##VIDEO ID:9YSdNsc8ho4## e e e e e welcome to the combined reorganization and regular meeting of the Monroe Township Council the meeting has been called to order Happy New Year to all of you that I have not seen uh before and and let us hope it is a good and healthy year for all of us would we all please rise as we honor our flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all before the clerk begins our roll call I would like to take the opportunity to wel welcome commissioner Leslie Cel who is a former member of this body and is member of the middle six County Board of Commissioners and has joined us this evening so welcome commissioner it is good to see you cler please call the rooll councilman Charles depiro here councilman Michael marel here councilwoman Rupa PC here Council vice president Terence vanzora absent let the record show that Council vice president vanzor is absent this evening and council president Miriam Cohen president would you please read the Sunshine Law into the record in accordance with the open public meetings act it is hereby announced and shall be entered into the minutes of this meeting that adequate notice has been provided by the following one posted on the bulletin boards within the municipal building on December 27 201 24 and remains posted at that location for public inspection two printed in the home News Tribune and the cranberry press on December 27 2024 three posted on the Monroe Township website and four sent to those individuals who have requested personal notice in accordance with chapter 3 section 17 of the Monroe Township Code public Helman shall be limited to 5 minutes unless further time is granted by the council president thank you there are two proclamations that were issued one was the international Holocaust Remembrance Day which is January 27th of 2025 and this additionally is Muslim heritage month again for January 2025 there are two ordinances for introduction at our regular meeting which for those who have not been here before follows this agenda session uh 0120 25-1 supervisory Personnel 20 25 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township middlex County 01225 d002 ordinance authorizing the recording of easements for municipal purposes on various Municipal owned Parcels item seven is the resolutions for consideration under our consent agenda at the January 6 2025 meeting resolutions are1 2025 d001 through r120 25-28 any members of the council have resolutions they would like removed from this consent agenda councilman depiro yes thank you um r1225 d004 r1225 d007 r1225 d008 r1225 d025 anyone else if that's the sum sir that's it thank you we're good anyone else have anything that they wish remove from the consent agenda very good thank you four moving right along we will move to item eight which is the public comment section this comment section is limited for to the agenda items only uh may I have a motion to open the public comment section please motion thank you may have a second on that second all in favor I any opposed any residents here at this evening who would like to address the council please come forward stating your name and address you got to wait good evening good evening um George conman 5 Kil Court Monroe yes um item uh in the consent agenda uh1 um resolution approving a 2025 cash management plan that would seem to be kind of a big deal to be handled in one line when are we going to see what that is Mr Stenberg that's that's our participation in the state cash management plan is that correct that that's correct yeah that's just that's just our we we uh validate every year our participation in the state cash management plan where our money is invested okay and then2 what is that what is the temporary budget so temporary budget Mr gunkelman is at the beginning of the year because we haven't adopted our permanent budget we we essentially adopt a budget that is a it's a third of what the budget was a third a quarter of what the budget was the year before right at three months worth plus all of the um Capital uh or Bond payments essentially that we have to make so we do that now and then we adopt then we adopt a permanent budget when we adopt the permanent budget that we do that every year okay next um item 011 um what is the public officers board and what are their duties I'm missing no I think that's to various boards so it's uh hold on a second I up I'll tell you what what it is where is it I'm missing oh I have to tell you I'm stumped I don't know what it is Mr Weinberg knows sure so my understanding and I don't think it's been used much is when there's a house uh a a facility that we want to uh look at and I I believe condemn that the group gets together and uh besides the building uh the build I'm sorry the construction code official who can condemn any building um this group can get together and look at a building and decide um whether it's sort of suitable to continue to operate of course of those Powers rest uh with the building uh construction official himself or her herself in their role with State Powers there's also this uh group of people that can get together and and look at uh buildings within the town too to make to say whether they're fit or unfit to be used utilized within the town that's the public officer board or the code see learn something new every day every day you learn something and I learned something that's why we come to Young um 016 is there um a limit to that authorization that's identified in 016 up to or or is it unlimited please we just talked yes and who on Whose advice uh go ahead Mr council president um so I don't believe we've used this in the last couple of years it's something that we we put on each year that allows for us to move forward on this in the past we've generally done Surplus property through the Department of Public Works which allows the Department of Public Works in and sometimes the police department to get Federal uh Surplus equipment or in in some case a State Surplus equipment and we've gotten a variety of old uh military and federal Surplus equipment which has served us well some of the larger trucks that you've seen um around our community um from time to time we've we've gotten we don't we don't we don't uh do this regularly but if there is a piece of equipment that either the DPW director or the chief sees that could benefit us um long term we have on occasion uh done that um and in some cases we've used it for decades and other cases at the end we've sold it and we get to keep the proceeds just recently we gave a truck that we've had for decades over to fire district one but it is not something that we have abused in terms of having a large group of uh Machinery from from there but it has helped us with some particularly high water vehicles that we've used and floods and other things it's good program it's no cost to us no cost to the tax plus taxpayer so we're accepting it's it's generally trucks well after we own them they get expensive yeah correct other than that maintain yes um 026 um James M Ro Park was there an Engineers estimate from this because my memory of previous discussions was a number considerably lower than that and I'm not too sure how it went from the U the original Engineers estimate to this number do you mark council president yes please because we're on the end of his time too so so right off the bat in the engineers estimate is just what it says it's an estimate has really has no bearing on the numbers that came in uh this bid there were 77 items in the bid contract several of the items were lumpsum items so so as you know when you get into a lump sum uh for particular items um you know th those prices can vary however we received six bids um all six bids were pretty much in in line with the low lowest bid 2, 37,000 in change and they range it up to 2.7 million um so the so the six bids that we received were quite consistent with their pricing um with a small range of uh uh increases from the first bid to the second bid was about 5% and