e e e e e e e demonstrating his commitment to service and Leadership and whereas Kaden holds the rank of chief petty officer in the United States Naval sea Cadet Corps at pitini Arsenal leading the Travis Manion Battalion with distinction and embodying the core values of Honor courage and commitment guiding over 40 Cadets aged 10 through 18 from all across New Jersey now therefore be it resolved that the township Council of Sparta does hereby congratulate Kaden Mardi on his outstanding achievements and as an exemplary member of our community his achievements in wrestling academics and Leadership serve as an inspiration to us all so i' would love to have Kaden um come on up congratulations you are truly an inspiration to so many and we could not be more proud to recognize you cman herur sens his regret that he can't be here but I am extremely proud to have the honor to be able to do it on his we so please accept this Proclamation um and know that we are so proud of you so thank you so much and congratulations don't have to okay congratulations have a great day thank you for your service and your commitment and good luck nicely done congratulations Kaden I hope you're taking some much deserved uh recovery uh recovery is training so I know that it's probably hard for someone with your accomplishments to take a break but you you've certainly earned it and you've made all of us proud so thank you next up is a proclamation I frankly wish I didn't have to give um it's a Child Abuse Prevention month and um it's it's it's awful that we have that in our Society but what I'm thankful for is that we have organizations like Jenny's house uh that does just an unbelievable service to our community in helping to guide and counsel uh people who have been the victim of such awful abuse and so tonight in honor of the um Child Abuse Prevention month I will read this Proclamation whereas child abuse and neglect is a complex and ongoing problem in our society affecting many children in Sussex County and whereas every child is entitled to be loved cared for nurtured feel secure and be free from verbal sexual emotional and physical abuse and neglect and whereas child abuse and neglect not only directly harm children but also increase the likelihood of criminal Behavior substance abuse health problems and risk behavior and whereas the effects of child abuse are felt by communities as a whole and need to be addressed by the entire community and whereas effective Child Abuse Prevention programs succeed because of Partnerships among families social service agencies schools religious and Civic organizations law enforcement agencies in the business Community now therefore be it resolved that the township Council of the township of Sparta does hereby Proclaim April as Child Abuse Prevention month and calls upon all Citizens Community agencies Faith groups medical facilities and businesses to increase their participation in our efforts to support families thereby preventing child abuse and strengthening the communities in which we live so tonight we have two members of Jenny's house Andrea rker and B Ward uh those of you not familiar with Jenny's house um how long have y'all been around probably 26 years of providing um counseling and guidance to people who have been the victim of of child abuse I know a little bit that my wife was on the the board of Jenny's house for a few years and um and she's a you know in the she's a psychologist and you know obviously would not share with me what happened there but I know that the service she always came home and just praised Jenny's house the people who work there the board members and so do an outstanding service uh for our community so thank you so I hope you'll accept this Proclamation on behalf of everyone in Spartan and everyone in Sussex County well yeah so our job where I'll make it quick I know you guys have a long night but we are trying to make ourselves unemployed so with your help and your support whether just sharing a post on social media coming to an event getting a pin wheel kit helping to spread the uh our abuse awareness initiatives and just or having us come speak to your group about some Abuse Prevention topics you're welcome to do that so with your help we can uh have to look for different job to thank thank [Applause] you and now we get to lighten the mood a little bit um I am very pleased tonight uh to have two special guests with us uh both of them are from the New Jersey motion and picture and television commission uh the first is Janice kovat am I saying it right or Co okay okay and she is not only the mayor of Clinton since 2011 is that right wow uh she's also past president of the New Jersey League of municipalities uh you've been on the commission since 2019 and you founded uh the Hun Hunton County Film commission and uh the former president uh maybe the current president even so we're very honored to have you here tonight if you can come up here we also have uh David shoner David shoner is all is the associate director of the Mosen pitcher uh film commission and he's also here uh the purpose of me bringing them here today is to um as people have who have been following and coming to our meetings um I have we are on schedule to try to make Sparta get the film ready designation and part of that was inspired by a film that was recently shot here Emeral ties and I see in the audience that we have members of the filmmaker here and so I wanted to invite Janice and David here so they have been intimately involved with this program basically almost since its Inception I know David you've been involved for a very long time 1985 okay so um I haven't been around that long okay a lot of Governors talk to a lot of Governors so you know I wanted to invite y'all here tonight so to inform me and my fellow counil people as well as the public you know what is the film commission and and why would a town want to get a film ready designation sure well first thanks for letting for inviting us here I mean this is this is a a passion of mine um I get to to bring together government and movies and you know having been a kid wanting to be an actor and told I can't act you know government in politics was the next way to get on the microphone so um the reason you want to do this when you talk about the benefits to a community it's to your small business Community you know you think you've got these big projects even the small projects that come in and film they come in and they spend money locally they're they're supporting your local businesses we had um Pete Davidson was filming in do in 2022 yeah all the years run together um he spent a month at the old Franciscan um home they spent a half a million dollars in Dover between coffee shops gas stations lumber yards hotels anything and everything they needed was all right there and that went back into that small business community and that's a the probably one of the biggest positives you know I sometimes I know people are a little concerned because you've got possibly big trucks coming in you've got a lot of crew it's not always the big huge Productions but even the small ones spend a lot of money and that is the biggest benefit and one of the reasons why when we started the film ready program you know Productions in 2018 when the first tax credit came about they started slowly and little by little we've expanded the tax credit program you had the tax credit in 2018 um 20 20 and then again in 2023 and it has just grown exponentially I brought copies of the 2022 report economic report and just to read a little bit so um there were in 2022 there were 53 tax credit projects that shot in the state spending $623 million in local cities and towns and it accounted for 1277 shooting days and created an estimate of 15,41 jobs so these are for our own residents you know everyone seems to think that the crews that work in New York live in New York but most of them actually live in New Jersey so we've got the built-in crew we've got the built-in Services all right here for these Productions last year was a little bit of an off year because we had a half a year where there was the strike but it's coming back this year stronger than ever um you know you've got had one project David and I were working on four projects today yes four projects today with in different municipalities Floren Park Jersey City Hoboken and I forget where the other one was but again these are it it's taking all of these pieces and giving back to a community the film ready program teaches municipalities kind of the basics and what to look out for the best part that I think to kind of put out and make everyone feel comfortable is the film commission gets to be the bad guy so a production comes in and it's not something you really want or it's just going to be overwhelming and you know you can't support it you don't have to be the one to say no that's what the film commission does and we'll help them find either another location or work with the town to accommodate you know Productions take the path of most resistance they want to film after hours they want to shut down a street they want to use a school they want to we just had a court uh the courthouse in hundon County on Friday morning they needed a courthouse so I called the County Administrator and I'm like hey any chance we could use the courthouse on Sunday and they they turned it around and made it happen but again it was because we all work together and that's kind of the role that I play having coming from the government side as a mayor I understand the role that you guys all have right like this is a small piece of what you do every day but I can also talk production so I can help the Productions understand and New Jersey is a home rule state and we never want to take that away from the municip alties we want municipalities to be able to to drive drive the bus how they want to drive the bus and the again the training is really what helps that happen David you want to talk a little bit so I've actually I've been with the state film office since 1985 I was hired under Governor Tom K's uh fourth uh year in his first term so I've been doing this quite some time and one of the things that my role in what I do is I consider myself boots on the ground and I go to as many meetings as I possibly can liaisoning between the government body or whatever government entity it may be and also the particular production company because there's a lot of times that stuff comes up that a municipality may have never encountered or may not know about and I'm there to kind of bridge that Gap and I also am as Janice will tell you the voice of the sanity in between both um production companies always want the path of most resistance literally all the time and it's just the nature of that beast but just to give you some examples we worked on a feature film in Cranford New Jersey and they were creating a uh parade scene and they needed balloons so they went to the Balloon Shop in town and bought $166,000 worth of balloons I mean that's insane we had a dry cleaner on a TV series that they spent $320,000 on on dry cleaning but what we do is we encourage them to use as many local businesses as possible but we also encourage that lines of communication it's all about communication I'm available all the time I love what I do luckily all my uh my children are away at college right now so I'm able to uh spend all the time and we we go back and forth and Janice and I we're going back and forth on multiple things today so it's it's that kind of relationship that we want and something pops up we're here to answer it I tell this quick story Billy Crystal was doing a TV series called Winston it's kind of like um the six sense I see dead people it was it's 10 episodes and they needed Billy remembers in his you know in this story that there's this farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and so Janice set it up with the mayor of montigue and uh I drove from Cedar Grove all the way up to monu met with the mayor and you know they really had never had film making before and they were just going to build a facade of a building nothing you know no inside or anything and so we sat down and talked talked it all out and at the end I kind of ended with the mayor that I really talk a lot I really talk a lot and the mayor's comment was and I love him for it he goes you're kidding me you haven't shut up yet but the good thing was he goes he respected that I was keeping him completely informed was telling him all the little steps that were involved and he knew that the lines of communication were uh very clear and very specific and our goal is economic development that's really what it is and we have another component that we do it's all about educating and giving opportunities to young people that are coming up it's a really big thing part of our film ready program that we talk about in part of our other programs is giving opportunities to young people that want to be in the entertainment business that they can actually work and stay in the state that they live in that was the chief thing when the tax incentive started back in 2018 I would have Union crew members coming up to me all the time and saying I no longer have to go to Brooklyn I no longer have to go to Yonkers I actually can go home at night and have dinner with my families and uh and that's really the core of what it is thank you you guys have any questions for us we're going to see everyone at film ready on April 23rd you'll see me that's for sure um I have a couple questions thank thank you for being here tonight sure uh first question is around involving Youth and I'm using youth generally up to college age so do you uh do you commonly partner with uh for instance we have a votch school close by we have the Community College what do you have any examples of how you've Incorporated those folks and those kind of skills go into some of these Productions so one of the things that we do all the time depending on what the production is because there's different levels if it's a union production a lot of times if it is something like a union production we can't have the vot tech kids working on that but what we try to encourage is the union members that are maybe working in the fields that the votch actually hosts is going there and hosting them and having them talk about their jobs and their careers and stuff like that we also do a lot of depending on the school system the njaa Eda which we're a part of we also host internship sh and the great thing about the internships is that it's paid the njeda pays them and what we try to do during that period of time is really get them involved in the Deep nitty-gritty so if this is a career they want to go in they can and the final one because I do talk a lot is um through our Partnerships with Sony TV NBC Universal and depending on the County College riton Valley Community College is doing it now there's something called a PA boot camp and a PA boot camp is a two-day boot boot camp from 9: to 5: where they bring about 30 to 40 young people diverse backgrounds and they walk them through all the little minua that it is to be a production assistant because that's going to be their first step into the film business and then once they become qualified the studios want to always hire those people because they know they went through that process and I and I I would tell you I talked to about 30 30 to 40 schools a year I set up my schedule and go up into whether it's high school or college anything that anytime and anything that we can do to just impart them