e e hey give him 15 minutes wait a minute my speaker is really working now yeah that confused it's picking me up far away calling the combined meeting Wednesday March 27th uh to order it's 6:05 p.m. all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice all thank all right Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member Coyle council member Harris here council member Patel here council member PTI here council member pointer present council member schmuel here all right Madam clerk adequate notice please adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the an notice and to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Sentinel and as he talk on December 12th 2023 and past post it in the main lobby of Municipal complex on that same date all right uh Number Four review of minutes any comments from the council members all right seeing done uh number five Council president's remarks uh this is the first time we're going to be trying this combined meeting format I hope it goes well if it does I am hoping to codify this uh but we'll see if it does not go well we'll make amendments to it to make it go well going forward uh that's all for that now moving on to unfinished business uh any Council comments on 02212 d224 uh seeing none moving on to new business uh Madam clerk do you have to read this no because this isn't for session okay any Council comments council president uh just a uh procedural question I know that in normal circumstance if we did first reading it would be April 10th the planning board is not going to be meeting until at minimum April 15 so would it be advisable for us to set the date for the following council meeting yeah I think that's time to do that if you're going to do it right just going to do it now yeah yeah yeah just because the planning board still has to it goes to the planning board correct yeah exactly so okay thank you madam clerk is looking up the date for after April 15th so that is going to be then for April 25th all right that's a combined meeting and that's on a Thursday okay so we're going to make the change and the public hearing will be set down for April 25th Thursday for ordinance 2213-20 24 okay uh any other comments from the council members council president just in general I I appreciate your uh support in this ordinance and for placing it on for consideration uh I do thank our legal the subcommittee team that that was formed to assist in review and drafting um I do hope that the support is is there ultimately because I think that these are much needed new guidelines to help us in making sure that uh our billboard ordinances up to date thank you council president thank you councilman poter anyone else all right S as for me I want to thank councilman pointer for doing a lot of the leg work on this and especially one of the main points that he brought up which is the change can be no more than once a day uh which will limit digital Billboards from changing and the applicant hopefully stop requesting to change every 8 second which is the minimum that the state requires uh but I'm hoping this gets the support from the council and we modernize the billboard ordinance uh moving forward and hopefully give guidance to any billboard ERS as to what we are looking for in our town uh moving on to number eight administrative agenda from Mayor Sam Joi appointment of Brent Scott to the housing authority and number nine moving on to from the business administration 8 through e any questions or comments from the council all right Council counc Patel yeah on D resolution awarding various professional service contracts uh is this the one that's for the entire year yes it is and they this starts with the the law firm through engineering through Labor attorney through many many more things right correct given that we don't have the budget uh 2024 in hand uh does it make sense to keep that for 6 months unless the because this is probably more than $3.5 million total if I sum that up the all the contracts and we don't know you know what's our spend is going to be as long as you assuring me that as of today we are spending one 12th of last year's budget and this spending supports that I'm okay to support this one uh correct so we haven't expended any more than what we've done a year ago exactly um so what we did do this year was try to qualify um a pool of professionals let's call it that way so that we can have a lot more efficient proposals presented to the council and our projects can move swiftly Y and I really appreciate that I looked at it's not just one firm there are more than one so it's a full so that's definitely is going to help and I'm really happy to see that happening uh as long as I have that word I will take your word it's 11 12th of last year I'm good to support sure thank you Council thank you C counc pel president Council brusher um yes nine c um this this is the firefighters contract yes that was approved by the firefighters correct yes it was ratified by the um and and they're getting the same or equal to like police or other Unions that's correct all right thank you that one I appreciate thank you uh D the professional service contracts yes um so this isn't for an entire contract for a year this is just a portioning for this portion of the year that was the same question that my colleague just asked and that's correct right correct okay and E the cricket um what do we charge for the cricket for the scheduling yes like like if I wanted to play cricket with my team how much does it Township charge me well right now we don't do the cricet and that's why we're establishing the shared services agreement right but how much would we be charging oh um I can help to answer that because I was in that meeting oh sure I appreciate it thank you thank thank you councilman uh there were two different free structures for the cricket one was the what Board of uh education was charging $500 for the season and the township I believe 65 my memory sour correct for season and what the the resolution is basically bringing all the cricket uh ground allocation or the field allocation to Cricket Under One Roof that will be our Recreation and the field will be as what the township charge which was $165 or $170 per season okay and and that's where I was going because I know that the cricket um the cricket leagues I feel have been um almost abused by the town um and I want to say just the town Board of Ed really um because the Board of Ed originally was doing it for about $50 and then the township upped ours to 150 and I do understand you know we have to cover expenses um with our Personnel but then I think it was Doug on the board of ed that raised it to like $500 or something when when he was there so uh you know I had no clue what was going through the minds of those B Ed people to raise it to $500 and I wanted to make sure that we were going to charge a reasonable fee um being that a lot of these people are our residents um in fact I think I think it was Mr ptil that that passed something that said we have to have a certain amount of residents 50% so so we're not leasing out fields to people outside of Edison Edison comes first and um all right that's actually a very good thing uh I thank you for your work on that and uh thank you councilman ptil uh for your help with that thank you council president councilman bresser moving on to number 10 from the Department of Finance a through F any questions or comments that's seeing none moving on to number 11 Department of Health a any questions or comments all right see moving on to number 12 from the Department of planning and Engineering uh a any questions or comments uh council president I have 12a yes um 31 Harding Avenue trees I I went by there today right I I didn't see the 31 Harding um it looks like there's a side street with houses on it is is that what we're talking about are we withholding money for trees on this still or is this release releasing all of it and I'll tell you why I asked I I drove down the street um as crazy it may sound I got out you know grabbed a couple branches from each tree bent them over um a lot of them did bend over um one of them just broke so I think that tree is dead personally um but then there were also two homes that were still unfinished so with those two homes being unfinished I don't know how we've released the money um for like to me the two years should start after they're they're finished building no not like so if I get approval from the Township in 2024 you hold my tree money for 2 years but if I don't build on there till 2026 you're going to give me the money back even though I didn't plant the trees the trees that were associated with the subdivision are all planted and when we did the inspection of the site they had overplanted so when okay when when you say that now and now trees just to be just so I understand are the trees what I consider trees which are um you know they're they're long they don't have branches on the bottom and they have leaves or our trees um as Joe peshi would say you know they grow up and they they have branches coming out on the sides and the top because I noticed a lot of those now I was told I think way back when that they had to plant a 100 trees and when I walk through today I I seen a good 20 trees and maybe I'm off and maybe it was 30 but I seen a lot of what I call bushes um not trees so the deciduous trees are typically the street trees that you are seeing on this site okay they were permitted to plant a I will say a fair amount of Evergreen and arbores as trees as well and that is part of our ordinance okay and they actually make up a lot of the trees on this site the arbites that's the Ares and Evergreens yes right that looks like a bush right is it per our ordinance it's a tree oh okay that's interesting and and you said all the homes in that development um were were done and my question to you is this um that used to be a swimming pool area right so when I drive down the road you know if you were to tell me that the ones being built out by the main road weren't part of the development I I could buy into that but the two are at the very end of the culdesac so that would have to be how could that not have been part of a subdivision they are part of the subdivision the trees that were required as part of the subdivision approval are all planted so any additional the homes may not have been built right but the trees are in place well the one lot I have a picture there's not one one new tree planted on that one lot I have a picture that I could show you um if you can show me after the meeting uh when we did our inspection in December they all the trees were in place so if we vote on it tonight right and it gets approved you'll release that money to them before you get to look at that site and that tree right we can relook at the site if you wish yeah I'd like somebody to look it was the it's the house with just the foundation not the other one that's built that's not finished it's the one with just no Foundation um there's there's no tree no new tree on that property okay that may have happened after we did our inspection like I said we were out there in December okay so they might have taken out the new so may have happened since our inspection but we can go back out and revisit this okay all right thank you you're welcome a question for you so if you go back out there and there is no tree what would happen uh I can withhold money from the bond okay so it would be $75 per tree okay so even if you WOTE on it today it they can still withhold the money from the bond well no if we vote on it today you're releasing the money he doesn't have Au Theory to hold on to it but um if you correct me if I'm wrong if I'm remembering the tree ordinance there's still a requirement in there they don't just plant aund trees and then if 50 of them die there's no there's no consequence if they plant 100 trees and within 6 months 50 of them die they've still got to plant another 50 trees or they're in violation of the ordinance right or or they surrender their bond or they surrender their bond but if there's if the bond has already been released to them they still have an obligation under the ordinance to replant or to be fined in violation of the tree ordinance right correct yeah okay so we're still covered thank you counc I have questions for engineer Council uh because I have a long history on this particular project I was the first one on this Das who stood against this particular development roughly 95 200 trees were cut on this property there's a Woodside pool which was a community pool it's a nonprofit organization Community used that pool but board chose to sell it and that's where the subdivision happened there were many violations on this particular property safety violations but the township did not act on it and you can watch my recording and I have in fact back then we created the Facebook group to educate the neighbors there long history 195 trees were cut I would say good 50 60 might be day trees developers say they were dead but they were not technically dead but again I will leave it because this is 2018 you can count the number of years five six years old project having said that I don't think because this resolution really ties down to the subdivision and those lots were not developed by the same developer but the Lots were sold to the individual homeowners who ultimately gave it to the other builders to build the house having said that there is a bond which is tied now the tree fund uh tree maintenance bond which is tied to the entire property to the entire subdivision correct however the entire subdivision I can tell you I don't know what inspection was done I don't see there are 110 trees or 200 trees or anything I don't know how many trees we agreed that the redeveloper for all seven or six or seven those subd they were supposed to be planted and they are there I don't think so because if you look at the property is pretty wide open right from Park Avenue you can look from Harding both the side I don't see the cluster of trees there if I have to imagine 100 trees around that neighborhood I don't think there are that many trees there so I don't know what inspection was done or the shrubs were counted so with all due respect I think we are rushing through you know approving this resolution so my request to this council is let's relook at what the uh our zoning gave them the permit to uh probably plant what type of trees again I understand by the ordinance what they can plant let's recount I don't know the the number of trees they were supposed to plant and the some of the fund they deposited in leave up not planting the trees we don't have that supporting document as a part of this resolution again you can give that number of your top of head but that is not provided as a part of this resolution as a supporting document which exactly I was looking for that would have helped this Council who were not back then holding this position when this project came up so again this will be request to my these Council colleagues you know let's let's look at holistically and not release uh this tree fund uh uh tree maintenance Bond tonight Council yes vice president um I agree and respect what my colleagues are saying um and I have no issue if you'd like to hold hold off on this in table um one of the items though is that on here it already says um division of engineering has revealed that the maintenance period for the trees planted has exceeded the required two-year maintenance period which I know is an issue that we've talked about prior and not to take away from the intent of the comments made but I have a feeling that the end result may still be the same because it's after that 2-year period again no issue if it's decided to table to go and relook but in terms of what the refund will eventually be I think because it's past that two-year period we would be bound to have to refund that you know what the um two-year period when it end um do you know what the date ended for the two-year period it it was listed February February the 23rd of 20 21 so would have expired uh about a month ago right okay so 22nd all right so I mean if if that's the case like my Council colleague has stated um I and and this Administration has not gotten because I think we've been talking about this for a year right anything that is older should be on our agenda next meeting anything that you have that's older um should be on there for us just to get rid of because again and we brought it to the administration's attention when we bring this up and then you tell me that they waited the extra year um I don't I don't see how they can be out of their warranty period and if that means that this body um needs to amend that right maybe our attorney could amend that for the next meeting right I know I've asked some for other things to amend that I haven't seen on my agenda and we're going to make an issue of that at the next meeting so be prepared everybody for a very long meeting but we should be able to change that ordinance to say um two years or when you ask for it so if they don't ask for the money back for five years then the warranty goes for five years it goes to the point where the minimum of two years but then it goes into eternity until they ask for it and then you get to go out and take a look at it but we can't allow this to happen any longer um it just seems like people are getting away with stuff that would be it coun C pressure go ahead sorry the this money this uh bond is this the the maintenance Bond required under under 36 10.4 for this property or is it a separate Bond that's not covered by that it's the maintenance Bond under the ordinance okay cuz that makes pretty clear that the maintenance Bond shall further guarantee the replacement of any trees found not healthy two years after planting that portion of it I don't know if that applies to how this money was collected which is why I wanted to to ask specifically what the language is for that it it is under that same ordinance yeah planting date what so it would be planting date not whenever it was approved it it's when they actually planted typically yes but we don't inspect the plantings until the COS so that's when we start our clock okay but can we do what councilman Brer suggested where we can extend out that warranty period to in perpetuated till we do the final inspection to release the bond is that something we can do as an ordinance which is what he suggest is like if we miss the two if they come back after two years and they say hey it does so and please stop me if I'm if I'm wrong about how this works they they post their bond they do their construction as