e e e e e complaints go will e what time e e e e e e e so e e e think good evening I'd like to call the May 28 2024 burrow council meeting to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting statement adequate notice that this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 specifying the time date and location by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building Municipal website providing a copy of the annual notice scheduled to the official newspaper of the burrow and is on file F in the clerk's office will the clerk please call the role council president rolinski here councilman Collins here councilman moo here councilman pansky here councilman Potter here councilman Zam Brana here mayor Murray here borrow Attorney James Clarkin here borrow engineer luk Lanka here borrow administrator Fred Carr here borrow clerk Monica Orlando here Deputy borrow clerk Mary gy will everyone stand for a moment of silence which will be followed by the assum of the flag I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so can we have uh Mr Worley I st name I Robert warley do Solly swear do Solly swear that I will Faithfully that I will Faithfully partially partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties all the duties of the office of of the office of police officer police officer to the best of my ability to the best of my ability and that I will support constition of the United States of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New JY and that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of people so help out so help rest on congrats [Laughter] just change up the format a little bit um if we can have so we're going to do this a little bit we have change whereas Memorial Day is a day of reflection and PM observance to honor the men and women of the Armed Forces who have lost their lives in service of the country and whereas we honor all men and women of all wars and conflicts who fought and died on behalf of our treasured ideas and do so with clear eyed recognition of the honors War brings to all those it touches and whereas the military service members who have fallen in combat leave behind families and other loved ones who left with the pain of their losses and carried that loss with them for the remainder of their days experiencing true cost of war in ways the majority of their countrymen and women cannot and whereas Memorial Day in accordance with the joint resolution of Congress passed in May 11th 1950 is also the day dedicated to call to prayer for Perman peace and whereas towards the goal of Peace Memorial Day is a day for Som somber reflection on the lives lost and potentials left unfilled fulfilled and for holding fast to our Earnest hope and our commitments to nonviolent solutions to conflict and true lasting peace where all people can Thrive and whereas from from the first decoration day until now we have made much progress as a nation and people to live up to the ideals for which so many have given the ultimate sacrifice yet have much more work to do and whereas one way to honor the the dead is treat the living well and we wish to thank those veterans who gave their lives for freedom that have that we have today and also by honoring those who bravely fought beside them especially Marine Gary Ritman recipient of the NJ DSM and Veteran Vietnam service medal for his service in Vietnam now therefore I George Murray with the burrow counsel for the burrow of miltown to honor all members of the Armed Forces who have lost their lives in service to their country and I call on community members to recognize and support the loved ones of all fallen and encourage all residents to reflect on their roles in creating more just peaceful nation in the world oh you thank you for your service gave you T thank you good did a good speech turn out follow tell you congratulations thank you that's okay that's all right start don't say it again God bless you God bless you I send it to you I figured it would look good take y you [Music] that thank you sir [Music] here so thank you all uh this way it gives him a little bit more time so I'd like to present uh invite Randy Ruth from the miltown historic preservation committee to come up and give his presentation please thank you thank you um so this isn't the first time I've been up here I think this might be the sixth or seventh time that I've presented for the historic preservation committee and most of the presentations have been kind of the same uh they've evolved a little bit over the past few years but this one is uh unique to this evening so there's going to be some more uh more direct content and of course if you have any questions afterwards I'm here to answer them but so without further Ado good evening I am randy Ruth chairman of the miltown historic preservation committee and I'm here tonight to present to the council the community's biannual obligation Outline by burough ordinance here's an outline of what's to come the difference between a a committee and a commission misconceptions associated with commissions what we as a burough have missed out on the importance of commission the process immediate assistance and some closing thoughts the difference between a committee and a commission is significant this committee was established 19 years ago then as is still true today the committee is not recognized by the municipal land use laws and therefore does not have any authority over real property on the other hand the commission does have have this Authority the extent of this Authority is dictated by the council through local ordinances there are two broad categories of commissions weak and strong in a strong commission the framework the hisor preservation commission reports directly to an administrative officer within the buau a week commission reports to the planning board which then takes the commission's advice and reports to the administrative officer so planning boards always the intermediary the key difference in in reporting and who officially makes the decision I'm here to Advocate on behalf of the committee for a weak commission at this time there are many misconceptions about historic preservation commissions I previously provided the council with information on this topic as well as the difference between weak and strong commissions briefly put there are many benefits to Property Owners including increased property values tax incentives technical assistance and guidance access to Grants and funding and community and cultural Pride the latter is something much uh has today however strengthening that Community Pride will undoubtedly pay dividends there is a myth that a commission has restrictive regulations however those regulations are reasonable and comparable to current zoning regulations regarding what people can and cannot do with their property the myth of decreased property values is somewhat comical since I've never KN never knowingly been in a historic district and thought this place place is a dump in fact it's usually a highly desirable attribute touted by Realtors to have a historic being a historic district the process albeit new to miltown is not all that complicated and is very similar to current zoning processes there's a concern that a commission will restrict paint colors well this is not a targeted goal even if it were true restricted colors would be reasonable keep in mind that with a weak commission it is ultimately the planning board making the decision what we have missed out on is opportunity nearly all of the grant money that comes down from government requires some sort of oversight would you give money to an organization that didn't have the appropriate framework to operate probably not and the state and accounting are no different Key Properties could directly benefit are South Main Street Firehouse Cottage Avenue Firehouse Historical Society buildings and schwinderman property these are only what the burrow had has authority over because they own them this doesn't include incentives for developers to convert multif family homes on places like Main Street to small business spaces that kind of incentive would increase value for residents of the town and increase the tax revenue for the burrow this is in stark contrast to the current situation where buildings can be demolished for no reason other than to decrease the property owners effective tax rate this is what what happened at South Main Street and ktha Avenue through three buildings each generating a minimum of $8,000 a year in taxes were then demolished to create an isore some back of the envelope math pegs at about $100,000 in Lost Revenue over four years with no future development proposed at this time in essence these little cuts to the burrow add up to significant amounts the importance of a commission is to ultimately increase access to funding that incentivizes property upkeep multif family Property Owners may be limited in what or in what or how they can aesthetically alter building this leads to a more pleasing aesthetic in comparison to what the is the cheapest legal option such incentives encourage incremental development that is organic rather than a jolt to the community such as a large transformative project think Ford Avenue Redevelopment once that happens with a known set of rules everyone in involved will have better managed expectations with fewer surprises in terms of development as mentioned previously needless demolition can be prevented which preserves and maintains which preserves and enhances tax ratables that keeps taxes lower to the residents of this town now that we have not now that we have seen what 19 years without a commission has not done such such as preserving or developing the firehouse Historical Society buildings and moving the Ron River Railroad Station I think it's time to try something different the process is outlined as follows the introduction of the ordinance for historic preservation commission then the council votes to adopt the ordinance and then the mayor appoints the members to the historic preservation commission then the planning board integrates historic preservation into the master plan then we develop guidelines and criteria for historic designation and the process for alterations to Historic properties and then historic preservation element of the master plan and then public hearing for the introduction of the ordinances for the rules that are enforced by the historic preservation commission then the council votes to adopt the new ordinance then the provide training for the commission members on historic preservation practices legal issues and their specific roles and responsibilities this is followed by further development of forms of uh paperwork and forms and processes while this seems like a lot and and sure you have a lot of questions fortunately there is assistance with this preservation New Jersey has reached out to the committee with hosting upcoming programs that they're trying to work with um middle sex County and they're trying to keep them keep these particular workshops and round tables um within middle sex County these include Roundtable discussions with the county and other parties with various topic outlines on the slide workshops in the fall can be resources for leveraging the newly required resources of a commission to develop further programming and cultural related to Historic preservation while miltown does not have to host any of these events which will cost the B cost the burrow nothing they will be held some somewhere in the county and would be useful for members of the Council planning board and commission to attend it also helps to send a message to the county about miltown commitment to Historic preservation which includes efforts and an opinion to save the Ron River Railroad Station in closing advantages of a commission include flexibility and adapt adaptability allowing for various approaches to Community Development and preservation it enhances Community engagement by ensuring local voices are heard in decision-making processes commissions support incremental Pro progress facilitating steady and sustainable improvements over time one significant benefit is the enhanced protection of historic and cultural assets preserving the community's Heritage financially strong commissions and even weak Comm commission stimulate the economy through preservation and development projects they often have access to Grants and funding opportunities that can support Community initiatives leading to increased property values by maintaining and enhancing the attractiveness of the area additionally they play a crucial role in cultural stewardship safeguarding the community's traditions and identity to overcome public misconceptions about preservation efforts education and outreach are essential transparency is the Commission in the commission's activities builds trust and ensures accountability inclusive decision-making processes ensure all community members have a say in the in the preservation and development plans demonstrating the success of the commission Le projects highlights the positive impact of of the community really need to move the raron River Railroad Station to better serve the community preserving the the Historic Firehouse as a symbol of miltown Heritage and cultural resources revitalizing Main Street to enhance economic activity and Community Pride by working together we can help keep miltown the greatest little town in all the land so one of the things that I'm closing out on asking directly is you know helping support move the train station and one of the ways is by having a commission to have this framework so we can get community grants the reality is is that this Railroad Station would be moved to and it's always been the plan to be moved to County property that is to some degree managed by the burrow so when people have asked how's the burrow involved what does it have to do with them they don't own the building that's act absolutely true but they would be involved and they need to have a seat at the table and I think s having a commission really strengthens that that point that the buau is behind moving moving the station so I'm asking the direct ask here is that an ordinance be potentially introduced sooner rather than later within the next potentially even the next council meeting um so that's all I have any questions question is there Beyond this beyond the the train train station is there what would be like is there any hot list of other actions that you know well it's all about leveraging being able to gain access to opportunities that miltown burrow residents and even the municipality don't have access to because of the way funds are distributed through the federal and state government so in order for somebody to give the burrow or resident money that is associated with historic preservation you need to have this framework that a commission offers in place so it's really think of it as a lot of small projects would add up to a greater benefit for the whole and as Randy said um if I may uh how many years 19 years it's been 19 years that that the committee since the committee was formed the committee was one of the T tasks was to come before the burrow and present a list of potential properties and districts within 180 days which I assumed happened and also give give a by anual presentation at some point somebody lost steam with this committee maybe because they real they came to the same conclusion that a commission would really be needed and only maybe what four years ago was it rekindled that oh it's on the books that a committee does exist and that a biannual presentation would be an obligation so I've been here trying to rekindle that ever since because it may not have been uh within the Burrow's uh ability or desire maybe in say 2005 or 2006 but you know we see what what is transpired over that time which is quite frankly I don't think a whole lot and those problems are still here so I say let's try to do something different instead of spinning our Wheels a May um and again you know I'm a new councilman some of this stuff is things I've heard of uh but what is there a guideline for what the word historical as it applies to to the state as applies to Grants commission like the word hisorical could be 50 years 100 years something that is very important May transcend a date that's true so the there's a general consensus that anything that's 50 years would be the The Benchmark there's actually exceptions things could be 40 45 years but within the uh when when in this process of there being a commission you identify potential properties it doesn't mean that they're all automatically listed and considered necessarily historic um again it's a it's an ongoing process so ideally you'd be looking at some key structures key key buildings and say this is a local Historic Landmark for example you may say further down the line that this area is actually maybe a historic district thinking let's just say North Main Street just properties on on North Main Street for example where to be honest in that situation that's where you're going to have fewer individual uh single family homes and maybe where you'd have mixed use property so there's different ways to Target this it's a lot of it is another tool and toolkit for planners and and and Zoning is kind of where where it lies and that's that's a key element that Randy just said it's another tool in the toolkit so if you don't even go or um look to be a commission you start to be a weak commission I'm not saying to be a strong commission but if if if you can just go and become a weak commission with support from us and at least you can try to add that tool to the toolbox and and get some funds into the town yeah some gr Brandy question how many active members do you have currently with the committee we're full well actually um active members so the people on the committee we actually had one person stepped down okay uh and that's because she had other obligations she was uh not an alternate but we're moving through that process I think we may have already found once once we knew about it later that day we We believe We may have found somebody so the obligation is one uh Council aison which is currently Gary pansky this year then there's uh four main members and then two alternates would this is me just thinking out loud which probably shouldn't