##VIDEO ID:e2h-VvudHek## up whenever you're ready very good good evening everyone I'd like to call the regular meeting of Mayor and Council of the burough of Glassboro for September 24th 2024 to order Karen could you please read the opening statement pursuant to the open public meetings act I hereby announce that adquate notice of this meeting as required by set act has been provided by adopting a schedule of regular meetings for the year 2024 which schedule was posted on the burrow Hall bulletin board as well as the burough website and forwarded to both the South Jersey Times And The Sentinel of clester County and filed with the burough clerk on January 6 2024 thank you can we all rise salute the flag please I Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Karen roll call please mayor Wallace here Mr Brown here Mr cabone pres Mr halter yes Miss Miller here Mr Mrs Spence here Mr milandro here Mr scati and Mr Bean and let the record reflect that Miss garlic Mrs garlic is excused for this evening thank you Karen uh at this time I'd like to recognize uh for his years of service effective October 1st 2024 uh Mr Timothy Estus I have forward I will be forwarding him a letter and his award for service um the letter reads this greetings Tim I wanted to take this opportunity to formally congratulate you on your retirement from the Glassboro Highway Department after 30 years of service having worked your way up from labor to retire as a crew leader is an achievement that you should be extremely proud of Tim you were in instrumental in making the Glassboro Highway Department one of the best in the state of New Jersey your dedication and service to the residents of Glassboro will not easily be forgotten on behalf of myself and all the residents of the fine buror of Glassboro I thank you for your service I wish you all the best in your retirement with respect Johnny Wallace III mayor burrow of Glassboro uh at this time I'll turn our meeting over to our borrow solicitor yes thank you mayor we have a excuse me number of ordinances tonight on public hearing I will read all of the ordinance and when we open the meeting to the public the public would be able to get up and comment on any of the ordinances that I'm about to read beginning with 24 23 an ordinance of the barau of Glassboro GL County New Jersey accepting a storm waterer management Basin agreement for 401 high from 401 High Street Partners Q zbl LLC or 2424 and ordinance amending chapter 101 Police Department article 10 General Provisions section 55 rates of compensation administrative fee payment for services fee for patrol vehicle use again of the code book of the bar Glass Pro 2425 in ordinance repealing Chapter 490 Health rules and regulations article 14 backyard chicken pilot program of the codebook of the bar of glb and adopting a new article 14 to be titled backyard chicken program ordinance 2426 and ordinance of the bar of glassbook glost to County New Jersey accepting site easement for green ab and Wilson ab and a storm water management facilities declaration from 601 North Main Street LLC and authorizing execution of said easement and declaration ordinance 2428 ordinance of the B of glor GL County New Jersey accepting a fence easement agreement from Rosanna B lant and Johnny lante and authorizing execution of said agreement and finally resolution 2429 an ordinance authorizing purchase of property known as block 427 Lots 25 and 26 on the official tax map of the bar of glb BR County Gloucester state of New Jersey properly known as 231 East Stanger a again the motion to open to the public would be for the public of they wish to comment on ordinances number 23 through 29 thank you move the poly portion be open for ordinances 2423 through 2429 second okay I have a motion and a second all in favor State I I opposed any extensions motion carries the floor is now open to anyone from the public who wishes to come forward and address ordinances number 2423 through 2429 seeing none I wish uh I make a motion that the uh ordinance be adopted as written that's 2423 through 2429 we close the public the publiction it yeah motion to close and to adop make a motion to close the public portion and the ORD adopted as written how's that second I have motion and a second Karen roll call please Mr Brown yes Mr casabon yes Mr halter yes Miss Miller Mrs Spence yes motion carries uh at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 27th 2024 as well as the closed executive session minutes of August 27th 2024 so move second I have a motion in a second all in favor State I I oppos abstentions motion carries uh Karen could you take us through our Communications please yes mayor I have two letters of retirement one from Timothy eses of the glassbar highway department and I have another letter of retirement from Kevin Skidmore of the Glassboro Highway Department motion to approve second I have a motion any second all in favor State i i i opposed extensions motion carries I will move to committee reports and begin with council president Miller good evening mayor good evening um I would like to thank Timothy s and Kevin Skidmore for the years of service that they dedicated to the glaso highway department and wish them well in their retirement thank you very much uh councilman Brown yes good evening mayor thank you good evening I also would like to congratulate Timothy eses and Kevin Skidmore on their retirements and I in receive the financial Financial reports for the month of August that is all I have at this time thank you very much sir uh councilman casone yeah thank you again I would like to also congratulate Timmy Eis and Kevin Skidmore on their retirement I wish him the best of their retirement and and health so that's all I have thereor thank you very much sir uh councilman halter hey