##VIDEO ID:WKQnuJFVono## couple big crowds out there theog the F and six grade oh nice go that are know e is that is that you no I thought Accord out always up good evening everyone I hereby announce that pursuant to section five of the open public meetings act the adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the notice which was sent to the Asbury Park Press the Two River times and posted on the Bolton board in township hall and filed in the township clerk's office on January 3rd 2024 mayor and preva dudo here Mr Foster here miss L Mountain here Mr Romano here and Mr L lucarelli is absent this evening mayor you have a quorum thank you Wendy if everyone will please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America the for stands na indivisible all right we get to start this uh party off with the fun stuff we have a proclamation here for the uh boys fifth and sixth grade Hy a CLL Champions all right here we go come on come on here we [Applause] go all right guys here we go whereas the hyaa boys fifth and sixth grade lacrosse team won the coastal Lacrosse League championship for the second year in a row and whereas the team team arrived at the championship after having defeated defeating Wall Township in the first round and Rumsen burough in the semi-finals and whereas all members of the team contributed to this remarkable season and they all consistently displayed exceptional dedication and teamwork in their pursuit of excellence and whereas this group of now seventh graders look forward to the upcoming season during which they will work hard to pursue the coastal Lacrosse League championship for the third year in a row playing strongly again their Shore comp opponents and whereas the players were LED supported and encouraged in their Endeavors and successes by coaches Kevin buin TJ man Adam artist Mike flarity John smigelski Mike bardino and Tim Cassidy now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and Township Committee of the township of hell that congratulations be extended to the following Andrew Rivera Ian Sharma Bradley Denton Brandon Bogan Kaden Wes Cole zizo davano bner Bodner Dominic satii Ethan Levant Sam Levant fiser Artis lachan Buchan George zanakis Harrison Cassidy Jack Marciano Jack smigelski James fucer Joey winter Lucas Marciano Max nski Maxwell colen Tony Michael berardino Nicholas San Filippo Rari FL CL and Teddy wall personally and officially on behalf of the residents of the community for their outstanding achievements be it further resolved that a suitably and gross copy of this resolution be presented to the team as a small token of the esteem in which they are held and that all best wishes be extended for all continued success of their future Endeavor congratulations boys come on up come on up fellas better hold [Applause] you got one all right take care congratulations I it was mine for a second master way all right we now are moving on the New Jersey Chiefs Association presentation the home Deale Police Department accreditation recertification Chief you want to come up uh good evening everyone my name is Harry dogado I am the cre program director for the State Association and I'm here to recognize your Police Department tonight and to add context to what I'm about to say about 54% of all the agencies in the state of New Jersey I'm talking about law enforcement agencies but inclusive of chair's officers uh prosecutor's office many other uh including a academic uh universities that have low enforcement agencies are eligible to apply for accreditation so out of all those 54% had made it through through at least once now those that have stayed with the program and made it twice that that percentage percentage excuse me drops to 32% and that's the elite group that the homel police department have joined by having achieved successfully achieved their accreditation so if you indulge me for two minutes I'll like to share with you the significance of the achievement so the hevale police department has once again made a commitment to adhering to best practices at the state of national level in a highly regarded Statewide law enforcement accreditation program this evening they're recognized for achieving their re accreditation this program administered to New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and the New Jersey Law Enforcement accreditation commission has sell to transparently demonstrate the professionalism and prepar of state's law enforcement agencies it is purposefully designed to enhance professionalism and transparency in the state's public safety system now during this uniquely challenging times we would agree uh in with the threat to our health and safety that encouraging law enforcement agencies to follow standardized practices and procedures is a potentially life saing and cost effective investment of time and resources accreditation gives an agency a preparedness plan and a verification of Excellence gradation status represents sign a sign a significant professional achievement just in the uh interest of brevity I just simply want to uh share in close and want to share with you um just a a comment made by the assessors that we're here because after the three years actually we do come to uh the site we make sure that we conduct a final assessment uh and many instances that's when we decide whether the the agenc is going to be recommended to uh uh present in front of the uh uh commission as they did says under the leadership achieved uh uh achieved uh Frank alako a high level of competence leadership and professionalism is EV within the agency the department is currently undertaking implementation upgrades in additions to uh the computer dispatch and um excuse me I'm trying to talk so fact I wanted to save you the time and tripping over okay well thank you so uh in effect they have a strategic plan in which they're look they're actually addressing issues of of Technology Tres of police uh hiring and retention as well as training so which are you know interesting pieces of uh um in components of their future issues as we call them so it is the opinion of the assessment team that the home new police department is a highly professional Community agency which simplifies all of the tenants of law enforcement ACC creation of the state and National level so indeed it is my privilege here tonight on behalf of the New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and the New Jersey Law Enforcement commission to congratulate Chief Franko creation manager Lieutenant Vincent imperato the members of the home Deale Police Department the mayor the council and those citizens that they so proudly serve for having achieved reaccreditation joining a very very exclusive group of law enforcement agencies in the state of New Jersey that have made this important commitment to Excellence in Poli to all indeed congratulations thank you very much certificate all right let's turn that around and get a picture with that congratulations everybody thank you Chief thank you commissioner want I think I got [Applause] if I could just have one more second please mayor I just want to thank you and the township committee for your support for us to be able to um move forward with this accreditation I'm so proud of the men and women of our department for the hard work that they put in to get the accreditation done and a special thank you to our accreditation team um the captains Captain Akerson captain pigot and I have sergeant groer lieutenant um imper and Sergeant Moore also they worked very hard to get this recertification and I thank them um for all the hard work that they did thank you thank you Chief thank you [Applause] everybody so if if we may I think we're going to uh I'd like to switch up a little bit our order of presentation this evening while we have the chief here and officer minoski I'd like to take uh the moment for the homeo police department to stay on and and uh walk through some of their information before we move on to the jcpnl presentation so Chief and and and officer minoski just for the The public's knowledge um there will be two things addressed in this in this moment one uh the turnike authority has reached out to us recently yesterday yesterday I think it was actually um and they've talked about to us the congestion that we see on Crawford's Corner Road and the uh entering and exiting at Exit 116 which when I was a kid was heavily policed it was you were not allowed to go in and out of the parkway there since then somewhere along the way that's changed um so as a result of that conversation we've asked officer manoski and the chief to walk through some numbers for the town just to be transparent about the comings and goings and how much volume we're really seeing and we'll see where these uh where these conversations go we're waiting on some dates from them to to schedule a discussion so mayor due to the um the heavy traffic issues that we've been having we um we have taken a long hard look at that and I asked petrum manosi to uh take a look and do some counts for us to give us an idea of what the traffic is at that uh coming on and off the um the Overflow um roadway the access roadway and I'm going to turn it over to him he'll go over his numbers um just just a brief number of some of the um numbers that he has and then some of the issues that we've been seeing great thank you good evening everyone um this first came to light you know we've noticed obviously the issue of of more traffic getting on and off there over the years but once the Board of Ed you know was starting to bring to fruition that they were going to combine the start times with the SAT school and the