##VIDEO ID:qQiQ7D_tDW0## PR at least you were doing landscape I allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Justice for All almighty God we ask you bless this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding so that in fulfilling their public trust every deliberation will result in actions that will promote the common good and general welfare for all the people of Mars amen notice to members of the governing body and burrow staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purpose of burrow business and just for the record Miss Goddard is not with us tonight she's having a good time doing whatever she's doing so uh we do have approval of minutes I move that the minutes of conference executive and regular session from September 19th 2024 we approved is there a second second second by Dennis all in favor oppose abstain have consent calendar M ber two reports from September 2024 the grant writer and Fire Prevention resolution 20241 145 entitled Redemption resolution block number 33 Lot number one redeem third party tax Lane resolution 20241 146 dedic dedicated trust by Ryder for storm recovery per PL 2113 c271 and njsa 4A colon 4- 62.1 resolution 2024 147 entitled knockout opioid abuse day October 6 2024 the mayor be authorized to execute the NJ do sewer connection permit documents on Route 53 for the table Road owner LLC application the mayor and barl clerk are hereby authorized to exec the addendum to the labor agreement between the bur of moris plains and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 469 for the period january1 2024 through December 31st 2026 Mark E Bellis Jr 24 Glenbrook Road Mars plan be hired as a probationary labor for the Department of Public Works at the appropriate hourly effective October 4th 2024 is there a second second second by cing rot quote please miss yes Mr yes mrte yes M Kelly yes Mr wag yes like to invite any members of the public who wish to speak to step uh forward state your name and address and your compliment please good even everyone my name is Daniel Conway three Greenwood Road Morris PLS New Jersey just before you start Dan U con congratulations again looking at with your Allstar Team all the way all the way almost to the end there so it was it was it was a lot of fun watching watching the kids watching the coaches and I know there was watch parties all around here you saw all that kind of stuff so thank you for your volunteering there as well and uh it takes a takes a lot it's a labor above so congratulations to you and the rest of the team thank you very much yeah we had two more Plains kids three more Spains kids on that team uh it was a great experience and a lot of work uh as you said volunteering I think we estimated somewhere near 200 hours and of course of three months uh practicing and games and all stuff so exciting stuff kids will never forget so very good stff hope you never forget I will never forget I don't have as long as they do but definitely will forget um but thank you for that um for and and thank you to all of you for your service to the community to the board you know to governing this uh you know for this town uh I certainly understand that it's um not always easy right no matter what we do um we can make friends sometimes we make enemies and other things and it's always difficult and I certainly respect what you guys do and appreciate uh the time that you put in uh I certainly understand uh it can be difficult uh obviously there's a lot of questions going around in town and I came here to try to dispel a lot of them and understand what they are uh to help me understand um how certain things happened um may get uncomfortable may not I hope not I think we'll all be respectful and uh understand that really the best interest of the town and is what I'm trying to figure out and understand what happened so uh I submitted an Oprah request last week um requesting information about um driveth approvals uh the first one was denied because it was too broad fine I'm not an attorney I don't know how to draft these things I don't understand that stuff so I tried to narrow it down uh I understand it's a it's a big undertaking for for Miss Demond um but one of the reasons I'm here is to uh to request that all of you uh you know submit to her uh the communications that I've asked for um I think it's important for us to you know truthfully I think there's a a lack of trust right now uh running through Morris Plains and if we can dispel that uh then that's great that's what we're hoping to do um you know I I I have my own concerns and and I would truthfully like them answered um I don't know that the open request will do that um but I would encourage you all to share whatever Communications you've had uh with the uh with the applicant uh with each other uh about the application um that that's important I think for for the town to to get to uh I have questions about the drive-thru uh that zoning change uh when it happened the reason it happened um I heard an explanation from last session that I was not able to make that Co was the reason right that we had to provide access to uh compan that were interested in the area uh because of Co is that accurate do everybody feel that way so just John's gonna have to speak to some of this so so let me address first of all comment about your over question you're correct we did deny tonight but we did respond that your first request was too broad all right you did you did submit uh uh I guess more tailored responses that we received I believe it was on October 1st just so you're aware okay I have a courtesy so that you know this our our records custodian Miss Denon has seven business days to respond to that request we're currently working on it and we will respond to it both timely and appropriately but what I can't do tonight because I'm first of all I'm not your attorney I'm the attorney for the board here there's privileged information here there's attorney client privileged information here um so this isn't the appropriate Forum to discuss the substance of the open request fair and we're not going to do that uh but