good evening Mr Mayor thank you in reced of the water and sewer report they continue to make Replacements on the galvinized pipe replacement here in town I know they had a couple of water breakes also recently they've been out actively working in the community on that so thanks for all the work and congratulations and wish happy retirements to the two gentlemen noted thank you very much sir uh and councilwoman Spence thank you mayor I'd like to also wish uh the best of Timothy and Kevin in their retirement and I also want to mention that we tended to ribbon cuttings this week one on Saturday at Seeds of Love Yoga in Devil Tree I'm not Double Tree I'm sorry everybody shop right the plaz over there and also today at Wing Stop in College Town shopping center um welcome both of these new businesses to Glass borrow and hopefully we'll be at many more ribbon cuting moving forward that's all I have thereor thank you very much uh we have no unfinished business Karen new business please yes mayor I am requesting to go out to bid for a water main pipe and fittings motion to approve the clerk to go out the bid for water main pipe and fitting second I have a motion and a second all in favor State I I opposed extensions motion carries uh at this time I'll ask for a Engineers report please Jim thank you mayor council welcome um we've got uh uh the uh town houses at Ora the DR Horton project they are still continuing to construct the uh some homes in different sections there the High Street tow houses they have done the final Paving uh there and there's still some minor repairs that need to be done before they get off their punch list straga Court that's the the neighboring uh uh subdivision or the neighboring uh project that will be built but they have uh uh tied in their Force main to the project at the High Street tow houses so that one that's done uh qz storage on Route 47 uh they do have their PCO uh but they do have punch list worked underway that has to has to be finished up Lucio's Bakery they have punch list items also to finish up on their site work and they've got uh fit out work to do within the building itself demountable Concepts uh that project they've completed their uh their clearing uh and they've do starting their site work on the project Bo Boulevard once again we are just waiting for um that's the New Jersey DOT 2023 project the bid has been awarded uh we're just waiting to uh to schedule the when work will start on that and that's just a milling and Paving project on board Taco Bell uh planning board conditions they're all address so we're just waiting for them to let us know when construction will start toward the end of the year raisin cane that construction still continues and we're still uh inspecting that work desmone Builders their their work is continuing continuing also and we're inspecting that um New Jersey State Highway Route 47 the Reconstruction work that will be started in uh at some point um and you'll be start to see different signs of work being done on there uh and at some point probably early next year they'll start with doing some work at the intersections themselves and then Alfred Avenue that's the New Jersey DOT 2024 project that we've got a grant for that is under design at this point that's it Mr thank you very much sir thank questions anything for Jim thank you again sir thank you uh at this time I'll again turn the meeting over to our borrow solicitor yes thank you mayor on our consent agenda for resolutions we begin with 248 authorizing refund of tax over payment 249 authorizing cancellation of checks over six months old to the glasow municipal court general account resolution 250 authorizing cancellation of checks over six months old to the glassor Municipal Court bail account 251 authorizing submission of Grant application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs local Recreation Improvement grant for little league foul ball netting 252 authorizing agreement for certain Professional Services B glass B sickles and Associates ink for outbound survey topographic survey and fresh freshwater wetlands delineation 253 authorizing refund of Street opening performance guarantee Mark Springer resolution 250 for authorizing shared services agreement between the county of Gloucester and the bar of glor for Road intersection improvements mulliger Hill Road and Joseph Bo Boulevard Harvard Road resolution 255 appointing electrical subcode official for the bar of Glassboro and resolution 256 authorizing an agreement for professional service with the burough CES and Associates Inc elmir and South Glassboro bur own properties preliminary R development evaluation and there are resolutions on the consent agenda Council so moves for approval and for the reasons noted under each roll call vote motion to approve okay I have a motion and a second Karen roll call please Mr Brown yes Mr casone yes Mr halter for Miss Miller Mrs Spence I have an exstension on 25124 yes so everything else motion carries at this time I'll entertain a motion to open the meting to public move the public portion be open I have a motion in a second all in favor State I I opposed extensions motion carries the floor is now open to anyone from the public who wishes to come forward and address mayor and counsel for those members of the public we do have rules and regulations they are outlined on the agenda note if you do come forward please identify yourself for the record name and address and there is a five minute limitation thank you hi everybody hi my name is Regina AAL I live at 321 depford Road and my question I have two questions all right first question is what do the 25 Rowan police and the 28 Rowan security guards what are their roles in Glassboro the roles of the police department in glb yeah row police yes in