call our meeting to order this is a regular meeting of the mayor and B Council the B Seaside Park County boan state New Jersey held on Thursday January 11th 2024 advertised to begin at the conclusion of the vot session which has just now ended pursu to the provisions of New Jersey's open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting was properly provided by transmitting the notice of the meeting for publication in the ansb Park Press on the star ler on January 2024 notice the meeting of the governing body also has been posted in the corridor of the municipal building and in the office of the Municipal Court roll call council member Anil council member condos yes council member Conor yes council member C yes council member Menda yes council president Willl yes mayor Pearson here thank you let's all rise now for a moment of silence to be followed by the pledge of alleg I to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible Li and justice for all the next item on the agenda seeks approval of the minutes the minutes are for January 4th 2024 reorganization December 28 2023 a work session December 28th 2023 a regular meeting second motion by council member condos seconded by counc counc President W roll call council member condo yes council president W yes council member anab yes council member Connor yes for January 4th and I abstain for the of 28th meeting as I was not a member okay thank you Council M CRA yes council member Menda yes as the January 4th and I stain on the other two I was in your thank you motion approv next are payments of claims 202 2450 is a resolution the payment of claims of Bill list from December 29th 2023 to January 11th 2024 any comments from Council if not a motion motion by council member C second second by council member Al roll call council member craft yes council member Anil yes council member condos yes council member Conor yes council member Renda yes council president will yes motion approve next our resolutions I'll read in summary fashion number 51 authorizing advertisement and receipt of bids for the demolition Desert Palm Motel as per discussion at the work Session 52 adjusting compensation for the part-time maintenance work for the Department of Public Works 53 appointing class one in class 2 special Law Enforcement Officers for the calendar year 2024 number 54 authorizing the purchase of goods and services in accordance with the provisions of njsa 4A 11-12 concerning contracts entered into a math of the state of New Jersey by the division of purchase and property in the Department of Treasury 55 is appointing Phoenix advisors LLC as financial advisors for the bar Seaside Park 56 appointing a seasonal employee for the Department of Public Works 57 authorizing the sale of surplus property no longer needed for public use on an online auction website as per the discussion at the work session 58 authorizing the municipal clerk to advertise requests for proposals for col Council for the year 2024 59 appointing Joshua schroer as a senior maintenance repairer 60 appointing Andrew tortella as a senior maintenance repairer 61 appointing Ryan Walmer as a senior maintenance repairer 62 appointing Joseph Walker as a provisional senior maintenance repairer 63 appointing John Porter as a maintenance preparer and 64 appointing jenet Janowski as the municipal clerk and register and authorizing the ex execution of an appointment agreement with her for such position any questions or comments from anyone on Council as to any of the resolutions I'll just make the comment um on the ones for the senior maintenance repairs 5960 61 62 63 that these have been things that we've been discussing for quite some time with Department of Public Works who as many of you may know is very um understaffed from where they ought to be and our you know belief and feeling is that they're really the backbone of the community and without the right you know staff there we've lost a bunch of people to either retirements or other opportunities that they have and you know this is the first step in making sure that we do have the right level of Craftsman and service that the town requires so I'm excited about each of them getting that new title thank you J and thank you and members of the committee and our administrator all the hard work that went into the uh preparation the many meetings negotiations and the like and making sure that this did happen for the reasons you've rly stated um any announcing councel any questions comments on any of the resolutions hearing them uh it's our practice to allow public comments on resolutions though not required by law so if anyone has any comment on any resolutions from the public if you could give your name and address let just saying seeing none I would close the public portion and I'd entertain a motion from the council as a consent agenda for the resolutions motion by council member craft I'll second and second by council member Connor roll call council member craft yes council member Connor yes council member Anil yes council member condos yes council member rotunda yes council president will yes motion approve and it is now U my honor as the last resolution uh on the agenda was appointing Jenna Janowski to my right the audience is left as our municipal clerk and registar and I have an oath of office to administer and we also have special guests this evening uh her husband Pete Janowski who is here we welcome him and we welcome uh Jenna's mom marielen Fernandez and her stepdad Joe