be done in the Forum but hey microp I just have to wonder is things like the the Swinderman property some of these other establishments that have been in town for a while if you want to try and Frank the microphone oh I'm sorry thank you uh some of the other properties in town that I know uh we have a grant for the Swinderman property but the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of some of those properties based on 50 years uh would that fall under that is that something is that something Our Town might be able to look to in the future to help keep some of the things that we've started trying to to preserve from being an ongoing I wouldn't say burden but uh you know upkeep is certainly something it's just an ongoing cost and if the commission helps that that uh that strengthens the argument yes I will say that funds for actual reconstruction are typically limited for established property so that you need to we the funding usually lies is and this is the best example I have would be if you had a multif family house with uh apartments on the first floor second floor third floor and somebody wanted to turn that into a business or an incom producing property meaning not a rental property but an actual business even if it was on the first floor then there would be grant funding for that uh and to restore the property usually some sort of matching Grant in the case of this schendan property there would certainly be more opportunities with sustainable uh funding and programming um but I think a part of it is better governing if you have a historic preservation commission you create a framework that helps the burrow navigate Waters that it really doesn't navigate very well because it's there's not an established process in terms of navigating these Grant Cycles so yeah I think it would it would help them so even if there wasn't necessarily a specific historic preservation Grant um if one were to come along which these random grants do come along and they say essentially need to be a commission locally designated Historic Site nobody sees these coming these aren't part of necessarily annual annual uh funding rounds then miltown is prepared so it's about being prepared for the things that we had might not currently be aware of so less than a direct course of action it is it implies that we would have access to Future monies and future format for legislation that might help us control and maintain the town absolutely thank you I got a a question a little confused on your previous statement about um a multif family house that would generate a income or an income generating property and you said the grant monies would be available to restore are you referring to Grant Monies to restore that to a single family home and multif family home or to prevent a business from coming in and changing the uh the appearance of that home so that a business could operate there or is it grant money that could help a business Thrive I think you mis sure where where yeah I think you misunderstand the definition of an incom producing property so obviously if you're a property owner and you have four rental units on a property that's income for you but it's not necessar the way they Define income producing property is a business so it's about turning a a multif family or residential property into a business property where a business would operate which I think makes sense on places okay so so the grant money I was I was going to say if you were proposing to encourage additional rentals No in fact it would that was a little counterproductive but okay thank you for clarifying that in fact it would probably decrease the number of those units potentially also you had mentioned uh 50 years and I know we have the historic district and based on your previous presentations a lot of those were along Main Street and they were well over 50 years uh who would set the criteria for the commission to consider because my home for example um which is off of JFK Drive was built in 78 or 76 possibly which would put me just around the corner from 50 years and I would not consider that a historic home um so I'm wondering like who who would then create that criteria and designate who who's available for funding and who is not well I would say that a commission would draft it the council approves everything but then the ultimate determination when Grant monies became available and it was time to distribute those that would be the commission determining who's the recipient or that's not exactly how it works it's something that's already established so you would have established that a property let's say is in a historic district and I can tell you right now that you know homes from 19 78 aren't necessarily uh targeted for this type of development and opportunity it's really for the older homes on Main Street uh neighborhoods when you create a historic district they need to be neighborhoods of really exceptional and unique character and you need to make the the entire um presentation that this is something unique and special so I don't know about your neighborhood because it's 1978 if everything looks the same you could make the argument that those houses are uh uniquely identifiable and that they should be preserved but you know it's also all residential and I think the point of the commission is to focus more on generating Revenue uh Revenue by increasing ratables right by making a property more um more valuable to the burrow than it is to say you in this residential section of of the buau we want to have Authority or control over how you do or update your building yeah I'm my my uncle's uh the owner of a property in Sandwich Massachusetts and um he was redoing the siding and uh he decided to put up some plastic uh over the over the wood paneling or whatever you would call it on the outside and then covered by traditional lapboard um he was a stopped from doing so because they said that's not how homes were built back then um so here he is trying to maintain a historic home and keep a certain appeal to it and I just I want to make sure that you know if we were to move forward with a commission whether it be weak or strong that we were not prohibiting folks from putting in building materials that would lead to the longevity and not um you know to their detriment where they have to replace a railing every couple years because you weren't allowed to use wood preservatives back when it was originally constructed yeah and I would make as as an example no no you're absolutely right and i' I've given this example before and I I'll say it again is that you know and this was a case on a bir owned property where it was the miltown historical society where a traditional metal roof portch roof was replaced um by a contractor there was no oversight over that there used to be oversight over roofing contractors uh to get I forget exactly what it was but that changed I think around six years ago so there was no code or inspector needed to or from the B needed to approve it and what happened was is that roofing shingles went up the historical Society paid a good sum of money and then Hey look it's a well-built roof but hey now it's pitched strong and now it's creating drainage issue so having a commission in that context would have potential because there's other ways to do it that it could have been done for a lot less money in a more historically appropriate way it's at the very least a stop Gap to say who wait a second have you considered all your options as a property owner have you looked at the historically uh appropriate way methodology and sometimes if the answer is yes and they create a good reason as to why a modern material is appropriate then so be it but as it sits right now there's no opportunity for the burrow to step in and especially in that that example to prevent damage and wasted funds the goal is to always to preserve the structure regardless of what the materials are are there now some historic preserv ation commission see things uh in their own unique way but I can tell you that even the New York's land landmarks commission which is known to be as very strict they understand that if you have an ornamental terracotta piece it is cost prohibitive to have custommade terracotta be replaced in kind that's the term as replaced in kind and so there are acceptable means and methods and materials such as you know essentially fiberglass that can be used in place because it looks good enough and it's it's reasonable so so in other words though um and those were great examples thank you but it you would basically need permission to deviate from traditional materials essentially yeah you need to have some way to stop it and it sometimes it's a basic conversation other times it would be more involved depending on what it is I know for where I live in a historic neighborhood you know historic neighborhood on on Clay Street you know one controversial element is solar panels and I have solar panels on my roof I'm a case in point where I I would go against many historic commissions willingness to because it believe me it's very controversial I'm of the opinion that if it if it's good for the property owner then okay let's let's hear the argument I just had my chimney rebuilt was it built with original brick no it was not I I get I I tend to get concerned when we think about subjective terms like good you like good for the property owner yes you might say my house house is worth more as historically valuable but no it's actually not good for me because now I have to pay more money for a product that may not last as long and it's up to another governing body to determine that when it's when it's my property I I personally have have concern with that particular aspect but I think that's the bulk of why in the past it probably has not moved forward I I heard rumors one time of like you have to replace the guard rail for or not rail guard rail the railing on a porch in a traditional manner um which may have been cost prohibitive uh you have to paint your home I know you mentioned paint colors but you have to paint your home within a certain category of paint colors or maybe you have to use glazing and not Anderson Windows not a plug for Anderson um but things of that nature um and and that tends to be a little concerning and while I could certainly appreciate incentives to maintain those historic values I would hate to be the person to tell someone you can't do with your property what you deem most appropriate as long as it's not completely outrageous well right now there's no control at all and and that's really the point is that by having a commission there can be a dialogue and currently with without a commission there's no dialogue at anybody body can do whatever they want and you know that's that's fair you can do whatever you want but there's a there's a price that's that's paid for that one is not having the opport everybody else to have opportunities for for these types of tax incentives for these types of grant grant monies so it's a trade-off as with anything and I can say that at least for about you know 19 years it's I think held back some of the their projects from moving forward and see where it goes I'm curious also and I'm just putting my thinking cap on um is there anything other than a commission that would allow um a historically motivated group or organization to review like building permits and say this person's doing this maybe we can encourage them to do something that wouldn't be they they need approval from the Commission in order to proceed but rather uh allow a historical society or or historically interested group to be aware of certain construction activities and say hey let's talk to the person first just as like kind of a intermediary like a seg way into the conversation to see how it goes I think it's my understanding that the municipal land use law which governs historic preservation uh and acknowledges it and allows it to exist um the state has basically has their opinions there's there's no other uh method I suppose a complete radical change to our you know how we do planning if we had you know form based codes but I mean that's completely different that's not something normal it's not common in Midtown I mean try to mention ukian zoning versus form-based codes I don't know how many people even know the difference between those two things let's not use too complicated words yeah so yeah there there's ways but they're incredibly complicated and they still would not necessarily allow for the uh the grant monies because it's really the structure of the way the state has decided how to do it they say if we're going to trickle down the funding to to the local or to the local municipality then you got to jump through these hoops right meet the criteria that's right thank you thank you for your presentation uh could you tell me one example where a commercial establishment has gone from housing to commercial because historically in miltown every building I know that was commercial has gone to housing can you give me one example well there's not really any examples of something going from residential to Commercial and that's the point is that there's not really an incentive to do so it's really to develop whatever the market desires and I think that it's no shock to say that there is a shortage of at least affordable housing within most places especially in something densely populated like New Jersey miltown included it and it should be noted that usually the most affordable housing is the housing that's already built so it's a lot cheaper to create a single family or a single single apartment out of something that exists than something right a multif family had a commercial building that's the way we've gone in mown John didn't wasn't Valley National Bank wasn't that the house that residential that moved into a Dr 40s yeah so that's one example that was quasy commercial cuz it was the doctor's office and still still and they had some upstairs but I think that was a residential house yeah more original home that got that's acial Zone answer to your question yeah I I'd like to point out that a lot of businesses uh used to exist in very strictly residential areas thinking Church Street uh up to Clay even that corner of church and Clay busy intersection I think there was a candy shop there there was a butcher or a couple butchers along that block uh a lot of uh grocery stores and and butchers on South Main Street that are now either single family homes or multi Family Apartments now I a question also that I know I was when I was younger very much younger that uh I worked over at the uh uh I forget the name of the place now over on River Road there what is that East Jersey East Jersey Oldtown Oldtown yeah and I worked over there and it was extremely costly to restore those buildings my father had been a Mason he did lime slack I don't know if you know what that is I do where they have to put the you know lime on the walls and uh it was extremely costly I mean uh I don't know if I could ask the residents to have to you know spend the money to preserve their houses that way it would you know I just don't I could do that I mean to to be fair in context those houses are uh one the representative of something from anywhere from the 16th to maybe late or early 18th century so they're not miltown doesn't have too many things quite that old but I think it's and their goal is to celebrate that particular time period a lot of those buildings are also not built with they were rebuilt with more modern materials which actually prevents them from doing basic restoration work because it would be too costly including there's um one of their in their kitchen demonstrative kitchen the Bake Oven does not work and the reason it does not work is because the chimney was built hastily and incorrectly with the wrong materials so these things you know it even even a place like that has it's it has a lot of charm and it's a very nice place to visit but historic um appropriateness and how and and exactly nothing's going to be exact a building evolves a building learns a buildings change building materials change and I think that a commission would be mindful of that that things evolve and it's not about being strict to any particular time period necessarily so in understanding just is because everybody's heard the worst case scenarios I worked in bayad for a remodeler and uh that was a nightmare it uh but there's a reason for it and they accept that when you buy a place there and in say in a we commission format just for my understanding how easy would it be for a weak commission to decide okay we like red we want a lot of red houses you want to keep the houses red how easy would it be what would the process be or what would stop that weat commission from being able to FasTrack that and Implement that in let's say a year you as being a councilman because a part of the process that I outlined this is just just because there is an ordinance for commission all the all the decisions that would take course over say a six-month process would be uh reviewed by the council and the mayor so once everything goes to a professional like say the burough planner he's going to identify certain things so it's not just a a commission that's making all these decisions then it goes back before the council and you know with recommendations and says okay now it's up to you based on off of this new ordinance you know and you're going to be a part of what's written in that ordinance as to how things are done so it is a system of checks and balances that ends up in our laps at some point at some point yes and then it moves on and then it's because then at some Point once you're comfortable you then entrust to a degree the commission to then move forward and you're delegating out the responsibility for them to then carry out what you've outlined kind of the last one I'm wrapping up so sorry guys um you got a ballpark number for what it's going to cost to move that railroad thing depends depends on throw a number at me I don't know under 100,000 okay and so there's no Shad getting the grant for that without being a commission is that how I'm hearing it pretty much there were some opportunities that came through the State Department New Jersey Department of Transportation Oddball Grant and the only when I had looked into it most