##VIDEO ID:il1JwRReRyc## anybody else like to me reason who might be stage to sit here questions all night council car all du respect you could have been your last meeting Council robust discussion on it I'm unfortunately I'm not going to let you disae here and quiz the Council on this I I will say this we are not going to be voting tonight because Eric is a brand new council person who wasn't sat for the meeting and also hasn't had an opportunity to speak with Tom and J yet and I want to provide him that opportunity like to move this for two weeks and bring it back at that time I also have two other Council people who one is ill and can't be here and another one who had a work obligation this evening wouldn't allow him to be here on time I want this should be considered by the entirety of the council not but but I do feel that it you said a stage I do feel that uh the residents do have right to understand why our council members areest that is not an inappropriate question you're correct and you're free to talk to them outside of here but not on the stage here to ask them uh one by one what do you think what do you thinkk thank you did owner at toap app um I just wanted to touch Bas on things because I was here last meeting I am part of the Business Association and I've been on the board for about two years um a lot of this is my personal opinion and not reflection of necessarily the board or the members of the association um for one I would like the consumption Lounge to be there as a business owner because I know it's going to draw in new people one thing to survive in this town as a business owner is you need the outside heat well Merchant bill is not big enough to sustain businesses we need more people from the outside to come and this will be one of the few if any right in the state right now that allow something of this nature and I think that is a plus them people coming to them is driving by my shop which is seeing my business business which is funneling to the other businesses found they want to go get something to eat or even drink um next my husband is a sergeant on a police force after the last meeting I had questions about what can and cannot be done with um testing for marijuana and in the state of New Jersey one you have to be DUI certified to do any performance of drug testing on or um under the influence testing so it B see anyone who looks like they may be driving recklessly or acting recklessly you have to be certified to perform and administer the basic like finger test um he said that is for any type of impairment whether that is drug impairment or alcohol impairment and that decision is made on the street to write them up for being under the influence so if they are under the influence of marijuana and they are not passing those forms of tests they will get TI it then the breath adviser is only what he says is an added bonus that help prove whether it was alcohol or not so yes they can still blow zero but they are still going to be charged with driving Under the Influence from the street pool over or wherever they write them so I know that was some concerns before that there isn't a true like breathalizer for I guess alcohol but there that doesn't stop people from driving drunk anyway and the regular Administration test of the Cher testing whatever else they're certified to do would at least catch some of the things that would make them inh um what was the other thing I wanted to mention sorry I was trying to keep it nice and peaceful um I don't know I just am I think it's going to be beneficial we're gonna gain the tax money that you guys get from sales there if I believe that's still a thing so that again like I know as a part of the Business Association every time we ask about stuff we always say or get told back that there's not in the budget there's not enough money for that we don't have enough money for this so again another Plus iy for that oh yeah and um you know like I said I know people don't want to compare apples oranges with the alcohol and drugs but I haven't had anyone come up in my store high and want to buy my couch or whatever and yet I've had people come in my store this little baby I thought she was sweet she was looking at my little book thinging I said hi bad choice cuz then she came in and wanted to buy my couch for my school or the clothes I have my I'm a photography studio I do not have things for sale like that and I couldn't necessarily Usher her out and it was a like a scary moment because she was an older woman but that's a guy or whatever I'm by myself like I lock my door now I don't have an open door because that is not just the only circumstance where I've seen young people walking around so I had a guy who he apparently cleans the windows somewhere around here but he's drinking I leave an open container like right near my studio all time and he rides a bike no one's pulling him over he can cause accidents too and yes the street is dangerous I had cars almost run into my building at one point last year I think they luckily hit those parking meters which I would like not to remove them I know they look ugly now that they're not really being used but that stopped the car from actually hitting my building so I see it as a plus um but I mean that's that's just dangerous anyway that people go around cars all the time and Street I say the same same thing I wish like big matchs could come because they've taken out signs and stuff but I don't think adding like another way for people to come