don't feel safe you know when they're out and about because there's so much anti-Semitism so raising the flag the Israeli flag I think really would hopefully help give Comfort to those residents so that they realize that the community stands with them and I believe that was the intention I understand it's a complicated issue on both sides you know it's always tragic when there's war going on um but that was the the reason and the motiv motivation for you know the township committee making the decision to fly the flag to show that we support um you know our our brothers and sisters in the community that are affected by this um you know all that might not be popular amongst everyone it's a decision to be made and it's one that we'll live with um let's see um Miss Pastor um you had a lot of great ideas tonight and and I know that they've come up time and time again a Citizens Advisory board for the budget uh is something that Mr Stoler and I uh had proposed um you know we first gotten in office and you know I believe that uh Mr larcy was actually receptive to that idea it just never got off the ground so uh maybe we can get discussion of that put on uh the agenda for next meeting uh because it's about time that we start to move that forward I think it would be great for our residents to be more heavily involved with the budgeting process and I also think it's long overdue that our town have a public long-term capital spending plan uh that way you know from year to year the composition of the township committee may change priorities may change but if we had a 20-year plan that showed all of the capital spending that we needed to do uh at various points in time I think that could serve as a guide so that regardless of who's up here on the deis we know that these are improvements uh that need to be made with our infrastructure Etc um let's see I think we've I think we've talked about crime uh talked about the paper mill um so I will leave it at that I wasn't able to attend the last meeting and I just want to thank the committee for raising the Israeli flag and I would have voted for that resolution as well so thank you and just in this conversation about I don't understand the conversation where it's like either the paper mill or Public Safety there're two conversations that can happen at the same time that don't affect each other at all we have enough money in our budget to give the police exactly what they need to keep our town safe as we will as we'll continue that discussion so that's H those two issues right and uh and somebody somebody had answer the qu requested to know what our debt capacity was as a town so in Mr larcy it's around $240 million right as a town we have a AAA credit we have about $4 million of debt outstanding net debt outstanding it's the cleanest balance sheet you've ever seen in your life so from that standpoint it's just such a false and ridiculous argument to tie the paper mill to security we can spend all the money in the world to security but we need to have a plan on how to spend it correctly we need Buy in and the chief you know not a police I'm not a paramilitary expert I'm not a police expert I'm going to defer to the police to tell us what he needs but we need to push and strive we have some of the best cops in the world in this town they all have they're all educated they're all former veterans or U uh or former military uh former military or former cops Etc so it's a fantastic group and and we will get this under control and we appreciate you coming out thank you thank you um I was going to uh say what uh committee woman puus said and there is nothing more important to me and to us than the safety of our residents so um I think Mr McDonald understands that um he'll he'll have a conversation with the police chief and um I mean we are all in favor of I mean I'm not going to speak for everyone I'm sorry but I think we're all in favor of um asking or for the police chief to to do just that so um and the other only other thing I wanted to add was um Taylor park I think that's coming up at some point the Gateway I think it's coming up but Mr McDonald will address it so that's all I have I'm uh I'm look I I'm I'm only to the to the Gateway um there is an RFQ out on the website to request qualifications for uh Landscape Architects Miss Eglo is correct we had done a study uh two years ago uh to work on that what we are focused on now was authorized by the township committee some time ago was a limited amount uh in the amount of $300,000 we are um looking for a uh just the the front portion of Taylor Park to provide better accessibility kind of avoid the paths from the the historic elm tree that is there currently uh fix up uh what I would call the streetscaping portion of it and uh have better plantings and make a more welcoming sort of inviting uh entrance to Taylor Park the more visible um when is that the time so the RFQ is due uh I don't have the exact date but it's um it's I believe it's next week uh the RFQ is due we'll sit down and we'll meet with the Landscape Architects make sure they're qualified and able to to perform the work go over the exact scope of work with them and uh receive a proposal to put in front of the township committee uh where we can start get I'm I'm anticipating that we would be doing work in the fall when it's a better planting time anyway um so that's that's what we're looking at um that's all I really have to come up Mr thank you mayor a resident had a question regarding resolution 24-38 authorized approval of RightWay permit uh it's a permit um and a review of our code shows a section 42.5 the township this is codified in the township by resolution Township committee shall by resolution approve or disapprove every right away permit application based on the recommendation uh so it's it's in our code and it's it's a permit so it doesn't involve uh it would not it would not require an ordinance um unless the committee wants me to address anything else I don't have anything further thank you mayor oh U real quick um there was one resident that asked if they could gate off parts of the town to to my knowledge I don't think that's allowed perhaps you could speak from a legal perspective uh no you would not be able to G it off a public Street and restrict public from using a public street that would only apply to private streets even the deepest dive I could do and not allow you to shut your street down to the public but I but I do but sincerely I didn't mean to make a joke I I know what you guys are going through is tough