good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the combined agenda and regular meeting of the mro township Council uh the agenda meeting is called to order would we all please rise to honor our flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the clerk call the road please councilman Charles depiro here councilman Michael marel here councilman Rupa P seagull here Council vice president Terence vanzora here council president Miriam Cohen present please read the Sunshine Law into the record in accordance with the open public meetings act it is hereby announced and shall be entered into the minutes of this meeting that adequate notice has been provided by the following one posted on the bulletin boards within the municipal building on December 29th 2023 and remains posted at that location for public inspection two printed in the home News Tribune and the cranberry press on December 29 2023 three posted on the Monroe Township website and four sent to those individuals who have requested personal notice in accordance with chapter 3 section 17 of the Monroe Township Code public comment shall be limited to 5 minutes unless further time is granted by the council president thank you uh item five on our agenda is in honor of council and all of you are here tonight we I'm going to call upon mayor good evening everyone so um is this working just put it on mayor I need a course in microphone now we can rock and roll okay we're good we're good so in life there's events that happen that you see sometimes very moving but that human spirit that we all have have right sometimes something happens well my friends we here to honor somebody when that something happens to you and we have a Good Samaritan here that needs to be recognized now when I saw on the news when I had heard from the chief of police in regards to there was a fire at Rossmore um very early morning and a Good Samaritan knocked on the door to try to get that person out of the burning house and you think about that moment right it's natural as a human once in a while you get that thought and then you say boy I wonder what I would do right what what would you do and he gets you thinking and my friends there's Strife in the world there's negativity but gosh darn it there is positivity as well and that happened here in Monroe Township one of our own citizens helping another in need without regard you come to that moment and you see something what do you do well my friends Thomas Galindo from Rossmore did something something amazing I had the opportunity to talk to Mr gindo and his family prior to the meeting and um when he walked into my office the first thing I said is just wow so with that being said very few words wow Thomas Galino Galino certificate of heroism in recognition of your outstanding bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of imminent danger the esteem respect and congratulations of the township of Monroe are hereby extended you make us proud today April 1st 2024 something more than wow something that you could put on your wall you can show your co-workers that you hey no more ribbon I did good I did good and you did very good and I'm again behalf of myself all of the council members the administration but all the citizens there should be more Thomas know in the world thank you my friend please come up and accept this like a Good Samaritan again riding off into the the sunset I'd like to ask uh council president if uh we could potentially just take a moment for some pictures with the council comments okay I would like to check and then obviously if there's any comments that need to be made by obviously we're all by the council members yes thank you we will do both those things I'm going to ask councilman marel this is your ward and you are a resident of Rossmore if you would like to make a comment first please sir uh yes yes I would that was a very nice uh introduction the mayor gave uh Tom and I go back a long way about 10 minutes um actually we're neighbor we're we're neighbors in Rossmore and I'd like to just say um not much to add to what the mayor said but thank you so much um in a world that we see so many terrible things every time we turn on the TV it's great that something um so fantastic happened in our especially so close to home and I just want to thank you for as I say doing the right thing but it takes a lot to do the right thing not everybody does the right thing they hesitate they go what if maybe who knows but you didn't do you did the right thing and I just personally and uh as as a member of the council thank you so much Mr galeno I appreciate someday I can call you Tom and you call me Mike okay thanks I'd like to ask our Council vice president please thank you as the mayor said you find yourself in a situation you see danger some people respond to the danger some people back off it doesn't make one person bad the other person good but when that one person does react it makes you special we have a word for that it's called hero you are a true hero of the township of Monroe we thank you councilman deiro Mr gleno I just like to say um on TV I watch a show that says what would you do and when I watch that show I say boy you know this show what how can I watch the show and really enjoy it and I really I look forward to watching that show as our mayor and the council says we you are hero right here in Monroe and what you've done I could as a fire commissioner for 21 years I hear the stories I see it and this this is living the moment of of what you've done courage because a lot of people they tell you run away from a fire call and they and when our fire First Responders go to a a a situation they don't know what they're walking into and they're trained and they're professionals you went in there being hero to our community and we thank you and and you know we don't take that too l so thank you very much and and God bless you councilwoman seago please thank you Mr gleno it's really nice to meet you um I remember seeing or reading an article that you happened to be running late that work that day to work or a couple minutes late leaving a little bit later so we're thankful that you left a little bit later CU you were able to help out a neighbor with your bravery and courage so thank you so much those who save a lot life save a generation there are no other words other than that you've honored Us by being here and allowing us to honor you it would be good if we took a five minute break should we need five minutes Alan Alan K and dates all photographs in this room three minutes so we'll please take a brief break to take some pictures back it in order for the this agenda meeting the additional proclamations that will be made this month are Autism Awareness Month Arab American Heritage Month SE awareness and appreciation month National Public Safety telecommunicators Week education and sharing day and Auber day item six will the clerk please read the ordinance for introduction at this April 1st agenda meeting ordinance 04 20247 ordinance providing for Signal improvements at Oldbridge Englishtown Road and mount Mills Road in and by the township of Monroe in the county of middlex New Jersey appropriating 2,300,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 2,1 190,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof ordinance 04 20248 ordinance amending chapter 997 of the code of the Tang above Monroe entitled tree preservation thank you item seven are the resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda at the April 1st 2024 regular meeting R4 2024-25 224-1 1227 any council members wishing to remove the resolutions from consideration as a body please councilman deiro thank thank you the only one I have is R4 d224 d115 115 thank you anyone else have anything they wish removed doy lot of resolutions this morning we'll move to the public comment section of the agenda meeting please remember that in this portion of the meeting public comments Li limited to agenda items only 5 minutes per speaker may I have a motion to open the public comment section please motion thank you second second thank you all in favor I any opposed anyone wishing to address the council please remember to come forward stating your name and address for the record George gunman Monroe um ordinance number six about the signalization is that um a shared uh cost or is that all being both County Roads I believe so how much of that this some part of a negotiated deal or what Mr Weinberg please yeah this is an agreement and it's sort of a standard County agreement um one side of the road two sides are Mount Mills the other side is Oldbridge English toown Road and the standard agreement is usually uh and this is what is in this case uh land acquisition is done by the municipality uh design of the project is split 50/50 final construction Administration is 100% County um hard costs for the actual light itself are 5050 and any police protection um is the township side so that's the standard agreement which was approved by the council previously okay and just the ballpark idea of the breakout uh how much of that is land uh sure so I think it cost us uh I would say close to 250,000 to do the different easements we had done that previously um the 50% of the design is about 270,000 um the total construction cost is about 3.5 so that's 1.7 each and then the police is an allowance up to I think it's about $200,000 depending on the length of the pro fine thank you um I there's in the consent agenda um item 113 which is purchasing uh two uh F550 um no trucks um the number seems abnormally high is there some reason for that I mean where we're getting the if I could council president yes please you know we're getting these through uh State contract and they are also uh fully loaded in terms of their coming with a snowplow and the Salter as well um it's actually hard to get trucks now um so this is this is through State contract so um obviously I think the price has gone up over time while we're seeing that with ambulances as well um but this is a a negotiated price um through the state and it does replace a 2006 uh unit number 94 which has close to 100,000 units and is somewhat failing and uh 2008 uh which has 84,000 so the ones that we have are somewhere between 18 I'm sorry 18 and uh 16 years old and and sort of pass their useful life kind of a shocking number um I have what it's more a comment than a question sure please M chairman uh item 108 uh contract for um um ambulance maintenance parts and repairs um at some point uh are we going to entertain having a municipal garage for maintaining things I know the school has a garage for maintaining their school buses I think Public Works maintains their own trucks uh but we have other groups I don't know who I don't know who maintains the the police department and stuff but it would seem that maybe there's a Tipping Point where it would be viable for us to have our own in house maintenance if I could answer please come yes so we we do have that and we do on the ambulances we do a lot of the basic oil changes and basic stuff um the the ambulances are pretty unique and so we do use a specialized company when when something significant happens that really focuses only on ambulances um so I would say for most of our equipment um and our cars and vehicles we handle it internally ourself if it's not if it's something we have to farm out we do but historically for ambulances and the specialization of this unique product that we get we've been using VCI for a while and they really they're the ones who are experts in that brand of of ambulance okay understood thank Youk I have okay thank you anyone else wishing to address the council please come forward again your name and address for the records please Gary busman 7 Monarch Road Monroe um 2024 1117 uh can someone please explain to me what that contract entails sure Mr Weinberg you're on so this is through the historic commission um over by the die Farm across from the die Farm is a another house that moved over there probably 20 years ago from England Road sometimes it's been called called the England house sometimes it's been called the Beed house I understand it was built in 1830 and and different owners lived in it um along uh England Road over the years and so this is a conceptual preliminary design to look at how best to stabilize the house it was moved there 20 years ago believe there was some work done on the roof and the historic commission is looking uh with this contract to move forward to figure out a plan of how to further stabilize the house so it can last and then ultimately I believe go for Grants and other resources um I just get surprised sometimes at what professionals charge I being a professional I know what I charge sometimes I believe it was excessive but based on the situations it may be warranted I just wanted to question that fact so thank you you're welcome anyone else please come forward again stating your name and address for our records prakash purup 33 Dina Drive I have questions I agree with this but I have question on r420 24116 uh charging stations at senior center library and Recreation Center the question is how many charging stations at each location and how fast they charge it is 5 m hour or 25 M hour or 200 125 