that there's a lot of great opportunities that don't necessarily have to be the director the writer or the actor there's a lot of great jobs as they call below the line being electrician being Plumbing doing all those things maybe you like cars well there's what they call uh Auto Wranglers that Wrangle all the period cars you like animals you could be an animal Wrangler when ever you see an animal in a show it's something that's rehearsed so there's a lot of great Union paying jobs that are there that aren't necessarily people aware of excellent thank you it's exciting to hear the other question I have is um you talked about uh economic benefits and you know fabulous ones it sounds like indirect benefits of you know Crews and and folks being here and using Services uh on the flip side what about direct fees direct Revenue do you see municipalities uh can you talk a little bit about fees charges structures to have them use I obviously depend depends on the Productions right so when it comes to municipalities if they're going to use Municipal property you can absolutely charge fees for that you know looking and if you create an ordinance that gives you a tiar or the ability to wave if needed you know sometimes you'll have student films come in and don't even have the $50 to pay to to utilize space we had that happen in Clinton you know the town donated the police officer that she needed for that couple of hours that she was filming um but then you do have big Productions that will come in in and take over and you can absolutely you know you create a tiered system um Patterson is probably a good example they've got a tier where they come in and and I mean they use Patterson for so much same thing with norc you know there are Productions that may pay up to $1,000 a day and then they're you know the Productions that are going to pay much less I think the ability to to look at the project individually coming in rather than just putting out a flat you know this is what our fees are and you either pay them I mean there was one production they had to pay a $25 application fee and the town was like is that too much the one the one thing we one thing we always say is that you're not going to balance the U Municipal Budget on on film making so we just would like to put that out there but we always encourage depending on what is going on sometimes we have production companies coming you're were talking about the the wonderful service that helps abuse people so a lot of times when the Productions are even coming in the state film office will recommend well maybe you could make a donation to a local you know 501c3 charity that's in town we do that all the time that affects um the community and it's it's a great way depending on the the impact of the community it's a great way for the residents to feel that that impact is actually benefiting the community maybe not in a direct way but in some some a situation like that great idea yeah and just a general exposure is always wonderful exactly absolutely and residents can put their homes up on a data we have a database where you can put your home as a location you know if you have local residents that have different Services you know if they do video production they can go up we have a database again through the film commission where they can put their services up and as projects are coming in it's a great opportunity if they're looking for people to work thank you very much sure so I had a couple as well um so it's great to see you again it's good to see you too also congratulations um on your on being inducted into the mayor's Hall of Fame oh thank you very much very well deserved congratulations thank you so I have some questions around first and foremost we do have um a community college in Sussex County that does actually have a theater we also have local theater groups um so I think it would be great if you guys are looking to make you know to bring this up to Sussex County if you add a 41st stop on your list to this boot camp and connect to Sussex County Community College and if you need any contact information I'm happy to um Janice has my contact information absolutely if you could pass it along I think it would be a great opportunity for for the Sussex County students um so my question is more pragmatic around this whole thing so I'm thinking when I think of film Crews I mean film Crews have come here for a long time right but it's Hit or Miss no one knows they're here no one knows they're coming or we just find out because an order's place for food or somebody asked for an officer or something like that so my questions are around process and control okay so first and foremost many things in Sparta are in private HOAs so I think that's something that may be a little different here than you see in a lot of different communities that you guys are working with now so we'd have to really understand what the ramifications are and make sure that the HOA you know that that they're brought into this as well so that everyone knows what's going on we want to you know be fully transparent but when it comes to for example film crew wants to come in who are you calling and who who are you calling so normally the the process will come into the film commission for the state film commission and then once they make determination where it is that they want to go then David is usually kind of start we start the negotiation David will reach out if he's got contacts already in that town in some cases you know he's been working with people in Jersey City and Patterson nework for for years so he's already got the connections there in other cases like when I had asked you about the um getting the contact for the mayor because it was a new mayor we had never done anything up in um I forget which town that was no not I forget I check my email I know right Still Water still water yes yes so um you know what I'll do a lot of times is kind of do that first Outreach just to make sure everyone's comfortable and kind of give it like listen these are this a legitimate project um you know this is something to have a conversation about is this something you're interested in you know are you willing to entertain the production coming in and once that happens if you've got an application process and an application process is a good idea to at least be able to keep track of what it is that you've got coming in and then this way um you know we keep track of it on our side through the state film office David is usually the one that is coordinating you know between the production and the the town once it's all been established so who I guess this is what I'm saying so David gets on the phone I'm um calls the clerk this is a hypothetical okay so you're going to get on the phone and you're going to call roxan because she's our clerk that's how this goes and then we have to set up a process it could it could go a couple ways it depending on the nature of what's going on in O Tam's here from the um as well and so sometimes if we're looking for something very looking for something and I'm not intimately aware of it I usually try to call tourism I'll call someone that's in the neighborhood Economic Development it could be public information it could be the mayor it could be someone on the council whoever may be appointed that way we start there and then if it's necessary put them together or we'll have them come out and Scout and if they're going to be coming out and scouting as well sometimes we'll just notify the police department as well that there's a strange car driving around some neighborhoods with who taking pictures with the license plate on it so typically I'm the point person and uh it's a constant back and forth that we do if you have some sort of process in place whether it's permitting or it's what we call a um it's an intent letter it's like a code of conduct which Cranford has Cranford just has a simple code of conduct and they judge each project on a case-by Case basis uh we just would have that discussion or if you're Clerk or business administrator whoever it may be you know they have my number and as I was giving it out tonight even Tammy would you know Dave what's the deal what's going on here and then I kind of guide them through the process and the one great thing that I happen to love is that I have the institutional knowledge that I've been doing it for for 38 years so I kind of know the traditional pitfalls that there may be or traditional push points and I don't typically function in the negative I always function in the positive but I'm able to make it understanding and if you really haven't dealt with the film company before they may be speaking a totally different language of what they want and then we go back and forth we also then will bring in sometimes as we're doing right now in Independence in Warren County for for the show we'll bring in the Department of Transportation um Independence doesn't have a police department we brought in the state police and so usually I'm the center of the universe I'm not that important but usually the center of the universe revolves around me and so if someone has a question whether it's my executive director my board or the U New Jersey Economic Development Authority they will call me up and say what's the situation here so if you could send us what Cranford has I think that'd be great because one of my concerns about this just hearing about on first blush is spart is open for business next thing you know we have people all over the place we don't know who they are our residents don't know who they are we don't know who they are and it seems to me like some somehow there needs to be some clearing house for these things to say this is a good fit here the right people have been notified this is absolutely not a good fit here and what are the agreements so if you need to to your point shut down a road you need police who's paying that you know that's and that's the best part production pays for everything part of film ready is appointing a point person from the municipality and it could be an elected official it could be one of the employees whoever can be kind of that the gate stop for the as the Productions come in and then knowing who to parse them out to so if it is going to be something where they're going to need police obviously you need to get to the police department police chief's not going to need to sign off on it or if your officer in charge whichever it may and then what the cost is going to be so that the production understands what the cost is so they will pay um anytime that they have to to take on those Services nothing is borne by the town I'm just concerned about the the back end the process the safety of our residents the not getting a million different film crews in here and we don't know what's going on because we have this now designation and all of a sudden everybody wants to shoot here and um you know so that's what conc concerns me so I need I need to understand some kind of process I need to understand how other towns if you could send me that cramper Co code y um because I'm I think this is great but I'm I'm apprehensively I'm a little apprehensive about it we are a small town and what I mentioned before so I'd be really interested to see how other towns what is their methodology so that it's not completely subjective so that there's something to it and how do they protect that they don't have six things going in the summer in one place and you know what I'm saying so any information like that I'd be interested I'm I would love to come on the 23rd I might be away that I might be away then I'm not sure I'm hoping that U maybe there's a lot of information that you could send before that even so it absolutely like I said the the point the the training really will walk through it but it's identifying one person to be the one to the individual who's going to kind of manage it coming into the township so that this way um you know and and the commission will you know if four projects say they all want to film spart at the same time the commission will stop that we do steer the Productions elsewhere when we had the the one year in Cranford we had three going at the same time and then they were like okay time out we need a break and we did as Productions came and said we want to go to Cranford like no cranford's on on break right now and we take them to the other municipalities the beauty is that there are so many other options even in Sussex County so it's it's not as if if they can't film in Sparta they can't find another Community within Sussex County to meet their needs I'm interested in is the council the geek keeper like one person cannot be the G from where I'm sitting anyway I don't think one person because it affects the entire Community you want it to be subjective and you want it to be fair but it also has to be public so people are aware and they can voice their concerns or their support or whatever it might be some people have made it an elected official and some people have made it the clerk and some people have made it the business administrator each town is actually doing it differently depending on where you're at and then at the county level same thing so do any of them do it as a collective it's one person that makes this decision and every time it's one person that's the gatekeeper and then makes the determination okay I need to go you know this is a big project so this may me me may need Council approval you know you can set if you want to set a guideline if you're going to have 50 people of a crew and something like that you want the council to approve now the other thing keep in mind is on private property if they're not impacting you know the impact is going to be parking or we have a which is a problem here or filming you know after hours and and what they'll do is they'll work with local parking lots so you know local church a local school that may have the parking lot empty they'll rent it which is again another economic benefit to the community and then they'll they'll shuttle people the project that was filming last June in um Delaware Township they had parking off site and they had the shuttle bus that was taking the you know the crew back and forth so so I think when we talk about gatekeeper it's not it's not this one person is the Zar so let's just say the clerk the clerk has the application right and so on the application that it's like okay so she gets the application he gets the application and then the chief signs off on it the police chief sign maybe a designated council person signs off on it if there's another you know there's key stakeholders that are made aware of it are all signing off on it as well so that everyone's informed and if it's a council person as well that's on there they're making sure that they're informed yeah I I'm trying to balance that the community is informed that's the problem and someone's balancing and I also want to make sure that if this thing gets too big on the back end of OE I now have to hire people from the town to be able to build this process and you see my concern right no absolutely and it I I what's the beauty of it right now is while it's coming Fast and Furious you've got 564 of us that are available it's not just one Community um so it's you're going to see a slow progression of of projects coming in you know as the studios get built maybe things change a little bit more you've got the studios being built in norc Bayon and um Jersey City expanding and and maybe that changes things there one in Mammoth did I hear Netflix Netflix is going to