part of their construction they plant the trees at some point I don't think they plant it before they build the houses or whatever development typically one of the last things that they do yeah it's in the last stage because otherwise you're rolling equipment across it um but then you do your final coo inspection and that's when the 2year period starts to run from the final Co after everything is all done correct okay yeah so at this point are they beyond that two-year Mark uh by approximately a month yes in a month okay so we still have one they're beyond it by approximately a month okay right so they waited the month so they exceeded our thing so we can't get one so my question to you is in cases like this where they wait after a couple of months and we still haven't done the inspection whether or not they are alive or not is there something we can capture legally so that we can ensure that hey if they plant if they were supposed to plant 10 trees they should have 10 trees on our final inspection well if I understand correctly the inspection was done in December December in December prior to the expiration of the the maintenance Bond period now what happened between December and now I don't know but um what you're looking for is a way to extend it beyond that two years I I don't know that you can extend it in perpetuity um but you may be able to extend it further if you wanted additional guarantees for the most part it's it's that two years after the issuance of the co is is fairly standard why didn't come back in December for the uh we did the final inspection in December their two-year period wasn't up okay so we would have been releasing the bond early I see okay so we did do the inspection they were healthy and they were in [Music] all of the plantings are in place for the subdivision all seven houses or six houses according to the approved subdivision PL uh subdivision plans yes okay so my my ask to council president to engineer and you can send it to uh our administrator and then we can get circulated is as per the subdivision as per the application how many trees were cut I remember it's around 200 but how many trees were cut how many trees redeveloper agreed to plant per subdivision and how many trees are present as of today or as of the your reinspection date that would help us to really navigate through the situation Sonia go ahead if I could so just as a point of clarification in the backup that's here so there were a total of 193 trees that removed of those 193 trees to your point councilman ptil 79 were dead now um the number on trees on site were approximately above 350 so with that there were six cosos that were issued and relatively dating back to 2020 to 2021 as far as May of 2021 so all the cosos have been issued on six of the properties there are seven I think there is one house still unless there's one left yeah okay so we'll have to find out and get back to you on that seventh property in in addition to what was supposed to be planted yes okay thank you thank you councilman P thank you Brian thank you moving on to number 13 from the Department of Public Works any questions or comments yes council president on yes on L resolution authorizing contract purchase order to Magic tus uh touch construction comy for plumbing work at the fronte house I just wanted to ask um what is what is the extent of the reps that need to be done this was a sewer problem was it was it not yes um count C vice president yes yes with regard to the fan house there was a sewer issue a sewer okay and um if we assuming that we approve this um when do you think this would be completed uh if I could just call up the DPW director to provide some context on the repair work okay r three weeks from approval oh good great thank you so much thank you R council president councilman P I have question on I okay is the again through Council pres question to Sonia is $2.3 million this includes roughly 1 .4 $1.7 million for uh Stelton Community are you referring to the roof and building repairs yep yes so again did anyone inspect the Stelton Community completely to understand there is no ASB best STS or there's no problem in the roof because what I'm afraid is we passed the resolution we the project and they will come back and say hey we find XYZ underneath and there is a change request and we'll go into that Loop so just want to make uh sure that there is not no surprise will be after effect there is a speci this there um there is some mold issues there we're aware of that matter of fact Council and brusher myself and Bob deal did a tour of the facility our goal right now and I think I've explained this at a a previous meeting we we're looking to button up the building new roofs new windows get it watertight and once that occurs then we're going to deal with the issues or the potential issues that we have inside now this is question is very specific to roof are are you sure that there won't be any surprise once we pass especially for the roof replacement there could be as best as somewhere else but as soon as the roof shingles are removed and they say hey we have other thing that we didn't count and now I need another $2 million uh I would say now um whenever you do any type of construction project I'm sure councilman brush will tell you too um you run into surprises however um I believe if you look at the proposal submitted by the company it's a pretty thorough proposal they just did phase uh one and two over at uh Kilmer garage they did a fantastic job with it um I've used this company not only through here but through other townships um and I their work has always been Stellar so can I swear to you right now today at this day as when I rip it open that they're not going to find anything they shouldn't because really it is you rip off your EPDM you rip off your rubber component you're going to have some decking that's in there if the decking is bad we're going to have to replace some of the decking that's in there and that's really the extent of you know what the roof consists of rean I I trust your leadership and your judgment so there's no question about that you will carry that just I'm making sure that we because we are on really tight budget on most of these projects and this is one of the very important building historic building as long as there are no more surprises it will be the great thing to happen sir I don't think I or anyone else could ever guarantee you you know I look at the fanti house one of the projects that um the council uh ice president just mentioned you know that was a surprise the the cast piping from all the way up top to the bottom had cracks all through it um that was a surprise thank you sir okay thank all right anyone else pressure um yes I'm I'm glad to see that we have um the roofs you know because I I notice that we're doing a lot of um work down at mini BV which is very nice but to make sure the roofs are taken care of before we put in you know all this flooring um would be a good thing um I didn't notice but do we have Roofing going on also at that uh I don't even know what I should refer I'm going to call it a substation um in ridan Center um because I I happened to be there the other day and from the outside of the building looks beautiful um the inside of the building looks like it's been leaking there for years paint is peeling off the wall from that um I don't think there's any lead in that building but you know I mean we have to take care of the the basics like the roofing before we move on to the other subjects and as long as you're coming up the fante house with this Plumbing this is the internal cast iron Plumbing in the Fon house that we're going to be replacing right the cast iron put PVC inum so your first question regarding the substation is that the flashing needs to be redone on that building we're aware of that we're waiting on the proposal for that um we're we're not making a move until we get that proposal and we button that building up as well on the Fon house yes that's the cast iron that goes through the house and underneath okay now what about repairs to it later on because as you replace um cast iron pipe that's your vent piping right somebody's opening up the walls um I haven't been in the fante house so I don't know um that it's just plain sheetrock or whether they have like Wayne's coating that is um antique wood from 150 years ago and like so how are we dealing with that or is that it's it's a laan plaster we're aware of that and we're going to go over we're going to go in the sections that we um can go ahead and save that throughout the house we have we've patched we've cleaned it up we've repainted it on these particular sections um there's not many people out there that do la and plaster anymore those particular areas will re sheet rock over okay um I'd like to give you a call and make some recommendations to you tomorrow um on that and and only because I'd actually I think like to see the house to see what kind of bases and or or are you guys is the administration planning on demoing the house or we're planning on using the house as is and maybe just refurbishing it we're planning on using it as is and uh refurbishing it so that's what DPW has been doing in the past year is going in there and trying to um clean up the inside as well as the outside which they've done and certainly go there and visit it's a very beautiful property uh but as any of these that we're trying to accomplish especially with the roofing and now the cast iron piping is actually getting the infrastructure so that we can make it look pretty okay okay um ping Jim equipment oh uh I see we were talking about cameras I think it was D ABCD uh D yes for grant that we applied for yeah so we're going to do putting cameras at mini BV and I'll tell you where I'm going with it at mini BV and I've went by there yes oh you are yeah all the wiring all I I didn't mean to cut you off short but I figured I would cut to the chase for you all the wiring um is done throughout the outside of the building if you drive around you'll see all the um uh areas that we ran the wire to we were waiting on it to get the cameras in I'm told they're either in or they'll be in shortly um and that will give us a peripheral view all the way around the building as well as we're putting another camera inside of the building on the entrance way so so if I pull up and I dump off a bunch of stuff in the front and the gate is closed you're going to be able to read my license plate correct um unless I put a bag over or something no no no that's a really good point and and that's one of the reasons we're really excited about the police impound yard um that's going going to be located at Meadow Road um our our goal this year is to have the first real recycling center in the town the one over at mini BV is a train wreck right we we you know it I know it my guys certainly know it um our our plan is um the police are doing an auction I believe it's April 6th you guys have passed that resolution last council meeting once they go ahead and remove um their vehicles uh either through the vehicles that get towed down on the metal Road or get sold off we're going to start on the recycling center you guys have already passed the resolution for the fencing for that um and there'll be a drivein multiple bin multiple 40 yard containers that pretty much looking to take I don't want say everything but much more extensive than what we have today okay yeah thank you very much um that would be a council president thank you Council Brer I have one question R for the roofs as long as the uh is the any anywhere we have the flat Ro on for the Stelton Community oh it's all flat all yeah the majority of if not all of it's flat okay so you think that roof will be capable of holding or H or AC units the we're not doing roof for units we're doing um uh once the roofing is done will they be able to hold so my point so is we're not even looking at that because we're running Min splits okay okay so it won't it won't be necessary and putting anything onto a roof whether it's solar panels or HVAC or anything is ultimately a nightmare um anywhere that has it it typically ends up that typically becomes your leak point after years down the road so we're we're trying not we're trying not to do that in that circumstance okay thank you cons thank you Ray I had Ray I had a couple questions sorry um so for e is this the rapid flashing beacons are these the ones that we were requesting this is the infamous flashing beaking signs correct yes all right the the first two were installed one over at Edison High School the other one over are Martin Luther King that was the first two that I had said that we ordered um once these go ahead and get in we every school will go ahead and get them perfect and uh second question for the volleyball court are these brand new Four Courts or these are these are brand so if you go to ensus park there is a volleyball court that's there um some of you I know have been to that site it's trashed I mean it's it's it's horrible condition uh we're going to remove that and turn that into Green Space the baseball field like many of our baseball fields isn't being utilized um for baseball anymore or for softball we're going to repurpose that field over there in which we got a grant for as I wrote in my memo and we're going to be looking putting uh the first wave is putting uh volleyball courts in over there and then we're looking for another Grant to help us either put in pickle ball tennis or basketball so it really be kind of a an expand an expansion and a better utilization of that property all right thank you B okay all right moving on to number 14 from the Department of recreation a any questions or concerns seeing none moving on to number 15 from the chief of police A8 through D any questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to number 16 from the Township Clerk a through C any questions or comments council president yes for item C uh happy to see this on the agenda tonight uh the open space advisory committee does tremendous work for the township uh just want to express my gratitude for the work that they do thank you counc and I agree wholeheartedly uh open space does a wonderful job for the township and I enjoy all the projects that over the years that they have worked on especially the middle sex Greenway uh me and my wife definitely enjoy that now moving on to the regular meeting uh number 17 approval of minutes I will need a motion to approve motion to approve second so I have a motion from councilman Patel second from Council vice president all in favor I I all right uh number 18 unfinished business ordinance for further consideration and public hearing and final adoption Madam clerk please read the ordinance ordinance adds a residential parking Zone to Christopher Court all right um so this is for open for public comments if anybody would like to make comments on this ordinance all right seeing none a motion to close the public comments motion to close public comment can I have a second second right so I have a motion from Council vice president second from councilman pointer uh is there all all roll call please all right can I get a motion to adopt second motion from councilman Patel second from Council vice president any Council comments all right seeing none uh Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member ptio yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes okay uh moving on to number 19 new business proposed ordinance public hearing set down for Thursday April 25th uh Madam clerk please read the ordinance ordinance amending chapter 37 zoning by amending the following subsections 37- 62 sign regulations to add language pertaining to off- premise billboard guidelines all right may I have a motion to introduce I move with this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Thursday April 25th 2024 and may I have a second second so that's a motion from Council vice president second from councilman pointer uh any Council comments councilman brusher yes um I I'd like to thank councilman pointer um on the billboard thing um he did come to me to find out if I had any objections and I appreciate that um this one was I'm going to say above my pay grade I I couldn't come up with anything that would make a billboard ordinance stronger because I probably don't understand it and there were questions that were raised um by some residents and and they're valid questions but those are questions that I wouldn't even have thought of asking um so I appreciate the effort that you put into this um thank you thank you Council bresser council president um again I'll just uh re reiterate uh my appreciation to the administration and to legal for the back work that they did because um most certainly I reached out a lot about it so a lot of the what you see before you for consideration was uh provided specifically by planning and Engineering for our review and again I just want to express my gratitude thank you council president thank you Council pointer and I also want to thank councilman pointer again because I did do believe that he did a lot of the leg works and there were a lot of questions legally uh what we should do uh practically and how we can manage billboard applications that are coming in and guide them better uh and I think this ordinance does answer a lot of those questions and I'm truly look forward to supporting this on April 25th um we get a Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member shimell yes council president Batel yes uh now number 20 uh public comments on the resolution so this will be open to the public so any anyone come on up you ship Freeman well couple of people answered some of the questions that I had so far about the um volleyball courts that's going to be at yolenis and they said they're going to put another pickle ball court there also that's not part of the resolution that's part of the resolution no but he said that he was going to add that in there I just wanted to understand because it's right down the street so I was just trying to check out like how many places we G to put without bathrooms and stuff so just checking on that this is what I want a clarification for I wanted to know um the resolution AU authorizing the new network switches to CDW and the amount not to exceed 169 Council can I get the number uh resolution number 149 149 okay and what is your question on the CDW okay he already answered me well he answered the other question too that I have so forget that he told me about the uh the cameras at the mini B Bill Center MH yeah so that was answered all right okay thank you did you said you I just want that 149 