##VIDEO ID:incnjX3iz9I## I e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] good evening I'd like to call the October 15 2024 burough council meeting to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 specifying the time date and location by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building Municipal website and providing a copy of the annual notice scheduled to the official newspaper of the burrow and is on file in the clerk's office bu the clerk please call the role council president rolinski here councilman Collins here councilman moo here councilman pans councilman Potter here councilman Zan Brana here mayor Murray present bough Attorney Peter venola pres burrow engineer Mike mlen pres burrow administrator Fred Carr pres B clerk Monica Orlando present okay will everyone please stand for a moment of silence which will be followed by the salute Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for stand na indivisible Now's the Time for public comment oh I'm sorry um we have uh meeting minutes for the September Clos session person that's right sorry I forgot session uh resolution will the clerk plee read please read resolution [Music] 20242 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 this public bodies of the opinion that such circumstances presently exists and whereas the governing body wishes to discuss personnel and whereas minutes 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 a resolve by the burrow Council of the bur of miltown County of middlex state of New Jersey that the public be excluded from the meeting May I have a motion a second please so moved second I have a motion made by councilman Potter seconded by councilman Collins um will clerk please call the rooll council president rinsky all councilman Collins hi councilman M hi councilman posnanski councilman Potter hi councilman Zam Brana I and just for the record Mr Mayor the uh Council may take action following this executive session okay we may take action there may be action Tak may be action we'll be back in 5 minutes over no we're going to go to the other room you guys y yeah we're going to go going we 88 Building right there e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we are back at 7 he's not ready all right we are back at 7:13 so we could read this resolution now I I think uh Mr Mayor I think due to from a practical perspective numbering and and your your trying to keep our agenda clean and need and orderly I think the request was that we would take action on that resolution following the consent agenda because those are already numbered is that correct corre M okay all right now is time for public comment limited to the resolutions on the agenda if you wish to speak please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record again his public portion is limited to the comments only on the resolutions listed on the agenda at this time just a reminder and that the rules of council individuals wish to speak during the public input part of the meeting shall be limited to 5 minutes after they after and may after other speakers have finished may be allowed to speak for a second five minute period good evening ladies and gentlemen Richard Ryan 67th Main Street I have um one question and a couple of quick points I'd like to make with regard to resolution 2024 284 and my first question is for the burrow attorney um I understand it says litigation and therefore the discussion will be quite limited um but just a matter of time frame I'm wondering if that resolution is for Ford Avenue Redevelopment it it is I mean technically there's no obligation that we identify which litigation but I see no issue with us okay so the question really is matter of housekeeping for myself um what the timeline is to um choose any option and forward that information back to Superior Court CU there there's a but currently it's in federal court so microphone please sorry currently that that matter is in federal court um and there is a judgment and there are certain actions that need to be taken I I don't represent the buau actively in that litigation um really that the agency is the plaintiff in that litigation I represent the burrow in in a small capacity as a tax lean holder um and ultimately if there is Money Paid and it proceeds I'll fight over how much money we get to get back um that being said I I do see some of the things that are being filed and I know there are extensions going forward I believe there is a settlement conference that is scheduled to occur on Halloween so um currently they're trying to see if there is a way to move forward with it and that's where it is and that's part of what's going to be discussed thank you very much for that information so uh with reference to that information I'd like to say to Mayor and Council that um some of you may have signed up for this and some of you may not have signed up for this but there's a very distinct possibility that um you're the last line of defense as it were as it pertains to development of Fort Avenue and to that point I would like to say that I would expect everybody to do their due diligence with regard to any negotiation you may have to take part in as far as that Redevelopment um I would say based on my own experiences that you shouldn't be afraid of certain language like payment in Li of taxes um if that's what it takes to move a project forward then that's what it takes hopefully you'll be in a position where you can negotiate a fair deal for the developer but also a fair deal for the residents in miltown and not give away the store um that's very important please don't lose sight of the fact that uh 25 years of work is behind this at this point and as I've said a couple times before over different issues I stand Here willing to pay my part if it's the proper deal um so think about it I ask about the timeline for that reason there may be time for you to consider and um you know maybe counter offer any offer you may have already have or one you will receive um but please by all means um consider it deeply and um hopefully you'll do the best for everybody involved thank you thank you maret donnal 89 CA Avenue I see on our agenda tonight that you are accepting the retirements of two valued employees Kathy Beardsley and Mike Kee big losses for um for the burrow and um just wanted to acknowledge since it's in the consent agenda and wouldn't be read uh separately that um I certainly personally appreciated their great work and um they will be missed seeing no other close audience comments the meeting minutes for September 23rd 2024 regular meeting are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or Corrections uh before you vote on them I just wanted to say that our CFO Joe his title is uh incorrectly written down as ba of South River instead of CF uh it's just a minuscule change that we made in the minutes um that'll be reflected as you vote on them are there any comments or Corrections besides that no can I have a motion to accept the minutes as type so move second have a motion by council president revolinsky seconded by councilman Collins all in favor I any opposed okay meeting minutes for September 23rd 2024 executive session are on the agenda for approval are there any comments or corrections may I have a motion to accept the minutes as typed so move second I have a motion made by council president rev Linsky seconded by councilman Potter all in favor I any opposed okay all right authorizing payment of min ipal obligations next on the agenda we have authorized payments of Municipal obligations will the clerk please read resolution by title resolution 202 24-27 to authorizing the payment of bills claims and statements against the bur of miltown at whole amount of $618,500 $.75 for uh Christopher Street do you know what that's about page five sir yeah page five believe it's five is that right it's that's being charged to the escrow account for the Christopher Street application so any review that he does any reports that he types we get a bill for that's not being charged to the burrow if you look that's being charged to the escrow count for Christopher Street okay thanks what you said uh may I have a motion in a second so moveed second I have a motion made by council president revolinski second by councilman Potter will the clerk please call the role council president revolinski all councilman Collins councilman moo councilman pansi councilman Potter councilman Zam br I a consent resolution has been prepared for the resolutions listed on the agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda or considered to be routine in nature and have been reviewed by the burrow Council will be enacted on 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 in a separate matter any items requiring expenditures are supported by certification of funds if any member M of council wants any resolution acted upon individually please give me the resolution number and it be pulled from the consent resolution yes Mr Mayor uh 275 yes Mr Mayor uh 279 same uh 283 no okay it okay will the clerk please read the consent agenda resolution minus 275 279 283 whereas pursuant to the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular special meeting upon certain conditions and where as each of the following resolutions to be presented before the burough council at its o October 15th 2024 meeting meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the borrow Council 2024-25 2024-25 through 278 2024 281 through 282 now therefore be resolved by the borrow Council of the Bor of miltown that each of the above listed resolutions be adopted be approved and adopted by the burrow council with the same legal effect as though each was read its entirety at the October 15 2024 meeting and adopted by separate vote you heard the reading of the consent resolution with your pleasure move that this resolution