not get e e e e area of trap e e they didn't bite me but that doesn't mean anything I fig I hav't done e good evening to March 25th meeting of miltown B Council will now come to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting statement adquate notice that this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 ifying the time date location to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building Municipal website providing a copy to the official newspaper of the burrow and by filing a copy in the office of the burrow clerk in accordance with a certification by the clerk which will be entered into the minutes will the clerk please call the role council president revolinski councilman Collins here councilman moo here councilman pany councilman Potter here councilman zamb BR here mayor Murray here bur Attorney Peter venola pres bur engineer Mike mlen pres bur engineer L banka presid bur administrator Fred Carr also presid burrow clerk Monica Orlando president please join me in a moment of silence foll by the saluted flag I flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all now is the time for public comments limited to the resolutions listed on the agenda if you wish to speak please step up to the microphone say your name and address for the record [Music] okay seeing no comments this portion of the meeting is closed to the public all right uh the following minutes on the agenda for acceptance March 11th 2024 regular meeting are there any comments or corrections may I have a motion to accept the minutes as typed I'll make a motion I'll say was making that motion uh councilman Potter weren't you not here for this right but I put as accepting the minutes instead of approving the minutes can or no I'd rather have somebody who was present at the meeting okay sorry no words then I withdraw my motion so now we need a motion from somebody body else I'll make a motion to accept qualify second thank you we have a motion by councilman moo seconded by councilman Collins um all in favor I abstain I any opposed [Music] the following ordinance was introduced on March 11th and advertised in accordance 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 24-15 32 by title ordinance amending chapter 7 traffic section 7-15 parking prohibited During certain hours on certain streets to impose parking restrictions on the west side of J JF Kennedy Boulevard between Violet Terrace and Nicholas cour you have heard this reading of this ordinance what is your pleasure Mr Mayor I make a motion that this ordinance be adopted at second reading second we have a motion by councilman Potter second by councilman uh Collins um do we have any we need to open it to the public um we I will now open it to the public on ordinance 24532 hey good evening uh my name is Nick Fross 50 JF KY Drive um yeah so I live on JFK I live right by Nicholas court on the corner there um so according to the ordinance right we blocking parking on the west side all the way from Violet terrorist down to Nicholas Court um you know I live right there I can tell you that parents not dropping off their kids on Nicholas Court um there is an issue with traffic and uh and congestion but it's happening up at the intersection on the Violet Terror maybe two or 300 ft off that intersection um so the way the ordinance is written you know it's kind of a little too broad in my opinion it's it's block and parking all the way down the street down maybe a quarter mile down to where I'm living I never had an issue with the parking um never had an issue with traffic down by my house um I really think it's limited up to that intersection so you know according to this I'd have to be moving my car two or three times a day you know to avoid a ticket um you know I utilize the street parking my my neighbors utilize the street parking so um you know that's about all I had just wanted you to reconsider maybe uh limit the scope of the ordinance so where the actual congestion is and then you know otherwise it's going to negatively impact those of us that that live on the street so thank you okay the public hearing is now closed will cler please call the rooll councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman pansi hi councilman Potter hi councilman zbr no the following ordinance was introduced on March 11th 2024 and advertised in accordance with the law any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance may do so after the reading we will will the clerk please read ordinance 2453 by title ordinance 24-1 1533 ordinance amending chapter 14 Parks and Recreation section 6 Barrow pole subsection 6.3 fees and section 7 Recreation program sub subsection 7.2 fees you have heard the reading of this ordinance with your pleasure Mr may I make a motion that this ordinance be adopted in second reading second we have a u um motion motion by councilman Potter and that was councilman Collins at second that's correct um well I will now open up the public hearing for ordinance [Applause] 24533 the public hearing is now closed will the um clerk please call the rooll councilman Collins hi councilman moo I councilman pansy hi councilman Potter I councilman zimbrana I authorizing payment of Municipal obligations will the clerk please read resolution by title resolution 20241 Z5 authorizing the payment of claims bill claims and statements against the borrow of miltown in the total amount of 1,773 1499 you have heard the reading in this resolution what is your pleasure move the resolution be adopted second I have a motion by councilman Collins second by councilman pansky uh will the uh discuss cler please call the roll any discussion discussion discussion is there any discussion the clerk please call the RO councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman posnanski hi councilman Potter hi councilman Z Brana so I'm going to vote no uh because uh I usually have the opportunity to review POS um and the ba usually leaves a package for me in the mail room for some reason it wasn't there so um I find that I don't know who's playing games in the in the burrow but since we do have a camera in there I'd like uh to ask Fred Carr if he could go back and look at the tape to see how the poos that were there weren't there and let me know okay thank you consent resolution has been prepared for Resolutions listed on the agenda while matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and having been reviewed by dearo Council will be enacted in one motion any item may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any council member and if so removed it will be treated as a separate matter any items required expenditure are supported by certification of funds if any member of the council wants any resolution aced find individually please give me the resolution number and it will be PE pulled from the current consent resolution yeah uh I'd like to pull uh two resolutions resolution 2024 108 and 202 24109 I'd like to pull resolution 2024 d110 okay will the clerk please read the consent resolution excluding 108 109 110 whereas pursuant to the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular or special meetings upon certain conditions and whereas each of the following resolutions to be presented before the burrow council at its March 25th 2024 regular meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the burough Council 2024 107 202 24-11 through 1118 now therefore be it resolved by the borrow Council of the bough of miltown that each of the above listed resolutions be approved and adopted by the burrow council with the same legal effect as though each was read in its entirety at the May 25th 2024 regular meeting and adopted by separate vote you have heard the reasoning reading