Glassboro that would have to be addressed to Rowan do they okay all right that's yeah do they back when our police officers are in a situation and they call for assistance does Rowan respond Chief would you like to address this please thank you thank you Chief okay um my next question is about when there's a situ a situation where a resident calls about a party I mean we all know that they're not all College kids that are at this party all right that goes out on Facebook and you've got license plates from everywhere all right if the person signs a complaint does that complaint go to the resident or does that complaint go to the landlord we've been sending them actually to both okay in that case at what point do do the landlords suffer consequences because of the parties that are there so we have a meeting we started this probably two years ago we have a meeting every Tuesday Morning in which we review the problem properties over the weekend and what we've been doing with it is first occurrence and a lot of this has to do on how severe the occurrence is first occurrence probably nothing second occurrence warning third occurrence we potentially could move move to revoke their license and that's what we've been doing with that when this person signs this complaint and this complaint is given to the resident the resident is then aware who signed the complaint against them no believe so okay and the reason I don't believe so I'm looking at the chief ask they are aware yes okay sorry that's what I figured okay thought I would ask all right and one more question is do you have any um design on limiting the number of dispensaries in the town yes two two thank you you're wel thank you very much thank you for your questions my name is Charles Hughes 31 North child Street Woodbury New Jersey I have some information that I would like to share with the um with the council and it has to do with um the Route 322 bipass so at the about month ago I said that I'd looked in all of the uh minutes and uh documents for glassbar a burrow and I couldn't find anything about the 322 bypass project but what I did find was I found a resolution at the county level from 2018 that authorized a study for the Rowan University US Route 322 bypass study it was for a million do it was supposed to be for fiscal year 2018 and 2019 and um there was another one last summer that added another $74,000 onto it and um the question and and I'm not asking the questions I'm just saying this rhetorically and I hope that it helps uh people to get to the bottom of this you know I said if the purpose of the bypass is not to bypass Rowan University why is the study called Rowan University us 322 bypass study uh I looked at the billing list the bill list for the county and even though the job was supposed to be completed at the end of 2019 only $100,000 of the 1 million had been paid to the uh engineer by the end of that so question is what happened to the rest of the million dollars and then I looked at the bill list and over the past six years money has been sent to the engineer engineering company with the name of the project on it and it ended up being uh I think $55,000 so the question is what have they been doing the last six years I know they don't report to you guys so was what has anybody seen any interim study projects about this it was supposed there was supposed to be a concept development report at the end of the study and has anybody ever seen this and has anybody sent an Oprah request in there were there were like three different projects that seemed to be mentioned that have something to do with this study and you know the last question has anybody looked at the rfps or contracts associated with these product projects there's a lot of discussion about this and it's on it's even made its way as a ballot question um and it's going to have a great effect on the city of um or the the borrow of glass borrow so I hope this information that I dug up helps people thank you thank you thank you good evening my name is Irene ciki and I live on Princeton Road I have two questions one uh came to me from a resident off of Franklin they are concerned about markings on depford road Ellis Street and Gerard what's happening there because we as residents on the ridge don't know anything about it do you IR do you know what color are they blue or they yellow they're yellow that's the gas company that's the gas yeah uh we we Mark blue for water green for sewer so if it's jell it's the gas company okay so are they replacing lines or I would imagine that's wider Market I don't know you'd have to check with them really but that's that's who it is it's a gas company it seemed kind of weird cuz they're like circular and that's why I never suspected G gas company okay the second question I have is about the students that live on the Ridge and outside side the 322 I almost hit one because they are on the phone and just walk in the middle of the street or cross in the middle of the street not go to the sides what's going to happen to them are we just going to forget them forget the students yeah no we don't forget the students so what are we going to do to help them well that's what it's an ongoing process we're trying to work to make everybody in the burrow safe it's what we do every day so we're we're working to try try to mitigate the traffic try to give them places to go safe walkways to go through these are all things that are in the works and in the process we're well aware of the issues of all these students and how they travel in Mass numbers uh trying to get street lights lit up so that our law enforcement can properly keep them safe uh it there's a myriad of things but everything is geared to I can assure you that myself and everybody sitting on this de uh and all of our public sa