all right just want to remind everybody that all of our Council Workshop meetings will be video audio tape roll call please mayor NE 10 here council member chair here fer here Harry here the notice requirements of the open public meetings act for this meeting have been satisfied and a copy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the coaster posted in town hall and filed in the office of the municipal clerk on December 14 2023 uh first it for discussion we're going to hit Greg with our projects various Township projects okay thank you um I have one item on my list that's changing out of all those in the last two weeks is the number 20 which is South Lincoln crosswalk on mic Road talk to the County engineer he uh they have no problem with the crosswalk the only negative to it is they do not allow solar operated crosswalks anymore the rapid flashing signs they they can't get replac with parts for really so now we have to hardwire so the cost went from probably $20,000 to $50,000 but the second piece of bad news to it is is they recommend not that they're going to enforce it but they heavily recommend that we use a third sign there a mass arm with a a flasher over the road which is going to add probably another 10 to 12,000 to the projects we're probably looking at 665,000 to put that crossb can you do the higher one without the other one no they're not no they want to because the pass it's really the the third one in the middle really works I've seen them they put they're starting to put them along Ocean Avenue in various towns and it's over the top it's almost like a traffic light as opposed to on side of the road and that's what I'm saying so you can't just do the over the top without the ones on the side no they have one that you can do that with but it's they I they call it a have a name for it it's like a or something but it actually has a it looks like the the like a route 18 sign it comes up with steel pipes on both sides and and they put two of them in the middle for each Direction those are the tune of $200,000 so they're they're just saying if you get this one over the middle of the road a little bit they would be okay with that and then they discussion with them they didn't say they would be they're they're recommending that third one but mostly because they don't want to get anybody hit it's pretty busy there yeah no I agree thoughts pretty expensive seems a lot of money yeah very expensive for you especially when put them in other places a lot cheaper with just dead signs and painting them they're probably less than a couple probably $2,000 for signs which is still an option yeah we could do that it's not as safe but you know maybe I thought maybe we start with that if it becomes a problem not that we want to get anybody hit but if it is in fact that busy and people are you know not paying attention to the people in the crosswalk and stopping then we can go to the rapid flashers and the overhead oh so we have an option yeah well I got I got to confirm that with the county but the other the only option we would have is to not put the rapid Flash engin in just a solid sign with no flashing lights but I don't know that they would approve that I didn't we didn't get to that part of the discussion you're willing to ask I mean I I listen I'm the one that they asked me to ask about it I'm not in favor of spending 60,000 50 40 yeah not for aing I'm that yeah and the only other thing it's just a normal procedure with if we did decide to go through with anything we do there we would have to enter an agreement with the county because they take those over since they're on their roads after we construct them whatever we put in there oh yeah but it would have to get approved by that so that's why I got to go back to them and ask them if we can put one in without the lights okay you know the problem with all these things is that I think you said it before you get fatigued by seeing all these things and it's sign pollution just too manyon people ignore it's the concept's great I get it but unfortunately it's like I saw some kid standing in front of one of these things the other day technically everybody's supposed to stop right yeah not technically by law by law and nobody was stopping you know and it's just I like looking like this kid you taking your life in your hands trying to cross deal Road at like Twilight it's not a good scenario plus if you don't look like you're a little aggressive everybody thinks you're just kind of standing there so they don't slow down which is bad well kind of would Rob there I mean sign's fine and yeah see how it goes but I'll ask them if they'll even let us do just the sign think so but I'll ask them thank you okay the next thing I wanted to talk about we talked about a little bit last night I wanted to bring the coverage things in for the lots and um I gave you a little packet handout there's four of them that I had done these were for all the residential zones and I did the R1 the R2 R4 and R5 and the first one it was just it's so ridiculous the amount of coverage that I did them both on the same same sheet for the R1 because if you look at it when I did this little sketch on a um a 10x10 lot and I'm sorry a 200 x 200 foot lot you end up getting a 16,000 foot lot a deck that's probably about 8,000 sare ft in a pool that's huge and I still only come up to less than the existing and allowed coverage in our proposed ordinance let alone is 75,000 in the old ordinance right so I I that kind of J mean 75% yeah the 45 that we're proposing is more than fine okay I think R4 was the only contentious One Last Time right uh probably quick I'm sorry what's the last column proposed ordinance proposed versus proposed ORD I got it thank you next one was the big sheets this is the R2 and these I just happen to had an existing application that we did about three three months ago this is right over here on running and if you look this is a 23,000 ft lock and the zone that requires 225 she has 68.6% coverage on that existing condition and I don't think you can add anything else to this house oh God got a tennis court they got a tennis court they got a huge pool they got a veranda in the back they got a I don't see the tennis cour they got the basketball basketball yeah they got a proposed and a fire pit so with the new ordinances that we're trying that we're looking at doing if you turn to the second page everything in pink would have to be eliminated or a variance or a variance to conform to the ordance but if you look what we're eliminating I mean it's the two Terraces and the porches on the front of the house which I don't think anybody would would really miss there's a the Terrace across the whole back of the house and you'd lose half of that and you would lose the basketball court and You' lose some of the deck around the pool which is huge so I think you know one of the things you look at in these when this seems to be an application that the amount of coverage on this proposed property they did it just to match what they could to Max it out because I'm sure if you went to the guy and said hey you can't have all these things they could have Whitted all these things down and still made it work did this get approved this is approved yes this was approved because of no variances on it this met the existing ordinance oh so he had no variances pulled for this yeah he's he was allowed to go to 75% coverage and he was at 68 and he was allowed to go 22% in the housing with 21.6 and he's got a 7200 foot house on a $23,000 23 sare 23,000 foot lot and a fountain and a fountain no grass no yeah but you know there's things that things like these can change because I mean it's nice to have a drivew that Enders from the side they're very difficult to get in out of on tight Lots like this there's no reason why a