##VIDEO ID:CWAqqDD15C8## I pledge aliance to the FL of the United States of America and to the one nation God indivisible withy andice for all okay roll call please mayor michek here council president conahan here councilman KS councilman castino here councilman Dodie here councilman Quinn here councilman Rex administrator ofl and attorney corini here okay we have a couple of presentations uh tonight it may actually turned out only to be one the rescue squad actually got called out on a call so if they make it back that's great but if not uh we'll push them back to another time uh I'd like to turn over uh the floor right now to uh Ken BTO who is our fire chief y yeah mayc thank you for having me tonight and um anybody doesn't know me I'm the fire chief for 2024 my name is k i the firefighters in 2007 and an officer for the fire department since 2012 my deputy chief Sean right cor here is my second in command my assistant chief ER showman fortunately isn't able to attend tonight through the work obligations um so I'm just going to give you guys a little history and keep moving everybody hear me there we go not good SE for our noral do not get one of these but a little backstory of the fire department who we are what we do and just honestly what we need right now um so the middlex fire dep Department was established in 1905 by the residents of the middle sex Lincoln section so we have a Lincoln section midx we have a link fire company that's where that name came from um but really it was still the sky was at the time so until 193 and when middle sex was actually created uh the fire department was comprised of four Volunteer Fire companies all volunteer we have no career staff L Fire Company number one on Drake Avenue Beachwood Fire Company number two L un which is the 28 here Fire Company number three on a street and Parker Fire Company number four on B the other side of hand which is also 28 um like I stated earlier all fire companies are volunteer and uh mdis those four stations so those four separate fire companies are middle fire dep when we're dispatched we move on uh we elect our fire chief which would be my position my Deputy Chief and the assistant chief from those four fire houses you have to have certain qualifications actually run for fire chief before any Fire officer position um and also my captain Lieutenant engineer and assistant engineer are left with yearly from each station as well so we have three Chiefs four captains four lieutenants Etc every year and there's also minimum State standers like I before that we require so you can actually run for those positions um my department asked this question a lot for three and a half square miles why why are there four fir houses you know um people that's one of the biggest question you asked and also your volunteer I didn't know that we thought you were P um our fir HS respond from working home if they can to all emergency calls for service just like today we have fire prevention at the bur all the B schools the uh the high school school prek and we had PR calls during that event as well so we had to kind of scramble and figure that out um even though we're usually not in quarters we're not in the firehouse swiming respond um would consistently have a fire engine or a chief officer or both on scene in less than 8 minutes because of the placement of those firehouses which is very important you know fire doubles the size every minute think about that if the fire is as large as this it's going to double in size in one minute So the faster you get water on fire the faster we canate the damage of that incident now luck was also on our side when we place our firehouses in the specific sections of town because unfortunately everybody knows this not if we flood it's when we flood and when we flood we turn into Islands right Little Island Middle sex burrow so thankfully that when we flood each flooded section of midd sex even when we're completely cut off from the rest of the burrow has a firehouse so it doesn't matter where you live in mental sex even when you flood and there's no way anybody can get to you you have a fire truck and chief guys in the police department always makes sure Firehouse as a police officer we stay resty squads at those buildings as well so that's really important sorry I've never done this I'm just a little nervous thank you uh our fire stations are independently owned and operated which means that fire firefighters the members that go out on these emergency calls actually own the buildings so the burrow doesn't own the building the fire company Members Own the building um and we actually pay our bills with all the the volunteer contributions from the carnival the mailing going s out every year um boot drives see firefighers on the street with their boots you know put a dollar in the booth that's literally how we keep the lights on that's how we pay our bills um and we're supplemented by the burrow but most of our bills are paid by by us by our fundraising um and again people think all the time oh when you get off Shi they said we we're not patient we're volunteer and we're trying to press that right now because bur for remembers and that that's the biggest thing I want to put into this presentation is we need firefighters we need maner that's huge we're pretty much set otherwise but we need members to respond we need new blood yes what are the AG requirements uh so you can join as a member a junior member at 16 years old but you can't do any type of firefighting or like heavy equipment operations you're 18 you can't go to the fire academy your 18 but 16 years old you can come in walk in join a fire company see what it's about kind of get your feet wet so I did that at age 20 it ended up being a career for me in a different town I mean I would have nothing without the middle fire department so it's we're trying to stress the people you know even though you become a volunteer fireman yeah you're not getting paid I have Sean how many numbers do we have that are actually firemen police officers Sheriff's officers dispatchers all because of middle fire department you know at least 10 to 20 the upper so for Volunteer Fire riters there's no oper come we have so yeah I mean you could you absolutely an associate member and how out in that aspect and we have a member that just hit 50 years active this year now e is dealing with some issues right now but he 50 years active fighting fire driving fire truck like not 50 years on the roster actually doing the job and we do have members that that you know I yeah absolutely see here so the bur has also worked really hard for us with us to increase our budget that's huge um just like everybody knows inflation has been horrible the last years and it affects everybody please fire you know you guys mean right so we we're trying to increase our budget where we can and do it the best way for the bur and it's residence um also in the reals and funds the BR fire department last two years with the help of our grant writer and our Chiefs have required two grants for the fire department one Grant was for almost $180,000 for turnout GE thermal engine cameras um thermal engine cameras we use a loc fire in a smoke F building uh and our other Grant was just over $21,000 for water so almost $200,000 be AP in the last two years for the bur so that's huge for us we haven't had a grant before that I think in 17 yearsan Pinter one of our ex Chiefs acquired that so it's been a long time and we're still trying I'm putting in for Grants up right so anytime the hey we have this all right tell me what you need you know um they're so willing to work with us and we have to be willing to to work back to help out over the last couple years over the last a couple years AG call increased significantly when I joined the fire department in 2007 uh December 31st I remember specifically we were just stached the call number 200 and we were like whoa 200 calls like we couldn't believe it 200 calls little middle sex um our call has gone up a lot since then 2019 380 calls 2020 went down a little bit 342 calls even though more people were home people didn't report incidence because of Co and being afraid not knowing what was going on in the world um 2021 with Ida 413 calls 2022 417 calls last year record high for us no storm no weather events 476 calls almost 500 calls for service MBO uh this year we're up to 347 it's like I said at three today during Fire Prevention Day with the kids uh and we respond to many different types of calls for service not just hey my my house is on fire my car is on fire right we'll go to brush fires mul fires uh we respond to Fire and seal alarms the fire alarm goes off in your house car an oxide alarm we check that out um what is a smoke smoke in your house you're not know sure where it's coming from you smell Natural Gas propane um we help EMS when they when they need help either lifting a heavy patient or at car accidents um electrical hazards inside and outside the that's SM electrical burning or power lines down the ground sparking right water leaves my home floods natural disasters this year we went through a cat stuck under a solar panel on the roof of house and last year we went to twice thought did twice he went to underne a what was it yeah and we had had to dig him out during a thunderstorm stuck under the brid um so we literally respond to every in you could think of any type of call and with DPW we l are the picks of the B Jim rer told me this once he's an ex-chief that passed away a couple years ago but I'll never forget this quote he said Can the police department is usually called when people need help when the police department needs help you called the fire department never forget that did you park legally tonight sorry that always so I like to say that one again um you know unfortunately even with all the community events and the fundraising this is the biggest part for us I want to hit home with the mayor council the burrow um we're struggling to Brand a new membership this is huge for us put into the perspective in 2018 we had 82 Act firefighters each Firehouse is about to have Max 25 people 20 years ago get a waiting list people actually had to wait to join the volunteer Firehouse we didn't have enough room right now we're down to 61 numbers that's huge that's a huge reduction of Manpower especially during the day um you know the B firefighter one course is 210 hours it's like a college level course um 6 months yeah six months now I rup you Sean so it's a huge commitment for people just to walk in the door and say okay I have to go to school three nights a week for six months on top of work on top of family on top of college right um I would also like to bring up that in the fire department in 2007 I joined the help people I joined to make a difference like I said before I didn't think it was going to turn into a career for me in another town multiple jobs um and I could ask Sean or any of my other senior members have been here for a number of years why we this it was just to help people help our neighbors because we wanted to make a difference um unfortunately the mindset now with the Next Generation I can't believe I'm saying that but the Next Generation uh it's changed