oh uh good evening everyone this is a meeting of the Titan Falls borrow Council being held November 21st 2023 this meeting is hereby called to order would the clerk please read the open public meeting statement pursuant to section five of the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by posting on the bulletin board at Burrow Hall and by notification to the Asbury Park Press the Newark Star Ledger and the new coaster at least 48 hours prior to the meeting and filing with the burrow clerk all on December 20th 2022 thank you mayor I ask the clerk to call the role Miss Buckley here Mrs clay here Dr Dolan here Mr Nessie here here Mr menelli here at this time I would like to invite everyone to join me in the citing of the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I do the approval of the am minutes there are two sets of meeting minutes for approval may have a motion to approve the October 3rd 2023 regular meeting minutes motion may I have a second second may I have a roll call please miss Buckley yes Mrs clay yes Dr Dolan yes Mr Nessie yes Mr Manelli abstain uh m motion to approve the October 17th regular executive meeting minutes motion I have a second second I have a roll call please miss Buckley yes Mrs clay yes Dr Dolan yes Mr Nessie yes Mr menelli yes we'll move on to reports we have one Proclamation listed on the agenda tonight for the record in celebration of SE Brook's 25th anniversary we won't be reading it but uh we'll be posting it on the record we will now continue with the reports I will begin with Mr fall yes thank you council president and good evening everyone I have my annual report on the best practices inventory results as in Prior years The Bu is required to complete a best practices inventory that is prolongated by the state of New Jersey Division of local government services the inventory is meant to assess each municipality's compliance with various laws and evaluate implementation of fiscal and operational best practices this year's inventory had a total of 67 questions distributed amongst three scoring categories core competencies which had 36 questions best practices had 12 questions and unscored survey questions uh which was 18 questions a municipality must receive a a minim minimum score of 29 out of the 42 available points on the inventory in order to receive its full final state aid payment the Burrow's completion of the inventory resulted in a high score of 39 points out of the 42 possible points so the burrow will be receiving its full final state aid payment and that concludes my report thank you thank you Mr B Mr terao business administrator thank you council president good evening everybody uh I'm going to reserve my my comments I'm sure the liaison from the different um committees will report um respectively for October on the good doings of DPW and Department of recreation but I do just want to make a comment on consent agenda number eight and number nine um and thank uh senator gopal for assisting Us in getting uh funding from the DCA for $600,000 for the uh softball fields and another $50,000 for dollars for um security improvements uh for the police department and for um infrastructure improvements for the DPW for security measures here at DPW and that concludes my report so noted uh Mr stalky uh council president I have no report for tonight thank you uh Miss Hutchinson I have no report this evening thank you we'll move on to council reports Miss Buckley thank you council president um I have a number of things to report on and if I forget any of the town events I'm sure my other council members can filling for me um uh first and foremost uh as leaz on to the environmental commission um and myself and councilwoman clay for Green Team um I'd like to I think uh Charlie mentioned this last month as well but uh our burough won the sustainable Jersey bronze certification um and we also won of all the states of all the uh towns in the state we want the Rookie of the Year which is awarded to um a new town in the program that's receiving certification um and we were all present and honored as at that at the New Jersey League of U municipalities conference last Tuesday um and our DPW Mark shaffrey Caitlyn and vashy were there and Andy from The Office um and I'd like to thank the DPW and Charlie uh clerk's office um the uh Community Gardens uh and all the other entities that were involved in putting together of the package um and there's a couple of uh there's going to be environmental commission meeting I believe it's going to be December 14th um the final one for the year um and there's a couple of uh events coming up uh that folks have mentioned but the uh the tree lighting I believe is December be December 10th and I believe the manora lighting is December 4th 7th 7th 7th I'll let you you can talk to the details of that that's all for my report thank you Miss buley Mrs clay yes thank you council president um a couple of items on my report I just wanted to comment on um this year's Trunk or Treat um it was an outstanding event well planned and certainly well attended and much fun had by all another great job by our recreation department and and everybody that participated um the next item on uh the 26th of October um I was at our Board of Education meeting um there was a a lot of reporting out in terms of our state assessments K8 um and the Hib self assessment um it's really um noteworthy that um the uh in the school system in the K8 they're working very hard still working very hard on covid catchup as evidenced by the assessments that are are given to students and painstakingly analyzed um one of the teachers at the Middle School Mr Wexler those of you who had children the ages of of mine my grown children probably remember him he's actually retiring with 40 plus years so