driveway couldn't come in the front so you would save probably about a th000 sare foot of payment right there so these are the kind of things these Builders are going to get into when we clamp down on the coverage they'll change their design they will reduce the coverage but they'll still make everything fit with a little less coverage right which is what we're looking for okay then the next one the R4 was the same thing it was kind of I couldn't plan together to get the 90% coverage so what I did is the first one it was um 24% was the house and I got up to 62% coverage for the current ordinance and then the proposed ordinance you can see is almost exactly the same thing it's 25% in the house you get a 5,000 foot lot which is huge on a 100 by 100 lot and you get 50% coverage with a large patio large pool and a raised patio and this would conform to what we're proposing right now and that's cuz the pool doesn't count correct the pool well in this case I did count the pool area just because I I didn't put sidewalks and stuff in but yeah the pool area does not count in the overall coverage what's the difference between the raised patio and the patio is it just I just added things because I wanted to show you the maximum amount of things they can put in here okay and and meet the coverage because no I don't think anybody would want to put all that across the back of their house but like I say if it's allowable people seem to be doing it so what are you giving up here you giving up you just made the pool patio a little bit smaller MH you put on a porch on on the other one y but you can see I mean at the first one it wasn't even maxed out and they could I see so you maxed it out there yeah I just maxed it out so I could you could see the 50% you still get a lot of ameni because you could instead of doing the double patio you could put a larger pool in mhm and then the last one the R5 was the same thing just that you couldn't Max it out on a small lot I couldn't get it past 48% when you look at there you got a 3400 ft house and then you got all back whole backyard is either Patio Pool or shed and I you really couldn't add much more coverage to that where the coverages really come out is in situations where the house is already in a Varian condition like it's too close to the road side yards are smaller than they're supposed to be that's when they're maxing out this coverage to get up to the 70 and 90% because the house is actually a in a spot it's not supposed to be leaves more area for other coverage which is kind of double dipping almost if you use an existing variance to get more air to put right other coverage in so what do you do about those really non-conforming houses like you know in one of mass and Ur there they're on almost like postage side stamps well those are the hardship lcks that those are the ones that have to go to they'll have to go to the they'll have to go to the Z board but I think you'll find is like what we've been seeing is most of people who are coming in for these hardship are not the people that live there yeah it's the people that are buying there gotcha you know cuz the people that live there that they know that's the house that's the size and they've lived with it for the number of years they've own that house mhm and the problem you'll see is the guy that wants to buy a house he can't afford a one acre lot so he'll buy a Halfacre lot and try to put all the amenities that can want a one acre lot on a Halfacre lot yeah so if somebody in your exam ex Le who buys in wanasa what has the tolerance been for the Zoning Board in granting the variances they Grant a lot of variances but what I've been seeing in applications at least the ones that come well most of them deg grading comes from me they're not they're not really adding a lot of things to it because they can pretty small Lots over there right but they're adding like a little addition are you know changing a patio from a 10 x 10 to a 10 x 20 what more usable so most things over there are you know functional type things that they're asking for improvements for there's just not somebody coming saying I want to put a pool deck across the whole backyard right are you finding that the neighbors are showing up to these meetings and challenging some of these I don't go to the meetings but I know that they're all being approved so if they are showing up and challenging the neighbors aren't really fighting what their neighbors are trying to do I got a question for Dave um so was when we approve this is there a way to let the Realtors know let the the zoning officers know but I guess more the realtor side of things so like hey I'm buying this house just want to make it clear this is what our ordinance is you know best way to communicate with them is through their Association yeah I mean we can communicate to the relative board just think it's smart because you know you know what happens you get excited you see a house oh we're buying it and then you're like oh yeah we can't do that addition I can't build that giant you know i' suggest we tell some of the builders too yeah just so they already know it's out there but just to tell them hey we're looking at doing this and then once that word gets out there they'll all come in yeah yeah as you know as I think we've all said before our mission is not to flood the zoning board with more applications it's just we want obviously we want to you know make the impervious coverage you know better and but we also don't want to destroy the you make their jobs harder either well I can I'm not 100% sure but I can tell you that most of the applications in the wamas area without the ordance change would probably go to the zoning board anyway because the lots are so small and not conforming this won't make much of a difference there the other ones you'll see some applications but if the ordinances followed those will stop very fast yeah once that work gets out and I I think it goes without saying we probably need to explain the rationale if they don't already know to the zoning board itself well Jim Higgins is the planner there he did the ordinance so once we get to that point I think we got to inform him that you got to set your board asign and explain to them that this is what the council's wants done now we pass ordinance and they have to adopt it also so right they'll be aware of it seems fair that's all I had the graphic does help yeah yeah you can kind of see especially the one with the like the big lot with all the pink and you can see you know there's still a lot left before and after and he slid in before yes he got very lucky yeah and he did two of them right next door to each other the same thing massive house yes any other question questions for Greg while he's here before we let him slip out that's all you're reporting on that's it everything else is the same that was his caveat I heard that so what have you been doing for two weeks shoveling no there was one there was one think I did I wrote the uh the little spur for the uh the put online I gave a Tracy for the than other than that everything else is pretty much status I mean the w was ongoing talk about that everything else is pretty much stand as call I do have something for you if I can jump in so it's been a pet peeve of mine since the day I started driving this town and I know it's County Road but the West Park Avenue in whale pond light is never it just doesn't seem like it's a smart light it's like you know 1970s I'm there's not a soul on the road and I'm stopped there is there any way we can reach out to the county and say hey let's bring us up to the 21st century you're pursuing that on 35 also right I think you had mentioned you were pursuing that for 35 smart light system no that that's a whole we're talking about a synchronized system oh okay not the