##VIDEO ID:Jxh7dGSgqMA## this is a meeting of the township committee October 21st 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the Asbury Park Press the two over Times by posting at the Middletown Township Municipal Building and filing with the Township Clerk on January 11 2024 commitment Clark here committee woman cratz here committee man s brino Deputy Mayor h here mayor Perry here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time I'd like to ask for a moment of silence to honor the troops serving worldwide defending our constitutions freedoms and way of life thank you our first item on tonight's agenda we have a certificate of appreciation proclamations for the record the proclamation uh recognizing October 27 2024 is Middletown day in the township of Middletown we have a proclamation recognizing November 11th 2024 is Veterans Day in the township of Middletown and a proclamation recognizing November 24th uh 2024 as native American Heritage Month in the township of Middletown at this time I'd like to ask the township committee to uh approve minutes for October 7th 2024 Workshop meeting October 23rd 2024 regular meeting the March 18th 2024 executive session April 8th 2024 executive session April 22nd 2024 executive session and the May 6 2024 executive session motion to approve second commit men Clark yes commit committee women cratz yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to approve minutes at this time we have public hearing of proposed ordinances our first ordinance 2012 24- 3431 an ordinance repealing and replacing ordinance 2024 3424 adopting 320 the 325 Highway 36 Redevelopment plan consisting of block 238 Lots 5 and six and a portion of the Central Avenue RightWay any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 20243 431 seeing no member of the public stepping forward move the close of public portion and approve second comman Clark yes women Katz yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance on second of final reading our next ordinance for public hearing we have 2024-25 an ordinance providing funding for acquisition of property for the township of Middletown and appropriating $2,100,000 for such purpose any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2024 3434 hey Don hey M come on down Don you were just you were just waving right okay all right I just want to make sure what's that I didn't see you how you doing today Don um my name is Melanie eler 43 green Stree terce of Loft um I did this was on the last agenda right being introduced and now it's being voted on right and is it this is about West not Swamp Road no no this is this is the 17 Acres directly behind River Plaza Elementary School oh okay great perfect thank you you got it Don come on down tell you what in Don's neighborhood they have some unbelievable Halloween decorations going on right now believe it they are they are unbelievable yeah I know yeah I petrify Grant you know there's two people over yeah what's that it's like they're having a contest over there yeah there's two people right across the street each other it's pretty good go ahead and one guy's got Ducks I can hear him from my house not Halloween decoration okay anyway my name's Don watching I'm living at one Collinson Drive in new Mammoth one block away from Ward um I got one question about this I was reading this today MH um we're appropriating $2.1 million for the this purchase but the next ordinance says that the um stola Family Trust is donating $1 million correct so what are we doing with the other million dollars the other what are we doing with the well 1 million is we have to pay for the property we can accept the donation and then and then utilize Green Acres as well it's just go ahead Brian do you want me to answer go ahead yeah so when for something like this there's two sides to it we have a funding side and a spending side and we have to adopt that spending side in full so we can pay the full price and it's on the funding side where you would see that donation as opposed to issuing debt we accept the donation we don't issue debt for that portion of the funding why don't you accept the donation first we can't do it that way you can't accept the donation on property before you bought it you accepted donations from every taxpayer before you buy the property right different kind ofation you think no matter what we still save a million dollars yeah okay that's all I got thank you all right thanks Don any other member of the public seeing no seeing no other member of the public stepping forward move to close the public portion and approve second commit M Clark yes committee woman Katz yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries pass this ordinance on second and final reading our next ordinance all right Don let's get that donation now the next 2024 D 3435 an ordinance authorizing entry of purchase and sale agreement with the Richard Chas devola Family Trust for the acquisition of block 1030 Lots 7 and 10 known as 127 hubard Avenue for open space preservation purposes any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2024 3435 seeing no member of the public stepping forward move the close public portion and approve second committee Clark yes committee women cat yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries pass this ordinance on second and final reading at this time we have introduction of proposed ordinances our first ordinance 2024-25 d225 salary ordinance motion introduced second comman Clark yes committee women Katz yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held uh 11824 um our next ordinance for introduction we have 202 24-3 437 a bond ordinance providing an appropriation of $3,571 th000 for various Capital Improvements by and for the township of Middletown in the county of Mammoth New Jersey and authorizing the issuance of 3,392 450 in bonds or notes of the township of for financing part of the appropriation motion introduce second commit man