##VIDEO ID:doo8ZTnGE2E## please take notice that action will be taken on the following items at the regular council meeting on Tuesday October 22nd 2024 and council chambers Sparta Township Municipal Building 65 Main Street Sparta New Jersey the regular meeting is opened at 7:03 p.m. all Council meetings are now live streamed and can be viewed at the following link www.youtube.com adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 5th 2024 by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice Madam clerk may we have a roll call please councilwoman Quinn here councilman shello I am present Deputy Mayor blumetti here mayor Clark here I'll rise to salute the flag please I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we have um two proclamations tonight and one I will give to uh councilman Cher uh as a member of our business development committee liaison to celebrate small business Saturday thank you thank you and um I will do these are one of the proclamations where I actually wish I didn't have to do it um it's domestic violence awareness month and so so many families are affected by this and it has a ripple effect through not only a family but in our community but we have to shed light on it uh the only way you help deal with it is if you bring it out into the open and and deal with it and and and thankfully we have an organization here in Sussex County called the domestic abuse sexual assault intervention services are Daisy for short and so I'll read the proclamation and then I I understand we have a representative from Daisy here who will come forward after I'm done with the proclamation thank you National Domestic Violence Awareness Month whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that affects people of all Races ages genders and income levels domestic violence is widespread and affects over 12 million Americans over the course of a year nearly three in 10 women and one in 10 men in the United States have experienced physical violence rape and or stalking by a partner and reported at having it a related impact on their functioning and whereas personal relationship should be a source of comfort and support a solid foundation for each person's empowerment and achievement in his or daily life domestic violence dissolves that Foundation affecting millions of men when women and children and whereas during National Domestic Violence awareness month we reassert our commitment to eradicating this devastating crime so that all homes are places of refuge and love not fear of violence now therefore be it resolved that the township Council of the township of Sparta does hereby proclaim the month of October as domestic violence awareness month and we encourage all residents to learn more about preventing domestic violence and to show support for the numerous organizations and individual who provide critical advocacy services and assistance to all victims all residents of Sparta Township are encouraged to wear purple through the month of October to show support for the survivors of domestic violence and so if I have a representative Daisy come forward to accept this Proclamation and also maybe share a little bit about what Daisy does and how people can get in touch with Representatives app your support hi everyone uh actually tonight over at the college we're doing our domestic violence awareness we honor those that have lost their lives uh I just want to say thank you we are truly grateful uh to you for your support to the township we work closely uh with the police departments and I know this isn't an easy isn't an easy job for for you all either so um I just wanted to your support of Daisy and thank you very much thank you right next up is our um small business Saturday Proclamation excellent uh thank you mayor Clark so um it is my honor to uh read this Proclamation for small business Saturday whereas the township of Sparta recognizes the importance of small businesses as the glue that holds communities together small businesses in Sparta Township are flourishing and make up over 60% of all businesses in the area Nationwide small businesses can create more than two-thirds of the net new jobs over the past two decades and whereas advocacy groups advocacy groups and public and private organizations across the country have endorsed the Saturday after Thanksgiving a small business Saturday and whereas one of Sparta Township's greatest assets is its unique array of locally owned and operated independent businesses which are part of the fabric of the community and whereas local business owners and operators invest in Sparta Township contribute to the local economy offer quality jobs for residents engage in Civic concerns support local initiatives and are essential to the success to our success as a community the support of these businesses is critical to maintaining a socially environmentally and financially sustain stainable and Vibrant Community and whereas we value the businesses located in the community and celebrate the diversity of the goods and services they provide to Residents and visitors now therefore be it resolved that even though the sparta Township Council the township of Sparta recognizes that Saturday November 30th 2024 is small business Saturday we would like to encourage all residents to continue to support local businesses by buying locally during this holiday season as well as throughout the year and um I do see people that um would benefit from this so you