another 5% to the next bidder so that's really the market um based on these bids I'm comfortable with what we received that that is what this Market entails um our original pricing goes back about two years ago um we've been under we've been working on this project for about two and a half years so numbers uh you know go back about two years ago um what was the original Engineers estimate and then this is we I'll close you up for this piece it was an estimate it was an estimate of 1, 528,000 okay your time is thank you no and I'm sorry and and I just to point out that that that engineer's estimate is not something that's shared with the biders prior to the bid it only comes out after um but that's not uh that's not public record before the bit thank you we've we've talked here uh about work out at that Park before that's different from this is what's the status of all of that there was an expansion talked about here yes believe council president so um I mean as far as this building this is a um where we're replacing the existing concession stand and restrooms it's getting a new new building um concession stand uh ADA Compliant restrooms are part of it um there's several site improvements going on to the site U there's a commercial septic system um that will handle this building as for and and any additional improvements or buildings that come to that site uh there's also uh um grease traps that are part of that septic system uh uh new water service a well new well right now the existing well dries out you know Runs Out of Water when they're uh you know playing ball out there um and there's site improvements uh to make the um the walking paths ADA Compliant in the area the the new concession St can we save any further questions since we're you're out of time because this will appear on the regular agenda the regular meeting as well sir thank you thank you anyone else have comments or questions to bring before us now seeing and hearing none I'm going to entertain a motion to close the public comments section mo may I have a second please second all in favor I any opposed may I have a may I have a motion to adjourn the agenda meeting please motion thank you second on the motion need to roll call councilman Ziro yes councilman marel Council woman seagull yes council president Cohen yes meeting is adjourned at 6:44 and so I turn the we will now move to the regular meeting of the township Council the regular meeting is now called to order motion please motion thank you second second thank you roll call councilman toiro yes councilman marel councilwoman seagull yes council president Cohen yes the ordinance for first reading at this meeting is 01225 d001 supervisory Personnel 2025 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township middlex County May I have a motion please motion thank you may I have a second on that second thank you roll call please councilman depiro yes councilman Marquel yes councilwoman seagull yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you 01225 d002 in ordinance authorizing the recording of easements for municipal purposes on various Municipal owned Parcels motion please motion thank you second thank you roll call please councilman deiro yes councilman marel councilwoman seagull yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you we now move to item three the resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda would you please read out what is Exempted from this resolutions R1 20251 through R1 202528 with the exception of resolution R1 2025 004 007 008 and 025 which will be considered separately thank you may I have a motion please motion thank you second second thank you roll call councilman deiro yes councilman Marquel councilwoman seagull yes council president Cohen yes motion carries thank you item four resolutions removed from consent agenda for consideration resolution R1 20254 O7 8 and 025 motion motion thank you second roll call councilman toiro than councilman marel yes councilwoman seagull yes council president Coen yes motion carries we will move to our reports moving with alacrity through this yep thank you council president I'll be uh somewhat brief first just want to thank our uh DPW and all our departments that are uh certainly working together uh during this what is a very modest snowstorm but at times difficult even when you just get an inch or two of snow um it can be challenging because uh with the temperatures this low you have to deal with the possibility of of Roads freezing and so there's a lot of salting going on as we speak now our road crws will be doing that throughout the night we have a lot of Roads we have a lot of salting going on and there's always the concern of uh black ice and there's possibility of some additional snow happening uh later on this evening um so we'll we'll continue to focus on that so hats off to our uh DPW and other workers who are braving that always uh hats off to the workers who have to work outside um there's some extremely cold weather that all our residents have been facing this past couple of days and over the coming weeks and so to all our workers who work outside both here at the township and others um you know hats off hats off to those uh men and women who have to work outside our utility workers and others who have to Brave that cold so we appreciate it do want to do a quick uh thank you to uh to the mayor and Council um we worked really hard over over a period of time to get the uh improvements it really is a major Park upgrade for James Bond Row park one of our oldest Parks um these improvements whether they be Ada whether they be um the fix fixing a much needed septic system and and well and electrical upgrades and really Ada improvements that are needed for some of the programs that we run there um in the you know state-of-the-art bathrooms which we're trying to bring to every Park um as well as uh updated concessions uh sort of much needed for the coming decades um of that Park and I think it's really uh really exciting to move forward on that so so that's my report council president thank you very much Mr asou thank you council president I'll be brief as well um just a couple updates on two projects the garvey's demolition uh the removal of the two underground storage tanks the uh contractor has his uh receiving his construction permits this week and he'll be scheduling the tank removals hopefully weather permitting uh uh next week uh with regard to the police station building I'm happy to report that the uh delivery of roof trusses has arrived um we'll be getting the second delivery of trusses uh tomorrow and the contractor will be scheduling getting those uh roof trusses in place and uh you know it's a pretty big milestone on once the trusses are in place they can get the roof on the building and they can close it in and then and then they can work through the rest of the winter inside so uh that's my report thank you very much going to move to council reports our Ward War councilman please four year anniversary um today's a fouryear anniversary of January 6 um kind of a sad day in American history um I just think we should remember um the two police officers that died that day uh it's very important not to let them die for absolutely nothing the uh did Jeffrey Smith and Howard leing good should be remembered and I just want to put that in the record that these two men uh died protecting uh our country um on a happier note I read I read a um a um article that stated that New Jersey is the third happiest state in the United States um I'm happy I hope everybody here is Happy um I understand that the two if you want to know the two states that are happier than us uh one I understand it's Hawaii uh I'll be darned if I know why Marilyn's happier than us but Marilyn's happy also but um and lastly I'd like to wish everybody a Happy New Year healthy New Year um I watched the ball drop um I'm too old to be out drinking my wife won't let me so I was home watching the ball drop and um years ago a few