Fort Mammoth yes but they'll probably stay more unless they're looking for something specific they'll stay within their area so from that perspective it's it's not going to be a deluge of applications it's you know I think it's going to be a it may be slow to start with and again we at the commission really are The Gatekeepers um you know a pro a production will come and say this is what we're looking for we're looking for a log cabin and we've got a picture of a log cabin we want one that looks like this so you know between what David knows the location database what I know you know yeah we have something that's similar not exact give them some options with that and then if it's something that works then we follow back up with the the community and or the property owner sounds like one of the keys is just to have a clean application process and a clean approval process and then we control capacity and volume and all that so so when we have we have we have the Bob Dylan biop pick that's going to be up in still water and there it's a scene where Bob Dylan meets Pete Seager so I think only people of certain age are going to know those names but um but so we I went up to I went up to the meeting met with the mayor we met with everyone the uh company met with all the residents that are in the neighborhood they're working with the dot and so I don't want to say that those are that's having something like that is typically exceptions to the rule I don't want to minimize it and make it seem seem less or just you know it I I don't project right now they're going to be a Floodgate you will get some stuff because depending on the project and I could really go into the minutia of it there's something called the studio Zone which is a unionized Zone it's 30 mi from Columbus Circle as the crow flies and so you uh production companies can have their unionized Crews report anywhere inside that 30 miles and not pay them travel once you go out that outside of that 30 miles everybody's on the clock so we're the film business is the one business that pays people to travel and so the Studios have to make a very conscious choice about that decision so I don't want minimize what you're saying I totally understand it it's just it's I don't think I hopefully it will become something more but it's not like you're going to be actually inundated because we know Sparta is clearly outside the studio Zone you do get occasional project we're thrilled that the Bob Dylan bopic is going to be up there and we met with all the residents and the production company did a zoom call with everyone affected so my biggest thing and I know Janice will tell you is to use us and we can we'll guide you through the process every municipality is different everybody has different concerns different push points and that's what we're here to do we're here to navigate you through that process whatever the concerns are not to mitigate it not to push him away but to address each one because everybody when did you say one of the benefits of the film Readiness designation is that it allows the municipality to actually put in the processes and the protocols otherwise it's simply ad Hawk without any you know as councilwoman Quinn said it's happening now but it's it's sort of catches catch can without any direction and what this enables townships to do is actually give directions to both the studios and to other in the municipality itself to understand this is what we have to consider this is how we go through it and one of the things that that we've also pushed on too is when they're going to be in a community in a neighborhood we make them knock doors we had a production in 22 up in Madison um and the the council had already had their meeting so they were like like oh well we have another month before our next meeting and the production's like no I need to film next week um we made them knock doors in that neighborhood and get all the residents in the neighborhood to sign off and say yes they were excited about it and what was really nice is the production did that they talked to everyone made got the mayor comfortable with it and then made a donation to pay for their block party and that's all I hear about from the mayor now how great that block party was you know the $1,500 that the production spent but it's all about Goodwill it's all about the relationship the Productions know that they can't burn a community that's not what they're looking to do and they'll do as long as we tell them upfront what we want them to do they'll do it if that means knocking on every door on a street because they're going to be filming in a house past you know 10:00 or 11:00 then they will absolutely do that thank you thank you any other questions okay well thank you so much uh I know it was a trip here but I really appreciate y'all comment I know the public app appreciates it and and thank you for all that yall do to bring you know this kind of economic engine to New Jersey we're excited about and we're excited Sparta wants to be part of it yeah thank you I will leave these two reports so that you guys can take a look at them as well okay thank you and and if you do need I'll be at the film ready program obviously we do a panel discussion just we bring in location managers we bring in people so they talk about you know best practices it's it's like a full compressed day where you you get like a a class in and what to expect and what to do but also at any time you call Janice or call myself and we'll we'll walk you through everything thank you for your thank you so much thank you all right now on to regular business may I have a motion to approve the reorganization meeting minutes of January 4th 2024 I'll make a motion that we approve the reor meeting minutes from January 4th 2024 uh may I have a second please I'll second it all in favor say I I I uh that passes the reorganization meeting minutes of January 4th 2024 have been approved uh next up is the manager's report may we have uh Mr Zep could you please give us the manager's report than good evening mayor council and Sparta residents I have a few announcements uh due to inclimate weather the rainbarrow workshop scheduled for March 23rd uh has been postponed and rescheduled to Saturday April 6 from 9 to 12 at Spartan municiple building more information can be found on the Township's website under news and announcements unfortunately last Friday our library building had to close for a sewer line issue therefore cancelling the circle of friends preschool and Recreation class classes the council connect meeting was canceled as well and the next one is scheduled for Thursday April 18th at 6 p.m. after the sewer repairs were made the library director brought in the clean team who provide a comprehensive cleaning of the building to ensure that patrons and staff entering the building starting Saturday morning were not harmed today I received information from District 24 legislative offic office that they have scheduled on Wednesday April 3rd between 10: and 2: p.m. at the Sussex County tech school a New Jersey Motor Vehicle mobile unit to serve the public in handling their motor vehicle transactions there are Flyers out front uh and information on Township's website on how to sign up in our Our IT department the projection equipment for council chambers has finally been delivered after an extended back order period Mr Dempsey is hoping to uh complete all technology upgrades for the council chambers by mid to late April this equipment was purchased with a local efficiency uh achievement program otherwise known as the leap Grant in our Parks and Recreation Department despite the weather the recreation Department's bunny breakfast at the library on Saturday was well attended with 100 children plus families enjoying the holiday festivities parks department staff has been working in between the storm events reparing the ball fields to be open for sports staff will assess field conditions and will be opening any Fields when ready hopefully by this weekend so long as weather permits as reported in my last report Recreation staff will email sports groups when the fields are open Camp saaka jya Day Camp still has spots open anyone interested should call the recreation office for availability or sign up online through the community pass in our zoning and construction Department I'm happy to report that our zoning and construction departments have worked with the susus county health department in streamlining review procedures for any new zoning construction permits effective yesterday March 25th the new procedures will minimize the need for applicants to travel to the county health department and ensure a more expedient turnaround updated forms and information can be found under forms on the township website in our utilities department on March 18th the water department participated in a virtual Q&A session with the Helen Morgan school students to answer questions the students had uh while writing papers on clean drinking water the the school organized the questions and our utility director answered them and then shared the answers with the students I wanted to commend our water staff also on their response time for fixing a water leak over St Patrick's Day weekend as I was made aware that some members of the community were pleased with the quick resolve of the issue as you may know Mitch Morrison organizes a large group of volunteers for our annual baggot day to clean up litter throughout the town through the state funded clean communities program people can participate in the L control in several areas throughout the township I would like to thank Mr Morrison and the families and organizations and other groups who continue to participate in this program each year for their efforts in helping to keep Township of Sparta beautiful information can be found on our website under Township initiatives if anyone is interested in this ongoing effort Chief mccarrick will now read his portion of the manager report this concludes my report thank you mayor council and Sparta residence thank you Chief I don't think you have a mic someone stld it thank you thank you manager Zep thank you mayor thank you councel April is a national distracted driving Awareness Month distracted driving has become a deadly epidemic on our roadways in 2021 distracted driv and killed approximately 3,522 people during the month of April the sparta Township Police Department will be teaming up with the Nitsa which is National Highway Traffic Safety Association and enforcing acts which constitute distracted driving while operating a motor vehicle um some of these things that people don't realize that could lead to distracting driving and accidents is obviously using a cell phone with smartphone texting adjusting a radio using a navigation system grooming themselves uh talking to other passengers tending to pets eating and drinking some of those things that people don't really uh realize that could lead to an accident so we want everybody to be aware of that and for anyone who wants more information you could visit www.nhtsa.gov and I just like to piggyback off of uh the Child Abuse Prevention month for uh April um myself being uh serving the detective Bureau for many years and investigating many crimes involving uh children I do understand how important Jenny's house was uh towards those investigations um you know currently our detectives still utilize and um and are very happy with those services and it makes it very comforting not only for uh the child and the family but also for us to to partake in in those Services there so thank you to Jenny's house on March 13 20124 uh Sergeant scump Corporal mustanger officer Harry chuny one of our new officers attended a uh mad uh training which is Mother's Against Drunk Driving sponsored by Nitsa um and during this training Summit officers heard directly from victims and their families through impact statements and videos this engagement you is used to motivate police offic to enforce motor vehicle violations and crack down on impaired driving I would like to mention officer Michael Pon who led the police department um in DWI arrest for 2023 at 19 arrests for driving while intoxicated and he also led the department and arrest for 20122 with 13 DWIs um so our officers are obviously out there enforcing that as you no last but not least on April 1st 2024 lieutenant John lamman will be officially retired from the start of Township Police Department Lieutenant Layman served over 30 years with Sparta Township police in January of 1994 John began his career as a patrolman and over the years with a growing interest in Narcotics enforcement he was very proactive and eventually was assigned to the susus County Narcotics task force to work undercover John was promoted in 2007 to Sergeant where a supervised a patrol squad for 9 years prior to becoming promoted to Lieutenant in 2016 I want to thank John for his uh many years of service and I wish him the best of luck on his retirement and spending uh time with his wife Beth his and his sons uh JT and Kurt and we are having a traditional police walk out this Friday um the 29th at 1 pm for anybody that would like to attend and what is that again uh it's at 1M this Friday the 29th and that'll be uh in the rear of the building here and that concludes my report thank you thank you very much Chief may I have a motion to accept the bager report I'll make a motion that we accept the manager report may I have a second I'll second it all in favor say I I I I motion carries the manager report is uh accepted uh the next is our first open to the public comment period however uh it's for items that are not again I repeat not on the agend agenda so if you look at the agenda and you see something you want to talk about now's not the time um but I will say that uh I understand probably a lot of people here or for the short-term rental um tonight would just be an introduction we're not passing anything tonight um there will be a full and fair opportunity at the hearing for the public to comment prior to the vote um so tonight is simply an introduction uh there also you know public comment periods tonight that you are free to talk about what's on the agenda so I just with that caveat do we have any public comment for uh something that is not on the agenda okay seeing none we'll we'll move on Deputy Mayor would you please read the expenditures for March 26 20124 yes I'd like to make a motion that we approve the expenditures for March 26 2024 totaling 8,869 3727 cents may I have a second please I'll second it uh all those in favor say I I I I the expenditures for March 26 uh 2024 have been approved uh now we're at the introduction of uh two ordinances uh uh Madam clerk could you please read the title of the ordinance 2403 an ordinance of the township of Sparta amending section 12-8 housing code of the sparta Township Code may I have a motion to introduce Bond ordinance 243 so moved uh may I have a second I second with the correction is not not a bond necessar yeah I it says that in mind yeah it's not a bond yeah I second okay and may I have a roll call vote please please councilwoman Quinn yes councilman Sherell yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes and if we could Tom uh could you explain what the purpose of this ordinance is just so we know what we're 24-3 yes yes that uh that is to bring the sparta Township Housing code in compliance with the uh New Jersey state model housing code which uh is also um reviewed and approved by uh the county of Sussex so uh it's to bring into Conformity all of