Fernandez and uh thank them for all their loyal support and I suspect she may want one or all of them to be holding the Bible in a few few seconds so I have an honor to step down uh to the mic for the of office [Music] I say your name I Jen jowy you solemnly swear to Solomon swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same as to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and justly impartially and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of municipal clerk of the office of municial clerk according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so helping done congratulations [Music] paper today is 12 I want to say thank you to everyone for believing me and giving me this opportunity I really appreciate it and when serve time the best [Music] my well done May yeah thanks and welcome and congratulations again Jen and certainly you're no stranger to the position and for providing expert services to the B of Seaside Park it's citizens and residen as we you've already done the job for quite some time and now welcome caroy thank you thank you anyone else on council at this juncture obviously there's a whole host of meetings and things that have gone on with one more tomorrow all through this week a lot of uh a lot of hard work and hour spent but we reported that at the work session hearing nothing from the council I go to the audience if there are any public comments at this time if anyone has them if they could give their name and address into the record yes 481 Avenue um the question I have is maybe something that Lieutenant fitzgeral could help me with um I'm going to relay an incident that happened yesterday my sister was coming here from Delaware and as she approached the scurve and went down the esur she got as far as the um business there do do Outfitters right and there were two Seaside Park policemen um that directed her to turn left and go through the cut through and come back up the other side like like you're leaving town and as she's driving she's thinking I'm going to end up going over the bridge that's not what I want to do so she pulled over to think about it for a minute and she saw a woman in Pelican Island that um she said every b as mad as she did um making a a uturn so she thought well okay I'll go in this street you couldn't go in very far CU all Pelican is was flooded and she made a u-turn and she came back and she went down this left side to go to Seaside Heights now I know the first part of the S curve from the top to Doc Outfitters I know that's Seaside Heights here's my question do the two police departments are they on good terms with each other would you say would it not have been a better idea to call the Seaside Heights um Police Department and ask if they could station two of their policemen at the top of the eser because I would assume that there'd be all kind of legal liabilities to put our two police that there so that people wouldn't have gotten turned around and sent back over the bridge and now GR she knows a little bit about the area here because she's been here before but I'm thinking poor souls that didn't know what they were doing they get turned around and they're getting sent back off the bridge so that's my that's my question should we have this issue in the future do you think it's possible and maybe you're not the one to answer the question maybe it's the chief but I know what he is um it would it be possible to investigate doing something like that that would be more convenient for motorists I don't know is that a question for Mr you're in charge of the Safety Committee right yeah I don't I don't know who to go with this I'm just raising it as I think it was I think it was pretty awful that this was you're telling me she your C do know where to go excuse me it's where Mar go to the left take your Seaside Heights go to the right Tak your p is cuz I was in the same situation they turned me around and I went to the left and took me around the B but she didn't know where to go evidently evid she didn't know where to go right okay she stayed that right okay that would take her your right that would take her over the bridge right I didn't say she's totally familiar with all these R okay but she knew she didn't want to go back over the bridge no I understand that so she knew that my my point is that I think it would have made life a lot easier if there had been two policemen at the top of the S curve and that's why I asked about the relationship with the two police departments that's my question well it's not a question it's a common I I wasn't on duty yesterday I can say this we it's a common practice to turn people around send them to the split and I think they would normally come into the Su yes um you know that being said we were dealing with staffing issues Tom yesterday rather you know just because of what was going on in the flooding and the cost for service so you're dedicating officers to that I'm sure speid Heights was dealing with the same thing so I can't speak as to their Staffing or why they would or wouldn't had an officer there we both on the same we use the same Communication Center um you know we use the same dispatch so they would be aware of what's going on you know terms specifically requesting an officer from Seaside night I don't know if if the officer are in charge yesterday did that or not we are under terms with them so you know specifically why there wasn't someone there I don't know well then maybe the the other way to answer it is