and I'm the town attorney here and in Livingston in North qua it's an epidemic what's going on and you know it's it's all these community so I I sincerely I hear your stories and I hear them a lot as i s this stas and my sympathy do lot for I didn't mean to make light of it but you we can't get on public okay the township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent agenda may have a motion to approve resolution 24-31 through resolution 24-36 which are listed on the consent agenda so may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler mayor Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-37 yeah I raised a question that just for clarity um we uh we're going out for bids as a as for the crossing guards but that does not preclude our possibility of bringing it back in house should we so desire but if that doesn't happen it's there the timeline to get the bids it's necessary to go out at this point I had raised that Mr McDonald answered that but I wanted to make that clear to everybody in thank you may have a motion to approve resolution 24 d137 so actually just had one comment before we go there too is you know we kind of I looked at the the crossing guard Services uh as controlled by Milburn versus in the private sector um and it seems that it's almost almost flat in fact it's improved so that's another reason to go out the public B I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss purus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative May Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-38 may I have a motion to approve resolution 24-13 so moved may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Colin yes M brus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes committee men Co and your scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2669 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2669 d24 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with I declare the hearing open Move that this public hearing be closed and that the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with law may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you public hearing of the budget resolution 24139 the 2024 budget was introduced by the township committee at our April 2nd 2024 meeting may have a motion to approve resolution 24-39 with which authorizes the township to read the 2024 Municipal budget by title so may I have a second second may I have a roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss purus yes Deputy Mayor sakam Mandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes does anyone on the committee have any uh final comments on the proposed judg judge budget I hereby open the public hearing for any comments on the 20124 municipal budget I'm Jeffrey Fel um I want to thank the presentation that we had last week it was very educational this has been the Third I think that we've had but I also think that we do need to have a citizen budget advisory committee because in our discussion if you look at your budget and this is really a question to Alex and to the municipal attorney if you look at our capital budget it doesn't include the paper mill doesn't need to be amended to include that transaction because we're adopting it today we adopted a bond and should it be accurate as of today rather than when it was introduced used I just throw that out to you because you're making a decision today of a budget you know an event has occurred does the budget have to be amended to reflect that because that's the issue we have in the capital budget in addition when we had some of the discussions when you had the presentation the differences between what's in the userfriendly budget number of employees and then the um presentation I bring this with history because one of the issues that I think we need to have when we have the budget advisory committee and this is what the board of education does the Board of Education provides and it's pursuant to Oprah and when they adopt their budget a list of all their employees because one of the issues I have is our parking authority we have employees prior years we were not self-funding and that's why we had to use the co Monies to pay off the debt but I think we need to know who are the employees in various departments that goes to like the policing um was it was last year when we brought up the Staffing report that we got and we're still waiting for the staffing report but having a list knowing who are our policemen know what are the rates know the organizational chart that tells you how many captains we have how many lieutenants because one of the other Alternatives when we talk about policing is the idea of auxiliary policers because that's what other towns have done you take retired policemen and you bring them on to reduce the cost me I understand but the idea is priorities the cap capital budget I mean this we're asking to change one of the philosophies of this town this town has always been a very conservative physically conservative Community where we did not Bond yes we have capacity but we did not Bond but now there is maybe a movement to go to have serious debt because all the serious debt we have in this community is at the board of educational level whether bring to municipalities but the in summary is getting a little more transparency knowing who your employees are having a little more transparency about the parking authority thank you thank you again I just want to pick up on um Mr stoler's comments on on the Israel situation this is this is only for the budget this is I'm sorry I'm sorry second I will now close the but I don't know where we okay thank you yes hi Jean pass I I just wanted to add one thing part of the discussion we had at the budget uh question and answer session uh was about risks to the budget and what they potentially could be and I know Alex shared some more data and details about what makes up our tax base uh particularly the sh Hills Mall and um we we I thought it was a really good discussion and I would like to see that type of information also be shared as part of the budget um presentation so that all citizens understand if there are big risks any risks uh associated with our budget and any impacts that that could occur um that are known uh at the time of the budgeting process thank you thank you I will now close the public hearing would anyone like to respond to any comments oh I'm sorry Matt thank you very much um the only comment I'll say uh in terms of Mr feld's questions is that the paper mill is including the general