can join me thank you you thank you for there you go yeah thank you to all of you for this Proclamation um our Sparta businesses as well as our Sussex County area businesses are so important they're the backbone of this community as well as in the state and across America small business is critical so I thank you for your support of of our small businesses they mean a lot to us in this economy and certainly at times when it gets tough the small business owners are the ones that feel the effects especially and so it's great to see many of them thriving right now so thank you for your support we appreciate it you can introduce yourself oh I'm Tammy horfield I'm president of the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce and also Sussex County Economic Development partnership thank you and thank you Tammy thank you Tammy for all the work that you do tired H ly um I know about what you do we've worked on different things before and your commitment to the businesses and local businesses in our county is just inspirational and remarkable so thank you for all your work and thank you for everything you do to support the businesses yeah I think our small business businesses particularly in Sparta I mean one way to find this out is is you look at say a baseball field and you see all the banners of all the local businesses that support it and you know in a prior life I had to I put on a 5k for our local library where I lived and um it was always the small businesses that were the easiest to work with to get donations when I tried to go to say a Whole Foods or a Safeway or what some big you know corporate conglomerate there are 15 layers of bureaucracy and even when they came through it was maybe you know some oranges but uh the dry cleaner um the you know the restaurant the local restaurant they would always step up and be very generous and it's no different here in Sparta and so I I thank you very much for all the work that you do um I know this council is committed to trying to do initiatives that help our small business um and that's you know part of the reason why I've been pushing the entertainment production cuz those are are a lifeline and they they form their own economic ecosystem particularly for small businesses and um so I'm hoping that we can do even more initiatives to support our small business here in Sparta and and in Sussex County okay next up are uh more mundane matters that we have to do which are approval of various minutes and so I will make a motion to approve the October 10th 2023 executive meeting minutes may I have a motion please I move the we approve executive meeting minutes October 10th 2023 may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I motion carries the October 10th 2023 executive meeting minutes as presented have been approved may I have a motion to approve the October 24th 2023 executive meeting minutes as presented I'll make a motion to approve executive meeting minutes October 24th 2023 may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I the executive session meetings as presented for October 24th 2023 are approved may I have a motion to approve the January 9th 2024 executive meeting minutes as presented I move that we approve executive meeting minutes for January 9th 2024 may I have a second please I will second it all in favor I I I the executive meeting minutes for January 9th 2024 have been approved may I have a me motion to approve the January 23rd 2024 executive meeting minutes as presented I'll make a motion we approve executive meeting minutes for January 23rd 2024 is presented uh may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I I the January 23rd 2024 executive meeting minutes as presented have been approved finally may I have a motion to approve the August 27th 2024 regular meeting minutes as presented I'll make a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes for August 27th 2024 may I have a second please I will second that one too all in favor say I I have a comment on that actually discussion the um so in these meeting minutes uh and I can ask Mr Ryan had we handle this um there was a statement made during this discussion on this topic that was inaccurate in terms of fact and it was mentioned at the end of the meeting in unfinished business can we reflect that in these meting meeting minutes somehow no the meeting minutes are intended to reflect exactly what was said however you certainly can make that comment in this evening's meeting and it will be reflected uh in the minutes of this meeting this meeting okay so my my comment is um there's a a statement in here referring uh it was mentioned once or twice but here it mentions mayor Clark stating it that the latest survey showed that residents wanted more turf fields and there was a inaccurate number stated during this conversation that night U the fact is and I have the study here eight people of the 334 residents that responded mentioned at a turf field in the survey that was mentioned so I just wanted to make that correction on the record it was only8 people uh not a much higher number that was incorrectly stated during that conversation that evening and the survey was the 2024 Sparta open space and Recreation public survey okay any other comment will note that in the minut minutes just as long as it's still stated in there as well that there was also reference to the study that was done in 2021 and released in 2021 that 1,800 people completed and participated