##VIDEO ID:_8BFM5UbSuU## adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meetings act pursuing to the public laws of 1975 said notice was advertised in the Asbury Park Press and the beacon and was posted on the Bolton board showing the time and place of the meeting please rise for the salutes of the flag and a moment of silence I pled to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay okay open up second reading of ordinance 2024-25 compensation for CWA local 1088 employees ordinance of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey amending an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey of fixing and determining the salaries wages and compensation for the officers employees and members of the governing body of the township this is for the CWA union agreement it is a 2-year contract um and this is the second reading so open the floor see not make a motion to close it second all in favor motion on the ordinance move second Mr KIRO yes Mr Kennis yes Mr McDonald yes mayor Juliana yes second reading of ordinance 202 24-22 amending chapter 79 of the township code book so as to create the position of police investigator an ordinance of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey amending and supplementing chapter 79 of the Township Code entitled officers and employees so as to create the position of investigator for the police department this is a position within the CWA union um second reading open the floor to public comment see now make a motion to close I'm sorry bar you're getting slow man it's getting slow and I can't see and I can't see ask me somebody asked me to ask this okay what's the difference between an investigator and a detective entirely different because it's civilian it's a civilian title so we have a clerical person that has been doing Firearms reviews and approvals of that uh doing different Discovery and they petitioned Civil Service the state of New Jersey to say that their duties were not a clerical duty but they more aligned with that position and Civil Service granted it gotta so it's a civilian it's a CI it's like the uh dispatchers that no no it's the clerical people it's it's and and that title is part of the clerical Union as well got it yeah thank you very much for clearing that up thanks Barry anybody else make a motion to close the floor second all in favor I motion on the ordinance move second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor Kola yes mayor Juliana yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing the exe execution of an agreement with CWA union resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey ratifying the terms of a memorandum of agreement and authorizing the execution of a collective negotiation contract with the CWA local 1088 um as stated earlier this is a 2-year agreement move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor kollo yes mayor Juliana yes resolution 2024 d263 authorizing the appointment of an assistant violations clerk resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey appointing Don Marie jacobe to the permanent full-time position of assistant violations clerk for the township of lacy this is to Philly vacy our municial court office move it second Deputy Mayor KOLO yes Mr Kennis yes Mr McDonald yes mayor yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing a provisional promotion in the police department resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey provisionally promoting Brian wus to the position of investigator for the police department pending promotional procedures due to the result of a desk audit Veronica just explained this one um this was for a desk audit his job duties were not within the title that he have move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr kis yes Deputy Mayor K yes May jul yes resolution 2024-25 appointing regular members to the environmental commission resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey appointing Heather scanland and Carol midor as regular members to the environmental commission for the township of lacy move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr kennet yes Deputy Mayor KOLO yes mayor Juliano yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing the execution of a solar project resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state New Jersey authorizing the execution of a solar project site access and due diligent agreement with the distributed solar projects LLC move it the the township is exploring the opportunity of a community solar project she paused she this would be on a vacant piece of property um behind public works again this is exploratory um and would allow site access move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr kenis yes deputy mayor collo yes mayor jul yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing an interlocal service agreement for the board of education for an alternative Day program trust resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing the execution of an interlocal Services agreement with the Lacy Township Board of Education for the alternative Day program um this is for trust which stands for together Rising upon successful transition so it is for grades 9 through 12 to intervene with students who might be on um long-term suspension or those who are socially emotionally or academically struggling move it like it jeffie mayor CA yes Mr kis yes Mr McDonald yes mayor jul yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing a donation to The Ocean County vot vot vocational technical school excuse me resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing the donation to The Ocean County Academy of and Public Safety we'll be donating a retired police vehicle um to the votek um public safety program for them to use and learn move second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor KIRO yes mayor jul yes resolution 224-260 authorizing the cancellation of old outstanding checks resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing the cancellation of old outstanding checks from the Lacy Township current and Trust accounts this is in the total amount of $3,730 122 move it second second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor K yes mayor Juliana yes resolution [Music] 2024-25 yes resolution 2024-25 m529 453 move second Mr McDonald yes and I'll stain on 235 I'm sorry t t 0035 Mr kenis yes Deputy Mayor Caro yes mayor Julian yes motion to approve the caucus minute meetings from September 12th 2024 move it second Mr canis yes Deputy Mayor car yes Mr McDonald abstained I wasn't here uh mayor Juliana yes motion to approve Township minute meetings from September 12th 2024 move it second Deputy Mayor KOLO yes Mr Kennis yes Mr McDonald abstain mayor Juliana yes motion to approve executive session minute meetings from September 12th 2024 move it second Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor collo yes mayor Juliano yes Mr McDonald abstain okay I'm going to open it up to the committee Deputy Mayor thank you mayor uh just a couple of short things this evening um this first uh is for our seniors uh between October 15th and December 7th be aware that uh it's the Medicare open enrollment and it's specifically it's going to talk about Part D and this will affect what you pay for prescription drugs so I would say familiarize yourself uh go to the website uh if you have to make any changes you have until December from October 15th to December 7th to do so I was at a uh veterans commission meeting last night I was reminded to uh remind all of us that 1111 at 11 November 11th at 11 out front will be our annual honoring of our veterans in addition on December 14th at 12:00 noon at good luck Cemetery there a wonderful National program called wreaths Across America and I'm sure the mayor will comment more on it and she's very involved with it and she's a wonderful strid and supporter of it uh as we all are um so that all take place um it's if you have a veteran in your family you want to just thank one of these men or women it's so appropriate and it's wonderful it's a little bit of a tearjerker but uh go there please December 14th and support all of them at our beautiful Cemetery over there last order of business um there is going to be a school board referendum we asked some difficult questions last night uh as Mr McDonald and myself are the liaison to the school board appropriately um