yes calling the combined meeting of February 15 2024 to order uh all stands for the Pledge of Allegiance 602 flag of the United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible andice Madam clerk roll call please council member Brasher here council member Coyle here council member Harris here council member PTI here council member poiner council member Shamel here and council president ptil here Patel sorry madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by an annual notice sent to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger The Sentinel and Desi talk on December 12th 2023 and posted in the main lobby of the municipal complex on that same date forther review of the minutes of the regular meeting of October 2023 that's not this time uh reports from all Council committees uh starting on my right councilman brusher uh for the Amazon committee uh we received the data thank you Sonia um I haven't had time to review it today but I'm going to get that out to everybody in the committee uh we'll take a look at it then we'll set up a meeting for the following week that be a council president thank you councilman Coyle council president I just have a small report for DPW just a h a thank you to all who worked to snow and the great job they did in the community they had several phone calls from residents on how happy they were on the snow removal Salt so great job the DPW and the work they get done in 24 hours thank you council president thank you councilman Coyle Council vice president yes um I'm going to save the uh public Advocate subcommittee until John pointer councilman pointer gets here so I'm going to read the other committee notes that I have um starting with the and shelter which met on the 13th um we had a very good meeting and I think it was efficient we have um updates on facility appr improve well first of all really good news they've hired two more employees and there are two more who are coming back for second interviews so um there is the Staffing is moving ahead and the volunteers they are in process of reorganizing the uh the whole volunteer the whole volunteer program so they expect to be moving ahead with that within the next few months uh an RFP is moving forward for Architects to come to the animal shelter and do a design for a um a an expansion there are some recommendations from Dr fedon the the veterinarian and these are people who have experience in the area of uh of doing animal shelters and she's got I think there's some there's some group from Boston that's going to be taking a look at this cameras are going to be going up soon they've got the materials are going to be going up soon where they need to go um they are working with MC to get medications and also the three veterinarians that have been approved are able to supply the um medications and vaccines as well there are currently 15 dogs 17 cats and six kittens in the shelter there were this is really good news we had four adoptions in the last week or two and so that that's moving along well um in addition a couple of events the lucky paw Bingo night is February 24th at St Matthews Church and it's a $5 donation per family which uh the proceeds go to the animal shelter and then also on Sunday March 10th there is tals at the tavern at Tavern on George in New Brunswick um that's an adoption and fundraising event for the Edison Municipal shelter so we have events on February 24th the lucky pause Bingo night at uh St Matthews and we have Tales at the tavern at Tavern on George um on March 10th at 5:00 pm. um next meeting is Tuesday the 5th of March at noon uh moving on to the El uh the Edison Cultural Arts committee soon to be commissioned let we met also on the 13th and um we are getting together the gallery application the um the the appropriate gallery application and because uh it's time we've had this we've had this exhibit there for a while so we want to get the gallery application up and running and dispersed um we are going to be going over bylaws for uh once we become a con a commission um there's a question about the reappointment of expiring terms so we have Diana jofy whose term actually ended in December of last year and sudakar whose term ended in August of 23 as well and so my question and their question is with becoming a commission what happens does everyone start all over again with term with terms or um do they continue as they were so uh business administrator I I would just refer to the attorney regarding any deadline on the commission side of it all right so the question now that we're becoming a commission I just we were the committee now we're going to be a commission uh later on and um we have true terms that expired last year we have other ones that are are that will be coming up through uh the the course of the next couple of years but that's operating as it was as it was when we were a committee we would like to be able to just Mo roll those over instead of having to have everybody start all over again um so the way that it's set up is so that once it has become a commission you do appointments to the commission rather than roll over anything from the existing the the terms themselves and I can't remember off the top of my head have set expiration dates for their initial appointments and you could potentially line those up with the members as they currently are so that they would finish out whatever they have left um according to because they don't all expire at the same time upon initial appointment so that you get those staggered terms and you don't end up with an empty committee all at once okay so it's a formal process and we can certainly have the same members that we current that we have um right now we can we can reappoint them and then uh we can try and go with the staggered expiration dates of their terms is that correct yeah that's how you would do that so that you don't have any kind of weird um uh expiration date over way okay all right um then uh we also are going to be having a steering committee to work with the Edison arts society and um I believe it's you Lois tar I think you're on that committee and um I think there was somebody else was that Diana oh Kathleen okay good um so there's going to be a steering committee to start partnering with the Edison arts society um our next session will be be March 12th and I believe now that we're going to be a commission it will be right here in council chambers um that is the report on the Edison Cultural Arts committee soon to be commission um and again I'm going to wait I'm hoping that John gets back here to discuss the public Advocate committee uh we need his I'll bring it back thank you okay Council B P thank you council president I agree with my Council colleague on the DPW you always do a wonderful job uh I did send an email sometime in the afternoon about the North End I believe there's a truck broke down situation but as soon as I reach out again thank thank you Sonia for quickly sending the crew to clean that area again DPW you always do a great job keep doing the great job thank you for your service thank you sir cation well yeah I uh I'd also like to thank the DPW uh um I took the Cena crew Tuesday morning to my office and uh driving through Edison as I made my way up North uh I saw uh a ton of uh of plows uh the roads were clear and uh I just want to commend the men and women and DPW for uh doing an extraordinary job of maintaining our roads and uh taking care of this of getting us to our destination thank you thank you Council M uh Council vice president if you want to bring back the public Advocate the councilman poter can step in make sure he passes through security all right okay we'll wait for councilman poter pass all right so the public Advocate subcommittee met on Wednesday January 31st and at uh at that particular meeting we had councilman pointer with us uh we wanted to talk about what his objections were what his thoughts were about the the ordinance and um but bottom line to that is that we do not have a path to a five person veto proof um approval for the for that ordinance so we are looking at alternative routes for this one of them being of course a special putting it up as a referendum which we would talk about the timing for that whether that would be in the general election on next year or whether that would be a special election but I wanted to turn this over to councilman poiner to discuss what uh one of the alternative routes the other alternative route to this and that that goes through the technical re Review Committee so councilman pointer can I turn it over to you councilman pointer you are recognized you can also report on any of the Committees would it be possible to take like two minutes just to set up and then your time come back to yeah in in mid while you settle down i' would like to acknowledge Bo Scout uh student here so soam he is working towards the eagle R thank you for coming to the council chamber I do apologize I was uh late picking up my daughters from daycare in school um I did have a series of notes but I'll just kind of go off the the top um in regards to um items that I think are more appropriate for the governing body and the municipality to do um the underlying thing first and for most is that we have to have our our zoning laws updated to the 21st century um I know that there's some crossover in terms of membership on the public Advocate subcommittee and the billboard uh subcommittee and some of the approaches that we've discussed on the billboard committee I think span across all the different zoning issues that we uh that we have and some of those those approaches would be more appropriate in regards to the technical Review Committee outside of zoning regulations this is kind of the first series of Defense sort to say when it comes to Applications we can set regulations in regards to what the requirements are for applicants to uh provide that they have to have in order for a certificate of completion prior to them being able to be seen before the board so these this gets into um one of the items that council president has put forth today on the ordinance items I apologize I I ran up here am matter of breath but uh one of the items pertained into clarifying the use that the TRC is able to hire expert professionals to review an application as they seem fit now we had that modified slightly two years ago I think the revisions that are included in the ordinance for potential introduction today kind of ties up some of the Loose Ends to give the TRC that flexibility with that I do want to mention um there are two current positions that uh need to be filled one from the environmental commission they need to have a member uh an active member from that commission be a part of the TRC which this is stipulated in our ordinance the other that has been mentioned previously is the citizens representative which is a May oral appointment which would help in regards to to making sure that residents are informed on decisions now my understanding in regards to the TRC is that it is allowable through the municipal land use law but the makeup of that commission or that committee is established through Township ordinance so if we find that it is not moving things in a more appropriate Direction then we are at the ability to modify the TRC code if we deemed it uh necessary couple of other items in that I would like to see play out first before if we were to ever move into that direction the zoning board previously only had a budget of $30,000 appropriated to it in 2022 last year this Council increased that budget amount to $660,000 the overall increase was approximately 97% uh 3,450 to 60,000 approximately extrapolating that out we are now providing the resources necessary to at least one of the boards for them to have the additional resources where if they feel that they need additional um expert testimony on an application they now have a resource to do so in regards to the planning board uh I know that the finances were tweak around a little bit so that more of the discretion goes on their end but in my opinion if you have a an issue with a planning board application that's a zoning issue and that's at the governing body's uh behest so if you have a issue with something that's going before the planning board we need to look at what um zoning code changes we may need to make in order for it to be more in uh more enforceable I'm not going to go into specifics on this item just because there is legal strategy with this but I have talked about this with members of the administration members of the subcommittee and uh others but there are legal remedies in regards that this Council has I'm just going to leave it at that but there are alternatives um that can be explored I know that I talked at length at the meeting about that but I hope you understand because it is kind of legal strategy I'm hesitant to elaborate on those items um those were the main things I think that if we get those Foundation items solid that the boards will be better equipped to defend our zoning and in doing so will be able to uh promote the type of environment that the res 's desire as well as if there is ever a appeal to a board's decision be able to better defend it in the appell courts I hope that's a good enough summary of the conversation and I apologize if I missed anything from that council president just one sec he still has the floor uh I'm done in regards to the public Advocate do you want to report on any other committees can I pull it up for go ahead uh do you mind if I uh pressure yeah I just had a question about the public Advocate um we all couldn't be at the meeting because then we would have a quorum so so I stepped aside for that meeting um I'm just wondering we we put money in the budget for the planning or for the zoning board right for them to call Expert Witnesses over the course of the last year how many times or or how much money does anybody know have we spent on bringing expert Witnesses that's number one question and the other one was the we're supposed to have somebody from the environmental committee and and I've I've heard this from residents too and they told me that we're not in compliance and I just heard my colleague mention it whose job is to make sure that this is in compliance and we have someone from this board it would be under the environmental uh commission so when I was a member from 2017 to 2019 I was our representative on the environmental commission to the TRC board um so it's on their at their request so so our environmental commission just has not appointed someone to the board not not to my understanding it would be in similar fashion to how we uh have a representative from the Council on the uh the planning board it would be that type of equivalent okay and who can send them a like a memo or something asking them to I think we have a leoon requesting someone yeah we have a leaz on who was the leoon last year yes but I mean just going to say I mean should I'd like to put it in writing is where I'm going you can write I think you can write just an email yeah I guess we can write an email or a letter through the council if we need to uh but I think a simple suggestion should do it okay yeah uh Council pointer are you ready can I just can I just book and the about the public Advocate I think I think what we agreed upon was that we were willing to try going through the the TRC first for a year and if we were not happy with the outcome of that then we could go back to the referendum or the referendum on the ballot okay thank you thank you and uh my notes aren pulling up so I'm going to try to go from memory uh I got a couple of committee reports first on the smart advisor uh Smart City advisory committee we met approximately two weeks ago we were talking about goals and objectives for this year uh the committee has reached out I believe to the administration in regards to trying to set up a couple of I can follow up after it this hasn't been related to you um they've requested meetings with a couple of the directors that had approached them after the presentation in September of last year just to talk about um where the committee can assist them in terms of reviewing technological advances within the township we talked about um we ended up having the conversation with the smartscape um gentleman from Ruckers uh so we're forwarding um information from him to the committee so that they can act and in general we were just looking at how to best assist assist the municipality in terms of reviewing any technological uh increases or implementations the deer committee met a couple weeks ago we talked about um really what the main options are within the township which there are four you can either go uh sterilization you can go tranquil tranquilizing and relocation you can go sharp shooting or you can go uh uh hunting uh absolutely not in favor of sharp shooting absolutely nothing pertaining to guns uh we discussed the pros and cons to the other three options whether from Logistics finances uh we did meet with the state representatives from the D in December which I had mentioned at the last meeting and we talked about if there were a deer management program what locations may be feasible there's a lot of layers that go with this in terms of buffer zones uh state requirements for licensing and um General setup items I know I had promised members of the council um my findings and such I did not get a chance to put them in one cohesive document so I apologize on that delay I will try to have that for the next meeting and I know we discussed or did you go over the you were going to speak on the billboard committee I I appreciate it thank you council president Council poter question about the technology um does that also incorporate the technology in the town and and I'll tell you where I'm I'm I'm wondering we just had this whole snow thing right where they they showed a picture of um where the trucks are right we've been doing that for I don't know eight or 10 years or something now but New York City has something where as the truck goes down the screen the screen is white the the street is white after the truck goes down it becomes black the second time the truck goes down it goes yellow do we have that capability I mean New York City's been doing it since 1996 I thought you were going to go the uh the Ireland route where they actually name all the uh snow plow charts but I digress on that I'm not familiar with the program that's currently set up in theory what you're talking about is what would be of interest to the Smart City uh advisory committee in the sense of if we have that data that tracks the V Les already how do we best Analyze That A to your point whether it's been done once and uh had a second time and using color coordination with that you can use the geot tracking and the time stamps that are received to see if the routes that are being designated are the most efficient that are that are available now that will take some time to gather because we only have so many months of winter so many sow snow storms and such for also the um like we got a street sweeper stuff let him finish oh sure in in theory yes that type of implementation could be uh or that type of activity could be implemented um My Hope Is that the Smart City advisory committee in discussions with the directors of each respective departments or departments that are interested in having this communication to during the discussions have that come up and then make that type of recommendation if that makes sense okay so it would come from the directors you're saying not from the council members telling you that looking at the dots on the thing mean nothing to me but but seeing that you came down Grove already and you'll be turning up new means something to me I I would believe based on my interactions with all the members that that would be an item that would be picked up during the conversation and eventually asked as that comes about um an example with the water department when we had a conversation with them uh one of the items that was mentioned was cmms software which was at on the last uh council meeting agenda that that was something that came about from the conversations and we ended up seeing you know ended up being before us thank you councilman thank you sir just want to make one remark on the Smart City okay uh the public coordinance and I will have the topic of discussion there but in terms of the uh the what I heard the conversation about the snow Clow going up and down the GPS tracking system exists for a long time in this town the reason it was not exposed yet for a very obvious reason and I'll give the example if there's a truck break down it is probably it helps Administration to reach out and inform at least the supervisor and that neighborhood that there will be delays we don't have I don't think or I don't believe we have that many snow plows that can go at the same time on every single street so the scheduling and the treatment to different neighborhoods will be highlighted right on the map just to an example this time the snowplowing started South End and there was very little activity towards north end and the people will get uneasy with that so I would say that we need to be cognizant of not discriminating any RAC land during this process it's a good idea but technology can be used and it can be misused and I have the topic of discussion during my discussion item so certain things we wish that really helps the resident but sometime that could be a liability to the township thank you council president thank you Patel uh as for me I just wanted to commend the DPW for doing a wonderful job I got a bunch of emails from residents saying that their streets were golden and they were able to walk on them safely and some one of the residents did remind me to remind the residents that it is the responsibility of the house owners to clean the sidewalks uh in within 12 hours as for our ordinance and I would encourage the code enforcement to go out there and take it people that don't because it makes it difficult for people to walk in Traverse um for the billboard committee as councilman pointer said uh we started that last year to update our code to the 21st century to give our boards a better teeth uh when it comes to any billboard applications uh councilman pointer presented a really wonderful document with all the changes and we reviewed it uh there were some changes that we had questions for the legal to see if we can Implement them legal is reviewing it now and we're hoping to have it for the next meeting uh we're hoping to move fast on it and we should have an updated billboard ordinance hopefully within the end of uh next meeting we'll have the introduction done um moving on uh any points of Lights uh starting from my left councilman schmuel I don't have any councilman appointed thank you sir um just want to wish everyone uh Happy Valentine's Day from yesterday happy Ash Wednesday this was already mentioned I apologize uh and obviously recognized as Black History Month and all the um advancements that the africanamerican black culture has brought forth not only to Edison Township but the entire country thank you sir thank you councilman poter councilman Patel none at this time but I would request the way we did for the uh the Hindu heritage month I would say we should also recognize giving the proclamation for the black heritage month thank you Patel Council vice president yes I also want to Echo uh previous remarks about uh Happy black history month and a meaningful one um I also want to announce that the middle sex jazz festival is coming back again the Edison we're going to actually be kicking it off on September 25th it goes from September 25th to September 29th the towns involved are Edison matachin Carteret New Brunswick perthamboy and Woodbridge um and so we've gotten a grant for 26,8 $100 which will be divided up between the towns there's currently $10,200 on hand which is uh which is really quite good um so this year it will be three this will be at papani Park there will be three bands one will probably be the one of the student bands and two other bands the requirement is that the leader has to be living has to be New Jersey resident we'll be looking for sponsorship we'll be looking for we we're going to see if we can par partner with the cultural arts commission to help raise some funds there's a deadline of May 1st for the performers uh to and performers and to for them to submit uh bios and pictures um and uh I believe we have one or two of the cultural arts commission members who are going to join the next Jazz meeting on March 5th at 400 p.m. so I just wanted to announce that uh we're we're gearing up for that thank you thank you Council vice president Council mcoy council president I just wanted to highlight the mayor's uh speech of the city the township and I want to thank our colleagues and Council here at Administration uh the entire theme was we got it done and for those who've been in this audience for the last 10 years some 15 some 20 years in this audience you can't say that this mayor and Administration has not gotten things done from from athletic fields turf fields baseball fields from 27 Parks being improved to this entire building mean look at this council chambers right here uh you know salute to the DPW and all the different rooms they've renovated moving furniture around in the 24 months of this Administration in Council you can't argue that things have not gotten done I mean so many things from A to Z in this town have gotten done it's just the beginning of a four-year term of this mayor I was truly proud to sit and listen to the speak and uh undeniable we got it done and it's not just the mayor it's not just the administration but this Council supporting each opportunity here whether it's engineering reviewed plans and projects it's it's what we do here the results impact the residents and I think this town uh is is happy with this mayor and what's been done I think people who are paying their taxes are finally seeing things getting done it's been decades that we didn't touch a park uh didn't touch a building didn't maintain a building didn't maintain uh our systems I mean it's proof is there it's getting done and I just want to just mention that and thank our colleagues here for passing the budgets that we've passed and promoting police officers and and fire and also hiring more women in the fire department for the first time and and also giving uh promotions to female in the police department thank you thank you Council McCoy Council MC brusher um like to wish everybody guess we got Black History Month like we've heard um we also have President's Day um and it would be nice to see if the administration in some way shape form or possibility um since the township doesn't celebrate I believe President's Day we celebrate Lincoln's birthday and George Washington's birthday is there a way that we could eliminate one of those days in place of like a juneth I know it's contractual but I'm just saying if it could be proposed maybe but happy President's Day also thank you councilman Brasher as for me I would echo my councilman happy Ash Wednesday Happy Valentine's Day and happy Black History Month everybody uh I do have to make a couple of announcement there will be a second annual Lunar New Year's parade and celebration on Saturday 17th uh from 1: to 4:00 p.m. at Lake p Park uh Town Hall will also be closed on Monday uh January 19th for President's Day and I would also like to commend the mayor's speech at uh Town state of the township uh I believe we have gotten a lot done and we have a lot more to do and I hope we can also get that done uh moving on Council presern just can we check our sound system because there's a lot of echo when you were talking I think there is a sound problem I did council president I did bring it to his attention because Council PTI was echoing a lot and and I think he's still working on equalizing that but I didn't know it reflected someone else yes you were the first I heard an issue with yes okay just do it t uh moving on to uh the agenda from the business administration A and B any questions or comments okay moving on council president councilman P yeah just on B I think I need to stay a little further here uh the broadband service Grant I know this is a grant we'll be getting from the state of New Jersey uh but just it's a relevant topic there I just read the news that the Comcast has applied to uh the Utility Commission to allow them to operate in in Edison so they can lay down the uh the fiber optics cables so we might have to re rethink about our strategy when the another competitor is coming and if it is approved we might get the third one and I don't know where our study will go but I will be happy to support this as long as we are really doing our due diligence in terms of looking at this project uh from the long-term standpoint of view thank you cons thank you con as for me I think uh it's great that we're getting 2 million is shows that the state believes in this project and I agree the due diligence is required and hopefully it'll come back that this is the we need to move forward and give some competition to the Monopoly that we have uh moving on to number eight from the Department of Finance AB or C any questions or comments okay seeing none number nine from the Departments of Health AB council president Council just a quick comment on Item B for the uh the lead Grant it's nice to see that the amount that we're receiving is approximately I think it was 11% more than what we had received last year uh for many that may not be aware uh lead pipes are now a requirement to be replaced pretty much throughout the state uh lead in general is of concern uh given the old infrastructure that is around not only the state but the country so I'm happy to see that we are still receiving these funds and that we can uh utilize it for improved Health throughout the township thank you sir thank you Council pointer and I would also like to recognize Dr Patel for pursuing these grants it's important that we can get any money for free councilman Patel council president you a question on the both the grants you know how they will be used and where they will be used it's good to get the the money uh but especially for the second one is will this be used by our water department or this will be used somewhere else this is mainly used for the health department regarding education and programming okay so this will be only for the education and programming for the township employees for residents so what you're speaking to in terms of the water and sewer that's completely separate that's infrastructure M okay so I'll be interested to see what programs we do it for residents because in last 20 years of my stay in Township I have not attended any program so I'll be happy to receive the communication on what program is rolled out to the residents thank you uh for from Department of Law AB c d any questions or comments Council yes coun pel on a in fact this is coming back to the agenda uh I believe you know we had good discussion in terms of the valuation of the property um and I think I think there is an email you know it's a good email from Joanne she mentioned the 3 acre lot was sold for $690,000 and based on that you know she has proposed this valuation I'm stunned and surprised the 3 acre lot in Edison especially North Edison may be sold for 690 but what is its market value and what that equit I don't think any lot in North Edison whether it's a buildable lot it's less than $400,000 to $500,000 so to me the valuation is incorrect I did probably propos it should go upward 125 per lot so $250,000 contrary I get an email saying we might negotiate down to 95,000 per lot which will be $180,000 this ordinance the way it is written it is a clear indication that this lot is sold even though it says it forbid it is only allowed to a person or to an entity who is going to benefit very clear and we said about this during you on the last council meeting I think few months ago it came in so I'm completely against this for the fact that the valuation is not correct and it should be open to the public not to a very specific person because this ordinance even though I know attorney is going to say hey we are allowing the left hand neighbor the right hand neighbor and the back neighbor this lot will be of no interest of any of those entities because they won't be able to subdivide even they add this and build another house so this is again a targeted sale I said that even last time you again if someone wants to debate I'm happy to debate on this topic but when we go out and buy some property from someone we give probably three to four times money to buy that Glendale is an example but when we sell our property we unell it who gets the hit at the end of the day the taxpayer it is unreasonable and unfair to sell any Township property uh without doing the due diligence without even looking at the higher price so that we can use that money somewhere else thank you council president Council pel Council McCoy Council I I know exactly how Council M ptil feels and in fact I felt the same way but later I found out that this is not a single lot we're selling to the neighboring person it's a sandwich lot we we own the two sides which is really odd that the town to vet owns 225 by 100s and in the middle this owner owns the middle piece so if we were to go to bid on this he's the strongest person to bid on it there aren't I don't believe it's just my opinion that any public bidder would come to buy two single lots that are landlocked by the person in the middle now councilman Brer said he's going to be be the buyer of these Lots to me personally if he that's what he said but God bless him but it's just if we were to go to bid we're going to get less so the fact that this Administration was able to negotiate a deal that the owner of the center lot can buy the two sides for that for 50,000 less than what we think the market is which we agreed 125 each we're selling it for 100s each I think it's fair to put an end to it and just move forward if this Council wants to go to bid and start at zero I think this guy's going to love us and he's going to get them for $445,000 each because when it comes to public bid there's nobody has an interest in buying this property but the neighboring lots and he holds the leverage of O holding the card in the middle he owns a lot in the middle so I just want you to if you see it on paper it's available by the clerk we can show it to you today before Wednesday's vote but this is the truth of it council president so if we go to public bid because we think we can bid it up we can't bid it up because it's not a single lot that someone can just buy and develop without getting the person