of the consent resolution which is your pleasure Mr Mayor make a motion that these resolutions be adopted can we have a second second I have a motion by councilman Potter seconded by councilman Collins uh will the clerk please call the rooll councilman Collins I have a question here I'm sorry to interrupt you but I just got this new resolution 113 and it says to increase the bid threshold and the other one on 1124 1113 says um authorizing required disclosure transfer primary overhead we got the same number on the same yeah it was the last minute change we can pull that one if you want to discuss it what's that this one we can we it's it's the correct one is the authorizing the increase of bid and quote threshold uh but we can pull 113 out of the consent agenda right Peter no we have motion you have a motion you have a second you're about to vote you have a question someone would need to amend them their motion and you need to go backwards um if we want to can I just explain it then if if I think if we can get a brief explanation it might be more beneficial for councilman Collins to understand what occurred so uh councilman Collins I think what what happened was there was a question regarding uh the bid threshold and whether or not it needed to be reauthorized and in an abundance of caution rather than um not reauthorize the the increase in your bid threshold because you have a new qpa uh the resolution which was going to rely upon the increased bid threshold was pull and this was placed in instead so that we can make sure that the qpa has the bid authorization up to 44,000 okay understand okay yep thank you got so we're voting now councilman Collins hi councilman MCO hi councilman pansy hi councilman Potter I councilman Zim Brana I will the C clerk please read resolution 24-18 by title resolution 202 24-18 authorizing execution of shared services agreement with North Brunswick Township municipal Finance Consulting Services what is pleasure councel move the resolution be adopted a second second I have a motion by councilman Collins seconded by councilman panski um is there any discussion uh yes I have a question so um this resolution is to um execute a shared services agreement with North Brunswick um again at a monthly fee of $1,250 and then there's an additional $75 so I have a problem paying the $ 12250 to North Brunswick um again I I think I mentioned this in in uh previously um we have been good neighbors to North Bruns for over two years with the use of our courtroom um and in doing that and being good neighbors we've never asked for $1 from North Brunswick so I don't understand why we're paying them $1,250 and then tacking on another $75 what what's the what's the $75 for does anyone know councilman Potter you're part of Finance councilman Collins you're part of Finance yeah are you okay with that um I was not aware of it and it's $75 per hour for addition Services um it was my understanding that we were going to have the 12250 a month but not the $75 an hour so my my issue with that is who's going to monitor that $75 an hour is it going to be our ba our CFO our head of finance and how is that going to be built so I I have an issue with that $75 for additional fees as well so the $75 if you look at you know section six of this agreement this is this is a $75 is for North Brunswick's Chief Financial Officer so we're not only we're not only paying our part-time CFO but we're also going to pay North Bruns CFO if I may uh last week when we spoke with councilman rinsky he kind of clued this glued me in more may on some of this respect stand respectfully it's a standard but councilman Collins and councilman Potter both say that they didn't know anything about this and we're being asked to vote on this tonight last week we or our last meeting this was mentioned the 75 is over a certain amount of hours this this contract was not available last week that's the problem can I ask who was involved in the negotiations here because I don't know that anyone on Council was can I just have you talk to the microphone please sorry um I'd like to know who's in the negotiations actually um 108 108 and 109 work together and um I really wasn't aware of negotiations um maybe maybe we should have been aware uh because they both work together I have questions other people have questions uh would anyone else like to respond I I believe the $75 was for the um cfo's hourly rate I just don't know how we're going to monitor this well Rich told me we'll have to go by his work councilman rinsky said that if if I may uh looking at the agreement it looks like uh the $75 an hour looks like it needs to be approved in advance based upon an estimate of the number of hours that will be needed just uh looks like it's section two of that contract so if you're going to exceed what was the allotted hours and the allotted hours change based upon the time of year it is you get 10 to 12 hours a month uh for 10 months I believe and then you get uh 15 hours a month for two of the months uh they have to there has to be a presentation of the anticipated number of hours the reason and then it's needs to be approved by miltown so it's it's not as if um you're going to be in a situation where uh someone gives you a bill because somebody spent an extra three hours this month and you're not sure where it was or how it happened um that's just so you can understand the nature of how that seems to be uh handled from a logistical basis under this agreement so councilman peski to answer your main question so this conversation started between our mayor and the mayor of North Brunswick okay and as mayor mentioned last time at the council meeting that uh he's under the impression he's told that uh if you look at the agreements there's a $1200 payment to Brunswick for the financial services of their CFO and their for the next 3 months that payment is sort of washed in the shared services agreement of us to the court which is also 1250 so for the next 3 months beginning April May and June under North Brunswick's Theory or thought that based not what you're told but what they're telling me or what they told the mayor was that uh they're going to be done and out of here just go on what they told me I I understand and I also all right I'm just saying if I may so the conversation as I mentioned last week uh during the last council meeting is that we hired a finance officer who needs a assistance from his CFO since he's never had that opportunity to do those things this agreement allows for that uh finance officer in North Brunswick to assist uh Mr Joe CFO Joe uh during the work hours all right sort of uh it allows for work after hours or if Joe has to take some time and work at his desk um then it's okay with nor Brunswick that he flexes his hours okay up at North Brunswick to come here or vers of ice you know comes here early then goes there as long as they get their hours we get our work done because we his contract uh as a part-time CFO does not have specific hours set in it like mine okay it's just to do the job so for instance he was online this weekend a bunch with myself and Monica talked to me last Wednesday like at 7:00 at night you know we're having a nice long check that you know while I'm already home but be as it may uh that's the intent of the shared service agreement uh and most of the negotiation took place between the Mayors and I came in with along with Peter at the end to sort of flush out the numbers and the details but I was not part of the conversation initially and if he doesn't work out we've gone we've gone through numerous CFOs how does this contract go if he doesn't work out the current CFO that was appointed the last council meeting yes that's what we're talking