miles per hour are these pay or charge free so those and then after that I have comment Mr Weinberg please so this would be uh two two charging stations at each of the three locations uh mentioned there we will be coming forward um uh probably in the May meeting to talk about how much uh what the cost will be we'll be making a proposal to the council it's generally going to be along the lines of the first hour or two at the Loc it costs sort of what it costs us to provide the electricity after that if you leave your car there all day it goes up it's sort of a credit card process and it's a state-of-the-art machine but I don't know you know it's it's much better than the one the old one we have at the library it'll be brand new I'm going have to get you the answer on what the actual charging component my request is have a faster charging let the customer pay for that because there are very few I've seen that I have gone to Chicago and rest of the places no one is is using when it is charging five 5 hours you know uh you know 5 m per hour so my request is it costed me $800 to put a charging in my house which charges 25 M per hour so uh that is the request okay so please consider that I appreciate that is a good funding let us use it uh next is the construction road construction in South Middle 6 Avenue and F guard new uh Improvement project and uh at $593,000 uh um uh I think this is in the warehouse area so what is this construction uh Mr reso is this your turn sure council president how many miles also it is how many miles sorry for that council president this is uh this was a NJ do local Freight grant that we re received um this is for South Middle sex Avenue and Fitzgerald Avenue in in the industrial park area Okay uh we received uh 11 bids on this project so so the it was quite substantial number of biders uh the low bid is uh $593,000 uh the question is it is repaving uh what when it says construction I was not C what what type of construction council president uh so this is a reconstruction of a roadway um there'll be uh Milling curbing uh some curbing um sidewalks um at the handicap ramps and um line striping the paving and how many miles it is I don't have the mileage it's all it's South middlex Avenue and it's fitgerald Avenue it is nice to get Grant so we got how much Grant we got the grant more than covers the uh the the low bid price okay thank you very much thanks thanks you're welcome anyone else wishing to address the council please come forward now council president I just stand correct that the grant is 550,000 and the low bid was 593 th000 please your name and address for the records good evening Lu Panos 128 Candera Plaza Monroe on 007 is this the total amount are we expected to pay you know are we expected to pay more I'd like to know how much was the business administrator broke down some numbers but how much totally were we responsible for is and how much not and and how much in the future are we responsible for uh item 116 the charging station who regulates that I know for gas stations weights and measures regulates how much how long so what department or entity regulates the electric pumping stations and how much will it cost the resident to do that and are we getting type two type three type one what type of charging stations are we getting uh 118 there's that was very nice of whoever left this Mr Cristiano Cristiano left some money for the senior center except in the bill on the website it said there was an attachment a there I didn't see one so what is attachment a that is referred to um and while I agree that it's nice to get grants come on we all know it's like pay from pet is paying paor we all pay for everything whether it's a grant whether it's you know we're paying for it so thank you for applying for the grants but still somehow I think the taxpayers is play paying for it so if I can get those answers to those questions sure Mr warberg you yeah I just want to make sure I didn't uh miss the first one so I apologize can you just if you don't mind just read how much yeah the the total that was spent in is there more projection of money to be spent so um I did go through the costs earlier if I could council president and and once it does open because I know that was the end of the question once I once it does open it is operated and maintained by the County however if uh there's an Opticon on there which is for emergency services we maintain that one piece of it but if the traffic light doesn't work or there's a problem with it the county ultimately maintains it um as I mentioned earlier the land acquisition was approximately 300,000 which I just wanted a total I you know well I wasn't clear myself I thought you wanted the breakdowns I'm sorry sorry you just went the total so the total for us is 2.24 3 million but that doesn't include the land so that would be about 2.5 million 2.54 3 million it doesn't include the police that doesn't that does include the police oh it does okay thank you and then moving on to what was it 116 116 yes who C Ates how much is it going to cost what type are we getting right so I'll have to get back to you on the type that we're getting and Kevin is not here and he would be able to uh explain it but um we are uh we are going to bring forward an ordinance uh and we're allowed by ordinance I believe to set the rates um as I mentioned earlier um by hour um and you see a lot of different towns doing that um where they can do up to the first hour second hour and have different rates going on and the conventional wisdom now is that a lot of people make the first hour to too reasonable certainly make sure that everyone's paying for their full electricity but then try and make the rate go higher so people don't leave their car there you know all day um to you know to hog or whatever the right term is the location but I'll have to get back to you on the type of uh uh charging station that it is it is council president if I can help Alan out there sorry and I wanted to know who regulates it waights and measures I I understood the third part of your question is who regulates these charging stations thank you with regard to the charger are type two or level two Chargers Okay C 4,000 or something like that okay type two Chargers and that has some meaning to someone who is familiar with yeah there there there's essentially three levels as uh Mr perab spoke about um these are type type two or level two and do we know if who is going to be responsible for assuring the accuracy of the meters is it weights and measures or we don't have that information yet I I don't want to guess so I have well we won't guess we will find out and we'll get back to all right you're proven stuff and you don't even know all the answers but that's you know and how about the attachment a on uh 118 attachment a on the that's referred to on the website oh I'm yes I'm sorry your qu your comment was that you went to the website from the senior center and attachment a about or you went to our website and there was no description of the attachment a what it meant Mr warberg do you have that yeah let me just look at it for one second here sure so I hang on I don't know if uh uh uh M wants to talk about that but I oh it's right sorry it's right here on the back so if that wasn't copied I do have a copy here that I can certainly share with you this is the list of the different uh stocks uh and bond notes that are a available that equal to 33,000 the reason it says approximately 33,000 is I don't believe they've been sold yet so when this all closes this person who donated some of their uh through their will some different stocks um and bonds when it closes that final amount will be set there is an attachment a listing the uh bonds and the amounts which I think is the stock numbers as well so and I apologize I can certainly share that with you here if you want to get a it's on my screen in front of me as well okay you have attachment if the goes say attachment I didn't give you know what I like to do my homework and I didn't have the opportunity know that to do that okay I I will I'll get a copy you know um and I just want to say thank you to the business administrator because at the last meeting I I asked some questions about the audit and everything and he suggested that my time was up which that's your job and he apologized for that and I appreciate that um very much no no it's nice to say it when it happens though okay you know it was nice to say privately he should have said that night you know hey Mrs Panos I apologize I remember I know what you meant but that's okay next time don't let him run the show thank you good evening everyone gazala Bora one moo Drive I want to start by appreciating the charging stations need of the hour I'm glad we getting six of them very excited actually so thank you to the administration for making that happen sure gazala Bora one Meo drive thank you um and I don't know if it was audible but I wanted to show my appreciation for the charging stations my question though and please pardon my lack of knowledge is on item 104 uh it talks about the extension of the introduction and approval of the mro township um annual budget to May 6th my question is what is the reg the general timeline and why is it being extended thank you sure so uh the council has the ability um to extend the introduction sometimes we uh introduce in April and sometimes we introduce in May uh in the covid years I think we introduced in June um so this year our plan is to introduce in May um and then adopt uh hopefully at the following meeting um so that is certainly allowed under fauler the council just gives us the permission to do that and is there if I may ask a follow-up question is there like a timeline where you have to finish it buy governed by the state or County I mean if I can I've seen I've seen other towns do their budgets in October and November at the end of the year which is you know pretty unusual I think the DCA may get on them for that but we've generally always done it in March or April um with that that approval there thank you your name and address for our records please sharmini o9 Nathaniel Street uh before we get started thank you for mentioning the Faulkner act I was at the State library today CU I wanted to look up our particular forkner act do you have the exact number I think there's different yes there is grades of the faul ACT which one are we in Monroe what plan B weren't we faul plan B we be I'm not aware of a number so so they I mean my I don't know if you want to go first or you want me to go first oh you can go always go first so so um they updated fauler there used to be like plans a b CDE e FJ they merged them all into the optional Municipal Charter we are historically the one that had um three at llarge seats sorry two at Large seats and three Ward seats but we are generally the uh optional uh Municipal Charter otherwise known as the fauler act and all the things associated with the fauler ACT would come to us okay but there were like five books in the library today and I wanted to know which one specifically addressed our form of government I can't go through all they were like huge law books I'm going to refer to that our attorney will continue your answer the easiest would be to refer to the code the code that's been passed on the and I think it's 360 right the degree and that that is what we follow that all the forms the government everything we have to follow is on on the municipal code so it's municipal code 360 yeah it should be the 360 which is all the general code systems that everybody uses I think you're you're on 360 right yeah we're the fauler act and I think they're all together now all together yeah but it's basically just you can Google municipal code even the township and just click on it there's an entire tab of all the rules and regulations that the township Monroe follows so it's it's on our website correct of everything you can go to there and you can follow all the rules there where is that on I'm on the website constantly I haven't seen it so we just put in the township and then in there you'll find entire websites very user friendly and you click on government and it'll be on there probably and if you can't find it there you go into the clerks and it'll be on that tab it'll be right there our our wonderful clerk M Robins and if you want I'll say afterwards and I'll even show you that that would be great okay great okay um my my other so thank you for bringing that up that was happened to be my concern today um resolution r420 24104 um approving the extension of the introduction and approve um I don't think that's the one um it was the one of the I'm sorry it's not 01 might be 03 over payments yes sorry um this is a very short resolution for overpayment what is the amount of overpayments do we have that on here Mr wber please uh sure what resolution number is that I'll just oh I'm sorry the amount is here 136,137 is that all for one party or I'm sorry Mr 103 resolution 103 yep under schedule a there's a whole series behind there schedule a okay again not on not on the website okay there's a schedule a that lists each and every uh right uh situation sometimes it's for example um people may double pay their bill sometimes there's a