in and the number one thing that they wanted was tur Fields okay any other comments uh about the August 27th 2024 which will be reflected in the meeting minutes for this uh meeting today but will not be changed in the August 27th meeting minutes okay so I had a a first and a second so all in favor of approving the August 27th 2024 meeting minutes say I I I uh the August 27th 2024 regular meeting minutes minutes are approved uh next up is the manager's report uh Mr z may we have the manager's report good evening mayor council and Sparta residents the past few weeks the township has sustained several structure fires I want to extend our sincere appreciation and thanks to Riley Odum Ryan Odum Deputy Fire Chief and the fire department members police chief Jeff mccarrick and his staff Sparta ambulance Squad M members police dispatching staff Animal control officer as well as any and all other municipalities Who provided Mutual Aid during the events all these people train for these events and do their best to minimize loss of life we are very fortunate to have such quality Emergency Services the Parks and Recreation Harvest Festival in trunk Retreat is on Saturday October 26th at White Lake Fields starting at noon to 5:00 P p.m. with the Trunk or Treat taking place between 2: and 300 p.m. we ask that only Sparta residents attend to donate a bag of candy which will be distributed to the trunks please come out and enjoy the beautiful weather Sparta residents are encouraged to visit our Planning and Zoning web page on the Township's website the master plan subcommittee announced the community engagement Hub wherein residents can learn about what a master plan is history of previous Master plans who serves on the current subcommittee as well as taking a community survey to make your opinion known the survey link is open for responses from October 1st to November 20 to November 15th on Wednesday November 6 the planning board is hosting a joint meeting with the Town Council to discuss the draft of the open space and Recreation plan the draft plan is located on the website under news and announcements this plan will eventually be adopted and become an element of the new master plan the Land Conservancy of New Jersey worked with several Department staff in putting the plan together and has been funded through the Highlands council's Grant the Public Works 2024 residential Leaf bag collection starts next week for the first pickup and uh November 18th for the second pickup we ask that residents be mindful of the placement of the bag so as not to impede storm water flow details of this annual event can be found on the Township's website as a reminder on October 31st Valley View Trail will be closed from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. to all vehicle traffic Valley View Trail will be closed at the intersection of Alpine Trail Partridge Lane and Summit road all unauthorized parking will be strictly enforced Chief mccarrick will now read his portion of the manager's report this concludes my report thank you mayor counsel and Sparta residents um just real quickly what was the date of the joint meeting November 6 November 6 sorry Chief good thank you manager Z thank you mayor thank you Council um as the manager said we have had several fires in the past few weeks um unfortunately there was one fatal fire um uh that was about a week and a half ago and um since then we've had two more structure fires and just last evening responded to a uh a a grill fire which is close to a structure and just this morning another fire with a uh generator which was close to a structure and I know uh the manager thanked everybody that uh was involved with um keeping everybody as safe as possible and and I do appreciate that too know four of our officers did suffer minor smoke inhalation uh were treated and uh released and are back to work and doing just fine um with the extreme dry weather and temperatures low where heat sources are needed uh felt the need to put out some some tips about uh fire safety and uh working with the fire chief and the uh Fire Marshal we posted some information on our website and our social media for some fire safety tips if you can see that uh this month is also pedestrian safety awareness month and one interesting fact is uh according to nit is that 80% of pedestrian fatalities occur in the dark our traffic Bureau and Patrol Division have been working together to make and bring more awareness to drivers and pedestrians about pedestrian safety this past Sunday officers conducted a pedestrian safety enforcement campaign on Westshore Trail in front of the Lake mohat Country Club the enforcement lasted about an hour and 45 minutes and several motor vehicle stops were conducted but no summonses were issued one of the observations was the number of pedestrians that do not use sidewalks or crosswalks which does make it dis difficult for motorists um so we obviously encourage the use of the sidewalks the use of the crosswalks and uh pedestrians must also obey All The Pedestrian laws such as using those sidewalks and crosswalks the police department is working with the DPW to properly Mark areas in North Village with pedestrian crossing signs three intersections on North Village have already been posted and we were waiting for more signs to uh to update some more intersections and you can find more pedestrian safety information on our social media lastly um the support of police department has