Public Safety is Paramount in the burrow I'll say it now I'll say it over and over again um if you're in the burrow of glass buror um you are to be the safest you have to have safe have you guys thought about a just one side parking on High Street uh we've had all kinds of ideas thrown out okay any possibility we have one side we change it we Chang we do have one side parking on High Street on High Street is on one side in the in the business district yes in the business district M okay cuz I'm seeing cars on both sides with parking permits it was it was absolutely terrible from Whitney Whitney to Ellis and that's where were the kids cross we could look so we might take a look back because we did it the other way from Ellis to Dela where we made it one-sided okay so possibly because these kids are I'm telling you they come out with their phones walk across they don't care who's coming by and I know I shouldn't say this because I'll probably be the first one to get a ticket jay walking well Irene you know they do things even at their Circle I mean they now they don't hardly hit the button and just walk right straight across so you know we're doing everything we can but they got to obey the law also yeah but who's going to get in trouble the driver I agree with you 100% but you know there's only I hate to say but there's only so much you can do tell the kids that and Mr Vicky I might add too in addition to all the work that we're doing in the burrow the the county is also aware uh because certain roadways involve the county and the state as well uh and I assure you they all know of the issues we have and how quickly we'd like to get all of them mitigated okay what then if the county was so aware why why the circle because PE Cherry Hill did away with the circles they said it's the worst thing you go why would a College Community with engineering school put a circle I believe the state is the one that wanted the circle my and if I and if I had to guess you they're there for uh speed control is what usually what they okay I'm only I'm only saying what I that's not my words that was a long time ago yes so maybe Mr Ry could answer that next time I see him thank thank you hello hi I'm Vicky Downing I live on 305 mcland Avenue and sort of to tailor at the last question uh Rowan released their economic plan back in March and they expect to increase their student populations from around 20,000 in 2023 to 38 ,500 by 2033 now they did state that the majority of that they expect to be online students but a portion will be actually physical students so with that number of increase um right now they say 34% of the students reside in college owned or Affiliated housing and then 66 percent are off campus so what will we do in the next 10 years when we anticipate even a bigger influx of students than we have now we have horrible traffic on delce drive just as we stated the college kids are everywhere um don't really think about their own safety I saw two kids try to cross Dela drive across the four lanes yesterday you know not at a light just standing in the middle of the road and as they start to infiltrate the residential communities um I know we have like five houses around us now on mcland Avenue and the one house I counted 11 cars um there at that at that residence so what plans do we have as the numbers continue to increase to address the problems that we already have well we're constantly addressing the the Rowan has been growing every year um so we're it's it's always been uh something that we've always been working to now those numbers um at the University throughout our very recent num so it's all new to us too okay uh and we're basically at this point uh digging in and just uh amplifying what we're doing now uh we think outside of the box so is there anything definitive that we can say right this very second uh I'm going to say no but I can most definitely assure you that we are well aware and working towards uh a way to we can all coexist together and is it true that there's a law new oh I'm sorry no I'm sorry uh finish because I was going to add a couple things okay I was just going to say I've heard that there's a law New Jersey that you can't restrict like where landlords can have housing and I mean there's no there's no way you can limit the college student off campus houses to a certain area or a limitation of how many are in a particular area you can't and what our frustration is like when you see these 24 story houses going up we've tried to fight that and it's we were told by a judge it's a family so we've done a couple of things right away uh we passed an ordinance not too long ago that you can you can't build anything bigger than a five room house in glass BR anymore except on two areas that we've completely lost already which are Main and were main braks off the carpenter but even with those we then went to called rsis parking standards and we petitioned them to give us some relief because right now even if you build there and anything more than five bedrooms you only need three parking spaces we petitioned them and guess what we actually won one so we won so we there we're trying everything we can the other thing that we've come under a lot of pressure on is parking why did you go with the paid parking well if you look throughout the town there were a lot of people parking overnight all over the place if you looked behind Angelo's Diner every morning there were cars all over the place you can still park there but you're going to pay us 8 well guess what it's cleaned up it's completely cleaned up so I tell you this and that this is a constant battle I I'm here dayto day we fight it the other thing we've done is I'm going to be honest with you we didn't find out Rowan is increasing increasing the Freshman enrollment