we will respond and we are actively working on it quite FR secondly in connection with the zone change that you're asking about the B2 Zone there's currently a an active pending planning board application that's on that that particular um site with testimony and other evidence um that quite frankly at the moment lies solely within the jurisdiction of the planning board what I don't want to do here now I'm not the attorney for the planning Court they have their own separate Council that's being handled at the planning board station but what I'm not what I what isn't appropriate here tonight is to now go back and and revisit this B2 zone change at the moment because there is an active application that's pending in a different four let that let that application run its course and then potentially but I can't because there's always a threat something else could happen with that application and I can't compromise this board right now I just I can't let me ask you this question I'm not allowed to ask this question question at the planning board at the moment and I'm not asking about the application I'm not I'm asking about the zoning that's correct I'm asking about the zoning in B2 it has nothing whether you want to assume that it has an application to that or not it doesn't matter what I want to know is okay the drive-thru zoning change okay there's been two separate comments one public in Facebook one here in Council right I have a right to know from the other council members just as they answered the last person or they went on social media and answered their questions I have a right to ask mine and I have they have a right to answer it it is public knowledge this is about a B2 Zone I didn't say anything about McDonald's right I didn't bring anything of that sort up I just wanted to know does everybody believe that the zoning change in the master agreement happened because of Co that was the last statement that was made in Council that was that was that was one of the reasons talk to me then I'm I'm listening I'd love to hear okay just that was one of the reasons was Co everything was going to drive up at that time okay phes pizza places liqu stores everything okay the whole idea of that zoning change which started two years prior uh before its approval okay was to try why do we track new and freshh and different businesses into the bur okay we've had vac vacancies we haven't undertaken that in 25 or more years and it needed to be done right to attract people to to to Mars points that's why Co was one of those factors that we did decide to with everybody that we did decide to put it in the B2 Zone okay now you had Engineers you had planners you had business development you had the planning board you had the council everybody had input on here I and then it was and then it was voted on at the council and it passed could could I ask when that was first proposed in the master plan in the master plan in the committee it says in the master plan to relook at zones sure that's what took place okay so that that was a directive from the master plan that was updated I think in 2018 okay and that was one of the the suggestions in that master plan was to relocate all all the non-residential zones in the burrow so that goes back to 2018 if I'm not mistaken there's been a comment recently that drive the drive-thru was only appeared to review in the last fall well I don't know who made that comment wasn't somebody I'm not here to point fingers truthfully I'm not but it was said that it happened in the fall of 2023 and it was specifically designed for nothing was specifically designed for anything it was specifically designed to better the burrow the entire update of the Zone was to better improve the businesses in the burrow that's what that whole zoning CH change was for I have no idea who's coming in here and and looking at places whether it's down that side of the street or down this side of the street four years ago and we all know we don't leave everything online what it comes from a council member you tend to take it from what it's worth I don't know who that council member was or who it is again we're not here to point fingers I'm not here to point fingers either and I'm not speaking for that Council I'm asking the council person I'm asking answering your question about when and why again I I would like to have some kind of clarity on when that was first proposed in the master plan it doesn't seem like I'm going to get that answer wasn't in the master plan what it said in the master plan and you can get a copy of it is to relook at all the non-residential zones I don't know the exact words to relook at all the non-residential zones in the bur back in 2018 or 17 or whenever it was done and that was one of the things that the planning board and I asked the planning board and the councel and all our professionals to do whenever that date was that we decided I'm doing that I me that's fair again I'm I'm looking from an accountability perspective is someone that's a constituent in this town I want to know someone said that's a great idea let's put a drive-thru on 202 and it can't be one person that said oh that's a great thing it was it was a colle it was a collective Council that's fine I'm trying to understand that I don't know if there you'll ever get an answer to that fair I mean there was discussions small committees large committees the professionals had discussions The Professional asked Business Development and the rest of the council the council looked at this thing numerous times planning board looked at it numerous times came back with numerous recommendations I me to to single out one person that said we should put a drive up I I don't think that ever happened yeah and I I guess having sat in another Council meetings in the past there's been some Sage advice given here by the former mayor when a council person said well let's change the Zone in here to allow for micro breweries or for this type of business or this type of business and they laid out a whole slew of different types of businesses the former mayor said with sage advice someone