a lot in the last 20 to 30 years and nowadays everybody wants some sort of compensation for their time no matter what it is for example there are at least 10 firefighters in in milborrow that are certified through the state of New Jersey they belong to other firehouses around us different towns because we don't offer any incentives which is it's crazy even thing um for example these incentives are either permit waves for you know construction right loap which is I'll touch on um paid for call responses so get paid a dollar amount per fire call you go on an officer response so being a captain or a lieutenant you get a monetary value at the end of the year for that um and unfortunately bigger Department budget l Inspire districts Sur us to have open1 bues and that's just the nature of larger towns which we don't have and a few of them are very very local about stating if you guys get this at the bur initiate something we'll join but they just don't want to do it for free anymore which I get but it's it's unfortunate um and we we both the fire department and the burrow have recognized this problem and we're both actively engaged in trying to figure out to recruit new members U bring new blood into the fire department this the B started contributing to our loat program which is a length of service award Bo program for our firefighters in 2019 which if we make a certain percentage of calls or drills uh meetings $1,150 deposit into that firef account at the end of the year and potentially a 401k so the end of the year uh well not excuse at end of their career as a launcher fireman they can take that money either roll it into a 457 401K they can withdraw from it um and the only other way they can withdraw from it is financial hardship so that money is locked into that account so they retire essentially so so it's something for them to Le on when they retire and we're also in discussion about sement response sement for the firefighters and a possible tax break because everyone else around us is either doing it or discussion not doing it um I'm not saying I want these for my firemen but I feel like having these incentives offered to the residents let's be real I'm resident in Middle bur my firemen come from middle sex bro I need people that live in town to volunteer but we will not have a fire department and that's what I want to drive home um I just want I want to be able to offer these incentives and at least get people walk in the door and see what we're about because we've tried everything else and it has it works honestly at the end of the day my job as fire chief is just to make sure that I fire apparatus respond to every incident and I I run my houses accordingly um everything else is secondary the fundraising right the carnival our meetings everything else the whole point of our existence is to make sure we respond to calls for service and I want to make sure we keep doing that so you know some agree with me that we need this siphon but the world's changing unfortunately the new age volunteer cannot give what we gave 20 30 years ago um we just talked about this before with one of the council members that you know we no longer live in a one job Society I have two jobs my wife has two jobs um it it takes a lot more income to actually have a functioning household now people don't have time to just volunteer anymore so we have to be competitive and what we offer to actually bring fire minut it so I feel like if we don't take some sort of action that increaser membership we run the risk of not being able to to provide a service down the road we're not struggling yet but unfortunately it's not just middle Tex bur's problem it's happening everywhere it's the United States problem it's the New Jersey's problem and we want to stop this problem before it starts uh I would like to end on a positive note I do have five new members going to the fire academy right now or at the happy today which is great um five new members as an engine company I could do a lot of work at a fire scene but I need a lot more um and that's one of the largest groups I've ever had actually attend since I've been in for 17 years I've never seen five firefighters go to the academy at once everybody they actually had a couple phone calls from other sheeps Ken what are you doing how you get five people I have no idea I'm just lucky you know everybody wanted to join at once but um you know may down like to thank you for having me here tonight thank you for being patient with me um and if anybody has any questions I'm happy to address them or answer the best of my ability any questions guys com only in the case of the hurricanes and the FL you leave your family go out and take care thank you yeah the last storm we had I thank it was three years ago um we were up for 48 hour straight our numbers we didn't go home we didn't go to bed 48 Hours you know pretty crazy think about that yes sir any reach out to the high schools like I know I went to M high school you know we saw October but no good question I actually was I soon as it became fire chief in January I reached out high school was that honestly other than word amount that's where you're going to get younger people right or people that just moov the town that want to make a difference um so I spoke to the board of ed January I think it was like 7 and they said that everything was booked for this year so they book everything yearly next year I have a presentation hopefully set up with uh it's called after the fire so it's about the seat all fire two survivors actually come and speak to the students we do it at work where I work um it's fantastic and afterwards we can open up still you seen it yeah that would it's eye opening it's a little graphic but it's it's a great presentation it makes kids realize even at their age fire safe is important what not to do in the dorms but you know you see something say something right and then afterwards they open it up en we can have as much time as we want to make it actually like a recruiting scenario for us so that that's my plan I'm hoping the board of V cases but I I want to do that next year would be amazing anybody else yes ma'am you're welcome thank you all right Kenny thank you Kenny okay if the rescue squad shows up we may have to break uh our agenda here because I would hate to have them come back and not be able to get their presentation done but uh at this point let's move on to appointments okay we're accepting the resignation of Kristen Bennett from the parks Improvement committee okay do I have a motion motion second second all in favor I I all right motion passes okay okay no proclamations no ordinance for introduction all right we have uh couple of ordinances for public hearing and final adoption I have ordinance number 2136 d24 an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 355 entitled storm water control okay I have a motion to open the public hearing second uh all in favor is good for that all in favor I okay the public portion now of uh the public hearing for this one here is now open anyone wishing to say anything please step up to the mic 345 Main Street M SE Jersey thank you for your service I standing here tonight to talk about the amendment plan 24-1 which uh for GBP uh p oh this is a pond Avenue yes not yet okay no that's okay not a problem this is uh you're going to be coming up when they we talk about the privilege of the floor thank you oh you're welcome okay anyone else seeing nobody else I'd like a motion to close motion second all in favor I I okay motion to approve approve a motion mayor Sor second okay any discussion roll call please council president conam yes councilman dinino yes Council doie yes and councilman Quinn yes okay next one ordinance number 237-242 of the environmental Commission of the municipal code of the B of middle sex to create a green team subcommittee okay motion open the public portion all right all in favor okay anyone wishing to speak come on up this is regarding the formation of the green team got to tell you it's long overdue Claire thanks for your uh your steadfastness and trying to see this through uh anyone okay motion to close motion second okay all in favor I okay motion to approve motion second okay roll call please counc pres com yes counc yes counc doie yes and councilman tlyn yes okay motion passes we're up to uh adoption of minutes okay I have approval of the September 10th 2024 executive meeting minutes motion second all in favor I okay and I have approval of the September 24th 2024 regular and executive meeting minutes motion motion second all in favor I I okay very good all right all right now we're going to move on to the mayor's report this may take a while tonight so just bear with me okay let's uh we're going to talk about it again you can bring up your questions in the uh in the privilege of the floor part but one of the things that came out this week is that there was a lot of uh information and misinformation on this Pond Avenue thing that was going around so um and it really became evident I I didn't make it to the first meeting that they had that day because I was at work but the second meeting that they had I was able to uh I was able to listen in I had a whole bunch of questions and the more I read it and the more I saw what was going on it it it just became evident that something's wrong so um I hit up Lenny first thing in the morning I said Lenny we got to get in there and we have to go take a look so Lenny organized to get us into the building and I'm just going to read the letter that came after that so on Thursday October 4th at 3 p.m. our ba chief of police DPW supervisor Council mesino and myself had an in-person meeting with the principles at 207 Pond regarding the proposed County Solid Waste plan Amendment at 207 Pond Avenue as a Class D recycling center as a result of the meeting several points were clarified however most issues were found to be with their application not only not being reflective of what they wanted to do they recognize this and the expectation is that you would be receiving a corrected amendment to this application from them this is a letter that was sent back to the to the state all right some of the items discussed the clarification needs to be forthcoming as a recycling center is not a permitted use in the industrial Zone and an approval by our joint land use board would be required uh just to do a little bit more clarification on that recycling is it really recycling what they're doing or is what they're doing light Industrial in terms of remanufacturing paint because it's it has to do with product so it's it's it's a whole classification thing and it really needs to be worked out because it's not accurately accurately reflected on their Amendment this facility would be for latex processing only oils and solvents are not intended to be received at this facility and any erroneously received would be a DI Minimus quantity a gallon or two and transferred off site so they're not looking to do any oil there at least that's what they told us our residents traffics concerns are a burrow issue and are not created by the subject company the the chief of police when he was there they they noted that there was there was other