in the middle the person in the middle is the one who's doing the bid he has the privilege because he owns the lot in the middle he has that upper hand I just want to make us aware of that because I'm more than open to see approv differently and he will get both lots for a lot cheaper because he can bid from zero we're starting the bid at 100,000 with him so I think there was a good administrative negotiation there so I I don't know what council thinks but it's just my opinion uh and if and if Rich wants to be the one that wants to sour and buy the two lots God bless them I'd love to see him sit on them for two years yeah thank you thank you Council M Coy council president councilman Brer yes I mean at people here in the public don't know but when I was younger in my 20s I was actually a developer um so I'll tell you yes I do know about buying homes any lot on the north side of Edison is worth $500,000 at a minimum and that's for the property for a buildable lot two homes adj to me were just purchased for 500 and I think 550 and then they tore them down so to tear them down cost them at least $330,000 so that's telling you that the actual value of a piece of property on the north side of Edison is north of $500,000 these Lots in particular if you were to divide up these Lots into quarters the guy in the center owns two quarters that makes the other two quarters worth $125,000 to give it to someone at a discount I think is wrong I think it's a disservice to the public um and yes um I told councilman Coy I'd be glad to put in bids for this because to me I I honestly believe that I could buy both lots for the $100,000 and then I could work out a deal with him where he buys them from me for whatever 110 or 120 a lot and you know what I'll put that 20 grand in my own pocket then but as a councilman in good conscience I I can't move forward and give somebody a discount when as my Council colleague was trying to point out that he has the upper hand this man or this woman has absolutely no hand they're sitting on a 50 by 100 lot they can't build on that he does not he's not sitting on anything he's actually at our mercy so in essence a good negotiator would have negotiated north of $125,000 a lot not $100,000 a lot so whoever negotiated or came up with that pricing I I disagree with I don't believe that they are good at negotiations and I I just can't agree with this now can I go to my other items or uh if you don't mind let's just finish this one and then I don't know I'm asking I have no other comments council president I'm good and uh I just want to quickly open it up to our legal because there's been accusation that this not done correctly so legal if you can sure the the reason why it's it's an auction to contiguous bigger biders is statutory and that's in the ordinance itself when you have a lot that does not conform with the uh zoning requirements for the Zone uh you can't exactly go to public bid uh in order to to to sell it it's got to be put up for those contiguous owners under the statute in order to actually benefit those neighbors who are there so and even at 100,000 it's not necessarily that Center owner because any of the neighbors can do that can do exactly what councilman brusher that they can bid on it that 100,000 is the minimum bid price um although I wasn't involved in that negotiation I don't have any dog in that fight but that's why the the bidding is set by by Statute and I will answer on that as well just want say councilman p and I would want to open up to Sonia as to how was this assessed so I just want to make it clear there was no negotiation done for the sale of the Lots there was a document that was sent to all of the council with the comps and this price was um essentially evaluated by our tax assessor providing all those land sales so and I believe that was provided to the council uh back in mid January so if there any questions so that I can certainly refer to it and pull it up okay thank you son counil if you have any comments yeah thank you when we talk about the comms in any realtor or any Builder you can ask how these coms work they will specifically look at only those property they are either undervalued or they are overvalued depends on which side of the house you want to calculate the Comm so what what I heard this is a bad negotiation coming back to the uh the comment my Council made consument coil the bidding doesn't start at zero the township has an ability to start with 100 which I'm okay with that but here it is not the case the value is predetermined even though unofficially we are saying nobody knows we didn't speak to anyone the fact is different the property owner has reached out to the town asking to buy those properties and the sale is geared towards that that's number one number two is is had it been a cart rate a smart mayor would buy that undersized lot put that lot combined together and then sell it to the public and make more money than under sizing so again there is a smart way of doing and there is other way of doing saying just give it up because somebody's asking thank you council president thank you Council pel councilman Brer if you had any other questions um yes on c i I'm wondering if we could make an adjustment to this ordinance and this ordinance talks about that there'll be electronic documents that will be available to the township no it would be mainly for the public what's that it's going to be for the public we get it electronically so we can publish it okay but but hear me out this is where I'm going that's not what the document says it says we'll get electronic documents for the township what I'm asking for in the change and to me it's a minor change I know the attorney's not going to hear that but a minor change is to put something that references the public you know so for the township and the public um it would be just adding it in a line or two there already but legal will represent it do you want to talk about it yeah so there is uh and I'm not sure if it's this one or a different one so just give me one second I just seen it reference the township quite a few during the when it's the agenda is posted any applications that has any plans which will get digitally will be published with the agenda so the public will have the digital copy but I'll let legal explain yeah I'm just looking to have it so it's in writing PL final site [Music] plan hearings um so the portion of the ordinance uh that amends section 39-1 12.4 is a portion of general applicability for the hearings that are uh that take place on the applications and that's where uh We've added uh the map documents sought for approval uh sorry Maps documents for which approval is sought at a hearing shall also be made available for public inspection online at the same time as the public posting of the agenda for the meeting so that any of those electronic documents the purpose is that the township will easily be able to make those available for public inspection the same way that they do now with the paper documents but instead of having to come into the the the the engineering department to look at them physically they'll be available for public inspection that's the public section it's a it's part of the ordinance that is generally applicable to all those sections uh under the hearing okay no I'll I'll take a look at that and and that's right that was my main concern I know exactly what you're looking for and that was part of the goal is to make them available for the public okay then I I have a go ahead continue okay um I I see that we're we're revising our cannabis um ordinance and I'd like to ask the mayor question publicly um I know the mayor wanted to get rid of all of the massage poers in Edison and right for Quality life that's not a bad thing but do we then open up a bunch of Cannabis stores which to me massage poar cannabis store all kind of the same type of thing um and and I don't know where the need is because we have an area that we designated the mayor was part of that committee that we spent extensive time reviewing so my question to the mayor or or who or a council member whoever proposed this change that thought that opening up Cannabis stores all the way down Woodbridge Avenue or on Route One or or talage Road the the busiest road that we have in the town and the little offsets ever thought that this would be a good idea so I'm not really understanding especially since the mayor sat with myself and I believe it was councilman ble at the time to come up with areas and some of these areas were brought up the problem that we had was they were close to Residents they were close to schools um they were going to affect traffic so because of that that's why we came up with just the one area so I'm just wondering where this thinking came from and and whose idea and what kind of thought they put behind it uh um do you think we can get someone to come to our meeting council president and explain this to us I will leave that to the mayor I I would certainly make comment I was going to ask though is it more appropriate to make comment now or during the introduction because I do have a question but I also have a general comment on I would wait till the introduction okay so I'll provide my com comments at that point okay thank you council president yes uh on c will this be integrated with sdl portal uh this is uh essentially any of the agendas will be posted where the agendas are posted the plans will'll be posted with the same place as as the agenda no and I understand but that will this be on the sdl portal if I have to look at any application because there will be lot and block there will be property that is tied down to this particular proposal like for example somebody comes in submit the electronic plan the resident should have an ability to search through HDL portal and pull the entire application along with the plan head set so that will be right use to go with that uh would that be something done through ordinance or would that be something that done through Administration just so I understand uh councilman PTI was uh looking into putting in the application tied into the address in the sdl portal I can certainly look into it um it hasn't been done usually what's in the portal it's what's been already applied and processed but I can certainly inquire uh in terms of an application that went before I I understand your point regarding record keeping right thank you and on the last one cannabis you know I'll hold my comments for the introduction because I was part of the subcommittee in fact we had a several Zoom calls with the residents to understand their concerns and the way we come up with that zone was there was for the reason and the number of licenses but I will hold my comments when we come to the introduction thank you council president thank you councilman pel and in terms of uh my comments for a I believe these are Under lot plots and as per our ordinance it states that we have to have the contiguous properties bit on them and as the Sonia pointed out this was assessed through tax and I don't believe there is any misplay here and as for C I think this is very important um it's important to be transparent and open with the public and this also ties into the website in order to make the website more usable we need more content and more data and if we don't have that uh there's no point of having a prettier website so this is a good step in that right direction hopefully with the updated digital plans uh we reach we can I think tie into stdl that will be even better so then down the road for anything future any questions a resident can go into the sdl portter or the website and figure out you know what exactly the plans were what was approved and if the applicant is misusing it then the resident would know uh moving on to number 11 council president Council I tried to catch your attention before um one clarifying question on the Cannabis ordinance um we have certain buffer zones already established in our ordinance so even if these propert these roadways were to become permissible those buffers would still have to be uh followed I just that's a question to Legal Sonia the buffer zones for the Cannabis are you asking me in terms of the location so yeah what are the buffer zones and what would have to be followed so there the Thousand the thousand foot um restriction would not apply to the following areas that are listed so that's the National Road talage Carter Road US Route One and Woodbridge Avenue and the limits are attached here so the that would not apply okay okay uh moving mov on to number 11 from the Department of planning and Engineering AB bcde any questions comments seeing none moving on to number 12 from the Department of Water and Sewer any questions or comments council president Council appointed in regards to uh these contracts I'm happy to see that we are at the stage where we can start to uh perform the the inspections for both the force and gravity Mains as we all know this is part of the ACO um what they will be providing are it's not just the analysis of it but as they go through the actual inspections they'll actually have to clean out some of the uh the mains as they go through so there's an ancillary benefit with that um I think that it's important to know that as these robots and Scopes go through they're going to essentially take sonar uh Imaging of the pipes which is going to give us 360 um viewing angles of the pipes to see where there's deterioration where there's buildup um and give us those anel that we need to make the improvements that we desperately need for this system so I'm happy to see that this is moving forward and or hopefully moving forward with the support of this Council and thank you sir uh thank you cman pointer and I agree and as this is required by the ACO I think it's important that we pass it uh moving on number 13 from chief of fire ABC any questions or comments seeing none moving to number 14 from the chief of police uh number eight any questions or comments seeing none uh moving on from the council member to the planning board councilman pointer I know I said I was going to be uh brief this year but reorganization meetings never tend to be uh brief uh the planning board met on Monday January 29th at 7 pm and the following items were discussed first order of business was the board's reorganization approval of professionals and secretary uh lonard S deli was renominated as the chair of the board JP Singh was nominated as the vice chair Ron cucharo as the board's attorney benel planning consult as the board's planning consultant Delaware R and Engineering is the board's engineer and Cassandra Austine is the board's secretary master plan the master plan if uh BF I believe it's bfj is able to have their revision ready for next week's meeting they are going to uh present the revisions to the planning board uh I was told that they are going to highlight what the changes are from the first draft versus this um so the intention to my understanding is they will present at the next planning board meeting which is next Wednesday the 21st 7 pm here in council chambers uh it is possible it may end up being in March if they are not ready what uh chairman selski mentioned was that he will allow for comment on the adjustments made to the draft only and then if all the comments are heard and final revisions are made hopefully we'll be able to have something uh before the board for consideration at March's meeting several resolutions were approved P 5242 asmir extension of time for 90 days P5 222 South Fifth extension of time three one-year extensions P 17-223 PSG preliminary and final site plan approval P 14-223 an Patel minor subdivision approval p82 23 Federal Business Center minor subdivision approval P 07202 3 TNS future Investments minor subdiv division approval P1 15-20 23 AK realy 2 preliminary and final site plan approval P-223 Yash 5 realy LLC for preliminary site plan approval uh several cases were carried to the February 21st meeting next week p08 2 2023 779 New Durham Road p19 d223 A andd Holdings LLC 1039 Amboy Avenue and P1 16-20 23 de realy LLC 75 Midville Road there were three applications that were heard before the board first was P 0520230 ft lot containing existing single family dwelling located on the south side of Lincoln Highway applicant proposed to clear the site and constructed a new two-story office building on the front portion of the lot containing 2240 Square ft of office space with rear parking lot application was pretty straightforward and replacing an existing non-conforming single family building with a conforming use that match the size and development on neighboring properties to the right of it the property on the left is one that was placed for consideration as an area in need of Redevelopment the board United voted to approve subject to some minor conditions of approval which dealt with the size of the driveway safety precautions for vehicles exiting and front facade looks p16 d202 two dck development this matter was carried without new notice to the February meeting which I should have mentioned before because a stenographer was not present for the application uh hearing P22 d202 two just Nation uh this application has been open for several hearings being the third continuation of the matter property owner proposes to use the site for pallet storage assembly and repair installing a 12,800 ft open air building as part of the renovation current operations existing without site plan approval and there are environmental concerns regarding the property at this hearing opposition testimony was finalized by an interested party who hired professionals on their behalf the opposition's professionals completed their testimony and the applicant's attorney cross-examined those Witnesses the hearing was adjourned with the understanding that the applicant's attorney would be bringing several individuals back to address uh items at the next at the hearing which was set down for which is being held to March 18th of 2023 no new reoti is required that would end my report council president thank you councilman pointer it's very well done moving on uh to number 16 The Unfinished Business ordinance for further consideration public hearing and final adoption ordinance 225-242 206 2024 ordinance amending chapter 2 Administration by creating subsection 2 d114 cultural art commission any comments from the council yes I do Council vice president I am so pleased pleased first of all that just about the entire Cultural Arts currently commiss committee going to commission is here to celebrate and honor this particular this particular ordinance we are so looking forward to all the things we can accomplish that's uh where we can get grants raise money and all of that so I'm really really happy on behalf of the commission that would soon to be commission um and that's I think the last time I'll be saying that um I'm really really really pleased about this on everybody's behalf so I look forward to the adoption of this ordinance thank you Council vice president any other comments council president councilman P yeah this is an wonderful news that you know finally Council vice president your hardw did pay rate to create this commission um I have been I have witnessed earlier the environment creation of the environment commission and I understand the struggle the starting of the especially the fun aspect so I think the commission has to really push hard to Administration to get at least some initial 15 $20,000 to get this commission started so that we can put this in budget and I'm pretty sure this Council colleague will support you for that thank you thank you councilman PTO councilman pointer thank you council president I'm going to just Echo what council vice president Harris and councilman ptil uh just mentioned Edison is so diverse culturally is it's insane so it only makes sense for us to have this as a commission which I know former Council councilwoman shf Freeman had also advocated for previously um this is this is just going to help in the education front of what uh Cultural Arts is because not everyone fully understands the broad bread of what what falls under it uh is a great way to make sure that we engage with the citizenry of the township uh obviously the transition to a commission from the financial aspect certainly helps and I know that the uh the members of the Pres never will guarantee but the presumed commission um will run with this um Full Speed Ahead and will be of great public benefit to the township so thank you for advocating for this and I look forward to supporting this at the time of the vote thank you sir thank you councilman po council president councilman Co council president I'm truly proud to support this ordinance and um for those who have been on this commission for some time moving at a pace that you only wish could move faster this is certainly going to put you in uh the speed zone to get things done um but you moving towards a legacy opportunity that you'll leave behind for your children and grandchildren when we look back what this council's done and as you know we are getting things done this is something you'll be proud of I mean to hold concerts uh different Performing Arts the cultural things that can happen there I mean Edison is so much culture happening here I mean as a council member I can't begin to thank how much I've learned about Heritage here in Edison I mean it feel like we get a PhD in Heritage from going to all these different events and learning what's going on here so this is going to be a great opportunity looking forward to it and you can hang your hat on this and know that you got this done and again part of working with this Council work with this mayor and not disrupting government is seeing the great things get done and this is certainly one of them thank you council president thank you Council mccoil as for myself I just want to say thank you Council Council vice president for pushing for this I think it's important for the size of town that we have that we have a commission that pushes arts and the Financial Funding that we will receive through it I'm hoping would lead us to a Performing Art Center uh I think that will be something that the vice president will be really happy with and I will be as well so congratulations to the committee for becoming a commission and I hope you all continue success your success is our success thank you all right moving on to ordinance 2207 2024 Bond earnings providing for the township Widewater water meter replacement project for the sewer utility in and by Township of Edison in the county of middlex New Jersey appropriating 8, 850,000 therefore rep and authorizing issuance 8, 850,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance the cost thereof any questions or comments council president Council M got a little statement it should be evident if you follow the happenings of council last year that I'm in favor of this ordinance with that I'd like to read an excerpt provided to me by the Smart City advisory committee as to the benefits of the smart meter program and why the municipality should implement it which again I wholeheartedly agree first it provid for streamlined operations remote access eliminates need for multiple visits reducing overall costs and Reporting ER errors second remote monitoring and control Smart Meters allow remote monitoring and control of water flow pressure and quality in the distribution Network this enables proactive maintenance quick response to emergencies and optimal operation of the water infrastructure third demand management data gathered assists in implementing demand management strategies for an on Peak and off peak water usage improved billing accuracy by automatically recording water consumption data Smart Meters eliminate the need for manual meter readings and reduce billing errors this ensures res residents are build accurately based on their actual water usage leading to fewer disputes and better customer service real-time monitoring with real-time data and accurate information patterns and and Trends can be identified deviations from these can indicate leaks abnormal usage and promotes water conservation efforts realtime alert messages or notifications can also be set up leak detention and prevention early detection of leaks help pre prevent water wastage reduce water bills for residents and the municipality and minimize damage to the infrastructure and finally conservation incentives the township can Implement incentive programs based on water conservation efforts again I think that this is vital infrastructure Improvement for the the water department um it will help provide better services for for those that are under the Edison water utility I look forward to supporting this once again and I hope to have that the rest of council uh agrees and supports as well thank you council president thank you councilman poter I agree wholeheartly uh moving on to the discussion items I will start with councilman brusher you have the floor son I I know you gave me some updates um via email but I'd like to just ask him publicly um we talked about the psych triangle down on IM at the end and uh you told me that that was taken care of right we cut back the trees or the bushes or whatever was there so those are currently being worked on we're actually uh trying we've reached out to the homeowner they've essentially verbally agreed to do that we just need to to have them sign a hold harmless um so we're hoping then the next week that it'll get done but legally we do need a hold harmless if we go on anyone's property that we're not liable for any issues um because the fact that we're the ones cutting down the bushes okay so once we get the hold harmless then we can take care of that yes sir um Comcast um have you spoken to uh Fred DeAndre we have had uh quite a few meetings with Comcast the latest report as I believe the council president or someone here reported earlier that um they have now gone through the BPU process there will be a public meeting it will get posted on the website I did uh tell our staff to make sure that there is a landing page um actually reflective of any Broadband or project related to um so that will be put up on the website once we do have a dat so that um everyone is informed and when they when they have that meeting are will they be able to tell us whether they're upgrading the infrastructure and it's their infrastructure or you know what they're going to offer what they're going to do here um in Edison Township I believe my understanding is that they'll cover what the outlay will may look like um first is the commercial portion of it over at Ryan so I um the level of detail I I don't have that information for you right now okay if we can if we can just get that and then get updated um the senior busing I it looks like if a senior has an issue in the town they can schedule a pickup to take them to any doctor in Edison or even shopping um and I don't know that the seniors all know that so I I don't know if we can get that out to them in a way um you know besides a senior center um there's certainly if they reach out or any of you have know a senior right uh that's unable to to do it I certainly reach out to me and I'll make sure that they get on the list um but we do provide there's several layers obviously the medical the shopping um it's the dial ride dial right okay all right thank you and uh you told me that that we did test the dirt that was moved from the one site to the other um could I get a report from DPW on on that dirt what it was made up of and what they found in it um just to see that it was actually done sure and we're not moving something from one to the other um animal shelter um my colleague gave a well we had a meeting um it looks like we're headed in the right direction so that's a positive thing um the fire inspections and reports I'm looking for reports and um for our main building here for animal shelter for for any of the buildings that we own and this goes back to the um the senior center when we found out that we didn't have a working fire alarm system or sprinkler system um and I know that we actually have these reports now I do know that we had deficiencies in this building I do know that this this body has approved fixing those deficiencies so I I'd like to see the latest reports on all of our buildings that that we have just so I can get up to date as to where we are and whether we're you know on top of it or we have an unsafe condition uh those reports were sent um I can certainly resend them I know with emails things just kind of get caught up below and below and up so I'll recirculate it this evening to you yes it might be in that Loop because they keep on adding to it yes you're correct um and then we have a tree ordinance that um um my our Council um we spoke about having the same price that we gave to a developer right um no council member actually even really had an objection to it can I get that document for our next meeting for introduction uh that was the the intention uh we have uh done most of the research on whether or not there are um there are issues with that it doesn't look like there are issues with having different pricing so long as uh at the end of the day it is not a revenue generator um under either pricing scheme so uh it does look like that that can possibly be done I am looking into a couple of the other issues as well that were raised my hope is to have it for the Fe right if I can't have it I'm going to propose to so that every developer also gets the same deal you know what I mean I'm I'm big on everybody should get the same thing doesn't matter who you are who you know what it is right everybody should pay the same thing like when I get a ticket and I got a ticket here in Edison just so everybody knows and I did have to go to court and I did have to pay it um I believe the law applies to everybody equally so yes if we can get that for the next meeting I'd appreciate that yeah that was the intention thank you uh that would be a council president thank you councilman Brer uh Council vice president yes um first of all I I just want to make a statement about how I have liked the way Council discussion has gone I like the submitting of our questions and concerns in advance because that way we've been getting answers we're getting a lot less from our business administrator of I'll get have to get back to you on that and um it's been very clarifying and so I I I I like the direction this has taken so I just wanted to say that um so going to my questions I'm wondering about now the governor Murphy has expanded the liquor license the the the law that is boosting more liquor licenses i' like to know what kind of impact we anticipate for Edison and the various establishments that would be getting liquor licenses so that current that criteria is currently being reviewed by our uh legal and administration um we do know that at least meno is on track uh we can confirm that um but we'll have more details okay could you when you get those could you uh could you send those along sure that's right thank you um boards and committees so it has come to my attention that this the committee for uh for seniors has been dormant and I'm wondering what's happened it seems that with all the issues that have come up with regarding seniors that this is a committee that needs to be revived and uh that needs to be active and so do we know what ever happened and what can be done to get that going again um well Council vice president I I'm glad you brought that up actually with the now third uh senior C senior citizen um facility coming on board um we will start um bringing in folks to reestablish that that advisory committee I know in the past in the administration it was not so we're going to be working on that right that's good to know um Council committee assignments here we are in mid-February and there's really nothing no document has come out yet with regard to the committee assignments um so I will ask you council president where that's at you will have it tomorrow okay all right it's not fast enough um okay I don't need to ask about the status of Comcast because the councilman Brasher addressed that um I don't really need to address the email addresses for Cultural Arts commission members because those are in the process of being worked on um the uh the potholes that was pointed out to me that there are potholes uh really in very bad bad shape lesle in Lexington and lesle in Highland and I don't know if uh if uh DPW has any information about them I I I can answer okay yes they were taken care of oh okay wow all right so there is an item I that came to my attention there's an item that came to my attention after the uh the due the deadline for the council discussion items and it does have a time sensitive a time sensitive issue with it and so I'm wondering if I can motion to this is about the boat the boat docks and I've gotten some information about this but just for the sake of transparency I want want to put this out there anyway so I'd like to make a motion to put this Council vice president pointed out to me that this is an urgent matter this will the boat docks will become active on March 1st and she wanted to discuss this I asked her that if she can motion it and the council can vote on it yes or no and then we'll go off of that so C okay so I'd like to make a motion to add this particular item to my discussion item second all right so we have a a motion from Council vice president and a second from Council pointer may I have a roll call councilman brusher there's a motion to add a discussion item for the boat docks by Council vice president council member brusher um you know I'll I'll be honest with you if if this is Council president's prerogative I mean I know our laws say it is but the law like I said was an illegal law I told is it yes or no sir you council member Co yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member schile yes council president ptil yes all right I can proceed okay all right so was brought to my attention that with the boat the boats being launched on March 1st which is really two weeks away um there has been a real problem with illegal dumping in the river The Mulch that's actually going all the way to Coney Island um concrete also being poured into the river uh Silton debris that is under the docks um this according to this particular resident who does not want to be identified um he had made calls and and the residents who have been trying to maintain these uh the docks and the boardwalk area around there calls were made to the administration two years ago and they have not been responded to they've been uh pushed aside and and um they and he he said that he says he walks his dog by there every day um the plastic on the docks is