##VIDEO ID:XaD_Y4tfaCg## which stands one nation indivisible okay Linda roll call please mayor M here council president conahan councilman K here councilman dinino here councilman Dodie here councilman Quinn here councilman Rex here administrative place here and tonight we have B attorney Alex siser here okay we're going to shuffle things up a little bit but first thing we are going to have a little add I'd like a motion to add to the agenda uh resolution number 271 2024 it's for coin toss for Lincoln H motion second all right any discussion roll call please okay counc president Conan yes councilman Corin councilman dinino yes councilman doie yes Council Quinn yes and councilman R yes all right very good all right at this point we're going to shuffle things around a little bit more uh we're going to do the prop cations first so we have a couple of special guests in the house right here all right and we'll do these one at a Time soia come on we do things right we try all we go okay whereas the governing body of the bough middle sex director recognizes that in order for the community to thrive and succeed they must rely on the service and support of its residents and whereas the wisdom history commitment and passion that so many of our residents exhibit and extend to their neighbors in the bur make them the pillars of our community and whereas it is in the spirit that mayor mic would like to honor and recognize individuals throughout the community who have made an exceptional uh contribution to the burough of middle sex and whereas born and raised in Middle sex burrow ailia Shar is a lifelong resident graduating from middle sex High School in 1970 and whereas a milia share has exemplified her passion and Devotion to the burough by serving in numerous capacity over the years and whereas ailia share was a member of the middle sex Board of Health for over 22 years in many positions including treasure vice president and president and whereas she represented the buau on the Middlebrook Regional Health commission from 1983 to 1987 in 2002 to 2010 and whereas a milia share was an integral part part of negotiations for a public Heth Public Health Service contract with middle sex County Health Department saving a burrow approximately $500,000 in the last 14 years by reducing the costs and expanding the services provided and whereas million share expanded her dedication to the betterment of the buau by getting elected to the middle sex Board of Education in November of 2023 and whereas a mil share was recognized by The Bu by receiving the middle sex burrow mayor's award for outstanding citizen of the year in 1986 2005 and 2013 and whereas a milare throughout the years has exhibited praiseworthy service and commited to the burough by incorporating herself as a vibrant part of the community and now therefore Jack nikolic mayor of the burough of middle sex state of New Jersey along with the middle sex burough Council and on behalf of the residents of middle sex wish to thank you ailia for all of your dedication sacrifice and labor to our community I hereby set my hand in Seal for Middle sex fix this 24th day of September thank you I just want to say real quickly that I'm humbled and honored to receive the recogition from the mayor and everyone on the council it is greatly appreciated I also want to acknowledge all of the members uh that I've served with on various committees um it takes a lot of hard work and dedication but again thank you so much it's greatly apprciate well deserved thank you all right all right B by [Music] whereas the governing body of bur middle sex recognizes that in order for a community to tribe and succeed in service and support of residents and whereas the wisdom history commitment and passion that so many of a res res exhibit and extend to their neighbors in the B make them the pillars of the community and whereas it is in the spirit that mayor M would like to honor and recognize individuals throughout the community who have made exceptional contributions to the buau of middlex and whereas lifelong resident of middle sex Robert Sher graduated from middle sex High School in 1969 and whereas throughout the years Bob Sher has shown his support of the burough by serving in numerous positions such as on the B Council from January of 1978 to December of 1980 during which he was chosen as a republican candidate for the New Jersey State Assembly 17th legislative district 1979 and whereas Robert chair was appointed as a member of the planning board in 2009 Vice chairman in 2019 and later as Vice chairman of the joint ly boort from 2020 to 2022 and chairman from The Joint L news board from 20 September of 2022 through March of 2024 and whereas in addition to volunteering many years on the Zoning Board of adjustment along with his participation as a member of The Joint L board Bob Shar volunteered his time as a member of the middle sex Board of Health from September 22 through March of 2024 and is currently an alternate member to the Board of Health whereas Robert Sher was elected by the residents of middlex bur as mayor on November 3rd 2009 and sworn in on November 10th 2009 serving in that position until December 1st 2011 whereas Robert chair was also selected for the middle sex B mayor's award for outstanding citizens the year in 1986 2005 and 2013 and whereas Robert cheres displayed exemplary service and dedication to the municipality by integrating himself within the burrow as an integral part of the community and now therefore Jack ncol mayor of the burough of middle sex state New Jersey along with the middle sex bur Council and on behalf of the resident middle sex wish to thank you Bob Sher for all of your dedication sacrifice and labor toward the Comm I just want to say thank you to the mayor and the entire Council um it's truly um great to be honored in such a way by by our community and I just want to say that over the years volunteering it's a way that we invested to try to make the community better and I know that it's really difficult to get people to come out and volunteer whether it's on a board or whether it's an elected position but it's something that the community really needs and it even now it seems less and less people come forward to step into those roles and it's something that's really necessary for the town to operate properly so I would hope that this would spark some interest and especially younger individuals in the community to get involved it's easy to sit back and say things should be done a certain way or offer criticisms it's harder to get involved and really try to make a difference in our community uh so I hope that happens again I want to say thank you to everybody here and thank you to all the members of boards that I have served on um all their work has gone on to make this community greater thank you get some [Music] smile well those P there I just want to say uh thanks to you guys I mean I I appreciate it you know as you know on on the many walks that you guys take and the walks that I take um we would run across each other and we'd have some uh pretty in-depth conversations on the spur at a moment I some of them I think we were we were trying to solve all the problems in the world in one night but that's okay we it it moves on but you're you're right about volunteerism we do need people to get involved uh it's it's what makes middle sex a a great place to live in you know um you know a lot of times we were just talking about this last night John you used to call it a Hallmark town you know which is good because you know Dell and they call it the Miracle Mile and you know Hallmark town would be nice but we got to we probably have a little copyright infringement and stuff like that so we're going to put your name to that so it becomes a problem it it ever becomes a problem it's it's there but once again guys thank you for everything really um we have a couple more proclamations to go uh Jeremiah yes mayor um Proclamation Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2024 whereas October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to increase awareness of this disease and while we have seen an increase of mamography rates and decline in deaths there is more we can do and whereas the American Cancer Society continues to advise women to get an annual mamogram screaming once they reach the age of 40 and whereas throughout the month of October all women are encouraged to make a renewed commitment to following recommended screening guidelines and to make a mamogram appointment and whereas Dance For the Cure financially assist breast cancer patients in Somerset Hunton and middle sex counties and whereas the burough of middle sex stands in solidarity with the mothers sisters daughters friends neighbors and others who are battling with this disease and whereas the dance for the cures ties the pound pink campaigns will be placing pink ribbons on the trees throughout the burough middle sex from October 1st through October 31st to promote the awareness of about breast cancer and the proper breast health and encourage annual mammograms and whereas pink remons have become an international recognized symbol of Courage support and the symbol of Hope for breast cancer cure and whereas the bur of Ms middle sex recognizes the importance of working together supporting local campaign events such as TI Town te and breast cancer awareness month and now therefore I John mikolashek Mayor of the middlex bur County of middlex state of New Jersey along with the middle sex bur Council on behalf of the citizens of middle sex and du by join dance with a cure and Miss municipalities across the United States in proclaiming the month of