##VIDEO ID:mqguqw7oatc## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay think okay calling this meeting this work session to order it's 6:05 p.m. and uh would you join me and standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands Nation indivisible liberty and justice for all okay Madam clerk could you do the roll call please council member brusher here council member Coyle here council member Harris here council member Patel council member ptil council member pointer present council member schuel here thank you uh Council clerk um adequate notice please adequate this meeting as required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice Center the home News Tribune St Ledger Desi talk and news times on December 12th 2023 and post main the lobby Municipal complex on that same date thank you all right before we go to oral petitions just want to alert everybody this is U kind of late in the game but we have a closed session that we're going to do right after oral petitions it should be rather brief so hope you can stick around um but uh we're going to do the oral petitions first so we are going to start with Sue Malone Barber Su alone barbar 85 Pleasant Avenue you are recognized thank you uh I was out of the country last month but I stayed up until 2 am. to watch this Council pass the Amboy Avenue ordinance that lowers the max building Heights to three and a half stories 40 ft I would like to acknowledge and thank councilman pointer for working hard to get the ordinance to a place where it was able to pass and for calling me in England to give me a status update we appreciate you John I would also like to thank council president Patel Council VP Harris councilman Brasher and PTI for their support on this ordinance and for voting yes to pass it I would especially like to thank vice president Harris councilman Brasher and councilman batile who have been unwavering in their support of the Clara Barton community's eight almost ninee struggle to get building Heights lowered we appreciate the three of you this ordinance will hopefully prevent Amboy Avenue from becoming an urban Canyon and protect the quality of life for residents with homes directly behind ambo Avenue I would also like to acknowledge the mayor who took time and his team would took time for many meetings with us and urge him and his administration to take steps to purchase the steart slot as the ordinance suggests part of a sound revitalization plan for Amboy Avenue should include Green community space this is expressly stated in the master plan and it will enhance quality of life for the residents and people who visit the ambo Avenue and the look and feel of our commercial Corridor and finally I'd like to publicly thank all the Edison residents who supported Clara Barton with their public comments um uh especially Joel bassoff who tirelessly supports writing the wrongs in our town and stands up for his fellow Edison neighbors and the causes he believes in even if the issues at hand do not impact him personally I think we're lucky to have Joel in our midst now I'd like to comment on some of the points raised by council members before the ordinance passed I agree that the ordinance does not address some really core uh problems regarding the revitalization of Amboy Avenue Amboy Avenue needs a cohesive plan many of us still believe in ankor restaurant on the Jade Dynasty lot will go a long way and enticing people to come to Clara Barton but my questions are what attention is being paid to energizing this commercial Corridor how do we entice businesses to set up shop here where are we with establishing a Redevelopment agency I see there's a something on the agenda tonight um that can focus on Amboy Avenue and other Redevelopment areas in Edison I contend that Amboy Avenue is unique as there are no Redevelopment areas in Edison that Encompass an entire commercial Corridor I think Amboy Avenue needs some bespoke focus and a dedicated Redevelopment agency would give us that finally I would like to comment on some things that councilman Coyle said at the last meeting and prior to that while I'm sure it bolsters his narrative to say otherwise when residents met back in April to discuss what we'd like to see on Amboy Avenue in response to the mayor's request I assure you it was not just a group of senior citizens who attended the meeting we blanketed the claraa Barton Community with emails and flyers and invited as many residents as we could to share their opinions 100 people of varing Ages came to express those opinions in person another 60 responded to a survey and others wrote directly to various council members in the ensuing months since then residents have attended many Council meetings to keep voicing the urgency to lower the building Heights along Amboy Avenue business owners had the same opportunities as residents to express their opinions I have no recollection of even one stepping up at a council meeting to express opposing views we are very appreciative of councilman Coyle's meaningful attention to Amboy Avenue but but maybe once and for all we can agree that he will stop insulting people over 50 in Clara Barton and we can all move forward to make Amboy Avenue a place where people want to stop shop and eat one final remark I think we should remember that you can always count on seniors to vote it might pay to be nicer to them thank you very much thank you Su all right next we have artificial intelligence thank you artificial intelligence am I recognized you're recognized thank you through the chair to councilman Brer because he's the only one who listens and and and the council vice president I found the uh addressing the council thing it's it was taken off last time but I find it rather strange because what I'm doing right now speaking through the chair to you it that wouldn't be allowed if that had gotten passed and I'm just how is that possible because at the beginning of the year you guys vote for Robert's Rules of Order and that's part of Robert's Rules of Order so I don't you know that whole ordinance that you guys were trying to put in it made no sense other than trying to make people people's times for a minute and taking out rebuttal um I find it rather strange it's like the mayor's trying to change the format how we speak to to our public officials how our public officials speak to us I find it rather disgusting as a resident that the council people can't speak on topics that they want to speak about unless they put it in a week prior am I correct that's how it's being done you have to put it in a week prior and the reason why I find that disgusting is because when coun when when Mayor Sam josi was a councilman he would stand up there speak on something for 20 minutes something he said would make no sense the lawyer would say that's completely illegal waste everyone's time and now all the rights he enjoyed as a councilman he wants to take those rights rights away from you guys and you know that's just an observation that I'm making I don't know why you guys have haven't made that observation yet and I just find that completely disgusting how much time do I have left Marina 4 minutes four minutes um I have three religions nowhere does it say you only have to have one religion um I'm a Christian I'm Rastafari in the fact that I smoke weed and yeah and also I believe in the religion of anonymises what our name and address even though it's a violation of Fourth Amendment right but what I'm even worse more afraid of through the chair to Chief of Police is if you ever watch the Terminator movies these artificial intelligence you understand in all these cameras they're stealing all my points of identification on my face and I didn't consent to that so sometimes you know whether for for health reasons or for reasons you know know because that's what the law says if you want privacy you have to create your own privacy and that's that's what I'm doing here that's what I do here sometimes and you know sometimes I decide to put on the mask artificial intelligence let me let me just stop your time if you if you do choose to put the mask on I'm okay with it um I would just ask that you speak very clearly and loudly into the microphone okay absolutely no I was I was going to take I was taking it off right away anyways to continue speaking um proceed okay yeah so and I just find it very disturbing even after I let the council president know hey this is a part of my my new religion he just continued violate violating My First Amendment right and I'm not okay with that I think people mock me whether you know people say hey that's a religion I know or I don't know it doesn't matter I'm telling you that's my religion and time after time it's getting violated and I don't appreciate that God Bless America and to the to the lawyer through the chair of the lawyer um you guys never answer me when I ask questions about the mask yet you answer other people part of when when you ask the uh answered another individual you spoke about the Quorum and you guys have a list of quote unquote deorum rules nothing in there says you have to wear a mask or what kind of mask you can wear that's number one so that's the council president using his perception again abusing his authority um nowhere does it say last time I got removed because I wouldn't put on a mask through the chair to council uh men Brer last time they had this blacks only stand where they created a wooden stand that people if they didn't have a mask on or they didn't take if people felt they didn't get the covid vaccine they were supposed to speak into another Podium which we all know it was created for me I call it the black's only podium in this generation um so the fact that I'm being given such a hard time for wearing a mask and what mask I can wear I think people are abusing their power and authority just to to bully me councilman pressure because because when Co went on people wore all types of masks speaker has one minute people wore all types of masks but that's neither here nor there I wish you guys can answer me on the fact that Mayor Sam joi's changing the format on how we speak to our government officials this is the by law the perfect time place and manner to address you guys and when he takes away that even two minutes takes away that rebuttal he takes away our time our little bit of time we have throughout the year to speak with you guys and let you guys know air our grievances to you and I and I think that's very disrespectful um stop catering to Mayor Sam joi's tyrannical ways God Bless America vote for Donald Trump okay and this Camala haris she's a lunatic how much time do I have left she went after people for smoking marijuana she she went after mothers okay who kept their children away from thank you council president yes if I can just address his concern of course um Crystal well your your concern I guess about the 4 five minutes I guess we look at at that a little differently um or our mayor puts on some great shows and to me that four to five minutes that was one of the greatest shows because at that time we had where we took police and that was being paid with your tax dollars okay that should have made FR page news but when you throw something out there that's so outrageous like going from 6 minutes to 4 minutes and cutting the public time the public becomes more concerned with that and what I looked at you know when that came up was that was just a distraction to be quite honest with you a distraction from taking the police to Chicago on vacation um which to me is a more important thing and um I I think we should really focus on that if the meetings get cut back it's the voter's privilege to vote in new Council people so you know that at the end of the day everybody makes decisions and everybody has consequences with those decisions um so it's not that we don't pay attention we did thank you council president thank you councilman Brer uh moving on Octor Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue you recognized all right I have about five things to talk about I hope I have enough time I want to talk about the fall family spectacular it was a good idea but um I had a couple concerns about that I wonder if anyone has done a study about