Clark yes committee women crackz yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held November 18 2024 uh okay our next ordinance we have for introduction 2024 3438 a bond ordinance providing an appropriation of $ 4,491 for various Park improvements by and for the tat of Middletown in the county of Mammoth New Jersey and authorizing the issuance of 3,745 in bonds or notes of the township for financing part of the appropriation motion introduce second minman Clark yes Min women Katz yes Deputy Mayor hiel yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held November 18 2024 our next ordinance 202 24- 3439 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 423 of the code of the township of Middletown governing storm water regulations to include article seven privately owned salt storage requirements as required by state law motion introduce Sor committee man Clark yes committee woman Katz yes Deputy Mayor hial yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held November 18th 2024 our next ordinance 202 24-34 40 an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 54011 to12 of the code of the township of Middletown establishing new storm water management regulations wait a minute did I do this twice no this is oh this is storm water okay thank you thank you thank you I'm sorry okay go ahead second uh committee Clark yes committee woman cratz yes Deputy Mayor hibell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held November 18th 20124 at this time I'd like to ask the township committee to adopt a consent agenda which would include resolutions 24277 through 24- 289 motion to approve consent agenda second committee man Clark yes committee woman CRZ yes committee men uh excuse me Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt consent agenda at this time we have discussion item for New Jersey best practices oh sorry colen uh we completed our best practices inventory as required by the state I submitted it today we're in the process of the approvals with Heidi and Tony one of our approval things is that we have to discuss it at a meeting we answered all of our questions and we scored a 41 which brings us well above the minimum to retain all of our state aid which is really our energy tax receipts so they'll be coming to us 100% in 2024 100% of the taxes that are owed to us or any yeah right the diminished amount that's owed to us their version of 100 number uh well the number that it should be is you know somewhere in the 11 to 12 million range but they owe is still 70 million right right it's more than that it almost eclipses our uh our entire operating bues our entire operating budget okay all right thank you Colleen you're welcome okay we have a a conle park request pH yeah sorry as you know the township established a policy several years ago about um people wanting to place memorials and those sorts of things on Township property um or benches in honor of of people um we we require that they all have to be presented to the township committee and the township committee supportive of it one of the things we found and I didn't honestly know it most of us didn't know it existed when we were developing the um skate park um at conl Park uh back in the back corner to the left if if if you're looking at from the parking lot there's a memorial that has been placed there for someone who died person died of a drug overdose in that location and there's been a handful of people who've been maintaining this Memorial since since then and I think it's more than 10 years um they've asked to formalize it um and um they want to they're willing to maintain it um and uh they have kind of a good message about um you know recovery and seeking help if you need help that sort of thing so um I just wanted to run that by you um make sure you're you're okay with this person um you know maintaining the memorial so personal friend of the of the person who who died this is uh this is the photograph with the um it's kind of in the back if you're at the front the back left corner back in that corner yeah yeah okay they want to maintain what's existing there yes uh they'd like to put a new tree in I believe there was one that was there that had been removed I guess it had some issues so I think they want to put in a new tree but otherwise maintain it um pretty much as is there's a sign that says uh please get help somebody loves you uh that they have by the um by the sign and I take it back it's it's actually nearly 20 years since the person passed away okay anybody have an objection to it if not we'll just move forward with it no okay we we will put a resolution on for the next meeting because that's what we do typically do okay okay Comm committee comments committee Clark okay committee woman cratz I'm good for this evening mayor thank you okay Deputy Mayor gu I'll let you bring up Middletown day right you can bring it up Middletown day this weekend super excited I do got to mention uh Oasis uh on Route 36 the wild scallion building uh big change there so I'm sure everyone knows the building I'm talking about about uh we had the grand opening this past week um big uh big job for Route 36 getting an improvement like that that's all I have may all right thank you um just a couple things like uh the deputy mayor said Middletown day is Sunday hope everyone can join starts at one o'clock uh goes till 5 which is Then followed uh immediately uh by the uh by Brian Kirk and the jerks per Waring and then fireworks at 6:30 so hope everybody can join um I also want to bring up a couple other things um obviously everybody it it it's it's election season um be part of the process be proactive get your vote by mail ballots if you receive them back uh early voting begins at the senior center uh on Saturday uh that goes through until the following Sunday um Monday uh early voting will close and then election day the following day um go to Mammoth County votes check out all the the hours uh understand