high school we took a harder look at it so back in May of 2023 I sat out there with just a clipboard and um you know a pen just to sit there and just do some tally marks to figure out how many cars were there had my morning coffee with me I did you got there nice and early at 6:15 in the morning I picked up that pen and I was shocked that I couldn't even put it down um I was doing tally marks left and right and it was averaging probably about 100 to 125 cars every 15 minutes so that totals to about 500 cars an hour um between the peak hours of the morning commute there and the PMS um I didn't um do those then but I repeated those same counts um in June of uh 202 for we saw about the same so the exact numbers um from 7: to 8:00 a.m. back in May of uh 2023 we saw 606 cars total that were on that road um from 8 to 9:00 a.m. we saw 504 vehicles uh the peak 15minute window there was from 7:45 to 8 a.m. which we saw 190 vehicles within those 15 minutes so like I said that was a lot there and there was only 267 cars in the computer lot itself so you could see how much of a majority of the people are just using that as an exit um in June of 2024 I conducted from 7:00 a.m. to about 9:15 um a.m. and from 7 to 8 a.m. we saw 570 cars and from 800 to 9:00 a.m. we saw 498 cars that peak time there was 7:15 to 730 we saw 180 vehicles and there was a pretty big increase in the amount of cars that were in the commuter lot so at 915 I counted about 453 cores that were in that commuter lot so fast forward a few weeks uh we started talking a little bit more and we have a traffic counter that we ever to just mount on a poll out there and that was um I think it was from June I'm sorry August um 26th to like August 30th is when I had it out there so again our Peak um times are 78 a.m. uh those two hours in the morning and then 4 and 5 PM in the afternoon so those numbers here for um August 26th 4M we saw 421 vehicles um the hour of 5:00 p.m. 455 vehicles for whatever reason 10 p.m. saw 676 cars so I got to double check the concert calendar see if there were any concerts going on that night to um to sustain those numbers on August 27th 7 a.m. that hour we had 551 Vehicles 8: a.m. uh 768 vehicles and then 4M 448 vehicles and 5 PM five uh almost 500 Vehicles 497 the total count for that day that was the first um 24-hour period we had that machine out there and it was about 6,000 cars total so if you subtract that from from you have the 500 that may be in that lot you're in the 5, 5500 cars that are really just in there using that as an Ingress regress from the parkway so so we're looking at approximately 5,000 cars a day at least during the weekdays correct give or take okay there was one Peak day which I don't know what the anomaly was and that was on the 28th and that 8 A.M hour we saw a th000 vehicles that 1047 cars and that total for that day was um 6137 cars so like I said most of them were pretty average for around that 500 an hour during those Peak commuter times am and P.M but like I said that one day was an anomaly for over a thousand cars and I believe the lane leading into um off of Crawford's Corner Road it was 600 cars in that lane total okay so I mean that's 5,000 cars a day we've only got I think 5,500 households in hell so unless there's one car from every household coming in this has become a pretty significant through point for probably a lot of our surrounding neighbors I would think between that I've we've heard complaints from Township employees trying to get out you know after their their work day saying know it's just hard to get out any anym with the traffic that either backs up at the stop sign or people that come off Home Road and they you just watch them they go to make that left onto the access road and the first day and fire department Shar the same concerns because you know minus the volume issues then you have the congestion maybe from a concert and people getting on and off and the road will back up you know past the high school and Northbound and Southbound on home Bell Road then you have volunteers that can't get to the buildings to get to the emergency vehicles to go answer calls you know you have intoxicated patrons that may be leaving and some of those issues related to that kind of thing but like I said as far as the volume goes that's what we're looking at that's far more than I ever would have imagined exactly all right well thank you that's really helpful you know again folks are waiting on uh on some dates for the from the turn bike authority to let us know when they want to meet um and then uh we'll see what you know what the future holds it is their Road it's their toll if they choose to enforce something there's nothing we can really do about it um you know but I also think you know we have to be mindful of uh we're certainly mindful of residents that do use it for convenience purposes we also have to be mindful of the fact that you know Crawford's Corner road's been in some pretty tough shape lately um and we have three you know we have our Emergency Services buildings along the road as well um and so there's certainly some safety issues some concerns that could arise from the volume exactly thank you no problem for our help appreciate it Chief you have a moment to talk a little bit about some uh activity in town lately yeah um I just want to just give you some brief information on some of the burglaries that we've had um recently it it may seem like we we're we're we've had an increase in them it's it's only been this last um month or so where we've had a few um additional but I just want to give you some numbers because we're really not up higher than any other years now to date up up to today we've had 13 residential burglaries two of the victims of those burglaries were Asian business owners so they weren't there at their houses during the day and the houses were hit you know were burglarized during the day four of the 13 cases the actors were identified in charge so our our guys have identified and made arrests on four of the burglaries that we've had we've had eight motor vehicle burglaries that's cars broken into or attempts to break into the cars three three of those eight were the felony Lane gang and if you don't know who the felony Lane gang is that's the group that goes around and hits the cars in the Parks when people are out of the cars they leave their valuables in the car in pocketbooks and stuff like that they smash the windows and go in and break into the cars and we had five attempts there have been no actual stolen cars this year we've had no stolen cars we've had a few attempts we had one just the other night on rambling Brook um we put that information out when we do get those attempts we want to make sure that our our um residents are aware of that um there's been a number of stolen cars in our surrounding towns um some of it you've seen in the newspapers and some of the issues that they've had not to say that these individuals haven't been here and looking because our guys on the midnight shifts our officers have a number of times seen the cars that are coming through and chase them out of town and just get them out of here um unfortunately that car the other night got in here but um they they do they do know the type of car and our detectives were up in norc today um located a vehicle and was and was processed it um compared to last year in 2023 to at at the same time we had 17 residential burglaries two were cleared by arrests we had two cases last year also of Asian business owners homes that were burglarized we had 12 motor vehicle burglaries three being the felony Lane gang nine attempts and in last year up up to this point we had four cars that were stolen um and recovered but uh this year we haven't had any but we we have been seeing more activity recently and our and our officers are out there uh the other thing we have that that um is is helping us are the LI the license plate readers that we put in certain areas to uh you know help out with um identifying stolen cars in the area thank you I mean I actually didn't you know I didn't know the numbers coming in it's it's it's a tribute to you and to to to the police department the work you guys are doing that you know I mean I've been on here three years now and I felt like the minute I got on we were talking about cars being stolen at home D and to not have any stolen this year uh it's a tribute to the work you you guys are doing so we thank you for that and it sounds like overall you know these type of incidents are are declining for us and and uh you know so we're we're we're just thankful for all the hard work you guys put want make sure too that our residents even if they see anything suspicious they call us so we can get our guys over in that in those areas and also make sure that they set their alarms and have their videos cameras working because that has helped us identify certain guys no that's great I don't know if anybody up here any of the committee has any questions for the chief or anything uh there probably like half of them yeah absolutely yep do you mind taking a question or two from the audience while we got you here sure got um I know on rambling Brook they tried to Crowbar the kitchen window open or something like that rear window and I think it was a house that had a luxury car I've I'm on a neighborhood watch and I kind of lashed out this afternoon saying listen when everyone's ordering $10 Starbucks delivered $22 um Chipotle meals $27 salads we have all these new people coming in and out all you add that to the unmarked Amazon drivers now being they use their personal cars it's really hard to keep track of who's coming