recently because let's put it this way if there was a commission we could have applied right okay that that says it yeah okay I'm you know risk value assessment future gain something to think about thank youcome isn't there other places a committee could appeal for money we preserve the railroad well when it comes to government money as I mentioned in the presentation I don't think anybody here would entrust you know any of their their personal finances to somebody to but isn't there private uh organizations that a committee could go to sure but there's there's free public Monies and honestly for the past 19 years that that's opportunity that you're suggesting has been on the table and I don't know if there's any such thing is free public money well there's has to come from somewhere well it is but there have been there when I say free I mean money that's already been allocated to a particular resource like historic preservation so that's money on the table that we can't even consider and the public the public opportunity for the public to get private donations that's been there for a long time and again it hasn't materialized SO waiting even even longer with the same set you know handt I don't I don't really know I don't have a lot of faith in that being the Saving Grace to do it but I can tell you that having a commission is something that hasn't been tried and has been a if there was one there would have been more opportunities to gain access to to funding thank you Randy one sorry one last final question just out of curiosity um does the county have a historic preservation committee that kind of rolls over and encompasses uh Burrows that don't have one that's an interesting question um so it's my first of off they don't have a committee H I had asked that question to the county and it seems that counties wouldn't have it I was told that they wouldn't the way the municipal land use laws written they wouldn't have a historic preservation commission it would be handled some other way um they do have other means of managing their historic properties through their parks department I mean even this historic preservation committee as it stands is technically managed through the parks department um you know to but it's still you know that's just administrative uh they how the county operates it's it's different it's a different legal frame work and it's not necessarily applicable to to miltown okay thank you thank you okay thank you very much thank you [Applause] Randy now is the time for public comment limited to the resolutions on the agenda if you wish to speak please stand step up to the microphone and state your name and the address for the record again this is public portion is limited to the comments only on resolutions listed on the agenda at this time okay um close the close the public seeing none yep seeing none I will close the public comment portion of the meeting um the meeting minut for May 13th 2024 are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections no uh can I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes as typed move that the minutes be approved as typed second I have a motion by council president ravinsky seconded by councilman Potter uh all in favor I any opposed okay ordinance introduction this is this introduction of ordinance 24-1 1537 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight this is Introduction summary will be published as required by law and second reading public hearing of and Final adoption will be consed on June 10th 2024 full copies of the ordinance will be posted on of our website under Bolton board at the municipal building and available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday the clerk will please read ordinance 24-1 1537 by title only ordinance authorizing the installation of two additional stop signs at the intersection of Clay Street and Oaks Avenue to convert the intersection to a four-way stop controlled intersection may I have a motion and a second to adopt the ordinance 24537 introdu Mr Mayor I move that ordinance 24537 be adopted on first reading published according to law and that a public hearing be held at our next regularly scheduled council meeting as you stated second I have a motion by councilman Potter seconded by council president rinsky does anyone have any questions or comments yes I'd like to thank councilman revolinsky for putting forward this idea this is a good idea that came out of the public safety meeting last year we had at the senior center and uh I got to say Rich he came up with a good idea I'd just like to say thanks well thank you councilman Collins but I must say that uh a lot of the credit is due over to councilman Potter for this one for uh for staying on top of it this year and his role for Public Safety so nice work thanks Dave thank you both and thank you for the residents putting that for as well thank you will a clerk please call the role council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins councilman moo I councilman pansy councilman Potter councilman Zam BR I the second reading and public hearing on this ordinance will take place on June 10th 2024 at 700 p.m. Council Chambers this is an introduction of ordinance 24-1 1538 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction summary will be published as required by law in second reading public hearing a final adoption will be considered on June 10th 2024 full copies of the ordinance will be posted on a our website and a bulletin board in a municipal building and available at no cost in the office of municipal clerk between the hours of 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday will the clerk please read ordinance 24 1538 by title only Bond ordinance providing for various Road improvements appropriating 1,750,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $601,500 bonds and notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in and by the burough of miltown in the county of middlex New Jersey may I have a motion in a second to to adopt ordinance 24538 please I make a motion that ordinance 24538 be adopted on first reading published according to law and that the public hearing be held the next meeting on June 10th at 7 pm. in council chambers I'll second it sorry I'll second it I have a a motion by council president rev Linsky second it by uh councilman Collins thank you um does anyone have any questions or comments uh I would just like to elaborate a little bit on this one um this $1,750,000 uh is intended for Road improvements for which we received grants which are North Brook Drive a continuation of F and we've also added in another $250,000 in there to start addressing some of the Ada ramps and uh and curbing along Main Street as well beginning at the south end of town will the clerk please call the roll council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman panski councilman Potter hi councilman zamber I a second reading in public hearing on this ordinance will take place on June 10th 2024 at 7 p.m council chambers the following ordinance was introduced on May 13th 2024 and published in accordance with the law if any member of the public wishes to to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24536 by title ordinance amending the revised General ordinances of the burough of miltown chapter 29 storm order management Article 1 storm order management and control may I have a motion in a second I make a motion that ordinance 24536 be adopted on second and final reading and advertised according to law second I have a motion by council president revolinski seconded by councilman Potter um now I open a uh public hearing on ordinance 24536 please state your name and address for the record these comments are limited to comments on this ordinance only okay seeing none I will call close the public comment portion of the meeting will the clerk please call the role council president revolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman Mano hi councilman pansy councilman Potter I councilman Zim Brana I authorizing payments of Municipal obligations next on the agenda we have authorizing of payments of Municipal obligations we clerk please read the resolution by title resolution 20246 authorizing the payment of bills claims and statements against the burrow of miltown in a total amount of 5,382 10945 you have heard the reading of this resolution are there any questions yes Mr Mayor uh I have a question that on page seven it's uh was it Morano law is that what Ford Avenue bankruptcy it says yes sir yeah that's 4 and on page 10 I think it was it says pfk o Conor Davis is that a law firm or is that a so it's the firm uh that was last year's auditing firm they're doing the audit from last year it's part of their contract and they're currently in process of doing that audit as we speak okay thank you do we have a anticipated date of completion for that yes do you happen to know what that date is no but yes they're they're rounding it up I'm hoping it hoping it's done by the end of June because they what so so what's required in the audit is they have to complete their their portions of all their tests then they have to brief uh myself uh and the finance officer traditionally on their findings prior to presenting that to the council for adoption hey Fred will they be presenting the audit uh in in the last meeting of June or will that go into Late July when we have that out brief we'll have that conversation but we're not there yet okay thank you may I have a motion in the second move that the uh Bill list be approved as type second I have a motion by Council PR president rinsky um seconded by councilman Potter um will the clerk please call the role council president revolinsky hi councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman pansi councilman Potter councilman Zam BR I a consent resolution has been prepared for the resolutions listed on the agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and hav been reviewed by borrow Council will be enacted on by one not motion any items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any council member and if so removed will be treated as a separate matter any items requiring expenditures are supported by a cert certification of funds if any member of the council wants any resolutions acted on uh individually please give me the resolution number and it will be pulled from the consent resolution I have two uh I'd like to pull resolution 2024 1 n uh 169 and um 2024 178 on U 169 I don't have a problem with the no we're not we're not there yet we're just pulling them right now okay I'm sorry which was is that it 178 okay uh will the clerk please read the consent agenda resolution whereas pursuing to the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular or special meetings upon certain conditions and whereas each of the following resolutions to be presented before the burrow council at its May 28th 2024 regular meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the burrow Council 20241 168 2024 d170 through 177 and 2024 d179 and 180 now therefore be resolved by the B of Council of the burough of miltown that each of the listed resolution be approved and adopted by the burrow council with the same legal effect as though each was read its entirety at the May 28th 2024 a regular meeting and adopted by separate vote you have heard the reading in a consent resolution what is your pleasure Mr Mayor I make the motion that these resolutions be adopted I I'm I'm sorry I just uh quick question did you say 180 as well it includes 180 we're adopting 180 okay okay I was going to say we' only pulled 169 and 170 that's what I thought okay thank you uh I'll second we have a motion by uh council president sorry councilman Potter and seconded by council president rinsky will clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski councilman Collins councilman moo councilman pansi councilman Potter I councilman Zan Brana I [Applause] all right will the clerk please read resolution 24 2024-25 authorizing use of burrow Park and waving fees for same miltown Education Foundation uh what is the pleasure by Council okay I I don't have a problem with that but what I I see on the bill list is uh facility fees of $39.50 to the board of ed for for the use of uh of the the facilities for soccer clinics so if if we wave fees for them wouldn't wouldn't it be uh a good thing to for them to wave fees for us at least at times that's why I bring this up it's a valid point because I I don't I don't believe that this should be automatic I believe they should use the facilities and I don't see a problem with that but I think they should be mindful of of us also I I will say that this one in particular councilman is uh for the miltown Education Foundation um which is separate then I understand that okay and they raise they raise monies I believe this one is most likely for the uh clothing drive that they that they do every year there a few on there they're all listed yeah there's three three events and they are a volunteer group a charity and the trunk or treat and the and the winter wonderland it's all on there there three events going on it's it's the Education Foundation they're nonprofit and they they've done some really good things with with the funds that they've raised including the signage over there at some of the schools and playground equipment they're independent of the Board of Education any funding I understand that and I'm very respectful of that and I believe in the use here but but I think that there could be some thought as far as some kind of a tradeoff and that's why I bring that up okay um I have a motion so moved second I have a motion by councilman Potter seconded by councilman Collins um will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski I councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman posnanski I councilman Potter I councilman Zam BR I will the clerk please read resolution number 24- 178 by title resolution 20 24-17 authorized Rising waving burrow pool fee senior citizens 2024 burrow seasonal residential pool badges what is pleasure Council okay um I I'd like to bring this up for discussion because I'd also for the time being I'd like to table this or postpone this I came up with the resolution my plan was for for age 65 and older the idea of 60 to 6 uh say 60 I thought that was was a little on the young side and so I I didn't mean for it to be 60 and above I meant it for it to be 65 and above and um I I don't want to go forward right now and I'd like to discuss because I know I've I've spoken with with other gentlemen up here if anyone else has uh any ideas they'd like to bring up um I I'd like to say that I think anyone out there who is under 65 but over 60 is probably loving you right now councilman pansy for calling them young um but I know that when we looked at this resolution and we're drafting it the age 60 coincides with the age which is set forth in our ordinance for pool badges so right now um if you are over 60 years old you are considered a senior citizen for regarding the sale of pool Badges and which is why that age was carried over um I would ask our burrow attorney Mr Clarkin if uh if amending the resolution to State the age of 65 if that would cause us any issues considering our ordinance which states the sale of pool badges senior citizens are indicated as 60 years old still getting if it's on if it's readed it's on okay great uh I want to defer because I want to see the underlying ordinance and how it's written so to make sure that there would not be a conflict I'm hoping that you can do it and I'll pass it on to Peter and also to just to confirm currently it's still discounted the senior citizens of discounted correct okay so even if it is age 60 it is still discounted yeah okay I know when we when we looked at this it might be a good time to to discuss um that initially we saw 118 uh senior badges sold last year um but that's not all of them are uh 69 69 was residential right so if this were to go through even age 60 we'd be looking at potentially 69 badges at $100 which we would not receive Revenue it's not a cost that we are outlaying but rather a possible not receiving uh revenue or or creating those sales so um I'm for one uh I think I think this is okay I I think that uh what we should do is focus on amending our ordinance for pool Badges and adjust that accordingly to the appropriate age um that's that's my personal opinion on this um I I think councilman panski did a good job and and pushing this forward I understand the hesitation but you know for those 69 people I think I think this would be okay in my book but I'm not the only one up here thank you Rich I appreciate it that's from last year when I checked in last week there were 43 Al together that's counting miltown and others but what what I really wanted to do is to help the senior in town because we we partially subsidize to to a degree anyway everyone in in the town does and no offense to anyone but I'm going to bring up that that we give $18 million to the school from taxpayer money and $2 million to busing and and and there are other things as far as the the maintenance of ball fields and I've been a father and I've coached so I I I I but I believe people should be treated equally I had a person um not long ago say you you have to to think of the kids you you just got to think of the kids but I think of everyone and I think of the the seniors who don't ask for much don't get much don't ask for much and the the children don't need everything but we all need to to to share in this so I'm I'm tbling this because I like I said I do believe 60 is a little young it's it's old to Rich councilman rinsky but I I didn't intend it to be just to be 60 to 65 cuz that that that's on the young side to me if I can jump in if you table this and we have have to wait until another meeting that's that many more that are going to be sold that many more refunds that we're going to have to do um so if it's something you're looking to do for this pool season I would think about that um and then maybe look to amend the ordinance for next year that that's my only concern because it's Recreation will have to issue all those refunds themselves because we're not going to issue it through Community passes I don't believe that the senior citizens are going to want to go play softball or