Philipsburg Town council meeting February 14 2024 meeting order Council vice president meliss Pauls would you please read the open public meeting act statement this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting on February 14th 2024 was included in a list of meeting notices sent to the newspapers of record and posted on the bolon board in the municipal building at and has remained continuously posted as the required notice is under the statute in addition a copy of this notice has been available to the public and it is on file in the office of the municipal clerk everyone please rise for the pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for All counti Lord we are meeting today to conduct matters of business guide our hearts our minds in the spirit of fairness right thoughts and speech impart your Supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our Affairs May reach a successful conclusion thank you for being our source of guidance today amen amen Susan roll call please councilman core here councilman Kennedy here councilman scuro here Council vice president paace here council president Marino here okay approval of minutes from the January 16th 2024 regular meeting minutes as well as the January 30th 2024 special meeting minutes motion please so move second second any discussion roll call please councilman Clark yes yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes bills list please the total regular Bill list February 14th 2024 it's 4,640 $83 $483,500 total of 5,123 7296 motion please so move second any discussion on the bills list CN n roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council VI president PA yes council president Marino yes okay moving on to the long awaited quarless sa mediation upate I actually dropped me in to speak about that in Cas sorry ni go ahead sir give us your name please all right my name is Nick L go to L please um so yeah Matt asked me to just come in and say a few words about the aestus and mold abatement project that's going over on at uh 675 ctis Avenue um so the mold abatement took place first that was what kicked off the project from October 23rd to November 17th it was about 4 weeks long and primarily took place in the basement of the building um that work has been completed but we're waiting to run like final air clearance samples once all thece work has been completed as well um the 10day notification for the asbest work was submitted on November 3rd and then the actual work began on November 20th um the work's being completed in eight main stages there's three containment areas on the first floor of the structure three in the basement and then the second floor is just being treated as long containment area and then there's um some exterior work as well today um we are completed five of the seven interior Lo um containment areas and All That Remains is the three basement con containment areas and the exterior work which will be some transite paneling around the lower exterior and then some transite s around the roof um other than that there has been two additional um acms that have been identified since the project started there was a $50,000 allowance that was a lot um with the original budget and we expect that these two additional ACM should be Abed within that $50,000 allowance to where we W need any additional money um so the two additional acms are transite skylights that were found on the second floor there was approximately six of them and then there was some black mastic that was bound on structural steel beams um that was behind my drywall that uh the drywall was glued to these steel beams with the black Mas STI so black man stick would need to be evaded um that wasn't found on all Beams I did a personal count walk through and it was found to be about 65 of the 120 beam in the building and then the um yeah so I think that uh that accounts for obviously you know the initial estimate on this project was to be completed by the end of January but obviously we found additional acms yeah and um I'm sorry did um do we have an expected completion date for um for mediation yet yeah so um the original completion date was proposed to be February 20th um since the identification of the two additional acms the abatement contractor estimated that each ACM will take an additional two weeks so now um we are expecting the project to be done on March 19th on or before March 19th okay um and in order to kind of assure that that happens we switched from 4 10hour shifts per week to 8 5 hour shifts on January 8th um just the supervisor site said that he could get thinks he could get a lot more productivity out of his guys by doing 58s and so that was initiated in early January and I think we've seen a little bit of progress already so and we're scheduled to um have a roof evaluation done I think on the 22nd we'll be bringing that uh contractor in uh uh because then the next uh you know most pressing thing is going to be to stabilize the roof um because we do have quite a bit of water infiltration into the building still so obviously if we don't address that we're going to you know be right back to a mold tissue um so that's going to be the next step in this process yeah um so that was another reason we were kind of holding off till the end on the mold work with all that water intrusion going on we didn't want to go running the air samples and then have all that moisture content in the air and get some false positives um and I did bring just like a print out of some photos if you guys wanted me to leave these behind to that are that' be great kind of labeled showing and if you could could you email me that so I could um PDF copy that so I can for it R on the council yep yeah so the um first four pages are just general figures showing the containment areas and then the remaining pages will be um actual pictures with descriptions I guess is there any questions uh excuse me councilman scuro any questions not at the moment councilman Clark I'm good thank you councilman Kennedy I'm good Council wace I'm good thank you okay as long as you guys do this thorough because there's a lot of former employees here that came out of that building with cancer so this things been ongoing for a lot of years with the mold and a lot of that that's not a lot of knowledge but a lot of those employees ended up with cancer that worked there so I really appreciate that you're finding everything that you can and giving us the best mayor you have any questions I don't thank you okay thank you sir thank you very much thanks okay public discussion on agenda items State just your name I'm Joe Miner okay I simply have a question direct it here Joe how how close to cus is cus done is it like Are we almost done spending money and having the whole place uh clean uh so that we can now do something with it or is it still halfway along or quarter well the general what is the general status that this this report mean we're almost there so so Joe Define there like there as in moving back in uh you could go and say okay we could move back in or we could rent the place out because it's now legal no so so all all this work is is removing asbest and mold so the