be adopted second I have a motion made by council president rinsky second by councilman Potter will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski councilman Collins councilman MCO councilman posnanski councilman Potter I councilman Zen Brana I will the clerk please read resolution 2024 275 by title 2024-25 authorizing Engineering Services DPW site remedial action CME Associates not to exceed $24,500 was your pleasure councel move the resolution be adopted motion made by councilman Collins do we have a second second seconded by councilman Potter uh any discussion please um Mr mclen as this pertains to Engineering Services provided by CME I was wondering if you could elaborate on the conditions over at 50 Washington Avenue considering um as far as I know which is stated in some of the backup documents here 39 Washington has been cleaned up and finalized yeah I'm glad you asked because it's kind of a a windwind from miltown um it may be 30 years ago we pulled the tanks from public works on 39 washing and uh there was groundwater contamination from who knows where but when the testing was done uh one way of correcting it would be to do what's called pump and treat the burough governing body at the time elected to go to what they call Natural attenuation and is over the 30 years uh testing has shown that the groundw has cleared up so the first part of this authorization is to go through an issue really without getting into DP fancy terms I'd say just the final wrap up and getting it closed out that's part of it second part is across the street at the new public so during construction and during the initial work there contamination was found over there and the rest of this is the auth the bulk of it is to go through and clean that up also so when I say clean up I mean basically submit the uh paperwork this reports to go through and put that to bed also for natural attenuation no the uh cleanup was done over there so this is basically called the our Action Report the DP and now I'd like to tell you that's going to end I can never tell you that because it takes there's an example 30 years to get the one over here done so we think it's going to be the end but I just uh cautioned that there could be some more necessary studies Buck of this is really testing and Drilling and things like that sometimes testing results so it's not engineering so the we didn't close that out during the construction once we did the clean up the doesn't send someone out to verify that everything's cleaned up accordingly and properly remember you you hired an lsrp which called a license site remedial professional they are really sort of um the best way to explain it they're uh activated as part and arm of the D so it takes years sometimes to get these care completed so it's not as if it wasn't done everything was done all they need now as the final report final report goes in and they may ask questions that's why I caution you that this may not be the end we think it's the end so 24,500 for a final report no it's it's not only report it's two close out the tank here didn't we pay for that one last year no you didn't this every as I said problem with these environmental issues is they go in phases you do one part then they review it then they ask for another part and it goes on and on and on unfortunately so you know these are un you know we can't control these things this is the D asking different different and additional things as time goes on so this 24,500 covers off in perpetuity for any additional reports I I hope it doesn't I would like to tell you if you just say yes I'll vote Yes I can tell you for sure it's going to end this one and I'm 99% sure it's going to end the one over there it's going to end this one over here yeah cuz in your in your uh page three here it says Redevelopment of this site for alternative use could trigger requirements for further remediation that's not part of the proposal that that's in there to to point out that all this is only for the tank removals okay in other words if they drw somewhere else and they find something we're responsible well if you decide to do something with that property over there this particular document doesn't exclude you from further investigations I see D likes to keep the door open that's right and even though they they designate these lsrps Unfortunately they don't always take their advice I've got nothing more thank you King so you think we could move on with taking a building down and what would we have to put a grass seat over there or well it's it's that's a separate that's a whole separ councilman that's a whole separate conversation that's right right exct but we got to get to that conversation somehow well okay I think this goes a long way though this took 30 years to have been correct and I think it's to your advantage You' have spent tens of thousands of dollars to have a pump and treat operation over there and the early governing bodies had made those decisions um and uh uh it it worked out thanks Mike okay that's it no more questions with that will uh clerk please call the role council president rolinski Hi councilman Collins hi councilman M councilman pansy hi councilman Potter hi councilman Zen Brana hi will the clerk please read resolution 202 4279 by title accepting resignation of burrow employees what's a pleasure councel move that this resolution be adopted second uh motion made by council president rinsky second by councilman Potter is there any comments yes Council um there have been recent uh resignations to that I'm thinking of have there been exit interviews and if not why not not to my knowledge is there any reason I I don't have an answer for that usually the uh exit interviews will be conducted by our ba and possibly if present the uh labor attorney okay so I don't know if these folks were uh offered that opportunity and respectfully declined or or what the situation but this uh this resolution was comes as a recommendation of our labor attorney to uh to formalize that when someone's no longer in the employee of the burrow such that if in the future there's any ambiguity as to pension payments or retirement funds owed or when health benefits terminated or start um this solidifies it officially since we hire them by resolution we should be accepting the resignations by resolution as well I'm just a little concerned there's a large amount of people on here I think it's what 16 or something on here that's a lot of people we this has not never happened in miltown before is it the market or is it a combination of things no the if I were to to throw a dart at the wall I would say a lot of it has to do with pay councilman did you uh councilman Collins did you receive the email from Monica from this morning showing all the letters or the notices of the separations individuals indicated why they were leaving the borrow yeah I just I just got a this afternoon tonight Fred it's right here and you got a hard copy correct right I just I don't know I just consider you know the cost involves hiring new people is you know expensive and for the residents too yes sir so yes there are we have had significant turnover uh especially in finance if you look at the at the list you know we had we blew through four CFOs in 90 days uh We've now lost the qpa some other key employees have left uh and to go on councilman rinsky's comments about I'm not sure about the labor attorney we didn't really talk to her about that but Monica and I spent a lot of time this year Council in this year you know going back trying to back dat uh Civil Service the camps folder I get petitions from pensions I get from Unemployment uh people continue then go back to their personnel file and we have no idea when this individual left uh you can't take somebody off a civil service unless you can put a date in there you make up a date but it's not correct uh because it goes to their pension it goes to when they get hired again in another Community especially for pensions when somebody applies for retirement and I'm trying to duplicate his time here in the burrow from 15 or 20 years years ago before they transferred to another municipality or they went to a County uh you know we're talking about somebody's pension talking about somebody's money because we don't have a record of when they actually left and so we're trying to trying to correct that with this okay okay thanks FR so I got a question like it shouldn't this information to me this is like a big bookkeeping um move which is fine but isn't a lot of this information in our pay payroll records in our payroll system or not maybe I'm assuming that so they would have in the payroll system if remember that we've gone to Prime point and we were at uh we I think we're in ADP before and those you know those records don't exist all right but right now in the you know it would be in the payroll system but the resolution is cleaner you take the resolution you put it in the folder and then it's done other than digging back into the payroll system looking for when the person actually left cuz remember when they left it may not be the day that they left the payroll system May pay them vacation days May pay them terminal leave and that's not the day of their last service here in the burough no I get it okay so the resolution is clean it's not about the pay you know it says they left on such and such date not what not what the day was of their last check so our labor attorney uh recommended that we put this together no we did this on our own we had this we did this for the one gentleman who left on a retirement not on retirement I had a separation agreement at the beginning of the year remember that gentleman left right and then in our conversations with uh Jerry and other people trying to put this stuff together we came up with this as an idea okay but we wrote These res these resol this resolution