and going but um are you seeing any correlation I've heard BMWs are the hottest things they want right now um I I know um one house was hit many times are you seeing any correlations between what cars they're trying to get at and when they're then trying to get into house to even find the keys Prett pretty much it's the highend cost it's it's the highend cost BMWs Mercedes anything anything highend any and are they mostly ones parked on the driveways or not necessarily it depends it's not necessarily we have had them yeah onve yeah and are are the licensed plate readers you're happy with the the performance so far mix yeah I know they're not going to be perfect like because I heard on again on this chat that they're figuring out how to bypass them already changing plates or no the only yeah there's only so yeah there's only so fast so and and if you don't mind Jay I I definitely want you get your questions out but if we could save maybe for public comment because I don't want to it just would be easier I think the chief you'll stick around if that's okay no that I I mean I'm done I I mean I just yeah you know you're they're crowbar into Windows people are very unsettled by us um and I know there's only so much you can do I know people should have their cars in the garages but not necessarily they can fit them or maybe they can't but um we really just need to be very Vigilant here because I'm I'm on these chats on these things and people are really not happy but and the numbers are great I'm surprised at the numbers but this recent uptick is worrying a lot of people yeah I think that's none of it's good but the perception seems to be worse than what's actually taking right I agree so and that's you know again a credit to you Chief and the work you guys are doing appreciate that and appreciate the vigilance of our of our residents as well and their participation and making this a community effort too so all right thank youate would you guys mind because we have JC P presentation would you guys mind I I don't want to interrogate the chief oh sure absolutely and he starts to drive completely different are to the okay all right Officer thank folks if we can we have some other stuff to get through we can if you stick around for public session if you don't mind a public comment uh thank you Chief thank you officer minoski we want to keep this moving until we get to public comment if that's okay um next up we have uh j a representative from jcpnl somewhere there we go and so um so just just to to level set the crowd um you know we've had there have been some complaints coming my way I live in South Homedale uh some complaints my way particularly about South Homedale but overall um around power outages even some brown outs or blinks you know here or there where power goes out and to the extent with which you can provide us information about what you guys are doing what your plan is what issues have been occurring over the past couple of months I think it would just be good to give folks peace of mind or an understanding what's happening sure I appreciate it and uh Frank Luna with jcpnl um first I want to say congrats to the chief I mean our our folks in uh jcpnl work very closely with your police department and you know whether it's blue sky day I was talking to the captain about some license plate readers uh oddly enough which we had uh worked with your department on getting done and then obviously during Emergency Operations I know we've worked very closely with the detective Fernando for uh quite a while on what's going on with your o OEM so you guys have a top-notch team here and I think the accred re accreditation uh proves that um you I also say that as someone who's worked in politics and government for a long time before I took this job with jcpnl spent a few years in the milit um you know Public Service matters and I think you know a lot of times these Council meetings can drag on and I know you're all away from your families and your kids and your loved ones and missing the end of the Mets game um for any of you Mets fans uh sorry in advance um but it looks like they won uh or will win um so you know what you're doing matters and you know whatever the hell it matters coming from me so um my role at jcpnl I'm a liaison to 35 municipal ities across Mammoth County pretty much everywhere from Avon up through the Bayshore communities everything from street lights to license plate readers to people who are frustrated with their power outages or uh you know Community grants that we get involved with a lot of different organizations throughout Mammoth County sorry uh I also would like to point out that these storms that are going on whether it's here or down south particularly there are millions of peoples who whose lives have changed very significantly over the past few days and um Millions more in Florida with the storm that's coming in we got dozens of line Personnel that are down there uh I talked to our one Foreman yesterday and I mean it is devastating what's going on down there and the work that First Responders and the utility crews are doing down there I I I wouldn't put that on anybody um you know they're finding dead bodies and there a lot of folks who are dealing with some stuff before I talk about some of the outages that Jay had sent over some addresses for me to take a look at I'll mention uh a program called energize New Jersey jcpnl submitted this back uh several months ago to the Board of Public Utilities it represents a nearly billion doll infrastructure upgrade proposal on that jcpnl would execute across our footprint um obviously we submitted that to the BPU they will give us their thoughts and you know hopefully you land closer to that number than further away from it uh because you know I think the residents which you're I'm sure hearing and our rate payers and customers deserve to see some of the upgrades that will happen so uh I talked to our engineering team to kind of give me some numbers that will specifically benefit hell itself um and just from a Global Perspective the in that uh billion dollars is is basically in Grid and substation modernization so what you think of as the grid is everyone's like well the grid the grid the grid well the grid is uh certainly in need of of some support which uh our proposal would show um that we think that there are some upgrades that are necessary there um substation modernization that's something that's a little bit less talked about um but you know the substations are what brings the power into the communities um that's kind of what we base our tree vegetation management work on you know we do it by substation circuits uh and I do have the I send it over to you guys I don't know how much you looked at but I do have those kind of specifics I can talk about so hometel would see about $10 million now give or take you know some of that work is outside of hell but would impact hell obviously in a positive direction everything from substation Works switch gear um to new poles wiring circuit redundancy where where you know instead of 300 people being impacted by a power outage which I I think we've seen um that was kind of some of that South Homedale area you know that neck of the woods has seen a few outages of like 3 to 400 people that when their circuit redundancy is is completed would be 80 to 125 um so that is a big part of what uh our focus is right now is just kind of working with the BPU to and then the amount of work that will come out of that we're hoping is very substantial and how long would it take to complete that work two years okay I mean yeah yeah I mean it's it's most of this stuff it is as simple as changing out a string of poles or hot wire or uh hot spots on wires um you know upgrading that stuff I mean it would be several year project but you know it's interesting you said something that um I I think some of the numbers that I looked at um when you're talking to the chief the perception is sometimes worse than what's happening and you know when I looked at some of the numbers in South Homedale um and before I get in I just I get a little wild so I'll go a million different directions and I'm always thinking I'm like I'm already thinking about the Yankee game tomorrow night um so it's playoff time I mean it's that's what we're all thinking about it some way um so the in 2023 just so the residents understand we did trim uh we did a lot of vegetation management so Crawford's Corner sub which may mean nothing to you May mean everything to you but I I just pulled out some of the T the names of the streets in that area Algonquin Road Alo is it alako I know I was I was joking with him I mean good Irish guy in the back there um so and then Brisbane Court that's another area of Crawford's Corner sub this is a work that was done last year where we essentially just trim these these areas back uh people complain that we do it that it doesn't look great um and we just tell them like hey we don't own the trees so if you if you if you would prefer them to look better or differently you own them you can do whatever you want with them um just keep them out of our wires uh lindro sub which is really only windr Windthrop lane and then the terot lane sub uh which is Shore Haven Steven Court Laurel Avenue Indian Creek Road back back there this year um we're coming up on Haslet substation Craig Street Chestnut Ridge Deerfield hell road that area there we we vegetation management next year we have a substantial amount of work that's going to be done free new sub which is Line Road Andis Drive Bethany Road the bay substation which is Marson Drive Raymond Court South Laurel Avenue kingburg