about yes well then then like any other Municipal Employee you know if it doesn't work out then I mean he's doing okay so far but he's only been on the job two day two weeks okay compared to the other CFOs he's outlasted them like two weeks so I think he's doing fine so you know from a Time standpoint well I understand that but I'm saying they're using our courts so if he does not work out what happens with with the situ that deal is over that's why it's that's why there are two separate agreements okay part of the conversation that I had with the CFO in and the ba in North Brunswick that if the mayors want to have one of these situations where it washes at the end of the day it should be two separate Standalone agreements so that if one doesn't work the other one is still valid okay let's just say that tomorrow they wake up and say forget it we don't want to do this then the current shared service agreement that the council is going to vote on tonight requiring Brunswick to pay for this courtroom then still stands in effect is that not correct Mr R is correct thank you sir now that you did not get invited or brought into the conversation or you did not know what's going on I can't address that councilman I mean you know this this sounds like Frankl Roosevelt he says I got a deal but I didn't say it was a good one you know like I said I wasn't part of the negotiation I just got to fill out the details but councilman Collins is part of Finance Council Council Potter is part of Finance it would have been good to give him a little heads up before looking at this for the first time tonight and I go back to the same thing that we've been good neighbors for two years and so that we're all on the same page here we were we were not going to continue to be good neighbors as of January 1 of this year because our former ba and CFO had been reaching out to the ba there and not getting any sort of collaboration so this would have ended um you know not faulting North brunsick for the situation at the end things happen right but we've been good neighbors for two years I have a problem paying $1,250 to North Brunswick plus another $75 for the use of their CFO because they're his his guy is our part-time CFO I have a problem with that yes sir to qu to quote my statement from two weeks ago uh whatever the council wants to do so so Mr Carr um like like I asked before how's this going to be monitored the $75 an hour over over the over the over the hours that are in there they they have to invoice us okay they'll invoice us so who's going to monitor that that would be something that I that's all my plate along with the other 95 things I'm doing tomorrow I'll be tomorrow I'll be you know stuffing envelopes for the bill L that's what I'm worried about as well it's so you can we can fix that but okay I want to say myself and the rest of the people here men up here were accountable to the people that voted for us so we need to ask questions absolutely the problem is we by law have to have a CFO yes sir we we do have one we appointed one at the last meeting my my problem is it's $1,250 plus another $75 to use their CFO when we need him that's my problem I said it wasn't a good deal but seeing further no further discussion will clerk please call the rooll councilman Collins reluctantly I councilman moo hi councilman p councilman Potter no councilman zimbrana no will the clerk please read resolution 24-19 by title 2024-25 authorizing execution of facility use agreement North Brunswick Township Municipal Court what is pleasure councel somebody want to make a motion make a motion to defeat make a motion to be adopted somebody want a second any second second we have a motion by councilman Colin second by councilman panski um is there any discussion I can't help but think that if we're even though there are two separate agreements if it's designed to be a wash we're going to renegotiate one side or we're going to attempt to find something amicable that the council can agree upon I would imagine we should probably uh either take the check now so to speak or we come to a new balance on it and see how we're going to move forward with it but it's adopting this counterproductive to just changing it when we do go back and look at the other side again I don't think we should be paying $1,250 to North bronswick that's and and I get that I'm I'm kind of okay with that I do see where maybe we need to you know present it properly I guess he's got to say something to his town for a service that that he has to uh he's making an accommodation as as councilman Collins said it's not a it's not a good deal it's a bad deal it's it's all one-sided and I get that there's two years there that uh yeah that we could maybe we could try and work something out on I I think they should be good neighbors just like we have for two years and I do think the originally the out the extended uh the attempts to contact the ba over there and work out a deal with them didn't work out which is why it went mayor to Mayor but that doesn't mean we can't revisit it I you know I get where two years is a long time and you know we have a we we provided for them and probably ongoing again we're beh holding to the voters in town that put us right here I that's the bottom line I agree I mean it on our agenda we're paying South Brunswick for shared services North Brunswick for shared services and South River for shared services two and a half years we got nothing and now they they want to go for another 6 months I I can't agree with this motion I'm sorry it's like councilman pinski said it's not the best interest of the taxpayers you know we're sharing but now they don't want to share with us you know I I have an issue with how this is written um my first question is um the September 30th so the last agreement was September 30th 2023 this agreement will continue till from April 1st 2024 till September 30th 2024 is there is there something with the September 30th do they or can we just go to the end of the year and also too they say they're going to pay the 1250 a month through June 30th 2024 or you know a time where they're out of the court so again and that has to be 30 days in advance as well so again who's going to mon I just don't like the way this is written you know why couldn't it go to the end of the year and then have their payment through the end of the year with 30 days notice it's just they're they're they're only going to it's saying here they're only going to pay us for the 3 months and go till September 30th but we all know it may not go to September 30th it may go to the end of the year and it was missed last time we've been out of contract since September 30th 2023 so that's why I haven't issued away this is written I spoke to someone an official over there and they told me year and a half to two years and I went by the building today and if anybody wants to take a guess in 3 months take a look I have to agree it does not seem 3 months as feasible and um you know I've I've heard estimates of a year year and a half I guess you know if we're going to try and renegotiate it uh maybe we should try to come up with a reasonable goal you know it is worth a mention to say there are two years of free two years of free Goodwill can we get some of that on our side it certainly is a certainly a reasonable statement the being is I guess the N negotiated it and was opening the conversations if uh if Finance wants to weigh in on it Finance is certainly allowed to certainly conversation should happen but maybe we should have some type parameters of what we want going into that conversation um a good negotiation is where everybody loses or gives up a little bit we can certainly see if we can get more