Veronica was there who is knowledgeable on all these matters as well so my ask for our residents is to just educate yourself what I had said was I wanted a very clear explanatory statement sometimes I've been told in the 11 years I've been up here and in and around the political scene we can't really understand the question can can you can it be explained better so my my ask was that it be explained well um we we uh several of us attended the presentation uh last week uh where the school board holds their school board meetings this presentation was an hour in length and sharply right after that the school board meeting commenced so appropriately it was open to the public I do wish more public were there uh as I counted I took the time to count one night uh that evening and I S I counted 25 people so I would say um we all want to be supportive of our our children I'm not here to take a position one way or another please educate yourself it's going to be an item moving forward and that will conclude my comments tonight thank you mayor thank you Deb mayor Mr kenis thank you mayor um I also attended the information session um for the school referendum um and I think Pete had his comments were right on I would say that um everybody do their best to educate themselves on on what they're voting for and and uh what the schools are trying to do um question one or uh when they uh there were a number of people there they did ask a lot of questions and I thought they answered them as best they could on the referendum if question one from my understanding if question one there's three questions and if question one fails then the other two automatically fail um but you have to like Pete said just educate yourself on what you're voting for and why you're voting for it and uh and my last comment on that referendum is that you know capital projects um our capital projects and the school uh capital projects are are extremely expensive um so you have to be very aware of what you're spending the money on and how you're spending it and those are my comments thank you Mr Mr McDonald I you there um I was unable to attend it uh due to a lingering illness that I've had for the past 3 weeks um so I really can't comment on the meeting um but I will say and I kind of I agree with uh Mr Calo Mr Kenneth educate yourself on this this is vitally vitally important what they do what we decide to let them do um and the other thing is just remind everybody the Lacy day is on Saturday Hopefully the rain will hold off and we'll have a good day because we usually do is usually get about 3,000 people out for that so hopefully that's it starts at noon time that's all I have mayor thank you Mr Donald I'm just um just going to remind you obviously about Lacy day it's a um big event she has very good attendance and it's the children are there too so it's important for everyone to get out and bring the kids out and let them enjoy the day too also happening on the same day is it's called wingfest it's being run by the veterans association um and vet Works will um reap the rewards of it here in town so um if you have the time to go over to caffes between 12 and 5: and um as I said it's called wingfest so at least it sounds like it'll be good and some good food but um that's all I have I'm going to open up the floor to the public anybody hi Hi how are you I'm Denise hi see you guys um quick question I did find out from the the uh DP that we do have our benches in new benches for the front uh Beach for the so I was wondering when they're going to be put in and what's the holdup kind of I don't other jobs that come of priority they're on the list to be installed as they work down their list of stuff okay yeah they're on the list let's it was explained like yeah they on the list they're on the list believe me to be put in so okay I didn't know if we were waiting for no no I don't know if we were waiting for a special thing so that's why I just just they have other jobs they have to fulfill beforehand right yeah other jobs thank you Denise Mr Bender Harry Bender somewhere in lazy Township um couple of things last meeting I had asked about access to the warden house and I'd like to ask the mayor okay because I understand what you said Senator um the mayor for the committee um access to that building um is basically is holding up our application and I know the question was asked why you know what's going on you never know what tomorrow's going to bring so I'd like to move that forward so there are a few questions and I'm going to share an email with you okay uh about that but um I'd like to be able to answer those questions for the for the people at the State uh and then asking for the committee what is the answer about my access to the warden house uh because the warden house actually was listed as eligible as a historic site I believe it was 2015 okay so again I'm G to I'm going to rely on my lawyer here to tell you that because it's in the process I there is no ifans governing body has made a decision to sell the property right which includes the buildings on it right okay so we're right in the middle of a contractor agreement that includes the entire premises including those buildings gotcha but um right now it's still the property of the township of lacy that's correct but we're under contract okay but so in other words you are under contract to sell your house yep on the property if your G garage garage MH that goes with the property right you wouldn't want anything to happen during that time with the contract I don't mean to be contrary but if I was selling my house and it hasn't closed yet I still have access to my house not if I have an agreement to purchase everything that's on that property I can't breach that contract but I'm saying along the lines of the example that you used if I'm saying selling my house and I have a contract pending on my house that doesn't mean I can't access my house my garage Etc correct or am I wrong I've sold houses in the if you own a property you can allow access right in any way you want to right I'm just advising the governing body that the property is under contract gotcha okay all right but again I wanted to to remind because uh there were uh comments made at the end of the last meeting about the warden house in 2015 15 it was say stated by the historic I forget the exact name of the commission of the state of New Jersey that it's eligible to be registered as a historic site and just wanted to share that also thank you thank you Mr so I'm assuming I'm going by the legal advice that I'm giv and I listen to the mayor thank you very much anyone else from the audience I'd like to say that I've missed you for a couple of months I think she me I I want to apologize for not being able to come up and see you good people for the last couple month so anyways uh Steve barl Fork of river and um I know if some of the questions I'm going to ask are redundant because I haven't been up but um of course I'm going to touch on some you know touchy subjects um I I I noticed we got our new tax bill and we got a big increase in November and then it slides back down a little bit and people were asking me what that was for because they thought that only school things were going to be with the referendum vote but people say that the increase that we just got is also School related you I could you clarify that M they they had the increase of the 9.9% tax increase that theyve put forward they are they approved that that's that's been approved yes okay they did so it's school it's all School related yes it is okay and unfortunately that November bill is higher because the bill that you paid on August 1st was an estimate right so you have to make up for what we all have to make up for what we didn't pay in August in November so you're getting like a double whammy okay well there's a lot of unhappy taxpayers over that we all feel this we all feel it too um uh I just want to clarify I'm the spokesperson for many other Lacy Township residents that are either too busy or don't have the intestinal fortitude to come up here and talk to you good people so anyways um some of the questions I've been asked and some of my own questions are we're all intermingled here and uh I just want to clarify that we have paid Johnson Controls the penalty from the nine-page agreement pre construction agreement that Mr McDonald signed yes okay and with the on top of that the $38,000 