sub which is morav uh Palmer court stempler court so a lot of times people are like hey what's jcpnl doing well I just rattled off tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of vegetation management that we are proactively doing um in areas that we have determined have outages related to vegetation um I often note we don't own the trees we don't own the property that is the trees are on we don't own the insects that invade this certain species of trees that Hollow them out and they fall when they're sitting in the middle of Mrs Smith's Road on a beautiful July day and uh knock out 1,400 people out of power but often times we are left with the responsibility to maintain that vegetation um you know i' I've had plenty of conversation particularly in the more Shore communities about trees that people can plant under or near our utility wires that would never touch them and would still look beautiful um for whatever reason I think the tree City USA stuff a few I don't know how long Jay do you remember when that was when whenever that came to fruition there those trees that started getting planted underneath the uh utility wires are certainly making sure that we are remaining tree cities um so outside of the vegetation management obviously every day if there's a car accident that knocks out a pole we're replacing that pole if there's a Transformer that gets identified that's leaking some some uh fluid we change that Transformer if our crew is out and they notice that there's a wire with a hot spot I mean they're looking at this stuff with INF infrared lighting to see if there's an area of a wire that's too hot they get up there they make those those changes so those are things that are also happening I did look at the area that you referred to Chief and that Jay had sent me some outages or some um addresses winth Drive which I mentioned we'll see some I saw some work uh in 2023 some vegetation management winth up Drive Greco Road Brown Court those are some of the addresses um since January of this year I found a total of four power outages now like any data it could be skewed I could be missing two I could have two more than R um out of those four power outages three of them lasted under two minutes which you kind of referred to those are your your flickering quick outages that is our equipment doing what it's supposed to do that is a squirrel getting into a place where it shouldn't be we had an outage caused by a cat getting into an area of a substation where it used all of its nine lives up pretty quickly um but it it caused a pretty severe outage and people cannot fathom that it was caused by a cat um some of the outages that you know are in line with kind of some of the data that I I was able to review with our engineering team Branch comes down pops a wire out tension of the wire oh there's nothing on it pops back in 2minute power outage you wake up in the morning and you see damn why the hell my lights flickering and it if uh I didn't write the dates down but they were there were a couple that were like somewhat close together like in the month or two range where knowing even myself like I know oh power went out last night because I woke up and my alarm clock is not blinking which uh is not a really good excuse with your boss in the days of iPhones um so I did look at that stuff our engineering team looked at kind of that specific area when they reviewed the outage data there was nothing in that that caused alarm the fourth outage was an extended outage and that was related to inclement weather so there's nothing that our engineering team identified some folks are like well why would your engineering team care to identify anything we do well when the power is on it's that simple so if if our Engineers see something going on somewhere they want to be proactive they want to fix it they want to keep the meters spinning um so I I as always want to be accessible I think our team wants to be accessible I mean we work with your professionals you know on a daily basis sometimes uh residents in town about street lights I know Orchard AV I have some street lights we're trying to get put up there right now which I hear about um Jay may hear about it I know your Police Department your DPW guys are hearing about it every other day um but that we're like anybody right now we're dealing with supply chain issues so something simple as brackets we're uh as impacted by the supply chain stuff as a lot of construction and other utilities are so um I don't want to be prolong anybody being here if you have questions comments I can stick around or I can answer them now I mean yeah I think if if we can leave it up to the governing body if we have any questions and then if you wouldn't mind sticking around for public comment I'd like to just people have things and questions they want to ask I'd like to keep it all contained in there if that's okay but just just from my perspective um or just for for a better understanding um are you seeing more or less outages or flickering or things of that nature on the engineering reports this year versus last year year to date is it about the same they didn't run last year um I'll I'll be very Frank with you when the number of outages in that area came back is four they they were like dude get out of here you know they L they were hey this is not a thing there's not an issue out there we had one outage of weather and three were less than two minutes that's not an equipment issue that's not a circuitry issue that's a hey tree branches falling and it is also a very isolated area that you guys looked in and there's actually far more home homes further south in Hell along Main Street and I'm not sure what grid they're on or what differences there may be but it was a sample but it was a rather small sample comparatively speaking to whatever whatever else is there that's why I'm just kind of asking if there's any type of broader perspective those are the the streets that you guys provided me so okay um that's what I looked at all right so so I think if we can go back and you can get us a report on a few others and and Jay you know it's it's going to be ladwood r rambling Brook um you know the ones in in that neighborhood as well there's just they're just much larger neighborhoods Eli I would say also um and let's just get some reports there and if you wouldn't mind getting us numbers that are from last year or this year if you can just we can just see how it'll help us understand to your point earlier about perception versus what's actually taking place that was your point I just stole it from it yeah I'm bouncing it back to you there you go yeah thank you cool anybody else Jay can we just wait we're going to do public comment for for him if you don't mind yeah I I I want to just get through everything else and then we have uh the chief and and officer asking everybody here too if there's more questions there I'd rather just keep it all in one all right now moving on to the fun stuff public comment on agenda items only yes ma'am uh Jenny Blumenthal 41 Stony Brook Road I had a question which probably goes to Jay about consent agenda item um 237 which is about the safe Street Grant and it went on for many many pages and I read it and when I got done I was completely unclear as to how much money you asked for the feds this is a grant from the do federal um they're passing out a million or few shkel up back and forth on that and then there was charts and charts and charts but by the time it was all said and done I had no clue what we were actually looking for because what surprised me was we're sharing this money with Highlands and Bradley Beach so it was fairly mysterious can you elucidate by all means Mr administrator uh thank you mayor uh yeah this is a this project actually goes back several years um the the Genesis of it is that uh there were three municipalities in Mammoth County one of which was Homedale Township uh in the county uh planning department and engineering department as well each filed separate applications as part of the application review process it was suggested that the applications be Consolidated into one allocation I figured that out yes and to answer your specific question hondale Township is the recipient of $200,000 of the total uh just over about $1.2 million and uh part of the rationale as I understand it from uh uh the grant re application reviewers at the uh the federal uh Department of Transportation or Federal Highway Administration uh was that uh and I can only speak specifically to Hell most of the specific specific areas that were identified for review uh involved either State highways uh intersections with State highways or with County roadways so it was felt that uh uh the recommendation was based on uh the efficiency of having this done on a Consolidated basis that has con uh really translated into Mammoth county is the lead agency and we are what's referred to as a subrecipient so we'll be working closely with Mammoth County as the lead agent to address uh this Township wide I'll call it um uh safe Street Initiative for um potential Highway improvements this is I should reference that this is a planning and uh uh review Grant this does not provide construction funds but the intent is that uh once the study has been completed that this will put us in line for potential uh construction Grant funds so this is to identify certain State and County Road intersections that might need some help aid and assistance that's correct okay there an awful lot of words any other public comment on agenda items only going once going twice all right on to the consent agenda do we have a motion to approve