smart the timing all the They are considered you know it's called smart lights but yeah it's synchronized okay sorry yeah yeah I'm sitting at the front of that light the other night there's not a soul on the road I'm like what am I doing kind like Main Street yeah they used to be not anym oh they don't work right no they think they all turn red and then they all turn GRE are all the lights in town more or less Main Street no you used to be able right well I think that's if there's traffic there a time for changes there's no traffic that's what those cords are it changes is that what those cords are for I thought those were counters but usually you see that it's cut out in the road there a little yeah just so the payment can move and do the hit the sensor all right but I I'll ask the county yeah I mean you know and the message on mmth Ro it'll explain why that line is in a weird spot and it's because of the five off the curve okay yeah that's what I gave the tracing we'll put in there tomorrow awesome okay yeah my neighbors question yeah I'm sure he's gonna call me again I he's very happy they're there just doesn't like the way they look I didn't want to I didn't want to put in that I had to do that because it was the county road but Dave you know what I did have one questions I don't know if I asked you I know I asked Dave so the bike lanes that we do have the the the uh painting of the bikes seem to be wearing out is that it it wears out over time with the flows going over it so that's why I kind of want to do these after winter well Mammoth was not Mammoth was but it was sunset we got usually what Happ the more snow you get like if you get five to six inches got to grind at it for get the snow off the road now they use that advanced system where it melts the snow so they don't have to grind on the road as much that helped a lot but I think we'll have to get into guys you got to stay away from the shoulder you know but that's this is a county road so that's the county yeah Mama fine but like Sunset and where else do I Sunset else we did Logan Logan's the worst actually yeah that's just it's probably been there six or seven years now has it been that long y oh okay I didn't realize it was that that was the first one we put in and we went down Sunset okay all right yeah so it's just they just wear out over time is that in your budget no not yet uh I'm sorry I also saw a change order for the striping on the agenda a decrease change I saw that 24 something thousand right why because in the plans we had to do both sides of Cy and interl and didn't agree to want to pay for it so we took it out oh okay cuz I I was hoping they would come around and pay for we would get reimbursed but they said they didn't want to get involved with that so we didn't do the other side which was the whole length of that you know that was Prett the road that's why the reduction it would have been nice have both ways just for anybody going one way is coming back so can I ask since you so did we do all of the striping that the police recommended yep and the inlet in repairs so like stop lines and all that y i you got to drive around yeah I no I noticed it that's why I'm saying that yeah no they're all they're very quick they came in and got it all done in two weeks two to three weeks okay all right thanks Greg all right appreciate it thanks see everybody later David Brown you're up not too much today boy we have some good information here for elected officials risk management seminar your favorite so I hear is that that course yes I started and I stopped thanks thought Township needs you I did it last year this is for 24 I know I thought I did it I'm like oh cuz you probably did it late in the year right the paper version but I was told that uh Tracy sent out a link your email so she did you have to register and get like a new password and stuff we'll get her done um naming committee we need to discuss uh our former man request uhuh so how you want to go about doing that wa what did you request is that a subit meeting uh should we should we convene a subcommittee meeting first yes yes we're going to con we're going to convene a sub this will be a first I think this is the first mayor to ever ask for [Laughter] something um I have a feeling it won't be the last though so Kelly Kelly has graciously stepped down Dave has gra we stepped in I talked to Dave so Dave said well you actually did talk to you yesterday yesterday yeah so we're talking the two of us you mentioned yourself Tracy Mike and there was one other person talk about Paul Edon from the had I don't know who said Paul Edon if you mentioned it or if I mentioned it you said you said it so yeah I think P together you invite who you need based on right your topics right the other thing too is I would like to reach out to certain groups who've had longstanding members fire companies Historic Society gardening club who's worthy you know and you know maybe get some some names from that I don't know about or that we don't know about so we even put something on the website I me whatever you guys want to do there's people lived in this town for their whole lives and done wonderful things that we may or may not you know know about so absolutely poet laurates Medal of Honor winners we'll take them all so you know I will put it together the send an email you know what I'll have Tracy schedule yeah something on the email on the website would be great you know hey you know you know somebody who's uh done great things a nomination portal know yeah just once you have if you want to write up a little blur and just get it to Tracy and be all right good stuff when we meet for subcommittee we'll figure it all out sounds like a plan okay the Press how come we got demoted to a subcommittee I think you got to start somewhere no it's a committee committee of the council regular commit I said so it is sub committee potato we're the committee you're a subcommittee right now was I thought we were a council counil you can have the committee and then one of you standing in a room is the sub committee got it okay very good or you're a sub counsel I got one for a close session regarding Public Safety all right and I have two for close no for now okay we'll go you and then we'll do round robin and then go to public I had an email from Ted Maturo who works for Christine hin and um Tommy AR and they would like to come to our March 14th meeting to talk about preparing for have they're preparing for America's 250th birthday in 2026 yes absolutely uh went out to freeold when they had their kickoff over the summer so yeah definitely okay so they'll come to 7 they wanted to come to 7 oh they want to come to 7 not the workshop no they yes I mean they can come either or okay if I can find out from Tommy I is that okay with sure okay yeah and the budget meeting of February 3rd is cancelled most darn it most likely it'll H you seem real upset about that it's my sister's birthday good hey that's why we canceled the budget meeting please if it was the fourth we'd have a real it might be on the 10th possibly the 17th but let you know as soon as I know po Bing goes is 16 so let's go for the T Rob's point I event on the 16th so big all right be let's go backwards this time let's go with Kelly first um the um committee subcommittee sub counsil whatever um met on Zoom regarding the 175th birthday celebration so Rob more of a question for you they were running with the um logo that um what's the gentleman's name that he designed right and they were they were adding a ribbon Banner on the bottom just saying the 175th you cool with it because they're ready to run and you I think we need to actually make this decision tonight because it's you know we're really in with that do you think that's fine with Rob you have to ask him I I would ask Rob Robert