engineer report brings the bill up to I believe $310,000 30 was it 310 305 something okay so it's over 300 so you know which it really annoys me about this and um I so of the questions I want to ask is why did it take so long what was going on behind closed doors what is the current status of the new Municipal Building as we stand today there is no status on the new Municipal Building there's no more discussion we haven't had another discussion on that at all whatsoever no way that why it took so so long I think it was just a matter of like billing I I they we were waiting for it we kept wait you know we kept assuming it would be here and then it finally came in what was the third part of that there was another part so as I recall from previous meetings it was the an attorney I guess working for the township that uh recommended that you guys sign that preconstruction agreement which I think was very bad representation and I want to know if there's any action going to be taken against that attorney penalty or be fired for misdirecting the township committee to spend at least almost $300,000 what attorney you talking about well when I've asked previously I don't think it was you Mr Connors it might be one of your friends but I don't think it was you when I asked about previously uh why Mr McDonald why was it signed uh I believe the answer I got and maybe I'm not completely right was that you were given the directive to sign that agreement by the uh attorneys representing the town I told you it was me was it you suppose it's my Law Firm okay we don't direct anybody to sign anything we review the contract we advise the client as to what's in the contract cont so you didn't give a recommendation either way you just reviewed it and handed it back to the township there were a number of revisions that were made to the agreement well the only revisions I'm worried about was the penalty phase I understand but the parties knowingly knew what was the consequences of signing the agreement that's all in attorne do and you didn't you don't think that's irresponsible to advise you don't think it was bad advice I don't know I I can't understand why you may have signed agreements that if you showed me I looked at him I would say that your attorney might have made a mistake in you signing an agreement as long as you're aware of what's in that agreement and what the consequences are so to the client to determine whether they okay so the responsibility is on the committee okay now did did the township committee put this payment on the township website to notify the public that this money was spent on the Johnson Controls and on the engineer like any other payments we don't put them on the website you know I don't think that's was there any public notification about the spending of this money bills list it's on the bills list it's on the bill posted on the bulletin board uh couple of days before where's the where's this bulletin board at right here outside this door right outside the door right outside the tax one that's all you're required to do is post it on the well they got to update the requirements Regina actually went out in the hallway last time and brought it back in and looked at it and then went back and reposted it okay since the responsibility goes back to the committee is the committee going to make a public apology for spending all of our money like that I don't think there has to be an apology I mean do you think you did something wrong I don't think we did something you didn't think you did something wrong I and that was a good uh uh usage of the Township's tax no it's not a question of that we we well it is a question that are you going to let me speak uh go ahead M mayor we we were in in a agement to go ahead at that time we were in agreement to go ahead so that was part of our commitment to do that okay that's what we had to do did did at that time did you realize the circumstances regarding the schools no no no you had no there was no vision about getting hit with this uh big tax liability with the school let's let's constantly remind ourselves that we are two separate entities okay and if some if one entity isn't doing something it has nothing to do with the other person and what they can do on our side okay we've meaning that you know they don't make decisions on what we're doing right they don't they're not making a decision on what the tax you know would be on their side worrying about you you paying 9.9 increase they're not they're not putting that over on us okay that's their what they've increased can't we can't be talking when I'm when we're speaking up here okay okay well all right could you turn could you just there's a there's a respectful way to say it and a respectful way not to you could have just said could you please turn the air off because we could you know easily take care of that um I don't know where okay my next question you want me to jum jump in Mr B if I could he like jump you're you're talking about Johnson Controls correct and and that payment we had to make why there was no no what I'm saying to you is what I'm saying to you is this is this is a an international company with multiple levels of expertise the five of us couldn't get out the five of us could not get out there with levels tools tools from Home Depot build a site plan we're not licensed engine electricians or anything of the like there was going to be some cost to put this plan together that's what I could tell you my recommendation is that whenever the committee has anything nearly as um uh a a monetary monstrosity like this that it should go out to the public before you guys even take go to step one because right away you're signing an agreement that kind of like handcuffs you in a way to stick with the project because of the penalties you got to pay and I believe if you had a vision of about the way Murphy has chopped the support to our schools right Murphy did that right right that was after H I did not see that coming personally if you're asking me that question if Governor Murphy was going to cut the way he did surgically to certain districts that may may may not support him to our schools I did not see that coming yeah okay aren't there lawsuits challenging him taking the money from primarily Republican townships now you're now you're getting into things where I'm not going to speak for the school board there's a law there was a law Lacy Township School District entered into a lawsuit about the application of the formula that's what it was and it's been kicking around up in the courts for what four or five years now that's what Lacy Township Board of Education entered into and you guys have nothing to do with that no okay all right so in conclusion the the the new building's dead there's nothing in the works no secret meetings no anything going on about that Ling of my pockets nothing has the committee have you guys had a uh a meeting on how you're going to replace that money or how that money is going to it's just gone and forgotten yep okay well I'm not sure I I never understand where you're coming from you're you're you're basically complaining about that you're paying too much taxes and yet you have no problem with keeping that the buildings that we do have of commercial property that canot increase the revenue on our commercial property what building you talking about this building and the and the uh well a lot of people disagree with your theories Mr that's fine but so then where are you expect you're a builder so you got an alterntive you got an alternative so where do you want us to get our where do you want us to get the money to pay for things well what do you do you raise the taxes the taxes are raised every year so if want keep we got get something going with the power plant if you think it's good to keep raising taxes I don't I would prefer that we maximize our property that we have and get the most Revenue out of it that we can strip walls and concrete front to back it's route n do you think there's anything Scenic on Route n or Lacy Road these are the two ugliest roads in the state well I disagree with that you you apparently haven't been around all the state okay okay so uh that's all I got right now um and I also heard that there is a lawsuit regarding the warten and the um selling of that we have not been received not received any notification of that no notification so there's a lot of rumors going