where you have you have multiple opportunities to get out there and vote and get a vote by mail or early vote it's a super early voting is a super simple process and I hope you do um because this is the last meeting we have before election day so so please get out there make your voice heard vote for the person that you think um embodies the kind of town and state and Country um that you want to see for for you and your family so uh I hope you all take advantage of your of your sacred duty to to get out there and vote um with that being said I'll open up for public comment any member of the public wishing to make a public comment may do so ask that you state your name and address for the record keep your comments to five minutes at four minutes I'll let you know that you have one minute remaining any member of the public wish to make a public comment good evening my name is the Reverend Debbie Cook and I live where I work at All Saints Memorial Church in the navyn section of Middletown at 202 navyn Avenue I also a founding member of the mammoth Housing Coalition the mammoth Housing Coalition is a group of that consists of over 20 churches and seven nonprofits our mission statement is housing for all powered by love our vision is we seek to build a large diverse Coalition of community members spiritual institutions and nonprofits to advocate for policies and initiatives that uphold the values of housing Justice and Equity our vision for all residents of Mammoth county is to live in safe high quality and affordable housing I am here to to ask for a meeting with the committee members or mayor in regard to affordable housing in Middletown please know that I had one brief meeting earlier in the year with Mr Merk andatti who was uh gracious enough to accommodate me on short notice and I have followed up with an email to him and to each Committee Member this spring on behalf of the Coalition but have not received to the best of my knowledge any responses so on behalf of the Coalition I am here in person to ask for that meeting as nearly everyone in the state knows even the nation affordable housing is a major issue I often hear an experience in my own immediate and extended family the concerns of families who I fear that their adult children will not be able to find an affordable place to live in their state in their Town anywhere close nearby and while I realize that Middletown has a range of neighborhoods and varieties of housing options they are increasingly unaffordable to far too many who work in our communities doing the important work of taking care of our children taking care of our elderly and in the service industry among others the same is true for many towns in Mammoth County many though have worked hard to accommodate affordable housing Middletown Prides itself on being a place of diversity and offering many opportunities to its residents it is also proud of its long history going back to where before this nation was founded its first non-native residents came here seeking opportunity they faced many dangers and challenges and doing so they likely did not have much but they found a place to land here all we hope and ask is that the same spirit continues on with Township leadership being willing to honor this history and making room for those seeking a safe and affordable place to live so that they and their families can grow and Thrive becoming part of of and strengthening the township affordable housing is at a crisis point and one that needs to be addressed now we look forward to meeting with Township leaders to discuss how we can work together to make Middletown truly a place of welcome for all of its residents current and future where people from many walks of life can also find a place to land like those early settlers did thank you for your time thank you good evening members of the council my name is Lana rogacheva I'm your neighbor in Middletown on 15 Red Hill Road I recently moved from Chicago and now pleased to call Middletown my home my kids are in the troops scouting troops my daughter in in the dance right here so we are your neighbors I'm also a member of the middl toown Monmouth Housing Coalition and I'm pleased to share a voice of support and I'm standing here with Reverend Debbie and would like to tell you just in the next two and a half minutes or as much as I'm allowed to a few objectives of our work in the Monmouth Housing Coalition some of you might already be aware of this work some of you might be new um we work in on a few things part of it is what we're doing today show show up to Municipal Municipal meetings and support affordable housing initiatives to enforce and enable municipalities to honor their fair share agreements for affordable housing to encourage spiritual institutions and nonprofits to come together to consider building their own affordable housing on their properties and Beyond organize advocate for Monmouth County to create more afford affordable housing options increase home ownership with lowincome families and people of color to educate ourself and others about racial and economic injustices and how they intersect with housing Justice to train and Empower community members to or organize for housing Justice on their own content so today I'm here both as a residents and as a mother of two teenagers I would like for them to grow up in a community that is racially diverse spiritually diverse where they feel welcome and where all of our members of community has supported in different rights including affordable housing I look forward to connecting with you individually and is a part of the future meetings thank you for your time any other member of the public wishing to speak on Don come on down he beat you by like a half of a half of a millisecond half a millisecond I'm not that fair good evening my name's Don Watson living at one Collinson drive that's our meeting here there was um a lot of discussion about different um ordinances um I was hoping