##VIDEO ID:77Wx38KTn_4## good evening welcome to the 20th meeting of the year the last one today is December 9th 2024 Alissa can you please read the publication in compliance with chapter 231 of public law of 1975 notice of this meeting to be held at the criminal justice building 61 Main Street South River has been published in the home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 posted on the municipal building bulletin board the burough website in the front door of the Criminal Justice building at 61 Main Street South River call Mayor gy here Council ball here councilman CA here councilman DeSantis Council here councilman griny here council person here stand for the FL to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please pleas standing a moment silence you may be seated we do have a swearing in of a new police chief good evening mayor mayor members of our Council and the residents of thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight for allowing us to hold this ceremony in front in the Pres of family friends and the residents of the burrow this evening I'm honored to recommend Michael manary for position of probationary police officer with the South River Police Department before proceeding I'd like to share a little background about Michael boy I'm confident will be an excellent addition to our team just last Thursday Michel graduated from Atlanta County Police Academy as an alternate route recruit for those unfamiliar the alternate route program has been in existence for many years and provides an opportunity for individuals aspiring to become police officers to attend the certified police training academy at their own expense without without being employed by a law enforcement agency these recruits receive no pay or benefits during their training which highlights their perseverance dedication commitment to achieving their dream to serving the community this program has produced many outstanding officers for the South R Poli La including retired Sergeant Edward Adon officer Paul and detective Patrick Mo Michael has been a lifelong resident of nearby Monro Township and a proud graduate of Monro High School in June of this year deputy chief John M and I had the privilege of interviewing several alterate rout recruits at the Atlantic County Police Academy where we first met Michael from that moment it was clear he possessed qualities we look for in an officer that embodies the values and professionalism that we hold dear in the South Police Department his dedication to the demand the alter program combined with deep ties of the community demonstrates his passion and Readiness to serve on behalf of the deputy chief anden myself it is a great privilege to recommend Michael M an Harry for the position of probationary resource thank you all right I I say your name Michael manh do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey I will bear true faith I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same and to to the same and to the governments established the governments established in the united states in the United States in this in the state in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of of the office office of burrow South River Police Officer burrow South River Police Officer according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you that Michael's father we practice this outside try to pin this badge on his shirt conat again mayor thank you for having the ceremony um just to put it in perspective I was just talking Michael before Micha will be here for the next 30 Years so if he's not re right Le thank you thank you we're going to go into agenda session uh we do have four ordinances for second meeting we do have anticipation yes so every year the burrow goes out annual B sale uh this year the B sale was 10,843 th000 uh we got an interest rate of 3.06 which is excellent though B council did the rate they said it's one of the best they've seen the last month or two so um it was very good we also received a premium of $89,999 so um this is just required from statute that this is actually we discussed at the council meeting and stuff but this is the annual sale we do every single year covers all the water electric and general capital or that we do Andre I said there's four of them the one I will be talking about 20448 which is the great and police we are going to be pulling this we going to be uh working out a couple thingss on it can we talk about the other sure thank you mayor uh 20 2446 as the order that's consolidating the land use boards uh 2024 47 that's the ordinance that's revising the fire committee uh and building manager and then 2024 49 that's the Redevelopment for 25 Main Street on this one uh bur Administration is actually asking that uh the council not take any action on this as we're still working out the details with redeveloper um along with asking to not take action on this ordinance we're going be ping the resolution authorizing the development agreement we hopefully we'll get back to it in New Year we move on to Second reading 202 2446 ordinance 202 2446 an ordinance of the bur South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the bur of South River so as to amend chapter 50 entitled land use procedures make a motion away for full reading second motion by councilman seconded by Council woman all in favor ni open up to public hearing 10 minutes your name address Robert bodak I do clevel on Avenue South River um Ladi and gentlemen in my 20 years on a b board I worked with some of the finest individuals and Council people around Frank John scalla Donna Baron Tomy saula ensy John cropos are just a few of these great people that were there the zoning board was never political everyone had an equal opportunity to speak regardless of the party you belong to Frank Dem Monica our chairman ameritus has still done us one thing to be fair to be polite be respectful of everybody who came before us even if the applicant did something wrong or against the bural code they still should be treated with respect it was said one of the reasons the boards were dismissed is because they're individuals on the boards giving applicants and developers a hard time it's better to start new than to deal with them well different opinions are always good they're always good to have them amongst people so you can get to the root cause or the real problem sometimes and as long as it's respectful and people are treated with respect it should be allowed I can assure you that every applicant that ever came before the zoning board was treated with respect it was also said that frequently we had to count meetings due to lack of a forum in my 20 years on the board we only canceled one meeting was because of Co no regular scheduled meetings were ever cancelled and um C at the time the town did not have a zoom set up so we had to cancel that one meeting that's the only one in all that time but again there was articles people saying that one of the reasons the board is going is because we couldn't quote a COR we couldn't do things that's the furthest thing from the truth there was an article in the paper saying the consolidation provide One-Stop shopping you prevent the delays that you're having because applications are given to the wrong board there was only one application given to the