items that were going on there that they've actually since addressed to help mitigate part of the traffic problems that are there so that that that is recognized they also said that they are going to hold an open house for the residents to see what they are actually doing to have people come in there I've been in a lot of uh manufacturing facilities I work in one to be quite honest that place is pretty clean and it became evident very early in in the in the site visit that what they're applying for and their their paperwork did not match what they were doing doing at all so it's a problem there's also a letter crafted by our DPW supervisor Lenny Vidal which is a follow-up to the public meeting's details which details some of our concerns also I would imagine that the amended application would necessitate another round of public meetings thank you for your consideration this is what was sent to the state attached to that is was this letter on behalf of the burrow of middle sex this is a respon in reference to the proposed County Solid Waste plan Amendment at 207 Pond Avenue as a Class D recycling center the burrow Council and residents have several concerns with approving this facility as class D recycling residents are concerned of air quality potential health risk and environmental impacts additionally pollutants can affect local ecosystems and property values safety issues regarding fires and explosion at the site and ability for our fire department OEM to handle such challenges could we restrict class D to mainly collecting latex paints no solvents no oilbased Paints the smell associated with the operation of this facility who is responsible for monitoring the day-to-day operations make sure they are compliant they are already there are already eight such facilities located within middle sex burrow is is there a threshold as to how many the town can accommodate due to the due to the fact that facility is in a flood zone who responsible for the cleanup process a recycling center isn't a permitted use in the industrial Zone the jayb approval is required these were these were actually um these were forwarded within the time frame that we were allowed um there was an initial comment that we had received an an email over in June we did some checking around the burrow no one seems to remember getting this email and it and when it was followed up with by the by one of the town people I think it was the chief I'm not really sure there was one email it was kind of innocuous that comes in the middle of a whole bunch of other emails there was no receipt required no red receipt so I mean they could say we got it we say we didn't but the the fact that the the paper copy came up with the application enabled us to start the ball rolling we didn't miss anything it would have been nice if we got the emails earlier because the town could have been a a little bit more informed at that time but we we are not behind the eightball here and we've actually sent in enough enough items for them to really have to reconsider at this point our expectation is that they're going to have to reapply because the application that they filled out is incorrect and they tried to say they didn't read it or they weren't exactly sure but the the bottom line is what they're saying they want to do and what that application said were two different things and that has to be rectified before anything else is is going to happen uh regarding the traffic issues um they've been highlighted to the chief of police he knows about it they've already started taking some actions I know theyve that there is actually a paper Street in the middle of that which needed to be lined off which Lenny I know you've done already with the crew appreciate that that is um that is where we stand on that that subject right now uh if you have any other questions we could certainly answer them but I think we we covered pretty much everything but that's okay the second item I want to talk about tonight is that um is and this is regarding health coverage because we're at the very beginning of like the budget process here I mean it's actually it hasn't started yet but this is prior to it even starting uh and what's kicked us in gear is I've heard that the state health insurance plan is going to go up 16.3% next year all right that is approximately a 50% increase in the last four years this is a this is an email that went out to Michael the place and was copi to Michael conahan uh Chris the attorney Linda chismar carollyn Benson and Kevin Dodie um with a linear approaching and contract negotiations on the horizon is is important as part of any negoti negotiation that we do our proper due diligence to ensure we are doing our best for our residents and our employees it is not appropriate for us just to accept the increase and move on as a start I have a letter to send to Horizon requesting our claims history this will be the key piece of information that anyone coming in will use to bring forth a quote it is important to start now as this information takes a couple of months to process I intend on sending this email tomorrow which is tomorrow Wednesday I have bet I've been informed that in order to get the best quote possible it is best to interview Associates and then select one to process a quote I would like to create a committee of Michael the place Michael conahan Kevin Dodie Linda chismar Carolyn Benson and myself to follow the process through and present a recommendation to the council as a start I have two break two Brokers to be brought in for initial interviews certainly if you have other qualified candidates they can be brought in as well to round out the decision process I have a representative from Capital benefits who I know does a lot of the pbas in the state and Acure who's uh does a lot of the the companies and and businesses and municipalities around middle sex County we should meet prior to getting the claim information that's that's where we're going with that one um outside of that there are the two main ones that I have uh for this uh everything else is rolling going along um council president conahan all right thanks M um I want to thank uh Chief Ken Bart K all right I didn't I didn't see if you uh I don't know if you left um for your presentation tonight of the entire fire department as well as thanks to uh your team I know Sean's here Eric's not here uh but everybody else that helped you to uh contribute um thank you again to the entire fire department um hopefully Rich comes back we can get a pres we can see his stuff and if not we can bring him back at some point be at next time maybe the next one I want to thank Kristen Bennett for her two years she of service on the parks Improvement committee she'll be missed uh I'm excited for Claire you and your entire team for the the uh Green Team subcommittee I know it's something that you've worked on um pretty hard I before you leave Claire I have something else from Piscataway um just about what they're doing I got a copy of it from a friend of mine I wanted to give it to you um okay so the library is in partnership with our American Legion posts and again they're hosting for the second year their legacy W program um the program honors all middle sex residents that have served in the military or are in active duty currently applications to be included this year being accepted up until October 21st uh the friends of the library are hosting another jazz concert they had several this year featur this one's featuring Ken Leland uh roots of American Jazz it's going to be on Sun Sunday October 20th at 300 p.m. it's at the community room uh I wanted to announce uh if it's good with you know may our next M pillar of middle sex it's going to be Jack Costa on November 26th that's our only meeting in November uh I want to thank our CLK when the chismar for all of her hard work in the sale of Block 17 L 306 um I want to thank councilman dinino and Lenny vdal or DPW super for all the time and energy they they did a lot of investigating around this uh Pond Avenue application um Recreation I know Melissa's here tonight is again hosting a taunted house at the rec center uh very big event last year um two different nights this year both next week October 16th and 17th back to back that's Wednesday and Thursday from uh 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. free admission it includes a pumpkin decorating contest um photo ops candy Sweet Treats all that good stuff so um again next Wednesday and Thursday please support our Lincoln Firehouse when they host a CO offs this Saturday uh from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the intersection of mountain and Lincoln uh I look forward to our first town hall meeting mayor on uh Tuesday October 2th yeah I was going to just uh bring up again will be in this room 700 p.m. um board details to come I I I don't know the last time we've done one it's been a long long time maybe you know Kevin but long time God so uh 15 maybe yeah the format will be different but um again that's just mark your calendar is October 29th 7 p.m. here that's all I have there okay uh Conor's not here councilman dinino just a couple things um as far as the environmental um I want to Andrew Murphy we SW score her in on Friday which she was excited about that also September 28th rainard which we talked about several several of us from the commission were there plant over 150 plants and it really came out really nice rain a little bit but it was it was great Again spearheaded by Claire which is a wonderful person I don't know where she finds the time to do what she does but also October 5th there was a backyard composting I wasn't there I had to Pi my wife to the airport looked like it was good um October 19th is the tree giveaway our next meeting is October 15th that's for um as far as DPW I thought the Lenny as far as crack filling 11 streets were crackville V Place Simmons fton North Lincoln how Pond Market Grand View between fit Simmons and ston Chester and half of West Second and more also Lea badge are now available please bring your coupon yes clarity did put the piece with it so compost your grass instead of bagging it but we'll see what what that does U curb side B pickup ends October 30th you need it get call call now get it in and they're still doing potholes and as far as DPW garage I worked for 36 years and the same windows were in that building when I started finally they were just done over there single pane windows I remember that the St I can't even tell St he done a great job place has been painted this is probably the second or third time I've seen it painted because there so much stuff in there you can't and finally the floors are getting done over some epoxy so is that done or is that g no it's sorry but the day that we're off they may done so okay but it's a big Improvement there finally so moving forward that's all I that's it Claire I know you've been taking reservations for your trees how many did you get um about 50 50 wow wow pretty good let me know got other than that that Lenny's going to be busy digging a lot of little holes around you have about what 300 yeah yeah all different types too so if you're interested in the tree this Now's the Time