cracked boards have been rotting out um one of the gazebos one of the two gazebos has been destroyed uh this flotation device called a boom that they the residents had paid for they actually paid about $500 for it which helps to move the debris away was REM was removed I guess by the by the township and so um so uh so I I got some answers today when I spoke to the bu business administrator but um just for the sake of transparency can we uh you know can we get the just to let everybody know can we let everyone know what is going on with this uh with this situation Sonia you recognize sure so the boat do I'll just uh uncover many of the layers of what's currently happening or has been happening since hurricane Ida um what we did about a year ago was do temporary measures and the reason for those temporary measures and we have to call it that is because there are FEMA funds tied to it so we cannot um through FEMA regulations make any substantial uh infrastructure changes a year ago our residents um who use the boat do quite frquently frequently um urged us to make some sort of tempor measure because they you know the season was coming on the previous year was not open so we did uh order those um sorry I can't even say the intelligent word rather than those uh not the not the boom but rather the docks themselves I'm sorry I'm just getting there's some feedback um so with that those are currently intact with regard to the boom that has to be replaced through the engineers they have to go go out and do some special measurements you brought up the nails we did go there we did Hammer them however we looked at it the more appropriate measure would be to put screws in there so that with the high and low tide that there would not be any loosening um the Gazebo itself that entire area is going to go through a change um obviously if whoever attended the um the dedication last year um we were looking to do a lot more at The Boat Boat base and the boat dock um so there's a whole renovation um Venture through our DPW and administration to make sure that that gets revamped including the walkway there so um we do go there every Wednesday it isn't our schedule but obviously you know with the high low tide all of that debris just kind of washes up uh we've done what we could we've put in some uh rocks there pretty large rocks I believe they're thousands of tons that quite frankly were put there last year um again we can't do a whole lot either aside from FEMA there's DP regulations so with that we need to be mindful of every little step or change that we do we've had several we have monthly FEMA calls and we're trying to at least get some sort of reimbursements so there's quite a bit layered into the boat dock and how it's been going but certainly if there's any issue related to safety I'd bring it to my attention I want to make sure that our staff goes out there immediately thank you Sonia thank you council president thank you Council colleagues for allowing this to be walked on thank you uh council is it okay if I go to councilman pointer first I just want to make the comment on the board dog because this this was added just now and what I heard the interaction question answer I want to just make one comment if you allow me uh if you don't mind can we do it at your discussion okay that's fine perfect councilman pointer thank you uh council president uh the first item that I have is in regards to uh Airbnb and potential complaint uh procedures I appreciate the administration for getting back to me uh because there was some items that were unclear uh I was advised that airbnbs were not permissible in the township and then I was advised that we don't have anything that prohibits uh that function within the township so um so Could you um sorry just because I'm forgetting you had mentioned if anyone has a complaint for any location that may be experiencing issues with this to contact was it zoning health or both both both okay uh would there be uh a preference as to which one to contact first or just both unilaterally I would do both unilaterally because uh they can essentially go out and um see if there are any specific violations related to their could be housing or it could be an issue of um what's permissible in that understood uh my request to Residents around the township is that if you are experiencing similar issues this was an item that was brought up by one resident but if this is something that's being experienced throughout the township I would appreciate being made aware of so that we can uh try to ensure that we address it whether it needs to be through uh code code adjustment procedures within the administration or other so if you are experiencing similar issues with this potential use uh please reach out to me it's j pointer p y n r at Edison nj.gov uh Farmers Market revitalization several years ago we had a farmers market at the J Dynasty parking lot which many neighbors of the clar bar area I know were uh very favorable for unfortunately I want to say about four years ago uh it went it was unable to continue uh I was contacted and I believe the administration was also contacted about a group that was interested in spearheading uh administrative functions to help Revitalize the farmers market so my question to the administration is is there any update on that um councilman I've actually been working with the health department to try to revitalize the farmers market having run farmers market myself um there may be a challenge in terms of trying to get um folks involved vendors that is so certainly we're trying to make an effort to get a uh Farmers Market typically have the main farmer if you will so it would be an attraction essentially um location obviously so we're looking for an opportunity to potentially put put it out to to the community to see of where the need may be or is favorable appreciate that um Municipal Broadband the business plan I was at the time of the submitt was not aware of what was going to be on the agenda so I had already submitted this but is there an update on the business plan that was uh submitted last year it should be finalized by next week thank you uh finally I appreciate um being forwarded the recreation department 2024 schedule um what I would request is just to make sure that on the Township calendar that they are are all listed there and can uh ideally do that now to cover the entire year I'd also like to make sure that they are inclusive on capture point just because um for people that may not be aware the recreation department for scheduling um recreation activities uses a program called capture point so you can sign up there and get notifications of upcoming events or items that you can register for so my request to the Administration if this program if it lines up with what this program does to include those items in capture Point as well thank you uh those are my questions for the administration I have a couple of comments and follow-ups uh a couple weeks ago I had mentioned about the adop an area uh program or potential program I spoke with the administration regarding how the program program could be implemented and it seemed to have a positive feedback primarily in my thoughts under the clean community's umbrella program specic specifics would be finalized by the administration and um yeah there are two different items that I need to or I'm looking to get from residents in terms of feedback to see if this program is actually feasible first is location of local streets that need consistent cleanups I want to clarify this does not mean the roundabouts that you see on Route One or Route 27 because those are under the NJ doot jurisdiction and the adopta highway program um and second if there are individuals or groups that would be interested in adopting certain locations I'm a bit uh biased in this because with my involvement previously at beautiful Edison I had um the people that I was around were always interested in these cleanups so I have a perception that we want a lot of activity in regards to litter abatement um but I want to make sure that I am aware of what the entire Township has or is Desiring so again if there are streets that are of concern or individuals that would be interested in participating in a program please reach out to me again J pointer Edison nj.gov uh we will also be hopefully working with the environmental commission to put up information at the Earth Day event in April to help try to promote this event and as the year goes through I'll make sure to continue to update thank you the other items I had in regards to council guidelines and procedures um I know I'm kind of picking back off what council vice president had said in regards to the discussion items I like this format um I think it does help in the organization and uh getting information to the administration but also Administration addressing items to us um I was going to mention about the procedure for motioning to introduce an item but it seems that we have that solidified so no no issues here um I do want to ask a clarifying question which I think is also answered that if we wanted to add on to another Council member's comment to do so at our discussion items I and I asked this in the sense of for example purposes it was mentioned about the site Tri triangle it was mentioned on the specific location but I would like I know that we were revising our ordinance on it so I might have wanted to ask if there's a followup on the ordinance revision again just example purposes um I know that we get items from residents last second and it and we might have time sensitivity uh items with that I don't know if we can work something out where we have like a a specific line item that just says resident requests list off what the question is and just leave it at that understanding that the administration will get back to us and we're not expecting an answer right now just a thought in regards to uh debating decoin one of the tricky things just for everyone's understanding uh obviously is protection of First Amendment rights while First Amendment goes in in the broad respect and respecting everyone's uh right to speech is my understanding that Council meetings are under the guidelines of time place and manner um rules and regulations this is slightly different than say us out on a Public Square where a free flow of ideas can go about we have time place and manner established in our ordinance which allows for this form to take place and in considering that there are different not necessarily rules but different uh procedures that can be followed so in regards to like debates um we can offer to limit debate in Robert's rues R from a uh motion to limit uh debate now anyone that followed last year knows that I allow I'm of in favor of just allowing free flow flow of thought and going but if we're going from a procedural standpoint that is an item for consideration the other item that we may consider are just ordinance adjustments to how Council meetings are operated as an example we have regular work session established or regular meetings established in our code and we have work session meetings established in our code but we don't have specific items pertaining to combined meetings we may be able to set that as a guideline where maybe we want to have discussion items from the council at the end of combined meetings because we would want to a go through the agenda be allow for residents to speak which I apologize in advance I'm speaking a long time right now um and adjusted to be able to have a better flow for the uh the meeting so those are my comments and uh thoughts in regards but I do think that the council president is doing a good job in regards to trying to run a a fair meeting a concise and um uh just a well-run meeting at a couple other items ordinances last year I had introduced for a truck Depot uh update to the definition uh I'm hoping that we can possibly bring that back up uh in the near future and as the planning board member or as the council representative to the planning board my focus this year is to take items that I constantly see at the planning board that are used for conditions of approval and let's just codify them we don't need to always rely on on the professionals to make sure that certain items are included when they're asked for every single application I'll give a couple of examples irrigation systems we don't need irrigation systems for certain developments to have it as a condition of approval we want to make sure that the trees remain alive for two years they should have an irrigation system uh another suggestion would be sewer and water Scopes certain applications have where as part of the application they have to scope out the the sanitation and the water lines to their properties right now our code states that they have to give that information to the engineering department I would suggest that we have that be for the engineering department and the Water and Sewer Department because if we're already going to be um looking to update our system and have this information on a constant basis why not have it shared across multiple departments ments uh one other item and I won't go into too much detail but accessory units on access easements uh I'm just going to put that out as a little teaser because it's a little convoluted in going into the weeds but again going forward those are a couple suggestions just from this past meeting as the year goes through I will try to reinforce those and hopefully we can codify some of those changes the final item that I would like to discuss in regard is in regards to artificial intelligence and municipality utilization the term artificial intelligence commonly referred to as a AI is defined as the theory and development of computer system able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence such as visual perception speech recognition decision- making and translation between languages there's a lot of Buzz around this term given the advancements made in recent years and the rate of growth in that IND industry that industry is currently seeing in terms at the state of the township mayor Joi demonstrated an example of the municipalities implementation by highlighting the program viols currently in use this service analyzes photos taken at periodic intervals to detect analyze and document defects in streets and surrounding Landscapes this information then is used to produce reports on current conditions and allows for better querying capabilities for fun and for transparency purposes I decided to ask Gemini this is Google's AI system for examples of how artificial intelligence can be useful and some concerns for municipal governments in terms of the benefits here's what my prompt produced and examples of what the township has done over the past two years first improved deficiency in automation it was mentioned about the snow plowers that right there is a a good good example of using information received from sensors to analyze and approve the services that the township uh provides datadriven decision-making use of viols for future road paving schedules we will literally have a detailed um unbiased rating system of which we can uh rate our roads and attack those which are of most uh need of repair predictive maintenance the implementation of smart hydrants cmms software and smart meters hopefully in the water department enhance s engagement and personalized Services hopefully with the updated website and we will have items such as chat Bots and other gpts that can assist residents with inquiries and research and finally improved publish safety as was also highlighted at the state of the township there's been implementation of cameras throughout the township to help the fight against Crime while my voting history and advocacy for the Smart City advisory committee May indicate my support for implementation I also believe we need to be at the Forefront of addressing concerns as well in similar fashion I asked Gemini what some drawbacks for municipal governments may be this is what was provided job displacement bias and discrimination privacy concerns lack of transparency and explain ility security vulnerabilities and overreliance on technology one item in particular I believe our Township has the ability to be at the Forefront is establishing Municipal guidelines regarding artificial intelligence particularly by Municipal Employees in their duties it is also important to make sure when using AI to check answers as not all are always accurate I've utilized summarizing gpts before and can assure you some of these results are not accurate for example I visited a site called summarize. Tech which analyzes YouTube videos and produces summaries I reviewed output from our last council meeting and I can assure you there were some items that were summarized that I did not say on a side note we've been receiving emails about migration over to Microsoft 365 and I'm excited the township is at the point to make this transition over I believe artificial intelligence has the ability to transform governments for the better but we have to be strategic and how it's implemented and what St safeguards are in place where needed I applaud mayor Jersey's efforts and his recent implementations and look forward to working with him and the administration in in addressing the items I just mentioned thank you council president uh thank you Council Po and the TRC items I mentioned during the public advocate so yeah thank you sir you want to finish yours and then I can go on it's up to you I no I I'll wait after you Council P thank you thank you council president and I heard both the sides my left side right side and I have some comments toight on that and then I counc counc president point of order they have to fix his um yeah let's give you a handheld because it sounds really echoing it's it's it's not good at all thank you go hello okay thank you council president I heard on my left hand side right hand side and I will have the thank you Council uh colleagues for providing some input some insights and thank you Council councilman Kyle you know who said who used the word we got it done let me and I'm not going to go on the state of town but especially the dark situation that you brought up we saw the picture we got it done the they were beautiful councilman Patel can we stick to the discussion items please no that's what you know because she bought in dock in that was an emergency I my question is on that we saw the picture we got it done whereas what I'm hearing is in dispair we need to maintain that we need to probably go there it was a patch work not the full work so I want to get understanding that what is the fact here is that really got it done or we are still working on it the boat dock again is tied to FEMA recovery funding it it's not part of the capital which you're referencing so it is not yet done so we still have to work on it those are your words I just responded back that it's FEMA recovery money okay so I'll take it it's not done yet okay let me go back and I'll come back on councilman pointer because I have the line atems there the first one Baltic Avenue and the reason this list is growing for the fact that if there is a definitive answer then I will take this off the list list otherwise this list will continue to grow if answer is yes I'll take it out if the answer is you will get the definitive answer by this date I will take this out until that council meeting otherwise it will continue to be on this one so my first one is Baltic Avenue is this on the 2024 road paving list that was previously answered and it is okay thank you fishal road is this on the faving list yes no again the 2024 capital budget has not yet been adopted obviously because the budget hasn't been introduced but fishal Road as you mentioned will have it on the list for consideration okay so when we are talking about 2024 budget is not yet given to the council we know for the fact that in 2023 this Council has passed millions of dollars for the road payment program which was not used because no Road was paved in 2023 so can this fall under that category there were roads paved in 2023 as part of the 2022 list and that was submitted to the council that was received by all I'm talking about 2023 budget yes 2022 budget which was passed you paved the road in 2023 but the budget that was passed in 2023 that was not utilized so that's where I'm asking the question because if you are talking about 2024 budget it will go in 2025 list so my question is is this on 2024 Paving list not part of that budget if you're saying it's under consideration we have the depw director if you want to come to the podium and tell me the situation of that your question if I understand it is it part of the 2024 list list as IID mentioned before since you've brought this up we've taken it into consideration as I mentioned also before the 2023 list is being finalized obviously we can't can't do anything because of the weather so with the new AI uh technology we tied in both lists okay I come back on that a topic uh but again this is consideration so it will be done in 2025 possibly I can't confirm that what will happen in the future but certainly we can add it okay we can be as aggressive as possible okay so this will stay there because you know I have given the pictures I have the message from DPW director that this road must be paved because this cannot be patched because it is beyond the disappear so this has to be done ASAP but if you're saying that it is under consideration I will keep this on the list until I get the clear thing let me move on to the speed limit sign on okri road and let me clarify on this one this issue I'm bringing up past probably 3 4 months last council meeting I gave even an option give me the Traffic Unit person I will drive with that person and I will show them where the problem exist since last council meeting no one contacted me so that's the reason I'm asking the question saying who is going to look at it and when the action will be taken councilman I actually have our deputy chief here who can cover um I don't know if you just want to cover this one in particular but I know you had a list here so he can certainly provide color to that yeah I will councilman so uh Oak Tree Road um obviously you know that's a County Road y so what exactly is your question in regards to the speed limits on Oak Tre Road there is no signs there's no signage okay um we can certainly reach out to middle sex County because again it is a County Road and request them to look at the placement of signage that is not an Edison Township issue of that is a county problem okay chief you are saying that you know you'll reach out to mes County after the fact of three months of might continue to ask I will need the list of the traffic ticket that are issued on okti road for the traffic violation while the speed limit sign is missing so it is unfair to the resident that we if you are giving them a violation about the speed when there is no sign there there's not a single speed limit sign on o one I saw it's closer to grow and that one but as soon as you turn right from Wood Avenue left from Wood Avenue they are speding because they don't know what the spe is and you are issuing the traffic ticket right there so it is unfair to Residents who are coming out of that road right okay I what I'll do tomorrow is I will make a point of going up to oakry Road myself and taking a look for your speed limit signs I will have somebody with our Traffic Unit and then we'll make a call to middx County thank you and I I'll be happy to join you you know I can follow your car and probably we can look at that and I offered that last council meeting that shouldn't be necessary Council but thank you yeah the next one is I will cover with the Maplewood Avenue MBI Avenue intersection issue this is on the MBI Avenue I know uh Administration did give the response saying there is a stop sign there but the bus stop is across the road it's on the other side of am Avenue so kids has to walk there is no Crossing hardly anything is visible there so the the the concern with Maplewood and Amboy is the fact that well there is a stop signer because I drove through there earlier this evening just to verify that it is in place um the crosswalk is you're looking about a crosswalk is that correct I'm looking at the striping the stop sign because that's pretty much not visible okay so you have to strip so you're talking about a a stop line and the and a crosswalk but a crosswalk only on Maplewood correct yes okay because you cannot put a crosswalk across Amboy at that location understood yes okay uh again it is February um I can can certainly contact DPW just to try to get uh you know maybe an ETA and when when those can be restriped but obviously you know due to the time of year that would be a little difficult currently okay if you can give me the timeline say maybe two months I can wait I will bring that up at that point in time sounds I'll let you know in that Council perfect the next one is there is one sign hanging there 30 m hour sign from Adam Street to Edison Avenue so again as soon as somebody comes from maachan going towards oakry Road as soon as you cross that signal Adam Street there is a 35 M hour sign on your right hand side and immediately in 100 ft there is 25 mil hour I think by the time the driver is cruising the speed is changing well as you know this Council had uh made a change in a small stretch of Grove Avenue to go from 35 to 25 and then ultimately back to 35 uh I can tell you that our Traffic Unit is conducting a survey of Grove Avenue they'll be coming back with the report with recommendations about at request of this Council to look at either a larger stretch of Grove Avenue or even possibly the entire stretch of Grove Avenue on whether it can change to a 25 or not understood you know I'm not questioning about that because that is one of the ask to look at the entire Grove Avenue but there's one sign there that is in question and that is what I keep insisting why that sign is even there because we change the speed 1800 ft from there I'm assuming that sign was probably pre-existing uh prior to the 25 change after that but I'll have it looked at okay because if you remove that it will solve the whole problem and then we can continue the study there okay sir thank you sir uh I think that's pretty much is for thank you Council thank [Music] you and I expect uh you know some kind of communication on the 35 miles sign in a week or something something yes thank you next one is the solar power flashing light request I know that you know there is a pilot the I think some lights are purchased do we know when they're going to come I'm looking for the list of the locations that are Flack for this pilot or the um we did provide you with the information that some were were purchased and we're looking to purchase more once the capital Improvement uh budget is adopted um I can certainly tell you that we're going to look at schools first that'll be the first priority perfect but the one that we purchase can we can I get the location because the first one the priority that we put in was for the calber and grow you confirm that thank you for that but how many solar lights the flashing lights we purchase and what are the additional locations we are planning to install those that's the list I'm asking for the first the one we already purchased we'll send you detailed thank you can I expect that by next council meeting the list so that I will not send that again as a part of this list thank you the next item is the list of properties demolished by the township at the township cost and the current status of the property I know that you know you responded saying it is paid for buy you know we recovered the cost or there was no loss to the township but I never got a list of the demolished properties there was one in particular on Route 27 that's I the one that was demolished to my knowledge outside of 27 there are two more or three more I can tell you that one two properties they were demolished right three properties demolished right on okri Road next to in front of the uh wall and the one property that was demolished on the corner of the Harding and o Road so if you're saying 27 that's not the right thing probably we need to look at the deeper list there are many more properties that we demolished in fact on one of the properties there was oil tank on the ground the reason I'm asking is I want to know that even the uh the soil contamination or any of that uh thing was done or just the old tank was missing there so can I expect the list by next council meeting as well um let me just refer to uh Hank mcnell our director of planning and Engineering thank you we'll get that list to you thank you do we have the list of condemned properties I think we to my recollection in last two years at least we did two out of that one we bought one and I have a separate discussion out on that any other properties we condemn not other than the one you mentioned okay can you please take a look at all the resolution from 22 2022 through today because I'm pretty sure we condemn more than one there and again if you can please send that list by next Council Wednesday meeting ho reimbursement have we every year the township and this will be my budget discussion but I'm bringing this ahead of a time uh we do reimburse the HOA for the common to maintain the common elements of the property like the street lights recycling trash removal so there is a nominal amount that we pay and at least you know few property few H have reached out to me saying they have not received the reimbursement check uh which typically used to get there every year but somehow last two years some of them did not receive um that is not correct information we have gotten HOA reimbursements are you looking for specific years so or in the last time it was done yeah why don't you do one thing can you give me the list of the H how much it was reimbursed so that I will know which one is missing because I have the example but I don't want that ho to get penalized for one or the other reason because I'm bringing this up to the council's attention Okay if for transparency and purposes if if you could provide me with information separately if you want to disclose that tonight I can certainly assist you with that understood but I would say that it will be much easy to get the list of HOAs how much we paid in 2022 how much we paid in 2023 so that that will tell me if is anything is missing that's more straightforward answer than me giving you the information on who is asking for and it's not difficult to pull that list because we already reimburse if we reimburse we should be able to get that list next one this is sensitive and we have discussed this issue multiple times and your answer was none the copy of mayor's executive decision on maintaining in water and sewer for the high density area like HOAs Hana Road is the classic example and back then the there is a written email or the communication from your office saying mayor has taken an executive decision not to serve those properties and we are all on cameras discussing about that so do we have that decision just made by a mayor but not documented the reason I'm asking is because we need to change our ordinance accordingly and we need to comply with our ordinance so we don't govern this Township should not govern by somebody's will whether it's a mayor or it is a council president or anyone it should be by by as per the uh the ordinances and we don't we have not modified that ordinance councilman uh PTI the correct answer as I'd repeated pre repeatedly said last time was that there is no executive order rather a policy regarding um any work done to a private residence whether it's an HOA or just a single single family home that we do not go in there to do major infrastructure repairs okay let me change the word if it is not the executive order then it's a policy decision can that policy be transferred to the ordinance because we are not governing by our ordinance which is a law if the council wishes to amend the ordinance certainly we can work with the council and the attorney to make that adjustment can I get the copy of the policy document I think uh certain items they can email it to you can yeah think can I get the copy of I I need an email of the copy of the policy it's a simple question here policy cannot be just in Wake saying you know hey I'm a mayor I choose to adopt this policy and it is not documented cannot happen that need to be that's not I think that that those are the words that I think you're choosing to use rather than the fact that if there is a policy uh it's been my experience um it is a known policy that we do not go to private residents to build on infrastructure understood can can mayor or you document that policy and sign it and send it to me by email will be helpful so that we put that in black and white there is a policy because we have the policy document in the township we have the policy document for employees we have the policy document how we govern we have the policy how we govern our council meeting so there has to be policy which is written right I I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying uh perhaps maybe the township attorney couldn't clarify yeah I'll be honest I'm not entirely certain what you're asking the the administration to do let me let me clarify uh councilman pel is asking whether or not do we go into private property and fix issues that like let's say an HOA is having uh recently there was an issue with an HOA and the township uh decided that you know they will not go into private property to fix up an issue because it would be a legal liability uh for the township if something were to go wrong and are we talking about issues that the township is created or just talking it was an issue that the HOA was facing that was within their property in terms of I believe was water leakage so this is mayor has policy decision I think we can take this one offline if you don't mind I think legal can give us some more Enlightenment later if you need that that is an ex extremely risky proposition and it opens the township up to incredible amounts of liability I don't know that even the Township's insurance carrier would would be happy about that never mind any kind of official policy by the township um that's that that's something we're definitely going have to discuss offline absolutely you know I'll be happy to discuss that but this there have been dozens of restant who came here who spoke and we gave them an answer this is a policy that we adopted so I get you and that is what I'm saying if we needs to have a email conversation or maybe telephonic conversation but I still like to get this cleared up so the residents are aware hey this