credit if somebody becomes uh permanently uh veterans disabled um in certain cases if it's a state tax appeal it would be a credit back to them and that is that is certainly listed under schedule a um within there um so okay so went to the um website today and as you can see I downloaded all the resolutions but it wasn't didn't come out on that where is schedule a on website okay I mean we could certainly ask the clerk to make sure that's included when we when sorry I give you more is Robin that's okay fine but I mean that because it's you know the the part you're talking about $136,000 and it's very there's no other details so I'm looking at so we can make sure that you're able to look at it as well okay so it's any it's any number of things cumulatively correct it's it's both uh state tax appeals it's um double payments it's a variety of different things that the tax collector's office processes okay and I think I have every mon email okay Michelle I can email that to you tomorrow if you'd like that'd be great do you want me to do I have to email you you remember I'll take a thank you take care of it I owe an email to Tanya though I haven't got some information but that's on me thank you very much you're welcome anyone else wishing to come before the council please do so now seeing and hearing none I'd like to entertain a motion to close the com public comment period Please motion thank you a second on that motion second thank you all in favor I any opposed nayd like to entertain a motion to adjourn the agenda meeting please motion second second roll call councilman deiro yes councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes motion is meeting is adjourned the agenda meeting is adjourned the regular meeting is now called would like to call that to order may I have a motion please motion thank you second second roll call councilman toiro yes Council marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes may I have a motion to approve the payment of claims for the run date of March council president I had a question on the bill on the bill list sure I had a question yes okay um on page 11 of the bill list there was uh payments for Monroe Township baseball uniforms uh it was approxim only $9,500 I thought that the mono Township baseball association receives payments from the um the parents or or guardians of our of our baseball players and all sports right Mr Weinberg please right my my understanding is that when they they do use uniforms for multiple years but I believe the first time we buy the uniforms we we buy them ourselves that's been our historical practice ice but I'll certainly double back with uh with Mary Lang um we've certainly done purchases like this many times right because when I um talk to a lot of the residents that play their children play a lot of sports they're they not only do they make payments they also do services for each which I was when I was a a parent my kids played Sports we also volunteered so either way that I think the taxpayers paying twice so I just want to make sure that um the money there's the money come to the township do we get any money from any of these baseball or associations or hockey or anything we have historically uh uh supported the different in town wreck leagues um it's certainly something during the budget process we could look at providing less support if you feel that's something um that the parents could pay for more themselves I can certainly get the details on that it's all from our budget item basball certainly listed in there as well okay so if the money doesn't come to us do we get an audit do we get a copy of their audits from each one of these these uh organizations we got a copy of their audits right Council please sorry I believe the rec Advisory Board gets a copy of of all of the uh audits from the different organizations that we work with Okay and then the the last question I had um I had a discussion with Allan in reference to uh a payment that we making to the Hard Rock uh Casino for uh for the OEM so um it's $4,799 and that's for uh for as as one of our residents just said uh we do we get grants which is great but we also make payments as taxpayers so we are sending 10 uh residents or employees or volunteers whatever whatever they are as far as the OEM is concerned it's it's copy of of the statement the bill the PO and also the people that are going and I thank Allan for getting that for me but I was just a little concerned because in the past uh mayor counsel and and attorneys uh in the past in Monroe we uh they stopped making payments for League municipalities or anything going for any kind of meetings uh the attorney back then was Joel Shane and he and he recommended that no payments would be made for any kind of of uh any kind of seminars or any kind of uh events in Atlantic City so I was a little surprised to see $ 4,719 regardless of where the money's coming from we're making the payments so that's that's my comment I did respond on that if I could council president please do um we did get a we did starting about two years ago get a $10,000 federal state Grant to expand training for our office of emergency management and so starting about two years ago we started attending on a regular basis with some of our key staff members on the OEM the state emergency uh management conference down in Atlantic City um it usually ranges from four to five days we have some folks like people from EMS who will go down for the two-day component that is EMS and then we might have our director of OEM there for for all five days instead of coming back and forth um the grant is specifically authorized to be used um to be able to go to this conference so I just want to share that publicly thank you thank you that's continuing education for our excellent office of emergency management uh any may I go back to my motion please yes thank you council president you're welcome may I have a motion to approve the payment of claims per the run date of March 27th please so moved second second thank you m roll call councilman toiro no councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the following meetings is written and presented the February 5th 2024 agenda and regular combined meeting motion please motion thank you second second thank you roll call please councilman deiro yes councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you we're moving through the ordinances for introduction again could you please read the ordinance ordinance 04 20247 ordinance providing for Signal improvements at Oldbridge Englishtown Road and mounts Mills Road in and by the township of Monroe in the county of middlex New Jersey appropriating 2,300,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 2,190 ,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof next is um you know okay do it separately we're going to do these separately these I need a motion to introduce ordinance 04224 d007 please motion thank you may I have a second on that second thank you roll call councilman deiro yes councilman Marquel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries motion carries please let's do the second one please ordinance 04 20248 ordinance amending chapter 97 of the code of the township of Monroe entitled tree preservation and these amendments comply with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recommendations may I have a motion to please to introduce this thank you thank you a second second thank you roll call councilman deiro yes councilman marel councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries motion carries we now move to the resolutions would you clerk please State the resolutions for consideration minus the one Obed yes resolutions R4 2024 102 through R4 20242 127 with the exception of R4 2024 115 very good may I have a motion please so moved thank you second on that please second thank you roll call councilman toiro yes councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you item seven is the resolution that's been removed from the consent to agenda that is resolution R4 2024 115 motion please some motion thank you second second thank you roll call councilman deiro stand councilman Marquel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you we will now move to our reports we begin with our administrator on my extreme left Mr Weinberg thank you very much thank you very much council president uh just a couple of comments one did want to mention that coming up on April 16th at 6 PM uh the representatives from the BFI Republic over at the landfill will be having a meeting with residents to talk a little bit about the recent uh smells and outdoor air in the area at 6 PM um Township folks will be there as well and they've they operate the landfill so they've invited local residents to come and I just wanted to mention that on as well um again that's April 16th at 6m the BFI will be meeting with some local uh residents at the entrance to the landfill um uh at the intersection of Lonnie and Lori um I did want to also commend the the township engineer uh regarding the 11 bids on the South Middle sex project certainly a great price underneath the uh Engineers estimate and um and certainly using mostly grant money so uh thrilled about that as well also uh thank the council for approving the DP W trucks uh that were ordered we're hopeful that they'll be here by next winter and both the trucks that they're uh going to be replacing are sort of uh desperately in need of being replaced so we're excited about that as well so thank you very much council president you're welcome Mr as Mo thank you council president um uh my report covers uh updates on some new projects uh first off in traffic signal Applegarth bro and Joan Warren way the County anticipates Construction starting on that in the next couple weeks um with regard to the monu Township Police Station building Edition that project has started work is underway they started with the site work in the back and they installing uh the storm sore system at this time and lastly as Alan mentioned uh South Middle sex Avenue uh Road reconstructions covered under a local Freight Grant and uh the low bidder was p construction out of Colonia New Jersey and uh we look forward to getting that started uh in the next few weeks thank you that's my report Council reports I'm going to begin on my extreme left councilwoman Seagle please thank you council president good evening everyone uh just a couple updates I wanted to send out a a thank you to Monroe rec center and the parks and recck Department Easter egg hunt was amazing and it was supposed to be out on Prospect ples with all the rain they had to move everything indoors bir a couple days later so they did amazing communication I heard from many parents how thankful they were um to be notified of the change and just a couple updates from some of the commissions that I L onto our historic historical preservation commission is going to be starting up their die Farm open houses soon their first one is going to be on Sunday May 2nd from 1: to 4:00 p.m. and as they did last year they have various presentations throughout the year and for this session they will have a honeybee presentation by Jason Martin and also rain barrels presentation with our environmental commission so please mark your calendars try to attend the open hous is run from May through October so it's always the first Sunday of each month and then uh just an update on our youth advisory Council they have been working very hard again it's our 25 students from the high school and they've been working on a wellness fair that we're going to be hosting uh at the senior Center on May 11th and the students have been working with the middlex County division of addiction and mental health planning our Monroe Township Health advisory commission our EMS departments the police department so they've been doing a lot of work to build this event it's going to be a day filled with presentations on opioid addiction youth mental health awareness and we'll have several vendors and services around health and wellness and we're also partnering with Robert Wood Johnson so please mark your calendars come soon the hard work that the students have been pulling together to bring this event for the students and then I did want to mention one item that I saw um on the library event page and oh and actually today is the library open 1989 on this day but there was a program that I wanted to highlight um it's a hybrid session on know your local government I know when I wander through town and talk to people this is something that a lot of our community members don't really know the structure of our government and how we're set up and how we work in Monroe so there's a session on Wednesday April 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. the League of Women Voters will be leading the presentation and we'll cover topics of an overview of the structure of local government voting and where we'll share specifics around Monroe Township so I just wanted to highlight that mark your calendars and please check the library website for some more information about registration thank thank you back to my ex stream right over here councilman deuro thank you council president welcome okay um I want to