Haz I would I didn't I sent the email there was a response and I missed it I apologize but I would did you send it to Rob I did not because I didn't get we all love the design but concern it out of courtesy I would okay just reach you're against the out of courtesy I'd reach out to Rob his design yeah with the banner You' need to I mean technically you need to so if we can get that done ASAP and then uh this way we can make this decision and get the letter else we need you don't need my I'm fine with no we're all getting opinions but yeah right I would I lost my train of thought um who did the one who made that design with that on it did Mike do it himself patrio yeah probably okay I mean Rob May asked to to do it may want to do it okay it'll take him five minutes okay all right but if he says no great I'm over okay and um so we're a go for February 21st Turner and the museum combination uh cocktail style reception $15 price point uh going out and soliciting um sponsors sponsors 100% because we we have nothing in the kitty um and also for um service workers and food vendor so they're going to go out and ask like local businesses who would like to cater and or service that night uh I believe the liquor has already been donated and we left over from prior events so we're fine on that so we just need food food and people to serve it okay what day was that uh February 21st which is the actual anniversary date Fe that's a Saturday and uh I think it's like a six o'clock start you know upscale cocktail type we better not be the 24th no no 2st 21st the middle of the week okay I'm sorry the fire department oh no no definitely the 21st sry I heard it wrong um so they're working on once I guess the logo is designed they'll also work on the flags which will be posted um they've already spoken to jcpnl about um enabling the use of the poles and making sure that we're compliant with their recommendation on how high they should be for safety and also adding a um electrical box on them which will enable us to use those poles in the future for future decorations for any type of event holidays what have you they're originally thinking about 100 yards to the East and to the west of the driveway coming out of Human Services to start um so kind of consistent with you know the trees staying lit and the trees will still be lit on um you know over by the museum in Turner and the other thing is is um Jen is going to be putting out the solicitation memo for sponsors and she would love it if the Town Council could um hit the streets with that because we don't have enough money to pull 2024 Events off okay so did she get the sponsorship form yet she's working on it we just met yesterday I'm going to go over and meet with her next week and we'll and then she's getting the one for St Patty's Day available and I'm working on our sponsor for that as Welling for a price point and uh liquor sponsor for that as well for the bar so we're and that's going to be an English manner right yep I think there was a little bit of um concern that they might not be able to secure the dancers this year yeah they can't because of the marble floor it's suppos safety but I think yeah it does something to the floor where they can slip or something there's so they're trying to think of what they could do to supplement the event since dancing I guess has been part of it for many years what day is that going to be um March 4th March 4th it's a Monday right no what day is that no no no we do Friday March 9th no does that sound right we do it on Friday March 8th is a uh March 8th is a Friday is a Friday I think it's the 15th are you sure C I feel like it's I'm away so I feel like it is the week of the eth or the 9th but I didn't see the flyer I didn't need it all right we we'll get that squared away yeah so she'll be hitting us up with that um solicitation memo as well for sponsorships March 15th it is the 15th yeah W I'm totally off then o00 okay so they're working both efforts back to back Marathon me put it in my phone yeah so that's all I really have okay Dave uh no report mayor no report nice keeping it sit down I got nothing get out well I have a couple things um first of all these are the designs for the tent pole uh which we went over the other day uh pass it around K so kind of zeroing in on the top right corner I think um I like top right bottom left they're both match but uh we were uh leaning more towards the green one because the color The Shake Up on the Roof y um so with that we also discussed at the facilities you know the the building's coming along nicely which is great you know we're looking at Mid April right Dave to open mid to Mid mid to late April for uh for that being done um little delay on 1515 on selling the building or selling the property due to the D yeah which you were right wrong we talking about that the other day yeah uh West Park Avenue donation is done um and that's all I got oh uh deal Road as I stated before that uh Greg is going to put in the application with the do so that we can get a receiving Lane on the west side of deal Road on 35 so we can straighten this out so we're on video now everybody we're going to work on getting this fixed because we all know it's a mess going west right now so that's going to be worked on with Greg we're looking forward to that we also went over the library uh donation uh be bequest the $150,000 bequest to the library which has to go inside the Library uh they have plans for the meeting room children's room uh Turner South Turner North and they left some money in contingency so looks like the friends of the library have some pretty good plans for that so we're looking forward to the library being updated uh and that's about it can I ask one question on this yes sir so is so if we're doing this do we need to does SC or would it change its name we'll have to go to the subcommittee well I think it's still going to be the 10th hole it might be you guys talk about it can't say it can you I just don't know if I would ever ask I just don't think I would all right yeah but these are um now you guys when when you go to the subcommittee Dave we have a um we have an extra copy Mike patrio can email you guys copy over and then bring it to the subcommittee and how you're going to name because they like the 10th hole but if you're going to call it the Christopher P cisano 10th hole or the 10th hole at the Christopher P cisano golf course because you do something like the the Maya playground at at K park right right there you go the 10th hole at at Colonial Terrace Golf Course actually no he wants 10th at Christopher P Le ridic that acronym is ridiculous now all right let's go to I live in the world of acronyms you worry about me because there's a David Street already yeah so you're good I got nothing no I'm done thank all right let's uh start off over here sir I'm Jack from big place the uh only only thoughts I had this listen going is that the naming project not only put on the website but also get it in the paper if you can the coaster and so forth because a lot of people read those things yeah and they might work through their own committees if they don't know who they are or whatever so I just think it's better publicity sure it's I think it's an important Project important thing to do and you want some inputs to it from sure yeah that's what way to get so you want any you want me to send you the link so you can self nominate uh if you'd like to I have thought about if I weren't as mature as I am I mean I'll 87 pushing 88 next year so I run as fast as I used to yeah I do I do exercise three days a week Jack thanks because we finally got somebody older than Jesse right now ouch HR HR I said it I said it I don't want to say I I got to tell you something the best clerk right here she got the best s abut she could be sorry