is a policy or maybe change in ordinance this is the ordinance that this Township is going to govern by okay uh councilman Patel Marina just pointed out that in our water sewer ordinance 27- 2.6 maintenance and cost a portion of service lines all water service lines between the water and the curb uh Co shall be maintained by the Department of Water and Sewer Division of Water Supply at the expense of the property owner is part it's up to the curb right the curb Halls are all the way inside the private properties and that is where the discussion came in but again we went through the ordinance there's a lot of communication back and forth let's take it offline if you want to have the closed door discussion and I'll be happy to you know I think we should move this offline thank you next next one is fire hydrant under Edison water utilities I know this was brought up I think 4 months ago same Hana Road situation and we had the our water director you know who said he doesn't know where the fire are so it ended up with Chief to yes I in the perview of the fire chief so he's here if You' look that answered yeah so what I'm looking is an and chap to knows that I'm looking for the list of all the fire hydrant that are under the perview of Edison water utility or where the Edison water utility serve and are they in compliance I'm not looking the whole town I'm just looking for the Edison water utility so the Edison water utility I would have director Smith or Roger come up or whatever there's approximately 2,000 hydrants I believe who have a better number councilman um all the hydrants in our service area except for one or an operation it's scheduled to be replaced okay two things there you know I want to dissect what you said they are in operation but they are scheduled to be replaced one one one that excludes all the private properties correct yes right have we gone to the private properties and inspected any of those fire hydrant though it may not be our responsibility however we need to still certify them because still it is a fire hydrant our fire crew is still going to go there in case there is a fire or disaster and if fire hydrant is not operational and we are not enforcing that operation we are putting our employees at the risk we just had a recent incident where uh a condo complex contacted us at non-working hydrant and under the code I believe it's in the code or the fire code it's their responsibility we gave I even helped them we gave them a couple vendors uh to come out and fix it they called me back and they said they weren't able to do it we were able to send the water company out I think it was an $850 Bill to fix there was another fire Hydra and it was 249 ft away if it was under 500 ft it would be an imminent Hazard and we could go right in there and fix it but this one was under 500 ft so that's does that answer your question no that still doesn't answer my question if the fire hydrant is in the private property or in public property the ownership could differ but who is responsible to certify that fire hyr that is in operation so the private Community is every year whether it be the superintendent of the property for like an HOA or something they're supposed to be stencl they're supposed to flow them and keep a record so when the Fire Marshals come in or whatever they just see it does every five years they're supposed to hire a like City fire or somebody that does sprinkler system and they put a pilot gauge on it to certify and they take pictures of each one so that's every five years is that supposed to be done but every year it's done by the superintendent or whatever the property I think maybe we might have to amend our ordinance to make sure that we I agree with you on amending the ordinance yes thank you at least you know that would need a change in ordinance and we should work on that thank you next one is it's a longstanding probably it's 8 years I'm on the council I'm bringing this up again engineering study cver St will that project engineering study was done everything was worked out CME had probably spent in a good 34 million on this project and it's still not considered for the capital Improvement we are spending millions and millions of dollar for w estw but I don't know why there is a reservation of not not pushing this project forward I apologize um you're referring to the Calbert Stevenville it's correct okay um again those are with engineering um they are reviewing all the proposals so do we have the proposal for the work yes sir and that I believe I reported to you at the last council meeting I have not seen anything yet you know again I get the status believe me or not 8 years I'm getting the same status it's worked on it's worked on it worked on I'm waiting to see it is getting done that's that's the key there right even last year I had the same answer yes it is will go in capital project two years down the line it's still in capital project so if it is the bids are received only the answer I'm asking expecting is this will be done this year yes no yes sir perfect thank you council president point of order for a second uh councilman P would you allow courtesy what's the point of order council president I'm just um um not I'm not sure if the Public's used to this much discussing items and I think Council Matel has every right to discuss anything he wants to discuss but for those who are in the audience waiting to speak I just want are they aware there's 28 more items to talk about and is there not maybe not today but is there any where we can carry over to the next meeting where there's not a double combined meeting I don't this would be Council matti's opportunity to yield for it but I'm just heartfelt for those who are waiting to speak we're not even close we didn't start our agenda yet and I'm I'm fine with him speaking but it's just something new you started which is wonderful but we have 28 more items I estimate this could be a good 35 to 45 more minutes yeah so and I just don't know how it's already been 24 minutes and I I understand that this is and I don't want to take it away from you c p it's your time I just wonder point of order you know council president you said the process now you need to follow the process okay okay okay my only the thing here is if I would have been a council president in fact I advised my Council colleague that when there is a public in the audience move the public portion ahead of a time so they can go home you didn't do that so you can't fault for me that I'm holding the residents they know their process so I'm just following my process that is fine continue thank you and I respect councilman fine just in the history of our year together no one's ever done this and it's just not fair to the residents waiting to go through all these discussion it's okay let coun set up has the floor thank you Summer Street it's okay it's fine continue I'm sorry it it's I would say good two years now on the Summer Street do we know there's a flooding problem the residents had shown the videos they came to the council chamber this has been brought up by residents I pitched in there for multiple times I was told engineering study is done or it was in progress do we know the definitive status where it stands uh the reports being finalized when do we expect the reports I'll check back with engineering okay so this will again come back to the next council meeting if again if it is report is not done by that time report will come to the council once it needs a resolution so that will be your point of update okay till that time it will continue gr Avenue flooding uh remediation plan again this I would tie down to the engineering study of JP Steven and the reason this needs to be again the quality of life and I want to say a few things here the I wrote those down because when I was listening to my Council kise good governance and quality of governance this is something that cannot be shown to the public but this impacts the quality of life of lot of residents including the students so this takes more precedence than a good to have things that can be shown to the residents so the ask is work with the barded probably hopefully this year we can get this enging study done so this project can and if there is any special bonding funding required this council is there we have approved probably good 7080 million so far in the last two years and I think you know couple of million not going to hurt next when I will skip bicycle path I will talk to council president on this topic separately uh I know you gave the list of 2022 pav least but I'm looking for 2023 as I'd mentioned before it's getting tied in with the AI information and that'll be sent to everyone shortly okay let me cover the AI portion because I work in the data area when Advanced data analytics I'm the much closer person to the AI what the technology that you are using is the image detection it is no different than your face recognition if I'm opening my phone it's not going to tell me my age it's not going to tell me how many layers of foundation I have it will tell me my face same thing we are talking about the image detection on the road if you drive through entire Edison I don't think you'll find a single street that doesn't have a crack single street so what we are talking about AI it's good to have it we can analyze but not necessar the human intervention because prior to this AI we have used the engineering department to study the roads look at the the side sides we look at the handicap uh uh exit entry we have looked at the uh the sewer lines we have looked at storm water side we have looked at so many things AI is not something going to give the full solution I respect you you know admission decision to use AI for that but to me if you drive any single Road in Edison you will find the crack on a road that's not going to tell you the age of the road that's not going to tell what is underneath of the road it could be just a coat that doesn't mean that the condition of road is good so that's why I'm asking the question here 2023 you use AI you use anything but I need to know the list so that I can go back and say compare two roads and I will put the factual presentation saying what is given by AI as my Council GRE said not necessar everything is correct right so use of data sometime it is good to have it but sometime it's misused and that's I'm worried about and that's what I said thank you for your thoughtful words and certainly aside from the AI which is a newer technology we've embarked on our engineering and uh DPW certainly have a good handle on all of the roads so we certainly appreciate their due diligence they've done for each of the lists so I appreciate your thoughtful words AB absolutely and I I will Challenge on that decision as well I will be looking for the a report uh versus the what actual roads conditions are and then we'll go from there but again I'll be looking for 2023 list you can compile whatever the way you want to use AI uh but I need an answer house when you think it will be available 1 month two month and I will pause until that time no I think within probably the next week we should have it finalized okay so by next meeting I will have it so that's good thing and that ties down to the next item Street restoration by utility companies again this is a long pending if you look half of the town is ripped off driving South Edison go in amb Avenue go in North Edison most of the roads are open uh they were open and they were closed and none of these companies followed our road closure ordinance none of them are complying and I keep bringing this about again and again and again so what I'm asking is can I get the list of the streets because we are holding the escrow payment did we release that escro payment and why did we release if if it is release so if I can get just a list sure just just for process purposes all of the escrow payments any reimbursements would essentially go to the councils you would able you would be able to see that obviously that hasn't been done because the repairs haven't been done and reason being I apologize there's a lot of feedback can we have everyone on the U if you guys can please stay quiet so that we can have a proper discussion here thank you so if you can just if you don't mind just share me the list and then probably I can work backward to see who has the escrow who has not released I can go back to the council agenda and work on that the the specific utilities you're referring to which one are they all of them it's are you looking for the last year you're looking for the last two years which what what is this specific information you're looking for as for the actual the discussion item here Street registration by utility companies for year 2022 and 2023 so last two years okay and all public companies you know there are there could be mle water company uh PG anyone who is operating in different parts of the town uh the seal the the township you already responded on that the next item I will defer it uh settlement of lawsuit but that will be my attorney discussion you did point I I would refer that to the attorney only because there's um privilege information there so um certainly yeah cuz he's not here so I will defer both of these line items North Edison Library expansion status I know my Council vice president is on the library board uh hopefully she will continue there uh thank you for giving me the update that 1 Point $180,000 architect contract has been awarded but as far as I know this was more of I think couple of millions dollar we got the state aid or state matching fund I was hoping by this time in two years we should have been done with the at least putting additional floor on North Edison Library so I don't know where it is hold up and how much money of the total money that is allocated to this project has been already spent so that's answer I'm looking so council president next council meeting if you can yeah through the council president the library board meeting was cancelled on Tuesday and so the next one which is it's next week I I will not be able to attend but I will ask that question thank you thank you glendel property purchase I think you gave me some of these answers on that how much it was paid paid for it my only the question that was not answered how much came from County state aid and how much money we are using for bond from the bond or entire $13 million we are going to use from Bond the purchase of the property was approximately a little over 12 million so that was I'm just rounding that 13 million more or less yes so out of $13 million did we receive anything from County because way back when I was involved few years ago I was hearing probably $4 million we we were anticipating from County some from State and some from Bond so my question is what is the breakdown there or did we receive or we did not receive anything I can I can look back for you I I wasn't aware of that specific area of the question I think your question was related to did it close and it did um as far as any funding I'll have to check to see if there was any funding I know that there were Capital funds that obviously that the council approved maybe two years ago now correct yeah just want to know you know what is the the township portion there and my next question on the glendel property yes it's we celebrated it's closed it's good thank you for that we also have we also did the condemnation of this property so my question is what stays there still it is in that status or that ordinance goes away what happens to that resolution or ordinance that we condemn property this question to attorney can you repeat the question on the glendel we passed I don't know it was a resolution on ordinance on condemning the property before we purchase so after the purchase what happens to that resolution or ordinance we were we are going towards the Redevelopment some I'm sorry if I can clarify that was a resolution um in need of Redevelopment for or condemnation so obviously we then purchased the property and then what I would just defer to the attorney is the next step after the purchase yeah it would be pursuant to the the Redevelopment um resolution it would then be part of a Redevelopment uh developers agreement um which I'm not entirely certain whether or not has been that's been worked out yet but once it's purchased the conditions for the Redevelopment then have to be codified in that agreement with whoever the developer happens to be whether it's um property owner or developer that we've involved in the Redevelopment process well that that I get that you know what redeveloper is going to do it once it's nominated or when it is chosen but my question is we passed this Council passed I think I again I I don't recollect whether it was ordinance or resolution to condemn and redevelop that property before even purchase assuming that the seller will not sell the property so we can condemn and probably force him to sell it MH so what happens to that resolution or ordinance whatever this Council passed does it die down after the purchase because now we are condemning our own property no uh it was actually never done I believe it was presented but I just got confirmation from Hank that it was actually not done not done okay the resolution wasn't passed right resolution has passed correct res that's why I'm confused because yes okay so the resolution wasn't but and we bought the property so yeah in a more General sense if you pass a resolution to condemn a property and then you purchase property the resolution still exists it authorized you to do the thing that you did but it has no further force and effect at that point because now you're the owner okay so let me clarify that so we condemn our own property that's what we are saying no we did not that's not answer that's not correct can I offer a point of clarification which I think will address the we sent to planning I know that but what happens after that councilman poter you recognized thank you um often times we will approve the resolution for the planning board to uh conduct the study many times though that study either stalls or just doesn't go through for for whatever reason so from a historical context there will be a note for instance in a couple in one of the applications I just uh had before 2009 Council approved resolution to perform a study but that's it so it kind of just remains in limbo and nothing proceeds after that okay so technically that dies down there presumably right pretty much so my the last question on this one is as I said again thank you close to this Council mayor Administration for closing the property the first hurdle is passed now the property is owned by Edison Township because all the residents said no Warehouse no trucks no traffics hopefully hopefully this Township will not move forward to put thousand units there and flood the schools and flood the roads because because what I heard is redevelop that property so again I would reserve my comment until that proposal comes in but residents of glendel Avenue please watch out this is your neighborhood if something redevelop and come in you have to step up again the way you stepped up for the warehouse expansion or the Warehouse building the warehouse uh the next one tal you know I got it's waiting for the board oped I will reach out the board members to see you know where they are stuck the master plan status you know thank you councilman you give the update it's with the planning board existing Senior Center the questions I don't know why some of my questions are not here on that particular topic what was the downtime brief down time on this Senior Center one on the Woodbridge Avenue okay okay so that's what I needed to clarify from you which one was it you're referring to to not to the Wood bridgeen Wood Bridge Avenue so during the covid time due to the sprinkler system it was shut down what was the duration like did we close that for a year we did I don't believe we closed it for a year it was during my first year here so it was uh a few months but um is there a specific time timeline you're looking for yes I'm looking for the duration and how much we spend to remediate the situation that existed there are you talking about the renovations that were done like the bathrooms bathrooms the sprinklers there are a bunch of many emergency items that we took care of that okay you're looking for a timeline correct timeline and the cost correct the senior center correct the to Center thank you you know you gave me the updates on that uh the thir field also you answered the question but unfortunately we can't separate uh there was some $800 $900 $800,000 that we spend due to the unforeseen reason I get that uh New Brunswick Avenue traffic light timing uh Sonia you did give me the the traffic study but that was dated probably 20 years ago if you look at the time stamp on that so that was the most current one we had so obviously sometimes for historical purposes it's helpful or not uh who can help to really monitor because if you go on Talmage Road believe me or not the New Brun week by the time one take one truck takes a turn is red and the whole tal road is flooded the whole new Bruns Cen is flooded so we need to act fairly quickly on that particular intersection so who can help on this again I would refer to our deputy chief regarding talage this is regarding the light timings New Brunswick and talage yes so councilman in regards to that intersection what I can do is I can talk to our trafficing I really think it's more of an engineering um issue um but either traffic or engineering I'll have one of them look into it for you okay maybe by next council meeting sure absolutely the reason I'm putting so I don't have to have that big list next time I understand no problem sir water problem 42 Bara Avenue again this we discussed last time I was told there is high water table I think you know somebody really go needs to go there and look at the situation I think the road is higher than the resident uh driveway entrance I don't know how it happened and why water is accumulating unless we do curve to curve Paving that area uh I believe there's several issues with that property I can certainly discuss with you offline uh related to also the private residents and what's happening there sounds good thank you I'll take it offline in visible left turn intersection Kilmer Road and Truman Drive South last council meeting I received an update because this was on the council agenda to approve the the traffic light on that intersection and what the update I received was this was linked to the affordable housing or the low-income housing if you look at this intersection coming from the post office going towards planfield road on the traffic light right hand side if you make a right turn it goes into the parking lot left hand side it goes all the way to the Indian temple there is no linkage of the affordable or low housing in that particular signal so I don't know what the reality is there why we got a grand for that traffic signal and not the one that is before which is really goes towards our DPW karaj and the low housing area do we know what the why this was prioritized compared to any other one because we received the grant for this because correct so it's part of the low mod um area and that's why it was prioritized low low to moderate income housing but that signal is not used by any of lower moderate housing in neighborhoods it still affects that area and it's covered on the map okay so the intersection that matters the most that also is there uh I think it was in the last council meeting discussed but I will take your word the striping is missing there I brought this probably multiple times hopefully with this uh upgrade it's going to take care of that you you have brought that up and what I had mentioned is that it should it'll be part of the engineering portion of the infrastructure the road program this is something that engineering and whoever vendor whatever vendor we use they'll be responsible for doing the striping there okay not only that signal all the way go to the the planfield and ston that the Plainfield Avenue there's no striping all the way towards going to Edison Train Station so that whole intersection needs to be covered uh the next one is for DPW the missing dead end at the Noel Avenue I hope at the end of the winter that will be taken care that's what I yes that's why we responded to your request um on um the dead end in addition to the next one I don't want to move along and so I will pause this for next maybe a month or two until this is taken care because we are in winter the next one the lamp post I know you gave the update on that but the public Advocate ordinance this is something I wanted to make the comment I heard we don't have definitive five wordss I don't think we need five wordss we need a candid discussion and we need simply four wordss to pass an ordinance let mayor vetto it doesn't matter at least it will show the intent of this Council to the residents that we are committed to go this route and I heard the comment from my Council colleague hey probably better way is to you know change our zoning laws and all that stuff you know we are enabling uh all those board to hire the expert but reality of life the reason this ordinance is coming on the for the discussion is because that never happened and we all know Edison is way political when the Redevelopment comes in so there will be the case you will never get a test uh the expert U to represent the case and some places you will get so at the end it's the resident who is suffering and this could be a placeholder it's it's not probably something that we might have to use if Township can hire the expert uh to come to the the Planning and Zoning Board I don't think the residents will come here and are our uh public Advocate have to come and fight for the re but this is again the intent of this Council and I have used the word if there is a will there there is a way so I hope you know my Council vice president with all due respect let's not look for the fifth vote let's put this on agenda because I heard that you have received the commitment to put this on agenda so whatever the shape so far we have this ordinance let's put on agenda let discuss let it get defeated but let's people see that who is there for them to take care and who don't want to support this let them give their own comment moving to the three ordinance again we had a good debate in a back room we gave the break to the redeveloper with the condition that the next council meeting we'll have the tree ordinance so that we give pass the same tax benefit to the residents I think we passed the two meetings now so hopefully there the second meeting I hopefully we'll have in the next council meeting if I get the commitment so I'm looking forward for uh that tree ordinance that will give the break to the residents the next one is HDL portal usage report again it's a good thing you know I'm constantly using it to check you know what's happening it's very good roll out I'm very happy uh if I can get the usage in terms of not just the township but even the residents how many of they are using the reason I'm asking is if we need to do some out preach hey there is a tool exist use it just to an example if someone wants to buy the property they can simply go there search and see what open permits are there they don't need to file an Opa request we can avoid that withing the same HDL portal right it's much easy it's beneficial right but we want to make sure that it's used to the to the extent because we are spending a lot of money here and it should be used by the resident so we can do the Outreach that's where I'm asking that report the stat saying how many of our inter internal users what their uses are they really logging in they are if not then we can provide additional training to them so that it is used to the fullest extent the intent is to make sure it is used sure um as far as internal we do have 100 licenses that we do use um and everyone is on board now so those are for the 100 internal users that you're requesting as far as the external we did reach out to sdl to see if that is a report that we could remit I haven't heard from them but we did reach out to sdl because it's a separate report than what we may uh use to extrapolate information for example addresses and permits and things of that nature so uh it was a different um list that they I believe would house in their Cloud so uh we requested the information I'm just waiting to hear back perfect that that's a good thing and also if you can ask them there is a feature Oprah there is a direct feature to you you know submit an Oprah request straight through sdl portal again we are trying to optimize the technology usage so we have the license let's use it it doesn't need any license for the resent to submit an opera request through the HDL portal I I can work with our clerk's office they did um they were the last to train so we can certainly look into that feature of the website certainly thank you the last one the reason I put this one the real auction.com last year the T ta sell notice were not sent in time and I'm saying that out loud very clear it did not reach to most of the residents in time and their properties were on tax sell there was a rush to get and to pay the taxes they ended up paying the interest rate on their this thing but if there is a real auction.com they don't need to rely on the tax notices they can go to the website and they can see if there is properties on the tax sell it's much easy and this one is used I think by hundreds of municipalities of New Jersey the legal council saying that's not correct we have to if legal councel I have the notice by the way I can give the with post stamp if you are saying it is not right the the this came up um I want to say in December as well uh at one of the meetings that I was attended at uh with respect to uh the tax notices not going out on time my understanding is that the tax notices were all sent out well in advance um of the tax sale themselves and all of them were done according to the statutory timelines that the uh the assessor's office uh and the collector's office are required to abide by um that the individuals may have been uh somehow caught by surprise by the fact that they owed their property taxes or had been late in their remittances but that they had been provided with uh proper notice under the statute um otherwise they wouldn't be permitted to go to tax sale I fully understand that but if I give the envelope which has a stamp and when it received then the whole thing will fall in a different direction that's what I'm saying it's if it is sent by first class post don't anticipate it's reaching 100% in time because it's a festival season there are too many things happening during that time there could be substantial again you might follow the statue but not necessar the tax notices will go on time for all the residents so my again the reason I brought this up is we are all pushing towards the Automation and use of Technology this is very simple thing to roll out for the residents real auction.com so let the people go there we can always send the tax notice but they can go throughout the year to check where they are deliquent and there are dates for the real auction.com for every single town there are dates deadlines to be to comply and you can give I can give the example you know you go to the the smallest town denan they use the real auction.com right your Franklin Township you go Sur will I can West wi sir I can name probably hundreds of those towns they use the real auction.com and there's a reason for that they use it uh that's pretty much on my side thank you residents I'm really apologies from my side I have to call those all the action atems so that they get closed they get the attention these are all your atems that are not my personal items so again thank you for listening patiently thank you council president thank you councilman Patel uh as for me uh I have a lot of emails coming for the train tracks and there's uh various information from both sides so Hank if you can update me on the train tracks and tell us as to what's going on at the wyard track council president I can certainly provide a report from our uh engineering department there was a site visit on the 22nd of January um they they were doing some cleaning uh that company was hired by the um the property the property owner um there have been no changes and if there are any changes they would have to go to the planning zoning and that's my understanding so and Mr Bell is shaking his head so this is still relevant and update updated information sure and just one other comment the train tracks on the other side of of Vineyard Road are um they're they're abandoned so there's no train tracks L go behind those hous can you use the mic hang so they can capture it on the video the train tracks on the other side of Vineyard Road are considered abandoned by the state and there's a stop like a they put up a stop so the train couldn't even go across the road it would require approval from I think the state and from our planning board because it's not Conrail property or train tracks it's owned by a private company so they'd be treated it just like another property owner would okay so and Mr Brer we've been round and around to chase this around so that's the that's the latest facts on this thing okay uh moving on to the papani bike path uh I was told by Bob a deal that uh they are moving they had contact with the the rail tracks and they're working on two parking lots from what I understand and once they if you don't mind Sonia sure so we're actually doing a title search on both of those properties and that's where the project is at with in terms of the bike path that is of the jurisdiction with jcpnl okay thank you uh there was also a question of the chamber screen uh which I was also concerned because it does help make the meetings follow the planning board meetings easier to follow for the residents and you updated me there going to be about 6 weeks we have ordered it and we should have it up yes thank you uh in terms of the website the bid was submitted uh as son answered in the emails and it should be done by February 28th the submittal of the proposals that is the deadline the 28th so once those are submitted we'll um take a look and go through the uh evaluating process all right thank you and uh as for the public safety I was curious to to see how you know all the money that we're spending on police has it been an impact for the resident safety and the chief of police sent out a report to me from 2023 to 20 now they had about 20 let me find the emails do you remember the exact number of U home invasions they stopped I believe it was 21 21 so they have