to uh to get it coun m doie okay we have a guess that's going to do the fire report Sean you're up fig one of the firemen who donates his time you can see what they do extra for this community and before he starts just your mailers if you got a mailer have a mailed it in please mail it back to them and support them and it goes by your District you're in a certain District so it goes to whatever house firehouses in your area that's who your supportting Sean you're up thank you thank you council president my name is Sean Young I'm Deputy Chief of the midd fire department I've been on the fire department for 20 3 years following is a rundown of the calls for the month of September we had 38 calls of service few bullet points September 2nd at 0600 hours middle SE fire department's dispatch to a cover assignment to the Bur of scway or Township scway while they operated at structure fire we responded with engine 821 and covered scway for just about 3 hours September 11th 1552 hours middlex fire department was dispatched to a cover assignment to South clean field barel while they operated at a structure fire our ladder truck 82 responded to South planfield they stood by for just about under an hour while being released back to the Bur middle sex they were then activated to a structure fire with possible entament to the burough Bound Brook engine 823 responded and was shortly cleared due to a very quick Knock on the fire and bound by bound Fire Department September 13 1900 hours the employee of Ferrar pizeria pup located at 275 Lincoln Boulevard reported a reported building fire chief BTO arrived on scene once on location he confirmed that there was fire venting from a kitchen Hood vent located on the roof of the building with a moderate smoke condition inside due to an unknown type of fire in the commercial building first alarm assignment was transmitted as a precaution for the extra Manpower and Equipment Captain Bri MX was established operations and had interior Cruise check the pizza oven vent and the roof for extension second crew was ordered to the roof and extinguished a vent fire with a dry cam extinguisher fire was held to the vent system and the scene was turned over to MX County Fire Marshal's Office for further investigation September 25th 0800 hours an employee of band Avenue business reported an unknown type of fire behind the building located at 460 Lincoln Boulevard assistant chief showman arrived on team to find a large pile of debris of pallet behind a fire uh on fire behind a building impinging a walk-in utility trailer engine 823 arrived on location with the help of all for Middle SE bur gpw employees that are also middle sex fire department members and they were able to extinguish a fire before it spread to a trailer the SE was turned over to Middle SE County Fire Marsh September 28th 16th 39 hours passer by reported a vehicle on fire at 13 Lincoln Boulevard deputy chief young arrived on location located a fully inv fully involved vehicle behind the lock gate entry was gained to the property vehicle was been extinguished without incident the scene was turned over to Middle County Bar marcial middle fire department members attended 911 ceremony and Victor par during the month just to highlight of some of the calls out of the 38 there's one building fire one outside rubbish fire one dumpster fire one motor vehicle accident with injuries four motor vehicle accidents without injuries one on authorized burd two cover assignments out of town one smoke condition and or odor smoke one Hazmat released without any Hazmat so it was on founded to dat uh middle six fire department as up today while we out doing our uh our schools for the fire prevention day we had three calls which brings us to a total of 347 calls for 2024 at this time that is all I have thanks Sean thank you thanks Sean I also have the court report um for August uh 369 tickets 25 parking 344 moving 15 DWI 10 criminal complaints seven local ordinances five zoning there was four Court sessions two in person two virtual 255 defendants 89 cases were deposed during court um six of the D DWIs were deposed total assets were $ 36212 N9 the buroughs portion is $1,569 73 cents that's the court um I'd like to also mention that our chief of police not paying attention over there he'll be leaving the country with the executive board for the State Chiefs of police at the end of this month going to Italy and meeting with a whole I'm reading the email there's a whole gaggle of different levels of organization over there I you know anti-mafia investigation and everything oh my God you really going to see a whole alphabet again aren't you so it' be gone for a week and luckily his wife gets a vacation while he's working so she's happy about that I just wanted to mention that and we'll be in good hands with uh Captain ksky he's good man it's an honor just getting picked to go on that yeah that's incredible he's part of the executive board at the state level so he gets he's lucky enough to go to this stuff learn more about what's going on in the world and it's a benefit for us believe me definitely anything else that's it thank you Chief councilman Quinn nothing tonight nothing tonight okay uh c one quick one sh treade commission meets on Thursday night there you go all right all right one other I just have uh councilman Rex is not here but I do have some information this is from the town this is on the recycling and stuff like that activity just so you know middle sex burrow the bi-weekly single family units they go to 4,175 that's what they they do of of what they've had right now is one of the things that they do check is that of the units they they do a survey so out of the survey they check on 625 of which 451 actually had recycling out so we're our hit rate is like 72% which is so so if I had to say that because uh we're we're ninth out of 17 we should be a little bit we should be a little bit higher in terms of the recycling um however you sit there and you think that how much stuff could they really be putting out um and this is a recap for August 134 tons of single stream residential recycling was done in that month and you know we were talking about the the grass before and I have to say the the grass in the brush Claire you're on to something when you look at the numbers we're the third highest in Middle sex County out of all of these and we're only behind Edison and Monroe of the stuff that goes that gets sent in and uh there is none for Le actually someone actually had Carteret had a little bit in leaves like eight eight tons but we had 35 tons of brush and we had 66 tons of grass that that went in during August so you know you multiply that by a whole year it's quite a bit of stuff that's that's actually going going out in recycling and if they can find a way to compost or maybe we can find a way with some of our dead areas around town the to to to forgo some of that maybe we can do a little bit better but I know Claire you're you're only working on 900 things at this one time so you know we'll we'll we'll leave that one for for a little bit um administrator's report please uh thank you mayor um good evening everyone I'd like to also thank our superintendent of Public Works FY vial for coordinating with the mayor councilman Casino Chief G and representatives of GDB International who the applicant for the class C recycling center that's proposed for 207 Pond Avenue um that set up a on site for for us last week of the proposed operation site uh the applicant will be inviting members of the public on site and we'll also be pursuing local County and state approvals as needed I'd also like to thank the police department and chief G for giving a concentrated effort to looking at all the circulation and parking issues that the neighborhood brought to our ention kind of an ongoing so I really appreciate the whole team effort um the middle sex Public Library director uh chrisy George has reported to me that the development of our new local history room has slowed down a bit recently and this is mostly due to other building related issues being addressed at the library so the grand opening of the local history room will either be later this month or more likely in November keeped on that uh Council resolutions on the agenda this evening include authorization for the execution of an agreement for the sale of surplus burrow owned property which is lot 17 in Block 306 located at the northwesterly corner of West persing in Madison Avenue the winning bid was $391,000 other resolutions are for the purchase of police department equipment in the amount of 8,481 the appointment of a temporary court administrator and for changes for the the status of certain um certain properties under the senior citizen disabled person and the veterans tax deduction uh this evening there's an agenda Workshop discussion scheduled where we'll touch on the topic of the uh Cedar Avenue railroad crossing and our safety concerns there an executive session this evening we'll be discussing a police department personnel matter as well as the proposed restructuring of the recreation department I'd also like to mention again thank you to the middle sex Police Department in particular Sergeant Jolene orio uh there's a food drive underway and um she's been working really hard on it other members of the department have it as well the drive is running till 11 to November 4th and there's drop off locations all over town uh Best Physical Therapy the blue J Cafe here in Burl hall right in our main hallway at the middlex El the police department itself the library Recreation Senior Center st's Automotive superfood fresh supermarket and Super Fresh midle supermarket and we can you can also bring it to one of the schools so it couldn't really be more convenient uh let's see uh I also wanted to um note that we are currently advertising for a full-time zoning and code enforcement officer the um applications will be accepted until the end of the month thank you that's it yes okay last but not least uh just to throw it out there make sure that you keep the date for the uh town hall on your calendar please come in we're trying to solicit and you know a lot of times we've heard during the course of the year that you know you don't really listen to the residents before the budget goes out and it's put together well that's part of the purpose of this meeting is to you know try and get our finger on the pulse and see where what people are feeling these days okay let's open it up for the privilege of the floor I'd like a motion to open motion second all in favor all right anyone wishing to step forward state your name and address we'll do our best to answer whatever questions you have good evening once again my name isart 345 M Street I'm here to talk about the uh recy I'm in agreement with some of the points that you brought out look there's a caveat mour period right here the information that I am going to present is publicly available information which is obtained from the internet anything that I'm coding as in the documents that I've sent to you Mr Rex the superintendent also had identified in there where the sources were uh for those of you I don't know what the correct procedure is here