when it rains in clar Barton and what happens to the businesses there so I went and took my own time and I went to five businesses and asked them how was your business today given that um the roads were closed and it was was bad weather and they said that they were doing poorly because there wasn't enough people there and they couldn't have things like door Dash um and other delivery so I think that if there is a rainfall next time that we should cancel or have a rain date or something like that because I think we're supposed to be trying to help the businesses and that wasn't the feedback that I got about Jackson Avenue councilman Brasher I think you were one of the furthest Council people from claror yet you drove over to Jackson Avenue and walked door to door to interact with each person there about the expansion plan the gist that I got from you last time was that we need better communication particularly with more advanced notice of agenda items now the agenda items was another thing or the agendas in general was another thing I was going to talk about was going to say to our council president but he's not there um this is a third time asking this question is there a reason why agendas come out so late and how can we expedite the distribution of them councilman PTI Brasher and Court can you also give me some historical context about how the agendas were posted and when in the past and the reason I'm asking you is because you guys have been on the council for a very long time about subcommittees of reducing public comments from six to four minutes I hope your findings do not talk about offline Communications as a solution because I have two recent examples of showing where this didn't work and two emails email number one I email council members poiner pel qu schmuel who initially voted to reduce public speaking time I asked to have have them identify which ways I can deliver my message from six minutes to four 4 minutes and the only person that contacted me was councilman pointer email number two I asked for an update about the collar on the manhole covers after receiving a nixel alert that Amboy Avenue was going to be repaved it was addressed to councilman coil and Sonia no response was given I'm going to move on to my next point and this one is probably going to be a little spicy and all it is is just you know combination of eight months and comments that were said last time so it's about the see senior citizen remarks by councilman Coyle councilman Coyle I'll give you the opportunity to clarify your statement that senior citizens don't want any change a statement like this is a dangerous stereotype for the record anyone that is 50 now was 41 years old when they when and talked about the ordinance in 2016 back when I was young and had mostly black hair of course so forgive me if I'm confused about your unscientific correlation of age to opposition on another note there are several lists that exist exists you spoke about one one of the reasons that the council wasn't invited to the first aid Squad was because I wanted the residents to feel comfortable and speak candidly you were not on the email list so it's curious why any email list was shared with you but I'm more curious about this supposed list that you had we never disclosed the names of the people at best you probably had email addresses so I'm not sure how you extracted names from email addresses as a subo I wanted to ask councilman Cole um in the nine years almost nine years and as a 30-year a resident that did many things to beautify Amboy Avenue and as a president of the Chamber of Commerce why didn't you do the following one bring the professionals that would suggest that appropriate actions were taken in 2016 when the first ordinance was passed and yet it wasn't we almost got an H style building if it wasn't for the residents opposing it which seemed to go against form-based code you were on the planning board and set the stage for this to happen I take exception that you state that I only got involved because of where I live I worked harder than just about anyone to try to remove that H story building because I care about clar B and Edison as a whole to attribute what I have tried to do for clar Barton to just Stewarts is insulting and ill-informed everyone knows that I publicly Advocate across Edison you claimed that we only had a few people go to meetings and we didn't bring college students who can't afford a place um businesses Etc but with all due respect if you thought that was the case why didn't you bring any one of those people or those groups of people to any of the meetings you also said that we didn't do this current ordinance correctly do you again I don't think the 2016 ordinance was done correctly we didn't get the Professionals for that that ordinance did not go through all the different ways that you wanted this one to go through and so my question is why in the eight years nine years didn't you go ahead and say something about that it was only until we started putting out a new ordance and I feel like that's cherry picking it best the four-story part of this plan did not produce any results it's time for a new plan and me mobilizing people and speaking to the mayor the answer May lie in the Redevelopment agency and bonds I take pride in participating in organizing grassroot movements and being involved in several others speaker has one minute thank you people have recognized my dedication it would be nice if this Council recognizes that I am doing what's right for all of Edison I look forward to everyone's answers Oar did you want some answers to the questions that you talked about agendas being out late and and several other things did you want some answers to those questions thank okay okay um all right who can speak to the agenda situation Council vice president sure uh just from an ordinance perspective um departments have until the Wednesday before a work session meeting to submit their agenda items so in my experience I would get the agenda items on that Wednesday I would do my review follow up on Thursday with the administration on my questions and concerns usually there would be a little back and forth to work out some of those items and then once I get those clarifications I would then submit it for I'm just going to because my time's okay but because the ordinances written that departments have until Wednesday usually the council president wouldn't get those items either until the end of Wednesday or early on Thursday right one of the suggestions from the subcommittee was hey instead of Wednesday why not not Tuesday right add in an additional day to make sure that uh the council president is time to review it and add in the additional time to get it out earlier um that would be though why in my experience at least why it came out when it came out thank you uh Council vice president thank you councilman pointer uh I think you had a question about the manhole covers as well all right um who can respond to oar's concern about the manhole covers uh just on on record I don't have his email so if he could reward it to me that' be great thank you thank you very much okay we're off the list now anyone want to speak yes sir good evening Thomas Thomas lucky Netherwood Circle you are recognized okay first of all I want to thank the township for reinstalling the billboard sign at John Adams Middle School and asking people not this not the park along new do Road it only helps the uh the school Personnel safety officers and all having to direct traffic in and out of the parking lot which is which is uh bit crazy at times so I want to thank putting the sign up second topic uh today I know notice that oh I don't know if Inman Avenue falls under County or Township jurisdiction but today I noticed that at the intersections of Inman and Churchill Inman and Wintergreen Inman and Grove Avenue they're redoing the uh I guess the Ada uh compliant uh sidewalks my understanding they were done a little bit I think they were done a few years ago now we're red now they're being being redone just don't understand the logic of you know having to resend money you know along those lines so you know somebody could look into that and you know see if that if in fact that that had to be redone versus you know nice to have that would be great then the last topic I want to talk about is about about the six minutes that uh that was that ordinance or whatever was table whatever you call was tabled last month month take a little bit of time I reflect on the discussions and all that and I I go back to my my you know my working days when I was before I became a senior and uh when I when we used to have meetings we used to assign action items to at meetings a lot of a lot of people that come up myself included been asking to say same stuff for the past several months getting and not getting answers now if there was an action item list with priorities assigned to them as well as an individual assigned to that action item to to to you know Solve IT resolve it that may cut down the number of people talking now you're always going to get some people that want to talk so you're not going to it's not your council meeting isn't going to go down meeting isn't going to go down to zero as far as you know people you know coming up to the podium but it it might be a way that if you know like I say develop an action item list I don't know who would who would uh take ownership of that list whether it's you know secretary uh council member something assign assign a corresponding council member to that action item and assign a a time frame called P1 P2 P3 for one month two months 3 months that way you can possibly go and help eliminate then you know all the people getting up here talking and then you can probably and Council meetings could then probably have you know close quicker than what they're doing now thank you thank you sir anyone else from the public council president I would like to make the remark of course yeah thank you sir for attending the council meeting just to rehash this is a strong mayor weak Council body this Council has no jurisdiction in fact when the resident is coming to the podium they have very limited I would say the the powers to enact on those action atoms so if the mayor and the administration is doing their job I don't think anyone will come here and speak to this Council as far as your action items are concerned this is probably happening last couple of years you come here you speak half of the time questions are not noted down and you don't get the right answer and this is not something that we had experienced in the past but this is a recurring phenomenon that is happening last couple of years so you're right but I think the best way is to send an email to Administration and then come here and ask Administration hey what did you do when I sent you the complaint because this body has literally no authority to act on any of the item that you are asking we are happy to follow up what you're asking for but if we don't get the cooperation from mayor's office you will keep coming and asking these questions that's what I want to say thank you council president thank you okay anyone else from the public want to speak yes ma'am mu you from 210 Jackson Avenue thank you you recognized thank you first of all I would like to thank the township for sending the um the information um that we requested it finally came in the mail this afternoon and second of all I wanted to address that I agree that Jackson Avenue needs Rehabilitation and needs Improvement but just now not widening the streets because we have had the concerns we have expressed our concerns first if you widen the streets it will creates more traffic especially the big trucks the 18 wheelers and then if you widen the street the trucks are going to be closer to our front door when I read through the um the plan came in the mail there's no single word mentioning about the trucks which is actually the big issue causing the deterioration of our Jackson Avenue but there's no words not a single word about the trucks so my suggestion is that we need to address the trucks problems and then we focus on the Improvement of Jackson Avenue thank you thank you anyone else okay can I