that I respect and and live by and I respect them said we keep it vague so that if an applicant comes in and we don't want it we can reject it or they have to go to the board of adjustments or other things I find adding that advice was taken that night what night I I believe it was October of 2022 all right so what night was that I was here what what night was that it was a town council meeting in October of 2022 and who was who was the the mayor back then 2022 former mayor no who was the mayor right mayor Dressler was here former mayor Dressler was here okay either as a field in or something else and he said let's keep it vague let's not over regulate or the term he used I don't know exactly for the purposes of of maintaining some control through the council right having denied drive-throughs in the past the only drive-throughs that exist are banks which are low everybody knows it someone that's in the banking industry drive-through usage is minimal people do not go to the banks anymore they just don't which is understandable suggesting that a drive-thru restaurant for for in any capacity would add to the traffic here is concerning to me I'll leave it at that you know it's public comment I'm you know I'm allowed to say that I just I find it concerning that a property was purchased shortly thereafter 6 months after this is brought up and then six months later it's approved I find that concerning I'm allowed to have that opinion I'm not asking questions about it and I think think truthfully as I said earlier there's a trust concern in the town that that's first of all that's a shame second of all there you know the negativity on online I don't have any of that stuff I don't do it because negative right and everybody gravitates towards negative the only thing that was done here was to try to improve the burrow by every volunteer that worked on that that's all okay so I take a little bit of offense saying that there's anything done about behind closed doors anything anything like that because that is furthest from the truth nobody just oh we should put a drive up in here this was thought through thought about recommended talked about vetted with all the other uses that that we added to that to the zones 139 whatever it was as I said it may get uncomfortable and that's part of govern for me you know we do the best job that we can and that's why that's why we put it there we thought it was going to be good for the burrow just like all the other changes that we made throughout the burrow which have been good so far a driveth through on to okay got it further to my Oprah request and this again it goes back to uh comment that was made by a council member in October of 2022 the town wants more transparency and the response at the time by I believe it was Mrs mclusky was yeah but nobody shows up to the meetings now I take offense to that response and let me just tell you why uh I work full-time I volunteer tremendous amount of hours and the only time that I can actually get here when I want to spend time with my kids which is also something I'm sure all of you want to do too uh is a couple nights a week at best and they don't always align um I would love to see the town without the help of a private citizen televis these meetings I think that's important we want to dispel all the myths and the concerns and the things that you mentioned which I did not I I agree with I think that's something that we have to look at um when it comes to the minutes of the meetings not everybody's comments are fully transcribed and I know that's expensive um but if you put them online if you put it on video it's an easier way for us the public who is paying the taxes here and living and been here 18 years now we want to know what's happening in our government and I don't think that's too much to ask putting a camera in here to video these meetings I think it's something to take under advisement that's one of my requests um yeah I I think we've covered all the things that I wanted to talk about I I I would say that um it's important we dispel some of the myths about the property owners any relationships that exists recusals potentially that should have happened and I'm going to say that because I don't like it I just don't and I you know you can think of me what you like from here on out it doesn't matter to me what I care about is this town just as much as you and that's a fact and I I don't like being here I don't like questioning people I don't like that stuff what I want to do is make sure that when my kids go out on their bike or they ride their scooter they don't get run over by some Maniac trying to get to McDonald's or try to get to somewhere near Acme that's would would have been a storage nightmare uh and that's concerning to me and my kids are still young they got another six years in this town at least uh you know and I I sure hope that you know one of the comments that I've heard and read that you've made a number of times ordinances can always be changed right so perhaps it's time to look at changing that ordinance because it's not necessarily appropriate given the amount of traffic pedestrians and things that are in this town yeah that that's uh that's all fine that's great that's your opinion and we'll see how it progresses through the Board and they'll make that final decision how it goes and for one second that you think that nobody in this town is uh worried about any kid yours or anybody or anybody not being safe you're 100% off AG because because every one of us are every one of us was elected with the trust of everybody here it's 6,000 people in this town everybody knows everybody in this town if it affects you it affects me I don't live 15 miles away everybody does their best job here and all that negativity and all that myth stuff that's online that's out of place too and that's my opinion and that people gravitate to always towards the negative and I hope your your open requests uh get answered in appropriate time if they're appropriate I don't know and and I hope that dispels your myth and everybody else is out there I hope so too respect