Improvement part of the capital budget so the capital budget you don't list like every single little project so in general improvements those funds are allocated there um the capital budget that's included here which I've said before is not authorizing any funding funding has to be authorized by ordinance um it's a capital plan anytime we do an ordinance that's not in that plan um it it's wording is included in the ordinance that amends the capital budget then we file that um so it's it's really like more of a plan we want it to be accurate obviously but that uh you know it doesn't allow us for a high level of detail um I believe that's the only question uh directly um if there's any other questions from the township committee I'd be happy to answer them sure so just just for the sake of clarity the amount of money that we would bond for for the paper mill would not have been included within the maintenance portion of the budget you were talking about would it no because that'd be something that you know the ordinance has passed then it amends the budget correct correct so the the actual operating budget is uh is our debt service payments so the capital plan that's in the back it's really just like the state is trying to make sure that you actually have a plan um it doesn't allow for a high level detail or anything we have much more uh you know detailed Debt Service projections and all that internally um but the funding uh for the paper mill um the debt portion of that wouldn't be included in this Year's Debt Service that would be depending on the market and depending on our cash flow um would be you know could be next year's probably some of it would be in next year's um depending on how that that pans out question thank you I just want to thank everybody thanks for your input along the way and thanks especially to this Finance subcommittee for your work with us on this thank you thank you thanks Matt I have a motion to approve resolution 24-14 which authorizes adoption of the 2024 budget may I have a second second may I have a roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes Deputy Mayor secand you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2674 d24 I'd like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance 2674-20 ordinance amending and supplementing the township of Milburn devel Vel mment regulations and zoning ordinance um so just real quickly um this ordinance is to make some changes to our zoning code uh these are changes that were recommended by our zoning board um they seek to add clarification uh to um specific things like the floor area ratio they Define you know what a basement is what a uh third floor uh is and is not and um also you know what size is required to be considered a garage these are things that the zoning board has seen come up uh Time Time After Time and uh it's an urgent issue and uh we need to get the um situated so that's what this ordinance is for uh I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing in final passage on Tuesday June 4th 2024 may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes ordinance 2670 d24 yeah mayor I'm gonna we need a motion to table this um as it coincides with the um sorry with with the township um acquisition of the property so uh it's a recognation that we need to we need to table this until he actually acquire the property okay um so may I have a motion to table ordinance 26724 may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr C yes M puus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr St affirmative mayor Romano yes and just for the record the public hearing will now be May 21st there'll be no further publication however based on what why was Ted it's likely to Beed again but if you want to continue have notice of the public hearing you should come on May 21st as it'll be listed for public hearing again we are on to Old business oh I'm sorry Graham regarding the old business item I presume all right uh good evening everyone I'm Grant pedo here this evening as Township planner um thank you mayor Deputy Mayor um so just in summary um at the request of the prior Council from last year uh and you know in consultation with Mr McDonald's um we did an analysis of a potential rent Control Ordinance and you know whether that was an option that was available to the township um and we prepared a policy brief uh dated December 12th of last year um that polic brief document uh I believe has been circulated to you all and I think it was included as part of the packet this evening's meeting um in summary um New Jersey state law uh is very restrictive in uh how municipalities can enact uh and and uh you know Place Rand control uh restrictions into place um our recommendations are contained within the report um on page um 12 of the report um there's a lot of summary data as well you know demographic information uh Census Data you know we've been through and looked at the inventory of multif Family Housing Development within the township as well um but if you'd like I could just read into the record the rec the some of the recommendation section if that is helpful or I can answer any questions that you may have or have a quick question and maybe it'll save some time so my read of it is that newer developments uh multif family developments uh are exempt from rent controls and so the rent control options that we have seem quite limited and would affect I think less than 5% of the the rentals that are there that is correct yes right so in that case it seems like it's not practical and it seems like your recommendation is it doesn't really make sense to move forward that's correct in summary yes that's right I was the one that brought this up in the first place thank you for all the analysis sure was unfortunate to read your conclusion law the issue that we were facing was with the new development so there's not not particularly a problem with the existing that even that 5% that's not where the problem was the problem was that the new developments where we've seen and I guess it's it's okay with the state of New Jersey where there are artificially low um rents when the building is built to attract the tenants and then when their first lease is up surprise surprise it's a it's a major increase which particularly affects people who downsize their houses living on a on a fixed income made some kind of a plan you know our senior our senior population that's where we were hearing the concerns and I had hoped we would be able to address them it's it's really unfortunate that we are not able