applied and was awarded a grant from the Bureau of justice for the police body armor we rewarded $1,318 129 towards the purchase of new vests to help protect our officers and that concludes my report thank you thank you Chief mcer and I want to say a special thank you um to your department to you also our members of the fire department um it's been a hell of a week uh 10 days for um folks there and um I think we're all in debt to The Bravery uh the courage and and the self-sacrifice that um our men and women do on behalf of of our citizens um I know that um you know when I went by on Thursday to visit um memb of the fire department and just to give them a small token of my appreciation but I think that we all owe them a debt of gratitude and you'll probably see in your mail um a envelope uh and with a red little invoice in it it's a red that's asking for a donation to our fire department and I hope that everyone will will look at that and contribute um these men and women put their lives on the line for us on a daily basis and um the least that we can do is to contribute something of our um of our funds to help them and and not only just to thank them when you see them so again thank you for your your bravery and and your service to this Township and with that may I have a motion to accept the manager's report I move that we accept the manager's report may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I I motion carries the manager's report is approved um it's sort of fitting tonight that we had a small business Proclamation uh because tonight we have um Mr John Drake with Overcoat LLC and he is a consultant with our business development um committee and it's you know they have a lot of responsibilities but one of them is to um help business development in our community I know that uh Mr Drake has been you know very involved in that we have um councilman uh Herzberg is also a liaison for that as is councilman Chell I see that we have um two represent from the planning board our president um you know Ron day and our vice chairman Billy inright even though I didn't recognize you Ron the beard looks good on you so um but anyway if you want to come forward John maybe it's easier there's a microphone here um what we want to get at least I did and I'm sure my other fellow council members um will have some questions too it's mainly um you know what is it that the business development committee has been doing what recommendations have you been making what were they why did you make them what was the basis and has there been any results as a result of these recommendations I think that's sort of generally but you know you're you're the expert here so just you know have at it yeah okay well first of all thank you mayor and Council for uh inviting me and what great timing as you mentioned with the proclamation uh on top of that uh Tammy being here from the the chamber in economic development in the county level uh I think it goes to show your commitment by retaining me to be your uh business Advocate really I look at it as U you know we call it consultant but Business Development Advocate um and I basically just go through my presentation and then if there's any questions you know I can address those and some of your concerns uh first of all like who I am like you know how the heck did I get this job and you know previously doing some other stuff well first of all John Drake Business Development Advocate uh for the township and even as important or more important for those doing or looking to do business in the township so really whether they're citizens or new businesses coming in you know I advocate for them uh with the township uh a bit of my background just in case uh it kind of helps you um to understand what helps me to be able to do the job uh for those people looking for assistance uh I was employed for 34 years by Nationwide um public utility United telephone became Sprint we've changed the name 27 times anymore I don't know so anyway I I worked there I had the five uh Northwestern counties all the way from Somerset up to here so I had a pretty big area did engineering construction uh customer service all that kind of stuff uh I was the highest ranking um uh manager highest ranking person in New Jersey and why I mention that the position enabled me to develop a kind of a personal network of contacts which really becomes uh essential and assisting and and then directing uh clients uh through the various processes they need to accomplish their Pursuits I'm able to use those contacts with local County State other utility officials to get initial feel for and feasibility for whatever a client uh is proposing to Endeavor upon and to identify uh potential road blocks for example you know you want to build a Data Center and there's not enough electric that's the kind of stuff I have the ability to reach out to people and find out about uh after I retired from Sprint uh in 2009 t Tammy's here Tammy ended up hiring me so from 2009 to about 2020 I held a position a director of client services for the Sussex County Economic Development partnership uh while I was there I worked with clients and businesses had an interest in Sussex County worked with individuals as well as small and large firms who wanted to establish or expand their businesses in the county uh essential to that service was my gaining an understanding of what their business plans were and then giving them advice on whether their plans