wrong board and all my time and it wasn't to the wrong board we were given the application for Lincoln school and then they decided that it was too exensive of a project and they moved that one over to the planning board that was the only one our professionals are the people that determine which board it goes to it wasn't our secretary it wasn't ourselves it was our professionals they made that lastly there was a comment that many people have spoken and wanted this well I don't know if that's really true only 4,500 of the 7,000 people that voted actually voted one way or another for this ordinance and a lot of them question us as the voter people working in the voting boots what this all about we could not say anything we did not say anything we just said you have to read what's up over there and a lot of them said I don't think it's a good idea or well what you know I'm just not going to vote and a lot of people didn't vote so to say that the people sou there spoke their mind this is what they wanted I think is wrong I know the decision is already made and I'm aware the council not everybody on the council's in favor of it but they're going to stick together and look that's okay but the zoning board is a great group of individuals and from all works of life I mean you had people coming back early from Pennsylvania from their jobs and people leaving vacation and come back to zoning Bo meeting because they wanted to do their best to help out the citizens of South River if you work for a company you were downsized and you people were let go you had to do something you would meet with these people you'd explain to them tell them why you're downsizing why you're getting away with these Bo Mee him at a meeting no one from the DS had the courtesy to sit down at account that one of our meetings whether it be the zoning a you know or I don't know about the planning award but no one came and said hey this is what the future is this is what we want to do and I think that was wrong I really think that's something that should have been done so at least you could have let these great people who did so much for so many years know you know why what the future is and why it is what it is instead of just hearing the comments that we did a lot of things wrong so I'm sure you guys have ideas and how you want to make everything's great and um I'm I'm sure it's going to work out well but the only thing I would ask you if you could the people that are getting downsides the people that are getting off these boards now and not going to be on it anymore did a lot of good for the people of South River and I think the council and the May here you should do something for those people at least thank those board members give them a pro little thank you certificate do something to say hey look you guys put in a lot of time we're sorry we don't have enough seats on a board you may but do something to thank these people for what they did because they put in a lot of time and a lot of hours and just to get told what you're gone and no one come to say why um I think it's wrong thank you anyone else for the public first call I have a question if that's appropriate is it for dis ordinance just about the land use me it's just about the land use board is that about the question is uh is the ordinance going to be change they're not asking that we're voting on an ordinance for the land J you vote excuse me sign to be a vote no this is only for the council oh sorry this is only for the council sir I see no more questions anyone else from the public May council members the from 30 daily streets ear here um I understand where the gentleman is coming from with the comination of the zoning board and the plighting board into a land use board um I could never find anything that said these two boards were not functioning optimally and seem to be any problems as far as applic good boy my throat is really as far as applications go the applicants 99.99% of the time knew which board they needed to be in those rare occasions when they made a mistake and they had to Shi it over to another board yeah it was was a delay it's unfortunate most of the delays though when any application is not due to the planning board or the zoning board or the County Board uh planning board it's usually due to the applicants Representatives themselves this I know because I've been personally involved in it for many years on the county level so for whatever reasons it was voted it was decided that this is going the way it's going to be unfortunately we're taking uh opportunities for the fal residents to participate in the functions of the municipality very sad because even in the report that was done about the town it encourage more involvement opportunities for the residents so it's a shame that this is happening in that vein alone besides like I say I don't see the reasoning other than it's maybe the modern thing to do the end thing to do what have you I'm going to be interested to see how well it functions because as I spoke to Mayor earlier in one meetings all the functions are going to be the same as if there was a zoning board for finding board it's only going to be one board now so they going have to still meet the same requirements streamlining it not a bad idea however like I said the delays are not with the boards they're with the applicants 99.9 99% of the time so um I do feel bad for the people who are losing their positions um I was going to be on the planning board or was planning board many years ago but since I an employee of the county was not considered a good idea because I couldn't make any judgments on any applications involv the county road facility so I I got backed down but in any case I just want to let you know that I understand what gentleman is saying I agree with them um not necessarily pleased that it was done but it's done so we work with what we've got and hopefully things will go smooth in the future and we don't run into too many PS in thank you anyone else Julie ma 189 Main Street I asked this at the last meeting I know we mentioned if this gets passed today uh would you already have the people you were going to appoint you said yes hasn't been decided upon Council okay if it's voted yes today and this is effective January 1st when will you be appointing your new member first meeting of General okay um um I agree as most people have said with consolidation um you guys a few months back are always complaining that there's not enough volunteers I don't think we ask enough people if they want to volunteer for our commissions or boards um we had a human relations commission which kind of tried to consolidate with people in Heritage commission we have people out there that wanted be go through the town and we continue to say that there's not enough people out there um as the ordinance is written only the mayor gets to decide the me each member of the land for according to the ordinance I'm going to share with the rest of the council so according to you get to make the decision counil to make decision nothing else thank you anyone else from the public first call second call public thank you can I just mention while we here for it's about getting a subdivision um OB and this is wait till your public hear I'll call you thank you motion U to close was uh councilman siola second by