you know what good sense of humor over here got to and she talks my language which is good anything else Jack we duck your thoughts about about Jesse also thank you I think she's uh excellent yes we uh part 10 excellent I'll tell you what we're hitting a home run with all the department heads in in the in the town seriously it's been a and Dave with his new hire we got to welcome Colleen too I things are starting to really hum and this is you know really good stuff I sense a real I sense a real commitment from the staff as I deal with different people they really mean to do what they can as best for for the town more improvements coming Jack it's going to keep coming that's why I'm leaving yeah get out of here before yes ma'am hi Alex from Ocean um I have a couple of questions do I have a time limit uh normally in work session we do you know a few but go ahead you know we have some time well you know the Board of Ed just started implementing after we have time no we do yeah we always have a three or five do you answer questions up here or are we only limiting the not answering of questions to the school board let's just answer your questions so go ahead great um the naming committee for um that you were talking about I have glomed from what you said that it's about the 10th hole this ISO this is Township wide what former mayor made what request is my question I have a couple questions so I'll just run through them um the fire investigation the Fatal fire over at wanasa Gardens wondering if that reports in yet um if the fire investigator has you know issued final report um second question um are are you announcing the new council member Tonight third question fourth question um when I sent the email cuz I had to leave that one time that I came and I gave I sent my testimony or my commentary was that entered into public record because if it was not I'd like to read it yeah when were you there if you want to send it to me I'll put it in it's not read into I mean it's a it's a public record but it's because any documents sent to the municipality is public record but when you say reading it into the record well then I'll read it okay that's right nobody on that topic so I've never thought about it before but what the hell so she wasn't this is the marijuana thing yeah so she sent the email so it wasn't part of the meeting itself so when you say it is part of public record you got my curiosity what does that mean open public open public record so it's a a document that if somebody requested but I guess how would they how would they know how would they know it wouldn't just people put in blanket say I want everything that was the other way I mean how would they know it was even discussed next time com to the meeting yeah yeah have to be somebody of Interest somebody interested you know I um and then before I read this I actually was also wondering if we have received any applications for I think you guys passed manufacturer distributor and sales like different LIC deadline on that is uh February 17th I believe or 21st 21st 21st 20 21st or 20 it right now it's uh they will all be with Jesse we don't know what's coming in or what hasn't come in yet it was just uh done Monday as for the former mayor there's really only one former mayor that's still alive Believe It or Not uh my predecessor um Chris uh second question what did he request um the naming committee yeah yeah the various um he requested to be on it no I thought he requested that we establish a committee oh no I asked for that that goes okay then I should not answer because I'm speaking out of turn what did the former mayor request oh my goodness um I just saw the email I get did Rob you want to write yeah the golf Center's a nice place to name on he plays golf a lot so he wanted his name on or a name on well I'm asking I think he's probably said a name and given that he spent as much time at the golf course as he has I don't think I saw but let me make clear that the committee thing we've been talking about this for a long time years this is not New Years about naming the there there's a lot of things named in town streets roads sections um buildings and it's been done in a way that we've had people that have done a lot in the municipality they've had things named after them so to make it nice and clean we have a committee which consists of two council members and they will be making the recommendations to the Council on individual areas that we may deem to be named and if I may there the former mayor and another council member did do that previously so this isn't it's not a shocking thing a new thing correct all right number three what was that uh fire investigation uh one of massive Garden Apartments fire investigation night you know that's uh haven't seen in a the the report and anything else you wanted to know if that Report was generated yet in regard to the report is it's through the M County Fire office so okay okay number four uh um okay I'm going to read my comment I thought you had a didn't you have fourth question it was are you announcing the council oh yeah that'll be done uh Tuesday okay we're having a special meeting 6 o' and there are two people watching this is the first live right what's that is this the first live in a while first first live lastek no not live you tape them probably only the second maybe third you tape and post September yeah we've been live for a few mon we've been live for a while SE yeah right after Watch Tom's going to walk in any second tell us why you're wrong it just started last month okay I thought this was the first or second so I was wrong all right I'm just going to read my um my statement so that can be entered into whatever public record uh this was actually when I came here in December when I was on the school board so I'm no longer on the school board so um I'm just going to be giving this as a private citizen I'd like to start off by saying that I am not opposed to legalizing weed in fact I applaud New Jersey's governor for taking legalizing marijuana a step further than other states by earmarking some relief from marginalized populations out of the proceeds of sales and I think decriminalizing marijuana possession charges can end a long history of racially unbalanced enforcement of the law yet I also don't think that we need or should have a dispensary in our town given that we had two in Neptune and in Eaton Town frankly that I could even walk to if I was so ambitious but I feel uh this was already a done deal because this was before you guys actually voted um plus I also recognize there is money municipalities can make off of cannabis sales so for ocean to not be one of the 25% of New Jersey towns that allow legalized adult Canada sales would essentially be turning away money that can ease the tax burden of running a town as great as ours so now I get it even though I don't love it we know local governments can make money off IL legal uh recreational pot in a few ways some money goes to the state it's legally designated for social Equity Endeavors under SF excise fee and there are licensing and permitting fees and then their sales taxes that go to municipalities and that's kind of what I'm here for that 2% tax the transfer tax that Ocean Township could collect on every single future sale of cannabis is why I'm making these comments I hope that you are bold enough to commit via an amended ordinance to use the potential tax revenues for our Public Schools why let's see what other towns are using the money for obviously it depends on how big your town is and how close other dispensaries are to your town about how much money these towns have been getting for the AP the first 12 towns that started selling legal pot in 22 received anywhere between 150,000 to 1 million Lawrence Township for example raised enough money for pay