to do that yes that is unfortunate anyone else and just for clarification I think you had said in the document that Monclair was able to rent ordinance but it seems like that might be a little dubious because it was due to the developer not filing paperwork on time that there some out outstanding legal challenges there on some technicalities perhaps so are you aware of anything uh being considered at the state level to try and provide some sort of control over these newer developments because I think that the concerns that uh Mr Cohen brought up are are very valid and it's really unfortunate that you know people are a victim of this bait and switch sure yeah no I I mean I'm not aware of anything specifically to address this issue regarding rent control but again that's where you know as you mentioned earlier you know reaching out basing with your assembly and state representatives uh Senate repres you know on this issue I think would be important to to demonstrate that issue locally great thanks okay thank you so much course thank you all so seeing we have no new business public comment this public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full addressing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session um I think if Miss erso's on the line maybe we go to her first thanks sure just turn your camera on please Mr Becker thank you you're muted hey I'm 104 years old you know give me okay um I've been in town 49 years it's Mike Becker um I'm not suggesting that I want to be a gated community like they have in Florida but I do have a cameras at my house here and at the beach I have cameras um I don't want to make it a police state but I do have a question that you can ask the uh chief of police and that is this I figure there's about six seven or eight main ways into town I noticed in Hobart that there is a license plate camera reader about 30 feet in the air that nobody sees it driving into town here's my question do we want cars to sneak in the camera catches him then the camera sends a message to the police dispatcher at the police station and then the police station dispatcher tries to figure out wh which camera and then he tells the nearest policeman to go follow or would we rather not have them come in at all so therefore why are we not and again I don't want to be a gated Community but why wouldn't we say on a reasonable sign that even a bad actor can read we video license plates we are neighbors we watch out for each other we and they turn around and go back to wherever they came from the idea is to get them to turn around not to try to follow them get into a confrontation and get in in the first place and if I'm wrong about eight entrances to town correct me I'd like to hear what the police chief says about that thank you thank you yes sir so no would anyone from the audience like to make a final public comment hi again uh Rob fredman resident of Short Hills 10 win um just want to Echo and expand on what Mr Stoler had brought up um regarding the Israel flag I first really want to commend the town for putting up the Israel the Israeli flag that was very gutsy because this country has been unfairly vilified and the propaganda against this country has been unprecedented and although our lovely resident neighbors are very very well-intentioned there's no balance when it comes to the Palestinians flag and what it represents they do not want any state of Israel they want River to the Sea they do not represent balance and if any non-jew ever Ste foot in Gaza before October 6 you will be killed and tortured any non-jew and unfortunately all of the very well-meaning kutnik that aligned the Israeli side of the Border invited gazin neighbors to come to their kabut to break bread with them to help their families to to give them money and those same people made maps and gave Intel back to Hamas to give them all of the information they needed to slaughter 1,200 innocent people who wanted to have peace with the Palestinians just wanted to make that record thank you thank you Jeffrey Fel poet section I really want to go back to how we began this me meeting with a proclamation that we gave to the uh Charles King because when my family moved here right before my daughter joined kindergarten we hosted when my daughter was a kindergartener Progressive dinners they looked at us and go like why are you doing this you don't have any kids really in the school system but that's how you became part of this community and I'm was very pleased to hear tonight that they're going to return the progressive dinners because the beauty of the progressive dinner was we brought we invited people that we did not know they had kids in the elementary schools their kids in the middle schools and the high schools and you learned about what were the demands or what were the needs of the things and was something that made this community and the interesting thing was the first night we went when we went to like the big homes for the desserts when Charles King I met him and his wife when they found out my wife belonged to the DAR they said new blood and that was it they invited her in and that's what we had to try to do this is one Community the comments that I had about the Israeli flag I support Israeli I'm Jewish but was the process and that goes back to the black U flag raising years ago I want to correct something I want everyone to go look at Sheets 40s that talks about the capital budgeting it talks about monies that come out from your cash and money that you bound you Bond look at all those like six or seven pages the process I mean I when I ask my questions I just don't make it it's not always noise I've been through this process in various other municipalities please start bringing other people into the process earlier thank you thank you hi J Morelli resident uh first thanks to all the TC members for your time your effort and your service to the community um a couple of Kudos first thanks for the two recent information sessions um several people have commented on them uh tonight already uh the budget session uh very good information um very helpful and the two-way traffic proposal um session also very informative a lot of good discussion and questions and I think a lot of people learned a lot from that session so thank you for those um Second and this goes back to January I want to uh commend committee woman prus um and this specific second comment period um at the time was being discussed was going to be subject Limited we were only going to be able to talk about new business items