I just want to remind everybody that all meetings will be audio video tape they'll be shown on the count otions Community cable channel channel 22 on Verizon F and channel 77 on cable vision roll call please mayor NY here council member and chair here here Terry here the notice requirements to the open public meetings after this meeting have been satisfied and a copy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press in the coaster Post in town hall fil in the office of the municipal clerk on December 8th 2022 we're going to start off with various projects with Greg blash our engineer go ahead Greg hold he's got to get his notes was Char hold on good Greg take your time the battery should die by the time you're your res idea and he won't have any questions it'll be good okay first project 20 slow it down 2022 Road program were um complete for the winter they did not finish the concrete work on Roosevelt he did not finish Walnut so that'll be both be done in the spring and it will pave the four remaining roads in the spring also you tell our friends on reselt yes they know yeah I think everybody over there was pretty happy we didn't have really too many complaints one person complained about how it was going to be left but he did that in the morning it was it was restored by the evening so I I was just didn't get to it yet so this is 2022 you're done and then when we pick back up in end of end of March end of March we pick up again and then we'll roll into 23 yep okay yeah yeah the 23 program uh we're pretty much done to design we're going to have the uh resent meetings for the concrete Assessments in January right to set those dates up with Jesse and we'll send notices out to all the people okay and then we'll do that get those because in the past couple years we after Co we stopped having them in person we kind of just sent letters and that hasn't worked really well for us so we're going to go back to the in person so they can see the plans before we do the work explain everything to them it works much better so based on what you're saying right now it seems like we're pretty caught up here to on the on the road program no I mean where we are where we are with like we are caught up with what we've what we've already uh put money in for it right at this point we're pretty much I mean I know we're behind with the number yeah the numbers that we have which we're going to address during the budget but as it stands right now if we're almost done with 22 and you're designing 23 we're clearly yeah we're on schedule we're on schedule okay and we just got a little late start because we got the budget was approved a little late this past year but cuz sometimes we'll get a little concrete work done in the in the fall okay we get it out the bid in the fall usually but we're not that we we could have probably put it out the bid in December but why get that I didn't want to get this year's prices I want to do it in January nobody has work and we usually get much better prices from contractors when they have no work 100% yeah just just follow up on on the mayor's comment 22 is the only one open or do we have things still open on 21 or 20 20 and 21 are with the state to close out but they're done yeah we had the one we kept open because we did a extra work we had some extra money in I think it's the 21 program or we did the concrete curb on Brian Court to spend the rest of the money in that contract so that one is was finished about a month ago so that's in at the state 20 is already in at the state for closing out so those are both processing probably be done with those in January so we get that final 25% check okay anything any other questions on the road program thanks Greg next next thing was the striping of the bike Lanes as you see it's all done corley's M Road's all done we did all the police striping with Center Line stop bars and we also changed five inlets for bicycle save grades so that was all completed about two weeks ago other the what of about looks good so two comments on that if I may if I may um one what about the other lining in town striping excuse me are we still have striping to no it's all done but based on the contract we had it was all done let me rephrase it other striping through town not just the bike Lanes yeah all the stuff the police gave us that's all really yeah yeah we still have I mean there's more that we didn't have on the list that we're going to probably be on next year's list or whenever we do some more striping but really we kind of let the traffic safety the Department come to me with that okay and then when we have enough of it we kind of put it out the bit Rob if we have other areas we can yeah definitely I mean for now year when we do the striping yeah like poer road is a perfect example of the center line striping on Popper's going but I didn't want to do that because we got Popper's going to be in our roadr right so we'll do the first quarter of that and then we'll try this some temporary striping for the next year okay um thank you the bike Lanes I know I called you because somebody called me regarding the difference between the bike Lanes on Mammoth versus the bike Lanes on Sunset or Logan or P one um they asked if we could share that publicly so that people understand the difference between the two we can put in blur in on online do that can you draft something so the issue was why are the if you notice the ones on Mammoth are much bigger and they're there's no line Greg explained that you talking about the bike Lanes or you talked about that earlier because the r the Riders the it's a shared thank you that's easy yeah I was actually after I had mentioned this earlier I was driving through that the same post that we were both talking about oh no that was different one different one different one okay I was driving through Asbury on a oneway street and actually the shared bike lane is in the middle of the road right so that's kind of the right that's the and the reason that it's really wonder the mutcd puts out the standards are they put it out there because they want cars to have to almost run it over so they know that that's part of a bike link yeah it kind of alerts them to the fact because if you tucked it over by the curb they would think the bike rider supposed to be over there but that's what happens when you don't have a dedicated bike L that's why the ones on these ones where we have the dedicated bike l or so much more because there's a white line there the cars are not supposed to pass right and the bike is supposed to only be in there right cool kind of like a shoulder thank you yeah I think it's a good idea to maybe put a little something out from the township hey just want to let you know that bike have now been done on the following road cuz I people who like what's going on here you know cuz it just sort of happened yeah as did in all of our defense as did the others they just happened but they're a lot easier to figure out yeah so understand most people see there's a difference and don't know why right yeah yeah I'll do something we'll put it on website with Tracy thank you okay the next one uh 101 wico called the do beam finally that came in it was delayed so that project should start proceeding pretty fast now we're just waiting on that to do any everything else we couldn't do the roof until the beam was in and we certainly didn't want to start any the interior until the beam was in but we ran into some surprises over there so but everything's kind of under control now okay next one um golf simulator we're going to advertise uh next week for the second bit of the uh golf simulator system get those bids into January and hopefully get that awarded at the January meeting are we hoping I'm sorry any chance we're going to get more than one no more than one bit Yeah there's only Oney that makes there's another company that makes another a similar product but it's nowhere near the quality Mike looked into uh several different units and the quality of this one is is a lot better he even went up to Baseline to check out um their equipment and he likes this one a lot better for the golf simulators that we're going to use so you know we'll have to go off his recommendation I mean he's gone around he's searched it and you know I'm going to trust his uh you know his professional opinion on that and you can even kind of tell because the bid went out or equal and the other company didn't submit an or equal bid so they know they can't live up to the standards of this one yet okay the next one is drudging projects uh we met with the county um for the Terrace Pond snail's Pond fireman's Pond and uh we kind of hit a little bit of a snag but the county said they would help us with dredging of colonial Terrace the the timing of the projects were not kind of conducive the way they want to do and they kind of want to do it in the spring not over the winter because they have problems with cold weather and all that good stuff but the bottom line is it looks like if we use the County Services we' be doing that in the springtime and then they kind of want to let it sit for a while then move it but for our later discussion any of the dredges that come out of there because it's so much sand it doesn't need that much deep watering time so we would have them maybe move it out of the pond for us and we'll move it after the watered up to the area between the fourth and sixth Fairways and that's which Pond oh to start to start I think there was an issue too with doing them all at the same time yes that's the secondary problem is they they don't want to commit to the the timing of doing all three in a row they they've already told us they will not do Snow's pond because there's too much private property involved and they probably would put it off at least a year before they would consider doing fireman for US based on committing their manpower to and Snell's Pond turns into a bit of an issue for us because of all the other retention basins that we have for example you take Cedar Village those are all private homes and their biggest bone of contention that's been going on for the last 20 years what are they going to do when their Pond needs to be dredged who are they going to go to how are they going to pay for it so this is why we have to look into some alternative methods for these ponds that are not necessarily the towns but they will they do help us with flooding so um we did speak with a couple of ideas that we're going to kick around um getting into uh next year into 2024 uh which is something that we could potentially work on and the owners of the developments don't have liability for that so the the issue with cedar Villages that's their pond so when it fills up with sediment they're going to be on the hook for that now there's been discussion throughout the state we've spoken to uh the senator about this in regard to potential funding down the line to help out you know these individual areas that need help with their dredging but think about the amount of ponds that we have that are retention Bas and that are private I mean there's a lot we have to worry about our public ones and we can work in conjunction on certain ones with the El commission and the grants that they p in but when when you look at a um Cedar Village or you look at a Snell's Pond those are all private areas around there so that's an Essence their pond because their property goes into the middle of the pond that's kind of what I was getting at why are we concerning ourselves with it because it was blue Acres we purchased two Parcels around Snell's Pond that became blue Acres so um how we had a par ponds in our two lots go in there just like everybody else's yeah so we are partial but not re it came up is cuz now there's access to get into the pond so yeah there's access but we have to come up with something that's fair and consistent throughout the town before we go and make a decision on whether or not that Snow's Pond's going to get cleaned out and by who and by who and who's going to pay for it yeah and I think you need to bring make sure you bring the neighbors into the discussion because they're yeah hey we got an idea and part of the problem with it is too it's going to be an escal situation with the ponds because part of the D rules are everything's going to wet ponds now and the theory of detention Basin is pretty much going they want everything percolated back on into the ground perfect example is 35 and deal those are all infiltration basins there's nine of them on that property and they're all infiltration don't think we have the same problem there because it's commercial they should have to have enough deep in enough Pockets to do their own maintenance but those are the kind of things I think we're going to be seeing more and more into the future where these ponds are going to be needing cleaning out more regularly than the detention basement because that tends to flush things out our stream cors but so as an example I know uh back to Italian American is that the same concept we had to clean it because we got the bond and we have to do it or is that something totally different remember you guys had to come out and inspect it just trying to draw an EX that's actually a detention Basin but that had to be clean because of the sent that got into yeah everybody has to maintain those there's are sinking funds for every detention Basin that's approved in the town held by us and we actually inspect those on an annual basis so sort of the same but different yeah okay next one 1515 Logan we've been discussing that we met with Matt and talked about how we're going to advertise this we've kind of come up the conclusion we're going to may put this out for an auction bid as opposed to a sealed bid because we make it a little better price and Dave has found somebody that's in you know an Auctioneer I guess you would say so they're looking to do that probably in February so we can kind of figure timey close everything up be March and Cascade right into the building season and the subdivisions have already occurred subdivision is approved the only thing we're waiting on is the flood Hazard permit from DP we got our Willi permit and we got our buffer eding permit we're just waiting for the flood Hazard area permit so we're in pretty good shape there we didn't get final because we want them to decide we didn't want to give them a situation where they had five Lots they had to build and pay taxes on right away so we're going to we left it as a preliminary subdivision and they can Comm in for a final in the step they want to one or two lots or all five and on all six and but is the auction on one the whole project the whole project you so we didn't really subdivide and and selling off each piece it's one piece we're going to sell it off one piece and we're going to also have a deed restriction in there that they can't reconsolidate the Lots we want them built as single family lots five single family lots but one one purchaser yes okay six lot so six was the magic number y anded detention and Det water quality Bas yeah and that's that be controlled by them yeah uh next one is the um crosswalk we talked about Sunset and maple that will be in this year's the 23 program so that'll be installed uh deal Road sidewalks that's on the north side of deal Road between carbury and bound that'll be um we're bidding that in January for spring construction then the trail uh between roller and sunset we just received authorization from the state we're good to go they reviewed everything so we can put that out the bid we'll bid that in January for spring construction also can we go back to the uh sidewalks on carbury there are we going to reconstruct that four-way stop at deal Road or some conversation about doing that yes we're taking out what I would consider say the the slip Road the right hand turn as you're traveling north on bound MH so that's going to go it's going to go to a normal four-way intersection so you have to make a dedicated 90° right hand term okay just so people flying around that corner