I made some extra copies of things that I had sent I don't know if I can hand them out or ask proceed others can follow through Kevin have a few if anyone else out there there's any extras and while we're waiting for this to be distributed there are some things we understand what's going on in the open meeting where Carol you're gonna have to talk into the mic you can put it you can move it okay in the meeting uh the open meeting that we had at 12:00 here was October 2nd it was uh brought up this has also been mentioned in the Facebook uh that there was submission for a class B type recycl perit uh Carol when I brought up that conar he said well where did you hear from that I could we pack it down um to Facebook chatter but I did find it when I went to their website and in the website was a type of the 6:30 meeting somebody typed a b instead of a Class D so once again there is no class D request that's going on now some things that need to be understood here is that uh you need to understand what's going on here and again uh there's kind I'm to say the address is tuos Pond Avenue mil6 New Jersey the the owner of the business is called to set P middle sex property limited liability Corporation LLC the realator that leases the property out to G gbd and so forth is Lee and Associates so those are things we need to know about and then there's another company which is called LS L held as a consulting company which was contacted by GB to uh produce the information that would be used for submitting U uh permit and answering request for information request for proposal and talking about events that have happened it seems that like back in May 14th there was some some activity going on in which there was a transfer of information between Carol and also gbd and where they were answering questions one of the things that we wanted to make sure about is that this is purely a latex processing plan it does not include oil now then let me let me just hold off for a minute here so who is this guy that's talking to you and we have his marel in the right place okay in 1973 to 1975 to work for a chemical processing engineering company called Boeing engineering I was a lead technician for test and development of fluid bed dryers spray dryers flash dryers calers electrostatic precipitators and so forth we process chemicals for uni carbide CIT and so forth and design those those processing equipment for them when we're looking at we'll talk about euphemisms real quick uh euphemism is mon upon a time we had the department of for We Now call it the Department of Defense it sounds a little bit nicer we talk about recycling recycling sounds pretty good but really what are we talking about gbd we're talking about this is a chemically a chemical processing facility really right okay let's talk about this but what's what's going on there they're accepting pain from different sources right and then they're going to check it mix it together blend it and then they're going to add an anti bacterial agent into the paint so it doesn't grow B and so forth and they're going to take the product that they received and they're going to create a new product that didn't exist before so that means that I can I can mix paint from bear or I can mix paint from I don't know glint and all stuff put it all together throw it in there I don't know about the formul the formulas for the various types of Paints the compatibilities and so forth what antibacterial stuff was in the original product and what's going to be put into it when they produce this product they're going to produce a paint that they're going to take and they're going to then Market that so there's some concerns there right the concerns are okay let's take a look uh am I the uh the facility at 207 again I'm not certain if this is true I'm just reporting what I found the facility was built in 1967 right at the sprinkler system they identified as wet water I don't know if you're saying is dry water but you say wet water city sewer right the zoning according this is Li which I assume to be Light Industry I I know assing you guys can probably figure that stuff out so my concern was when we were talking about oil and things that and they can be contaminated materials to come in here but if it's a water sprinkling system and it's fire don't they have to have some sort of containment area where they're putting this non latex paint stuff don't they have to have a special fire suppression system maybe a CO2 or but I've got Halon thank you Halon something like that we're talking about a building currently occupied by GDB who is uh recycling plastic so there's particulate matter in that air there plastic right and if there bed is a fire you know how is it contained is it enclosed in a wall don't know don't know that brings up another point which would be of interest okay let's let's play for a moment that we're inside this processing plan and and we get the pable off the truck and uh what they're supposed to do according to the document submitted to no sex waste uh they open up the can and they're supposed to smell to see if it smells good now really is that you know a scientific way of finding out is it good or it isn't good and so forth I'd hate to be that person who sticking his nose and the C pay eight hours a day for five days a week I have my hand here a label that came off a latex Pain by bear and I'll be real quick it says warning cancer reproductive harm www. t65 warnings.ca.gov warning causes SC skin irritation may cause respiratory tract irritation it diuron something other vate and prst and silica avoid contact with skin eyes Etc so I don't know I don't know of smelling something know my old factory because I'm old may be not as sensitive as somebody else is younger but that doesn't seem to be a good koola acid test to figure out if it's good or not where am I going with this okay so get the stuff off you open up paint yeah looks good okay let's mix it together you know and they're going to be blending like you know blue paint purple paint white paint it doesn't matter even if it's just pure white paint we're blending bear paint Sherman Williams paint different formulas different solvents of all this stuff together then let's say that okay I'm I'm now processing with the blue and purple painting and what am I going to do I'm going to put it into a b right and I'm going to mix it around to make sure everything is all mixed and it's uniform I'm going to add this antibacterial stuff in there to make sure it doesn't grow mold right I'm going to then dispense it and put it into some sort of a container right well now there's a batch change and we're switching over to White so now we're going to switch over to White what do I have to do oh Jee yes I guess I have to clean out the back I can have purple blue paint there while I'm processing white so what do I do do I take the power hose printed down so forth whoa wait a minute where's that going oh well we're just going to wash it down into the sewer the public sewer L wait that doesn't sound tooy that doesn't sound good in chemical processing plants when you're processing chemicals you have holding tanks and sediment tanks you have an a specific way to get rid of your waste which you put this into a tank and the particular matter by gravity which sells down to the B can then be you know cphon off the the water stuff and we get that the sellup stuff and they clean that up send it on this way but you don't include it in with this is where water oh wait a minute wait a minute are you mean to tell me that you don't paint your rooms in your house and you don't take your paint brush and you don't wash it out with the sink yeah I do you're right wait a minute I also don't process one to two tons of paint a day day or up to 15 Tons of pain a day and I don't know what effect it's going to have when I'm pushing it down a public sewer line with all these antibacterial things I I I don't know what happens when this paint reacts and and en coats the pipelines for sewers and so forth but I would have to think that there had to be some sort of a process and some sort of a system that would they could collect this thing and so forth so I I looked through the processes and so forth to see what was going on and really doesn't down too scientific there are some things that that are okay we just accidentally got some paint that was contaminated uh we got something that when we're mixing things that U it's just not going to work we're going to have to put that into a special storage area so they have a special storage area in which they sa save this stuff for 90 days oh wait a minute know aeal storage are for 90 days is that every 90 days you just have get out is it 90 days this window came in July 1st so 90 days from that like that batch goes out the rest of names what happens if there is some sort ofaction well you know what I had a half a can of latex paint and well I got some some acetone here I don't want anybody looking dump it in close it up said it out to them didn't pass the sniff test remember we talked about a sniff test of the smow it well I mean how do you differentiate between something that that's hidden in in that pain B but at any rate so U so I am in agreement go first and foremost um in our community with have some outstanded people you are a blessing to L and all of you uh council members uh I'm not affiliated with any action groups or anything like that I am a resident here in town I'm just concerned as everyone else I am concerned about our taxes and so forth and and and having industry to help offset the cost of things that are happening here I applaud your efforts so but I think that very much in in a li with what you had to say we have to go back there to the state and and we have to tell them this is not acceptable it's not acceptable because the the process is oh let me regress just a minute here if they have had to put in special holding tanks in this place then I would assume that they would have to go back to the owner of the property because they're making RS to the physical structure of the place there's electrical whatever concerns what about ventilation you know these guys aren't supposed to be breathing this stuff this is not good for you get your brain damage right so I mean there are things that have to happen there must be some liability that the that the owner of the building has to give the bless so yeah you can do it and this is what we're going to do in the document that was sent out to uh to uh M six W they had a a brief diagram of what what the floor looked like There Was An Architect I guess I'll find it here a uh there is an architect group uh dpcs L surve uh LS the gentleman uh who was there is a project manager and we can get his name out of here anyhow but he made suggestions about what the floor would look like where things are going to be these special holding is this an open environment there inclosed all it's not included in here and the thing that I found out found was most interesting that dcss live here no equipment materials and storage areas based solely on information apped by the direction of Js Js I mean we need environmental scientists engineers and so forth when we're processing paint and