get a motion to close the public portion mot to close and who seconded someone right thank you thank you okay all right um I guess we need a motion to go oh all in favor I'm sorry all in favor I I okay um motion do we make a motion to go into public into the Clos session yes okay all right can can I get a motion to go into Clos session motion to go into Clos session second second thank you very much uh we are going into closed session what's that oh I'm sorry all in favor hi hi okay all right hopefully we'll be back soon thank [Music] you did you just I I I printed it out from what um yes got okay yeah I printed it out so when you come back e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay we're good all right can I get a motion to go back into session the work session motion to reconvene second can I get a second councilman thank you okay I didn't do the second that was second was uh Council M okay okay okay uh we're going on to number five which is review of the minutes any comments on the work session of September 23rd or September 25th any comments all right seeing none we go to reports from all Council committees I'm going actually I'm going to start from the left my left this time uh I'm going to start with councilman schoel not at this time okay councilman pointer uh thank you Council vice president the subcommittee in regards to uh Council rules and procedures we are meeting on Wednesday that would be it thank you thank you uh councilman Brer uh not at this time not at this time okay and I don't know if councilman Coy has any but uh I've got as usual I've got some uh committees and commissions if I can find them that's not it I think I left what's that I'm so sorry oh my gosh oh my gosh I recognize you C deal I'm so sorry yeah Board of liazon meeting is scheduled tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. okay that's it thank you um um wait for councilman coil to come back yeah councilman Coy do you have any uh any reports none okay all right as for myself um the animal shelter the report from September adoptions six dogs one chicken Nine Cats currently in the shelter 15 dogs four cats and 11 kittens on November there's going to be a Tricky Tray at the Moose Lodge car show brought in after all the matching donors $601 which is excellent uh there was a rabies clinic that was held on the 5th and that is the animal shelter and I will give the October I will give the October report in the November meetings um the cultural arts commission met on October 1st and um first of all the um the gz Festival All Things Considered given that the the weather was horrible and we had to move it inside to mini be ve we actually got 95 people in attendance which was really amazing and um I was able to be in I was able to be present for the beginning it was uh the the I think it was the dancers and it was the alumni ban from JP Stevens unfortunately I missed the other acts but they are available for those interested they are available on Edison TV and it's in two parts so um special things that go out to Judy Tindle and and ual uh Kumar castano uh who really really did a great job in in fundraising and in putting this together um and we are looking it's looking like for next year the jazz festival is going to be on Sunday the Sunday afternoon next year and which is fine which is really good um we're going to for Hispanic heritage day the display is not up the display is not up as of yet it's uh we're getting some people from the Edison High School who are bringing in items to display in the in the gallery uh students are still in process of mounting the art and pictures they need frames wires and Etc they need phone board Kathleen kuchi gave them a link items need to be the items that need to be mounted for framing they have to be out of the gallery by the 31st so students need to get their pieces together for installation for next week which is this week uh there's going to be a domestic violence display November 1st with Bob dudash and Andy to for public uh Public Safety display uh exhibit screening process administrator this role is to oversee any applications admitted to the the cultural arts commission for exhibits in the Gallery Third Floor Gallery and in the future foron house the administrator will review applications make sure all correct information is supplied and dates comply with rules established Tony masero would like to appoint Lois tar as the exhibit as the exhibit screening process administrator the cultural arts commission agreed to the appointment as administrator she can select one or two Cultural Arts commission members to work with her Diana volunteered to work with this and Edison Arts Society is an exhibit that they want to install on the third floor November 1st and Bob deal to be notified uh and currently there is by the way by the Edison arts society there is a display up on the third floor I think it's called through the seasons and um it's it's really lovely and those pieces are for sale and uh they're really quite lovely um let's see uh um we were looking to paint utility boxes and um we are waiting for someone to get back to us about uh to with through whom to go through uh in order to be able to do this so many other towns have this and I'm always I'm always impressed with that and it's something that I notice because it's uh it it really does add something to these towns and I've seen this in so many other towns so we need to find out offand and Sonia do you have any idea who we would contact through whom we get the permission to do painting of the utility boxes those are generally utility agreements we would have to work out all right so how would we go what how do we start that process going I'll touch base with u Mr Burns about um what we could essentially do if there's any agreements that we what is the um idea I guess well it's it would be getting whatever local artists to do paintings and or murals that would be on those boxes I'm sure you've seen in in a lot of towns that they do that yes so what you could do one of the one of the ways you could do that is through an RFP and you could then receive um proposals from artists but the first thing I'd probably want to work out is if there are any utility agreements that we have to work legally on our end okay can that's how I would do it two ways okay so can you check on that end of it I'll follow up with u Mr Burns tomorrow great okay thank you very much um let's see I think the next meeting for the cultureal Arts commission is November 12th uh human relations commission is meeting tomorrow and Library board is meeting on a week from Thursday which is offand does anyone know the date of next Thursday uh 9 10 11 uh the 18 I think it's the 18th um and those are my reports next say 17th 17th I'm sorry the 17th um okay now we go to Points of Light anyone have any points of light to share okay councel vice president yes um I just want to recognize uh today o October 7th uh it's been one year since uh Hamas uh attacked innocent civilians and uh took him hostages in in Israel um and 97 of which are still being held captive some were killed some were rescued uh and it's a somber day uh for for me and my family it's a somber day for uh our community at large uh it's a somber day I think for for Humanity uh but what I'd like to recognize and and there's always a server lining in in every uh in every tragedy uh the people of Edison I'd like to recognize them and thank them and uh and appreciate them uh our mayor the police department the this Council um while what happened on October 7th uh brought on hate and anti-Semitism Edison has been a safe haven for our community it's been a place where we feel safe where hate doesn't belong and it's really attributed to to everybody that I listed the people of Edison our mayor our Police Department our Council uh so I appreciate that our community appreciate that and I think our residents appreciate Edison being the safe place of this to live thank you Council Vice pres thank you councilman Schmo councilman Co thank you council president I just want to Echo the sentiments of my Council colleague Assaf shuel um and thank the countless times our our Public Safety was there um for your community and uh I know you've mentioned that a lot of times how many times um the chief and his uh Patrol was always out there and available to help and um definitely a sad day on this uh year anniversary switching uh gears council president I just wanted to mention a a person who passed away Anthony U the Edison fire department is mourning the loss of retired fire captain Tony Keta senior who passed away peacefully at his home on October 3rd at the age of 8 7 Captain ketto dedicated his life to serving his community both As A Firefighter and as a veteran born and raised in Edison Captain ketto was a true local he graduated from the brunic high school in 1956 and served his country in US Army from 1960 to 1962 including a tour Duty in South Korea he was awarded a a Good Conduct award and he was a marksman medalist as well for his service thank you council president thank you uh some reminders or for me yum kipur begins on Friday October 11th at sundown and I want to wish all of our Jewish friends and neighborsa the recreation department is hosting the Edison Township Harvest fund Festival on Saturday the 12th from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Edison Light Tower unfortunately this year the Trail of Terror has been can canell Township offices are closed on Monday October 14th for Columbus Day and I think it's also indigenous people's day and one last reminder leaf bags are still being given out at 7:45 New Durham Road until November 2nd Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. okay um so on to number eight which is from the business administrator a any comments or questions okay seeing none number nine from the Department of Finance any questions or concerns all right moving on to number 10 from the Department of Health any questions or comments question yes councilman brusher um this year we're just we're increasing this by 25,000 correct yes so we've already expended the 150 to date excuse me one second let me pull that expended that's correct so we're asking asking for an additional 25,000 okay and what did we spend in like 2022 let's say we've typically spent about 150 more or less each year we've allocated um but one of the things I can just explain to you if you recall when we first um had the assistance of the um inhouse veterinarian who did resign um so now we've on fully with the traveling vet and three other facilities so it's VCA Garden State emergency vet we're very happy with their services so and we would like to continue to do so however there is the extra expense um I do feel it is warranted because we've been a lot more proactive with the care of our animals and I think that's helped a lot with most of our adoptions not all of them and that we' we've got some really um good healthy animals at the shelter as opposed to um you know I think we're being a lot more proactive so a lot of these um services are helpful to for us to mitigate any potential issues at the at the animal shelter so the shelter is getting better um because we're investing a little bit more into it I believe so yes and our staffing is should be commended for that as well all right thank you thank you any other comments or question questions no okay on to 11 from the Department of planning and Engineering comments or questions some questions councilman Brer I guess I'm going to start backward um oh the um G for affordable housing planning and Consulting Services uh this is coming out of what fund the trust fund for affordable housing okay and how much did we spend for this same service um let's say last year or 2022 um I can get that to you tomorrow okay uh f for the F's okay um this is really for our our Paving program right uh F I guess it was a concrete company Road resurfacing program yes yes for 23 okay and can we just get a list of the the roads that we're going to pave in that program um I believe I've already provided that but I can resend that to you okay and then I guess this is the the Jackson Avenue um you know the last meeting we talked about notifying the