yeah it's terrible to cross over there we're putting all the sidewalks and crosswalks in that was part of something that the Girl Scouts that come into town and ask us to fix that intersection so that's part of the road program so on the west side of bound where it hits Steel Road the home owner has a big I guess there sort of shrubby trees there they do affect the light this you know the the sight angle I don't know what we have as a you know any recourse or anything but it is hard to see see cuz you come in kind of an angle and I was wondering if that could be trimmed down well well if it's in the right way we're going to take it down yeah if it's on their property we'll have we'll cut that down with their permission yeah it's just it's just terrible you know you come around and you don't see it and you're like I think most of that's actually in the RightWay so we'll be taking that out okay all right I'm sure they'll be thrilled with us but that's that's what happens oh they just found out well the house you know the house is set back so it's not really a privacy thing it's just a giant hedge Landscaping is sort of out of place anyway to be honest with you y we'll address that so the site trangle is good it's still going to be a four-way stop so that helps a little bit but it'll well there the side triangle will be cleared out and then the last thing I have is a 24 Road program we got a grant for phase one of Pop Road for 157,000 so that'll do probably about a third of that road which way a a popular road we got a deal T Grant Which Way third I'm just curious what you're thinking you just divided I'm going to start at the southern side because that's where all the improvements are because we came up roller road all the roller road is done that intersection is being improved with the new signals because of the new Firehouse they're going to be tearing that road up they already have torn it up so when they're done we'll come in right behind when they got that building build and bath that so that whole corner will be very nice and next year we'll get the phase you know the phase so over the next three years uh poer will be completed from one end to the other what's going on with the construction there they're slow yeah I mean we gave I mean they had we had a big problem with them getting their uh like they were having a big problem with their calculation because the guy to designed the wall they weren't building it according to his calculations and his design so we got him involved so they had to rip it all out and then by that time they got another guy to design it and build it the way they want to design it and then they didn't come back for several months and once they got the approval it was still a month have 2 minutes before they came back now they're going extremely slow yeah I mean they've been building that wall they built the wall in the detention Basin but they've been building that Foundation about four weeks now yeah which should have taken about a week I haven't seen anybody on the job in the last couple days no we did have a problem with them a couple weeks ago that we were after them all the time and they were cleaning up the road but their tracking pad was bad yeah so we they had swept the road on a Friday it rained over the weekend they had a sweeper back out there again on Monday and they did refresh their tracking pad to limit the dirt come off but they're now done taking Dirt Off off of the site so that should be much more limited any anticipated date of when this thing's going to be completed no it's just it's all under their own you can't we can't push them really it's it's a bonded project and they go at their own pace so they're not held up by any permitting or anything like that no no they've been cleared to go for several months now from everything they need interesting yeah thanks okay that's all I had that's it I just have one question and I should know the answer because I know we talked about it um the bridge Brookside uhuh Brook who's funding that who's I had a question on who was paying for that effort the the township is writing the check on that is there a reason that the township is we're talking that's a capital project right it's a capital capital Improvement so the town's writing the check okay what makes it a capital Improvement project if it's eight anything the town pays for a capital project I understand that what made us decide to pay for that bridge construction I guess is the question I was posed and I didn't have an answer improve pedestrian access safety Public Safety yeah we had talked about that and I think the yeah it was a while ago I mean I just couldn't find my not plan board meeting that mat and I attended one of the gentleman showed up there and he said there we I told in my testimony said it was a safety reason was a lot of people cut through our parking lot even to the point where the police were very concerned had a close a couple close calls over the years that's why they built that fenced in compound with the gates at both them to keep people out of there okay and I said if they're still going through there we want to build this and he he said you're a liar they don't go through there but Jesse works on certain Saturdays and she sees it she sees it I see it too but I mean I'm not here all day I just see it on occasion but it's you know the people are still cutting through there it's still a danger and like Jesse says people are now even on the scooters even harder to see them so we just we don't need accident in our parking lot when they're going all the way around the Horseshoe so that's a really the main reason is safety from our point of view to okay keep them out of our parking lot so they don't get run over the gist of it is if you want to walk on Saturday a lot of these guys are walking a Sho you have to go all the way around so it's this bridge alleviates that traveling all the way around so it is an improvement for the majority of the community I just wanted to ensure that we weren't setting ourselves up for precedence for any like request doesn't sound like it because they're walking through Township property right and creating a hazard on Township property there's a bit of History here too because at one point I think the bridge was built without the Township's approval is that true remember I don't think there was a Crossing there yeah I think they went all the way down to the bottom and cross of bridge homade this is going to be elevated yeah yeah okay but I think we have these situations in other places where for pedestrian safety like we have the bridge by lollipop P which actually isn't was never designed to be a bridge it's a Spillway a concrete Spillway but the problem is over the years people have made a trail through there and now that the water level was down they're cross that but now with the crazy rains we've been getting the water levels up so that's a very slippery situation it's a Concrete Spillway on a slope to the bigger Lake and that's proba we close that because you know kids back there with the Moss and it's a shaded area it's a very slippery surface that is one we are going to be approaching probably in the next three or four years to have to reconstruct that it'll take us a year to get permits but that'll be a capital project also yeah okay that's all I had Rob um so you mentioned the dring all good you mentioned the dring of the three ponds uh any updates on uh whale Pond Brook whale we're waiting for you mean the cleaning of whale Pond Brook yes um St wasr we didn't uh we didn't start with wh Brook we started with popular Brook good cleaning we're waiting for the proposal thaty me the stream cleaning yeah he he was supposed to give me a proposal last week we're reaching out to him to get that him I'm sorry there's a company that we asked to give us a price to clean them a very long length of popular Brook because he gave us kind of what he thought he could clean in a day so we know we're going to be under the bid threshold so he was going to clean a pretty good length of it if he comes in at that price and then what we'll do on a yearly basis like we've kind of set a 5year rotation we'll clean out all the Brooks that we can that are in the flooded areas like poer is the worst one that we have flooding whale Pond would be second and then we going to get on to the west side of 35 and some of the commercial zones where we can clean out some streams and I also want to clean out that Brook it's uh part of uh the Harvey Brook system is behind the Rouge Park that that Brook in that stream Corridor in there is I'm sure is not very cleaned out and has a lot of Des snagging to be done to help the flooding on it Fields so those are the kind of things we're looking at but yeah the first section is a healthy length of popet bre okay um any updates on is this I don't know if this was Higgins or hits uh the signs at BJ's that Steve nobody got back to on you weren't content with the finally they paved it it's now his well the signs have been missing for a year you don't know that you can get to 35 South if you're heading East on West Park which would alleviate a lot of the traffic between The Jug Handle and or the ramp and 35 and there's no left turn signs County and state combination and the signs for no left turn people always making that left turn into there dangerous yes government moves slow for a reason uh I I'm sorry you told me and I forgot impervious surface we're doing that in January January because you have to have two meetings in the same month that's what it was thank you which I don't think is true because uh Matt clarified that on something else but Jim Higgins didn't get the message so we'll just do it in January to to get it all I have the draft in hand so we'll circulate that between now and pleas plent time to read iter it and absorb it he just sent me the revise so can you can you circulate that to the council after this meeting yeah thank then they can uh they can take a look can I look at it too I don't know make sure you mail before January um can you um back to deal the firehouse deal popular and what am I a roll of the light if they can't do construction can you try to get them to do the light faster I have asked Maurice about that again and he said he would check again but I like I said they're they're he's having probably the same problem we are getting him going on the firehouse they're not going to open up another can of worms with the light that's probably more of a spring project anyway they do have to have that done before they get their SE so yeah I know but it' be nice to do before the no question if that left hand turn would be really nice it's a problem coming Southbound poer being left on the deal because it's just the lights short if anybody's coming the other way you can maybe get three people I want through last night and I was third in line I didn't make it um and that's not a timing of the light issue no the light is short but it's just really there's it doesn't take much traffic to the Boer up the left hand but do we have any ability to affect the timing with the dot instead of waiting on the contractor no it's not it would be us but the it's it's it be better to wait for the left turn signal because the timing light is fine it's just the leftand turn if you if we introduce the left hand turn on both directions those three cars will get through there there's only three of us there so you know it's easy to get the three through instead make it longer because then deal will back up okay makes sense problem is you come to that light you don't know who's supposed to go first so you're staring at each other it's like a standoff you know that's the double lefts there will help tremendously going to break out the old uh driving course it's always a little confusing as to who has the right away any updates from the county on the crosswalk at Moman South l no they had their data that we were waiting for the design I have a call into them to see where that's at but so they for that at our meeting I know right the traffic guy wasn't there though so true yeah but I do have a call into their traffic guy and I'll get a hold of them and send you an email so not to put words in your mouth so are you saying that they agreed it can be done they they have a their recommended design whether we like it or not but I'm sure as long as we get across and get one of those two spots we're probably happy with that cool stand by I think I only got no I'm good thank you I just have one question for you somebody called me um could you check on where Buckingham Drive is on the uh road paving hierarchy okay I got a call about that if you want to just email me about that I will thank you is is that information something that we could release publicly I mean because I don't think that's the only person that's been where am I on the list 5 years from now I we kind of went through this once before cuz I gave all the council a copy of my ranking system uh I don't really think you want to go public with it because then everybody's questioning because there are times what happens with the list roads are different lengths and I it's like a puzzle when we get the money we have I have to go might maybe go down you know 20 roads have 20t you timeus a th000 foot Ro you know they're not we don't want to be answering questions why when I'm number five it's because the long roads you know I get the first Long Road in and then everything else gets puzzled together so I mean I'll give you everybody here a l no problem but I recommend we don't tell to give it because it'll change yeah could change it changes every year for once but the other problem is I don't take I can't take the top five roads off the list every year it's usually we're dipping somewhere down into the 20s for those a couple shorter ones the money along that same road I I get a lot of questions about the dredge projects and I've been giving updates to you know l Bride of the deal like Watershed Alliance and other you know Mary Johnson and the Snell Pond other people about fireman Pond is there some way to kind of like publicize or just make people aware of the timeline of these dread projects going forward I would recommend wait until probably the county gives us because remember once we have a better hand yeah because at our meeting with the county they said they want to check all of our data and the plans before they commit to doing it right and they won't commit to doing it until they see that so until they give us once they commit doing then we'll have a time frame okay it also sounds like they're only interested in one the other two they're kind of they're TR right off that's exactly what heard they were not when I opened up the second set of plans they were kind of you know already looking away y yeah as the mayor of L to were looking at other alternate uh ways of doing it okay that one lady Mary Johnson never gave me her address to drop those things oh yeah well I guess it's a moot point right now correct am I correct or do you still I mean if I would prob probably still like to get the permit because then we can say we're just logistically working out permit's good for 5 years okay got it all right so I'll I'll because you can see how long it's taken to get these last eight signatures it's been two months I'll track her down sometimes the Outlook you know what email you lose and it doesn't hurt to get you know a drudging permit so it's yeah least was in our hand any other questions for Greg anybody else Greg thank thank you good night everybody everybody have a nice holiday great H thanks great you too I'm going to miss you too but I'll be here okay Thursday night okay I think it's been tonight few David you're up yes sir various Township got two real estate transactions for close session okay um for I I do have an opening on shade tree commission which seems to be the manager's appointment but obviously if the council has any recommendations please call me I have not made that appointment but nor one would like for me to make an