that maybe the two policemen from suicide Park that were there could have stopped her and given her some help I'm just saying I think there's a better way to handle that than the way it was was hand there's alternative ways that's yeah our committee is going to set up a meeting with the chief and I'll bring that up okay thank you um I know it's January and I know we're always from the summer but last year we talked about uh I believe Allan brought it up um I'd like to suggest that the council revisit the idea of a curfew for young people before we get into the possibility of these um gangs of kids groups sorry groups of kids that travel and create havoc and we know that towns far north have passed curfews and that as each Town passes a curfew the groups of kids seem to move South and guess what we're further south so um I don't know which committee that would be but I'd like to recommend that um is that your safety is that you again okay well there's no another job thank you thank you any other public comments yes surely um I do want to thank the reverse volume one that went out that was wonderful and then we heard nothing to sit in your home and not know is the next high tide going to be worse when is the next high tide if I have to get out of my house who do I call there was nothing on any site I finally ended up emailing Karen CU When you have waves hitting your house it's a little nerve-wracking but I didn't know if I had to leave the house who do you call is there somebody out there her answer was the the 8,000 number then coordinate with the fire department but I wasn't the only one worrying about this I think it needs to be put out there especially for as you get older you get a little more nervous about some of these things and I think we need to go back over the Emergency Management thing see what could be done or what could be posted so we know exactly what to do it would have been nice maybe to even get another reverse 911 if anybody needs help call this number um if you're having any issues just to reassure us that somebody's out there caring about us because you didn't get that feeling and it was a very scary thing and I know no wall no sandbags would have helped what we went through but before when I asked and I had emailed mayor and Council and Karen got back to me about needing a permit from De to place a few sandbags along the curve did we get a permit from D the last couple times that was done not that I'm aware of but I don't know yeah and it was 2017 or 2018 ER sent me some some information there was some emergency use uh permits that were issued and we can't get any for I know the sandbags would have done anything this one but we have another one coming yeah and you keep watching the water coming over but you can't seem to do anything about it I can't imagine why D wouldn't give you an emergency thing temporary just to put there like they did before why won't they do it now and when the congressman was here for the swearing in the reward did any of you take him aside and talk to him about the issue we're having trying to get our bank project done I'm sure we TI hear huh we given him a whole package he's got I'm sure he TI to hear well you call two Congressman Congressman Kim and now Congressman Smith have both gotten the package but you sometimes you need to stay on top of it you know and and I don't know how much you call them I don't know but it's getting tough I would just like to say I mean I I empathize what you're saying I guess I just want to comment because we did get the email forwarded that you sent and I could hear the ple in your voice you know just reading the words only because I know your voice but my understanding I don't want to put him on the spot but my understanding is the mayor called the D exactly you know to try to get it so it's not as simple as you imply it to be and I think one of the other I think Edie had brought it up once before I mean I'd encourage the residents to be Cal your your county you should be calling because they know what we've asked for but the more people that contact them the better because it's coming from you you're the homeowner that lives there pictures to the Congress I'm just saying the more people that do that that's really I think something that would help you ask that helps who is it we're contact is it the county is it Commissioners the Congress the yeah state senat senators yeah state senator all of them but back to the 911 I thank you for putting that out but maybe a followup through it just to reassure us that and I couldn't fill sandbags because the sand was wet and I'm not shoveling that anymore and it would have done any good anyway I already got 20 Ines in there so thank you thank you Sheron any other public comments hearing none I would close the public portion and anything further from Council hearing nothing i' entertain a motion motion by councilman clown second second by council member condos roll call council member craft yes council member condos yes council member an yes council member Connor yes council member yes council president will yes motion approve thank you thank everyone [Music] for for --------- okay Lieutenant there's no downside this no no the rapid system you know we've used it in the past we we you know it was successful with an investigation so if this is going to you don't fill that Gap I think it's going to be perfect for us go anything else from Council on that one no yes good the next item we have is discussion of authorizing