doing all this stuff you know do do we have qualified people there they're monitoring the process to make sure it's it's viry and there's no activities going on that control there's so many things that we have think out so I'm going to be ending it because I know you guys open to get out of here that after 8:00 but it is an honor priv to be a part of this community and I hope to be a good thank you you know one of the things is that the the information on their application is incorrect so they got they're almost back to square one to start all over again because it it just doesn't match up to what they're doing so that's why it's going to it's going to have to start from the beginning and go all the way through and ask the questions but I have to tell you when we were there there and one of the things that that brought it out that their quantities of voc's and all the rest of that were very were were non-existent because when we were there in their hazardous waste storage area which is where the 90 days comes from you have 90 days from the time it get starts accumulating to the time you have to get rid of it and it's it's easy to spot there's yellow stickers I know exactly what they look like I have them all over my plan there was not one yellow sticker there was nothing there that had a single thing of voc's in there not nothing1 um one thing I brought up several times over the years which could have put a stop to where this suddenly there's this lengthy conversation regarding the chemical hasat why isn't there an autogenerated response on her emails like when I send when I send an email why don't I get a response to say my emails can received if that was in place and we know exactly when they sent the email and whether or not it was receiv received and who received it I just sent something to Mr Le two week actually was immediately after the last meeting I simple question regarding how many citations the code enforcer is written and I still have I still been given that information uh when I spoke to him last on the phone I said to him I sent an email right after the meeting he said well I'm not sure maybe you got if you did you didn't I don't know didn't see it whatever why isn't there an autogenerated response that says your email's been receive it's easy it's easy didn't put one on what's that says I don't have one on mine nobody does I know that and if you did then when they sent their email if they didn't send it you'd be able to say you're right we have record listen you're right it's a good suggestion So and I've been making it for years right you years you asked me about that last time last a good suggestion Kevin you it I think it's just an adjustment in our in our email it's astounding it's a simple thing and then none of this would be happening because well there's none of none of what well all this now confusion over whether or not they sent the email when they sent it they didn't send it respond at the end of the day Kevin it didn't matter we were there on time and we have our response in on time but it's a good suggestion to put an a an auto return on there and then is there any reason that that meeting that took place last week was not on the Pearl calendar yeah because we didn't find that out to the last minute we probably could have put it on there but it was It was kind of short notice so you didn't know they were coming to the courtroom to have that meeting until you got short notes you might find this hard to believe Kevin but I don't sleep here and I don't check the schedule every day you know I didn't know I didn't know so between everybody so no one was aware no one Council was aware that that meeting would be taking place when it took place at when we the document that we got let it led us to believe that was more County driven than the burrow driven and once all the questions started coming up we got we dove in okay and Michael do you have an answer for me yet well it was it was it was a county here and being hosted by the municipality um when it was brought to our attention we put it on the website and um it was the day before calendar until the day before we did it we put it on the as we were aware of it and how did you find out about it I don't recall I have to check Facebook I don't recall all right well that my gu it all got a lot of sponsored hearing it would have been posted as soon as it was scheduled and do you have the information yet as to how many citations been written by president for the last if you could resend that email to me because I don't remember reading it I was here five six Kevin I apologize I don't have it I will get you the information if you would you don't want me to have information Kevin that's a ridiculous stat I know some I have a family member works in the same capacity in another town that information either should beig I just offered to get you the information if you do me the courtesy of resending the email I'll get right on but then I'm going to send it we're not going to have any notice whether not received I'm telling you at a public hearing that I will respond to the email okay that's what happened last time here information so that's why it comes up about stuff like this company's moving in now all this stuff people are uppr the way they are because every single issue regarding haat has not been handled in a way we were told it was going to be handled it just hasn't that's the history these two big projects they had with all that contaminated dirt those trucks were tracking all over town all over town protocol is those trucks are supposed to be rinsed down before they beat the site anybody who lived in town saw what was going on nobody addressed it it didn't change are you talking about the property on bakeland Avenue there's the one over here on mountain and then when they did the one on Lincoln Lincoln had the mud running right down lincol Boulevard and the W of storm drains everything so this is why think want to know about what's going on with Hazmat because every single time there's been an issue regarding something with Hazmat is not handled the way be handled okay one of the things though on this in this particular in this particular case this might not even touch the dial as far as being Hazmat they might not even show up as a as a as a small quantity generator and the other thing is this another one have we adopted a flood plane ordinance yet that's enough so we don't have a flood plan ordinance which would help all the M come on up the First Responders we see what's going on down there in Asheville one of the points of the flood plane ordinance is to make sure people have things secured tied down there's nothing loose there's no chemicals floating around that these guys have to put their life at risk they're driving some new piece of equipment through some water and have no idea that there's a f tree that's been laying there for five six 10 years that's all part of the flood plane ordinance and with the flood plane ordinance you can then impose yourself on this new company because you can say look your hand such a way I'll you touch on the flood plane we also updated flood plan periodically I remember the last time we did it updated all right I was just checking we we can also check the engine no I'm I'm checking on the I was asking about the flood plane I know we have one but I don't think it's up no I'm not sure on that that we did with we were the only Town involved in the GRE book The Flood Control PL with the flood War we were the only town that did not Happ we were the only that I got to check on Kevin don't know all right I I don't speak know everything all the time some of these point we'll take a look absolutely we'll take a look at that we take a look I mean the I mean usually the the storm water ordinances touch on the flood plane so we got we have to see how the one ties into the other I don't know because the other is you can put into a plane ordinance that if your business handles hatm that it needs to be stored in a certain way and you're susceptible to an inspection once a month you can put that right in the FL plan usually that's usually storm order handles that is that in the storm order pres probably I don't know I didn't look I mean I read it but I don't remember everything I read the other thing FL plane ordinance is that insurance companies will pay if you upgrade certain things if it's required by the flood plane or so the town says look if you get flooded you need to move your electrical panel to the second floor higher you need to move your utilities to a garage that or higher you need to move your entral air conditioning up 5 ft if the flood plane ordinance states that the insurance company will pay for a homeowner to make those adjustments because it's in their best interest so that they don't continuously pay to replace the same order meter but it needs to be in the flood plane ordinance to have okay point taken thank you PA kevich 240 Hazelwood um I don't have much to say mayor I just wanted to say that um Mr cor this is public meeting correct yeah yes 100% well it's my understanding of public meeting La there's not supposed to be private conversations up there amongst the um officials that we're supposed to be able to hear everything in the audience this goes on periodically at these meetings where there are private conversations going on here and I really like just now mayor turn I have no idea what you said to him or what he said back to you and I don't believe that's proper is that proper he can seek counsel for me independently he can seek counsel but that's what executive sessions are for this is a public session right and I don't believe like Mr D can turn to Mr do have a PR isue that's not allow so why can anyone turn I don't I don't think that that's strictly in in it could be put something they could put in the bylaws but I don't think it's I'm not getting into bylaws or anything it's just I've been covering meetings as you know for decades and that's always my understanding that there anything that's said here we're supposed to be able to hear out the audence unless you guys go into executive session then anything's game there that's all I want to say I I don't think you're you're really permitted to be having these private conversations this goes on periodically and um I just don't think it's proper BR Sanders 10 minutes um first I did some work with EPA they should hire you because I I know what you're talking about groundwater surface water chemical interactions the way they're supposed to process it you described everything in a nice meaningful manner so that people here can understand it so commend you on that I'm a little upset and I'll give you the three reasons when I came up here one time I said we need to put on our fing hats beyond what goes on every day with what I'll call a rogue Governor if things happen we need to have an idea of what we can do and one of the things you said to me Jack was that we'll have a pulse before it happens and I know it's a small town you can't have a pulse over but we look at the land sale out from under us from middle six down and thank you Michael for keeping us us up to date on that and finding it for the first time we look at the tax