residents and I and I guess we had one that received it in the mail today um that's a but it it doesn't change the fact that the people of Jackson Avenue um more than a majority of them like 80% of them didn't want the road widened so why would we be doing the Grant and going down that road without having their input council president just from a procedural standpoint it was tabled that's why it's on here however the letter states that there is a meeting on October 15th so certainly um however the council would like to motion that but that was the letter advising residents of this meeting on the 15th next week okay so we're going to we should accept the grant before we find out that the residents don't want it I that's up to you guys um procedurally last time it was only put off until October 9th so that that notification could be put together sent out residents could be made aware of it so because it was tabled until this week it's going to show up on this agenda doesn't mean that it has to be voted for you make the determination to table it again take it off the agenda entirely any of that can happen but because of how it was handled at the last meeting it has to show up on this agenda at least for the work session until the determination is made how you guys want to proceed and if I may it it is um am I correct that we can approve the grant But ultimately decide not to go through with the project and then return the grant money I don't think so I would that's something you're going to have to look into the terms of the grant itself before you can answer that question I the Grant in front of me so I can't tell you yes or no often times once you accept it you've got to find a use for it um under the terms of the grant because their budgeting process they're essentially putting out the money impacts where they can put other money so they they make requirements on the township as a condition of accepting the grant so it has to be looked at before she can answer that question the other thing is too I don't I don't think it would be a good idea to accept a grant take the money in and not spend it because what happens is when we go and apply for other grants you know it would look um we probably wouldn't um look very appealing to someone to get to get money for something we don't spend money on so I think I I would um say that if you want to table this that may be what you may want to do until the meeting happens next week but have we not in the past accepted grant money that we wound up not using and then we had we wound up returning refunding the grant not intentionally but with given the scenario of this that there's concerns about the proposed plan I probably would recommend that to to wait until you formally accept it from hearing the you know hear from the residents first is what I'm saying I don't want to accept the money and then not spend it because next time we go apply for a grant we may not get it because we're not spending it in the manner in which we've requested it okay any other questions or comments about this Council p c president on the grant you know we we have done the the past we did accept and we didn't spend we ended up going giving back but that's not the good Trend and I agree with you we should table it until we firm up the decision whether to accept or not because it will not look good from the future Grant application standpoint of view the the question on F there are three contracts $2 million uh I know you did share the list of the roads to be paved but my question is I believe we have somewhere $6 million5 and half $6 million that's budgeted for the paving program so do we know the schedule of the rest of the Road res resurfacing program are you referring to 24 23 23 yeah okay um Brian if you wouldn't mind cuz this 2 million is not the complete amount that was budgeted no that's contract three if you noticed so we've split the road resurfacing project into three contracts understood but what's the net contract that we are awarding at as of today or this Wednesday the coming Wednesday roughly 5 and a half million but let me double check that and get the answer to Administration for you for tomorrow morning perfect that's perfectly fine so this will be the last contract that will be for the this year's 2023 road paving program the 2023 funds yes okay thank you you're welcome councilman pointer thank you choun president Brian F Steve for in the business administrator of course um regards to the Jackson Avenue project I just want to make sure I'm understanding the full scope um obviously the the main issue at hand with residents is the winding of the road if the project goes through are all the curbs going to be replaced as well and what would occur in regards to the aprons for the residence uh driveways so for the length of Jackson Avenue from roughly the first residential home uh behind behind the restaurant behind the montor school I believe that is we are going to be installing all new curbs because at that point back we're not going to be affecting anything with the signal that it's going to be all new curbs all new aprons back to the green y so it would be on both sides then on both sides of the street yes um in regards to like a logis sticks from uh scheduling do you have any idea how long the project may may take really it depends on the contractor I would probably put this out for a 60-day uh contract period just so they can one work around school schedule but two also so they can stage it and still keep Jackson a open um if I were to shorten it I'd be concerned that they'd have to close Avenue during working hours which would not be ideal okay uh that would be a council vice president thank you thank you any other comments or questions on 11 seeing none number 12 from the Department of Public Works comments or questions councilman presser yes um roxa $10,000 um I guess this is just an increase to the um to the rock salt that we already purchased yes what does that $10,000 really mean like how much rock salt did we purchase council president may I have U Mr poro come up to the mic yes please thank you know bags we're just waiting on the county to come up with a new contract this is a bridge between the existing contract that's about to end and the new contract that's about to start typically typically we do about 300,000 and uh we budget about 300,000 in rock salt rock salt and other materials as such okay and that's what I recall I recall us spending a couple $1,000 so when I seen like $110,000 this fills our bin till the new contract comes out it's all it is okay um and you know well have you because I'm going to ask about c um what are the various vendors for rental equipment for various Township projects and and the reason why I ask a lot of this is we purchase a lot of equipment um so so an example we had our water truck that went down um as you know it takes about a year to a year and a half to get a piece of equipment um the likelihood is going into next year we'll be renting a water truck because we even if we purchased it today we wouldn't be able to get our hands on it you know for a year kind of scenario through a through a co-op through a competitive um bid that's out there um when it comes to other pieces of equipment we rented a dozer to do Kilmer field we don't own a dozer so it's things things of that nature that we don't currently own I would call it more of the specialty a scissor lift we rented to when we power wash all the buildings as well a scissor scissor LIF no we rented it something that we're looking at buying but there were other priorities at the time okay all right thank you any other question none moving to the Department of recreation any question from a to d councilman okay kind going to be the same thing uh in regards to item D I was under the impression we were relooking at those numbers and the the fund uh can I get a update as to why we are however this time of year we usually fund the youth leagues and they were expected to um to get the funding So the plan is with the um analysis and the new formula um is that that would be something we would do next year however alongside this once we generate the funding we'd like to provide the used Leagues with a letter informing them of what the new funding would look like thank you councilman and just this is the same dollar amount from last year the year before yes uh we didn't give them any any type of increase right right it's the same funding and when do we when do you think we'll have that analysis done I'm sorry can you repeat that oh when when do we anticipate that analysis uh being done I know you said shortly last time now I'm looking for a date let's say Okay um I'll get it to you before the next meeting thank you okay question on D Sonia did we include the new sports they came last year they were asking I think one was malam gymnasium they came in there was another one was badminton these two groups they came in they asked for the the funds do we know we include them here um we gave them the application it's my understanding they didn't uh fill it so um these are just what we typically do okay thank you okay anything else for number 13 okay moving on to 14 from the Department of sewer and water comments or questions yes okay councilman Brer um a I I guess this is for the um [Music] design for the uh Tingley Lane sanitary Pump Station um what would be the anticipated cost council president if I could have Mr Smith come up yes please um I don't have an a cost yet until we do some of the design work and we tell them what we're looking for specifically in the design and when they take a look at it as well um but this is part of the ACO I I I get that can can we get a list of um every Pump Station we went to redo um what their engineering costs were from you know over the last let's say five since you've been here if we can just get a a list um for what the engineering costs were we haven't done any we can we haven't redone any of the stations so far all our work has just been patchwor um just trying to get keep the stations operational these are going to be completely redo the stations um we have a lot of can stations that we want to break bring above ground um we don't want our guys going that far below ground we have some stations 30 40 ft below ground um we want to raise them um we have three right now um the Ford milbrook which RVE is in the process of uh doing that station Boswell is doing stations and now uh tnm will be doing this station right but I I mean so you're telling me that we haven't designed any we haven't awarded the design of any pump stations on Ford mbrook and RVE yes okay can I get yeah can I get those dollar mount for what we pay for that engineering okay I'll get you um and and and then I might have questions for you um afterward um Sonia I'll give you a call if I can get that tomorrow just to see that the numbers are in line that's all or or what's the discrepancy as to why it's not if if that's the case uh [Music] that that would be it okay thank you anyone else for number 14 Council vice president yes if I can ask Mr Smith in regards to item e the uh gravity sewer inspection how many phases are are there in total I forget uh there should be three um we've done the first one was the flow study this will be basically the second second phase where we're actually going in and tving um the collection system and that is part of the requirement in the ACO and we are far behind on that on that time frame they've given us I was just I was more asking because I would expect phase two and phase three to be before us this will be phase one of that we have to do the force and the gravity system uh thank you and then um just a general comment in regards to item G that is the midis road and popular Street uh water main Replacements I'm happy to see that it's on here uh presuming to move forward happy that it came in significantly under the estimated costs um and for anyone that has seen the water that goes to some of the houses there uh this is absolutely needed so I'm very happy to see that on the agenda thank you Council vice president okay anyone else all right 15 from the chief of police president councilman pressure yes um $120,000 and and what are we what