it wasn't e it good evening I'd like to call the June 24th burrow council meeting to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting statement adequate notice that this meeting has been provided as required by chapter 231 Public Law 1975 specifying the time date and location by copy by posting a copy of the notice to the municipal building a municipal website providing a copy of the annual notice scheduled to the official newspaper of the burough and is on file in the clerk's office will the clerk please call the role Council PR president revolinski here councilman Collins here councilman moo here councilman posnansky here councilman Potter here councilman Zam Brana here mayor Murray here burrow Attorney Peter venola presid burrow engineer L Lanka here burrow administrator Fred Carr here B clerk Monica Orlando here will everyone please stand for a moment of silence and follow by the pledge of to the United States of America and to for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time I'd like to invite Green Team representative Dorian Kerber to come up and give her presentation on the miltown senior center project update good evening mayor and Council and thank you for allowing me to speak this evening I wanted to let you know on June 8th um Leo at uh the Home Depot miltown location submitted an application on our behalf for the mtown senior center project uh and it was through the Home Depot foundation on the 14th they granted it and I just placed the order last Thursday I gave uh the order well it was a quote but he'll get copy of I didn't have a copy at the time but Ralph will get a copy of the order uh all that we will be doing is uh scheduling the inservice day with Home Depot but also we need to make sure we get photos before and after then they want to have a ceremony uh celebration afterwards once the work is all completed including you know any council person or mayor uh will schedule that as well um and a small signage for the efforts uh and congratulations to us for having uh received the grant it was in $3,650 most of it was spent I still have the paperwork it's an EEG gift card that we applied for the order so at that time you know once it's completed I can hand it off uh all the paperwork to Fred Miss kver if you could just make sure you keep us informed of the date so we can all schedule to be there uh for when you open here want this the uh ceremony to be absolutely we everything was pretty much even the prices went down so we got more stuff which is fantastic uh and Ralph will be taking care of ordering the shed um as well as the pavers uh and what they will be doing is all for uh raised beds we increase it from 12 in to 18 in because realistically some rots need a little bit more to to to root uh so we increased that we also will have two um readymade uh raise beds for herbs or flowers whatever they want to do and then the irrigation system will hook up to the existing spet I'm hoping that a new handle will be put on it's very flat and hard to turn um but then it'll wrap around and uh to the other side of where the beds will be and in addition um the two rain Gardens will be installed we have to discuss that with Ral the cut into it and then removal for winter season um and then I already spoke to um this on South River day uh the Girl Scouts and they combined the three towns South River miltown and East br so they're fully aware what's going on and and waiting for me to wait for the schedule so we can get things going and I'm sure the Boy Scouts will help out too so um we're going to take the old um Planters as well just reuse the soil of them and get rid of them and put the newer ones up and it's a little bit smaller but I think it'll be more you know aesthetically beautiful and and uh then we'll put annuals just in those and perennials throughout the flower beds so I'll let you know when the schedule is and you'll be informed and I'll email uh everyone so that they have information quick question for you you mentioned uh signage yes um signage um I have a recers uses someone in panway and they're really reasonable uh and we'll just put you know the home Home Depot Foundation logo Our Town logo we don't have a green team logo so we'll just put green team on there and uh just put the information on there cuz in front of the fence once the tree is removed we are taking the Tree by the fence um so that we can put a pollinator garden and I'm doing that for the fall as opposed to now so it's less watering and I'm trying to plan that with the students at the school and like the eth grade so this way we can work together like we did over uh at both schools for the rain Garden but it'll be a pollinator Garden less less dress so I'm looking forward to it and uh thank you so much excellent thank you thank you at this time I'd like to uh invite John Barry the burough planner to speak about miltown affordable housing uh fourth round obligation good evening mayor good evening council members uh thanks for having me in this evening to to give a brief overview I had sent a memorandum around about a month ago that gave a brief outline of some of the changes in the new legislation that that the state adopted back in March and some of the timelines and key dates that we have coming up to think about the first of those has come and gone we had a obligation to submit a report about the status of the Burrow's affordable housing trust fund so that was that was submitted it was very brief because there has been no activity um and miltown finds itself as I'm sure many of you are aware in a in a unique situation when it comes to planning for affordable housing the the burough has essentially been in litigation for almost 20 years now uh and Remains the the prior rounds of housing obligation remain unresolved so we're now entering into What's called the fourth round this dates back to the first round being in the 1980s and you know to present the Genesis of all of this was a series of court cases that began in the 1970s that are known as the Mount Laurel cases so you'll hear about Mount Laurel and Mount Laurel housing and so forth um over time Fair Housing Act was adoped in 1985 the Council on affordable housing was established in the during the Christie Administration the Council on affordable housing essentially ceased to function and now has been formally abolished so there was this part of the the uh the state agency that was responsible for overseeing the affordable housing obligation for each municipality now it has formally been abolished and in practice over the last almost 10 years now it's been in the hands of of the Courts for for all towns throughout the state um which has led to a lot of uh real disparity in how it's been handled depending on who the judges who the court Masters are where you are geographically things like that so I think part of the the impetus behind the state legislature putting this new law into place is to try to streamline and standardize the process that has really gone off in a lot of different directions again depending on who you're dealing with so what it means for the burrow is that by October roughly give or take the middle of October the state uh the Department of Community Affairs now is the responsible entity for this part of the the law will be releasing a set of obligation numbers for each municipality um those numbers are based on a methodology that looks at income median income in the town compared to the overall Regional median income it looks at the non the change of non-res non-residential ratables over a period of time so is your non-residential tax base growing or shrinking and how does that compare to the overall region and it also looks at the availability and type of land that may be developable or available in the in the town so that's a a process and a um methodology that's going to be applied throughout the state there are six different housing regions that are made up of three or four counties depending on on where you are and each town will end up with a number now the burrow will have the opportunity to review what the state comes up with we can do some analysis of our own we may have local information that is more fine grained a little bit better than the state's broad brush approach here so when the time comes it'll be important to take a look at that and understand if that number can be adjusted a little bit what the law says is that by the end of January 2025 so the January 31st 2025 the burough has an obligation to adopt a resolution that claims its obligation essentially and that could be the number that the state releases it could be something that's modified with justification and support for that modification um and then from there we'll go through a process of planning for how the burrow is going to address that obligation so most recently um we have a housing element in fair share plan that was adopted back in 2018 that was part of one of the the many ongoing court orders that have rolled along over the years but the the 2018 housing element and fair share plan sets forth what was the essentially the first second and third round pieces of of the Burrow's overall obligation and set out a plan for how to address them main component is the Ford Avenue Redevelopment area and then we have a series of affordable housing overlay zones in different parts of the burough uh a couple in the Main Street area the other one um along opposite the fort Avenue Redevelopment area the other industrial parcel that's that's at the end of Ford Avenue couple Parcels along Ryder's Lane the Acme and Target properties the the larger development on Ryder's lane and then uh small parcel on vanl so those are the affordable housing overlays that were adopted as a result of that housing element in fair share plan and that brings us to where we sit today um the burough still has what's known as an unmet need and that's H that's what happens when you have a town that's mostly built out which is which is what miltown is um that we don't have large tracks of open space anywhere that could potentially be developable so you do and look at all the vacant land in town strip it down and say we only have so many Parcels that are undeveloped that are big enough to sustain a housing project and then you come up with a realistic development potential you subtract that from your obligation and everything that's left over is what's known as unmet need because you don't have an opportunity to really address it affirmatively right now those overlay zones are on top of existing developments for the most part so they're looking at a perspective Future something that could happen not something that's likely to be developed tomorrow and I think that's probably where we're going to be as we move forward um we may revisit some of those existing overlay zones to see if there's um any changes that need to be made we may try to identify one or two additional ones perhaps but I think largely speaking we're going to have just an increasing pool of unmet need because there's only so much land in miltown and most of it is already spoken for so um as you know what what we'll look for over the next uh six to eight months will be to begin to understand what that obligation is as the state releases its numbers we get a little more information about the methodology hopefully because there should be some and to accompany the the law there should be some Ru making that explains how to implement the law a little bit better so we hope that um everywhere we'll have that available to us and then after we have a sense of numbers we'll have timelines to put a new housing element and fair share plan into place by the um by the middle of next year and we'll take a look at at what the options are to do that at that time one of the shorter term actions that might make sense um if we want to start to just you know throw around some ideas and and think about what opportunities there may be on the table for the buau might be sensible to create an affordable housing subcommittee that includes um perhaps you know couple members of the council uh maybe memb of the planning board some of the um burough professionals to have um some preliminary conversations just to so everybody's on the same page with timeline with process and then when we are forced to kick into real high gear later this year um we kind of have have a game plan and some infrastructure in place so we're not scrambling so um in the short term I think that's that's really the the one main takeaway in the longer term just know that this process is is changing but at the end of the day for the burrow um we still have the litigation that's been going on for like I said almost 20 years that impacts what um what has happened and what will continue to happen with affordable housing so we'll have to continue to see how that plays out and then as far as hitting those benchmarks and timelines that the new legislation calls for uh we work through the planning process the same way it was done in 2018 come up with a a plan document that the planning board can review and adopt and then go from there so you happy to take questions from I have a I have one because I just want to be clear on this one because I asked it when the uh the Acy property was up in front of the planning board and I threw a hypothetical out there which was if the burrow had met all of its uh affordable housing requirements of round three in time would we still have round four requirements yes and the answer to that is yes yes and that's that's every place you know the theory being that as the state grows there continues to be an increasing need for all types of Housing and so um I suppose if the state stopped growing then the numbers may not exist but we're not there yet and is there any possibility for us to avoid this um are other towns for example paying the state a penalty to avoid their affordable housing obligations no so there's there's no there's no mechanism to to buy out of the obligation or there's nothing set up as a penalty this is a constitutional obligation for each municipality to to address their affordable housing needs um what generally tends to happen if if a town doesn't follow through with the process is it becomes vulnerable to what's known as a builder's remedy lawsuit if there's an interested developer and that's in fact the origin of everything that's been going on in Fort Avenue since 2006 when there was a builder's remedy lawsuit filed and eventually awarded um and that's been part of the Burrow's history of affordable housing um but failure to meet these timelines address um the statutory obligations would open up that possibility again and could you explain what the Builder's remedy is to anyone watching at home or sitting in the audience yeah so the Builder remedy is is a mechanism that U came out of the second Mount Laurel case back in 1983 and it was basically the tool by which the stick if you will if a town is not um compliant with its constitutional obligation to have zoning that allows for development of different types of housing you know Apartments tow houses smaller units that would be affordable um then if the town is not allowing that type of development to take place then it could be vulnerable to a builder's remedy which is when they have a builder anybody who's either a property owner or has an interest in a property brings a project to the table and the town zoning doesn't permit it and the town zoning generally doesn't allow that type of development so if you have nowhere in town that you can build Apartments somebody says I'm going to come in and build an apartment building here and it's going to have 20% of those units are going to be deed restricted for affordable housing and if the town hasn't otherwise complied with its obligations the courts may say yes you get the the Builder gets the remedy of being able to construct that project and those affordable housing units will go toward the unsatisfied obligation that the town has e John yes did did you say at the beginning that um we're going to be lumped in with a bunch of other um um regions or there are six regions and we're going to be lumped in with a bunch of other towns yes so um that's how the the breakdown essentially of the housing obligations are calculated and this goes back many years in the process there's six regions that have they're split up by by counties um and the basically The Benchmark is you compare each town to the overall makeup of the region so the regions are kind of balanced they have a mixture of of counties different places um so they're going you're going to mix counties from across the state of New Jersey well for the for the regional obligations yeah that's how it's that's how it's been done um and I got to confess I don't remember off the top of my head which other counties are lumped with middle sex um but I could certainly get you that information in a second um but that's that's how the overall obligations are identified you look at the Statewide popula population growth which is really a growth in number of households and then it's broken down by by region and then within the region each municipality has a share so you know miltown will have a share it will be one of 100 towns within its region that has a share of that overall Regional need but those haven't been determined yet the the breakdown of the regions in terms of the geography is determined but the actual numbers haven't been determined yet okay thank you you're welcome John I have a quick question the uh overlay zone map uh do you know when the last time that was performed and is there a requirement that we had have to do before the next round or is that um something that occurs right so the overlay zones that exist now there's seven of them um most of them were put into place in 2019 fairly early I don't remember the exact date but let's say spring 2019 uh created six six of those and then there was a uh probably about a year later there was a settlement regarding the Acme property and that split what had been the ao6 the affordable housing six Zone into a six and a seven okay so it just took the existing one and chopped it in half and changed some things with it um creating those kinds of overlay zones is one of the ways that the burrow can address its obligation it creates a a possibility that somebody might develop or redevelop affordable housing in in those areas so when we look at the when we get the obligation and when we look at the housing plan that will have to be adopted by the end of June next year so June June 30 2025 part of that housing plan could recommend changes to the existing overlays it could recommend creating a new overlay and at that time those if they are going to be changed or created it would be an action by the governing body to adopt an ordinance to do that so it's something that may come about as a result of the housing plan if that's something that needs to be done to help address some of that obligation but we're not sure sure yet what that might be okay thank you you say constitutional that would be the state con Constitution yes okay um obligations my opinion doesn't have to be anyone else they're brought about by unelected unaccountable bureaucrats people have no say in their town I'm not I'm not saying this to pick on you no I'm bringing this up and you know it's a it's a position that that some share I believe and you know the obligate I'm I'm the messenger as far as what are I don't mean to no I know you don't and um I'm certainly not taking it that way uh just you know laying out what what is being asked of the Town by the law so appreciate that yeah Mr Barry you weren't you in the Southside Redevelopment plan the South Main Street Redevelopment plan right as the planner for the burrow I prepared that yes you didn't include any low-income housing know right there there are um the existing ah4 I believe zone is the the uh spirits of miltown property that's uh vacant on South Main Street that's included in the plan but also um retains its underlying zoning as uh with inclusion Area Housing so an affordable obligation and then another another section of the plan area allows for uh multif family development that would require inclusion Area Housing so it would require enable what property was that it that's the uh the Whitman properties for lack of a better word on the the southeast section of the the corridor there thanks y thank you sir appreciate it yeah thanks I look forward to continuing the conversation so we'll be in touch before we continue on if I could just have everybody from Council and may or move your microphone like an inch closer because we can barely hear any of you I appreciate it thank you thank you now is time for public comments limited to the resolution on the agenda if you wish to speak please step up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record again this is the public portion is limited to the comments only on the resolutions listed on the agenda at this time hello Randy Ruth 88 Clay Street I have concerns that are seemingly new to me but not as I understand it to those who have been managing miltown affair the sudden proposal for significant Water and Sewer rate increase has taken many of us by surprise prompting the question if this issue has been known to the council for years why is it only now being urgently addressed this feels like an 11th Hour Revelation to the community yet it should not be new to our governance it's perplexing and frankly disconcerning that such a critical need is presented at this late stage rather than at the beginning of the year or even earlier when we could have had could have tackled it with thoughtful planning and public input this delay has left us scrambling to handle a crisis that we were told has been looming this approach undermines trust and raises significant concerns about the transparency and foresight within our Council furthermore regarding the water consumption in rental units it is important to highlight that the financial responsibility for water usage falls on the property owners regardless of the number of meters installed this system while straightforward under