all in favor anyone from the council have a discussion anyone so I said this in the last meeting I said this in quite a few meetings you're taking a planning board in his Zing board and you're consolidating it you are doing what you call a One-Stop shop you are streamlining the actual applicant to come to a board and not only be heard for a completeness but also be heard for a public hearing all in one board you're helping that applicant whoever that is whether it's a homeowner a developer a construction worker whoever wants to actually do something to improve their uh environment they'll be able to save on a lot of Esco fees that's what I mean by consolida now I could which I'm not I could simply start a whole new board it's not fair to the planning board and it sure isn't fair to the zoning board because both boards have been doing great for the last past as long as I can remember so as far as the two boards are uh involved both boards will be Consolidated based on our decision on how we're going to look at the board members so yes you actually look at the board members today there quite a few that actually could consolidate and make an actual board but that's said do I have a motion take a motion to approve 2024 d46 second motion by councilman SE second by Council woman B counc yes councilman Cula yes councilman de santz yes councilman deian yes councilman grensky yes thank you now we are going to move to the 202 2447 202 2447 ordinance of the bar South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey aming the B code the B of South River so as to amend chapter 72 entitled Public Safety department of move for by Council War second like Council kiny all in favor I'd like to open this up to the public William smith2 South question for you is about the fire committee building manager right now it's written that fire committee is composed of presidents and vice presidents of each individual company will this group not answer to entirely specific different organization Bic reporting to the fire chief before it goes to May and Council for to the Public Safety Committee and also would it be better to perhaps have all three Fire Chiefs all three presents and eliminating Vice presence from that assistant chief actually sorry um my question is what was the purpose for this to be changed who who started that who start who brought this ordinance to be changed was actually the fire commit for and they wanted a little bit more control as far as the use of well government property South property um you know there's things that have been left un there's been a mess in the place hasn't been up was it brought was it brought to the existing fire committee's attention as far as I know I'm not sure about that because right now I sit on the fire committee okay on the the old ordinance okay so my question is what is the purpose of changing because if if there's a problem it wasn't brought to our attention there was one problem brought to our attention we ra ratified it um as a committee with the bu the building managers so I don't know why like what happened because the chiefs were never the the head Chief and myself and Mr Smith were never had never had a disc discussion about changing anything um so I would like you know I'd like to know why basically to keep control of the building a little bit more what was out of control uh gu misusing a property and everything like that to doing things to their private vehicles and what have okay so that then the problem here is the building managers weren't doing their job because if they didn't report it to the building committee correct yes or no that's that's the whole IDE simple yes or no answer yeah they didn't do their job correct yeah because if it was a if there was a problem it would have been brought to we would have fixed the the issue okay and I think there's going to be a conflict of interest with being the the V putting the vice presidents on there because Mr saula is a vice president and now he is Count he's also a councilman so is there putting the vice presidents on there it's going to be an issue you could also obstain too so then what's the purpose of putting the vice president yeah I mean everybody have I talked to there you know like I said there's there's no reason what we have to why we're changing the court here so to speak okay because I mean you're saying that there was issues that were never brought to the fire committee okay because like I said there was one issue that was brought to the fire committee we handled it and now you're telling me there's more issues but then all right instead of changing ordinance why why aren't we rectifying the problem with the building managers then keep a little bit more control on the particular situation what was out of control guys using a facility for their own personal pain and it's and again why wasn't it brought to the attention of the fire committee so what my question for you is if it's whether it's the vice presidents the presidents the Chiefs or anything it still can happen again if they don't bring it to the attention of the committee the committee can't do anything so why are we why do we need to change the committee maybe we should fix the problem with the fire the building managers well that's the job of the committee because being that we're not part of the group of the fire department itself you have better control over your people and you know their manorisms and their habits so I would say it's that that it's better handled internally just like with the police department they have the department of internal affairs to handle anything that go my question is my question is who is like the chief of the department pretty much answers for everything correct okay but he's not on his he's not part of this committee but the Chiefs and the vice presidents would determine who's going to be the building manager right no that right now it's the presidents and the vice the presidents and the Chiefs all three Chiefs you're taking the Chiefs out of it and putting vice presidents in I mean if you want to add the vice presidents that's that's irrelevant you know that's fine but why are you taking the Chiefs out of it when the Chiefs are the ones that have to answer for it because none of the presidents are here none of the building committee is here they don't give you the report the report comes from the chief and honestly with the building committee when I was Chief last year the building committee the building managers came to me and I went to Ary and vice versa if they had a problem we right Arthur I mean I don't understand the problem here there was no there's a you know what I mean it's it's more of a it's more of a system of chainman command this way they can get more information to the to build but the chain of command is already there you're actually taking the chain of command out because you're taking away from away from the Chiefs and it's restructuring it to get more information to the business administrator as far as equipment or anything else okay anyone else from the first call second call motion by Council second by Council all favor Council discussion so I understand the situation you're in so I was was looking at what the police department is about if you look at uh buildings and grounds there's one person that actually or one