are we doing with that it's for Ford Collision and repairs right sure I'll have the chief explain um what the the change order though is for 23,000 so it's an addition to right I'm I'm wondering what we um like if we get in listen I I understand right they could be pursuing someone and get into an accident right so we got to repair the vehicles um and that's not through insurance or anything like that it is uh part part of it is insur obviously is insured but um the the issue here is that the newer vehic vles and the pricing of the material increased so that's driven into the this change order all right so can I get a list of everything that we spent to get repairs from the Ford dealer whether it's painting bumpers whatever it is um they they give you a breakdown sure um it's also part of the agenda the backup that explains that's in that package yes okay okay so so I'll have in there how many bumpers how many paint jobs we did all of that it'll have the uh budgeted amount and what we're increasing it to um but so so the original budget was let's say $100,000 we're going to increase it a little higher now it was n it was 90 so what I'm saying is what what did we spend the $90,000 on that's all uh we'll get a paint jobs and three bumpers you know that type of thing I'm just looking to see what we purchased from the dealer collisions that's all okay we'll have Finance provide a a breakdown of the expenditure report for that budget item that's yes perfect thank you okay anyone else number 15 okay 16 from the Township Clerk we are actually removing a uh instead we're going to be forming a subcommittee to study this further so for B through e any comments or questions okay seeing none we go to from the council member to the planning board thank you Council vice president the next meeting is next Tuesday October 15 7M here at council chambers okay thank you Council vice president thank you I finished business ordinances for further consideration public hearing and final adoption um so what do we have here we have just the one 2235 d224 any comments or questions Council vice president councilman pointer uh I know I shared with uh yourself a image of a neighbor of mine that actually put up these lights granted it's on the first story so this ordinance would not uh be it wouldn't affect them however the type of light that is used was not recessed it was strung up underneath so I appreciate the council in accepting that modification to the ordinance thank you Council vice president anyone else any other questions or comments on the ordinance okay very good we move on to discussion items and I'm going to once again go left to right this time um starting with councilman pointer thank you council president Council vice president I apologize I'm know well under prepared because I'm not used to left or right okay uh the first time I want to talk talk about is just area need of Rehabilitation in general uh this is a tool that I personally believe that the township does not utilize to its utmost uh potential other townships which is have actually utilize this tool for the entirety of their Township include Woodbridge and Westfield where they actually designated the entire Township as an area in need of Rehabilitation this designation is to encourage the renovation and reconstruction of existing structures eliminate substandard structural or housing conditions and arrested deterioration of the area and potentially offer tax abatements on improvements for a period of up to 5 years to incentivize Rehabilitation I do want to state that this is different than an area in need of Redevelopment because of the guidelines uh which need to be met an area may be determined to be in a need of Reit Rehabilitation if a more than half of the housing stock in a delineated area is at least 50 years old if you look at the master plan 42.1% of Edison's housing stock was built from 1969 prior so that means that we are almost at 50% to meet designating the entire Township as an area in need of Rehabilitation uh the balance needed for 50% would be approximately 3,000 units and while I do not think the amount from 1970 to 1974 um will satisfy it it is possible the second item is that a majority of the water and sewer infrastructure in the delineated area is at least 50 years old and is in need of repair or substantial maintenance we are quite literally under an administrative consent order with the state to view our sewer infrastructure throughout the entire Township I don't to me we would meet that criteria in a heartbeat now whether you view that from the entire Township or an isolated area uh again I think we would meet that criteria the other is a program of Rehabilitation may be expected to prevent further deterioration and promote the overall development of the community we've talked a lot about Route 27 and revitalizing Route 27 I think it would may be prudent for the council to consider designating all of Route 27 or fragments of Route 27 as areas in need of rehabil Rehabilitation to start the process in terms of a bigger vision of 27 you can also look at other areas such as Woodbridge Avenue where the reced of Theo sign from 2013 is still is still up at that complex so my ask to the council and to the administration is to consider utilizing this tool more to promote improvements to the Commerce and the residential areas around the township uh the second item and I provided additional information to my colleagues is in regards to Industrial Area zoning in that little packet I provided I gave a synopsis of the LI Zone and the rrrd Zone which is the raran center um essentially they are the same thing except that the rrd zone allows for additional items that could be put in so the thought that I have in regards to the revising the industrial zone is that certain areas are more prominent I feel for office and residential versus the current industrial use those areas would be Silver Lake off of Main Street and Jackson Avenue areas such as hel Park raren Center and talage those are industrial Parts in larger industrial areas so it would make sense to have those featured for like your warehouses and your industrial but the fact is is that our zoning dates back to 20 years ago so those adjustments that may be uh that have not happened and the environment has changed to different uses in the surrounding area I think that we should make those zones update those zones to be more conducive to the surrounding areas I have an item in regards to an issues of consideration uh I'm interested in seeing more like Wayfair signs around the township so I provided an example to my colleagues that show is sign for an empty space along Lake papani to help promote for walking running and other outdoor activities and finally ordinances for consideration I gave uh a document to my colleagues in regards to five ordinances uh that I believe the council should consider first deals with invasive plants which I know councilman Brer has brought to the table before in regards to Bamboo the second one is in regards to tree replacement requirements and fines for removing trees without uh proper permits the third one is in regards to the code modification when we need do if we were to do any type of deer management uh program within the township fourth is establishing guidelines for an environmental impact study which would be helpful to any Municipal land use boards and reviewing an application and the fifth one is in regards to our current uh established times for the selling of alcohol right now on Sundays we have it at 12 p.m. whereas other municipalities have it as early as 10: and I have talked to businesses that have stated that they would be interested in this modification because they would actually open up earlier um than they currently do that would be it for me Council vice president thank you thank you councilman pointer uh councilman patil thank you council president start with the first one Council broadcast schedule uh Sonia do we know where we stand in terms of restoring the original schedule what I hear is the the current schedule is not suitable for the senior citizens and it's too late for them to wash or replay the council meetings it's my understanding the schedule was adjusted to an earlier time do we know what time it is you can tell me on I I can tell you yeah but I know that it was moved up if you can let me know or or back rather okay if you can let me know by tomorrow or Wednesday that's perfectly fine or you can email it to me thank you council meeting on Zoom uh during the co time we did enable the zoom call I do understand being a technology person there are challenges uh in terms of controlling the sentiment of the viewers but I think you know we did a good job in moderating uh those Council meetings and having those questions uh answered by this Council and by the administration just remember there is a silent majority that's watching these Council meetings and I think for the sake of democracy and the transparency uh we need to have not everyone can come to this council meeting especially during the weekday uh the ask is can we enable the zoom meeting for the residents if there are any challenges or anything that this Council or anyone can help or there is no intent to enable the zoom meeting I'm just asking the question because this is imp this will be implemented by the administration not by the council no not necessarily we wouldn't do that so I or make the decision to um but Mr Ron did weigh in on this in terms of if it is required is your is that your question if it's required or not no it is not required again there are lot many things that are not required but we do it we uh it's the way we operate the government and I'm asking is more for the democracy and having the larger participation uh because not everyone can come and attend this council meeting the ask was can we enable the zoom meeting and if attorney wants to weigh in why it cannot be done uh no I think Mr renon just addressed whether or not it was a require because if you recall at the last council meeting there was the individual who was here who was claiming that we were violating the American with Disabilities Act by not having it on Zoom that that's the extent of legal's involvement in that it's not a requirement there's no legal requirement to provide it but I think what you're asking councilman is can we do it anyway and there's no reason why we can't do it legally logistically it might cause difficulties I don't know that's that's something that the administration would have to look into and see if there it's something that they want to do yes and that thank you for clarifying that my question is not is legally required or not again not to referring any individual here it is more for the transparency say can we enable this uh and if you want to if answer is no I'm good with that if answer is yes when we can do it I I can certainly take it back to the administration problem the next one is Comcast and Sonia we had good email exchanges you know thank you engineering department finally pulling the the permits my ask here is then again it's on the ground the reality is people were not made aware that the comcash is going to do the work going to dig there either sidey yard or the road and that does cause the inconvenience so my ask is there a way that we can take the schedule from C comcash and send an Exel alert that should be reasonable ask rather than making sure that Comcast does their job putting the door hangers which they are not doing at this point in time so is there a way that we can broadcast you know send an Exel Alert in that region say here there will be work you can expect some traffic glaze or whatever the message so uh we were provided with pictures of all of the door handles that Comcast did put out there there was a letter there were announcements and alerts from Comcast when prior to the work beginning um I don't know that nixel is what we use um to to announce something like that we to we use nixel for emergencies uh and that's something um that we do on that end but they were advised and and there were pictures provided with the door um announcements okay so you believe you trust the Comcast and not the resent who are complaining I