appointment like right away so if anybody has suggestions please gave you one right right I gave you one wreck up yes yeah please I wanted to make sure that the full Council had that opportunity okay uh and then I asked Ricky to be here if anybody had any shared service agreement questions or concerns so this is a similar shade tree similar shared services agreement that you did with the other Town um and planfield is renewing tonight right it's up for Renewal I saw it on uh they renewed it on Monday yeah but we're it's on ours tonight so Bradley Beach will be new for you did should we talk about that in close session instead of if you have now if you have agreement situations yes because that's legal matter if you have a what if you have something with the agreement itself legally between us and bradle we yeah then that's close session yeah let's do Clos session okay on that correct Mr turn that yeah no that's correct negotiation Matt never lets us go and close for anything that's one of the Marty used to sure let's go BR back all right um that's it Dave that is it man okay let's go around the horn and then we'll get our public let's start with uh Deputy Mayor Don um I don't know if we have any updates um shade tree still working we met with the um did we talk about that last time the shade tree we had another meeting we're going to um wait the state actually has provided some guidance on um shade tree um ordinance tree preservation um so we're waiting on their uh on that for them the state to provide the final uh guidelines because they've actually put out something that um is more wants all the towns to be in line with u that actually is more stringent we we are actually pretty close to it but there might be some uh more language I was say rumor has it they want to revisit what's out there right now yes and and it's coming from the state we want to move towards more of a canopy based tree ordinance but we want to see what states recomend moving anyway so we just want to wait till what they put out to finalize our changes it comes out when you look at it in percentage wise it does seem to be a little more fair than the way it is now if you're going based off canopy coverage so we're just going to wait for the state you know once they're done and then you know work on ours um doc you want to give them a quick update on the tour that we took yep so we did a tour with white buffalo through the town to look at Eric is and discuss the ins and outs of what um what they do and the services they provide in terms of um deer management plan a community deer management plan and how they've had U what they've done in Princeton um and um and looking at the Roo which is basically at the state level um So currently the uh the sterilization of the deer um is considered an experimental process from the state's persp perspective even though there's a ton of research and use of it in other in other states um which has you know had had proven efficacy so experimental is just the term that they've been stuck on I mean I'm hoping to look at ways maybe we can change that at the state level um but that's the biggest roadblock we're going to face when we put this in but again it's going to be we wanted to get things done in January but to start things you know this this fall we're going to put a yeah we're going to put a management plan in place but it's it's a little more intricate and a little more detailed than than we really thought at this point um so hybrid huh are we thinking hybrid still we may not have a choice we might not have a choice kind what I thought we may be dictated by the state only because our numbers are really high in Ocean Township now the other issue that we have we have wels Park literally across West Park Avenue that's the county they they do their own deer management but they don't touch wels Park that wasn't part of our drone study right so that wasn't even part it's not our park so what they'll do is they'll put that into the mix of their deer management if we Institute a deer management plan for us for POA Park and all our other Open Spaces now they also we have to go first we have to put a plan in place before they go and handle anything in Wells park because if we don't do anything it's not going to make any matters any better if they deal with weals and we don't deal with anything on our end and did you ever meet with the other municipalities that are touching right and they're following our lead too kind of is was the answer waiting on us and you know I think and what we heard is like they he doesn't think that there's going to be a huge migration issue it's really they've kind of nestled in these parts he said it's like a quarter of a mile that they travel it's not a big it's not a big it's not like if you take care of a problem let's say the golf course because we went over there and we drove in now it was interesting we didn't see any deer in the golf course MH but boy when we went through player Park it's like you know he's like wow you have a major problem here like if you see this many out in the day and he well they always thought that the study was under counting what was actually happening well it's I think based on what he look what he saw he thinks the numbers are definitely definitely skewed the wrong way and it's when we did this you know we went and looked at all our Open Spaces that you know potentially the state will come in and say well you got this area and you got that area and you got that like there's a lot of different areas that we have to consider here um they you know mentioned different methods but we really you know the state is going to dictate to us how this has to go first and then we put the plan in place and is that because it's state money tied to the response um no it has nothing to do with that it has to do with the fact that the New Jersey fish and wildlife is a council that's made up of appointees um who are primarily pro hunting okay so they want to give Hunters opportunities to hunt Okay so they have the they make the final decision so so what's happening in Princeton have have they are theying prinston has been doing hunt um yes they've been doing a combined method in Princeton um but they've been utilizing the you sterilization method because they don't there's places where in you can't do a hunt in person like here you can't so it's like a TNR kind of like the cats the benefit of the sterilization is that if you get a female deer a female deer if you they can start reproducing within like the first year of life and they produce you know one to two deer per year so if you sterilize a deer in the first year or two of life you're preventing like 20 deer and they live for like 10 years or sometimes longer so you're preventing like 20 deer from populating so you you get sterilize one female deer that's you know a big impact you know down the road and so ultimately that's a you know and they're hunting one do they have that I think we talked about if you hunt one deer you kill one deer you don't but the give back program there's 100% give back 100% um yeah so if in terms of hunting um uh the meat is always is that what you're talking about me I heard the food bank participates in the program and I didn't know if it was the one with Princeton or if it was that one from way Jersey no no they count he said they're in the program here the our Neptune food bank is in it but he said there were certain areas that they had so many that that they had to stop because they couldn't keep up mhm the pro they called the process processing yes I was reading on internet look it's going to be a very difficult decision okay but we can sit on our hands and do nothing like everybody else has and let it get completely worse or we hit this head on and deal with the issue I mean and we really have to we have to make a decision as a council we can't sit and continue to Kick the Can down the road there's you know there's a danger right now um the park when you we took that ride through the park I mean the deforestation right that's the other yeah oh that's a big part of it yeah there's I mean there the uh ecological system of Joe POA park has been completely destroyed there's no underbrush at all there's no native plants it's all it's unbelievable how it's all gone it's like when you drive through there you know in now because fell the Little Critters I mean the yeah the little guys no seeds no nothing good on that topic and I'm glad you reminded me cuz I thought about it can't we use open space to do that spend money to clean up oh not the Deer piece clean it's not a clean up oh it's not yeah um but because back it's only going to get destroyed again if you have too many deer eating eating the underbrush so I'm not sure okay separate topic it's not it is but I misunderstood it so that's fine I'll bring it up okay okay um anything else I mean oh I I met with um Chelsea Maddie who is a um student in the high school who is the younger sister of Jessica Maddie who put the um the monarch butterfly garden in Jo Play Park she's currently taking care of it but she was interested in doing a 5K race to raise money to um make Joe POA Park better so um I'm put her in touch we met with um Jack M we're going to coordinate that with the greenfest next year I mean I'm not going to be here but I'll be there but um we'll coordinate that with the greenfest I know you've been interested in doing something like a 5k Ino Park 5K what no the other tease the trees tease to trees like trees love it so yeah maybe I'll put her in touch with you too um and I put her in touch with um Amy mcgoverin on the school board who has had uh experience running 5Ks before so not running 5Ks but running the whole coordinating she might be organ organizing thank you Jersey Shore run club would come in and oh do it all for you they're the best okay good they're the best they'll run the whole thing and they'll get people from all over the place them on ours running club they'll advertise it they'll put on their website there's people that just go from Run Race all the equipment for the timing clocks and everything really yeah do you mind me if I put you in touch with her she's great and very motivated in with rightful that's that's a good call CU they'll do the whole thing yeah they will yeah I'm bring in a lot of Outsiders so you're not like just taing our residents we have all the stuff yeah anything else doc that's it okay uh Rob I'll leave that one for later um housekeeping so can we Dave and I discuss this yesterday um on ordinances when we're kind of putting the not kind of when we are putting them on the agenda I know I had asked Vinnie this and it kind of slipped and he was doing it for a while can we be a little bit more clear on what we're doing sure like for example the marijuana ordinance tonight it's under license it's under I spoke to Jesse we spoke about it we're committed to changing it thank you um we want to discuss Jim's email on COA and the 16 Acres as up if the attorney would like to do that I'm curious he's a contract purchased with the property we should probably talk about fine good I got another one Kelly's emails um she sent us three email yesterday or today that's all you got yeah believe it or not I was going to flip you but I know I'm on camera that's why I could say it right um I thought they were great uh yesterday whenever you sent whenever they were whenever I got my internet back to my house I'm more than impressed with your emails you see you guys are just dealing with this for long careful how impressed you are cuz Here's my thought why don't we all do that if we're attending a meeting I mean it doesn't have to be as great as hers maybe she'll never be that great maybe she can teach us do a little look I don't even want to to be like Kelly so I'm going to say but I think we should know what the others are doing so that we can be aware give a little report tonight I guess we'll just have to strive to be like Kelly well again I thought it was great and I and I do like I like information I mean I love it I like to share information it just uh no resp responding okay got it that's the key no I think the rest is I think I'm good all right good what's that sh Runner Sor Jersey sh running club yes uh a couple things so I sent you guys an email but I did want to remind you guys or at least talk about the planning board did approve the 28 uh apartment complex on Norwood Avenue the old footnotes building so there's a little bit of the story so um five of the units will be going towards Kaa which is great so affordable housing but I think one of the the we've talked about this for a while and I know Chris Deano talked about this for a while that area it's sort of a weird area it is Ocean Township you don't you know if you see it on a map you don't think it looks like deal but it's not it's actually ocean tum I wouldn't call it blighted but I've called it needing of improvement so this is a huge step in the right direction and I know this plan has been kicked around for what four or 5 years now but I think this could be a catalyst for getting that area moving in in the proper direction so it it was an important decision and I'm finally glad that this thing came to fruition um second thing I see you all have gotten your official copy of the master plan it is officially done um so from the planning board side at your leisure feel free to read through this uh there are some suggestions in here um but it is the council's job to then take the suggestions and make ordinances to go forward for the future so suggestion on that cuz I did read it page like cover to cover I kid you not it's a great document for history too you learn an incredible amount about our town and what we have and the properties and just numbers it's I think that document is great um I suggest you do thumb through you don't have to read read it like me I just wanted to I thought it was very interesting I highlighted a lot of stuff in there um but it is it's it's it's very good document yeah I this is something that doesn't happen every day so it does give a good inventory of what's going on in the town there are some suggestions in the future uh as I've said before Ed defil you did some wonderful uh add-ons about things that are conceptual in nature that may not be something that's happening in 2023 but maybe in 2030 might be at relevant so take a take a good look at that and I did want to recognize uh all the people the uh Recreation Department DPW the Christmas lights over by the library which they said couldn't be done looks amazing one person said and um I have heard from more people in town how great that looks so I think from a Township standpoint of trying to you know bring the community together it was a home run well done to all the Departments definitely and if I have I mean my parting wish is to keep those lights up at least through February and slide to slide I bring the slide back make it a permanent she wants to slide back yeah thanks Dave I like the train I missed it I wrote the train I like the train we're we're going to have reindeer pool slay next year we decided part of the deer management plan is to Kelly go incorporate them I think I shared everything um as part of sitting I also signed in on the tree commission um just for situational awareness and uh the Human Services council meeting both of those formal minutes will come out on uh January 4th I Believe It's when um the commission is meeting again there was a question I don't know who to ask it of um I talked about the community garden and I would hope to continue that I'm going to send you all the documents that we've had the community garden um the U the gardening club um folks have had gone around and and actually um to different towns to look at and and interview how they they put their Community Gardens together we've kind of looked on the ground a little bit up by the human resources department um possible areas we could put a community garden in um but I'll send you all the documentation about one question in specific was from um an