came out of the clerk's office not from the labor attorney so why is council member rinsky saying talked to the labor attorney and she probably mentioned that previously but I have not talked to her in weeks okay so I wouldn't know when I spoke to the labor attorney about some of the turnover we've had we talked about exit interview she had recommended this to me as well she said it's good practice to always accept the resignations either whether someone's quitting or retiring through formal resolution yeah I can't account for how they handle it in the past but now when somebody leaves I take the file from Finance I take my personnel file in the clerk's office I combine them I put their separation date but the problem that we're having is if I'm not here in the future Fred's not here in the future the people who follow us being able to find it and not going through the man hours that we're putting into trying to figure out when people left and why they left so this is just a uh to make it easier going forward correct seeing no further comments will the clerk please call the rooll council president revolinsky councilman Collins councilman moo hi councilman panski councilman Potter hi coun z bar I will the clerk please read resolution 2024 283 by title authorizing Award of contract understate contract 20- T t- 01510 spatial data logic D marketing LP not to exceed 26,600 what a pleasure Council move the resolution be adopted second a motion made by councilman Collins second by councilman Potter uh is there any comments yes I just the only question I had is is this is for spatial data software so is this for one department or is this for the entire borrow and who's mainly going to use this software what is this going to do for the borrow so this is the permit system in construction okay we have an Antiquated system up in uh in uh in in construction a lot of paper uh this will allow us to digitize a lot of those building files wonderful up up in the U so if you went up to construction and you looked at their boxes and boxes of files uh Beth uh to her credit Nvidia and and the rest of them you know they're confronted with um councilman if you will plastic tubs yep of permits I've seen that when the pits when they came in they just got thrown in a tub yep what should happen as we move forward is that when somebody pulls up the block lot for let's say 39 Washington every permit every file by that in this here is right there online we can find out when the last time the plumbing was inspected when the time all that kind of stuff is done beautiful we'll eventually be able to integrate other functions in in the sdl but right now it's predominantly for the construction permits and the property maintenance portion again tied to the block and lot beautiful um this was in the budget y it's taken us excuse me some months to get to this point we were going through uh to get it through the system and went through attorney review then we lost the qpa then we had to go back to to the state get it under a state contract uh you know after we lost the qpa so we lost some some time in that now it's under State contract so we don't have to worry about all that bid threshold and stuff like that I'm I'm glad to see that this is something that we're moving forward on this is this is something that the former ba and CFO and finance had talked about last year uh too much paper need to digitize uh and you need to get into the 21st century so yes sir thank you do you know what the life of the software is Fred what the what the life of the software yeah how long is this going to last these this is this like Edmonds the software that we have in uh for finance here it's been around a long time it does a very good job gov pilot is is competition I hate Dove pilot that's my personal opinion not anything different but it's just a type of management software for blocks and lots and you know there are updates available you know they'll they'll update it like Edmunds or like your Microsoft at home or your word you know as they get through different iterations it's it's it's not like a hardware project where Hardware where five years of computer dies you have to buy a new one there is an annual maintenance fee I'm not sure if that's what you were asking that was my next question you're way ahead there is so the if you look at the proposal it's like the 5500 or something like that you pay you pay to renew the licenses this 266 is a one time to bring it in get it set up import everything train train um and then I was actually when I because I had to reach out to them to go under State contract because we lost the qpa and when I spoke to them usually it's only an annual contract but I was able to get them to agree to include the last two months of this year in the price for free so the contract doesn't end until the end of 2025 and then that's when we'll have to renew and the five licenses I think it's like 5,500 or whatever it is in the in the proposal right okay thanks so that'll be an annual so Fred I have another question that that just came out to me so um when you talk about um transition are you taking all the history and bringing it over or you just going from like day one and moving forward so up in construction so the intent is that all that paper is going to be inputed into this software beautiful as they move forward into big you know as they take those big PL I tubs of paper to then scan it into the block and lock files for those different pie for those different files okay so there'll be you know some of that will be out there but it'll be mostly digitized the the important part that this does for everybody is that the inspectors yes okay if they're out on the DAT or Marty's out there or somebody's out there and they pull up the file they have the documentation right there online on a on a tablet on a tablet or something like that other than going back with notes digging into the paper finding out if the paper was there they can pull right up and do it beautiful thank you all right will the clerk please call the RO council president revolinski Hi councilman Comm councilman moo I councilman pansy councilman Potter I councilman Z BR I will the clerk please read resolution 2024-25 by title it's going to be 28 4 285 it's going to be 2858 executive session again unless you're switching that one I was there yeah the executive session was going to be renumbered to 285 just keep it consistent resolution of the burrow of Midtown County of middle sex state of New Jersey authorizing a Personnel action what your pleasure Council move that this resolution be adopted second the motion made by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Potter is there any comments any discussion all right will the clerk please call the rooll council president rolinski councilman con councilman moo councilman posnanski councilman Potter councilman Zen Brana hi all right we have reports uh council president rinsky thank you Mr Mayor um on October 10th uh we had a finance meeting scheduled unfortunately due to some conflicts only myself and their CFO were able to attend um have a meeting some early numbers here uh budget transfer uh discussion for folks who don't know uh we're allowed to transfer monies from one department or one budget item to a different budget uh budget item in November um so we're looking to introduce that resolution at the meeting in uh the second meeting in October so that those funds can be transferred expeditiously um it doesn't mean an increase it's just moving money from one one account to the other uh we looked at the preliminary budget for 2025 um I did not talk to the department heads yet for those uh this was just basically across the board for uh salary increases uh capital outlay and things like that um one of the biggest impacts to the 2025 buget budget would be uh health benefits uh health benefits from the state are likely to go up 16.2% so unless we shop elsewhere our costs on health benefits are going to go up about $120,000 we also have the money from the middle sex County GIF of which we are no longer a part of um and it's likely that uh they'll adopt on the 24th but uh we're estimating somewhere around $50,000 additional so right there is$ 170,000 uh 1% of the Burrow's budget is $70,000 so when we say a half a percent that's $ 35,000 so right there we are over 2% increase just between health benefits and increased cost to the GIF of which we're no longer a part of uh one of the other things we talked about is getting off the drugs some of you might remember this discussion from years ago how the burrow takes money from Electric and helps balance our budget in 2022 that amount was uh $1,195,000 in 23 uh that was 1,175 th000 I'm sorry uh 23 and 24 uh and so next year we're hoping that we only take a million out of that because we've got a $1.1 million increase and electric coming which led us to topic two by the end of the year next year we have to have an additional let me just find the uh the correct number here bear with me I believe it's around $675,000 um in electric that we need to raise which comes to about a 15% increase um that rate increase would start well we start having to pay the money on electricity used in June but to lighten the blow I would recommend doing the rate increase now so that it's not as catastrophic um if you were watching the council meeting before this uh we talked at at length about the increased cost of electricity and that in 2026 those are expected to go up even further and lastly we started to touch on some of the water sewer issues um thank goodness there was not a sunset clause in the uh in the June increase for that $150 per per meter because that will add about another $350,000 to the budget however starting with January 1st usage it's anticipated we will still need an additional $588,000 to cover costs for the rest of 2025 