want the clarification for that information okay uh Sonia can you answer the about the network switches on r149 and and why are we switching yes all why are we switching those switches uh just the old infrastructure so we're just updating all of our especially our it infrastructure that is uh probably 20 plus years oh thank you uh anyone else all right seeing none uh may I have a motion to close the public motion motion to close may I have a second second so I have a motion from Council vice president second from councilman pointer all in favor I I I all right moving on to number 21 any council member want like to pull anything for a separate vote I'll start with my right councilman brusher um just that um the tree the tree one I forgot what number uh 12a 141 yes 141 right uh anyone else I'm I thought the 141 we going to table it or we going to pull that out yeah we're going to pull it separately okay we're going to table it any anything else that's all right so the consent agenda would be r135 to r140 and r142 to R 168 all right may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve may I have a second second so that's a motion from Council vice president second for councilman pointer Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member shimu yes council president Patel yes and now for R 141 as we discussed I would like a motion to table this uh motion to table can we have a have a date first can we have a date what's the next uh meeting April 10th April 10th okay so uh can I get a motion to table this for April 10th motion to table until April 10th second all right so I have a motion from councilman ptil and a second from Council vice president and this is motion till April 10th all right Madam roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member poiner yes council member shamuel yes council person Batel yes all right so uh motion to accept the communication uh from food and water watch thanking the council for the support may I have a motion motion to accept second so that's a motion from Council vice president second from councilman ptil all in favor I I all right oral petition and remarks uh let me get the list and all right and first one is Diana Joff jofy good evening Diana jofy 86 Laurel Hollow Court you recognized thank you I'm speaking to you tonight as a representative of the domestic violence team in Edison recently I came across resolution 174 d04 200021 adopted by the Town Council in 20121 so I'm not sure if any of you were on the council then here's what it reads this resolution authoriz authorizes the release of $50,000 from the Township's affordable housing development trust fund to Triple C housing Incorporated to be used for the purchase due diligence and closing costs of two units and Supportive Housing in the township $225,000 per unit and it goes on it will be used for supportive uh housing for victims of domestic violence and and it goes on um the problem is I don't know where I know it's a resolution and resolutions aren't at but uh I don't know where the money went and while the township um lovely woman in administration Joanne marado is trying to find out how the funds were spent we want you to know that we're here and we need your support as well the mayor and councel not just with a resolution of recognition but with the funds we need in order to take care of our victims I'm proud to be a 30 plus year uh resident of Edison but I'm not proud of how we seemed to avoid domestic violence it's been like a pariah our victims are women children and men who are suffering from the most horrendous violence and abuse the police have exceeded all expectations they've been wonderful but they can't do it alone we need the support of the mayor and councel together to help and to provide some context our neighboring town of Woodbridge is a shining example of how we should be handling domestic violence as is per thoy and other middle sex County towns and Mars County we can and should do better and if the old Hackney expression says it takes a village then let's get going thank you very much thank you Diana quick question for you Dana what do Woodbridge do better than what does Woodbridge does better Woodbridge uh is very well supported by their mayor and councel they actually have Apartments they have built for victims as peroy and I believe in Mars County and there's some other towns in middlex County who have done that we just haven't paid attention that we need to pay uh from getting a room it's been a hardship to get a room in the police station we finally got it we're going to be painting it and cleaning the you know we're doing everything we can we don't have any money and I don't know where the funds are supposed to come from I'm pretty new at this this is my first year I was trained last year so I'm just getting involved in this and I'm seeing what we don't have and it's a shame we really need to help these people okay let me ask Sonia as to can we find out where this funds uh went sure um if she's speaking with regards to Joanne marado she handles our cdbg funding right um so I could certainly try to identify exactly what we've allocated and what we could potentially allocate to address this issue um and legally what we're able to do it in order to uh meet the standards for any victim that you're referencing so I'm sure we can get some grants on this not for domestic violence I know there's a couple of things on the police end that they do um but I'd like to know if we can actually potentially spend cdbg funding for to address an issue like this and if so then certainly we um we can build it and allocate it as part part of the funding we get on a yearly basis and that the council approves council president those are grants correct do they give grants the CB the CB is that what it is yes and there's a meeting on April 10th I believe in council chambers that they're having I'm not sure I'm just I just heard about that so I can certainly find out okay thank you very much okay uh councilman brusher yes um I'm wondering if if uh Sonia might be able to get you the funding that's inside our account um because I believe the account has I'm going to make it up and say 10 million maybe it's eight but I think I'm close somewhere there it's substantial I can't give you the number but well so I'll tell you what happens let's say that you want to build a warehouse in Edison right and you go down for your permits like a warehouse like Amazon on the bottom of their permits they I'm going to say donate um they're required by by law to pay approximately $500,000 that would go into this fund which is supposed to be used to help low income um I I don't know like the this one right I don't know that it could be spent on this um but I I assume it is just otherwise I don't think you would come up here and have told us this so I'm believing it um but we do have a substantial amount of money um and how that you know then would go to lwi income or other avenues like this council president yes um I wasn't on Council then but uh councilman PTI and brusher were on there do you remember when this came up as a resolution yeah it was in 2021 but it went to specific organization and again I don't know how they spent uh because once they apply we this Council adopted a resolution M but probably we might to go and ask the organization where they spend or who they help probably yeah um I think it's really a crime that we don't have these kinds of resources a big big town such as ours it's a crime that we don't have this and I'm willing to work with with you Sonia I'm willing to work with you Diana to uh try to see what we can do to get the funding for this thank you thank you Council vice president uh moving on on to Maria J Lopez good evening good evening uh Maria J Lopez 947 you can move the microphone closer to your mouth sure I was here um January uh the January meeting uh speaking about the uh boat situation and um the boat that is parked within about 5 in of my fence right i' I've called a few times talked to someone but I my original um contact was with Mr co uh Coy Pat and uh he was very helpful but he passed me on to Jim and uh Jim came out and he said you know we we'll get it moved because it's right against my fence which faces my backyard um so I had spoken in front of you folks about the situation and it turns out that uh the vat has not been moved nor have they enforced it to be moved the township then in about uh I guess this began in November so I was in contact with Pat in November Jim in December everybody was going to do something and then I came to the meeting and Mr deal called me I see I saw the picture I see how you feel etc etc so um I guess around January lost track of all the dates but um my neighbor had a survey done done I think maybe end of January it was warm out it was an unusually warm time in the winter and he had a survey and I would say about three four weeks maybe even longer a month I don't know if the owner of the house on 4J Street actually held on to it or you know Jim's office held on to it but I finally got they reached out to me in February uh middle of February uh Jim knocked on my door and said that um I was in violation of my property line so I said okay he says your foot over like okay so let me hire a surveyor and have it survey in fact I am okay in a corner and the other the rest of the property where I'm not it's maybe an inch or here it's not a straight line but it's very minimal and the one corner was uh is the foot over so no problem I want to move my fence I actually want to put a privacy fence because this neighbor has not been I'm there 25 years in claraa Barton familiar with when I was here in January this neighbor's here less than two years he ripped up every tree excuse me every tree there 75 80 years old got a permit okay that's the back of Grand View Grand View goes up and it's high so I'm kind of in the in the high higher part of Grand View I can can see all the houses up there now on gra all of them and you know what that doesn't even bother me anymore because I know that people are going to do what they want to do I'll never understand why someone buys a pro piece of property with so many trees why they don't buy one without trees and he just excavated his entire back of his property that I have mud all the way down and I think the gentleman that was here uh went and met with him but aside from all that I want to move my fence and and so I came and met Mr deal on I I guess I it was February 18th I mean March 18th when he called me or Jim called me and um he did tell me I was in violation he did he says he's in violation you're in violation but I didn't know that and secondly it's still close he doesn't meet and they told me that he has to meet a three-foot setback and then I got told this month that it's not a permanent structure though so therefore it doesn't need to be three- foot setback so I've been looking at this boat who he came last week and I don't know if it was who someone from here that spoke to the owner of the house finally put a white cover on it only a month or two ago now this has been happening since November it's almost six months and um I don't know if he did it deliberately he was working on it a little bit but he took it off because he's you know I think he you know he's had so much stuff going on at his house that you know people have seen it and it's not a good thing for the neighborhood when I moved here 25 years ago my neighbors on 107th Street cut all their trees in the back also facing the back of Grand View now he cuts all his trees down so it's okay I'm going to plant trees so that I don't have if I don't want to look at it I don't want to look at it but I have an aluminum black fence so now I want to put a privacy fence Jim Tell uh uh Mr calls me oh no U Jim calls me on um March 18th and says to me hey uh Mr dill and I agreed that uh we feel that uh April 15th is when we'll move the boat because that's what's acceptable to this man why though you know I mean you have one minute you're pardon me you have one minute oh okay so here I am trying to move my fence so it's accurate within my property line and so that I could put a new fence meantime this fence is only 2 years old and I do you know I did not have a permit I had a permits for my other fences and I was always a foot in but I trusted the person to do the right thing and it wasn't done right so that's fine but I want to I want to move my fence I don't think I'm going to but more importantly I'd like to see an ordinance made for this situation with the boats because actually i' have noticed so many more boats since it's become sort of my my issue too and uh I I don't even know what the ordinance is nobody can seem to explain it to me is it a permanent structure only is it not a permanent structure it's there six months out of the year I can ask the legal to answer it if you don't mind do you know anything about for I I do remember um when you were here a few months ago I did uh start to look into the issue it is a permanent structure has to have the setback because this boat is not a permanent structure it's essentially on a trailer so long as it's properly maintained on the trailer there's no real um recourse for the township to force them to move it um at any particular time it's not out on the street it's not on their lawn um my understanding is it's in the driveway on a trailer um and is not like a you know sometimes you see houses where they have a a boat that is not seaworthy anymore and it's collecting um rainwater and mosquitoes and things like that that's problematic under the health codes but from my understanding of this particular situation it's simply someone who is utilizing the space in a way that that the township doesn't legislate against Mar your time is up so unfortunately you won't be able to talk uh so that is what the the issue is to my understanding my recollection from from looking into it a couple of months ago and what steps does she have to take for her fence for her fence she I I don't know this off the top of my head and I might be wrong but I think she just has to apply for a fence permit um I did apply for I do have it no talking back I'm sorry Maria okay so you can just have a seat thank you council president I see attorney one question yes um the the I the boats aren't a permanent structure um that that's like having a garbage can or anything else so I I do understand that but I thought that our code said something about it has to sit behind like beh behind the front of the house I don't believe that's the case in the code but I again this is research that I did two months ago I I did not see anything similar to that though in the code um I can take another look at it if you'd like and we can discuss it more fully um I'm happy to do that but from my understanding of how it's set up right now is that it in the driveway is an acceptable location as long as it's on an appropriate trailer and just so the resident know to April 15th is the day that all marinas allow you to put your boats in the water of course you would know that I would know that thank you all right thank you Council Brer thank youle uh anyone else that would like to make a comment uh you can come on up Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle recognized thank you I have a question about about um the cable companies I did see that the public utilities has approved Comcast to come into Edison and I see a lot of digging up and driving uh not wires but tubes underneath everything and I was wondering they said they were going to be doing parts of the town but it didn't say specifically where they were going to be doing it and all of a sudden in my neighborhood there's these white lines going out in front of our street there's the curb and then that sidewalk part and then into the street there's white lines being drawn and it goes to all the cable boxes where it's pointing to and I was wondering is there any kind of um purpose for them to let us know what's going on are they just doing work have they set up anything with the township as to areas of town that they're going to be uh getting into as far as um giving us a choice then of optimum versus Comcast versus anything else it I'm just afraid and my neighbors are afraid it took us forever to get a new road and then after the new road was put in middlex County had to come and dig up two sections of our street and now it seems the way that the lines are drawn and then one goes across the street and goes down further it looks like they're going to be digging up Netherwood Circle also is there anything where we could find out more information as to and I have no idea where the white lines came from I'm usually not noticing things like that and when I brought it up nobody knew what I was talking about and they all had to go outside to see where the where are these white lines from so is there any way of finding out maybe from the um internet committee as to uh what portions of town are going to be affected or yeah I can ask Sonia does Comcast uh let Edison know as to where they're going to be working on and what they're going to be tearing down I have not been advised that any specific area they through the puu just let us know that they're going to start work we're never in the no if you will as far as the area I can certainly inquir to see if there's a if there's a general area that they're doing infrastructure work to see if I can get some sort of answer on that and uh I know in our ordinance they do state that they have to do curb to curb corre so afterwards if they don't do a good job uh you can let us know and we can follow up on that but they're not going to let us know they'll just do as they please okay thank you thank you council president can I make the remark um I think you know our engineering department if they have applied for the Road opening permit we should be able to find out which area they are targeting based on the road opening permit but if they have not applied for the Road opening permit then we would not know but if their lines are drawn and if they are digging then I'm pretty sure the road opening permit application has made and we should be able to pull those permit to see what sections or what road uh what roads within the township are targeted for the cable uh underlying the cable uh I'll check through the DPW Department usually they go through there first thank you thank youman Patel thank you Sonia uh oor just oor Nasser Pleasant Avenue so tonight I'm gonna talk about a few things safety parking following the law and smart developments the law says that any structure is 2 miles from a school need a sidewalk on Amboy Avenue I found