scores a larger issue of how we manage and Bill for Utilities in a manner that is both fair and efficient why are we as a community now only grappling with solutions to problems that were foreseeable and not apparently foreseen this reactive stance forces us into decisions that could have been serious it could have had serious implications for every resident decisions that might have been mitigated or even avoided through proactive governance as we proceed with this disc disc I urge every member of this Council to consider not just the IM immediate fiscal shortfalls but also the broader implications of how we plan and communicate we owe it to all of us that management that manage their resources wisely and to involve them in the governance process that affects their lives so directly however while we discuss the immediate financial Necessities we must also address the long-term sustainability of our FIS financial planning there there has been a mention of a lack of additional ratables and it appears that there may be room for improvements in how the cancel plans for economic development expanding ratables could significantly lessen the financial burden on individual residents by broadening our tax base is imperative that we explore more aggressive and Innovative strategies to attract and develop these opportunities this is not just about navigating through a crisis but also proactive governance that ensures a thriving future for the entire town I had presented to this C Council just last month about the importance of establishing a historic preservation commission while I'm not sure if the president at the last council meeting saw or heard that presentation her remarks during Council comments do appear to indicate a broader Community interest and exploring new approaches to preservation she's a resident of South Main Street and she spoke about the need to to maintain the town's historical character over allowing extensive development highlighting the adverse effects of recent construction with a mention of a black eye on Fort Avenue and a split lip on South Main Street she expressed deep concern over the loss of old trees and historic homes to oversized houses underlining the the irritable irreversible damage to miltown charm her plea to the council was to prioritize the community's desire to preserve miltown historical sense urging consideration of long-term impacts of the development decisions on the town's Heritage this aligns with the need for historic preservation commission to safeguard guard our Town's character so while I trust that a solution will soon be in play and many residents will have to adapt I urge everyone to to handle such situations proactively going forward we need to stay ahead of the game not caught off guard and scrambling in defense just as in all all sports anticipation and strategy are key to success we should apply the same principles to our council's planning and actions let's aim to be strategic players on the field and not just re acting to the playes they come thank you look forward forward I look forward to a transparent and Forward Thinking approach in the future thank you spot on with your comments nickelatti n Genet Court I may be breaking the rule that I'm going to ask you guys to inter enforce but uh I believe that you all uh approved Robert's Rules of Order for your Council meetings right now we're talking about resolutions we're not talking about ordinances so if someone could direct this in the proper manner I would appreciate it going forward that you stick to the Robert Rules of Order that you adopted that's number one and the other place that you're not adhering to those rules are when you pull an or a a resolution you know there has to be a motion first there has to be a second then there's discussion you guys are doing discussion first and then you're doing everything a little bit backwards um if you could just clean that up a little bit that would be great as well uh I'm sorry I'm breaking the rules right now because this is supposed to be time for ordinances that are on the agenda um but I just wanted to do that first to get that out of the way um I'm not sure it makes a big deal one way or the other but if you do adopt Robert's Rules of Order you should enforce them at your meetings thank you uh if I if I may ask uh Mr Veno I know we had this discussion when we um first thought about you know pulling a resolution and before making a motion having the opportunity to hear someone speak and I I believe you said it was a matter of the the preference of the Council on how we approach that that one doesn't negate the other at the end of the day you have the ability to run your meetings you've adopted Robert jwes of order but you could certainly deviate from them at times as you see fit if you feel like there's a better process perhaps it would be better to memorialize those at some point but um in the years that I've been here um I don't know that there's always been strict adherence to Robert's Rules of orders um you know I think if if we would like to do that we can certainly do that going forward yeah but one one of the reasons being uh Mr Gotti was the purpose of if someone pulled a resolution that before we make a motion to approve it and then you have a second and then that person brings up a valid point to either amend the resolution or the ordinance now we have to kind of go back and and backtrack so we wanted to be able to hear the person out and their thoughts and opinions have that discussion before making a motion I I hear you I I understand where you're coming from but there you should really start out with the proper rules and the proper format um if if you want to deviate them as Mr Veno has said on occasion absolutely knock yourself out but if you pull a resolution you you make the motion you second the motion you have the discussion either way you're going to vote on it no matter how you do it so do it the right way start off the right way if you got to deviate there afterwards you can deviate but start off the right way you're going to wind up in the same place anyway with the vote on that resolution that was pulled you're ending in the same place heny Martens 156 re Avenue um the last time I came up there I made it pretty clear that I'm not happy about this rate increase um even more concerned now because I don't think that some of the members of the council the utility or the vast majority of the residents in miltown truly grasp the terrible position the water utility is in we utility customers are looking at a huge rate increase either in the base or utilization however it gets cracked out to cover a budget shortfall but almost no one's talking about the fact that this is just the beginning one of the conditions of miltown lead Action level exceedence was that lead service lines and galvanized service lines need replacement midtown's ordinance says that the homeowners is responsible for the entire water service from the main of their home that's been the response anytime anyone is asked about lead service line replacement so far I have here with me right here copies of Correspondence between the state D and all Community water systems that was sent to the licensed operators dated June 14th 2024 your licensed operator received this we are a community water system this applies to us it outlines a bunch of stuff regarding lead service lines that I'm not but I'm not going to get into anything besides one specific paragraph and I'm going to read it directly from the letter finally as a reminder water systems are responsible for the coordination all lead lead or galvanized service line Replacements regardless of ownership Water Systems must coordinate the lead service line replacement program in their service area for both the public and private side of the service lines Water Systems may not leave the replacement of letter galvanized service lines up to the homeowner as it's the Water Systems responsibility to ensure the letter galvanized service lines are replaced water systems are not required to pay for the portion of the replacement line since they do not own it the utility and its oportunity to get moving on this a good estimate of service line showed the utility would be responsible for up to 900 Replacements from the main of the house or some section thereof that's 35% of the system the costs are going to float anywhere between $7,000 and $112,000 depending on the working conditions that's going to end up being roughly $8.5 million it's plain as day either residents are going to have to pay almost $10,000 on average for a service line replacement directly back to the utility or the utility is going to need to account for this moving forward as a massive budget shortfall somewhere along lines of $1.6 million a year we're arguing over $350,000 right now that is a graen of sand at the beach even if the residents pay the money back the utility the utility still needs to front the money to the contractor you only have until 2031 to finish this program that's 7even years we found out last meeting the utility and license operator don't know where the galvaniz service while where the galvaniz services are located it's going to take you at least a year to figure out of your seven remaining years just to figure out where you need to dig Justus an FYI the computer program to manage these Replacements was quoted $100,000 just the computer program to manage it for two years using the rate increase calculations presented for the 2024 $350,000 short shortfall each utility biller every single person in town would be looking at a $650 increase per year just to cover this one line item the affected people then the the affected people who need new lines are going to have to pay $10,000 on top of that back back to the utility it should be the position of this Council as the oversight body for the utility to be open and clear with residents about this huge expense that you have to by Statute pass on to them the work needs to be done and the money needs to come from somewhere I don't want the people to think that I'm up here to bash utility or DPW because I'm not as Council rinsky mentioned last meeting utility bought Smart Meters that are sitting on a pallet because they don't have the manpower to get them installed these meters have a 10-year lifespan before the internal battery dies this is no reflection on the borrow employees with any utility it's just a simple fact that there's too much work to be done by the numbers of employees that you have there's St State mandated programs that mtown are falling behind with such as valve exercising enhanced water quality parameters a 50-year plan for water replacement water main Replacements there are real consequences to not doing these things if we're non-compliant we will be fined by the D and we will still have to pay to complete that work I spoke last meeting about the increases in treatment costs that we're going to see for New Brunswick to remove pfoas and other forever chemicals expect at least $100 per quarter increase for each account to cover this it's already happening happening in other areas in New Jersey whose water composition is similar to ours knowing all this it's town for time for the council to make a move some want to sell but I'd argue the valuation is going to be really low because of our current undressed liabilities some want to keep moving forward if we keep the utility the revenues got to stay in the utility full stop there are are in the utility that need critical attention not to mention the $350,000 shortfall right now that the utility faces for fiscal year 24 that started all of this the B should not use any utility revenue to subsidize the payroll and benefits of other departments which needs while this while all these needs go unchecked I know the property taxes are a hot button issue right now but it's a simple reality using utility revenue to balance the rest of a budget hurts your residents without reductions in Staffing the money for payroll etc for all these tangentially related departments needs to come from somewhere so we're not we're going to have to pay it anyway but at least if it comes out of the tax base residents would be able to seek some sort of relief by writing it off their income taxes they don't have the option for that for utility bills again I beg you guys form a committee of your of elected officials residents and professionals to help the water utility get on the right side of this having a rate study done to project out the revenue the the revenues versus liabilities would be a great start as the residents and utility rate payers we need and deserve Des deserve better people came up here last meeting saying that they can't afford this increase of 90 90% what about more than $750 a year on top of that that they're going to need to be compliant with the D this is going to drive people out of town make it unattractive for people to move here and turn lower residence property values which is going to lower assess values and ultimately the rest of your tax revenue I know that this problem wasn't caused by this particular Council it took years and decades to get into this position unfortunately the Hot Potato has been passed to you the problem's yours to deal with and you guys got to deal with it now I don't know if miltown should be in the business to selling water that's a decision that you guys have to make but eventually the music's going to stop and the the residents are going to be stuck with the bill and that's not fair to us so that's it thank you I appreciate you coming up here I will say that you might want to uh contact the State because they make us jump jump hoops you understand they're putting forward for us to do and we have to handle what we can handle but it's the state that makes us jump hoops which makes you jump hoops constant regulation and re-regulation no and I understand the constant regulation and re-regulation but at the end of the day still regulation we still have to follow it the the cash outlay is still going to be there we can push for it to change but at the same time as much as you push you're still looking at $8.5 million you're going to be punching holes and concrete streets running 50ft longside service lines it's going to cost you $115,000 $155,000 location and then you're going to pass that back onto the onto the rate payers somebody's going to have to pay for this anyway there's no escaping it so at least be open and honest and clear with your rate payers that hey this is on the horizon and if you're not being told this by the people who are running your who are by the people who make the decisions you you should have some serious questions for them Mr mclone I have a question for you everything was accurate that was stated about the timelines and the uh requirements I don't know exactly the regulation been some time since I looked at them but that sounds accurate that's correct and again as as the homeowner indicates the rules as I understand them don't necessarily Force the burrow to make those Replacements but uh um it's an issue that miltown and many other towns all have the same issue they changed the game when they went from lead and added galvanized to it and that's simply around What's called the lead Goos neck which is why that was added but um your lead problem was bad enough the galvaniz changed the game a little bit for you um we do continue to look at Grant programs to see how those can go through and get handled um um thank you sir okay I appreciate that I had seen that letter actually but we do go through and get uh uh every once in a while the the I bank is a possible funding mechanism for the burrow it's low interest loans we keep an eye on to see whether or not there's any possibility that you'll get what's called principal forgiveness from them at the state level uh right now there aren't programs that we've seen but we do keep an eye for you I know the burough manag and administrators do the same so we will continue to do that hopefully and there's a way in future to to find this uh mandate and and to fund it without uh the burrow being inconvenience with this cause okay if we could all have copies of that get the opportunity I'll leave it with Monica and she can hand Mike do you know when they added the galvanized requirements about the same time when the rule came out ultimately they added galvaniz and Lead together yeah when was that because at first it was lead and now it's galvaniz about 3 years ago three years ago you had 10 years to go through and get them done remember it doesn't mandate the bur it mandates the res since they own the service from the main the street so but I I understand the resident concerned and we have it for not only miltown for many of our clients yeah a tough tough tough one but we really don't know where all the galvanized systems are do we no you know there's a way to determine it at the street side and a way to determine at the house side there was a large effort sometime ago to deter where the lead was but the Galvin was out of the mix until the regulation came out what uh sorry sorry I know we have a person up with the microphone but uh what happens if we do our damnest to find these services and we don't find them all um whether it's through a meter replacement program where we're in every house or uh or if we're just asking the residents to report it and the residents say look I don't want to be responsible for a $10,000 change and it goes undocumented unrecognized until the sale of a home 20 years from now what are the repercussions if the state finds out 20 years from now that we have a couple of galvanized services that despite our best efforts we weren't able to identify are we going to have to pay fines for that throughout I know this is kind of like a loaded question the state probably hasn't answered that yet they like to mandate before they have the answers um but what is our liability in the end uh we a few years ago when we had the lead Services one thing that I had proposed was maybe the borrow take out a bond and then issue a tax lean against the home where the res could then pay it off over a couple of years and then if the home was sold we would get paid in full for that but at least the resident didn't have to Fork over $10,000 immediately um and I was told at that time legally we weren't allowed to spend public money on private property that's my understanding correct and so where does that leave us again now that the state is saying you have to do it regardless of who owns it I mean is this another line item that we have to put in our water sewer ordinance for Revision in the next couple of months to state that we have the obligation and so does the homeowner to do that the statute was Chang to allow you to spend public money to do private residential services and in just to refresh everyone's memory when we applied or looked at uh state aid to assist us in the lead service lines replacement the state said that because the average income in miltown exceeds the median income in Middle sex County we were not applicable for any of those loans or financing programs loans yes grants no not grants right and that's ideal ideally what you prefer although the loan is a low interest interest loan so that you do get a significant benefit there but it's not as good like a grant still got to pay for it though now is that interest based on you know the regular market rate for the ibank or John microphone please sorry they have a a a calculation they do generally they take a market rate and then they provide financing at a half rate so it's sort of like a blended rate usually about half% what the prime is half of what the prime is not half per half of the Prime so it's a it's a uh when you calculate over 20 or 30 years it turns out to be a pretty nice Grant but uh and it it does help but it doesn't it's not like as if you you know were get the thing for uh no cost of the bar hole I'd like to tell you some good news that maybe in the Horizon next five next year or so the state's going to come out with some financing for the towns um I'd like to think maybe they will because you're not the only town in this position but that's maybe overly optimistic I don't want to guarantee it but it just seems like you know there's this mandate and it's unfunded and you know the $10,000 for residence is is a little bit different yeah they did almost all of nework with lead service line Replacements and that was paid for by the state right not exactly yes it was it was a pilot program they were the first city to get this done and federal money I'm sorry but it's I was at the presentation from the mayor of New Newark there were some creative financing to pay for that didn't come from the state all of it so um I wish that that was the case for for Milad sake but it's not there were County funds and all kinds of different financing for that forc redistribution of wealth well I I I don't know how do you call it but it was uh not all state funded thank you go ahead Dorian Kerber 24 Rea Avenue um I propose we have more of a public meeting about this whole program there is funding available there are new grants always coming through and you just have to keep applying doesn't mean one Grant is a no doesn't mean the rest are they understand that we need financial support uh and I've attended a number of webinars and presentations in person I'm going again uh on July 17th at Jersey Woodworks um Summit and they talk about this all the time um and I think also what we're supposed to do as a town just like South River has a great sidewalk program you go out with the RFP find the contractor that's going to do the work so that it's that contractor to make it co less costly to everyone that's the purpose of doing this state uh laws updating them for everything even for the lead um has now reduced from 15 points per billion to 10 points per billion for the testing there's a lot of changes that took place because of all the uh chemicals in the water plus you know lead paint you're supposed to be hitting the doors in July and seeing who has lead paint in their homes it's mandatory they're trying to