out of the M I would think do did we want to table this perhaps until such a time as we get already someone we need to withdraw the motion the second just vote on it we vot it down vot yeah we're vot you vot it down but it me we voted down seeing no further discussion will the clerk please call the rooll councilman Collins no councilman moo no councilman pansy no councilman Potter no councilman Zim Brana no okay will the clerk please read resolution 24-11 by title resolution 20 24-11 authorizing execution of shared services with South River Municipal Court service what is Pledge Your Council who the resolution be adopted second we have a motion by councilman Collins seconded by councilman Potter is there any discussion yes uh Mr Mayor this sum of $67,500 seems excessive I mean we just have a part-time Court basically right we have our judges part-time our prosecutors part-time um and we're gonna and we did have a full-time person in the I guess the office over there this seems like a lot of money I mean uh are we required by law to have an executive for the court so this is for the court administrator you're required to have by the so it's a fundamental question councilman do you want to have court in miltown yes or no okay so we where we all right now is that we would have been unsuccessful in hiring a deputy Court Administrator the person who's currently in there has taken a promotion or a lateral promotion to go to Union County uh to accept uh a job which allows him to decrease his commute and for all of us who've driven in New Jersey decreasing your commute is a good thing he's also not employee he's also not himself he's not an employee so that's so Sean is not an employee the person who's working right now and in about a week or 10 days uh without somebody there in the court we will have no court that's what the judge has told us right is there an opportunity or we're going to you know find a candidate to put in that position for the so we have been unsuccessful last year and this year to find a full-time Court Administrator uh and to find a deputy court administrator and we reached out to both Highland Park and South River to see if they would be interested in having a shared services agreement with us we did not receive a response back from Highland Park we did receive one from South River uh we went back and forth with a day here a day and a half here those kinds of things what kind of access and we've hit and this is the uh the number so the 675 predominantly is a day and a half's wages if you could okay go get you want to get all biblical right so about a day's wages for the person that works in South River is about $255,000 that $225,000 includes their salary and all those benefits that required by the burrow to pay pension and health care FICA you know if you looked at your pay stub lately there's eight or nine things coming out of it that have nothing to do with getting paid so about a day in South River for that person to be here is we owe them about 25 and if it's a day and a half then we owe them 30 you know 12 12 a half which is half of 25 so about 375 to pay them back for the person to work here and then FICA and all the rest of that took it up to about 40 and then we have the number where we have to pay her actually it is a lady to be to take on this additional working responsibility so I mean we gave out two t we gave out 200 tickets just during the snowstorm that's a lot of work right so what you're saying is if we don't pass this we can't run the court here well it's very simple we just won't have a court then we'd have to transfer the court and all the and all those issues and that to some other municipality and that 675 is an annual cost for the court administrator for the day and ahe correct Mr car physical presence here a day and a half and then you know the opportunity we talk about remote work so the courts allow to a court administrator so the court system council is a closed secure server system so that if the court administrator is sitting in South River according to this in in accordance with this court document here or the shared services they can log in as if they were sitting next door okay do miltown work while in South River because it's a separate Standalone system it's like signing in your computer right but it's secure it's not just your laptop at home okay so whether she's working there or working here it's the same log in to do the work to get the job done for miltown who who negotiated this agreement again prly between the mayors of South River and miltown and then I got to come in later on to make sure that the Mayors had the right numbers no input no input from the Personnel committee I was not invited to any of those Personnel meetings as councilman Potter Knows they have these lovely meetings they last three or 4 hours I don't need to be there thank you that's just a plug for me I do not need to be at a 4-Hour meeting with the Personnel committee thank youate you were included in the meeting with the the attorney the B so I get so I get so I get so I get brought in last week for a quick update to make sure the numbers all right to make sure the intent is right but most of that done by the mayor or May so not really personel but more Finance so my question is can we afford this number can you not so the answer is you know yes you can we don't have a budget yet so the number can go into the budget but you will lose Revenue if you don't have court and you know you don't pass ordinances you don't write tickets to pay the bills but if you don't pay but if you don't rate tickets then the money is going to go to somebody else so why is it taking so long to find this person our salary range is too low Union employee uh currently a union employee yes the admin the court administrator and the deputy court administrator in a Union contract but the salary that we offer here in Midtown we did not get any candidates based on the Union contract we did have uh possible memorandum of agreement sort of an exception to policy last week but that person backed out the question two weeks ago so question I'm going to ask you is the obvious question do we take in enough Revenue to cover this 67,000 I haven't been long enough to answer that question no but I think so hope so cuz you wouldn't have it but yes I can tell you that the only thing that you don't get your money back into court is that we cannot charge people who pay their tickets online using their credit card we can't charge them the fee that's mandated by the state but most likely we'll break even we're pretty close thereof we should not be making a profit in the court just my personal opin we will provide this person who's not an employee of miltown to work remotely on an as needed basis yes sir but we do not allow that the borrow employees so we do allow it to borrow employees because the borrow employees we have not changed the the uh the rules yet as you remember well we talked about that last week there is there is some conversation about some people object to it but until it's changed formally by the council we do it Monica did it over the weekend I did it okay lots of people do it uh since I've been here because it's either one of two choices either a allow them to work remotely or B you don't get any work done or we lose people well that too and we've already lost someone because of this policy seeing no further discussion with clerk please call the rooll councilman Collins hi councilman moo hi councilman P nany hi councilman Potter hi councilman Zam Brana hell no okay reports from elected officials council president rinsky does anybody have this report no councilman Collins no reports Mr Mayor councilman M uh I do have uh some things