and I don't even know if we had a new business item to talk about here um but committee woman prus um uh on her own said something to the effect I think people should be able to talk about whatever they like um and the TC quickly um agreed a majority voted for it um and it's it it's been well received so thank you committee woman prus for that um uh I think it's fantastic and um I hope everybody else does um finally a request um would it be possible to get Chris Meyer back to give up uh an update on the rec ffield status it was about a year ago at this time maybe a little bit earlier when Chris presented um the state of field availability for wreck um activities and it was filled with a lot of good data um number of hours that were needed um number of types of fields that were requested um it got kind of lost and I think this was probably the the rec commission's fault of the whole par three we got to tear it out but um I think that that quickly has gone aside but it would be great to see what the current status is of fields for the children that play Rec Sports um I know we've secured some additional space uh thanks to U mayor lieberberg um I know that have been conversations going on between the schools and the rec department about um sharing Fields between those um I know that there's a lot of uh uh good work that was done by graah in the open space um uh master plan element update um and it would be just great to see how all of that work has actually impacted the numbers that Chris presented a year ago at this time so if possible if Chris could come back do an update show what the numbers look like and see if any of the efforts have really helped alleviate that I think that would be fantastic so thank you very much C no resident I don't want to go on about this forever but as I said I'm no stranger to minority causes and apparently the Palestinian cause is a minority cause let me just say that I think it's just as wrong to blame every Palestinian in the world for October 7th as is to blame every Jew in the world for Palestinians who die I think that's where hate starts and I think that's where we should stop thank you thank you good evening uh Jerry Kung Short Hills resident sorry have to bring my computer up because I have some numbers to look at um I apologize in advance because I haven't been following this paper mill issue as closely as I ought to have um but I think that you know it it would be helpful for the community to sort of lay out exactly sort of what we've given the paper mill and what we've gotten back from the paper mill I understand there's all these positive externalities having the paper mill in town but there are sort of dollars and cents in terms of how much we've given them and how much they've given to us and I think that a you know pretty simple accounting of you know what that expenditure looks like would be helpful to get byy in from the community I think you know right now the way I see it and please correct me if I'm wrong um we gave them $9.1 million in exchange for their property they're paying us lease payments amounting to about $300,000 a year that lease payment sort of structure was originally meant to recoup the $9 million outlay to buy the property uh to my knowledge you know based on the data that I've seen and a lot of this isn't really easy to come by we've collected about $2.3 or so million doar in lease payments and so now they're coming back and asking for $7 million I know committee men Stoler said it's really 5.8 because you have to subtract the $1.2 million of Reserve from it I'm a little I I just don't know the answer to this is the $1.2 million of Reserve withheld from the lease payments that they had given to us so is that is are we sort of double counting in some sense so I I I think it' just be really helpful um to you know share with the community in terms of what exactly we've collected what exactly we've given them I understand there are positive externalities I get it paper mill is great but at the end of the day there has to be an answer to a question if they came to us saying we want $50 million are we going to give them that $50 million we want $45 million so at at what point does my question question I guess is at what point does it become does it make sense for us to contribute to that and did the committee you know make that determination somehow did they say did you say did you sit down and say hey if they ask for $13 million today we'd say no so I I I I'm just trying to wrap my head around this this this number um one last thing I'd like to ask because the parking lot I guess we're acquiring the parking lot as part of the $7 million um I had heard from some residents that the Papermill does not allow residents to use the parking lot for Middle School pickups I know depending on certain way certain things happen there may be a shortage of parking in town so I don't know if you know who makes that determination as to you know where pickup can happen can or cannot happen with the middle school if we own the property but now they're leasing to us can they still say that residents can't do that um and I guess my time is up thank you very much thank you you're up I just wanted to give a shout out to the environmental committee and what they're doing I think it's fabulous and I fully support it just trying to talk about things are positive and also I Al know how much work you guys put into everything so I may not agree with some of you um but I know that you work incredible I could never do it so thank you okay so I just just wanted to go back to um the crime situation because I feel like and it's is just how I feel because I talked about this last week and I kind of felt a little bit sort of blown off a little bit um like it wasn't that serious and then all of a sudden there's more crime that happened in this neighborhood over here and Keen um I'm sorry uh on was it Keen Road and yeah yeah yeah you're and so the thing that I want to say is we we all talk I feel like there's a lot of people putting responsibility on residents and yeah we we should have lock our doors like it's obvious stuff and sometimes we flake out we forget to put our alarm on the reality is people have Jammers Wireless wi sloms don't work you just Jam them people are in Smash and grab four to five minutes that's the game okay you can put up a fence they can knock it down I have somebody that I know down the shore they had two Range Rovers parked down front of their property they literally smashed the front door down in a very secure home walked