uh would be feasible or not I also assisted uh individual clients in starting a business which included uh registration with the state and the county uh or and even with the federal government you know starting llc's uh C Corps and different things like that uh we helped U find them financing if they needed it the different banks and grants that was possible helped them with Staffing and other necessities uh also helping me with to be able to do the job that I'm doing here and have done elsewhere is for the over 35 years I served on many different boards including State commissions and nonprofits uh they're important because you do get to gain a lot of contacts and develop your uh your network and I served anything from a a board member to the chairman uh and in some of the boards I'm not going to go through because just a lot of boards I know a lot of us are on uh but I'm past chair and current voice chair at school so that's involved between the landfill and the the Wastewater projects and a lot of that you know I get to talk to Jim about um on the board of directors at the New Jersey Department of Labor on the board of mediation so kind of helps you U mediate things and learn to be um work through those processes uh I'm on the board of directors at the Chamber of Commerce and at the economic development partnership and then a bunch of other ones that just helped me uh build my network uh more importantly do I do as a business advocate here in Sparta uh first of all just to let you know everyone I work with I I generally has an expectation that will be confidential because some of the stuff they share is uh could be competitive reasons or just things they don't want other people to have an advantage over them and knowing about uh I meet and catch up uh on local issues often with our manager Jim Zep I come in and talk to him he's always super busy I don't know what you guys got him doing but he's uh really busy I meet with uh Dory and her team all the time as well as the other Township professionals I I got to tell you they're all great and help me do my part in helping those that are looking to do business in in Sparta Tom Ryan not so much but like Corey Stoner those guys are pretty good so I had to throw that in but Tom's team is excellent Angelo and the rest of them to work with us I appreciate their help uh I meet business o owners and prospective businesses every week I get surprisingly not surprisingly it's actually easier I get phone calls emails and text messages mostly outside of normal business hours because that's more convenient for people who are running businesses or uh you know working out of the area uh to get my contact information uh they get my contact information from either other business owners in Sparta who say you know you know if you're looking to move here if you're having an issue called John uh I get them they get them from other people in Sussex County the elected official U not even just here but all the way up to the commissioner level they refer a lot and then sometimes the employees upstairs or even occasionally a board member I know even our our code enforcement person when he's out there and he sees a problem uh he's pretty good at sometimes instead of maybe going too far right in the up he refers them to me and we help them Rectify whatever they've been doing uh besides helping explain application and permit process and issues I work to understand their business which is important and then I helped them you know to make a better decision maybe a better path or Direction uh we figured out uh very often you know they do come back and I can tell when they talk to me they appreciate it just having somebody to bounce things off of uh I offer guidance and referrals and resources to entrepreneurs so I might mention to him uh you know a good professional to talk to or you know and I usually don't say one I'll give them three or four professionals that you might want to talk to um um and they can make their choice from there but uh sometimes my task is to help clients realize they should not pursue their plan because the overheads versus the return on investment would not be profitable for them and the you know sometimes it's just not something that's going to work in this area so sometimes you have to give them the hard news um uh I establish effective working relationships with uh site selectors so people that are involved in hotel chains and and different kind of food Industries I you know got to know them over the years not just being here but it just builds up getting to know them um State Economic Development agencies uh you know I've worked with Tam on you know we we deal with them a lot of course the elected officials and advisory boards uh uh I perform Economic Development on abundans ship uh duties with the state county and Municipal departments on behalf of uh the sparta businesses and even Sparta Township itself whether it's a committee meetings or uh special interest groups nonprofits and uh local groups um that are having economic developments issues or problems I helped discuss that with them um you know a little bit on an interesting side because I know it comes up for those who have heard challenges in doing business here in Sparta I think we all recognize it here but it's important for the public to know it's important to recognize that almost two years ago um you know the planning and zoning department upstairs went through significant employee