I strongly encourage members of the finance committee to make every effort to come to a meeting because time is a wasting and the longer we wait the greater percentage increase will be because the numbers don't change much and uh I know I'm supposed to report on Fort Avenue but I will let our burrow attorney do that just simply because I don't want to put my foot in my mouth and say too much I'll pick it up when I'm to speak council president thank you and that concludes my report thank you councilman Collins thank you Mr Mayor miltown electric Department numerous street lights were repaired and replaced line clearance was performed in several areas Violet Terrace near the senior building was very overgrown extensive trimming was performed department members took a down on Williams Street that was in the wires a pole was struck in a wooded area on on the turnpike repairs were made after the Digger Derek truck is repaired two large dying trees were removed on South Main near Hill Street several drops were replaced on several homes which had overgrown service changes a porcelain cut out and lighting arrester was replaced on a pole on Garber Avenue tree trimming was done at the park on East Joffrey Avenue East Joffrey oh several electric meters were replaced in department members assisted the agility billing department in rereads and billing inquiries low hanging phone lines and cable lines were removed in several locations exterior lighting repairs were performed at the municipal building uh water utility department along with the daily work and daily pump checks the Water and Sewer Department has the following report replac broken water valve on Desmond replaced fire Hydra on Leonard repairs are made to Cutter blades on Church Street pump hydr flushing will start 10:15 from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily until all hydrant have been flushed and uh that's today that concludes my report Mr Mayor thank you councilman manov uh so regarding the Recreation Department um registration is open for late fall soccer clinics the programs run for 4 weeks they start 11:14 and is being held at Park View uh school gym uh the rec department would also like to thank everyone who attended the 911 Candlelight remembrance service it was a very touching night uh all Youth and adult programs have had really strong numbers and are having good Seasons our rec department uh continues to be very strong in in this town um the rec department also would like to thank everyone for coming out on miltown day despite the inclement weather there was a great turnout and they look forward to next year the adult co-ed softball league uh has six teams this season and they're preparing for the big championship game which will be held on Wednesday October 23rd which is next week on the musical theater and creative movement classes are working hard uh they're learning songs from Beauty and the Beast and and preparing for their mini production uh that will take place on Tuesday November 19th um regarding the library October 16th there'll be a dropin craft and it is a Halloween themed bathcraft at 11:00 a.m. and an after school movie MAA at 3 p.m. uh featuring Hocus Pocus there will be a house plant swap on Saturday October 19th from 12:00 to 2: p.m. uh there will be an adult yoga on Monday October 21st at 9:15 registration is required on October 21st from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. children are invited to come to the library and choose a costume for Halloween they do have some adult costumes as well um while supplies last uh it's really nice they're doing an exchange you can turn in your old costumes as kids grow out of them and pass them along uh also on Monday the 21st there will be a historical fiction author Janice Robinson Daily a presentation and discussion Tuesday October 22nd spooky Bingo and pizza at 6 p.m. Pizza donated by D Sal Wednesday October 23rd drop in play starting at 10:30 until 12:30 p.m. also on Wednesday October 23rd an after school movie mattin Halloween themed 3 p.m. Goosebumps 2 haunted Halloween Thursday October 24th craft corner and spooky treats at 3 p.m. Saturday October 26th there is a fall Harvest event featuring a touch of trunk games pumpkins and snacks there's also be a pumpkin pie contest if you're interested in entering your pumpkin pie please call the library at 732 247 2270 Monday October 28th at 6 p.m. a library book club uh featuring Agatha Chris's and then there were none books are available at the library for checkout uh they now have two delivery services the little learner uh library delivery and limited Mobility individuals delivery service please call the library for details um it does seem the uh the library moving forward in the future with a what is often termed a library of things where they might have articles to loan and uh send out so where to come thank you thank you councilman pansy sure good evening I'm going to start with the uh DPW reports they've installed base for the new shed at the library replaced curb and gutters on Highland Drive the shred day was a big success and leaf bags were available Monday through Friday 8:30 to 3:00 and I also hope the residents are happy with the road the road work that is completed uh from all of Main Street to Highland Drive and and some other areas also um for the senior center the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission will have a mobile unit located in the back of miltown senior center on October 17th from 9: till 2 p.m. for more information please call 6092926500 or contact njmvc.gov we have several bus trips planned in October these include mommoth kitchen alies the shrimp box and Point Pleasant Cracker Barrel the Amish Market heart of Europe and Camillo please check the calendar for days and times please remember to register as soon as possible as the bus can only fit 10 people as with any activities events please sign up on the bulleon board at the senior center or contact Debbie cudy at miltown bu.com we'll also have presentation on breast cancer awareness on Thursday October 24th at 12 12:30 p.m. presented by right atome agency after the presentation there will be a rock painting and other crafts events event if you're interested please sign up on the bulletin board also the uh air conditioning unit someone had brought up last at the last meeting uh the part is on is still on order it was ordered August 22nd and uh Riley is doing the work when the part comes in it should be here any day and uh for Mr miltown historic preservation committee I have received no updates and this Con concludes my report thank you councilman fter thank you Mr Mayor from the miltown police department for the month of September the police responded to 1,290 calls for service during this period the police conducted 98 radar details in numerous locations made 463 motor vehicle stops and investigated 14 motor vehicle accidents eight separate shoplifting arrests were made congratulations to patrolman Thomas marello who received a letter of accommodation on September 27th for the following actions on Thursday September 26th patrolman marello responded to an active car fire near the quickmart store in people's Plaza when patrolman mariello arrived he found a parked vehicle with the fire burning in the trunk patrolman marello took a fire extinguisher from his patrol car and was able to quickly put the fire out his quick action save the vehicle from further damage and stop the spread of the fire to any other property on behalf of the burough Council we thank uh patrolman marello for his efforts and congratulate him on the well-deserved accommodation Community involvement is crucial in maintaining a more secure environment we strongly encourage you to assist us by reporting any suspicious persons vehicles or incidents that you may come across our non-emergency line is 732 82810 in case of emergencies always dial 911 concerns can also be submitted through the official burrow website under the report of concern tab to note for accurate and re reliable information please contact the miltown police department directly do not rely on social media as the information shared there can often be incorrect or misleading together we can make our community a safer place thank you for your continued support from the miltown fire department there were a total of 30 incidents for the month of September which include 15 fire calls four drills one meeting six special assignments and four-week work details on September 29th six members of the miltown fire department participated in the tunnels the towers 5K run and raised $1,650 for the foundation thank you to the the following member participants Jen Gert Henry Chang Adam Young Randy Randy mcau Phil Palmer and miltown fire department photographer Rudy Peter members are needed candidates that are interested in joining the miltown fire department are encouraged to stop down the firehouse on Monday evenings at 6:30 or email join miltown fire gmail.com from the miltown rescue squad in September a total of 101 service calls were recorded year to date the cumulative number of service calls stands at 860 the squad had a great time at mtown day and looks forward to seeing everyone at the libraries fall festival and trunk Retreat on October 26th and the squad will begin accepting applications for our winter onboarding process anyone who's is interested in learning about joining the rescue squad or becoming an EMT should email recruitment Milltown rescu squad. org to learn more application for January 2025 need to be submitted by December 10th and we're happy to answer any questions and finally from the miltown 4th of July save the date the miltown 4th of July committee invites you to join us on Saturday March 22nd at the American Legion Post 25 for our annual celebrity bartender event get ready for an exciting evening as we bring