October 2024 to be breast cancer awareness month now further be a resolve that the burrow of middle sex urges all citizens to join me with the council uh the with me and the council and spreading awareness of breast cancer and voicing our support for the dance for cure Association that it yes sir all right thank you all right one more Mr doy Proclamation domestic violence awar this month October 2024 whereas domestic violence impacts countless New Jersey residents without regard to age race religion or economic status as victims suffer at the hands of a spouse or partner and it affects their children families and entire communities and whereas women aware Incorporated along with with the middle sex dellan domestic violence response them has offered unparalleled services to women children and men who have been victimized by domestic VI violence and whereas the burough of middle sex joins with others across New Jersey and Across the Nation in supporting victims of domestic violence and shares the worthy goals of this month-long observance and likewise supports the work of women aware Incorporated along with the middle sex vill and domestic violence response team as they strive to provide the best coordinated response to domestic violence in our community sending a loud and clear message to abusers that domestic violence is not tolerated in Middle sex bur now therefore I mayor Jack technically Che to hereby Proclaim October 2024 as domestic violence Awareness Month in the burough of midc and I Ur urge all citizens to actively participate in the scheduled activities and programs sponsored by women aware Incorporated and to work toward the elimination of personal and institutional violence against women children and men just a comment on that I know that the our police Police Department locally is involved with this group and they do great work and I Know Chief guys can attest to that that they show up and they help out during these situations for the abused people because I've gone to a couple of their ceremonies and it was heart-wrenching to hear some of the stuff that goes on so it's it's a good thing they're volunteers and they come and they help these people in time of need it's a great thing keep people like that in mind all right thank you all right what we're going to do right now is that we're gonna have uh we have Dawn ghaw is here tonight I appreciate it um she's gonna run us through the uh annual reassessment program uh very briefly and then after that what we're going to do is we're going to open the floor up to some questions um to make sure that it gets recorded properly it'll be almost like when we have um when we have the privilege of the floor please just come up to the mic state your name and address and we'll go from there so Doan the floor is yours okay um so I want to start by saying that um I know a couple years ago we did the annual excuse me a full rout which is only a couple years ago and we did that because um just to kind of catch up to where we are now we did that because the state order us the town to do that and we did a full R out um it was very costly to do that it was not done for 36 years um and that's one of the reasons the state ordered us there's several markers that the state will set one of which is the length from the last time that you did a Ral 36 is a very long time the other Factor was um the ratio our common level ratio is at 24% so that means the assessments were only 24% of actual Market which is where we're supposed to be on that 100% And there's another marker that is kind of technical but it's a coefficient of deviation and that just means that how skewed the assessments are from each other and the marker is um is 15 and we were adding 18 so that's again a third marker which is why the state ordered us so many people when I sent the letters out for the the new Inspection area for the annual reassessment many people are like oh we just did a Ral why are we doing this now so the reason why we're doing this now is um the annual reassessment program is a program that is um it's regulated by the state there's rules and regulations on how you do it why you do it um but it's a program where we can the town can keep annual maintenance for the records um so that we don't have have to wait many many years and do a full reel again but in order to do the annual reassessment you're only allowed to skip one year after a full reel to start it up so that's why we're starting it I did Skip one year um to save a little money we skipped one year now we're starting this is the first year of a fiveyear cycle it's a fiveyear cycle doesn't mean it ends in 5 years it can go on continuously to continue to maintain but the 5e cycle refers to how many times your house will probably be inspected in the 5 years because we do 20% up the town every year so a lot of people got the letter and said oh I was just inspected two years ago why why me again and the reason why you again you just happen in the area that I selected I have to do 20% of the town every year I started with block one counted how many I needed to do it took us to roughly block numberers 71 perhaps maybe 70 point something and that's why if you've already had an inspection why another one so soon because I had to start somewhere um also it it was two years ago but in those two years a lot of houses have had changes um had um there's been people buying and selling and flipping there's been additions and other things happening so even though it was 2 years ago there is still a lot of change that might happen this helps keep the record up to date again two years ago we didn't get as good of an entry rate for internal inspections because people were still fearful of Co at the time when we did that so it does help that even if if if they were in your house two years ago it's not as essential but there was a lot of houses that we didn't get into because people were Fe fear still fearful of Co so it helps us to keep up to date regardless of if you have an inspection or not all of the values for all the properties in town are going to be reviewed based on the market and brought up to 100% it's not just the houses that are being in the 20% area it's all the properties commercial properties Residential Properties everything will be based on the market so that's basically where we're at but you know I'd like to questions if you have them joza 321 salor Avenue want to thank you for your time tonight have a couple of questions how much was do you know how much the original the full review was two years ago in terms of what money or how many houses you got to how much money what do we spend 300,000 the council telling me yeah it's about three and what is your estimate for the uh this first phase you the inspection it's about um in addition to the normal cost of my office it's about $35,000 big say I can't yeah which is years yeah also the I Council does that 300,000 include the tax Ms yeah I I got up at the last meeting and uh Express the opinion that think we should wait but now understanding the full circumstances it does make sense to me that we do it and save that money not extend 300,000 at one time it's a lot easier than just 35,000 it does allow to spend you know a small amount every year rather than a huge amount yeah and and the program itself is designed to to try and keep everything Equitable to everybody else I mean you know a lot of people took a big hit and a lot of people took took a reduction you know and everyone gets very happy that oh the people that got a reduction you know they made out but you know if it's 30 years in between does that mean you were overpaying for 30 years I can tell you in my own case I bought somebody a car maybe two you know after all that time and it's unfortunate but this way it keeps it'll it'll keep everybody in check I also wanted to add in in addition in over 36 years so the last R was in 1986 over 36 years different parts of town and different segments of the market change at different rates so you know like warehouses in ' 86 weren't worth very much now because of Amazon and the other delivery Serv warehouses are Gang Busters and the result of that was when we did the reval we were at 24% but the commercial properties actually went up 500% whereas residential went up 300% that means for I don't know how many years the commercial properties weren't really paying their fair share and it's really great when the commercial property is not I mean if you're business owner is not so great but uh the commercial properties like those Warehouse properties and things they don't have kids in school they don't have students in the system and yet they're paying probably the most taxes certainly more than any you know one homeowner in the town is pay so it really helps to keep those values up to date and you know I don't know how long it had fuse like that but you know that's a disservice to presid the other gentleman was first yeah Dominic 50 I also want to thank you for your presentation this evening um unfortunately I don't share the opinion that the phase reval program is fair and Equitable or cost effective uh just let's get to the cost you said it's 35,000 to do the first 20% there'll be 20% uh the following years so that in 5 years 100% of the properties will be reassessed right from 35 * 5 is $175,000 in 5 years and if you continue for the following five years it's another 100 well probably more than 175,000 because of Labor RIS inflation as an alterate to the phase three Assessment program did you consider EV re-evaluate reassessing the properties once every 10 years now I know the last night we were we were reassessed in 22 was 36 years prior that's