years ago when I was in Times Square um it's one of the greatest experience you'd ever want to have if you've never done it and uh what struck me this year especially with what's what's with the vision of this country and the animosity between people it's very sad I watch the divers the people hugging and kissing from all all places in the world I mean it was no one was Mexican no one was americ no one was de Democrat no one was Republican everybody was celebrating I'm getting chills just talking about it it was beautiful so I think that's what we have to think about the this year coming um and make this a better year than ever and just happy New Year healthy new year thank you very much thank you uh councilwoman seagull please thank you council president happy New Year everyone hope everyone had a nice holiday season so just a couple items I know it's been really nice over the last couple weeks celebrating the holidays with the whole Community I know we've had tree lightings and manora lightings so it's really been nice to see so many people out there and gathering together to celebrate the holidays with Quanza and all the other holidays that follow um one of the events that we attended or some of us from the council attended was the Leon foundation holiday event Leon is the Ukrainian um they two residents who started up this Ukrainian organization at the start of Ukrainian War and they held an event um for their refugees a holiday celebration and they had over 200 refugees from throughout the state come to this event and it's a it's been amazing to see the efforts they not only help local refugees or throughout the state they they're almost worldwide and they help many around the state and you'll see a lot of times people are making donations from all over the place so it's an honor to know them they are amazing residents of our Township who work so hard every day impacting lives so it was really moving to be part of this event and see all the people and the how they've touched their lives and helping them the other thing I wanted to just mention um I saw the other day there's a community safety tips presented by our Police Department it's going to be happening on Thursday February 13th at 6 p.m at the library if you've never attended one of these sessions they're so informative and there's always something you learn from it they discuss current crime Trends scams and ways to keep yourself safe so it's a great session I highly encourage everyone to mark it on your calendars and it's winter it's cold there's so many events at our library please check them out they have so many things that a little bit of everything for everyone so please check out the Library events thank you welcome you know Anna and Edward when they started that Foundation they started in the basement of their house this young couple living in town with two young children and jobs and the rest of the busy lives we had and they started that in the basement of their house and so when you read what they've been able to accomplish it's pretty all inspiring and it can I can I just add one thing to that they've sent over 70 tons of Aid to Ukraine their organization 70 tons just to tell you how successful they are I bet you they still have their own jobs it's pretty pretty impressive folks that live here coun your turn thank you I just wanted to wish everyone happy and healthy New Year hopefully uh it will be a good year for all of us um we all a lot of us attended the largest manora in New Jersey the lighting the weather was amazing the crowd was was happy even though they had hot chocolate and it was 55 degrees it was uh it was a nice warm event and a lot of people came a lot of people came uh out on on that that day just wanted to say rabbi and his organization did a great job and and also the police and also Station 51 who helped uh put our mayor in the uh in the bucket as always and uh it was really nice with the rabbi thank you thank you I know you it was really it was really nice and uh it was pleasure being there I I had a question about the rec center the flashing lights uh on the the curbing for the crosswalk um I know we have that right at here at the high school do we have any idea when we can get that completed look right to your council president I I did receive quotes I did send a recommendation uh out Friday so uh I would anticipate it being on the next council meeting per award okay that that's good to get the safety uh because a lot of people use that that cross for the uh for the school parking lot at the rec center and something that we need to Beacon lights working there and we definitely have flashing lights would help our residents uh get across from safely um affordable housing I had a question uh for Lou maybe I hope I don't stump you on this one but how do they how does the state calculate oh he loves this what our next round number is going to be because I know January 29th it's going to be a meeting for affordable housing how how do they actually calculate that rate do you know well well the state law think your mic's off the state law that that took effect last I'm sorry state law that took effect last year actually just memorializes the decision that was made by judge Jacobson in the last round so it is just using the same calculation that was done in in the last round it's a pretty complicated formula um but it's that's that's all that the state did this time okay so I'm not familiar with the formula so I just had a couple questions in reference to like is it based on the amount of homes that we approve uh example like Adult Community homes um is it is it that gives the en number amount of affordable homes that we have to build no no it's not it's not strict it's that well once again the formula is got nine different parts to it and I'm not sure that I could without it in front of me could recite it to you but it is based upon estimates it's generally based upon an estimate uh um counsilman is they look at what the median income is in the state which is about $999,000 okay they consider anybody that's 20% below that to be uh low or actually moderate and then it steps down there to to low so then they take a look at all of the households in the state 2.3 million households I think is how many households there are in the state and they make a determination as to how many of those households hold um people that are um that have median income and right now I think that in New Jersey that's about 69% of the state is at median income or below and then they calculate a number below that and then they calculate how many are units are available and they project growth into the next 10-year period That's generally how it's done I can uh there's a there's a couple of pretty good summaries on how it's done that I can send to you that would you can help all of us out to understand it a little better because it seems to be our next hurdle that we're all going to be dealing with and if you can shine some light off right and that and that just establishes the need so the you know the next part of the process which is what everybody anticipated would happen which is now trying to calculate what the really available vacant land is that and and then and then to support the numbers and that's why you know at the last couple of meetings people have come up and said well I read that the state assigned us a number well the state assigned a generally assigned uh determin a number it's not assigned to us it was based upon a state report but it's now for us to to review each and every parcel in town and make some practical judgments as to what it is and that's what'll happen on the 29th thank and each Community is different I mean some communities get zero and some communities get a lot correct well the answer is there there are 45 or so Urban uh who uh municipalities who get Urban Aid who get zero but some do get zero and some don't it's you know some of it is based upon on the the socioeconomic strata of your municipality right cuz years