that were discussed at the library and the library does have some things that they wanted to mention as well um so uh did speak with the librarian in their meeting uh the week before last uh and it is good to know that uh at some point we expect to have a librarian uh commn or staffed at JK in their Library which uh right now the librar of JK that one librarian splits Duty between Park viw and JK and with that I think Park View uh needs more management as the kids are younger so uh that will be a better utilization of that resource uh beyond that uh the library uh Library you know just uh runs themselves very well they do some Financial forecasting uh they do some good investing uh they solicit donations and they they really are very self-sufficient um quite an organization I really never noticed anything like that from the outside in before um but just to mention on Wednesday March 27th there will be after school bingo at 3 p.m. uh there will be a showing of The Karate Kid on Thursday March 28th at 3 p.m. and they will provide snacks uh there will be yoga uh on Tuesday April 2nd at 9:15 a.m. with Marcy please call the library or visit the library website to register uh there are some spring break programs uh including edible edible book cover art for kids grades 1- 4 at 11:00 a.m. on April 3rd uh registation is required and on Wednesday April 3rd there will also be Bingo for kids grades 4 through 8 at 3 p.m. Thursday the 4th also uh another edible book cover art for teens grades 438 at 3 p.m. uh and Saturday April 6 uh there will be let's talk solar eclipse which is a program featuring NASA's solar system Ambassador Isaac assures uh registration is required for most of these events uh for those video game enthusiasts April 8th uh there's a 3 to 5:00 p.m. Minecraft at the library a program for kids 4: to 8 to learn how to build uh a cannon on the computer and compete for high scores in accuracy uh and the library will of course be closed on March 29th and Saturday the 30th and the staff wishes everyone a Happy Easter uh additional from Rec Department uh the miltown devil's nut is sold out uh which we very happy about they really got very good feedback on that uh a lot of enthusiasm and that'll be happening soon uh they're still looking for people to fill their spots for summer employment at Albert AV and the burrow pool um the application is available online and it is fillable online so take a look there uh registration for the camp and the pool will be open by mid April and they just wish to thank everyone for their continued support U additional to that I will say that um I met with Dorian and the Green Team um she's very active in trying to uh get some grants for us some other things to be done uh and then also the environmental committee is uh moving forward with their Earth Day uh with their Earth Day programs that'll be done on April 20th um in the hard schedule of events in time he's kind of waiting for that Council pansy sure um first I want to talk about the tpw can you just talk into the microphone I'm sorry it's okay we survived the the rains very well this weekend on Saturday uh they were very prepared and some of the men were in to uh to make sure that that things went well um I went over to the the waterfall I was there three times I saw the fire department there so they were checking in all so and um fortunately everything went well they have two new trucks that came in last week and one is a garbage truck you can't miss it it's a it's a medium blue bright blue um uh I stopped by the schwinderman property today and the guys are in there uh full force cutting trees and cleaning debris and uh the same is true of the old DPW if you go in and take a look at it and I'd recommend for the citizens in town to see your uh your tax dollars at work um and uh as far as a senior cater um I don't have a lot tonight but I will say that um I'd like to thank uh Debbie cudy for uh being the director she's been there for over 20 years and uh she's very dedicated and Bob skarzinski um he's been president for 18 years over 18 years and I can't imagine anyone better doing the job and uh then there's Donna the bus driver CU I want to make sure I included her uh she takes um she takes the seniors around to uh wherever the events are and uh also again we're working on the uh the the grants um I know Dorian has been working uh on the grants for the uh the front of the building and um uh I've been working with with Ralph and we're still working on getting the uh the shed gazebo pavers and uh other miscellaneous things so um everything's going well and that that concludes my report councilman Potter thank you Mr mayor uh from the uh miltown police department uh residential security as a reminder the miltown police department are assisting residents with home security risk assessment this is free of charge if requested one of the miltown police department Community Affairs officers will come to your home discuss vulnerabilities and help you come up with options to improve your home security um to request the risk ass assessment please contact Lieutenant Carmen dorenzo at CD Lorenzo at miltown pd.org so far a few residents have scheduled this assessment and we would like to encourage more of our residents to do so in regard to this past Friday morning's raid on South Main Street Chief Johnson communicated to me the mayor and the rest of the counil the following the FBI conducted a high-profile raid that was unannounced and came as a complete surprise to the miltown police department it occurred at the worst time with the morning rush and children walk into school chief Johnson has since been in contact with their leadership to express his concerns about their lack of communication they apologized and will work with the miltown police department in the future to prevent a reoccurrence although these issues occurred in the end a dangerous criminal was apprehended in a short amount of time with no injuries from the miltown uh fire department the annual flower shell located at the fire department will be this FR Thursday Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. or while supplies last uh and as a followup to the governor's grant that was recently awarded this grant goes solely toward full sets of fire gear which cost a little over $6,000 per set over the past two years we received two grants and we've been able to purchase 16 actually 17 sets because we got to buy one get one free uh tolling 102 over $102,000 at no cost to our tax pirs uh members are needed any candidates interested in joining the miltown fire department or encouraged to stop by the firehouse on Monday night at 6:30 or email join mtown fire gmail.com uh miltown Rescue Squad and Public Safety Committee no new updates and miltown 4th of July tickets are now available for the miltown 4th of July organization celebrity bartender event at the American Legion Post 25 on April 20th tickets can can be purchased online via the miltown 4th of July website and or Facebook page and will be available on the following loc locations in the near future Mike's Country Market Maria's miltown convenience Rescue by Lacy and bagel Express and I actually have tickets with me tonight Mr Mayor that concludes my report thank you councilman Zim BR thank you uh Mr Mayor uh so two short announcements Board of Health meeting will be tomorrow uh in person here at B Hall in the conference room in the back there will be a time change from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. all are welcome uh environmental committee uh will be in person uh on Wednesday uh special meeting to go over some Earth Day um activities so that'll be at 6:30 p.m. and then hybrid as usual will continue at 