egregiously wrong A lot has happened in the community the cost to do the reevaluation after 30 something years I would expect would be enormously high and I think it's fous to say or face any current cost estimates on on the reevaluation done after 36 years if we re-evaluate it once every 10 years we wouldn't be seeing a $300,000 reval cost now as fair and Equitable so I don't think it's cost effective fair and Equitable Don you said that I'm in the first 20% to be reassessed okay to be inspected everyone's being reassessed okay that I don't understand so so the 20% is going to be expected and reassessed the 80% are going to be reassessed but not reinspected correct how is how is that if if for example let me just use an example if the value of all the property in the first 20% of all the property is let's say $1 million I know that's qu but let's just use it as an example $1 million as it was reassessed in 2022 and this year the 20% would now be reassessed at let's say 100 or $1,100,000 a 10% increase so all of those homes in the 20% let's just for the sake of this discussion say their reassessment value goes up by 10% do you use that as a means of determining how much the 80% of the non inspected properties will Rush no so the inspections are to keep the the record of the houses up to date um and they get out of let's say we don't not all things improvements and houses need to require permits so it's very hard to determine if people are upgrading their homes or other things if they're not pulling permits on them this helps to keep the records up to dat so that the houses can be evaluated with like houses that are similar similar um types houses similar condition houses and and things like that the I don't into inspections and I I'm only comparing hes that are similar to each other that are sales that happened during this year so I'm not looking at the changes that if I make changes to those to 20% of houses and those changes resulted in in I know 10% as you suggest that doesn't mean the rest of the neighbor rest of the Town change 10% because I'm not doing it that way I'm trying to make sure that the record cards are correct so that I can compare those everybody's house to similar houses that have sold during the year that's how you determine what the market is so ranches against ranches against Colonials and you're not I'm not doing I might not necessarily be comparing you to the next door house if it's not the same type of house that's not going to be the same Market at your house so that's it's not how how you tell say okay I'm I don't think I followed all of that okay so to determine the market value an example let let us suppose 20% of the properties that are to be reinspected reassessed you have house C whatever it is a ranch of and in one of the 80% of the property is not re aspected you have an identical house there identical house is identical and the one that is in the 20% because it was last reinspected and reassessed two years ago it's market value let's say increased in the past two years why would it 10% is the identical house in the 80% that was not be expected going to also increase by 10% yes yes because I'm not comparing assessments to assessments and comparing assessments to sales of homes that have sold within the last year okay so it's a market value yeah is is what the assessment when you're coming in and doing a physical it's my understanding is it's more for I want to make sure that if I have a on my record card I have a three-bedroom two bath house that I'm going into a three bedroom two B house and its General condition is at Market above Market or below market in terms of just Condition it's a wreck it's good you know that type of thing and that's that's all you're really doing when they come in the house yes it takes about 15 minutes to do an inspection and they're just checking that what we have on record is what your house represents um it should be it's a three-bedroom one and a half house with an unfinished basement unfinish attic I'm just want to make sure that that's what we have okay I I think you've answered my question let me tell you what I I think I heard okay coming in here I was concerned that the 20% the properties that are to be reinspected and reassessed would most likely see a higher reassessment because I guess real estate in the past two years has RIS and the 80% would stay at the reassessed value in 20122 I thought that would be unfair but that's not what you're saying correct so my understanding of what is correct you're of what you're saying is correct okay now let me get back to the cost issue very briefly uh can I ask had had you considered before you decided to voluntarily enter into this phase re Assessment program did you consider doing one reassessment every 10 years not every 36 years I didn't consider it because I'm not the one dictating what I do it's decided mayor and did you approve of the phase re Assessment program yes did you consider assessing every 10 years as an alternative yes but but you have to look at it from from another standpoint when they did the first assessment they did not have a 100% hit which means that they didn't get into every single house they think maybe they got into enough to make a broad-based assessment but when you you actually kind of need that con consistent rolling to just basically kind of even out the field that now you've gotten everybody at this point after 10 years they're going to find a way to get into your house to make sure that you're there and and and what you have on the record card is correct but right now my bet is it's a hell of a lot closer than what it was is it 100% accurate it's better than what it was but I think that to let it go another 10 years you're only building in a a greater standard deviation and and more of a chance for it to be out of whack you're better off doing it like this CU it's fair for for it's fair for everybody in town it just is because if you went another 10 and you were messed up right now and you were paying way too much you either have to go for a tax appeal or you're going to have to wait 10 years this way you know and you're you're they're going to adjust but the most you're going to go is five and then after that all right you have a logic to it I I understand that that's good can I also say on top the the order Ral was all supposed to happen a couple years before it happened but it was extended because of Co because I think you're supposed to start we were supposed to start I think two or three years earlier than what we actually did so the the the state uh tax the treasury allowed for extension to get past Co so that contract is negotiated before like it's a couple years before it happened I can tell you now that I couldn't get a company to do it at the price they did it it's much higher now um in the state many towns now that um has been ordered for rebal are doing the annual reassessment because it is a savings for the town um even if if you you know multiply it out you say over 10 years but there's other cost savings involved with that because it cuts down on appeals especially commercial appeals which are very costly um if the town loses money and appeals it it only goes out of the disal portion the school doesn't pay it back the county doesn't pay it back it's pretty costly and if you go year after year after year without being able to do maintenance on your record and your ratio declines in up Market it declines every single year you're losing other money than just the cost of the inspection okay one more quick question and I'll stop F bus um hypothetically let's say year number three 27 2027 there's a national recession all home prices are down they go down everybody in the okay everybody okay I'm walking away with a much better understanding for the time we're here I just want to tell you so in Somerset County we're on the deputy tax administrator of the county we do we have 21 towns in Somers County 16 of them do annual reassessment Basking Ridge or burnard Township as it's actually called has been doing annual reassessment continuously for over 30 years and they have some of the best numbers in the state and I wouldn't bore you with all the numbers but if you look up any parameters that there are that towns judge themselves by or counties judge themselves by the parameter is Somerset County because they do so much annual reassessment work um it their numbers are so good every year okay thank you just just as a quick uh question for you what are our neighbors doing all of them most well Dell any of the other ones that you know of um well denell I in the sou zellan as well I started there a couple of years before here and were ordered prior the year before you and did the re the whole reassessment um maybe two years before Middle s they've been doing the annual re assessment since then as well um the other town that doing SC away they've been doing it for about the same amount of time unfortunately in milex County there aren't as many towns doing the annual assessment but they also have many many towns that are now doing revaluations because they also didn't do revals for many many years other towns also got ordered by the state um you know that didn't necessarily want to do their reevaluations but they've had to and a lot of towns the state is now has a lot more towns on the radar and towns know that they're it's coming they have to do the revow and a lot of them are doing the annal r assment because it does help maintain the records um just better than other systems that are and it's used in state funding formulas the other thing also is it's nice to say oh well we'll just do it every 10 years in 10 years