building needs a substantial amount of work before it could be utilized like actual renovation work so you know and just to give you an idea I mean the building has deter sit around for too many years well right and and then also to get to to to remove the asbestos from the building a significant amount of demolition had to be done what to to remove the asbest from the building yeah you know it's in the ceilings it was covering steel Beams I mean walls ceilings had to be ripped out I mean the buildings in a you know a a essentially like a gutted state right now okay so it's not is the old mold now all out is the all it's going to be by the end yes so now we have an empty building that needs rehab correct so we got a major piece of expense ahead but we're going to end up with the property that we can do something with the idea would be to are we half halfway through the money yet or can give me a guess are we how much of the money is gone done and how much do we have ahead of us before we have a property that we can sell rent or use so so the next step is going to uh put out an RFP for an engineer for for a firm that is going to evaluate the building and you know tell us how we can reuse it obviously the building was built you know to serve the the Philipsburg of the mid-60s you know here we are 50 years later you know we need a building that's going to serve the Philipsburg of of you know the 2020s and Beyond could that be of the scope for example the cooling system uh had the original mold problem was because the cooling system was uh they MISD design all all of that's going to have to be re that's not done yet no no that still needs doing correct so the only thing they've gotten rid of so far is the mo correct well I mean and a large portion of the asbest the environmental remediation is what's going on that because that that had to happen first you couldn't send people in to do work on the building in the state that it was in was not safe I'm getting it I'm getting an answer to my question right now and here yeah okay so we let say a third of the way are we maybe 2/3 of the way I'll say can can this man get just told us yeah I'll say quarter yeah quarter of the way boy all right Joe you satisfied that answer okay any other public discussion on agenda items name please we know David morson set five Fairview Heights excuse me Dave we're not going to take addresses anymore just the name oh okay scratch the address scratch um uh I have uh either probably a yes or no question probably be a real softball for you but uh historically on the uh agenda items and comments on agenda items uh Council had previously agreed that if there was a uh sneak attack agenda item surprise agenda item that wasn't on the uh agenda and it comes up during the meeting council president um can you continue the practice of giving the public a chance to comment before that item is considered as was done previously I'll tell you what I'm going to do Dave I'm going to do what we did in our school school board days you'd have some VA commit liit 7 and give you the copy and it would be read the entire sheet will be read this is a new one coming in tonight I will read it and we'll give the council opportunity to discuss it as well as the public there's going to be no hiding of anything okay anyone else no one else seeing none okay we have the concept agenda on the resolutions New Motion in second Council Mr council president um can we pull anything before okay um I would just like to pull uh R 22429 and council president if I could have uh 2024-25 pulled also sure any other on to pull okay seeing none we need a motion in a second pull 24-25 and 24-29 and also after everything's done there I'll be reading resolution 202 24-32 so the motion would be to approve the consent agenda uh resolution 202 4-26 27 28 30 and 31 correct so moves second okay any discussions on that roll call councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro no council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes okay councilman Clark you pulled yours first uh yes thank you so I've had some issues coming from constituents regarding the salary um essentially with this we would be designating the mayor as a full-time position um but many people find it very hard to believe that a person can have two full-time jobs at the same time and I personally don't believe that we can provide full-time pay for part-time work it's just my personal thought so I in good conscience cannot approve this as it is C currently but I would like to Al offer an alternative to both my colleagues up here and something I believe the public can be very comfortable with while also keeping to the honesty of the government so I'd like to move or make a motion to amend the ordinance to be presented at the next council meeting to include three amendments one I'd like the design of the mayor's position to be changed from fulltime to part-time two I'd like to revisit the salary ranges to incl to make the part-time range 20,000 instead of the 655,000 being listed in here and then three I'd like to take the difference of the savings and split it amongst the three entities that the money's being donated so instead of only receiving $5,000 each they would receive $115,000 each which I believe can better them far further you're making at a motion councilman yes please there a second I'll second it any discussion Mo call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy oh excuse me excuse me hold it hold it I didn't see your hand in there I I oh can I can I address since it is about me sure okay this is an open meeting we nothing so um I would just like to point out that two previous Mayors Harry W had a full-time electric business plus a full-time property maintenance business as well as being full-time mayor mayor tury also had Liberty construction which is listed as a full-time construction business as well as T signy Property Maintenance as well as being a full-time mayor I'd also like to say that I have um agreed to take uh $115,000 cut it's not 65 I bumped it down to 50,000 from mayor tury's previous range I've also uh waved the dental at 1,00 and health insurance which comes in at 36626 that's 36,000 so that total from the 15,000 salary reduction from T's the dental that was being taken and the health insurance that is being taken is a $52,000 savings the resolution in here is not 65 it's 50 I'm taking less than 50 of what the total cost was to the town previous so you can make your motion but the town is actually saving more now and I've been to three different meetings where it's the first time they said they've ever had a mayor attend so I believe I'm actually putting in more hours than May tery so you can make the motion I disagree so here's the uh the numbers from CFO Mero council president if I may I don't want you to qu back but um so I'm not particularly well versed in the financials of both mayor W and Mer signy but it is my understanding that they were both semi-retired yes they had no no it was a full-time job they weren retired let let him talk okay I'm sorry excuse me you could you could talk then every everyone on the council excuse me councilman is