in took the keys home invasion it's easy to happen so I don't really think and putting lighting out everywhere there's mult I'd be happy to send you the studies there's multiple studies that actually show that is not a deterrent all the time and it just makes for just a very bright neighborhood that people can't sleep in so I just I and I support people what they want to do but I really feel like the onus really goes back to the township now if you can't convince the chief of police to meet with the residents quickly because I don't think it's be something that should be delayed I feel like then the township committee I would hope would take you know the onus on themselves to actually create a different strategy to address the issue because as you said Mr Stoler I mean $4 million I mean we have I'm asking you to spend money because we give we don't give so much money and I'm like I don't get to spend any of the money I give like can I have some safety for my money you know that's all I want I didn't put my kids through the school system I didn't have kids so the other thing I just want to point out is there's one thing that I just this is a helpful thing Amazon deliveries I you know was thinking about a while back Amazon delivers overnight now they deliver 4:00 a.m. in the morning and they have all gig workers okay I mean they have their little trucks but they also have tons of gig workers in unidentified cars and it's it's kind of a little bit concerning because they can come in and case very easily case your neighborhood and that's something that maybe I might be wrong we could put an ordinance about that people have to be in an identifiable vehicle like remember the days when we just had FedEx and UPS and just Amazon trucks so I think it's a great opportunity for criminals to come through in case an entire neighborhood like known very very easily I also want to point out Faraday bags the police department doesn't really talk about those but there's a new trend in crime and people actually um Can remote start your car thank you and you should put your I just this is just a tip you should put all your remote keys in a faay bag when you sleep at night thank you so thank you so much thank you anyone else okay okay hi Jean past I just wanted to add one more thing uh that came out of the budget meeting about paper mill that I thought was important is it okay I keep your yeah you're good you're good I'm sorry yeah it's okay um yeah I just wanted to um add I think it was cerve that brought this up but um the actual lease that the paper mill signed back in 2008 I guess it says um that I looked it up because I was curious what exactly it said the lesie at its sole expense shall be responsible for the maintenance of the premises including restrooms elevator stairs corridors lobbies parking yada yada y um including Landscaping of outdoor areas in the maintenance repair and replacement of the roof walls walls Windows floors Foundation all equipment and U ility systems um and all other components other than those for which lesser is specifically made responsible uh so that sounds to me like the way this was presented initially was a little bit not exactly what was happening um the way it's being sold uh you know which I think Mike STS was the one that said you know the money that we would give would be used for maintenance if they're resp if they were responsible in that lease that's lease is a is a legal document uh if that's what they were responsible to do why are they coming back and asking us to do that for them not just give them money but actually use our employees to help them do these things I think Alex explained some of the work that that he's doing or that his staff is doing it just it's all seems um just too uh fuzzy around the edges and I I agree with uh Mr do kung who who said clearly that we need like concrete real understanding of exactly what's going on I think Mike Becker too uh mentioned what is happening with the donors it's just too fuzzy it's like you're asking taxpayers to fund a business uh in town yes it's a nonprofit but it is a theater business and we're getting into it and up to our knees maybe our nexts at this point and we really don't have a clear understanding of this deal so I really hope that there will be more clarity given based on the comments that you've received thank you thank you good evening Miss erso just turn your camera on please okay you're off camera's off there I am okay I'll try there you go there you go so um unfortunately I was not able to speak at the first public comment so I will perhaps email that um to all of you later uh Perry erso upper Milburn Avenue I don't consider myself a complainer but rather a concerned resident property owner Merchant and constituent it is very concerning that of all the municipalities that we deal with that Milburn is the only town since 2020 we cannot communicate with being forced into a litigation where municipality is not willing to work together collectively is wrong and wishes to litigate over mediation is absolutely absurd on your bill list tonight there's legal fees for a mediation for a property located on mbour Avenue I find it rather disturbing that I was also present at the April 15 2023 be property case management hearing that the township attorney for Milburn stated that the TC is not willing to mediate and under the current tC have chosen to litigate and no longer mediate um what I have learned since 2020 is to check verify and Trust in respon response to Mr feld's letter by the executive director which is this letter I'm sure you all have um for the Main Street New Jersey application the response to the letter which was not dated failed to state that the application not only did not include all the districts Additionally the application lacked to State the litigation pending the validity of the Sid in fact attorney resident Feld is a concerned resident of Milbourne and if it wasn't for his noise the public would not only have the right to speak privy to previous excluded Bill list items the findings of a $2 million overpayment to Prior Municipal attorney without change order and so much more I would like to say that I have no vote with the Sid and truly no voice at this time considering this board has total discretion and control over the Sid board I am requesting that the Sid executive director to be put on notice that his retaliatory tactics and defamatory actions come to cease I will later um get back to you um I'm going to send all of that with you um my concerns and I think