thing that we went through that was a surprise to all of us and we realized we didn't handle that right now I come to these meetings to learn what's going on in my town and I want to know before so we can have this discussion and um I came to the meeting what was it September whatever 2 days later my friend says what's this going on with the pond Avenue stuff and I'm like wait a second they're going to hire out here because I'm sure they paid something to come here in milx County milx County said they sent a letter I kind of agree but even if you did that thing whereby the email comes back we've received it you still don't know if somebody read it and is in acable on it so that's not going necessarily solve the problem so this is the third thing that two of the things the tax and this thing I think should have been addressed by you in your when you give your presentation of what's going on in Mid I don't believe you didn't somebody didn't get that email because the county should be on that and this is the second time we've had a problem with the county so doing something underneath us so somebody has to be on M county and say what are you guys trying to do to us because we're missing the boat here this is the second time with Mid County so I don't know if we need a leon to the county or do we have such a thing should there be some such a thing but I want to come to these meetings I want to find out about this Pond thing and then I don't think the town would have much of a problem with it although I will say knowing where that's at and it's in a residential section versus on the other side of the tracks which is still a residential section to scatter away but you know I you know I know all the chemical reactions that can happen and you've seen what happen in the united was Georgia just recently it doesn't take much to light something up and if they're not doing the process in glading you guys all found that before they were it sound like M Texas County was going to say here so I think we need to get more on top of what's going on around us and or question why are we missing those so that's my yeah that was a that was actually a large part of the conversation that we had when we were on the on the with the county that night it was like you know they sent a bunch of stuff out and they slide these things in the middle sometimes and you try and read every single one but can't catch them all but but but the thing any way this road had to been reserved before our meeting prior to I've got to believe that most County didn't just say two days before hey we're gonna have a meeting on such and such at your thing somebody here had to know they're reserving this right and that should have been in the meeting there m county is going to reserve this room to talk over this and that should have been in somebody's review in my opinion so then I'm not surprised and I could deal with it or whatever but you know I'm glad we picked up on this before it got too far because down the sore like you said and exactly is how it would happen to clean it up goes right down the sewer line and we pay for that too because of the I guess the former mayor was talking about the sub forget subs and all that sure yeah yeah so please quick sure a real quick comment I a comment uh learning cve for me to figure out how to maneuver this Uncharted mindfield to find information and so forth there are various governmental agencies that you have to deal with there's a thing that is called swack which is uh something wait Mr Rex sits on that board too there was there was a slack meeting on July 9 but that wasn't communicated to you guys it was going to be something like that we have Carol who is working for uh the county uh waste management and so forth so we got two different places that we're dealing with and the communication within the government outside of this council is nonexistent or if it is it's it's it's terrible they're not talking to one another I honestly believe that if the squat committee said hey look we got new business that we're dealing with here and it's going to be this Pond issue and they sent it out to all of you people I know that you would have responded to it I know that when I found this information was afraid that our Council didn't know anything about it and I sent an email to our mayor the very next day I got a response from say hey CH thanks right so I know there are where some these fur and the CR and so forth but they are responsible then we have to understand here we're all one family this is a corporate family we're talking about we're all responsible to one another and we all care about one another let's be respectful to all of us you know and and I think we we'll we'll knock this thing out but I think that we have to be you know cautious I think we have to be sure we have the right people out there all due respect mayor and chief of police and so forth but I really don't think you guys are qualified to look at a chemical processing plan and determine what should or shouldn't be there there should be somebody that's out there that knows how to do with this there should be an architect is saying this is what the building looks like and needed a preven for these things that we're going to implement here and the landlord should be held liable for this stuff because modifying his property all right so you know and I didn't see in any of these conversations there may be some that I'm not aware of any conversation between the landlord GDP the middle sex race commission any of that so there has to be Communications I'm sorry thank you thank you sir anybody else okay all right motion to close the public portion motion second all in favor I all right Linda okay we have resolution 272 2024 acceptance of standing reports resolution 273 2024 renewal of membership in the Central Jersey joint Insurance Fund resolution 274 2024 acknowledging the change in status for certain properties under the senior citizens disabled persons veteran tax deductions block six lot 2.02 resolution 275 2024 authorizing the purchase necessary equipment for the police department's vehicle from Island tech services in the amount of 8,481 resolution 276 2024 approving the block block block of Howard Avenue between fiser Avenue and Woodland Avenue for the watching school PTO to hold a trunk Retreat on October 2 7 2024 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. resolution 277 2024 authorizing the execution of an agreement for the sale of our own property block 306 lot 17 resolution 278 2024 acknowledging the change of status of certain properties under the senior citizens disabled person tax deductions resolution 279 2024 acknowledging the change in status for certain properties under the veteran tax deductions resolution 280 2024 order of temporary appointment for Lauren cidy as acting Court Administrator okay anyone need to pull any of these no okay I need a motion motion second second any discussion you guys good um just to let everybody know our court administrator is out on maternity that's why we had to do this okay she did send me the last report and said this will be my last one for a little bit got I wish your luck and if you need anything to let us know okay than all right go call please council president Conan yes councilman dinino yes councilman Dodie yes and councilman Quinn yes all right motion passes all right non consent we have resolution 281 2024 pay all claims motion motion second second all right any discussion no no roll call please council president Conan yes councilman dinino yes councilman Dodie yes and councilman Quinn yes okay very good we have one agenda Workshop item tonight it's the Cedar Avenue railroad crossing now um what we've been doing is that we've we've gathered some information on this um actually the the police are pretty far along on this at at at this point and um Chief if you don't mind could you read that uh that status update of where we are with this for right now [Music] okay so this goes back in a few years well we had some um terrible accidents cross thing so back in uh February 27 2020 there was atic meeting which conducted with the SE Avenue at grade railroad crossing in order to review and determine revisions U to the railroad warning devices the traffic control devices and and to look to see or investigate how um how we can better cfle public there after the meeting uh njd provided a list of short-term actions intermediate term actions and long-term actions the short-term actions uh and it might not be all inclusive but we we put together the list from um Communications from them was uh install new track crossing surface install new stop bars install double yellow Center Line pavement markings install edge travel way pavement markings install white diagonal pavement markings and shoulder both sides of Cedar Avenue at gr Crossing install 8 in white pavement markings delineating the dynamic envelope of the railroad at Great Crossing install four tracks a four tracks plaque under all railroad advanced warning signs approaching to the Cedar Avenue at R Crossing installer do not stop on tracks sign on Cedar Avenue southbound just south of the cono Freight Line install a do not block box pavement marking on Cedar Avenue northbound lane at the business entrance take driveway approximately 380 ft south of the con Freight Line install do not enter sign as the service driveway entrance exit only in the southwest quadrant approximately 65 ft from the conro free install a new left turn sign opposite of the business entrance exit in the Southeast quadrant approximately 180 ft from the conell freight line installed 27in x 18in four track signs under the existing railroad Advance warning sign along both Lincoln Boulevard approaches install a storage space sign in advance of trackway 75 ft between tracks ahead and sign in Center between trackway 75 ft between tracks and tracks behind you install an additional railroad Advance warning sign between Bo East Boulevard paage North Brown and South bround approaches paage South tracks south tracks to approximately 5 ft of con rail outside R clear or clean out any vegetation and debris within the con rail within the railroad right away 300 ft each side of New Jersey Transit Valley Line and the uh Ro flow rail Freight R the intermediate term actions were a new signal north of the New Jersey Transit R Valley Line for southbound traffic informed railroad Engineering Services of necessary steps needed progress of the of the included proposed new traffic signal in the current Trail 2 project design install new pre- signal north of the New Jersey Transit rail operations R Valley Line tracks develop a railroad preemption sequence in The Proposal pre- signal located north of the New Jersey rail operation R Valley Line tracks which will allow any queue of vehicular traffic to clear across the railroad tracks because there's two steps there before the arrival of the train coordinate the railroad preemption sequence of the proposed new signal with New Jersey Transit rail operations and Consolidated rail Corporation provide for the interconnection between railroad circuitry housing unit and the signal cabinet controller of the proposing traffic signal provide