start off with um makeawish Foundation uh they had a 40th anniversary for 40 years and uh Tom weatherall I watched on uh on New Jersey news his interview and he um he was grateful to and and and with the donations made and all the wishes and he said in the 40 Years of history of making wish the past 10 years they were able to U make the same wishes that they've done in the first 30 years so to see as we as we just saw a resident from Monroe um in Rossmore helped helped the community in in uh in a in a situation which was life or death and he went into a burning house um to see residents make donations to the senior center uh and to to you know we should have a plaque for for these people in that building and we should definitely appreciate in all different ways that people help in each other and to have to make a wish in our in our hometown it's a very it's an asset it's very important and uh you go I go there on Sundays every once in a while um and they and they have they have incredible events for children with cancer or different walks they do so much stuff and it's just here right here in our town so I just wanted to put a shout out to them and thank them for everything that they do and for the people that make donations to that make a wish um also I know our our Administration and some of our directors met with uh Fire District number one the volunteers are having a 75th uh anniversary party in the uh Thompson Park it's going to be on August 10th at 2 o'clock by the lake and if anybody I brought some some flyers and some postcards if there's any businesses that would like to make donations if there's anyone that would like to be part of that they are going to have some food trucks and I know they're going to have some entertainment and it's something that brings the community together I remember attending one few years back in Jamesburg at the 1976 one and it was uh very I still remember like it was yesterday I have the mugs that that I purchased when I was a teenager back then and it's something that you remember and to bring the community together like that it's just another way to say Monroe is uh is definitely second to none as uh our mayor pooie used to say all the time I wanted to ask a question well 25 did did well 25 come within budget um council president I may ask Joe to come up um I believe we're in budget I know there's a couple items they're doing to get it open Joe do you want to come up and talk about well 25 for those of you who don't know it's our newest well that'll be coming on it's at the intersection of uh matchaponix and spots to in English Town Road it looks like that nice building offset to the back if youve if you've seen it if you've driven by is that on Joe who the heck go relatively simple answer councilman uh yes it is in budget that I want to say thank you to you and your Administration and your staff because to do construction today that is something that uh history that I have in construction and I'm still learning to try to get stuff done within budget I want to say thank you as a taxpayer thank you as the elected official and I think that's something that needs to be uh our residents need to know that um you know Joe Joe Works day and night for us and the weekends as well I want to say thank you and for putting that project the project that size to do within budget is amazing it's very very well appreciated and I just wanted to give a shout out to you and your Administration for doing that and Joe another thing while you're there I also want to thank you guys for fixing a leak on Schoolhouse Road that's something that I've been asking for months um on what's going on I understand we're waiting for a clamp we didn't need to use that clamp and I just want to say thank you very much for doing that that fix inhouse again so thank you Joe thank you and and I attended a um zoning board meeting here and people were asking like where's the screens where's the screens so I know that I asked that question um trying to get it within the budget and I believe we do have money in the budget um for this year so Allan I asked them month ago or so we was renovating the the municipal building here and so my question is how's the screens yeah so I will uh follow up with our tech department it is something we're going to put in two screens on either side um we were waiting for the room to be finished before we um you know put it in but it'll be something that'll certainly be happening in the uh in the coming months and not only could we show Powerpoints and other things on the screens but you could actually show um whatever's on YouTube while you're watching the meeting right um you know uh whatever anyone is seeing on YouTube in real time if there are documents that can be zoomed in on I I know that I noticed that the meeting had um residents uh downstairs and upstairs the zoning board might want to consider putting it in a bigger building possibly the senior center in the past we went to uh the the schools but now we have the senior center I know it's not our decision it's the zoning board's decision uh but it might just be a suggestion so everybody can all be in one room and uh maybe we get screens at the senior center also as well but uh I just wanted to uh to ask where the screens are thank you and I also noticed from Federal Road to Route 33 uh the paving middle middle 6 County I know they're on Applegarth Road but that section from 30 three to Federal Road if we can ask our engineer to uh take a look at that along with the County engineer the the pavement it seems a little little rough there excuse me council president what road apple or primeville primeville Road Prim from federal to 33 I'm sorry I thank you um also do we have any update on the NJ go I know we had a truck traffic um study that was approved uh by by the county and also by the uh town but NJ go for truck traffic on Applegarth Prospect and cranberry station is there any updates on that right if I could council president so the county is moving forward on that and so you'll start to see some new signage going up we'll also as a council we'll be presenting to the council um some weight restrictions coming up um in the next month or two that are tied to um suggestions that were made within the very plan done by NJ do and the Metropolitan planning organization so we're certainly excited about that if you look at the details of the plan there's a multiphase project and some of the early action items will be seen uh within the next one to two maybe three years happening and they're all listed within and inside the uh the the uh the uh entire report thank you and I also noticed on a billish that some of our police officers went to uh to traffic uh heavy highway traffic traffic classes seminars so hopefully um our new Chief will set up some uh truck uh weight weight limit uh you know testings and and stops for brakes and tires along with the state police and if we can get that done in our community it's it's it's definitely needed because the trucks are they're barreling through Monroe on almost every road that I travel so I would like to see if we can get some kind of some kind of cooperation working with State Police on a a truck either on forsgate Drive Applegarth there there's so many roads that there are trucks all over including Route 33 uh I had a question in reference to Capital Improvements detention Basin uh I know we increased the contract amount how many detention basins do we have now um I believe it's about 78 but I'd have to check to get the exact number because we just added a few we have a uh detention Basin trust fund which I believe has about $1.4 million in it right can we use any of that money for like actually doing improvements on the flooding because it seems like we're concerned when we getting 1 in 2 in 3 in a rain and you know get the pumps out get the pumps ready and uh at the fire company I know we're always we're always going to certain areas uh with pumps and is there anything that we can actually get out there and uh control used to do the the uh cleaning of the ditches and uh I know Wetlands came in in you know July 1 of '87 but if there's something that we can get out there and actually start improving the size of pipes and and furthermore doing doing some actual improvements I I I think that's something that the council we should really be working with um the county uh State because when you start closing down state Highway Route 33 almost every seems like every time we get 2 or 3 inches of rain and the residents that live in that that neighborhood um it's almost like I feel like I live down the Jersey Shore you know when when I was down there when I was a kid the roads were flooded and we we thought it was fun but this is this is something that seems to be growing in our community the flooding so if there's something that we can do on actually getting worked on uh I think it's something that we got to look get for Capital Improvements uh April 16th uh between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. the board of uh Education election and I want to uh put a shout out I want to say to our clerk's office you know you guys are going to be working hard as always you know with the PO workers and and and also with the the locations but that's something that everybody I say it everybody complains but one out of five come out and vote so the ballots already out the U early voting's out so please get out and and vote uh the mailbox is open you know for at the library put your ballots in and and I just you know you can't say it enough get out and vote uh on April 16th is the actual day but the ballots already out and I just wanted to say to their clerk's office thank you again for doing doing another election uh and it's important you know there's a budget question and there's also the candidates but it's very important to do your research because uh we need to to to get out and and and vote I I was uh reached by a few residents lacrosse I sent an email I sent an email um I know Allan you were on vacation the mayor is on vacation I know but I I wanted to um meet uh lacrosse is requesting uh to have some rebound in walls and on Avenue K and I didn't get a response from anybody uh from that email so if you can coordinate a meeting uh residents are asking me to try to get some rebounding walls I I don't think it's it's a big expense and all that we have going on there's plenty there's 40 acres there and it's something that maybe we can put it at other locations as well Prospect planes but it's something that the residents are asking for so uh hopefully you be able to get me a meeting uh with the uh lacrosse uh people to uh get them rebounding walls I want to also put um water and sewer was a big question last meeting Bentley wrote uh are there any improve Improvement uh plan or we have any updates on what's going on did anybody communicate with those residents regular yes president if I could so I think the answer um from that meeting um this is is still pretty much the same um as part of the approval um the planning board I believe uh required the developer who would be doing work in that area on the north side of Route 33 to bring the sewer and water lines uh past Bentley Road um but I don't believe we have a specific timeline of when that's going to happen yet um so we're we're still sort of in that same position um as the answer from last you know from last month so nobody responded to the residents then I think that's what we said last month I there's no further update than that information I mean if all right cuz uh we all received an email from a resident in uh Country View about buses and I don't I said this at March 4th meeting I said I sent an email on March 5th Allen um to I forget exactly who I sent it to but I know I always send address it to you and Kevin as as well um but it it went unanswered um if we answer residents um so I don't want to respond to a resident especially when they address it to our mayor I I don't respond in respect because I I wait for either the mayor or Administration but I have no idea and I've been saying it month after month I have no idea if anybody's responding to our residents I was told under the Sunshine Law you know we can't respond um but I just have no idea can we get a system uh that you can let our residents if you answer our residents can we have a system that tells us that either give us a copy of as an elected official I like to see a copy of what the answer was because I'm I'm receiving the questions but I have no idea if anybody's answering yeah I mean I would just respond by saying I don't see too many emails that go to both of us um but if there is something and you're not sure you're certainly welcome to you know pick up the phone and I'm happy to answer I think what was said at previous meetings is if the whole council's on there and we get into a uh back and forth with the resident about what our policy is it could become complicated um just from a Sunshine Law point of view but a phone is always available if you you know want to be sure but I just don't feel like we get that many of those I certainly don't um but if there's something you're you know always welcome to uh give me a call well we had a we had an email in reference