and do stuff is going to change whether they choose to drive safely or not and they've gone above and beyond with providing data and doing surveys more than I think any person who's going to get a liquor license is ever going to do and the laws changing for that too I believe where you're going to be able to get like two liquor licenses every two years if you guys approve it like the the state law or something like that I hope I don't believe so yeah so I don't know but I don't think anyone who might try to do that do the work they did so I just wanted to bring up that extra information if there's anyone still on the fence or oh sorry one more thing the delaying I I get that you want other people here but it is frustrating as a business and I think this is one thing where the businesses feel like you guys are not on our side for things sometimes like we've been working hard and we've been doing and we been doing better with working with the Burl but it's like in your business you need to be like planning months ahead of what you want to do and not knowing if there's going to be an answer and it keeps getting pushed back and no one's communicating to them oh it's another two more weeks or it's another this before we're voting on it when they leave so much information it's just delaying them on making decisions that are going to affect their business and what they want to do next so I get that you want other people to be here but if you have quum and you did already meet and they were very thorough last time too and talked with many other people I I just don't get why we have to push it back again even more even whether it's two weeks or less so that's all I just wanted to say thank hi I'm Jen Phillips I'm a water member and also in town here foreven years now I've been extremely successful F and very thankful to the town for being an ambassador of good things for my business I think that these people that own the consumption Lounge that we hope will be passed have more Integrity than most people I've met so I want to say that I'm in support of their consumption Lounge I agree though I don't know how it's going to go I don't think anybody knows so what about a trial sounds like we have a year right you have a year I do know that if it didn't go well they would first it's not going to be somebody shutting them down they will shut it down first that's just something I to any else public portion uh we'll go towards approval of the minutes uh we have the December 16th meeting uh Mr M's Mr M [Music] and then we have the reorganization meeting [Music] January uh engineer support Mr even Mr Mayor so beginning year we're going to close project from last year we're in the process of requesting reimburse for 23 Road program wood we're still reviewing file quanties for Somerset project we're not agreeing with contractor quantities so we're not in a position to recommend any final payment any payment um also need to do some adjustment to final announcement be so we expect that to be done soon as discuss we'll be working on pulling together some of our file information on the planning documents we did for the multiuse path in preparation for the HUD the gr program we may have some information on file a head start on getting that work on and then continue discussions on the I this com as well and the iank is water yeah we discussed there's a sewer component and there's Transportation component so we'll revisit that discussion great questions for Mr Le Mr Benjamin got anything on the spot I think uh okay January add 133 cases disos of 191 take 43332 $3 two virtual one courtsc and I did reach out to and Amber awesome get your feet on meeting with former council member th just go over some of our previous assignments and meeting the chair on Saturday talking person they do have an MLK day uh day service I believe it is um I didn't get details on it but that's coming up this [Music] we anything we can do to help internally to publicize that us right any questions from Mr Mr thank you h start Board of bed they held their reward meeting the same night as us last week on Monday to 6 um I was not in attendance for that one I was here for our reor but um I can announce they did have one uh person resigned from the board of bed which opened up um a position that has been advertised when um an unexpired term pops up um it allows the board to appoint someone generally they advertise it which they have um so if anyone is interested this there is an opening um Department of Health we were set to meet um on the 8th we had reschedule for Thursday the 6 so we'll be meeting then DPW is officially back to full staff with Chrisney after a rehabilitation St for an injury uh we did have to make a purchase of some extra Road Sal going into the um snowstorm that we had last week so we have that in reserve uh Wai for hopefully night's long time uh the roads managed uh well during last week now bring that up um I'll be meeting with uh CH Patty at some point uh hopefully this week to set up uh meetings and some goals for the new year uh OEM I'm hoping to reach out to Lieutenant cway also this week to set up some quarterly goals quarterly meetings and goals through 2025 from the website and we have received a contract information from the new web host uh Revis so hopefully we'll be getting the new website up been running shortly uh merch the professional association set their meeting dates for 2025 the next one will be February 12th and uh from the public events end the next one