to see more of them on the agenda tonight is there any reason why um they weren't introduced or uh the one's just not done yet two of the three introduced tonight yeah right the one's just not the other ones you're working on What's that the other ones you are working on correct yeah okay salt and storm water we discussed so it's just the tree ordinance left yeah okay cool thank you you got it Melanie good evening Melanie eler green Stree Terrace and Lin Croft um first I wanted to um speak on behalf of the linro Village Green Association and thank this committee for coming to our September anniversary celebration and issuing a proclamation um honoring the lvga on 25 years of advocating for the betterment of Lincroft and the greater Middletown area and especially in regards to safety concerns pedestrian pedestrian friendliness Safe Streets uh traffic things like that um so thank you uh next um on the on the negative side there was another accident today on 520 I've spoken to this committee many times about the accidents the up ticket accidents um it's speeding coupled with turning um today there were it was a three or four car accident by Neville drive and it seems when people are coming off of exit 109 in the corridor of 520 by the Parkway and they're coming West in in towards linkt there's no calming at all they're they're really at high speed as as people see their sight line they're getting T-boned um either on the Orchard Hills side or in the Lin Croft uh Farms Community um um of housing so um I've spoken to the police I've been working with Lieutenant Sone he's been wonderful they've stepped up Patrol either at the firehouse they put in um signs they put in um speed uh you know radar uh speed readers and they're analyzing that data uh our organization is analyzing traffic accidents um really trying to pinpoint down what are the actual movements sometimes it's Suare sometimes it's you know a deer strike or other things but but there are really some glaring um issues uh and it's really increased since I hate to say this but since exit 109 was was changed and Lifetime and the veterinary came in because there's a lot of people coming that are confused by that area and um you know there's a lot of driver uh just just general confusion on where to turn where to go when they come off the parkway they're restricted they're and then they're trying to make up for time and and sometimes in an emergency situation so we really want to work hard um and and help you know look for your help in trying to get some answers with this and hope that the police will work more closely with us we spoken to the county as well it's a County Road uh spoke to uh Dean o scanland Senator Dean OC scanland and um we're just hoping that together you know people are really worried and coupled with that it's bad enough that there's accidents but um you know I had mentioned the RAC last time sorry Don it is a new thing in link Croft and people coupled with the accidents it's alarming and the Mufflers how can we stop the Mufflers other towns have signs for the statute it's statute title 39 3-7 and it's that um every motor vehicle must with a combustible motor shall be equipped with a muffler in good working order and no excessive noise or unusual noise uh with cutouts by bypass you hear it on 520 um right by CBA 520 down by the Parkway and West Front Street on Sunday nights it's like happy hour they're like ripping down that road it's two straightaways running parallel they're having a great time the police know about it hell has responded to that um I just I don't understand the mentality of it maybe you see it in other parts of town but other towns do have signs reminding them you know of the muffler ordinance and the there's a fine attached to it and maybe we need to post signs where the police have recognized that this is occurring so that you know it's just like a reminder that it will be um you know a an action of u a fine or police action if they continue to do it but I really don't know what the answer is with that I really would hope that um you know we can understand it better and and get a solution as Community to figure out how to reduce the accidents reduce the the excessive speeding and joy riding and racing and um and hope to just make things safer and um we I was also looking to see the status of the linkr Acres Fields it's absolutely horrible what happened there's anything as a community that we could do to help um I don't know if they've made progress in repairing it or if it's an exorbitant amount of money because it and it's off season it's just terrible it's I think we estimated to be about $10,000 in cost right Ted really um we put out some Top Soil down to fix it but most likely going to sod it and it can't be used at all it's blocked off from use we're not going to be able to utilize it because once the sod goes down you you have to leave it down for at least two weeks 20 days I think is the is the technical number yeah it'll be reopened in the spr but for the rest of the season it's so they can use the other two Fields but not the the main field okay um and then uh one question on item 25 um Can the 3% um or if past the 4% open space tax be used for litigation I don't I don't know that answer actually the the open space press fund be used for you can't really use it for litigation per se unless it's like a condemnation for open space it depends on if it's for acquisition cost so you can use it for like transactional acquisition costs like soft cost Engineers title all the stuff that's required to acquire properties for open space but you can't use it for just litigating okay all right and then my last comment is just that um the DCA has the new affordable housing rules and um I just want to know what that'll mean for Middletown and if there if you'll be looking at it and maybe sending some public information about it you know as you interpret it because it's impossible for us to interpret it uh