something like that with the credit on their account so these are going to have to be handwritten checks back to these people who are getting I'm okay with with cancelling the the plan and I feel very bad about it for the seniors that I've spoken with but I understand that that there are other other people that have have jobs that are having to hand back checks and and the extra work that would be involved and uh if this would have to come up next year then then I I would be on board with that I'm disappointed I'm disappointed that it's gotten us to this point but I would I would be okay it cancels my plan for this year so what I was saying is that you could wave the fees by resolution we do that often if you're going to amend the ordinance you're going to have to do two hearings and it won't take effect till July so you've lost June okay so that's I believe that's the the conversation in a nutshell you want to amend the ordinance I believe next year would be prudent you want to wave the fee and just accept the fact that this year at 60 maybe next year at 65 or 67 or you know maybe let's see I'll be 68 so make it 68 but I'm not a resident okay does any other council member have any comments regarding this resolution I guess without looking at any of the finances yet how's it going to affect you know the polls and so because we have we don't have those numbers yet so it's kind of hard for us to see without any of that information in front of us right now so that's about seven Grand right yeah based on last year's number yeah and then we broke did we break even last year I mean I don't know how did we how' we manag last year I was just asked to get the numbers for memberships I wasn't asked to look at all that that's so you don't you didn't break even last year councilman because your fees and the cost incurred at the pool are not equal to the costs of the pool mhm mhm okay you collected about $225,000 of Revenue last year at the pool it costs considerably more than that to run the pool which Ison subsidized by taxes for the of the count taxpayers you know so if you didn't collect any fees at all at the pool and it was free then it would be entirely on the tax rate the fees offset the costs lower the tax rate so 61 half to the other the costs are the same to run the pool you're just cutting into the amount of taxes paid by the people who use it sort of like a Ed tax beaches are the same way parking is the same way not an uncommon discussion in 400 municipalities in New Jersey and I guess my other question is did um anybody speak with Kelly direct director regarding their opinion on it as well we we asked them for the um for the numbers for how many badges we sold so we can consider financially like if this was 203,000 that could be a big hit um but in the same breath we also do run the risk that even at the current rates if nobody over the age of 60 bought a a badge we're still not going to get the revenue so um but as far as her her opinion on the matter um Gary did the recreation director expressed either that she felt this was a good idea or or a bad idea uh not not directly okay perur schedule I believe had already been created MH right approved prior to the initial presentation of this otherwise it probably could have been accommodated to increase something or balance something to compensate the revenue that would not be created it is an argument that the the seniors have done have paid their share and done enough as see validity and this is only for miltown yes seniors over the age of 60 miltown residents seniors which is 60 and over yes I said and and Kelly's or recreation's biggest concern is just the issuing the refunds because it would be checks issue as opposed to aedit through Community pass um which will my office will work with her and we'll get that yeah it'll be a resolution on the next meeting say she refunds anybody who's already bought it do you know how many senior passes she sold Monica uh this year they've sold what did I say 40 just shy of 50 but that's all encompassing I don't know how many of those are already that's not all that's not all miltown that's yeah that's what said I'm not sure how that's all of them I'm not sure how many are residents those are seniors seniors yes last year it was 69 seniors that were residents if uh if we don't have a motion that's on the floor at this time I'd like to make a motion that this resolution be adopted it's actually we uh councilman pans uh no we didn't we did not get a motion not yet just made a motion we just didn't second it nobody second it you suggest there was no motion we just pulled it yeah I don't know if it was pulled and we're discussing it as being pulled it hasn't been motioned on yet okay so Council president's that a motion from you yes okay okay do I have a second seeing none motion fails second you should me no second no second motion fails motion fails for one of a second okay no act no action taken no action taken sorry no it's yours to do with what you like I just council president re I just I just think we need to just to discuss a little bit more and then have to wait till next year well or next meeting and like I said if has to go I mean I just think we just have to discuss a little bit more come to a you know agreement so so is there a motion to table you've done that by not having not seconding it so by default you've tabled it but can we make sure this comes up in the next that's up to the mayor who sets the agenda okay I recommend that have this on this I figured it's already yeah I'll third that all right all right uh seeing no further discussion please call the roll um that's all dead uh reports from elected officials council president rinsky uh thank you Mr Mayor uh two very quick things um the gentleman uh younger more well spoken and obviously better looking than myself who did the report at the last meeting the youth and government did a fantastic job he had some terrific news for everyone uh and that that Ford Avenue we were finally going to have a court date uh in which they determine the value of the property and the outcome of that trial as long as the developer agreed and the county agreed would set the price and we start demolition we start moving forward with that unfortunately which is always the case with Fort Avenue but unfortunately um the going through of all the expert Witnesses and validating whether or not their testimony would be worthwhile the judge has now pushed that court date back to an opening in September um still not too far off um still the results of the case again would remain the same that even if the results or the the Judgment by the uh by the court on the value if it was contested by the current property owner um we would still be able to take ownership of that property and move forward finally so hopefully we'll have some more update on that in regards to finance um I did speak with with the Burrow's current auditor today we were looking at and reviewing some of the number crunching for the water sewer rates to make up the shortfall um and then also we are still proceeding forward with the development of the budget which we hope to introduce at the June 10th meeting uh we have a meeting tentatively scheduled as soon as councilman Collins and councilman Potter give the time frame available for Monday uh we should be ready to rock and roll and start our cursor review of the uh plan budget that concludes my report for this time thank you councilman Collins no report Mr Mayor councilman panski sure uh this is about historic preservation I spoke with the owner of four boys we had a very nice conversation about his business and his interest in being a vested member of the community he would like to help with the station if and when the progress occurs in that situation uh from the Midtown Senior Center highlights for June there will be lunch and learn sponsored by the Parker on Monday June 24th 12:30 uh there will be lunch and learn pizza party sponsored by AFC urgent care of miltown on Wednesday June 26 at 1:30 and Tuesday June 11th bus trip to River Rock restaurant the bus will leave at 10:30 uh Wednesday June 12th bus trip to confection confectionary yours ice cream and dessert bus will leave at 11: Tuesday a bus trip to Walmart Superstore in Woodbridge and the bus will leave at 9:30 Tuesday a bus trip to uh Ross in Lawrenceville and uh this is the DPW I I was with Ralph today and we had a meeting uh Highland Drive Oak East Warren the uh Road will will be finished or will be starting to be finished hopefully within the next two weeks starting uh we have a meeting tomorrow uh and let's say the county plans to Mill and pave uh if not CME uh with L and Lou you can TR in if you if you have anything to say about that on the yeah we're meeting with the uh County Ralph and I tomorrow to talk about the scope of work um they have to work up some numbers and um we got to get that all scheduled um there are some locations where the contractor who is doing the water work needs to do some payment restoration also um so that all kind of be coming together okay um definitely sometime this summer sure um Main Street also uh weather permitting the the start date would be June 21st PNG uh between Garver and Vanderbilt and the county will pave the rest of Main Street this summer uh whatever PSG does not do so uh essentially Main Street will be a new Street for at least for the next 10 to 15 years start to finish and um Lou I'd like to ask about the culdesac on West fos area as far as uh the what's going to be happening yeah sure so um earlier in the meeting tonight the um B and ordinance was introduced for the road improvements part of that is the continuation of the improvements on f um that's going to include the completion of West F and to the extent there's any money left over we'll use it over on the other side on East F okay thank you very much uh last uh the um over DPW over here or Progress Park um the empty containers will be moving soon they've been emptied out and uh they took 26 to 20 pallets of computers and uh they're gone now so the uh the uh containers are empty and uh the good containers will go over to DPW and the ones that are not they're going to be getting rid of and uh that's the uh that's the end of this here I quick question Council Council pki quick question for you if so on Main Street it's going to be from up to Gar to vanderbelt right and then the rest of it will be done by the county yes they they that's what they promise okay before the end of the calendar year but they expect to be done hopefully by sometime in August okay August not not uh July 4th I just want to stay off of ju no no um and they're that June 21st they're going to be done out equip it's a 4-day job uh I know school gets out I guess the 20th so if if they can they they'll start on the 21st at the latest will start on the 24th okay and they figure it's it's four days so they will be done they should be done before July 1st okay perfect and Equipment gone and all that's what I want to make sure you can't be going around any equipment on the Main Street and and kudos to DPW director for working so closely with the county to encourage them to give miltown a full Main Street that is all the same age rather rather than a piece this year a piece next year a piece the following year so well Ralph Ralph does not like credit but he's he's responsible for for a lot of what happens because of of his uh wheeling and dealing they like him they trust him they might not necessarily like trust me but they like him very much so I would also recommend if I mean if they can do it soon after July 4th because again um we do have a lot of um you know crosswalks that aren't visible on Main Street so we want to make sure our pedestrians are safe so sure if we can just try and push that that'd be great but is good news good to hear sure so thank you you done with your reports councilman aski yes I'm sorry I'm done with my report thank you okay Council concludes my report thank you uh so the initial to mention the the library is getting a new system and a new library catalog uh with that some of those services will be interrupted temporarily between June 3rd and June 12th the uh the follow those services that will be unavailable are placing holds and the signing up for new library cards um you can still check out books and movies you can still borrow electronic material from hoopla and Libby which are their uh their other services uh please make sure your library card is up to date before June 3rd which also means return your books if you haven't uh uh you know that the after school Bingo on May 29th and after school movie the bad guys on May 30th I've seen it won't spoil the ending it's a good one crocheting for beginners on Saturday June 1st at 1 I'm sorry at 11: a.m. uh on LinkedIn the next step on Tuesday so it's a just program and learning more about LinkedIn and how to use it uh and that is on Tuesday June 4th at 6 PM please register for that after school of Jeopardy on Thursday June 6th uh read to a pooch on Saturday June 8th at 12:30 p.m. yoga on a new day in time Monday June 10th at 9:15 a.m. uh also please register for that as well and call the library at 7322 247 2270 if you have any questions I say that fast so people go to the website and get that number correctly um a few other things that uh are mentioned uh the park the rec department is uh doing some good work around the pool cleaning things up printing it up uh we are looking to start what we think will be a mural contest where we accept entries for a mural uh for a small paper version of what the mural would be and hopefully that'll be done relatively quickly or that'll be presented over the next few weeks um additionally uh not part of the regular uh things that I speak of I did go to the Board of Education meeting the other night and I am the leaon a couple of things just that I thought were nice to mention um Alexis sheemish uh of Parkview and Carly comms Collins of Joyce Kilmer were selected as the district's educational professional for the year of 2023 and 24 I did have the honor of reading the Declarations my first foray to the whereas uh statements so that was interesting uh but they're great teachers they're well respected well received my daughter actually knows both of them and uh she vouched for them so uh I will say also that the PTO and the MEF um gives a donation as well of to them individually for their for classroom upkeep and nice things that they can do um as a little prize addition to that just a couple of things that I thought were worth mentioning are some good news uh in their new budget for the first time in I believe and don't quote me exactly on this but at least 12 years they have not had a full-time librarian at JK and they are now accepting applications for it uh and they expect to have one next year which indeed it is it's a it's a very nice Library it is it was wellb built it's welld designed mind and um it's an effective tool in education and library and media cross over uh so much more in today's day and age uh additionally some of the other funding that has come their way uh they have hired or in the process of hiring a couple more security guards as well so um a lot of information on their website um and as in many things about involving websites no one goes there to look but there is uh there is good stuff to see so I've asked them to perhaps include to me some highlights that I can present here um because the more light we put upon them they can shine and and also it uh like anything you know when the bosses are watching which is the public people do good work so uh beyond that um I think that's all I have to doday okay thank you councilman Potter thank you Mr Mayor uh for the miltown Police Department on behalf of the mayor and councel we'd like to welcome patrolman Robert Worley to the miltown police department and look forward to him making great contributions to the department for the miltown fire department we'd like to thank the miltown fire department for their Memorial Day service yesterday uh also members are needed any candidates interested in joining the miltown fire department are encouraged to stop by the firehouse on Monday nights at 6:30 or or email join miltown fire gmail.com for the rescue squad uh we'd like to thank the rescue squad for their Memorial Day service yesterday and the rescue squad would like to thank everyone who attended their open house on May 19th and just a reminder that the annual fund Drive continues to the end of the month uh the rescue squad thanks all the residents who have uh contributed thus far and anyone interested in joining the rescue squad should email recruitment at miltown rescue squad. org which is 30 for the Midtown 4th of July which is 36 days away thank you Monica for putting that out on the sign so it's a great reminder uh we are looking we are 36 days away from our big day uh the miltown forth of J organization is having a dine to donate at Bagel Express on Monday June 3rd and Tuesday June 4th uh we also have our 50/50 raffle is now available uh tickets will be soon uh available soon in our local stores or you can contact any Committee Member and just a friendly reminder if any business organization is interested in being a sponsor Andor being in the parade please contact us at miltown 4@gmail.com and Mr Mayor that concludes my report thank you councilman Zen BR thank you mayor Murray uh the environmental commission uh submitted their Grant application last week uh they were able to do so uh with uh the passing of the resolution uh by this Council as a letter of support um Board of Health uh just earlier tonight um this is over by now but at 6:00 uh was a free rabies clinic over at the DPW building across the street um don't know how many folks showed up as I had to head here but it was a nice uh nice bunch of people that came out in numbers um revitalization committee their next meeting is uh second Tuesday which is the 11th uh I hope you folks have noticed that the Planters on Main Street have been filled uh plants are uh you know adorning all the pots and and I believe the hanging baskets will be taken care of later this week uh big shout out to the revitalization committee members uh with a specific shout out to our Master Gardener bunny Jasco uh Sue wand and and Gina Bell um and then last but not least uh our