four buildings that when modified they will need to have a sidewalk so who should I pass this list on to make sure that we do not have the same issue like we had with lot 103 as I continue to do research lot 103 the OPA reports that keep coming back to me they show that there no design waivers or any justification for there not to be a sidewalk I know councilman pil has been investigating this issue do you have an update I argue that at this moment lot 103 must install a sidewalks since they have made the following modifications one they've installed a curb they've struck the property with fire Lanes they included rsis parking with conformed conforming handicap parking they changed the flow of traffic they've added two do not enter signs on ampoy Avenue there is a shared parking agreement with lot 103 and lot 104 they have altered the impervious pavement by adding grass at the front of total dimensions and narrow narrowed the driveway onto Amboy Avenue there were two lots until there were one until they decided to go ahead and take it apart so to me that seems like they've done a whole lot of different changes there and they now have to go ahead and put the sidewalk in because they have to be to the codes of 2024 it seemed that I found a case law that said just by going ahead and Paving and striping uh that they had to go ahead and adjust to the current law so we've gone well beyond that so can we have a legal answer to say why there is no demand for a sidewalk on his property based on these alterations I asked that the council enforce the sidewalk ordinance on his property and any others that don't comply to the law I want to switch gears and I want to thank the mayor Mr deal councilman pointer and all the other residents that attended uh at the mayor's office to have a really good meeting about what we're going to do and Clara Barton and I wanted to thank the mayor for agreeing that we should have no more than three stories in clar Bon as promised we will meet with the neighborhood and get feedback with the two properties that were discussed in light of this meeting and the mayor's agreement for three stories we hope that the planning board will finally adjust the three story language four story language to three stories and Below how they came up with the four stories is beyond me as I mentioned last time the lots that they arbitrarily chose are like 6 acres and there other lots that are much larger on March 13 the council voted to send a resolution to the planning board to reduce the building height from four to three stories when we went to the master plan meeting though on March 18 we expected them to have seen the resolution uh but Mr sandoli said that they did not have it can our Township attorney verify at the 45 days to act on a resolution started on March 19th if not can we have clarification of why not on another note this weekend I was in Westfield to watch a play with my nephew or actually that he was in it was a much needed break from all the craziness in politics and Edison anyway as I went through Westfield I couldn't help but notice that there were many unique building Heights and different types of styles and I kind of strained my neck to go ahead and see if I could find any four-story buildings and I just couldn't um we have character in Clara Barne and if Westfield doesn't have four-story buildings why in the world do we need that they Thrive and they have foot traffic westfields and clar barn will never issued and multiple warnings were given this issue is likely to continue so we need a plan for now I have seen Chicken Galore patrons use spots on Amboy Avenue but they also park at Jade Dynasty I have also noticed that the people that are at the coffee shop and the ice cream place are also at Jade it makes you wonder what happened if Stuarts and the Jade Dynasty became four-story buildings where would people Park I'm glad the mayor has heard us and agrees that we should not have taller and three story buildings one minute I look forward to the answers to my questions and a safer clar Barn thank you upor if you don't mind can you repeat the questions on the sidewalks about the two miles and the lot 103 as to so one of my questions was I know councilman patil has been investigating this issue with me do you have an update can we have a legal answer to why there is no demand for a sidewalk on this property based on all the alterations so comment was that another one was can our Township attorney verified at the 45 days to act on a resolution started on March 19 if it did not can we get clarification on that okay thank you sorry is this the property with the two units sharing the parking lot and then there's parking into the street right um unfortunately I can't answer that um I can tell you that as part of its original approval that's what was granted um but why the planning board did or didn't require um them to install a sidewalk as part of the approval I I I simply don't have the information for I that's a question for the planning board there's an ordinance that says within two miles they have to have sidewalk and so can we mandate that post approval I can look into whether or not you can mandate it post approval but I my initial impression of that is that that is a planning board function and not a council function so you may run into an issue there but I can certainly look into that aspect of whether or not you can mandate it um with respect to uh the the 45 days I believe that the 45 days starts to run once the resolution is is passed um it should have been sent over to them though if there's some issue with uh it not having been sent over that may in fact delay the starting of the 45 days otherwise it' be very easy for the council to pass a resolution to amend the zoning ordinance hide that resolution for 44 days send it over and say well we sent it within the 45 days um so long as it was sent and transmitted to the planning board uh that's that's where their 45 days would start to run whether or not they actually had it didn't realize it or just didn't have it I don't know so uh that that would be the the only reason for them to say hey our time is extended you never sent it to us my understanding is it was sent so uh whether it was sent that day or shortly thereafter and it was just not on their agenda meeting because it didn't make that agenda meeting um if Mr pointer is correct their next meeting is April 15th yes that that would still be within the 45 days for March 19th for them to review and come to their their conclusion on it so and then I believe there was one last question but I wasn't quite sure or maybe it was just a two-part question on the the the sidewalk issue anything we can do it off yeah yeah so thank you Octor question Mr Octor I'm still working on that issue that you brought up on the sidewalk I don't have definitive answer but within a week I promise you will have the answer in terms of the 45 days window again do we have the confirmation that we send this to the planning board because what I heard is planning board doesn't have the resolution which is a very valid concern who is responsible to send the resolution is that CHL you or Administration that sends the it it is sent already so it was sent perfect so it is planning board secretary yeah planning board secretary so if there is a who can follow with the planning board secretary to make sure that it is with the planning board chair perfect thank you so that you know we don't miss again the next meeting and we don't have it again we should look if as as long as it was sent that 45 days starts to run if it was transmitted properly to the secretary and I have no reason to doubt the clerk the then that 45 days would start to run and they can either comment that or or not uh in which case it comes back to the the council for action Y so only the last question on that same front if the planning board doesn't act within 45 days like in 45 days time window will this Council be able to probably move the ordinance to amend if the under most circumstances if the planning board fails to act within the 45 days that they have on all all of the applications that go to them it's deemed to be accepted by the planning board that is their incentive to act rather than to just sit on things worst case scenario is that if it comes back after the 45 days and the council is is inclined to act um they would do so with a statement of reasons to place on the record as part of their adoption saying regardless of what the planning board agrees to doesn't agree to this is our statement of reasons for making the change in what our legal rationale is and then it would be adopted that way so uh in either event it's you get to the same in space y thank you thank you Council M PTO uh Council Joy ship 41 Main Street Joy ship Freeman um as far as the uh domestic violence which is just terrible I I remember us giving out Awards to Men Who dedicated theirselves to that but as she discussed with the resolution from the resolution from the cdbg grants um I got $25,000 for my after school programs but they also made you follow through on a grant in order to get the money from there but the money's like available the money's available for you but they make you have to do like a like a two two-step process after you do the resolution and also um I wanted to uh through the chair to Wi Chief um are we prepared in case those tankers that's filled with oil blow up like down the street from my house the council Chef Freeman please address the president excuse me uh he won't I'm sorry what was the question again they're tankers they're tankers down the street and they park down the street from my house right behind the stoping shop on the right one councilwoman are we prepared to take care of that uh the council president's uh request is that you address the questions to him um rather than engage in a colloquy with the the I haven't even engaged in a conversation I haven't even talked to him I I know and I'm just clarifying what the council president re but I haven't even talked to the guy I said through the chair and I asked a question so I think you're kind of like jumping your gun there sir uh ma'am the council president I have a word been said you can talk over me all you want but I'm clarifying the as you stand there directly fire chief something wrong with you that you would try to stifle my speech okay I'm not trying to stifle your speech now I'm just trying to observe the what word has he said to me yet what word has he said to me please address the president you know what I mean what word has he said to me if I look at you while you talking I asked the question this way and I look at you like you're talking okay hearing hearing hearing problem okay from being in the classroom too many years okay so uh I hope all my time stopped while they were playing these games uh Marina um so I'm asking about the tankers right there right behind stopping shop that are filled with oil okay and the reason I'm asking these questions because I'm getting kind of nervous with all the infrastructure and stuff watching Bridges fall down in places making sure people have things taken care of so I just wanted to know if the fire department is equipped in case some of that stuff blows up back there by Oar in case he catches on fire all right fire chief yes the fire department is repared God forbid there was a emergency thank you thank you very much that's what I'm concerned about thank you Chief thank you thank you very much and uh through the chair there um I just want to know about the Catalina converters and all that we've come to like a stop for those and clar Barton I'm sorry repeat the question Catalina converters the catalytic converters yes yes okay what's the question have we took taken care of that problem in the clar Barton section because it seem to be an overload of that when you say taking care of the problem like they start like stopped completely the police department has it stopped has it went down how has the okay so what what uh what resolutions have they done uh Chief um M ship Freeman um so in regards to the catalytic inverter thefts I can't give you quanti quantitative number on whether they're up or down right now we have been having periodic catalytic converter thefts not only in clar Barton but elsewhere um it's not just an Edison issue as you know it is a regional issue um I could look into where our numbers are at this point okay thank you very much thank you thank you Chief okay um a federal holiday is June teth is it it is it off on our calendar is it on our calendar this year for the township so it's juneth off for the township yes is a Federal holiday I figure we get all the religious holidays off let me ask Sonia Sonia the do we have juneth off for the township this not a Township holiday otherwise we'd have to negotiate it with the various unions um in exchange for potentially any other holiday but we do not have that holiday we do recognize it thank you okay so we don't have juneth off okay that's the federal holiday but we have other one off okay I'm also asking about the $13 million of of the contaminated land um and the lawsuit that's pending against it and will we be cleaning it up and putting some other project on it in the near future now which uh land is this Freeman Silver Lake so really and your question is what are we going to put in there yeah are we when are we going to clean up the contaminated park because only is contaminated to the level of certain things but for Parks or for housing and stuff it has to be cleaned up so is there a timeline for that son is it right now we're not doing anything um for the mayor we're not doing anything indefinitely with that property um so there are no plans okay at the moment thank you Jorge and last your time's up no my time is enough cuz y'all talk during my time that my time is up I told her that put the time back on at the time y ping around at all all right so please sit down what I I guess I'm G sit down because this is the only town that I know please sit down that doesn't know when their streets are going to be dug up they waste all their money on Paving the street and then it gets dug up the next week crazy council president one answer to the juneth uh I I brought this up with Sonia to see if maybe they could reach out because we had those Lincoln and Washington's birthday which like nobody has we everybody has President's Day now so it would be a holiday that we'd be able to swap with the unions and and what's nice too is I don't think we have any um holidays in that month so it it it allows an extra holiday is that something we have to legally negotiate like or or you could reach out and ask right right I think it would have to be negotiated into each one of the Union contracts because it's a it's a change in the terms and conditions of employment uh so you couldn't just say nope you can no longer have this today and we're going to give you this day instead it would actually they would have to agree to it they might I don't know a lot of people prefer to have a day off in June than in say February but um you know it would have to be individually negotiated with the each Union so can if going forward if we are to if we want to make this change what would be the first step um so the first step would likely be to enter into negotiations with the unions over whether they even want that as part of their contract negotiations um it could be designated potentially as a holiday for the township with the non-un employees but that gets messy if you haven't actually taken that step so um don't they have there's a lot ways that you would have to to go about it to make it clean um implementing at peace meal really doesn't work that well I've seen that happen in other towns and it usually gets to be a little bit messy but um is there a way we can start just uh no talking back and forth please but you know where I was going was um with any Union contract even if one we approve one today right tomorrow you're allowed to change to make changes to it um to to any Union contract um as long as they're in agreement so to me the first step would be like the administration if they're meable to it to put out an email to the union presidents and just saying you know would this be something that you might be in favor of and and if you have one Union that says no Then it would be no yeah so I guess we can reach out to see if there's something they are interested in and maybe we can do it so that if everyone agrees then it moves forward otherwise it doesn't okay thank you son uh anyone else come on up Anthony oh sorry I didn't even see you there sum alone Barber 85 Pleasant Avenue you're recognized I was away for the last meeting and didn't get the opportunity to thank council members brusher teal hoer and Council Vice president Harris for voting to send that resolution to the planning board asking them to amend the ambo Avenue Redevelopment plan and eliminate the four story or 45 foot permissible Building height um I also had the same question as Octor um when does the clock start ticking I think you you covered that and thanks for chasing that down um and then I would also like to publicly thank mayor Joi for me meeting with a group of CLA Barton residents and for asking us what we'd like to see developed on two large Lots on Amboy Avenue we really appreciate the opportunity to give input on the development of those lots and we will be U meeting with our neighbors and Clara Barton um in the coming weeks um I also want to publicly thank the mayor for supporting a three-story or fewer Max Building height on Amboy EV you which brings me to um a request for the council with regard to the master plan as of the last meeting um there was still language in there allowing a four-story exception for two properties on the East End of Amboy Avenue Stewarts the Stewarts lot which isn't for sale to the best of my knowledge and the Jade lot which is um and you know a few of us asked again could that please be struck so if you could keep an eye out um we feel strongly there should be no exceptions to four story they back up to homes um and we've said that numerous times the other thing to be aware of in the master plan is and we talked about this as well is there are two recommendations for parking I think Octor touched on some of the things we experience where people want to park in front of the business that they want to go into or near the business um and one of the recommendations in the master plan is to establish um some Central Parking Lot um and the other recommendation which is new to this draft was potentially arranged for shared parking with some of the