together familiar faces behind the bar and all in support for our beloved community's 4th of July celebration mark your calendar ERS and stay tuned for more details we can't wait to see you there for a night filled with fun and Community spirit and Mr Mayor that concludes my report thank you councilman Zen Brandon yes thank you uh Mr Mayor uh my first report is from the environmental commission uh our next meeting is Wednesday uh tentatively scheduled for Wednesday October 30th via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. and one of the topics of discussion will be uh moving forward with the uh the community uh energy plan that was awarded to the burrow uh my Board of Health meeting the last meeting was in person on September 24th uh at 6:30 p.m. in the round room in the back uh all reports were provided uh through August and September at that time um and I'd like to read uh just a quick summary Just To Tell You Folks um in total um year to date through September the number of birds in miltown is 60 uh the number of deaths of 46 number of marriages of 23 number of remarriages were 10 dog licenses year-to date this is a big number 326 uh cat licenses six and uh year-to dat animal bites only three next Board of Health meeting will be scheduled in November I believe it's the 25th uh it'll be at 6:30 p.m. and it will be in person in the round room revitalization committee um I'd like to thank everyone that took the time out to come to miltown day uh on on the 28th Saturday the 28th uh although we did have plenty of liquid sunshine shine um it was very good to see how many people actually showed up um and supported all of the vendors that were there um I'd like to thank all the folks who volunteered to support and water the Main Street planners which is basically where the net proceeds of miltown day uh goes to support the planners on uh on Main Street um like to thank the the following revitalization committee members um for all their hard work and uh planning this year to make uh miltown uh day a success uh those folks are in order R freed Dave arinc James Peretti bunny jascot Sue wand and our committee chair Andrea Vander who actually Keeps Us on tasks and make sure that we have a successful year every year uh of course uh miltown day doesn't happen uh without the great support of our DPW Department Ralph and his crew uh our Police Department uh Chief Johnson our fire department uh Chief jolly and his assistant Chiefs and of course our Rescue Squad folks um espec shout out to Kim McGrath our Recreation director uh for the great support um with um putting through registrations and sponsorships uh mostly through Community path but sometimes not and making sure that she interfaced with Finance to make sure that uh all funds were deposited another special shout out to the municipal clerk's office Mary and Monica for helping with the food licenses especially those that came in the day before um and lastly but not last uh last but not least is our human Relations Committee uh our last meeting was on Tuesday uh October 1st via Zoom um we're looking into grant opportunities or funding opportunities align with the hrc's goals and uh that could facilitate some collaboration with other committee with other burough committees uh at at our next meeting and um our next meeting is actually scheduled for the first Tuesday of November which is election day so that's probably not going to happen we'll talk about maybe making that that Thursday of that week if that works and that uh completes my uh concludes my reports thank you thank you um for Attorney Peter venol uh just to touch on what council president revolinski said uh Ford Avenue uh is currently still in litigation despite the fact that a judgment has been entered on the value of the property and because of that I have very limited information to give because it is a fluid situation and it is litigation and um there is a settlement conference scheduled for the end of the month so that's kind of where we stand thank you Mr M yes Mr we have uh one interview tonight if you remember your last meeting we discussed uh attempting to see what is available relative to water beater installation project for the burough we're pleased to report that we did find a active Co-op where uh Co-op is uh uh already established at the state level to uh install meters there's some uh details we have to work out which we'll be sending some information administrator working with your Chief Financial Officer hopefully by your next meeting report back as to where we are financially uh but basically this Co-op would allow you to purchase meters and install them throughout the burrow and activate the meters that you already have and install meters you've already purchased and all at one time so somewhere in a million million a half dollars uh we have talked to the uh funding agency which is through DCA you have uh uh $2 million and it would be covered under that Grant uh we'll confirm all that with them and work with Fred again uh hopefully by next meeting help provide provide some information the one issue we do have is this Co-op ends November 13th so we'd have to get it activated so um that's going to be a little bit tough lift if you have to introduce an ordinance but we will uh get back to you by your next meeting and let you know what to do okay thank you that's all we have business administrator bre CL uh mayor I have uh only one item I sent an email out previously to the council whether or not you've seen it uh formerly requesting that the council consider a date change for the December Council meetings we have a two meeting scheduled in December the 9th and the 23rd that meeting of the 23rd is a Monday it's the Monday before uh Christmas and H and Christmas Eve I'd ask the council consider going to one meeting in December that would be the December the 16th and all I would need is for the council to make a motion in a second and vote on it if they so desire and then off we go and that is all I have C nobody's gonna oh we need to make the motion to it now no no you have to do it immediately but I can't take action without Council AC yeah we'll have to special Noti it and everything else okay yeah I just that was a request from my stand if the council is okay with it then somebody would make a motion sometime down the line and then second it and vote on it and I have no report okay any old business does any member of any Council of the council have any old business to bring before Council I do I do I have I have three items um I'm going to discuss the water rates and the rise in water rates my opinion the past administration because of fiduciary responsibilities should have disclosed that because of Co supplementary funds were artificially suppressing your two cost of water usage when these funds are exhausted however your rates will necessarily rise this is where we are now we have no federal help to cover the true rates the cost to miltown from New Brunswick where the water comes from has risen 3 and a half% this year and for the next four years for our contract this is after no increases for at least five years and um um Mr car this is for you um you're well versed in in budgets I have some questions for you this is not about you please do not be offended as I do not mean to offend you I have three issues here the first is the paying out out of the the former the original baac CFO almost $50,000 to walk away with no transition period which has had a major impact affecting my first year on Counsel is that problem two the use of Supply Clooney for most of the Year costing many tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars this is because of turn turnover in the finance personnel and also the mediation issue that had a beginning until very recently seemingly no end costing again many thousands of taxpayer dollars we received no updates no accounting for the time or taxpayer dollar spent there are other issues um but I will not bring up tonight um Mr Carr I'm not really looking for an answer from you I have my own I'm a gatekeeper here um some people may think that money grows on trees I do not lastly on this I I would like to speak about the American flag I believe there's a misconception by groups of people that the flag does not represent them because it stands for an exclusionary government the truth is that the flag stands for the people each one of us individually and United it is uniquely us it does not stand for government it is ours it is inclusionary it means we support our neighbors brothers sisters friends and family it stands for those Americans that came before us and those that will come after us it doesn't stand for government which could become tyrannical the flag stands for us United citizens like all of these great Americans helping the storm ravage South we should be proud of our heritage and fly the American flag proudly as often as we can I'll stop saying this when other countries decide to step up and help America when we are in need councilman I if I may mayor uh I'll I'll address only one point uh the payout to my predecessor um the B administrator works at the pleasure of the governing body sometimes I was told that it's the pleasure of the governing body that they not work for a governing body at that time sir those payouts that three-month of salary is set by State Statute I and you cannot do anything about it uh the lack of transition uh in the in that office was a result of the council terminating my predecessor and then I showed up three days later uh that's just the math of it uh this that's not a personal opinion that's the math sure it would have been easier but it wasn't and we just deal with it the transactions or the transitions in finance we just have to come in every day uh fight the fight and then go home I appreciate that again this is no personal against me I know