going to have to say the same thing so I went everyone in the public to know go all I'm saying it is my knowledge that they were semi-retired I mean now I'm not familiar with their personal finances but again I was not on Council during mayor Wyant I was not on Council during the majority of Mayor tney and I've seen mayor Ellis and tney attend these meetings so I'm not trying to get into a back and forth but I'm just going with what our constituents is saying so I'm trying to resolve the issue thank you okay we have a roll call there thank you I I'd like to add I also want to note that this mayor is not utilizing a town vehicle or utilizing the excess excessive use of gasoline so that rate there is a huge savings okay councilman yeah I got a comment as well so uh Mr Clark you could you could state that you don't believe that the two former uh Mayors were full-time employees had their own businesses but um I can I could vouch for that Mr W is my neighbor and I saw him get in his car every day with his name on it and go to work every day and I also saw Mr chy dve around with his name on his truck every day so I don't know where you're getting that information from but it's not hard to see um when you're in this town that they did have full-time jobs and they were full-time Mayors um it's pretty easy I think the whole public could see that as well um I really think it's a great thing that uh mayor Paz is doing donating some of the money back to certain um entities forgoing uh medical benefits um it's a huge savings and like uh Mrs paulus mentioned he's not going to be using a vehicle and abusing gas like our former mayor did so just wanted to state that for the record we're not going back excuse me counc we're not going back ex excuse me we let everyone talk I said I'm going to run an open meeting I do but we're not getting into an argument okay so everyone had an opportunity to talk we have a motion we have a second continue to roll call please on his on councilman Clark's motion councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro no council vice president paace no council president Marino no okay we have a motion to pass those resolutions have councilman Clark discuss it yes so right so councilman Clark made a motion to amend that failed now before you need a motion to adopt now we need a motion to adopt resolution 20 24-29 I'll make that motion second we've had extended conversation we're not going to have back and we're have a dog and pony show those days are gone in Philipsburg as long as I'm alive and sitting here so we have that call the rooll call please councilman Clark no councilman Kennedy no councilman scbo yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino I like to vote Yes and I'm going to tell you why I'm voting yes we're saving a lot of money taxpayers and as the two for mentioned former mayz if you wrote around perber you seen them not putting 8 hours a day in there is a fulltime this is nothing but political attack when a mayor that's putting his time in and saving all kind of money the previous mayor in that car and I got the records approv a th000 miles a month on a Town Car your tax dollars so that's the motion passed yes okay thank you now we have what 2024-25 2024-25 councilman Kennedy yeah this uh this resolution is to appoint uh Matthew null our rec director for the position of Deputy Municipal department head of division of maintenance services you can swallow all that um I see on the third line of this resolution whereas a superintendent of Public Works has been duly appointed uh who is that person that's been appointed Mr Paul uh without rice noticing in the meeting oh okay can't give the name they okay okay so we don't give the name is there s uh with this position can you give me that in the the um for uh Mr n's position no no for uh the superintendent of Public Works who's been appointed was a Sal range for it okay um I mean off top of my head I don't know what it is um I want to say it's between 90 and 110,000 okay I mean I'd have to go back to the last okay well that's that's ballar figure U now I see uh Mr n's salary for this new position is going to be $80,000 annually and he will also receive a $20,000 stien as correct okay um so since we already have a superintendent of Public Works I I just don't think that this new position from Mr n is necessary uh I think the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for quite a bit of money here um so that's my objection to it that's why I questioned it um so I cannot be in favor of this resolution thank you you're welcome okay there's no motion to amend it or anything correct councilman Clerk or Kennedy no okay so we need a motion to pass resolution 2024-25 or denied we need a motion in a second all motion second roll call please councilman Clark no councilman Kennedy no councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes okay we have a resolution that was just handed in for of public this has done quite a bit when I was one of my school board days the ba would come in at the last minute cuz things do happen in Goen at the last minute resolution 20 24-32 just bear with me as I read resolution authorizing the approval of treatment works approval permit applications for the 2024 year whereas the town of phsb is the owner of a wastewater treatment plant and as such is required the issue approvals for treatment works approval applications applications submitted to the town by users of the West wastewater treatment plan and whereas the applications required the consent of the governor body in execution of approval by the mayor and whereas the approval by the governor body and subsequent execution of approval by the mayor are largely ministerial acts predicated on recommendation of the Town SE engineer whereas the Town Council desires to authorize the mayor to execute approvals for applications upon the recommendation of the Town sewer engineer without the need for individual Governor B body approval of sand and whereas the governor body desires to authorize the town SE engineer to provide consent to the application now therefore be it resolved by the Town Council of the town of billsburg County of Warren state of New Jersey that the town sore engineer is authorized to consent on behalf of the town to a treatment works approval permit application and a statement of desent to the New Jersey Department environmental protection for all 2024 applications submitted to the town they have further resolve that the mayor is hereby authorized to execute set approvals upon the recommendation of the Town SE engineer for the year 2024 they have further resolved that the town SE engineer shall circulate to the mayor and the Town Council all such applications along with his recommendation letter prior any such application being approved certification Matthew seah Hall acting M clerk for the town filbur to hereby certify that the forgoing is a true copy of a resolution duly adopted by the Town Council at the February 14th to be 2024 right 2024 meeting I was a proof reader many years ago as well okay there there's a resolution any discussion by Council see any none motion public anyone from the public I'm