I don't it's it's it's it's it's troubling that that that's even out there yeah and I don't think I think everybody on this board cares about everybody's kid I never said otherwise but there are businesses and other people that don't and that's partly why I'm here uh you know there are large corporations that just don't give C they don't there's small businesses that don't there's people that drive up and down the street or any Street or a dead end or anything else that don't care either you're 100% right and I I respect that and I appreciate your time thank you appreciate it moving on anybody else joeo 34 can place your last name d e l l o o hi shame so I live right behind Dunkin Donuts obviously very concerned about what might go in what are you guys doing to prepare for the possibility of that going in it's in the middle a planning board hearing right now um I can't answer that question you can't answer if you're preparing for that to go in be sitting on the planning board I don't know where it's going to end up we haven't heard any but one testimony one expert given testimony so I have no idea what this is going to go does the planning board look at conditions though so you said you you thought this was test for the Bur did you consider the residents of Dayton I say a particular application was best for the bur I said the zoning changes that went that took place we all thought were best for the burrow when we did it people that voted yes for it I guess okay did you consider a drive through at that location as a possibility everybody a drivethru at that location that was that was discussed in it at the time yes so the citizens that live behind there what what did you that's obviously going to have an effect on the value of our property there's a ton of kids on Dayton right now they're mostly starter homes what are you doing to to prepare for possibly this going in well I I can't really talk too much about what the planning board the planning board has asked numerous questions of of an engineer and some different options that they could use over there so they are going through that process and I really can't talk about what you know the planning real quick again there there is an application pending before the planning board okay the planning board has sole jurisdiction right now to or deny that application I'm not the planning board attorney I'm not going to give however what I can tell you is that if the planning board denies the application it's a debt issue so the question you're asking tonight is of no M however let's assume however let's assume it gets approved it's possible and more likely probable that they would attach conditions to that uh resolution of approval setting forth some concerns that would hopefully address some of the public concerns too so what what the burrow may be doing or in contemplation of this application really should be at the moment addressed to the planning board because the planning board is the only body politic right now that can attach conditions to whatever applic assuming it gets approved as to what can happen this board what we're do what can we do right now we don't even have jurisdiction on that and it could get denied and and I have a couple of members up here that sit is planning board members who aren't prejudging this application and they still have to objectively hear testimony so which I understand I'm I'm saying worst case scenario it does go in maybe we should start preparing for that for the for my neighborhood which is for some reason not looked at as best for the burrow um to say to say that this is best for the burrow is is absurd to me only changes for the best for the girl not a particular neighborhood or anything like that the whole town was taken into consideration the 2 two and a half sare mile to was taken into consideration the entire nobody was left out it sounds like you don't really care about us Jason you know that that is not true that is not true you may not agree with what was changed or what was added or what was taken out you may not agree with that and you're entitled to your opinion that's fine that's great nobody so you're entitled to your opinion my that's that's fine some of these questions can be answered at the planning board meetings there is a portion that you can get up and talk at the end of all the testimony unless it has to do with the direct testimony that's going on so some of those questions could be answered there I encourage you to come to the planning board meetings and listen to all the uh to all the testimony people that are there and what they have to on both sides okay um has anybody walked by that site recently try byy it every day have we walked by it I have not walked by who is responsible for cleaning up vacant property the owner would be okay it's not happening so if the owner doesn't clean it up who cleans it up if there's an issue there our zoning officer takes care of it the property own could you speak with his zoning officer and have him walk by that property is the overflowing garbage that's there right now and how disgusting it looks sure thank you that's all thank you guys thank you anybody else quick question can you tell me U on the last uh well last item here before we went to the public discussion it says uh someone hired as probationary labor for the Department of Public Works at the appropriate hourly read yeah I know can you tell me what that is you off the top of my head I don't know what that okay anybody else do you know when we move on to reports of committee department heads Finance Mr wag okay thank you mayor uh just a quick report out of the clerk's office um they are working on the uh lean municipality uh has a annual convention Atlantic City every year uh they're working on registration and reservations for that uh the middle of November uh administrative work regarding uh the open uh enrollment for health insurance benefits and they are currently working on 12 to 15 uh open open Oprah requests um from our finance office added assessment bills go out next week those are for tax assessments through October 1 