that but I just thought I could answer the first question Supply Clooney the legal bills all the rest of that those are all public record they're all in the bill list as the council has often requested copies of the bill list and and the tabs we have that all and in fact those on those bills that come from the attorney um they call him Peter because he's right there you know that tells you exactly what he's doing for his money I understand thank you thank you sir uh other old business what are we doing with the schwendeman cabin we've got I'm sorry microphone thank you is that better you took away my thunder we've got what around $95,000 left minus the architect fee so I'm guessing we're somewhere around $888,000 left no sir the county if you check your emails County did not pay back for the architect because it's not based on the original agreement we made with the council uh the county back in 2016 there was a scope of work which I included in that email said we're going to do five or six things that were delineated based on the budget back in 2016 I think that's yeah yeah 2016 maybe it was uh when I submitted that that invoice for the architect to the county they said this is not part of your scope of work so we have eaten that number I would probably say at the end of the day we still have about $100,000 in that budget line but again it's a reimbursable grant so if we were to spend any money on the Schwan cabin we have to pay it up front and then get reimbursed MH I will say last year when we went down this path with the architect I was told by your predecessor that the county was going to reimburse that that she had contacted them and uh and they were going to reimburse it but obviously were but we changed the between the time that we neither here nor there so we changed we changed the scope of work for the architect between June when we originally hired him because I went back and looked into what he actually did that that scope of war council president changed which then he was not evaluating it for the use as a public space he was valuating it to see where we are today and that changed the scope of work in the eyes of the county splitting hairs okay um the question remains what are we doing everyone wants to save the cabin and not admit that it's going to need a tremendous amount of money I drove by it today I see a ton of overgrowth which is clearly when the leaves are going to fall you'll see a cabin again for through something other than just the driveway um um it would be my recommendation that we spend some money now to clean up the grounds over the wintertime so that it doesn't grow back to be a complete mess in the spring and at least we're making some progress to start determine what to do because I don't think we're going to get any demolition or reconstruction or anything of tremendous value out of what we have for that $100,000 um originally we looked at this two or three years ago uh Ralph had gotten some quotes to redo the roof the deck and the windows was $888,000 and that was just for the roof deck and windows now obviously the deck probably wouldn't be needed but you know the we should probably move forward with doing something or else you know what what cost a dollar today is going to cost $2 tomorrow might as well make some progress second on Old business um um we didn't adopt the water rates at uh at the last meeting or I should say before October so the rates that were in effect in June remain in effect for water consumption through December if anybody wants to address the elephant in the room being the cost of water and the increased cost of operation I really suggest doing so expeditiously before December because it needs to be introduced and adopted before January 1st in order to Bill January 1st consumption at those new rates for May regarding the swmen I agree that we need to do something I even think we uh think we need to start looking at taking the building down if that is part of the skill reimbursable under that Grant it does worry me that from the initial presentation of that $100,000 in 2016 however you want to figure out your math of inflation we probably had $20,000 more to work with had we done something then and every year that this conversation comes up and every year that nothing happens that money loses a minimum of 3% with standard inflation and uh I'm all for moving forward clearing it turning it into something whether it has a building in it or not is rather inconsequential the buildings that are there don't seem to they don't seem to be big enough or updated enough to be useful for the purposes that I've heard and if nothing else a clear space is probably better in the long term certainly the long-term idea of safety and upkeep just to keep just to keep it safe enough for us to not have action is slowly and surely going to cost us 10 15 grand a year over the next 5 years 10 years um we need to figure something out a high cost of in action so we can if I may councilman if you're referring back to my additional email about the cabin and and the non-real bur of the architect we can change that scope of work okay we initially said we're going to do a number of items and we enumerated them we put a dollar amount on it back in the day after the sub you know there was a conversation about the schwinderman subcommittee if you will okay or the group of members we're going to talk about moving forward if that desire of the council is to change that scope of work to get then to to eventually be reimbursed then we can petition we should put our thoughts together get it to the county and say look we were originally going to do this now I would like to do this okay and then have request a change of that scope of work right I'll just use example not to be drawn and quartered but let's just say it was we decide to knock it down do it and we're going to take that money and repurpose it for demolition that's a change in the scope of work if the county approves that they'll pay for it if they don't they don't but we you know if we're going to do something different than that original agreed upon scope of work 2016 we need to come online and tell the county this is what we want to do or we will not be reimbursed that's just that's just the math com that's just the math I'm not talking about you know visions and what we wanted to do I'm just talking about you want our money back either we stated a scope of work but we change it is the council have any generic opinion about about doing that about petitioning the county to change the co scope of work I mean I I would say that we need a consensus on what's to be done there I think you know everything I've heard is tur it into a nature center which you know can be anything think from the manisan reservoir if you've ever been down there beautiful to a log cabin in the woods that's one room that even if you were to hold clad trips you'd probably have five kids in there at one time with the rest standing around so I think it it behooves us to at least get some clarity but also understand what we can spend some monies on because I was also informed last year that you know even cleaning up the grounds Landscaping wise improving the area the walking area around the pond fund removing the uh existing fencing would be considered facility improvements which would fall under the grant monies so again you know maybe we don't touch the building for a little while and clean up the ground so that we can start generating some more ideas but you know we we've had this grant since 2016 we're going on eight years and nothing's been done and nobody's put pen to paper um I I know when mayor May was here um she had made it pretty clear that uh this is now a burrow facility so really it falls under the DPW to oversee the maintenance and protection of this building um that's not to say that only DPW can come up with ideas but at least that would be the realm if if we were to have it with fall within a specific Department um again so you know I'm not I'm not going to be here next year just saying I would either you know drop and flush or move on so if I may want want Fred um if I can get your help on some of this as well why we take take a look at the scope of work I I'll take the lead on taking the scope of work and transfer it into an A change order for want of a better word uh scope of work um maybe get some feedback from the folks of the environmental commission um keeping keeping their you know options you know not it's not going to be a nature center I get it um but I'd be interested in when when you talk about demolition are we talking about the entire site are we we're talking about the attachment to the law gab councilman those are all great ideas but you know in the 11 months I've been here you know you can't go out for bid with a piece of paper that says build Nature Center no no I'm not saying we got to have I got to have specifics and we have to have the council have a consensus if environment Commission or the council or the count you know talk about the subcommittee of the council somebody bring back to the council get a consensus on how we want to move forward on the cabin and if knocking it down is not an option that's okay yeah yeah just we need some guidance to go back and say we're going to do this or we're not going to do that road map a road map yeah got it the Collins it's like the Public Works garage over there without specific task that we can bid out we can't do a thing the RFP that was put out last year prior to Fred and I arriving here was for a public meeting space and that's what was awarded to that architect and then that whole scope somehow got changed and that's why we're where we are now realistically to do anything there's a very small budget a real budget would be bonding would would would be having a bond for for a larger amount of money where you can have have