area over by Middlebrook that I guess was was looked at for that it was deemed unsuitable and I thought because um it was because of through traffic or something but I didn't have an answer for for him so next time they convene why wasn't that deemed a good spot for a community garden and I thought because it was private property with access why we could not make it a community garden there but I told him I would I think it's Steve was the question if it's private property then which is that was my kneejerk response is that it was publicly private um but I couldn't swear to that so that's that's the real answer some sort of deal with or something this is historical he said it was looked at previously and it was discounted and I'm assuming it was Private that's probably the answer yeah I don't know okay Township would want to get involved in trying to run a however that work okay else um no okay um Let me give quick update on few of the meetings I had so facilities meeting Greg hit 101 1515 we mentioned kepwell about the signage signage will be put in along with Once Greg can square off cuz he's going to design a little bit of a change up there where bound and cold Indian come together to square it off so that you have a 90° turn as opposed to the way that the cars just roll off of cold Indian down cold Indian so it is a safety issue we were also looking in where way cake is to put the crosswalk over there to get over to the park um the fence is up and it looks fantastic it's like a completed park now um I believe Mike is looking into um you know the demoing of the building and getting into the next phase of this project up there kepwell which is a ways off but at least we have some plans um the dog park we also met about that we had an issue with the placement of the dog park um David has been on top of uh commissioner L Citra with it we finally met met with them uh this week and they have agreed you know we're going to do a few improvements over there but we would really like it to be closer to the road and closer to that existing parking lot we did not like it not that we disagreed with the County Commissioners we just weren't in agreement with where the placement of that Park was we felt that it should be away from the tennis courts closer to the street near that uh existing little dirck the dirt lck that we can expand and dark right yeah so we'll we'll expand and do what we have to do over there um they will design it through their inside engineering department and we offered to have Greg assist if he need we need him to do anything um we spoke about dredging can I add on to that cuz I just got a call before I walked in the room uh from Mike patrio who called Andrew over at the mountain County Recreation director there is some environmental issues as you move f so I know anybody hopes to get up high we may not hit our Mark but I don't think we'll be as close to the tennis court either so we'll find somewhere in the middle all right so we'll we'll figure out we're waiting for them to get back to us okay very good um we were obviously we've mentioned Town Hall that's uh you know we're looking at the properties right now to see what we can potentially shift and work on so that's still a little bit off uh Greg myself David was away we had a meeting with the D to follow up on the questions that we brought forth the main issue was deal Road uh going west um there's a log Jam there of cars especially in the center lane because there's only one that goes across uh 35 we had suggested that there be two lanes to go across you don't necessarily need the one that just goes right y so I'm stuck in that all the time well their issue was receiving on the other side of 35 there's no space they are okay with it as long as the uh Greg has to reach out to uh Paramount to discuss them putting in the permit they it's not going to back up their permit but it will help us out with road so it's just a matter of discussing with them so that we can alleviate that and I believe that Paramount bought the property across the street so I'm looking at them potentially designing so that we do have a lane over there that that does receive the cars because that's the major problem cars are still going in that right lane and I use it about four or five times a day and it's so aggravating because I know where to go and I know these other people to the right of me know where to go but they just play it and they go all the way up and then they shoot over and it's turning into a bit of a problem so we're going to work on that uh there's also that cement hump with the with the cones which is absolutely ridiculous so uh Greg mentioned something about a clam shell or or something that they could design so they're going to look at that as well so that you know this is going to be a problem during snow season it's just it's going to be a major issue even Greg brought it up if a plow blade hits that and these guys are going 35 for believe me I drive one so I know what it's like when you hit a curve and those guys somebody's going to break their teeth that's you know that's a that that goes up it's like a curb so we're going to look into that we asked him about the smart lighting it's uh adaptive lighting um Highway 35 right now is not into the mix but they are going to look into optimizing uh the cycle of the lights which um we mentioned that you know Greg mentioned that uh even cycling the lights a little differently could potentially speed up the flow of traffic um we mentioned Armstrong Boulevard we're going to speak to the county about that as well because that was an issue that popped up to potentially put a punch out there so that cars can go out and get on to 35 as opposed to going back towards West Park Avenue so that's still in discussions on there with the do um they'll get back to us after the first of the year and that's what I have all right from my public Jack we lost our our other visitor she had Go sing Go sing be putting out uh at Middletown and also I forget the other place a group that something to do with the high school it was in the newspaper the or the co I don't know exactly what to talk about that was the subject okay that's all I have thank you Jack thank you all all right motion to go and close session so moved second second all in favor hi hi before we get started I just want to remind everybody that our Township Council meetings will be audio and videot taped can I have a roll call please mayor nepan here Deputy Mayor dlin here council members theera here fiser here Terry here the notice requirements of the open public meetings act for this meeting have been satisfied and a copy of the annual notice has been sent to the aspbury park press and the coast are posted in town filed in the office of municipal clerk on December 8 2022 can we please stand for a pledge allegiance and then remain standing as we give a moment of Silent prayer especially for one of our residents that just passed away who was very instrumental in the community Anthony Snookie Des bazito passed away last week or actually two weeks ago I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing you may be seated for our fire exit procedures we have two emergency exits on the right that'll take you to the front of the building and another one on my left that'll take you to the rear parking lot all cell phones must be turned off if you have to make a call kindly step outside and make the call make sure that your cell phones are turned on silent we're going to start off with Council comments so let me start down there with councilwoman Terry um just a congratulations to Ocean Township and the various departments that pulled off a lot of holiday celebrations over the past week they were phenomenal I didn't get to attend them all but I did see pictures for the ones that I could not attend and great job thank you Cal Deputy Mayor Margie donlin my doctor who is going to give her final report as our new assembly woman El it's very Bittersweet but I want to Echo what uh Kelly Terry said about our team putting together a phenomenal holiday um two manora lightings the Christmas tree lighting um definitely some of the best celebrations that we've had in Ocean Township uh so far and they continue to keep getting better year after year thanks to all the volunteers who came out even last minute we as we uh had to deal with the rain dates and that sort of thing but um I know Vera loved it she loved the big slide and we all love the tree lights and I'm hoping to keep them up at least through February um I also want to say thank you to two um wonderful women in town who put together an event called light up the dark on Saturday night bringing our community together of a night of unity and hope in support of bringing the hostages home um who uh are are in Israel or not in Israel but should be home um Marissa Lambert and afrat Rosman rosarin who uh put that together and that was a great Community event bringing people together um since it is my most likely last council meeting unless we have a special meeting at the end um I just wanted to say a few words of gratitude it's been the honor of my life to serve as a council woman here in Ocean Township um unlike the others here I didn't grow up in Ocean Township but when I came here I knew this is where I wanted to raise my family live my life and retire forever um I want to be here and I hope my kids continue to want to stay here as well it's an incredible Community built up with so many wonderful people um and it's really the people that make this community of gracious living I want to thank the former mayor Chris S leano for giving me the opportunity to join his team when we ran together in 2019 and to the voters of ocean who elected us that Year Chris said he wanted somebody on the team or anyone on his team who didn't have an axe to grind I've never had an Axe and I wouldn't know how to grind it I really enjoy working with everybody and to get things done um as Le is on to the shade tree commission and the environmental commission I loved working with those members getting things accomplished including our tree ordinance reestablishing the Green Team pushing to revise our storm water ordinance and getting our dredge projects closer to completion among other things if I start thanking everybody I'm know I know I'm going to leave somebody out but I would like to say I have all the gratitud UD in the world to our clerk Jesse Joseph for everything that she does our former clerk Vinnie to our police chief Santino and the entire police force for keeping us safe Jen and Mike for making this the best town to celebrate and come together for All Occasions and events and to play and enjoy our outdoor spaces to Steve Higgins everyone in public works for keeping our town clean and the lights shining bright to Greg blash the township Engineers Ron Kirk and Community Development Billy trees Tracy burwitz for being the glue to for all of us Tom R for getting our meetings out there um and all our of our events as well to our Township attorne attorneys Marty Arbus Matt good basically everyone who makes Ocean Township the incredible place it is to work live raise a family and we really do have a special team here so it's been an honor to work with everybody one of the best decisions I think we made as Council um was Hiring Our manager Dave Brown um when my favorite decisions was appointing the first woman judge in the history of Ocean Township Lisa Kinkel and I think a close second would be appointing Kelly Terry who's done a phenomenal job in such a short time as a council women here when they say you want to get things done ask a busy woman and and she defines that so um it's also been an honor to serve with Rob and Dave I know we don't always agree on everything but we're always willing to have a discussion about it um and I love Ocean's nonpartisan form of government allows us to focus on issues and people and not politics I also want to thank our Mayor John napatan for being a great servant leader to our town and moving us forward even when it's not easy and last but not least I want to thank my husband Ron for niola and uh he holds down the fort every Thursday night and our our daughters Amalia and Vera who who uh know how important this is to Mom to be here to serve I know you all continue to do great work for Township and I'll always be here to help however I can so thank you thank God Ronnie had that practice for the Thursday nights cuz now he's going to be a lot this year with the kids me go down to councilman fiser all right so first I do want to thank uh all the Departments DPW otpd uh the recreation department all the people that volunteered this was one of the we had to canceled twice this year so our holiday celebrations were a little dicey but they pulled it off uh res president expressed some said something very interesting to me so if you drive down now by our library we've lit up all the trees and it makes this place really feel like a a beautiful community and I I give everybody because I it was told we were told we couldn't get it done so congratulations everybody we did get it done um I do want to wish everybody a happy Hanukkah it's ni ni last night a Merry Christmas now Margie told me last night she didn't want any Fanfare I said we should have a celebration she said don't do it but I will say this Margie I enjoyed I enjoyed serving with you we've had a wonderful time together Margie and I ran together for the for me the first time she'd had a little experience so to me her and I kept looking at each other like is this what we really want to be doing but lo and behold two elections later and for her three uh we're still here so I wish you the absolute best in the assembly I know you're going to do great things don't forget your friends in Ocean Township we need you we love you and we wish you the the best thank you D thank you councilman chera uh I'm going to Echo what everybody else said so I'll keep it short Margie all the best it's been a pleasure um we've uh We've certainly buted heads but uh we both walk away with the smiles on our faces so uh we know it's in the best interest of Dev oce so uh all the best in the assembly and I Echo what they've said don't uh don't forget us but we'll be knocking on your door probably more than you're knocking on ours um also the the uh uh celebrations uh this month uh the Han the Hanukkah oral lighting the Christmas tree lighting the blessing of the crush uh great job to the recreation department as always uh happy Hanukkah to the Jewish folks out there and merry Christmas if we don't see it for those uh that are celebrating Christmas uh and again I'll let go with uh I forgot which one of you said at the light up the night incredible event to be able to bring uh the entire Community together for a u Unity meeting I was going to say rally I don't know that it was a rally but very well done and uh great program uh I think I'm so thank you Mr Mayor thank you Dave thank you mayor I just uh quickly just want to uh send my well wishes and all the best to our Deputy Mayor now assembly woman elect it was a pleasure working with you and serving on this day is with you and look forward in your new role and working with you there as well to the benefit of the township of ocean and also just to everybody a a very happy holidays and a very happy and safe holiday um and just everybody just enjoyed holidays this is a crazy time that we're living in thank you sir Matt oh I'll just Echo everybody else Marie Deputy Mayor it's been a pleasure thank you for everything you've done thank you for everything you will do and David will be in touch when we need more money uh yes echoing the sentiments of everybody I really have to thank our Recreation Department for the wonderful job that they did putting these events together the coordination that came together not only with the council but with our priest when we did the blessing of the crush we did our manur lighting so we had to coordinate with the rabbis and then of course we did our Christmas tree lighting and it was