ago when I remembered this first coming I said the meetings as as uh as uh council president said before when Leslie was sitting up here years ago they we would trade or give our our credits to someone else and another community and for affordable housing and you know there was money exchange or there was other that were done and now now it's my question and I'm glad that you if you can shine some light on it if you can help us to understand it a little bit better sure you know that formula and those were Regional contribution agreements and they were done in the um they weren't done in the first round because the first round of Mount lauro was really Mount was done all in the courts but the second round of Mount lauro was done um under the offices of COA the Council on affordable housing right uh and and they were taken out out of the law before the third round started so while there were some people who may have gotten credits in the third round for regional contributions that were done before the law was changed they basically have not been part of the law for something like 25 years and and I think you know it it it comes to it it comes down to what's the Constitutional obligation for everybody in the state to have affordable housing not just Urban centers all right thank you thank you um bless on on die form U project do we have any updates on the uh on the still house structure that's sitting there that they were talking about hopefully rebuilding this year do we have any updates on the architect and the uh costs I don't have any update sorry I don't have any updates on that I can uh follow up with the historic commission to see if there's been any discussion related to that I know we did have some discussion with the uh asked the historic commission to look at and and Center State to look at doing some uh parking in that area as we discussed previously but I don't about uh you know any any plans for uh the still house so I can I can look into that all right or possibly a grant if we can get some kind of Grant to help us out along there that would be great um I I also sent uh the volunteer program a couple times that Marbell and a few other towns have I don't know if they have any updates on that for the volunteers that we have in our community yeah haven't connected yet with the Marboro uh business administrator to ask him how that's going over there um it's a little bit uh different I had some questions about it because uh they prioritize volunteers and have a lower discount for veterans so I wanted to ask them some questions about how that's ask get us some updates on that' be good um spots at English toown Road snowflakes you know on on the uh street lights and the telephone poles I just wanted to say thank you to DPW and St 51 that works work every year to get that out there in the community I just wanted to say thank you um I notic that Joe's not here tonight but maybe you could find out matop conics uh got paved it was kind of cold uh the seams are kind of rough over there and uh I'm not sure if uh if Joe had anybody check the manholes all the valves for the hydrant and um to make sure that everything is still working and and I know that uh Mark and I talked about the uh I guess the quality of the paving was kind of kind of cold when they did it um but maybe uh maybe we'll see how how it works out but I just wanted to make sure that the man holes are straightened out and there's no valves that are paved over or not working so that's all I have follow up with you pleasure having our mayor with us have a report for us speak uh thank you Madame council president I will be brief in my remarks tonight obviously a Happy New Year to all um I'm glad councilman toiro likes the snowflakes up there perhaps I will go in the bucket and I will put them up and take them I you know I I had that's my calling councilman that's my calling um uh on a sad note uh the flags uh vort Township are at half staff and of recognition of the passing of President Jimmy Carter so certainly thoughts and prayers with the Carter family and the memories of uh Jimmy Carter and what he did while he was president and but more importantly I think what he did after his his term as president was very remarkable um just a reminder that Valor point is now leasing offices are located at one Rossmore Drive um and we are doing a heavy Blitz with our veterans organizations to get the information out in regards to the benefits for a Valor Point uh finishing up the um holiday season was an exciting time for all of us besides going in a bucket for the manora lighting uh we had our own Community Monro Township uh Community manur lighting at our senior center which was well attended and I did have the honor of dressing as uh as Santa Claus and delivered good cheer and caroling to the RO W more Community uh Nancy felberg who does the soup for seniors um asked me to go out and um you know just one anecdotal story which I always like to tell stories um I went up to this one woman and um after the uh the Girl Scouts were there they sang the song and I had a a little bag of cookies and I gave it to her and she whispered into my ear she goes I know who you really are are and like I I said I'm Santa and she goes oh no you're dressed as Santa um but I know you're the mayor and I'm like well well yes I am sometimes that's a loaded question you know when they ask that but then she says you're the one who made the delicious kobas soup the you know two months ago and for me you know that was the most exciting and most wonderful thing I ever heard that I toiled over this soup two months ago I made about 57 containers of soup um and it was my mom's recipe so as as a as a proud son I went back to my mom I'm like hey Mom your cobot recipe everyone loved it so it was all good so um just moving on uh councilwoman seagull had mentioned about the police and safety uh meeting this is a wonderful informational session uh that we've been doing for a couple years now this is the first time we're we're doing it in our in our library which will be held on February 13th and I just uh do want to recognize our police uh our Township and our Emergency Services moneygeek uh using FBI data ranked Monroe the fifth safe safest small town in the US so obviously we're all proud to uh to be on a list like that um and uh again the support that we can give our police to help uh fight crime um again you know it's difficult to have zero crime but um I know our police work real hard at it and obviously we get recognized it is the New Year resolutions are made they're usually for health wealth and and and well-being um the upcoming mayor's wellness events uh both at the library will be held I'd like to bring this to your attention on the 16th of January Rucker health is presenting addressing the opioid epidemic and Narcan training and for those of you who need a little bit of extra help in in in in getting to that Happy State as uh councilman Marquel said our meditation class will be on the 27th of January I hope to see you there for any information in regards to that you can check out our website Monro Township uh.com and check out the calendar thank you so much Madame council president most welcome we will now move to the public comment section of our meeting May I have a motion please motion thank you a second on that second all in favor no opposition those wishing to address the council please come forward you state your name and address for our record please the time limit is five minutes they made me do this my name is Karen Chen I live at Fort Ashley Court um so a group of us are here today to request more indoor pickle ball courts currently pickle ball is very generously allocated Four Courts at the rec center from 9 to one every weekday from early September into mid June although we are very grateful for these facilities we are asking the court space be expanded and at no cost as background the rec center has two gyms both gyms have markings for three pickle ball courts one gym