the the number is um 12 1200 units no 1,200 on top of right the previous so it's 385 345 times 4 okay 345 Time 4 got it all right yeah well 340 are coming to Loft um I know that the planning board is uh going to be getting the plans for exit 109 so um would that go towards that number if it's approved no because it's a new this is a new round okay this on top of the else um they just it never ends well I'm just asking if the township can kind of spell that out for people because it seems like this this big number and maybe it's more manageable than we think or maybe not or just we just want to know where we stand because it's there's a tax implication it affects the schools or whatnot yeah um it's you're you're sitting before I answer before I where am I allowed to start and stop with this you can well no I you don't have to say anything except we will order this we will make you know I don't know affordable housing for dummies like I this to me it's an overwhelming topic that and there's so many you know sides to it and I I want to understand it better it it's an overwhelming topic that has plagued municipalities not because they don't want to create affordable housing we do it because we're able to we foreclose on single family homes and then we donate them to Habitat for Humanity we go and we build our veterans housing project we go and we contribute money towards through our affordable housing trust fund towards uh Acquisitions of property so that uh nonprofit entities like Community Options is able to provide uh Supportive Housing um for people in need the the rub that that municipalities all cross the state have is that there is no process there is no discussion there is no um effort to look at municipalities and understand the restrictions that they have um you know I mean it's as simple as that and and when you are looking at uh four units for every one affordable unit where do you put all those units you know I mean that is that you have residents that are demanding that we preserve open space we have done that we have upgraded our recreational facilities we have purchased open space tonight purchased open space 17 more Acres preserve forever but the the the my issue comes at the fact that there are um 121 people that get to decide that and are accountable to zero because they hold their meetings at 1:00 in the afternoon and 10: a.m. and nobody ever gets the ability because they're working to comment on things like that and so that that's my issue that's my issue and and and I find it you're you're not forcing or or let's make the cycle come to an end Let's help make the cycle come to an end what are the driving factors of of why we see record inflation spending why do we see things getting out of control why do we see housing prices getting out of control and and they want the government wants to act like a counterbalance to it but if it stopped and took a breath for a half a second and realized what it was doing then you wouldn't have some of the issues that you have today and in in my opinion I you you want us to pass tree ordinances to preserve land right and to preserve trees but simultaneously you want us to take five acres of land and put 500 units on them and one and a half acres of those units are not Wetlands but two seconds earlier you were the environmentalist it's it's it's laughable the lack of of process and decorum that exists be for the sake of just passing a bill and that's that's the joke of the matter um and it's really horrible when you see municipalities that are trying to do it in a in a manner that doesn't overdevelop the town and then you're told you're not doing it fast enough when there are municipalities all across the state that aren't doing anything and yet we're told up yep in this fifth round you owe 340 48 units okay again another lie to the people because they're not demonstrating the economics of what that means the economics are not 348 the economics are building four times that number of units to be able to achieve that one number point to a place on the map in Middletown where you're going to be able to do that point to a place in Middletown where you're going to be able to do it for the other units that are alleged to be needed how about you work with us how about you D controls 60% of Freehold through protected lands Freehold actually gets that land counted against them for protected land that D controls that land is counted against them so it's as if they have to build the number of units that would have been required for that 60% there's no no logic whatsoever there's no Rhyme or Reason we don't want you to work with Community Options we don't want you to work with Habitat for Humanity we don't want you to to to build on on a dilapidated site like we are in in bford we want to chop down trees and build up highrises that's that's the rub I have well I I appreciate the um your statements on behalf of the township I really do and um but I do think that people in town just would like to understand where we where we stand and what how it would affect us you know in just like a concise way because we it's just a a lot a very complicated issue it is but I think it can be watered down like for common I'll get Brian consumption that yeah and your defense you know for all the organizations you're working with and and what you're facing year to year um especially in these Economic Times I I think it would be worthy you know when the Middletown matters or whatever just let people know what you're doing how how the Township's facing this so check out my message check out my next message I talked about it okay great and thank you for encouraging everybody to vote thanks thanks any other member of the public wish to make a public comment seeing no other member stepping forward move to close the public portion and adjourn second commit man Clark yes commit woman crbs yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Curry yes have a great night everybody