human Relations Committee will be meeting on the first Tuesday uh of June which will be next Tuesday the 4th uh our first meeting was in person uh meetings going forward will be via Zoom uh Zoom link can be found on the our website you will be let in and um that concludes my report m m thank you I have no report um B attorney no report thank you B engineer yeah thank you Mr Mayor uh two quick items um the first is the West coach Avenue improvements um the roadway uh Paving has been completed we do have some um completion and corrective work to be done and we'll be working with the contract ctor to um wrap up that project the second thing is the um dot is now accepting Grant applications for their annual local aid program and we uh recommend the burrow start considering which um projects they'd like to do the applications are due by July 1st so um time is of the essence that's all I have thank you bar cler uh just a reminder to Tuesday June 4th is primary election day districts 1 and four have been moved to burrow Hall District 2 and three will continue to vote at Joyce Kilmer districts 56789 will vote at the senior center if you're unsure what district you are and where to vote you can call the clerk's office 732 828 2100 extension 181 and early voting is available in the county May 29th through June 2nd uh for marriage licenses appointments are needed to apply for a marriage license you must have a ceremony date and someone to marry you the fee is $28 and there is a 72-hour waiting period once you've completed that application notary services are still offered free of charge by the clerk's office however at this time we're asking that you schedule an appointment please call 7 32828 2100 extension 181 to schedule a time we thank everyone for your patience with the clerk's office we are still currently working under staff and it's our busiest time of year with marriages various burough events that we issue licenses for garage sale permits Etc burrow Hall summer hours begin Monday June 3D uh starting Monday June 3rd we will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 Monday through Thursday and Fridays 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. uh for planning board the meeting for June was cancelled and our July meeting that was originally scheduled for July 3rd we have moved to July 10th because nobody in Midtown should attend a meeting the day before 4th of July and that concludes my report like last year Monica I just have a question are they going to put a sign up at the school where districts what is it one and four have to come here yeah I'll put a sign I'll put a sign there reminding everybody um and all poll workers there will know as well and the sign out outside has been saying it for a while now that one in4 vote here I mailed postcards to all the houses that are affected by this so there's been a lot of notifications Russ put it on the channel for us um and I've been repeating it at every meeting since it happen so hopefully people are listening thanks Monica sorry to interrupt you if I may I just had two things that kind of fall into my reports but not listed here and I'll make them really quick um there is a fton lake cleanup this weekend that is on Saturday June 1st at Bicentennial Park in East Brunswick but it is done by our Watershed commission which is based in miltown uh and certainly if anyone has some time uh it's a nice day you should get out there and uh it's always good to give a hand and also the pollinator Garden that is in milpond park is uh they're looking for a little help on Saturday June 1st from 10: to noon uh with a rain date of June 8th and they're just trying to clean out invasive species um but certainly if uh if you're around you can be of service they are looking for people with uh more like weed whackers and brush tools more than uh hand pruners and things like that uh but please there's plenty of ways to uh to be helpful in town thank you thank you old business does any member or Council have any old business to bring before Council seeing none new business does any member of council have any new business to bring before Council I have one of uh unless I'm jumping into Quick um I'm just writing my note uh down here and I wanted to float this idea out there it was presented to me by a resident a couple months ago and I thought it over and it and it didn't sound too bad um the concept is that we allow advertising space on channel 15 and the burrow sign and before we we frown about advertising the idea is to more about announcements weddings happy birthday um so many years in miltown and for a nominal fee you utilize that money to help fund some other endeavors in the burrow and I thought it was a really nice way to kind of bring the the community together and give someone the ability to say hey Mrs Jones happy 70th birthday as you're driving down Main Street I just thought it was a cute thing and uh before we dive into it further and ask our esteemed burrow attorney to uh to look into this I just wanted to get kind of a some feedback some thoughts from the rest of council here any questions you might have that we can kind of direct them to uh to get answered if we were to move forward with this would this be for all information on there or just certain information like fourth of July up there it's advertised so do you want every organization I didn't mean I didn't mean more about advertising I should rephrase it's more about like Community announcements happy 85th wedding anniversary if you make it that long and your spouse survives you um you know happy 40th birthday congratulations on the birth of your kids sort of thing um you know we could limit those to specific types of announcements we can say it's got to be within 30 days in advance it would run in a 24-hour period whatever criteria may be but it was just a it was a cute idea the person had originally proposed it as a way to raise funds for some underprivileged members of our community uh maybe helping them get access to Recreation programs that they'd otherwise not be able to afford um or perhaps just you know a nice Endeavor of of us to to try and put more Planters around town or whatever the case may be but you know a small fit so so I have a question so has anyone spoken to the cable TV committee about that and could what their bandwidth is not yet just again a great Point that's why I wanted to bring it up here so that we can all kind of throw these ideas out these concerns and and promulgate them accordingly yeah I mean I would suggest that and also speaking with Monica because I know her Department's been managing to sign so the B with there as well so you know I mean think it's a great idea but um kick it around to some of those departments I don't I'm not in favor I don't think the advertising we get bombarded at our self phones we get bared barded everywhere we go I I don't want need more advertising all less I I didn't mean advertising for businesses I meant more like birthday announcements and things if you're on watching channel 15 or driving by yeah personal nice little Community Personal touches seems okay mayor if I may add uh one thing I ask the council to not forget to read your homework which is also in your packet about the affordable housing changes and that you at the members of the council uh contact the mayor if you'd like to volunteer for the Mount Laurel subcommittee uh which will we will have a resolution on the agenda for the 10th to to appoint that subcommittee uh if you had read the email previously or look at this memo there is a very very aggressive timeline imposed by the state of New Jersey on our fourth round obligation in miltown and all the other towns this is not the time to not be proactive and talk about it and think about it we need to take some Stern action and I've invited and coordinated with the planner to come here on the 24th of June because that's his earliest available date that he can be there here short of a um special meeting to talk about affordable housing so now it's also possibility as the council president mentioned could be the adoption of the sewer ordinance and the introduction of the budget so bring his sandwich but we need to get this stuff done Fred I so my commercial regarding the first one which is June 18th who's going to be responsible for um providing a detailed accounting of all nonresidential fees that's the first I see June 18th and our planner's coming after that so we no the planner doesn't do that that's a finance issue okay that's a fin so Joe knows about this okay uh it's on our to-do list um yes Joe and Fred have that covered yeah so you know so the repercussions of not getting that number up the DCA is not as severe as not passing Our obligation and then we get a start we get a we get a sharp note from DCA and we go oh sorry and then we send it to them because the next one's September 16th so that just no we've got all those but the council's action is what's critical in this discussion so so I've got a I've got a question um Council rinsky has it been brought up at all with the Ford Avenue Redevelopment agency at all has anyone brought this up no not not to my knowledge um uh Mr Carr sent this out uh I want to see it was last week on Friday and I read it I said fantastic reading uh we got to get our butts in gear and appoint some sort of Mount Laural uh committee uh as a lack of a better title to help address some of the concerns basically for for anyone who's unaware this is um we we're currently under round three of the affordable housing obligations as set forth by the state um they judge you based on the size of your community your population density uh your average income levels there is around four that is supposed to come out and so now what the state has done is basically said and please correct me if I'm wrong um uh that in lie of around four we're going to say here's your mandate um and you have to provide certain documentation they'll tell you how to implement that um they've given certain deadlines most of which are basically by December so so you we've got a lot of Hoops to jump through over the next 6 months in order to make sure the state doesn't mandate or over mandate our requirements um the affordable housing obligations of the burrow have uh been one of the factors that have led to such a long litigation process over Fort Avenue which helped determine the the number of units that property could fit um because of Our obligation in the state to increase the number of affordable units but also understanding our population densities and traffic woses associated with the large development in the middle of town so um if I've said anything wrong please you did not council president I appreciate that it's good to know my understanding of uh what I read the other day was was coherent and there's a lot of push back already with regard to the deadlines but don't count on the state to react to it correct they don't really care so the reason I asked this is because this actually was passed in March we're at the end of May nobody on Fort Avenue has brought this up not not that I recall now okay the only good thing I think Mr Clarkin is it's going to reduce the amount of Builder remedy suits is that what it says correct you're only only subject to a builder's remedy suit if you don't meet your obligation it's no different than round three or or one and this doesn't affect anything with our situation I'm assuming is that is that correct say that again please this doesn't affect anything that's going on currently like we're where we are with Fort Avenue and and Mr burner this doesn't change anything we're moving ahead the only issue that you have is if you haven't met your third round right it's tacked onto your fourth round got it and we've kind of known that all this time okay which we have a very slim chance I think of meeting our third round to begin with the other thing that I want to point out is is is no longer a rental bonus make sure you keep that firm in your mind that was a tool where you didn't you know you didn't have to build every single unit if your obligation was 200 units right you didn't have to build or give the ability to developers to build 200 units if you had a certain number of rental units say 50 then you only had to allow for 150 because she got 50 bonus credits because she had rental units those are gone the other thing that's limited is the number of seniors the number of senior units cannot be any more than 25% of your total obligation and I I think the the letter that Mr Carr forwarded also included some language about other special groups I I believe some municipalities have been able to utilize their uh third round obligations for perhaps disabled veterans who who are on fixed incomes and things of that nature and that's also now further restricted uh I don't know if they're further restricted they're still available I don't know if in the same numbers okay I didn't drill down that deep on The Debs appreciate it thank you thank you okay the public portion uh comment portion of the meeting is to allow the public to bring to council's attention their comments or concerns uh the council will respect the Public's Time by refraining from any comment until the speaker has finished it should be further noted that the public comment portion of the meeting is not structured as a question and answer session please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium good evening uh Alan godber for Fern Place I want to thank councilman Manco for mentioning the fton like cleanup that we're planning to do we had planned I know we mentioned at two previous Council meetings this was supposed to happen last month or earlier this month wasn't able to happen then but we're hoping we got a new flyer here this is to happen on Saturday morning at from 9: until noon setting up from uh signing up from 8:30 a.m. and we've got a rain date which is the next day if it turns out that it does rain on Saturday enough to not be able to hold it then we will hold it on Sunday we won't start until 1200 noon so it'll be noon until 3:00 p.m. or maybe 4:00 p.m. so please come and join us because there Fon lake has got a lot of trash around there not as much as we used to have in earlier years but there's quite a lot so we could use uh you know like 25 people probably to help clean up so please if you can come and help please come and help on Saturday Allan just one other thing just to let you know you when you were at the last meeting you asked about those signs on JFK so they were put up days after and it's been very successful so just want excellent really appreciate thank you good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity I live at 180 South Main Street my name is Raymond Everett I'm here tonight with Denise and Mike Bolado and uh Kai Fang he's a neighbor also and our concern is the curbing on South Main Street in miltown I've lived on South Main Street since 1973 and repaving has been done the Slate is still there it's crumbling it doesn't exist in some areas and uh it's a safety hazard trucks come up on our sidewalks to deliver they Park they crack our sidewalks sometimes it's impossible to get by I took my wife's disability scooter down the street the other day took a video of how bad the curbing actually is all along South Main Street and there's a truck parked in front of me I had to pull up beside him and wait I can't go he he doesn't know I'm there and he sees me he takes off that I can go but this goes on all day long you know all the different deliveries we get in miltown and um since I've lived there I I've seen a lot of repaving in miltown on South Main North Main is not as bad I don't think but there are are where the curbing either is an inch 2 Ines or doesn't exist and it's inviting for cars just to constantly come up on our sidewalks and it's also I tell you I cringe when I sit on my porch on South Main and I watch these kids come home from school and and you know you know that there they walk Three a breast they never walk single file and here they are you know they're coming over from school and these cars are they're 4T away they're whizzing by 30 m an hour what does it take for for something bad to happen that you know we might regret if if if the curbing in miltown the the the construction code for the new curbing is 6 in reveal okay where we it doesn't exist so there's no detriment there there's nothing to if if a guy falls asleep a medical problem maybe the curbing will wake him up I don't know the speed is not going to cause a car to go Airborne you know God forbid they they do that I know it you know on highways they don't put curbing for that reason but um the bridge in miltown and we're all aware of it I mean you guys come across that bridge and you see the kids on their bikes walking by I know when I when I come by I look I go my God if one of those kids comes off at that sidewalk it's over it it's just you know and so I think a railing along both sides of that you know was really necessary um I just I I I realized that you know construction on on on folk and and K uh what is it uh the other Street the other Avenue there is a complete reconstruction new sidewalks new curbing but wouldn't it behoove us to put new curbing on South Main Street we get more traffic than they'll ever going to see in a Lifetime on the side streets and we experience a lot of problems uh with with you know garbage cans coming off of the the uh the tree area where're we have 12 in that's it we have problems when they plow snow because there's no room for snow it's a 12in you know uh tree property there that's it that's all we have and that's they come up on those sidewalks and everything gets compressed constantly um we put planters out my neighbor just put planters out I put planters out you probably seen the flowers my wife every year we're going to get flowers put the planters out there and I've had those taken out by people riding along in their car I had a woman in a small bus she stopped for a garage sale that Al Miller had when before he moved and she pulled up in front of the property next store and she took my my planter out and I walked up to the door her daughter ran down to the garage I walked up to the door I said you just took my planter out she say no I didn't I didn't touch your planter I says come here so she comes out