is outfitted with three courts the other gym is is currently outfitted with one demand is skyrocketed due to pickle ball being the fastest growing sport in the world pickle ball is an easy sport to play and lends itself wonderfully to players of all ages due to the large senior citizen demographics of our town pickle ball is extremely popular during the day accordingly we are outgrowing the space being provided currently table tennis utilizes a portion of one gym from 10 to 12 each day we do not in any way wish to displace or disrupt their Court time what we are requesting is that the other two-thirds of the gym that is mostly vacant be used for pickle ball from 8:30 to 9:45 and then from 12: to 1 each day the space is there and unutilized the demand is there the cost is zero as the town already owns enough nets for this space granted we are not a sanctioned organization yet we are very organized and self-maintaining our own plane rotations we are mostly reasonable people although like anything else there are outliers we we appeal to the mayor and councel to support us in our efforts and feel our request is very reasonable we would also like to be included as part of the recreation Advisory board so that pickleball can be represented in 2022 May mayor Delina announced his commitment to enhancing the health and wellness of Monroe Township residents by initiating the mayor's Wellness campaign quoting mayor Delina supporting the health and well-being of all Monro residents is very important to me this initiative allows us to enjoy some exercise while spending time with community members pickle ball at the recreation center accomplishes this and more so to summarize we are simply looking to expand pickle ball into the unutilized space at zero cost for the time we are already there our second request is to be included as part of the recreation Advisory board so that we can have input into future decisions thank you for your time and we hope to receive your support in this endeavor anyone else wishing to come forward now to address the council please come forward again and again please state your name and address for our records I'm Shan you want to see your name yeah so respected uh members of the council and mayor and all the people for our record sir Shankar from 362 Charleston D Monro Township New Jersey so uh we are from uh we are the board members of The Villages at Country View Community uh a new community in uh Spotswood Englishtown Road uh so we have a problem in our community where the recycling um comes and picks our uh recycling uh recycled boxes but unfortunately what happens is because our community is a bit big with a lot of vacant space the wind basically takes the bits out it always trashes the entire thing over the entire community and by the time they come and pick it's basically a mess and we are spending almost every time uh the recycling trucks after that there is a lot of trash littering around in our community and we are spending money to pick the trash up so what we are here for is uh we went to the recycling department Caroline barard told us to come and uh tell our problems here in the council uh because it seems like there will be a vendor process uh where there will be bids and we will be selecting the uh vendor who will be picking it up it'll be great if we can have instead of open bins for the recycling purposes it'll be great if we can have some closed Lids or something like that where even uh whatever we keep even if it falls down it doesn't basically litter the community causing health concerns to all the kids in our community and also so a lot of money that we have to spend to pick up the trash after the recycling trucks come and picks up the trash from our community so that's one of the concerns we have um and it'll be great if during the vendor bidding process it seems like uh the middle six County uh takes care of this one and every Township will have a voice there it seems that's what uh Miss Caroline told us it'll be great if you can consider this problem when we are picking up the vendors uh for our Township Mr Weinberg please thank you sorry appreciate your point so yes we are one of probably nine towns or so that utilize the middlex county Improvement authorities uh shared services program recycling where we are like I said I think it's about nine different towns that utilize a shared services agreement for recycling so uh I think that's coming out to bid probably for you know countywide and in the next year so I'll be happy to Kevin I'll be happy to take your name and information down and when it comes out we won't have complete control of the process because the county will be the lead on it bidding it for all again I keep using the number nine but it's it's about nine or 10 Towns um that collectively bid it together to get a good price for and it covers our whole town obviously some some communities in Monroe some gated communities in Monroe do their own Recycling and they get reburst at the rate that we pay for um for every other uh resident within the town um but we're happy to you know take your suggestions and see how they do it but once it's bid the way they do it is how they do it in for all Monroe residents and for all of the towns within the county but we're happy to take that feedback and see if there's a cost-effective way to do that um in a better way and certainly understand the concern so if you wouldn't mind giving uh Kevin your information or staying after be happy to talk to you about it a little bit more and make sure that we share that with the mcia as they do their next round of bidding on that oh excellent thank you good evening everyone respected mayor and other council members good evening and happy New Year to each and everyone your name and address for our record please sir we are in the same Community we are board members couple of issues are there our community regarding the jcpl we have the lights lot of PS issue and light issues so we went there couple of times they take my number then they they told call me back they didn't keep going going going finally they fix the most of the fs and electricity still some more are the lights in your community out you have many lights out yeah like street lights yeah many lights in that so finally almost 6 months they go going to their office and finally they got they fix a little bit still some more issues there even my my colleague is coordinating with the team uh the jcpl team but still uh he ran too quickly uh so he's ating with the jcpl te still we didn't get any update from you want to add any point Yeah so basically the process is taking way longer than expected so for almost 6 months now we have started the process we have talked our property management has talked uh we our uh Builder has talked we still have lights that are not uh fixed in our community and uh the process of actually even getting any status updates is very difficult with jcpl and they are like okay we are backlogged and we will take time this is the kind of response we are having and we have small kids in our community uh and they are walking down and we have cars going on and now parents are complaining that the board is not the H is not doing anything to take care of this and when we try to even hire someone to come and fix they told that it's jcpl property you should not be touching the lights so now we are basically on a stand still on what should we do to keep the community safe do we not have a even lot of people homeowners they complaining they I hesitate to interrupt and I do not mean to do that but the whole town is aware as I see the mayor going for I know this is the public portion but I I I will address quickly the JCP pnl so you know that frustration how you're feeling with with the lights yeah Welcome to our world no difference I so all of us here sitting up here have dealt with JC jcpnl successfully Township wide and um it's very difficult uh we have pushed them we've taken them we've brought on our state legislators