that's it as of right now thank you very much oh also just just want to mention August I'd like to thank um Ms Cruz August of 2021 I had presented the nixel to the township committee and brought to their attention that multiple municipalities do use that so I'm hoping that someone would listen to her thank you again and have a wonderful thank you any final anyone else yesing it why not uh my name is Al Carlin 30 years and so resident uh a tenant in Milbourne and I believe today is teacher uh recognition day if I'm not mistaken and I think we should recognize the wonderful job the teachers do all over the United States and I would also thank Mr sto and everyone else on the town committee and especially Mr stall for working how many hours a week uh days 25 hours a day 26 whatever you're doing because it's totally amazing of all the work that you're doing and everyone else here thank you very much thank you anyone else hi this is chario again from Char Hills uh first of before I say anything I can never confuse between VR and key because Public Safety and crime reduction is my topmost priority and I have been advocating this for multi mulp months the reason why we were saying to relate between a paper Playhouse and uh you know crime because that's talks about prioritization Public Safety is clearly a top priority thing that needs to be looked into by by TC members and to me I still can believe that we can give $7 million doar to a thriving business as they talk about and not put some budget onto prioritizing our neighborhood which is clearly isolated I live on that block old sh store in South orang Avenue which is very near to the topmost hospital over there and it's right on the main exit so please prioritize that whether it's it's taking some budget out of Pap house if we can reconsider it please reconsider thank you thank you I will now close public comment anyone from the committee have any final thoughts Deputy Mayor sure um let's see uh Mr Becker um as far as signs announcing the license plate readers um you know I would like to know from the chief if they thought that it would be better not to draw attention to them I think at this point the criminals know of their existence um you know unfortunately it seems that the criminals that have been targeting our our homes and our town uh don't really care if there's cameras they don't care if they're getting recorded they don't care if there's motion sensitive lights um I you know during my campaign I actually got video footage uh from someone's interior of their house being robbed and the burglars knew they were on camera they had basks on and they kept looking at their watch to see how long they had before the police would come because they figured out all right it takes X number of minutes to get to the poet takes X number of minutes to get to you know haror or wherever in town um these criminals are sophisticated um there are some that are just kids they don't know what they're doing but they tend to be trained by gangs that do know what they're doing right so um yeah I mean we could add more cameras and stuff but I think we really need to have an honest conversation with the police leadership and look at some of the techniques that other towns might be employing successfully um you know when I was speaking to um assembly woman boli she mentioned that in Livingston if you go on vacation you can pay $10 to the police as an administrator fee and once a day they'll come and they'll walk around your property and they'll do that at a random time of day and I thought that's that's a fantastic idea wouldn't it be great if we had a program like that here in Milburn and if we do I don't think anyone's aware of it so um these are small ideas of innovative things that we can maybe be doing and we don't need to go about this alone we don't need to you know reinvent the wheel we should be working with other towns and I think maybe a good a good step uh to help promote that is to form uh the committee that uh Miss Peri uh spoke about where we have residents working with police uh in an advisory capacity to come up with ideas on how to combat crime and maybe there are similar commities and other towns uh around us and maybe they could you know work with one another talk with one another um that way we can benefit from you know all of the knowledge that's out there um Mr Kung um I I too would would like more clarity on exactly how much we got back from the paper mail I think you rais a good point about you know that 1.2 million goes in reserve so I'd like Mr McDonald to answer for us whether that 1.2 million was lease payments that were paid and then put into a trust fund and then my read of the lease doesn't seem to mention anything having to do with a trust fund or deferral of lease payments into a separate account so I would like some clarity as to exact where that money came from and why it was earmarked as a trust fund to go back to the paper mill if that wasn't in the lease and and if I missed it you know please correct me um but you know if we look at it that way you really have to subtract that 1.2 million out from the total amount of lease payments they've made to determine how much they've actually paid back because by my calculations that 9 million dollar spend in 2008 was supposed to be recouped over the 30-year lease period and so you know if they they they stick around then that will that will happen uh however the $7 million that we're giving is is not going to be recuperated and if um you know we have that trust fund in play then you know we might not even get that full n billion if we're you know giving it back so that's that's a bit concerning uh and I'd like to get some clarity uh on that uh Miss goel I I think you're absolutely right um you know to spend $7 million uh in a giveaway project for the paper mill and you know I want everyone to be clear the paper mill may have indirectly threatened to leave town I I don't think they've done that in any formal capacity and honestly I think we should call their Bluff because I don't think they're going anywhere they have over a decade left on their lease um there are plenty other competing theaters in the state I I just don't think they're going to leave town I think what they would do if they wanted to build their fancy glass Atrium as they proposed they would just go to their donors and get more money they've bragged about how much money they've been able to raise from their donors uh and you know what's what's an extra $7 million if they're already raising you know 20 plus