do this because this state is happily far behind compared to many other states who've been doing this Newark has pushed a postcard it's a base postcard we could provide as a green team we discussed it to share the local Health departments free testing for children if there happens to be lead paint found in the homes uh that's a process that Newark Camden Jersey City hobok and have been doing for the last few months they of course again were the pilot program and yes they also received uh uh grant funding and uh also for filters for water filters to provide to the homeowners if they found even lead in the water as well as the lead paint um they get the free testing for the children so there's a lot of programs there's a lot to it and there's a lot to this lead replacement and I'm sure we can be eligible we have a new SE section fima did the M redid the maps I emailed it to people I think the mayor and Council that we have a big section on North Main Street to section of South Main Street that's underserved and overburdened Community which was different years ago it was just updated so that area might be covered at this point oh before I forget Mike Mullen make sure you include the complete trees policy for any roadway grants that's a plus um someone was reading the uh application thoroughly and it's important to keep that because 40% always goes to towns that have a complete streets policy in place which we did in 2018 and 2019 so I want to make sure you got that information it usually secures us uh more for that but I think we should get New Jersey future and jte to help talk with a committee public meeting so we can all understand the program and understand what the cost will be and they'll be able to help us with all that so it's just uh I wanted to make sure you had that information thank thank you anybody else no okay we have gentleman back our next contestant on theed Joe Panza 15 Bruce Court thank you for the opportunity to speak again about the water increase issue do you want to be the mayor and councel that will be forever known for raising minimum Water and Sewer rates 90% do you want to be known as the mayor and Council who are targeting senior citizens and single occupant households whe whether you realize it or not that is exactly what you're doing maybe not in a legal sense but in the end who does this affect the most between the last meeting and this one I offered my solutions to each of you you said that you already tried them and they they would not work I would say you need to try harder find a way to Bill each resident the $150 you say you need to cover the barrows Water and Sewer shortfalls has anyone even seen the data that shows these shortfalls I sure haven't I am not doubting a shortfall exists but it would have been very constructive to have seen what it is we are talking about so we can fully understand why these additional funds are needed transparency does go a long way in the end you will each vote your conscience unfortunately you're not governed by the Board of Public Utilities because if you were there would be ramifications for you on many levels you were each elected by the residents to work for them a vote of yes for these Water and Sewer ordinances shows the residents that you do not want to work for them you want to throw in a quick fix that had little thought after knowing about a problem for six months and you will hurt the people many who who have lived here their entire lives our senior citizens who are mostly retired and on fixed incomes you know it's interesting that just a few meetings ago you were discussing free pool passes for seniors and now instead of that Joe instead of that you will be nearly doubling their water and sewer bills I would like to think that each of you are better than this thank you I do have some data here in front of me I have the 2023 uh budget information which shows the American Rescue plan Grant applied for uh to the the water budget $364,900 the previous administration decided let's use a handout from the government for a quick fix and not even address the issue and now here we are one year later still short $350,000 with no little handout from the federal government to offset it could could I say something uh we signed a contract with New Brunswick water for a six-year contract and the water rates are going to go up for the next six years no matter what we do Joe you didn't say nothing last year when the water we signed the contract for 3 and half 4% whatever it was where are we going to get the money we talk talking about a short fall to to take care of fiscal 2024 right that's what we're talking about but we we didn't raise it last year when we were under contract it with an increase right and now we're under contract elor if you're going to speak Joe let him speak I mean where are we going to get the money Joe let me let me just interject here for a second I don't want the residents at home to think that we're sitting here attacking residents when when we're speaking this is we're all passionate about this issue but I think it's just important to acknowledge the fact that while we may have noticed this six months ago this has been going on for a very long time a very long time back in 2018 rates were raised 30% again percentages the dollar amount was about $300,000 the Surplus that was generated by that that increase was then used to offset any additional costs over the next 5 years and it probably would have had a bud a incre excuse me for a second an increase in the rates last year had it not been for the American Rescue plan money that came in that was used to offset it right so we raise rates we generate some extra Surplus but then instead of staying on top of it and raising it as costs go up we do nothing those cost then catch up and then here we are with a big increase 5 years later and it's not the way we should be doing business the way we should be doing is a continuous increase incremental to keep up with the cost of expenses so we have a shortfall for fiscal 2024 correct yes and $150 per resident per household will satisfy that shortfall correct correct so why can't we just bill a single bill of $150 per household instead of raising the rates and these rates are not going to come down your ordinance doesn't say temporary that's correct right so you're you're saying it's going to revert back it's not I'm not saying it's going to revert back what I what I've what I've said in previous meetings what I'm what I've said in previous meetings is that this $350,000 is reoccurring every year it's a cost of operating this isn't like we pay it off this year like it's a debt like we bought two trucks and now now they're paid off they're gone these are operational costs so we'll need 350 next year we'll need 350 the year after that and the year after that and more likely than not more money than that because of the fact that costs of operation go up so while the ordinance that's on for final adoption tonight does not have an end date we've all said up here that we need to work over the next three months to adopt the rates that set us on the right path for next year what those look like at this time I can't say so we need to look at the projections but we need to generate the revenue and instead of sending out a separate bill that would have cost us greater than $10,000 so we didn't want to incur additional cost for you can't do that in house it cannot be done with the edmin system that we use for billing because the billing is tied to your taxes so they have to integrate and Edmonds wants to write a separate program for that and the cost of the that mailing and tying it all in was expected to be over $10,000 so we put it in the rates for a three-month cycle so that every get everybody gets build that $150 and then after that we've already adopted the next round which hopefully puts us on the right track for next year including mandatory increases that when our water supplier rates go up such as New Brunswick as councilman Collins said 3% every year that it's not up to this governing that automatically those rates go up so it's not left up to you know I want to get reelected or it's got to happen we got to get off the the chaos I'm trying to get through I'm trying to get through 2024 without hurting a lot of people and I I I think it would behoove you guys to amend your ordinance to make it this this 90% temporary until fiscal 2024 is satisfied then go like we we talked we we emailed each other I me emailed all you guys and we we discussed there are gaps in uh water billing there are households who are maybe getting a free ride I don't know but until that is is is known you you can't have a fair and equitable rate for all the residents until you know you're you're billing everyone I I I I I again I I I think it be it would be wise to consider but you you sat on councel Joe like that gentleman there said you could have taken the salaries out of the water department I'm sorry you sat on Counsel yeah you could have taken the salaries out he just said you could take the salaries out of the water department you could have done it but nobody's nobody's going to stand and we're not doing it either so you decrease your taxes so which which one do you want to pay you can't you can only deduct 10,000 on your federal taxes so the sad the sad reality is that we have an immediate problem and we have an ongoing issue correct and we can't address them all in the one F swop at this moment and agreed the word temporary makes people feel better and I mean we're residents too so yeah but you're not a senior citizen on a fixed income that's and that's a fair statement and I do get that but we have to address the immediate and by the end of the year as we've talked about this we have relatively a short window to address it but we need to come up with a plan and we will and that's how it becomes temporary or at least becomes a change towards a better system overall and all the points you've made about things that aren't getting built properly I know last week it was last meeting it was mentioned that there are 26 26 264 and4 meters and there's apparently 3,000 electric meters give or take a few right but some some of those are rentals that H have multiple dwelling I get it with one water line we need close that Gap right no you're right you're absolutely right but I'm saying is it there's an immediate issue that this is addressing and it's a regrettable occurrence and there's a future issue that needs to be addressed and that is part of what you're saying and the two just can't at this moment we have to fill the Gap and as we go forward to fix the future that's how this situation and this bill becomes temporary it will change and we don't know what that change will be but I have to expect that as we all know we have to change it and as the public knows they want to change too and they're going to make it happen it's going to happen it has to it can't go on like this it is an unsustainable situation if you pass this ordinance as is that 90% never goes away it's only going to go up from there whether you want to admit it or not the SP it never goes down and and I know what you're saying span of when we're doing of when when something goes up you know in the past two years when you think of everything in this world has gone up 10 12% when you look at the amount of time that we're using to recoup this money as opposed to at least doing it over a reasonable year amount of time where it spread over four quarters where it spread over 12 months the world is going up and there's a certain reality about that that we can't prevent New Jersey expensive place to live on every single every single place you take care but again this stop Gap measure is done based on a short period of time and that increases the discomforted causes you have an opportunity here not to Target seniors and not to Target single occupant households and you're not taking advantage of it you you you you're giving it to them and it's it's just guys it's just not right I I don't I don't understand that the statement though that we're targeting seniors or single occup well who's going to pay Rich who's going to pay who who who is going to pay that who's it going to affect the most they're paying the minimum now and they're doubling and you're doubling their bill well we we had to do it to the minimum so that people don't stop using water the problem as you probably know is you have you have minimum which is like your service fee more or less right that's our operating cost and then you have your consumption your dollars per gallon well if we raise the dollars per gallon and everyone decides not to water their lawn and not to fill their pool or not shower we don't generate the $344,000 that's needed in the fund so it has to go to the minimum and unfortunately that minimum is paid by everyone it's paid by senior citizens it's paid by single occupant households it's paid by families with six kids that are already probably in the third tier already paying maximum amount because they've got to have showers for their kids it's paid by everyone equally so it's not targeting one group or the other it's everybody is is being hit the same on this and unfortunately that's just there's no other way to do it if we do it to the water how is that fair for one person to say well I use a lot of water and I maintain my lawn so therefore I have to pay $150 more but my my neighbor who has one person in the house doesn't these costs are based on operating the system the system that everyone equally benefits from regardless of how much water you use you want to be able to turn on the faucet that's the system maintenance that's what these costs are going to we'll have to we'll have to agree to disagree thank you and Joe I also have one for you as well um when we had the CFO in the spring and we needed the shared service agreement to support that CFO um it was pretty much identified he identified it to me in the beginning and had that CFO and Deputy CFO been on in the spring it would have have helped reduce that number because we would have been able to try to address this that much sooner uh because that got voted down um and this Deputy CFO had resigned um it had gotten pushed back that much more because he needed that to be in the Forefront for the budget and everything else so that all got thrown out thankfully we have Mr zanga um who is uh doing a a bang up job trying to address everything and I I commend him and and he will uh be up here to to help us um address a lot of the the questions with the budget and everything else but um he was working tirelessly to try to uh accommodate and fix uh some of the shortfalls that have been dumped on this mayor and Council from prior Years and we're left holding the bag with what do we do with all this uh it is a big it's a big problem that has been on for years that everybody kicks the can down a curb and we're not addressing it we need to address it for the future not just the the present day and that's what our problem is that we're not addressing things for the future George I served on council with you we would have never ever raised rates 90% which is why we're here today well I have a question for Council how many of how many of you knew about the problem with the water rates cuz I did not well you did George did I did not know I did not know at all not F guy I wasn't told anything I did not know I saw it last year when we adopted the budget $800 something, for a onetime hit from the feds but I it was clear day I have to say that it's not their time it's our U Nick I'm speaking please you have plenty of time to speak this is speak this is audience this is audience time this is audience time this is not your time all right we'll talk about that ahead Nick lagotti nanic Court um I just have if we're not going to follow the rules I'm not going to follow the rules either then um you could say that the debates the raises um that were given to I guess utility uh water utility employees that you all approved not too long ago they were pretty substantial raises $30,000 and if you all knew about this increase that was coming you may have wanted to rethink giving employees $30,000 raises I wish I could get a 30 thou I think you wish you wish they could get a $30,000 I would like to address that as well because this was something that was dumped on my lap on the new year as I came in this was promised and it was promised in a let steer clear a Personnel discussions if we can okay I mean it's a cost but rather not it was a promised and it wasn'ted identify specific people in specific jobs so okay sorry it's okay just just some food for thought for people out there I don't you guys make the decisions I'll just say this ni his his quality of work is saving the town I think he just lot of funds not to do that I think what we can say is that that when we hired Personnel last year many were hired at introductory lates with the promise of increases okay that's a a promise if you know you have a $350,000 shortfall giv employees $330,000 raises where where I work somebody's getting fired that's where I that's what's happening where I work yeah unless we don't have employees anymore the other thing I want the other thing I want to know is you have a 300 50,000 shortfall that's not a 3% or 3 and a half% increase on our water utility is probably $50,000 where where is the shortfall coming from where where is the 350 can anybody answer that question or I'll direct that one to councilman Zam BR who was the chair of the finance committee last year what was your plan I'm not concerned about last year I'm concern I I want to I'm concerned about 2024 you had a you had a balanced budget in 2024 you started 2024 with a balanced utility budget where did the $350,000 shortfall come from you can't blame it on a 3 and a half% increase that's only I think it's less than $50,000 so where is the rest of that shortfall coming from the American Rescue plan well councilman latti I mean if You' like to or sorry former councilman latti if you'd like to it's all right if you'd like to look you can see right here 2023 budget American rescue plan Grant $364,000 used but it existed previously used previously so started out short was there last year but you balanced you balanced out you started out balanced 350,000 midnight it's a strike of midnight on 2024 there was going to be councilman councilman Z Brown did you balance the budget at the end of 2023 we did they did using money did you use American money it a one time check from the government closing a gap that doesn't exist this year the same nonsense you all would have done the same thing no that's a lie that's not a lie and don't accuse me of that 201 what I I what I would accuse you of is you put a Facebook post out today that you totally totally $150 chart simp stap Facebook I didn't mislead anyone totally this is a gap stop Gap measure it's it's a stop Gap it's for perpetuity they're telling you it's it is fixing this year we don't know what next year brings the person will the rates go back to what they were and you said yes it's only a onetime thing a one I actually know I didn't word it that way I said it that we need this as a stop Gap measure and we are looking to I'm not going to we can and we are looking to change the way the entire building system works because there's answer my question there is a Flor that is ongo I'm sorry you open the door to a statement for me I'm going to continue short come I I I count I understand you used covid money for that money let's let's let's put our thinking caps on if that money wasn't there last year would we have had a $350,000 shortfall you if the government if the federal government didn't give the burrow of miltown $350,000 for doing nothing other than being the burrow of miltown would we have had a $350,000 shortfall last year would you as a council would have figured out a way to fix that they did they applied that money they they found a way to fix it and they did they didn't create a way sir they got a gift if you can't pay your mortgage for a year and someone pays your mortgage the next year you won't have money for your morgage you had more than 5 minutes and it's 8 it's 811 and I'm going to follow there is noin Rule there is a 5 minute rule there is no five minute Ru there is a 5 minute rule no show it to me there's a five minute rule show it to me Peter is there a five-minute rule there actually the rules of council do provide for five minutes on public comment okay well then I apologize for taking up your five minutes I still want to say you didn't answer my question you started out with a balanced budget you had a $350,000 shortfall for 2024 where did it come from you can't blame it you can't blame it on a 35% water increase where did that money go Amer you're giving employees $30,000 raises and you're going to increase the minimum charge not one billing cycle but all four people un have to understand you're getting charge that basically $160 four times a year not once a year four times a year if it goes unchanged that's correct if it goes unchanged just like the last time when the rates went up 30% and everyone got slammed for it and they said how dare they do that the next Administration when they took office didn't lower those rates back down they use the Surplus to balance the budget so I'm still waiting on my thank you thank you you're welcome okay thank you what can I say but they balance the budget they balance the budget every year every year you're supposed to have a surplus hopefully you have Surplus at the end of this year it was used that's a problem all the Surplus was used and the shot in the arm from but you're not you're still not answering my question where did that where did that American Rescue plan right there because they filled the hole in the budget it was a grandfather shortfall been there I'm sorry I respect all of you because you're basically volunteering and it's it's a hard job to do I know I sit where you are but you're doing a poor job right now okay and only opinion I'm embarrassed I got to raise somebody's R what are we going to do tell the state to come on in and kick