agency that's only in charge of all of our builds is the DP AG we do not like to get involved with the politics Inside the Fire Department problem is fire department belongs to the town so does the fire trucks as a fire chief you deal with your personnel and you deal with it's actually out in the world of fires and you know whatever comes with that Trum rolling now I understand where you're going but we need it to be more of an administrative thing than anything else I understand where you're I understand where you're concerned concerned how much more can you get administrative this is this is the direction we're going if it VES so that said do I have a motion motion motion by Council second by Council Kinski what is your Council lales yes councilman sea obain councilman santz yes councilman deian yes councilman gensi yes now we are going to be moving to 202 2448 ordinance 202 2448 ordinance of the bur of South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the burough of South River so as to amend chapter 288a entitled special events motion we P this ordinance we still have to open it I have to make a motion to motion motion by councilwoman Val second by councilwoman all in favor we are going to open it to the public but before we do that we are going to be pulling this ordinance to have it looked at for next year uh agenda so we're opening it up9 Main Street I'm happy you're ping the ordinance uh what are you going to look into couple things on the event I'll let you know when we bring it up pay for a nonprofit or I just love to know how many or profit organizations request parades in South am answer while do research I'd also like to know at least for churches how many times we've had to uh ask for an officer to come in specifically for the parade to receive what for church none for church none churches are the only ones ask parades guys are flag raisings yes I know nonprofit organizations requesting for a 10 15 minute bra yes I know it doesn't matter how long they come if they come they have to be paid I just want you guys to realize what you're doing and trying to develop and make our community grow together and if you're going to just keep putting barriers up for things not to happen in they anyone else from the public first call second call motion to close public motion by councila second by Council all in favor what is your motion MOA 20249 we still need to read it ordinance 202 2449 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of middlex state of New Jersey adopting the amendments to sub area 152 of the lower Main Street Redevelopment plan by Council B by Council all in favor up to the public good evening and Joe denado 30 daily Street here in Riv um I noticed for this one they were adopting amendments was there ever an official proposal put in by the developer um basically what it is according to the uh the master plan for this slot and then their request to make amendments and then the second submitt after the Amendments have been adopted so Mr currently what we're doing and I I think I might have seen you walk in maybe a minute or too late um we announced earlier that we are not going to be moving forward right now on this because there are still some uh things that we are trying to negotiate with the redeveloper at this time so basically we have form of procedure we have to open it up to the public but there I don't think that there's going to be a motion to adopt when uh if and when the redeveloper and the buau come to some type of agreement that's when this will appear back um but as of right now nothing is going to move forward so nothing has been officially submitted based on the uh the original master plan of the the Redevelopment area so I I believe that the a proposal was submitted by the redeveloper um but we are still in negotiations with that developer so a proposal was and the planner had put together the ordinance but the redel M agreement has not been finalized yet so we cannot move forward with the ordinance or the Redevelopment agreement just yet so it was just it was just like a written document no plans or anything of that nature I I believe there are plans plans I believe there are plans I I in my office I do not have the plans because I'm not the one that handles the Redevelopment uh another partner of mine does but there were plans submitted I believe to her okay I hav seen it is it appropriate for me to request copy of that information I mean the original cement not the not the Amendments I'm talking about the original cemental that they're asking amendments from uh I'm not sure if they are a public document off the top of my head yet because we haven't finalized anything but what I can do is I can look into that and I will get back to you either through Alysa or I have your email address yeah okay anyone else first call second call motion publiction byoun second byoun all in favor motion go to reports thank you Mr May good evening everyone 2 23 local Aid and 2024 local aid program uh the contractors continuing work on that project the 2023 Local transportation projects Grant we are working on that design the 2025 local aid program the burrow received a notice from the New Jersey Department of Transportation that they received a $56,900 grant we'll be putting a proposal together for that no change in the substation they're still working on the reports which they will then submit to us the New Jersey D storware assistance grant application the burrow had originally gotten I believe $25,000 for that show I have double checked and there is no future funding from the D regarding that but I'm not aware that they have rescinded the requirement to do this work so perhaps when you're crafting your budget you can de side if there's somebody you want to plug in for that to just creep along with it and that is it sir thank you thank you anything for please John a couple annual resolutions we do first one is canceling balance is less than $10 next one is canceling old still dat checks other resolution is purchasing through State contract during the year we purchase through State contract but it accumulates during the year over the bid threshold so you do a resolution to immortalize it we also have a resolution purchasing a Dodge Durango we originally purchased a vehicle early in the year from M Chevrolet but M Chevrolet cannot provide us the vehicle so we're resending that one and Bing do rate contract and the last one is we went out to bid for billion collection services at the burrow and there's a resolution to reject the bids due to irregularities in the bid that's it I have a question I know that we are beond Beyond Beyond the billing and with the water and electricity that everybody got here problem I have is a lot of people are walking into 48 Washington screaming which rightfully so they have every right to do so people calling and I feel that you don't have like one person that's capable of handling just getting on a computer dealing with the customers calling in dealing with the customer sitting at the front window helping them uh manage getting their bills until this gets resolved the reason I'm saying this is even if we came to a an agreement today with whoever transfer is going to be literally 6 months so we're still going to have an issue for quite some time so this is a thought I