7:30 p.m. and uh councilman panski I'd like to thank you for bringing up that the fact that we did receive uh a new utility truck and we did receive our garbage truck which was um thankfully uh budgeted for under our Capital plan by the finance committee two years ago um that was put into place by our former ba and CFO and it was great to for her to put that in because it we knew it would take a while because of covid and uh and good to see it come in thank you reports from the B professionals Peter venol no report Mr Mayor see me thank you Mr Mayor um two items to report tonight the first being an update on the West fch Avenue improvements um and that is the sewer main replacement has been completed the contractor is currently removing and replacing sewer laterals and water surfaces that work expected to be completed this week and he's going to be moving on to installing the under drains um underneath the roadway um second item to report is um and we're pleased to report the heg and patan improvements have been completed and the final close out documents have been submitted to the burrow for processing that's all we have tonight Mr Mayor thank you bur clerk uh just a couple quick things petitions were due today for the primary at 4m. and we always need poll workers like I advertise every single meeting uh I actually just created a fillable form if you go to our Bor website go to the clerk uh on the clerk's page go to elections and right at the top it says if you want to be a pole worker click here you can fill it out email or drop it off for always looking for pole workers please come work and that's all I have yeah Absolut enough thank you old business does any member of council have any old business to bring before Council I'd like to bring up something it maybe old business if if it's not I'll move it um I was over at the the Beaver Dam Park U it had closed in August of 2023 and it's opening May May 5th of this this year um they they've remediated the contaminated grounds and I'd like to know if they have spoken to anyone here as far as um if if some of that may have leeched into the mil Pond and uh I'd just like to know also if if uh anyone has been in touch to uh keep us informed of the remediation okay that sounds like a no guess okay new business does any member Council have any new business to bring before counc do you have anything else to say or yes M Mr Mayor uh it's on near the renaming of Lanny Lane uh mown tradition is to name a street after any veterans killed in uh battle in a war and uh Gary Ritman from the senior center he uh Ser he's a disabled Vietnam veteran his father served with this gentleman from miltown Paul W core he was originally from Pennsylvania but apparently he moved in uh a street on the North side and he was a resident here for 45 days and he was killed in action in Italy on December 4th 1943 and I uh I think it would be an honor if we renamed the street after him and being that Lenny Lane has no houses and we only call cost us minimal amount of money that we could rename the street after him Corporal Paul W core killed an action World War II do we need if if if the council were so inclined we could prepare an ordinance to do that but I just need some direction obviously so obviously I I can we need what we need to vote on that or just prepare the ordinance I can prepare any I can prepare it I mean if you guys all kind of Nod your heads yes and sound like something you want to do yeah I can I'll put it together it'll be ready for your next agenda sounds like a good idea yeah absolutely thank you that's all I need put it in the votes I'll remind you don't worry I I'm getting older I forget the public comment portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to council's attention or concerns or comments the council will respect the Public's Time by refraining from any comment until the speaker is finished it should be further noted that the public comment portion of our meeting is not to structured as a question and answer please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium Jesus Richard Ryan 60 South Main Street Mr mayor council members professionals ladies and gentlemen um sorry to be here again frankly um two weeks ago the last council meeting um there was a little bit of dialogue with regard to the situation that we find ourselves in on South Main Street and um in the two weekends since we have been an exactly the same position as we were before so two weeks ago there was some question as to [Music] um violation or summon that had been issued it's my understanding now that um the summons was set aside for a period of 6 months and if nothing similar I guess were to happen that potentially it would be set aside for good um I've taken some steps to try and talk to the prosecutor um I haven't been able to do that yet I expect to soon um and I know that mayor and Council has been advised every two weeks for the past three months to be cautious and not discuss it because it's pending litigation however if not for me coming here and pointing it out for the record would anybody know that St Paul's Church continues to completely disregard the law of the land here all right now some may say it's not that big a deal you know it's a zoning violation it's a violation I bet you I'd get one I bet you I would have had to be here in court you know and if I violate it the very next week I bet you I'd be back here before somebody who was a little bit angry to see me again so I don't know where I need to go at this point other than where I've communicated thus far um and I continually come up here and thank everybody for the time um but I believe that I'm in a position where it's quite comfortable that mayor and Council don't have to address this issue okay because I have to continue to have this fight when the church continues to completely violate not even the spirit or the intent the actual zoning law so I am hopeful that between now and the next count council meeting that um some steps will be taken though I know that would be um uh private discussion or dialogue based on advice of councel um but I'm still looking for help I have not gotten since coming here since the beginning of January on issues that we know have been going on since last May okay so the setting aside of a violation for 6 months um that is being in my opinion completely disregarded as of now um how long do we wait do I come every two weeks for the next 6 months and ask for help like I I have the information Mr Ryan and I will pass it along to the appropriate individual and they will take whatever steps they deem are appropriate based upon their position so that's all I can do I thank you for your help I appreciate it I'm hoping go ahead is this ongoing ongoing Saturday night this past Saturday the weekend before that do you know what time it ended Saturday night he around around I don't I don't know what time it ended noise it went on all day it's not even a matter of that we have some some residents who came down and spoke right about um their feeling of a given noise level versus how somebody else may see it or hear it in this case that's not the issue respectfully the issue is that it's a violation of the zoning ordinance they're not supposed to be in that facility for those events end of story they've been violated once it's been set aside and they've been told about the violations to the best of my knowledge question and answer gu to the best of my knowledge speak please they have been so I don't want to come here every two weeks any more than you guys want to see me I mean he's got a valid question you know and and I've taken the information I'll make sure that I I speak with our zoning officer regarding this