us off so Mr zanga would you be able to come up and provide some details to this please and I'm not trying to put you on the spot okay I appreciate it I've heard a lot that's okay um so yes everything I've heard this is what I was faced when I started on April 29th when I was appointed April 30th I started going through all the uh operating funds which water sewer electric and current I started with water sewer the first thing I noticed is that you had $364,000 of a of a non-recurring revenue so on January 1st of 24 that $364,000 is not there your only options would be to generate Revenue somewhere else or to cut expenses by 364,000 first thing I did also was go through the spending plan for the water sewer notice that the purchase of water from New Brunswick and the treatment of sewer from New Brunswick was going up significantly what happens in a town like miltown is you pay for sewer at an estimated cost to the uh to the uh New Brunswick at the end of the year they give you what they call a trua bill that TR bill is either a deficit or a credit in 2023 you received a credit of $220,000 2024 we received a deficit of 147,000 the combination was 300 was 367,000 so right away just starting the budget we were short about 623,000 I then went through every single line I could possibly go through went to the wall on every single Revenue source which is Surplus we used every single penny of surplus which I don't like to do but we did every single penny of miscellaneous revenue and then uh went to some other Revenue sources that were on the annual financial statement and brought them in as Revenue got it down to 344,000 so all the statements made before are true you're short 344,000 this year next year we're probably short about $500,000 to start the budget how much about 500,000 5 to 600,000 that range the problem we faced is we only had one quarter to generate $344,000 that was the biggest problem here so we looked at two options one was to put it on consumption first but as council president did say you can't guarantee that revenue is going to come in the only way to guarantee Revenue was on the facility charge or the or the minimum charge and that's what we decideed to do so that's where we stand as of today but I think the biggest problem is it was only one quarter to try to generate this much revenue so and another thing too the effective rate for the year is about 22% it's not 90% it's 90% on the minimum charge but if you take take somebody's minimum charge for the whole year so what I tried to do recently is go through a bunch of accounts I don't know anybody in town I tried to go through a bunch of accounts of where people have all different bills some people pay $2,500 a year for water sewer some pay $1,500 a year some pay just a minimum if you pay just a minimum it for the whole entire year of 24 you would have paid 22.6% other people I looked at had maybe 25 200 they would really have a 5% increase because they pay a lot of water they must have families or they must have pools or something like that so it wasn't everybody receiving that increase some people that paid a lot more rece a smaller increase but that's where we we stand today and that's what's in the introduced budget so you're saying anticipated average increase like because they had a higher Bill the 150 doesn't generate as high of a percentage correct so if some on their bill but it's still 15 I just I didn't want anyone out home going wait a second some people aren't paying the 150 that's not everyone's paying 150 but if some people when I look they have a $2500 water sewer bill for the year that ended up being 5.8% I think another person I looked was 1,500 a year ended up being % the minimum amount would have been 22.6% for the year now you you looked not just at last year but as previous years as well is that correct and you did you see a trend of increasing cost of operation for the water sewer department yes so the purchase of water and sewage treatment very lucky that in 2023 so the true up Bill from 22 gave the town a credit of $220,000 the TR bill in 24 for 23 was the other way for 14 7 so that was a significant change in just two years but yeah going back the purchase of water and the sewage treatment were pretty level pretty steady going up except for the one-ear drop significantly and now went back up again now we we received on the true up Bill at the end of the year for 2022 a credit a credit and then was the budget in 2023 kept the same as anticipated for 2022 or did we reduce the anticipated spending because the credit they reduceed it which is perfectly legal you're allowed to do it that way but then it puts us even a further deficit because now we don't have the money should the true up Bill come in higher which is what happened correct so in the other town I'm in we have MCA when that happens with us we try to keep everything level and we bring the the excess in as miscellaneous revenue and let it go into Surplus and then utilize it for something but we try to keep the spending plan correctly because you could run into stuff like this and then you have a problem that people have to deal with so it seems like that's more of a responsible approach rather than but the other approach is legal too I want to make it clear it's legal to do you can do it any way but I personally would do it this way because I like to just keep things on a level Plateau instead of trying to go up and down and so if if we didn't say do a 3% increase over 5 years compounding that would be about 15% without the compounding but at with compounding it's probably closer to 18% I would think yeah 3% on 3.3 on 3.3 it's closer to 18% which as you just explained the $150 equates to about a 22% increase if it was spread out over the entire year correct there you have it thank you so what you're saying Joe is that they're only going to get paid the minimum people and the at the you know the seniors and people or minimum users is $152 yeah $150 25 will be in the fourth quarter Bill $50 we did not change the the dollars per gallon on consumption correct because we need to guarantee two things we need to guarantee the revenue would come in and also for cash flow too this way you know you're generating the revenue if it was on consumption you can't guarantee you people are going to use the water and actually get built for the water usage I'm to trade seats yeah so thank you sir I appreciate it thank you any more questions comments okay seeing none I will close the public comment portion of the meeting uh approving meeting minutes the meeting the minutes for June 10th special meeting are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections no uh can I have a motion and accept the minutes as typed so move second I have a motion by council president rev Linsky seconded by councilman Collins um may all in favor I I any any opposed no okay thank you uh the meeting minutes for June 10th special meeting executive session are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections no can I have a motion to accept the minutes as typed so move I have a motion by council president rinsky second seconded by councilman Collins all in favor I any opposed okay the minutes for June 10th regular meeting are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections no can I have the motion to accept the minutes as typed Mo to accept the minutes second I have a motion by councilman Collins seconded by council president revolinsky all in favor I any opposed no okay ordinance public hearing second reading the following ordinance was introduced on June 10th and published according to law if any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24-1 1539 by title ordinance to add chapter 15 building and housing article 11 residential lead paint testing of revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown County of middlex state of New Jersey to include a policy requiring lead based paint testing for residential rental properties within the burrow of miltown may I have a motion and a second to adopt ordinance 24-1 1539 uh I make a motion that ordinance 24539 be adopted thank you I have a motion by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Potter um any discussion any discussion we need to open the public portion I will now open a public hearing for ordinance 24539 please state your name and address for the record these comments are limited to the comments only on this ordinance Lee weisenberger 99 JFK drive it's just a little thing here um the ordinance reads it's for residential uh uh what you call rental properties and then halfway down the page it says residential lead P paint testing you know article 11 so it's just you know one saying rental properties and one's saying residential so that's just misprint or it's residential rental properties I yeah but article 11 not commercial rental properties so not like a strip moall well like I said said the the ordinance reads up top residential rental properties and then halfway down the page it says article 11 residential lead paint testing doesn't say rental might have been a typo yeah I will take a look at it but I think it's okay okay I don't just don't want anybody else to misread that it's rentals and not residential property yet I I would think that since it falls under the title of residential or rental properties that the word missing from a subsection would be right de applicable to the rental but that's we'll let our lawyer decide that one I only play one on TV right so it's it's the fact that article 11 is listed as residential lead paint testing I'm just trying trying to understand the nature of what well like I said it's pertaining to rental properties and then it goes to residential and it gives you a list of where are we talking about just try on the front page right I you say there just mention resal Le okay so residential rental properties is in the title The the entire I mean it could have referred to residential rental Le tast testing but the the title of this is listed as that I understand like I said but it it should be rental at that point too down article 11 right because it's it's lead paint testing for residential rentals we can if you guys want to amend article 11 the title to add rental to that I I don't think that is a material change on on this adoption so I I would leave it to you if if that's something you want to do is that the only item on this one I look at a lot of documents one word makes a big difference sure so I just want to get it straight not so we have a motion on the floor to approve um Peter we have a motion on the floor to approve that's been seconded so what's our next step have to withdraw the motion just you're going to we we'll change that for the codification so I amend my motion from approve you don't need to amend it we can just add the word into a just vote on it none of the substance of this is changing at all sure thing appreciate it all right thank you sir thanks and this is all this is all basically mandated by the state yes no more comments um I will close the public comment portion in the meeting will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman pansi councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana I motion carries ordinance public public hearing second reading the following ordinance was introduced on June 10th 2024 and published accordance with the law any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24- 1540 by title ordinance to amend chapter 25 water section 25- 4.1 water rates of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown may I have a motion in a second to the ordinance so move or so not moved we have a motion motion do I have a second so we've identified a problem we've identified a solution and now no one wants to move forward is that second thank you thank you I have a motion by council president revolinski seconded by councilman moo um I can will now open a public hearing on ordinance 24-1 1540 please state your name and address for the record these comments are limited to the comments on this ordinance only good evening Neil marado 54 for vanl Avenue htown New Jersey first I just want to note for the record that I paid attention to the rules um as stated by Mr lagotti and I waited till the open on the ordinance the U no problem the clerk thanks you too so um I don't think anybody's saying that the rates have to go up to fix this issue I I don't think that that's the issue here um I think it's the manner in which it's being done that is the problem okay so when the ordinance was introduced at the last meeting there was no discussion and I understand when you have an ordinance introduced there's no discussion on the ordinance but the fact is there was no discussion on how to address the issue it was not placed before the public it was not placed before the Council to discuss how best to resolve this issue so I think that was a a really big lapse in judgment and an opportunity lost where other people could have come up with an idea how to take care of this issue so the fact is another opportunity lost we need approximately 150 uh a unit I guess or a meter to resolve it meter customer okay I believe and I understand the Edmund's issue I don't know if I agree with it but I understand it okay and I understand that the ordinance is based on rate structure why wasn't a sun sunset Clause placed in the ordinance you know how much you have to raise you're using the minimum so you have a definite amount correct okay so you put a sunset clause in it goes back that gives you six months to say hey we got to address this for next year this is a problem everybody knows it's a problem but that wasn't taken into account okay and that's my issue with it rich you mentioned the covid money I think you were on Council last year I was I don't know if you came forward and say hey this is not where we should use this money nope okay I just want to make that clear no perfectly clear okay I knew my voice was going to get lost and I weren't going to listen anyway so I kept my mouth shut being a jerk this voice get lost wow great service to miltown thank you you're welcome um me the so that's my main issue I think there wouldn't you vote wouldn't you put the money in there last year and keep the rates down last year if you had a chance I'm sorry wouldn't you leave the money in there and use it and give the people a l John John I I I appreciate you asking me the question not everything was before me I think you were there last year as well and I agreed and they keep the rates down but now we can't do it so and I'm not saying the rates don't have to go up I'm just saying the process that was used and and the fact is Joe Panza brings up a great point the single person the the uh fixed income people are taking the biggest brunt for this Rich you mentioned somebody shouldn't be able to water their lawn then okay that's a choice some people don't have that choice your minimum people don't have that choice okay they're not watering their lawns they're staying below the minimum because they don't have the ability to do otherwise so when somebody makes the choice to water their lawn I understand I got to pay more money okay that's the choice that person makes so they should have to pay the cost for that including me that's the reality you don't hit the minimum people I understand the difficulty in calculating how much is necessary I get it but again the sunset Clause would resolv that if I may Mr marado when you were I'm sure you were around at the time uh in 2018 when the rates were raised and we did that at that time through the consumption the dollars per gallon we created the we had the tier system adjusted accordingly okay okay and that generated a lot of Revenue not one person commented on a sunset Clause at that time in fact previous administrations or the administrations that came after that did not change it they left it in place there was no sunset at that time I remember councilman latti had stood up I believe he was a councilman at the time or perhaps a member of the audience had stood up and said why don't you do a one-time assessment and that idea I remembered this year when we were doing this the problem that came in was the Edmond software and trying to get it out and we said we're already behind the eightball why add another 10 grand in costs and the lack of a sunset Clause here and I know this is your time I just want to I'm I apologize it's fine I feel like Goonies it's our time down here no problem you're good but uh the lack of a sunset Clause makes this Council act within the next 3 months to address the other issues in our water sewer ordinance that bind our hands from making further improvements such as ownership of the water services such as making sure that Apartments uh each unit is is build accordingly so it doesn't just fall on the resident who decided to stay in their home instead of go to an apartment building so there are a lot of changes I believe I've listed five to the several residents that reached out that we have to adopt in order to set ourselves on the right path and then adjust things for next year but that's got to be done in three months if we put a sunset clause in now I can see it and I know you know Politics as well November's going to roll around no one's going to do nothing and in 6 months we're going to be in the same exact situation going we're short 700 Grand I I I have to respectfully disagree with that and the reason being I think the sunset Clause lights the fire there's a time frame we have to act and if the people don't up here don't act well they're the ones that are not doing the right thing and when November comes you didn't do the right thing right fair enough so another matter of approach yeah I do think if we act honorably we should be addressing this and this I mean in understanding I understand exactly what you're saying U and I can see where that would afford you some idea of when that ends but the other thing that in my short time up here I see that things change if employment conditions change it can slow down billing it it but it is it's a thing we have to address address and we we are going to address it well thank you you know okay thank you no one else I will close the public comment portion of the meeting will the clerk please call the role council president rolinski I'd like to vote last if possible no we can't change the order we we can't change yeah it's my rules is that one we can bend I just I'm curious as to what my fellow council members are going to do first I know where I stand on the issue so stupid I'm a yes I'm a yes all the way councilman Collins I Wish I Had another answer but I really do I mean I I don't know what we do if we don't adopt problem I'm embarrassed I have to vote yes that's a yes councilman Collins yes yes councilman posnansky I'm going to vote with explanation I'm not intimidated ordinance was introduced on June 10th 20 accordance with the law if any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24541 by title 24-1 1541 ordinance to amend chapter 26 sewer section 26- 7.9 sewer use charges of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown M I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 24541 motion to adopt second I have a motion by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Manco uh now I will now open a public hearing on ordinance 2451 uh 24541 please state your name and address for the record these comments are limited to the uh comments on this ordinance only Dorian Kerber 24 Reba Avenue uh regarding the um this ordinance just like with anything else uh you have your county you have your new brunic water charging us and updating the rates it's getting increased every year there's no change this occurred in 2010 we finally had to raise the rates in 2018 and we're here at the same same situation same the way the vote went and unfortunately it's it's sad however you'll be happy to know the new brunic residents are playing much much more than we are in rate in their rates and they're the first town in the state to do a storm water management fee so they can work with managing that and I'm not sure if it takes effect in July or what what later this year that's coming down the pipeline too um for all towns all municipalities and some are almost to the point where they're going to be addressing that and probably passing it this year other towns in the state it's a shame but these are state laws they're passing it on to municipalities we can't just work with what we have have these fees are to cover expenses now storm run management fee is going to be a nominal cost once a year and and how it's addressed is will be determined at a later date but right now we be a shortfall we start in 2025 with the million dollars in debt you really want that it's a shame we need to do a planning process we need to have an outside agency somewhere in New Jersey that's available New Jersey future Jersey Waterworks whatever it is whatever it takes even njd you got to get the conversation going have public meetings so that we can figure this out so then not we're here we're not here every five to eight years or whatever just shoving it down everyone's throats these expenses now your seniors and low income they do have programs available addressing these issues the state knew that rate utility rates were going up so they're well prepared for this and I'm not talking about the storm order fee I'm talking about utility fees I've been keeping up on that and uh it's passed on to us just like everybody else you know rates go up repairs go up and I hear our public works or W departments doing a phenomenal job getting the job done fast and it is I'm like wow it's amazing we're getting as good as East Brunswick in a timely manner and our aging infrastructure just mending it with lining is not going to solve the issue we need to have a plan for everything not just because the rates to operate the system but rates to also change out the system and stop stalling because this will be one town that's going to be taken over by the county or the state without fail if we keep doing these Band-Aid issues and it's a shame it really is a