of 23 um they are working on the calculation of retr pay for DPW employees now that the labor agreement has been finalized and we will be discussing our Municipal best practices at our next council meeting that is it public safety Mr cour thank you ma'am I have a short report also um start off with the police department had a successful coffee with a cop at Chick-fil-A um it was very good the uh there's right now there's planning for the upcoming special events for have the bonfire everybody knows the Saturday before Halloween don't forget our Halloween parade we also they getting ready for the pumpkin illumination um and also we're going to have a new uh a for I think a hybrid right Mike yes that's correct coming up and it's going to get all painted up it should be operational by um middle of December I willing so our F our police hel does not like all electric vehicles they like hybrids better I think for fire prevention we had almost 165 inspections completed which uh doing a very I think they're doing a very good job in making our town safer um we had a lot of uh subcommittee meetings and and some Communications especially with uh with Public Safety and a lot lot housekeeping it's already October and believe it or not just you know three more months and the year is over and there's so much to do with the police department and fire department and Fire Prevention um on top of that there was also a couple of well one traffic meeting long one a couple of hours or more and um talked about signs in town a lot of them still can't be read Mike they're worn out and that's just going to go around town and you know start replacing them with DPW um and also um the the speed of vehicles in our Parks so the one that came up the most was of course Community part people you know we put the speed bumps there we hate them there's one person here that likes speed bumps paye we got a neck a neck problem like I do um but unfortunately you got little kids playing baseball and we have great kids playing baseball we're blessed uh so there was some talk about doing some um some some work to make make it a little tighter with some line painting that would make the cars just go a little slower when they come in and out of the park and um I think that's all I have mayor I'll leave it to the fire department is not here and I don't have a report for them but our chief is here yes thank you to uh Chick-fil-A and Drew blind the operator owner there for a fabulous C with the cop we were there uh is that yesterday now I'm losing track my days from 3:30 to 5:30 um coming up Saturday October 26th is our prescription drug takeback at Stop and Shop from 10: to 2 of course we always have our medication drop box in the lobby of headquarters so dispose of any unwanted or unused uh narcotics or medications um as sou said we had a very productive uh traffic meeting discussed uh East Han of Raven in the new Don't Walk The Box um that's in the intersection at East Handover and the Buckley way um our work at community park to try and slow some speeds in that uh entrance way and exit way and then uh currently researching um some ordinances and what we can do with micro micro Mobility Vehicles the electric vehicles and scooters to make them a little bit safer especially for our kids so parents out there please remind your children wear helmets we see a lot of double riding and um you know riding in the roadway opposite direction of flow of traffic so uh we have some concerns about that so but we are looking create some more orces to make it a little bit safer environment um the police department is also in charge of our uh annual deer Co which started uh September 13th we're at current total deer harvested um five females and one male and then closing out the month of September uh 54 medical responses by police officers prior uh EMS arrival 27 motor vehicle related crashes uh with non- injury uh three motor vehicle crashes with injury uh three DWIs which is a good month for us on that proactive end uh 390 motor vehicle stops 1,59 proactive patrols of business residential areas that's all I have unless there's any questions comments or concerns thank Chief moving forward to and I didn't even have a cookie over there I saw you have Public Works Mr BR right so DPW continues to uh make our town look beautiful they went around in last round of brush be starting to get ready for the leaf season which is coming in a couple weeks or next week um they winterize which is a sad day the community pool so that means summer is officially over um they repaired some basins some curbs they replaced the sidewalks on niana road and Glenbrook so they continue to do a good job I met with the superintendent and the acting assistant to acting assistant superintendent uh we interviewed a candidate for a labor I saw on the C we hired Mark Bellis Jr so we welcome him we're excited to have him he was a summer help for a couple years I think now so he's fulltime uh we have another interview next week uh the DPW superintendent after our interview asked if we could maybe promote a couple employees uh due to Promotions retirement uh we lost a couple of the different levels so is an operator machine operator and uh truck driver so they're going to provide me with a couple candidates that they would like to promote um and then one of the uh where snow uh they have a big loader and they're looking to possibly buy a pusher uh some of the newer developments on American Road off 53 the you've been over there they're kind of tight and there's a lot of condos there's not a lot of room to push snow so this would kind of be able to kind of guide it out and pile it up and haul it away so they're looking to get some pricing that whether we do this year or next year's budget so they're going to get back to me on that uh we had a a beautification uh committee meeting last night I say this every time but they're very committed and dedicated and really know all their plants and uh various weeds that are growing in town and I appreciate the knowledge I've gained being on the committee we talked about spot plantern fly and the