from now this isn't the council and mayor that you're going to have maybe in 10 years from now it wouldn't be politically nice to do a reow in 10 years from now so that mayor in Council will say maybe we'll do next year maybe we'll do next year maybe 36 years from now get to do it again exactly and that's how you get there this kind of stops that procedure from happen Okay days um a few questions um when the rebal was done earlier you cited um figures you said the residential values went up 300% 500 somebody at one of the council meetings or maybe was made or M made a comment that through the rebound the um tax burd is going to be shifted in Middle sex to the commercial properties um is this reassessment program going to shift the majority of tax burs back on their Residential Properties uh I don't really know because it's not a it's not that we select what's going to happen it's more of what happened afterwards the reason it was shifted to the commercial properties was because they went up 500% obviously that's a bigger shift to the commercial properties I can't tell I don't have a crystal ball I don't know what's going to happen in the future if Residential Properties continue the way they are maybe maybe it was just that but I don't right now I can't I don't wouldn't say you know what the equilibrium is it's not a selection of what's going to happen it's just data on the Burrow's current varable base um can you say what's the percentage right now that comprises commercial properties and what's the percentage that comprises residential I I I actually don't know off hand I didn't look it recently commercial right now is %. probably not I wouldn't think so I I actually I haven't looked at the numbers and I I don't know well enough to make the statement okay um another question uh somebody just maybe you just said um during the ramp you didn't get percentage of visitations people allowing you inside F you're now going to reassessment with 20% of the town every year is supposed to let you in yeah what if they don't they don't have to okay then we prolong the issue of properties not being expected what is there a penalty for this it's not a penalty but they they could be penalized because if their assessment is too high and they believe thatment too high if they do an appeal if there's no inspection they're not going to be heard in their appeal okay well I would think you know you were over here made the comment about this non- inspections that Co was a factor probably was some of the factor we we we only had about 50% and trade during the C reow we'd like to see a higher amount there's no 50 50% yeah see I got that letter in the mail and I'm thinking it's almost my obligation as a citizen to let you guys in you're tell me 50% towns watch scof well in two years ago a lot of people were very concerned still about Co it was the beginning of it was still the beginning of 222 I think you're right that Co was a factor but I think there was also a percentage of people that know that they have improvements that they didn't get permits for and they don't want to get taxed for there there's at least a yeah which is why you wouldn't want to wait 10 years and in I wanted to say in some towns what they do if you don't get an inspection they add things purposefully they tell you they're going to do it and so that way you get a higher assessment on purchase I particularly don't believe in that practice and have not done that or told manufacturers to do that um but it's it's legal to do and many assessors do do that and that would they do it so that he will let them in um I'm not in the additional inspection Zone on the other AG % this year so I know you were commenting on this earlier was a little fuzzy to me so how are you going to judge whether my assessment should be adjusted up or down since I'm not being inspected well you made you perhaps did an inspection two years ago so I have that data but regardless if you did an inspection or not I have data on everybody's house I have potentially what their house is and the interior inspection the difference that it's going to tell me is the condition it's going to tell me if you have a finished basement that maybe you have one I don't know that's going to add a nominal amount maybe you finish adct and I don't know those are the things that aren't going to be correct maybe you have a bathroom that I don't know about those things are going to affect it and if if I don't know that you have those things that you're going to pay less than everybody else because you know you didn't let the person in but generally speaking I have data on everybody's house from if it sells I collect stuff off the internet about people phones that I get things all the time from their listing um whether they do an inspection or not um I you know we do re I do research I research the permit I do things like that so I'm going to compare whatever I have about your house I'm going to find as many similar houses as I can and compare what they sold for this year and decide what your value is based on those factors okay just a couple questions couple more um we were saying that the re cost town about $300,000 we're saying we only got into half of the home or help having problems proc um so does that mean if we would got into more than 50% it would cost us more or did it cost 3,000 it cost the same no matter what so if we get it 10% it's over plus 300,000 okay um I just had one last tax related question really not Rel to the assessment I'm asking any I know there's a bunch of appeals um were filed at the state level a lot of Department complexes and towns on Commercial properties do you have any projections on um how much in ratables we might lose from those tax I mean I know you can't comment on the individual cases but I would think tax assessors as a group have formed like okay if we have $2 million being challenged forth the ratables we can expect to lose 10% 5% 4% can you can you say what and the reason I'm asking this is because I talked to car B today and she was saying anybody that gets a reduction they're going to get a credit under future taxes and then the tax base gets low which also means more taxes for us so I'm trying I'm concerned having experience with tax appeals in the past that if these tax appeals even the majority of them go the wrong way it's going to be I I believe that most of them are not going to be successful um the rest of them most of them haven't come to cour that I know actually I can say a couple were settled today where they dropped uh both years that they were appealing and I mean we may lose some on the apartment but the thing is is that it's not to say that they may have been adjusted next year anyway because of the current conditions in the market the biggest thing being that the the interest rate is up inflation those expenses are up so therefore when I do a calculation on how they the values determin on the commercial properties they may have dropped a little bit because the expenses are up and their income is about the same but so it all I mean I I don't know where the the value of the town's going to come out next year I haven't really started the evaluations I'm still doing the inspections as far as the tax appeals go so far we haven't lost anything on any of them we're fighting them and I I think be sucessful all right well we haven't lost any cases but you said so so it seems they they withdrew they withdrew several today actually withdrew okay so so far out of those 20 20 okay there's been no loss in not yet no per and there's 20 still there was about 20 and they just started coming through today I know two of them are going to drop the withdrawal their are kills so I don't know how the rest are going to go I mean I've looked at them I think the revalve company did a good job and we're going to just on the Val all right thank you very much okay anybody else chers 77 one comment to the council um I don't believe there's anything on the website that I saw of the name of the company that's then that we're not using the company I'm using inh house and second okay do we the only reason why I ask who that is it would be a great way to case houses go around so the uh inside baseball on this is that I got the inspectors from the company that we used for the reval but I'm using them in-house as in-house inspectors rather than hiring that company okay the company that we used their price went up considerably to um a lot more than what we paid for the reval per line item and I'm getting them for a lot less than they would have come in if I had higher Lev whole company so and what that also requires is that it's a lot more work for me because instead of the company doing a lot of the footwork I have to actually do it okay I was just concerned it' be a great way to come in at they do have IDs they do have IDs they have been Ved out and they do also have the same CTA qualification that I have all of the inspector so if they did something that they weren't supposed to do there would be consequences they could lose their their regular jobs also their aate certification okay as well thank you for the clarification on the 80% because I was wondering how you mold that in we discussed that um I think that's important to understand that you know it kind of spreads it across everyone so I think that's important the other thing um you mentioned about waiting 10 years and uh Point here is that if you waited and something drastic happened like a flood we do have floods here maybe explain what can happen to the furrow it well it happened exactly happened in Mano they did the Ral right before um Irene I think it was [Music] and the older one