she comes I says it's gone she says well it wasn't me I says look at your bus she turns around and it's sticking in the bumper of her bus you know she was in complete denial she didn't realize she hit this but uh I I I did some research I realized that it's a lot of money and and I'm sure that there's so much going on in in miltown uh by the way you guys are all doing a great job you know for my years here I I think you are but I see that there's a um revitalization for South Main Street that was passed probably before you guys right last year y okay so I see it goes from Washington up to Kola and we're all considered as I guess redhaired step kids because from coola to the turnpike you know that curbing is the same it stays that way and um so I I I got in touch with the county I realized the default is we can't do anything it's a County Road that's the lament we've been hearing that forever and um so I I called the county they said no go back to the town I no so I called theot I spoke to um I don't know if anybody knows are Eileen Sosa from Trenton and she uh she turned me on to a uh program for safe roots to school Grant are you guys familiar with that at all okay but she she she had told me that um there's a possibility that this might happen but prior to to tonight uh I she hasn't got back to me yet but hopefully she will but if you guys are familiar you don't need this information I have obviously but that might be a way to go to to get us some curbing on South Main Street to forgotten mil but uh that's about it thank you for listening thank you thank you thank you I do have a comment I actually did one of the council meetings I was at I actually did uh mention about that I did reach out to the county the county said for whatever reason they're not responsible for Curbing and sidewalks when they do a County Road surface project because it's not a complete rebuild it's just a resurfacing uh and and that's uh we spoke about that council president and I spoke about that to try to figure that out because that was a sticking point um and I mentioned it because I would like to have that done prior to PS and G Paving of course that's why we were trying to move on that right away um but that's that's really what the problem that we're running into is the county wasn't supporting uh redoing any of that on Main Street uh on on a roadway that leaves us in a situation where I moved here in 73 and nothing's been done to that curb since then so I guess for another hundred years it's going to at what point does the county say hey guys yeah we need to do something here because your curbing is gone you know it is a safety matter I believe it is and uh abolutely you know we could we have Mr Kai here he has the same problem they break his sidewalks and they take off and nobody sees where they are and you know here we are we're we have a dilemma and we got a lot of reconstruction going on but I don't see anything happen with that Curbing and I know it might be something that somehow some way maybe this is the answer the SRT uh funding uh because she's looking into it she said she was going to let me know whether or not miltown would be eligible for it the safety uh We've uh We've submitted to that in the past I know we've we've requested funding for uh illuminated crosswalks you know the signals that'll that'll flash you push the button right um but I um that one I know they changed it from safe roots to schools to Safe routes to Transit which is the SRT um so it's kind of like it has to have a bus stop nearby and fortunate I think enough we we do um I do have a question for Mr Ponka which is um in the line items for West F do you recall or perhaps just some other bids that you've received recently what the dollar per foot is for for curb laying it's usually about $30 a foot how much was it 30 about $30 a foot oh okay um we in tonight's uh ordinance introduction I did notice that you you stepped out to probably the restroom or maybe just to stretch the legs for a minute um we did include about $250,000 on top of the two other projects in the bond for things like the Ada ramps along Main Street and some curbing because we've been trying to get those done for years but unfortunately we just didn't have the money for it so well thank I appreciate you coming down if I'm ask is uh is there is there a standard for what a county road is supposed to have as a curb they have a standard curve detail Dimensions the concrete strength I mean so as there just one mean like is there any legal recourse that at some point if they're doing work on the road don't they have to meet their own standard no well that's their detail if they're doing curb they generally Mill and pave roads until they're so bad where you can't Mill and PVE it anymore then they would come in and reconstruct it and then usually do the whole thing but they generally Mill and pave it as long as they can can I know um I I don't mean to get off topic with with Council comments but I think we're on on to something a little bit here um in the past the county hasn't been required to the Ada ramps when they're doing a Mill and pave but I've been on a couple of projects where we've done an intersection or or just some Mill and pave work after installing utilities and we've had to put in the ada8 ramps um I'm curious as to why the county falls out of that jurisdiction where they don't have to put those in or if it's perhaps a function of the mill and pave but also I'm curious as to whether or not the PSG work that has been done because they did utility work now that makes that um exclusion null and void Perhaps it is on PSG to do those curves and ada8 ramps well I think where PS does I I think where the paving work is due to utility work I don't think that requirement kicks in um but I don't know that the county is not required to do it they generally do the milling and Paving and then they would come in later and do the ramps they kind of do it backwards um they have a theory why it's better to do it later um where intu ly you would think you would do it first but I've seen them Mill and pave and then several months later they would come back in and do the ramps interesting see I got a question it's is a hard one when they said total reconstruction I remember when they took the trolley tracks up on Main Street and they never put the curbs in and that's their own rules you know long time ago that's right wasn't that long ago we should be cautious too about the historical commission if they require us to put slate curbs I don't think they make sleep curs anymore though the price of sleep a little tongue and cheek little tongue and cheek is there any more comments name is John Judit 8 H Center Street uh I am a retired electrician so I've been in the in the trades pretty much my whole adult life and my concern today is with um the piece of property above me at um four 4 Center Street which was I understand was just subdivided and with the I guess a proposed house going in um just read so I don't forget I moved in around 2017 um and I was told at that time that that property could not be built on because of uh issues they have water issues uh which brings me to my house which um my foundation on that side of the house I'm I'm downhill probably 6 8 ft lower than that property um that whole corner of my house is held the two walls are held together with uh six pilers because of the the pressures that were pushing against the house uh in any case um my concern is if a house is put in this property what's going to happen with that water now that's being displaced by whatever square footage house is going there um and I'm on the extreme downhill of all of this I don't want any more issues uh um I know the way hydraulic pressures work and all and and uh uh that is my concern uh I understand that uh we met with uh this committee probably over two years ago on a zoom call all concerned neighbors and we all expressed our our uh feelings about the selling it a land and and a house going there and nobody was in favor because of water issues all my neighbors are down here for me also and one particular has also has a problem with his uh foundation on that side um can I just read uh so over two years ago we had the zoom the zoom call with the council expressing our concerns uh about the house and what we were told was that the uh in order to subdivide and build there they were they had to whoever bought the property would have to put some kind of drainage system in throughout my my low land all the way to Janet well that hasn't uh come to surface I understand now uh what I found out was they want to put a dryw in the back of the property and I'm in the front which is the lowest part of the area there and how is that you know that's really not going to help me because water all that water is going to hit me first um they're talking about also a retaining wall which in my opinion is only going to divert the water surface water down and uh um work my way to my lower neighbors also so um these are my concerns if if a house is put there um and uh so uh my question is if this does go through um you know God forbids the water whatever happens with the water it does start to affect my property who is going to be responsible if it if my Foundation starts to push in again in uh because of this proposed building uh and uh that's what I have so okay yeah my only question is um I because I don't know if this went in front of the planning zoning board yet I would have to reach out to them um because it needs their approval before it could even be subdivided um yeah then the my neighbor up above told me he already had people looking at the property he had a he had a builder there they I understand they did a perk test already I don't know what the was it an approved subdivision by the planning zoning board uh Mr Mayor if I could I'm not sure so um this application did come before the planning board and was approved oh it was okay yeah one of the conditions was that they had to come up with a storm water management system okay they wanted to pipe it down to Janet um but could not secure an easement through the property behind them okay um so they had to develop an alternate storm water management system which they did um um which is an underground chamber system um they went out and did the required tests to um check that it would evacuate within the um required time which is uh 72 hours um they did those soils tests they designed the system around those tests um I think everybody would have rather just piped it directly down to Janet court but unfortunately without an easement it was impossible for the uh applicant to do that so that's why they came up with this alternate plan now um I understand he's got the property up for sale so whoever purchases it and develops it is going to have to implement that plan I don't know if they'll come up with an alternate plan or not but but right now that is the plan to to do the infiltration um there are retaining walles proposed on the side by this gentleman's property and on the back and those retaining wheels are designed in a way where there's a Reve the large reveal is on the outside of the wall but there's also a reveal on the inside of the wall so the water in theory should not go over the wall it should be contained within the property where I think now it runs down and probably runs up against your home big time so that'll contain it on the property get it into that system it should be an improvement from what's there now okay now um are you where the Janet Court doesn't go through there's that grass field field on Janet um doesn't go through to the other side of Janet is that it's well this property goes through my two neighbors it's all tree line with big Oaks okay to um but the dryw is being put at the at at the back end of this property is what I was told and The High Ground is the front of my house where I've had the initial problems that they they had to put these pilot columns to hold the walls from pushing in so I don't that's going to occur first before it even reaches a drywall so all that groundwater as far as I know is going to increase pressure and work its way to my Foundation that's what I'm I'm concerned with I don't want you know okay we're going to have to discuss that with I'd like to say um right everything sounds great in theory I I may be able to to be at some help to you so before you leave if you'd like to give me your your phone number and address um I'd like I can come and take a look sure so just when we're done I'll meet up with you okay okay thank you anybody else my name's K Mar I live at 57 Janet Court John's one of my neighbors I'm the neighbor on the down uh downside of the Hill spoke with Lou on the phone last week for about an hour or so probably 45 minutes so uh the proposed construction which includes the installation of a drywell raises SE several issues that need to be addressed to prevent adverse effects on my property and the surrounding properties my primary concerns are as follows impacts of the new house construction on water flow Direction the new house construction has the potential to alter the natural water flow of storm water any changes to the land or drainage patterns could direct more water towards my property increasing the risk of flooding and water damage it is essential to assess how the construction will impact the current water flow and ensure that it does not increase existing problems I also have um carbon fiber straps on my Foundation um I purchased a house in 2021 permits were taken out uh I think in May of 2021 so it was done right before I purchased the home um so that's all you know documented within the town number two the dryw capacity and overflow while while dry Wells can be effective in managing storm water their capacity must be carefully evaluated if the new drywell is insufficient to handle the increased water volume from the new construction and or worsen weather patterns it could overflow leading into water seep into my house and cause pooling around the foundation of my house this situation can compromise the structural Integrity of my home and create hazardous conditions for my family and my neighbors uh number three management of excess water there needs to be a compreh a comprehensive plan to manage excess water resulting from the Overflow of the new drywell specifically I seek information on the measures being taken to ensure the drywell can handle the anticipated water volume plans for upgrading or expanding the existing storm water management infrastructure to accommodate the increased water flow as weather systems are trending to get worse over time immediate steps that can be taken to mitigate the risk of flooding and water damage to my property and the surrounding areas so in a nutshell you know I'm just really concerned about my house my property my neighbors are here my other neighbor Steve is here as well um I wasn't here when they had the zoom phone call as was prior to me purchasing the home um but yeah I mean the water pressure over there is it's intense we see it every storm you know uh again I'm concerned about my house my Foundation my family and really concerned with you know any additional expense that might come my way due to this new construction that's pretty much it so L quick question no when if when these houses if this house comes about do they have to come in front of the planning board again or only if it's a change in the plan no they received their subdivision approval the condition the only condition was that they develop a starbo management system and was this the one that was like three or 4 years ago because okay cuz I'm trying to remember I was on the planing board and I remember we discussed this about 3 or 4 years ago yeah it was the hipco application the hipco application we did well they have been they have they they come in front of the planning board in in those years so that's why when I'm hearing this I'm like wait a minute this is that's why it was Zoom meeting because it was back during Co so um but they um believe they they had a Storm sword design down to Janet they wanted to put it in that way but they could not secure the EAS because these residents would be able to present in front of the planning board and obviously they they didn't when was it approved when was what when was their application approved um I'm just wondering because I say we were talking three years ago when they were there is there a liit that's what I saying is there 20 2020 well it was they they saw him in 2020 but it was actually but this application with all the information was that recent or because there the resident this is the first time the residents are coming in front of council right now with these concerns correct sales sign just went up not like a couple weeks ago so we're concerned that they're concerned so that's we're all sitting there like where did this all come about so it's a just a question you know I I think it came about because they posted did design the properties for sale so um but they were approved in September 2020 I cont to be right but contingent on this information but yes they still okay yeah they they weren't required to come back to the board the the uh requirements for your storm water management plan I understand a dryw and I understand what it is you know the water goes in and it's supposed to percolate down into the subsurface but if he's having Foundation issues already with his home and the other gentleman who stood up has Foundation concerns too doesn't that lead from overs saturation of the groundwater and how inducing more ground or more water in the form of runoff that's now seeping into a drywall wouldn't that increase the the possible detriment to the neighbors or the adjacent properties well this on Center is a is a oversized width so he was able to subdivide it for another a lot but right now it drops off and just shoots down the hill mhm um it shoots down to the other gentleman's home and then it shoots straight down the hill um again with this retaining wall it's going to level off the subdivided property and kind of contain that water up and into this system right but my my my concern is more about the saturation of of the groundw I mean we're we're preventing the surface water from from running down down flow you know uh but now it's going into the ground