stopped about 21 home invasions and I think that's good for the the public you know no one wants to have own home invasion so that would be it for me uh approval of meance for the regular meeting of October 25th 23 motion to approve motion to approve second all right uh we have the motion from councilman Patel and second V Council vice president yes all in favor I I I all right as for the council president's remark uh as I said earlier this process is Ever Changing based on how things go the goal of this is to make a more efficient meeting that helps the council get the work done that helps the residents I was hoping that you know the council members will be mindful of the time that you know the residents and their colleagues have to be here for their discussions but as today's meeting shows that you know we may have to put a Time time limit on this as we wa we essentially listen to for about 1 hour for I won't accept the time limit from you Council and I'll be honest with you council president here you go I point of order pleas Council pressure you don't have the of oun pressure if you don't mind ioun pressure point of order listen can I get a motion for recess please motion for recess I have a second second all right all in favor thank you thank we'll be back in five minutes thank you no you all can stay we're just going to take a five minute break we'll all all right everyone please have a seat of thec the meeting is now back in order at 8:51 uh I will be asking let me finish my Council president's remarks as I was saying I will be limiting moving it forward to 10 minutes per council member so they can focus on what is important and what needs to be said and and also I love the recommendation that councilman pointer presented and I will be taking a deeper look into them I believe we do need to codify the combined meetings if it's not on the books already to have it proper and maybe move the com public comments a little ahead so we don't have to keep doing this uh every single time to make a motion and move the public comments forward I would like to hear from the residents and I'm sorry for keeping you waiting this long that was not the intention um but yes let's can I have a motion to move the public comments portion to now motion to move public comments now and can I have a second second all right I have a motion from Council vice president and a second from I disagree can I all that's doing council president is allowing the the other council members to make Council Council McCoy I understand but you're not recognized can I for throttle can I get a roll call please council member Brer can I say I don't recognize Nish as or no pleas take that as a all I put that as a no council member Coyle absolutely not council member haris what we what is the motion to move the public comments to now uh yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member Shamel yes council president P Patel yes all right so the council and this will be the council president can I just can I just make a request of the residents can I just make a request of the residents I understand that often times subjects of topics of discussion many people may want to talk about if similar to like a planning or zoning board meeting if you agree with someone else and are going to be reiterating the comments to help it would just I agree with the comments that were previously made if you want to elaborate anymore to add context it would be appreciated obviously the six minutes are yours as you see fit just a humble request on my end thank you Council pointer I agree with councilman pointer uh it to keep I understand many people have passionate feelings on certain topics but if someone has already spoken to a specific point if you can just say hey I agree with this and we understand uh that you know you in favor or not in favor of certain things uh we will be moving to number 24 oral petition and remarks so this will be open to any topics that you choose to talk about ra okay so did you have a can we move the can we move up that that portion too now because it is a combin council president can I just point can I make just a point of order council president okay uh I think may may need another motion because I want to move up the so the question right now is what we moved up is the oral petition and remarks on resolutions I mean sorry uh the public comments on the resolution but we would I would like to move up the oral petitions and remark as that would open it up for everybody to to speak about any topic because if we stick it uh if we limit it to the resolution the problem is I know many members here are wanting to speak on something that's not on the resolution and I would rather leave that open uh so I will take a second motion to move the number 24 which is the oral petition and remarks to now uh resolution number 24 uh can I get a motion for that council president could I just make comment brief comment we can just I'll keep it to 30 seconds the the reason why we have an order of an agenda is so that the council will respect those waiting and not overs speak their turn and and we also have to go through the agenda we have a point to do business and finish our business we finished discussions we can run right through this now and vote and people can comment to have the public comment for an hour and a half to get back in here I just it's it it turns it into a mess and I and I respect them here but discussion items have went wild and for that we can't finish the order of business the order of business is most important and it's going to be counterproductive people are going to be commenting on order of business and we didn't vote on order of business yet and they're going to comment so it's just I think it's going to be a challenge to conduct I'd appreciate we resend your motion and just carry the meeting we've all made our discussions on everything here here we're going to just vote it should go very smooth to my to my recollection of the last meeting thank you coun co any other council with a comment Council the oral petitions and remark covers pretty much everything it's open-ended they can talk about resolution they can talk about ordinance it's anything that is not even agenda so pretty much that should cover every single thing because it's open floor for them so we don't have to methodologically go that we open the floor for every single ordinance and every sing moving thank you Council pel so moving forward I believe I'm going to codify this with the legal to make sure that we have a specific order in mind I understand that I was not expecting 60 Minutes of discussions so this is in terms of making sure that the residents that have waited this long don't have to wait any longer um that is why I moving it up this time but moving forward I I agree with councilman Coy that you know you're we should be taking care of council you're making up for councilman p long agenda I'm not going to stay going to stay I understand I'm going to Rel myself have votes I understand it makes no sense that for 30 years we've never done this counc MCO you can't change the recognize thank you all right I will take a motion to move 24 which is the oral petition and remarks which will open up for any discussion that you would like uh and then we will right after we would also you know to discuss ordinances right yeah but they can't make comments on the introduction but that's what be the petition remarks yeah all right so can I take a motion for moving number 24 to now and I'll take a second as well motion mov I have a motion from Council M Patel any second second and a second from Council vice president a roll call please Council Brasher council member Brasher yes councilman Coyle council member Harris yes council member pel yes council member poiner yes council member SCH yes council president Patel yes all right so we are going to open up the oral petition remarks I would first like uh the chief uh the floor to the Chief and uh Chief to and do we have a list I'm sorry for taking people's time but it was something that I didn't tell the council uh uh president before it's with heavy heart that I inform you today that retired Chief gr Campbell passed away today he was our chief from January 6th 1999 to November 1st 2006 I've been in contact with the family when they making arrangements for those of you who may not have been aware Chief Campbell was a respected and dedicated leader within our department his contributions have left a Las and impact on our organization and his legacy will be remembered by all who had the privilege of working with them I ask for a moment of silence at the end of the meeting thank you sorry for doing it thank you Chief and I will uh recognize you can come on upic sir hi my name is Tony MSO I live at 86 Laurel Hollow Court and in a world full of bad news that's some of the worst I've heard recently but I'm here to speak about ordinance proposed ordinance 2206 2024 that's a relatively on its a face a subtle change but but it is a significant change I hope changing us from a committee to a commission I want to before I go much further thank the man who was council president at that time when this committee was formed a year ago Mr Coyle and Council vice president Harris when I was interviewed for the position on the committee it was over a video call and that call skipped a lot of the typical verbal back and forth because it became readily apparent inside of the first 45 or so seconds that we were all thinking about something that was much larger on than what was on its face so I want to thank then Council Vice council president Coyle and Council vice president Harris because you were there right from the beginning and selected me I also want to thank the other committee members who serve with me many of them are here in the audience I'd like them to stand up now thank [Applause] you we've been in business for a year most of the 12 months that we've been in business have been devoted to housekeeping details getting organized bylaws meeting days schedules times a place to meet etc etc etc one of the things that this committee has accomplished so far you pass by every time you come into this building the gallery that's downstairs they did a spectacular job they did it with a lot of money out of their own pocket never sought reimbursement they did it with minimal guidance and they did it professionally quickly and made it look easy and when you can find someone who can do that or someone who can do that and make it look easy you got something special on your hands the meeting is run so late I forgot what I was going to say so I have to look at my notes and we were not alone in developing that gallery we had tremendous help eager and aggressive help from the DPW they did a terrific job this is a bit of hyperbole but I think what you do tonight if you vote in favor of this ordinance is you turn this into a legacy moment it may not happen next week what we intend to do it may not not happen next year it may not happen in my lifetime but it will happen and I will leave that to council vice president Harris if she wants to elaborate on that but we got some plans that go beyond what you would normally think a cultural arts commission is going to achieve and just as a tease I guess if carterett can do it so can [Music] we the one bit of the one bit of business I want to suggest in this ordinance is that you avoid a bureaucratic landmine that's sitting there paragraph a outlines all the members and the terms I would advise you if it's at all possible to just simply import the current structure of the committee the current committee members their current terms of office into this ordinance so you don't have to go reappointing everybody because if everybody has to be reappointed that everybody's lame duck and we start all over again when it's already been done so don't reinvent the wheel if you can import it import it thank you very much and I urge a unanimous yes vote thank you right anyone else reconized Lois tar 52 Rita Road Edison New Jersey you're recogniz as Vice chair of the cultural arts hope to be commission if you show the same support that you've heard I've seen here tonight for the cultural arts commission there's no lend to what we can do the gallery was just the beginning there's Performing Arts there's um everything that can Encompass any kind of art and culture in this C in this particular Township and by the way we have a lot of diversity and I think that people in the township need to see that diversity that's the object of the cultural arts commission is doing thank you thank [Applause] you good evening been a long night so far my name is Bruce sites uh I'm chairman of the uh Edison cable committee and I provided the council with an update of what's happened with Optimum over the past year I would like to get this into the public record and onto the website also there's been a lot of discussion complaints and problems over the years with Optimum service and they have made a dramatic Improvement in the last year about a year ago and I work with the mayor's office and by the way I met with mayor Joe Yosi and Pat Coyle this afternoon and they know what I'm going to say tonight and they know that this report um that I work with took me since December with Optimum and Marilyn Davis who's their senior director to put this together and get it through the optimum legal department they made some good accomplishments in the years we've had the complaints which a year ago we were getting 30 complaints a week for the mayor's office and to me uh it was down to less than 30 complaints a month in the last quarter and in checking with Optimum they only had one complaint so far this year and it had to do with new construction they opened up the centa uh store um on Wick Plaza so we don't have to go out to um Piscataway um they opened up direct number MERS where you can go online or call Marilyn we have set up an expedition group where most answers are resolved in 24 hours so I don't want to go into this it's been a long night um I'm open to questions later if the council could get back to me I would like to get this posted on the website so all the residents can see it it took us 6 months last year to get a three-page posting from Optimum on a website the other thing to the audience here if anybody does have problems the main thing you do that works is really call up and say you want to go to customer retention if you have a problem with the bill um they will adjust it for you I have dozens of stories where people got 3040 $50 down they've given stars or I'm core free channels out and there's still problems out there okay but it is significantly improved and you have all information on here on what's what's going on so again I don't want to blab with this two other points though um when I spoke with the mayor this afternoon he told me that Comcast is going to get in with the proposal by the end of the month I hope something works because we do need competition here um in addition to Optimum they've gotten better but you always need competence uh you need always competition I've been a marketing executive and uh I've done Brands where we've competed against ourselves and there's no reason why um Comcast came in comes in I spoke with the VPS at Verizon about a year ago they weren't interested because they did a cost analysis infrastructure rure cable lines and stuff like that so hopefully we'll be successful with Comcast and I'm also um skeptical right now about the Broadband but we have $2 million and um the mayor said uh there'll be some more information coming so I hope the council includes me if you remember when I was here in October I was asked to get involved with the broadband and I was told I was not a an employer of Edison and I said I'd work for a dollar a year I've been doing this for five years I'm a senior business executive and I should be involved on it and can help resolve it either in a positive manner or decide you know this doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint uh two other things now let me get off the cable John I want to compliment you on your comments on the AI I think what you said makes a lot of sense and um if there's anything I could do I'm not a techie but um I in school I learned about basy and statistics which means you look at the numbers but if the numbers don't look right you rely on common sense and I think that's what John was saying with AI you have to have common sense mixed in with it lastly with the cultural arts center as I said I do a lot of work in strategic development business partners and things like that what I have a minute left okay and I think we should look for some strategic alliances even it was mentioned avanel and Carter Ed is doing a lot of things I get two or three emails from them about D in the theater and shows and another point I just thought of you know was matachin was talking about a cultural art center and they have the Forum theater that's they were thinking of doing in a gas station on the corner and I know mayor Sam is friendly with the mayor and mouin so maybe uh we do something with the donut hole in the middle of Edison but um I I really think this on all the comments and everybody that's done work with the cultural arts uh is really uh thank you thank you sum alone Barber 85 Pleasant Avenue thank you for moving up the public portion um not to beat a dead horse but I think the um you guys are almost three hours in the working session and the the combined meetings are always way long I mean I've been here to midnight some nights as all of you know so maybe there's something to be done with the combined meetings to um cut the agendas uh on the working session or at at the regular meeting um okay the real reason I'm here tonight though is um along with many of my clar Barton neighbors some of whom had to leave um is to ask the council to take action now to stop further four story development on ambo Avenue ordinance 1936 2016 known as the ambo Avenue Redevelopment plan allows a maximum Building height of four stories this ordinance is an overlay to the original a zoning the Amboy Avenue revitalization zoning that um only allows for three stories so um I'm asking you to repeal ordinance 1936 2016 now so the maximum Building height for ambo Avenue reverts to 3 Stories repealing the ordinance will solve the four story issue immediately why now pretty simple answer there's properties for sale on Amboy Avenue and if they are sold under four stories they get to build four stories um residents have previously made their wishes known loudly and clearly on this point in the master plan discussions I know you've seen that they're out again tonight um but as you know we all know all of you know the master plan is just a guideline uh ordinances set the zoning laws um and so we feel strongly I feel strongly I won't speak for anybody they're here to speak for themselves I feel strongly that there is no reason to wait to take action on this high density four story development along Amboy Avenue is inappropriate and will dramatically change the look and feel of our community and increase the traffic it is already hard to pull out of our streets onto emboy Avenue we don't want Amboy Avenue turned into an urban Canyon even worse however will um be the direct impact on four stories will have on the homes adjacent to an abing Amboy Avenue there's you know 10 streets both sides of Amboy that feed out onto Amboy Avenue and if there were four-story buildings along there um it would block the light and the Sun and the sky of the people that that live in the first few rows of houses um we have to ensure that that doesn't happen and in the spirit of getting things done um please repeal ordinance 1936 2016 without delay it is the most expedient way expedient way to stop more four story development if it is helpful I can send a copy of the ordinance and the the hir and gruu plan that supports it to everyone on the council our um good friend and Advocate Joel bassoff Doug and Doug and Doug and finally found the ordinance so um we can save some some digging and um I'm happy to send it out to all of you thank you thank you Sue I did bring it up to the the just just real quick I did bring it up with the legal counsil he is wondering whether it would be better to repel or modify so they are going to look into it but we will get back to you I got a bunch of emails so I am aware thank you if you don't mind can I come to I think your time's still good yeah um we're asking to repeal it because it's quick MH revision takes time and there's property proper for sale on that street that's why we're asking for a repeal I understand the time is of the essence thank you sue council president uh one second coun pressure well I have a question for you as a point of order can can we discuss it well no as a as a point of order okay right you said that the council shall wait to comment to the public yet you're using this as your personal Podium by having dialogue back and forth so so I can't do this this is a council meeting but you said the administration can but here you are having your dialogue back and forth I I don't believe that that's um you know what you might be right I should had the legal speak to it uh but sorry about that I understand that point Thank You councilman Point brusher I will have you recognized another one behind you sir yeah you after him Mike Arnell 282 Hoover Avenue and I'm just going to be really quick about this I couldn't agree more with Sue I don't want to see our neighborhood turned into a an urban nightmare so that's all I have to say and thank you very much thank [Applause] you Anthony Damron 25 Wy thank you Council thank you council president um it's unfortunate you know I just want to recognize that councilman Coyle has left the building um because apparently he's you know do you have a bunch of Clare Barton residents here including myself with that have a concern and I noticed that on his on his discussion items he has nothing so um I guess he has nothing to speak about no concerns everything is okay hey good for him he lives in a different CLA bne maybe than I do um I I will I will also I wanted to wish my condolences to the former Chief uh Chief if you can um I did not know know him but um you know thank him for his years of service and his family so um council president uh a couple things um the trash in this in the town on these roads is as bad as I've ever seen seen it I don't think I've ever seen it this bad um as you get off the exit ramps uh whether it's from 287 especially going onto if you if you taken the exit on to Woodbridge Avenue off of 287 it is a dump and it's now trickling into the neighborhood and I don't know I know it's probably County or state or whatever uh if somebody could make a phone call uh you guys are the elected officials if somebody could you know um have somebody do something because it's it's it's it's becoming a problem um I know councilman uh uh pointer I I've been in you know contact with him and you've been very helpful um on on on a couple matters regarding this uh dump dumpster and so on so I I thank you for that but uh it's such a bigger problem two from 287 onto onto uh Route One onto uh 27 it's just it just I mean it it looks bad it's it's disgusting to be honest with you and I'm tired of seeing it and I know a lot of other people are tired of seeing it so if something could be done on that that would be fantastic um also is regarding the Cannabis I I I do not support this this that ordinance I I know you guys still have to discuss it or what not but um you know I I just I I will say this I I don't know what kind of due diligence this the Administration has done so far on this whether they've contacted other towns municipalities that have this um what are the pros what are the cons what kind of revenues that they're going to be seeking we expect um what does crime come in into involved in it um i' like to hear those discussions I i' like to have that open dialogue but I I I got to be honest with you I I personally do not support this um you know I just I see this being more of a problem than than a solution for the town to make our Township better that's just me um but uh we'll have I guess further debates and discussion on that um I do have uh um one suggestion I guess to the to the PD I I don't know if I don't know if the police department does this but um there Union County does a special needs registry um where you could register I guess special need children um to a database and um I I don't know if Edison does that or middle County does that but it is a terrific idea something to maybe look into um you know council president I I don't yeah so um I guess we'll talk yeah yeah no doubt no doubt so um I just saw that Lyon pick it up um and uh I I feel like there the special needs there it's there's we I don't know what the what the population number is in terms of special needs but I know we have a lot and I think it's a it's a good way to uh to you know to help it just you know something happen so um that's just one suggestion um let's see um Co again got to him um I think that's it and and I I I let me just say this um I agree with the residents here regarding the uh Amboy Avenue um and uh I think Amboy would be so much further along as a downtown if you would if if different measures were taken um I think it has a lot of potential that's for another time but um specifically uh I I I I support these residents and uh I also like to see that area again cleaned up and get let's get this trash out of there if we can thank you council president thank you Anthony I recognize the one in the red shirt I hi my name is Cara Kao I live on First Street Clara section of Edison you recognized uh number 55 um I just want to say first off I um appreciate and agree with everything Sue said we have um how can I Clara Bon was kind of like this little pocket of little Cape couses kind of a little Boom Town area and just flooding the place with these highrises just um people didn't move there to move next to Giant apartment buildings and especially when you look on a street every property that comes up for sale we're all sort of like sweating that it's going to be an apartment building because that's how it's looking like there's a beauty poar that's going out a business is that going to be an apartment building oh there's an empty parking lot is that going to be an apartment building I don't know if anybody in like Stevenville Parkway has that worry but we do and I don't know how we got this worry yeah mini mouin is really nice but if you're just going to shove apartments in there it's not a mini anything it's like a mini megalopolis or something so um I guess what I worry about is preserving a the Community Field of something and apartments don't necessarily preserve a community feeli they're just these big buildings that house people that don't have any skin in the game maybe in a neighborhood they're looking for a place to live so um I just wanted to express that was important to me um the height of the buildings is very important um they're little Cape Cod houses people didn't buy their houses and save their money to have a four-story building go up next to them some people we have an older neighborhood too it's now turning into younger families but um I live across the street from somebody who was one of the actual first homeowners I mean he's really old but that's the kind of neighborhood it is and um you know people that save their money and move in there weren't expecting that and um you know if everybody says oh Amoy abony could be the next matou and it doesn't have a train station it doesn't have this it doesn't have a forum theater it doesn't have two four streets of Commerce it's just one road and um you know I don't know if that's going to happen but the way that it's looking like it is I don't think that that's going to happen but matachin also um put apartment buildings in a downtown area and it wasn't next to somebody's house and that's a big difference so anyway um thank you Council people and um thank you for also letting us go early because it is a school night and a work night for some of us so thank you thank you thank you for your comments the one in the black jacket yes Harish tatin 45 mckin Street uh so few quick points first is obviously any update since last time we spoke about the about mandating the sidewalks um at the point of resale especially in some areas which can be considered as exceptions like let us say a few miles one two miles two miles within the school area or something like that so uh we did address this a few meetings back with uh councilman Brasher with respect to the sidewalks um I'm sorry you're going to have to remind me of of your specific question about when selling you put a deed on it and yeah and the answer to that particular question was know that you can't encumber the property that has been previously um in conformance with the code even if the code changes um through a sale so that that aspect of it wouldn't work uh if that's the the question whether you can encumber the property and say you can't have a CO now um unless you go and put a sidewalk in as a condition of your sale it's not something that would be legal um or enforcable so but there were some other um some other remedies that the township has some other ways that the township could uh invest in um putting sidewalks in some of those areas either through the expenditure of Township funds or through uh the um requirement of the current homeowner to uh install on their own okay okay that's all already codified and something that could be enforced under the statutes thank you so uh next thanks to aay pel you covered three of my questions the public advocate Glendale property details and the North Edison Library upgrade regarding Glendale only question I had was uh I mean uh please don't misinterpret or misquote my statement I am all in favor of residents living peacefully in their respective homes uh uh without any uh noise from Amazon warehouse or any other Warehouse um but 12.75 million of taxpayers money is not a small amount to buy that so before the council approved um did we get any plan from the administration as to how they are going to recoup the money without burdening the community like let us say Obviously as you as aay Patel said if we build a high-rise condominium of course uh the money can be recoved but then that's not the point because that would burden the school system so promises made Promises Kept is a nice slogan I support it but it has to be done in a cost effective way so not sure if there was any other way by which we could have prevented the warehouse I know the Charlie Brown site was a special case because it was an extension of the golf golf course zoning and so we were able to do the RC Zone was there any such possibility in this case in the glendel property uh was that thought about an I ized because now obviously 12.75 3 million is the developer is paying I don't know what the future plans are I will wait for the next meeting um but going forward at least uh we should try every possible alternative without uh just signing off on uh taxpayers money in the millions um utia Lane so the residents there are have been complaining for a while I think they met the previous mayor some of the counil people as to why they are being discriminated when it comes to garbage uh trash collection charges uh it is done by the township and it is an astronomical uh figure something like um I think 12200 per year or something like that so so why are they being forced to use only that particular service when we can like in my Lane McKinley Street we go by private and I have two options I just pay what 66 bucks per quarter something like that so that is something to be looked into and uh finally the snow days this time yes the cleaning was good thanks for that but I'm sure we can do a better job because the problem is now three snow days are taken uh the schools are affected long story short and most of the parents and kids have plans for the spring break and as per the school calendar now the spring break will be disrupted 1 minute thank you so I I see that the rock salt is being sprayed outside the library on the sidewalks outside this building and all so but this year I didn't really see any uh rock salt being sprayed on the roads except for the main roads the county roads or so I'm not sure this is a dumb question are we really running short on rock salt because the timing has to be coordinated I understand so that uh we don't pay too much over time to DPW and outside contractors but at the same time clear it in one shot but if beforehand We can spray rock salt at least the morning uh 8 to 9 7 to 9 the commute thing for schools and office commute can be taken care of and then the cleaning can come in so that uh we don't affect the schools I mean Governor last time I know he declared emergency but that is done for a variety of reasons like taking the help of National Guard if needed and all that but just because the governor declared an your time is up thank you come on up good evening everyone you recogn 79 Edison New Jersey I'm basically here because of claron and everything that soe and everyone has been talking about I support each and every one of them and and um I also want to put it in that um it's better to help us to repeal that than to start fixing it because there are lot of loopholes that so many people can walk on and get whatever they want but we live in the community so we know and experience firstand whatever is going on so put that in mind then I also want to talk about edicine as a as the home we saw some things concerning ordinance 0.221 I think 2024 about cannabis we all agree that cannabis is U everywhere now but as much as possible the township should consider the resident family and um the the children that are in school if it is easily available anywhere they get it and we know what it can cost whatever the decision concerning it it should be it shouldn't be nearer to the residents and uh should not be nearer to the school we noticed that the list you put out here are all in the South why are the not EDI not getting two or three to sandwich in between the their homes or are they better than those of us in um in the [Music] South also basically what I'm saying is that we need an edicine that is safe not overcrowded to raise family the way at at which is going people will be discouraged to even come here and [Music] um we are selected officials um we want to want you to send like what type of message are you trying to give us if you allow this particular ordinance to pass and uh we should at least know what you stand for concerning this a lot of people are watching on the YouTube and every where trying to see what you stand