businesses that have larger Lots um in their off uh hours um again to oor's point a Central Parking Lot isn't going to solve the problem for people who don't want to walk to where they where it is they want to go but the shared Lots is actually a really good idea um because it spreads it out along mway Avenue so um that might alleviate some of the parking so if you could just be on the lookout for those things and understand that perspective um and then my final thank you goes to the council um for putting forth the ordinance tonight um about tightening the billboard zoning um I urge you all to please pass that ordinance Edison is in desperate need of tighter zoning on billboards as we've heard one of the catalysts for our public Advocate um energy and um it is long overdue um I think that passing the ordinance will show a true effort by the council to curb overdevelopment in Edison in favor of Edison residence quality of life and I urge you all to please pass that unanimously and many many thanks who whoever put that forward thank you s okay thanks and I have an update from Sonia on the planning board uh they said that they will have the four-story ordinance on April 29th so it'll be on the planning board on April 29th oh good great thank you right thank you all right Anthony damaran uh Wy Avenue you recognized thank you um first uh few Clare bar uh concerns uh any I don't know what the tree fund is and how much money it is in there currently but I I I speak to a lot of my neighbors on the Clare Barton side um I call the Forgotten part of Clare Barton but the wber jaff side towards Fords uh in the medium um if we could make um trees build you know plant some trees there it's it's it's an open space there where is this uh CLA Barton on the Ford side of Amboy Avenue um closer to Fords there if you would uh so there the the medium there it's it's it's it's like it's wide open so basically from like I don't know uh wolf Jefferson there's there's there's no trees on that on those mediums there and a lot of neighbors would like uh you know to dress it up with with some trees and stuff if you don't mind can you send us the address exact address yeah I'll get you I'll get it to you yeah um so uh that's that's actually I'm asking that question for for neighbor of mine um let's see here um also I've asked this I uh you know for the council to consider putting a light up walkway uh on Woodbridge Woodbridge Avenue uh crossing over from my side of uh Amboy to the uh to the other side um crossing over wridge Avenue it is a extremely busy intersection there uh four I don't know what is it four four lane uh uh uh uh Street there going each way but uh it's a very busy intersection accidents all the time so if there's a if there's a the the Fall Festival for as an example if there is some type of an event on the other side of Amboy uh for if you live where I am it's you got to basically drive because if you have kids it's a very dangerous Trek otherwise you could take the green way and go the back way but coming back at night you know a lot of a lot of families don't like to do that so A light up walkway there lot of lights you know flashing and stuff you hit the button and as you're walking across Woodbridge Avenue would be greatly you know would be a good idea Woodbridge and ambo yeah Woodbridge and Amboy is yes where the light is right where the traffic light is yeah right where speed uh what is that Speedway yeah um yes um one solution that I have I i' I actually brought this up to the to the mayor uh before he was mayor um but an idea that might be a solution I think would be a great idea is to put a police sub station in clart uh possibly you know somewhere in CL it's centrally located it is you have a lot of activities a lot of fairs a lot of things going on in that part of town uh you have the greenway especially in the summertime to have the uh I would put the community oriented policing unit as an example maybe consider putting a substation for them right in Clare Barton have them on bike Patrol during the summertime patrolling the greenway and that whole area uh they can write parking tickets um you know it's it doesn't have to be a big facility I don't know where exactly where you would put it maybe uh not next to the Firehouse there but somewhere in that area wouldn't be a bad idea uh again it's centrally located um I I think uh to to to considering what how many activities that we have going on in that part of town uh a little substation there for maybe you know community policing or whatever would it be a terrible idea something to consider um um and uh especially during the summertime I I think there's there's they could stay active the Green Way would be people would I think appreciate the Green Way and use it more um if they felt there was cops riding on the bike and and just you know greeting you know people as they walk or or with family so um you know something that I would uh I would consider maybe um let's see um um oh the uh council president uh I I I've been asked this a few times would uh would you consider uh just uh possibly changing or or uh when people ask the questions uh during during the meeting to answer the question as soon as that individual leaves the podium uh instead of waiting all the way to the end for all the questions it's a uh it's it's it's a comment request that has been made so I I think we've been doing that have you been okay okay okay um so uh then I apologize for that um uh the next to the matou and Edison dog park um there is I something do we know what being built there there's something being built on that I think it's Edison um right next to Conrail where Conrail is basically located uh Whitman Avenue uh there's there's there's a lot of construction going on I believe that's us not mouin I was just curious to know if we know what's going there it looks like a warehouse of some sort um if anybody isw Sonia Dino if that is us and if something do you have an address by any chance I don't let me maybe we can take the soft line oh okay yeah I just saw I just saw them a bunch of construction people people back there so I was just curious to know what was back there um uh and oh one last thing I I you know I I I came AC I thought of this because I I heard it but I didn't realize um the people that have these electric vehicles okay which I'm no fan of but it's it's it's here now um The Dangers that the fire department have and the the challenges they have when they go to these possible wrecks or or motor vehicle accents involving these EVS um they're they're not as easy to thank you Anthony but I want to give a shout to Adra uh to because I I spoke to the sorry your time's up Anthony sorry man it was gonna be a good one I do want to ask the fire chief I know where he was going I spoke to okay okay all right uh anyone else council president can I just address the Amboy Avenue crosswalk yeah um because and I apologize I didn't follow up but I had reached out to the administration um when you had brought it up last year that part of Amboy Avenue is technically county road so it would have to be done through the county on that se on that particular section thank you council president thank you council president anyone council president councilman Co if you don't mind I just want to answer the islands that he mentioned are all in the tree planting plan and Council pointer is aware of it um so that spot that has been in the plan and it hopefully it'll be planted this spring thank you thank you coun mcco come on up Steven Zer Bal 7 Oliver Avenue you recognized thank you um once again my name is Steven zbam coming on behalf of the Edison first aid Squad Edison EMS uh I was here last meeting to share a little bit about to the council and the residents a little bit more about our organization which again is our very well-off volunteer first aid Squad uh growing doing a lot of good things for this town uh for Edison and middle 6 County in general wanted to come back today again hopefully was able to answer a few questions last meeting Enlighten um some people about our organization but we had a few requests that I wanted to follow up on in terms of primarily in funding and in the Clara Barton section the clar Barton first aid Squad um we have talked with a few council members regarding some of our situations I've also met with the mayor recently uh going over both of these requests so first and foremost we are very fortunate and gracious enough to receive an annual donation from the township to partially fund our operations for the year um it's done on an annual basis I believe it comes out of the fire budget um if we need some clarification on that we can confirm uh but to be very honest this is something that has not been changed and from what I understand over 25 years um we receive a flat rate sum for each individual first aid Squad again to clarify Edison EMS represents the combination um working together of the three first aid squads Edison squad one Squad 2 and clar Mar and first aid so we still have the expenses of three organizations therefore we receive our donation in terms of a combination of three squs so our request to the township was to double our donation for each individual organization what we currently receive is $35,000 per organization we are requesting that the township graciously doubles that to $70,000 per agency U to a total of $210,000 which I don't want to obviously make this a financial presentation our expenses but I can very clearly share that there is a larger and larger every year for this funding to support what we believe is a very vital and important organization to the township um the big question of course that always comes up after that um well I guess my question to the council why I'm really here is to kind of ask how do we make that request happen how is that possible we usually receive our donation at the end of the year again I've had a meeting with the mayor um we've had several meetings with some of the council members individually want to understand a little bit about the process how do we make that happen um and the second question I I apologize I'll let you answer that in a second U just to get it in time the CL Barton first aid Squad is in very dire need of a new roof and part of the thing that is a very urgent need is the new roof because that's about a $70,000 repair as you all know a building isn't anything with a good roof on its head so that is partially the short-term request if there's any additional support maybe before some financial support can happen if maybe the township can assist with even a temporary repair at CL Barton just to keep things going until maybe we can work out again an increased donation so if you wanted to respond to that or okay so in thank in terms of the budget I would assume that we would have to go through the budget process and that's when we can increase it uh but just to scale back any any request that is made from an outside organization obviously it'd have to be in writing um and we would like to also see the budget in terms to support your request so um while Mr zom is here I would respectfully ask for something in writing that would make that request um tangible and then we could certainly submit it to the mayor and councel for their review okay and in terms of the roof is that something we can help them out with how would that go about it would be the same kind of request okay so I would say that would be the process uh write a letter and we'll take it from there got it okay no I appreciate that and and again just to kind of share because the question comes up if I still have time what would we use the additional funds for that's of course what people are asking why are you asking for more money um to be very honest the donation from the township gets scooped up instantly through insurance and just utilities right there so again the township gives us 105k per year which is excellent our insurance and utilities cost us 95k right there so to be very honest everything else is left to us to fund raise for which as all volunteers is extremely difficult some of the things I would promise of what the additional funding would be used for I want to get generators at every Squad minut make this a resource to the township um for OEM that way in the event of emergency each individual station could be a shelter as needed make this a resource to the township for the residents um generators I want to get an allterrain vehicle for all the events that we cover for the township at Lake papani right here that way we could respond to emergencies very quickly um and I want to support a scholarship program for our members for tuition for college as an incentive for them to be active so just a few of the things that we are requesting the additional funding for that we hope when we put that request in writing you know we can approve thank you Stephen I think uh most of the council members will be in agreement with that uh but I would let them speak on their mind when it comes to it great thank you thank you council president yes I'd like to make a recommendation maybe to the administration um the last time um gentleman was here you know we talked about where they could bill right but but that's not really an option you know for them per se because they're the volunteers um but I want to remind the administration that we outsourced our EMS to JFK hospital um and JFK gives us funds um you know for that and then they make a profit on the balance of it I'd like to see maybe if the administration can look into what sort of um profit they make in doing this because maybe that's something JFK could help us um with like funding and as like a donation um I I JFK's been excellent to Edison and I know they've supported a lot of the things we've done here um it's great we have a hospital here I almost think that that that they'd want to partake and um you know help uh donate to help like an EMS um especially since they're making the money on the billing anyway you know it's it's a win-win for everybody so if the administration could look into it I think that'd be a great thing thank you thank you councilman Basher anyone else okay any other comments all right seeing none I know but even then sorry uh I'll take a motion to close the public motion close the public portion can I get a second second all right a motion from councilman Coyle second by Council vice president all in favor I I all right moving on to number 24 from the council member to the planning board thank you council president the planning board held its monthly meeting on Monday March 18th 2024 with the following items acted on or presented for minutes and resolutions P 5248 RG Edison urban renewal extension of minor subdivision approval for 190 days uh all these resolutions were approved p16 d222 derck development final site plan approval P 0520230 d223 Edison land investment LLC phase 9 preliminary final site plan approval P1 13-20 23 39 Progress Street preliminary and final site plan approval P 08-20 23779 New Durham this was actually carried uh to the April 29th meeting and then uh the resolution on the ordinance 2211 which was the Cannabis ordinance that is just um procedural nothing new so just want to clarify in that uh following those the master plan planner bfj planning presented changes and updates that were being proposed to the master plan draft some of the highlighted items included the master plan's relationship to master plans of adjacent communities clarification to several items including share parking on Amboy which we heard before Redevelopment sites current and proposed and updated zones such as the RC Zone added options to address recommendations for reduction in the LI Zone suggestion for further study analysis of adus and a land use plan section added to better indicate recommendations the board heard from interested parties in regards to the proposed plan and recommended adjustments the board is taking all items presented under consideration once the date is established to which the board will be finalizing and acting on the master plan plan I will be sure to update new business p13 d222 2020 designer greetings applicant was seeking a amended preliminary and final site plan approval to reposition parking previously approved by the board applicant proposed to increase Green Space while simultaneously cutting down the number of operational truck Bays no other adjustments were sought considering a motion was made and seconded to approve which was done so unanimously under old business P22 d222 just Nation 271 meal Road this is an applicant seeking to construct a 12,800 foot structure to assist in site operations this was a continuation of the application which has been going on for approximately six months now both the applicants and objectors presented testimony pertaining to the application specifically with lsrp testimony given the hour of the meeting and the request for summation and final brief submitt the application hearing was scheduled to continue for the May meeting with no other business being heard the meeting was adjourned the next planning board meeting is a special meeting scheduled for Monday April 15th 7 p.m. here in council chambers thank you council president thank you Council po pointer council president I have a question the sure yeah thank you council president uh counc pointer on the Cannabis ordinance that was on the agenda of the planning board I did uh make phone calls to understand what that means or what what the intent was I believe it was purely I think the communication lag between the uh the council to the planning board and they forgot to take it so just for clarification so that people aren't worried that stuff is coming up without public notice the council had introduced the ordinance it went to the planning board the planning board then made its recommendation as to whether it was in congruence with the master plan so that was the action following that action it came back to the council here which was then voted uh voted no the planning board still has to memorialize their action of their recommendation which that's what this is so it's it's nothing new it's just a formalization of the action that was taken by the planning board I hope that uh yeah that that's understood as as long as there is no zone change or there's nothing that happened that's what I want to double thank you thank you counc thank you councilman Patel moving on to number 25 reports from all Council committees uh starting on my right councilman brusher none Council mcoy uh council president I reached out to the administration for a finance committee meeting um could you reconfirm the date uh Sonia I