around town you know it's called ch recycle always will be down at the liquor store you know a lot of people talking you know at the Moose but they don't show up at the meeting so they asked me to do the Dirty Work Mr which I will if I could one thing I know Steve Kennis for a long long time and when a man talks about land use he knows what he's talking about the fact of the matter maybe he didn't deliver it that you could understand but what I will tell you what I'm going to tell you is the fact of the matter is there is no Revenue drawn from a government entity this is a primary this Lacy Road County Road 64 is our primary commercial property here at the apron of Garden State Parkway north and south to get Revenue this building's been here since 1969 I was one year old back then think of all that Revenue we have missed since then so what ideas what ideas does uh Mr Kennis and the committee have to make us so better than being the most unslightly Township in the state I'm proud of the way are our our are you're proud of it yes I am not not Le you wrote I'm not no you're not no they're ugly and that's and how would you fix it Mr Kennis I'm not going to go into detail now okay all right well thank you thank you but anyone else from the public like to speak go ahead Mr Bender one minute I GNA get Mr Bender up he has another question so last question I promise it's all right Mr Bender um last meeting you spoke of due diligence and we spoke with the um County as far as the warden house goes and what did the county say to you no you spoke to the count I did yes this is months ago we're talking months ago absolutely absolutely and my question is this and I I'll ask the attorney getting money's worth tonight I'll tell you the warden house is included in part of the sale correct okay so for argument sake if we found someone okay for argument take in along the lines of due diligence we put something out there that said because there's history regardless of vinyl windows Etc okay a person lived in that house who was a survivor of Andersonville during this during the the Civil War if we found a civil war group that would be interested at their own cost of taking the warden house and moving it somewhere else is that something we could do senator be up to the buyer buyer we'll be up to that up to him you have to speak to him about that okay I just wanted to ask that question because there are there might be people out there that would be interested in Saving the building and that's why I'm asking thank you very much for your time come on up Carol you missed your name being called yeah somebody's got to do it Carol midor linoa Harbor I did a little research since last meeting about the application for the museum and um going through the master plan looking for the historic sites commission that doesn't exist anymore that would be the party that would help with that application it says that the planning board in town is responsible and I'm going to this is your may I it's actually the master plan and it states that the planning board is supposed to view and make sure they're all the historic properties and they're going to help with all of that so I think might be a better Avenue if you would like to work on the application that we start through the planning board and I would be more than happy to step up and help them because I don't think the historic society's credentials regarding that kind of research or funding would be if you agree with that and can we look into that and I wanted to piggyback on what Barry said about historic properties that because the warden house is eligible to be on the red industry and it is a municipal property it does have protections currently so I don't know if anybody's aware of that but there are protections when a property is municipally owned like the museum and it's eligible to be on the registry it is it has some protections not as many as it would be if it were on the registry so I just wanted to put that out there could you actually uh bring that to the building department and give it to either you want me I can bring it to the planning board I would give it to to our the planning board secretary or right yeah I was going if we can all do it together it would be take care of it I'll get I'm thinking that it would be helpful to kind of go through the right channels and we're both on the planning board so I will meet with her and get this to her and see where we have to go from there and it's to get a inspection to make the museum eligible to be registered the same thing that the warden house there's three houses in town that are eligible that came from the DAR darthy guzo inspection in 2005 Warden house and then there's two other houses on Route 9 we the widening of the road everything else is possibly eligible from the 1981 survey by the county so we'll all learn together yes okay thank all right thanks Carol Bob Lay Lacy Township actually uh Steve touched on something I actually have brought my tax bill with me toight there's a reason I did it and mainly because it's just like this meeting and everything for the past year I've been coming to A lot of these meetings I was fortunate enough the other night to go to the referendum meeting at the school reason I brought my tax bill I mean we all could disagree and agree on how different monies are spent but the one one thing I'm finding constantly is even the Ed most educated people in town do not know where their taxes go and I even had a nice ride from the airport when a car service listened to somebody that knew everything about Lacy Township and had no clue where old question was is where's my taxes go I said have you ever read your tax bill why it tells you where your taxes go and the only reason I bring this up is because you hear this more and more and more and I really commend every that comes to these meetings because you learn a lot from both sides your side and this side the reason I bring this up tonight is because only 20% of your total tax bill roughly 21% goes to your local taxes so all the things you enjoy in Lacy Township whether it's the garbage pickup the police the fire companies the parks or whatever it's only 20% of your tax bill yet everybody comes up here poundes uh basically about the same amounts going to the county but you got your library tax your health tax all these other taxes Mr cell brought up a good point there was only 25 26 people at the meeting the other night the school board takes 60% of our total tax bill basically it's off couple tens but you got County's taking 20 town runs on 20% the school system runs on 60% of it and like you know Dan Steve our taxes are going up because of that 60% we need the people to show up at the proper meetings if they want to talk about taxes and we're all concerned about it I downsized a few years ago to bring all them cost down but we got to start focusing some of our effort in the right direction and I I only bring this up tonight because still people do not understand that the school board don't control the township government the township government doesn't control the school board but yet 60% of our taxes are spent on the school and I'm not saying that in a negative way what I'm saying is I'm noticing every month more and more people coming up here and complaining about the school just so but they don't show up in school board meetings right that's where it's got to be directed thank you thank you thank you Bo little bit trying to be nice too it was nice to see you at the picnic Mr bidnick oh yes nice to see everybody who was there H good good evening mayor and Township committee members okay so on a number of issues that were brought up tonight one um in November of 2021 I came to a meeting here with a lot of people uh to talk about the possibility of a new Municipal complex before the town was even publicly talking about it I then spoke and warned the township committee at that time that it was a terrible time to be doing this because of the high inflation etc etc and it would be a hardship on the town the township committee went ahead signed a contract in 2022 anyway and now spent I believe it's $348,000 is the amount 310 to Johnson Controls and then there was $38,000 for another survey of this building which was involved with the project you know that's our money you know and I don't care you know we could talk about who who where most of the money goes in this town