second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay resolutions on the consent agenda 2024 232 to 2024 238 have been successfully passed thank you thank you Wendy we purposely carved out this resolution separately um I have a statement I want to read before the governing body votes on it and it's a little bit lengthy but I think it's important to get everything out there I don't want anything misconstrued or any misperceptions or things taken out of context so at the beginning of the year I made our residents aware of a proposed highdensity housing developments in Middletown on Hell's borders at Red Hill and nut swamp roads given the proximity of these developments and the sheer magnitude of them originally totaling more than 470 units we as a Township have tried several times to intervene in the case as a Township we have the same concerns you have that developments such as these cause major issues for our environment storm water runoff traffic and safety regrettably each time we tried to intervene we were rejected by judge Linda Gro Jones under the municipal land use law hell like any neighboring property owner has automatic standing to challenge a zoning ordinance change within 200 ft by a neighboring municipality the judge held that there is no right for home Del to intervene into this Builder remedy litigation litigation which seeks Court imposed zoning change basically judge grao Jones is saying that because the develop these developments are proposed to fulfill an affordable housing mandate our concerns don't matter enough to provide hell with an opportunity to make our case the impact on our environment doesn't matter to her the potential for flooding or other storm water issues don't matter an increase in traffic doesn't matter your safety doesn't matter you as a taxpayer in the state of New Jersey effectively do not matter because the Mount Laurel Doctrine gives priority to a developer suing Middletown to make money building a massive complex that happens to incorporate affordable housing units in the past I've been caution against speaking in opposition to the state's arbitrary often ill-informed decision- making as it relates to afford housing as speaking out against could mean we'll be punished with more high density housing Petty retribution for speaking our minds well we can no longer live in fear we can no longer live in fear of the state that we fund with our taxes the original Mount Laurel Doctrine was based on a noble premise to provide opportunity to folks who wanted a different life for themselves and their families and it should be noted the people that occupy these homes are good hardworking people who in many instances are starting out on their path I often think of Single Moms new teachers firefighters and recent graduates consistent with the noble intent of Mount Laurel hell has complied with every mandate we've been handed to date through first second and third round affordable housing mandates even though somewhere along the way this process became perverted in my mind this is no longer the noble Endeavor it was purported to be it has instead become weapon used by developers to hold Town's Hostage to obtain zoning that constitutes bad planning but makes them money to implement to implement these affordable housing mandates unless a municipality wants to spend its own money the common practice is to utilize atide which is commonly 20% for affordable housing that means for every one affordable home to be built four more market rate homes have to be constructed because that's the only way developers can make enough money for it to be worth their while regrettably this process is less about providing affordable housing affordable housing and more about ensuring those developers can make money it's disappointing that earlier this year the legislature passed a new fourth round law that continues the old practice of imposing affordable housing mandates burdening the Suburban towns while exempting the urban ones I personally don't know how this law makes its way made its way through the legislature except for considering the outside impact of special interests such as fair share housing center and the power of campaign contributions by developers many of you I hope remember that this governing body pledged via resolution to reject donations from developers at this year's reorganization meeting if only our legislature would do the same to put all of this in direct terms later this month or more direct terms later this month we expect the state to mandate approximately 150 new affordable units to be built in hell what that really means is 750 total new domiciles in our town I want to think about that for a moment the state you pay high income taxes too is about to tell you that your town our town has to increase the number of homes by nearly 15% increase the population by nearly 10% because otherwise developers won't make money but you know what the state won't do the state won't help us with flood remediation it won't help us expand our schools to fit their mandated population growth in our district higher more First Responders or improve traffic safety and infrastructure as a result of their callous disregard for our environmentally sensitive region in which overdevelopment has already led to significant issues with storm water flooding and runoff and the dangers to our residents that more high density housing can inflict we are announcing this evening that hell is going to present a legal challenge alleng to New Jersey's next affordable housing mandate as outlined in this resolution on tonight's agenda in the coming weeks we will share with you all what shape this effort will take it's already I've already been in contact with a number of other municipalities and in a separate initiative 22 towns have banded together already to challenge the state on their own terms we will decide which path is most beneficial to our town but we've just come to a point that as stewards of your town as residents of hell we have come to the conclusion that we simply have to do something hell can no longer sustain can no longer handle these mandates that are coming down in the way that they're coming down we can no longer you know support developers making money on our backs we can no longer be held hostage by this it's damaging to our environment it's damaging to our town in the way that these are being done so uh I want to make sure we got that all out there I want to make sure everyone to the context of what it is we're trying to do and why um and in this resolution coming up uh there are really two pieces to it we are authorizing our attorney to appeal judge uh Gro what was her name judge Grasso Jones recent decision on not allowing us to intervene in the adoni case in Middletown and also to authorize uh our legal challenge to the new fourth round affordable housing mandate so with that said um I would like to ask the governing body for a motion to approve moved second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo okay uh affordable housing resolution 2024 239 has been successfully passed thank you thank you Wendy next is intruction of ordinance 20249 which is modifying section 30-17 titled storm order management and control this motion is to adopt on first reading publish in the Asbury Park and set the public hearing for October 22nd to 2024 do I have a motion move second Mr Foster Miss L Mountain Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay ordinance 20249 will be set for public hearing on October 22nd 2024 thank you thank you Wendy Mr administrator you're up thank you mayor uh as part of my report I was going to reference the fact that we had two resolutions approved tonight one was the The Safe Streets for all agreement with the county but I think I've already spoken enough regarding that uh additionally uh noting that uh uh the resolution tonight is awarding a contract for the Reconstruction of Pleasant Valley Road that is a partially funded uh NJ do Grant project um we will be receiving I'm sorry the the construction on this project will commence in the uh spring is that is that the intent that's however we want it to it can proceed in the spring if necessary yes additionally U our regular resurfacing Road program is underway uh some of the streets have been uh mil and paved in the northern section of the community the next phase is the those in the center section of the community and we expect that program to wrap up with the completion uh in November thank you sir I don't see our CFO here let's go to the engineer F Mr engineer first and then Mike will turn to you uh nothing at this time mayor thank you counselor thank you mayor just uh two quick items first uh consistent with the resolution that the township committee adopted I will file notice of appeal in the adoni matter up to the Superior Court appell Division and also speaking of the appell division um we've informed the public that uh the township did file an appeal from the bpu's determination regarding the New Jersey natural gas um regulator station that was installed and I can inform the public that oral argument has been scheduled in the matter um on on November 19th 2024 uh at 10:50 in the morning so um our special Council will be handling that and I assume a decision we're closer to a decision now that an oral argument date has been set and and Mike there's no more appeals after this right you would have a this potentially someone could appeal to the Supreme Court and ask the Supreme Court to take the case if if we were to lose by the way I don't want to be presumptuous well if if um yes if hell were not to Prevail in the Appel division