can certainly do that um what I do need is a list of all the members that are on the finance committee so that I could arrange that okay I think we have the three council members uh councilman chair me and councilman pointer I not sure if there's any other members here could you advise the clerk to send her the list okay and I just would prefer to have this this just a soft discussion uh but we have to do it for the month of April yeah thank you all right uh moving on to council vice president yes I have two reports the first one was the cultural arts commission meeting that we had March 12th at 5:45 p.m. items discussed were the gallery application and with we're in process of trying to finalize that right now that is the only venue that we have is the gallery once we have the foron house then we'll be expanding to that but for now the um the the ation to exhibit in the gallery is still being finalized also the bylaws uh to be completed in the future now that we have a commission that's also pending um we have in terms of events uh September 25th 2024 is a jazz festival and that's coming along nicely Lois and uall were in contact via Zoom with event organizers looking for musical acts and opening acts and youth groups and and and actually Judy Tindle has done a lot she's booked uh at least two acts for I think it's going to be three acts total she's booked two of them there's list of food truck vendor sound Etc located will location will be at Lake papani and we might include some modern dance and Jazz with one of those uh perform with one of those Jazz ensembles um the F Fon house Judy was talking to a school with 27 AC capella kids to perform at the opening and seating is to be discussed once we're closer to the opening the cultural arts in terms of talking about a cultural arts building uh we're talking about several different kinds of models Cultural Arts and Convention Center um a proposed cab General plan with a hotel next to it could use it as a museum during the day we just want to make sure that we're getting the biggest bang for the buck for this and that um that it's not just laying idle when acts are not there um Kathleen carluchi had a great idea suggesting open air concerts at the Edison Tower the band would be on top people would bring their own chairs town the town can help with tents food trucks Etc we could possibly use the tower for the uh aforementioned Acappella group the next meeting will be April 9th at 5:45 and that is the cultural arts commission then moving on to library board same day March 12th 2024 uh board retreat is scheduled for April 6 and the next regular meeting will be held at the main branch following the library's 95th birthday celebration the next board meeting will be held at the main branch 7.m with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and it will also be National Library week the friends of the Edison Public Public Library will be holding a book in bake sale April 12th and 13th um Alan kimman report provided an update of the on the bookmobile Sprinter van he will be going to Columbus the last week of the month so that's this week to pick up the van and training will be completed he mentioned that the Sprinter could possibly be in parades Mr kimman mentioned that the friends of Edison public library has over 50 members now they're meeting regularly and are a very cohesive group Mr kimman also mentioned that he's working with the environmental commission to make a rain Garden at the North Edison Branch he also stated that an updated schedule for the bookmobile is being worked on uh on motion and second the 2024 Library budget was approved and I believe that oh wait no there on motion and second the motion to table the resolution to approve the G Meyer group bid of $1,734 N5 as the lowest bidder for the main library ven renovation project and to proceed to award them a contract for doing the work was approved so that was tabled and the next and I've already said what the when the next meetings are those are my reports thank you Council vice president uh councilman Patel no this name all right Council appointed no at this time sir councilman Shel none in this time all right uh none for me as well uh point of light uh any council members yes Council vice president yes so I want to urge people to possibly attend an event it's it's for the Police Unity Tour which this event is going to be at the Brownstone on Monday Monday April 1st it's $40 and that includes dinner and two drinks they have food drinks t-shirts Raffles giveaways and a door prize ticket this is to support the 17 of our police force who will be doing the unity Tour the unity Tour itself is going to be held they leave on May 10th from the Franklin Police Department on 495 deont Lane in Somerset for those who might be interested in supporting the fundraiser on Monday contact Lieutenant Doug Turner his email address is D Turner Edison pd.org I just want to wish everybody a happy Easter happy holy happy porum I believe that's passed and uh I think we're supposed to have good weather this weekend so that will be nice thank you thank you Council vice president any other council members council president Council bresser I'm going to say something I don't know if it's a point of light I think it is okay but I I'd like to tell the public uh of something that I found remarkable that happened to me the other day um we had an issue at my house where where my wife's cell phone died broken whatever it was um and me trying to work with T-Mobile to get this thing functioning you know they have you on the phone so I'm on my phone and I got her phone like this and her screen is black so they tell me hit this button hit that button hit this button and all of a sudden her screen that that's black says you have dialed 911 so I I can't even hit a button to shut off the 911 I don't hear anybody on the phone or anything like that and I proceed to go through with T-Mobile to work this out um I'd say about 10 minutes later my doorbell rang and we had an officer at my door and he said that the call was placed to 911 they didn't have my address they had nothing but it was remarkable to see that they were able to actually track where my phone was um and I think that's something that really should be out to the public that you should know if you're ever you know in your car and you're being attacked or whatever you can hit that and just silence your phone and they will find you um so it it was a remarkable thing I didn't know that we had that technology but I'm I'm very happy that it did um that would be a thank you C nice point of like yeah I think that's point of triangulation so use three cell towers to figure out exactly where you how I have no clue how they found that out in terms of uh for me that there's a DPW there's an electric waste pickup on Wednesday and Saturday a resident can call to schedule in addition you can still drop off on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday from 7:00 a.m. to 12: noon at 101 Truman Drive uh spring cleanup starts on April 6th for Section RS number 1 and six April 13th for RS number 2 and 7 April 20th for RS number 3 and 8 April 27th for RS number 4 and n and May 4th for RS number 5 and 10 uh moving on to number 27 discussion items I want to take a vote for the council councilman Co would like to talk about a subject I am not sure what that subject is so if the council wants to allow him to talk about this I would like to allow councilman Coy to speak on this so councilman Coyle what's the subject that you would like to speak on I just wanted I'll just say it now because take 90 seconds I just was perplexed that you changed the agenda an agenda that I've been watching for 30 years and you're change it and will have consequences and I wish we had a United discussion before you just change the agenda and you have discussions at the end I think this should happen counc president just like to finish it should happened at the beginning there are reasons and you're allowing the audience to dictate this agenda and I think that is weak leadership you are the council president thank you that's all I have to discuss thank you Council McCoy but I believe this works out better uh for the residents I want to watch and I believe it works out better for the council to do the job business of for the residents we got everything done for the As for the agenda we have everything voted and now we can talk about any discussion items that we choose to talk about as long as long as we want to talk about so moving forward councilman pressure um your topics of discussion yes now I I I know I give you a problem most of the time and today's I'm not going to let you down um but I'd like to add I'd like to I'd like to add an item um and it's a brief discussion like 90 seconds but the topic of the discussion that I'd like to add to my discussions was the new law suit that's all over Facebook um about Silver Lake one sec is there something we can well hold on Mr brusher um I I don't know what discussion Mr brel wants to have about the lawsuit um before he said says anything uh publicly um that may be a matter for executive session to discuss before the the trouble with lawsuits is that anything that you say could end up um being a problem uh particularly from the Council seat so if there is an item that you wanted to add um and the council president wanted to um make a motion to go into executive session to discuss it first so that it could in fact you know I I could weigh in on it you know let you know my opinion about whether or not it might cause any issues to open that up for discussion in the council floor um that might be an appropriate way to do it alternatively we can have a discussion after this meeting to to make a a determination as to whether it's something that's appropriate to put on to the discussion items um or should be reserved for a more private setting okay I I when I said 90 seconds you're going to understand why my request was that Council receives a copy of the lawsuit and that we have a Clos session at our next meeting if we could to discuss it it's okay yeah thank you all so moving on to a3d Yes um I have oh going to jump around uh Pleasant Avenue simple one we got our answer they're enforcing um I see a lieutenant Turner right is back at this which was great news I was glad to hear that he week um another small one we we had that Broadband I guess feasibility study um in reading it it didn't look to me like it was an actual feasibility study and and I'll tell you one of the quick problems so once I got to the one problem I just kind of shut down and said um this isn't a feasibility study because it's not feasible um but they said something about like if we charge $90 uh per house for Broadband um and we have X amount of people sign up it it becomes feasible but they didn't say anything about what we get for the $90 like do we get one gig or do we get 300 or 400 what it is because when I looked at that I I looked at what Optimum is charging right and you can get Optimum for one gig for like $70 which would be $20 cheaper so the feasibility study should have taken into account the market rates that are out there now to the residents you know not to tell us that it's $90 or it takes $150 to make it feasible because that's you can't be competitive with that um when your competition is at $70 so I'd like to see if there's a way that the administration can have them relook at those numbers and you know do an analysis to see really what they could probably get for it here in Edison um before we kind of move forward with any of that um then I had the uh police in security um and and this has become a big thing it it's been a big thing before for us um but it's it's kind of starting to just get a little out of hand so I had a lot of comments because I did speak to a lot of people about our police and Security in the town okay and everybody has different ideas okay um so I try to write them all down I do have it all here um and I wrote it so it's unusual for me to read something but I'm going to read it um I go here we all sit we've seen the spike and crime under our new mayor and public safety director what has happened over the last years since the patch article was written when Edison was ranked in the top safest towns and cities in the United States is we're having a public safety director who has only experience is working in 911 for a short time but either he couldn't do the job or they didn't like him and he left that job it was a small stint the mayor also has been putting fire vehicles around town and believed that it would deter crime this is such a useless move it could almost make a comedy movie out of this the other useless things we did was to put a mobile command station on Oak Tree Road this is another superficial idea that does nothing to deter crime just like the command station in raran Center that that is unmanned today if you were down maridan Center and somebody was chasing you in your vehicle you would see police cars in a police station you would pull in and think that you would be safe that would be false hope because there is no one there there is a phone but nobody knows to pick up the yellow boxed phone to call for help so it it's more of it's it's worse for the residents to give them that false hope and not have Public Safety in that building um you could be mug right okay yeah yeah okay I'm asking for Staffing levels for officers on the road today and I'd want to compare that to what was released by the previous administration the mayor is the head of our Public Safety and he appointed himself putting the residents of Edison at risk of crime his own sister's friend had her car taken with her child in it about 2 years ago and our did our mayor did nothing to protect the residents at that time and now that this has happened again he professes this is new this isn't new home burglaries break-ins are happening catalytic converters are stolen like it's a free giveaway well all this is happening the mayor wants to blame the governor and the president as a typical politician he would rather blame others for his lack of leadership or maybe it's just lack of experience council president point of order this is a political statement this is not this is not this this is not this is my discussion items Mr coil and you need to learn to control yourself sir I can speak to the council president point of order would be you okay these are issues that are wrong within the town you can continue it's fine while this is happening the mayor wants to blame the governor and president as a typical politician he'd rather blame others for his lack of leadership or maybe it is just lack of experience where he is using the residence as practice anybody that is my age or close to my age can remember New York City was a hard place back in the 80s and 7s s every mayor back then said it was the governor and president then one mayor came with experience in law enforcement and he cleaned up New York City sadly over the last few years New York City has turned back to the Decay that it once was maybe not as bad but still worse than the city was 10 years ago so the facts speak for themsel the mayor can change things if he chooses the mayor has fully the council here has fully funded our police department and the mayor took $1 million from the police budget in transfers he defunded our police maybe I'm sorry and used point of clarification there um that's not not an accurate depiction of what occurs during a budget transfer um if the administration um to the attorney listen when clarify when I'm speaking you to do whatever you want to do that's great but otherwise do me a favor and shut up all right I don't need you interrupted me no council president you should not you should allow me my time to speak I listed as a discussion item I spoke to the chief I've spoken to people about this let me finish sir I do not need to be interrupted if you would like to rebuttle you can do whatever you want afterwards sir but please do not interrupt my time we um did not do that transfer because as Mr brusher pointed out he didn't want did not want it to appear that way rather um so we did transfer funds from other accounts but we did not um remove any funding from the police rather when we present you the budget and you look at the five-year uh times you know laps of time you'll see that it's been consistent if not it's gone up as you know as anything um so that is just that's a just to clarify that statement for you council president as a point of clarity I would like the ba to submit to me by tomorrow morning please because it shouldn't be difficult for you to do okay 2023 we are in 2024 now okay tell me what was budgeted for our police department and tell me what was spent in our police department and I'd like to have that at tomorrow's meeting because I believe believe that at the end of the day when I get that document I'm going to see that we did not spend that money in the police department on Public Safety now council president can I continue or would would the attorney like to critique everything I have to say in fact he can sit here and Mr you are going off you're going off with the tangent there is a level of De necessary from Council MERS he's the most unoun attorney council president may I get a recess please I would like to just say mo motion to recess may I get a second second I have a motion from Council m co second from councilman ptil can I get a roll call or is this all in favor all in favor I no so five minutes recess we'll be back at 8:26 thank you I'm going go off we are still continuing the meeting so don't think we're leav again I will go off and disrupt this meeting e e e e e e e e e e e all right uh this meeting is back in session at 8:27 councilman schmel councilman Cole to reconvince motion to reconvince to reconvene can I get a motion to reconvene motion to reconvene second second Council motion to rec by councilman vice president second by councilman Pau all in favor councilman brusher you still have the floor on police security yes um I'm going to have to take one from Christo here and start at the beginning uh because I was I was interrupted council president it I will not have it start from the beginning council president this is I will not have it start from the beginning here we all sit and we have this counciler your time is up mayor moving public safety director councilman Brer you are not recognized since the patch article was written when Edison was ranked in the top town cities in the United States we have a public safety director whose only experience was working crime shows on TV growing up I will ask for another recess