know came up with let me know if it's something that you can work on something that maybe we can move on it next year I probably whoever on the budget committee maybe bring it up to them put in the budget the stress off Washington take the stress off the employees P yes sir uh December Wednesday December 25th in January 1st will be closed for the holidays there'll be no garbage collection on them dates the garbage will be picked up on December 27th and January 3rd those are both Fridays they'll be no bulk pickup for on them Fridays and also as the temperatures are getting colder now uh we'll be going out there assaulting intersections ice spots from some pumps if we miss any you could just call the DPW office and we'll hit them up that's all I have uh Chief mayor I don't have anything but again thank you for having that SAR against seron I know he he and his uh family appreciate U I know that we are having a rush of cars being broken into lock your doors lock your doors first assistant chief I have no report from Chief thank you very much for this year thank you Alissa nothing tonight Andrea uh mayor the only thing I have tonight is we are just reminding everybody we're pulling resolution 352 that's the read of elment resolution Mark yeah there just a couple things the university unit directional flushing is completed was very successful um number 357 on your resolution consents the annual power CL adjustment as required by ordinance I reviewed the purchasing up till the end of November 24 with the CFO both of us have you know work very diligently to buy the electric on the grid and along with the battery storage project we had a very successful year so my recommendation and this resolution is for no increase in our electric for 2025 next thing is 366 uh we're doing an agreement with Comcast business Comcast came in and um with this agreement they are going to run fiber optics into the some of our buildings and they're going to increase the speed in our internet and the cost differential is minimal So after talking to the C both agreed that it would be in the best interest of the bur to do this people that that's it Council the EDC had their first business get together with the business owners and the property owners and they had it for like a little holiday get together um our grant writer D McDonald she met a lady down at the legal municipalities who's in charge of Grants and low interest interest loans for small businesses um a lot of the business owners met with her at the get together and were very pleased with some of the information that she was given out so it was a very successful night um they want to try and do it again maybe time but there was about 40 people from the town there that were very very happy about the information that was handed out to all the small businesses so we're going to keep going forward with that and trying to get all the businesses to where they have to be and with the Redevelopment they're all very excited about the foot traffic on Main Street um the increase they can do with their volume in their stores so they're very very very happy so that's all I have right now mayor thank you thank you Council yeah the only thing I have is being It's The End meetings are pretty well done just to continue to look at the South Library website they have some upcoming events through the rest of the year I know it's more they're building junor bir houses you can still sign up for them if you want they give you all the supplies but just give you know give them a look see and they have a lot of things for adults and children alike and that's all I have Council thank you mayor um the rec department is having a meeting tomorrow December 10th at 7:00 at 55 re Street South River residents are welcome to attend they welcome your input on what to do as they discuss the upcoming renovations to volunteers Park congratulations to the new inductees to the South High School National Honor system approximately 20 recently uh were recently inducted at their ceremony and also at that ceremony the South High School National Honor Society ceremony the board of an honored Ed chicky um a 1970 South lver High School Brad a lot of people know him uh they inducted him into the South ever high school wall of fame for his extraordinary career in law enforcement and his loyalty to South River Sports over many years uh coach to football and wrestling had recently passed away earlier this year at a very young age and uh he was touched by many people and He will be deeply missed by this community and the trees that were ordered by the shade tree were recently planted throughout the town uh a few weeks ago and that's all I have thank you coun kiny thank you mayor uh The Office on Aging will be closed this Friday for their annual Christmas mingle um hopefully if you planned on attending you had signed up at the beginning of the month uh the office will also be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and uh they'll close early on the 31st aside from that like I said before if you plan any events with the Office on Aging and everything and you check your calendar please sign up at the beginning of the month so they can actually reserve a space for you with that that's all I have thank you councilman no thank you I will open it up to the public you have 10 minutes as speak say your name and your address okay I need to go there or no add my name Ison Roa and I a 410 Old Bri so of course and we here here me and my neighbor um we're talking about him selling a piece of my L to him and obtaining the preapproval all right you would have to go to your go to the Julie Mo you would give you an application to subdivide the property okay talking about the township right yes 48 Washington okay that's how that's the starting point right that's the starting okay thank you that's it thank you anyone else from the public good evening again Jo denava 30 daily Street here in South River uh two things on the county level I wish I had good news but unfortunately I don't um I've been in touch with uh as knows um I've been in touch with jcpnl about the lighting apparently they don't want to talk to me either and um since my office has designated me the person to all the complaints go to um I'm going to keep on until they get something they don't want to talk to me by phone they don't want to talk to me by email but I'm I'm sing with you about doing it um Main Street it's back in the state's hands for final approval before we do anything the cley tracks and doing Main Street so that is least moving forward but enely too slow as far as I'm concerned but it is what it is uh thank thank you for the now for off the county stuff thank you for the uh um don't don't increase my utility bill I wish they I wish everything get straight now with the billing itself and believe me I know when you get complaints from the public they want they want to pay their bills wow that's something uh but uh yeah I have I feel for you unfortunately that's not not the the way it always goes um see U the only thing that I would like I would suggest and I've suggested that before we have two projects one is for the Border main replacement which we had a presentation a few meetings back which was very nice but have we made any progress since then I mean we asked uh I'm sure we paid them