we've gone to their bosses the BPU as well um they'll put out a uh we'll complain a little bit they come out and they'll do a little bit and then it's they go away so uh it just so happens that we are having a meeting with them on Thursday uh to further discuss this and obviously we will certainly bring bring up your your concerns as well um uh amongst you know everyone else in in Monroe Township experiencing that but um yeah it is extremely frustrating but we are we are working at that and that's the best I can give you right now but yeah thank you mayor thank you for your thank one more question is there same same thing jcpl you know when our community V Villages County the Buckle view when you're turning the cars there is no lights it's very dark the when people turning there definitely going to accident there because there is no light houses is there no lights very dark sometimes people go up of the house close to house maybe can you please con that also for the for enti Public Safety so I have two more issues can I president what what street is that is that outside your community on bakalo bakalo and English town spot there was actually an accident also a year back we'll take a look at the street lighting out there and if it warrants a street light work on it yes because too much dark when you go there definitely we will do our best thank you so much ma'am thank you I have two more issues if is that okay yeah please uh one more is in my community lot of our home owners are very scary about vandalism the we have multi multi field is there every summer they're coming like very big draws making lot of sound and also they break our wall also they coming in in the building in front of the buildings we reported a lot of time the police department so this is very concerned about everyone dirt bikes dirt bikes um can I repeat that please you're having motorcycles coming in and they are not observing any speed limits of any sword and driving through the community is this in the woods in the woods from the woods they are coming on to our theik and then they're just coming into our community using our multi-purpose field where the kids are playing and they are also coming onto the roads roads also in of the cops are asking for a license plate and they don't have any license plate so we are complaining to the cops they are coming and giving us a slip saying that okay we listen to it but we can't do anything this has been an ongoing problem for us three years this happening one more thing one more thing they they they break the pinch also we put the some pinch with to talk to the Builder we put the some wall little bit they break that also sometime they fire also fire they L the fire also they fire also before breaking that so every house owner they're very scared kids are there a lot of kids lot of families lot of parents are there so this is can you please take care we tried police they come we we reported couple of times they need something to get the way these vehicles are taking rental so these things can you please uh take care this one of the major thing I can say that because we we'll mention it to the police um candidly sometimes just candidly with the ATVs if they go into the woods it's it's very difficult for the police to chase either dirt bikes or ATVs Into the Woods just cuz they're in cars um and you know it's challenging they will try and get them on roads but if they flee back into the forest it's just candidly hard to hard to get them when they go back in I mean obviously if they commit a crime while they're they'll they'll chase them wherever they go but if their crime is just riding a loud motorcycle they're not going to go through the woods just to catch the motorcycle I want to add that point because most of the parents what they're telling to in the open meetings of our board meeting is so do you expect one of the kid to actually get Hur before you can actually take an action that's this is question from a parent I I actually as a board member I don't know what to say to them we are telling okay we are going to Cops we are trying to build a fence they letting on we will continue to do our best it is in a very difficult and sometimes intractable issue we will try yeah even we put the sign boards this is private property not try but still we will try and I don't know whether talk L one is there it's okay your time is up so okay I would appreciate it thank you so much for your time mayor and I will thank you so much appreciate your help for each and everyone for legiones thank you thank you please feel free to come again anyone else wishing to address us please come forward name an address for our record please arm min9 ethaniel Street happy New Year everyone um I'm sorry I did I missed the first portion so I might be asking questions that have already been addressed but let me start with the affordable housing last month I asked uh what the actual numbers were for properties that have been delivered in the market rate and I was told I would have that this month um I could check with Kevin he may have that on him he just stepped out for one second to talk to those individuals I I just I think he may have it with him and so if we could just wait till he walks back in I don't want to take your time and also uh last um month Mr rayon said something about uh a dead line for us to submit something a plan to the state is that still out there or they postponed that now microphone uh nothing's been postponed the state law requires Us by January 31st to submit our what we believe is our um prospective need number okay and who are the people uh making those decisions for Monroe Township the council will make the decision it's be done by resolution okay it'll be done by resolution but prior to that resolution who was in discussion uh representing the community uh in making those decisions elected officials or like who is on the committee to determine what resolution we are going to put forward so the answer is is it's not a committee we we're required to get a planning report so we'll have a planning report and we'll present it to council and Council will make the decision so planning report so that means the full planning depart the full planning we have a planner who is going to provide provide us we have under the state of law we have to have a planning report to support whatever the decision is and we've hired a planner they will give us a report it'll be submitted to council and Council will make the decision it'll be done right here so one person is is developing a report to present to the council so that is the I don't know how many well the answer is is this isn't this isn't a you put 10 citizens in a room and they decide what the number is kind of exercise it is a planning exercise so we have a professional planner who's very experienced in fact serves at special master in some communities and has done this for 25 years she'll prepare a report she's analyzed all of the state's data and she'll make a recommendation that the council and the council will make a decision and when will the council deliberate that plan or on the 29th or right that's Council can only deliberate at a public meeting so correct that's when delate because the deliberation very rare around this Council it's not a plan can I just interject and I apologize I don't want to take up too much your time it's not a plan it's because the plan will be for June this is to set a number that's just to set the number the how we how we satisfy that number is part of the planning process that you think is more traditionally the way it works which is it has to go through the planning board so there' be planning board well I think okay so here's here's my objection my objection is whatever happens in the next round because what's happening in the first three rounds of affordable housing has absolutely affected every citizen in Monroe every Community member every res resident so to have one person or just a few people uh making these kinds