the sale of surplus property no longer needed for public use that on an online auction website that's the um uh fire truck the Pierce pumper the one that's been retired by the fire department I think it's a 1992 and 1993 um we had it on auction couple weeks ago nobody put a bid on it so the fire department has lowered the Reserve I think got a $30,000 reserve on it now they lowered the reserve to $10,000 and so we're going to put it up for auction again okay very good anything further on that one car question they they sell that fire Tru that money go out to our General Revenue fire fire that comes to the town we we on the asset the next is discussion of authorizing advertisement and receeded bids for the demolition of desert pal Motel it's listed as resolution 22451 for consideration at the regular meeting and that had been turn um so if that resolution is approved uh tonight we have a rather aggressive um time timeline to get us from resolution to demolition um the bid will be advertised by January the 19th and the reason that seems so far out is because it takes the ad T press about 6 days to actually get an advertisement in so we'd send in the the notice tomorrow and we' be optimistic it will be published by no later than the 19th should be the 16 17 um with a bid opening on February the 9th uh a recommendation of an award from the engineer and attorney by February the 12th um the lord of the bid at the mayor council meeting on February the 15th with a notice to proceed by March 11 and then demolition March 11 until May 24 which is um Memorial Day weekend so that's that's the timeline that we're working in right now any Council questions for Karen or the committee on that the next item D is discussion of public hearing for the park development Green Acres Grant application to be scheduled uh for the agenda for the February 1 2024 meeting that follows up on the prior authorizations and the ongoing uh rehab upgrades for the park that were triggered and started initially with our discussion on the new lights which have been now installed are up and running and of course the donation of the playground from residents which is also up and running um and this this grant will deal with the other aspects of the park any that'ss on for I just had a question for clarification only because I think some the back up so is it actually a grant loan yeah our our municipality is not eligible for a grant it would be a 2% loan okay that's what I thought it was a different okay so does that have to be we have to change that somehow on here that it's not a grant I mean is that on for the resolutions too and so um and along with that there's a again public notice requirements we need to have a notice by January 17th in the newspaper okay of of our um of our intent to apply for Green Acres Mo uh we need to have a public hearing which we're looking at the um the public meeting on February 1st part of the work session do got public hearing Green Acres and then I'm also working with our engineering firm uh uh to do some uh public education through our website through our social media through a Survey Monkey tool on our website so just so we can get as much input as possible on on the project yeah there's not much of an environmental impact it's basically upgrading what's there already uh the dugouts the drainage fences and other things your drainage is the challenge the engineer yes indicated as is I jug outs fill up with so it's basically improving the infrastructure for what we already have make it like brandy now anything else from Council on that one and the next is discussion and purchas this follows up several past meetings and comments input suggestions from various members of the public uh looking into the purchase and if there's any kind of grant opportunities which there may be for purchase of various trees on borrow properties and uh and now we've got the state mandated ordinance that's uh requiring now the status of that ordinance I don't on hold it was on hold on hold this this a change that was made I believe Eric was revie reviewing that with storm water management yeah the the the state had some changes so Eric uh reviewed the uh draft ordinance from Mr zarsky's office had some comments uh and I will send that back to Mr zarsky's office for final review has to be adopted by March so since the state changed the regulations we weren't required to have adopted by January 1st they moved they moved the deadline date and there was rumored I don't have any specifics but there may be some Grant monies Associated if towns are involved but there may not but and we T the trees aren't necessarily A as exorbitant a purchase that some of the other projects might entail and whether looking into that looking for maybe donations maybe some from the community that kind of thing but we've gotten input and I know uh thank thank Joe Connor councilman Connor council president wil have already begun the research with carent and uh looking at all the angle I know there a number of properties including but not limited to the uh public works yard itself that uh need that upgrade and the others entail U that talked about uh the former site of Ark Central as uh and some of neighboring homes around there certainly have some models including one at the table that's some beautiful trees and they grew within a couple years they were really a nice green barrier all all buffer for the uh the properties so I think we'll just need to identify the locations there and