not going to read it again though but I'll like to read it if you want anyone from the public okay seeing none need a motion in a second I'll make that motion second okay pH call please cman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbos yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marina yes okay moving on to Old business councilman scuro yeah um couple meetings ago I um brought up about the open space committee and the recreation committees um we are now at two years we haven't had a meeting um it's a lot of money in the Surplus for open space um I made comments that I thought that we should put out uh post it for anyone that has interest and restart the group groups back up um I think it's only fair to the public um when the former Administration failed to act on uh tax funds that were being distributed out from our residents um um I want to do this again I just want to know how the rest of the council feels about this I think we need to get on this uh swiftly um there's roughly over $500,000 in open space funds that could have been used the past two years um but former mayor decided he wanted to remove people um I don't know if it was political retribution or what not and he decided to let it just fall by the wayside I want to take it you know by the Reigns and I want to really start it back up again so we can get this money out to the public redo some of the uh parks and different things for recreation um it's been a long time coming so I just want to say that again I want to do this I want to put it out for um post it out for any interest so we can start these groups back up again uh councilman Kennedy um I agree uh the open space committee should be meeting I said that from the Geto from the time I was sworn in as uh a counsilman uh whoever decided not to have the meetings that that was out of my hands um I think if there are people currently on those committees and they have unexpired terms I think the fact that they were willing to serve they should continue to uh to be able to serve one of those committees and uh if there are other people interested by all means they should be able to put their name in uh letters of interest and whatnot so uh I agree the open space committees and the rec committee should should meet regularly counc clerk I completely agree they should be meeting and quite frankly they could have started meeting this year everyone currently appointed to that board is legally there there's absolutely no justification to kick them off simply to clean the Slate to allow a new Administration to pick whoever they want I believe if we're serious about this we can start having the meetings we could have started doing this back in January so I say we just have these meetings have a transparent and honest conversation and move forward and as the former liaison for the open space meeting or sorry committee I worked time after time to get this thing together one of my first initiatives was to get the referendum up to have the trust the open space trust Port of town felsburg reinstated for another 5 years because it was due to collapse my first year being up here so we have the funds there we have the people ready there's absolutely no reason we can't start now so I say if the folks are there now which they are legally let them serve that's all I have to say get a councel yeah um I think because of the time period that has uh lapsed in having any type of structured meetings um I believe that anybody who's interest in serving should submit a letter of interest I think as soon as possible to get the postings up on the website collect the information and then bring it before us for appointments because let's face it neither committee is fully stacked so to have meetings with only a few people I I think just is a waste of time so I agree with uh councilman scuro that let the uh postings go up on the website and see what you get and select from them so if those members that are still on there want to serve let them submit a letter of interest okay Mike final thoughts on this councilman scuro that's your committee meet with the Matt Hall Matt null and get it running as you know by law you have to have a meeting every quarter because of the funds that are expended I'm not going to look in the past because man it's a mess so we got to start today so that's what I would recommend to you to meet with them and get the meetings on going and keep it going by law satisfied with that go ahead yeah so I did reach out to Mr wner um we have the B we I gave him a copy of the bylaws um we I I mentioned that I was going to bring this up in the meeting so maybe Mr wner you can explain to what the bylaws stay the legal standpoint um can we repost it um it does say we can do that in the bylaws yeah so the yes thank you so the issue that we have is that the the members the current serving members of the open space committee were appointed properly so they have a vested in property interest in the term that they were appointed for the by and the there's nothing in the statute that permits or in the ordinance that permits their removal AB a good cause the bylaws to council MC's point do permit that and they permit it for any reason so I don't have a definitive answer for you yet unfortunately I will have one shortly as to whether the the interplate between the bylaws uh that were adopted by the open space committee permitting the removal of a member with or without cause how that plays with with the statute so I will have board report on that okay any other discussion on that okay we go back to Old business councilman Kennedy I have nothing else councilman Clark no councilman PA nothing neither do I new business councilman scuro yeah um I just want to uh maybe throw throw out some interest here I I don't know to answer to this question but I'm going to throw it out there I just don't know where the status is for the Cal Ripken Field um they had they had a dream team that meets all the time I don't know what the status is from their meetings we haven't heard anything for months since they had the ground break breing really so if anyone on this Council has any information on that I would like to hear it I can honestly say I was some part of that dream team so I have no clue anyone who was if they want to speak now's status they're still accepting donations so feel free to get in contact with one of the co-chairs Jeff finnean um or Dr Brennan to make your donation for the field it's still open and we're still looking for Community input thank you thank you sir thank you okay councilman Kennedy new business I have nothing thank you Council M Clark Council will PA yeah um I'd like to take a look at uh what we can do regarding Strays um just on this bills list we had uh a payment made to Common Sense for Animals of over $122,000 um and you know everybody that INX town is well aware of all the dogs that get loose um you know I'm a dog lover I I've had dogs all my life I've I guess I've been fortunate to never be in that position where my dog got loose and I couldn't find it but I don't think the taxpayers should be responsible for paying for these fees uh especially if the the dog is