an absolutely fantastic event I want to thank Jack Serpico Sur Serpico pyrotechnics who donated that fireworks show after the tree lighting so we did a tree lighting and then we did multiple tree lightings and then we had the fireworks show go off and it was an absolutely fantastic event there were well over a thousand people there and it was just great there were so many different things that they put together for the kids I you you just couldn't ask for anything better and I have to say we have the best tree lighting in the state there's nothing that beats it um 2024 we're going to be celebrating our 175th anniversary with the official anniversary on February 21st uh we have a plan to get together uh first week of January to start planning for this auspicious occasion uh we'll be working in conjunction with our um Chamber of Commerce the council our rec department police department and um we're going to en enlist uh the assistance of our um uh our Historic Society as well because they have all the facts and figures um we also are going to be looking for sponsors this year as we want to beef up our events because this is a special year 175 years is fantastic uh we're really looking forward to that um I want to thank all of the township employees from the police department recck Department uh road department they have just done an absolutely fantastic job working with our Administration and getting everything done and hearing the word yes from Mostly everybody that's gotten into a position is a great breath of fresh air cuz when you heard no for so long you don't think things can get done but when you get new people in place with new ideas and they're invigorating they want to do the right thing so I cannot thank this group enough we've got a phenomenal team that works for the township of ocean in 2024 is going to be an absolutely fantastic year for us um I also want to Echo the sentiments on my Deputy Mayor down there Dr Margie donlin um she made history you know this is Bittersweet for us I mean I became friends with Margie and uh it's it's been fantastic I've known her husband way longer than her but Margie and I got very friendly and she's been a great person to work with but she is the first female doctor elected to the New Jersey State Assembly and that is a huge feat for not only the state of New Jersey for Margie our Township of ocean so Margie congratulations on being that first woman female doctor to get elected to the State Assembly she's going to do great things out there in Trenton I guarantee that she is a rock star so we look forward to seeing some great things um we will be two things I just want to mention before we open it up for public comment number one uh we'll be moving resolution 23- 246 off of the consent agenda that'll be voted on separately oh 2330 why is mine say oh 23 which one 233 232 and 23 246 they'll be pulled and voted on separately uh there's an ordinance on the agenda this evening I expected to see a few more people in regard to cannabis I just want to give uh just a quick uh synopsis of some things that went on 2019 there was a vote in Ocean where we did our uh vote for medical marijuana and it passed 52% to 48% the following year the state of New Jersey did an adult youth question that passed way higher with 65% in the township of ocean to 35% in favor it's a difference of almost 2 to one and that was with an 82% turnout so I just want people to understand that when they get up and speak we will be giving five minute limits to people to get up and speak on all items including any agenda items as well ordinance items will be discussed during the individual ordinance adoption and discussion so without further Ado I am going to uh now we're going to open it up for public questions so all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine by the township Council will be enacted by one Motion in the form listed below there will be no separate discussion on these items if discussion is desired on any item that item will be considered separately the purpose of the public portion is to solely ask questions to understand resolutions that appear on the agenda all questions not related to an item on the agenda should be asked during the public comments section at the conclusion of the meeting if anyone has any questions in regard to the consent agenda or the two items that were shoved to the side to be voted on separately please stand up to the microphone state your name and address for the record seeing here or not do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll move to approve the sent agenda second second roll call the Cher yes accept resolution 7 letter G got it okay donlin yes fer yes Terry yes nean yes uh individual action we have resolution is it 23 first 232 resolution 23 - 232 do I have someone move I'll make a motion to move resolution oh wait a minute let me read it first authorizing a shared service agreement with the city of planfield for Chief Financial Officer Services motion I'll make a motion to second second roll call aera yes donin yes Fisher yes Terry stain nepan no uh resolution 2346 see uh 23 right authorizing a shared service agreement with the burrow of Bradley Beach for Chief Financial Officer Services someone move I'll move second second a sorry aera me yes yes donlin yes is sure yes Terry abstain napan no individual action vouchers in the amount of 15,638 19163 someone please move I'll move second second roll call aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes ordinances up for adoption ordinance number 2440 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 5 of the revised General ordinances of the Town TR of ocean 1965 implementing new state law requiring owners ofs business and rental properties to maintain certain Insurance coveres someone please open public discussion on ordinance 2440 like to open public discussion on ordinance 2440 second I'll second roll call aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2440 please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record seeing here none do I have a motion to close close public discussion on ordinance 2440 I'd like to make a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2440 second a second roll call aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes yesan yes action on ordinance 2440 I'd like to adopt ordinance 2440 and publish according to law second a second chera yes donlin Fisher Terry yesan yes motion uh ordinance passes uh ordinance 2442 which is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 9 of the revised General ordinances of the township devotion 1965 entitled soil and tree removal someone please open public discussion on ordinance 2442 I'd like to open public discussion on ordinance 2442 second second aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes chry yes upy yes anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2442 please step up to the microphone stage your name and address for the record seeing here none do I have a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2442 I'd like to close public discussion on ordinance 2442 second second sorry yes donlin yes fiser yes Terry yes napan yes uh action on ordinance 2442 I'd like to adopt ordinance 2442 and Lish according to law second second aera yes donlin yes fer yes Terry yes nean yes ordinance passes ordinance 2443 which is an ordinance amending chapter 5 of the revised General ordinances of the township of ocean 1965 entitled licenses summon open public discussion on ordinance 2443 like to open public discussion on ordinance 2443 second second roll call yes donin yes fish sure yes Terry yes neany yes anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2443 please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record ER can I speak from here sure I don't want to have to get up there um all right so um I'm going to let the others speak about the health and safety challenges um regarding the uh sale of marijuana in Ocean Township um I'll concede the vote is probably going to passay us uh but I would like to discuss the process on how we got here uh first I'm not against anyone using marijuana that's a personal choice every person has to make their own that's fine as far as having access to it residents can literally go across the street to Neptune and get it they go 2.6 miles down the road to eaten toown and get it um if they desire again their choice Heck if they want they can even uh have it delivered to their homes so access is not an issue um since I've served on the council uh the last night n years we've um unfortunately taken the approach of fire aim ready um we don't always plan thoroughly and tend to jump the gun on a number of important votes um I think marijuana could be added to that list and I hope it's not uh in my opinion this is a quality of life issue uh a little history the mayor talked about it I'm going to I think clarify it a little uh over five years ago the Town Council passed an ordinance Banning any marijuana establishments in town that included cultivation manufacturing distribution and Retail among others we received widespread appreciation from the town at that time when we did ban it oops excuse me sorry uh the council while Chris was mayor uh while Chris Sano was serving as mayor on a 3-2 vote passed an ordinance permitting the facilities um for cultivation manufacturing distribution but not retail uh the mayor and I had voted no primarily due to the vote of the Ocean Township Human Services Council our drug and alcohol Alliance which is the local experts that we lean on for advisory advise from for the Town Council uh we did not want to see uh who they did not want to see any marijuana facilities in town Human Services Council once again reaffirmed that position and voted unanimously not to have marijuana in town uh now the fellow council members are looking to in my opinion Rush the ordinance through to allow for a retail sale of recreational marijuana in town why are we doing it in December at the least attended meeting of the year um I'm going to say if I didn't post it on social media I don't know how many people would have even known this uh ordinance was being ISS uh voted on tonight or introduced uh two weeks or last month um so the ordinance title doesn't even say marijuana in it um and we fixed that it just says licenses so again even if you were reading the agenda and looking at the title you may have not known it was coming up so if I could ask uh to have let me go back so if I asked if I could have individuals come to do presentations um on the health benefits the negative effects and there's pros and cons I get it there's two sides to this um we weren't going to have presentations uh we've had presentations on deer management where the council jumped on the opportunity to have experts come in here speaking pro and con um but that wasn't going to be allowed for marijuana I don't know why uh we had a packed house for that meeting we might have been able to have a packed house for this if it's that important the residents may not think so um I don't know it could have been politically expedient to do it for the deer maybe not for the marijuana I would question what's more important the lives of humans or the life of deers deer um while we're on the topic of deer the township did conduct a referendum to determine if the best way to handle the deer issue in town um the uh mayor will tell you that the state already conducted a referendum which he already did um that could we we could extrapolate the results to determine how the Ocean Township residents voted I got to correct you on that Mr Mayor so that referendum took place November 30th of 2020 the question that was asked on the referendum do you approve amending the Constitution to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called cannabis only adults at least 21 years of age could use cannabis the state commission created to oversee the state's medical cannabis program would also oversee the new personal use cannabis Market cannabis products would be subject to the state sales tax if authorized by the legislature municipality may pass a local ordinance to charge a local tax on cannabis products a yes vote to support this constitutional amendment to legalize The Possession and use of marijuana for persons ages 21 and older and legalize the cultivation processing and sale of retail marijuana nowhere does that referendum ask anybody in the state or especially in the town of ocean whether or not they approve the sale of marijuana in this town they may want it to make it legal but they did not say that they wanted to have a sale of marijuana in town um I'd like to take so at this point I'd like to actually make a motion to withdraw this uh ordinance from the agenda until we've had such time where the res residents can speak their voice and that we can have a referendum for the sale of recreation marijuana in town may I ask for a second anticipating that I wasn't going to get any uh I will move on uh okay let's talk about the financial side of the ordinance uh the mayor has mentioned that um it will increase revenue and I concede it will I don't know how much uh but it will definitely increase the revenue in town but the question would be at what cost I asked the town manager a couple of weeks ago to gather information on the sales from Neptune minutes I don't get five minutes they do I don't we're not John we are not doing that we're not almost done John we are not doing that Neptune generated right around a million dollars eating town approximately 326,000 over a 12-month period this is based on the collection of a 2% 2% from the gross revenue I believe the mayor has said that ocean would also be able to generate a million in extra Revenue I'm going to question that while the actual numberers anybody's guess don't let the numbers fool you $100,000 in additional Revenue equates to about a $10 less in your average home to the average homeowner in tax savings while any savings is good given the state of the economy one has to ask if 10 20 or even $330 less per year is worth it that again should be up to the residents to decide not the council right now and a form of a referendum the state recently cut this is as recently as yesterday the state recently cut the cost to enroll in the medical marijuana program by 80% why because the residents are moving to recreational marijuana shocking I don't know how all those six PE sick people magically got healed but the marijuana medical marijuana is not being used as much but take it to the next step it's all about supply and demand yes the sale of recreational marijuana in New Jersey is growing at about 10% increase each quarter but the executive director of the state of New Jersey cannabis Regulatory Commission Jeff Brown just last night on Spotlight news said that as the market develops and there is more competition prices are going to drop that means revenues will drop and so will the amount of money Ocean Township we see even our neighbors in Pennsylvania get an ounce of marijuana at $18 an ounce compared to New Jersey at 42 again Mr Brown stated with more competition prices are going to drop the market will require the state to lower their prices these numbers represent over a 200% difference in the cost of an ounce of marijuana between New Jersey and Pennsylvania that means the possible reduction of 200% in tax revenue right now the cost of an ounce of recreational marijuana is $300 but we cannot base our projections on that number since again it's only going to go down almost done I will end this while five minutes ago easy I will end this while standing while attending a session for government leaders at the league of municipalities a few weeks ago in Atlantic City I was told that prior to voting on any ordinances Town should be considering the following topics the governing body should host a community meeting to gain residential support we did it for deer why not marijuana the planning board should develop a plan first before the council takes a vote yes we updated our master plan