the municipalities within uh within Sussex County and in fact within the state of New Jersey thank you uh Madam clerk could you please read the title of ordinance 244 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 12 of the revised ordinances of Township of Sparta to prohibit the short-term rental of residential property may I have a motion to introduce uh ordinance 2404 so moved may I have a second I will second it uh may I have a roll call vote please councilwoman Quinn yes councilman shello yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes and do we have any hearings of ordinances we do not okay uh we are now at the uh second uh public comment period uh which is items on the agenda which would include resolutions uh and any other items so again if you uh wish to speak on that uh please step forward and please be mindful of our clock um we had do have a lot of people here so you don't have to take all the 5 minutes uh but you're you're free to comment and speak just to clarify this is just on resolutions correct this is just resolution just regarding resolutions okay so just clarify that maybe Neil okay it's just for Resolutions it's not for every item on the on the agenda so this would include if you look at the resolutions which are under the tit number nine uh yes state your name and for the record yeah sure will'll hookway n Grove ter Sparta I just have a couple questions about the ordinance you said this was to bring it into compliance with State um guidelines do you have to follow those guidelines or is that just a recommendation public comment under resolutions 9-1 to 9 um you can make a public there's a comment period at the end of the agenda for anything I'm sorry that's okay I thought this was opened up for questions about the ordinances no no there were no questions on the ordinances that are introduced the the public questions come when the ordinance is heard so the the cycle goes we introduce the ordinance that goes into the ecosphere where the public can then digest it and then at our next uh council meeting we will then debate the ordinance at which time the public can make a comment but you free to comment uh on anything uh at the last agenda item public speaking item which is um at the end of all of our items so if you you you I don't want to send you home without making a comment that you want to you can make this comment but not at the end of the agenda number 12 process Mike Divine Oak Parkway I notice res third resolution I think you're hiring a prosecutor is that am I at the right point four 94 94 and it says that which I guess legally you're allowed to do a non-fair and open process it's called the my understanding is this our current prosecutor now and he simply has changed the law firm that he works for so we need to we're just putting a resolution together to cify the fact or um verify the fact that he is thing but he is no longer with the law firm that he was with when he came to us as a prosecutor okay so it's essentially an administrative something right okay it's not going out to get somebody new off the street that explains it thanks Chris sure hey any other comments just on the resolutions okay oh yeah again it's just on the resolutions that's fine yep Rick fle uh question on resolution 9-3 can you explain the uh differences between the four options and how we came up to option number three which is 14 plus million yeah so why don't I think Mr Zep and uh Mr Ryan are familiar with one uh I think it would be helpful uh to explain the bid process what bid you got and then why we chose option four as opposed to the other options so thank you mayor uh what I'm going to do is I'm going to defer to Tom on uh the process uh that we took for a bidding uh we have to abide by public contract law actually if I can so there's a five minute limit we can answer your question but if you have any other questions okay good I just want to make sure you get sorry go ahead thanks Dan I can't get used to that um uh so I'm going to have uh Tom explain the the the bid process uh Solid Waste contracts are are one of those processes that that are heavily regulated by the state so you have to follow a lot of of uh procedures and uh you got to have a whole bunch of language in the bids and so um it the bid is is is a pretty thick document that goes out but with that I'm going to uh turn turn it over to Tom on on the process yeah let unless concerned about the process and more concerned about understanding the differences between the four options and how did we exclude three of them and end up with one of them that that's process the I'm all about procedure he's about substance right okay it sounds like that he wants to that that's fine and it's completely understandable um first of all that contract is is virtually duplicate of the previous contract that we were under if you look at at it it was worded the same uh I didn't have to do a whole lot of work other than update the current Pro uh contract because it was working so well all right um that was a 5-year contract the township I felt benefited very well for the cost of of the the the curbside uh collection all right it was it's been that rate for how many years Sam since the Inception of the solid waste we've stayed at $75 a quarter so we're all four options of five-year contract and is this the same price we PID last time is that what you say it it is not it is not um it's just uh the the structure of that contract had the four options just as you read it now the the the descriptions of the options were the same it's obviously because we're five years later the the uh number amount is different you also read that we received one bid from our current hauler so we didn't have any other bids so then when I looked at that those those costs and we broke them down um just like the last cont contract I wasn't the the engineer actually had had done that contract but like he also evaluated that four that third option was also the most costly over a 5-year period it was the most cost amount but when you spread it out and you look at the increases it was the most value of a contract um it was funny because councilman uh uh Deputy Mayor Bluey was asking that question of Jim what's the difference between option three which or two which was the three year for a lesser amount as opposed to the fiveyear because the fiveyear was $25,000 difference and I explained to him as I looked at it and we crunched the numbers and by the way I it's not just me I have our engineer I have legal I I get a lot of eyes on this uh to make sure that we're looking at the value of the contract and the best bang for the buck for the resident and in the five year even though it's more over the length of the contract I feel it's the most beneficial to the to the resident like the previous contract in that those two years after the third year that you see there there's a risk exposure that the hauler is taking he is he's running an operation of Fleet of of the equipment he has to fuel the equipment and then he has to man the equipment all right there's a lot of factors involved there the difference was roughly $25,000 there and for us to go with say the three-year contract all right um and then go out and rebid at the end of the third year what are the chances are that we would be getting the same number or less my feeling was is that we wouldn't be in that position we'd be in a better position to go for the award of the fiveyear like we did with the previous contract and we really benefited from that um and that that that's why we we chose that you can make the same argument with hey Jim I looked at the the Dual stream and I looked at the single stream the single stream is slightly more but if you look at the difference it's very nominal and for me to go out to the all the residents of the township and say guess what we're going to now go to dual stream you're all going to have to change the way you do your recycling now you have to split up youra containers you're going have to put fiber in one and glass in the other and by the way if anyone's ever seen the process it's going on the same floor okay I thought that the value in going staying with the single stream and not changing any of the services on the residence for the for the bid price that we got I thought we made out really well considering what you know with the soul bidder and and and what we have going on our collection works pretty well and I think a lot of residents would say that I used to when I was running Public Works I oversaw solid Wast and collection all right I was at the end of the phone calls for many of the residents here most of are pretty satisfied with what they get twice a week garbage once a week recycling anybody who has a family in other towns I I I think you know it's good I just wanted to understand sure some of them are three years it's not detailed here some of them are five years there's a difference between two options and a fiveyear I was just trying to understand the differences between the four options that's all yeah to your point there the four options two of them are three years two or five years for each one of those there was a single stream recycling dual stream recycling so those are the that's how you get the four thank you I could have said that ask me what time it is we'll tell you to make a clock right no it was valuable though we shared Jenny dereck's tap into Sparta what is the new price uh it's in the we have it here one second J I got it cost it's uh for the fiveyear option it's uh 14,43 th000 I understand per what's the what's the Delta for the residents we were at 75 you said Sam since the beginning of the contract right now I we're still working on the exact rate but it's around a $25 increase to the quarterly charge to the resident right now so it's $100 more a year yes give or take a dollar I'm still working with the collection with my my my tax collector who does the billing um there's some mitigating factors we you know we give discounts to Veterans and all that stuff so um but it it's right there it's it's at 25 give or take a dollar so one more question then Sam how long have we had this um service in I believe we started it in 2009 or8 something like that it just had gotten in place like a year or so before I started so it was around N9 or 10 nine or 10 okay but like say it's been the same price I mean we've locked out a couple times when we've bid you know the fuel prices were low we got a really sweet deal the you know the one cycle um so we honestly can't complain on what we've gotten from this and it's it you know it's been a bargain for the residents really I mean if you take your garbage to a private Haller you're pay a lot more the other Dynamic here is that the recycling Market globally is just crazy um and there's a lot of uncertainty in the recycling Market especially when China stopped taking the recycling a couple years ago and so um I think we're very fortunate to for the the contract that we have and I think one of the reasons we get such such good pricing on this is our location where the landfill is in in our close proximity and where the hauler is coming from you know his round trip if he comes around would probably be 30 40 miles a day on the vehicle and so it's it's it's beneficial to them because they're not beating their vehicles up and they know that they know they got stops every day and they're going to get paid every day thank you any other public comment on just the resolution okay seeing none um I think we should we can take 91 through 94 together and then bar out 95 unless yes any of my fellow Council feels otherwise uh may I have a motion to approve resolutions 91 through 94 so moved may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I I so resolutions 91 through 94 are passed may I have a motion to approve resolution 95 I'll make a motion that we approve resolution 9-5 uh may I have a second I will second it uh may I have a roll call vote please councilwoman Quinn abstain councilman cherell yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes resolution 95 has passed we are now up to council liaison updates and I will start to my far left uh councilwoman Quinn do you mind going first sure so I want to thank everyone here in the council and administrative leadership for supporting the recommendation from our health professional to update the uh code we introduced that ordinance tonight so I think that's really a great step forward so thank you for that um with regards to the municipal Alliance we are really gaining speed we picked our new logos we're very excited about that we have a lot of programs starting getting speakers in the schools so we're very excited about that uh the logos will be released shortly we have some opportunities coming up and we just had a meeting with professionals locally chap was there as well where we started talking about what we're going to start implementing as far as um a a programming across all demographics in Sparta relating to social media and the harm and risks and things of that nature it's so important we're we're losing kids but more importantly the the mental anguish and depression that that can come from these things affects many different uh demographics so that's go going on there I I mentioned salute 07871 thank you to everybody um to all of our servicemen and women Vanessa is working on and then we'll be reviewing together all of the new HomeTown hero applications I cannot stress enough please um when we get the applications in each year an email is generated out to anyone who has put in a form and that is a request for an electronic photo of the servicemen or woman so please be mindful if you did put in an application to check your email and be sure to respond so that there is a cut off for you to respond so that we can get the orders for the new banners in by Memorial Day so that is really what drives everything um the parks and wreck we did have a meeting um I don't know if you want me to speak to that but you could speak to that if you want to you take the best notes councilwoman Quin so take the best not go for it okay so we talked about a lot of different things there's a lot going on there as well um as always our rec department really does a great job of programming the parks and rec advisory committee is very very involved as well in working with the rec department to bring different things forward so we're super excited to be talking about things like um getting people in that can help our residents that are interested in homesteading um which means growing vegetables and knowing how to grow vegetables and different things of that nature that's a big Trend right now and people wanting to really build their own things so we're looking at that that's one of the things also we're very excited and waiting in in anticipation to find out if um Jake law if we're approved for that Grant if we do we're going to be able to redo the entire part uh playground over at Station Park which would be great and it will be become 100% fully inclusive so we're supposed to be hearing about that I believe at the end of the summer um we did have a conversation about capital projects so again just things that that we are throwing around as capital projects many of which you have heard us speaking about here I don't want to speak to any of them specifically because I don't want to set an expectation but there is a lot of great there are a lot of really great projects that we're we're trying to work together in support with the rec uh Rec Department with the township and really