as councilman brusher is not necessarily fing along and if we have to do this one more time I will ask councilman Brer to be removed can I get puts I get a second second uh this council is in in recess for another five minutes we'll be back at 8 all in favors I I we'll be back at 8:34 oh do it again and again again and again and again e e e e e e e lawyer got me all messed up I can read this next meeting we can cancel the meeting today I can read it next meeting and and if not I'll read the next meeting but it'll happen it'll all come out don't 10 more seconds yeah we got a couple seconds all right the motion is uh motion to reconvene please motion to reconvene we got a second all right motion by councilman second by councilman pointer all in favor I all right so I'm going to give you one more chance councilman brusher um to continue on police security all right I'm going to try and be a little nicer to you even though I do think our attorney is horrible just continue with the discussion Adam please uh the mayor is the head of our Public Safety as he appointed himself uh let's see let's go down New York City was a hard place right we did that right and and then the mayor cleaned that up but our mayor can't clean up our town um okay so the the facts speak for themselves a mayor can change things if they choose the council has fully funded our police department and this is the point of contention point of clarification police where where I asked the administration to show me how much money we spent in 2023 and how much money we had budgeted and the reason why I bring this up is that if we didn't spend $2 or3 million and we would have hired 10 20 or 30 police officers whatever that dollar amount would be and they were have boots on the ground our crime would be less okay it it's it goes back and forth now of course you could say maybe we have no police we have no crime um I don't believe that neither did that mayor in New York City that mayor in New York City put a lot of boots on the and he cleaned it up unlike our mayor does so sadly over there maybe but still worse in the city 10 years ago we're back in New York City two officers Drive oh okay here we go um maybe if we would have left that in place and we would have hired more people crime would be down we would have reduced the crime rate maybe if the mayor did not have two officers driving him around and three officers at the taste of middle sex handing out food If instead instead those officers had their boots on the ground maybe our crime rate would be reduced I am asking the council's Public Safety Committee to work with the mayor and come up with solutions that do not blame others rumor has it that this mayor has a higher percent of law enforcement in the office or doing community policing instead of combating crime with boots on the ground under the old old May so i' I'd like to see if I can get those numbers in fact I think I requested those numbers a couple days ago um how many people we had boots on the ground type of thing uh back when lanky was and how many we have now but I have yet to receive that I don't think I did um but that was a pretty simple ask so what has happened we have the same Personnel in our police department and we have the same Chief the only difference is the mayor because a few years ago under the Lany Administration Edison was ranked one of the safest towns in the country and the only difference we have now is a mayor no council member should be covering up for him and it's disasterous job he is doing his Public Safety just as the disaster he committed at the animal shelter we need to understand what works and we need to help fund the administration on these items that are real solutions not fake solutions that look good but do nothing okay and and a typical scenario to that is putting uh our little booth up there on Oak Tree Road it makes everybody feel good that little Booth doesn't do anything it doesn't give us any more boots on the ground um everything is communicated through telecommunications and and radios and everything else that could be done um with the township so putting that there is that false sense of security uh like we have the false sense of security at ridan Center where if I were to pull in there trying to hide from a as salent I would end up getting killed because I pulled in there thinking it was a safe place and it isn't safe because there are no police there uh I for one have been asking for years why we can't have nixel alerts as crime happens it would make the public part of the solution with hundreds of extra eyes and ears the police always say if we see something say something well here they have the opportunity to have hundreds of eyes and ears out there if we're notified immediately as a resident's home got burgular IED or there was a a carjacking and that nixel alert does not need to go out to everybody in Edison okay but if it went out to everybody within a 20 block radius or or that zip code that would help and and I'll tell you where this goes um I was awoken at 2: a.m. in the morning to tell me that some father I assume it was a father um took a child in Piscataway at 2 a.m. I was notified by nixel but when there was a home invasion and I can get the terms wrong right burglary home invasion I don't know but when somebody enters your house I don't care whether you're there or not it's the same to us you know to law enforcement it is different whether someone's home or not they use a different term but as a resident it doesn't matter our space our home our safety has been compromised and when that happened which is probably about a six minute walk from my house I was not notified so I wasn't notified that people were breaking into homes that were just a couple blocks from me but yet I get a nixel alert about some father that took his child in bcat away um this is something that should be corrected should be done by our Public Safety Committee um I've spoken to our law enforcement about it and one of the things they complained about or or not complained their concern was that if the if our residents knew how much crime we really have that if it would hurt our property values well I hate to tell everybody on this dis and I hate to tell our our law enforcement I hate to tell our mayor and ba but I don't care about my property values I care about my life I care about my residents lives this is what it's about public safety first then we worry about property values people moved here because of our schools and we keep our schools upgraded we need to upgrade Public Safety this needs to be done if our police department has $2 million in a budget I expect to see them spend $1.5 million it it should be spent when we have issues of crime that are going on we have the money the money should have been spent in overtime to put more people on the ground and this is what the point is about okay this is about funding our Police Department properly not bsing the public to make them feel feel like they're safe and this is an important issue this topic will come back up again at my next discussion item next council meeting that would be it council president thank you councilman brusher moving on to councilman uh vice president yes so I actually also had nixel on my discussion items and so I was told that because people the residents seem to want nixel alerts to for crimes that are being committed we get things from The Ring doorbells we get alerts with things like that and there's neighborhood watch and stuff but what I was told about nixel and not informing people about crime is that the public they don't want to alarm the public they don't want it to be where the public is afraid to go out I I'm skeptical about that I I I liken it to when a doctor is prescribing medication and the doctor either is going to tell the patient about the side what possible side effects there are or they choose not to because they don't want to alarm the patient and my feeling is that sunlight is the best disinfectant so I am I I I too am concerned about this I I I feel like uh infantilizing the residence is not the way to go on this I I I think it's better to have more knowledge than less um moving on to public advocate um through the presid council president uh where are we on this I'll ask you uh through the president councilman brusher councilman brusher you have a question on public Advocate where are we um I actually have on here um that I'm going to take the public Advocate um I'm going to take the tree ordinance and right those those two and I'm going to draft up an ordinance um for both of them because I can't seem to get that from our attorney um you know I had the tree ordinance we were expecting to see the tree ordinances I'm reviewing it they they did write it up for me oh I I didn't see it I I was the one that asked for it they didn't send it to me so as far as I'm concerned um our attorney really is that bad but um so yes uh Council vice president um that will be put up at our next meeting okay all right good boards and committees the um listings on the website are not up to dat and I'm wondering what it will take there terms that expired I don't know if it was 2022 2023 and I wonder if we can get what's on the website up to date uh Sonia I think there was a confusion as to there's certain portion things that are May respons there are certain things that are I'm responsible for that I think we are going to be updating but there's some stuff that is mayor's responsibility I'm just not sure where regardless of who appoints yeah to these committees the clerk's office maintains a list of all of the boards of Comm committees even if there are vacancies in there that's maintained by the clerk's office okay so if there are vacancies we can certainly provide that to you and we've been working on it because it's you know they're constantly vacancies um but that me that list itself is maintained by the clerk's office I will follow up with the just we discuss this offline okay and then one more uh regarding the video of the work session for March 11th again with the philosophy of sunlight as the best disinfectant yeah it was ugly it was it was bad but I I don't know I guess I'm I'm a free speech person and I really feel as though people should be able to see what went on at that meeting and if they decide they're offended by what they see what they hear that they just they turn it out they turn it off but um I don't like the censorship of meetings even though there was foul language that was used it was ugly it was definitely ugly but it's it this is all about transparency so I would uh I would like to see that video restored and um and available for the public to see thank you thank you Council vice president uh councilman Patel thank you council president on the first one the tax basis assessment process for the home renovation I I thought you know I saw the the tax person in chamber but I think she left uh no that was our CFO um but certainly if you have some yeah question about it yes very basic questions right you know if someone is renovating the house uh maybe extending the house with say one room addition Etc the what is the process of the tax assessment because I have at least four resident they reach out saying their tax went up from $8,000 all the way to $116,000 just because they added 200 ft of room so something is a serious here because we shouldn't be assessing the renovated houses we should be differentiating the renov renovated houses which has the same Foundation versus the brand new house which is built up from the ground it's very different thing uh so if you can please look into that I will send at least one case on your way okay to assess you know what went wrong there but but we need to set the process because what I heard or what the resident was told is go and do the tax appeal we all know the tax appeal process but why we are giving hard time to the residents when they are not supposed to be getting that tax bill because as as we all know when you go to the tax appeal it lands up again with the same people they're assessing the uh house and at the end of the day resident will be paying 50% of the the difference when the settlement happens to the attorney so to me it's it's a waste of time from the township standpoint of view as well as it's a penalty to the homeowner so if you can look into that process and I'll be happy to take this discussion uh as a separate thread with you and the tax assessor uh next one is Municipal Broadband in fact you know I got to know about the uh the feasibility study through the news and this was not distributed to the council uh members it was surprising to me but what I'm looking is now that visibility study was done with probably not even 1% or 5% of the residents uh we don't know what the base is whether that sample represented the communities across the board so I don't really put much of I would say mid into that reading because when I saw that 90 $95 or whatever is the base that I kind of lost the Trust on that feasibility study so what I'm asking is the business plan this council did fund I believe 100K or something to do the business uh the phys business plan to prepare the business plan uh before it is too late this council did approve uh the uh to accept the Grant from the state before it goes further is there a way to publish the at least the business plan to this Council so that we don't get a surprise saying hey add approve additional $2 million and we are ready to set and go and you have four WS or five Wes on this Council di let's bring the transparency on this Municipal Broadband because this is a need of time we know that the technology is changing very fast if you look at 10 years ago what our phones were what we have today look at the bandwidth what we were using 10 years ago or maybe 5 years ago what we are using today what we were spending probably 5 years ago or before covid versus today big difference how many players are in Market how many sales towers are going up how many wireless devices you you have there is a lot to study and that is where I will be very keen to understand what is your business plan in terms of using the state funds hopefully we will not be just spending that money and going somewhere else and asking taxpayer to pay more money the next one is the traffic ticketing uh thank you Chief providing the report on the oak Tre specific to Oak Tree surprisingly right our signs are not in place especially the chief agreed that they are not where he expects to be there yet we are issuing the traffic tickets so either we fix the signs or stop issuing the traffic tickets until we fix those signs on o Road something needs to happen we cannot penalize the residents who are Edison residents probably they are speeding I can tell you I live off Oak Road they are like the every single car is going at least 45 to 55 miles an hour when the traffic uh the speed limit is 35 M hour and I get it the tickets are issued but the speed limit signs are not at the right place so we kind of you know pretty much catching people without even warning them hey you have had to uh control your speed so if you can get that something worked out again Chief if you want to have further discussion happy to go with you at least do two signs are not in good order they're not at all visible they are somewhere pointing to towards the residents the uh it's not really good I'm not happy about that well no and and I agree with you councilman I I went out there personally after that one meeting I did a survey of the whole stretch if you will of Oak Tree Road from Wood Avenue over to Woodland and the signs were definitely in places that some made sense some did not make sense we did reach out to middle sex County uh I can't stress enough Oak Tree Road is a County Road um we will follow up with them to see on when those signs will be installed um if you look at the tra the traffic ticket numbers we did furnish uh furnish to you however we're not issuing a ton of speeding tickets just so you're aware on Oak Tree Road but just because there's not a speed limit sign doesn't mean that there aren't other violations that are occurring that are in turn worthy of a ticket for another title 39 violation absolutely and again rest of the tickets can be issued but especially the the speeding and I did see some of those are there but as long as we can streamline that process I'm not saying don't issue the speeding ticket because again that's not that's the safety issue on on that particular Road uh but any way we can escalate or somehow take the help of our Freeholder or use we'll reach out to the county again tomorrow we've already spoken to the county road department at least a couple times and we'll find out when they're going to install those thank you sir the next one is Road striping you know we purchased I think last late last year we purchased uh striping machine uh again I still see many many roads in throughout the Edison again my favorite one is the Kilmer two four lane road but there is only one middle Lan stripe I failed to understand that we have the striping machine we purchased it I think our department did the trial on that why can't we use that and get that done some of those streets are pretty large and substantial so that those streets in specific and if you have more streets um I can tell you uh follow up with our engineering department and it's part of our road program perfect and I'll forward you the list of all the street that I I think you know striping should be done the next one is solar Municipal parking in fact this I brought up four years ago 5 years ago uh I think we should start looking at uh our parking lot we have large parking lot uh we ask Township employees not to park because of the during the snow time if you put the solar on the parking lot not only the municipal building will be self probably uh will get the energy from that or the the electricity but also help to save money on plowing our parking lots at least you know we we can we can have win-win situation there and this was I think part of the Net Zero committee and I I'm asking cman pointer if you can take it further discuss that with the Net Zero committees that would help actually you know to move forward this project the next one is the tree ordinance again we we had back and forth on the tree stuff on the uh Woodside pool the same thing you know again I'm asking attorney we again this is the fourth time I'm bringing if there is any update I know you might have sent it to council president y uh it was it's been done I sent it off to the administration to the council president for the review prior to sending out to everyone else on the council so