I don't know whether he was aware of things that were supposed to have occurred I don't know what type of events they were so there there may be a little more information that needs to be obtained I know that our zoning officer has spoken in the past with Mr Ryan I know he knows how to get a hold of him so I'm sure if if we need more information from Mr Ryan he will be more than happy to provide it to the zoning officer that is the individual who is tasked with looking at that and taking care of that so I will pass it along to him um sure he'll be in touch with you thank you for your help you're welcome thank you thank God we have a full-time zoning officer could I talk after the meeting absolutely thank you okay portion of the public portion is closed is there any uh Council comments yes well then come up here hello uh Charles R 322 South Main Street just wanted to say that um you know as usual we really owe our churches all of our churches a lot of our respect and and Grace and and we should be thankful for them here they have done enormous amounts of things for our community and they're having a hard time with uh you know raising funds and stuff so we need to support them any way we can and stop vilifying them and I think it's the duty of council and mayor to support our religious institutions no matter what and yeah thank you russan binder 152a n North Main Street uh just want to come here as a representative actually as a president of the miltown Lions Club and want to say how impressed we all are how many people mostly kids obviously but a lot of adults too with them showed up and bunch of you up there lines right in front of me and our mayor was there helping too as well and it was a wonderful event that we were able to do even besides even though mother nation decide to pour in us and for those you are not on social media which is fine you don't have to be I noticed something about our town that I want to make public here too and that is this year on July 4th we had a nasty amount of rain in the afternoon that people showed up and stayed and had a great time and we still did the fireworks right anybody remember what happened in the morning on miltown day here how wet it was disgusting what did we do we showed up and had a great day we went to do the tree lighting this year in December what happened we lit the tree in a pouring rain so guess what we weren't going to let the egg hunt that's been going on for almost 90 years in miltown not happen and all I want to say is I want to thank everybody for not letting us down and we keeping miltown there thank you NE Mara 54 van Lou uh just had a question based on a common interchange that occurred here um I I believe that councilman pansy had started a question with Mr rrom and mayor you had commented that there was a qu no question and answer or it's not structured that way but but it's not right from it's Ryan yes thank you for the correction yes both Rich sorry yeah yes okay but so I think what he's looking for the information for is he can take it offline no that's not my question my question is why wouldn't a council person be able to ask questions if they have to uh that's what they were elected for so if they want to come up and ask questions I understand there's no requirement that this body answer a question however if they feel the need and it's for the benefit of the residents I would hope that they would do so um the other question I had is how many um municipalities did we approach for uh Court Administrator Shar Services I wasn't given I was asked to call Highland Park in South River okay is there any reason why we didn't call every single one in Middle sex County some of the things that I overheard and again I know we're not questioning an answer but uh sometimes the size of a municipality uh when they dwarf us that doesn't really seem to work well yeah um and then some of it is just distance if they're going to be you know local uh if they're going to be doing a day and a half MH it wouldn't seem you know someone from morrist town or you know well more just pulling things out of out of my head but you know there's um there's a reason that they can't keep it local and keep it to similar size towns who need or may like that that shared service whereas other towns they don't need our money well my my recommendation would be it's the larger towns that you want to go to because they have more staff okay they have more Deputy court clerks I believe East Brunswick I think has at least two or three well if they're working if they're not working on site also does it matter where they are it doesn't matter you're right I although I don't know if there's a requirement I would defer to council whether there's a requirement that they have some time on site I know that the the the judge wanted one and a half days in person that was that was what our Municipal Court Judge asked for as an element of any shared service that we had so that's where that number came from and the judge does have the opportunity to run his court uh or her Court um the uh but again it's those other uh municipalities where you may have had a better opportunity to obtain services at a more reasonable price because $67,000 is a lot of money yep for a day and a half yep so all right thank you very much okay try it again we'll close the public portion of the meeting Council comments is there any further anyone on Council that would like to bring up at this time I'm going to talk about um the meeting we had two weeks ago and I brought up something that was very uncomfortable talking about the pastor and I've had people come up to me since want to know some of the people knew it was me that brought this up because I did and other people did and they say why are you going after the clergy in town some people said what are you going why are you going after the churches in town but other people have also spread that this is what I'm doing and anybody who would know me would know that I don't do something like that like what I did last week very uncomfortable the whole meeting for me was very uncomfortable and I don't willingly go after anyone I also want to bring up something else um New Jersey has a State AIDS coming for the schools and we have an increase this year of over 35% and uh I'd like to know how um if anyone is looking into this how it will affect uh the budget proposal because I did see the numbers I do have the exact numbers um and the schools receive approximately 66% of the tax dollars in town and I'd like to know how we go forward here deserve I I think we deserve a serious discussion and fairness to the residents of tax TA of the town anyone has comments well I can say so as we met with the Board of Education and uh we had a meeting scheduled earlier this year uh and that was post do you know about the this do you know about the this coming this money that's coming yes yes uh well let me say it this way um I found out much the same way that anybody else would find out in public record simply that it's publicly posted what they're going to do with the money or any of those things um the nature of being the Board of Ed they are not subservient to anybody they are their own yeah well this is also taxpayer money coming back to us but no it doesn't come back so the word us is figurative because we're not the board of education is independent and there's not much that's always been the way it is we can't force them to do things they are their own organization they even have their own tax public discussion what kind of if you'd like to join us at a board meeting uh the Board of Ed meeting we can certainly arrange that it's public you can always got that's right and if you'd like next time I know we