shame and I feel bad for people and I'm hoping that we share that information about the programs that are available and make sure it's listed everywhere that they pay bills at the senior center at the library everywhere online we need to do more Outreach in this town for sure and I'm hoping that's changing this year do you remember what happened Dorian with the Suarez water in Edison yes yes where they sold the utility off and then it cost so much that the people all complained and the town had to buy it back correct so it was a shame it was a shame the residents really got hurt but they're still operating they're still taking care of their town and it's great I see all this new stuff all the time I have clients over there I drive over Edison I work with the the environmental commission everything looks new oh about the water caps I'm really getting tired of seeing all the Caps just flying off everywhere they're not even covered we got holes Tracy Drive desmit are they ever going to go around and just seal it so there's no hole there I mean kids walk there all the time and people run are you talking about covers in the street yeah no in the sidewalk I'm so tired of it Services been there since 2018 that's the property of the res but I think that's part of their service line the water that's not longer used y from the corporation if it's the small ones that stick up the two holes in the top that's the resident's property that's part of the service that's part of their water service from all right well do Outreach and let us know of the I don't know how to fix it the met I have no idea okay um no other comments I will close the public comment portion of the meeting will the clerk please call the rle council president revolinski to absolutely council president revolinski I heard you I'm I'm mulling it over okay I just don't know looking for a yes or a no vote council president can I vote Yes with an exp explanation no I'll take the yes though thank you councilman Collins yes no explanation I'm sorry I got to vote Yes councilman moo yes councilman posnansky no councilman Potter no as currently written councilman Zam BR no mayor Murray for the tie break yes passes get the square well I want to say I'm sorry that this is political because this is political tonight but this is exceptionally hard what each of us are doing here and when people are castigating us here think about think about for yourself and some of you have been up here this is the introduction of ordinance 24542 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introductory summ introduction summary will be published as required by law a second reading public hearing and final adoption will be considered on July 31st 2024 full copies of the ordinance will be posted on the bur website under the bullon board at the municipal building and available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on Fridays will the clerk please read ordinance 24 1542 by title only ordinance 24-1 1542 ordinance to amend chapter 25 building and Housing section 25-2 administrative fee for all subcodes of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown may I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 24542 so move I have a motion by council president rinsky I have a second second I have a second by councilman Collins does the counil does anyone on the council have any questions or comments will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski I councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman posnansky I councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana I motion passes a second reading and public hearing on this ordinance will take place on July 31st 20 24 at 700 p.m. council chambers ordinance introduction this ordinance this introduction to this ordinance 24543 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction summary will be published as required by law a second reading public hearing and final adoption will be considered on July 31st 2024 full copies of this of the ordinance will be posted on the B website on a bulletin board at the municipal building and be available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Fridays will the clerk please read ordinance 241543 by title only ORD 24-1 1543 ordance to amend chapter 34 comprehensive development of the revised General ordinances of the burough of miltown County of middlex state of New jerse Jersey to add section 34-7 privately owned salt storage may I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 241543 so move I have a motion by council president revolinski do I have a second second and I have a second by councilman Collins does council have any questions or comments yes what is this about There Was an explanation in the email yeah yes I understand yes so it's a de hear about it so councilman it's a d mandated ordinance change that came down for privately owned salt storage in the borrow of miltown you know you have any doesn't matter we have to adopt it it's part of our so we have a storm water uh storm water uh ordinance as you know and we have a part of it the next one is the same is all part of that same thing we you know because you have a stormw ordinance they want parts of it whether or not you have privately owned salt in town or not is not the conversation it's you have to pass the ordinance okay uh I do have one uh one question here the copy that I'm looking at says that the fees for repeat violations and others is subsection 34- 39.2 but that is not in the copy that I have in front of me am I'm perhaps missing a page references the general violations of so this is in your comprehensive development ordinance yeah there's no separate penalty provision for this section your comprehensive development has a penalty provision that's pretty expansive uh you know okay findes you know remedial action things like that this just directs you to that for what the remedies are so that if you want to know what the remedies are for everything all the violations of comprehensive development you don't have to go on a per section basis understood thank you you got it pet do you think we should uh post us on uh the cable channel I think that's that's your your choice Council so that people know this ordinance cuz you know it's new and the states make us you know do this it's not a bad idea I mean certainly you can I mean the ORD are also posted on the web page page pretty prominently after they're adopted yeah maybe we can get Russ to put it on the cable channel so people see it will the clerk please call the roll council president revolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman posnansky hi councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana I a second reading and public hearing on this ordinance will take place on July 31st 2024 at 700 p.m. counil Chambers ordinance introduction this is an introduction of ordinance 24-1 1544 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction summary will be published as required by law in a second reading public hearing final adoption will be considered on July 31st 2024 full copies of the ordinance will be posted under our website on the bulletin board at the municipal building and available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. on Fridays will the clerk please read ordinance 24-1 1544 by title only ordinance to amend chapter 34 comprehensive development of the revised General ordinances of the burough of miltown County of middlex state of New Jersey to delete chapter 19 protection of trees and add section 34-36 tree removal and Replacements does um may I have a motion is second to adopt or 24544 thank you I like this one sorry I have a motion by council president revolinsky can I have a second second thank you Mr Collins I have a seconded by councilman Collins does council have any questions or comments yes this is like a mandate too correct this from the state we really have no choice yes sorry yes sir and then the uh the list of trees will be kept in the clerk's office because the list of trees changes all the time so that's why you'll see no specific trees listed in the ordinance and and just Council M cins if I may you already have something that's similar to this in your ordinances what we're doing is we're taking the D template and putting that in in your comprehensive development section of your ordinance and getting rid of the existing Provisions that you know pretty much already regulate free removal and replacement well if I recall correctly they had uh this came out last year um or at the end of last year and then the state kind of postponed implementation is that is that what the change is now so we had a chance to get rid of a few more without having to replace but now we've we've got a replace this this has to happen now all right um I guess if I may is this so this pertains to the town and not to a resident is everybody and Sh trees the the the size of the trees is what what differentiates between a public tree and a private tree so it's Again State mandated impacts the residents yes impacts everybody will the clerk please call the role council president Rev absolutely not I'm sorry what I'm sorry no no councilman Collins yes councilman Mano yes councilman pansi yes councilman Potter yes councilman Zan Brown yes motion passes a second reading and public hearing on this ordinance will take place on July 31st 2024 at 7 pm in council chambers Bond ordinance introduction this is an introduction of mod ordinance 24545 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction summary will be published as required by law in a second reading public hearing and final adoption will be considered on July 31st 2024 full copies of the ordinance will be posted on a b website s on the Bolton board at municipal building and available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on Fridays will the clerk please read Bond ordinance 24545 by title only 24-1 1545 Bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a pumper truck and various Fire Equipment appropriating $1,200,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 1, 140,000 Bond and notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in and by the burrow of miltown and the county of middle sex New Jersey may I have a motion in a second to adopt Bond ordinance 24545 so moved thank you thank you I have a motion by uh council president rinsky seconded by councilman Potter does any Council uh have any questions or comments I do I I'd like if it's possible if if the chief can uh tell us where we're at with the uh with the need of of the trucks I'm very supportive but I'd just like to hear from the chief good evening R Jolly miltown fire chief Anthony fam Deputy fire chief So currently we're working with uh a piece of apparatus that was manufactured 1998 um it's from manufactured call American of France uh it has a certain kind of criteria to the truck that makes it um unrepairable anymore the pump is defunct on the truck I can't get parts I have valves that are irrepairable on the truck that I've been trying for two years to get parts for and they're just not available the engine itself in the truck if anything goes wrong with that engine it's not supported by the manufacturer they don't make that engine anymore they don't make parts for it anymore the truck manufacturer itself americ of France is defunct and if anything goes wrong with the body of the truck the chassis of the truck uh Parts aren't available and the last part of the truck is the actual uh body on the truck it's manufactured by Salsbury again that manufactur is out of business so the truck basically is just default anything else uh yeah the additional part of the uh part of the bond ordinance um we have air packs that were won on a grant in 20 uh 2002 um we're into uh rapidly getting into the fourth phase of the update by the NFPA standard so where we where that puts us is uh spare parts for our packs um we can no longer uh support from the manager manufacturer or the vendor uh getting new parts for our air packs so after the purchase of the pumper the rest of that money that's in the bond ordinance is going to go towards the packs that we need um which is roughly 30 of them any other questions U not a not a question I I wanted you to to to come up just so you could tell everybody where you're at because I'm sure it's like the way you described the truck's not going to last another two three or five years no initially the uh the truck in question was going to be uh engine 62 which was uh purchased as a stop Gap um a few years back uh it was purchase used um over the course of the years we've uh put a substantial amount of money in that vehicle um the initial cost was around 40,000 we're into over 50,000 in repairs um but the good news is is that the way we've repaired the the vehicle over the last few years has sustained it enough that we can get through 63 became an issue um after some of the manufacturers have just gone out of business uh this truck is important to us because it carries our Cascade system so it does work in conjunction with our air packs uh the truck was purchased in 1997 1998 the Cascade system that was put on that truck back then was better than the system that was in the firehouse uh today our system system is in good shape it's intact uh so the Cascade system we still need but it won't be as elaborate or um as large I guess you could say that's in the in the vehicle itself now um but uh yeah the the the valves in the truck that make it a p a pumper truck they are no longer available um and we've been standing on the vendors for over a year and a half on that stuff uh we just we we got nowhere so um we showed a couple of council members on Memorial Day the tape over the pump panel in areas that we just no longer can use uh we actually are borrowing a um a valve from South Oldbridge because uh one of the valves is no longer repairable so we went to like a manual closing valve um and that kind of stuff and this truck essentially will become a um a first du along with our latter TR truck and also being built along the same specs with the E with the E1 it will uh start to create symmetry in our Firehouse we have four different Vehicles four different manufacturers four different pump panels so now you essentially have 34 guys trying to learn four different trucks all the time where uh the next truck we're going to stay along line with the manufacturer of the most current recent veh vehicle purchase which is in 2016 and that pump panel and everything should line up and it should be we start creating symmetry along our vehicles so I got I got uh two questions um what's the lead time so um because e1's a larger company uh they do uh Vehicles it's it's like you go to the dealership you know 20 30 years ago you'd go in and you'd order a vehicle and they you know they'd say it's this package that package or whatever it's similar today with firetruck manufacturers they they spec out um 10 to 15 trucks a year that are uh basic design so basically um what we're looking at is a we like to refer to it as a solid Chevy it's not a Lamborghini and it's not the it's not the is lead time a year a year and a half the lead time is going to be early 2020 26 be January or February so other manufacturers are talking 24 months we're we're into the 18mon period okay uh with with this particular truck that's on the ordinance and of the million two that's in the bond ordinance approximately the 30 air packs what is that about 26 267 but that's an estimate yeah yeah yeah um the the fire Tru itself uh was specked in at 1,20,000 and you're going to make sure it fits in the new Firehouse right well thank thankfully uh when the uh barel barel Council finally got us this building uh you can pretty much Park anything you want in there it's a 14t tall door in the bay are plenty big beautiful thank you thank you I just want to say I I I appreciate very much what you me do because you're volunteers and we have a lot of people coming from New York that don't know that but uh your volunteers and and I I I believe we should do whatever we can to to help you out and keep you supplied correctly thank you yeah I I just can't tell you how many people think you're paid a paid fire department it's like no 100% volunteer for 12 13 years yeah so paid in gratitude yes um I want to thank you guys because I've you go into that I know councilman Potter feels the same way he'll have a hard time getting through on the microphone but um you go in that fire house and you look at any vehicle and it's hard to tell which one's new and which one's old unless you really know what you're looking at you guys do an excellent job of maintaining that equipment and keeping it running as best you can and I understand this has now become a need at 25 years old it's time to replace yeah absolutely and and again you know we have to keep thinking forward like you guys were talking about the other water bills and you don't want to bring any of that up but as we move forward as a as a community you got to remember these things do get old and they need to be replaced thank you for your service to the thank you thank you well the clerk please call the role council president rinsky I very strong I I councilman Collins unequivocally I councilman moo hi councilman pansy hi councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana so I really would have seen would like to have seen a budget presented first before signing off on a $1.2 million budget for a new pumper truck of course I've talked to uh Ray and Anthony you have a chief here a number of times over what's needed and what's not needed so at this point I will say yes motion passes a second reading in public hearing on this ordinance will take place on July 31st 2024 at 7.m council chambers Bond ordinance introduction this is an introduction of bond ordinance 24 1546 there will be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction summary will be published required by law and a second reading public hearing final adoption will be considered on July 31st 2024 full copies of this ordinance will be posted on the bar website in the bulletin board at municipal building and available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours at 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on Fridays will the clerk please read Bond ordinance 24546 by title only 24-1 1546 Bond ordinance reappropriate $800,000 in excess Bond proceeds not needed for their original purposes in order to finance the cost of various Capital Improvements and capital Acquisitions authorized in and by the burrow of miltown in the county of middlex New Jersey may I have a motion in a second to adopt Bond ordinance 24546 so mov I have a motion by council president revolinski can I have a second please thank you councilman Potter I have a second by councilman Potter um any questions or comments by Council yes could someone give me a breakdown of the $800,000 in excess Bond proceeds that we reappropriate and is that going towards the purchase of the pumper truck it's not going towards the purchase of so the answer is uh on the second page of the ordinance you can see the listing councilman did you get a copy of the ordinance the ordinance not the the ordinance not the agenda sorry so the short answer is that there was an $800,000 ordinance that the burrow passed last year re appropriating funds uh we did not delineate uh in the ordinance that was passed by Council last year specifically specific places where the money was though there were some notations in Edmonds as we did the budget process this year uh we brought the we wanted to bring this ordinance back to the council so that we could solidify if you will where these costs are going to go to uh it started with the look looking for that the mystical I use the word the mystical $200,000 that was promised for the fire department we could find no ordinance resolution tion anywhere except in Edmunds a note tied to the old ordinance great but that money was there in Edmonds yes but not allocated in an ordinance that's okay but it was there I understand where it was in there so yes that is insufficient for me and that it's insufficient for Joe we wanted it in an ordinance nice and clean delated so we're not looking for it make sure you have what you need to be and that's what you have right here yeah thank you now this breakdown is $800,000 correct so all this was broken out for a reason and now you're taking it all way it's still broken out yes still broken down it was all in there there's no I know but the fire we don't need the fire truck because we just passed a 1.4 we added it to but you're re again you're reappropriate this yes yes you're you're canceling no that's what that's what I'm missing here okay so the $200,000 from the fire department uhhuh that was in that ordinance but not in the ordinance was in Edmunds right it's been added to the bond and then we took to 200 fo more road paving more Street Paving more it in this ordinance same amount of money just added the added the numbers a little more okay before we have the introduction of a budget yes sir okay the only thing I have a problem with is on page two it says about to be reappropriate it says number 17 uh number 17-4 050 adopted June 20th 2017 providing for the expense related to the public works complex flood mitigation projects I was just wondered wouldn't that be including de demolition of the green uh storage build the Public Works building the flood mitigation project as these Bonds were sold in 2017 was for the construction of the new DP W facility and Firehouse across the street there was nothing in the air for and the excess money was excess money left over B initially earmarked by the council at that time to clean up the site over here last year Council elected to spend this 800 on other things and again as uh our business administrator stated when we were looking for the $200,000 uh set aside for the purchase of a fire truck um it wasn't clear where the money's in the ordinance or the resolution went so um in discussions with our business administrator and our CFO the cleanest most precise way to reallocate the funds