Japanese not weed problem uh we did get goats again and I believe the goats arve today and they're going to eat the Japanese not weed the poison ivy and the other flowering plants that I don't know how to say we're already chewing yep so and I spoke about it last time but the Japanese not weed will overtake and not allow the U native flowers to grow and sometimes it get so thick animals won't get to the water to drink so uh and then some of the pollinators won't get to the flowers they nor it so it's exciting they said they did a good job they're excited um to see what they hopefully finish up what they did in the spring and that's all I have thank you Builds on here Jan sent me a couple things downtown mors Plains pumpkin illumination which I think you already mentioned s is on Friday October 25th nearly 30 businesses are registered to participate in some way guests are encouraged to bring their carv pumpkin to add to the illumination display the event is free and lots of fun downtown Mars CLS is seeking volunteers to the day of the event if you're interested please reach out they hope to announce the winner or winners of the bike rack design contest at that event at that event uh farmers market downtown Mars Plains and the Business Development Committee are all collaborating on the Burrow's small business Saturday November 30th uh activities and details to come Farmers Market regular season runs through October 12th so only two more Saturdays promotions for the one-day Winter Market on November 30th have begun and have lots of interest from new vendors and residents we look forward to planning festivities and have having a successful day once again this year publication seers okay uh Next plan next Board of Health meeting is next Wednesday October 9th moris plain's Wellness Day is coming up October 12th Saturday from 8:00 am to 11:00 am. at the community center they'll they'll have a free flu shots for residents 50 and up if you have a Medicare card please bring it blood pressure screenings they'll have Naran training and you can get your free Naran there which I recommend all adults especially those who work you know in uh volunteer work with kids and others to have that done uh to get that training it's five minutes long they're going to have other blood uh Wellness screenings that you can schedule by calling the phone number that's on our website to schedule in advance blood chemistry analysis cancer screenings Etc the municipal Alliance is meeting on Monday October 7th they will be working to promote knockout opioid abuse day October 6 which we passed a resolution tonight on um which will educate people about the dangers of starting on opioids usually it's a painkiller that comes from a dental procedure or other surgeries and can quickly spiral into addiction the feedback from marown high school juniors and seniors who had an assembly that the municipal Alliance sponsored on uh September 27 was very good uh you know usually they check out but they were wrapped and in fact I think they were there were people that my daughter told me that they were sad there was crying it really impacted them that this individual had gone through this experience and I think it made a lasting impact on the kids which is important uh stage fun show is Friday November 15th I'll remind you at the next meeting teen center we have up to 98 students registered and we had our eighth grade handprint night only this year it was different because we had a chaperon that happened to be the burough school art teacher at the event so she was not satisfied with the paint that we had and she had to go home and get her own paint and and so it's really this class of 20125 has some fabulous handprints on the wall so if you got time to go check that out uh DPW purchased a new humidifier and installed it for us down there in the basement of the team Center and a new fan to exhaust out some of the moisture so it's working great we're really grateful um we have kids coming for seventh grade event and recycling fundraiser volunteer thing for them um upcoming com and I mentioned before we had received two bids from uh for our trash collection contract which ends uh in December and um it's a we last year had a f last time we had a five-year contract we received two bids on this and um we're looking at at this point not no changes in our service in terms of frequency or anything like that we did expect an increase it does look like there will be an increase uh but we also had an increase in number of pickups because we have many more homes than we had when we initiated this contract five years ago so we will be evaluating that as a committee and more more to come on that shortly clean communities email went out to volunteer groups who have participated in cleanups in the past they're working with Mr marandino to schedule those events around the barrel if you're interested in volunteering with a group that you um work with reach out to I guess the clerk's office they can get you in touch with with Mr marandino to schedule and get you some gloves and bags and supplies ordinances and Public Utilities Kathy last but not least I hope it's hard to be last I have a reminder um I stated this at the last meeting that uh the trees ordinance remains a work in progress and as I mentioned uh two weeks ago at our last meeting I have a meeting with the jade tree commission they asked me to uh be there on October 7th Monday um I'm certain to have more information by our next meeting also we have a Boy Scout working toward his Eagle Scout badge and he's a senior in high school and I had done a walk with him a walk around town about a year ago and he really didn't find anything we we really couldn't settle on anything he thought he would like to do so I hadn't heard from him while I've been calling him recently to see if anything's changed and they finally he has finally come up with what is going to be a beautiful a beautiful addition to the VFW um he has a Mor he has designed a memorial grave site for the VFW he's drawn it on a large poster board and um it's going to have um not cement but