claimed so I'd like to maybe take a look at that um as well as looking at sewer fees I've had a couple of discussions about redoing the sewer fees so that more information to come on that thank you Council woman councilwoman I can um not the entirety of that bill but a large part of it would actually had to do with the Detention of a um uh potentially dangerous dog investigation at the ACO was involved in so that was a that's that's kind of an unusually high uh was the owner located uh yes it but it's it it's subject to a criminal investigation okay you don't have to say anything else but it you know still you know the tax pay or shouldn't be varing the the cost of irresponsible dog owners depending on the the outcome there could be you know pursuit of restitution but that you know well that in that case I'm talking about you know any any case in general you know one time is an accident okay you know but repeat it um people that don't contain their dogs yeah no I just wanted to point out that was like an unusually high bill I appreciate that Common Sense sure saf yeah thank you I have none okay we have any motions I actually do have a motion at this time Mr Maro uh I'd like to make a motion I looked into this preliminarily uh with Mr wenner um there still is some question marks about who owns the street and who owns the sign so I want to make a motion to um change the name of Needler Avenue um to Duncan Avenue um reasons being is uh I had a chance to get a copy of Mr sher's book uh forgotten no more which is a great book I urge everyone to go out and get it um it's the history of African-American his in Philipsburg um former mayor Needler had very dis uh very disparaging comments about African-Americans during his time as mayor um and it did make the newspaper back then um his comments he said we don't want a lot of nword to come here and create a nuisance in our town and that made newspapers back then in 1900s um so I don't feel that it represents our town um that name should not be on there anymore and I would like to change it to the Duncan name who is one of the um first settlers the families first African-American settlers here in Philipsburg and they also fought in a civil war the two brothers so I thought that would be more appropriate name for that street um I guess the problem is now we don't know who owns the street there there was a pilot program way back when with the Housing Authority so we have to find more out about that um but I would like to make a motion to change that street if uh council is with me on that I wouldn't mind supporting that yeah um let me go first councilman I'll tell you why when you're going to change the name of a street in a community listen to what I'm going to say you better go down to the post office inform of that change and if those people they don't recognize that change especially in a poverty area like that and they don't get their assistance checks or that so it's not going to be done overnight so I would have the attorney look into everything if you're going to make the change and do it right you've ever worked there like I have they don't get that check you're going to want to know who's responsible for it or any kind of program they have it it won't be done overnight so I would recommend before we continue with this the attorney contact the post office keep in mind lot of these people are no longer local workers they're coming in from all over so they follow the mail some of them don't even know the street they just follow the mail but I would recommend that so that we don't have a 100 people here saying hey we're waiting for this I live at 481 needer hope I don't have the addess up anyone and I I've been waiting for this so attorney that's only my suggestion before we carry on sure I agree all all bases should be covered I just wanted to let other Council people know um my intentions for this motion if I counc president so what I can do is is get so I did reach out uh Council scbo and I did have a conversation I reached out to Craig Rons our tax assessor asked him if it was a town-owned street or whether it was owned by the Housing Authority Craig's initial response was he did not believe that it was a town-owned street although we haven't uh got a definitive answer on that if we do get a definitive answer on that or when we get a definitive answer on that assuming that the answer is still it's not a town own Street then you know we are there's nothing we can do it would be the Housing Authority changing it and I would suggest you know reaching out to the housing authorities and hey you know how about you change your name if it is a town own Street then no problem we do it by ordinance first and second reading we send a copy of the ordinance down at the post office after following Council president's recommendation uh making sure that everything was uh good on their end as well but that's that's the process I mean we changed a few streets during my career and it's a nightmare it's a real nightmare if you don't take the time and do it properly and if I may suggest can we hold off that until we find out if it is a housing authorities that's the first out yeah you know if Council agrees with that we can bring it back but you know let's get everything in order first because as you know a lot of people move in and out of those places there could be important birth certificate marriage any type of legal document it's going here's the way they work you change that street and the reader don't pick it up it's not going to get delivered so if they have something important I'd rather go through all the steps meet with housing meet with the town make sure it's a town and Street and we can bring that back is it okay fine everybody agree with that just hold on to that rich yep you got it okay let's do it the right way instead of having snowballs string us okay any other motions council president so I actually want to thank my col for bringing that up I know this is going to be a process that's going to take a while but I think there is something we can do in quicker time and if you're willing to join me I'd love to pass a resolution denouncing mayor Needler for his comments so we can get it on the record simple resolution that's something we can do right sure and I'd love to Joint partner on that with you and of course all of our colleagues that would be that would be great Mr Clark thank you is that a motion I think they're going to work on it PR and then we'll present it well should we have uh should we have the lawyer draft something up and we could like for next meeting sounds good yeah sounds good okay we have a motion Matt did you second that second it y okay any more discussion on changing the street name no vote call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president Pais yes council president Marino yes okay any other motions okay now to the public any public petitions state your name only I have a question ask when we get a donation and we vote on it does it become public money so if somebody donates a large sum of money and we vote on it does it become taxpaying money you want are you ask you want me to answer that question I'll tell