pushing forward for our residents the can I pause there for a minute um do you have a timeline of when that Capital plan will is Will kind of dun or we're still working through it so it's on its way my understanding is we talked about it the other night and it's on its way forward for review okay so thank you hopefully shortly I guess that would be my my best answer Dan yeah the projects have been identified along with where where possible uh an estimated cost and a prioritization right yes okay thank you so different things that are on the agenda again not to set expectations but just to give the public so you understand some of the things is updating a lot of our parks and our maybe putting in some looking at pickle ball we know that's a big deal um different Parks pocket Parks bathrooms um Pavilions in different places upkeep and general so a lot of really great things that are proposed and we'll see what that looks like at the end and then we will present to everybody what's agreed on but a lot of different uh programming and a lot of different things going on there and I do want to also say that the date of the Trout Derby has been announced oun so this Trout Derby is a big deal it will be May 18th so for those of you that may or may not be familiar with it it happens over at Station Park you register for it our rec department um goes down you go down there and you can go with your kids kids and parents go down there and it's a great day of outdoor fun great morning of outdoor fun so if anyone feels like they want to learn more about that please go to the Parks and Recreation website and I think that covers everything for recreation in my great notes I think that's all I have did I miss anything else um I would just add that um I think you want some of the projects we also looking at improving our current Parks uh as I think I've mentioned before parks are no different than their infrastructure of the town so in the same way that one would not want their roads to deteriorate their pipes to deteriorate we don't want our parks to deteriorate so what we are doing is looking at what parks we can improve what the improvements need to be in prioritizing that um another thing that came up and sort of in line with what councilwoman Quinn said about an Endeavor that the municipal Alliance is going to is that uh trying to get the kids off their phones um and steering Recreation programs to that demographic um if anyone wants to be shocked I recommend uh reading any article by Jonathan hate he studied this issue um he is is a professor out of New York University and it's very sobering when you read it and so if you look at the incidence of teen depression particularly in in girls um it simply spikes around 2008 when everyone became had a phone in their hand and it's a it's a serious public health issue and so this is something that I emphasize with our rec department is that they are the fund department and they provide a lot but when they also help save lives if you think about it right because if if this if we can get kids to do things that alleviate depression uh their health outcomes are are far better than someone who does suffer from depression and other issues that have been associated with too much um phone use so I I commend the municipal Alliance for doing that and I'm glad we have a Rec Department that is um looking into this so that was what I would add to the rec department and then as far as other out uh Council updates uh we are having our next uh film Readiness Meeting on April 3rd we are up and running I will make two additional appointments tonight um of two Sparta residents who have been involved uh in film making uh including the most recent project and you all saw the the presentation tonight um really a not lot can happen on this until we attend the workshop in April 23rd and all update as uh events warrant and I will let uh my fellow council person uh Dan chello uh speak about the Rev 250 and that is all I have about Council aison updates and councilman blue medy yep thank you mayor so uh want to share some updates for the about the planning board I have four things I wanted to share tonight first one is the there's a subcommittee it's called New Jersey state plan endorsement advisory committee which includes members of the public the plan endorsement advisory committee will be U sharing an overview of the plan endorsement process at the next planning board meeting in fact the planning board meeting is uh for the most part dedicated to talking about the plan endorsement process uh at that meeting you'll hear an overview of what the plan endorsement process is um we'll share a draft an early draft of what the the vision that was created to go along part the beginning point of that process a vision around Sparta Sparta's future we'll be looking for input uh there'll be several uh there's a municipal self assessment that is part of that long process it's going to be going on this year so you'll get a glimpse of what that entails and we'll be looking for some input and there'll be future public meetings along the way as well to gather more input from the from you uh second there is a uh a short-term subcommittee that was put together to explore Grant opportuni particularly regarding the highlands Council um there's lots of funding opportunities with the highlands Council so this uh subset of the planning board is working with our Township grant writer to explore some opportunities make sure we're aware of them and find out how we tap into some of those funds for different activities uh third is the planning board is uh Contracting uh creating a a Professional Services agreement with a traffic engineering firm neglia Engineering Group uh to assist with traffic considerations related to select planning board applications uh I want to be very very clear in those cases where this consultant this engineering company is used to review and validate a traffic study of an applicant the payment for that engineering firm is coming out of the applicants escrow so there is no budgeting and there's no taxpayer input uh impact from this and then finally U excitingly for some people who've been asking about this for a while zoning map so our professional engineer Dave Simmons and p uh have uh been creating and revising and updating an enhanced zoning map we saw a uh a draft almost final version of it the other night uh a print out of it uh has a lot of extra information on there and for those of you who have been waiting for a while for a a new zoning map uh it's coming and it looks great so uh looking at you Jenny on the website yes yeah eventually it's going to be posted onto the website they're going to convert it and uh it has a lot of extra layers of data in there a lot of blowup sections on it too so and Jenny will'll be happy that concludes it my report thanks excellent thank a couple of updates to mention um I'll start with the revolution NJ 250 committee uh again for those um not familiar with that uh that is a committee that every municipality in the in the state was uh recommended to set up to start planning the celebration of the 2026 Independence uh 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation um not every municipality did but sped was one of the earlier adopters of that um so um our uh we we did meet with a grant writer recently to see if we can get some um money for some of the projects we had in mind um and so we're going to again pursue that um over the next couple of weeks and months uh there are some available grants and we hope to offset some of the cost of some of the things we have planned with some of those grants um we will shortly uh one of the plan things we have planned was to start collecting uh local stories of family histories about U Revolutionary War period uh if you have a family in in Sparta that says you know my great great great whatever Uncle fought in the Revolutionary War and these are his stories um um or the uh if if any family histories we're going to try to collect and then share them eventually the 2026 uh so we set up uh thank you for Mike dempy RIT Department to set up a common email address that we can start collecting those stories uh we hope to get uh some exposure to that soon in terms of in form of um maybe notices or press releases or or something with a library so I look for that soon and we hope to hear from Spartans whoever interesting stories from their family to tell um I think that's it for the revolution NJ okay uh I have no Board of Ed or county commissioner liazon updates to share uh the business development committee met on March 13th uh last meeting uh we in that we continued our review of the business application process to try to streamline that and make it um make it as uh as as easy as we can for new businesses coming into Sparta and and setting up shop and making sure everything all the uh check boxes are checked uh and we also welcomed our uh business uh committee um utsman who is uh going to handhold uh some people through the process in case any any respective business has any questions um we have person that uh that we will help uh with guide through the process uh the environmental commission met on March 14th last at that we welcomed our first student liazon um Arn Solace so we have a new uh this this uh the Das is actually very crowded now between everybody here it's all we have a Phil committee so that was very uh fun um we talked about the rain barrel event being postponed um at the last meeting we uh Comm environmental commission we talked about the upcoming ARB Day event uh and if I were smart I would have written down the date of the Arbor Day event but um since I'm not um I don't have that date available but I did share at the last meeting so consult your notes um 26 the 26th 26th like today Friday the 26th of April April 26th there you go um I have no update further from the culture and arts committee they meet again in a week or two um but I do have one really cool thing at least I I think it's cool and I hope you do too um I did give an update under new business last meeting about uh our sister city in Sparta Greece uh our relationship um and I did announce that uh so that in Sparta Greece they have an annual um historical or archaeological conference that they invite people from around the world and they talk about uh different topics and this year's topic is the economic model currency and inheritance law in ancient Sparta and I'm announced that I'm happy to attend uh that meeting myself uh and I want to make it clear that it's on my own expense so somebody reminded me like the taxpayers are not paying for my trip to Greece that's not happening um however I will add that um while the 2025 planning for the 2025 annual conference uh of Sparta is already planning in the works the people from Sparta Greece had approached us and asked us if we would be interested in hosting the 2026 archaeological annual conference right here in Sparta New Jersey uh and one of the things they want to do is invite all the towns in in the United States and perhaps Canada that are named Sparta and there about two dozen or so uh to join us in that conference so I'm very excited about that um and uh I think that would be a fantastic event to have here in Sparta um if uh and I think that might require its own little planning committee so maybe I'll work with the manager and and the mayor and and the clerk to see if we can set up a committee to help us um welcome the people from Sparta Greece and from around the country to for this archaeological conference and um that is all my updates I do just have updates from the New Jersey League yeah please do so um for anyone who's interested um just on behalf of the New Jersey League of municipalities the New Jersey state parks is seeking applicants to fill 800 part-time jobs so um if anyone is interested they're looking to fill these 800 jobs ahead of peak spring and summer seasons so you can get more information about that um from www.nj parks and forest.org but that's a lot of jobs and um you know we do have some locations very close so if you are interested in a position please um reach out to them to learn more there's also for kids the njlm working with the clean Community Council for children to enter the second annual NJ clean community's reduced single use PSA video contest so if anyone is interested in learning more about that that you can go um email the njcc the deadline is Monday April 22nd so just to put that out there there's also I wanted to make everyone aware Municipal storm water assistant grants this information is in the packets that we received so if anyone is interested in looking more um to that the deadline has been extended to the 31st so this Dean is something that you may want to be bringing back it's in the packet that we all received um and also there are some uh grants available for community- based deer management programs and this has been a sort of a Hot Topic that we've had for a while we got statistics from the prior police chief that said in 2022 there were 91 recorded deer vehicle accidents just in Sparta 91 so um anyway I wanted to bring It Forward the deadline for applying is May 3rd and that information is in the packet and I happen I happen to have it here as well so that's in the New Jersey League of municipalities update thank you right thank you and I will add that our uh student liais on to the environmental commission uh because I was there last night was inducted into the National Honor Society so um I'm glad that we have someone who's such a diligent student uh on our environmental commission and um I think that's F fantastic news that stand about the conference um I think my only requirement will be that all attendees have to gather together and say in unison this is Sparta and that's a tribute to 300 for those of you who have seen that so um I have no other unfinished or new business is anyone else okay so um we are now at the uh public comment period um for anything including items on the agenda or items on the agenda that you would like business we have new business next right it's unfinished and new business yeah you want to point point make the appointments oh yeah thank you there are thank you roxan I appreciate it um yes I um I would like a motion to approve the following uh two gentlemen to this cultural Affairs uh committee the subcommittee on Sparta film Readiness uh they are Aiden bolasco and Kevin salir uh Mr Blasco is a graduate of Sparta High School I believe uh and he's also done film editing and movie production uh and also Mr Sal Mar is a graduate of Pope John High School also a Sparta resident uh who also has a film experience uh kind of doing almost anything you ask him to do uh he will do uh in a movie so we're very blessed to have these two gentlemen uh young gentlemen I I'll add too so I think you heard night about getting uh young people involved in this and that's what we're doing on this committee so with that I'd like a motion to uh appoint uh Aiden bolasco and Kevin salir to the cultural Affairs film uh committee uh subcommittee Sparta film Readiness I think you should make the motion I did oh you made the motion yes okay I will second it okay forms in too right oh yes they their forms in yep all those in favor say I I all right it passes welcome Mr bolasco and Mr Sal Mar I know you'll do a fantastic [Applause] job and now we are at the uh public comment period on items uh on and off uh the agenda again um we have please pay attention to the five minute period and uh that doesn't mean you have to talk for 5 