coming up outside of um the day of uh volunteerism for MLK day uh we have the Sor to love event which will be held at over by on Friday February the 7th and that is all happens thank you questions Mr all right thank you very much Mr thank your honor Merchantville police for the month of December uh 1,245 calls of service of which 96 were uh we say positive proactive engagement by our officers with members of the community mostly school children they conducted 131 traffic stops 85 incidents involving parking five arrests and zero DWI arrests there was for the total 2024 16821 calls for service couple other updates from 2024 uh that Chief want me to pass along first uh I think you recall November we were talking about a mandatory traffic enforcement in the area of CH and Center Street to several complaints there was uh two monthly periods one uh student going back action in mid-september and the other through the month December to last week I would say between that there was about um about 336 excuse me 316 selective enforcements uh during those selective enforcements meeing Bally having a police officer par at the corner uh they observed uh four violations two moving violations and two non-moving violations uh during that time um even though this is a low number um they already continue to have proactive enforcement at that location uh for the foreseeable future couple other things the chief wanted me to share um the evidence room was completed the remediation of the contaminated evidence was done in 2024 Lieutenant Callaway along with record records management coordinator Mike Riley will begin going through uh the evidence with reclassifying categorizing in 2025 um again the park mobile parking system is called 2023 2024 uh very much a year of enforcement um by July we had started is spes and then by August through coordinator Riley G enforcement Monday through Friday T today and the last thing I'll mention from day operations communicated before officer mat hman has Department going over to Belmar his last day is the 21st January um they I think youve seen the advertisements for applicants um it is a a challenge and a struggle everywhere I think to find not just applicants but viable applicants um I do believe they have a good one at the moment that they're pursuing kind of going through the second round of interviews but there is not much after that uh and again speaking with the chief this morning even municipalities like Cherry Hill are having the same problem in finding qualified candidates but uh hopefully this works out with this particular candidate but um if not um you know it's um I'll say the chief in Department have been very good and making sure that there the appro coverage all hours in that is all I have for question one even resolution 2522 to the bills for burrow 57481 one number two on the BAC property front uh the property next to school district H has actually contacted us fin for s all this taking the properties that we don't have jurisdiction over the federal government so not yet not yet waiting on that one so um but it looks like they're actually selling it and so we're trying to figure out how to resolve that so school still interested I don't know so that be a question last conversation that we have which was we're going back a few months so take take a look that there was a level of interest um there was back and forth but I think once H got involved I think that they they kind of step back when it Mark back out to the business administrator there know see where they from there 279 279 yeah 279 is going to be the amount that they're going to bid ature right okay yeah that will be get it at 279 take possession they don't get 279 so okay there you go so School District want [Music] 279 problem so other than that uh the other thing is the VAC property ordinance uh allowing us to collect dollars which has already been in effect but we are actually going to start resuming that now January so first [Music] period so that's why we delay the structure how we going to manage it man system set up we'll begin that process in house no fee paidy doesn't that's it thank you very much any [Music] questions hearing none support thank you the only thing that I have is a reminder that uh January 23rd 5:00 will be the retirement event dinner for if anybody's interested in attending and um [Music] also pictures I'll be here okay 24 February 24th at 6:30 [Music] 530 February 24 piure at 6:30 here and I'll send an email out reminding everyone I just wanted to confirm that next Friday next Thursday at 5:00 at okay those are the only two things okay very much commun development report we get anything I I mean we had a meeting this morning there's an interested party looking at CBS which is a real opportunity so we'll see see um [Music] um CFO report nothing there old business U like I said I would ask Council if we could push this through two weeks from now because those two members had expressed an interest in being here for that vote that thank you uh new business um any objection to reading these two resolutions as is it personal any yes yes yes I was just let it go Tom said about [Music] back okay resolution 2520 auth call for sodi resolution 251 improve personnel [Music] Mr M yes just yes okay [Music] um7 bills second Mr the first Mr the second any discussion on this Mr Benjamin yes Mr Fitzgerald Mr MCL yes Mr yes announcements anything February [Music] 7 perfect um and uh anything else [Music] [Music] [Music] that's wor [Music] all