I was going to read it last meeting and I I CH I chose you know I was told not to read it and I didn't know if anybody responded and that was from a resident that that addressed an issue that happened at our Council um meeting and then we just got another email from from uh we all all of us received it from I mean I don't want to say the name but please don't it was right it was it was from a resident from Villages at uh Country View asking about the buses and and we all got that alen so the mayor got it excuse me can I just interrupt you for a moment the the email you referred to last at last month's meeting was an email that I answered but I don't know that well you I would assume that we have a level of trust Among Us you asked I answered it it was addressed to me and I answered it it was addressed to me also I but I answered I certainly answered I didn't assume whether you answered or you're not I'm simply telling you that I answered the email okay but what Al I'm asking for is if we all get addressed to an email they ask us a question if we don't I personally don't know if anybody's answering I don't want to assume somebody answers when I when I when I go out to the public and they say they say oh I didn't never heard from the mayor I never heard from the administration I don't know what to say I don't want to sit speak out of turn all I'm saying is if we we send an answer just send the co I can I get a copy of what we sent to the residents I've been sitting here for six years and I'm and I'm trying to understand as an elected official if somebody asked us a question how do I know if it got answered that's all I'm asking hi um councilman so when you had previously we talked about the violation of Sunshine Law we can't get into situation where we're coping everybody on the responses right um I think that when we all check in as we do before the council meeting we you know people can can tell you as council president stated she have responded to that now a lot of times as you as you know as a councilman that a lot of times people don't have a question they just have a comment and a lot of times if there is just a comment it's duly noted and then it's it's taken on but if there's a question I you know I am told that you the council president or the or business ra responds to it so what ends up happening is is that you know if if while you while you would like to know as council president said if there's the trust in there you guys can talk about it but not to copy because then we're getting into that same situation of the violation of the Sunshine Law because it's almost like you're debating someone's private conver private question out with the other council members and you have a quorum on email so so when we get our packet when we get our that's public your public agend our agenda we we can get that because it's public it's a public agenda right okay so if someone asks us a question and addresses the mayor and all the council then that's that's is that public so no so it ends up happening is I think a lot of people in the public don't realize that right so what ends up happening inadvertently sometimes Council people respond and all the rest of the council people are there that's a violation because every time there is there is a question that comes out we have to we have to remember the regulations the notice Provisions right in the law so that's all that is and like and like I said if council president is stating that you guys do have the trust and you guys can exchange that maybe check in and just see okay hey I got these emails is there anything I can do you know that kind of thing okay so the so we have on BFI we have like 58 emails so that's considered public well I don't know all those BFI emails I don't know if they're between attorneys I don't know because it's my understanding there's litigation on there so right if you want to specifically talk about BFI you know and I can't comment on litigation we can go offline and you can tell me spefic specifically which email you consider as public or subject to Turning client privilege all right all right thank you thank you that's it thank you your mic's off's off sorry I just have a few items I'd just like to touch on um one thing is our human relations committee is very important month um one thing it's Arab heritage month which we as Americans want to remember all our people here in uh United States and Monroe with Arab Heritage um something important also April 28th I've said this three three um months in a row we're having a holocaust Remembrance Day at the senior center it's at 2:00 um on the 28th that's should be a really nice program with some Holocaust um survivors which are getting less and less obviously every year so we have to honor them now please join us there um another thing um that we're doing in the future for the human relations is uh June juneth that's um for anybody that's June 19th so it's easy to remember the date June 19th we're planning um a program at the library so please join us it's going to be during the day I'm not sure the hours I think it's from 10:00 to 1 but um it's not written in stone yet but that's going to be at the library celebrating um um juneth uh one of the things that I get constantly asked as a councilman is uh my opinion on um what's going on in Gaza and um with Israel and being uh local Council uh member I really don't want to weigh in on it too much um but it does come up in human relations quite a bit but I'd like to just say that there's no room for anti-islamic Phobia or anti-Semitism in in Monroe or the United States and uh we do have to separate what's going on there from Muslims here and Jews here and remember that no one here is responsible for what's going on in the rest of the world whether it' be a terrorist whether it' be what's going on in the Gaza I just felt I had to mention something about that it's very important very important part of my life something I agonize on every day um next on my list I'm on the senior uh aging committee um I just want to run by that last year we had almost 1,200 new members in the senior center so that's just telling you how how it crows the senior center is growing like crazy it's hard for them to handle the situation so I'd like everybody to be patient with them they're doing a great job just to give you an idea for the month of February they had over 6,000 people register for different events and dances and what have you it's a lot of people for uh the people there to handle um and what's happening is um some of the people that attend think that their specific problems are they can do whatever they want let me put it that way this give me an examp example there's no food allowed in the senior center only in specific areas so I'm just reaching out to everybody well the seniors obviously please try to obey the rules so we don't give the people that work there a hard time it's very important they have a hard enough job as it is to clean up coffee and donuts off the floor all over the place um also please car pull any anybody watching this there is not that many senior citizens here tonight but uh Park is a situation over there so we're always having issues with parking and we're always have issues with handicapped parking at the senior center so as much car pooling as we can that'd be great um I'm on the uh American Disabilities Act um committee uh there was no real issues in town every month we go over all the different um areas of the town getting reports to find out if anybody has any issues about disabled parking or ramps or anything luckily this past month there was really nothing um nothing happened that was uh of any consequence I would just like would like to mention that the uh MCAT uh publishes this uh little booklet that if anybody wants to know anything about r a riter guide for what's available to seniors or handicap people this is published by the county it's available you can call the county you can call me and I'll get you a copy but there are plenty of options for hand any Captain disabled people um please take advantage of what we have in this County it's super important um that's about it thanks so much and uh wishing everybody a Happy Spring hopefully we'll get some warm weather very soon thank you council president how we doing tonight um I'm uh Council Le a on to the rec advisory committee we just had a meeting again this past month I see my uh co-member Garrett and Mr busman there um Charlie had mentioned lacrosse and and a tremendous increase in popularity uh the lacrosse representative mentioned I think we have 150 uh kids involved with our lacrosse Recreation program which is an all-time record high for mon R um I didn't hear them talk about anything with rebounding walls or anything but uh a certain something we could bring up and talk to Mary Lang she's she's usually on the ball when it comes to those kind of requests and things but it could have been something that just wasn't brought up at the last meeting but uh just shows again popularity of all of our stuff it's now around that time for registering for uh spring Sports so if you have anybody that's interested that you know of Now's the Time to get it out I've already seen them listed over the last few weeks so uh it's almost going to be time to start the seasons and again you look at thousands of kids over 1100 in soccer alone you know just really really do a good job and and I always want to throw out there my my particular thanks to all the volunteers because all the people that run these programs the the coaches and everybody and the people with the different divisions they're all parents they're all volunteers they're all out there to help the kids of Monroe and and it's just a great great thing and you can't thank them enough they don't get paid a penny for doing it U but they do volunteer their time and uh endless and endless hours so that was one thing um I would Echo what councilman uh said earlier April 16th is the board of V election everyone go out and vote if you don't vote you don't have any right to complain about what's going on so everybody has that right and it's It's always important to do um April 27th uh they're going to be doing the the free seedlings at the library so anyone that's interested in uh uh helping to you know continue environmentally help our town by planting uh trees and things like that doesn't cost you a penny go out there and get your seedlings and you could plant them that Spring's a great time to do that um Also may now getting a little bit ahead May 27th are uh me they're having let me put it this way they have a Memorial Day Parade in uh Jamesburg and at the meeting it was mentioned that they're looking for different groups and certainly groups from Monroe are welcome to join in they asked that it be mentioned so I I told him I would mention it so anybody that whatever it might be I believe uh uh Christine Gandy is one of the people uh uh with our rec advisory who uh is sort of taking charge of that so if anybody needs a contact yes me I'll get your contact information um just a couple of other small things um uh we were talking about charging stations now it almost gets me a little bit excited we're starting to move into the future a little bit so um I would uh concur with the comments by Dr parab I realize that this this particular deal was a state Grant and we kind of we're happy to get what we're getting we're not going to complain but as we go forward probably in the future there's going to be some more opportunities that that come available to us and if we do let's consider getting the ones that charge the fastest because that's it's not just going to help one person it's going to help everybody in town and and'll be less fights of people complain well you your car has been there for all this while get the best that you can and think ahead and try and be Progressive and in that same line I I always um I've brought this up before and I do understand that most of the items that we get in town are are purchased through our cooperatives but I would always encourage to also consider trying to purchase electric vehicles because in the long run it's what we need you know you look at the extreme weather that we have out there now and all these storms this is the way to go so you have electric vehicles maybe we get some more electric charging stations that fast charge and you know in the long run it'll probably probably save the town but it's something to look at I understand right now and from what I've heard at least the electric stuff is almost a little bit too far A little too expensive in between but I think we should do some comparison each and every time you know just to make sure and and not just accept what uh what's always out there just with the state and stuff like that so um that was something else I wanted to say um it's nice to see spring um one of my favorite movies is Field of Dreams and they talk about you know baseball is eternal it comes and and it's that time of year and so I was so happy until I watched the Met's first three games and uh that was the end of that but but anyhow I hope everybody has a great spring get out there the weather will hopefully get nicer and um and hopefully uh you know we'll we'll