of decisions presenting them to the council that's a number is that number going to be changed in June I mean if you say that no so may I finish sir no no but I need to answer your question because that number in the last round was set by the court and the round before that was set by COA that this legislation actually gives the municipality the ability to analyze Co the state's number and to make and make a determination okay so the answer is but this is not one of those this is not a a a a um the type of exercise where well as I said you can form a committee of 10 people and they could all vote and say well we think 500's a good number now I think 300 a good number retake my time I'm not asking 10 citizens necessarily I'm asking our elected officials to be a clear part not just read a resolution and vote Yes because that seems to be the pattern has I would ask that all of our Representatives read this 43 page uh affordable housing or fair share and have an open discussion and a deliberation within the public for us to understand what direction you want you're the elected officials not the planner not attorneys not anybody we need to know from you who we trust to take us into the future this is going to impact as it has impacted us for the last 25 years or 20 years um I think it is important that the citizens not necessarily to your point Mr rown be in be intimately involved but we should hear the deliberation we should hear the reasons why we should have our elected officials understand the 43 pages of Our obligation I'd ask for just a few more minutes and you gave to others please um and I I think it's it's very relevant that this be deliberated in public otherwise it seems to me because I've been coming to these meetings for 20 years it seems to me that a select few of people who are not elected are making determinations for the future of my community I've witnessed it I've seen it so I'm asking that and the last when we did the last master plan the LA and although I don't like the way it's being turned out the last master plan was at least exposed to the public and we had open discussions about affordable housing you don't want to do it this time maybe because of uh time constraints but the people of this community who are paying for interest interest interest structure sorry and all of the things that come with not having impact fees to all these developers the burden is becomes on us so I think we should see how our elected officials are covering us thank you for your time you're most welcome thank you for your time could I get an answer yeah you can and I think that and once again it's a complicated process and I'm not sure that I think you're there's two parts to this process how how we establish the number is a is a planning Consulting exercise that has to be you you're shaking your head but I'm going to tell you a couple of things the first is you you you're not an expert in planning and the second is that it's a brand new law So when you say no that's not true this process has not happened anywhere in the state yet and it's happening as as we go on so your time is now up now now it's my time to answer so the fact of the matter is that the state law requires us to have a number that's supported by an expert planner report and so while we'll deliberate and we can talk about it there may be parts of that that that there are some discretion for the municipality but we will present that at a council meeting and the council will take action at a council meeting Council doesn't take Action Council as a whole doesn't participate it's the way the former government works right they can't without it being a public meeting so we're going to do it at a public meeting and that's the first part the second part is the when you say a plan that plan is the fair is a housing element in the fair share plan which is an element of the master plan that's what comes next so that's the part where there'll be public participation and we'll have discussions about where where projects will go to satisfy that number but what we're talking about now is establishing a number that that we need to fit into our constitutional obligation and if we decide that what we're going to do is deliberate and and say well we just can't stand this number we're going to pick a different number then what'll happen is that that number won't stand muster and you'll end up with the number that's I believe that I don't know what you have still seven if you if that number is the DCA number that's what you'll end up with or by the way some other number that fair share housing might propose so the the answer is is that we're talking about two different different things right that's that's that's what we're talking about and and you know I'm the attorney and I and I think I understand um affordable housing law as well as most attorneys given the fact that I was in cases in the first the second to Third and this round and and I understand the process as how this legislation got drafted including the fact that my partner is the sponsor of it so I think I understand it pretty well I think I understand it pretty well well and what it does is it puts us in some respects in control of what we do but those things take place at Council meetings and you'll be able to come and ask questions you every council meeting we have has a portion at the beginning where you can ask questions about what's on the agenda this will be on the agenda this is a pretty delative body my question is who's the wi the wi that should be making I believe that question I I haven't said we I said counil excuse me both of you I believe that question's been asked and answered I believe we are going to terminate this discussion now if you wish to discuss when the meeting ends feel free thank you you're welcome anyone else yes please your name and address for our agenda 12 syamore Court Monroe it not on sorry uh Jennifer hijack 12 Sycamore Court Monro all right I'm here as part of pickle ball group with Karen I'm not going to reiterate everything that she said eloquently and and I also sent a detailed email to each and every one of you council members and the mayor but um I'm not going to take your time reading that because I think you can do that on your own however I just want to ask some questions as oppos as in regard to how should we go to try to solve this problem we have tried using the chain of command going to the people at the rec center office going to Mary who is supposedly in charge there yes but she's not hearing us so we're here to ask where do we go next does she have cart blanch is she the mayor of anything recreationally involved in Monroe um we say a picture is worth a thousand words I did send this picture to all of you of two-thirds of an empty gym with four people trying to play pickle ball without a net but the rec center says we can't use that space because so many people are vying for that space no one is there that is our problem um uh when we tried to take out portable um partitions that ping pong uses we got our hand slapped and then we got a curtain dropped on us so we couldn't even walk the perimeter that was our punishment we are actually being treated like children when we asked if we can roll out a net till 9:45 and then move when pingpong comes they said absolutely not we've had problems in the past I was a teacher for 33 years every September was a new crop of kids I didn't tell my new first graders you can't use scissors cuz last year's kids cut their hair they don't want to listen to us so we are here to put it in public I I call it Shenanigans I don't know what else to do it makes absolutely no sense so that was one thing I I just am looking for guidance I know you want us to be well I said you want us to be fit they want us to quote unquote sit they are happy watching us look at an empty gym which is ridiculous um the other part of my question is I know outdoor courts are coming to Monroe is there a time frame as to when I know the volleyball courts that