minutes that just means your time runs out so uh with that if anyone has public comment please approach the microphone and hold forth come on Beth you know you want to I need a shorter mic hi it's Beth brck still on Northshore and I'm still too short for your mic and now I broke it again I just have it thanks good yeah does that count my five minutes I just have a quick question in residential areas are we allowed to have companies like are we allowed to have corporations or companies working in area zoned for residential just curious well there are mixed use zones as well that will will allow both purely residential residential area mean like a home business or home office no like a let's say that Exxon decided to come in and operate on Northshore or if Marriott decided to come in and put something in like a 10 story something on my street would they be allowed or would they be in violation of some kind of town ordinance well it depends on what the zoning allows for that particular Zone so if it's a permitted use if it's a conditional use or if it's not permitted they can then come to the uh zoning board and get a use variance but typically if it's residential you probably won't see commercial entities in a purely residential Zone that won't be permitted okay is that what you're asking so what you're asking is can you have a business running out of a residential a residential Zone yeah so if my neighborhood is zoned for 100% residential can we have a corporation or a company Comm yeah commercial that's the word I forgot retaining well last night so it's not just you guys um Can a corporation or a commercial entity come in and establish something and then my other question is when something is defined as and I don't know if I'm allowed to refer specifically to an ordinance that hasn't been heard yet but under the definition of person an ordinance where it says individual entity Association limited liability company Corporation or partnership how does that work if a corporation is listed as person in an ordinance that deals specifically with a res like deals with a residential area house e can work or does that depend on the ordinance and time frames I don't know if I can spell it out or if I'm allowed to well I think yeah you guys know where I'm going with this I don't know if I'm allowed to reference the ordinance because it hasn't been heard yet you can reference anything you want right now the difference between a land use ordinance and so in an Airbnb on page two of the ordinance under it says person means it's under Section 10-1 on page two it says person means individual entity like what I just said so would Airbnb fit under the definition of person under a corporation or partnership with that with would airbn be considered a person on page two at the top in this ordinance and would they be in compliance as long as they're over if they're 20 day 29 days or more that's a complicated legal question I'll I'll just there's a lot of permutations to that I think one thing that should uh maybe a misconception that we should get out front this ordinance is not a land use ordinance okay it's a police power ordinance that under our authority to um provide for the safety and Welfare of the public we have that that's under which uh we are passing that ordinance now if land use ordinance is a totally different thing uh what uses are allowed that's a separate issue this this is not a land use ordinance yeah so that's there's particular legal reasons for uh categorizing that that way one is that's the appropriate way to categorize it but there's also the legal effect of that has some implications as well um so that's you know one thing and and the issue of whether something is commercial and residential is a very thorny issue um you know there's a million permutations that you could make if someone has a Tupperware party uh once a week out of their house um is that a commercial use of their house I don't know the you know so um these are very naughty kind of legal issues but the purpose of the short-term rent one is it's simply an authorization of our police power sorry Tom I was just going to I was your question also whether I'm more conc apply to a person Corporation or I don't care about pamper Chef if you want to have people come over and buy baskets go right ahead knock yourself out right but the the ordinance will apply to whether the house is owned by an individual or it's owned by a corporate entity or uh it it doesn't matter whatever uh the whatever form the owner takes they'll be subject to the uh outlined or stipulated in the ordinance if and when it passes yeah okay yep F I mean I'm not going to go after anyone selling Avon if you want to ring my doorbell I have a very long driveway best of luck but the I think the thing is about that when they're talking about persons here they're talking about maybe the ownership so that's what he's saying regardless of who owns the house these are the rules okay so you could be Betty Crocker uh you could be XYZ LLC you could be whoever owns it because we do have corporations that own homes for their residents but or for their employees we did we used to anyway um but this is saying it doesn't matter who you are if you're a company or a person or whoever you are these are the rules okay that's fine that's all I got did I run out of time you did all right I got nothing else anyway okay anyone else uh public comment I I apologize for jumping the gun before I'm I'm on board with you now it's my fault will I I steered you wrong my friend sorry about that no no problem um so I just have a couple questions um when I look at this um proposed ordinance I see three different competing sections regarding density or the number of people that can occupy a dwelling one of them is the square footage of the house one of them is the the square footage based on bedroom space and the third one is on based on laboratory facilities um when I do rough calculations and I look at the some of the houses that are being built in Lake Mohawk specifically and certainly this would apply to some of the mansions that are not in Lake Mohawk also you know you got a 2500 or a 3,000 sqt house you could have a density or a number of people in these dwellings that I think exceeds what we're trying to encourage as a community I don't certainly within Lake Mohawk we're not trying to encourage I think two or three families descending on a house and then you have an occupancy of 12 15 maybe even more people than that um for you know for a rental for even for a short-term rental of 28 days it really doesn't make sense it's more geared toward um you know the shore you know occupancy where it is just for a week or even a long weekend so my question is basically the question that I started before is um are the are the guidelines that you're adopting now based on uh state standards and are they um obligatory guidelines or can you have guidelines that are more restrictive for our own municipality I I mean that's that that's a very good question um and we are trying to get clarification on um what types of modifications we can make to the state housing code um but uh the first indication is we we cannot make significant modifications to it um but I I I don't have a final answer for you on that but we certainly will before the I hope we look into that before we adopt this I'm sorry I said I hope we look into that and make a determination actively looking into that good thank you very much thank you am I right it's a state statute right to this the suus County Health Department who was our health department they're the ones who brought it to our attention that our current housing code was outdated it was very limited uh and they're part of the enforcement of the housing code the suss County Health Department they brought it to to to my attention that hey you really should bring your code up to the state level of of code which really gives it more bite IT addresses more issue the radent infestations and stuff that they go out and enforce uh by using the state code I'm told that that gives the maximum amount of enforcement power and you do need to be careful where you start tweaking it as far as maybe restricting one area or the other because once you start deviating from the the the housing code from the state you may not be able to uh do the enforcement that you want to do because obviously the the the state officials have really done their homework when they put the code together it's just they really brought it to our attention that our current code is outdated we updated the code it's got a lot more teeth now for the Enforcement Officers both the susus county health and our code enforcement officer and your question is completely valid we actually have discussed the same thing uh uh earlier and I'm being told from our health consultant uh that you need to be careful on where you start tweaking that code because you you may jeopardize your enforcement ability by doing that um that's what I was told yeah but I appreciate your point I mean the the question can we be more strict uh perhaps on certain uh standards than the the state guidelines are are calling for and that's a question we're going to answer thank you thank you I please state your name and address for the record hi Mr Pagano Bob Pagano 45 Island Trail um trustee at Lake Mohawk in Treasure I support and thrilled with the leadership you guys are showing around the short-term rentals we've struggled with this on our own for a while now the fact that you guys are laying down a yard stick I think is is tremendous for us um I I really very pleased as I've read it about the enforcement actions that you've got in there um it allows us to actually put some teeth to this it it it becomes real at that point and so I I just can't tell you how pleased I am with what you've done the last comment I have is thinking about ways that we can move forward together on enforcement would be something I'd be thrilled to be challenged with so that we can make sure that we just maintain consistency um between both organizations appreciate guys thank thank you thank you Bob the other public comment uh hi Mike dine Oak Parkway I guess just two quick things one is uh and I haven't read it in great detail yet but evidently there are what the right word is or fines or something if there's a problem caused or damage caused or whatever is that part of this that if you bring somebody in for 29 days and they cause havoc in the neighborhood or something what's the consequences of that is that is the owner of the house prevented from further use of it in a P&B context is there some kind of consequence to violating the good order of the community in other words Mike are you asking if it's if they violate the ordinance for short-term rentals and they do like a 20-day rental or are you asking if it's a long-term rental no if if they if they consistent with the ordinance but at the end of it it's been clear that who the person they brought in disregarded all the normal ways of treating a neighborhood and have caused problems for the local vicinity does that have any consequence to the finds are outlined in the township so this again is a Township it's a police ordin policing ordinance not a land use ordinance so the good news is those fines um are already outlined in other ordinances that this will fall under so those penalties will be assessed and leveraged by police officers or by the health department to the homeowner is there any preventative or proactive control as to who's brought in totally up to the homeowner or is it so we're talking right now about processes to be able to manage um rentals in general not just shortterm rentals every rental you know um following guidelines to say you know how are we going to manage this people have to register what does that look like what what documentation do we need um for any for for 30 days and above for a year for two years whatever it might be that's all ongoing separate from this this is separate but supporting okay what we're doing here we're really looking at the entire we're looking at it at a holistic way that's really what we're doing is looking at the entire thing but the penalties and fines that you're talking about are not frivolous okay they're extensive and they're outlined in other ordinances that the police can then utilize and the health uh officers can utilize to be able to assess and uh give the fines so there's a lot of teeth obviously balancing a person's right to use their property against the good of the community obviously my last point is and this is not theoretical uh I'm I'm familiar with companies who will buy houses yes and use it for their Executives to come and go on a pretty frequent basis since those executives are not strictly charged for that that opportunity does that exclude them from this it sounds like in here you can be less than 28 days if there's no money exchange simply yes it excludes them you have a guest so if you had receive any compensation for the use of the house then it would not be subject to the proposed ordinance so if a company comes in and buys a house and they move their Executives in and out anytime they come to town that's not that's not restricted by this uh this ordinance could it be or do you think it's desirable or is that I don't think it could be really I don't think we could regulate uh an owner of a property as to who they have or do not have uh in in a house they own but you might interpret the exchange of value somehow I mean I don't know just just because I know a house a house that's about to do that and that the owner through the seat of the of of the employees Services as a condition of employment becomes the compensation that would be sort of offthe cuff legal argument that I would make whether that would fly in a court no idea um but that's probably the illegal argument that I would make that this is an exchange of of services this is compensation this is consideration the consideration you're getting is the employment of that person and um that's a term and condition of their employment and they're giving you their services so it's not the greatest argument but I mean that I don't expect this to be a big problem for obviously but I've been to places like this and they're not generally very well taken care of or people are not particularly conscious of being a temporary resident of a community so just a thought to bring up okay thank you Mike sure so I I keep hearing a lot about enforcement of this ordinance and I just want to you know kind of uh clear things up a little bit as far as setting penalties that's not something that the police department would be doing um as far as ordinances noise ordinances parking ordinances any kind of violations and things that we can enforce we would be able to um and then as far as occup occupancy for if let's say it's rented for 20 days and the people aren't leaving we can't go there and make those people leave that's a civil matter and I just want to make sure that you're all aware of that any question yeah yeah I mean that's one thing that people don't realize too is that um after about 28 days you you are no longer you you become a landlord at that point um and you don't have the right to what they call self-help meaning you can't take the person's stuff throw it on the street and then call Chief mccarrick to get the person out of your house you now have to follow the housing code and all the things that you have to go through and so I hope anyone considering doing this will take that into account because technically someone