you m if you if you came in and said I want to donate $10,000 to the town of Philipsburg you know here's a 10 check for $10,000 that is now public and you hand that check over that is now public money okay so when we got the $330,000 that means we decide where it goes not to just one per one field or whatever correct well are you referring to the bridge Redevelopment agreement when we got the $330,000 it was a donation correct it was a donation and then you voted on it so that became taxpaying money so that me I don't mean to cut you off let me just go back so we're talking about the same thing so the agreement between the town and Bridge the redevelopers agreement did have a $300,000 Recreation contribution uh provision in that agreement we're Bridge upon the issuance of the co the certificate of occupancy for phase one was going to issue a check in the amount of $300,000 to the town it was a restricted donation it couldn't be used for any purpose whatsoever it had to be used for recreational purposes so that was in the original agreement and then last year the council approved an amendment to the redevelopers agreement whereby that $300,000 essentially got repurposed and instead of being uh $300,000 that was provided to the town it was being being provided to the Cal Ripken field so that's that's what happened that's what's been approved that's so your question is whether does that constitute public money it's a legitimate question yeah so it's actually public money then taxpayers money there was money that was go that was going to go to the town into the town's coffers that is now not going into the town's coffers it's going to the organization so it's double sword I'm sorry double-edged sword yeah because you took all that money now is Bridge aware of what you's voted on well yeah they had to signed the agreement after the Factor before the fact well it was the agreement didn't come become effective until they executed it so it was they were aware of it yes they were aware of the proposed amendment they agreed to the proposed amendment and then once the council adopted a resolution approving the amendment and directing the mayor to execute the amended redevelopers agreement bridge that executed it as well how much more money do we need for this field because you know I'm a taxpayer and I'll tell you I'm really disappointed because you know what that $330,000 cuz I sat on the record committee and now I got to re be appointed because I was appointed by Council I'm really discouraged because you know what there's a lot of parks in this town that could be used for our kids you know what there ain't nothing really here for our kids to do cuz now there's trouble at the youth center only three adults can go three Spectators per team that money could be used for a lot of other things I want to know how much money needs to be raised for this field that only one team can play at a time only one team when it's done if it ever gets done so Mr Clark my question to you is you know so much sorry for Council how much more money do we need for this field I have no idea wasn't on that team it wasn't an official part of the council so I can't answer well we're raising this money we took $300,000 that we voted on that we could use for a lot more things in this town like our children okay well we'll have to find out so I think we should put this field on hold until we know exactly how much of our tax mayay money is being used because it seems like our taxpaying money is getting used for an awful lot of stuff except for what we really need well according to the attorney they voted 3 to two last year they moved that money over 78 Bridge knows about it so what do they really know about it I'm going on the word of the attorney well I think maybe we should have Bridge come before Council and answer some of the questions for taxpayers okay well let's see what they mean with that thank you for com okay anyone can talk you get shook up that's okay but you're going to calm down we're not going to have yelling and screaming we not going to accomplish anything to answer her question it was voted down 3 to two not to move M it is what it is okay all right anything else on Dave you come coming back we know your name hello David Moret um address redacted redacted so uh I I did have one question um and I didn't it's just a question out of curiosity um so there's uh some structural changes being made inside uh the town of phsb uh in regards to Public Works um we did have a public works guy that was like the head of it and now there's some changes being made uh what's the ration now and the justification for the changes council president the attorney so the structure of the town's internal offices is Administrative and it also implicates Personnel so I if you want a general question as to your question is generally why why is the administration undertaking certain changes correct okay so I think the easiest answer to that question is because that's how it should have been all this time there were years ago going back to yeah well before my time there was the way the town was set up the organizational chart that it was set up is is how it's now being put back to so there was a period of time where it wasn't done the way it was supposed to be done and now it's going to write it so that's why these changes are occur and Matt has that organizational chart I'm sure you happy to share it with you so so you're saying the way part of the agenda is it in the agenda P publica so you're saying the way it was done was incorrect and on the state and now it's being done properly is that what I did say uh I don't know if it it was being done in improperly it wasn't being done in accordance with how was originally set up right there was a deviation from what was and we're trying to put it back to what was I think it's in the agenda thank you may okay thank you you're welcome any other under public petitions seeing none hold on hold it your name I have two Kelly Kelly um I live in Philipsburg um I I kind of have a bunch of stuff I want to say but I have 3 minutes to talk so um my question is it's kind of like similar like a little bit to this lady about like the children and stuff in the area so I do community events I started doing community events in the last like year and the community comes out they put these events together and then I have like a bunch of stuff better from these events and I have nowhere to put all this stuff and um I want to do more community events and I I wanted to know about spaces in the town um if you guys have like any space that you're not using that I can use to store stuff I think I've seen you at uh Community Development meetings right they have um they do have that garage that I I don't know if you can talk to uh is that about it I yeah I I don't know how much room is in there um and it's just an idea um to try to find you yeah because like the last two events that I did it may be full the town came together and gave certain things that we needed for sneaker day and then s'mores in the park came and that was like a little bit different we didn't really need like some of the stuff that we had for sneaker