by 800 students until August 6th that's the first we found out about it we then went to Rowan and said you're increasing your Revenue but your expenses you don't increase them but you pass them on to me in Rowan's defense they then did give us another police officer we've been fighting this they now pay for four uh police officers and three firefighters and we're going after more good to know know that I'm just letting you know that this is a battle we fight every single day and we we all live in town like I live on popular Street I say it so I just tell you that because we are passionate about it and we we want to go we want to get our fair share great thank you thank you good evening everyone Mr Mayor my name is jilda prey Clen I'm at uh depford Road 323 depford Road um I have a couple questions uh concerned about the engineering company that was originally set out to do the 322 bypass at Rowan um I believe it's Taylor and McCormack or McCormack and Taylor I was uh overheard somewhere that now there's a different company in to do it or is it still with them far as I know it's still with them it's still with them that's correct okay and according to Mr Bruner's um comments in the newspaper that there is a new development and it's to include a new road to be put in somewhere when will the city know this uh when we know about it I I'm not sure what road Mr Bruner is referring to um but I don't know I'm not aware of any new road uh in addition to the aside from the proposed bypass Renditions that we have I am unaware of any other any new road and have you seen this article that Mr Bruner I have not no okay it says here uh there's no question that there is a serious traffic problem in the area that must be fixed and with their with their input it's anticipated that a new road presentation will significantly reduce the original concerns right I think he's referring to the byass he means new he means new presentation not new new road presentation okay meaning that he had taken a new road as you you may know we tried to do a presentation back in July just to let people know what was going on and it was didn't didn't work out that way lot of fun wasn't fun oh sure it was but in defense of the county and us they took it away and he's referencing that they are looking at alternatives to not include Gerard Avenue where a lot of the people were angry about back in July okay but not that a new road was going to be put in not that I'm aware like Dr Leo McCay bouer that's a new room yeah we know nothing about any updated Road presentation that's what he's saying there you know an additional one yeah okay and and will we have a presentation of the new design yes absolutely okay and could it be a little bit more publicized than the last one you want it more public we we had about 800 people at the oh I'm not talking about the high school I'm talking about the original PowerPoint presentation that a college student could have probably done better than Taylor and McCormack did and I was just uh wondering if it you know that wasn't publicized enough that that was going to occur unless you had a Facebook page or a computer and there are a lot of people that don't well like I said at that meeting uh that we were referenced to earlier um when a presentation when it's time for another presentation where we listen to you all and we will make sure that the county does the presentation that is suitable uh to the residents so that they can understand to the best of their ability we'll continue to say this as well the burough will not make any decision without bringing it to the residents for them to look over and offer their opinion that's how we operate That's How we'll continue to operate and I'm one of those people that sent were out petitioning or getting signatures on that petition for the ballot questions that are coming up next month and or in two months really because today's still September so we're really proud of that thank you for your time folks I just want I mean that was the reason that we did the July presentation because we did the the county ini ated the first presentation it's County and then we heard our residents did not to your point wasn't publici so we worked with and County said no problem no problem and they worked with us and really that whole presentation was broken down in sections because there was a lot of confusion and Our Hope was that people could walk to each section talk to the engineers but people just came in and just really did not want to hear a thing and quite frankly I recommended that presentation that way along with the county and it was one of the worst things I did in 24 years of being on here because people just didn't want to hear it yeah I still think it was the right way to go but I people just didn't want to hear it it would have been nice for like seing in a Q&A as opposed to just here's our boards but that but I thought it could be more informal that you'd have the opportunity to talk directly to an engineer and say Here's my thoughts but then when we got overwhelmed with all those folks that didn't work out that way okay I'll be the first to admit it yeah thank you again thank you hello my name is Mindy Smith I live at 220 Foxboro drive and I have a couple of questions or maybe just statements I I you may feel that that meeting was publicized I found out about it about an hour before it started by a text from a friend who said are you going I said going to what I had no idea she said it was on Facebook well I'm not on Facebook I'm a public what I'm just curious what is a better way to getting caught because so I'm really concerned Why nothing about the bypass has ever been in those mailings that we get about what's going on in Glassboro I would think the bypass is a huge thing I read that cover