fancy um plates around the area it's going to look like a grave site um he's already spoken with the commander of the VFW and that's been approved by him and then once the Boy Scout council gives their approval he will be invited here to present to the mayor and Council and I think you will really be surprised it's beautiful it's very beautiful that's all I have may I have something um on Saturday I I had some time and they had the blood drive there at the uh at community park and um I went I gave blood and it was a New York company and I said you what's going on MAR SP and so I asked it was Larry rley there and he says well what they do is they it's like like share Services basically so even though it's New York but if Mort Royal needed my blood they would provide the blood to mortem roal and I wanted to make sure that you know that that was going on and I just want to give kudos to uh I'm sure everybody knows Mr Ripley Larry I asked him by the way how much blood have you collect and right away he responded 199,000 oh my God I was like how many lies did we you know did he say I urge sorry Captain you were there too yes no no no I want to add one fact ahead I'm done I'm done but I just wanted to say I was so I a th000 2,000 I heard 19,000 I was like God bless that's all I could say moris ples has been either first or second in the amount of blood they collect in New Jersey every year thanks that's pretty good yeah thanks lar just want to give recognition fantastic thank you he deserves it sure moving on we have no introduction of ordinances we do have ordinances on second reading sorry I council member Kelly read by title the ordinance entitled ordinance number 72024 and ordinance of the burrow of Morris PLS County of morris state of New Jersey amending chapter 22 establishing new article 17 to be entitled don't block the box which ordinance was introduced and passed on first reading at a meeting held on September 19th 2024 the mayor announced that the I announc meeting is open for a public hearing on this ordinance anybody wish to speak see no one I close the public portion I council member Kelly state that the above ordinance as read by title on second reading at this meeting be adopted and finally passed is there a second second second by roll call please M Berger yes Mr BR yes Mr Corte yes Miss Kelly yes Mr wag yes uh we have no resolutions no unfinished business this really isn't new business but I I forgot to mention it before I was uh asked to be part of the strategic planning uh committee for the mors school district so that's uh you know really the high school for the Mars Plains and uh so I was with the superintendent mayor Tina Perry from uh the board and also theia GDI was asked to be on that as well so they have a lot of great things that they're looking at and this five years strategic plan and you know I very proud to be part of that and kind of shaping the future for students going into high school just wanted to mention that uh new business we have none or I just did and we do have vouchers checklist here dated October oober 3rd 2024 the amount of 667,000 is there a second roll qu please yes yes Mr yes yes yes there obviously are no Met fans here would you have a score get some more we uh we have no need for an executive session is there a motion to adjourn all in favor --------- ##VIDEO ID:HRaHDZn5zJk## of this meeting was provided by virtual of the resolution scheduling the time date and place of meetings of the B Council the B Mor PL for the year 2024 which resolution was adopted by the B Council on January 4th 2024 and published in the Morris news being the Daily Record and by posting a such resolution on the bu board to B Hall all the above actions beinged for njsa 106 please mayor pres M Mr B Mr Cortez pres yes pres um I do have a couple of things um we have a meeting scheduled with the water authority and about 17 of people or so uh in regards to the uh two applications for using the authorities Water Service to um Supply water to nearly 300 units in Harding that takes place on uh Monday in the afternoon so we have all the town's representative represented by the Mayors uh their attorneys and developers the water authorities have a full room we'll see how that all goes um an update on the Styles Avenue project that was bid out believe it was uh or it's going to be bit out by the Water Authority and U that work will not start probably until February or March um I've already been talking to the engineer um about getting everybody together uh for all the streets affected so we won't have the same sort of problems that we had with the glook project so this gives us quite a bit more time than we had in in the past with the other project um we be doing some sort of a town hall or invite those residents from those affected streets probably sometime in the end of January something along those lines that could change a little bit but that's that's where it stands right now um resident has contacted me about the the path along behind the homes on Beach Drive I went out there and visited them and um did talk to our engineer find out exactly whose property is who's who's responsible for it so that's L's property um I've asked Leon to contact lar and see whether they would be willing to do some new plantings back there just to you know some sort of uh Evergreens or something that remains leafy throughout the whole year just to provide some uh barricade the res barricade shade screen between the path and those residents we'll see what lar says and we'll go to plan B but maybe we'll end up I don't know but Plan B would probably be pled of our bushes back there um the health insurance Anna got a uh memo today that it's going up almost 18% again than to our fine leaders in the state with the health insurance 16 point something which is close enough to 17% um I participated also in a discussion a a proposed bill um later on down the road um on working from home somebody's I'll say small bus businesses attorneys accountants some of these small type businesses that do work out of their homes uh especially since Co um working on