the last step would be asking the Supreme Court to take the case okay thank you all right moving on to the committee Mr Romano you want to get us started yep thank you mayor in the home hell Library we have a number of library and program events this month the library book club is reading and discussing the book save what's left we have a new adult program mastering the art of public speaking aella the therapy dog will be back this month and every month for the libraries read to a dog program for kids and the libraries main display this month was titled I like big books and I cannot lie related to Junior fiction books uh from the Board of Ed uh congratulations to H Homedale High School National Merit Scholars a National Merit uh commended scholar is a student who scored in the top 3 to four% of all test makers on the PSATs commended Scholars are recognized for their outstanding performance in academic promise the township committee joins the school district in celebrating the following hell High School Scholars for their remarkable achievements Kylie Chang Rebecca Chang Nicholas Clifford mateline Hong Steven hum John King Celeste quack Alton lunberg Mia Marino Jack Powers Ava rosasco Ashley Sherman Mara unagar renu and Samuel z uh open house for eth grade students and parents is is October 8th or I'm sorry October 14th at 6:30 Dr herritz along with the High School administration and members of The Faculty invite current eighth grade students and their parent gu parents and Guardians to join them for the annual openhouse program don't miss the opportunity to tour hell high school state-of-the-art facilities and learn more about its rigorous and extensive academic and extracurricular offerings the election day school schedule adjustment due to the expected turnout for presidential election of the lay opening school day schedule will be implemented for all schools on Election Day November 5th this will enable all pre-work day voting traffic and to be completed before arrival of the staff and students after workday voting will commence after our schools have dismissed for the day voter traffic during the day should be comparatively low the district will work to designate parking for community members voting during the school day which will not impact parking for students staff and other visitors to our village and SATs C campuses as we have done in the past several years on election days when the school district has been in session the hell police department will maintain in will assist in maintaining site security at both schools thank you thank you Mr Romano M the mountain thank you mayor uh for the Community Development Department we do not have any new updates for this meeting uh the hell Green Team the green team is preparing for the community energy plan intake meeting with sus sustainable Jersey the team will also have an information table at the bellworks market on October 23rd the public is invited to stop by to say hello ask questions the Green Team also has been working with Village School and SATs science teachers to provide them with valuable information and we continue to plan for and work on our sustainable Jersey 2025 certification um I've mentioned in previous meetings that the green team has done a lot of research about um what's necessary and how we can um install EV charging stations if there's an interest um if anybody has any comments they'd like to share with me in regard to whether they think uh continuing to explore the idea of installing EV charging St ations um in in hell is of Interest or not not favorable please feel free to share your thoughts with me so that they know how much time to continue investing in uh this endeavor the hell Heritage committee this is Italian heritage month and the hell Heritage committee congratulates the Italian Community for a great Italian heritage month and offers thanks to to the Picassa family vignali family Maro family and Pino family who have set up a gorgeous display over at Hell Library so we're encouraging the public to stop by and enjoy this display the hell Library will also be showing a movie that celebrates the Italian heritage month this Thursday October 10th starting at 2 p.m. and a reminder we've announced at a couple of the previous meetings that Sunday December 8th we will be celebrating hell's Heritage day over at the high school from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. we continue to recruit volunteers for hell Heritage day any residents who are interested in offering their talents helping out at this Multicultural celebr ation event please contact the Heritage committee via email at Heritage committee at homedel township.com there'll be lots more information coming out in the next couple of weeks regarding the celebration thank you thanks Kim Deputy Mayor thank you mayor just a couple quick updates from the Department of recreation Harvest Fest will be held this Saturday October 12th from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Bayon at Farm weather looks to be beautiful that day which is nice admission and parking is free the day will include food vendors craft vendors local businesses a petting zoo BMX shows and inflatable attractions the live music lineup includes Rob Bradfield and also pure McCartney the quanas club will be selling beer and wine at their beer garden Harvest Fest will conclude with the showing of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown at 6:15 followed by a fireworks show to close out the night at 700 p.m. join your family friends and Neighbors at this great event as we celebrate the fall season and our great town we hope to see you then hell veterans committee the there was a Dar luncheon which is the Daughters of the American Revolution yesterday uh I was a well attended lunch in myself and the mayor were there I would say there was approximately 50 to 60 veterans not just from our town but a couple of the other surrounding towns our own Michael DS uh was an award recipient got to learn a lot more about what he's seen and done in his life and it's a very impressive story and we're happy to have him here as part of our town thank you to all the members of the Daughters of the American Revolution for the work they do to preserve our nation's history and to recognize all of our veterans and then finally it's just the last reminder to nominate a local veteran for the hell veteran of the Year Award nominations are being accepted on our website or at the recreation department window please do so no later than October 15th and I just want to pick up a couple of the announcements from committee men luk relli who's not here tonight for the hell first aid year-to dat responses and fun fundraising Drive the hell first aid is on track for a record high in our total number of emergency responses this year we appreciate the support that we receive from our residents and the township to make our continued responses possible if you did not have a chance to donate to our volunteer organization in the spring and are interested in contributing now please be on the lookout for the final round of our 2024 fun drive mailer through this month just want to reiterate again residents not pulling over for emergency vehicles Patrol manowski and and the chief kind of mentioned tonight as long as well as the mayor basically some of the traffic issues that we're having obviously with all of our Emergency Services here on this main road if you see them either responding to a call with their flashing lights so you see them on the road please just pull over let them let them get where they need to get obviously that's your neighbors not only on the ambulance but also who they're going to assist so please pull over can help us with our our our goal for that call uh the home Del fire fire department the fire department answered 38 calls for service in the month of September the fire department also had several new members join in the past two months four members are applying to attend a firefighter 1 Academy in this spring and then this is Fire Prevention Week the theme for this week's National Fire Prevention Week is smoke alarms make them work for you uh Department of Public Works there is another large item drop off event this Saturday October 12th from 8:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. at Bell works only one more after this which will be on the 26th and then services will resume in the spring the fall leaf collection will begin on approximately November 4th and run through the months of November December concluding in January each home is entitled to two rounds of leaf collection during that period and lastly Public Works will host a paper shredding event for homel residents on November 2nd at the DPW building which is 14 Crawford's Corner Road this is a free service but limited to Hell residents only and that's all we havek thank you Brian so last week committee woman of the mountain and I cut the ribbon on the courts at bayy Lane our new pickleball tennis basketball and volleyball facility located adjacent to the swim club home do residents can now make up to three reservations per week for the pick ofall courts using the recreation Department's wck desk portal and we've gotten fantastic feedback so far on those courts already so thank you to all involved making those a reality um I was fortunate enough to speak to my friends at the half century Club recently uh to Cedar Village as well always good to connect with the community community when I have the opportunity to do so I was also uh a judge uh this Saturday at the howow event at Alex's paw Park um we had just a ton of people there a ton of adorable