what what you may desire and my opinion it's not realistic to bond we we we we handled the the majority of people in town would the majority of people want something done there I mean I think of say people at the senior center struggling families do do they want this cabin redone aside from the the the family and followers or or or or friends um I don't believe this makes sense it's it's going to be very expensive anybody who doesn't think so they they need to look into it realistically look into uh to to to uh work on your own home if you're going to do an addition on your own home uh you look at the grounds I mean it's a Wetlands um there's a lot of negatives to it it it it can be a great Park not necessarily with the structure there again councilman I agree with what you're saying from a math standpoint but it requires an enumeration of what the council wants to do okay can't go out for bid can't get an estimate from the engine from the architect unless he's down there with with a with a Clear Vision and a clear task of when he comes back to the council and says here's how you know I've done my homework and here's what it's going to cost you to rehabilitate this building to a public meeting space laundry list and I think if you read that report he's talking like you alluded to over a million dollars just to start so what you're saying is we should turn this back to the DPW and let them you know determine what Falls where DPW Ralph doesn't want the building I mean he's not here but oh I mean that's who said he's going to maintain it so well he's there currently working on it now I mean councilman revolusi talked about you know getting you know Ralph having trying to get how much is going to cost for Windows how much going to cost to fix the roof things like that just getting some ballpark estimate figures but at the end of the day this is a public contract all right if we have somebody come in to fix the roof okay we're going to need more than one quote going to need two or three quotes or so two people are walk away if you get somebody to come in and do windows you're going to have to get somebody to come in and say I'll fix the windows for x amount of money quote and then probably two or three more since we all know that if you fix Windows in your house you can't buy Windows you know cheaply and there's a lot of Windows I walked around the cabin I looked at it I mean I saw nice nice old building and a lot of lot of bullfrogs in the pond you know but we have to come up with a vision that's what I'm saying please for Ralph and I and all of us decide what you want to do articulate that vision so that we can then either move forward or not when can we do that I I can vote right now so I would like I would like to now comment since I was heavily involved with it since the beginning um so we've had one of three Eco Scout projects that cost a burrow 0 to have a lot of work done there and we we installed all new split rail fence around the pond we secur that we did a lot of work removing bamboo and everything else around the facility uh and then the scouts were told they were no longer permitted to do anything on the property and that's been going on for years so I think instead of just saying you got to put your hand out for everything there's other options there's other groups there's other communities that have similar situations with uh facilities that they own or they that um burrow burrow owned uh facilities uh just like I know South River uh just donated uh a a facility or somebody donated a facility to the Girl Scouts uh in South River and they actually reached out to me um For assistance with their facility uh for our volunteerism to help with their facility as well so there is a lot of groups and entities that are willing to help out in that case once all the paperwork is signed off and all the um all the um medic the uh um Insurance vouchers and everything else are signed but there is other options besides just you know quickly doing something but um as I was discussing with Mr Veno um a committee will be formed to have a logical discussion and vision for you U Mr Carr um and we will be getting to that um so it's just it's we'll get there but is the my contention or my contention what I think it seems like those buildings just are not feasible to be any kind of a million bucks that's a lot of that's a lot of volunteering let's not come to a decision until we have plans and PR so and and so that that's just my suggestion I I just feel bad we were you know told in no uncertain terms that oh this was the architectural fees were covered under the uh the Grant and now it's like now they come back and say well sorry again the the RFP that was put out and that the architect responded to the scope was changed this year when you you you guys did a resolution changing what he did and authorizing different work that was initially put out I see so wish we would have known Mr cor can we can we have something that we could uh put out to the uh to the residents to see if they have an interest in this you have a video maybe a video of the council meeting where we talk about it and we ask people to in their comments I I don't know if the sube of the mayoring I think that I think I think the conversation they go back to Echo what the clerk said is that you know the mayor is going to form a subcommittee and you know that's when they go out and solicit proposals or ideas or groups to come in and and become the friends of the schwendeman cabin you know 501c corporation that fundraises and fixes it and has a vision or whatever but yes there'd be lots of you know ways of people coming online and saying yes I'm interested I mean they've come to the meetings lots of some people have come to the meeting and ask us to preserve it but you know eventually as the mayor has alluded the subcommittee of the council has to come back and provide Direction whomever that is I have two for old business um I had requested um an update several months ago about um what's going on with the Main Street Firehouse with there were conversations about whether we were selling it whether we were leasing it or what was going on with that and I was just wondering if someone can provide an update as to the status of what's going on with that because it's another burrow building that just just sits and we could be doing something with that whether it's lease whether it's sell but we need to do something with that uh and the Mr venol the title search for the property between the post office and the burrow building is there a status update on that yet uh the only status I have is that when the title came back there was some question over ownership I reached out to the individual whom we believe to be the property owner which was Mr B and I have not received a response from him despite my requests um as you're all aware Mr Burger is also property owner involved in the forth Avenue case so he may have a couple other things on the front burner that he's attending to other than our small piece of property we're trying to get out some information on okay um but while I have your attention another option might be with respect to your initial issue which was what to do with the South Main Street Firehouse perhaps a committee might be useful ful there as well cuz I know you've asked the question before and um we don't have an answer to that so maybe go getting a group of people together to come up with some ideas might be beneficial I would just merely note that the property on which the Ford uh the South Main Street Firehouse sits is about as wide as the firehouse the parking lot belongs to the property next door which uh the uh historic committee uh has their um building on so at some point and I know it's been discussed in the past uh some uh subdivision of that property may be necessary in order to make sure there is some parking for the South uh Main Street Firehouse site otherwise you're going to give someone a building and then just create some parking issues over there where there isn't a lot of parking so just some things to take into consideration um but a committee might be useful for that as well okay and when we subdivide property we have to go and for a planning board as well we can discuss the process on that thank you sir good question uh any new business yep I have um Mr Mayor have two uh public safety items uh the first one I don't know if anybody's noticed but um unfortunately we have a crossing guard shortage um which means uh when the crossing guard does not show up the police department uh has to put a police officer um on that that um you know where the crossing guard is supposed to be um it's an issue obviously because it's a a lot more money we're paying a lot more money for uh our police officers to man uh crossing guard uh positions and um but the good news is there is a company that we can that Outsource that we can Outsource to that will take care of um the crossing guard shortage um Chief Johnson has reached out he's provided us a few of them I know he's provided to Mr Carr um we can get that information and send it out to the to the council if it wasn't done already I'm not sure if it was provided already um however I can let you know out of the 27 days of school we have so far um 70% uh have been covered by our Police Department so um it's an issue and we need to um look into resolving so I would ask um the council that we look into it um I don't know if there's we go by resolution or we just look into the next next meeting with all the information and um look into that anybody have any questions I I spoke to Chief Johnson about this about a month ago during school pickup um at least I was at school pickup and I was on the phone with him and he had indicated the same however the only difference is that the am I too far from the microphone you are sorry um that uh right now