could say I'm not leaving and um and now you're subject to the landlord tenant laws and all that that involves Civ it's a civil it's a civil yeah you have to that's a civil remedy not a criminal remedy so I just want to make sure that we're clear on that but if if if an owner of the house if it can be proven that they've accepted compensation for someone someone who stayed there for 20 days um that would be subject to the the violations under our code that would be a civil matter I I I disagree you're exchanging you're exchanging money for a service but I I would view it as a if if this gets adopted uh it would be a local code violation um I would look into that a little bit further um it sounds like you and I I'm respecting I'm respecting what you're saying but you know as of right now still landlord tenant disputes that we respond to um you know without an order from the sheriff's department the sheriff's department is one that were doing the evictions on these and it has to be obviously passed by a judge in eviction notice but that doesn't involve a violation of of code if we adopt a a local ordinance a local law and the homeowner violate our law it's not between the landlord and the the tenant the occupant it's between the landlord and the township because they violated our law so we're going to we're going to site them and you know would go to Municipal Court we could site but I still don't think that we could we could ask them to leave we could ask them to leave but we can't make them leave remember we're not we're not asking them to leave we you're right I this is what I want and plus we're not citing the occupants we're not citing the guests you're citing the homeowners correct they're violating this what I'm saying is I want to make it make it clear that we can't just force somebody to leave that's that's a valid so the point you're making is anyone that rents for any amount of time regardless of what this ordinance says is on their own if somebody goes into the house and won't leave because you cannot help them out because that's a civil case correct we could ask we're not getting involved it's it's not we could make them leave no right we honored our champion wrestler here the other little while ago you guys can have it out right now if you guys want to I give thank you yeah thank you for that clarification yeah you can approach the microphone and um have a public comment just state your name and address for the record please thank you hi my name is Dr Ernest leov and I gave a shelter to Ukrainian Refugee in my house so my question is if she would stay over 28 days she doesn't pay any money uh would I be in any troubles or she should should leave for one day and return again how does it work if you're not being compensated for allowing them to stay in your home this this proposed ordinance doesn't apply to you it only applies to individuals who are being compensated for the uh the guest staying in their home does it cooking Ukrainian bsh consider it as a compensation how how good it is thank you thank you so again if you have your cousin staying with you for two months because they're between homes or something like or mom staying with you for a while that this is not what this is for that there's no compensation it's a guest that's that's not what this ordinance is about thank you for your qualification thank you for your work that you do thank you Anthony Gomes tening Court um similar to to um her her situation what what's the process if you live in rural residential and you believe there's a commercial use within that zone what what's the process to have that looked into well this hasn't passed yet so you're think hypothetically I'm talking so I'm in a outside rental yeah outside of rentals I'm in a Royal residential and I have sky view in my backyard Sky View was when we moved in and we built a house in 2001 it was a clubhouse for the golfers it's since it expanded in 2018 it's a full-blown banquet facility in aora essential own so how does that work I would say it depends on if they got variances in the past that'd be the first step otherwise in the zoning officer would look into it right if it's if they don't have any variances it's a violation so we brought this to the zoning board probably over the summer and there is no record of of any variances or anything like that they they couldn't find anything we can I can look into that for you thank you I think Anthony to answer your question if there's a use going on in a Zone that's not authorized by uh the ordinance that's something our code enforcement people should be aware of I mean we've we've had that incident similar to that where not necessarily A use but we you know we've you know I think we found out that there was someone uh in the Ed Zone that was dispensing gasoline out of a uh gasoline dispenser uh in an area that you weren't allowed to do that and that um our zoning officers made aware of that and that that was put to bed but I think that if you see a use um that's not allowed in the zone and once we have those zoning Maps you'll have a very good idea of where you live what zone it is and what use is allowed in that zone and um and if you see that a use is happening that doesn't belong in that zone I think that's an issue for zoning enforcement yeah I mean I have my survey it says Royal residential clearly but I doubt have charter buses and those sorts of stuff going on in my backyard four nights a week and you know I've sat here on certain nights when we talk about facilities being built in the Ed Zone and we spent a half hour talking about how bright a flood light is going to be and meanwhile I have I have disco lights flashing through my skylights four nights a week sometimes you know so just to put it into perspective that's all okay but yeah if that could be looked into that would be great thank you thank you appreciate it Rond day 22 Fox Hollow Road um Deputy Mayor blti had mentioned that the uh the work that's being done on the maps and again appreciate all the work being done by the town folks on that um one other thing that I think is important I want to make sure we give recognition to is um when you look at the ordinances sometimes you need to look at the ordinance that's in part 18 and then sometimes you got to look at some of the updates throughout the years and marry together so it leads to confusion so the other thing that that the town uh the town staff has been doing and I'm going to look to to roxan and give her some appreciation is actually conforming these ORD ordinances so they're in one place so I just wanted to to say thank you for that thank thank you thank you roxan thank you any other public comment Jenny Derek's tap into Sparta um um I guess I'll play off of what U Mr day just said as well as the gentleman before uh we have zoning codes so we can speak about this being a police power all we want but there are zoning codes that are in in effect and when we have a residential Zone I think Mr somebody mentioned it that there it's it's prohibited you're not allowed or it's at least contemplated you're not allowed to have a commercial property a commercial Endeavor in a residential zone so why are we doing this why are we looking to encourage short-term rentals which is a business it's not just an office which is also contemplated in the in the in the ordinances where you can have a single you know home office or a home business but the house isn't the business here we're talking about the house being the commercial property and that is contemplated in the RR zones and there are several RR zones and that make up about 70% I can be corrected on that but I think it's about 70% of our community are RR zones and so when you're talking about an ordinance like this that you're that you're saying is a police power I understand that but it's in conflict with our RR zones that's already the law of the land in terms of land use because you can't separate the two this is a land use this is a use of our land people come and they buy a home in a residential Zone expecting a to be a residential Zone to raise their family and that if you look up the DW the definition of dwelling unit and I'll get back to that in a moment but if you look up the definition of dwelling unit in code in 18 Ro it does spell out that it's anticipated that that zone is for a household to be established not a commercial Endeavor so when you're now looking to codify a short-term rental ordinance even whether no matter what you call it put it in 12 put it in 18 there's no way you can dis disengage the two it's a land use and you're you're encouraging by authorizing that type of a use so I would question why would we do that you open the door to this we have a whole host of is issues owners that can't be that can't be helped when they have an occupant that they can't get you know a whole host of issues that's already been spoken to um what else sorry a bunch of questions I guess that's my biggest one why are you looking to codify something that is already not allowed in a rural residential Zone um I think I know I have other questions that's all I can think of right now to to get out to you well I think that uh the assumption is that it's not allowed I think the issue that you've raised is not a very clear legal question about whether the use of a property you're the owner so there's you know there's a tension that between what you know we've about the right of alienation an owner owns their property and they have the right to do with their property within certain bounds there's a tension with that with also the town's ability to restrict certain uses in certain zones and so the I'm not aware of a case directly on point that says a owner who does a short-term riddle is using a Comm is a commercial use within a residential Zone if someone can point that out to me then can you say that again please I didn't understand what you said so what I said was there are no cases that I'm aware of that are directly on point that say an owner that is using their property on for a shortterm basis is a commercial use under a the definition as that as that's defined in land use law that is not you know and the tension again is between the right of an owner who has a right to alienate the property and that any restrictions on that also open you up and so there's a tension there between the right of alienation and then the right of the municipality to protect the safety and Welfare through his police I'm going to interrupt you for a moment if you don't mind I'm going to use the type of language that you're using and my it's my understanding that the plain understanding of the law the the the plain written word is what is contemplated and here we have dwelling unit which by the way I meant to get back to that you're now with the other two 12 ordinances in 12 that you're looking at you now are up to three that I could find de definitions of dwelling unit so in the rural residential in the land use code dwelling unit shall mean one or more rooms designed occupied or intended for occupany as separate living quarters with cooking sleeping sanitary facil provided within the dwelling unit for the exclusive use of a single family maintaining a household that's pretty clear a a single family necessarily so could be so for example if someone only rents their prop they live there 11 months of the year their exclusive use is 11 months that one month they don't that's a legal argument whether uh you're no longer in exclusive use I don't know the answer to that that's not a clear uh maybe that's something that we can tighten up for the benefit of the residents that live here already um commercial development in a neighborhood only anticipates retail shopping outlets commercial development in a community here it says retail shopping outlets designed and intended to serve shopping needs of the entire Township in addition to Regional demand that's the co that's the de definition in the code in the land use code for for commercial development for commercial properties so common plain use understanding of what these rules are as well as the understanding of what the community has when they buy a home in a single a single family home in a residential neighborhood and I'm sorry that I'm shouting but when you buy a home in a residential neighborhood the expectation is families are going to live near there you're going to be surrounded by families that's not always the case but primarily that's the case for 70% approximately of our zones in our town they residential and it would be helpful yes to have some rules around short-term rentals but I would say the 28 days certainly isn't enough there's C there's a there's many ways that we can find that as soon as you do want you open the door a little crack we've seen this time and again unintended consequences of what can happen so I would just ask as a resident not as as a reporter but as a resident I would ask that you that you make it what the town is expecting the rural residential neighborhoods are for families and let's make it that way 28 days I don't think is sufficient thank you Jenny I will say 100% that's exactly why we're doing this right now 100% I've brought this here in September of last year at the result of multiple people bringing to our attention what was going on in the form of this and thankfully we've been able to now work together work with lawyers and everything it is in I I understand exactly what you're saying and I say the same thing you can't run a business out of a neighborhood you buy into a neighborhood now if you buy a house in a commercial residential zone or somewhere where there could be a bed and breakfast or something like that or the model is appropriate 100% then that's different but in a residential neighborhood that's my feeling in a residential neighborhood you don't buy there to live next to a business but it's in that's seems to be the thing that seems to be the most common sense when it comes to these new business models that weren't around 10 or 15 years ago when most of these ordinances were put together you have to look at pragmatically how you can actually enforce it to protect the people in the community and that is exactly what we're doing right now so I just I know in the beginning you were like why are you opening it up absolutely we are not opening it up what we are doing is we are formulating an ordance that shuts it down in residential zones because we have to because you cannot to Neil's point and Tom's point there is and I'm not so if I'm saying this wrong somebody help me but my understanding is that in land use law which is what you're talking about we have zones they have labels da da I would think the same thing anyone else would however we are very limited in what we can actually enforce under land use law so what we need to do is take it up a level and say nope this has nothing to do with land use law what we are talking about now is policing so we have to pull it out of land use that can be challenged and then and this is why we don't want it this to happen so this is why we're taking the measures that we are Jenny and it is to protect people I understand that iate that and I understand the need to have it in another section what I'm saying is that there there is a land use code that needs to be contemplated when you're talking about something else and I'm asking that for myself maybe there's other people that agree with me 28 days isn't enough like Mohawk has three that's a discussion point and I you know I'm not going to I I have my own opinions and I'm not disagreeing