congratulations to Mr Wexler also in terms of Education last last meeting I reported out about Mr nappy from Mammoth Regional receiving State Teacher of the Year we're actually going to honor him here at our second December meeting so if you're here for that you will get to to be part of that um on uh Veterans Day I uh attended a ribbon cutting for a new business at the J Jersey Shore Outlets the chocolate moonshine uh so if you're in the market for holiday gifts it's a great place to check out I tried to go in and out very quickly um as councilwoman Buckley mentioned League of municipalities we received the uh the Bronze award for sustainable Jersey and the Rookie of the Year award I just wanted to mention um councilwoman Buckley talked a lot about um the group effort but it really was um an example of tenacity in terms of submitting submitting submitting items for approval and one of the reasons that we were able to get the Rookie of the Year is because we had such a broad range of items which speaks to the different people on the Green Team and on the environmental commission that were able to provide input and assist so that was really a a very exciting day um and did I have anything else I think that's it thank you thank you Mrs clay Dr duin thank you uh well tonight we're going to be uh voting on R 23173 resolution of Award of contract for the Falls Library tent Falls Library renovation uh there were bids that were accepted and open on November 3rd for this project with six bids received and it was the recommendation of the bur engineer Mr nef that the bid be Ed to the lowest bidder West End Kelly Builders LLC in the amount of 378,000 um first of all I'd like to thank our mayor our business administrator the burough engineer of course and our Chief Financial Officer Fallon and attorney sari for all their efforts during this project uh as I can see from tonight's uhen attendance by so many board members uh I can say this that the library Board of Trustees are very happy to see this promising result for all of their years of exhausting efforts to reopen the library and they're certainly on the way of becoming a reality so happy to see everybody here and of course I know that tonight vice president of the board Brian Perry will be reporting on behalf of the board during this public discussion if he's here Brian yep great so uh um we're looking forward to hearing from you Brian uh I'd also like to mention as a uh a visiting professor at rutar that I get notices every once in a while about what's happening in the state um so I wanted to just read something because we were very involved in this the state's largest academic health system and New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Center are launching this joint effort effort to provide the state of New Jersey with the state-of-the-art facilities translation research sophisticated Technologies nationally recognized faculty Physicians and staff that will reimagine cancer prevention diagnosis and treatment and this is of course where we come in the Vogal Medical Campus at Titan Falls a 200 million Outpatient Center in Mammoth County tinon Falls that will include comprehens of cancer Services Same Day Surgery on-site specialty services and Advanced Diagnostic Imaging and of course this notice goes out to all rers alumni so we really get a lot of recognition and it's wonderful uh that all these people were on board for this project I'm looking forward to it uh succeeding as well and I think that's it Mr President oh thank you Doctor you're welcome Mr Nessie thank thank you council president and good evening everybody uh first planning board um manarino Studios on 34 Apple Street uh submitted an application to expand their parking lot and add a uh driveway to the side of their building which was ultimately uh approved by the board um some safety issues came up with the driveway on the side but uh after discussing with our burough engineer Tom nef everything seemed to be uh safe um side note uh Lou Mar manarino excuse me the owner of manarino studios and L&M uh Sound and Lighting is uh an audio engineer for for many musicians in the world including uh but not limited to Paul McCartney Bruce Springstein the uh New York City philarmonic um which leads me to the next point that there are some really amazing people and businesses right here in Titan Falls and it kind of goes unnoticed sometimes I they've been on Apple Street for you know many years and I didn't know what they were or what they really uh you know did there um which brings my point that I think it's time that uh we develop a Economic Development Committee here in Titan Falls um I started poking around about a year and a half ago uh of what we need to do in Titan Falls and speaking with Chamber of Commerce which Jo Striker um Lou manarino is already on board so I'd like to get the ball going and uh see we could do with the economic development committee here in titin Falls um I also visited and uh attended the league of municipalities last week I met a lot of great people um took a lot of great classes and I hope to uh bring what I've learned here to the town and um finally if passed um I'd like to give a uh early congratulations if pasted to Gary Balwin being the mammoth County representative for division on Aging disabilities and veteran services here in titin Falls and that concludes my report thank you Mr Nessie you're welcome I have no report uh there are no ordinances for introduction or final conclusions this evening uh we can go to public discussion I have a motion to open the public discussion motion second second all in favor hi this is the time the public May comment on any topic for their choice please state your name and address with the record that limit your comments to 3 minutes none of you have