and make sure that was clear for anyone in the future is through the ordinance um I can go through if anyone wants uh the 800 um originally the police department was getting 126 there was 71,000 left and 55,000 was spent we've allocated a few extra dollars in this ordinance for cameras uh and possibly a detective vehicle to see how far it goes uh DPW equipment $65,000 was allocated 26,000 was spent meaning 35 less is is that in this is that no this is these are my notes from the finance meeting it doesn't it doesn't say in the ordinance what was and what isn't so why wouldn't why did we why wouldn't we get the breakdown of what was you could have just called me this weekend when you got your packet on Friday but you chose not to so then the library roof was 30k 30,000 was spent it um they had 10,000 nothing was spent so we're keeping 10 uh in there parks 114,000 uh 48,000 was spent with Michelin field and some playground equipment 29,000 to the bike path over at Albert Avenue there was 65,000 left uh earmarked for Pavilion post repairs at Albert and the purchase of garbage cans uh the pool $114,000 was spent there was 161,000 put aside so that means there's 146,000 available there um and then we had Let's see we had an old ordinance 22512 of 135,000 for the pool uh and then we had the fire truck was 200,000 that was uh reallocated so when we went through this it looks like 346,000 could be reappropriated we added $94,000 to the roads um nothing spent but we do have some additional work as as I believe everyone's aware over on Highland Drive uh East Lawrence and Oaks Avenue to clean that up after the work from the water main project do being done through the interlocal with the county and then we had some additional soft costs of about 10,000 that were not spent but we want to make sure it stays and that concludes my notes from the finance meeting and those notes were shared with the finance committee the finance committee was present John you Council mollins that that sound good to you yeah I don't recall that but okay thanks John councilman Potter do you recall this discussion at the finance meeting yes but I'm looking forward to the presentation from our CFL the what will the clerk please re call the role council president revolinski I councilman Collins I councilman moo I councilman pans I councilman Potter I councilman zamb BR no of course a second reading in public hearing on this ordinance will be take place on July 31st 2024 at 7.m in council chambers authorizing payments of Municipal obligations next on the agenda we have the authorization of payments of Municipal obligations will the clerk please read the resolution by title resolution 20241 190 authorizing the payment of bills claims and statements against the burough of miltown in the total amount of 2,526 22646 you have heard the reading of this resolution are there any questions may I have a motion in a second so moved second I have a motion by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Collins will the clerk please call the rooll council president revolinski Hi councilman Collins councilman MCO hi councilman panski councilman Potter hi councilman Zen Brana hi consent agenda a consent resolution has been prepared for the resolutions listed on the agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and have been reviewed by borrow Council will be in acted on by in one motion any items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any council member and if so removed will be treated as a separate matter any items requireing expenditure are supported by a certification of funds if any member of the council wants any resolution acted upon individually please give me the resolution number and it will be pulled from the consent resolution I'd like to pull um I'd like to pull U 202 24207 that's it that's it okay thank you uh will the clerk please read the consent agenda resolution minus whereas 2024 20 whereas pursuant of the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular special meetings upon certain conditions and whereas each of the following resolutions to be presented before the borrow council at its June 24th 2024 regular meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the Boral Council 20241 192 through 202 24-26 and 20242 202 24-29 now therefore be it resolved by the B Council of the B of miltown that each of the above res listed resolutions be approved and adopted by the burrow council with the same legal effect as though each were read in its entirety of the June 24th 24 regular meeting and adopted by separate vote you have heard in the re reading of the consent resolution what your pleasure move that the resolution be adopted second second I have a motion by council president revolinsky second by councilman Collins um what your uh will clerk please call the rooll council president revolinski councilman Collins councilman MCO councilman pansy hi councilman Potter I councilman Zam Brana I will the clerk please read resolution number 20 24-27 by title appointing members to the Mount Laurel subcommittee um the reason I pulled that is that cler please call the roll wait oh he's got question we didn't get a motion a motion in make a motion to amend what no make a motion to approve we have 202 24-27 on the floor we need a motion to approve appointing members to the Mount Laurel subcommittee I need a motion in a second and then you can talk need a motion I I I don't want it to go forward because my name is on it and I chose not to be on it that's why I pulled it you mean this is the first time you're finding out that you're you're on Mount Laurel subcommittee yes awesome did we get a second before the discussion did not no so we need a second first before we second a motion no all right or amend who the heck is a parliamentarian that's just what I want to know who's on first wel at this point you'd probably be better served by making a motion to amend the resolution before you consider it because it sounds as if so take your motion off the floor then Rich and then we can just I made a motion to amend you said no second okay so we have a motion to amend by council president revolinsky seconded by councilman Collins is there any discussion yes uh when the clerk sent out the request for names for this I knew uh councilman Zam bro wanted to be on there and I had uh sent an inquiry over to councilman posnanski to gauge his interest um I had sent the email over to the clerk to fill the names in while waiting for councilman posnanski to respond which which took a little time which when he did finally respond he said I don't want to be on it and uh I said okay well we'll just amend it later on then on the floor but I wanted you to be able to get the ordinance or the resolution in there um my name on I'm busy enough I got two kids at home I can't take on another subcommittee you you can put my name on it rich okay so let's amend it for uh councilman Collins to be on there so motion to amend to add councilman Collins in place of councilman panski yes sir okay is there a second second I have a motion made by council president rinsky second by councilman Collins we already but we made a motion to amend it already with Council you told me council president rinsky already made a motion to amend so why are we doing another motion we never had a moe needed to know who you were what you were amending it to so I guess in theory uh it's counc Collins that's what I thought she could read M by the time the state gets done I'll be out of office and you know who knows where okay um seeing no further discussion on clerk please call the role so this is a motion by revolinsky and a second by who councilman Collins Collins and this is just to amend it just to amend you got change it before you vote council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman posnanski hi councilman Potter hi councilman Zam Brana hi okay well um we have now we need a motion to amend ad it's been amend to adopt amended resolution adopt amended resolution 24 2024 207 I have a motion by council president revolinski second seconded by councilman Collins any discussion no clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman pansy hi councilman Potter hi councilman Zam Brana hi okay 2024 budget introduction will the clerk please read resolution 2024-25 whereas according to njsa 48 colon 4- 5.1 and the director of the division of local government services a municipality which does not introduce its Municipal budget for 2024 by March 29th 2024 must set re forth its reasons for such delay and where as a result of a complete turnover in the borrows Administration additional time was needed to prepare an accurate and responsible budget and whereas the burough Council finance committee of the bur of mtown did not complete its 2024 budget until June 17 2024 and whereas after finalizing the 2024 Municipal budget time was required for the typing and review thereof and whereas the Bor Council was unable to assemble with a quorum for a public meeting until its regularly scheduled meeting of June 24th 2024 now therefore be resolved that the mayor and burrow Council of the bur of miltown request the director of division of local government services to accept the late filing of the burrow of miltown 2024 Municipal budget be a further resolved by the mayor and burrow Council of the bur of miltown that the bur clerk be and is hereby authorized to forward copies of the within resolution certified to be true copies of division of Local Government Services Department of Community Affairs via fast upload what is pleasure of councel move that this resolution be adopted second I have the motion by council president revolinsky seconded by councilman Collins uh is any discussion yeah I got a question Joe what happens if we don't adopt the budget question if you like you never never ever adopt a budget or just don't do it tonight no if you don't have to adopt it tonight what happens you get a sharp note of protest from the from the division like you've already received uh and they keep sending hate letters I mean are is is is jacquan Suarez going to come down from Trent and you know I don't know hit you in the head with a baseball bat councilman no you're they'll just keep sending letters and we'll have to keep working on it and we without a budget for that well you just have another temporary until ever I would strongly suggest me not makes it a little more challenging but at the end of the day councilman uh you know as I say you know in justest you know you won't get fired you know they won't go to jail you won't get deployed to a combat zone over Christmas so at the end of the day nothing really bad is going to happen except hate letters from the state tempor I got a dress I got a drawer full of them okay doesn't do anything but but our taxes are only going up what 1.99% this year currently currently currently based on the uh budget that we've uh intend to introduce tonight yes sir which is that's the budget this budget goes up we were underneath the 2% salary cap I mean we're under the 2% cap that's where we're at right now now the overall taxes of the burrow when we add as you know the burrow taxes the county the school until they strike the tax rate at the county level we won't actually know what the true number is but you know it'll be 2% for the burrow because that's what we've introduced but we don't know what the rate is and just for clarification 2% from the burrow on the Burrows portion which is about 23% of the property taxes is equivalent to $48 for the average home $49.98 per for the year per res 163,000 $46 a month so if your house is worth that month that your taxes are go up that much so it's twice that assessed and it's twice that okay so proportionate to the scale proportionate so that's when you have to go back and do that basic math if portion XY so the Burrows responsibility just so that was clear because I know our CFO doesn't have a microphone the average assessed home $416 per month at 2% per6 1% would be $2 one and 12% would be $3 2% is $416 on the average home that's for the Burrows portion now between the school and the county they're about three times that so school and County call it $16 a month if they go up 2% so $20 a month 2% he Fred could I ask a question about the the language here in resolution 2024 210 yes sir so it says uh you know the this is the explanation for the delay does does this go to the the state yes it does who who wrote the res who wrote The Language standard language standard language standard language you know there's no requirement councilman to tell you how many times you went through a CFO or how long it took the ba to get organized or if you terminated somebody without cause or you harassed somebody and they left or what I had for life you're absolutely correct than whatever political point you want to make than you so so no politics here no politics here will the clerk please call the RO wa I got a discussion how much of tax up last year to in the town 1 and a half% saving us a dollar per month but limiting our ability to perform work this year terrific forecasting will the clerk please call the rooll I don't have a rooll to call cuz I still need to read the resolution oh didn't I think you read the resolution we passed 210 did we not oh no we did not no okay we're still talking about 210 okay so motion by President council president rinsky second by councilman Collins council president revolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman pansi hi councilman Potter I councilman Zen Brana I okay okay this is the introduction of calendar year 2024 Municipal budget will a clerk please read resolution 2024 d211 Fe resolve of the following statements of revenues and Appropriations shall constitute the municipal budget for the year 2024 be a further resolve that said budget be published in the home News Tribune in the issue of July 18th 2024 the governing body notice is hereby given that the budget and tax resolution was approved by the council members of the burough of Middletown County of middle on June 24th 2024 a hearing of on the budget and tax resolution will be held at the miltown New Jersey borrow Hall on July 31st 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at which time and place objections to said budget and tax resolution for the year 2024 may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons summary of current fund section of approved budget General Appropriations Appropriations within caps Municipal purposes 8,892 740 rations excluded from caps Municipal purposes 2,978 18275 total General Appropriations excluded from caps 2,917 18827 reserve for uncollected taxes 97.9% per of tax collections 630,000 total General Appropriations 12,440 622 75 less anticipated revenues other than current property tax 4,966 193.75 difference amount to be raised by taxes for support of Municipal budget local tax for municipal purposes including re reserve for uncollected taxes 7,136 492 minimal minimum Library tax $397,500 you heard the reading this res this budget resolution what's your pleasure I move that this resolution be adopted I have a motion by council president revolinsky do I have a second second and a second by councilman Collins will clerk please call the RO council president rolinski I councilman Collins I councilman Mano I councilman pansi I councilman Potter I councilman Zen Brana so is there going to be like a formal budget presentation like a PowerPoint telling me what happened last year versus this year revenues expenses how we get to this place at the adoption and then that's when you can ask as many questions as you want that's okay I I'll wait until then no you could just send them out over the next two weeks and give our CFO the opportunity to respond to those questions so that all council members can have the nothing nothing personal I just like to see a presentation proper nothing to do with you motion passes okay the report from elected officials council president rev Linsky um we were in a Personnel committee meeting so unfortunately I did miss the Ford Avenue meeting on uh Tuesday last week councilman excuse me if I may mayor uh if we're done with the budget can the CFO and the auditor make a run for it thank you very much gentlemen have a good evening or what sorry thank you sir thank you not a problem thank you gentlemen uh as I was saying Ford Avenue meeting was held on uh on Tuesday uh unfortunately I had to miss because of another obligation with the Personnel meeting that ran a little late Finance we had Finance meeting uh with myself councilman Potter and councilman Collins on Monday last week to review the final numbers for the Budget prior to introduction ction which was just introduced and that concludes my report for this evening thank you councilman Collins no report Mr B thank you councilman Mano uh little to report but the uh Dorian of course uh on the green team had explained much of what was going on there so I don't need to reiterate that uh the library is uh in full bloom in their summer reading program and they have the new system of leave up and running at this point um which gives people more access to making reservations online and downloading more books the rec department didn't have their meeting uh due to some personal conflicts between a lot of the people involved there so uh there's nothing to report there uh beyond that thank thank you councilman pansy um I'm going to speak about the DPW um mostly in regards to the to the roads um as most people people can tell um South Main Street has been uh milled and paved today uh up to up to the light uh by the by uh the gas station here and uh they'll proceed tomorrow should be done tomorrow and uh lined uh Wednesday no it's not correct let me know then it's mil today Main Street that's what I said I didn't mean it was paved today it was mil today that's what I said no today and then they'll be on Wednesday and Thursday why aren't they doing anything tomorrow they're going to stripe it in one one shot okay okay um we're also uh going to have Highland Highland Drive and uh feeder streets uh should be starting in about uh two and a half weeks and that concludes my report thank you councilman Potter yes from the uh miltown police department uh the OEM meeting to cover fourth of July occurred on June 6th uh we ask for your continued patience while we go through the million Paving on Main Street uh for the miltown fire department miltown rescue squad no updates at this time uh for the miltown 4th of July we are just less than two weeks a day from our big day information Flyers have been delivered to many of the residents if any Resident has not received their flyer there are copies in burrow hall for current information about the today's event please go to the miltown 4th of July website or you can follow us on Facebook Instagram and Tik Tok uh we look forward to celebrating with all of you on July 4th and Mr Mayor that concludes my report thank you councilman Zena yes thank you uh Mr Mayor uh our Board of Health meeting is uh tomorrow June 25th uh it starts at 6:30 uh p.m. and it's in person our um environmental commission meeting uh is on Wednesday June 26th 7:30 p.m. and that is via Zoom uh our next revitalization uh committee meeting will be on uh July 9th at 7:30 via zoom and uh we uh just as a small report from the human Relations Committee uh our committee chair uh Courtney uh Williamson uh did send a request to the mayor and all the council folks to ask to respectfully uh fly the juneth and um Pride flags for the second half of the month for June uh but unfortunately that couldn't not be done um that completes my report thanks very much okay reports from burrow professional p vanola no report tonight um C no report toon Mr Mayor no report thank you old business does any member of council have any old business to bring before Council I do um I'm I'm requesting or inviting the chairman of Ford Avenue commission to visit Council meetings on a regular basis as soon as next meeting if possible to keep us informed and to detail their achievements over the past 23 years also I'm requesting inviting the school administrator Stephanie Brown to give miltown residents and taxpayers an overview on how their burrow taxes are invested into the school system being that the schools have received 37.1% more in Aid this year from the state taxpayers then last year it's a Monumental increase from the taxpayers that is in addition to the $18 million plus 2 million in busing or 66% of your Municipal Taxes that are that they receive they're also asking for and will receive a 2% increase from last year that amounts to $360,000 they can make things easier for all the taxpayers by purging the roles of out of town students costing taxpayers 16,500 per student and think about that folks sorry let cheack are we on new business or old business uh still on Old business okay um good does any member of business have any any member of council have any new business to bring for a council okay that's my first one as a councilman uh a while ago it was uh discussed in uh in in a different matter but it came up that North Brunswick uh the way was written their agreement to use the facility for their Court while their uh court is being repaired was given at first at free while they suffered their the first part of their uh their problem with their flooding but it was written that it could be Revisited and I think that that is uh something we can certainly look into it's been a good couple of years um and you know a nominal or you know at least a correct fee if we can I you know don't know I I can do it or if it falls into a different department to figure out where or what a good amount is what a reasonable cost is per session going forward and how we would present that to him I think that's a worthy Endeavor agreed and reasonable would that council president rinsky would that call to fall under finance and have a proposal and then give it to our business administrator to discuss with North Brunswick's business administrator if I recall correctly we already had uh Mr Carr I'm sure you're listening I just I like eye contact uh the last one was about