I talk you about in 201 they did the Rev right before that in 2019 I guess I I think it was around two it was before 2007 but it was around that time the point is they did the revalve the year before that happened the whole town There's a section of Manville they call it lock Valley because it was completely flooded and wiped out those values had to stay on the books and what resulted in 2010 2011 2012 about a third of the Town appealed in each of those years they lost in tax revenue just the municipal porush over $400,000 in each of those years so because they did not do a reow they didn't do they didn't even call for a re about they didn't they just kept the the the numbers on the boat and that's what what happened it was very um really really hard for the town they're still recovering now you know years later you know 10 years later because there's not a lot of ways to change the assessments without uh you know a re or some system in place that's already there thank you thank you for your time thank you all Frank two minutes Frank Bryant 303 Maple Street I got to throw a little leevy on this situation with taxes you can see the way I'm dressed I just left Home Dep case there's any tax increase I have the money to pay for taxes and if iev he's gonna have five baths I like her answer add five bathrooms to his house what he'll try to cut it back he he has one B he five or six so listen I left Home Depo I'm hoping my kind hand comes across with a little money that I'm losing now because I know this guy next to me is not going to cross up any money by the time I left right so but seriously I want to say we're here for ailia and Bob that was tonight and I say Amilia first and Bob second the town appreciates their hard work they volunteered they weren't forced to do things Bob didn't maybe he was forced to be but we're grateful the town is grateful for what they've done and they wanted to do it and Bob's little speech was important everybody has to step up everybody up here we're not going out to dinner every night but you become acquainted with any everybody is that your phone so by getting out and volunteering you get to know everybody come in here tonight you get to see This Woman's face so if you have to come and see somebody there's a face behind just a an 800 so again for Bob and his wife we're grateful the whole panel is grateful and it's nice to have you guys six bathrooms off the my name is Rich I just have a question you said you had data on everyone's house Suppose there are two families living in one single family house is that reportable or um concerned about children in the school system things like that it's not really my perview I have Su what in the house not who's living in it I don't know if seniors are living it I don't know if kids are living it I don't know really about the situations of what's Happening that it's it's my personally went into a house and I saw maybe a bad situation or something I would just come to the code enforcement and let them know but it's not necessarily it's not what I'm looking for in in my job I mean just as a a concerned person if I saw something I would probably you know let let the town know but it's not what I'm looking for okay all right thank that's it anybody else I just want to make one other comment it's I'm not assessing the houses I'm not raising the assessments to try to get more money from the town I'm not lowering it to give someone a break it's there's only a part of the pie of the pie and just trying to make it Equitable for everyone to have their you know pay their portion of the pie the town isn't having a reassessment to grab more taxes that somehow it's just a it's it's merely an equation if they want more taxes when they vote a bigger that's how you get more taxes it's not I don't they don't take Dawn Jack everybody's aess up that's how we're going to get more money because it's not how you get more money it's just how you split up the P okay anyone else any other questions for Dawn Dawn wonderful thank you um we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break right now before we go into the rest of the agenda for those of you that uh don't want to stick around for the rest of this outside of that uh feel free we're going to reconvene in about three or four minutes thank you introduction tonight okay we have ordinance number 2136 d24 an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 355 entitled storm weather control can I have a motion motion there second second all right roll call please counc presid conahan yes councilman corns councilman Dino yes councilman do councilman Quinn yes Council M Rex yes October 8 all right the meeting for this uh the the hearing will be on October 8th thank you we have ordinance number 237-242 the environmental Commission of the municipal code of the Bure of midal sex to create a green team subcommittee long overdue can we have a motion please and a second roll call please council president Toman councilman corn coun counil doie counil Quinn and counil Rex yes okay we have ordinance for public hearing and final adoption we have ordinance number 2133 d24 in ordinance amending chapter 429 the by laws of the Board of Health of the municipal code of the burrow of middle sex to clarify certain Provisions okay can I have a motion to open the public portion motion second second all right uh roll call all in favor all in favor all right I thought so all right the public hearing is now open anyone wishing to say anything please step up to the mic seeing no one wanted to step up to mik I'll ask for motion to close motion second all right all in favor okay I'd like a motion to approve motion second all right any discussion at this point we good roll call please council president conham yes councilman corn Council Dino councilman Dodie counc Quinn Council Rex yes all right motion passes okay uh number two we have ordinance number 21 34-24 in ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 244 entitled junkyards and junk dealers motion to open the public portion motion second second all right all in favor all right anyone wishing to come up for the mic all right seeing no one I have a motion to close motion all right now motion to approve motion second all right roll call please coun president Conan yes councilman Corin yes councilman Dina yes councilman doie yes councilman Quinn yes Council Rex yes all right motion passes all right number three ordinance number 235-241 entitled Property Maintenance okay motion to go public second second all right all in favor all right any anyone wishing to step forward all right seeing no one wishing to step forward uh motion to close motion second okay roll call please council president Conan yes councilman cor counc CA counc doie yes Quinn yes and Council Rex yes okay okay adoption of minutes please we have approval of the September 10th 20124 regular meeting minutes I have a motion and second all right any discussion wasn't here okay uh all in favor everyone approved except for yeah okay very good all right we're going to move on to the mayor's report all right we have a few things going on right now or actually have gone and passed uh the 911 ceremony a few guys were there it was very nice it was well attended uh like to thank our our partners in crime for this uh dellan for for participating and I'd like to thank Shirley for who who coordinates this every year for us it's it's a wonderful event all right this past Friday the New Jersey Department of military veterans affairs they had a medals ceremony all right I'd just like to read off the uh the winners the awardees sorry is a probably a more appropriate term all right Matthew Adams Dennis Carrol Jeremiah KS David costain John Craig Gary embley James spinnery Helena gather Anthony Greco Christopher Hoff Kenneth lson Jr Theodore legaki Vincent L David Le oh boy David David lean thank you guys all right Leonard McConnell Francis Maguire Richard nalki William Powers Martin Quinn Andrew Reynolds hardi Shaw and Eugene sillet congratulations guys and uh thanks to you two guys that are on the council for your service all right on Saturday uh I had the privilege of attending the American Legion barbecue contest uh it was pretty well attended they had a a few barbecue groups out there I have to tell you I wish I could cook like that it was Dynamite um they're going to continue it for next year I think they already have a about five or six people that are going to come it was uh it was a nice event all right on Sunday I had a chance to attend the uh the elies where he had a fundraiser for the for the Elks and Troopers United Foundation Bill spy was there Kelsey gramar was there uh few of the councilmen were were out Milling about uh I think it was well attended um and I have to say he does a good job with that the weather was perfect it was it was a really nice really nice event um on Monday uh council president and myself we received an invite we went to dellan for the Sydney mcglaughlin welcome back um they do it right in D it was a very nice Affair uh Tanisha way was there John bramnick was there um munz was there masac cudas was there um it it was it was really well it was really well attended and I have to say you know you don't really get a chance to meet people like this too often and I have to say Sydney and her parents are just a wonderful family um she was there and she made sure that everyone that was there she talked to before she left so she had to be there three and a half hours at least and she walked all up and down the the the fence um kudos to her parents for bringing the kid up right and at that point that's all I have for my report okay uh council