day and I had to like I all ra like ra it I gave it away to families because I didn't have nowhere to put this stuff that we could have reused for next year when we have another event so as events are happening I don't know what to do with all this stuff and I can't afford to put it in my house like so I'm kind of asking if there's some organization that wants to like cuz I've asked around and people don't really have an answer to give me um and people stop me all the time and ask me about like when community events are happening where are they going to be done and Chappelle park has been where I've been doing them yeah I would defin well that garage is in the vicinity so it would be convenient if there is some space maybe we can carve you out of section of that or okay all right I I can reach out yeah all right awesome yeah that's all I have to say thank you any other public petition Dan Boyce I understand that um the judge has thrown out all of the arguments or if not all most of the arguments for the lawsuit against the Howard Street um Warehouse I'm wondering where the the lawsuit sits now so I'll give you my default answer is that we don't comment on pending litigation uh it's still pending yes even though the judge has thrown out like a majority of the arguments yeah still second my followup to that is I'm not defending the town on that so I'm not in a position to speak intelligently about the exact status of the case it is still ongoing the council the town has um defense Council that was assigned by the insurance carrier okay so I can certainly provide you with an update so no idea like when it would be o over anyhow right I can't speak intelligent on that then the question is the property generates I believe like 13,000 in taxes right now developed it's supposed to generate like close to a million dollars a year this has been going going on for a couple years so the town was lost like close to $3 million in tax revenue because of this frivolous lawsuit can need people that file the lawsuits be held financially responsible for both the town and the the owner I mean the owner has lost a potential uh tenant that uh in Bethlehem they have like a 100 employees for the cold storage that backed out because of the lawsuit I mean that's the the developer I don't care how much money he has he's in business to make money any you know any business that is not in business to make money is I don't know where but can they be held responsible is it as they should be held responsible so again because I haven't been involved in this case I can't speak intelligently as to whether the the defendants might have a claim against can Council force force them to generate a bond or a protection of some some sort I mean it's just taxpayers money that's being wasted it's being wasted in the defense of this this lawsuit Plus in the loss of all the the taxes I mean I can't imagine what the town could do with $3 million I'd be happy with $3 I'd be rolling around on the floor in it you know it's you're asking taxpayers to really eat a lot of ramen noodles instead of anything else because of this so just if I may C president very briefly in general right the American system of uh of jurist prudence and litigation versus other systems is each side Bears his or her or its own cost absent a contractual provision to the contrary or absent statutory absent law statute that says the prevailing party is entitled to recover fees right so prerogative Ritz which is the case that you're talking about is an action challenging Municipal is a lawsuit file challenging municipal action is not typically a fee shifting type of action in other words each side typically Bears their own costs okay how about after the fact if it's if the judge throws the whole lawsuit out can the town turn around and and then sue the people that that fil the lawsuit no got to love the legal system any other public petition yeah just question in C Matt the monies you talk about space directed T what's that direct the question to me Pete uh the open space monies that Matt had spoke about is that part of Tim the rails and trails monies or is that separate not yet um the his your money town has the town hasn't allocated award any contract under the for the Rails to Trails so there is no money allocated to that project which yeah which will be separate monies from what you're brought up Matt yes Matt's referring to your open generally your open space and Recreation I'm trust fund so Rails to Trails has funding from the state in the form of a from dot in the form of a grant very good uh I'm all for the open space thing and I just don't know whether they're one in the same or thank you you're welcome hey any other their public petitions hearing none seeing none Council open time counciling St out yeah I just want to thank DBW and administration for you know handling the storm we got a lot of snow and a short amount of time um and I have to say once I got out to do my snowblowing my streets were uh clear down to the road down to the pavement so great job by everyone um I also want to acknowledge uh three athletes that scored a th000 points for filbur High School uh Amanda Rael for the the girls she scored I believe the other uh on Saturday uh Andrew Martin for the boys and Matthew skuro Jr for the boys as well um I don't remember this ever happening um in the history uh having three th000 point scores and there's just a lot of history going on here with the teams and if you can get out to watch them both the girls and the boys will be in the state playoffs coming up next week um so great job by everyone thank you councilman Kennedy yeah um I know things get heated at these Council meetings and between councilman whatnot um I think everybody should uh just take a step back from time to time and realize that uh while we have a difference of opinion I respect everyone's opinion here um even if even if I'm on the short end of a vote I respect everyone's opinion and I expect them to respect mine and one thing we should always remind ourselves everybody on this Council everybody in this audience they want to see filbur prosper and succeed and while we may have different ways of going about it or how we think we should go about it um that's everyone's goal so uh having said that um I wanted to uh wish everybody a Happy Valentine's Day and uh actually it's a busy time of year for me uh yesterday was my oneye anniversary of uh marriage to my wife and uh congratulations thank you and um also uh next week will be one year since I had my cancer surgery which was again I want to use that to remind everyone if you are due for any kind of cancer screenings you suspect anything get it checked out the sooner you catch something like that the better I am living proof that early detection can save your life okay and I councilman scbo beat me too it I was going to con congratulate him and his son for being the latest thousand Point scorer uh for filbur high school and also on the wrestling team uh Gavin Hawk became Phils bur's latest 100 match winner and there are two more on the way if they're successful so uh aside from basketball also the wrestling team they they uh start