are attempting to probably schedule another sit down with them we uh me and me and liaison and the mayor met with the superintendent three or four other people on that board um and did discuss some matters and try and you there's again we can't mandate as the council even as a town uh we can't mandate or Force anything from them there this is a discussion that's what this is that's why I'm bringing this that's why I'm bringing this up I don't know if anyone else up here knows about this though oh yeah I saw the post on public media and I assumed you know relatively I mean even even there it was asked like what do you think they're going to do with it I know they are planning uh at the Board of Education meeting last Monday uh they have a $1.2 million renovation that is happening because what's started out they're doing 15,000 square ft of their roof this summer um last year I believe they did 5,000 so this is a bigger scope of the roof and that should take them through that they consider the next 10 years there is also a uh they were doing a tuck tuck point project on the brick on the area regarding closest to their uh to the staff parking lot which uh after the contractors looked at it it became apparent they would have to replace brick and probably some windows to stop some of the water seepage as an ongoing issue that they have well isn't that covered in the 66% that they get from us well yes but I'm not sure what that has to do with money that the government is giving at a future point and again these are great questions for the board but you're taxpayer how do you feel about that huh you know what I feel is that I don't like that my school that my basically the ratings of the school I will say that uh I just think we can do better um but we don't have again as a council including all of us as a council can't direct what they do it is uh to me it seems a strange situation that at the Town meetings or these meetings we don't get that many people you go to a Board of Education meeting and if there if there are six people there it is likely the mea which is in a negotiation for their contract that will be taking a half of the seats that are there there uh as a as a board They Don't Really display a lot they don't really advertise any of their actions but then again how often do we go to their website and see what's on there but you know I as far as I've always heard from when I've been in this town and apparently that's the way it goes in most towns is that the board of education is independent of because it really shouldn't be it is thought to not be subject to politics private education is guaranteed or excuse me public education is guaranteed under our constitution so as a town we don't get to mandate or as a government we don't get to mandate um interestingly I noticed that Kissinger um sorry not Kissinger but the uh Nixon uh was the first president to want to have an organized daycare for young kids and as soon as he went to China and realized that that was the way that they cultivated uh their youth he decided to skip out on that and move away from putting kids or you know to prek and things like that as a public education because if you mix government and education how is that that that relevant with this discussion I'm just saying is that we don't control it as being on the council we have no input on what they do we can't mandate anything and as for what they're going to do with that money I'm sure in their next budget they may have some they may have some faults on that but you as a tax would really want to know what they're going to do with that budget yes okay and I'm sure when they say it I'll know but at this moment as you mentioned it's coming right so I don't know what they're going to do with it yeah I'm not I'm not sure what who the target of the of the conversation is but Monday nights about I'll send you an email in the next meeting okay I believe it I believe it runs concurrent with the council meeting that is a problem no they used to run at 7:00 on Mondays don't they they do they uh they missed they missed one that they had uh but last uh last Monday they had one yeah okay I'd like to bring up a couple more things uh due to Changing Times and especially very dangerous situation that occurred last week in town I I I think we need to have a mechanism to know in units of two or more families who is residing in miltown so it's not to put our residents and our law enforcement at risk as as happened last week with the FBI rate um they don't tell the burrow or anybody um when they're going to do run an operation that's no no that's not what I'm talking about when when I'm saying that you have you have um legal or illegal two or more family homes in town there's got to be a way we can find people that are living in town that could be possibly could that could be possible like the person that they arrested last week the Z sir you say your issue is with single family homes being used as two family homes uh single or if they're legal or or two or more family homes that are legal but harboring fugitives harboring people like this I don't I mean certainly I don't know that anybody wants fugitives being harbored in the burrow but I'm not sure where how I mean well okay but a single family home with that that's split with um there's there's one close to me there are three three families living in a small single family home as long they occupy that home as a single housing unit as long as they act like a family they can all live there they're three different families you speak to the zoning off yeah that's it's a it's a zoning question as to how they occupy so okay okay all right one one last thing this is for for people in the dance and I'll say especially me because I'm I'm including myself if citizens entrusted us with their votes putting us on the stus we need to earn their votes every day the people that work for the burrow including the volunteers such as the fire department the rescue squad we need to earn their respect every day and we need to lead by example unselfishly every day and I'll start with me so I i' just like to thank the uh DPW workers Ralph and councilman pinski for cleaning up the uh the um burrow former burrow uh Public Works area and it with fishing season coming around it'll it'll be a quite a you know a nice place for kids to have more fishing area in town thank you thank you I have no comment thank you just to wish our residents a happy Easter this coming weekend I will second that motion happy Easter uh and got to tell you I enjoyed the several uh breakfasts that have been happening in the town I was uh pleased to enjoy some herois for breakfast which is not my standard uh a lot of good things happen in town and we are very lucky to uh just to have that and as I explained to my daughter this weekend because she was kind of like do we have to go and I'm like yes because all those things we do during the summer where there's a lot of great stuff Fourth of July is and all these good things they all stem from all these other good things that we go and don't need to with a little time a little money and just a little uh Happy appearance that comes back to us in this town and we thank our volunteers that do that amen like to say something else um I'd like to thank the department for inviting me to their dinner I neglected to thank them last time and I also like to thank our business administrator Fred car for being here and our municipal clerk Monica Orlando for being here thank you very much for what you do being dedicated professionals thank you at this time I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion made by councilman Collins second by counc any all in favor I I post thank you