then we'll come back to you with some type of uh plan on that in a short amount of time and I was I started researching since Monday we talked about this there the some grant money I was talking to our grant specialist today he doesn't believe there's anything out there but we're going to keep looking great thank you that's good and those were the listed items I know there's been a whole host of meetings uh ongoing this week on a a lot of major topics uh I don't know if we're at a position to give any uh recommendations or anything but I don't know yesterday's yeah yeah we we definitely I you give a a brief overview I think would be so we had a meeting yesterday um with the superintendents of Central Regional High School members of their uh School Board as well as our Seaside Park um local school board members in that Administration um as well as members from gocraft myself mayor and Karen um to discuss the uh feasibility study and the activity going on with the you know proposed withdrawal of Seaside Heights from Central Regional and what the impact would be on Seaside Park if that were to be approved and what central regional is asking and that we said we would continue in good faith discussions with them but make no commitment to participate is they're looking to do an additional feasibility study um partnering up um with Ocean Gate um not necess necessarily because of the Seaside Heights proposed withdrawal um but to do its own feasibility study of the impact to all of the sending districts and what might be other alternatives for that Regional School District um because right now the state is encouraging k through 12 um regionalization as opposed to what a lot of the ascending municipalities have now which is a very disjointed um I guess uh flow for the children money aside it's not the best educational experience I mean there's always a financial impact but what's the impact for the students so we're going to follow up with a second session with them next Friday um to sit at the table where they're having a consultant third party very consultant um make a proposal to them about such a like a secondary feasibility study that they would sponsor and that's very funded by a state Grant that's the status as it a preliminary um estimate from the the CFO Kevin oay um said that if Seaside Heights pulls out it would be a 4 and5 C increase uh on our tax dollar again this is just preliminary and that was his initial assessment I'm sure uh uh our residents in the audience are very concerned about this they're wondering what that number is but that's what it looks like at this time I would just I guess not to undo what you just said but the caveat on that is there's a lot of assumptions built into that and that would be over the course of five years yes it's a stage number the first year would be no impact and after uh 5 years it would build up to that of course it would be all relevant the 20% potential impact over the course of 5 years to go 2 it's a staged increase Jesus you want information again preliminary you know you know how many ascending districts go to Central how many Town c yeah for Ocean Gate Highland Heights Seaside Height Seaside Park and Berkeley town There's a majority okay so this going affect all them all the sending correct yes thank you and we also anything else on that specific topic obviously there's no recommendation or determination at this point but uh much appreciate all the hard work and monitoring it uh and those in attendance and keeping uh going on that issue and Reporting back we also had a uh meeting today uh with our special projects engineer de ROM who's also the engineer for the planning board and it entailed some recommendations from the planning board as to the placing of a new cable across barette Bay for jcpnl and what would happen in their dismantling and abandonment of the existing cable and the planning board had a lot of very real concerns concerning impacts and uh that's still ongoing as well but we did make some progress they didn't put in writing what they would commit to but obviously they're right in an area that changed the location now to be the north side of the boat ramp where previously was the south side and it entails uh going over or under the County's outfall pip so obviously that's of substantial concern as to any impact of taking that offline uh also the equipment there was concerns as to the native plantings that are there and certainly concerns were raised as to leaving that cable abandoned in the bay and the planning board made reference as did the public who attended that meeting that uh there's impact from Ice there's impact from storms such has just occurred uh where that cable has come up the old cable and it's right in the prime area with kayakers jetcar boers fishermen and kids that are walking there uh and as such it's already potentially Hazard is and it's we've brought that to the attention of jcpml as well and it's something that they should address no matter what they do with this other project um and of course the uh issue that uh we' gained a lot of familiarity with was the uh portion of their approval that uh happened and seemed like a manner of weeks that uh they can go ahead with their project because it's labeled apparently to be in the public interest and as such they uh were given uh permits uh including but not limited to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and they were uh allowed to go ahead with this project in the bay and of course the