some kind of uh funds through the time and effort they put into the presentation where has it gone from that point we had a kickoff meeting last week and and discussed what our next steps in the project were and they are getting the application ready to go to the ibank yeah it would be nice if we had some type something in our to keep the the residents advis that you know we are moving forward you don't hear anything I'm going by myself I I feel that we're not really doing anything so little something and say monthly would be nice um and the other thing is the uh um C's project with finding a suitable location for the recreation uh recreation building how we how do we standard that we did the initial review from the environment we did the environmental review we sent over I think three possible FL plans from the architect so we did what I believe we were contracted to do under that authorization and I'm not sure if the burs what you know what the burs wants to do from that point again if we can have something brief progress is being made it helps the general public know that these things are moving forward and not just mention one time and do about it all of a sudden they don't hear anything about it after that especially when you're submitting a check to the uh the firms what did we what did they do to Warrant the check so something doesn't have to be really people know what's going on and water issue you came out very strongly about resolving those issues and since I believe the council is on the same page as you are there should be no no difficulty in moving things forward so let the public know what's going on um and I emphasize that get the Public's especially the areas that may be in the most need we do have areas in South River and from the reports that even posted on the website we may have environmental issues they should really know about that because once you start opening up hles if you've got contaminated materials in there that's a big thing so getting the people involved uh in advance and I don't didn't hear anything about any type of study done in the presentation but I would assume something would be done for for the order one of the things may in theck meeting is that the uh CM Smith is mobilizing their people to start doing the environmental testing they're going to have to do some test pits they're going to have to narrow down exactly where we're starting but that's part of the submission to the ibank they'll want all that information that we've done our due diligence up to that point so into next year the weather now may be an issue with the cold but as soon as they uh get their troops together they're going to start doing some tests you have to excuse me when I bring these things up I'm one of those type of people I know little something so therefore I'm pay but these things have to be looked at and addressed and let the people know what's going on because should something happen that's become becomes a problem at least the people will know that this is what we're looking into and for their safety as well as for budgetary purposes the town is on top of it so that's why I bring it up I'll do this again and again as time goes by okay thank you very much anyone else from the public hi Richard burn 11% place um so regarding the the lights on the it's actually the causeway that approaches the bridge um the the source of the issue is that this little light Park here is actually the burrow of seille and because the original boundary follows the course of the south river which was filled in when they built the the new bridge the veterans Bridge so since it's burrow sville that falls under the surface area of jcpnl and we're relying on these other agencies to fix this for us now I have a solution that would fix this permanently would put the hands uh of fixing the problem in the hands of Mr lensy there uh we we could go to our 18th District legislators and ask them to introduce a bill and ironically the the two Parcels on either side of uh Main Street are actually owned by the burrow of South River in burrow Saville's jurisdiction so we actually own this property already uh we could ask the legislators to pass the bill that would Annex these two parcels and the County Road 535 right away into the burrow of South River once that passed through the legislature then it would be the burrow of South River and it would fall under the the power jurisdiction of the South River Electric then you could send people out our people out and replace all those lights with our lights and put it on our power and but yeah you're you're asking me to do something that Sarah wants Sarah was supposed to pay for right asking us to pay for it the taxpayers of South River because the bound line of cble comes right up to the L property indeed it does right because it's the original so I'm saying do we want to fix it properly for forever and never have to rely on any of these other people to fix it this would be the way to do it we're going to take that piece of property from burrow sville and we're going to take ownership of it and then we we can fix it right right it's a hairbrain scheme but it would fix the problem right it would be our jurisdiction now and yes we would have to bear the cost of repairing these things but it would be done right because we have confidence in this strong eni and and Mr s and our entire electric utility to get the job done right most of the time except when squirrels what I will do with in the budget committee for next year under hair brain suggestion new line bu anyone sorry um burn we're not g to talk about that all set pleas um I just wanted to add as a boarded member and a w Fame committee person that um Mr thank you for making an announcement but Mr Anthony Rosano was also one of our honores um he's an active member many people know him he's been here forever so I just didn't want to be remiss not acknowledging his achievement as well thank you Julie M 189 Main Street um thank you Mr Linsky for uh speaking on the signing agreement with Comcast I did see that on the business however Mr Mayor you did say that Verizon was looking to come into South River yeah they put our name on the list for uh files to come in probably sometime in the end of next year does that change now that we made an agreement again with compact this is just for business okay you'll be you the options and being on the list for Verizon they can turn you down they got a list I um thank you Lisa for speaking about former counsilman Tony ran who's also on the wall of fame um I know after he passed a lot of people were hoping that uh he would be recognized and I'm glad that um his son and his grandson were able to be there accept that award for him uh the W building so um if you could tell us Bruce when did you do that a plan for the board several months ago but I don't recall the date so several months ago we already had some sort of plan for the r building that we ran on that we were that W building for the rec department but um one thing I want to say about the rec department in the last three years the amount that has grown uh I know Mr councilman D santis can uh also go to that uh Mr JGA how much would you say the wreck department has expanded in the last three years on money for the programs most of it's most of it's in the trust fund