in our taxes yes we know that the schools uh get the largest amount of our tax money um but the issue at hand is is that there's got to be accountability but we're accountable I don't know what what else we can do we've said yes we did well I think first of all apologizing to the taxpayers for wasting this money uh would be a more very appropriate thing to do it would also that you acknowledged that this was a mistake I think think I did that six months ago Mr I apologized for stating that I said my comment was that night was that I'm sorry we got into something before we had talked to the public about it I I wish we had gone to the public about it yes that's what I said I'm sorry I don't think I need to sit here and say I'm sorry that we spent money on something that we thought was going to be at a wonderful adventure for our town I'm I I'm not going to apologize for that no of course not but the rest of us have to basically bear the the rest of us include me I live here you're being paid and you're not on this body to be making mistakes this is the problem and I don't believe it wasn't a mistake it was an error in judgement that's your opinion and I have an opinion all the tax pars will probably agree with me on this issue and I don't mean to be combative about it but you were warned and you wasted that money you say you don't mean to be combative but every month you come up and say the same thing to us so you are being combative about it I don't want be just agree and's nothing else you can say there's nothing else we can say or do to change it it's done it's happened we're moving on two questions and discussions were brought up tonight about uh the by the current government body about the referendum there have been several meetings may I add about the referendum and there'll be more I went to the first meeting which was to me a disaster because the people who are conducting the referendum on behalf of the school board could not answer basic simple questions and they basically have lost all of my support because of that they couldn't even tell me what the soft costs were this project were going to be I maybe they didn't want the public to know that was my main problem about it again I'm going to remind you that that that's that's over there that we can't answer those questions for I'm not asking you you it was brought up tonight by a couple people who went to the meeting and I'm glad that you went to the meeting okay quite frankly did something right this government body should start and should have been using its influence a to do everything in its power to tell the school district that the 10% increase was a no-go none of you publicly stated that I mean I came here during this time period when it was in discussions and I I spoke about this and nobody actually publicly spoke out against it when you knew people in the town are suffering again it's about accountability and maybe you need to start speaking out maybe about the $92 million referendum that it's going to be too much of a hardship the other thing I want everybody to know because this is something that will be affecting our town is that the school district is counting on 40% of this money to be reimbursed by the state but the state can pull the plug on that at any time and they actually did it to the school during the solar panel project so we could get stuck with a lot more money in payments it's a no-go and the other thing too as far as I'm concerned and I will fight this referendum and I will spend my own money to make sure to fight it regionalization is what needs to happen the state passed S2 many years ago to do exactly this the children will get a better education the taxpayers will get relief and we don't need to be spending $92 million on a turf field and putting the roofs on and destroying the current solar panels which still have life in them and there's that's also another thing it's going to cost another million dollars in the school's budget that they have even you know Phantom what they're going to do I mean it's fiscally really irresponsible and I do go to the meetings and I am very much involved and it is 60% of our taxes and it probably will be more in the future if they get their way I mean you are our leaders in this town I am speaking for the people who I talk to who can't afford taxes speak to a lot of people and they and I don't you know I'm not saying that everybody agrees with everything we do or say but on a whole you never seem to say anything good about this town so if you are so unhappy with this town I don't know why you're here I'm not unhappy with this town you never say anything positive about this town you never do okay I'm not here to be positive I'm a watchdog I started a watchdog group in 2010 called the Lacy citizens for responsible government Mr dof who isn't here tonight he actually wrote a whole big thing that somebody else sent to me you know about challenging me about running for a government body well you can't be a watchdog and be on the government body that you're watchdogging I mean it doesn't make any sense and this is my job I'm not here to complement the town I am here to speak I don't need you to compliment us I just I think after a while it's like it's exhausting that you you just have nothing positive positive exhausting that's your job Madame mayor well listening to negativity all the time it's it's up to you to listen I listen to positive out there wherever I go I hear wonderful things from did you read did you read all the comments time's up sorry time's up anyone else from the audience that would like to speak go right ahead my name is Thomas Fallon thank you for the opportunity to address you again um I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the proposed development of 101 North Main Street where the proposed uh quick check is going to be developed and subsequently the warden hous is going to be destroyed in the process um Mr kis I completely agree with you route N9 is a mess um it really could use some revamping and you know I think it's a great opportunity to open a discussion about like what is the vision for this town because I drive through a lot of different towns whether it be red bank tuckeron and you can see see a very clear and concise vision for the town yet when you drive through Lacy you don't it's a you know there's no architectural designs uh route n takes an hour to get you know you're 100% right you're 100% right he said you're 100% right thank you I appreciate that U but it's not a matter of me being right you know what am I going to leave to my children uh I have no plans of leaving Lacy unlike some people um I have a vested interest I own a business in town I live in town um I plan on staying here for the duration of my days but the real question is is as those days progress what am I going to be handing off to the Next Generation and you know to Mr Kennis was you know accurately saying you know there it's a mess um it takes an hour to drive half a mile and you know we keep developing and developing and developing so I I would ask you all you know we we continue to develop but at what point did we stop and say are we going to be able to handle this devop Madame mayor if I may you may go you uh you had said sir that you you have a business in town yes sir plug it let let me hear what it is I mean I'm I'd like you to sure it's a pops Plumbing okay great okay so people come to me all the time it's probably the most and I I don't speak for my colleagues but I'm sure they've heard it ad nauseum and people come to me and they'll come to me in shop right I'll be getting a coffee somewhere and they'll say why in the world do we need another this why why are we opening another nail salon why are we opening and my answer is gentleman like yourself decides to be open a a plumbing establishment people come with their money they take a chance on their ability and their background and their education and they plant the fles in our town and I only welcome it too much I don't have when somebody comes here to open a business there's very little opportunity to say no and I don't want it I think that's bad it's bad for a lot of things I don't think it's fair to the business owner I don't think it's legal I want business because I but when people say that what are you open we're not opening anything people come with money and dreams and they take a chance on the American dream we got to