can get 10 people here in the council chamber I I don't I I or I can get 50 people from that neighborhood which they will say that they did not receive any door hanger because kkash is a third party I know they want to come in but they should be good business people right so that they're good and believe me or not when we had that email exchange they cut the wire of cable vision and that created more disaster in that neighborhood and it took four hours to restore so again we are helping someone we are giving the permit but at the same token we are leaving the residents at the mercy of either comcash or cable vision and we have no oversight on that model I don't know why we are not doing our job there on controlling what vendors are coming and doing and I can speak a lot on this particular topic because I was in Clara Barton and you can see how the roads are they dug the road and they didn't comply our ordinance and we let them go so what we can do because comquest has just started their operation they are laying down the cables they are crawling towards the North in what best we can do for the residents again Nick just I give an idea but what else we can do how do we make sure kkos is really communicating to the neighborhood and there is no impact to them how do we so um as with the requests and concerns you received it goes to Administration and we do have a direct contact with Comcast who is addressing it so that's what I would say as far as the process goes is send them to us and we will communicate directly with Comcast okay but what about the downtime and because you need to be on the ground to react to that if I just take an example I send a request to you complain it took 5 days to get back with hey there is a permit for them residents are not going to wait for five days again we are dealing with people who are working from home if they have the outage in Internet it's disturbing their day-to-day life so how we can improve my question is how we can improve or we are letting them go hey you can do anything but if resident has a problem we hold their neck and say you're not following the law so Comcast is um they are fall under the BPU um and so we have little control when it comes to enforcement rather we would like to work with them as best as we can and um communicate with them especially with our contact who has been responsive so if there is any complaints please send M way I will uh is there any police uh or site there because whenever we do the road work there is uh whether PC p is doing or midle water compan is doing why Comcast is not engaging our Police Department for our side is the same construction work so I can have the police chief speak to in terms of the coordination with Comcast not sure there's any road closures or anything like that that's required so if it's not and he's shaking his head um that um that would warn police involvement they will and I I would be happy to send a pictures to uh chief that how comcash are parking their vehicles and causing the nuances in that neighborhood I'll be happy to that but again this is not the job of the councilman I would expect someone from mayor's office admission because we have the chap of stuff we have the community layers on we have pleora of employees there who should be able to go on the ground as soon as they receive an email and correct take the corrective action which is not happening unfortunately and that's my ask can we be proactive when there is an email or there's a complain rather than waiting for 5 days to find out do they have the permit um yes and uh I would disagree because we have been responsive Pat coil in our office has been on the ground in touch with our cable folks so um again you could call us if there's an immediate reaction to an issue um but as far as we know all of the issues that were brought to our attention were addressed so you think the council member is bringing issue to your attention is not important it took 5 days I have the email correspondence to find out how long it took I would have preferred rather than forwarding email to department heads hey Mr K can you go on the ground and check what is happening there is a concern that's a job community leaz on and that's why I'm saying it's not a favor to the resident it's not favor to the council member please do the job that is expected to be done but let me move on otherwise we'll continue on this one next one trust fund records and audit report and thank you for sending that probably I don't know 15 line items I ask the report that includes the donations from you know who is paying those giving those donations from 22 23 all the way till this year for every single event that is happening in a town I didn't get that detail and I know this audit report you know that will become a questionable and I spoke to Kane but I will not say more on that I'm going to send an email giving a very specific ask and that exactly the reason Sonia I did ask you know do you want me to send an Excel format so that you can feel the information but you said you have a good handle of it uh but I'm disappointed I didn't get the information that I was looking for but happy to send that question back uh with what I'm looking for and hopefully you know by next council meeting I'm not saying tomorrow or by Wednesday but by next council meeting you'll be able to provide that information next one the mayor communication mailing expense details I did share share the uh one letter to the entire Council I didn't get any comment from any council member I did even ask siia last time can I get a details on where this particular line Atom from the mayor's mailing whether it's a printing uh postage or anything uh that details out anywhere either in the budget or anywhere but I need the detail report as of last two and a half years where where is spending the money so I I did send that report to you that report was for only $5,000 for another company PR Company in the invoicing it describes what the communication only says $5,000 monthly charge or whatever that doesn't tell me what communication went out when it went out what was the printing charge what is the the postage charge or anything of that same thing that Council Brer was asking don't tell me I spent this much tell me where you spent and I'm asking exactly same thing how many letters were sent I need a copies of those letters what was the printing cost and what is the mailing cost that's what I'm asking it's a for the transparency and again take your time in next two weeks please provide those details I'll resend what I sent you mayor security expense details again this will be question to uh I will say process I will not go into DNC matter but this is something I was not hoping to speak but I was really disgusted and disappointed the way mayor is treating the police officer so this question is to our chief I was at the JP Stevens uh ban event a police officer you know thank you uh Mr Jason Chang you're a wonderful guy standing in a rain for 2 and a half hours there is something called a humanity and treating people with respect even though they are for your security I don't know why security is needed that's a whole different question but why can't mayor treat our Police Department Personnel with respect and dignity so Chief have you again I know that no one is going to complain because mayor is an executive is misusing his power to deploy the resource in very bad Manner and I use the word humanity and respect how would you react Chief or do you know about this incident uh Council vice president to the chair I don't I don't exactly understand what you're saying um as far as the mayor's concerned with uh is there a specific incident that occurred yes is there the incident it was at the JP when there was an event JP stens ban price distribution police officer was standing in rain for 2 and a half hour with no umbrella okay I'm not aware of it but I can certainly look into it and get back to you of course again that's why I use the word you know are we treating our police officer with respect and with Humanity because of course no employee should be treated as a slave I kind of felt I got offended by the way yeah I appreciate that I'm not aware of it but I certainly will look into it certainly appreciate of course and I'll I'll look for the answer uh by next council meeting all right very good thank you thank you sir of course Township lawsuits from year 2022 again this is this has brought up many times never got a list uh we hear the lawsuit by Facebook or through WhatsApp again question is to attorney is there a way that again I'm not going to discuss any lawsuit but is there a way that you can present with the list of all the lawsuit from 20 year 22 as of today on the township I I can certainly discuss that with um with the director of Law and see what we can pull together absolutely I I don't have any I don't have any issue with that um and I don't need the details by the way I don't need any details you just want a listing of the publicly filed lawsuits which I I shouldn't have a problem with but like I said I'll discuss it with the director of Law and see what I can get you um maybe not by Wednesday but that's fine two weeks yeah that's okay thank you I appreciate that the last one Kilmer par soil transport reports Sonia thank you for sending the report you sent it twice uh but my question is very different here if you look at the papani park project the uh it was I would say I would not say disaster but there was a situation that we found some sort of a engine or something when vender was digging through and I can give the report even if may deny we had the I think one of the report in disbursement shows 200,000 Plus in the remediation expense my question is while that digging was happening the soil was shipped to the Kilmer park it didn't like you piled up and then you shipped it it was as the vendor was digging the soil it was going back again I know you are shaking the head here I'm asking the report of the transportation when the truck went by date while this Pap parter field uh project was happening because there is a potential and even if you read the report very carefully there is a second line it does say that they do recognize the contamination there are two parts there so my ask is very simple I'm not just looking for the report but I'm looking for the transport report because by law you're supposed to test the soil after so many TR trucks and I need not just the blanket report but the mentioning from where the sample was picked and what was tested so I will be happy to go back to the lab and ask validate that so uh Council vice president fimi I've sent every report um I also resent uh another letter that we sent back in 23 to you from our engineering confirming that all of this was um fine to transfer so forth and so on I don't know what else it is that you're looking for because everything was done in a proper manner I understand that's your position but what I ask is oh it's our with all due respect it's our engineering's position who are professionals and experts you know again we we have the engineers or we have uh all the Departments have they have their own position but I'm asking by law I need the transport schedule when the soil was transported and what point in time the soil was tested again it's not one time I think you know there are five trucks or 10 trucks you will have the time and stamp when the soil was transported and when the sample was taken not only there because I'm going to correlate the remediation plan and the expenses that were done at the uh papani park again I'm looking for the transport soil transport report I do have the soil testing report but I need the soil transport report thank you council president thank you councilman ptil councilman Cole thank you council president I'm going to skip around a little bit if you don't mind I just want to go to um Economic Development um some residents came here and things I caught that I felt was most important um many things I disagreed with but a cohesive plan of marketing for downtown clar Barton is important I think that was probably the what I the greatest takeaway I got from that was um a cohesive marketing plan um are we close