were promised at the same time the pickle ball courts were promised have been put in what is going on with pickle ball and if and when they go in will they be restricted to residents only because I play at Thompson Park um it is super crowded in Prime season and the milus County Parks and Recreation has now extended their used to have a permit from May to October to play that you have to pay for for evening play and now it's year round 12 months a year to play in the evening you must pay to play at Thompson Park so there is no place in the township for us to play for pay play for free except for the rec center in the morning after our $10 membership to there so I thank you for anything you can do to help keep us fit and stop us from having to sit m council person I'm sorry I should have said something after uh the first Speaker I was going to wait until the public portion was over um to just have some words so as a just a larger picture B greater picture this just came to my email on Friday um and then so we did right so so so it just was brought to my attention on Friday um reached out this morning uh to our business administrator we are in discussions with the rec department and we will try to remedy the situation to best suit your um your Wellness needs um so so with that being said yeah there's only one mayor the bucket mayor right here okay so so so so so we we we are all working on it obviously um as for the outdoor um you that was part of the master plan the recognition of it uh that we needed more pickle ball courts it is in the design process as we speak uh time timeline I'm hoping this this this potential this upcoming year uh to be put in the budget uh for for the project to to to be started so uh but the designs I saw we're getting all the information there're supposed to be a certain way so the sun's not in one player's eye so so all all of that stuff we are we are we are all aware of it um um and and I and uh yeah did I cover everything it covered everything sir only it depends on how we're gonna have to work on that we we would our goal would be Township residents only so we're going to have to develop a system for how the courts will be used because this will be somewhat new for us um so we'd be happy to take your information after and have a little bit of a discussion about that um in the past stuff has generally been used by Township res resid but if we see outside folks coming we're going to have to figure out a a reservation system if it's not first come first serve or if we see people from outside the town using it so happy to have that discussion if you can stay for a minute or two after the meeting be happy to chat a little bit about that also if you wouldn't mind staying after the meeting assuming it's ending shortly to talk to Mark a little bit about the design of the pickle ball courts because he's in the middle of Designing it he's designing I think five of them right now over by the senior center and hopefully he'll be out to bid as the May said in a couple of months anyone else sing to uh yes Mr G when the meeting's done or yeah g in please um continue where I left off before if I may uh 027 um entitled um a amending uh budget appr Appropriations what does that consist of how how much money were we talking about and or what are the amendments I guess is what I'm asking we discussed the transfers at the last meeting but it's been am appropriation transfers yes if I could council president right so we did do um a small some small transfers at the last meeting I think it was a total of about 700,000 on the total two budgets being you know close to 90 million um most of the transfers were related to the fact that we did our permanent financing after we did our budget so we had to make sure that we came back around at the end to make sure that we could make our payments we did put our amount in for our note interest um but we actually put in the wrong amount for the note interest it was supposed to be um 122,000 so we just had to correct that to put the correct note interest in so it was just sort of a I want to say a technical error but an error nonetheless so we had to just make sure we had the right number in there for the utility note interest in there and which was the original reason for the ordinance which was passed uh sorry resolution which was passed in December which we do all the time is to move things around within both the township and utility budget as necessary um to uh you know not to expand the budget but to move things around into different categories and in this case the larger issue was uh moving things over to uh uh Debt Service uh to reflect the uh Perman financing that we did in June after the after the budget was adopted so the only the only change the the the amended aspect of this is just a correction related to uh note uh note interest as I I yes yes okay thank you um going backwards a little bit um shared services agreement between Homa and and the town ship um is there any um cost related to this um are bless we servicing their you know we're going to load trucks for them for free or what are we doing here yeah we I mean historically we've we've we've been sort of a good neighbor um with uh we we've done this with uh the Board of Education and with Jamesburg um we don't get too much snow in the area but instead of everyone having to build a salt Dome we've let other people store in our salt Dome um we have our employees out there and I mean they don't use too much salt but they they fill it with uh salt from time to time we keep a record of how much salt they come in they they have in there and when they pull up you know we already have an employee there they'll dump salt in their truck those are both small entities whether it be Jamesburg in this case heleta which is pretty small and our own Monroe bard of Ed which is our certainly our co- taxpayers um so historically we we haven't really charged them because we're already there um and that's sort of the system that we sort of inherited so it's sort of like a a good neighbor thing that we've always done with Jamesburg um and and that we're continuing to do with heleta so they don't have to build their own salt storage facility since we have quite a large one I think it's a somewhat nominal expense since we're doing it lastly council president I'd like to request for some when um when the attorney gives us information about where they can find the information uh for the Cil people if someone could pass that on to me so I could try and get a little smarter about the affordable housing affable housing the plan that was referenced by a previous resident yes I that one okay I'm sure we can get that made available for all of us anyone else wishing to speak to the council please oh yes no notice that he came in he will not leave without the report that Miss armenio wanted do you have it with you total number of market rate units and she does I think she was more on the market rate units okay sorry hello how are you um so we have an 850 affordable housing obligation from round three as of right now we have 309 affordables that are built which is 36% and of our market rate obligation there well the the market rate units that come with that obligation that's 3,529 um total and we've built 1,252 which is 35% so the percentages match up as of right now between what's built for affordables and what's buil for market rate that that that answered your question you can stay after you can stay after you can stay after and answer your question anyone else wishing to address the council please come forward now hearing and seeing none I'm going to ask for a motion to close public comment motion thank you second on that please second all in favor I I no opposition may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting please motion second roll call please councilman zapiro yes councilman Marquel yes councilwoman seagull yes council president Cohen yes we are adjourned at 7:43 we are adjourned thank you all happy for