dogs and families dressed in costume very very difficult to actually pick the most creative and funniest and best ones but an unbelievable event uh at a place it's really a gem you know in our town um as Brian mentioned we were at the uh veterans luncheon for the daughters of American Revolution uh and I do want to congratulate Mike DS who won the distinguished citizens award by them he is uh also the founder of unbroken warriors uh helping uh uh our our military you know readjust and and get the the help they need both physical and mental and emotional when they return um I also managed to uh attend and speak at the fall kickoff off press conference for Bell works the fall tourism kickoff for Mammoth County uh which is another really well attended fun event to think about all the actual landmarks we have in our town which are often forgotten um you know when you think about H Del Park and Bayonet Farms Alex's paw Park PNC um soon to be Robert Wilson Park or Robert Wilson Park but the soon to be usable and and ready to go Robert Wilson Park you know these are just um extraordinary you when you take a step back and think about it we really do have a lot of extraordinary assets in our town that people enjoy um I was able to attend the grand reopening of the mammoth County Library special thanks to library Commissioners for that event another another Well choreographed event uh including our own Marcy McMullen from Hell uh for inviting us and allowing us to attend and participate uh and thank you to my friends at the Jersey Shore Chinese school we were able to go to their uh event uh I was able to go to their event Saturday morning with assemblywoman Vicky Flynn um and speak to the crowd there about you know the initiatives in our town and the things working on and then also I want to thank Rabbi Galpin I was able to meet with members of the Jewish Community last night to commemorate uh one year since the terrorist attacks in Israel um so certainly a solemn uh day there and uh you know we hope for resolution and peace soon a reminder to homeo Residents that the final day to register to vote for the November general election is Tuesday October 15th for more information including sample ballots and instructions on how to register to vote please visit the mammoth County Clerk's election website at Mammoth County votes.org the M Mammoth County Clerk's Office also reminds residents that there are 9 days of early voting from October 26th through November 3rd at 10 polling locations around the county this information is also available on the website mentioned before Homedale Town off Hall offices and the recycling center will be closed on Monday October 14th in observance of Columbus Day please plan accordingly and a reminder that state law and Homedale Township ordinance require that all dogs be licensed and that dog owners ensure that their pet is properly vaccinated from rabies hell is providing a free rabies clinic for dogs and cats on Wednesday October 30th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the senior community center all that said I think we can move on to public comment so Wendy if you wouldn't mind kicking us off in accordance with the open public meetings act this is a public comment period for public comment on any governmental issue of public concern in accordance with resolution thank you Wendy anybody Mr trus Patrick trusa 56 Line Road first I would like to thank the police department for the home security U assessment and evaluation I signed up for that and promptly an officer came by and went through uh many things with me and my wife to improve the security around our house our our house and a lot of them were very simple things that were easily accomplished and done and I want to thank you and encourage all residents to do it thank you very much the second question um second comment is concerning the gas uh the BPU gas kind of thing you said you're going to be having oral arguments uh with that as you know the thing is in it's running it's quiet and um I've driven by there many times it looks pretty good to me um what would hell's remedy be if we do win this case to take it out or to uh because it it is providing a service to millions of people Downstream of that uh G gas line thank you through you mayor I think the Township's position would be the same remedy that would be afforded under the municipal land use law so if someone obtains a a planning or zoning board approval and that's appealed to the courts and the courts ultimately find that a variance wasn't properly given uh that applicant is legally required to rip out whatever they constructed you basically proceed at your own risk is the commonly established legal Doctrine for proceeding pursuant to a land use approval when one was not properly given uh this is a slightly different legal issue because it's appeal an appeal from the BPU rather than um under the municipal land use law but that I think would be the Township's position to have it ripped out okay that would cause hell a lot of more upset than just leaving it where we're continuing on the we're continuing on the path that was set and I think we're reaching the end okay the end of the line I think it's probably the best way to think about it uh Mr Yello first and then some others uh J and 18 lwood Drive um I rep we've discussed this topic before I can tell you I was at probably a hundred hours of meetings for that regulator station and um the justification for possibly ripping it out whatever odds that may be how low or whatever would be how disingenuous the utility was during those proceedings and how their story changed uh it was really an unattractive situation and they misled the town and etc etc um really quickly there were two very meaningful accidents outside of ladwood Drive between ladwood and Eli I guess over the past three or four weeks um do we have any data on what caused those accidents one actually and then there was another one the U IL Marcado that's a separate one um one car went into trees I know there's a sun setting problem there when you're going up 520 heading toward Marboro I know there's a lot of distracted drivers coming out of um both schools the college and and Christian Brothers you're always seeing kids with their heads um maybe Chief can answer that and the reason I bring that up is obviously as we seek to develop the vage property um I have I've been here 25 years I've never seen 520 as jammed up at 345 for the ever before I mean ever before and when we open that up it's going to only get worse I know something has to go there um also I know there's um an attempt to put diesel at Exxon at the Exxon Village um I can't even imagine maybe they wouldn't fuel 18-wheelers there but I can't imagine moving trucks or Amazon trucks or any other diesel vehicles there with this kind of traffic situation and these kind of meaningful accidents um Mr Delaney U I'm curious and a lot of my neighbors are curious we are very excited at the prospects of ladwood Drive getting repaved but many of us are concerned Why are we repaving in nove what Paving it's like Paving 101 you get a much better job in the summer it melts it gets a much tighter why are we I I heard we're on track for November and and I don't mean to be flipping about like are are we getting better prices is it the budget like why aren't we paving in July and August I'll let Jay answer my opinion is that I think wait till the capital budget gets passed before we kick off the next then respectfully I think we need to change that cu we're not going to get a Tight Seal I'll defer to the experts on Paving certainly the uh uh the warmer the weather you uh you do get the the the asphalt to go down more easily yeah but but it is common practice to pave you know right up through um you know the fall season until cold weather really sets in specifically this year we had some changes in Personnel that delayed uh the cap Capal projects particularly the road program for some period of time and we've actually uh are in the process of uh changing our schedule so that uh Capital actually uh starts in the fall um as opposed to the way it's been done in the past okay um and the Jay we've Mr Delaney J Jay we've discussed hell Road many times it's again getting to the point of almost being unpassable I know in the past you said you've talk to the county and it's somewhere on the horizon I mean it's really bad if you have a giant truck or a giant SUV with giant thick tires it's fine hold me there but I mean when is that road getting repaved it's it's it's a utter embarrassment and dangerous yeah I can double check uh that is a County Road it was on the County's alternate list for this year it was actually number one for alternate programs uh our last check with the county was that no final uh determin had been made uh as of yet uh typically actually in terms of Road programs by this point in the year we are usually informed as to a preliminary uh or we're close to the DAT date when the county tells us of the preliminary schedule for next year um and again the expectation is that if hell Road was not or is not completed as part of the current year program that it would be part of next year's County program but we'll double check on that yeah I mean it it can we push them to remediate it till then I mean it's bad I know mayor you live on the other side yeah we'll reach out some of us go up and down that eight times a day Y and then jcpnl questions later yeah why don't we in case other folks want to come just and in the meantime Chief if I recall the one accident I think on uh Main Street was a medical issue uh IL Marcado inva issue guys are