have a you know good time moving forward so thank you madam president appreciate it May Mike I wanted to say thank you to the mayor because both councilman Mel and I had the opportunity to meet with a woman who lives in Rossmore who's 102 years old and so we had that opportunity and she was not only um uh she was alert oriented and present in the moment and Kyle was there to take some pictures and she thought he was really cute and we had a wonderful birthday cake and I just know that we left there smiling that this woman was so participating in our work world and it truly was wonderful to be there so I say thank you for giving me this opportunity I must have smiled for several hours afterwards at at the joy she brought us just by seeing her so with that Mr Mayor your report please sir uh thank you Council thank you council president for allowing me the opportunity to provide some commentary reports um you did the 102y old I did the only the 98 um nice gentleman veteran uh from World War II Sai Lipper I'm going to talk a little bit more about Sai um in in next month's meeting uh in regards to his next deployment so that's the teaser I leave with you um obviously some of the items were mentioned so I'll go quickly through some of my thoughts here uh about two weeks ago I attended a um round table with the State Attorney General Matt plen uh at the East Brunswick magnet Magnet School to talk about um uh home invasions car thefts um given the opportunity to speak I brought up the uh the issue that I think is the the larger uh Treetops 20,000 view of of crime is that um mostly juveniles are performing as the bad actor and they go back on onto the street so I had mentioned about um potential reform any type of uh legislation and that um that thought was echoed by a number of the mayors that were in attendance um besides myself Edison New Brunswick North Brunswick Woodbridge um mouin was there as well um and again that was the overriding theme was the juvenal Performing as the Bad actors and there's no repercussions so that was certainly strongly voiced by all the Mayors and attendance um speaking of uh World War II veteran um Monroe resident SE more nbal uh received the Congressional Medal of Honor on March 21st in Congress uh for those of you who uh do not know Seymour we were graced with his presence here last year in which he was part of something called the ghost Army which until just recently was unheard of it was buried in in the history buried in the secrecy of what they did and uh we're just proud that uh seore was was down in in DC to receive such a uh such a uh awarding um you know uh metal um this past month I do want to congratulate uh fire districts 2 and three each of them were awarded a 75,000 K Grant this is the second year that they received that I do want to congratulate them uh for uh for again going above and beyond trying to help in um in their budgetary process um and I'm going to mention a little bit about um grants shortly uh I also do want to reiterate something I mentioned last month regarding our flock cameras uh we have now increased from 10 to 20 and speaking with our police uh it is um showing that it works we have been able to um catch people uh before nefarious acts are performed so again it's something that I know the council myself the administration most of all the police were something that we F they thought was very very important also hearing from the citizens about the increase of the uh of the cameras and this is something that uh besides that the crime prevention um information sessions will continue again we just had two at least last month and we will continue to have those because again information is power to protect yourself uh charging stations were mentioned uh I do just one one just to be thankful for the $33,000 donation to the senior center by the state of uh John Cristiano as you all know the senior center is a great place um for our residents to use and any enhancements any benefits we can get and obviously it was something very special to um to to John and we do want to I do want to personally thank him and his family uh for that donation and again we really shouldn't minimize um getting grants and the funding um and you know yeah you want to you know throw it under H it's it's taxpayer money regardless Peter and Paul however it takes a keen Administration uh to be on top of it uh to identify it that there are resources out there and then obviously to act on it so it shouldn't be minimized it is something that is very very very important and it helps us uh govern it helps us control the budget and it helps the citizens um get some of those wants and their needs so I did want to make that um Point some upcoming events uh the mayor's bike ride is Friday April 26 6th at 6 o'clock starting at Avenue K Park there's going to be a one mile Loop and then a Four Mile Loop um because of the weather I have not been bking as much as I would like uh so uh I got to prepare for that got to show off these legs that I got um it was also mentioned about the uh on Sunday April 28th uh at 2:00 is the rickless Holocaust Memorial uh program um I hope you can attend uh what else April 30th uh certainly i' would like to invite invite any veterans uh attend the showing of the movie The last full measure at the Stonebridge ballroom at 6:00 if you're interested please call my office this is something that the Stonebridge veterans uh started last year in working with all of the other veteran groups in in town uh to get together and uh and just watch a movie it was a great event last last year looking forward to the event on for the veterans on uh on the 30th of April um one item is also for our youth the police Youth Academy is July April 8th through the 12th it's for 6th and seventh graders again if you're interested please reach out to um town hall and uh yes it is spring season yes the Mets are 0 and three I wasn't expecting them to do anything anyhow uh but it is that spring season season for sports season for allergies uh but it's also just as the start of the season to enjoy what um what we have here in Monroe Township so thank you kindly thank you sir thank you much there you go I'm on we'll move to the public comment section of our meeting I would like a motion to open public comment section please motion thank you may I have a second on that second thank you all in favor I any opposed very good sir remember your name and address for our record in five minutes per speaker George Gung Monroe Township on March 5th I went to a school board meeting which is a budget presentation um it was a typical budget um presentation I would say um on the agenda and repeated in the meeting was that the regular meeting of the school board was to be on March 27 7th I went home put it on my in my agenda on the schedule and thought you know it's only a few weeks away no big deal they held a meeting on March 21st I guess legally they had enough time to change the notice of it but it's become all too typical of how they're operating the school board I'm talking about two months earlier they had someone resign and they had to appoint a temporary new member they did that entirely out of any of the recommended practices basically because the county superintendent didn't want to engage in conflict with them they didn't hold any interviews with any of the people that came forward to be candidates they just appointed someone that they wanted to appoint and no explanation no anything it's really hard to be supportive of what goes on over there as much as um pro-education never had a budget issue or a referendum that I didn't vote for but this is getting to be a little bit hard to take when they just changed meetings for I guess you know when I looked online to see what there was in the meeting now the camera placement doesn't show everybody in the room but there are very few people there which is not entirely uncommon but it would seem to be less than usual maybe that's their objective I don't know but it's become really hard to be supportive there was a kind um I'm gonna move on to everybody's relief I'm sure um there was a supposedly a county study going on about how we're going to handle storm management and uh earlier questions they said we're waiting for the County study and I don't know I haven't heard anything yet I haven't seen anything um anywhere so I'm curious where we stand on that and as far as our our basins are concerned and the maintenance of them and the and the fund that we have in reserve possibly we can look at some of the basins and um and and see if we can either make them deeper at least clean the silt and get them back to the original design parameters of what they were supposed to be able to do and the capacity they were supposed to have because this flooding is becoming a little bit too frequent too often and you know this time I don't think anybody was seriously hurt but you know it's it's just a matter of time where a road flooding people don't see in advance and if it happens at night uh you know it could up into a very serious accident risk so we need to look at it and we and if the county is doing some work on it we need to prod them a bit to get find out what they're doing in our area and where where they end and where we begin uh because clearly old the old design parameters for storm water management are inadequate they're not working we have flooding um I just wanted to say in support uh many of us were at that zoning board meeting um last month and it would be helpful and I see in other towns where there are screens and we can see the presentations that are made I I appreciate that the presentations are made to the boards but the public goes and we don't get to see him thank you for your thank you for your comments thank you Dr perab your name and address to our record thank you yes prakash Pur 33 din Drive Madame President Kohan mayor Delina members of ccil uh this is uh happened today this morning I was happy to note at the entrance of my re community on Halfacre Road water D system had a issue and we had puddles of water for several years during heavy rain at this intersection students from middle school high school take buses to the school and safety and inconvenience is a issue I informed our public work department I took pictures and last Saturday I sent them and they were here this morning and cleaned up the clock inside the drain and I received a call I was so happy now the system has been told to be working so we thank again our public staff Works division for their prompt action so now coming on the serious note the School District budget is for vot on April 16 and vote by mail has been mailed out my humble request to Monro Community seniors and young families youngsters to vote Yes on the budget the tax increase will be $124 per year based on average assist home value of 333,000 that is12 per month the budget if it is not voted is voted down please note the impact it will have impact on 1,100 students and their families as the Cur courtesy busing in the radius of 2 mil to 2 and 1 half miles for all our schools will be cut off not good for children or their parents our children have to walk 2 miles or the parents have to drop them a impact on our parents job because they have to spend time school school busing off our children out of Township for various athletic sports then music competition will be cut not good clubs in the high school middle school which are academic cultural Civic for will be so forth will be cut the hiring of new teachers for autism special education language technology business will be cut including security staff impact education and security we request I request personally what yes for the budget for our children the tax increase is just $2 per year per month on average assist house value of 330,000 in our Township keep smile positivity and happiness in our children I went to and testified in the Senate budget committee and I said to them the funding formula takes into consideration income of our seniors which are 50% of our population and that ra raises the equal Equalization Aid calculation and we get 0 so average population in our state is 20% across so I said you put a correction factor don't punish us because we have so many seniors so I'm going to sit with Senator Greenstein and take the form and explain it is very complex and our friends have developed that so we get educated and we Implement so thank you very much thanks for your time thank you everyone thank you for your comment anyone else wishing to address us please come forward and again please your name and address for our records Lucio Lucio panis Monroe um the attachment a I assume one of you will give it to me at the end of the meeting it's right there thank you thank you very much I want to say thank you to the clerk's office you're pole this poll work and you were throwing a mon they were throwing a monkey wrench in the last two weeks about direct deposit and uh you know so Lorena is very good at that and I'm sure you know she is but thank you and it's still not over yet it's by the time they figure that one out um the Field of Dreams that was a good movie in fact I'm wondering if that philosophy is used with the electrical vehicle Les here you know build a build a