with you but um on the whole we that's a discussion that we're going to have at the hearing next week and whether tell anyone that has comments or feedback or wants to share their opinions email us you know you can certainly email us at any time I've met with people I've had conversations with people I've gone back and forth in email tell us what tell us share share with us what you think I'm not shy no I know you're not I'm telling everyone else in the room so the um the only the only other quick thing is Airbnb is a publicly traded company as far as I believe that's a commercial proper that's why we're calling it short-term rent I understand but just we know what that means Jenny I think there's one other my understanding too is at a certain length of time it becomes a landlord tenant that's which I understand is 28 days so so yeah but that's a whole other legal area to get into that somebody owns piece property it's a different story to tell them that they can't rent it out for 6 months or a year being they own their own house so that there's that fine line that's we got to 28 because after that it's a tenant and landlord I think you can go longer than 28 days though I don't think you're restricted by 28 days yeah you're restricted by 175 days there you go yeah well yeah that's what we decided though I'm saying that's not I'm leg required I'm asking you to reconsider that y but also say the market will probably determine this too I mean a lot of what I do is the average short-term rental is is between 2 and 7 days so but that's the average not the let me if I can finish um the average is 2 to s that means that's the market for short-term rentals is is is people who can rent between two and seven what Sparta has effectively done is said we don't want to be a part of that market and that's the predominant market for short-term rental so by making it four times the average um effectively Sparta is not going to be that attractive to the short-term little market because we're not fitting within the market definition as the market definition is the predominant use of two to you know two to seven days that would be my argument and so yeah I understand what you're saying I'm just asking to make it bigger because there's always going to be someone who will figure it out they'll rent it for a month and they'll sub sublet it for each week you know they you ought to make it where it's really just not worth it okay all right any other public comment Mr stary state your name and your address for the record thank you hello how you guys doing my name is uh Kevin S Mar I live on 30 Neely Drive uh I just wanted to give a little speech of uh thank you for pointing me at the uh film committee uh I'll just give some background on me and uh what my purpose is for the committee so I was born in 2003 my parents moved here in 1998 um my I grew up in a conservative household my father worked as a chief engineer or not Chief watch engineer for the Federal Reserve for over 30 years um he just recently retired my mother uh opened up a dance studio here in Sparta uh from 2005 to 2008 uh it was called Linda's Dance Dynamics uh when I was a kid I remember dance a little bit in there um uh growing up I uh uh went to Pope John I originally was going to go to college I went to seccc for a semester and then I pulled out and got a tin knocking job down in uh Dober New Jersey called jersey sheet m so anyways the way I got into film is my brother Phil uh he met gentleman over there named Kevin and we all met at the the gym a local gym called Alpha Fitness get those gains in uh and basically uh we started hanging out for a bit um I met Kevin around a year ago and he was starting to get um going on the film Emerald ties and the way that that film went together was was unbelievable so I'm a big Community person I believe in the community around you cuz those are the people that understand you the best and Kevin brought together the community in this film um there were uh like many people you know Aiden who isn't here tonight but he was a cameraman who went to Sparta he was about a grade below me and he met him at the gym as well um and just a lot of local residents who work together on that film of um came together and it transformed into something great um and I just remember you know when when uh going there cuz I had no film experience prior to to going there uh to the Lake House Cafe where we were filming and it was interesting because it was sort of like like everything like just fell into place perfectly like I remember uh we needed a sound design guy and Kevin was scrambling around we didn't know where to go and we went to went out to crows one night and when we went there we met a guy named Steve sound design just like that local res u local to the area found him and it was beautiful because like I said everybody was coming together to work on this and uh recently we just had the premiere February 4th at susex County Community College at the theater and uh it was amazing uh to see all um to see all that and then working behind the scenes I wanted to see what I could do um because I'm the type of person where I'm like Hey listen if I can help out I'll do anything I could like whatever you want me to get 10 stories high to to put something on whatever I'll do it and that's when Kevin promoted me to the film committee and uh I I wanted to thank you all for for accepting me and um my main mission right now is that Sparta has a lot of potential um this town is perfect perfect for shooting films but what's best about it is that we could do it in our own unique way we don't have to do it the Hollywood way we could do it the Sparta Way and the way we could do that is by getting together a community by growing um together by promoting small businesses you know um one of the things that happens is when you have film you all a sudden you need help right because you need a lot of stuff you need a cameraman you need um maybe construction you need an open field a house to work with you might need a catering business it helps explode an economic base where you know let's say you're in the dead of winter and you know not much is going on all of a sudden oh there's a film boom now we got catering now we we need construction workers out here for whatever reason and so I believe that um you know letting film come to spart could have a good economic boom for the entire um for the entire town and uh you know I just wanted to like I said say thank you and just keep this short because get a little late here um now before I I um you have 15 seconds Kevin to wrap this up just kidding thank you Neil uh I wanted to introduce Uh Kevin uh to the stage uh the man who got this all together but before I go I just want to say one final thing Sparta has immense potential for film it's time to make that potential a reality thank you just state your name and address for the record uh yes I am Kevin I live in 21 carage Lane in Newton um I don't really have a big speech to follow up on what Kevin said but I just wanted to say thank you to the board for every the support you guys have given me for this film um it's gotten attention from La who I one of my producers here today with me from mon brothers and apple and um and Netflix his name is Alexander Jean but uh we came here today in support of Janice and David and for the potential opportunities that film and TV can come to Sparta um if you you look at NJ as a film capacity every single County except for Sussex has been listed and even though it's not guarantee the fact that you guys are having this conversation with them is immensely grateful for me so um I just want to thank you guys all for every all your support from everybody on the board and if you guys have any other questions regarding the film Readiness program uh my producer Alexander John can give you more uh detailed questions uh about the infrastructure in terms of uh Transportation traffic and small business economic growth so thank you guys appreciate it you want to um thank you for coming if you want to leave all your information collectively with the clerk that'd be great and then she could get it to all of us of course definitely thank you so much sure thank you hi I'm not short um Dean Rino or 15 Birch Parkway I think the whole film exploration is awesome and I'm here to just speak and say that I've had a lot of experience with that with our company on private property uh both in New York and Boston the movie Blown Away was filmed um obviously all Union uh representation we fall within the 30 m zone so I'm very familiar with everything there talking I always get encourag since you guys are going to have the discussions when you start thinking of the town you know somebody's going to think about parking white deer Plaza that's not how I think I know how they looked look at Sussex County votch that's a parking lot you bring a bus start looking at different aspects of the town where stuff could be stored saved locked the other thing is if there's a building where say the Fire Marshall does not like the fire code so there was a movie with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruz that was done about four or five years ago and they rented one of our old buildings and it's um was a 1890 building we didn't use it at all and so in this building they spent over a million dollars to bring it up to code because of the sprinkling system so just I just want to give you some examples from real life then there was a gal Jean due who used to live in town his daughter was um choreographer and worked on the Black Swan and we had an interesting conversation because I was telling her in one case the Fire Marshall in Boston was giving me a hard time and I said well there's got to be a loop around and the loop around was he didn't like that we didn't have as many sprinklers in this another building cuz we own a lot of property up there so I said well what if we get a pool water truck so about the companies that have that as long as we maintained 500 gallons of water and that guy got his bill every day so that's the other part of the trickle down I appreciate you talking about the kids having a role but there there really is so just think of um your your different aspects of where cameras and their equipment could be locked or have security gated and whatnot and then think of like I would think parking would be you know somewhere like at The Botch so just want to say good luck with it thanks thanks de thank you just state your name and address for the record Alexander John sucus County resident so I know you had a lot of question questions right about operation and how these things go down um a lot of these film sets are very contained very organized and uh very very organized to a point where you don't see burden on the town sure if we do block off a street and we have things like this that is a burden but a lot of these things where they take down in private residences and different areas like fields and things like that they're very particular and just to say town has full control of what happens and what goes down so end of the day sure they're in town but the town has to say to whatever happen so any questions you guys have I've been there boots on the ground still doing it so happy to answer any questions further well thank you all for coming out I mean I think you can appreciate the concerns that are bringing up it's something new and we have to be mindful of uh the rights of our residents and and the processes that go behind all of this so again if you guys could all and thank you all for again for coming out if you don't mind leaving your contact information with roxan then this way we'll be able to reach out if we have any questions okay thank you Sean Landy uh spart resident 41 sagore Trail I probably want you to leave my contact information with roxan um I think she knows where you live yeah but um uh so as a spart resident I'm also a member of the cultural Affairs committee um I was super excited when I found out that film possibly could be finally coming to Sparta in a big way just because I've lived here since 1997 I was born in '95 um I've always I'm not like super old but you know I'm I'm a little older getting up there Sean but yeah I'm getting up there I'm 29 but seeing but I've always seen I'm I'm a big movie fan but I always see movies I'm like wow Sparta really could be out there and people could see how beautiful Sparta is because Sparta is like a is like a gem it's like a Hidden Gem people think of New Jersey they don't think of like areas like Sparta and we're just so beautiful and to have our like beautiful town and kind of keep it sequestered away like a princess in a castle like I think our princess that is spared deserves to be seen by everybody so um yeah so just wanted to say that thank you thank you thank you Sean councilwoman Quinn would really like a an extra role in your next Productions I favorably on that thank you Tammy horsefield Sask County Chamber Economic Development and destination marketing Organization for tourism uh a couple of things I just want to mention number one I just want to offer my support as you heard on the contact now for the film commission for the for the county as the the rep um anything I can do to help you I'm happy to do that um so certainly reach out if you have concerns in any areas I can certainly help address some of that I'll be attending that session with you so you'll see me there and so with several other towns actually I can participate so I'm working with that as well also mark your calendars September 15th is Sussex County day want to make sure it's on your calendars early uh so that uh you are able to participate again it's a big day it's really a growing event and uh we love that our towns are out and support us in that so we'd like to see that if you didn't know the dollars raised from that uh the net proceeds go to Scholarships in the county uh we're giving out our student scholarships right now um through April 12th applications have to be in we give out uh at least seven or eight of them and then we will give out Business Development scholarships following that for the businesses in the community to support tuition and pro for programs as well as schooling so that information will go out as well so just so that you're aware of that um I just want to make you all aware of couple of those things that are going on um you'll hear more from me next is it it's in two weeks right your meeting um I've spoken to you already but I do have some more information to share with you so I will share that with you um and anything else I can do to support you um I certainly will do that so thank you thank for for all your good work thank you and congratulations on that new grandbaby thank you granddaughter I want to say in 2018 I was at spar today and I was signed up to get a pie in the face as a councilman and for an hour I got people throwing pie at me and that that was covered with bees and sticky and it was the worst experience I had in my life I'm still scarred by it uh so every time I hear spart to day I just I I get hives I'm sorry that that much cleaner the wrong event Dan much cleaner roxan is there is there not the egg toss championship trophy I won in like 2016 that was the event to go to Dan not the pie in the face thing we do have an award it's in the office on that anyone else for public comment tonight right seeing none we are at the conclusion of our meeting today so may I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion we adjourn may have a second I will second it