uh 1250 a month if I recall correctly because that was the trade-off for the CFO and when that deal was shot down we went back to the agreement that was uh previously in place from the previous administration for $0 a month from the from the city of New Brunswick or the township of North Brunswick rather yes 1250 was the number that the council batted around at that time of the uh parttime CFO correct is that 1250 a month or 1250 a week how month sorry month 1250 a week sounds good to me that's what I sounded better last year when you made the agreement yeah because they you know the residents are very uh inconvenient by the people parking in the lot out out there there's no spots if you come down what is it Wednesday they're here y you can't get a spot anywhere I mean people are actually parking in the legion parking lot and come to the court we beond that just to say if there's a if they would have to rent the facility what would that be and you know and I do agree though I do think kindness can be expressed to them you know we don't have to but you know business is business fair is fair so we want to start the negotiations at 10 grand month and hopefully settle on 5,000 a month which is about 1250 a week oops shouldn't had told them that they can watch this fridge are they watching now you never know you never know they're crack is the mayor of North Brunswick watching right now Mr I'm binder he's to one I'm sorry hopefully he's not watching um all right we'll discuss some numbers throw them around and uh and try and draft up an agreement I had somebody when I went into the through the police uh door and they were trying to it was they were asking me if I wanted to buy a bail bond I'm like I thought it was somebody else I'm like no sorry do they have vendor permits for that no I don't know I think they were asking they were asking me if somebody I was somebody and they wanted to know if I wanted to buy that I said no that's not me I don't all right this section's open to the public public comment portion of our meeting not done with new business what's that not done with new business okay I know we're going to drag this one out you like late nights um Mr Veno uh I was wondering about an ordinance requiring this one came up uh at the last meeting was an ordinance requiring site maintenance uh for buildings that such that if you tore it down that you had to either start construction or make it clean plant grass and and make it you know make it look nice for the town is that something that is feasible does that conflict with any other it um there were a couple other Municipal items that popped up in the interim that required my immediate attention I will put it on the to-do list okay as that is of course if everyone else up here is interested in having legal fees for that fer anyone and if you tie code enforcement into that to create haste because code enforcement too should be mhm you know it' be nice in some ways that code enforcement was I think more aggressive even down the road to have a couple of people if we're going to have building and meters and such I don't know how that all fits together but so you want to hire another code enforcement not this year sir okay but I'm glad we had one I mean code enforcement in some towns and I'm not I don't you know again I'm new but in some towns code enforcement is a not only is it a creator of Revenue but it's also a good secondary notion public safet I hear you well especially with the adoption of the uh the lead paint ordinance for rental units and then looking at putting in a uh a meter or equivalent meter for all rental units to try and increase the number of uh metered residents paying the minimum in town to help mitigate the cost of the minimum uh I know one municipality that uh when they did it they actually sent college kids around they were able to get them at a low cost and the college kids walked around and just ident divide multiple mailboxes and uh and that resulted in you know documenting all of the uh the multif family rentals whether we have it on the books or not but uh I've reached out to our code enforcement official and asked him to make that a priority especially since now that we have the uh lead base paint ordinance as well as addressing some of the issues on Main Street one more of the I don't it may not qualify as a new business but uh it was mentioned to me by uh a a town Town person we do have you know two firehouses that are not being used and perhaps using one of those or getting rid of one of those uh selling it off and using that money would be beneficial in some way perhaps we can create something that would help put the meters in which it I've heard in estimations that we're as we're paying a guy simply to read meters um perhaps that's just a way of offsetting our cost in the future however we achiev that but that was certainly a worthy recommendation think we just imag it and and I think Con in conjunction with that based on the uh planner's report or presentation this evening uh we've learned that there's going to be another round of affordable housing obligations coming through and they'll look at what sort of open space we have so we have to consider whether or not the burrow wants to keep those two properties of the former firehouses um and whether or not the state might mandate us to uh provide more low income or affordable housing on those sites so uh we start we have to start looking at some of our assets here and decide whether we're not we're going to need them use them or get rid of them so Mr venol I have a question for you um sure for specifically for the South Main Street Firehouse with the um property there is uh the parking lot uh it's all the firehouse um no the parking lot the long the parking lot if you look at how the Lots layout I believe is to goes to the property to the right the uh where the Historic Society is is it the entire parking lot I think it's a large majority of it if memory serves me correctly so at some point I would think if the burough was inclined to sell the firehouse property or otherwise dispose of it um you would probably want to do something to at least get some parking onto that site otherwise you're going to create you know I think adaptive reuse is what everybody had hoped might occur um but if the building takes up the entire site and has doesn't have any parking around it you're creating problem um we would then need to subdivide that um partial y okay so You' need to see what you want to do so at some point someone needs to look at those properties and perhaps sit down with Mr Barry um you know Mr mclin's office and figure out where you think the best line to draw is for that okay thank you sir you're welcome sir any more no okay uh open to the public the public comment portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their comments or concerns the council will respect the Public's Time by refraining from any comments until the speaker has finished should it be further noted that the public comment portion of our meeting is not structured as a question and answer session please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium hi everyone uh my name is Courtney Williams my pronouns are she and her I live at 318 Clay Street and um I'm coming to you today as the chair of the HRC um so I've come today really to answer a question that was asked of the HRC and to ask one back um I wrote I wrote on behalf of the HRC whose Duty it is to Foster through Community effort Goodwill cooperation and conciliation amongst the groups and elements of the inhabitants of this burrow to make recommendations to the mayor and Council for the development policies and procedures of programs and four programs formal and informal that will Aid in the culmination of against all types of discrimination based upon race Creed color national origin ancestry age gender um affectional or sectional orientation marital status so on and so forth um I wrote we wrote together the request that the council display both juneth and pride flag P Pride flags as well as recognize them um amongst the town as the federally recognized holidays the response that we received from counc IL member P nanas as followed there is one flag that unites us all As Americans it has fought it has been fought for and died for to keep this country in other countries free from tyranny and hatred I respect all colors and Creeds religions and sexuality but as I represent all people in miltown one flag has United us all all others divide us how many more Flags will we have to put up to Plate other groups thank you for read that Peter no problem does she get does she get to bring me up like this speak me particular I am proud of what I put by the way I I believe I haven't finished dating my statement night well I just said what I said don't since you named me can we can we please let Miss Williams finish her well thank you for your saying that that's why I've come up here today to address it and to have a dialogue again um to clarify the juneth and prag flags are not meant to pacify or be performative but representative of unity inclusivity and struggle faced by people who were not valued the same in this country As Americans or even human beings for that matter the juneth Flag represents the official end of slavery illustrating the blood that was shed by black Americans enslaved by the United States dating back to 1885 older than the flag of miltown the multicolored Pride flag reflects the diversity of the lgbtqia plus community and the spectrum of human sexuality and gender we are a diverse Community with many different members many different identities I'm standing in this room right now with four different flags on the walls and three more outside so to answer your question one flag will never be enough and my question recognize or display more Flags in symbols that continue to represent unity and diversity in our community no one else Richard Ryan 60 South Main Street evening everybody um I've been having a difficult time trying to um identify a barrel document and I'd like to ask the question if somebody could um reference for me where I may find it I'm looking to um read um an ordinance as it pertains to uh fireworks in town reason being I understand that a couple years back state of New Jersey um changed their law and allowed for sale and possession of certain types of fireworks and I'm unaware if that caused any change in language of an ordinance here in miltown I bring that up obviously because of the time of year it is um and specifically because the group that rents the church at St Paul's decided this past Saturday that it was time to start with fireworks in the middle of the afternoon so as I come every two weeks or so to speak to you guys um nothing changes I understand there's a court date where there's some violations pending however um it just um is continually the same and more aggressive use of the buildings and the grounds and um apparently if I'm not here making everybody aware of it then nobody is and so um I called the police again this past Saturday and asked this time for an officer to be sent over um that was done I'm not aware of um any sort of interaction with the people that are using the facility um but I did witness on two different occasions the police respond to the general area with regard to what was going on and my complaint um so I really would like to see that ordinance and I don't know where I can find it if I can find it on the burrow website I can look to see if there is an ordinance um I I don't know when we do or don't have I don't recall if I was the burough attorney at the time the statute was changed regarding fireworks and whether or not that statute itself allows for a different regulation by municipalities so I'll take Mr Ryan all of our ordinances are online our municipal code book is online on our website okay um everything s but but a quick search that I just did is just showing something from 1984 regarding fireworks in the park all right so it's not been changed my guess is no do we Sorry do we typically amend our burrow ordinances when the state mandates it if it's not necessarily a state mandates that the burrow update the ordinances it depends on what it does so if you've got a state ordinance that enables municipality to have different regulations so for example the cannabis for you know statutes that came out recently that allow for municipalities to decide whether or not they would allow them within you know their boundaries um you have sometimes have state statutes that are like that and others that are just um set forth the regulation itself and municipalities don't really have a lot of discretion as to what they do or don't do I would need to take a look at it and see what it did I will admit the fireworks reg statutes is not you know the thing I have I understand um and if the ordinance with regard to that hasn't been changed um could I ask that you would further investigate whether or not I have some sort of recourse with regard to that activity within um a different ordinance whether I don't know what the language would be but you know are is would it be a disturbing to peace thing or noise ordinance well Mr Ryan you know I respect you greately I don't know that I necessarily t with doing a residen research as to whether or not they have recourse under a particular ordinance I understand um when you have an opportunity anything you may be able to find out I would appreciate it if the council wants me to figure out the fireworks question I can take a look at that but everything I do is generally tasked by I I would say I am curious about it I know when the fireworks laws were passed in the state of New Jersey Target received a large delivery of Fire fireworks and I think the store manager called our local police department and said um there's a bunch of fireworks here what do we do because it was news to everyone at that time so a good understanding of actually what is legal and what is not legal in the state of New Jersey would be helpful because from my understanding and I haven't read the laws but I believe it's no aerial fireworks as far as for home use or you know not an authorized fireworks company um which Fourth of July I mean it's it's kind of clear that all all rules go out the window because you just can't chase everybody down but I found I found it disturbing the other night when you know my dog's freaking out in the in the backyard because someone decided to light fireworks off nearby whether that was a neighboring municipality or not so and I appreciate that and we understand that it happens this time of year it's not something that happens all year long um but it is just another example of certain residents being subjected to things that they shouldn't be and so um that's my cuse for asking about language and ordinance um sorry we're here so late this evening uh Jennifer Panella 193 South Main Street miltown I do have have um here some uh copies of a letter and um a peti people have have signed a petition which I'm going to hand out uh to the council afterward um this is not the letter that I'm going to read right now um it's different but uh but I'm I'm just going to read this one but I had had a question before I began before I begin um at the July 10th meeting coming up uh the planning board meeting in regards to Christopher Street will all of you gentlemen be at the or is that a different group Al together group different group it's a different group so um I may may this letter that I read right now reach the ears of those who will be voting on July 10th I'll be using this platform as is that also recommend if I may miss penella to show up on uh July 10th at the planning board meeting and yeah because the planning board meetings when that will occur I know but I don't want to read this in front of them I understand but what I'm saying is the mayor and Council really shouldn't be commenting on pending applications before that we have nothing to do with how they vote I'm just can I use this as a platform and I know it's late this the public comment section you can make whatever public comment you want confines of the time you can also give me a copy and I can disseminate to the planning board if you don't want to read it to them okay thank you okay gentleman of the board I first uh want to thank you for the time you take from your busy lives and families to serve the residents of miltown it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated we just wanted to present a few things uh to think about going forward okay many of us are wondering how such a development plan such as Christopher Street could be possible proposing to build the kinds of structures and roads they they are planning requires more than Christopher Street can provide we found out how they can proceed with such a plan they have been quietly offering payoffs to subdivide the Main Street landlords uh to to the Main Street landlords who own but do not live here to purchase and subdivide the back portions of their wooded Lots offers as low as a few thousand have been offered how miserly and grossly unfair can they be they are exploiting those who don't have a voice our neighbors who rent the people who rent these properties don't have a voice because they don't own the property and the land landlords don't care because they don't live there these wealthy parasites need to be stopped they want to expand their wealth at our expense how unjust to those of us that do live in our single family homes who do not wish to sell our back Lots or subdivide them the opinions of those of us who own homes and live here should have more weight than the opinions of the landlords who own homes but do not live here in town it's not just Henry Street that will be affected all of the private homeowners with families living on a beautiful little cuap called Nicholas Court own properties that that are about to be decimated and they don't even know it and they won't find out about it until it's too late these few stand to make a fortune at the expense of dozens of miltown families if they plan to take Christopher Street all the way out to JFK then the families on Violet Terrace could potentially be affected as well it's so upsetting to us that someone can look at our town from an aerial perspective on a map and make all of these plans to line their pockets with zero regard for the people who actually live here we expect our properties to be protect protected some say that big fancy houses will increase our property values they will also increase our taxes I don't want to pay higher taxes this is going to affect everyone's pocketbook we prefer to keep our beautiful wooded backyards that bring us Solitude and joy and not higher taxes anyone thinking they will save money by selling their back Lots think again when they slap up those mcmansions in our backyards they will cause everyone's taxes to go up and you'll end up paying more taxes than you did at the first this deal will only benefit the developers who stand to make millions and who is contracted to F all of those trees I'd like to know the plan is to build impermeable surfaces and large structures on top of the highest point in this town let's think about that making the highest point in town impermeable to Water by laying a street constructing large buildings and taking out potentially thousands of trees up until now the large swath of trees has been absorbing large amounts of water protecting the homes Below on Henry Street and Nicholas Court the US Forest Service estimates that 100 mature trees can keep about 140,000 gallons of water from flowing into storm sewers this group is also also asking to wave their environmental scan I wonder why we wonder why and we would like to look into the ordinance introduced at tonight's meeting regarding the amendment of the trees protection ordinance we want to sound the alarm that without those trees the water flowing down from the highest point without anything to impede it will flood the homes below inundating our garages that hold our electric cars our basements and it's not hard to imagine our first floors as well look what happened in Edison last year and do we think that the water will stop at the end of Henry's Street it will not the water will follow the grade down to JFK and affect all of those homes as well when this happens we will wish that we still had all of those trees to absorb all those hundreds of thousands of gallons of water we keep taking and taking from our environment and we never seem to learn lessons water damage is the costliest form of Home damage the homeowners of miltown will pay the high price that we've been seeing in the news of surrounding towns that have been paying the price of flood damage for overdevelopment this is too high a price for us to pay as a small town it's not fair to most of the people involved we will lose our wooded backyards our taxes will go up and we will suffer from water damage due to the loss of the trees we lose all the way around we gain nothing remember these greedy parasites are trying to buy up the properties behind Main Street to extend Christopher Street as far as they can they don't care about us or the enjoyment we get from our wooded properties They Don't Care About Us and they only care about making money for themselves real estate developers are powerful people they have slick lawyers professional teams that draw up impressive plans and they are very good at presenting projects that seem rative The Men Who sit before me on this board or on the planning board do not need to feel intimidated by these people they cannot move forward without your approval you have been elected to protect the interests of your constituents in miltown not developers from out of town your own neighbors are pleading with you to please protect our interests by preserving our properties this development would absolutely ruin our property properties for us we are telling you how unhappy we would be if this project were to take place we are imploring you to listen to what we are requesting of you and we are requesting a lot of you we are requesting that you resist the