to getting an economic development person how are we doing with that no we are not is there any opportunity to spend allocate funds to have a consultant or someone work with us to do and here's my point real real quick and and and you don't have to give me a fast answer because it could be a fast answer Sonia is that in between the time some residents came here the few that came here who speak for everyone um they claim uh we lost two stores on Amway Avenue to become service stores and the the biggest problem is going to be in any downtown is service for specialty stores and restaurants and when you look at Amboy Avenue we're pretty much tilting towards service and we had two stores that just became service again um when some of the residents in here said certain things they don't want which are challenging to even dictate because by popularity things just evolve but I know some members of the business community and myself have reached out to a few restaurants and different specialty stores to fulfill though those two vacancies and now those vacancies have went to service so instead of tilting the scale towards specialty stores and restaurants we've tilted it against the charm that some people are looking for in the Clare Barton section for downtown and that's what I'm asking is how and when can we spend the line on them is 125,000 we had and to date I'm not aware of us spending any money on marketing or and I'm just curious offline when can we have that conversation to spend some money and I'm not talking just for Amboy Avenue marking in general uh we have the Hmart area about 27 we have parts of oakry road we have Parts on Stevenville Parkway um and somewhere there's got to be a call to action to Market stores that are vacant or to do some Outreach on restaurants that may be outside the area that would come to the area no different than the men Park Diner if anybody saw there's a sign out there for rent it was for sale now it's for rent and there are some great breakfast places that we'd love to expand and have we asked them I mean if you look at mouin is a popular place why I can't think of the name right now my mind just is in a clot but they grew from a small location to a big location on New Street someone's got to ask them if they'd want to come to menow Park Mall uh to the menow park Diner so I think this is vital and I think it's more important than some residents who sat and complained about three and a half stories P four Stories the six feet 8 feet they gained I don't know how much that's changed economically on on their stance I think it's hurt their position but my point to economic development is that's the vital part that's the part that's detrimental is when downtowns become service over specialty stores that will be the death of downtown so my question to you is are we is this a conversation we can have sometime in the future to spend some of that allocated money to marketing sure um I know on the agenda you also have the appointment of the re um let me get the correct title in there um Redevelopment agency so this may be something you may want to task them to look into I think that would be appropriate so so we can certainly take that offline and what that vision is for all of Edison to your point um I'm not asking uh members of the council that have an answers today but I'd ask that you consider joining me on what really matters when it comes to marketing uh vacancies are important and if vacancies become specialy stores and restaurants that helps Edison it truly does we have to have a fair balance of course we want service but we need to have an equal balance uh which to help the economy so I just hope we're there I just want to uh on updates and Communications I was listening to some speakers and uh the administration on different opportunities and I think of course this Administration did a great job with meeting with the members of Clara Barton on issues they felt were important to them but no different than I've stated before that the work of some residents that came here was isolated and the fower they sent out stated let's pack the house so I don't think that's a flyer that would be neutral to invite people that want to give their opinion towards having uh a different standpoint as they did um it's obvious like I've mentioned before this did not include everyone okay and what I've mentioned that this the room um was 50 up 50 plus it was a fact what was there and I think that and we all know that's important senior citizens are important in weighing out the economy of the community but we did not look into accessing anybody else or trying to include anyone else and that's where I think was our fail point of this when it comes to communication so it's a fact it can't be proven that we did do Outreach it can't be proven that we had other people in that room to discuss this hey what's done is done but what I did get from that to some comments today it's a cohesive plan of marketing and I think that is truly important I hope that some members of the council can look at the economic development and speak out how important it is for what whatever part of town that you believe would be helpful another communication I just want to verify too and I did speak against the resident who lives behind the steward's property and I and others have come to my attention that mentioned it that he's complained a lot because he lives behind it and he has every right to and and other residents have come to me today to say now you wants us to pay for a park Inver of his house now we all know we'd love to see steuart's property become an opportunity but for the gentleman to say that he first doesn't want a building in front of his house which I'm sorry is a two family house it's not uh just a regular residence it's a it's a business it's a two family now he wants us to pay to have a park in front of his house so it's fair to say that that's something we have to look into on a broader perspective and it's it's it's a fact that what's being asked for is uh there but I'm going to skip on other comments for this right now but I just want to validate the facts that we did not reach out to everyone when it came to this opportunity I'm hoping when later we ever amend or do something we include more people involved in that but um last uh affordable housing um to to the ba it can I get an update on our affordable housing and where we are with our affordable housing and our criteria of our Count versus our assessment need yes I actually followed up with um cgp who uh was doing it uh no longer that's why we're recommending a new um planner if if you will so um one of the one of the asks was in our previous plan that's about to expire there was a prospective planning of 1,310 units and I want to know out of that how many did we complete so um I have put the information out there so hopefully I'll get something in the next uh couple days and I guess to the ba and to the clerk uh we did give out money for some residential homes can I have a list listed what residential homes in the last 36 months we gave money towards their purchase sure we can we can get that for you because I uh that's all and okay all right friend that's good okay thank you that's all I have thank you councilman Brer uh yes um sorry um um to the attorney public Advocate ordinance can can you get me an answer on that uh didn't you receive the the response no I didn't okay uh that that was I'll resend it to you it was done about two weeks ago um Mr Renown had us do the review as the form I made some minor adjustments to it just to make sure that it read properly made some uh corrections to some of the the language so that it flow and send it back to you you should have it but I'll send it to you again okay no I'll I'll look for it I I just didn't see it no no no uh uh overtime Sonia can I get what overtime we might have spent um when the mayor went on the vacation with the policeman in Chicago sure I sent that to you immediately after last meeting um the overtime yes that for the people here that got paid in Edison because I only seen the payroll from the people that went out I sent you that report of all of the overtime okay I'll I'll take another look at that um tomorrow and the the accounting of that can you add up all that math for me because when I added it up it it came out to a different number than what the mayor paid so um as I stated before um the mayor paid above and beyond what was um required ired based on all of the payroll all of their reimbursements um well when I when I added up the the let's say the four people and the gas charges I came up with $2,725 like 33 but his check was only for uh 20,000 that's not that's not correct uh the overtime was 7,000 and change and then the other reimbursements were maybe about $500 give or take so I don't know where you're coming up with that well um okay yeah you'd have to give me exactly what you're looking at no NE next meeting I'll print it out we'll hand it to the public and we'll let the public count um that'll make it just simpler thank you um bamboo I I seen an ordinance that was here was that from you from John okay just address add okay um did did did you send it to our attorney to look at I have not yet so I can certainly provide a copy it was literally just to so you guys know it wasn't stagnated for you can do that either way where if you guys if the council wants to put together an ordinance and then send it to legal for review and and amendments and corrections to that's put it all together I think that's what councilman pointer was trying to do is is get council's input before they send it to Legal I I mean it it looks it looks good right I just wanted to know that legal took a you know take a look at it for us [Music] um okay now these are kind of all tied together here but let me talk about the manhole cover because I I'm I'm not understanding uh claraa Barton where the residents came and they say the manhole covers are below and need to be raised like typically the manhole covers get set and your curb elevations get set and unless the sore is collapsing you don't need to why would you raise a manhole cover if Mr picol can come up and explain sure the engineering aspect of that please thank you so in this situation it's something I have have not encountered previously the manhole Rim is actually higher and not flush with the manhole lid which is sitting lower in the frame uh my understanding that could happen one of two ways either a lot of wear and tear on those manhole lids and just over time they've thinned out more likely over the years people uh people have swapped out the lids by people the township have swapped out the lids to replace broken uh manhole Lids or whatever and the newer Lids are actually thinner than the old Lids are so that's my my guess as to why the lids are sitting lower than the frame okay so it's probably the lid has been changed out correct that that's my guess yes couldn't you weld a new ring on the inside whatever it is yes whether it's quarter inch 38 whatever kind of plate steel I will tell you in theory yes my experience with modifying the frames is the manhole Lids tend to not sit right and then they move more and can potentially come off we've tried it with expandable uh expandable rings for lifting the manholes and they never quite sit right so I would I would tend to tell you not to modify it just buy them as a set and do it together so we should just buy new lit Lids the new lids are thinner than the old ones amb boy have as old as that road is I'm going to say new lids would still be too thin to sit flush so you telling me we can't find them can you give me the size they're um yes I can give you the sizes they the size of the smaller one and the size that you would need I can look into that yes okay I don't have that right now I'd have to go out and measure but we can get that for you okay yeah if I can get that um curbs we we still haven't decided that we're replacing or fixing curves around the town at at any point right the deteriorated curbs you drive up Grove Avenue there's a place called Library Place um our DPW did this great job of putting these rocks all in there and and the Rocks kind of blend in with the curb that's