and it does include a fermentation District but there is a lot more that goes into the sale of marijuana than is outlined in the master plan why are we skipping that step what is the specific use of the funds that we're going to be collecting do we have a plan will any of it be used for education of residents will we permit drive-throughs did you know you could drive through and get marijuana I had no idea it's technically legal in the state are we going to allow that right now we're approving one license will the council agree to limit it so that we uh will not increase it Beyond one all right I'm done um I do have somebody that is going to that Jesse's going to call well they can wait cuz I'm going to say a few words now as for this ordinance being rushed far from it the ordinance was not rushed couldn't be rushed marijuana discussions have been in place for many many years 2019 we did our own referendum we did our own public question as a relates to medical marijuana and it passed that was for the sale now like I said earlier it passed in the state of New Jersey in the county of Mammoth with 82% of the people in the municipality voting 65% voted in favor of adult use use not sale 35 I let you speak I didn't interrupt you so now you'll let me speak thank you yes we do pack a room for cats and deer there's not a doubt in my mind that if we were to put it out for the deer we would pack it up again this is no different than 1933 when we had prohibition with liquor my grandfather was one of the first liquor license holders in the city of Asberry Park we are in prohibition right now and we're getting out of it it's no different this is a new Revenue stream the residents in the O in the township of ocean have voted clearly in favor of it so not only do the residents agree with it but there's also the potential and I'm not saying any numbers right now but there are a couple of people out here that will give you numbers there is the potential of a significant Revenue stream for the township devotion I have asked this Council back in July councilman a chera included where is your additional Revenue going to come from when we're short on the road program and we have contractual obligations to our police Public Works and everybody else that works in town I need an additional Revenue stream this is one way to get an additional Revenue stream I asked councilman a chair to come up with his idea and there was not one given that's not true I gave you you gave me deal in 35 but that is a year that is a property tax 3 600 an additional stream that was coming online anyway Rob 600,000 a year it's an additional stream of Revenue and it's approximately $100 million over there with 2 million in taxables okay that's how that works 20% of the 2 million is $400,000 for the town the rest of it goes to the school and the other areas that we have that's all I'm going to say right now so we will open this up for public discussion yes sir state your name and address for the record please thank you is mat I live at 38 Tor uh in Ocean Township I'm I'm a resident I didn't really prepare anything to say here but based on what's being talked about I did want to get up and speak I was uh last year awarded a uh social Equity uh Canabis dispensary license and I've been struggling to find a location to to open it um my goal is to open something that's safe and well regulated I want to be part of the the positive end of this industry I want to eliminate the black market which is still out there because there are still very few candidat dispensaries in the area um to speak to the revenue will drop over time it will when competition comes in I think as a Township our competition is the other townships that are opening up their dispensaries and they're getting their revenue stream from that um you know I'm I'm very excited to to hear that you guys are considering doing this I would be more than happy to give my 2% um and really I had emailed uh all of you guys earlier this month um you know I would even be someone who would want to you know being living in town first of all I don't want the big companies to come in I wanted to go to a small business but I would very much be willing to get involved in any other way be it with some kind of dare program or whatever as you know an owner of this to you know distinguish the difference between marijuana and other drugs and you know not for nothing but we sell alcohol in town and alcohol takes more lives uh is more dangerous causes more problems for people so I just wanted to be heard on that thank you thank you anyone wishing anyone else wishing to be heard like we're always changing the a good pointf black mark I too many cookies yeah help I was gonna stretch my mic want him to come up here and talk Tom if he talks from here I don't how you going give me a single text me Tom if I give him the mic from up here will he be able to see him yeah cuz you can see us we can plug the mic into the floor you want he can use mine Jess make sure I'm putting them in the right way too don't like a SW looking at you look at me could you please check and make sure I can put my glasses on it to I got my glasses they're in the right way no they're not that way that's what like that this one's in okay she did she first sorry it's all right church it's supposed to happen to no oh there it goes Spring Concert what's the name the guitar but Richard Richard 175 South Street eaten toown Richie you can go up close to the mic if you can thanks right here yeah okay good um a little bit about me um you know I'm in hydroponic Master grower indoor cannabis uh I was one of the one I was the first retail cannabis uh CBD hemp store in Mammoth County in the eat toown mall I had a retail shop in there I run a brand now um since 2018 we were in there and then when Co came it got shut down so we've been doing everything on e-commerce I've been living out in Cali uh before that growing under prop 215 um a little bit about cannabis I don't know if you know but in about 1991 there is a major Discovery called an endogenous cannabinoid system and it's within our body and we have a CB1 and a CB2 receptor within our body and that's what B the cannaboids in the plant and that's what makes it work on us uh THC as a cannaboid so when you smoke it and there's THC in it it binds with our endogeneous cannaboid system and it get you high CBG is also a cannaboid so is CBD so that's why when you when you smoke CBD it doesn't get you high it's non psychoactive but it helps you it numbs you it takes away pain takes away anxiety and stuff like that so that's that's the reason why back in the day it was treated for over 2,000 medic medical purposes but nobody knew why now 1991 a scientist doctor discovered the canono endogeneous system within our body so that's the uh the reason why it works on us that's you know that's the whole thing about it me I own a micro license I own a cultivation micro license I own a retail license and a manufacturing license I've been in this industry for 30 years I've been arrested I've got caught with 16 lbs of cannabis I've been you know I've been in a lot of you know a lot of trouble because of the plant part of this whole reason of giving the legality of it is to give back to communities and people that are social Equity applicants that actually were affected on this plant um I'm a big advocate for it I I actually live for it I'm in the culture I breed it I have plants and genetics back in Cali I'm trying to get out here and breed things for people that can't sleep that have pain that you know insomnia there's a lot of uh ailments people have that this plant can help and my main thing right now to try to open up basically like a micro Brewery but for cannabis I want to be able to grow it and sell it all within the 2500 square feet I can sell out of a retail shop and I don't want to just get people high I want to help people more than anything it's not just about money for me it's about helping people and um I think you guys should really consider that because this is a miraculous plant and we have a god-given thing in our body called the endogenous cannaboid system that works with only this plant so it's you know it has a lot that can help people in this world and I'm somebody that can actually bring it to life and really help people not just make money but on top of that you will be making a lot of money and revenue with the right product I want to do something that's craft and it's going to sell for a lot more than what's selling in these other dispensaries it's just like the the beer right now you go buy a craft beer from a brewery it's more than your Coors Lights and your mobes and your everything else same thing with the Cannabis that I grow it's topnotch it's going to get a premium and it's going to help a lot of people uh you know like I'm just to let something out I'm breeding something right now that will put you to sleep CBN is another canabo it puts you to sleep so when you have a strain that's a high high breed CBN strain with a little THC in it it's going to help people that have insomnia can't sleep and that's stuff like that I can't even talk about but there's other things for other ailments that people have tumors and Cancers and stuff like that that can help help people a lot so don't just think about of getting people high because it's really not just about that this plant is a miraculous Plan and there's a lot to give and a lot to help people with so that's uh that's what I'd like to say I'm I'm a resident out here I've been here my whole life and I'd like to open up a micro retail shop with my licenses I've sat with the mayor back in February in his office he invited me I showed him my license he's seen my brand it's a very high-end CBD brand so I treat my cannabis brand the same way as I would treat my CBD brand on a very high end and uh that's all I have to say if anybody has any questions let me know thank you thank you Richie thank you anyone else wishing to be heard we just have to push that little red button right there on top you two are much younger than I am um so I I know many of you uh many is Beth bean stola I grew up here in Ocean Township with my six younger brothers and sisters uh never in million years and I think that um that 12 years ago I would be starting a huge cannabis company um initially it was really just an investment for me I was looking at uh is it working trouble uh I also have six six children so uh ranging in the ages uh from 27 to 16 so um certainly always have been very concerned about um you know the Ed with children uh this is Tanisha Victor she's worked with me from the very beginning and N know Ching uh we uh wanted to talk to Ocean Township was very important to me uh we all grew up here my family is pretty well known my father was on the board of education for many years and uh my parents still live here um one of the things that I think uh I I I I brought it to my own attention today thinking about these smoke shops that are all over Ocean Township and all over a lot of our communities that are selling things like Delta h Delta 9 these are uh hemp derived products that are actually uh many times get you more high and are not they're not tested they are not taxed so Ocean Township currently has five smoke shops that I decided to secet shop today before I came here um and I do have a bag of products that does smell a little bit under my seat there um and and we we bring them up um but these are Delta 8 Delta 9 products I was not asked for identification when when I bought these items and uh I went to three different shops and then I found this one miniart too which is um in a very well-trafficked um shopping center here um and Nina would you mind just grabbing the the bag because I I'd love to just show show you guys the the product that are out there that are unregulated that are currently being sold in Ocean Township uh so I I'll probably just give it to you mayor just just so that you could samples this is wow yeah this stuff's being sold in town right now it is being sold in town it's being sold on Route 35 mostly being sold in village there were a couple of additional spots so but again uh I did walk into one and I said do you sell weed and they said yeah what kind do you want so um you know I'm I'm part of a national group so uh we we ran a public company um that uh we ran more than a hundred stores we ran 24 cultivations and 18 manufacturing facilities at one time I am a speaker nationally um as an expert witness in marijuana and I want to see Sun RA in Ocean Township I absolutely hate seeing Neptune and eaten Town eating ocean Township's lunch as far as tax dollars and uh apparently based on that they're eating our own lunch yeah well I only bought a few items and you can see that it's uh it's quite a bit it's quite a bit um T meisha absolutely uh I live in NEP so I'm local I grew up in my S Branch I went to Shore Regional Liv in this area my entire life attends intermediate she's been in the school system since she was in elementary school um so you know I have Ved interest in this community as well and I've seen you know a lot of people obviously to to the point of some of the individual came up before uh their lives ruined by this plant and I think it's finally a chance to your point um to kind of vindicate some of that here and uh I think that there's great benefit that can come to the town from a tax perspective from Community perspective um you know when you're a Canabis operator in town there's a ton of community initiatives and things that you uh poured yourself into and that's always been specialty of ours uh We've invested well over a million dollars over our career into the communities that we've operated in uh aside from whatever tax revenues would come from uh the business and I think that's something to consider uh when you are uh considering choosing a partner for your town and uh things of that nature I think that it's very important that you are not just in the community but you are of it thank you did you want talk I just want to add to it um well the education is what I told this latest that is very important for people to um understand what we do and um what is it really going on inside those stores if you let us do the right way this won't happen can you imagine underage kids going in any shops and smoke shops they buy this it's more dangerous I can't even explain what's going to happen you know and letting us do this right way I think it's the right way to go and Ocean Township um Community 82% you mentioned wants this so why not let us do it the right way what one more thing I would like to add just about these products is that there are a number of Articles and you can just Google it um that uh there has been secret shopping in South Jersey in particular in the Philly area they did it um there were pesticides um there was mold um and fentol in in these items sold in and I I also wanted to let you know that um many of these products are sold in so I only went to a few of the shop that I today Beth you can give these to Rob outside later on okay Rob I'll just I'll be waiting for your outside thank you ladies anyone else wishing to be heard good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Andrea zapi I'm uh 131 coolage drive to Brick I am the prevention director for the New Jersey prevention Network we are a public health agency that provides training technical assistance and support to the addictions field throughout the state of New Jersey um I am also a council woman in Brick Township so tonight I'm going to kind of put aside my njpn hat a little bit um and talk to you official to elect official now I also brought some stuff with me not anywhere near as fun and cool NJ Pian has produced a a a book a toolkit for municipal leaders just to if those considering what you're consider considering tonight whatever regardless of what decision you make there are some Public Health suggestions to take into consideration in order to focus on protecting your residents and I will leave them with your thank you welcome