ever met me before I'm new to town I'm Brandon Tobin uh five Chestnut Court just a couple quick things one 39 out of 42 is an excellent score thank you great work by everybody involved with that uh to the environmental commission people were coming up to me at the lead I'm on the American public work Association board and I do a lot of and they're coming up to me like look what happened you guys no one told me to go I'd have been up there Che for but it was great news and a lot of people were really buzzing about it that's excellent work three Cancer Institute save me speechless they're going put that sorry congratulations they discovered cancer me and treated it so fast he said you had a month more we would have said there's nothing we can do for you thank God for coming here to help I'll collect myself sorry um I'm vice president of American Public Works Association I cover Public Works in the entire State we have excellent people around the state but we are so spoiled in this town by how great our public works department is no one ever notices public works until the Street's not clear the tree is down the roads closed oh my God am I going to get around my life is been no one ever notices it I notice it because I see the great quality I know when I call I get an answer I know that we've had towns right near us where they had somebody who when that person left the person took over found 1,400 unanswered emails and phone messages we don't have that here we have an excellent team and really responsive people and I just think that that needs to be noted I know you guys know it but put it out in the public because they only notice something when they you know when it's not right then they go on tit andf social don't come to Council meetings no they go on tit andf fall social and complain like that's going to change anything but we have an excellent Public Works and that's just the latest thing to show how good a job they and the other citizens in town do lastly I'm in favor of the library being fixed up so thank you thank you I'm time to get back good evening Brian Perry 29 Columbia Drive I'm the vice president of the tinon Falls Library Association and our our patience and perseverance has has finally paid off here um we we did uh the architect went out uh for bids on the project we got very good competitive bids six biders um and uh we're within the budget um remember this is a project that we've been pushing for many years since we closed we're able to uh secure a matching Grant from uh from the state um from the uh State Library Association that's been around for many years unfortunately we weren't able to make the first round of funding we applied got the second round of funding and here we are today so I want to thank Council mayor not here today Administration um and on behalf of all the board members we are very pleased that uh you know it looks like we're going to be moving forward with the library so we appreciate your support um if you have any question questions now or afterwards I'd be happy to stick around and answer any questions you may have about the scope of the project timing wise if it does get awarded uh we should be wrapped up by the end of February and looking to uh make arrangements to uh move in and start serving the public again thank you thank you good evening Ellen Goldberg 90 Glenwood Drive um I do want to congratulate you because that's fabulous wonderful and I do want to say that I complement the uh DPW quite often so um I do recognize that we have a fantastic DPW here so um but who I really would like to give a compliment to tonight is Council Buckley and councilwoman clay because I feel that they were the driving force behind the Green Team and the reason why we really soared so high and so far uh this year in receiving the award that we received and I'm very very proud of both of you and thank you both for all the hard work and effort that you put in because you know you had the green team behind you and the environmental commission but you two really truly were the driving force behind it and you deserve the praise and the credit so um that and um you I know you mentioned the manover lighting but I didn't hear the date December 7th December 7th and the tree lighting December 10th 10th the 10th 10th 10th thank you um uh I also want to congratulate Mr nappy I think that is an amazing um uh reflection of our faculty and and you know just that him in particular um to receive that is is a very big deal so I'm excited and hopefully I can make it to that meeting um and I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving thank you you too you good evening uh Zachary nise 7 P Place tit and Falls New Jersey I have volunteered in this town for 10 years of my life and committed to providing emergency services to the community I just want to provide you and every resident of this town with some important information as of yesterday at 800 p.m. I was notified as president of Titanfall EMS that our paid agency which has no cost to the residents will be shut down in 40 days and the mammoth County Sheriff's Office will be taking over EMS operations I want to mention this to the board due to the decisions decisions all residents of Titan Falls will have a raise in tax dollars the county level titf Falls EMS North and titf Falls PID division was running a successful program that was providing dedicated ambulances to the residents of titf Falls as you know since the transition of titf Falls EMS South Closing titf Falls EMS North has been providing two ulises during the day at one at night those amulance were dedicated and stationed to this town the sheriff's plan will not do that the sheriff's ambulances will be floating around the county which causes a number of concerns with response time and high call