distracted yeah cool thank you Chief any anybody else public comment Mr Blumenthal uh Ralph Blumenthal 41 Stony Brook Road uh question with regard to the ordinance that you introduced tonight I didn't see any text for that in the agenda I may have missed it what's the status of that what got introduced and when will that be available um thanks St water water there was a lot of back and forth but but it's largely it's basically the D model ordinance that the municipalities are required to adopt there were some minor edits that were going back and forth the final version was sent over this afternoon and the clerk will certainly have that available to share tomorrow okay the other question had a question for the jcpnl I don't know what where you want to take it no by all means I just wanted to make sure that fine no offense to Jay when you're three minutes are up I wanted to you can come back go ahead okay uh clearly you you mentioned extensively that vegetation is a problem because we have trees in this town uh the other choice of dealing with that Ralph can you speak into the mic I think this way we hear you the other choice of dealing with that is uh undergrounding some of the wires has jcpnl been considering that is an alternative Okay so because that would it's more expensive but it would totally eliminate the interaction with trees okay any other Mr J yeah I mayce the three minutes but uh keni HC Street um first of all thank you uh mayor for clarifying um the resolution about affordable housing I agree uh with almost everything you said um we know that the predecessor Co was not functioning well and we know a whole bunch of stuff right and that led to the Supreme Court back in 2015 and at that time both Homedale and Middletown filed um you know for declaratory judgment in terms of their affordable housing and everything you said is totally accurate and and you know you and your predecessors did great job in terms of complying with round three however I shouldn't point out and this is not a criticism of current mayor Middletown or anything like that because it's his predecessor did middl toown decided not to proceed because in 201 2017 2019 they just decided said it's a they're asking for too much and they walked away knowing that the Builder's remedy was always always something that's dangling over them it came by four years later but it came by so uh hell did the right thing we're in compliance we're protected from uh Builder remedy so I PL hell your you your predecessor and so on so um it'll be interesting to see how the lawsuit would go um watching this because you're absolutely right the um how they divide up that Noble idea of affordable housing between urban centers Suburban towns and so on is a something that's very difficult so anyway JC cpnl um you know it's it's really encouraging to hear that uh jcpnl is finally coming to the 20 20th 21st century some of the things being mentioned by the way is being used in other utility companies so we're talking about smart relay where a scir or a tree hitting a branch and reacts and re uh reconnects when there's no further Interruption that's been around that technology has been around for some time ing does that for a while so I'm I'm glad to hear that they're doing that because it wasn't that long ago when we had you know we talk about sending linesmen down Florida and anticipation of the storm they sent linesmen up here and it's only as recent as 5 years ago we seen in the newspaper they could not believe how Antiquated the equipment for jcpl is the substation the distribution line and some of us remember it wasn't that long ago 8 years ago when they tried to build a transmission line telling all the min IP alties that will solve all their power outages when the main transmission line was out for 10 hours doing a 20-year period and we have a backup to that main line and this would have been a backup to the backup so I'm glad they actually spending money on the distribution line in terms of maintaining of the tree that is part of the utilities company to do that they are they are supposed to do that but for them to say that we're proactively doing that that's right you know what the May is doing his job well I know you are but that's your job so thank you thank you anyone else for public comment Jay you want to go for round two um this is for jcpnl um I used to cover the utility industry and I'm not sure about the current regulations but um a lot of what I believe a lot of what's not being done by JCP are things that come out of there um operating expenses which may not necessarily be recouped from rate payers a lot from what I understand this big project you're talking about a lot of the big bundled tree trimming projects are adders or things that go in the rate base that are guaranteed a return on investment by rate payers all of us however over the years things like run-ofthe-mill telephone pole improvements street lights things like that come out of their operating expenses their profits which then go up to the parent company First Energy so with that in mind and I know you guys may not own all the telephone poles when we see a telephone pole for example between hell Road and 79 in Marboro that's gone from a 30° angle to almost 42° and it's been like that for years by the way my mother was in town and I took her to Marboro to go to breakfast at over easy this weekend and she goes oh my God look at that telephone poll I said ma it's been like that for three years why do we have that and if it's not your poll jcpnl why are we not on the phone immediately with Verizon whoever owns the poll um respectfully I know have a job to do 35 communities to hear you up here joking about the Yankees and Mets when we have thousands thousands of street lights out in Mammoth County we we don't okay let me give you 400 484 284 in Mammoth County and how why are they still there out why are these lights still out let me give you an example Red Hill Road it's a two mile road I just drove Dr it tonight I know you're yawning and turning around Red Hill Road in May had eight street lights out it's a two-mile Road it's a very dangerous Winding Road tonight right before this meeting three minutes before I walked in it has 10 street lights out 10 they've been out for years two street lights out right around Village School two two no I shouldn't have to you that's your guy's answer all the time you want to pay me $100 an hour I'll drive around and report all the these lights out two in front of St Catherine's Church lights are out two sir this should not be residents job I I doubt you have only 400 lights out in Mammoth County on you think you you why aren't they being changed why aren't they being changed why aren't the bulbs being changed you don't have an answer well what's your answer why aren't no I don't want to talk after the meeting these no no this utility has really been abysmal at the local grid we've decrepit telephone poles we have telephone poles in home do 30 degrees this one on home do Road and my my mom was a gas I don't know how many lights we have out if you want to pay me to go around and drive and Report the lights out I will do that but I'm not asking you to work for another three hours this I don't I don't want you to I've heard your dog and pony shows up here for years okay but the lights aren't being changed it's not our Police Department's job to report these lights it's not our job to report these lights we have I'm not I'm not going to keep going when are you once and for all going to do something and and spend the money that would not go up to First Energy we don't need another rate case another thing that's going to be build to customers for a light pole bulb changing we need you guys to spend some of your money of your profits to change light bulbs it's pretty simple instead of coming up here and joking about the games there are I just saw and I'll be done in a minute I what car sir this has been going on do you think we're morons in this town guys guys guys I'm sorry you're your honor I'm sorry mayor and Prevo I respect them I respect all your employees that risk their lives getting on the polls what I don't no I respect I respect those people I don't respect the people in the office making the decisions of what their priority should be I I don't want to talk to you I've talked to you for years and nothing has changed I will say one thing I will say one thing overall Ralph overall in South hell reliability overall seems improved the momentarily does seem worse this past year so there is definitely some improvement I would say rate payers are paying for that in these adders but this street light situation these telephone polls listing there's no excuse for it all right guys whatever they are guys I just I your wires I want to do more should do it guys I just don't want to do more back and forth here but I just don't think we should have this gentleman here anymore until these things are addressed okay okay thank you before we close I just want to uh mention two things that I missed earlier one I want to thank committee woman L Mountain for joining me last night at the uh uh to meet with the Jewish Community gentlemen guys let me just we're going to wrap this up you guys Take It Outside um I want to thank committ wom L Mountain for joining us uh last week with members of the Jewish Community to commemorate the terrorist attacks on October 7th and I want to thank Deputy Mayor Foster for joining me at the mammoth County fall tourism uh kickoff I neglected to mention these guys earlier so thank you and I apologize for that with that uh let's have a motion to close second all in favor I I