so they have done the cheer program and other stuff but most of it comes from fees that come in and they pay for expenses that go out so they're washed almost I understand that the program washes itself we us parents we pay our part for our kids to have the program but it has grown immensely in town I agree Absolut over 50,000 a year just in cheer program correct cheer is probably not the largest program yes the largest program and I also want to mention it will be competing this weekend in Philadelphia so good luck to all our full year teams that'll be out there um but the conversation came about because our program has been growing and these kids need a place to go to every day you know we complain that the kids are out there and they're causing problems in parks and doing things they shouldn't and a wreck facility would really help in something like that uh I help coach cheer our schedule is 4 days a week okay we are fortunate enough to be able to use the uh primary school for cheer but you know the school programs come first wrestling they use the facilities too but I don't know how many home games they could have because of not being able to have the facility programs come first we put $100,000 in the budget this year right start our building and that was going to be a project we had here who who's on the budget committee who on the budget comme just Mr Council so next year we'll have a a group of people new people and I'm sure we already have an idea of what it's going to cost are we prepared for something like that or is it just gonna that's the big issue with the cost the cost keeps on getting higher and higher up until the $4 and5 million range we have to find out the Burrow's ability to be able to fund it we are looking at a couple other options uh that might be less but at this time it'll go in front of the budget committee to you know we're limited to what we can do with our Capital project we can only do so much there's priorities that's one of our priorities but there are other priorities such as roads and infrastructure also we can only spend so much I know we're going to say it's a priority but out of $100,000 we only spent 16,000 but I don't think it was really a priority it was just something we kind of said you know get people to come out and make sure they got their W build I'm just bringing it out you know it's I know you guys don't like seeing me every entertaining I'd like to make a comment so obviously I Echo everything you said um being involved in the B Winer with football wrestling all the youth sports the facilities in the town are not even anywhere near what most towns have so as far as being Leading Edge everyone understands that may not be something that we're going to do in South but we can't be so far behind sharing buildings splitting time requests May uh we need a home uh I could tell you that now that I'm involved up here I was going to break make this comment at the end in my final comments but the youth in this town is my first priority it's before anything else so we talk about we have priorities as councilman Matt the S sitting up here my first priority uh it's something I've been involved with long before I had children my children are involved now and I'll be long involved with after so I share everything you said and I will make sure that I do everything in my power to keep that at the Forefront of all of what we talk about um you need facilities um I'll give an example of a joke that I tell I go to wrestle somewhere and they say you're wrestling in gym number three and I say oh in South River Gym number three is Leonard deine Park because we don't even have third gy like in our whole all the whole system it's funny but it's not so there we have to get creative we don't just get to put up Big Shiny buildings this is not how it works the rec center Pas scataway Monroe it's just a different animal but it will be looked at and tackled and I promise you and everyone listening that it's a priority for me it's the first part if you want volunteers the parents that volunteer in this community are the most aggressive most outgoing most will take off their shirt for any kid out there if you need volunteers and I'm sure it's not just with their kids it's with programs and things in town you just have to ask and you say Monroe Monroe is now fighting for their own cheer just cheer let's think about how many programs they have and their cheer program is amazing but you know we start off small I would say we we're one of the cheapest programs out there and over $50,000 comes in a year for a cheer program so I just wanted to mention that and um my last comment will be that I saw this week that I know we're not East Brunswick but East Brunswick came out with their own press release I don't know if you guys follow East Brunswick Township of East Brunswick on Facebook um their Redevelopment agency recently recommended that the council consider designation of the entire Brunswick Square Mall area as in need of Redevelopment and I'm not going to read the whole thing but they go on to express the process that the Redevelopment agenty will be doing with uh Redevelopment going to the council going to the planning board going back to Redevelopment going back to the development um this is transparency in my opinion we have a Redevelopment agency which is you guys we have yet to see anything that's come before the Redevelopment agency which is you guys um now you're getting rid of the planning and zoning board for a land use board like where is the transparency going to come with what's going on in town I we want to be great I know but I would recommend you go and read how they you know put everything and what the process is going to be and how it's going to go and it's going to take months and it's not going to be quick and easy but get to know what's going on so I'd like for you guys if you have a chance go and look at that that's all I have anyone else from the public first call second call public second motion by councila second by [Music] Council all in favor no appointments Alissa cons resolutions we as resolutions 20241 authorizes the B Council to utilize a consent agenda to adopt various resolutions of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time now therefore be it is hereby resolved that the below list of resolutions are hereby adopted by the B Council and whole is at the same individually acted upon consent resolutions 2024 353 to 2024 367 353 authorizing the requisition of funds for payment to the custodian of the school monies 354 authorizing the conditional appointment of Michael manh Harry as police officer 355 resolution authorizing the carryover buyback 356 authorizing the cancellation of all balances less than $10 357 authorizing no annual power cost adjustments for 2025 358 cancellation of outdated stale items 359 authorizing purchases and emergency repairs through State contracts 360 authorizing the purchase of radio dispatch furniture for the police department 361 authorizing the purchase of a Dodge Durango for the Department of Public Works 362 authorize certain utility refunds 363 resolution rejecting bids for utility bidding services and authorizing a rebid 364 except November 18 2024 regular meeting minutes 365 authorize the bills and claims list 366 authorizing an agreement with