to cover do you know what I'm talking it's like folded over it has like the things in the Parks movies in the parks that there's nothing in there about that like that shows up at everybody's house so it doesn't matter if you have Facebook now I'm sure a lot of people trash it and don't look at it but that would be a way to get it out you're sending that anyway I I think that would be really helpful for people like me or maybe older than me who don't do Facebook um I I'm not going to go to the website and look for meetings which I had that argument with the uh High School principal she said well it was all over the website I said do you find out about your meetings by going to the school website and looking and see oh what do I want to attend this week you can't do that people need a way to be informed and like I said that goes out to every single household so then you can say we told you I I think that would be a great way I think another great thing would be to have you um put in there that if you want to sign up to be informed you know and put out a newsletter you could email it you save a lot of money it doesn't have to go through the mail if you send it out and in there people can sign up that would be a great way to get informed and I would appreciate that I did not know about that meeting like I said I got involved starting then um and I it seemed that I did talk to the engineers I talked to Miss Spence the engineers didn't seem to understand that Rowan is the problem if not for Rowan we wouldn't need need a bypass the population of Rowan when you include faculty staff everybody who attends there is as big as Glassboro and you're piling them all into one little tiny spot and the kids are insane they do like press the button and just start walking and then expect you to stop on a dime like you just can't do it they are the problem and they're not going away but the residents still need to get through and as a resident I'm going to tell you I feel like we are the on who always pay the price you may think the paid parking is a great solution but I think it's a pain in the neck it doesn't help me at all it it just makes it harder for me to go anywhere I should now have to pay to park to pay my tax bill I mean that's ridiculous this is glbo it's not Center City I have to the library whole thing is ridiculous and now I'm in this dumb boot it is so far to walk to get to the library it's easier to go to Mica Hill you are sending people away and I just think you need to know that I I would like to be more informed and I would like to have an opinion but I feel like things like I don't know how that paid parking got pushed through that we didn't get a vote on that I don't is there a way that we could undo that if the residents felt that we wanted to is there a path to do that no we're just stuck with it you ma'am you can I mean you can petition anything um I think that some of your uh concerns are valid I think some of them are misinformed as far as the bypass is concerned the burrow again went to the county because we were concerned about the increased traffic right in front of our town square and uh down in our in our downtown area we we were seeing trucks and all everything is coming from points West to get to Points East uh similar to the issue that they had in Harrison Township where 322 is broken up by by Glassboro it's here and then here so we wanted to reroute traffic that's trying to move to East from away from our downtown period everything else came along the way was offered up and as a as additional improvements from the county but I'll say it again the bypass by the burrow standard is to try to connect as best we can to 322 to the other end of 322 trying to route that traffic away from the downtown had nothing to do with r can I just ask a quick question too before you go Mindy first off is that a shopping injury no it's walking to the Ridge and stepping off the paved part on the secondly when we signed you up for the um burough you still haven't gotten it I know I put your email in there right so okay I'll check that out again all right Mr Mayor thank you very much Mr Mayor if I may yeah May ma'am I just wanted to address one or two things that you said at the end if you don't mind the burrow Council we attempted to work on other avenues for the library project on multiple occasions some of which weren't supported by the library Advocates themselves the size and things like that we are still actively looking at alternatives for the library that was a situation that was brought forth after the county said they're going to provide five years of funding for that space where they are right now they're in a brand new space the usership at the library was D dramatically down uh through different studies that they had done I understand that some people aren't happy with I my own family members aren't happy with the size of the library we are actively working on trying to get a bigger and better Library than what we have it may take some time though um as far as the paid parking I've heard what you said about it's not Center City in while I agree with you we have just as unique situation here in Glassboro that Center City does and Ocean City does and Shore points and things like this for all those things that you mentioned about Rowan uh their dramatic growth and everything those are some of the things that we've been trying to combat here in glass and that was one of the decisions you know having uh residents ask for things to be overturned and voted down and petitions and things like that that just proves problematic for how we're trying to constantly work on situations that we have right now obviously our residents should have a say and things that go on in our town but that's one of the things that we're here for is