their road to Atlantic City uh this weekend that's all I have okay thank you councilman thank you councilman Clark again I just want to reiterate uh what was already set up here uh huge thank you to DPW and our First Responders for handling all this snow um this week we got the most snow that we've gotten all year and it was no joke so I'm very appreciative of the work that they put in to keep our roads clear uh to brush as much of it off the roads as they could um and I believe we're very fortunate and thank you for everyone that was involved in doing that um just to keep everyone up to date um I had the honor of giving an invitation to go to the governor's mansion in Princeton for a Black History Month celebration um I was able to use the opportunity to get a quick meeting with the governor to talk about some initiatives for the town of Phelps that we've been trying to push through for years um we're going to keep nailing away at the governor's office um it's very hard to get his attention especially when you're competing with oh how many municipalities are there now 563 other municipalities um so I think if we all work together we can continue to make filbur a priority in Trenton and get some much needed uh resources that we need for our residents um and town infrastructure and then finally and I can't believe I'd ever be saying this but Happy Valentine's Day everyone I never thought I'd be sitting in a council meeting on Valentine's Day so but it goes to show that uh this is definitely a community and the F the fact that folks still came out instead of being out with their loved ones probably still going to go out still tonight so if yall do have plans to go for it but again Happy Valentine's Day and uh that's all I got thank you Council Lord Council Pa thank you um I I agree with everybody else about the cleanup of the Town it the guys have done an amazing job um and I also wanted to thank the mayor and his administ ation on getting the communication going within the town a lot of words been put out as far as garbage pickup schedule changes road closures that right there in a short amount of time is a big Improvement getting the website up to date as much as possible concerning what you're working with um also uh there is a another lead um meeting next February 21st it's next Wednesday at 6:30 at the Invision center it's open to the public um please feel free to join that's about it happy Valentine's Day and upcoming President's Day okay thank you councilwoman number one I'd like to naturally thank the DPW they did an awesome job you go to other communities around there you wish you were in P driving instead over there trust me they did an outstanding job February look what we have in the month of February I don't want to go into any particular religion but there's some religious holidays Black History Month actually Valentine's Day so get them hearts out there Groundhog Day I don't know if you really saw his shadow or not it's cold out there President's Day I call it donut day they could call it hot they can call whatever wants donet man we didn't get any to I'm sorry about that okay the athletes I never like to pinpoint an athlete they're all good athletes you know they've done a good job this year and I agree with councilman scuro you in my lifetime being imperior never seen three kids accomplish over a th000 points in basketball so they're to stand out that's good and this is one really good we have to work together and agree with councilman Kennedy whether we agree or not you're not going to change this town if we keep arguing and fighting and play politics we're not going to go any further you see that organization chart of 1980 things have changed because they didn't fill all those positions I compliment the miring his staff we get meetings we get phone calls I get calls that I help people and I'll never say who I help what I help what they do it shows the need that there's so many things out there that people can't open doors for other people if you want to make this a better community and then you talk this High School which is the gem of New Jersey in my opinion when those kids come out of there how many go to college and come back here not many so we have to make the changes you can complain all you want every day we all complain especially me because my motto is to complain you live longer but and there's going to be changes we're not going to put up with that dog and pony days of the school boards when they would Line Up 3 minutes three minutes we don't accomplish anything I don't care who disagrees with me you give me your point I will listen to it and we have a three minute rule that I am not going to abide by if you have something to say and it's of substance and it really means a lot to you and it's genuine I'm going to let you talk it's your ATT and I think as we move forward this Administration needs a chance they're cleaning up a mess they're cleaning up a mess I'm not going to pinpoint what was done in the past or yesterday we got to move forward and I've been on school boards I've been on Council 20 years ago wasn't for peterg politics and your saw would have been developed 20 years ago I was president of the council back then never seen any politician take a cut like this mayor did I've had friends tell me tell him not to take it no he's not that kind of guy he's a good kid kid because I got kids older than him and he's given money to three of the organizations to help come along you're in an accident you need that emergency Squad he's giving them 5 grand seniors with this building another five I don't even consider myself a senior because I don't want to but look how many of them come here with this extra money there's more programs for them it keeps them away from their apartment it keeps them active the fire department what can you say about volunteers you can't afford paid I asked a couple of volunteers like there's a fire you go some areas I won't mention where house burns down here they save them CU they have 20 50 men and women go there I think if you want to put pride in your town we have to work together there's a group coming up shortly and I will not give details you're going to see them in an area of perber that they're going to clean it up they're going to clean it up if we can spread that to every neighborhood in peber we can be the crown jewel of peber and to anyone who's lived and worked downtown perber it starts down there you cross that bridge you want to see a queen you don't want to see a dump so I just urge everyone let's try to work together let's disagree if we want to but we're going to but let's keep it healthy and let's not get into kid stuff if you ever had kids and babies h a lot of kids sometimes I rather watch two and three year olds you know they go on their way you laugh at them and it's fun so let's everybody enjoy Valentine's Day and I think they got an executive session we do an executive session for contract negotiation the potential disposition of public property it probably won't take more than 10 minutes so you just bear with no action will be taken when we resume okay motion to go in executive session second all in favor