so councilman Tera mayor you kind of took some of my best stuff so I'm really going to be brief tonight you read the councilman you read the the ballot question so I'm not going to repeat that but there was a lot in the ballot question that wasn't asked njpn last year conducted an Eagleton poll with a representative sample of New Jersey residents adult adults 18 and up among the questions asked was for each of the following locations please tell me if you feel smoking cannabis should be allowed there 66% said no to beaches 63% said no to Parks 61% said no to college campuses 71% said no to public places in general these results very closely mirror the percentages by which the ballot question pass right and it suggests that while most people believe that cannabis should be legal for adults 21 and up to use they don't want to see it everywhere they go and they don't want to smell it everywhere they go so I know that that we talked about the tax revenue and it's a big consideration I'm an elected official too okay but competition is an issue right now there's only 21 retail dispensaries open in the state of New Jersey however through October the CRC has issued a total of 87 more annual retail licenses and another 768 annual conditional licenses which means that any one of those 768 they want they they find a location they get their paperwork in order they go right to the top of the list for consideration so when in the next few years we're looking at an awful lot of uh competition in the Cannabis Market I won't talk about the price per ounce we've already covered that I do want to talk a little bit about the league of municipalities I don't know how many of you attended those League sessions they were very very enlightening if you were there you heard elected officials from other other towns that have allowed retail complaining about illegal pop-up shops mobile Bud Vans unlicensed retailers gifting cannabis effectively by allowing retail cannabis in those towns these officials sent a message that their town was open for business and now they're stuck trying to re in these illegal operators there was no relief or suggestions given for for those officials that raised this concern during those sessions there was also a session for tax collectors and tax assessors that I attended and you may have heard the presenter talk about the ways in which some cannabis businesses are already trying to gain the system and avoid paying the taxes prescribed under the law to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars we're only a year and a half into this program in New Jersey and it's already the wild west I would urge you to visit the crc's web page under cannabis businesses to see the violations among the license holders listed just since adult use the adult use program launched in April 2022 these are multi-state operators who theoretically should know better and finally I'd like to leave you with this because we've heard about alcohol a couple times tonight the rationale for legal and cannabis for adult legalizing cannabis for adult use was that a well-regulated market would provide a safe product supply for adults while keeping it away from youth well alcohol and tobacco are two other well-regulated markets you have an example of that tonight with the products that they've in they're being sold in smoke shops in gas stations in convenience stores and they're sort of being in this gray area because they're supposedly h d we have alcohol and tobacco two well regulated markets and yet we haven't been able to successfully keep them out of the hands of Youth why would we think the Cannabis industry could do any better thank you for your time thank you councilwoman wow good timing sheain she practi rob you yeah you want to anyone else wishing to be heard she's dialing somebody in John why don't we have uh you want to come up while she's waiting to get them on the line it's up to you oh it's raining now okay it's John hi John hold on one moment I'm putting you on speaker phone okay see if we can hear John can you hear us hello there there you go hear you can you hear can everybody hear John okay go ahead John you're on I'm not going to do an introduction we're g to make it quick okay my name is John davio I am the director of state and local Affairs for the uh for smart approaches to marijuana and I just thought I'd waigh a little bit uh about the uh idea of uh getting out of your op out your marijuana commercial sales op out a couple of things that I wanted to mention first of all uh a couple month ago the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City came out with a study on the economic benefits and social costs of legalizing marijuana uh selling it commercially what they found is is that after legalization average state income not it's the state level right grew by 3% house prices by 6% and population by 2% however some theuse disorders increased by 177% chronic homelessness increased by 35% and arrests increased by 133% they also found this study also found that estimated economic benefits appear to be much larger for States Who legalized earlier suggesting that kind of first mover advantage and so I know you've got a couple of pot shups on either side of the township so the economic benefits you may be like maybe a lot less than you would like or would be hoping for and let's talk a little about tax revenue in Most states tax revenues from marijuana revenue is far less than even 1% California uh is at 2% Colorado is about the highest at almost 8% so still less than 1% Alaska was1 2% these revenues are really small compared to the entire state budget and when you look at your own Township budget of almost 38 million even if you did realize $500,000 in Revenue which I'm really not sure is quite possible it's about the same as the last about 1.3% Point excuse me 0.13% just over a tenth of a percent of your Township budget when we get to what the revenue versus reality in California they promised about a billion dollars in Revenue they estimated about uh about a little over 200 million about 250 million in 2017 2018 and got 92% less than they promised they got uh estimating almost 800 million the next year out about 350 million they've got a lot less got the revenues usually do not make projections and in the mid of that the elicit Market continues to get worse it's not better in States like California 70 80% of marijuana sold in legal pot shops has been grown illegally and if anybody's following the Wall Street Journal you saw a recent article about how uh trines back illegal growths are emerging across the country from the Mexico to main Oklahoma has an incredible proc with over thousand illegal Chinese grows in their state and just moving on tripa opposed the legalization of marijuana because of the inherent Traffic Safety risks and it's very difficult in R legislation that protects public and treats drivers fairly because there's no good roadside test to test for and know one is very different than alcohols F soluble as opposed to alcohol which is water soluble making it very hard have accurate No for if we look just for a few minutes at public health impact we know now that about one in three people who use marijuana become addicted have a marijuana use disorder and the Adolescent brain specially susceptable IQ L academic po academic performance and mental health issues such as such as depression anxiety even psychosis are results of that we see that uh High School seniors over a third of high school seniors reported using marijuana in the last year about one in five high school sophomores and 8% of eighth graders are using this High potency marijuana we see that John John we got to cut you it's five uh the five minute limit if you want to just wrap up for 30 seconds I'll just wrap up one of the things we're talking about is this High potency marijuana we're working on a report in New Jersey where about 84 uh of the ni of the marijuana ba products T poy is 84% which is about 10 times higher than it was even just 30 years ago we're also seeing from that report that most stores are not acting for IV not acting for an age requirement so we've got a real problem with both the industry trying to sell theat and of course the impacts on kids and the tax revenues aren't Li thank you John thanks John you're welcome we could bring the you want us to bring the mic closer to you you can take your time see that don't rush up there Rich please take your time we got all night do you want to sit down and I had stand up I can't can't sit this is our former deputy mayor rich long okay clock didn't start right Kelly see that you already started the clock all right your time's up rich sorry good evening I'm rich long I live at 1308 Logan Road in the W Master section of Ocean Township there's been discussion tonight about the amount of THC that's in the average marijuana cigarette I want to give you some statistics I hope you'll bear with me but I hope you think a lot about what I'm saying tonight I hope you really focus on it you know I think some people here have their minds made up I hope you be a little more openminded at least consider what I'm having to say the amount of THC the part of marijuana that makes a person High has gone from 2% in the 1970s to 25 to 30% today okay this is not the marijuana of Jerry Garcia The Grateful Dead other guys that uh were famous for smoking reefer the stronger potency of marijuana has met the frequent use of marijuana head on so it's stronger and people are more frequently using it there are not more casual users of the drugs since it was legalized instead there are more frequent users and the frequency of use has exploded in 2006 for example about 3 million Americans stated that they used marijuana at least 300 times a year by 2017 the number grew to 8 million Americans that were using marijuana at least 300 times a year this explosion in use coupled with the potency of the pot that's being smoked has led to a medical term called somebody else referenced it before cannabis use disorder but nobody ever talks about it well you may think cannabis use disorder so what let me answer your question so what as more people get more loaded on Reaper because of heavy use the number of people with cannabis use disorder suffer from more occurrences of paranoia of schizophrenia more psycho episodes of course as more frequent users experience paranoia and schizophrenia more violence occurs frequent users are not more relaxed they are not calmer they are not more chill not true they are more violent before recreational marijuana took hold in 2014 Advocates promised that legalization would lead to a reduction in violent crime this prediction proved to be totally false totally false indeed the first four states to legalize marijuana Alaska Colorado Oregon and Washington witnessed marked increases in aggravated assaults and murder sadly many government leaders ignore the risks of marijuana use sadly many government leaders are totally convinced that the legalization of pot will produce great profits great revenue streams for states or for towns this is untrue it is untrue because marijuana revenues are according to a very recent study from a very reputable group marijuana potential revenues are relying on consumer Behavior consumer behavior when it comes to marijuana buying is not predictable and it is not predictable because one many users already get their supply of weed from the black market which offers much lower prices to Consumers legalization of marijuana has not reduced the black market it has increased the black market and this is true in every state in the country that legalized marijuana I don't I think some of you realize that there are more people in back alley selling marijuana than there was be before marijuana was legalized many users who buy on the legitimate Market already have an allegiance to A supplier in a neighboring Town Neptune Township and eaten town already have loyal consumers and then there is how much tax should be used in uh for pot the taxing situation for pot is so difficult to predict that Nevada California and Colorado have been forced to change their tax collection policies when it comes to marijuana sales I have another thing that I'd like to talk to you about it has to do with the fact that I'm from Ocean Township I'll try to wrap it up I I came here at thanks to my girlfriend because I just recently had surgery to replace my left hip one of the things that makes me proud uh about uh about being raised in Ocean Township comes when people from other communities tell me something positive about our community of gracious living a comment like your police officers are really polite if you're stopped by an officer you're treated like a human being not a suspected criminal a comment like your Recreation programs are great there's so many activities for so many of your residents a comment like ocean schools are terrific caring teachers caring administrators caring coaches a comment like Ocean Township as was referenced earlier by our mayor has without a doubt the greatest CommunityWide events and at least the state of New Jersey I prefer to hear comments like those and not yeah Ocean Township they got pot shops right you are adults you have opinions take the focus off what you think take the focus off what you think and think of the word emblem you see that right there that's what Mr hazelrig designed for Ocean Township that's an emblem that's emblematic of Ocean Township kids from all ages who call Ocean Township their home are sent a message what message are you as the leaders of this great Community sending to our young people what emblem do you want for Ocean Township what do you want Ocean Township to be noted for do you want Ocean Township to be noted for Kenny picket a rising star NFL quarterback I do do you want ocean to be noted as the hometown of Mike yand the person who gained the rights to every Batman movie ever made and every Batman movie that will ever be made I went to school with him right here in Ocean Township the hometown of Abby Taylor who co-created PAB bows or do you want to send a message to young people that Ocean Township is like every other Shore Community pots available here edible marijuana you could get it here let's get high in Ocean Rich we got to cut it back if you can we've already gone over a few minutes please folks I humbly ask you to consider what I have said to you tonight about the horrible dangers of marijuana and the emblem you wish to bestow upon this town I love this town thank you thank you Rich anyone else wishing to be heard please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record my name is GI Rosano I live at 7 Crossing in Red Bank um I know I know Jesse I used to actually work here um in the Court's office and the tax office so very familiar with Ocean Township I work now for the prevention Coalition of Mammoth County we're located in Eaton toown we just transferred we were in West Long Branch so some of the things we do are provide education around all types of substance use um and so a lot of things have been talking about so I don't want to Super reiterate a lot of the things for you today I know we're short on time and I want to be mindful of all your time tonight but I do want to just make the emphasis for youth um I do a lot of Youth programming so I run one of the youth diversion programs the only one that we actually have here in mommoth County um and so with that and the law enforcement and the things that come along with legalized marijuana in general um there has been a lot of confusion of how we go about um taking care of our youth that are using um the percentage of school drug and alcohol policy violations of marijuana in 2021 were 63% I'm getting more and more calls from school sacks um school resource officers Law Enforcement Officers saying that we have youth that we can't refer as a Staal house adjustment um but they need resources um because of the usage we have called for usages in schools specifically from Edibles and marijuana um through vape pens and things