cultivate that but at the same and I'm please don't miss understand my position I'm not anti-commercial in any way shape or form however I am all for making smart decisions decisions that add value to the community decisions that you know improve the life of the community of the residents sir respectfully you want me to say no to the your plumbing business I can't cherry pick my way through Paradise which but at the same time we decide what lofty variances we approved and which ones we don't and you know we're taking an environmentally sensitive are and putting a gas station there you know that that's going to be discharging right into the creek right in the back which ultimately goes into Enos it's literally 50 ft away from someone's front door um is this the most appropriate site I don't think so he not only had to get approvals from the township though he had to get from the state if I am correct and cfra I mean County he you know this isn't like he just came to Lacy Township and said let I want to do this on the corner of Route nine okay he had he had to go through a lot of paperwork to get to where he is understood but at the same time well I just want to make it clear because you're making it sound like you did the comment you said was that um he was given lofty variances yes lofty variances so I don't think there were lofty variances that's my personal opinion you were there for half of the meeting and there there was you know again multiple variances um you know to allow him to build on that site well we also cut back on some of the things that he wanted to do okay we where he closed down one entrance on resal street he had two and then he put it down to one he reduced I have a question because I've been wanting to ask this I'm just curious if this wasn't built on your corner would it bother you I would have to I would have to think about that because you know quite often you know we it's an we can have we can have compassion and empathy but it would probably end there to be realistic and I'd rather you be honest because I get I listen to a lot of people say things and I read a lot of things that people say and I'm just wondering if they care enough if it's just about because it's their corner or would it bother them if it was on my corner you know the location of it wouldn't bother me as much as the um destruction of a historic building and the center of the Town welcome to Lacy being a quick check that that certainly doesn't represent the Lacy that I would be interested in living in um you know again you come to into the center of Route n and Lacy and we have the welcome to Lacy sign and it's underneath the Quick Check um I I would H that I would live in a town that would have a clearer vision uh for what we can hand off to our children rather than a corporation so the center town really isn't there anymore the center town is really Gilly Park which is why the was part of the reason why we want to replace this building with buildings back there that's essentially the center of town every Lacy day is there all major events are at Gilly Park there's nothing held at the corner of Route n in Lacy road but I I guess just to get back to my original point you know has there been any U planning put in place so I can not to cut you off for for that bu for that for for the corridor of Route n that contined to develop we every now and then we do petition the do to widen Lane uh request signal changes it's incredibly uh both frustrating and timec consuming doesn't usually get very far um the I I touched on this in my comments at the end of last meeting L I'm going to bore everybody to death but land use is incredibly complicated in New Jersey and it takes so like I on the historical uh parts of lazy Township that that visioning has to occur 30 40 50 years ago to get to where you want it today and that's a anything that goes on in a town forward is a similar time frame so whatever you're doing today is really being planned out for 30 years but the decisions that we're making today certainly do have an impact no you have to that's what I'm saying if you're trying you can't because anything that's before the planning board today for example is being based on on zoning rules and regulations that have essentially not changed much and our zoning went into effect in like 1974 so just to thereabouts go back to my question is there currently any requests out to the do to uh make improvements to Route 9 to accommodate all these new business we were at meetings with the county months ago let me just say this I was at I think the mayor was there too Veronica was at that meeting too commissioner sedi held a meeting well all the towns that line up on Route 9 the real problem is you know my suggestion was to make a turning lane on Route 9 in the middle you go left and go right dep pending so the cars can keep moving the dot doesn't want any parts of that what they want and this is where the problem really lies is they want 8ot shoulders on both sides of Route n think about that so if the dot is unresponsive and and again I'm sensitive to the fact that we need to generate Revenue as a town you know that's it's part of money coming in money coming out it's not rocket science however um with that in mind if we're continuing to develop the town but not improve the infrastructure that's that's a recipe for disaster so perhaps maybe we need to start pursuing other opportunities to generate Revenue because we we are including all these businesses in town and multif family dwellings and and continue to gr grow the town in that capacity but yet the taxes keep going up so I understand helping I understand your point so specifically to the uh the old Community Hall that site has no infrastructure to it not modern infrastructure so any they're required to put modern drainage which is captures the runoff from their site filters it before it goes out right now that just sheets off into into Enos pond so that whatever they're doing drainage wise drainage wise will be better than what is currently happening what's currently going on except that now it's going to have coil gasoline it goes but but they have to capture their own I'm not disputing that but it's happening now it it's goes on now you're getting you're getting parking lot but it sheets off and there's so what they they kep to capture it on site filter it on site before they could discharge it out to to uh their detention so as a plumber right I'm I'm not a lawyer you know I'm not you know an administrator uh for a lifelong period um you know as a regular citizen how do I find out what you all have envisioned for the town that I plan this St well we when we do the we haven't done it in a while but it the town is mostly governed by its master plan M it's um supposed to be updated every 10 years or so I can't remember I think it was probably 2016 17 we did a minor update um so is there been any Chang there's been discussions about about doing it but the but well winds up other problems get in the way or other priorities get in the way so it never gets addressed so are we still actively pursuing to become a regional center for the county we've received our town center designation that's Town Center they're they're very technical terms and it's it's not quite exactly what what it sounds like but just that just a minor point on the planning so they're reconstructing Manchester Avenue and and uh Western by the schools so when I first got on the committee that was my I think that was the only time I went to Ocean County engineering meeting that was my first year on the committee and it's and I've been it's 12 it'll be 12 years when it terms up so that's T that was discussion 12 years ago and they're just doing it now 12 years ago that's how long long ago that's my point is on this stuff it takes that long to somewh to you know create the vision of whatever the county wanted to do with that intersection it's taken 12 years now 11 for them to to begin construction on it so those are the horizons that we look at so we're not actively pursuing the regional designation anymore no so our we've received our town center designation we don't qualify for regional we qualified for Town Center which we re received May of 2017 yeah we received what we were trying to re that document is online on our website so you know again I I I I appreciate everyone's time um you know environmental impact quality of life