president uh yes mayor so yeah I wanted to Echo that she was really wonderful uh she's a huge star down to earth and um graduated uh Union cath so she left there in eighth grade and went to the Catholic and ran track there and then went to the University of Kentucky they just put her the Hall of Fame there yep so um so a couple things mayor my my uh some condolences go out to the family Glen gral he was uh he recently passed he was a retired member of OEM he dedicated over 20 years to the community um I want to thank uh Michael place for continuing your Pursuit Michael I love it the lost ratables for that Stonebridge debacle uh with middle sex County um I know B and Amilia left I wanted to thank them again for all their years of service uh I know you mentioned it mayor but Shirley Penrose she's done it every year uh it was either 02 or 03 when it started but coordinated our 911 ceremony two weeks back um she just she does it every year it gets better and better last uh two weeks ago it was uh great weather and the attendance was was better than the last couple of years so um at our next uh so so both the fire department and the rescue squad they're going to be coming in at our next council meeting two weeks from today uh October the 8th they're going to provide updates on their departments and uh let's see after almost 30 years of discussion we are closing tomorrow on the sale of the fire headquarters property yeah um long overdue on Sunday October 6th at 3M in the Liar's community room um we have another jazz concert and uh please it's free to residents join the acclaimed International concert violinist Dr David ptal um for a unique Jazz and classical violin concert in the uh community room um OEM has two more dates I don't know if C do is going to bring this up that's CPR training um coming up free to Residence uh October 30th and November 21st but I'll let him give some some more details um reserve your free treat today I know Claire's here by filling out a short form on the burrow website I just sent her an email today it was very easy to do it took me less than two minutes pick out species of trees and it's on October 19th to pick up but it was really easy to do I did it today uh I want to also thank the parks committee uh the RFP subcommittee and uh we spent over uh six hours of of our T of our time uh interviewing five engineering firms um and Rich was one of them thank you Rich and this is to create a master plan for Victor Crow park over a number of years um and a special thank you to administrator with place for coordinating five interviews over two nights with like seven or eight different schedules uh it's just not easy to do so thank you for doing that Michael and that's it okay councilman KS no nothing's nightmare stay amazing okay all right councilman dinino yes couple things man um JB meeting tomorrow night September 25th also not much going on public work on not don't mean not much but status quo for those guys are working daily and everything looks good I started doing crack filling now now the weather is cooled a little bit you can't do it the summertime it's too hot and just the car just tracked so it drives a lot faster now so better um Saturday the volunteers for cleanup day Claire is here and Mark was here Mark left but I mean Claire is amazing the work that she does I counted 35 volunteers the morning when I was there Mark said today there were 40 and I asked Lenny about how much ref was picked 2,000 lounds of garbage wow dor Mark's speech earlier in the day says we're going to have to find another spot to go for this because that's how clean the park and the woods area are so it's a great job that they do it's amazing I also like Mike SI the trees and this Saturday is uh the plant plants for the ringard the rain is there I mean I don't is that what they're supposed to be I don't know anything about a ring Garden but it seems kind of small to me I was I was envisioning this huge thing but they Cate much is coming and that's where it goes through I mean it did a great job it's nice and clean whoever did the job last week and now yeah you're happy with it you like it and then the planting will be leave a volunteers for that M said the trees also uh tree giveaway October 19th and uh that's all I have from there okay councilman Dodie all right we'll start off with OEM Barbara Benson has done incredible job with these um CPR classes and that and she exp she got them to agree to do another class that's why they're adding the October 30th one and then there's also one on the 21st keep your eyes open who knows you may come up with more knowing her so keep your eyes open for her um it's just incredible what she does I don't know if she ever sleeps it seems like she's got so much going on okay I have a police report to give that I managed to get uh in August for August they did uh 1797 calls for service there were 19 adult arrests motor vehicle summons is 336 which I was talking to the chief about this in the summer that'ss pretty high so they've been out there slowing people down and making sure they're not driving so crazy hopefully through the town uh 38 radar sermones and it had 30 um motor vehicle crashes just a side note total call so far for the year is 15,7 for our Police Department which is quite large I think last year what was it 20 something, 22 I think for the whole year that's through August through August 15,000 so far which is quite High um the detective Bureau they investigating they had one robbery um two harassments terrorist of threat they had three B burglary trespassing uh two thefts one motor vehicle theft and two shop left things they're in different stages of uh investigation um also just one that we don't talk about much school security investigations there was 81 of them in office and for the year there's 1,68 they go there anytime they get a call about something suspicious so there''s been over a thousand of those for the year so far okay uh last thing that I have and she's got it on here part of acceptance of standing reports um Ariana Carol they want uh approval to make her an active Junior member of the middle fire department and I need to get a motion in a second it's on the report it's on the report yeah someone want for the approve the report we're good right let everybody know that the fire department sent that over so they they're getting back they're getting some junior members which is good for them also sure so and I know on a side note um mayor you've been working with them on this is the carnival they're still trying to figure out what they're doing they're still getting a little bit of a runaround from the carnival company about payment so this is a big sticking point because they don't know if they still want to go with this company or what's going on for next year I know we're trying trying to plan for next year but it's kind of hard until they get things settled up with it why is that was B close early I guess and I don't know I'm I'm privy to that but I know uh Mr pesar is the lead on that and he went to meeting he wasn't very happy because apparently they're going around in circles with them about it is there anything we need to do no it's just you know they keep saying oh yeah we're sending it and we're figuring it out and you know it's so it's something that you know they got to handle all right so just to let you know where that's at because I know everybody wants to have a meeting but they don't know what to go well and it's getting a little long in the tooth they don't know what to tell anybody because if they got to change companies you know things could change too so well I mean if we need to get legally involved well yeah we're not I don't think we're quite they're quite to that yet okay that's all I have now all right uh councilman Quinn I have nothing evening nothing councilman Rex uh just two quickies uh the 911 ceremony was really really good I know uh people already spoke of it and the uh and the event at Eller's was uh John ellerie always does a a great thing for fundraising and he he always has a any time he is any sort of event it's for a fundraiser and he always does a spectacular job and that's all I have there all right and as a side note it's nice to see you out and about with your new Cadillac right there all right it's not a cattle all right it's my 1964 Vol wagon micrus well that's okay it gets you where you need to go which actually is very fitting for you by the way that's it we're waiting for the Paisley to come back we'll be all set at any rate uh I did miss uh talking about one thing we're in the early stages now but on October 29th of October which is where you would expect October 29th to be we're looking to have a town hall all right we're not sure where we're going to have it maybe here maybe in the community room but the idea is to have you know the mayor it is it's going to be kind of a loose type of thing but we want to have the department heads here I am going to send out an an invitation to uh the Bo of Ed for the for the superintendent to come and basically it's it's almost sort of like a kickoff to the to the budget season you know a couple of times we've been here and you heard well this all starts no one ever listens to us or no one tells us hey you know maybe I'll need a my cotton ear plugs or something like that but it's a chance for us to you know talk about where we're at and where where we feel as a town we want to go and let's let's get it out there this way least at least you know everyone has a chance to to get their say in so it's you know October 29th which is the Tuesday after the second meeting uh of of October probably around 7 o'clock um it may