we pay around $19 an hour for a crossing guard and this company would charge us about 30 so either way whether we're paying police officers or we're paying more to an outside company to provide coverage uh it's going to cost us a lot more money that we have budgeted for that line it so but in the long run in the long run it's also taking our police officers I'm just saying it's going to cost more money I'm just that's all I'm saying it's going to be more money for the outside service it's going to be more money for the police department if they have to cover it the only benefit of also is that if this company can't provide coverage they pay our officers even though they still only charge us the 30 bucks an hour they have to pay our officers for whatever that rate is so we'll have to look at the rates I mean there are a couple companies I don't know which one you looked at which one he had but there were there were there were a few that he uh looked at so like I said we'll send Mr Carl will send it out to everybody to to take a look at have we looked at uh perhaps increas in the uh the schedule for crossing guards the issue is we have a shortage of crossing guards so the schedule crossing guard meaning I'm not sure what you mean pay rate and I think we have a shortage because it's the pay and it's what four hours a day two hours a day so I don't know what the reason of the shortage is but we just know we have a shortage so sure we could reach out to uh the chief and find out if the pay or the schedule would increase it um but I can reach out to them about that so thank you sir yep uh the second issue we have is we've been getting a lot of um complaints about the speed on U Main Street uh right now it's currently at 30 m an hour and there's been request uh and we're actually looking into I know the mayor and I uh Mayors actually uh met with the mayors of North brunic and East brunic are adjacent in towns to uh you know look into agree to lower it to uh 25 uh miles an hour um all the streets in in town are 25 um so it's just something that uh the the council will need to look at um we can't do it because it's not our road we'd have to petition to the county uh in order to get that so um we were just asking Council uh be an agreement for us to further look in more into this right okay I I actually discussed that with Mr Veno uh and he said he recommend it what we would do is uh create a resolution in support of it and then we can uh send a letter to the county uh requesting that the speed limit uh be lowered and correct me if no that that is exactly what I had indicated Mr Mayor I I thought uh you would question whether uh you sending a letter might be beneficial and I indicated that the letter would certainly uh get the the attention of the County Commissioners but uh if a resolution of the council supporting that action came along with it it would probably have that much more weight so you'll draft that for the next meeting well I I if the council would like me to uh Mr Orlando I'm I'm good with it I'm in favor of that as well I mentioned it last year so be great now Peter could we limit you know the areas where it was 25 or we have to do the whole street is 25 you you Council M Collins you you wouldn't do anything you would have a request for the county to do something but given the fact that the road itself isn't a terribly long road um trying to fluctuate the speed on Main Street over you know what a mile and change would probably be uh number one difficult for the police to enforce and be confusing to your motoring public what is it um coming in off of one is that 35 I think yeah road is 35 yeah uh did you discuss with the mayor in North Brunswick about is he going to request to reduce that down to 30 perhaps so that people already know coming off to start slowing down I think for some of the complaints I've heard are people coming in right off of the route one Corridor and just flying right through town until they hit that first Bend and saying oh maybe I should slow down yeah if I'm not mistaken that was actually 40 originally and they lowered it um but I I can discuss that with them I know I know I think uh Dunham's corner is a county road if I'm not mistaken right and they were able to get that successfully lowered because of all the accidents sure and uh Reva um was lowered and uh fresh ponds and Dutch were all lowered um I also um discussed about the uh speed um the ballards for Main Street and Fort Avenue so halfway on the Main Street bridge going up to Fort Avenue um to put them up to keep cars from running up and cutting in uh to continue down Main Street so it would uh reduce that that Rush that mad rush of car speeding from the light taking off at the light to to beat cars any more new business yeah 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 concerns or comments the council would respect the Public's Time by refraining from any comment until the speaker has finished it should further be noted that this is the public comment portion of the meeting not structured as a question and answer please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium just a reminder about the five minute role with Council Market o Donna leading on CA Avenue in August of 2020 uh the governor signed uh legislation s 855 that would take effect on January 1st of 2021 that legislation eliminated the title of Freeholder from a public office at the last two meetings I've attended here in uh the burough Chambers different members of the council have used the term Freeholder in a derogatory uh Manner and uh I just want to remind everyone that that um has been removed from government lexicon uh for several years and I can cite some of the reasons that were part of that are part of the legislation and some of the quotes from the officials who made those decisions we have an obligation to ensure that governance in New Jersey is inclusive and representative of the tremendous diversity of our great state amid a national Reckoning to reexamine vestages rooted in structural racism this action will eliminate the the use of the term Freehold Freeholder in government a title that is an outgrowth of a time when people of color and women were excluded from public office so I would appreciate if the council would take these remarks under consideration and not use terms like uh Freeholder going forward when um you shouldn't know because it's been several years that those are County Commissioners those County Commissioners do um fine work we rely on them um they have maintained things like a AAA Bond rating that we tap into so in addition to respect for people like me who have been able to hold public office because of changes to those laws let's be respectful of the people that we go and ask for money from thank you very anyone else okay close the public portion of the meeting Council comments is there anybody from Council has inment sure if anyone else wants to speak first they may I'd like to thank Margaret for pointing out I was one of the offenders yes yes I was and I'll say what I need to say no offense taken no offense given I have a bit of a sense of humor you may not see it and that's how how I use that term and I'm not part actually yes I am the biggest partisan here I'm partisan from people of miltown and i' like to read this I was very saddened by the two recent storms that devastated 10 states mostly in the South especially Florida and Western North Carolina I have two siblings and their families that live in Florida and Georgia and they were very affected by the disasters as were many the human and animal suffering were immense the loss of lives livelihoods homes possessions immeasurable natural tragedies do not discriminate between race Creed color or sexuality this was equal opportunity destruction the lasting pain and suffering will be for Generations at the same time came help from all walks of life wanting to help their fellow American brothers and sisters their neighbors thousands of private businesses large and small gave and still give with generous hearts thousands of linemen truckers construction crews are helping to get the devastated on some kind of footing as soon as they are able there are many volunteer organizations such as Samaritans purse the Red Cross the cinjun Navy helicopter companies Etc bringing hope and supplies to many suffering and displaced they are godsend by the way I have donated in case anyone would like to question me I am in awe of tremendous outpouring of American Spirit and selflessness on display in these storm ravaged and flooded areas it is about time that the American taxpayer dollars go to help suffering struggling and displaced American citizens I'm done anybody else no um I have no comments will the clerk please read resolution 2024 248 by title resolution 2024-25 authorizing entering execu 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 as public bodies of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist and whereas the governing body wishes to discuss litigation and whereas minutes will be kept and once the matter involving the confidentiality of the above no longer requires that confidentiality than the minutes can be made public now therefore be resolved by the burrow Council of the burough of miltown County of middlex state of New Jersey at the public be excluded from this meeting you have heard the reading of this resolution are there any questions will the clerk may I have a motion in a second second motion made by council president rinsky seconded by councilman Potter uh will the cler please call the rooll council president rolinski Hi councilman Colin councilman M councilman pansi councilman Potter councilman Z br hi are we going to stay here since the end of the meeting yeah and we don't expect action to be we're going to stay in here oh yeah I've been checking it too but yours is quicker