to pay for their entire trash services for the entire year um Belmar not the one here but the other one got more than a million bucks thanks to their 2% tax vinin got 250 uh Bloomfield got 500,000 and I have since heard that Neptune last year got about $500,000 so of course you guys can reinvest that money in whatever you want this excess Revenue you can do upgrades to your infrastructure doing better Parks but we've doing that a lot lately with great success and I do thank you I think what you've been doing lately is fantastic but I implore you to give these tax funds to our Public Schools please make the Bold decision to give the money to the district or to an educational trust fund benefiting tosd as you know the state is giving us less when we lose students so please commit to Aid the students and preserve District Services by by earmarking the 2% sales tax for educational purposes within our town Public Schools also um I think your ordinance should include how you will report the Cannabis tax revenue as a budget line item every month sometimes do that and that actually took me long to read so I will um re-email it once again to a few other folks in the room can you make sure you know the funny the funny thing is that the school even if gets 100% of whatever they ask for like there's I think that's state law they if they ask for X number of dollars they get it it's so I I in what what are you talking about I mean if a school district says we need a million dollars to operate Town collect a million dollars the town collects a million dollars and hands over the money it's not have you been to our budget School Board budget the last years no but that's let me say what no no I mean I yeah no who whatever however the budget works out at some point the school even the town says we need X number of dollars to Opera but they can only increase it with I get the four five that's that's a difference so but then then you're saying then the school says here's what we need to raise right and then they get 100% of that from the town and if let's say somebody doesn't pay their taxes The Entity that eats the loss tax loss is actually the mun is the municipal government just just out of curiosity since you brought that up could we legally do that not suggest we do disrespect but could we do it it's difficult because theirs is a whole separate budget so I mean really if we let's say we take the tax let's say the tax revenue that comes in off of off of the sales is half a million dollar and we need that you know an extra half a million dollars in for the road program which we're behind right now um regardless we're going to have to either tax the residents that extra half a million and if we were to give it away it still has to be done regardless so in our case I do wish you would think of it not as giving it away but investing I don't know that you might be able to in all honesty because take it out of the whole thing so the schools can says that here's our budget we need that money and then where's our money coming from their budget's still the same if if you're going to have the town donate call it you know gift over a million dollars well that still goes to their budget and then it's the amount to be raised by taxes so I don't think it's like we only we only need X number of dollars and then we're going to throw in some extra like I'm not sure that that Finance un unfortunately the perception that the town schools need 80 million so therefore they ask the ten for 80 million that that 80 million is really what they need because they no no no that that is an easy answer and then they can't make up the difference with the 2% I think if you um get creative there's a way to do it perhaps even um through uh a new educational fund some schools like Shrewsberry have a 501c3 that's separate from a PTA but it's called an education fund I don't know if we'd be even able to well municipal government couldn't do it 5013 thank you anything else no okay uh are we closed or open closed okay uh motion to go on a Clos session so moved second second all in favor I oppos 18 years of Technology roll call mayor nap County here council member and Cher here Fisher here Terry here please stand for a pledge allegiance and remain standing as we say a silent prayer 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 before we uh take a moment of silence I just want to mention three people that recently passed away uh we had Richard Dicky Kirk he was one of our crossing guards in Oak curst we had Chuck Theodora who just passed away suddenly very active member of the Italian American Association in Ocean Township and of course Margie Edon who there's just not enough words to say about what Margie did for this town and the Historical Society for those three members of our community I'd like us to say or have a moment of silence please be seated the notice requirements of the open public meetings act for this meeting have been satisfied a copy of the annual notice was posted in the Asbury Park Press and the coaster posted in town hall filed in the office of the municipal clerk on December 14th 2023 there are two emergency exits to my right that'll take you to the front of the building there is one to my left that'll take you to the rear of the building please make sure that all your cell phones are turned off if you need to make a call kindly step outside I'm going to start down to my right and hit councilwoman Terry if you have a report um just letting everybody know that we're starting a lot of preparation for the 175th anniversary of our town I think there's going to be a lot of great events the first one will be kicking off on the 21st so as soon as we got our invitation ready for this one will be a cocktail reception over at the Turner in the museum um we'll get everything out to you and allow as many people and we'd like to see a great turnout with a lot of memorabilia that we're collecting that's all I have mayor yes thank you Cal uh councilman fiser yes I just want to say that uh the mayor and I went over to Planet Fitness today for the grand opening so we would like to welcome them over to uh over where the Wegman's Plaza is it's a nice new addition to the township is a big gigantic beautiful brand new gym so uh once again a nice uh you know employ here for our Township and um I think it's going to be a good addition I also wanted to let everybody know that councilman Rober chair and I have formed the subcommittee for naming of things towns uh I'm sorry streets Parks anything in the town that can be named microphones and so what we'd like to do is i' like to ask the public to if you have any suggestions of people who have had long-standing uh leadership roles have done wonderful things for the community to reach out to either councilman Cher or myself uh um and we're going to you know put these people in a uh a talent pool we we're going to put something on the website we may even create an application but I think it's a good idea start using your head so we're looking for all different groups out there and uh we we're looking for suggestions but I think it's a wonderful thing and it only benefits the township and the people that we're going to honor thank you thank you Dave councilman a chair I didn't have a report until Dave just mentioned that but since I was going to email you what we were going to post on the website why don't you just look at the video and take what he said yeah got you have a great night our manager David Brown no report mayor thank you sir and Matt our attorney no report Mr Mayor thank you sir um today I had the opportunity to go over to the ocean tup Elementary School my former vice principal from Asbury Park uh Melissa leznik and uh one of our teachers over there tinati invited me over to greet the students along with our fire and