be here it may be somewhere else depending on how many people we feel are going to come if it's our usual steadfast we'll be able to fit around this table over here and it'll be no problem but we I figure we'll we'll probably have a pretty good turnout for this um and that's that's all I have right now um uh Mike uh administrator's report sorry Michael uh mayor thank you good evening everyone um I'd like to publicly recognize and thank our tax sessor Don gsha for joining us this evening to answer questions and address concerns regarding the bu's new program for the annual reassessment of properties I think you can see that we really have a great professional on board um handling a very difficult um service for us um DPW is busy finishing up painting and other summer Improvement projects in our parks and at various Municipal facilities uh newly planted trees are being watered as is our tree farm as Central Jersey continues to experience drought the library director Christy George has reported to me that development of the middle sex bur local history room is progressing and we still hope that the grand opening will be next month on Mid October I'd like to update the council council president mentioned this issue I'd like to update the council and the public on the proposed Old Stone Bridge by County Park it's a project of Somerset and middx counties and its impact on middle sex burough I did just hear back from a representative of middle sex County he acknowledged formerly that the burough should have been a part of the planning for the park from the beginning he also suggested that we Avail ourselves of parks and cultural Affairs grant opportunities in the future my response to him was that we are expecting more meaningful financial compensation proposal to offset the loss and tax ratables as a result of the development of the park and they had also given us their word that we will be part of the process moving forward in terms of plan so hopefully we'll be able to keep the public you know informed of as this project moves forward um an ordinance was introduced to evening to authorize the creation of a green team as proposed and endorsed by our environmental commission the purpose of the green team whose members will come from the membership of the environmental commission is to act as a subcommittee of the commission and work to assure clean air and water for the burrow another benefit of having a green team in place is that it will aay the burrow in pursuing environmental grants and funding opportunities also introduced earlier this evening is ordinance to repeal and replace chapter 355 storm water control the proposed ordinance will bring the municipal code to conformance with current New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regulations the purpose of the ordinance is to establish minimum storm water management requirements and controls for major development activities this is defined in code section 3552 as non-residential major development and aspects of residential development that are not preempted by the residential site Improvement standards um and any major developments also that are undertaken by the buau so these are Big projects we're talking about um Council resolutions on the agenda this evening include authorization of the purchase of a major disaster trailer for the middle sex Police Department in the amount of $1,947 and the purchase of emergency traffic control devices for the trailer in the amount of $ 28,5 582 also the hiring of two new school crossing guards immediately and then finally the authorization to award a contract for professional planning landscape design an engineering Consulting to Suburban Consulting Engineers in an amount not to exceed five $50,000 and this is consultant that will be working on the Victor Crow Park master um there is no subject um slated for agenda Workshop discussion tonight and in an executive session we will be discussing Public Safety contract negociation mayor okay thank you at this time I'd like to open up the make have a motion to open up the privilege of the floor second second all right all in favor I all right anyone wishing to speak come on up state your name and address you mayor my name is 109 greenen first of all I'd like to say it's it's it's really nice to speak in front of this group if you have a question it gets answered go to a Board of Education it's like talking to a synal you can bring up concerns uh questions and there's never an answer so but but they do know a good realtor I said but they do know a good real to that was that was unbelievable oh I missed that one I understand the comment was in levity but the meeting itself was not uh a meeting where it was much fun um the reason I asked a question of the the tax person was because I have a concern and it's not only a middle sex but Statewide and I hope it's not local but are non-living spaces being used by families who may be rented a room or house or a basement um it's uh as far as as I'm concerned it's a safety issue for everyone involved and it's also uh detrimental to um the numbers in our schools if they're not uh supposed to be in town they're not supposed to be going for our schools I I can tell you that code enforcement has ordinances on the books to deal with that if you have a rental property it's supposed to be registered as a rental property and you're renting illegally uh if they're reported they will investigate is it checked when the it check is up well there is no lease in a lot of these cases is checked when somebody sees it complaint it it's usually word it's usually word m someone has to R them out it's IL legal that's legal right but Jack I'll go back to that that $150 fee that landlords are assessed to check out their Apartments I think it's an opportunity to to check out the apartments oh absolutely that I think part of the issue that that you alluding to is the fact that there is no apartment that we know about it's just thereal just it's a concern no it's a and it's a valid concern because you know obviously if they have something that's going on 95% of the time it's in a in a space that's not set up for what it's its use is so you know you run the risk of you know improper wiring in proper setup you know it's it's it's not healthy probably and and everything else that goes along with it so see it really struck struck me that only 50% of the houses were were looked at in the rebound so 50 50% that were so I mean it could be right for which is why do you really want to wait another 10 years to go back in there that's why you go now you want to just keep going and and eventually it's going to get to a point was one of the learning things for me tonight was if if you don't want us to go in your house that's all fine well and good but you should go to the top of the mark no it was very good and you know and we haven't even talked about or even explored it but I mean that was an interesting concept to to maybe coers some people who were being a little difficult to let you let you come in and check your house out you know around at the beginning of this reab process you know what said if you don't let us in we're going to say that your kitchen's brand new your bathroom's are all remodel you've got the max well and maybe that's that's to me yeah I don't know uh Michael is would that be a workshop item or is that something that would be you know just internally discussed with the uh tax assessor how do you do that well there is conversation that always takes place between the Construction office own enforcement and and the assessor's office you know well it's nice that they're talking about it but what about us well I mean I just meant that there's an ongoing effort to have all the offices you share but as far as like Town guidance you know I'm sitting there saying if it's at 50% and they're not really you know you get a lot of people Hey listen I get it we don't have to let you in which is all fine well and good but you're gonna pay but it was also timing it was during oh no I'm not saying that it was I'm saying going forward let's put it on the workshop sure yeah I I'm good with that you know next meeting is going to be kind of choca block but what about the one after that okay I'll make a note of it all right sorry we we digressed for a kwood I want to eom's concerned about 50% figure and I also would endorse some type of incentive to get people to open the doors because you know if you're to spend we're not going to spend $300,000 one shot anymore plan but the think that we spent $300,000 and we didn't get into half of the properties in town and some of these situations thaty talks about with the you know spaces being rented perhaps we you know beors and I just think that that's I was astounded 50% I assume there was some that didn't 50 like I said I I I get to cour I think it's my obligation Dave I I I I think if you you pulled the the guys up here we all agree with you um I also want too another thing Mr thomasy said um you know sometimes we have some back and forth or I have back and forth with you guys and you know you don't like what I'm asking and I don't like the answers I'm getting but I do appreciate the fact that we get answers most of the time um I was at both school board meetings weever was and I don't go to a lot of school board meetings I'm here pretty much every meeting but they struck me as being po buau I mean they sit up there and don't look at you and don't say a word back most of the time let the superintendent do a lot of talking she doesn't even answer a lot of questions I know this is not you guys PR there's really nothing you can do about it but um it's a problem it's a