that they could take a look at it but that that was what last week two weeks ago yeah I think it was immediately after the last council meeting thank you um so uh there no I I can't do anything after that point I get it but you know what my ask will be is council president it is not something we should hold we should socialize with entire Council and get their feedback so that you know we save the time from that point onwards to get to the final ordinance because I might have some comment councilman Brer might have my Council vice president might have anyone can have the comment go forward to the council Council so so that it's clear just um just so that you're aware um we did get the numbers from the administration on how pervasive a problem it is uh apparently out of the roughly 12 to 1300 tree removal applications over the last two and a half years the only ones that were both residential applications and had to pay into the tree fund there were two two out of a total of 1400 one of those two um was in fact a developer constructing a single family home um the other one was a a resident so I do understand the urgency I just want to make sure that you're aware um if you didn't have an opportunity to review them or if they didn't get sent to you I know that my office got them uh through the administration um that the there isn't like a a plague of residents out there who are being affected by the uh the contribution section right now um obviously we want to take care of that so that there isn't in the future but uh just just so that you know absolutely it should be fair play for everyone whether it's a redeveloper or the resident the whole idea is giving back to the resident the same treatment that we are giving to the redeveloper the next one is Public Safety I think you know we have exhaustive we had the exhaustive discussion here I'm going to just add a few line atems here uh the most important part for me was the sidewalk all around the school all around the uh the neighborhood which are which has more of a walkable I would say the facilities whether it's a restaurant or uh Salon or any of those small businesses it's very important that we look into uh that those sidewalk and if at all this Council needs to amend this sidewalk ordinance so it be but in if I remember 2017 18 19 all the way to 20120 this Council used to receive the application uh the resolution to wave the sidewalk and we have rejected in last 2 and a half years I have not seen a single application so it is taken care by planning board I don't know where this is happening and why it is not coming to this Council Das to at least discuss and deny that uh application the next one is the traffic again this back this ties down to the public safety uh I spoke about okri Road the same problem is on MBI Avenue in fact when I was at the event uh the last event police officers were right there but you know people were speeding or cruising right on the embo Avenue I was surprised uh again it's again safety issue I don't know why you know we let this happen or let this go uh the second one the last one was about the the incident that happened all all along last few weeks uh I know you know there is a lot Outreach uh but let's take the politics out of this whole thing this is is not new I understand that this is happening Across the Nation but what is important here is not about people showing that you know you're safe at least we need to see the action what that means is we need to see more officers on the ground uh what I heard is we again I'm not going to talk about the numbers here because that's not good for residents to hear uh but we need to come up with some plan this the news articles are not going to help the press conference are not going to help your uh portable I'm using the word portable uh substation is not going to help what we need is a presence of officers on the ground that's the key there uh so let's take that from our mind and see you know how we can help I know that you know we had you know uh different structure in police department and I'm proud to say that again we have the finest Police Department in state of New Jersey but again we need to restore that trust with the residents uh there are few resident they reach out uh who are the victims and I'm going to uh talk to Chief privately on where the where it stands U and the reason I'm bringing this up is when the north edisan uh station was set the Mobile station was set the very next day the car was stolen right on the OK road so it's not really adding any value again maybe as an Optics yes unless that is effective I would have preferred rather than having two police officer station there if they were on the ground and making the rounds I think you know we'll feel more safe than uh you know the theing station again that's the way I think that's the resident uh thing but again I will leave it to the administration for the next course of action but this is very very important uh that ties back to the nixel alert you know I'm again the topic is already covered but hopefully people do get the uh information ahead of a time and my request to Chief is if we can at least not on daily basis but at least twice a week or at least a week uh if we can update those victims where their case stands because they are they keep calling and we say we don't know yet we don't know yet that's not good thing uh because they ultimately end up calling elected officials and who end up calling chief and it goes in round droping it's a circle you know there's nothing helping there so if we can set some sort of a process say something happens to a resident if there is a follow of every I would say alternate day at least checking hey what's going on is everything is okay you know here is an update we are working on it at least that a courtesy call will help definitely will help to boost their moral so to touch on what you just stated in regards to followup with the victim so every victim of of a major type of incident such as a burglary attempted carjacking things of that nature those cases are assigned to detectives specific detectives investigate those specific crimes and they do stay in touch with the victims um they share their information with the victims so the victims can constantly contact them and then when there's updates they also reach out and obviously try to give as as many updates as they can without of course affecting a potential investigation so just so you know that that communication two-way communication is already occurring all right um if if I could just touch on a couple other quick things you mentioned so we are putting extra patrols out there maybe contrary to some people's beliefs we have extra officers uh Mark units unmark units um during key times when we believe that these type of events are occurring um the substation you know some might argue it doesn't serve a purpose I would disagree but I guess who am I right um but I am a proponent of it I think it uh serves a very good purpose up on Oak Tre Road it is a visual deter um and uh you know part of our job is not just to reduce crime but reduce fear of crime just so we're all kind of clear on that as well yeah Chief again as I said like I'm not against the the Mobile station if you look at the Optics and the orientation if I'm driving on o Road to me it looks like if the police car is not there it looks like a landscape or trailer literally if you Orient that in a way that people can see it it's will be pursued in a different way well there is there is a patrol car there there are officers in and out of there constantly um not necessarily living there because as has been stated we want them out on the streets right we I'm physically out there trying to deter crunt um in addition to that though it does have a lighting system you may have seen it at night it's very bright it is there for the purpose of Illuminating in that area and again as a visual deterrent as well thank you CH thank you sir thank you sir thank you councilman Patel councilman pointer thank you council president uh as I have with the past couple of meetings um if anyone is interested in being part of an adopted area program whether it's suggesting locations where this program may be uh feasible or if you're interested in participating from a volunteer standpoint please reach out to my email J pointer py ner Edison nj.gov um we've been asked uh I Know Myself Council vice president I believe yourself council president in regards to an update on 110 Clive easement uh I know our attorney just uh stepped out I was going to get clarification but what I was provided was that while it is a condition of approval that condition needs to be satisfied by the time the CEO is issued so the current work that has been done is still within the guidelines but if any coo were to be issued that would be a a condition that needs to be met I do want to clarify and confirm with our attorney when they get back um I do have Amboy Avenue development on here at the last meeting I stated that there were other design guidelines that I would recommend this Council look into uh I was going to go into a complete dissertation about development on Amboy Avenue but I don't think people want to hear me read off a three-page document however I will state some of those design recommendations that I think the council should consider for future use in the current Redevelopment plan when you look at what it states that the design is supposed to replicate and if you look at the underlying a Zone it says that the ideal replication would be the clar Barton Heritage clar Barton Heritage though doesn't have any A-frame type Roofing if you look at 1037 Amboy that was constructed they have A-frame Roofing what I mean by A-frame roofing roofs that have Peaks on it right so one item that we could consider would be if you're going to be using the Redevelopment plan uh as the guidelines to which your application is coming on uh is being put forth before the roofs should be flat versus having the option of a peak roof because that would be more consistent with many most of the buildings on Amboy Avenue the same type of uh sloped versus flat could be put towards uh awning signs right now it allows for awnings to be sloped a lot more of the modern developments that I've seen specifically with mixed use they have flat awnings so I think keeping with a more straight lined I call it modern in terms of visualization from the Cabinetry field but if we're allow if we're going to say that you're going to replicate or the Heritage as your design feature then we should have design standards that are more straight lines uh this suggestion I actually got from councilman Coyle in regards to signs on the buildings I actually like the idea that they would have they should have a border around right it creates a more professional look it's something that can tie into the building um a bit more prominently I think it's just a cleaner look so I think adding something like that would be beneficial from the design standard if you're looking at what is allowable on Amboy Avenue the underlying zone right now specifies that the max permitted use within a building shall be no greater than 2,500 square feet per story so if we're saying that we want a an anchor business to come into Amboy how I interpret the guidelines is that a first FL Comm commercial uh business cannot be in an area over 2500 square feet if I'm a restaurant owner that is looking to come on to Amboy that has um already like a uh history or other locations I may be looking for something that has bigger square footage because if I'm looking for additional tables or a bigger Kitchen in the background that 2500t uh restriction may not be appropriate likewise I would be interested to see what the current trends are in regards to commercial buildings being rented out and what those Square footages being uh on the first floor are because maybe that restriction isn't conducive not just for restaurants but other Industries as well I know the main talking point or item of discussion rather is on the four stories or the 45 foot uh um height of the building if those restrictions are alleviated we're still provided with three stories or Max height of 40t I would not be opposed personally and as a resident of the neighborhood to say may maybe modifying it to allow three and a half stories so that a roof deck could be made available for residents on the second and third story if that type of development were to occur it's something that's different than the underlying Zone and can be used as an incentiv incentivizing measure to anyone that does develop on a boy another issue with ambo is that you have several locations that are just residential single family residential homes on Amboy Avenue the overlay Zone does not pertain to the Residential Properties it pertains to commercial properties those that are designated as OS we could allow for building type 3 which is a residential first second and third story to be allowable on Amoy Avenue because we have actual stretches that intersect Commerce throughout the street that way if those were to be updated those design standards would actually be more more coherent with the rest of Amboy Avenue and the final thing in regards to parking um I have some out of the boox ideas that I'll be glad to share with the residents but visualization is probably better suited for it however one of the items that I noticed was that currently under retail parking it has a one for every 250 square foot requirement if you look at the general rsis standards under retail that's been updated to 300 Square F feet so even though you may have a reduction of one required square foot parking that's required um or one space that's required it would actually fall in line more with what the state guidelines are so I had mentioned that I would have some recommendations those are a couple of them in regards to the actual planning of Amboy Avenue I'll hold that to a separate time thank you council president you want to go back to that question you have an issue for me with them no not necessarily issue I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly on the easement with uh 1105 which I think you were part of the correspondences Mr raino did reach out I I just forget what the full answer was I believe that the easement I know it's under review um but that it technically does is not required to be fulfilled at least up until the co is issued am I understanding that correctly yes there was some other issues with with how it was presented and the I'm not worri yeah and the the easan itself um as presented by the developer I believe we think is is inadequate for what we're looking to do and it doesn't include certain things that are necessary like meets and Bounds and um an actual map um but yeah it it's so long as they abide by the restrictions that have been placed on them with respect to taking care not to disturb right uh having the barriers in place and taking care not to disturb the pond itself um it doesn't need to be in place until the CEO the co issues yeah okay that that's accurate I appreciate the clarification thank you council president thank you Council M pointer uh as for me I wanted an update on the economic developer Sonia did we find anybody yet not yet we're still looking okay uh as for the bike uh bike path underneath the jcpnl D no uh yeah uh we had discussed this last time um we've had some very productive discussions with jcpnl um we're at a point where we had a a few clarifying questions uh that the representative from JC pel couldn't answer he had to send it over to legal to address those and we're waiting on those responses um assuming that I get the responses that I expect uh we should have something relatively soon for the the council to consider and approve okay uh but I I can't control how fast he gets back to me so yep just reach out to them see how fast do I I spoke to him I think last on Friday thank you and as for the public safety I know it's been already been discussed uh and I spoke to the chief as he and the chief essentially told me that he's worked in crime prevention for 15 years and one of the things that the tips that he wanted to pass on to the residents uh was that uh he actually gave me a list of 11 uh things that we should all do and hopefully that will help us all uh and I'll just go through it quickly number one increase lightning for both interior and exterior of the res residents uh so it looks like the place is lived in and uh the thieves are less likely to break in uh number two lock Windows Doors set alarm systems when home or out number three utilize doorbells and or house cameras uh hopefully that will help deter some of the crimes uh number four trim Shrubbery and near all the entry points uh number five leave radios TVs music pretty much essentially look like someone's home uh putting a beware a dog sign even if you don't have a dog uh might sometimes deter uh lock vles and remove all valuables uh secure key fobs or Keys uh number nine install an air tag in your vehicle to locate it if stolen I have done this myself uh and number 10 parking vehicles in garage to Impossible or a well lit area and number 11 report suspicious activity immediately to the Edison police at 732 24874 or emergency dial 911 now I understand the public I truly believe believe safety is number one it is the most priority that all residents should feel safe in their home um unfortunately the world is not ideal um we don't I would love that there was no crime but unfortunately there is crime and even if there's a police officer two blocks from you if the crime is going to happen it's going to happen because the world is not ideal um so ideally what I I asked the police uh Chief was what can we do as a council what can we do as a resident to you know make our neighborhood safe and this was the list he provided and I asked him you know can we have more boots on the ground he assured me that there's more boots on the ground even though you know uh there might count like you're not recognized the let me let me finish okay well you remember when I spoke and it was fake news president point of order speak out of order council president not recognized I know I know you're saying I'm not rec well continuing my point key fob and the key fob president out of order they ended upid speak out of well since councilman BR wants to be a little child wants to talk over I would like to take make a motion to adjourn this meeting motion to adjourn second may I have a second all right motion from Council vice president and second by councilman Coy uh thank you Council call all in favor meeting is adjourned 9:16 I e