trying to make sure that we're doing the best for everyone collectively uh I don't exactly love having to pay for parking when I come in downtown either but it's a situation that we've grown into here in Glassboro we had residents or we had businesses rather that weren't able to turn over their patrons coming in and out and that was one of the things that was supposed to ease that and so far it has eased that for the majority of the businesses in that especially in that district downtown that's just some of the things I mean we're constantly working on improving things and or addressing situations and again the library situation we were looking into a different avenues for that and we're still looking into different avenues for that so that's a temporary spot it's a 5year lease it could be shorter and it could be longer ER if need be but we're trying to actively improve that I hope so I'm glad to hear that and the only other thing I would say about parking is you talked about overturning it this Council from day one we've been tracking that and because what we heard is no one will go downtown I don't okay well can I I'm just going to tell you I do track it every day August was the best month we parked over 10,000 cars the councilman Halter's Point um the cars were just park there forever they weren't turning over and September will be our biggest month of parking down there as well just in regards to cars turning over and while August was our biggest month over 10,000 another interesting stat was 31% of the cars that park down there parked for free used the 30 minutes so I hear what you're saying and and again the councilman Halter's point we we look at this every single day and it would have been turned over if no one was going downtown but what we saw is we gave the ability to have more people park downtown the easiest thing I was a council person for 20 years would be to tell everybody who comes up here yes I could take care of that but when you have numbers and facts and it doesn't always a piece no matter what we do we're gonna make somebody angry but the fact that you have numbers that say this is what's actually going on and it was never a money you know people said it was a money grab you know how many tickets we issued last week six six 243 warnings with six tickets we don't want to bake anybody it was to turn the businesses turn the cars over let people get in and the numbers are substantiating that but if I park there doesn't the policeman have to look up the license plate to see it's just a reader it's a reader and we have a parking authority who who does it who goes around all they do is Boom Read It and and they're on their way it's that quick because it's a GL for a resident we should just be able to park the issue again is the Rowan kid it is it no disagreement you won't get any disagreement with but some glass bar residents that were rentals were parking in those spots as well so you got to be really careful to differentiate between them it's it's not just as cut and dry I live in glassbar I should be able to park for free not if you were a rental and you shouldn't be parking on the street all night with your car right so it's it's there's a lot to think about there frustrating and I feel like the residents are the that pay the price every turn every decision that's made it's harder on us well remember we're residents too so whatever decisions we make affect us just as well so we're not doing it lightly believe me if I didn't love my neighbors I can't tell I have four different neighbors no five that have offered to walk my dogs and have been walking my dogs and helping I love Hidden Creek I love my neighborhood but I hate everything else the it's so frustrating it is so frustrating deing with trying to get out of my neighborhood is very frustrating and I don't see the bypass present presented as anything helpful I think it's going to make it worse the way that was presented so far it's just frustrating and I will end up leaving happen and I've been here for over 30 years but I appreciate you listening absolutely thank you very much Anthony alvario 522 Delaware Street in WB New Jersey I just want to make one point the clarification on the um on the on the subject that Mr Mander was brought about the Stations of uh the July meeting uh to this day that would have been an okay meeting if they provide us with a simple map to this day the only map available is the map that Mr us made and we of the know to GCL are backing because the reason why we're interested is because we see a connection between the bypass and the GCL so that's why we're studying it very closely if a map would have been presented T night a lot of the problems have been over but when you put stations in different areas so you can uh control the narrative that's said no no I'm hoping this time around that people talk to them and they'll come around with a with a good map because we're going to look at that map very carefully okay thank you very much thank you good evening good evening um I'm my name is Steve CLM I live at I also live at 323 depford Road uh I was one of the people that went out and got the signatures for the questions on the ballot also um in your last the last statement you made about the bypass you said that uh the the major concern or the focus of it was essentially to get the majority of the traffic away from downtown Glassboro yes yeah well the original plan that we that got us all involved as Citizens with this situation was uh because when they wanted to use the original plan to you go up Gerard Avenue the understanding was that the road was going to be closed after the railroad tracks down okay well I understand that was your understanding yeah if that was if that is the case and there was a way found to shunt the