Ambitions of these real estate developers and to fight on our behalf to be brave enough to stand up to greedy Developers which of you sitting before us has the courage to stop enriching outof Town Builders at the expense of established miltown residents what's being proposed is to take away our Scenic backyards increase our taxes and destroy our properties from flooding and mil miltown can't afford this deal if you ever wanted to be a hero this is your moment we need you to protect our interests your constituents your neighbors it will be difficult to vote now these people have invested a lot of time money and effort into this project so far this is why we need you to be strong Resolute and to stand up for us we pray that you will have the strength and courage to vote now when it comes to that moment when it's your turn to vote remember you are protecting us your own I'd like to say something response to you I I would rather application I would rather you not comment on this panel is entitled to come up and make your comments at the microphone but do you have a copy for me for the planning board I I would just merely indicate as you know you can take that but that cannot be distributed no okay I I would suggest you speak with the planning board attorney regarding that but um anyone wishing to make a comment on application needs to be present and appear and make those comments Dave nins 59 West fos I want to just piggyback on uh Courtney's comments before because I assume there was a there's a flag policy in which the decision was made uh to her request and if there is not a flag policy I think it's incumbent on the council to develop one uh the idea that we have a one flag policy obviously not not there's four flags flying out there right now tonight um I don't know Mr Mayor if you could just let me know if is there a flag policy on the books um not know of one I that's what I had reached out to Mr Veno um we had the conversation and we had to dig into it he was uh not in town this weekend so um he couldn't dig into that too deeply where he was okay is there going to be a ort develop a flag policy we we are going to be looking into it um we had the conversation with help from the human Relations Committee okay what flags are currently outside by the way well there's the state of New Jersey flag the American flag and I think there's two P Flags one's Kia the other one's P okay I did controversial uh the issue is not whether they're controversial councilman the issue is what should be up there and what shouldn't be up there I will say that I saw the email I not to respond to it because in my personal belief looking at other institutions once you allow a particular group or particular flag to fly you have to allow them all and that is a very very slippery slip correct right but right now we are making distinctions and we're allowing four Flags to fly and that may be the right decision but I think there should be a policy that we can all look to on paper so that it's not a decision that that's made arbitrarily agre these are all kind of with the exception of the get of the Kia and P all of the flags that I do see are government whether they're state federal absolutely count absolutely like that is that's you know the place to start at correct and it might not be in front of a burrow building it might not be the place for a a pride flag or a juneth flag those are not divisive flag Flags in my view and there may be a place for them and there may not there may be a place for them and there may not be a place for them but there should be a policy should be a pol should be a policy that that dictates that we should develop a policy I'm sorry Gary I cut you off okay thank you very much add that to the new business Avenue miltown uh to continue on the same theme we're going forward with um I don't know um councilman panski did you know that there were other flags flying outside no Neil I did not look but I do know they're governmental flags and I will say let me ask my question say just because you're happy for you to sir sir I'm not yelling at you speak okay so I I just want to know if you see those other flags and you have the strong family failings that you have why didn't you request that those other flags come down if you find that they're divisive as well I I asked for Flags to come down no why you didn't why I didn't well you said there's only one flag and that's the only one we need why why should I okay so I don't understand it um with uh Mr revin councilman rinsky's comment I don't believe that that if you put up one flag you have to permit them all or there will be litigation or concerns the two that were referred by the human Relations Committee are two governmental holidays and notices okay juneth is a holiday I understand very powerful important holiday and the pride month is a recognized uh is a recognition by our federal government these are nationally recognized holidays or recognitions they are not prohibited okay so to fly those flags would not be entertaining any other flag to come up if another entity that was not federally recognized or for example the US flag we fly it rightfully so and it should always be flown higher than any other flag but it does not mean if you fly the juneth flag or any other Christmas flag whatever national holiday there is that you would be in violation of the law by prohibiting another flag that does not have such stature or backing if I may Mr Mar the letter was written I believe the 12th of June uh we received it last Friday I want to say or or or the Friday before juneth which it was last Wednesday so it had to be the Friday before so really not a lot of time to make that determination in my mind these are the things that that came to mind as potential pitfalls and and you know how do we navigate this and and like Mr hting said we don't have a policy so before we go ahead and get ourselves in any sort of trouble without the policy I I saw a couple responses here from other council members and in my thought best to stay clear at for now I I can appreciate that um it's always wise to review something thoroughly and make sure you're correct on it the um I will state that if this body was to say that those flags should not be flown after a review I'd have a concern I'd have a serious concern about where this governing body is coming from so that being stated um I I believe it's a great great idea to have uh a committee meeting and discuss this issue because the whole idea for the human relations committee is to build Unity not the vice ofen this and by showing respect for other people within our municipality that's how you do that it builds Unity so I request that that be done as as soon as possible thank you my name is uh funai is living in uh 181 South Main Street uh I want to continue uh to provide my endorsement to Jennifer because we are neighbor we are facing can I can I have you speak into the microphone a little bit you're very soft spoken thank you so so you heard my your begin right so my name and um yeah my name is funai and uh I'm living in 181 souman Street uh I want to provide my endorsement to uh Jennifer what he she said because we are living yeah we are neighbor and we're living in the same era and facing the same problem so beside this one I want to take this opportunity to to clarify something because uh now I see the yeah the the contractor is working on the pavement of the sidewalk on the South Main Street right um but I don't know what's the criteria they decide which spot they repay repay or which spot they skip because I saw some broken piece they yeah they have not paved yet but they just skipped and then go go to somewhere else I don't know if they have the plan to come back to to fix that or they just go cool where where would this piece be this you're talking about the the road yeah the road sidewalk oh the sidewalk yeah sidewalk okay so the sidewalk restoration is a it's all part of psng that's doing the work but they have had a different company that comes out was doing the sidewalk work okay so so I don't know if they stopped because to make room for the paving because when they've been doing the ones on Main Street they had a police officer and the vehicles kind of blocking so my guess would be they're coming back to repair that sidewalk but if you can do a report a concern on the B website or if you can give us the address of the location where that sidewalk is broken is it at 181 South Main yeah yeah okay we we'll bring that to psng and ask them to to address it I I assume they all come back to fix but it seems like because of it's m already so and it looks like they are PVE the the whole street and then I I don't know yeah they may have just cleared out of the way so the Milling can incurve the paving and then when that's done come back and finish up the sidewalk okay it also may be that they're only replacing the pieces of sidewalk they removed in order to to correct so so if there's pieces that were broken that already broken they're not they're not going to replace every piece of broken sidewalk on South Main Street they're only going to handle the ones that they CA that they cause to be Right microphone Mr vanolo please can we get lapel mics so that we can move around it's not in the budget not in the budget not in the budget it was in the clerk's budget when you took it out yeah by concern I just want to clarify another thing is that yeah maybe yeah we mentioned many times that's a curve so uh yeah I I believe it was mentioned many times before but uh I just want to mention again so just uh yeah get everybody to to to concern so if possible it's it's better to to fix together with the payment unfortunately the uh according to our current ordinance the curb is also the property owner responsibility um so it'd be great to do more of them together but with Main Street we have asked the county in the past to fix the curbs um they have just simply not responded to those requests uh as far as my knowledge goes however um it's something that we should be looking at and in fact we passed an ordinance uh I believe we passed it tonight where we set aside some monies to start fixing the curbs from the south side of town hopefully moving forward um to the north end because they are in bad shape and it would make a difference especially for safety so you mentioned so you said the curv is belong to the property owner right but uh I remember I have the survey when I purchased that that property right so I saw yeah they gave me the survey of the the corner right so uh last time I just uh look at the the picture I saw the the corner is is behind behind the curve so that means the curve should be belong to the public I believe so we're it's a question it's not a question of it being necessarily on your property it's a question of whether or not they can a municipality can make it your obligation uh you know so you can be responsible for restoration of your sidewalk even though it's not on your property municipalities are allowed to have an ordinance that says the property owner is responsible for the sidewalk so it doesn't necessarily have to be on your property in order for it to be your responsibility so you mean I can fix by myself if I I will admit I again I don't have a full yeah I haven't memorized our whole ordinance so that would that would have to go under the uh submit application for the construction official I believe to approve right the construction Department to look at the curb work application then make the determination if it could be performed and it's an it's an interesting scenario um but I know we've had this issue in the past with many residents who have complained about their curbs being uneven whether it's lifted by a tree or for various reasons and it falls back on the property owner just like um your water service that goes from the pipe that's in the street to your home under the current ordinance you as the property owner are responsible for that even if it breaks in the road okay which it we know you don't own the road but that pipe is your responsibility currently as the way it is written okay yeah but uh yeah when I purchased a project right about four years ago I I I think about the fix by myself but I I thought if I everybody else to fix by their own right so curves well looks like not consistent so so I assume that should be somebody or some contractor right so fix together or something I so I did inquire with the county um several times my last inquiry with the county uh prior to the paving project this was going back a bit um so the county uh does not do the curving in sidewalks unless they do do a complete restoration of the roadway and since Main Street is a County Road they're responsible for overseeing that um they had indicated that they will not be issuing any curb permits uh because it's going to be a brand new roadway and the way the county requires a new curb to be installed is you have to cut the roadway and then dig it all out and actually go down I don't know what is it 12 in 20 how much 20 in 20 in and then repave all that area and since they're just repaving the road they're not going to approve any permits because the roadway is is brand new with that but the side sidewalks are a different permit than the curving okay yeah thank you for listening but I I asked a question prior to to try to see if we could get the if we could get the curbs and sidewalks done prior to the milling and Paving and it was just a the answer was no um because the county wasn't going to put forth the money to do the Curbing and sidewalks yeah I but thanks for listening again thank you okay um I did forget something the um your name record 54 van L miltown New Jersey uh the paving that reminded me will the Main Street Paving correct the uh intersection of Main and vanl and the reason I ask it is in really bad disrepair and we have the parade coming up in a couple weeks what do you mean correct it uh it it's totally torn up and there's a big divot in the inter section so I don't know if the paving will extend into vanl enough to it's right at the intersection it probably would not I'm assuming they only have to do a certain width of the of what the um the trench was for the for the pipe but I believe the county has made them go curb to curb so if it extends beyond the curb of Main Street and into vanl I would highly doubt that they are um it's worth an ask if possible because that's really dangerous it's it's eaten up so terribly it's a trip Hazard and you far would you say a few feet okay not even not that far at all so they um the County under the the contract the County's contractor is going to be do to Vanderbilt um that will be done before Fourth of July it'll be done on Thursday it's done Vanderbilt's done Vanderbilt they they did already but Main Street up to uh um up to that area I think it's um Rea Reva thank you uh and then the county is actually going to come in and do from North brunic Side to where they to Reva where they didn't pave so um the Department of Public Works director actually was able to get the county to do that because the so then this way the county has a full brand new roadway from end to end of miltown but it we couldn't get that to work prior to Fourth of July okay uh so they are going to do that in August sometime early August before any any of the the children go back to school to try to get that done I'm going to recommend then if some Patchwork can be done to can you send a uh concerned uh report a concern we'll we'll reach out so we can identify I'll send your video too to know exactly where it is okay great or or send it I'll do both send it yeah thank you okay thanks okay I will close the um public comment portion of the meeting Council comments is there anything further that anyone on Council would like to bring up at this time yes I have three questions I'm just because it's late I'm only going to bring up two are we still hosting North Brunswick courts graus yes what are there are there any talks councilman moo just brought that up under the new business that will be taking the lead on addressing that And discussing with them and hopefully being able to charge them more but we haven't had any discussions since we voted down the uh no the situation that you guys wanted that you guys okay I I tried in uh earlier this year um with that with this the CFO um I'm aware okay but that's the last time I tried no North BR told us at that time that they were going to be here for three months I think we all kind of knew that wasn't going to happen but I think now 3 months are up so it's certainly time to revisit it's a question for Peter Peter what form of government does miltown buau adhere to mtown is a burrow weak mayor strong counsel typically what your border former government is okay who's responsible for the allowance of burall employee functions on site actually uh Fred would you know that I didn't quite get your question there councilman here could you get a little closer to the microphone talking to my deaf here uh who's responsible for the allowance of burall employee functions on site allowance or allowing sure so so who's who's who's supervision so the that would fall under the purview of the business administrator sir okay who's responsible for the allowing if employe children on site in the rare case of childhood glitches Child Care glitches so that permission was given by me okay because I see nothing in our bylaws or state laws giving the mayor the power to regulate or dictate in either of these situations I've asked for clarification from the mayor and have received none unless enforced by the majority of council um this should not stand I think in anything it's in the absence of an official policy that's been adopted it would fall under the purview of business administr okay so so Mr car you would handle situations like that yes sir but as I expressed in the email the mayor called me on the phone on Thursday afternoon about quter to 1 as I was coming in to eat ice cream okay and expressed his concern okay and said that uh we should not do that and you know I brought in the two employees and told them that you know we need to come up with a new plan in no uncertain words uh and that uh mayor expressed his concern that the team building activities that we had tried should be approved by the mayor and Council uh and that's what I sent out in the email so the next time we decide to have some kind of a team building exercise or birthday party or something I'll come and get uh burrow counsel permission I disagree with the mayor but that's his right as the mayor provided by that Authority by the by the labor attorney that he has more power in the statute do you need permission no sir I don't think so but I will honor the wishes of the mayor I disagree but I will honor the wishes of the mayor that's a difference there's a difference I can respectfully disagree but I will offer he is the mayor here whether I agree or I disagree well well if someone is going if someone or entity is going to make the call would it not be the barel council and majority of to give you if you need if you feel you need permission councilman at the at 10:30 at night let me just be blunt okay as we all know I'm a rather blunt kind of guy it probably comes from hitting my head in the paratroops I don't got time for this I don't really care okay if the mayor objects to these kinds of things and it bothers him then we just won't do it okay i' I'm really busy I have a lot of things to do spend all day trying to do what's right for the for the burrow day in and day out spent a lot of time here spent a lot of time at home as most of you have called me and sent me emails you know I ain't got time for for this frankly well I don't want to keep anyone here any longer either but I did think this is important to bring up I I totally agree so if you want to know why I didn't have a conversation and tell the mayor no we're not going to do that or I disagree you know what whatever as my 13-year-old granddaughter would say I don't have time it's not worth my time to get into a conversation whether or not it's right or wrong he is the mayor for now but it is it is a case of right or wrong didn't didn't didn't didn't didn't that's not the conversation councelor okay I'm done for tonight thank you sir okay my comments so yes I did communicate with Mr Carr about this um I did not say anything about birthday parties but the concern that I had was about uh the time being after the lunchtime for everyone and had a concern about the um the salaries that were taxpayer dollars that were there and that not that I didn't have a problem with it I just said it should be approved by mayor and councel or just councel obviously um just so everyone's aware of it so create a policy to uh just general awareness so there's guidelines of what should be done what shouldn't be done and currently there's nothing in place for there I did contact Mr Velo and our labor attorney for for guidance and just conversations about it and that's what the recommendations were just to make sure it's all um you know uh clarified and everything else so will the clerk please read resolution 20241 no you're done I'm done please read resolution 20241 129 uh it's 204-212 entering executive session whereas the open public meetings ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas there public bodies of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist and whereas the governing body wishes discuss pending litigation and whereas minut will be kept and once the matter involving the confidentiality of the above no longer requires that confidentiality then the minutes can be made public now therefore be resolved by the borrow Council of the burrow of miltown County of middlex state of New Jersey that the public be excluded from this meeting take I need a motion in a second so can I have a second second motion made by council president rinsky by councilman Collins council president revolinski councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman posnanski councilman Potter hi councilman zamb Brana hi I need I need three minutes to ahead oh yes I do y for