police and uh it was really exciting because honestly Ocean Township Elementary School with Melissa over there I I can't say enough good words about her she is absolutely fantastic not only for those kids but for this community you know and and when you have a great principle like that it really pushes people to want to use our public school system with that being said when I went there to visit them the kids wrote me some letters I'm not going to read everyone but I do want to read a few of them because the the letters are great um and the kids were awesome I teach in the Asbury Park School District so I went from one school to another today but it was fantastic to see the kids that you know I know a lot of their parents so this one says Dear mayor appani I'm writing to thank you for serving as mayor of Ocean Township I will always I will always support you I appreciate all you do it must be difficult being mayor have a great day every day and don't forget you're awesome every single day sincerely Autumn Bond I'm going to ask her to work on my next campaign there you go dear mayor napan I'm writing this letter to thank you for serving as mayor of Ocean Township it must be hard to be mayor and I'm grateful for your hard work in making ocean tach of a better place for us to live in you are a great mayor and it's great to have you thank you sincerely Freeman and there is one more that I want to read and I met this student today I was on my way walking out and he came running over to me with Miss KY and or and he says to me are you the mayor and I'm like yes how how did you know cuz I didn't tell anybody he said well she told me and I have to tell you you know he was just absolutely impressive he could have been a 40-year-old that's how well he spoke and just what a what a young gentleman and I have his letter I found in my pocket it says Dear mayor naani I'm writing this letter to thank you for being mayor and head body of Ocean Township I can understand how hard being mayor is but you're doing an amazing job also thank you for opening kepwell Spring Park on cold Indian Springs Road you made an amazing decision thank you sincerely vital beroff so I want to thank the students today for inviting me into your classrooms letting me take a tour thank you Melissa it was really a great day thank you all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine by the township Council and will be enacted by one Motion in the form listed below there will be no separate discussion of 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 this agenda and it's not an occasion for a public hearing on an ordinance all question questions not related to an item on this agenda should be asked during the public comments portion at the conclusion of the meeting if anyone has a question in regard to the agenda please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record seeing here none do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve second second roll call aera yes Fisher yes Terry yes nean yes individual action vouchers in the amount of 2 622,000 52 someone please offer I'll offer second second roll call aera yes fer yes Terry yes nean yes ordinances for introduction again there is obviously no discussion on these until next meeting we have ordinance 2451 which is an ordinance amending chapter 13 traffic of the revised General ordinances of the township ofan 1965 prohibiting parking along portions of Johnson Street can I have someone introduce ordinance 2451 I'll make a motion to introduce ordinance 2451 second a second roll call aera yes Fisher yes Terry yes napan yes and that will have its public hearing on February 8th ordinance 2452 which is an ordinance authorizing the private sale of non-conforming real property known as block 16.01 Lot 8 someone please uh intr uce ordinance 2452 I make a motion to introduce ordinance 2452 second second aera yes Fisher yes Terry yes naani yes that ordinance will also have its hearing on February 8th ordinance 2453 an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the comprehensive Land Development ordinance of the tant of ocean establishing land use regulations for cannabis establishments and and chapter 13 of the revised General ordinances the township of ocean 1965 entitled taxation someone please introduce ordinance 2453 I move to introduce ordinance 2453 second second roll call aera yes bisher yes Terry yes appan yes and that will also have its public hearing on February 8th now we have the public portion comments if you have anything gerain Ocean Township please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record this public comment that's you I want to also uh welcome our former deputy mayor Davey hirers out there thank you for coming out tonight turn that mic around I don't know there you go so you there sorry I can't I'm having difficulty seeing I'm waiting for my cataracts to be remove so you're all blurred in that's good we don't look good tonight um my name is Joe Mone I live in 40 Branch Road I've been there just over 40 years 10 years ago I was involved along with my other neighbors relation the whale now you all know about Branch Road I'm sure you do about the flooding over there you also have a problem in other areas of we W know that so we're not expecting your uh the mitigation that we were involved with 10 years ago uh was basically to clear the whale Pond out we got Andrew Brenan he was the Town M your Dave Brown is the new this one you can't see I know he's over here just wait I can't see any you driving home tonight exp before I got um lot of a lot a lot of things come out of that uh we got the county involved which is I I I don't envy any of you dealing with the county they're Knuckleheads right they're very to deal with they don't want to do anything they don't want to budge on any matter at all and most of the problem that I Sil that comes from the park itself the iron oxide or the silt that wases up that clogs up the uh the clear flow of the water we've known that for a very long time some of the results that came out of the mitigation were simply that they would clear up or clean up the whale Pond from I guess down by by Lake tasse that was stred down there and all with uh the along the wh Pond itself they're clean I'm sorry that's the first time anyone's not my being recorded that's why they want to be able to hear it we can hear you there we go um we need new mics anyway they cleared it out uh they did it the did it actually the uh the whole cleaning process with local contractors they receed money from the NR nrcs I guess it's part ofma that was for $150,000 once they did that the water flowed we had storms where we got 5 Ines of rain 7 Ines of rain in two days and the streets were dry that was after they cleaned it up we also know that there's an engineering problem down there the discharges are too low the water level is too high and that's why everything backs up right unless you're going to get fedal money there's no way you're going to be able to get that cleaned up all we're asking for right now is maybe take a take a look into cleaning out the well Pond again hopefully it's only a 10-year process and hopefully we can get some more FEMA money but there something that uh we'd like you to be aware of we'd like your help and cooperation doing that I've got to tell you you're DPW what a bunch of good guys you really are from Steve Higgins I think his name is yes all the supervisor great guy all the way down line the guys come down and they're out there before any major storm and after this so we really appreciate that because if you've ever been awake at 2:00 in the morning water coming up your street Street and heading to your house you you know the feeling and these guys know it and appreciate it and we appreciate that so hopefully you can uh maybe