impact um you know Historic Site you know being eliminated from town at welcome to Lacy Town Center uh that's currently there and will continue to be when the the sign remains there after they developed a quick check um you know I would just like to say that I stand in opposition to the development of the site uh that land was left to the people of lacy um here we are now in under contract selling the property um developing it into a 247 quick check right in the middle of a residential Zone uh right on the doorstep of an environmentally sensitive area I I mean I'm not going to say that you know we have a history of bad decision making um however you know at some point we have to stop and say you know is this really the vision for the town um I understand we need ratables but there's there's a right way to go about it and and also a wrong way to go about it we're in the ninth hour the deal isn't closed yet please you know take a consideration that perhaps maybe this site could be used for something else um you know that could develop Revenue um in an alternative way whether it be tourism um I think it was part of you know the self assessment report of 2008 that they recommended that historic development could be used for tourism um and the report also noted that leasy Township has done absolutely nothing since 2012 to encourage no historic preservation thank you so much than Mr bidnick would you like to come back up I try to be fair he doesn't know it but I do okay to leave off where I was um mayor Juliano you made a comment that I don't like this town okay first of all I wouldn't have moved here if I didn't like this town I don't like the direction that this body is taking this town goodness that is my qualm with I don't like the idea that you went ahead and spent what I told you that money on a building that we're never going to have that could have been used to be used to update this building um I don't like what you're doing with the warden house and that property I was think the first person who publicly came up here in January and started speaking about this and if you had read the comments that are on I believe it's on Lacy chatter and a couple of other today from the postings from the article you would see how the people in this town really feel about the job that you people are doing you know it's for I'm just it's just me but I read these things and I know that you people see them and I'm just saying you need to start listening to the people who you are accountable to who come to these meetings and take the time and are passionate like myself about the things that we care about in our town I know a lot of us are not happy with the direction you're taking this town and the only way you can keep not listening you could keep going and locking yourselves in your office say we don't care what they say you know every 3 years we get reelected and we're going to do whatever we want because we are of this opinion that because we were elected that we have the right to do whatever we want and you don't because you are elected to do what we want you to do remember that and we have an election coming up in a in a few weeks and it's the time for us to really evaluate the you know are we are people who are on our government bodies doing the job that we the people we the people want them to do and yes we the people own the warden house and Community Hall that property was given to the citizens of lacy Township and it needs to remain that way and I do hope if we have to go the legal route that we will stop this and the people will win thank you very much thank you is there anybody else from the public that'd like to speak can you pull that microphone a little closer or you can move closer to it too yeah thank you there you go you're very softspoken yes I am sorry um I'm not very good at public speaking so I a statement just just say what you got to say you've heard lots of opinions about the gas station and yes it is a concern because I'll be living within 500 ft of it as you all would be if you were um I just wanted to which you probably are aware of but maybe some people in the town aren't aware of the environmental hazards that gas stations near watersheds and um schools and libraries could P um there's a lot of potential for contamination in many different ways placing AAS gas station within close proximity of a watershed such as one leading to Enos County Park and barn Bay here in Lacy poses a significant environmental hazard due to the potential for contamination gas stations are known as source of pollutants that can infiltrate ground water surface water bodies leading to a range of NE negative ecological and health consequences the key contaminants uh that we would have to deal with coming out of that gas station would be petroleum hydrocarbons these are primarily components of gasoline diesel fuel and other petroleum products they can contaminate soil and groundwater posing serious threat to Aquatic ecosystems and human health um leaking underground storage tanks gas stations often rely on USS to store fuel over time these tanks can corrode and develop leaks allowing petroleum products to seep into surrounding environments this Builds an overflow accidental spills and overflow of fuel can occur during refueling operation due to equipment failure these incidents can directly contaminate surface water bodies such as streams rivers and lakes and storm water runoff rain water that flows over gas stations can pick up pollutants including petroleum hydrocar hydrocarbons and other contaminants and transport them to nearby water RS the environmental impacts of having a gas station water contamination contaminants from gas stations can leach into groundwater which can then flow into surface water bodies such as the barn bag this can lead to Habitat degradation uh public health risks economic impacts fuel storage tanks and pipelines pose another source contamination though the design of both have improved over the past couple of decades spillage at the plump pump is a more likely source of fuel release into nearby waterways um John Hopkins University researchers found that an average of 40 gallons of gasoline is spilled at the typical gas station per year at the pump the researchers also found that significant portion of the spilled gasoline can mitigate through concrete pads and at many fueling stations um it can lead to soil contamination and air pollution the release of V volatile organic compounds from gas stations can contribute to air pollution which have adverse effects on human health and the environment the US Environmental Protection Agency echoed concerns about health risks ass associated with gas station emissions in their school sitting guidelines they recommended screening School sites for potential health risks when located within 1,000 ft of a gas station we have a library we have fork for school not that far and many residents that are within that 1,000 ft but did you you know that there was a gas station on the other opposite corner for 30 40 years I heard that yeah maybe longer I heard there was a leak from the tank and and it's fantastic I'm I've live well I'm not going to digress storm water runoff digressing either I just wanted to make sure you knew there was a gas station on the opposite corner storm water runoff from gas stations can contain a variety of contaminants petroleum hydrocarbons this includes gasoline diesel fuel and other petroleum products that can Leech from underground storage tanks spills and overfills I can't say this one so I'm going to give you the abbreviated version phas these are byproducts of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels that can be found in gasoline diesel fuel and other petroleum products Metals heavy metals such as lead copper and zinc can be found in gasoline Diesel and fuel pcbs these are resistent organic pollutants that were once used in electrical equipment and can be found in contaminated soil and groundwater other chemicals that can leech into our system from the gas station could be antifreeze BL brake fluid and cleaning agents a number of compounds injures to humans Health are released from gas stations during vehicle fueling from underground storage tanks these compounds include benzine talene ethylene Benzene and btex measures to rely ibly resolved these adverse health effects are not employed in new gas stations excuse me I know my time