million dollar I think they'd be able to do it or they could scale back um and then you know uh someone in the audience made a comment I think it was you Dr Kung uh that you know the maintenance of the paper mill facilities is to be handled by the paper mill and part of their excuse for wanting this money from the town is well the town owns the property and you know it needs this upkeep things have fallen into disrepair well if they properly maintained the paper mill if the paper mill itself properly maintain their property then they wouldn't need to be coming to us now and asking for more money to do something that they already should have been doing all along bottom line is they're responsible for that and we shouldn't be bailing them out um um I think that's all I [Music] have sure I'll go uh one is uh for Miss goell there is no prioritization between safety and the paper Bill all the money in the world is on the table I said our debt capacity is $240 million I know it's difficult to understand but if we could give $240 million to the police department and they would take it we would give it to them okay and also to from before I would suggest not leaving young children at home alone that's definitely at the top of list of things not to do uh for safety um Mr Kong uh you know uh you're also Mr sack's Husband you've been at every meeting I I would absolutely implore you to go back and actually rewatch The TC meetings where we go this in verbatim and look at the memos uh and we also had multiple information sessions you can pull up online all of it's under what it's on Milburn Township twp.pa missed it the first time or second time or third or fourth time but maybe a fifth time will help you understand it uh wck Field's update absolutely I'm on the liaison for the rec Fields commission we have a meeting tomorrow night um pushing hard a lot of great things in the work and and this is one of the comments I made early earlier on is you have to know how to schedule they're not working with the Board of Education before now they are and they're doing optimal scheduling for the fields well that brings down the the requests quite a bit so running a business understanding how to run this town as a business not having my opic view on everything because you don't see how whole business works it's very important it's about scheduling Mr kers I think everybody in this room believes and supports that Palestinians should not be I don't think that's the question the question is we support Israel in solidarity with our brothers and sisters and the only democracy in the Middle East and Mr Freeman thank you for those kind words Etc um and Christine best you know always coming coming with great stuff you're absolutely right on on on those pieces on on the crime Etc and then the nixel with what Miss erso has brought many years ago uh you know I think four four years ago she s suggested Niel that's just one of the opportunities and understanding how to do it is is very good so I'd like to thank Miss erso on nixel as well I just wanna you know obviously we've spent a lot of time about crime several meetings ago I had raised an issue I saw something that Summit was doing with the police were doing home Audits and said we would get back on it and I've heard nothing since I don't mean to blide your Alex but you know that's something we need to we need to Institute where you know the police they from their community policing effort if on request will come to your house and give you give you advice about you know this is what you could do you know doesn't it's not 100% foolproof but you know if there's something that the police think that you could be doing to make your make your house less of a Target you you should at least know that and I think we said we were going to push that through and it seems to have died so I'd like to see that happen thank [Music] you um couple things one is in the discussions regarding the paper mill I don't know um that it was was ever described that the $1.2 million was not their lease payments I think we made that uh very clear um that there was a decision made prior to this committee prior to my being the administrator that those payments would be put into a reserve uh whether that was a discussion between the committee at that time and the business administrator at that time I could not tell you um however it was never portrayed as anything but uh those lease payments putting into put into Reserve in the anticipation quite frankly that I understand it in the event the township had to do some maintenance at that property um I think Dr kung's question regarding direct money um provided to the township I think we're talking about we provided $9 million to bail out the Papermill back in 2008 we got $10 million in property and then they are also paying a lease payment um that will should the lease go beyond the 30 years uh outpace the total um um contribution by the township now certainly I don't have a calculator in front of me or anything like that with regard to the $50,000 for the for the parking lot but also kept interest not being calculated into that uh in terms of the notes um but I think the biggest thing there is you know if you want to speak dollar to dollar okay but also there's an asset that the township has um should the paper mill not exist there whether that ever happens or not um it is certainly a $10 million asset um as it's currently valued that the township owns um to Mr Cohen's um question regarding the home Assessment program um so the individuals uh that in the police department there's three individuals that are being trained for that um those signups will start on May 30th um and in early June um they're ready to go I think one of them is going on vacation um and so uh you know we're just we're just working through getting the materials ready getting the sign up ready getting their system ready and how they're going to approach um when people when our residents are available when they can um sort of get out there to do these Assessments in a an efficient way as well um so uh but May 30th signups will start for that thank you um I'll just use this to uh report on something I forgot about previously but um the um the police Staffing study will be on the uh 21st agenda for the Township's consideration um and I think that's unless there's any other questions that the committee has for me I'll be happy to answer I not to respon to mayit has any questions I think we have to say happy mother that's you know thank all the mothers and our grandmothers