get with Steve Higgins and discuss it and maybe get get in touch with some of the uh principles of FMA or some other agencies that I know the state state was came down they were involved us were investigating um Rin Gardens behind the pool Club there which I thought was it's pretty good idea some place where the ex's word can drain off before it gets to me right those I was looking over my notes from 10 years ago so and I can't see so it me time to riew all that stuff so but if I can be in any help I'm sure that uh if you get in touch with and Andrew Brandon they'll probably you know be able to help you out as well but I do know that we wouldn't be in a good situation at all without the Chip's help and we really do appreciate like I said those guys in DPW every one of them just great thank thank you very much for those compliments we do have an excellent staff here in Ocean Township uh Dave can we get Greg to take a look at that absolutely and see if this could be a project I know that area fls I've been called over there by a couple of the residents in the past during the floods it I it does get bad with the rain when it's when it's heavy so we yeah we'll have our Township engineer take a look and it could be something as simple as a clock okay I'm hoping thank you so much you got it have a nice night thank you anyone else wishing to be heard please step up to the microphone state your name and address you might as well just give it to your buddy right yeah and I'm also going to be talking about some we've experienced on Branch Road um I just found out about the meeting today so wrote down some of my personal issues that I've come across but here the beginning for us my wife Cheryl and I have Liv on Branch Road since the fall of 1983 back then initially we didn't experience any significant flooding however after a number of years flooding during and after rainfall became substantial and our property flooded in both the front and backyards many times causing our crawl space to flood consequently a couple of years ago we had the crawl space refurbished and added a dehumidifier both at a significant personal expense to us generally when it rains the floting from the street Rises very close to our garage and sometimes goes in the garage uh many times I've waited at least a day for the water to subside so that I could leave my home this has impacted commitments medical appointments etc etc also did the floating quite often I drive my wife to and from work our SUV has more ground clearance than her regular car does um even with the SUV though I'm taking a chance of getting stuck in some accumulated water it does at fairly high up there uh to reiterate the flooding requires that many times I wait for the accumulated water to subside before entering or exiting my home and at times I've had to cancel or rearrange important appointments Etc on our our end of Ranch Road the rain water accumulates in part due to the the downward slant of the street it also appears that a couple of storm drains are clogged or cluttered I can't verify that but it just appears that way further the the drain pipes appeared too narrow for for the amount of the water flow required for adequate drainage the dimensions of the pipe May pipes may have been appropriate when the neighborhood was being developed but now seem to be inadequate therefore I believe the township should add additional storm drains to alleviate the major problem thank you very much and may slide that in again we're going to have our engineer take an assessment of that and see if it's an area that we can put in for a project okay right all right thank you very thank you for the concerns thank you hi um doesn't sound like it's working is this S I do I'll use my teacher's voice oh by the way I want to tell you um I work at Ocean Township Elementary the after school program with Project Extension yeah my kids used to be in it yeah it's great I stopped in this morning to see uh the ladies actually um she's still there Miss Debbie yes yes yeah she's still there my kids are 20 I work I work with her it was I I have to say that that program is fantastic um for the parents that work I mean it's just you know phenomenal always had real good things to say about it yeah it I worked with her now that's bad guess since I'll I'll just take a guess 2011 okay and I love it I do the afternoon y program with her all right and enjoy it I I might be saying things that Bobby brought up and we wrote our little um U talks individually so I I wasn't there when he was composing his but I just wanted to say that when we first moved in our home on Branch Road it was about 40 years ago it was an an idil setting like a park-like setting we had a Babbling Brook and lots of trees animal life and we love animals it was quiet and peaceful and still is great neighbors and but for most people when it rains it's seen as an inconvenience but to us any significant rain is a nightmare I was even worried that it was going to you know they forecasted a lot of rain for tonight and I thought I will never even get to this council meeting and that often happens as as Bobby said uh for about a year now we've been dealing with a flooding problem that can no longer be ignored in the in the past we've had flooding this has been ongoing but it's got It's really worsened within the past year and when whale Pond Brook overflows our two we have two drains very close to us and close to our home and a driveway uh they seem to be blocked and the street floods for hours I mean it takes hours to re seed as Bobby mentioned he has an SUV I don't and we even have to wait and I had to call out of work uh once so far recently and previous times when I was at Fort Mammoth I had to call out there too and it's you know uh here at project extend if I don't work I don't get paid and it leaves them in the Lurch and also you configure doctor's appointments other plans maybe just can't we just can't do them so previously guys from DPW uh they used to come I used to see them and they used to do something to the two drains near us and it seem to help but I haven't seen them there that doesn't mean they haven't come but I haven't seen them there in recent times they did work down the street um at Joe's house they had this big machine and they were they were doing all this stuff and it seems I I think to help down that end I'm not quite sure uh and we've contacted DPW a few times and like they were saying very nice people one of the guys I can't remember his name even came to the house he told us how he traced the brook down to where it you know ends up know the ocean gave us this whole you know information but still we're we we need you know Solutions we need solutions to this so um again they're nice you know people and I'll tell you we we've been good citizens all these years we always pay our tax taxes or sewer anything we're involved in the town um I'm Bobby and I are very involved in museum we we uh are morning March she passed recently as you said and um uh I'm heading up the um the fundraising portion of the tea I've been doing that for years we have our annual tea coming up always been helping me so you can see we're very involved in the community here so we just uh really beg you to please help us thank you very much you're welcome thank you I think I'm that's fine that's fine hey Dave maybe even before uh Greg goes out Steve can take a look maybe it's something up in the back end of that stream I don't know something to think about and then Greg can take a look yep I'll be talking to both of them tomorrow or Public Works cuz Steve's actually on vacation oh that's right he's in Phoenix uh anyone else wishing to be heard seeing hear none do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second second roll call all in favor I opposed all right meeting