volumes this Sol this service that the sheriff's office is providing as of January 1st we will be this service will be unreliable as they will be covering numerous towns in the area and not have committed ambulances to the residents of Titan Falls Sheriff golden also described the service as the program will be to assist local towns and not be primary to Titanfall's EMS the sheriff has stated he has an unlimited budget which will be funded by every tax dollar that we give to the county I want to make sure everyone is aware that not Titanfall's EMS decision it was the Burrow's decision to close down Titanfall's EMS paid and I believe that every resident should be notified of this change in conclusion as a volunteer of this town I would like to thank the burrow and councel for their support in funding the volunteer agency as we try our best to serve the residents of Titan Falls to the fullest extent possible we all have a full-time jobs which make it very hard for us to meet the town's needs but we do try our best but we do thank you for funding us and helping us serve the town that we love thank you is there anyone else good dropping my technology all over the place hi Mitch Colberg 21 Cedar Place Falls yeah right never mind um uh well I wasn't going to say anything and first before I do the annoying stuff uh also congratulations to uh Council woman Buckley and clay and Mr Nessie for their election Victory we are super psyched to see you back here for another term uh I didn't understand exactly what I just heard so I was just wondering if somebody can explain what the EMS situation is and will be if that's all doable here or yeah I'll explain as best best I can um uh titf Falls has been served by um volunteers uh for years over the past few years there are um paid members of The tinon Falls EMS um they've been working together what's going to happen now is the county is forming uh its own EMS uh division um they're going to have um at least I think three ambulances and three emergency response vehicles uh stationed uh here in tinon Falls they're going to be um hiring the paid employees of tinon Falls any anyone who's paid in tin Falls Ms who wants a job will be hired by the county and working for the county and paid by tax county tax offs along with a number of other people the County's really um ramping up an operation to provide um paid uh Service uh at at no cost to taxpayers by that I mean it's paid from the county tax dollars um the tin and Falls uh EMS V volunteers are going to hopefully continue exactly as they've been working before um the sheriff uh made a presentation last night and said that the volunteers are able to take as many shifts as they'd like on uh you know whenever they are available to do it the same way they've been doing now so if they work on a Wednesday night shift the volunteers do Sheriff will say that those volunteers get the the primary call um The Hope here and I think that the goal is to provide equal or hopefully better service to the residents of ttin Falls to anyone who's injured here in tinon Falls at a better cost uh to the to the taxpayers and I I think that hopefully work well there was there was a mention about one thing I needed to correct there was a mention about January 1st that that's a a Target date um that's if the county can get uh everything they need in place by then I don't know the County's targeting that date we're not sure if that will happen on January 1st it it may happen February 1st March 1st you know a little bit later than that um we're hopeful that during that time frame we can continue to work the same way we have been doing um you know until that transition can take place so yeah so um kind of like there's ambulances floa around so you said we have three dedicated year in town uh the the well no the The Proposal is to have three ambulances and I think three emergency response vehicles that will have medics in them a single Medic in them um available to service tinon Falls and eaten Town um you know this area that are going to be say dedicated to this area that's right the and the sheriff also said if more vehicles are needed more Vehicles will be provided he said the county intends to provide a very high level of service to tint fall surrounding areas to make sure they have very rapid response times make sure that residents who are in in need have those Services immediately um are they doing this is every town doing this or is it by choice or um right now um the sheriff described that the the count is is as I said they're they're they're ramping up they're starting this service in in this area and by this area he mentioned um tinon Falls eent Town um possibly Colts Neck and uh what was the third ocean Port that that's where they're starting I think they're the County's go I think is to expand that over time um but because they're just starting us up that the focus is in this area right now and they'll also be providing assistance he said like um right now they have uh you know um shared services agreements or count towns will cover each other he said if need is um if towns in those surrounding areas need assistance on you know an emergency basis second or third call if there's a mass casualty the can will certainly be available to assist with that as well um I I I believe that the titin and Falls EMS will continue to you know with their services to the township on the volunteers uh in coordination with with the county um paid service sounds okay any um is there some period of time where you kind of review and decide if it's going well or not or how would we as always I think with every service we'll we'll stand on top of it and make sure it works if it doesn't work we'll okay you know have discuss discusss and make sure it gets addressed or the like I said the goal