traffic away from downtown what was the necessary part of closing that piece of 322 as in I tell you in all of the meetings and discussions that I've sat in personally uh with about the bypass and try to come up with a a finalized plan about the bypass at no time was there ever a discussion to close off 322 there that's what was my understanding I understand that that section of road was like a what is it a fifth of a mile or something I it went from I can being owned by the city to the county or something like that there was a transaction where the ownership of it was transferred right and that the original idea was that once they got that section closed because the the main thing we were told was that this all started because of the number of vehicle and pedestrian incidences I suppose that occurred on 3 on 322 in a 5year period and they said there were 15 of them where people had been injured or some something bad had happened that that's where the discussion of the bypass came from yeah okay and and ENT but it was only really five in that section of the road we're talking about so we would be shutting down that piece of road you know because of that situ I'm sure that you have more incidences like that in downtown Glassboro yes on a yearly basis yes I don't know what the number is I have no idea yes but it's just but when you said about and then at the end you said that has nothing to do with Rowan I I submit that it does if I may clarify okay when the burrow went to the county about proposing the bypass Rowan was not part of that discussion okay now as the discussions began to grow then that's when when when we offered the bypass to go around the town that I referred to the county then said well in an effort to keep some traffic going to your downtown we can do upgrades to Gerard but they never said we were told nothing at the time that the idea was to close off that part of 322 it was just a discussion to upgrade the roadway pave it make it nicer make it look more presentable things of that nature upgrade the intersection around University and Whitney all those that's I'm telling you what the burrow understands the bypass project to be okay maybe I'm incorrect but I don't think I am I don't necessarily think you're incorrect I think there's a whole lot of misinformation going out there um it was made very apparent at the meeting at the school and we are continuing to work uh within ourselves and with the county to make sure that the next presentation is done uh to more to the liking and the benefit of the resonance so you better understand it was very clear to us that there was miscommunication and some misunderstanding about the information that was being put out and I will tell you again for myself and everybody on this de that does not make us happy we want like I told you we don't do anything without like we're transparent I know our bur administrator says that we say it all the time uh we're trans we're extremely transparent whether you believe that or not um and I can tell you that that no project will move forward without the without the residents having some sort of input in it that's just how we do things well it just seems like this thing came out of nowhere I and I understand I understand that and quite honestly from our standpoint a little bit of it did toss too well of course I gave you my address yes my wife and I lived on De road now for like 20 years and number the people in the neighborhood we see what's happening with the of the students I submit to you the guys that that original plan was to close off that that oh I'm not denying that sorry and a Rowan University wants a continuous lad Mass from North to East they want south to North sorry across that way they want to have that whole they want it all connected and I believe that's where're headed that's just my feeling from what I see understand we hear you all right well thank you very much thank you very much sir we appreciate it see no other members of the public wishing to speak I'll make a motion to close the public portion second I have a motion and a second to close the public portion all in favor State I post any extensions that motion carries the public portion is now closed at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve all duly authorized bills motion to approve second I have a motion and a second all in favor State I any opposed abstentions yes mayor I'd like to obstain on PO number 24-3 698 thank you mayor I have some extensions as well 24-0 3888 0242 0255 and 03862 thank you very much extensions been noted motion still carries uh any closing comments from our administrator all I like to say I'd really appreciate the residents who came out tonight and talked and this is how we move things better when we don't shout at one another and it was I I could not appreciate it more and your input at least for me was greatly appreciated thank you thank you stole my thunder I'm sorry no and and and listen um and that's I said I say it again that is the Mantra of everybody up here on this de we we're here to serve you and that's what we do and we do it with pride and and we take great pride in doing that um as we move forward you will be informed uh as quickly and as best we can uh again like uh my administrator said thank you all for coming out sharing your thoughts and concerns I encourage you to continue to come out and share your thoughts and concerns uh I want again congratulate uh Mr ES and Mr Skidmore for all of their service uh to the burrow and uh with that I'll entertain a motion for adjournment motion to adjourn I have a motion in a second all in favor State I I opposed any extensions motion carries this meeting is now adjourned thank you again everyone have a great evening next regular meeting will be October 8th 2024 6:30 p.m.