problem and I think when confidence in town erods in one government Body by extension even though best may not deserve it some of the comments May to you too because even know people do get answers here they look at a board so I've been the council treat the same way which is not true but just that's just com but anyway uh just a couple quick things um recently you guys changed cour of Health contract from middle sex to somerson County and you mentioned it here that you did it um can you say why you did it I know there was a little bit mention La of response well and I think Martin go ahead I I can tell you that over the past three years they do not provide the services to us that they said that they're contractually oblig obligated to provide they are supposed to send volunteers for the rapist Clinic they never do they send vaccines that they tell our staff to put in their home refrigerators which you know what I mean that's problematic um they they run some programs they just don't informers to doing them they're they're really bad we have to beg to get people to attend our meetings from the service provider that's providing the service to our board it's it's pathetic really yeah and I was on the board day for uh several years a couple different since in um when we first I think it was 19 or 20 up until 22 at the beginning of it I mean it was terrible terrible terrible no I I was we couldn't get reported the reports we got uh weren't legible we asked to be we couldn't get any of the county officials to attend we couldn't even get them to respond with a call or or an email yeah it's a lot of money to spend 75 76 Grand a year for you know and we got zero yeah I don't know couple years ago I think I was looking at some minutes online like you said I was looking back for a couple years ago this a problem a few years ago at the bo saying No one's responding No one's responding if you go back even to the minutes from the past couple of years you'll see that they've declined a bunch of the reports in the past two years because there's just not enough information to even approve them well just one one healthish I want to talk about I haven't heard anything about it um people don't come to the meetings and talk about maybe it's not even a problem but over the years people complain about industrial voters periodically is that still a problem okay periodically there are complaints before the board about it um spright Tech seems to be one of the larger issues but they they seem to only create the problem after 5:00 P p.m. on on any given day when they call for the county to come in 7:00 in the morning they show off and there's no more order um if you if you want to read something interesting go online and mo will spray Tech Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania facility there was an interesting U incident with town I guess that one might that one I'm not sure uh they had some problems there in August or July with Sumit voters and uh there was back and forth between the inspectors of the Town very texting you guys if you want to AB uh just one last comment um when uh tax assessor was here she made the comment about um you know budget budgeting what affects what people get in tax bills and I think part of the concern part of the out the turnout you've had some of these meetings more so a month ago when people got the letters once they saw this reassessment they started thinking oh my God my my taxes going a and that's not necessarily the case I I I think the pro in people's minds they don't differentiate between taxes and tax assessment are two different things and don't explain that tonight but I I think what you guys have witnessed here in the last month or so and even see some of on social media I mean I was in Spring talking about 7 and a half% and you know I was the only one here talking about it but I think what you guys are sensing or should be sensing is that there's some people in town that are feeling that the taxes this last year or two have just won up too much uh for whatever reason um I would hope that you guys will take that to heart and you talked about this town hall meting have the department heads there start looking at things and start making a commitment already that next year it's not going to be anywhere close to 7 and a half% and and mayor you made a comment one time about Services we don't want to cut Services well maybe you know you'd have to Trend Services a little bit here or there if you know rather than just keep pounding people with seven and a half% every year you have to close something for one day a week or you know cut back on something temporary we need to get on more footing you know then do it because I just don't think people a lot of people can sustain this and mounted taxation I know it's not just you guys more of B same thing um but I I just hope you would take this as a sign that it's not just they P kage here that's concerned about taxes there's a lot of people concerned about taxes they they just to give you a a level I mean we didn't even get started and we've had several like conversations about when we dig into this we really have to be dead serious on how we're going to go we have to do we have to research and and uncover every stone one of the things that I I sent was uh as a matter of fact I sent it today was you know I found I saw an article and it was basically on real wages you know in Middle sex County actually is for the state and it was just and I don't know how true it is and you know I don't know what kind of stuff they pick but if you looked at it believe it or not middle sex was one of the highest wage increases over the last year right and guess what it was like 08 of a percent everyone else was in the loss column which tells you if you start looking at the numbers a little bit closer I mean what's 8% nothing you know you you look at your food you look at your gas so we get it believe me we believe me we get it and and we we have to we may have to make some tough decisions this year but our our thing is is that we want to we we do want to try and keep it as low as possible we I've already talked with uh with h the council president Michael we want to have a just a just as a kickoff for ourselves I want to have an understanding of exactly where our revenue is coming from all of it so we know where we have to know where to start from to know where to go yeah and I would think by now this is you know ordering on October only about three months left in year you should be able to project what your Rees you know you'd say that but last year it came and bit Us by February at this point you mean well there were certain things that we thought were going to happen that were going to come up that didn't happen and and and it and it created a little bit of an issue we're trying to do everything to make sure we don't fall down that Wormhole again all right thank you very much okay anybody else Bob no okay all right uh motion to close the public portion second all in favor okay deep breath Linda okay we have resolution 256 2024 acceptance standing reports resolution 2 7 2024 2024 sewer bill billing waved appeal for Block 86.02 Lot 23 resolution 258 2024 authorizing the sale Surplus personal personal property 2017 Chevrolet Capri on an online auction website entitled mb.com 259 2024 2024 sore billing wave appeals for various properties TW resolution 260 2024 authorizing the tax collector to cancel the balance of fourth quarter 2024 and preliminary 2025 taxes for Block 163 lot 37.013202 resolution 262 2024 approving the purchase of a major disaster trailer for the middle sex Ro Police Department in the amount of $1,947 resolution 263 224 approving the purchase of emergency traffic control devices for the major disaster trailer in the amount of 28505 82 resolution 264 2024 accepting the ulet Packer design jet 5550 printer as Surplus resolution 265 2024 authorizing awarded contract for professional planning landscape design and Engineering Consulting to Suburban Consulting Engineers Inc of Wall New Jersey and an amount not to exceed $50,000 for one-year term commencing on September 24th 2024 resolution 266 2024 hiring Kenneth c as school crossing guard effects up immediately resolution 267 2024 Hing Ronald cat at school crossing guard effective immediately resolution 268 2024 reimbursement of dog license fee in the amount of $23 to Robert Dalton due to insufficient rabies vaccination and resolution 271 2024 approval of the coin to us for Lincoln host company number one at the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard in Mountain Avenue okay um does anyone need any of these pulled nope okay could I have a motion to approve motion second any discussion roll call please counc president conham yes councilman Corin no councilman Dino yes counc doie yes councilman Quinn yes and Council Rex yes okay motion passes all right onto the nonent agenda I have resolution 269 2024 pay claims okay a motion second second all right any discussion roll call please counc president Clan yes councilman coins no councilman dinino yes councilman doie yes counc Quinn yes councilman Rex yes okay it passes uh agenda Workshop item we have none and we have no um obviously we have no public comment on that executive session please I have resolution 270 2024 executive session no action correct no action no action all right uh could I have a motion motion second second uh roll call please counc president caram yes councilman cors yes councilman Dino councilman Dodie councilman Quinn Council Rex yes all right we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break for a couple of minutes and then we're going to go into this