charging station and then maybe we'll get cars they will come build it and they will come well you know it's nice to hear those words except you don't live them and you know if you were so opposed to you know not getting this we spent over a million dollars in the last six months on vehicles that are not electrical in this Township well no you're allowed to Buck it you know you're allowed to Buck the system if you truly believe vote with your heart so you know that is nice I suggest that I understand the new but the new trucks that were purchased they were old they needed have some foresight and looking to see okay check with the road department how are your vehicles so let's put it 6 months in advance order some new trucks because you know that one's going to get another 30,000 miles on it you can't just talk the talk you got to walk the walk okay so thank you thank you anyone else wishing to address this please come forward Michelle arm Mino 9 is thanel Street I just want to go back to the agenda again um Mr Weinberg uh said it and I apologize I didn't write it down fast enough regarding uh resolution 125 and the basins the wet Basin maintenance now I know we have a fund um a trust fund for that is there an average that the developers uh contribute to that fund um please so I believe that there's a formula in our code based on the number of uh units and the size of the Basin that create a criteria where they have to put the money upfront into this trust fund which is then used to manage the basins some of which are our own and some of which we've we've taken over so it's in our code I don't have it at my fingertips but it's okay and may I ask um uh council president Mr Weinberg to give me that number again that's in the trust fund at this point I I'll have to look at our latest AFS my latest recollection was about $1.4 million okay all right and um I you know one of one of the other members of the public mentioned about a flooding and especially if we're getting flooding on 33 we're putting a lot of huge buildings that previously all of that land now I I get it that is commercial and that's where we should be putting these things but all these buildings are really transferring all that water into our streets and it it you know we have to really be cognizant I mean of of how we want the business we want the tax ratables but we also don't want the damage that um huge I think they're like hundreds of thousands of square foot of buildings are displacing our water um onto the streets onto the neighbors I know people on on butcher drive and and people who have been near large um Residential Building uh it it's just really been impacting them and I hope that going forward our planning board and our zoning board has a mission of really protecting the residents that are already here the quality of the community because I've seen over the years you know and look every applicant has a right to be heard has a right to do what they want with their land um within or within our ordinances but I also have seen a pattern where applicants come in they don't really live here they may own the land but they come in and ask for many many variances many waivers we don't have to give them approvals or use variances on a the large scale that they ask for I would ask that the protection first be for the community and for the residents and not necessarily for people asking for enormous variances I mean sometimes we have an ordinance that says you need 50 feet for something as a setback and the people want a waiver to put it only 5et of setback I mean there should be a mission and I asked the council and and mayor Delina to please make sure our planning board and our zoning board protects the residents and protects our environment and our resources first and foremost um the next one a question I have is on the ordinance um that you proposed for ordinance uh 007 for the signaling it's approximately two million it's a little over $2 million is that for soft costs or is that for the whole development of that property and area that's for the whole development of the property but it doesn't include as I mentioned earlier the approximately $300,000 that was spent for land acquisition okay so land acquisition but is any of this for soft cost also and is this going um who's getting the money right so the County's the lead on the project so they upfront all the money um the soft cost associated with it are us splitting the uh engineering and design of the project which I mentioned was 270 for our half okay um they pay the full 100% of construction Administration that is the building of the project which is also a soft cost we split the uh the uh bid that went out to actually build it um which is the 3.5 million cut in half to 175 um and then we cover uh police so our Allin is 2.2 43 million plus the 300 uh two 200,000 I mentioned earlier for up allowance for police all right I thank you very much no problem thank you anyone else wishing to address this please come forward your name and address for our records again please gazala Bora one Miko Drive thank you madam president um and I want to thank you mayor Delina and all the other council members and the administration for giving me this opportunity to address not just you but also the public that is present here and those watching online um I'm here today not just as a resident and I apologize I'm going to read because I did not want to lose track of my thoughts um I'm here not only as a resident but also as the vice president of the Monroe Township Board of Education I would like to start start by expressing my heart heartfelt gratitude for the two shared services agreement that the township has signed with the Board of Ed allowing us to address much needed roof repairs and hbsc Replacements at the Apple God school and to PCH purchase and operate the web programming server to broadcast meetings like this the Board of Ed meeting and many other local EV events and happenings even though we have been unsuccessful in passing the referendum to address the needs of the school district with your help we have been able to address at least one of the most pressing infrastructure needs in our school system which is the appleg guard school so while we've said it in our public meetings I would like to take this opportunity that I'm here in person to thank you all for your support and I um want to now share what's going on with the budget last year when the board approved the budget for school year 2023 2024 the business administrator and the superintendent advised the board that it had been a challenge to balance the budget under the 2% tax levy Gap and they were afraid that they will not be able to do the same with 2024 2025 school year their words came true they had recommended at that time that if the board did not want to make Cuts Like the school districts around us were having to make last year because they were CAU off guard we should proactively move the School elections to April as that is the only time we can ask the public to vote on the school budget for the upcoming year and not in the November elections this is the third year of my term as a board member and having seen several neighboring districts like Robinsville and South Brunswick go through these Cuts last year and face a huge public uproar I also felt strongly that this decision should lie with the taxpayers board members represent the community in the daily governance and we do our best to be fiscally responsible while growing Student Success but Cuts Like These are a huge decision and the stakeholders should have a say in it record high inflation highly in inadequate State funding with Z doar in Equalization Aid and dwindling Surplus all make it hard to continue to provide the same quality of programs and services while staying under 2% cap this shortage did not happen overnight in fact the writing has been on the wall since 200 2020 when our former ba made the community aware that we may no longer be able to balance the budget under two 2% Gap soon after he said that um Co happened and the district got a wave of covid Grants like all others around us and it helped us tie through and balance the budget with additional Revenue sources like the co grants that is all gone and today I sit here making a plea to the taxpayers to come out on April 16th in support of the 7,000 students of monra to ensure that we don't cut any of our programs and services I'm here to to ask support from the leaders in this room and any Resident listening right now help us spread the word help us get the support our students need we are short by $2.7 million and if we cannot get this question to pass on April 16 kids in kindergarten through 8th grade living 2 miles from school and high schoolers living 2.5 mil away from school will lose their daily busing the excellent School sponsored athletic and co-curricular programs that have put mon on the map not just in New Jersey but nationally with our recent accomplishments are on the chopping block I won't be wrong in saying that the pride and joy of the Monroe Falcon spirit will be impacted big time if the special question on the ballot on April 16th doesn't pass due to the ratables the impact on the residents this year of the school budget is less than last year even if we have to go 2% overcap last year we were at 2% cap and increase in taxes on an average assessed home of 333,000 was $33 this year even if the special budget question passes and we go above Gap the increase in taxes will be $9 less they will be $24 annual increase will be $24 I hope we can get the support from the town's government in getting the vote out in urging its residents to support the special question so over thousand kids thank you finish your sentence that's it thank you thank you very much anyone else wishing to address this please come forward your name and address for our records please sir I'm ragui 23 green a street uh good evening council members and uh Madame President theic good evening Madame uh president and uh council members thank you for giving me this opportunity to share My Views and express the concs that I have as a resent of the town I want to thank you for your support for our school system this Township has been facing uh overcrowding due to gradual influx of new neighborhoods in our town while we welcome all the uh new incomers in the town we also have to look at what is the impact of those new neighborhood into the school system uh the obvious problem that we are facing is school overcrowding which has been a case for a while we need to look at are our schools capable enough to take those new uh new members into the system we want to keep our school system competitive by keeping up to speed with other highest ranking school districts uh in our neighborhood towns like South bronek and Robinsville this requires uh introduction of more competitive clubs classes courses and hire new staff to be more competitive which requires more budget as well so due to an ageold fold uh Fair funding formula mro Township is receiving uh a less share compared to like other neighboring districts and this number is changing often as well like it's not a constant dollar amount that's been across all the years so when there is an imbalance of this kind of allocation it it it it challenges the school board as well in either cutting down the some of the courses or cutting down the not uh required state required uh programs so one long I mean there can be two two possible ways to address this one long term is to work with the Senators uh state senators and work on the uh Fair funding formula get a push from all the members uh we need help from the council members as well and re uh re reevaluate the existing formula and try to see if we can get more fair funding for mro Township and the second solution is to plead you guys I want to request you guys to give us some kind of an uh Avenue where we can fund uh more programs which can keep our school district more competitive and uh I mean in The Challenge world we have to be up to the speed we don't want mandro to be lagging behind those programs and the new uh technologies that we are facing in the in the current environment U as all we as we all know that there's a budget question that is coming up for the April 16th election uh can we go above the 2% cap or not I mean what happens if we if majority of the people cut down uh to not to increase it we're going to lose uh cut SE buses which will impact about 1100 students that is what I was told in the last uh Board of Education meeting and not only that it's they they're planning to hire more uh teachers uh some on the technology department and some for the special needs students so we need to we need we need to help them up to make sure we continue those programs hire the new teachers and keep our schools competitive I kind of request Council to come up with a workaround to provide additional funding for our schools and we need our schools to be uh better for the future thank you thank you anyone else wishing to address us please come forward now name and address for our records please sure hi I'm Beth deiro 404 Spotswood Gravel Hill Road in Monroe Township um first of all happy spring everybody and I just want to ask if at any point