for and I think for each one that's has been elected there will be a time again to talk about consolidation and everything and I think people will take action if this is not put into consideration and uh I I don't even know what to say because when it comes to cannabis and the rest of the things and some of these decision that we taken uh it it affects those of us that live in that community and in that area and uh I will strongly just admonish and appeal at this time to reconsider whatever you are considering about all these uh streets and owners that you listed that you want to set free for them help us to take them to the border and um maybe some part of nor Ed to will be open uh that's all I want to say thank you thank you sandip ramakrishna 36 Ed Ro you're recognized thank you sir uh first congratulations you and Miss Harris um so I'm here to support for asking the council to resend the four story ordinance uh .1 1936 in our city so um you know Edison has more than 10 100,000 people uh for a city of this size we don't have a downturn um I'll come to the U point a little bit but we we've been told that uh ambo Avenue is the Main Street downtown area over and over again right so I want to draw some parallels from what we conceive to what meachin is um meachin as you know Main Street was voted the best Main Street uh in America and last year right and um please go I'm sure you've been there take a look see where is the four story building in there nowhere right theyve done this on purpose wish the four stories building is tugged into New Street which is a a proper development by its own so it four story building does not belong in an ambar Avenue also had the honor of serving in the master plan committee and we made some recommendations right as part of the initiative the Consulting team engaged the Edison residents to understand two things one what word comes to mind when you think of Edison two what is your biggest priority in Edison for the next 10 years overwhelmingly the Edison said crowded traffic diverse schools as what comes to their top of my mind I want to draw your attention to crowded and traffic right good schools and diverse is is actually a good thing additionally when Edison uh residents were asked about uh what are your top priority for for next 10 years community centers School smart development this ordinance does not fit into any of those things also how does this help I have no idea so um additionally master plan committee also proposed a Transit Village a concept which is closer to your um commute so you can have multi-purpose zones built there um I believe you know if you're looking for a multi-purpose development those are your spots and I don't believe ambo Avenue meets that criteria right I know many of you live there go eat uh uh in that Avenue I'm not sure how would you feel if there are crowded uh you don't have parking spots and there's a safety concern there so uh with that I'm going to ask you again to please reconsider this ordinance and repeal this ordinance thank you thank you very much thank you Shen 142 Hoover Avenue you recognized thank you uh just wanted to add my voice to the previous speaker and to Sue and everyone else who's spoken um to say that um i' would like to request that you repeal um the the ordinance um I haven't spoken to any body who lives in the neighborhood who's in favor of uh four-story building so I think um it it makes sense to do so thank you thank you you can come on up Christine Sasso 219 cabat Avenue you're recognized thanks first I'd like to thank you for pushing up the public I'd also like to say that I appreciate the public for being patient and I'd also like to appreciate the council members who stayed to be patient for the public and I am disappointed in the council member who left who did not stay to hear the public because he's a representative of the public and I'd like to make that public thank you um as a resident of claraa Barton I moved here 24 years ago and I was overwhelmed by the sense of community that I felt uh my children went to James Monroe and I was surprised when I was went to my first budget meeting and they said we need more money our schools are overcrowded because my children had 18 kids in their classroom and I was like what are they talking about I came from Staten Island and I was like they have like two teachers sometimes like this is awesome but other schools and Edison were overcrowded but James Monroe was not my kids were actually culture shocked when when they went to Hoover which they got to walk to because I live on cabat Avenue which is a dead end Street and it's amazing they got to walk there they get to walk everywhere safely but then they said we're going to make Amboy Avenue downtown we're going to rip up the sidewalks we're going to put in pavers and we're going to put these bump outs there it's going to make it safer for you really I can't turn out of my street anymore but thank you we're going to put these parking spots there where people are going to park and it's a nightmare it's been a nightmare but okay we're going to have the tree lighting ceremony great and then we're going to take it away okay that's fine so we have this sense of community it's lovely I love it then the doctor's office on the corner says we're going to knock down our building and we're going to put a four story building up there with 15 Apartments ments and they said yes you said yes regardless of the fact that they did not have enough parking you said yes he said I'm not going to knock down my existing building that's here I won't do that to you until about a month and a half ago when he came and said now I'm going to do that I'm going to do that not only am I going to do that but you are maybe going to allow him to put another four-story building right next to the one that he already built and if you continue to do that there will be more and more and more four-story buildings lining Amboy Avenue with Apartments over not retail spaces that will bring foot traffic but doctor's offices and Retail spaces of what beauty salons and nail nail Services that's all we have there but apartment buildings with people who live there who have no vested interest in our community more traffic and what more taxes for you why don't you consider spreading out more taxes for everyone sorry everyone four story apartments for more people who have no investment in our community the schools are going to be overcrowded and James Monroe the nice little school will need more money to rebuild again because the school that you just built that was burnt down is going to need more classrooms because every apartment there is a two-bedroom apartment and they have children or they should why wouldn't they and dogs that are going to poop on my lawn and people who can't find a spot because they only have one and then they're going to park in front of my street and my choice because we have Bobble field at the end so I can't say residents only is going to be that I can't can't park in my driveway I'm going to have to park on my street and now I live in Staten Island again now I have to park in front of my street to block out the neighbors that's not where I want to live I want to live in nice quiet Clara Barton that's where I chose to live so thank you for your time thank [Applause] you good evening Thomas Lecky Netherwood Circle you recognized thank you for moving up the public comment session I have an issue with people parking on newova road right by John Adams at at the public at when at the Smiths hle people Park that curved area no parking signs no standing signs people still park there this is my third I I put in a uh what do you want to call citizen request three times once with I I talked with officer Turner we had a great conversation then in uh February of this of 23 I talked to officer simino had a perfect question pleas another one in uh December 13th crickets haven't heard anything about it now if I if I drive on that road and I I cross that Del double yellow line to go past all these illegally parked cars if I get into an accident then there's there could be some let's call it some legal issues because I I was in I was at fault for crossing that d double yellow line or but being fous should I just sit there and wait till all these cars are gone so I can go we need to get that area cleaned up I would and I would hope I would get a response on from my uh my my uh my request my citizen request I would like a response on other issues back in December of 23 I had a I had an issue I sent an email the council member ptil and the mayor once again crickets is that how you respect the people that elected you for those positions I don't think it's right in business I had a speed of response Matrix that if my customer which is which we we are to you go and sent me an email I would at least have to acknowledge it within an hour it's terrible secondly uh continuing on I've been in Edison resum for 44 years this is my second time here so my that's why my list is fairly long I wait till it it boils over and then I come I come in here being a senior back when I turned 65 I talk I talked to Judy at the Edison Senior Center who helped me and my my wife with our Medicare supplement and while she retired that position has never been backfilled I don't know if it's planned to be back if there's any plans for it to be back filled but that is a crucial role I had a buddy that just that just looked for a a you know was looking for supplemental Medicare he spent $1,500 to talk to somebody whereas that fortunately I got in under the wire and I was able to get that advice for free she did a fantastic job also you talk about transportation for Edison seniors from what I understand I could be wrong because it was on the uh Edison seniors website that transportation for new uh let's call participants is going to be held not going to be able to continue it it's just going to be for people that have used it in the past right now you know thank God I don't need that service but in the future maybe my wife arriv I will need it reconsider that when I came here on the first to pay my taxes the the Illuminator mentioned excess leaf bags small topic I was told when I walked in at downstairs I asked hey you guys got any spare bags the Illuminator says oh no we've never had them that's been a misprint just get the facts straight before you send things out that that's what we we you know we as Citizens require that's that's how you can con convey convey information to us just make sure that it's right and then lastly uh council member pointer you're you're on the zoning or planning board I can you hearing the residents talk about all the different you know the the four-story building buildings they want to put up on Amboy Avenue where the builders are we need to get con let's call it Construction in under in tow right now people are building massive what's called facilities I'm not going to call it houses not going to call it just buildings facilities on postage stamp plots we have all our F and all our setbacks and all that they seem to go out the window by times thank you for your time it's just thank you sir I I think you need to enforce rules thank you for your comments thank you for your comments and I will try to get back to all the questions that you had okay come on the one in the back all the way in the back good evening Keith Ryan 56 Lafayette Avenue in Ed I want to talk about the master plan on Amber Avenue I'm going to capitalize a lot of points on Miss citt made over here from katav uh she brought up some good points about school and everything else a lot of this stuff first of and I don't really believe in the resolutions everything else the whole plan stinks okay heck four stories three stories whole plan stinks because the stuff people take it serious what are we going to do with the gray water what's going to happen with the water pressure we already got a lot of water going out my basement floods regularly now water coming down ambo Avenue can't park on Hoover between Hoover and uh and uh what you call between Amboy and Lafayette it's crowded over there already what's going to happen we got this great plan to get rid of uh gas all right gas cars gas appliances what's going to happen to our electricity okay I already got a plans for a a what's called standby generator because they're already tapping in to the grid that I never had any problems with so there's so many infrastructure ructure issues we've been told that when we if you add housing they're going to pay more taxes but what happens was $10,000 a kid in school they have two kids we're already behind the eightball any kind of reserv uh renovations to be done that weren't put into to the master plan oh we forgot a crosswalk here for a light here we forgot this there but comes back us to the taxpayer so I don't see anything this because all we're going to do the taxpayers going to end up paying for it in the end it's that simple Kai BOS please thank you thank you Maria Maria Orchid 83 Jefferson you're recognized thank you first I'd like to say to everyone uh to recognize Black History Month February's Black History Month yes I have some dates February 17th is the Lunar New Year Happy New Year to everyone February 18th is the matachin Edison Historical Society February 20th is the human relations commission at 7:15 February 22nd will be the environmental commission at 7 p.m. and February 29th is the middle sex Greenway meeting we have open beds at dwire please check the Edison Community Gardens website for applications uh looking to see where those stop signs that were ordered are going to be placed uh if we could have a street sweeper calendar to let the residents know to make sure that we have our cars off the road before the street sweeper comes please check on your seniors and your disabled neighbors to make sure they're okay I am not in favor of the four stories on the Amboy Avenue revitalization Zone I am not in favor of widening the streets on Jackson Avenue if we could have an update on the deer study crossing guards and the before and after care that was mentioned previous there are no updates on the officials list many of the groups are outdated the problem with the Farmers Market is that we needed a farmer and longstanding vendors there's every Sunday from 9 to2 as long as the residents knew who were going to be there and it helps to have events every week that generates people to come we had cleaned up the boat docks noticed that the boo boom was missing it was told that we're waiting for FEMA money so we could replace the boom that would stop the debris from coming in there was Major overgrown trees there I'm not sure what the wording is but there was an outlet where water is supposed to flow in case of a storm and all these trees were growing we need cameras there to monitor these illegal dumpings and all the activities thank you thank you Maria you you can come on up the end Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you recognize Li thank you I live in Netherwood Circle excuse me which is miles away from clar Borton but I'm here to support the people the residents of clar Borton I came when Charlie Browns was doing their fight for Charlie Browns and it seems like every piece of Edison we have to fight and fight and this is your chance to help with the fight by rep repealing ordinance 1936 Edison is changing and I don't think it's changing for the good we talk about putting up four story buildings on Amboy Avenue what is it going to look like well then drive around Edison and look at the buildings the homes that are changing and what they're looking like my favorite is the one on Wood Avenue whom ever owns that is amaz do you own that pressure I like that God only knows what's going in there so when that Master Plan was coming up my my joy was thinking oh we're going to make a difference by putting in some things that planned by the residents of the town and I appeal to you to join the clar Barton residents by repealing this ordinance the second thing I'm going to talk about and you're not going to like it and you're not going to like it and you're not going to like it you're to have two meetings a month one's a work section and one's an action section of your monthly meetings yes it's difficult to get it done in one month and look at what's the term right now tonight was should have been the action but you couldn't have it on Monday it was a holiday but there are other days was it holiday I I heard it was a holiday I thought they kind of sifted him away but anyway we need to give the time to talk these things out now I don't know if there was any kind of ulterior motive as to what happened tonight uh Mr Patel you had plenty of things to talk about and I don't think any of them were frivolous but it was long Mr pointer he's so educational but he was long but there were people sitting here that needed to talk and we did not get to talk till hours after this meeting started and I appeal to you to think twice about your procedures I think you were out of order by changing that agenda because we did really not get to talk about all the things that you were going to be discussing because if you had said something about any of the ordinances I might have been able to voice my opinion on what you had said and not what the words were in these papers so yes you were kind by changing it but are you going to place that agenda item earlier in the future meetings or was it just tonight so it's something you're going to have to think about because if you look at the agendas if you come to a work session you can say nothing until the end of the meeting excuse me I said the wrong word at the beginning of the meeting where you really don't get to talk at any other time so you need to talk about your agenda to make more sense of it I know you're trying but obviously you're hopefully going to make adjustments at the next meeting thank you thank you come on up Jo sh preman you recogn um I'm gonna say this from the beginning to get it out the way I'm sitting over in that seat looks like y'all have three meetings going on up here everybody has a separate meeting going on but yet they're saying if somebody talks a bit loud in the audience it it bothers everybody but it bothers me that you have three meetings going on it bothers me that you have a council member that walks in and out the seat back and forth like you know what I mean like hyperactive like a AP you know this very hyper and it walks out on the very people that you're supposed to represent but yells the whole time during the meeting I never hear this they yell the whole time during the meeting so okay so that said because that that's very annoying at all I wouldn't even allow it for my students students and I'm very glad that they have a cultural Commission because last year was a disaster I was embarrassed last year because mouin new bronic all them say Council woman y'all don't have a cultural commission and you're sitting around here begging for money you don't have a cultural commission this is how we get our ours this how and they showed me examples of what a cultural commission was so I was embarrassed last year so I'm glad that we're we're we're really moving forward this year when we do when we um moving back and forth another thing that embarrasses me somebody you know got information from other people of that you can go to even the libraries in Edison I don't even know why we got cultural commission or human relations um commission that I reactivated I don't know why they said you can go to Every library and you wouldn't even know that this is Black History Month some people think it's Martin Luther King's birthday that's black history month but you know I you know people are ignorant but you know it's a shame that you get to a certain age and you're still that ignorant and you can go from library to library to library you can't even write something um you can't even write a book report because you don't have the proper information you have some outdated stuff they may have Rosa Park Martin Luther King I think they do that like in preschool or whatever and then another thing that was kind of disturbing is when you tell the council people that they have to wait until after rest after we talk you have to wait until the public session is over then you make comment so when the council person does comment and says negative stuff about you oh then you can't say anything back so I don't understand how this Council has approve improved in their presentation I knew that councilman uh Patel was a bit long but he's like me you don't you don't get any answers so guess what those same items would not be on every time if you just answered them thoroughly for the for the for the first time with the person or I mean I can even give you a second time if you answered all the questions properly so everybody could understand the questions then the same questions wouldn't come up every two weeks I got a list of questions that I've never been answered even when I sat up there I've never been answered I don't know what their version is or what the you know what the problem is you know I've I've never gotten answers to a lot of things and people do want answers to those questions else they would not have sent them to me people still call me and they still ask they said you're going to the council meeting can you see if this can be done can you see if that can be done and um with uh the thing I want to know and it's the only two things that I'm going to bring up again because the rest of the list I'm I'm going to send the list into the council president and maybe he can get me some answers to the question back and forth about the in energy aggregate program and about the uh sewer system townwide and why are we always every time uh paying people uh for war water overpayments of Water you know and then um another why are we adding additional databases and let's see um the two million dollars for the municipal Broadband is just for the internet system correct and I also like when you said the second part about AI how has it built in biases so it's not always always good to use and when people were telling me about you know the snow I think maybe the other day was the first real snow we've had like in two years so when you're telling me how AI picked up all this data on all these things I don't know if they picked up all the data because we didn't have that much snow and I know the people are upset about the wasted snow day they could not have been taken from their Easter vacation because you know one of those days was a big waste have a good evening thank you you can come on up hi a rosemary Chase 154 4th Street you recognized okay I am so grateful that you're all here and listening to me and um um I'm Overjoyed that when our community stood together we were able to save our library it means the world to me and one of the reasons I moved here was because I felt you know safe I grew up in Fords and it it was um safe until there was Apartments buildings bu there but I'm trying to focus I'm not good at this um so I agree with Sue and I I don't think a four story would be good um I spoke to the one of the owners who put the four story one up and um one of the things I'm concerned about actually also is the trees like you know matachin love matachin why the trees then you go to um Clara Barton and we have trees and then you know go to forge and Woodridge and there's less and less trees you know that would be like New York or like Long Island so um even if you do put three stories I don't want them to take away our trees and my biggest concern is safety because if you put the you know we have Route One 287 and all those big major highways coming in that area and then um Hey Joe hi are you listening to me okay we have 105 trees in the block yeah so and and it's like if you put the apartment building there and there's no parking then I heard that you're going to put like a four-story park in place I mean even JF K Hospital doesn't have one of those they need it by the way but anyway um and so now that the criminals are going to see that and they're going to want to like steal cars and I just I'm really concerned about safety thank you for your time thank you for your [Applause] comments rajaraman nagarajan righted Heritage thank you generally I don't come to the council meeting I have a point to make that's why I'm here first of all I want to congratulate you NES for being chosen as the president and Margo as a vice president so I'm here for uh a couple of reasons right so like Ajay patle said a couple of years ago right I worked with Ajay patle right Sam was here right we all ensure that our we are hurt right with respect to the marijuana audience I mean ordinance right so we know that pressure is coming from the state okay the law is passed if somebody's going to imaginatively think hey nothing is going to happen we are not going to sell marijuana they are mistake okay it's the law so what we need to try to do here is consider about these kids right I'm here I'm passionate about it because aay knows right I even told him several times like for the last 15 years on my street just before it was legalized about five years ago I used to see these kids who are 10th grade 11th grade right probably from JP do these drugs I've I've talked to them I've called the cops I've done so much so that I can secure them right so the problem with this ordinance that you're trying to put out right is, ft is too small a distance okay today you're doing it in Tal there is no reason why this will not come up in inmen where I live okay because if you look at a thousand ft Gap right I can I can pull the map and show you right difference between a residential and Industrial is not much right you could still find a gap so my request to you all from that ordinance perspective is to consider if you can put it on Route One Corridor if you see Woodbridge right Woodbridge mayor has been very smart about it he has these dispensaries on Route 9 and roote one root roote one and roote 9 Corridor is not something you can um control Ro because it's a state Corridor right mean you have CS everybody going through these roads right all they from Newark right or to Trenton or whatever so put them there but don't bring them in because once you start bringing them in there is no stop to it because today you are asking me for tal like you you're going to pass talm right tomorrow a business owner is going to come and say if it is talm why not me I'm within the Thousand F feet right please consider that please consider the kids this is a familyfriendly town I've been living here for the last 22 years right I mean I'm very passionate about Edison I want you all to consider that right I mean this is I want you to hear and then pass the ordinance I mean I understand the intention of the administration to bring this audience because you want to make money it's the law it's whatever it is right but let's keep it safe like somebody said right uh is we are trying to destroy massage parlers right we don't want to bring these in right route one is the best place there are so many empty uh shops in fact uh Rich uh SC outed places in riton I believe few years ago with one of the residents Anita to see what is the best place in Ron right I don't know why you're not doing it in riton now right you need to think about it right please do consider the kids consider the residents right it's it's very very important because I want Edison to be a familyfriendly place because um all of you have worked hard to bring the best entertainment you know in New Jersey to Edison if I walk out of my home I have like a three-year-old right I have so many places to go that I don't have to worry about how I can keep my son occupied okay the second thing I want to bring up is about the deers right I'm also passionate about it because they're animals they can't speak for themselves right right now the deer population is very very little right you should consider that right because of the virus or whatever I mean I I heard from a a few years ago virus came and I'm in North I I see a deer I love seeing deer around my home I don't see as much I see one or two in the entire area right I mean from all the way from Westgate to my home I just see one or two so please consider that when you're trying to do population control and please don't go for hunting because that's not what Edison is right I mean the residents do not want it maybe up in Union County they do it right across they do it in Clark but let's not do it okay because I don't think the residents supported right uh the third thing is like I said if you can bring um you know if you can change the format so residents can talk it can right because we had a lot of people including the board President right come talk about he wanted to talk about the marijuana as well right like the legis the ordinance right he had to go people have kids they have to put kids to sleep right so if you can give us a slot before you continue with your business that will really help thank you so much that's all I had you you guys are doing an awesome job and please continue to do it I can't be more proud of this Council than anywhere else because I do watch Council meetings from other towns and other states but we are one of the best thank you thank you for your comments council president just a point point of clarification or question uh it's past 10:00 from our ordinance aspect so I don't know if we have to officially extend the meeting or anything like that uh can we extend it to midnight so it'll be easy if we ends earlier midnight yeah one time midnight can any have a motion to extend it to midnight motion to extend can't start to 11 o'clock first second right um roll call or all in favor all in favor thank you if it ends earlier it ends earlier you recognize her your name and address please good evening uh Thomas OA 165 Echo Avenue Edison in clar Barton um my family goes back in this town about3 to about 1930 um I went through the Edison school system my children went through the Edison schools and now my grandchildren are going through so we've been around here for a long time and we'll be here for a long while um I want to uh just express my support uh and and the sense of urgency to to appeal to repeal the uh 2016 Redevelopment Zone um ordinance uh and the reason I say it's it's urgent is be is uh case in point is the the Doctor's Building that building not only violates the letter but the spirit of the Redevelopment um zone is adopted in 2016 uh so whoever approve that whether it's zoning or planning I don't don't even know who they don't even respect the code that was established so you've got residents that are not happy you've got Town officials that aren't supportive of it so that tells me something is wrong with it that really needs to be uh repealed so I'd urge you to to repeal it and then revisit that uh down the uh down the road take a breath before these significant properties on Amboy are sold and we're stuck with you know God knows what they'll they'll approve because they're not following the letter or even the spirit of the agreement agreement I'd also encourage you to adopt uh and include a Redevelopment agency to oversee Redevelopment in the Amboy Avenue Zone um and this the agency I would I would ask be composed of residents and business owners in Clara Barton so that they can then shepher whatever plan is approved uh forward uh and make sure that it meets the needs of all all parties concerned so please repeal it review it and then we could all move forward and it would be very easy to do because when you go to the Edison code go to Edison nj.org town code and go to a it's the 2014 plan that is still out there so the plan from 2016 never got put into the uh public record on the on the website so thank you thank you for your comments [Applause] Joe Joel bass off 17 Beach Lane you recognized first of all condolences on the loss of Chief Campbell it sounds like he was really a dedicated public servant and and it's a great loss to anyone who knew him uh a shout out to the Department of Public Works the the snow plowing was great from my perspective so uh they they did a fantastic job under uh challenging circumstances uh on uh Bo Avenue uh I just have to amplify What the residents of claraa Barton have already said what uh M uh uh Malone Barber said and what everyone else from the the neighborhood said even though it's not my neighborhood uh I can see how important it is to eliminate the further possibility of more four-story buildings there uh I read um two reports that were produced by H grul the engineering form the firm that came up with the Redevelopment Zone and they conducted a couple of community forums and it's striking that that in those Community forums people of Clara Barton showed up and almost unanimously they spoke against the possibility of four-story buildings so even back then the neighborhood was aware of the problem of four-story buildings and and came out against it with only one exception there there was one resident of the neighborhood who's actually on this de who came out in favor of four story buildings and in spite of the fact that everyone else in the neighborhood was against it it looks like obviously the four-story buildings were approved so that has to change and also I know that the uh Council now has a rule that um Council people are only supposed to respond if a member of the public asks a question so my question is by the next council meeting can it be introduced onto the agenda uh an ordinance to repeal U the commercial Corridor overlay uh and I know it has to go to the planning board but by the next council meeting can we start that process that's my question on that next item uh some other ordinances that are not on the agenda but should be on the next Council agenda uh last year there was discussion of amending the definitions of where houses and also updating it to include distribution centers and fulfillment centers and Facilities of that nature so can we have that on the agenda for the next meeting okay um then there's some problems with uh the planning board ordinance and I know I I sent to um council members uh an email detailing that there are some discrepancies uh for example um for the planning board uh the Class A Member is supposed according to our ordinance the Class A Member is supposed to be the mayor obviously the mayor does not sit on the planning board so that that should be changed to authorize the mayor or the mayor's design there's also a reference in that ordinance to a site plan committee uh as far as I know there is no site plan committee and in any event the ordinance doesn't Define or establish a site plan committee so that has to be rectified that's an inconsistency and