sufficient length of interface table for the railroad form the connection from MJ do junction box to the railroad circuitry housing and install and maintain a junction box adjacent to the railroad right away in order to perform it the next one so of the of the shortterm and intermediate term uh all those all those items were taken care of by by a j the longterm action was to pursue the concept of grade separation feasibility design and funding which was one of the probably one of the more difficult because of the the way the uh the roadway is designed in that area um we haven't had an update from them they did recently uh they re reced and fixed the crossing because it was it was really bumping it was really getting out of hand we've been kind of chasing them down for a while to get that done it doesn't happen very quickly um but finally that's done as well so the The Rail lines now at least they're not um a disaster as you're going over them far as like how how bumpy they are and how how how bad it was for for the crossing um the long-term action was not done obviously it's not it's I don't know what where it's at at this point we reached out for Barbara fan from njdot she's a diagnostic team leader uh structur on Railroad engineering service and August green who's the uh Federal Railroad Administration inspector um and requested an update your okay that's where we're at okay okay at this point you know that that's where we're at I guess what we really need to do at this point what I would recommend is let's get a little bit of a committee together to just I know they did all the inter intermediate but is that all the intermediate things that they should be doing if it's going to be you know if we're going to have to wait around a long time for long for a long-term solution like do we feel that there's more they should be doing at this point some of us seem yes some of us seem no but in order to get to the next step you know we should at least have a little group get together talk about what we feel is the next step I mean is the next step waiting for them to to do a long-term you know uh above grade change or are there other intermediate steps that they could do like maybe putting you know Gates on the inside so people know that they they they can't you know what I'm saying make it almost into two separate Crossings where you have Gates on both sides of the track of both tracks so you know that you're if you're outside of the gate you're clear you don't have to worry I don't know if that's something that that we should pursue I mean is that something they would consider pursuing I don't know but if you don't ask you don't find you know you don't you get nowhere I mean uh I I just think at this point you know I think having a representative of the of the police maybe a councilman Kevin would you be interested in being part of this it would depend on St I mean I you you got the state involved Kevin it could be a hundred years you know how that goes I you could look through the email that I sent everybody you saw the timeline which I started at 0 Z where I didn't know anybody and just started making the phone call understand all that but at this well at at this point and I'm not trying to put you on the spot but at this point they identified a short term an intermediate term and and a long term they've done everything except the long term and with the the finances in this state that long term may be well after we're in a box so the the question is are there other intermediate steps that we think that we want to discuss because if you just go there and say where you at you're going nowhere you go there and say we think you should do this this and this and let them respond is that something you're interested in yes no I would be interested in being being involved but I think M on how to go about it it's going to be a bit different when I spoke to August who's the safety um official when it comes to Federal ra Administration he told me all eyes around Conrail after the last act because it's in their lap it's their problem they changed those train of tracks decades ago they moved them so that they side by side people have been getting killed there ever since with all due respect to M ban because I had spoken with her a couple of times too she gets you nowhere so I mean that's what's going to happen with her they know what they need to do they just need somebody to crawl up there and make sure that they do it that's where I'm at because I sent you guys all the emails all the phone calls I make you can see the dates and exactly how long it took me to get from point A to point B which is finding out about that meeting and making sure we have at that meeting and it wasn't months it wasn't weeks it wasn't years that was in a matter of meeting of just pound and pounding calls I mean not call somebody and wait till they have turn my call keep calling you keep calling keep calling so you get the person you want on the phone because there's all kinds of other people call and one of them is Val because the other thing that brought me to look at this again is the fact I heard you're looking close Queen bridge and train Clos and that involves they need to do an aquatic study because of wildlife they even bringing history in because there was a battle that was fought there all these other things that they don't need to do for our TR and when I asked them Point Blank why are you spending so much time and effort there when right up the road you have the most deadly train cross state and their answer was because we're not hearing from any on there we're hearing from B somebody needs to pound it before it because inevitably the way it sits it's going to happen again and here's the other thing it's if you were aware of this but the reason I came in and brought this up was because I was crossing over early on a Saturday morning I was the third car so I could see in front of me as we started to go over we were stopped and I'm like what why are we stop an employee spray te and Ste out into the road and sto traffic to allow for a tractor trailer to spray P so even with all the changes that are being made as long as stuff like that is going on somebody still get killed so right an ordinance that if somebody dare to stop traffic at that Crossing that you're going to believe them for everything they have so that no one does that because that guy could cost somebody to life and when the guy in front of me slowed down to address and yell at that guy he put them off set at you he called him a piece of and went back inside with teret to go about his business so that was the one time I just happened me going over and there was somebody actually had the the let's to stand out there and stop traffic and and everyone was stuck on the track I I can have my traffic off don'tthe a lot of money put there that so clear Tom I the exact time I time I so and particular day so I it's my mindset with it that if we keep drilling down on to the point you get tired during from they're going to do something because one of the other pieces of information I sent you guys was small projects that they have done all over the country they've built entire onramps they've closed entire onramps because of the crossing that didn't even have pay P they do do this stuff it's their responsibility Long Island developed the program and got rid of every single great Crossing they had it every single one and that was just from one incident that they were motivated to do it these are an Antiquated way of Crossing Tracks they extremely dangerous and the rail company knows it Con rails have money to put a bridge there con money to put a bridge wherever they want and the other thing that's happening I don't know if anybody's aware of they were looking at the one leg they was specifically right through through middle sex is they did want to make some changes and the changes they wanted to make was to allow so that they could classify it differently and roll through larger heavier trains so they weren't looking to change things to make it more safer for how people cross they were looking to change this change that raise this move that out of the way so they could push even bigger trains through so if they got the money to change things that they could pass even bigger heavier stuff through here they certainly got the money to make things safer I mean conre is the one they not the way I was told the first time I reach the office was he said all eyes are on Conrail right now we in this site meeting because they got another fatality dis Crossing and they were the ones that pushed moving closer how many years ago you'll the guys the guy to Federal Railroad Administration is extremely forthcoming and extremely helpful and he told me Point CLI the first time I talk him because I thank him for being so forcoming help he said look part of my job and this mentality like that is I come in and I've got to look over the tape of it second by second he goes if somebody comes to me and they're presenting an idea or they want to get involved in a way that I may have to look at fewer of those tapes I'm all about it so they're all years and they'll do whatever they can to help but at the end of the day it comes down to like everything who's going to pay for it and the truth is from the way it explained to me it's in conrail's lab and if you notice of all those changes leveling out the Conrail side was the last one made so they drove their feet even from that first meeting and myself and I encouraged people to call there's an 800 number right there at that track if there's any problems with I should just call and keep calling and say you're having trouble Crossing it's so FY on the other side there's a lot it's a big cluster over there there's a lot of looping Parts but there are people who are fully aware and what was the guy's name you said that was helpful up on my emails it's AUST first August yeah a a a all right I mean he was at least I found be very all right at this point you know it might not be a bad idea to just table it for a little bit I want to get some more information on what what their next plan is and just see what they have to say and pester them a little bit and if I come back and I say Hey listen I tried calling this guy 20 times we're getting nowhere fast we got to up the Annie then that's what we're going to do so you guys all right with that y okay thanks for your input Kevin appreciate it and thanks for looking into it again okay um let's uh well we sort of added open form here let's open up the floor for privilege of the floor on the agenda Workshop item motion motion second all in favor I anyone coming up okay motion to close moot second second all in favor I okay we're GNA have an executive session tonight um action may be Tak will be taken okay um so at this point we're going to break for five minutes but let's get the resolution app I have resolution 282 2024 executive session all right motion motion second second all right roll call please council president Khan H councilman din Council Dodie yes and councilman Quin yes all right uh for those of you guys that are going to cut out right now uh the next meeting is October 22nd so let's break for a few minutes