and charging up and saturating those soils and you what's to prevent that from even causing more problems especially now since it'll charge in at one point and get under ground when you have people down slope adding more pressure my problem I'll tell you in my house the problem I have is not from surface run off of relative to Flat property it's when we get an excessive amount of rain that it starts to seep through the 's got to go somewhere downhill L which one's and I'm downhill that's what I'm saying which one would be cheaper would the easement be cheaper I mean to do or would the drivewell be cheaper I mean is it economics for the gentleman or no they they went and tried to get an easement from the from the gentleman even Mike went out tried to meet with the guy and tried to talk him into easement and do was no no no getting an eement down there which which way would be cheaper though without the ability to to access the property there's no way to get a fighte down there don't we have an easement there already no that's at um the end of Wilson also just a quick question like how could it go through the subdivider if the neighbors don't approve I there was a planning board hearing the planning board approves the the application now I wasn't on the zoom call but clearly there was concerns from all the neighbors including the lady who owned the home before I did and I know the the phone call and the zoom call is documented I did have the paperwork from the clerk's office it was a per there was a resolution memorialized the approval with that condition and then my other concern is with the dryw it sounds good but you know with the heavy rain we get when it overflows it's coming right for my house what what happens with the tree brots when the trees grow into the dryw that too there's lots of trees over there yeah they're going to take down trees as well that's but that's not on their property there's not trees on this property there's no Tre I thought there were mature trees on this property no he gets done filling this but the walls is filling it there's there's no trees there so is there any is there a time frame for how long from when that when that original approval was me weather patterns change you have if you can look at the last few years can you see whether that same plan is now still valid I mean other things have had transpired in that neighborhood as well or is that what this current perk test is attempting to I'm not sure I'm understanding I'm thinking can we is there a rationale for how you know the water the water flow that was the the the drain that was approved back back when is still valid it's still valid to handle the flow that the flow may have increased depending on other things in that in that area that may have happened even even north of that that may put more water into that area I don't think there's anything that the only thing that would add more water is more rain which um you know does kind of seem that is the trend okay Mr Mayor could I interject and perhaps be helpful my question is is what if the application was approved subject to a storm waterer management plan the question is has the storm waterer management plan been approved by our professionals if it hasn't you still have the opportunity to supplement it if we haven't signed off on it I don't know if we have yeah this is the first I'm hearing about it and I would think that it's probably the still M management plan would be up to whoever buys the property and starts as design work for developing the property but if the condition of the planning board was that our professionals had to approve the storm water management plan the question is have we approved that plan or not do we still have the ability to jump in and say hey M maybe we need more than one drywall maybe we need it in a different location may you could revisit this but I I also make I'll make a suggestion for you that you and maybe the others that that are affected hire your your own engineer and possibly consider hiring an attorney cuz cuz uh I me I have kind of a similar situation and that's where you have to go you may not find satisfaction right here but you may have to to out of your own pocket find someone because then then you'll you'll have someone working for you okay okay yeah I I would say our our burrow attorney or acting burrow attorney this evening is is probably on to something here is the next step I this is new to me I'm I'm not familiar with it until you gentlemen stepped up this evening but uh I think that's worth looking into is to see if the storm water management plan if if the approval was subsequent to the approval of the storm water management plan has that been submitted and approved and approved and what does that look like okay how would he find that out Mr Clarkin uh we'll have to check with the planning board you have to check with the planning board yes Mr Orlando is it possible you can pull the pack of the uh approval for is it I tell you that amended storm morar plans were already sent in and approved by our board professionals so interesting is the perk test that was done recently is that public knowledge or is that the property of the owner of that land I don't understand it's it's part of the file so I don't know it was was submitted to the burrow I we have the information in our files I mean so if there's one done recently and there was one done prior if there's a change they weren't done twice they were done once okay so has there hasn't been a recent one then no depends on what you call RAC well some from the same time as the approval there was probably one done that was done for informative for the done after the approval because it was a condition that they had to designed it so they went out and they did testing so okay so nothing in the last few months it's been done proba within the last two years I would say okay well I'm looking we do have an an ordinance amending we just did it this evening so there's an ordinance the the storm water management article one storm M management and control that's public hearing on second reading it wouldn't apply to a prior approval yeah okay and that ordinance quite frankly permits these type of systems sorry we're doing some research yeah yeah I appreciate it I mean I'll take any help you guys have the only thing I can see on here just looking at the address um is interesting that it's not just going out to the street and and down because it's a steep slope directing the you know down spouts and run off to the road well he was required by the board to to basically attenuate any increase in flows from the new house and that's that's why the system he's if he didn't have any increase in runoff he wouldn't have to do anything but he had a tenue increase in runoff so he didn't um have any additional run off to what is pre-existing I think it just requires I don't think we're going to get to the botom tonight thank you for your time forward yes thanks Mr Orlando is it possible you could just pull the when you get the opportunity just pull the pack on on that uh application so we can review I'm sorry what do you want me to pull is it planning board packet like the entire thing are you just looking for the storm water a little no for that application um just so we can get a better understanding but do you want like the entire file are you looking just for specifically for the storm water stuff um would we be looking for the entire file or just a storm Mor stuff for that maybe just a storm order perhaps even just a determination on it having our uh our current planning board attorney look at the file and say if it's complete and approved as as is or you know as I said before they did they did an amended storm order because they couldn't get the easement and everything was approved by our board professionals and signed off on by our board professionals is it our current including our current attorney sorry all of the storm order stuff was signed off on they had to amend it because they couldn't get the easement as Mr Panka said they had to send paperwork over which went to all of our board professionals and it has been signed off on as they approved it as it was amended okay I thought you mentioned something about our attorney our current planning board attorney was involved in that process our new planning board attorney like our new one new that started this year why are you looking at me confused I I just don't recall it didn't have to go before the planning board because it was already approved by the planning board this was something just to be reviewed by the professionals to make sure that it fell in line with what needed to be done for storm water oh so that storm water uh application or or revision to the plan was was sent forth this year correct that was Rec approved that's I was trying to find out was it was sent off to our board professionals they were good with it including our new planning board attorney so the condition was they had to attach this to the deed to be filed so they had amend the deed which was reviewed by our office and by Peter and attached a new plan and that's going through the process being filed by Mr Collins our planning board attorney okay okay is there any more Lee weisenberger 99 JFK drive I'm glad the gentleman came tonight talking about the curbs I brought that up many times I'm a little upset now that East F apparently is going to get some Paving again but we're still going to have the problem with East F and Maine with the water that no that um that project was intended uh or let me back up the Grant application that we submitted to the state last year was with concerns that there may not be sufficient funding for West f um and as a result we applied for basically West and East so that we could address the the rest of that intersection at Maine and try to try to resolve that water issue um and now that it appears that we've completed the westach project um all those funds would be earmarked then towards the east F side and that intersection and then moving forward towards the C saac yeah but now the County's going to pay M Street right yeah double double duty again mhm yeah pay twice pay six times you know okay uh going along now I'm just curious the water line under the Turnpike yet that's broken any progress any news nothing no updates yet the um the Bros got some grant money through the DCA and I think um there's been some discussions about using that towards towards that Improvement all right and the sewer Al line with the county any updates on that definitely still in Lio M you mean yeah of course main there's no update on it okay uh I do have a question C me I guess L tax maps again you guys print the maps who provides the information for the tax tax maps the blocks and the Lots when they're you mean when they're updated yeah generally the uh Tax Assessor's Office comes from the tax assessor our tax assessor so every so often if there's changes in town like say a subdivision like we were just talking about the tax assessor keeps record of that and then that's used to update the taxs yep and that information should go to the county I'm not sure how the tax assessor operation works the county if I could help the county will record the subdivision deed which establishes the new lot numbers that deed then goes to the municipal assessor and the assessor then utilizes that to if necessary change the tax map sheet okay that's that's the answer I'm looking for it uh I'm concerned with miltown Dam again the the storm management ordinance covers a lot of things related to it kind of you know property whatnot but the dam itself is still a problem and the condition of that Dam those the two platforms is is getting serious uh that's not a reinforced concrete Dam and those platforms aren't reinforced with the rebar and there's not much left to that concrete there and I'm I'm worried that that could break off I hate to put it that way but that's pretty simple you know cuz when that water comes down there when we get flooded that's a serious problem and at this point I'll bring it up again we're going to get named there's going to be an investigation if something happens and a lot of people are going to get named whatever shows up in title searches and whatnot and that's another question there is a title search on a Trestle going ongoing or it's pending it's yeah um he provided an update recently and it had indicated bear with me a second uh it wasn't just the Alo Corporation correct that had title it was something like fresh fish Corporation or something some similar name to that which was kind of it's all him surprising yeah yeah okay but that continues yeah appreciate it I can tell you that that line underneath the turnpike that's one of our top priorities to get done so it should either be done this year next year but that's one of our top priorities no that's it appreciate it for now thanks good evening thank you for giving us a couple minutes my name is John Herbert I live on West F down at the end uh we call it the circle up there infrastructure seems to be the word of the night here here and that's what I'm here about because we've recently gone through the Reconstruction of the upper part of the street and all the lower end of the street was used for was a staging area for construction equipment Construction Products and so on and so forth our street has been totally destroyed by 880,000 lb DP trucks uh heavy machinery rollers backos graters you name it they've parked it on our street and this is the second year in a row because Public Service used for Circle as a stage in yard for the gas main project on that end of the street so our people on our little Street have been under construction for two years now I appreciate that you are looking into finding money to finish the street but I bet it doesn't happen this year it is going to happen next year that means we're under construction for 3 years none of you have been up to our street engineering nobody talked to us up on that street what's going on when it got all done I wanted to see actually but it rained at 3:00 in the morning so I wasn't going to go out and look but just the lay of the final black top the intersection of Albert Avenue and fos has been an ice skating Pond for years there's always water on that intersection now this is a 36e saga I've lived there since 1970 88 we decided to put an addition on our house I came down to get a permit the first thing they told us was you have to get a hold of Public Service they have to come dig a hole in your street to put a liner in the gas man coming into your house and we want that done because we're we're going to pave the street 1988 the hole that we had dug to have the liner put in is still in front of our house we've had promises that the street was going to be fixed we're going to be next well hagging pank ended up being next then fol is going to be we're going to do F Well they only did the upper half in the meantime our street is getting worse and worse and worse nothing but the public service came in put their gas m in they came back a couple months later they dug up every one of the uh property lines and put the new Mains into the houses and they put a temporary patch down somebody actually painted on the street this is going to be paved by the burrow so when Public Service pav the upper end of the street just before you dug it up they came down to Albert Avenue and stopped they didn't come over to our side of the street and do the half of Street Paving that they did in all the rest of the construction now this fos Avenue project in the letter it says you're going to put a m a line in between fos and the end of the culdesac they dug a hole and they put a water sewer runoff line in there and they put another temporary patch on it so so coupled with two complete straight cuts down the street all of the Cross Cuts made for the gas Mains and the fact that the entire intersection the first 50 ft into our street has been used as a construction storage yard our streets for crap so and then we're just looking at we're going to have to ride on this for another year and then we're going to have to put up with the construction for a year or you know another season I'm going to call it the season you're not looking out for the residents of that street you had the opportunity unfortunately we got this notice late Thursday night before they started the paving on Monday morning and I reached out in an attempt to see if I had the ability to put a stop work water and you would have had a stop work waterer because the equipment was there it was one dump truck worth of black top to be added to the project and this Construction Company destroyed the street they should be fixing it if it wasn't part of the contract they sure did a lot of damage using our street as a storage yard so it's been 36 years anything that comes out of this building pretty much anymore we have no we don't we don't believe anything we hear we've been promised the Street's going to be paved we've been promised this we've been promised that we got nothing so it's like I know you're not going to be able to just crap out of street here in the next couple weeks the opportunity was missed last week when the equipment was still there but anything and like now there's the resolution hasn't been passed to even put money in there we don't know if you're going to find a million 7 to do this and all the people have been here ahead of us have all been chomping at bit to get their share so out of the million 7 how much of the share is going to be left for West F that Street's been destroyed theirs just haven't been maintained so thank you for your time L can somebody look at that well can I say first I did get a letter from you sir and I told you that I would look into it and I did and that's part of when I asked our engineer here tonight about the uh culdesac on on West V so if if you'd like to maybe uh tell tell him something yes so the burrow um received a grant from the do uh let me just find that should be the back pages of that uh ordinance packet yes so the bur received a a grant that's just under a half a million dollars for improvements to F those funds are going to be used to complete West F first and foremost anything left over is going to be used on East f um including the water problem up by Main Street so um it's got to