is to have rapid response times for every every resident every person in need in tint and Falls awesome all right yeah thank you uh only call once maybe anyway but yeah people people like that it's been great so you love that and and I love public works too we talk about them all the time so not an entirely true statement anyway thank you very much anyone else not hearing is there at this time um at this time I'd like to ask the clerk if any public comment was submitted prior John there's one more comment oh I'm sorry hi my name is Christina Emer and uh live at 21 Thor's Road uh and I am part of Titan Falls EMS I have been a member for over 30 years and just to uh clarify for some of the residents that asked our paid Service as uh Zach had mentioned has been established for 15 years that was established to help our volunteers with the amount of call volume that was increasing in this town which you can contribute to a lot of our assisted living facilities right now and an increase in population um we do want to let you know that yes the Sheriff's Office did do this presentation last night and and as you have mentioned uh there will be three ambulances dedicated uh to the area and as mentioned it's not going to be just to Titan Falls it is supposed to be on the Titan Falls uh property but it will be surrounding towns eaten Town cols neck Titan Falls and Oceanport to start uh just be sure to know that right now our service during the day and and certain nights we do provide two ambulances during the day one in the North End one in the South End and at night we provide one in the North End so um just to clarify that for all of you and the problem that while Sheriff golden has a great idea and he is willing to assist all towns in this area please know that these ambulances that we have right now are dedicated to Titan Falls and we do Mutual Aid with our surrounding towns we have an agreement with all of them specifically oakers and Wan Massa uh do Mutual Aid with us so almost like a regional type situation so just wanted to make sure that everybody was completely aware of what was going on thank you anyone else at this time i' would like to ask the clerk if any public comments were submitted prior to the meeting via email there were none hearing no further comments may I have a motion to close the public discussion motion I have a second second all in favor I does any member of the council have anything to add um I I do Council imagin that's okay uh two things one I forgot to mention during my report um also on Veterans Day uh our soldier on which is our uh homeless now now homeed veterans community had a celebration that our bough was invited to which I attended along with uh councilman manginelli um and Dr Doan as former as well as former council president uh Gary Baldwin who as you know is a veteran as his mayor Perillo um it was it was a wonderful uh ceremony they honored uh particular veterans there uh they they later later wreath um by their columbarium uh it's a wonderful facility so I just wanted to thank them for the invitation uh and for the celebration uh the food was served uh free obviously by the JB J jbj Soul Foundation which has regular like cooking classes and things that they do on site it's really it's really a fantastic partnership um and even uh Netflix sort of as a as a good faith for them coming in the area they kind of sponsored the event and paid for a lot of different things there so I thought that was that was pretty fantastic um um also I just wanted to comment um on the um EMS um I just wanted kind of the public to be aware of the in our form of government this is not something that the council votes on so this is this is with under the perview of the administration so they can notify us and we can provide comment but it's not something that the council can decide on in our form of government every town as you know is different form of government so I just wanted to clarify that I also want to ask a question um I think Kevin mentioned shared services agreement will titin and Falls have a shared services agreement with the county for this uh no and I misspoken my terminology Aid uh is what I was talking about that the county will provide similar Mutual Aid uh as is being provided now to surrounding towns on an e needed basis but there's no we I don't expect to have a shared services agreement with the county okay will there be any sort of contract or like anything in writing around this I don't think we we need a contract to have the county provide law enforcement and and EMS services to our town I I don't anticipate one okay thanks that's all thanks thanks councilman anything else that's all thank you thank you council president uh we have uh one resolution to vote on separately this evening may I have may I have the clerk read the title of the resolution r- 23-16 66 resolution appointing a representative to the county of Mammoth communities division on Aging may I have a motion to approve the resolution motion I have a second second I have a roll call please miss Buckley yes Mrs clay yes Dr Doan yes Mr Nessie yes Mr Manelli yes we'll move on to the consent agenda before we do that are there any items any member of the council would like remove to be voted upon separately hearing none may have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion I have a second second I have a roll call please miss Buckley yes Mrs clay yes Dr Dolan yes Mr Nessie yes Mr menelli [Applause] yes [Applause] that's it right uh this concludes today's business may I have a motion to adjourn motion have a second second all in favor I I take this opportunity to wish everybody a happy holiday and a great Thanksgiving and thank you for coming tonight this concludes today's business may have a motion to adjourn you got it y uh