for the technical Review Committee the ordinance uh specifies that someone from the office of emergency management should sit on the technical Review Committee um however uh I suspect that that Chief to is extremely busy with protecting Edison on a daily basis and probably would prefer not to have to uh sit on the technical review committee on an ongoing basis uh there's also um uh another uh ordinance having to do with budget deadlines and um there's some discrepancies there we haven't been following our own Municipal Charter or our own um ordinance in terms of adhering to the deadlines for uh budget for example um our Charter which my understanding is that the charter it's like the constitution for the municipality and and that would supersede even any ordinance uh it calls for if you give me a moment right it says that um during the month of November um the mayor should require all department heads to submit requests for Appropriations and that there should should be public hearings um during November uh my understanding is that that's not being done so either uh we have to start doing that or we have to change the charter so my question is um can that be addressed at the next council meeting also according to our Charter uh the budget is supposed to be submitted to the council by the 15th of January uh that's what our Charter says so my question is can we either going forward make sure that that's done or if necessary uh amend the charter um now the local Finance board uh has extended some deadlines they've extended the statutory deadline for transmission of the budget to the council to February 27th so my question is will the council be getting uh the budget submission by February 27th and if not uh what will be done about it and our uh our ordinance uh sets I'm sorry your time is up oh I didn't get the one minute warning that that's okay and uh I'll submit the rest of the questions via email and I'm sure you'll get back to me thanks thank you Joel anyone [Music] else evening evening council president Nick Fagan of 42 Edgewood Road you recognize um thanks um I have a bunch of different stuff uh I'm fully in support of what Sue and the clar Barton neighbors uh have come to say over and over and over and over again not just at this meeting but at the the uh the master plan they've been been clear at zoning meetings they've been clear at planning board meetings they're clear I don't understand why the administration and the council isn't hearing the message that's been clearly messaged repeal the four-story building and and and and stop overdevelopment in this town we keep saying it over and over and over again I don't know why the administration and the the the the council doesn't get it um we seem to keep getting zoning wrong because ordinance 2211 2024 is also a zoning ordinance but it happens to be out about cannabis and I'm not sure exactly and I'd like to know I see that it comes through the Department of Law and the department of the the bill to increase or allow cannabis be sold on these streets throughout South Edison there's none in North Edison the the township attorney right the Department of Law comes from the administration or does it come from the council or who put this measure who thought this measure was a good idea and who put it Forward does anybody want to claim it I've supported it you support it there's no back and forth thank okay I does the does from the C through the council president to the business administrator does the is the mayor the one that is bringing this forward this measure forward I will wait for the end of the public comments before we answer okay so you're going to answer all the questions that we had yeah and you've got notes of them all yeah right here okay because I I mean there were dozens of questions today I have them right okay all right I'm expecting a full report on all the questions that were answer answered uh asked um the so so we've been clear about CLA Barton we've been clear about overdevelopment in the town we've been clear now about cannabis I thought the last time we talked about this as a council or you talked about this as a council it was RAR than Center that's where I thought unless my memory is gone bad everybody was like we in Center yes this is happening in the state we're going to have to do it otherwise people are going to go to other towns and we want to get the tax revenue I get it I want to get the tax revenue too but just put it in RAR in center and we were all happy about that why are we now trying to put it in neighborhoods right next to schools and and from what I understand from what I heard from the ba and please correct me if I got this wrong but you're going to repeal the thousand foot limitation away from residential with this measure so you're going to put it right next to houses just doesn't seem like some something we should want to do here in Edison that's something I don't want to happen in Edison and it sounds like there's plenty of other people in the town that also agree that agree with me some housekeeping issues I wanted to thank Hank bnell he's not here anymore he he had to leave but um Hank for holding the applicant accountable at the last zoning board meeting on the billboard case um for cutting down a whole bunch of trees without any approval or tree permit from the town uh and both uh the zoning official as well as Hank Bell uh had asked the applicant and gave them a whole bunch of trouble about why they cut down a whole bunch of trees without permits and that the applicant didn't have any good answer so that also leads to this week or last week or whenever uh 225 and 231 planfield Road there were at least a half a dozen trees cut down town that were I couldn't get my arms around them and I called town hall and I called upstairs and there was no tree permit record of them so I took pictures and I've called the zoning official Mr aot and I still haven't gotten a phone call back as to what to do with these pictures and to to the the enforcement so the reason also that that's important is because that those those Parcels are an active planning board application was that was done and I'm sure I haven't looked at the resolution but I'm sure in the resolution it says you can't just cut down the trees without without doing the proper permits so it's an enforcement problem in the town I called as the action was happening and I didn't get any response I called Mr what was it Joe James upstairs and then I called Mr aot and left a message and there was nobody nobody available to do an enfor at the time I didn't know whether I should call the police or not CU these trees were getting murdered what was the address two two 25 and 231 planfield Road this is an active planning board application and subdivision right across the street from PL Charlie Browns another zoning board land use issue in the town um so anyway Hank did a good job but but we lost six more huge trees and um uh uh I'm all torn up about it so uh a positive thing you guys are doing a good thing on the uh 221 thank you Nick 2209 thank you uh anyone else uh you already spoke can I make one no you can't come back up I'm sorry you can't come back up I'm sorry uh no uh it's autal yeah motion to close the public portion second one do we open up before rebuttal no yeah any rebuttal I will let the legal explain what a rebuttal is explain what the rebuttal is Mr Styles he's going to explain what a rebuttal is if it's not a rebuttal it won't a rebuttal wait let let the legal explain what a rebuttal is I'm sorry I can't hear you Let The Legal C explain what a rebuttal is and then if your comment is not a rebuttal we would have to say no so uh the rebuttal portion is for anyone who disagrees with something that was said during the main portion of the public comments uh it is restricted to actual uh viable disagreement with a comment by another uh speaker if it's to Simply add on to if it's not actually a disagreement if it's uh utilized for an opportunity just to speak about something unrelated to comments that were specifically made during the public comment portion and it is not a viable rebuttal it won't be allowed okay I understand what a rebuttal is I've been in court many times the point I want to make is a rebutt Liz a disagreement I am in disagreement with the Cannabis situation and putting retail stores here rebuttal I'm sorry sir you may have to sit down thank you all right uh motion to close public portion motion to close second I have a motion from Council vice president second from councilman Coy uh all in favor all right we will get back to the regular agenda no council president quick question we're going to answer the Public's questions after we go through all of our business correct no we're just going to get back to right where we left off uh council president remarks and then when are we going to answer the public the question of the meeting well that's what I just said yes oh yeah all right uh moving on to number uh 20 actually uh 21 all right moving on to number 20 unfinished business ordinance for further consideration and public hearing and final adoption uh Madame clerk please read the ordinance ordinance 225-2020 ordinance amending a no stopping or standing Zone on a section of Brier Avenue and this will be open to public if anybody wants to make a comment uh seeing none uh Council comments actually motion to close the public portion motion a motion from Council mcoy second second by councilman Patel all in favor I all right and motion to adopt can I get a can I get a motion to adopt first motion to adopt second Council councilman pel motion uh councilman Co second any Council comments seeing none can I get a roll call council member Brasher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yesc counc member poiner yes council member schl yes council president Patel yes moving on to ordinance 2206 d202 4 Madame clerk please read the ordinance ordinance 2206 d224 ordinance amending chapter 2 Administration by creating subsection 2-14 Cultural Arts commission uh this will be open to the public comments any public comments Nick about this Nick Fagen 42 Edwood Road congratulations Margo um and um the rest of the public that has been here and been rooting for this and and getting through um I'm in full support of this and and go get them thank you thank you for your comments any other seeing none motion to close the public portion motion close motion from councilman second from Council vice president motion to adopt can I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt motion from councilman P second from councilman Coy can I get a roll call Madam cler council member Brasher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member shmuel yes council president Patel yes um moving on to ordinance 2207 conratulations moving on to ordinance 227-246 New Jersey appropriating 8, 850,000 therefore and authorizing the insurance of 8, 850,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance the cost thereafter uh this will be open to public any public comments I will take U Joyce one quick question just one quick question is this for the 11,000 people that's just for Edison water uh Sonia this is for the Edison utility Edison utility the Edison 11,000 people that is that the Edison utility yes ma'am okay that's all you had to answer thank you uh Joel Joel bass up 17 Beach Lane my question on this ordinance is what's the estimated Break Even point for how long it'll take to recoup the the cost of these meters my understanding is that there are supposed to be cost savings involved with the installation of of these meters and and I'm sure that there are but but how long will it take to recover the um $8 million or the almost $9 million thank you Joel uh son would you like to answer that we don't have that estimate thank you so uh any other Anthony dammer uh Anthony dammer 25 Wy I I just like to say you know I still think that it wouldn't be a terrible idea to maybe hire a couple more people and uh I I don't think one of you I think maybe councilman Brasher was one who brought up the fact that um one time over the Long Haul I don't think we even come close to the $8 million um if he hired a couple more people to do this job myself but um I don't know if that was ever taken into consideration but just seems like a lot of money that to service just you know the south end of town but thank you council president thank you for your comments anyone else uh Nick Fagan 42 Edgewood um do we know how many water meters will be replaced um is it a correct assumption that 11,000 customers means 11,000 meters the replacement is for all the meters okay uh I don't know that that answered my question directly but I don't understand why that would be a hard question to answer um so that's 11 8 million bucks divided by 11,000 is like $800 a meter yes give or take um so $800 a meter in terms of the payback that Joel was asking I I can't imagine that these things are out of whack that much that that it's going to pay back uh and in anything reasonable in a reasonable amount of time uh the the 8 $100 per meter will that be paid for by by the the customers of the Edison water utility or is it going to be paid for by the city of the township of Edison and our Texas Sonia sure so this is an investment to our Capital uh obviously the township uh is putting that investment in with the help of the Council of course so with that that is a total investment made by the township I hope that answers your question so the township is investing in the 11,000 water meters that not everybody in the town has is a part of and that that investment won't pay off as well it seems like a bad decision Bad Business decision a poor business decision to invest in something that's not going to pay back but I'm not a finance major maybe you are thank you for your comments anyone else Mr stles I've been involved with the cable committee so what's going on with this water situation and the Edison water company is all new to me but as a businessman I just like like to ask the question is there a marketing plan for this does it lay out what the specific objectives are does it lay out what the costs are what the ROI is on return and what is the long range effect over 10 years okay middle sex water company has this they do a good job they have home served that gives protection what how does this compare to what the competition is my question Sonia I think there was a report from the other town I believe right or some I forgot the town's name it was Neptune um so in terms of Municipal infrastructure and how that works so it is much different than any private sector return of investment uh I mean every year we have a new road list so that means that residents potentially you know depending on the life cycle of the note um really it's a reinvestment of the entire Township that's how Municipal financing works and infrastructure improvements work uh it is a shared cost obviously to all of the residents regardless of location and can you also talk about that report from Neptune I can certainly provide that um and email it to anyone that would like it okay thank you uh anyone else with a public [Music] comment El with Conway 20 Netherwood Circle just to um react to the response that I just heard was with the roads everyone gets a piece of the roads so this year I'll pay for your road and next year I'll pay for your road and the following year you're going to pay for my road but when it comes to the water I will never benefit from the water and when they fix my water you're not going to pay for it because I've got middle sex water I don't have Edison utility or am I completely out of not not knowing what I'm talking about because if the whole Township I realize we're doing this to better the town and I realize a portion of the town is going to benefit from it but it is you can't equate it to the roads because ultimately everyone benefits from the roads so sorry you got I got you there so I'm for any kind of improvement in the town but it's the whole town taking care of one tenth of the town but down the road make sure everyone benefits from it because I don't pay for you don't take care of my garbage you do not take care of my water and you do not take take care of my it's the third thing just one more thing maybe school kids I have none in my school I have no kids in a school Co you're out still pay for it councilman Coyle this is public comment thank you not equated at all you're in the same ballp park as her thank you thank you for your comments anyone else all right seeing none uh motion to close the public comments motion to close the public comment second I have a motion from councilman Patel second from Council vice president uh sorry uh motion to adopt can I get a motion motion to adopt certain I have a motion from councilman Patel second from councilman pointer uh roll call please councilman Brer Council oh sorry sorry sorry sorry I'm sorry I forgot about Council comments my bad sorry uh council president if I may um I am I recognized all right um I know I made my general comments before but just to address a couple couple of the questions that were uh brought up in terms of Break Even is tough to exactly determine that because we don't know the exact um rate of savings that we will get now they project that it it can be as up to as much as 7% in terms of the consumption I'm going more of the conservative route in in terms of like 3% so depending on which metric you use you get different B Break Even points so I hope that at least address is a little bit the question that you had posed total meters 12,130 this is inclusive of commercial uh properties as well it was asked about water benefit versus um uh just the south end versus the entire Township this is actually classified under the um uh under sewer in the sense of being able to apply for the ibank loan is because the consumption levels that go into uh go into sewer like you still pay those uh you still pay that um that service that service though is throughout the entire Township so if there's a reduction in the total um sewer sorry I'm forgetting all the technical terms in terms of the the water that flows through it uh if there's a saving on the sewer end in terms of what gets pushed out through the system that gets applied throughout the township um and one just addition benefit because of all the lead testing that is required by the state my understanding is that they will be doing scratch testing as the installations happen so we will be able to identify lead pipes throughout the township which we will eventually have to address at a later date thank you council president for the time thank you councilman pointer yeah council president again Council pal you're recognized this is wonderful and I'm in fully support of that only one question I have for administration uh the council president will this be Debt Service on the Water Utility Sonia or it will be part of water utility budget in case the the payment has to be made against the bond Bond can be taken on the the at the township level but we have the water and sewer separate budget will the interest payout come from that water utility budget right now it's taken out of the regular budget but um as a uh form of return to the water and sewer I'll bring it up to our finance department if that is a return um however we during our first conversations we talked about the ibank all of these applications are still made through the ibank so we are still aggressively making sure we'll be forgiven um with this this funding that we're requesting however we have to outlay the money at the beginning so yeah and thank you for that you know that's the reason you know because of the the I bank I'm supporting this because we know there is a possibility that we'll get the money but just from the the clarity standpoint of view because the residents from the other neighborhood should not feel that they are burdened because that's what I hear because of this so as long as the interest payment is considered as a budget line atem on the Water Utility Company then it will work pretty well again we'll get that money back but tentatively thank you thank you councilman Patel councilman Co I just want to the um this is a great opportunity of just water loss in itself and across 10 years it's less than $6 per connection so it's a great investment where we know the opportunity with the infrastructure banking can being forgiven and we have allowed this water company at one time to run you know way into the gutter owned by at least by another company and this is cly going to have a huge resolve in detection alone the detection alone is a huge savings so thank you council president thank you Council mccoil anyone else all right as for me uh I'm just going to refer back to the ntion report uh they have done this and what they have found is they got a better accurate reading uh they got more accurate water usage data uh they got increased Revenue they don't State a specific number but it was increased um and we can't really compare it to Neptune because it might be a different method but they did increase revenue and they reduced the operating cost because they didn't have to send someone out and as councilman pointer pointed out this will allow us to do the lead testing which is important as well and as councilman p and Sonia pointed out that this might be forgivable and in the end we do own the water utility and we do have to take care of it's an infrastructure we do have to maintain and I think it's a good investment for the future of this town so with that said I will do uh Madam cler please do the roll call council member brusher council member Cole yes council member hatus yes counc council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member shamuel yes council president Patel yes uh moving on to new business uh this is proposed ordinance public hearing set down for Wednesday February 28th Madame clerk please read the ordinance ordinance 2208 d224 ordinance authorizing the sale of two Township properties known as block 49101 LW 30 and block 491 .01 lot 33 in the township of Edison New Jersey can I get a motion to introduce council president councilman pointer I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for February 29th I believe it is8 28 28th my apologies this a Thursday today and can I get a second second so I have a a motion to introduce from councilman pointer second by Council vice president uh any Council comments seeing none may I get a roll call please council member brusher council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil no for inection council member poiner yes council member schoel yes council president Patel yes uh Madam clerk please read ordinance 2029-2024 an ordinance amending section 39-12 23 schedule of escro dep fee of the town of the code of the township of Edison uh may I get a motion to introduce motion introduced read that St I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading publish according to law and further consideration the public hearing set down for February 28th May I get a second second so I have a motion to introduce from Council McCoy second from Council vice president uh any Council comments okay seeing none may I get a roll call Mam council member brusher council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member shimel yes council president Patel yes uh moving on to ordinance 2210-20 24 Madam clerk please read the ordinance an ordinance amending section 36-7 major subdivisions 36-6 .1 sketch plat application requirements 36- 9.6 preliminary site plans 36- 9.7 final site plans 27-21 large water services 36-8 point2 pimary site plan approvals and 39-1 12.4 hearings of the code of the township of Edison to update and modernize the availability of electronic submissions on applications for development all right may I get a motion to introduce I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday February 28th thank you may I get a second seconded all right I have a motion from vice president and second from councilman pel uh any Council comments council president councilman pointer I appreciate you putting this uh forward and your uh efforts in initiating this I also forgot to mention before I appreciate you uh taking the suggestion in adding in the final site plan approval uh sometimes there are applications where only preliminary is provided at one of the boards so therefore if adjustments are made on on an application in the final site plan perspective it's good to have that so I appreciate you adding that onto the language here and as always thank you councilman pointer for all that you do and your analytical skill I truly depend on it uh any other comments all right seeing none may I get a vot call council member brusher council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes all right Madam clerk moving on to ordinance 221-224 Madam clerk please read the ordinance an ordinance amending chapter 37 zoning requirements and land use regulations for cannabis business uh may I get a motion for introduction council president I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday February 28th May I get a second second all right so I have a motion from councilman poiner second from councilman Shel any Council comments Council prern councilman p i was the part of the Cannabis subcommittee I think was 2 three years years ago uh this is not the approving this is more changing the Zone we already picked up the Zone which starts from embo Avenue all the way to the close to heler park so it is not that we don't have the Zone uh this is amending or adding the other locations which I completely disagree because the same locations were discussed three years ago we debated this at length and the reasoning was very simple we have the Cannabis business in Highland par I think there is a drive-thru I heard was passed in maachan I don't think we need to flood these businesses in Edison whether it is a North End South End clar doesn't matter I don't think this is the right business that we should allow around the residential area and if you look at the Edison map we are very densely populated Community what that means is most of these locations will be in and around I would say the strike distance of this most of the schools whether we like it or not now we have the bike paths it will be much easy for the kids to reach to these locations again we know this is a serious problem Edison is known for the best schools it is one of the best town to live we all are proud of it I think bringing this type of business in the core locations of Edison neighborhood will be detrimental to not to the property values but as well as to the entire school system and hence I'll be I will not be supporting this uh change in the zones thank you Council pres thank you for your comments Council Patel anyone else uh council president Council M po you recognized thank you I have a several items I just wanted to mention I apologize if I take a little bit I do want to offer a clear clarification before beginning because I know what I had said when Mr Fen was at the dis my understanding in interpretation of this ordinance is that the buffer zones are not being redacted there's nothing in the language here that says that 1,000 ft from the residential th000 ft from the education 500 feet from the parks or anything like that that is indicating to me that those buffer requirements which are going to be necessary um or are part of the current zoning are being repealed so I am going into this with the understanding and impression that those buffer requirements are still applicable to these changes so I just wanted to make that as a point of clarification uh prior to proceeding uh there was a comment made before about the nail salons and the conversion of that to say like uh Canabis shops the only difference is that we don't have a quantity limit on nail salons we have a quantity limit on dispensaries in the township which I which quite honestly is the primary focus with this ordinance and most of the other ordinances because we're not talking warehousing we're not talking cultivation we're not talking packaging we're not talking delivery services we're primarily talking dispensaries um I have I have approached this subject and I apologize in should not no you can continue you know like I would have said all this before but I had asked in in advice I have approached this uh subject several times with the administration and I think that it is time for us to expand access in Edison Township while the previous Standalone Zone may be well intended it is not practical in several instances the actual boundaries established are extremely limited access from the General market who would use cannabis products additionally most other locations if you look at any dispensaries around the the state they are situate they are not just packed away in industrial complexes today I visited unity in uh South Bound Brook i' uh New Era and I also visited Anja these new dispensaries that are going out they are not located in industrial centers while I will address business aspect that is only andery benefit I am not focused on the tax revenues when it comes to this ordinance the primary benefit to me is with those whom cannabis helps specifically from medical for medical purposes which doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a prescription for it because you don't need to have a prescription just to get a 100 milligram of Advil at your local uh Walgreens but from the business aspect residents from the the township already purchased elsewhere from my house you can go to Ayr in 7 minutes the touch in is opening up anre is right on the border the two that are on the on there's three in planfield three in Scotch planes on the North End so you're within 12 minutes driving from there you also have two in East Brunswick and as I mentioned Ayr in Woodbridge but they are also expanding to one additional one I understand the concerns that residents have in regards to impacts on children children but we have to be honest as parents to actually educate our children so for my daughter I will tell her that the brain does not fully develop until the age of 25 so be cautious with this right because we have to just be honest and have a open dialogue about it um I have also had I also know individuals that are in the industry that straight up say that the raran center is not either ideal or that there's just actually no space for them there so it's pretty much a a zone that doesn't actually fit the industry additionally if you think that we're going to get people to come into Township with our 7 PM deadline as our code currently States I would argue that that would be a hiccup that people that businesses may have concern but I will stray away from that and I want to focus on just primarily the medical aspect um I apologize but like what we what I believe we need to do is make sure that those who would like to use cannabis have access to it not everyone always has the time available to have to drive out elsewhere to do so they may have the ability to but it's not always practice itical again we are talking about a limited amount of potential venues of which there are buffers where you can't have one x amount of feet from another um and I think that we need to be conent that not everyone that uses cannabis is just going to be out here pushing it forward there's still a stigma with it I disagree with that stigma I think that this is another step into in terms of breaking down that that barrier what I will say again and I apologize for my at length statement I would have done this earlier um my understanding that the buffer zones are not being redacted would limit many areas along the Route One in the Woodbridge Avenue Corridor whether you're talking in the residential aspect uh going on the southbound side of Route both uh areas of route one or if you're talking about the educational zones that are on Woodbridge Avenue I think that these buffer zones provide enough distance between so that we can still offer this but be cognizant of the quality of life with the residents I apologize for my at length comment uh thank you council president thank you councilman pointer council president Council vice president so I was a child of the 60s and 70s I was in the Woodstock generation and yet somehow I never ever tried or used weed and for that maybe my brain should be donated to science to find out exactly why that was but having said that I I'm in favor of this because I agree with councilman pointer that the I have seen the evidence of the medical benefits of marijuana from others and where I in a position where I was looking for pain relief or God forbid I had some kind of I had cancer and I was going through a lot of pain you bet I would be going to one of these dispensaries and and uh getting some relief from Cannabis um and we can't ignore the revenue aspect the ratables because the township of Woodbridge has I believe they I believe it was it's a I believe it's 600 something ,000 that uh that they get from this and that also helps the tax burden on the residents it would be the same here um and so I I am and the other thing about it is that this is regulated this is something that hopefully it's going to help to keep anything with fentanyl that comes off the streets and um and so I've seen the impact in in other towns and other States and uh I am in favor of this ordinance or at least introducing it so thank you council president counc president would you like to speak yeah councilman brusher um yes as someone that was part of this at the beginning um and and listen as a as a Democrat I'm going to be honest here right I'm not going to tell you that I didn't inhale right I grew up in the 70s um yes I did inhale I definitely smoked all right right but this isn't about that this is about a quality of life issue and it's not about Revenue because the idea of putting it in ridan Center was to have it for growing and distribution where the major money was the money that we get the trinkets that we're going to get from a store when it brings down our quality of life and and well it's legal right and well I'm not afraid if if I want to smoke pot I'm not afraid to say I'll smoke pot okay but I don't want to see it all around our town like the massage poers were now like my Council colleague said well this is legal and there's benefits we have sex shops here in Addison right but nobody wants to have sex shops all over Addison nobody wants to have massage poers all over Edison and nobody want wants to have pot shops all around Edison and when I looked at this what where I was a guest was this is all in South Edison number one number two I noticed that none of these areas have a council person that lives there so what I would like to propose if