is up I just have to give you some suggestion given the impacts of any convenience store gas station located should be held to the highest standards and not given allowances to impede on the resident's health or environment as Township officials you have the obligation to make sure that we as residents are protected from large corporations like quick check to preserve our Public's health and wellbeing if You' like to consider the following suggestions going forward I think it would be advisable to have at least 500 freet from the nearest home daycare school or Community Center buffered so store cannot be seen or heard from the nearest home not within view of historic resources and at least 500 ft from Wells Springs strings reservoirs are Al highly sensitive ground surface water resources and in an area of Market where it won't put any other businesses out of business thank you thank you thank you yes here we go good even hi Jim Jim lell Lacy Township I had no plans on speaking but listening to all the conversations unlike Miss Laray um I wasn't born here but I've been here since' 69 I've seen a lot of changes and I've SE Democratic control councilman or commit IES and Republicans and mix and everybody over the years had their idea there was a gentleman that used to work for the Township in the zoning and planning department Lou derenzo Lou derenzo designed an entire historical preservation site spent a lot of time doing it made the presentations doing it and he was rejected by the governing body and it included historic Bay Avenue up and down east Lacy Road to the captain's in and various parts throughout the area when I first came down here what is the former Community Hall was the police station upstairs Municipal Building downstairs a one car garage and chicken coops in the back where they have flee markets uh Everything Has Changed there was a proposal at one time just as we were trying to break away from Central Regional High School to buy the old gamble Farm which is now uh Argos Aro thank you yeah my memory SC and anyway there was a plan to take the entire complex of the schools and put them out there as a campus sell for River to medical facilities to for River School and develop Lacy Road keeping some of the his text different people different times had their different opinions and changed I stood here 1981 reading an article in the Observer Ocean County Observer written by Don Bennett when a Central Railroad was a bandit which under federal and state law allowed any municipality County or other government entities to take it over and make it for transportation walk past and so forth I had proposed because it went from South Towns River and Beachwood there all the way to tuckeron it was a perfect opportunity to make an alternate bypass Route 9 which would leviate the boom that started on Route 9 in the mid 80s we all saw how the population of lacy was exploding and yet there was opposition that would almost self-funded itself because it was well known that the Ocean County uh Utility Authority was going to run their main sword lines down there it was also known that New Jersey natural gas was going to run their 16in gas Mains down to the power plant and the town the county all along everybody turned the Blind Eye the investor bought it all made a lot of money Millions by selling it right away and here we are finally where we had our hands on it we were in lawsuits for decades I guess not to develop it so now it's a nice little alternate route but it could have been a much nicer route could have had a much nicer impact on Route 9 so when everybody over the generations and Decades of sitting on this government body Republicans Democrats and mixtures have good things and bad things so the point fingers at any one individual group of people we all have our opinions some are good sometimes are not but I've seen as an outsider from nework some of of History the one big thing that failed here was to preserve historical sites my brother lives in New Orleans you can't build a new building unless it's built 1700 style that's preservation of History so what you have left is hopefully to get some people together and try to preserve some of the places I mean like the old forer River fire station that's over on what that Lakeside Drive South Oak station the oak station Station Drive yeah Station Drive thank you so and again like when the M uh where the Mary's area is not against Mary's area I watched them tear down the old worker Riv train station thousands of tickets history just out the window so people have to look long term but you have to look back to know where you are so that's all I have to say thank you Jim thanks for sharing anyone else from the audience that like to speak just signed Carol Lacy okay 25 $5 million investment in Lacy's in in New Jersey historic sites $25 million is out there in Grants we're eligible for them okay so I'm just saying like part of what I do is I love to Grant right and things like that we are eligible we have the properties but we have to have again like you said a team of people that are interested in doing this and it's a lot of work I do this as a volunteer I've done it for years and I just I'm not looking to bring take money away from the township coffers if we're eligible for funding that comes from the New Jersey historic trust there's a lot of bells and whistles that you have to follow through you have to know how to do the paperwork I've been studying this for years now and it's not difficult but it needs support so I'm putting it out there anybody that wants to help to put together possibly a committee that could get funding to help save historic sites I would be more than happy to get involved thank yes isn't that what we do oh is there anybody else from the audience that would like to speak come right up you're the closer now used to be Mr Bender but you seem to be the closer now it's also nice to see you at the picnic too can't beat the German buter that's right um Linda Miller Fork River two things um the school and uh the roof and the things that are happening over there that meeting was the second meeting that was held right and the first meeting that was held was at school and there again 5:00 in the afternoon people are working how do you get there but there were a lot of people at that first meeting there weren't just a few 20 there was probably about 50 people there I want to know people are really interested in this the other thing is the corner property on Route 9 and Lacy road I don't live anywhere near there but it breaks my heart for the people that live there because that is the part of a residential area and our library is right there uh and who cares if there was a gas station years ago it's not there anymore and it was on the other side wasn't residential on that I mean it's back make the point was because there's a school right there I was just making the point that we had a gas station and the for River School has been there forever and so there was gas stations on the corner too you know so it's all part of history and we don't want a gas station on a lot of us don't want a you know I didn't I didn't say that we wanted it there's not there's not any point in any way shape or form that this committee said oh we want the gas station there at the Corner we reached out Veronica Laray busted her buns reaching out to companies restaurants other individual businesses trying to get them to purchase that property instead of what we are getting so it no no you have to give me the chance too there's no nowhere did we say oh we want a gas station at the corner they came to us because no one else was interested in purchasing it that's not the first gas station that came to us right no right we've had others come in for us okay well my point is my point is I don't think any business should have been on that corner I think it should have remained part of our town and with a library sitting right there and homes all around it's just not heard the people that live on Jones Road how they're passionate about it I don't live anywhere near Jones Road but I'm also passionate about what you're doing to our corner thank you you're welcome thank you anyone else from the audience that like to speak go first seeing none motion to close the floor second all in favor I thank you no mo to motion to adjourn move it second all in favor I no further business all right we're out of here