a bill to allow that because most uh municipalities did not allow you know businesses in the home so I sat down with the Morris County Mayors and some J Weber the assemblymen a couple attorneys um to discuss some options this bill moving forward I think in in principle it may be a good a good bill but you can't uh it can't cover everything so there has to be really some parameters for that moving forward I'm sorry was that in favor of a business at of a home or against you know certain businesses you know the way that we saw it it was very Broad and you know uh it would require a lot of work on the municipalities to to regulate that so given some stter guidelines quite off get go certainly certainly help you know it does go on in most towns you know these I'll say small businesses one two person operations but you know there has to be limited someh so we'll see what happens so that's all I have right now ask a question that would that would it apply if somebody is a work from home employee of like a corporation that's headquarter oh that was one of the questions they so somebody that did do like uh proof reading at home is part of their that's their work you know so does that qualify as own business so you know those S the questions it was only the first meeting there was a lot of lot of questions there is a plan inside the home you can't see it more concerning would be the outside having know people still I mean you know here in Mars PL you know a car pulls up at 10:00 at night right or leaves a house at 10:00 at night people you know why is that car coming and going or you know people coming and going are at night Traders right you know guys that work at night stock markets at night whatever so a lot of questions it's not as easy as it sounds like I said in theory it sounds very good but I thought it was interesting so we got some bids back on the trash collection uh two bids came in and it looks like one is um the lowest one is about I'm sorry we got some bids back in on the trash collection uh which contract ends the end of this year two of them two bids and one of them the lower one is is you know 6.8% higher than last year when you look at the five years approximately so we're still looking at it crunching numbers and seeing what you know what the Avenue is in reviewing the contract and everything like that but so more to come on that that's going to be resolved hopefully soon um the other thing I wanted to mention is that I listened into the affordable housing presentation Forum that they had in moris Township uh they had it live and also streamed and um they had pretty decent attendance from the public at the uh at the event with their planner who's also our planner um and the head of that planning company was there and attorneys uh as a panel and they re viewed basically what the history of affordable housing has been in Mor Township what they've done in the past you know what got them to where they are today the new legislation what it's requiring what the process is and what their next steps are going to be so that people know what to expect coming forward um I thought it was very well done it's available on YouTube if anybody wants to check it out and I know we do have a meeting schedule so I was just curious to know what if we have an agenda for what we're going to cover there in that joint meeting with the planning board in November uh the attorney has will give the planning board and the council an update same type of thing some of our strategies that we're working on maybe have a closer idea of what the number is there a report that's supposed to be out on around the 20th of October and that will tell a lot so is it going to be a closed meeting or is it going to be a public meeting be a closed meeting okay so I don't know how the rest of the council feels but I think that it would be nice to be able to educate the public about I know you did one article in plan talk and that was great on what what's coming right but I like the idea of having giving the public an opportunity when the time is right and we feel that it's right to get that information out I already said that we would do that it's going to happen great everything is just it's too fluid right now right so we don't have a number right um reason that it's in yeah so the reason that it's in the executive session it won't be public because it is strategy right so want you to be aware of what we're working on and when the time is right course we put something yeah theirs was less about their strategy and more about what the requirements are and what what the steps of the process are that's all it's just a little more General than an actual coming out with an actual plan to keep you know this is step one of keeping the public inform and then once you have a plan that would be step two so I just I like that approach that's just my opinion and I just wanted to share that that's it good thank you I'm good a quick question for NY all the bids that you're entertaining is for twice a week pick up not once right right we didn't change any of the services um in terms of umy yeah we doe the little ones now must make a lot of over there I became a grandfather um I do have one more thing I forgot I did receive a um a copy of a letter um that I'll pass out to everybody and we have a presentation in some upcoming meeting about possible zoning change or that somebody has requested in in an area of town these are this is one copy yep and at some future meeting this will be uh discussed but it'll be our recommendation whether it goes to the count to the planning board or not that's all okay right be resolved by the B Council of the B moris PLS on the third day of October 2024 the mayor and bur councel shall meet an executive session from which the public shall be excluded to discuss matters as permitted pursuant to njsa 10 col 4-12 subsections B7 and B8 B7 and B8 the time when the matter is discussed pursuant to paragraph one hereof can be disclosed to the public is as soon as practicable after the final resolution of the afores said matter second second second by all in favor we