disruption of Acres of sa underwater Eel Grass that uh the planning board brought that up uh as well so that's that's another concern and they're uh going ahead with the Army Corps saying that they're just going to monitor it that's that's what we were advised meeting May the the cable's going going to be protected with a um matting concrete matting I have concerns over that because the matting is going to be put right on the surface of the bay blocks are approximately 6 in high and I felt that was a hazard when you come with your boat you're not going to have a Sandy base it would be concrete You' be hitting concrete approximately 80 ft out so um we have no detailed drawings more more information would be provided and Ocean County hadn't been noticed formally uh and they hadn't solicited their opinion obviously it's County Road but it's also the county outfall 5 that that was another issue that we brought to their attention as D approve this new change apparently so have so hypocritic just like one project gets the car L green light and everything else gets held up so very disturbing and I know there's another Major meeting tomorrow probably a lot of uh ongoing uh work this past week with uh various significant topics m b would be pertaining to the new well there yes the location and um how we're going to move forward on that anything else from Council on the work session can I just back just one second the central regional things thinking about it the other key thing that I think came out of yesterday's meeting is and I think June actually proposed it that we ensure that our representative on the Central Regional School Board our representatives from the Seaside Park School and us establish a standing committee so that we can all be aligned and sending the right the same consistent message assuming that we all have the same we come to the same conclusion of what we want right but we're sending one message to C you know to the Central Regional School Board versus kind of being each working independently and I think that's great yeah and we kind of created a committee didn't we yeah that's right yeah yeah we had that working group and I think everyone is uh learned a lot and is eager to continue uh June serves as a chair of the local school board and we had Julian pen who's here representative is here and we had uh obviously council member condos has a great deal of experience having served on that uh our local board for so long and she was there along with council member craft with his abilities on budget issues was very welcome running the numbers right on the spot with all the central regional representatives and we had a Berkeley uh representative as well yeah and U met the new superintendent our district anything else from Council just one quick question and probably for Steve but in a demolition contract for the desert pal can we put a penalty Clos in because you're running really close to Summer they supposed to be done by May 24th can we make that an absolute drop dead dat or they pay penalty we definitely don't want that going on in the summer time um I'm not preparing the bid but you always can put in a penalty clause for uh missing a deadline that wouldn't be uncommon quite frankly in public contracts good point than you anything else from Council if not we'll go into the audience for any public comments on any work session items if anyone has them if they could give their name address under the record June june4 I just wanted to emphasize that what that meeting yesterday did not commit us to anything to regionalizing changing what it does give us is a seat at the table and rather than have the information about what happened happens and what the the procedures are from this ASB cour press or trib burrow or or even shorty um we want to have somebody of some of us there so we hear at firsthand so that's the only reason why I would be inclined to uh join and what they want us to do is just say we're willing to look at regionalization or k it's not regionalization it's K through 12 School District so that's the only thing that we want to be in on the decisions rather than sitting outside and be able to ask we own questions right ask the questions because we do have some information that they may not be G so that I just want to make that clear good point Thank you any other public comments on work session items yes Ed 8548 11th Avenue I have a question on the um demolition of desert the projected demolition of desert P does that mean that the litigation has moved forward or has ended or that's my question cuz I know that if been told that you know the price has not been agreed upon and it's in litigation my question is has the litigation move forward has it ended has there a resolution it's still in litig I don't represent the town on that but as I understand it's still in litigation so we're allowed to demolish yeah because in the condemnation you take title you have a take and you take title so it's yours the issue is um price okay thank you you're welcome any other public comments on work session items hearing none I'll close the public portion I'd entertain a motion from the council to adjourn the work session take a few moments and then go right into the regular meeting motion by council member amabile second by council member Conor roll call council member Anil yes council member condos oh I'm sorry I didn't do okay yeah council member Connor yes council member craft yes council member Renda yes counc president will