Comcast business 367 authorizing CME to provide Engineering Services for volunteers part what is your motion resolution motion by Council B second by Council Council B councilman CA yes councilman de santis yes Council deian yes Council grensky yes uh I like tostain from resolution 365 number 24- 0331 yes we're going to go Council comments councilman uh so I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity that I have I was appointed in August and uh as I'm going through the the process here it is a learning process so you sit up here you listen and you learn and I'm trying to do my best at that so I'm going to continue to to progress this town forward um I already made a comment about you know the investment in the Youth of this town and my pledge for you know my term is to really continue to do that I think that the youth the facilities they have and the programs are offered it's a huge part of of their grow their upbringing um Athletics and other programs are wholesome uh it's how I grew up uh I was raised in this exact town and these exact schools and programs so it's important to me and uh I guess I'll say I feel like I turned out all right so you can have your own opinion on that uh but again I'm I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the burough I look forward to you my actual elected term and I'm going to do my best for everybody so and just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas Happy New Year happy Hanukkah and all holidays I don't want to leave any out but I just want to tell everybody thank you thank you thank you first off I'd like to thank all of our Public Service workers our Police Department fire department uh DPW uh Robert Johnson um especially Police Department for some of the actions that they've done lately um with with the v's day ceremony and the uh PE Harbor Day ceremony uh aside from that I'd just like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas also Happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza and a healthy and happy New Year okay thank you thank you councilman um along with what Matt said uh I'm also south of a grad and play basketball cross country Maring B so my heart also goes out to all the you and I have mentioned to the mayor many times over the development of the rec center what what can we possibly do and of course it's the budget um but it's it's always thought of and we're going to move forward on it um happy holidays to everybody next time we meet will'll be in the new year so uh everybody enjoy the holidays that's it there thank you Council yeah first I'd like to congratulate our new police officer and hope he stays around a long time like he said he 56 in reference to the rec my Recreation was spent in the summer at fit fields we didn't have inside all the time I enjoy every minute of but again kids need a place to go there's no doubt in my mind they need a place to go we've grown immensely in the P for years so whatever we need to look into to do something through our W program I I'm I'm all for it so that's my opinion um merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Quanza we'll see everybody on the January 1 and we wish everybody a good rest of the year looking forward to 2025 and that's all I have that's Miss thank you um again just to uh welcome our new police officer and just like to wish everybody Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy holidays and a happy and safe New Year thank you so this has been a very very interesting year first year out as a mayor had a great time working with the whole entire Council along with all the profess we started off the year on a interesting note where a r deed to take out the electricity and we got it up up and running within Lally almost 30 to 45 minutes but since then film industry has come into your town put South M what does that mean although they shot American horror stories now South River will always be recognized in the film industry when it comes down to a backdrop for any their movies film clips whatever may be you don't know is when they came they spent approximately not up to the exact quarter but they spent approximately about 750,000 in your town home that's among usage of police parking lots renting of an Halls delies this is what they have to do so they brought the revenue to your town and I've been going to several of their meetings throughout the whole entire State being recognized as one of our towns but it doesn't stop there since then we have replaced paved Renard Avenue Burl Street daily Street D Street and John Street there are quite a few more comeing a lot more projects for next year that doesn't stop let's talk about the parks new playground at DA's Park basketball court remarkable it's so packed we have to have policeing drive there more than normal just to make sure everybody's okay we even put up a netting soccer goal at D's Park what that is is a net so every time they shoot the ball doesn't go over it gets caught we even did a we even got an exclusive playground at glowski Park funded by $554,000 by Green Acre uh Grant plus the 7,900 $79,000 DCA Grant good job on Dawn and good job on Administration the uh burrow is funding approximately 105 to actually help the rest of that Kowski Park which is going to take place next year it doesn't stop there in the year of 202 four this year a in Grant we pulled in $2,471 74741 water and sewer and drainage improvements including fire hydrant were done close to about $2 million the chemical project you know youo directional flush was done to help with the ground war issue I want to say it stops there it doesn't I even helped well I'm not going to say it was only M but we even went as far as having a hopefully secured $20 million towards our water infrastructure that's going to come to South River with the waterlands and the mains phase two of the battery project was authorized and it's going to be online by De summer of 2025 we actually got a fire truck quite a few DPW uh Vehicles water meter project in progress It's going to be up and running is going to be similar to what you see with electric we even got two Redevelopment projects which was something that I ran on and the administration helped move it forward a lot was done although a lot of people say I think it was just a scratch on the surface and what's coming to the South River it's not easy to make things happen especially when it comes down to today's economy it's not easy to work with Crossing uh um party lines but I have been doing that I realize working with party lines will help this town move forward everybody wants the same thing in this pth so yes is the the concept of a Rec Center still coming it's definitely coming 100% so everybody can sit there and they could frown they could smile they could down play the whole entire thing but in one year I think that scratch is going to go a long way with that I want to wish everybody and marw well actually before I say that I also want to thank uh councilman or council president krenzel for his time with us I know he hasn't been here in the last past two meetings but today would have been his last meeting um we have a lot of work ahead of us uh our Council councilman elect uh Nick johnis merry Christmas happy holidays do I have an adjourn motion to adjourn second motion by Council second