we're going to do this then let's propose to put the pot shops where all our Council people live all also but I will not be supporting this and another thing when people talk about access like my colleague I heard my colleague speak talk about access I I I can tell you this none of them smoke pot because if you do and you want to you you pick up your phone and you Google it and they ship it to your house so there's no need to have the brick and mortar store that deteriorates our quality of life that's where I'm going you know you can order it and have it delivered so if you have medical issues or whatever it is you can go online you can get this stuff it's it's all regulated um and it's the same thing that's going to your retail places because they have to be licensed to actually sell it but to put this in neighborhoods where none of us live I think is wrong and it will be something that I won't even support putting it Forward um to discuss any longer thank you council president thank you Council Brer any other comments council president can I address some of those items sure Council pointer not everyone wants to know that you purchase marijuana cannabis weed pot however you want to call it right so to indicate that you can just do this as an alternative I disagree some people like to have that that low level of privacy um additionally if you want to just have them pay more because of the delivery aspect that's fine too uh I disagree with that aspect though um it was mentioned again about the now it was added with the the sex shops and the certain amount of qu uh the certain amount that were in the township quote unquote um there's still a quantity limit in our ordinance pertaining to dispensaries now what I will say is that if my colleagues who may not be in favor of this necessarily because of the inclusion with cultivation as councilman pressure made I would have no issue at a further date making sure that cultivation is only allowed in the ran Center I think that makes perfect sense and is a good compromise but to eliminate the potential assess and I believe in assess and let me just be straightforward i've smoked pot in the past it's it is what it is but the fact is is that if I am a believer in that access will be beneficial to the Community it will help people that may not be as outspoken as I am being right now and that's just my personal feeling thank you council president counc Council po Council MCO I had two points of clarification here um first when it came up as a vote for the public it was voted unanimously to have cannabis okay and second I just want to point out what council vice president talked about with F all I I prefer someone not shopping outside the black market to get something possibly laced with fentanyl which is extremely dangerous and it's everywhere right now and to go to a qualified shop and make a purchase so thank you thank you Council m co any other comments councilor president counc just want to make one clarification this Council adopted this ordinance not the zone change but to allow cannabis business in medicon way back I think majority of the council supported back then I was one of them the intent here is I I hear you know the stories about the access Etc I don't think we are prohibiting my only the concern is about the choice of the locations had it been probably kept in in certain blocks I would have been fine with that and that's the reason the first time when we came up with the location it was picked up between the embo Avenue in all the way to the hel Park that was reasoning behind that but I would never be happy putting this on talage especially right in front of India grosser right in front closer to VFW 11377 which definitely qualifies definitely qualifies regardless what we say 1,000 ft it meets all the criteria and if you look at the proximity of the high dense area around that whether you call the Hana Road or whether you call raspberry or uh Edison Manor or Edison Village or or any of those probably you know you have huge huge population and the number of kids they you know they around that area and especially I have major concern because this is going to be very close proximity of the one of the most I would say the used grocery store it's very close proximity that that area I have the OB again I'm not opposed on some of the spots and just to make it clear it is not about opposing the ordinance it's about changing the zone or adding the zone that are not I would say I would not agree with that thank you counc P can we move for a vote please let me just make my comments and I will motion it to vote 30 seconds sorry I think councilman pointer made it very eloquent and I agree with it there is a medical use for it and there is a need for our residents to have access to it and I understand there is delivery service which is fine but if we don't allow our residents within our Township we are here to serve and the township voted for legalization 60% so I believe there is a need and a demand for it and I believe we should serve our residents that do want it and I we can argue about the locations uh some of these locations like the National Road the town Mage Road a lot of them are just warehouses the US Route one is the one that will be most commercial and I think is the most viable also the sex shops are not not legal marijuana is legal and there is a use for it and there is a limitation as three limitation we only have three so and I won't call 600,000 per store per year trinket of money that that's a lot of money that will be coming into Edison that we could use for a lot of benefits and if we don't allow it they will go to the neighboring towns matachin right in the center of Edison and they will get the benefits and that's I'm not sure if the that's the sound business decision there either way I will take a roll call Madam clerk council member Brasher no council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil no council member pointer yes council member Schmo yes council president P yes all right moving on to public comments on the resolution anyone would like to make a comment on the resolutions uh seeing no on oh we have Joel Joel bass off 17 Beach Lane I have a question about uh resolution 074 um Municipal broad Broadband Services Grant from New Jersey uh $2 million my question is um what conditions does the state put on what Edison has to do for that Grant uh what's that Grant going to involve and the reason I ask that is because um there's a lot of skepticism about the viability of Municipal Broadband uh there there's a question as to whether uh any municipality has been able to run a municipal broadband service profitably uh my research shows that the only one that arguably has been able to do it profitably is perhaps check nooga Tennessee uh that's a service area with maybe three times the population of Edison's and there are studies that indicate that that even their profit numbers are probably misstated because they don't uh appropriately account for the capital costs of establishing the system and I don't know that there's any municipality in New Jersey that has embarked on this uh so so my question is is is it really even worth going after this this Grant and if we do get it what is it going to entail okay uh Sonia can you answer that sure um the resolution is act actually accepting the grant we were awarded the grant so this is the process having to go to Council in the um application itself there's a 24mon um outline as which we have to build a portion of the infrastructure and part of that is the server um an area the business um the um business report that that's forthcoming those things so um that's what's entailed so um is Edison going to have to spend more money on this than Edison is receiving in grant money yes the total infrastructure will be more than that however this is to start what's this and the rest of my question is are there any other municipalities in New Jersey that have embarked on Municipal Broadband I'm not aware of any and so we'd be the first okay thank you anyone else would like to make a comment hello again Bruce sits uh I'm tired you're tired I've been on a cable committee for five years I know what Optimum does what VAR Ron does what Broadband does um I'm on a condo board in Florida we work uh with infinity down there these companies have huge infrastructures okay I'm not going to go into what I said in previous meetings but the question is we're having problems right now doing the Municipal Water getting them the pumps and the meters and everything all right how the hell pardon the French are we going to set up a whole broadband internet cable company when you have three companies out there doing a job okay I don't want to insult anybody but do you know all the elements involved in putting together a company okay I bought and sold companies I did startups I don't understand even what's involved with Optimum and I speak to the director and the vice president and I met with vice presidents at Verizon okay how do we set up the whole thing with equipment with parts with technology with computers with a call center with technicians with insurance and everything this whole thing is ridiculous and Joel and I spoke about this also he made the comment Chattanooga yes it's the only only city in the country that is doing it okay they are not showing any profit and regarding the question where you said you don't know in Jersey I brought this up two years ago if anyone wants to go to the record they did it in Patterson and either Trenton or Camden it was a failure and they just used it for the municipal building so I think this whole thing could instead of Edison Lighthouse this could be Edison Folly if we try to go in and put together a broadband and go against and we should really try to work out better relationships better alliances get in Comcast I could go talk to Verizon again Verizon didn't want to do it because in a significant analysis there was no return on investment for them they said they're not starting to go in and have to duplicate what was already in place and that's it I'm tired I've said it I made my point I will debate this with anybody and good night thank you Mr sites for your comments anyone else uh seeing none a motion to close the public portion motion to close the public portion so I have a motion from councilman pel second from councilman Coy to close the public portion and any any anything needs to be pulled for a separate vote any councilman uh seeing none uh motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda may I have a second so I have a motion from councilman Patel second from Council vice president Madam cler please get R call Council uh council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes Council president Patel yes uh we already did number 24 uh so now I am going to open up to huh the you want to make any comments or anything uh we we got to answer the okay okay so there's a couple of uh um things we have to take care of before we close the meeting I first want to do the moment of silence for the retired chief uh so if you everyone please give two minutes of silence right and uh I had a request to combine the March 25th meeting with March 27th to do a combined meeting uh by Council vice president and I was hoping to do a motion if someone if and whatever the council decides is the way we will go can I just make the comment as yes Council vice president I actually I propose this only because it's the Monday the 25th is a taste of middle sex and um so I I made that request I leave it up to council colleagues all right may I get a motion to combine March 25th meeting to March 27th MO is there a room for discussion on this uh yeah you can make a comment 's just do the motion and then we'll make the comments okay may I get a second uh councilman P the motion did I no council okay so I have a motion from councilman Patel second from Council vice president and I'll open up to any comments good okay yes this is exactly the type of thing that um the public gets ticked off about because so that we can go and eat and drink we're going to extend our next meeting till 11:21 at least um when I've heard from my council president and from the attorney the idea is to speed up the meeting right and here we go now we're proposing to do this so we can eat and drink even this meeting the meeting that we had didn't have to be a combined we could have had the meeting on Tuesday Tuesday and Thursday right we could have had the two meetings but instead again council president after council president and not one of them can seem to figure this out but they all complain that the meetings go on too long so I'll be honest with you I I'm going to vote no on this thank you council president uh thank you councilman Brer anyone else yes um this is just a a request and I I'm happy to go with whatever the council's decides to do with this I I understand the the um liabilities a downside of this but uh it's just it's just a request and I respect whatever Council wants to do what and councilman B council president you know what happened tonight probably we can avoid again this is lesson learned and I I hear you councilman Brer but what we can do is either we trim down our discussion atems during the combined meeting and hopefully you know we we can speed up or we move the discussion items at the end of the meeting after all the resolution has passed so we can probably go back and for as much as it not saying that we had to wait till midnight but hopefully we can speed up the process and we don't punish the residents thank you for your comments do you want to say yes because I just want to point out that that that won't work that would be an utter failure also I mean right here we're at 11:23 right I'm not complaining I'll sit here till 3: in the morning I'll be the last one to leave here that's for sure but we still didn't answer one question from the public we didn't get to comment so we we still have at least I'd say a half hour left of the meeting and once everybody leaves I mean who who do we have that we're going to be speaking to we we have 50 people in the room and we wore them down and now they left so yeah I mean I I do I have a serious problem with the combined meetings um I've said that over over and over with each council president and each one seems to neglect The public's will but then tries to come up with a better way to crack an egg councilman brusher thank you for your comments and you can vote whichever way you prefer and that's up to you and in terms of doing a Tuesday at the Das wasn't available to us uh for uh Marina so we couldn't have done that uh but moving forward since we have it can can we do a roll call council president councilman poter it's okay it doesn't just okay go ahead council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member Patel yes council member poiner no council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes all right now on to the questions uh we had a big request for ordinance 1936 2016 repel uh if the council wants to make a comment on that counc president yes uh just because I've asked this question to our planning before and I live in the area I get this often this Zone was established through an area in need of Rehabilitation so there are slightly different uh items to my understanding in regards to process because the master plan is working in conjunction at the moment both both items no matter what have to go back before the planning board whether it's to modify the area in need of Redevelopment or the master plan itself both are zoning recommendations by the planning board so to me the master plan recommends that the Zone in the Amboy Avenue Zone get gets modified we don't need to modify the rehabilitation area because the planning board in essence by improving the master plan and if that's a recommendation say that that's okay so I understand the the point with it but my understanding with no matter what we would either have to send it back to the planning board for the area in need of Rehabilitation and modifying that or waiting for the master plan to come come forth um I don't think that we can just change the zone as it is because we needed the rehabilitation plan to change the Zone previously so that's just my thoughts I understand the frustrations with it but it both have to be go back before the planning board as it is and the master plan is at that completion point I would say just wait for the master plan but maybe I'm the staging thank you counc pointer because no matter what you still have to go back to area need of Rehabilitation and have to go back to the planning board then come back to us then back to planning board to us time wise okay okay no back and forth please uh would you like to make a comment yeah uh council president to the attorney really um and I don't know if you're if if you know land you L land use getting all getting tired um three stories four stories so so we have we have this written down right why can't we just take an eraser and erase the four right and put the three so as as councilman pointer was just explaining this was done through a designation of the area as an area in need of Redevelopment when you do that it's got to go to the planning board there's got to be a study done and then once that study done is those recommendations are voted on uh by the planning board it comes to the council to adopt the the ordinance that red designates the area as an in need of Redevelopment and then adopts the recommended Redevelopment plan from the planning board so to change that and I think this is what you were getting at Mr uh Mr pointer you would then have to go back to the planning board for a change in that area in need of Redevelopment in order to cancel it based on the land use laws that allow you to do so in the first place so once you're locked into that it becomes a it's not impossible to change um but it becomes a little B bit more difficult to change because you have to follow the proper procedures under the mlul for making those changes and by involving the planning board and not usurping their zoning power um from the dis so it's it's doable it's definitely something that my office will look into how to get done listen if it's something that should be done um and but it's not as simple as simply throwing up a resolution saying we cancel this we just wouldn't work that way okay wait well I'm I'm looking to move something forward like the public is and everybody else I'm not looking for your firm or you to look into this right like when you said look into it I was really hoping that you knew about land use because if you did right you wouldn't need to look into it it would just be like you stated the procedure the procedure is we have to go for an area needed Redevelopment and send it back to the planning board and that would be simple and that's I'm looking for the simple thing because isn't that what I explain to you sir no but then you said I'm going to have my firm look into it which which isn't that very simple thing of we just have I think uh we're going to move on the legal answer this question all right my question we have a bunch of questions to well yeah I get that I you know Nish listen I get it but I didn't get my answer and now you're going to try and it's not going to work I think I'm going I think he addressed the issue I'm going to move on councilman brusher you're not anymore need to do to get this moving forward can we have that area need of Redevelopment for the next meeting or we can't thank you for your comments councilman Brer we're moving on uh the route 27 and Route One trash Sonia can you address that sure so um we work with the do on that so I'll make sure to contact our engineering team to make sure that they are actively doing that I know Mr Bell has been working with them a lot closer to make sure they take care of it sooner than lat later so I'll make sure that that request is made um and again email me with those kinds of things uh it be appreciated because I could be proactive in that manner thank you very much and there was also the suggestion of special needs uh database I think that sounded pretty good to me but I would like to look into a bit further if I'm not mistaken I think we already have that in place and uh deputy chief D Dash spoke to the gentleman about it okay sounds good uh the utican garbage trash collection I understand that we have two portions of Township one portion serves by the town and then certain portion is not I tried to dig into as to why that is and I I searched for like months and I still never got a final answer can we look into it why that is and how they ended up there I'm going finish okay go ahead no no he he asked me he said you want to go out and have a a cigar I said no I I have to ask president the question when he gets done all right uh Sonia when you get a chance you get back to me on that you'd like to know the history of the garbage why how that developed yes all right thank you uh snow day I believe we have enough salt rock that we do um we don't CL school that's the Board of Ed can com on the The public's question I think there was a comment regarding the garbage yes you can okay um is there anything that we can do and pass again to the attorney where we could have people opt out on the township side and and the reason why I say this is the Township garbage is unfair unfair to the residents of edicon that are older because your garbage is based upon the value of your home so whereas at my age I I'm I'm in a house that might be worth $700,000 or a million dollars and it could just be you know me and my wife there I'm paying this exorbitant garbage fee and that's why the people are coming here because they know other people in the town that have private garbage and what they're paying is less so is there a way that we could have something and make that opt out so that people could choose to do their own private sanitation okay I'm not entirely familiar with the sanitation rules in the ordinance but my my initial impression is that yes and uh I know that there are many towns that have only private garbage collection um so anything is definitely possible um but I would need to take a look at how your your garbage uh and sanitation collection is structured to be able to give you a definitive answer and I'm happy to do that because it's been coming up for years you know it's not just this meeting it's been years with many residents just for clarification ific purposes though we have a sanitation budget so clearly that would uh there would be an issue not necessarily an issue but there would be addressing of that sanitation budget and what that would do for the township council president yes counc I just want to share I'm not in favor of ever privatizing sanitation I am supported by the employees of the township and DPW and it would be a terrible move for Edison thank you for your comments Council m co council president I just want to add a comment there this issue has a long history I think this is a topic we need to take it offline yes uh I think we tried changing that 3 4 years ago when mayor ji was a council member even he tried I think there are some State legislation that were prohibiting us but at the same token there are other residents reaching out saying they want to get the Township trash room Al so again this is a larger topic of discussion so we should table it and yeah I agree okay um and at the Salt Rock we have enough salt rock because one of the yes okay good uh uh is is there a possibility of doing the Salt Rock prior to uh so the idea is that if we spread the salt beforehand we won't have to do the school closure because the roads will be clean that that I think that was the idea that the gentleman had earlier so before the snow forms and devops and accumulates so we do go and proactively salt roads as first we start with the main arteries um however whatever the school May determine as a closure that's up to them but there is a process in which we salt uh roads initially um and then we come back the next day to make sure that it doesn't uh with the ice okay so I think that he might have been under the impression that we clean the snow and then we put the salt but if we're doing it prior to keep doing that thank you uh the one of the gentlemen brought up the Medicare supplemental uh help do we have that I'll follow up with our staff to see exactly what the structure was for Medicare assistance um what we did what was Prior and uh what I need to clarify is we hired a social worker which is a position that previously we had so I'm wondering if it is the similar position that assisted with that kind of service so I will follow up in terms of what um help there may be for medicare I know the county does has assistance for Medicare applications so I will get in detail to all of the council um the Medicare assist because I think that's a really urgent issue especially for the elderly Medicare confuses me and I'm in the healthcare field and there's a lot of nuances and I think it'll be really helpful to the residents uh there was a mention of senior Transportation uh that we we are holding it off and we're not taking on any new members is that true uh I'd have to follow up on that I I currently would say we should not hold up on that so I will address that with our health department you uh he also mentioned about Leaf bag but I know we gave out Leaf bag uh but I just want you to confirm we did and we had them in the front I'm just wondering when the gentleman came to get that bags but certainly I'm sure we have enough that we could provide if they just uh contact DPW okay and then uh update on the deer study crossing guard and the official list uh if we can get that from Maria she ask every single meetings the crossing guards were still negotiations with them okay and the deer study do we have that oh okay yeah can you send that to her and uh Redevelopment again business I can't even read my own handwriting um that was something else okay I think this was this was the clar Barton section but I think we discussed that already um I hear you on the warehouse and the Distribution Center I will look into it to see if we can add it for the next meeting uh and then for planning board the site plan committee uh is that something on our books that we can look into because I would like to clean it up if it's not there I mean if we don't really have a site committee there's no need for it to be there certainly okay so can we have that for the next meeting just a cleanup um and I think Joel has bunch of other points to if you can email me they will be helpful yeah if you can just email me whatever changes that you think to be good that just a cleanup I would rather have a cleanup done all right uh uh then there was a TRC emergency committee management uh same thing I think this is not going to be answered today we're going to have to go back to to it uh budget deadline uh again we need to look into that because you know as he said November public hearing that does sound nice to me I think if we can get that in I would like to do that uh but let's see you know how that works out uh council president yes um as far as the budget budget process goes I hold internal uh meetings with all of our staff right now I'm in the middle of compiling all of the documents along with Finance MH and once that is done what I would like to proactively at least give the council 30 days to review those prep worksheets I know that may have not have done in the past but I think that giving you that ability to look at it and I can certainly set hours where if uh evenings work to review set those documents which each to the council member some of you are new so not understanding uh the outlay of what the budget means um certainly I will do that uh and give you 30 days in advance of reviewing all the documents before we introduce it now the introduction to the budget is the uh I believe it's March 29th or 28th and or if our meeting has already passed which I believe it would because it'd be the 27th then you can introduce it at the first meeting in April so that is the local Finance notice that we that they put out and that was in December okay thank you for that update uh there was a question of a cannabis I I believe there who brought it up and I think that was the legal administration's uh position and I think they had they see the need for cannabis as if we keep it in a corner where no one really goes they understand that you know that's not really serving the residents that approved it uh 60% uh moving back to tree cutting and enforcement the 225 and 231 planfield Road can we get someone on that because I don't want to see any trees cut down and is there any rules as to who owns those trees and if they cut it down without permits can we go after them uh yeah it's covered in the tree ordinances okay and how is it even if they cut it without permit is it just like $500 fine I I don't know I can look that up right now for you if you'd like so yeah please do Cuz I believe there should be a higher punishment if there is no permit we didn't give you permit and these trees take time to grow and get to that level there are other uh code violations that you can site to um for failing to obtain the permits but I'll check the Tre arms for you yeah please sir and uh in terms of the Chattanooga Tennessee and the Edison uh New Jersey comment Chattanooga Tennessee has 1272 uh people per square mile Edison has 3,397 we have a lot more business per square mile uh and I think again this is not I hope it works out I hope we do the DU delence and it comes back saying that hey it will work for us in terms of the complexity I have an article from you from the wired um let me pull it up uh the wired wired this was on August 11th 2022 this man built his own ISP and now he's getting 2.6 million to expand it uh this guy was so frustrated with the amount of service he was getting that he started building his own broadband and he built it for 30 homes and he was successful that the US government lent him more hundreds of a lot more money to cover 100 more houses so it is possible to do it uh it is not that complex um so I think we I think we if we ow Water Service I think the broadband service should be something we can provide and I think it's necessary if it's feasible and I believe the state believes in us and I hope that we can get this done for the residents and provide them another alternative uh beside the monopolies that they have now Mr council president I do have that for you if you um go to the tree ordinance under 25-16 there are violations and penalties listed um each tree cut damage or destroyed in violation of chapter shall be deemed to be a separate and distinct violation any person convicted of viol ating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be liable to the penalties stated in chapter 1 section 1-5 that's the general penalty provision it's what's used to u to um issue fines under the local ordinances um it can be um I don't know off the top of my head because I've practiced in your Municipal Court but I know some of them are up to $2,251 um per instance uh there are additional Provisions in here which permit um a civil suit and Chancery for injunctive Relief to enforce provisions of this chapter requiring replacement of illegally removed trees um or appropriate contributions that set forth in the in addition to the charges um question that would be the the remedy question for you can we update the law to State based on the age of the tree the amount of damage because $2,000 doesn't seem enough if that tree took 200 years to grow to a certain size I don't think $22,000 will cover it that time is really uh there are certain degrees to which you can assess penalties under the ordinances for individual acts but um there are also within that violations portion penalties um that you can enforce in chry court for replacement rement uh reference to the ordinance itself um but if there is additional penalties that you want to add into that for um older trees uh or um larger trees trees that have taken longer um that is uh that's definitely possible okay uh let's look into that uh any other questions I might have forgotten that coun to cover coun yes when you were talking about the Broadband um I technically agree with the um the public I believe that the the a lot of people on this body don't have um experience in in opening companies and companies and having them be successful and and then at a level of taking it to like a100 million company um I I don't even have that experience okay but but I know that I don't think that i' want to take on the big bear um so I I don't see the feasibility in it I I haven't seen the the business plan for it yet um all I've been able to do is read articles that said it was a failure it was a failure it was a failure um and it and it only kind of worked in small instances where they ended up where it was like the building town hall was Broadband right and I mean it's just kind of silly that that that there are people on this dis and there are people in the administration um that think that they're Thomas Edison or Elon Musk um I I think they're more like Tesla and I don't think this is really going anywhere um and I think it's going to show um but the good thing about all of this is I do keep notes so I will be coming back to everybody 10 15 years from now um on this in case it does go forward so yeah I mean unless I see a business plan that makes sense and the numbers make sense and the attorney can tell us that we could actually lose money um to be competitive make money or lose money lose money well I think I understand what you're saying it sounds confusing where I'm going is we put $1100 million into a system the system you have to pay interest on that system that system is going to cost every user $50 a month whatever the number might be but Optimum can lower their price like Walmart did to drive out all the small guys but the Township from what I understand can't lose money so we have to charge whatever that is to pay our bill and that's what these big cable companies did where this turned into a failure was they drove the towns bankrupt and then they bought it back pennies on the dollar and I honestly believe that that's what this Administration is looking to do um and maybe the mayor will go work for the new cable company later on and be a chief executive I don't know but to me this seems like a a scam um and I can't wait to see this business plan here it's going to be amazing thank you thank you for your comments any other council members uh seeing none I would like a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn any second second so I have a motion from councilman Coy second from councilman poiner uh all in favor I no you can stay here