of that nature so we are able to provide that programming and through that we get a lot of information and again across all towns we see one youth at least from every town really um but especially in these towns that have adopted these ordinances and these policies we're seeing that youth are saying well it's in my house it is unregulated people are buying it it's legal for my parents to buy into my house and I can reach it and that's how I'm getting it or I'm getting it from a friend or someone's buying it again very similar to what we're seeing with use usage of of alcohol right so we're talking about again that access we are now giving to the youth is something just to be mindful of um again kind of reiterating a big part of this is the education and the planning portion of this what whatever decision you make as a council today um it's really really important because once you open up that can of worms it kind of just goes everywhere and we learned today through a couple of people that were able to speak that we see with tobacco retailer and enforcement it's not the strongest that we have seen to dat right you saw all those goodies um that people are able to get their hands on this is across the county that we are seeing this and it's only getting stronger in those counties that have um adopted ordinances of marijuana so strongly urge to see I know the New Jersey prevention Network provided you with a municipal planning guide going over that before any any action is taken because again once that is opened it kind of is a lot um a lot of people coming to a lot of opportunity coming to the town but um with that said if it's not enforced regulated um understanding where those funds can go back to the community and education is great but understanding that are we going to provide that education for prevention me measures for our youth understand the consequences to usage not only to youth but also to adults um there's a program that has been given in a couple of schools about like it's called funny as it may sound not your mom is marijuana um because of the potency differences that we are seeing um adults and parents specifically are not understanding the educational portion of what marijuana looks like now and cannabis looks like now to what they were seeing when they were younger um the difference between that is striking um so people are really getting a big usage of that there's a large misconception with youth as well that um when I talked to them they said that they they started or other people they know have started due to anxiety or mental health issues that they are facing and they're self- coping um right they're deciding for themselves that this is how it happens when we actually know the facts and studies show that the risk of mental health issues increase um with usage for anxiety depression and psychosis in all of these cases and especially highly for youth um so we're seeing people that are self-medicated and not understanding the education the studies the everything that comes with that we do know medical marijuana exists and there are things that people are doing properly and there's no dick to that but we want to make sure that everyone is educated on the topic of what this is and what this works for um so having things done in a proper matter is fantastic but if people do not understand the risk that they are taking it becomes another problem another thing that I just want to mention as well is the consequences of driving under the influence of marijuana that becomes another concern the things that go into that um when law enforcement officers stop that is an additional step that is being taken we work closely with um some of the Chiefs in the towns as well as law enforcement in our Coalition and that is not a simple stop that is not something that every officer is trained to do or deal with so that is an additional cost to make sure your officers are trained in that information I will wrap up and so I just wanted again have that emphasis and then I also wanted to provide my services as a coalition that we can also do surveys so I know we spoke a little bit about the vague nature nature of the um question on the ballot we can provide you a free survey that we are able to give to your town and also calculate ourselves that will allow you to ask your town and your resident specific questions on if this is something that they would like in their town and if they understand the consequences or like more education on the topic itself so we just wanted to add that as a resource to all of you and thank you so much for your time can I ask a point of clarification because you you mentioned um you've noticed an increase have you looked at specific towns that have like eaten Town versus ocean versus Neptune an increase of specific like problematic Behavior or things um so we work with alliances so every town has the opportunity to have a drug prevention Alliance um Neptune is one of those towns that has an alliance um so we've worked closely with them on understanding kind of the consequences we also work in schools so we are privileged to um have the opportunity to go into Neptune schools and ask these questions and educate youth on the topic as well as work with the adult Alliance um to do these take polls and information as well which is something we offer to every town so that is something that we can do here as well um if given the opportunity to of course okay great thank you thank you thank you thank you anyone else wishing to be heard senior and none do I have a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2443 I'll make a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2443 second second roll call aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes action on ordinance 2443 I'd like to move to adopt ordinance 2443 and publish according to law second I'll second roll call aera no Fisher yes donlin yes Terry no neany before I vote um I just want to make a quick comment that yes very controversial and yes um I heard everybody's points and I Know Rich personally I know his background I know what he has had to deal with so I'm very empathetic to what he had to live with however I too grew up with that in my household with two brothers and I watched one of them spiral out of control the other one moved away but I never blamed cannabis for it I blamed the people my brother was hanging around that got him hooked on other stuff that ultimately took his life it wasn't the Cannabis I studied up on this I looked at it I pulled a lot of people this was really a thought process that wasn't done haphazardly so therefore I am going to vote Yes on this ordinance because I think that at this point point it's the right thing to do yes ordinance passes ordinance 244 what oh um did ordinance passes ordinance 2444 and ordinance amending chapter 21 of the comprehensive Land Development ordinance of the township of ocean can someone open public discussion on ordinance 2444 I'd like to open public discussion on ordinance 2444 second second aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes uh anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2444 please step up to the microphone state your name and address seeing here none do I have a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2444 I'd like to make a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2444 second second roll call aera yes donlin yes fer yes Terry yesan yes action on ordinance 2444 I'd like to move to adopt ordinance 2444 and published according to law second second roll call aera yes donlin yes fer yes Terry yes nean yes ordinance passes ordinance 2445 and ordinance amend and supplementing chapter 14 of the revised General ordinances of the township of ocean 1965 entitled swimming pools someone please open public discussion on ordinance 2445 I'd like to open public discussion on ordinance 2445 second second roll call aera yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yesan yes anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2445 please step up to the microphone state your name and address hi Trisha Donovan 161 Delaware Avenue I did no due diligence on this ordinance can you just give us a little you know a little syis of what this is about okay it's increasing the fees at the pool yeah no step back no no no it's increasing the fees at this this Republic thank anyone else wishing to be heard on ordinance 2445 seeing here none do I have a motion to close this public discussion on ordinance 24 4 I'd like to close public discussion on ordinance 2445 second second roll call aera yes donin yes fer yes Terry yesan yes uh action on ordinance 2445 I'd like to move to adopt ordinance 2445 and publish according to law second second roll call aera yes dunlin yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes ordinance 2445 passes ordinance 2446 which is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter for uh 16 of the revised General ordinances of the T of ocean 1965 entitled parks and playgrounds someone open public discussion on ordinance 2446 like to open public discussion on ordinance 2446 second second roll call aera yes dony yes fer yes Terry yesan yes anyone wishing to be heard on ordinance 2446 please step up to the microphone station name and address seeing he none can I have a motion to close public discussion on ordinance 2446 I'd like to close ordinance public discussion on ordinance 2446 and second roll caller yes donlin yes Fisher yes Terry yesan yes action on ordinance 2446 I'd like to move to adopt ordinance 2446 and publish according to law second second roll call aera yes Don yes fer yes Terry yes ABY yes uh ordinance 2446 passes introductions of ordinances starting with ordinance 2447 which is an ordinance amending chapter 2 of the revised General ordinances of the township motion 1965 entitled Administration do I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2447 I'd like to introduce ordinance 2447 second second roll call aera no Don oh I'm sorry no no okay I'm sorry I didn't hear you donin yes Fisher yes Terry yes naan yes uh that will have its public hearing on the 11th of January 2024 ordinance 2448 which is an ordinance amending chapter 2 Administration and chapter 7 Property Maintenance and housing of the revised General ordinances of the township Dev ocean 1965 someone please introduce ordinance 2448 I'd like to introduce ordinance 2448 second second roll call a chera yes donin yes Fisher yes ter yes yes that too will have its public hearing on January 11th 2024 ordinance 2449 which is an ordinance authorizing the sale of a deed of easement to the New Jersey Department of Transportation pursuant to the local lands and buildings law njsa 48 col 12-13 B1 uh someone introduce ordinance 2449 I about to introduce ordinance 2449 second second roll call aera yes Don Fisher yes yesy yes that too will have its public hearing on the 11 on January 11th 2024 and finally ordinance 2450 which is an ordinance authorizing the acceptance of a gift of real property someone please introduce ordinance 2450 I'd like to introduce ordinance 2450 second second roll call aera yes Don yes Fisher yes Terry yes yes uh that too will have its public hearing on January 11 11 2024 and that concludes our formal agenda do we have anyone wishing to be heard on anything gerain to the township votion you can step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record technically because it's the LA CH the name is Mike Zemo I live at 1101 Rosel Avenue uh I've been a resident here in Ocean Tanger for over 30 years between Oaker and monasa I I grew up in deal I was a year old when I was moved into the house I lived in and uh I've noticed the traffic has increasingly got out of control in the whole area around here uh I myself have had many close calls and one of them was right in front of my own driveway I was uh backing up to go into my driveway and a car came up the road and then went right between me and my driveway I stopped just in time otherwise he would have plowed into my bu uh it's increasingly getting dangerous out on the roads here uh the police I'm sure are doing what they can I think they could do more I think they could be out there in places when the traffic is at its Heights like uh 8:00 till like 10:30 in the morning and uh 3:00 till about 5:30 in the evening I live on Rosel Avenue and in the afternoon it's like a Raceway as they turn off Logan and turn on the Rosel Rosel is a straight strip to Mammoth Road no stops and there's no place for them to worry about stopping and when they turn that corner they're flying I was out there raking leaves today and there was a few cars that went past me while I was raking and the wind rushed up by me and uh it's like that every day and there's never police in the area uh i' I've been out there all week raking leaves I've seen one police car the whole week and he was following an nury Park Ambulance yesterday down Rosel avue that's the only time I see police it's it's a it's getting out of control and you made statement oh some months ago in the coaster about how you wanted to do something about the traffic I don't know if you've done anything because I haven't seen a difference in the traffic even now with that it's you know getting ready to go into winter months when a resident comes here and complains about their Road having too much traffic we always direct that to the chief of police and their traffic department so that they can look into that so now that your issues been brought forth we will bring that to the chief as well and he'll give that to the traffic department well now can you tell talk to him and try to get some kind of strategy going for the police to be a little more on the scene uh I I know they take breaks most of the time they're in POA park Colts field or anywhere that they can find a place to sort of pull off the road and not be seen but I think a a way to stop people from speeding would be if they took a break on a side street like where I am on Bloomfield Avenue it's a block in from the Logan Road onto Rosel and if they sat there with their lights going while they're on their break I'm sure people would slow down right away because they fear that they're going to get pulled over by the police but Mr Brown you can have that uh discussion with the chief certainly will May thank you I I think it's it's it's getting of control and before this this coming summer for the 24 season occurs was I I I think the traffic this past summer was the worst I've ever seen in this town I saw people blowing through red lights and everything this year like like they're not there I had an occasion just on Sunset Avenue today I was crossing over heading west and the cars would not not stop coming out even when we had the green light I had to go swerve around them and then around because they were just coming out in front of me they wouldn't stop and it there's never a policeman anywhere to be seen at the heights of the traffic and I I can't understand it I I mean I know they're out there but I never see them on my street maybe I'm the a low you know trouble area I don't know but it's it seems to me that something's got to be done soon thank you you thank you sir anyone else wishing to be heard on anything Germaine to the tent of devotion just inquiry yes sir state your name and address again please Matthew 38 Drive um when it comes to the to the retail cannabis location um one of the things that's needed for a conditional license is a resolution of support from the Town Council um and I have no idea how any of the processes work for here so is there some kind of resource or is someone that I uh can reach out to you can reach out to the township manager tomorrow okay I'll give you the information anyone else wishing to be heard Senor none before we make a motion to adjourn I'd like to wish everyone on behalf of the township Council to have a wonderful holiday season we look forward to seeing everybody again in 2024 enjoy be safe motion to adjourn motion second second roll call Aer yes Don yes Fisher yes Terry yes NE yes