like deteriorated cuz the rocks from the curb now are on the I'm just saying that this isn't just that area this is an ongoing thing that goes throughout the whole town are we going to take care of these when we do our Paving of the roads so typically uh what Brian has done is uh put in some concrete work into it um so if there specific areas you could just let us know we'll take a look at that yeah I I'm what what I'm looking to do is is I'm looking for the administration um to have our departments right assess them before we put them out to bid um like like I always say we're we're here to create the laws right that's what we're here for we're not here really to drive around town I mean we just Echo What the residents bring to our attention but I mean I don't want to drive through every street that we have in the town we have some kind of super AI software that we bought that's supposed to determine where potholes and all kinds of other things are so yeah I'd like the administration to kind of get on this and take care of the curbs and not that we pave the roads and the curbs look like look horrible um I'm going to go to Road patches and and I'm talking about a specific road but again it's it's not the specific Road this is a a townwide problem um I noticed that we had a a street by the name of Mount Pleasant okay it's up by that same Library um now on that road we have an ordinance that says if somebody digs in they're supposed to PVE of curb to curb and Comcast now while they are digging and it's only 12 in by 2T so it's a smaller hole are they going to be required to pave from Curb to curb Brian if you could just explain thank you for the utilities I have to double check what their impact is it's typically half with or curb to curb depending on their impact um if it's a say it's a singular hole it's I'm trying to speak in general terms because it really is a case-by case basis so I think it's a better example if I do say Elizabeth Town Gas where they are running down the road mhm that is more easily said definitely half width or full width when it's individual patches it's the overall impact we're looking at so if it's a singular say handhold for a Crossing it most likely would just be a repair of that one location however if there are multiples going down the street we most likely would look at making him pave half width or full width to Encompass everything well that's where I'm going I'm looking at it like going continuously so it might not be at every house they might skip two houses but it's still it's patch and patch and and and will I have you for Mount Pleasant if if you look at Mount Pleasant the way that they paved it was they paved one side right and then the other side I guess they paved after it was cold okay so you have that seam in the center of the road but they never applied I'm going to call it tape um I you know I said they could they could do like a Hot Tar down the center or something but but it seems like they've been putting tape over those cold joints um but I noticed that they didn't do it on Mount Pleasant and now I noticed that the road on Mount Pleasant is cracking you're talking the center line crack yes all right I would have to look into that typically if it's paved within say a day or so of the last pavement you only tack vertical uh you tack the vertical end which is essentially pouring Hot Tar this way they blend back together right and the Hot Tar would would be okay right but I noticed that they don't do that um and I've noticed that in many many of our Paving cuz I drive around the police are sitting there so there is no hot T they're pouring when they bind the there's no binder between the two courses you're talking the crack ceiling then is what I'm assuming the surface applied um well okay so I don't mind if they were to pour like um a binding agent in between the two right like they pour a tar in the two they don't they don't pour it I watch them not pour it I report it to the business administrator I'd say probably uh maybe a year ago the homes behind where I live where they did not do it and then with I I assume maybe you went out there somebody spoke to them and then they put like a tape over the top um so those roads now are sealed so I'm going to have to go back and ensure with my inspectors that they are making sure that that does happen that is standard procedure where you're supposed to put the hotar or Tac on all vertical and horizontal surfaces prior to Paving right or or go over the top of it with whatever tape you had them do on the last ones I mean it to me it doesn't matter what we do as long as it's sealed the the the crack sealing tends not to hold up it becomes a maintenance thing farther down the road um but the standard dot practice is to tack all vertical and horizontal surfaces so I'll have to double check with my inspectors and make sure they're ensuring that that does happen at the time of Paving now let me ask you another question yes when we talk about this um and I know it's I'm going to talk about the inefficiency of government right so you're going to have your people go out there but we do have a uh police officer that is out at all of the paving projects actually um that's how I know they aren't attacking it be quite honest with you um so you have we we have a Township representative there but it's technically outside of their jurisdiction or anything like that um and then we're going to send another part of our agency there is there something something that could maybe be done jointly um with with the police department like when they're when they're out there you know doing that because they're sitting there they're watching it as they actually go about doing it you know the paving or no it's just a separate entity you guys don't really work together on they're hired separately from the contractor strictly for traffic control um okay I'm up to talking for any kind of coordination possible just right now off top of my head I don't I'm not sure okay yeah if we if we can just make sure that this is kind of happening um like I said cuz I just noticed that it wasn't with the ones behind me and then someone came out and they took care of it and I notice now Mount Pleasant which has only been paved a couple of years is breaking apart in areas um that I would tell you that within 2 years or maybe even this winter we will have potholes on a newly paved street that was just paved a few years ago so so that's a concern um I don't know how to fix that or Rectify that that would be up to the administration really um so yes uh that that would be all all that I have here for tonight thank you thank you uh as for myself um foron house air quality results and I know uh I just received uh something that I didn't get a chance to read and so Sonia if you can um if you can just summarize what this uh email was was about and what uh where things are at um so uh with one of our uh Professional Engineers uh colar they went out and took a look at the actual uh structure um inside and reviewed any potential issues as it relates to spus lead mold um based on the report it looks like we are going to need additional um studies or rather uh testing done um more so on the lead and any sort of Hazard material potential Hazard material we're not saying there there is there may be um but uh and we need to look at the historic underground fuel storage um as well as any current AC septics or cesspools that may be present given the age of the building so and if there are any other um Supply Wells throughout the property so um it looks promising um we've done some work um thanks to DPW and we're looking forward to doing much of this Remediation in the next few months with that said um we'll provide you any updates as as we get them do you have any idea when this next round of testing would be done I can follow up with the Colliers not that they're on board um taking care of the remediation okay thank you yes do make sure I get updated on that sure um the um okay so I'm going to ask you attorney just to summarize um I received from the attorney very late today uh the documents about the decorum and so if you would uh Mr Burns could you please just kind of summarize the uh that memo certainly um what I did with that memo is I provided a little bit more in-depth uh background and references to the current case law uh and the rulings that the courts have made on uh both enforcement of decorum uh and the council president's uh role in the enforcement of that decorum and how it can potentially impact uh a a a member of the Public's rights um the conclusion that I come to there is uh and the conclusion that um you know uh the the case law runs to is so long as any restrictions that are placed on a speaker are content neutral doesn't matter um what their Viewpoint is that they're espousing um the restrictions are there for a reasonable need to Main maintain order uh civility uh and um sense of I'm blanking on the word that I used uh a sense of of appropriate behavior for what is essentially a business meeting here at the township um that those restrictions are uh legally permissible uh and that they can be inforced by the council president uh as required to maintain a a er um level of seriousness and and deorum in the council meetings there's there's not a better word for deorum than decorum U but it essentially boils down to is this disruptive to the conducting of business for the township and if so can we uh enforce these rules so my take away from that is it's pretty much at the discretion of the council president who's presiding uh yes it can uh there are certain things that are um without a doubt disruptive uh if you are refusing to abide by these speaking limitations if you're shouting from the audience if you're refusing to allow the council to actually conduct business those are fairly uh hard and fast those are disruptive um and there's no question everyone would agree on that uh there are certain aspects of it that are a little bit more vague U and I believe that they're intentionally left so because it is a determination as to is this disruptive disrespectful um considered to be uh out of out of line with what the council meeting is here for which is to conduct the business of the council um so a lot of times it does come down to the council president making a determination as to whether or not they will allow certain behavior and there's obviously some leeway in that and there's been some leeway at some of these Council meetings with people speaking from the audience and being you know uh gaveled down or being asked to to to restrain themselves and and no further consequences haven't been taken um there's a number of cases where a single Outburst um when when not properly addressed has had people removed uh just for um you know speaking out of turn once or twice as opposed to spending the entire meeting disrupting the proceedings so um that is that then comes down to when you're saying is is the council president going to choose to actually enforce those rules pretty subjective then um thank you thank you for that and lastly I had had a resident who mentioned that when she put her ballot in the ballot Dropbox outside the municipal building that the box was filthy and disgusting so um I don't know since I put this on my discussion items I don't know if anyone has taken a look at that I forgot to look at it myself coming into the building building um but can we make sure that the ballot Dropbox is clean yes we will make sure that it is um I don't know Cheryl do do we need to do anything um I think I have just I'll contact the board of elections because they're the ones that really are in charge of the property right and I don't want to of it yeah touch something that um I don't want to send D they empty that box every day so they I mean somebody from the resentatives come here to do that so it is their property I just open and close them as you know direction from them so I will check with the Board of Elections tomorrow and get back to you that would be great thank you that is all for me and with that uh could I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second this Mo this meeting is uh adjourned as of 8:55 p.m. thank you all e e e e e e