go through the budget process which is started tonight um then it'll go to design and then it'll be publicly bid and go to construction and I know this is really not supposed to be a question answer thing but we have the engineer here in questioning and the question was asked earlier about standards is there a standard of what this reconstruction requires as far as curb height curb depth for some reason you cut two uh storm runoff lines between the curb and the sidewalk and put little catch boxes in but there's nothing in the street so all the water on the street still runs down the street which is part of the problem there because it all when it comes we get 3/4 of the water between uh Persian and fos comes downhill goes around the corner comes down the uh you know coming into the street it would be the left side of the street at times the width of the water running down the street is wider than my car in the winter time we don't get plowed very well it's a cue saac and it's just understandable that the trucks don't do a good job in the culde saacs and then we end up with all these ice damps because we kep end up cleaning out our driveway ends the water gets come down there as things start to melt all the water from Main Street all the way down to the one storm sewer at the end of the circle takes all of that water you got heg and petan straighten them out they don't even make a city block you got nine catch basins you put in on that project why was no catch basins put in on the upper end of fos Avenue to help collect that water so it just doesn't run down and erode the you know the curb edges and the blacktop to me that's you know I don't know what the purpose of those boxes between the sidewalks is but that's not helping to protect the street yeah so there's a significant groundwater issue on fo um yeah we got underground streams up there my whole backyard keeps sinking because of them so what you're seeing is an underd drain system that was put in that's going to be continued when we do the next piece but we had to run it that's the General lay of the land as you know that's where all the water run so we had to run it through the culdesac initially for the underdrain system between Maine and Albert um it had to go through to the end of the culdesac to tie in so um that's why it came down through the C deac first and obviously we want to get that done before we do that section of the road so you know it just goes back to Public Service did half paves they did half a Street and they specifically didn't do our street because the burrow is going to do it this company put in that pipe down to the uh drain at the End of the Street nobody put any half pave on that street either so now we just have all these cuts and bruises and if I if I may for a second just so I understand this correctly we put in a storm drain from Albert Avenue to the end of the culdesac drains we didn't have enough money in that to to pave the culdesac that's great how much money are we looking at left over in that in that allowance in the bid contract that that was unused cuz I knew we threw some extra in there for curbs and sidewalks and things yeah I'd have to check that and get back but now it's going to cost you a ton of money because you got to bring all that equipment back where before it was and reason I tried to get something done before they did it was it's here the people are here the only thing is is a material just material if it's within a certain amount of scope of the overall project we pay mobilization for one thing the first time the contractor shows up so if there is enough money and the ex and the amount of additional Paving does not exceed 10% or 20% 20% 20% of the original intended amount we could tell him to come on back and we don't pay for for that extra mobilization but we got to look and see how much money is sitting there in that in that amount and and see what we can do and and I'd ask see me to please look into that sure as soon as possible thank you thank you hello Sharon hobin 7 Elm Place I just wanted to revisit the standardized um curbing of Main Street from a property value point of view okay we all want to keep our the value of our homes we have the ability for Main Street to have a welcoming oldtime feel okay right now we don't it looks like a Main Street that's in deterioration from cral park down to Home Depot the curbing we can't rely on homeowners to take care of it because they're not they don't cut their grass they don't cut their strip out front they don't uh they're not improving their Curbing and to have that uniform straight down would be a huge huge Improvement so whether it's well it's not going to done be done before the last week of June but if it's the abil there to do it afterwards it has to be uniform can't have peace meal okay I think it really would make a huge difference in mtown that's one thing number two the you mentioned a uh mural contest what was that for where's the mural going um So the plan at this moment is based upon uh L around the area of the pool where there's just some open space councilman the microphone please so we can hear you thank you I'm loud enough I don't often concern myself with this uh but yeah it's basically around the area around the pool where there is some open space and it's just generally painted uh we can frame out a space okay my only concern with murals I'm in New Brunswick every day oh and there are many murals however now 5 years after painting them they're all in Decay they're peeling and so if there's not upkeep they go from really cool really cute really pretty whatever the subject is to looking very poor quickly so that's a concern once you start painting a mural you can't stop painting a mural you have to keep going okay so be careful with painting murals and the third comment was on the pool people from I I don't if we already are giving senior citizens which I'm right around the corner of becoming one of those 60 year olds we already have a discount okay we're talking about we don't have Revenue we're looking to sell birthday signs for Revenue I mean we're already discounting it we don't need discount we don't need free passes for 60 year olds so that's my opinion it's not happening thank you thank you you want to come up uh did I understand that this was approved September of 2020 um it sounded like and correct me if I'm wrong it sounded like it was approved in 2020 and then the engineer uh the planning board engineer approved the storm water management plan in 24 that's correct because had I known were we supposed to be informed all neighbors with a letter some kind of letter of subdivisional a when a planning board application comes before the board certified letters are sent to everybody who is affected by I believe what is it 200 ft or whatever that is well that that's me I but not the approval you're just notified of the of the application in the hearing yeah we that would be part of the application packet but if you're within that if you're within the affected Zone you would have gotten a certified letter I'm directly in line but we're talking back in 2020 you wouldn't get a letter now right otherwise I would have been here in 2020 had I known all this was approved it also gets published it gets published in the paper and and and certified letters get delivered that's something else I'd have to pull the file though and see all the addresses it was sent to I think the zoom call was the planning board meeting where it was approved though well what was approved according to us was that you you guys had to run a storm sewer system with piping down to Janet and we hadn't heard anything for 3 and A2 years so we assumed it was it was squashed until last week when they threw a sign up that the land was for sale and then we found out that it was approved for a subdivision and a drywall and uh that's where we're at now so all right I I was wondering can this issue be Revisited uh no no it's already been approved the time to appeal is long passed it's long pass long pass now what if it was someone like me who didn't live there was in part of Zo does not matter no unfortunately it's 45 days from the date that the notice of approval is published in the paper you have to file a suit within 45 days so that was back in 2020 to some some type of letter you don't get a letter okay if you participated in the zoom meeting you knew that there was an approval the like I said the approval was for a piping system not for a dryw I can't I can't address that cuz I haven't seen the resolution I don't know R of a natural spring on our property if that is the case it be reopened and Revisited if that is true no un thank you 99 JFK uh along that line I have a question then too uh it's for the planning board but since you guys some of you councilmen are members whatnot uh when a preliminary sub application goes in for a subdivision and that gets preliminary approval can that be opened by the by the public the application certainly yes okay so these gentlemen could go back and opa whatever took place there absolutely right just to confirm it y right I would be an O they' have to come in and look at everything that's not something I can scan and send though they'd have to come to the office to see all the plans just right that's a recent one right because my question is going to be I want to op something going back ways and I just want to make sure that that's legit so we're okay with that okay appreciate it anybody else my name is Tim McGovern I live at 177 South Main Street um the first gentleman that spoke about the curbs I live just diagonally across from him uh in addition to the curbs being a slight issue um I've noticed that because of all the cuts and everything in the road everything like that all the trucks and construction it's going past the houses all day every day my entire house shakes nonstop I was home today like my day off and my house did not stop stop shaking because of all the trucks not only are they going and hitting all that stuff they're going extremely fast doing it seems in excess of 50 at all times um I only see people get ever like pulled over uh in the middle of the night when there's really not as much traffic and it's not an issue but there's still trucks going past the house even at 2 a.m. I can feel my house shaking uh and I know my neighbor bunch of my neighbors were here they all left now they were here before and they were saying basically the same thing that their houses are shaking nonstop uh I've been noticing cracks in all my plaster and everything from the the constant movement it's becoming more and more of a concern uh pretty much every day 177 South Main I'll I'll mention it to the chief okay so we'll see if we can I'm not advocating for more police presence but we are we are because we want to make sure that if you say they're going 50 we want ay we could put a sign we can we do have one of those um monitors that could track the speed so can see what type of report that we're getting around your area okay and provide that to you cool so excent thank you absolutely thank you thank you anybody else no okay um we will I will close the public comment portion of the meeting uh Council comments is there any further any further that anyone on the council would like to bring up at this time um two quick comments uh number one uh in light of all the discussions about speeding on Main and and the issues I thought it's appropriate I actually had a discussion with uh Chief Johnson today that as we approach summertime and uh and all the kids about um and I discussed it with the realtor who um who assisted in the sale of the former Spirits property about possibly having a police detail set up there clear and visible so that as folks are coming into miltown they know and can see a vehicle that we are paying attention to the speed limits here and uh and are going to strictly enforce them uh thankfully he was on board and hopefully the new property owner is on board as well because I think it's a prime spot especially as you come into the center of town to realize there is a police presence here even if you don't see the lights flashing behind you or happen to see one on your on the rest of your way so we're hoping that that that has a positive impact as well um and secondly I just want to thank all of our veterans and their families for the sacrifices to allow us to have our freedoms including the ability to vote uh for their elected officials whether through their time or the sacrifice of life and limb we are eternally grateful for your service and I mean that from the bottom of my heart so thank you yes go Dave when when is the fundraising coming out for the 4th of July letters will be coming out mid June they'll be uh on people's uh properties that's we're we're heading good than you I I know it's late I'm I'm sorry but I'd like to read this it's a it's a tribute to our military to to uh continue um what rich said it's for Memorial Day in the upcoming D-Day um bear with me I'll try to make it as quick as I can it's uh for the um for the points of of the boys of Point too which was the Cliffs at Normandy it's a it's a piece from Ronald Reagan speech from the beach at Normandy France on the 40th anniversary of dday in 1984 40 Summers have passed since the battle you fought here you were young the day you took these Cliffs some of you were hardly more than boys with the deepest joys of life before you yet you risked everything here why why did you do it what impelled you to put aside the Instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these Cliffs what inspired all the men of the armies that met here we look at you and somehow we know the answer it was faith and belief it was loyalty and love this was about the Rangers that scaled the vertical Cliffs as deadly fire raining down on them so many men lost their lives willingly to free Europe from the tyranny of Nazism The Liberation began here June 6 194 4 this is the largest invasion in mankind human sacrifices immeasurable there is uniquely American belief W into our Collective American Spirit that all men are created equal that is why when free people are threatened with tyranny around the globe America and our brave well-trained military has come in to bring Justice For Those crying out for help for ourselves and others our country has been the last best hope for the world we've been an exceptional country and it has been from our founding and still it is the people and the American Spirit freedom is not free and America has always been there to help when freedom is threatened the cost is high and the American Soldier has always been willing to give their life for those young and old John Maxwell Edmund said tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today I'd like to quote Churchill again never in the field of human conflict so has was so much owed by so many to so few and this too describes our military from our founding through all our Wars and conflicts and that's it um i' just like to mention to the council uh because we should probably talk about this at some point uh but I do think that historical society and the idea of being a weak commission may actually afford us some protection in the future or some control over things that happen in our town that we can't legislate piece by piece on uh we have seem to have a hard enough time finding people to join committees and groups and for some reason they've been fully stocked um and we've limited their effectiveness um and I do think that some of the things that have been constant reoccurring questions not constant but reoccurring like the railroad station maybe the only way we address them is by creating it upgrading that to a weak commission where it may be able to actually accomplish something that uh that we don't want to throw on our towns people to pay for and we can't make you know in the list of things uh that guy's Street's going to get fixed long before we move the railroad station maybe something we should consider if not today over the next coming months it it might just there are a lot of ways that in the end game it sounds like we can be be vaguely in control of it the planning board can something to consider we should talk about that greater um you know that thank you for everything that Memorial Day was created for uh because us being here re the benefit of it and hopefully we can do that well thank you I'm good it's almost 10 o' I don't have anything else to say I just I'm I'm not going to add on to everything that's already said about Memorial Day uh just to say thank you to all the residents that are here your comments it's not that we're not listening to your comments we're we're like it's all spooling up here right now but thank you for coming out because I know it takes time out of your daily lives to bring up the concerns whether it be a curb whether it be a mural whether it be a dryw with whatever it be but uh I appreciate all you guys coming out here I I just had a qu a comment is like we're going to create a historic commission but or we can't repair you know they're going to tell people how to repair their houses but not their curbs in front of their house you know wasn't that uh kind of ironic that we can't repair the the curbs but we're going to tell them how what they can use on their house no it's different that all together we're not talking about that at all we're talking about basically just trying to acquire Federal funding or right but you're not funding you're not guaranteed that Federal funding well we are if we can hearing the wording of it I we're not guar seems like we'd be able to approve what they would do they wouldn't tell us weak commission strong commission but again just a thought that we need to look at it and see what we can do at how much earlier worth time of the evening just F in action hasn't served as well okay closing Council comments uh my only comments uh besides Memorial Day uh being a very uh special day um I'd like to congratulate the 2024 to 16 recipients of the Hometown Heroes uh that we attended uh yesterday at the American Legion Pavilion and um it's a it's a nice event that they put on every year uh so thank you um at this time I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn so so move second third motion made by councilman Potter seconded by councilman Collins and all in favor e