since the last two meetings have you spoken about a plan for the illegal immigrants that are here anything you don't you haven't spoken about it at all the county Mr Mayer Madame uh council president um the county of middle sex uh has been having ongoing meetings with uh divisions of Emergency Management within uh each of the towns of the County uh as a just in case thank thank you thank you that was all I have but thank you very much anyone else wishing to address us please come forward now your name and address for our records please good evening uh Chrissy scurby 21 pness drive I'm here tonight on behalf of the Board of Education as the board president I want to thank the council for approving both recent shared services agreement that are mutually beneficial to both the Board of Education and the municipality the collaboration and the communication between both Boards of elected officials in our town allows us to ensure that we continue to offer the best for our residents here in Monroe recently I went to testify at the New Jersey state budget and Appropriations Committee meeting our superintendent board members members of the community also gave testimony asking the state senators and assembly members to change the school funding formula going forward I requested the state to appropriate money in next year's school budget to cover the cost of what the district is over the 2% cap I also ask them to appropriate money for a full day kindergarten program here in Monroe that we cannot Implement because we do not have the funds for it it's important for the community to understand how a board of education and the Town Council operate differently for instance each year the board of education has to approve a budget if that budget increases over 2% tax levy cap the Board of Education must go out to the voters to approve the overage the Board of Education cannot take a vote among their 10 member boards who approve going over the cap and the 10 member board cannot vote amongst themselves to go out to bond for any cost for any project however the Town Council is made up of five elected officials who can go out to vote for a bond for any item you wish and you do not need to get voter approval regardless of the costs so when the referendum failed last year the Board of Education came to the mayor and the council and asked to help to fix Apple Gart school because you had the power to be able to take a vote amongst yourselves to approve those funds the Board of Education and many of the teachers staff and parents at the Apple Gart School are so appreciative of this because as the years go go by the roof leaks get worse and worse at Applegarth and we're very happy that this is finally going to be fixed with the council's help now the Board of Education is faced with a new challenge with the rising cost of inflation and lack of surplus used for a decade to balance the budget and stay under the 2% cap the board of education has to go out to vote in order to raise the tax levy cap an additional $2.7 million the Board of Education cannot simply take a vote to spend this money included in the 2.7 million are items the district feels are vital to have however the state classifies them as over adequate for a thorough and efficient education because these are over adequate items and over with a 2% cap the community needs to come out and vote please make no mistake the Board of Education and the district do not want to cut these items if the community comes out and votes to approve it these items could be added back into the budget and will be a permanent increase not needing voter approval every year those items includes include busing to and from school within 2 miles for elementary and 2.5 miles for middle school and high school after school busing for clubs and extracurricular activities busing for our athletes to and from games and practices athletic costs such as equipment and uniforms all costs for clubs at the middle school and high school including stens for advisers increase of seven staff members which include a teacher of autism autism power professional ESL teacher ESL par professional business teacher computer science and Robotics teacher and an additional school security officer in addition it also allows the following facility projects the mil Lake roof replacement project and special special services parking lot pay Paving without voter approval these items will not be in next year's budget we are asking for the town support to support our efforts in getting information out to the community if this vote does not pass the township will be affected as well the traffic throughout town during drop off and pickup at our schools will become chaotic as there is not enough room at our schools to allow for the amount of cars that will come through the cost of crossing guards will increase as there will be many more needed at the multitude of places students will be Crossing on busy roads crossing guards are not an expense out of the School District budget additionally when Builders built developments and gave money towards the sidewalk fund and the money wasn't used for sidewalks well now we're going to need to use those funds to put in sidewalks where none are leading to our schools this is not just a school district issue this is a whole town issue we do not want to see our schools decline in any way because when people stop wanting to move to Monroe because we no longer have the school district we once had had our property values drop in closing I'm asking that the council please support our schools have you have as you have done so many times before and help us educate the community before this crucial vote and if I have um a couple more seconds I just would like to let you know um one of the uh members of the public commented on our meeting we had to change our meeting at the request of the County Board of Elections because they told us we needed to get them the wording in order for them to be able to print the mail and balance and that is why we changed our vote thank you thank you for your comments anyone else wishing to address us please come forward now your name and address for our records please sure Brian Fabiano Monroe so I I wasn't going to speak um but I want to talk a little bit about since a number people talked about the school budget vote that's coming on April 16th and I'll preface it with this I have two two children in the school system uh so if if busing and the budget pass uh fails my kids will be directly impacted so I'm a parent that will feel the impacts just as my kids will but I think it's important to understand the context of how we got here and not always being in a situation where woe is me we need more money inflation is going up you know um the schools are suffering yes it is a systemic problem throughout the state with school districts not getting enough funding but this board of education knew since last fall that they would need to go above C that they were going to have to go out to a special vote they talked about it they talked about the fact that there wouldn't be enough money in the budget buget even knowing that they decided that it was important to give a contract extension to a superintendent who had 18 months left in her contract this contract extension cost us taxpayers more money because she got a raise she got an extension for a number of years fast forward a couple of months later this past March the board felt it was necessary to extend contracts of Administrators uh extend contracts of non-affiliates these are employees that are not tenured in the district so they could be cut if the budget isn't there to support it and they did all that before a budget vote so to come up here and say that you know we need more money yes the school district needs more money but you can't say that you are doing everything you want that you're that you can for the kids when you are leading these these poor decisions um and you are making a laughing stock out of us as as taxpayers furthermore you can't come up here and and and and and say you know the the the council needs to override the taxpayers well at some point there's no point to vote anymore if you put a referendum out you put a budget vote out and the taxpayers say no and the council just overrides it well then why do we even vote anymore I mean we're we're getting away from what democracy is and and why we have these votes and why the community plays a role but again because I'll I I'll be quoted on Facebook tonight I'm sure um so I want to get it right here is I am a parent of a of a of children that will be affected if this budget goes down but there's also right from wrong and there's a way to manage a budget and to manage it properly and if any you know if if you've been paying attention to the meetings you can see what's happening and if you're not I encourage people to go out and do their research because how can you make an informed decision on a budget vote if you don't know what you're voting on or you don't know the context behind it our board of education is mismanaged it's been mismanaged for a while under the leadership and the board majority that's there now make no mistake about it the Surplus has been drained over the last three years you can see it in the recent budget presentation that was made so again we need money many school districts need money um but to come up here and phrase it in a way where number one we're shaming residents because they may not vote on a budget every person's situation is different and the fact is it's not just a $24 a year raise that's a permanent tax increase we had to go to the cap plus 0.41% so it's 2.41% is the over the budget that's a cap and then we went above that by another 2.41% so the total tax bearing on the uh citizens or taxpayers here is about 4.8% so again the information needs to be presented clearly and and not in a way where number one we're shaming but number two it's this this fool game the numbers are are there um and again I I do hope people come out and vote uh and I do hope people support it um but we're not going to fix the problems that we have by continually putting Band-Aids on it and coming to this meeting asking for you know a rescue plan uh it whether it's here or across the street I've said it before it all comes out of the same pocket and that's us as taxpayers thank you anyone else wishing to address the council please come forward now your name and address for our record sir uh good evening my name is Matt gorm 39 heleta Road Road Township uh mayor councilman thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak this evening uh I had the pleasure of being a teacher from onroad Township for 37 years I recently retired I was the gentleman that was put on the board uh in October uh and I've served on the board of education for since that time uh as you know has been repeated many times tonight we're going out for a very important vote uh the figures that were reported the $24 a year the average assessment that will affect the homeowners those figures are accurate okay so when we talk you know 4.2 8.1 7.8 the number is $24 a year $2 a month I had the pleasure of speaking uh the other night at one of the retirement uh over in Clearbrook and for those residents it will be approximately $10 a month on their average assessment Ross Moore will be about about the same as will Concordia so in some situations we're talking about a dollar a month a dollar a month to ensure that our students have a quality education that are that get to school safely every morning the arguing and the rhetoric and the name calling and you know the conspiracy theories are ridiculous you know I sat here tonight and I had to hear someone say that you know we moved the school board meeting like yeah in secret in the middle of the night we just decided to do that no we had to do that because the budget had to be into the county so the mail out ballots could go out there was no conspiracy we didn't do anything wrong I had plans for that evening too okay I changed my plans and I went to the meeting as uh Mr vanur uh said before about the volunteers of mon on row and I appreciate you saying that with the sports programs and everything else councilman deiro thank you too for the lacrosse uh I was a volunteer in this town for many many years whether it was football basketball or baseball mayor Delina is actually my son Luke's favorite baseball coach so I know he put a lot of time in on those ball fields so our children are very very important the board members that you see here tonight we're volunteers we are doing the best that we possibly can we don't deserve to be publicly humiliated on Facebook pages that should not happen not in Monro Township thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak to address the board please come forward seeing and hearing none I'm going to call for a motion to close the public comment section please motion may I have a second on that motion second thank you all in favor I any opposed may I have a motion to adjourn our meeting so moved second on that councilman Ziro yes councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes Council vice president vanzora yes council president Cohen yes we are adjourned the time is 8:42 thank you