turnover I had been here then and you know there was a change and we lost a lot of those employees and which we brought in a lot more employees same thing uh with the Planning and Zoning uh boards they lost some sitting members and got some new ones on there so that might have added to some of the frustration for applicants and people coming in to to do work uh how many businesses interest in expanding or starting a business here had given up and gone somewhere else because application delays or even the perceived anti-b buus atmosphere which I didn't agree with but you know some people felt that way so there was a few I'm aware of and I do know more so several larger businesses and developers who have temporarily paused moving ahead with their plans until they see what happens with a couple of the current ongoing proceedings just the way it is a couple other businesses I know have just gone Elsewhere for now I think they're going to come back but the main thing is our effort especially with me and some of the folks on the uh business development committee and uh the mayor even uh Dan our effort is try to work with these businesses and help them to stay and or come back now if I have to say there's some good news and there really is you know thanks to everyone being willing to adapt and change uh to give good customer type service since I was in a customer service type business I like to relate to that things have really improved the intake employees who the folks upstairs have done a great job on taking extra time to help those who come in to fill out app applications and permits it is a big effort but they do it very professional and in a kind and caring manner which you really can see it if you're ever stopping and watch them talk to somebody this is helping to avoid applicant error or emission on what it is needed to have a complete and acceptable application of permit the feedback is very positive I actually talked to uh some people who are in filling out their paperwork if I'm walking in and they're walking out and I'm talking to them uh talking to them they they definitely are very understanding and seem a lot happier than they were months ago also the team upstairs has reworked some of the applications uh wording and directions to make it more user friendly uh several of the Improvement suggestions came from the business development committee after meeting with business owners who we meet downstairs um once a month anyway uh who attend the meeting and uh they gave us some of the ideas um and that's just another good example of us trying to be uh customer friendly uh same hold Truth uh for the zoning and the planning department since they're behind me I got to be careful but they they do uh they've really pulled up and done a great job lately hearing applicant feedback and I talked to a lot of them uh the board members they're they're saying the hearing and turnaround time uh has greatly improved and it just seems to be going a lot smoother uh just on on a side note and you know this happens everywhere not just even in Sparta but like the town typically is going to get claimed oh it's Sparta's fault because it could be dop do County Health Department or engineering but sometimes the clients professionals haven't done a good job and saying no it's not really Spar you didn't filled out the stuff to start with the right way so guess who gets you know kind of comes back that it's uh your fault uh the town's fault and you know we try to explain that it's not and hopefully the professionals do and just on a a closing note since I saw you had the uh cannabis things on your agenda by coincidence I mentioned it to Jim uh the New Jersey business Action Center actually has uh started of all things it's called the Cannabis training academy and if you haven't seen it it's uh you can go on the New Jersey business Action Center site it's it's a little timec consuming 60 modules some of them are an hour some of them are two hours so I started taking that a few days ago uh but what it does show you is with the six licenses that are out there now it's so so rigorous for an applicant to get through that that it's uh it's going to be um you're really going to have upstanding people in my opinion this is just me talking about it but it's really hard to uh get through that uh application process and qualify you're going to have to have uh background checks and um you're going to have to get you know they check your bank's accounts and your history and everything so that was just a little segue since it happened to be on the agenda and you know I'm taking the classes so with that I mean I could give you you know more specific stuff I know we're talking about the two biggest things I see Dean is here too and she's on the committee and Bill uh and Dan too I think during the last meetings downstairs two of the most frustrating things that it seems like clients run into um it it's signs and parking spaces you know so it usually like you know you go to put up a business or you're open a business next to it and it's like what size sign and uh we pulled up um uh we Christine sent me all the sent a few of us the the amount of sign ordinances and regulations and stuff it's like a a bratanic book you know so you got to figure out what zone you're in and this and that the other thing how big the sign can be what type of sign can it be La back lick front lick and then uh same thing with parking you know it's like a little bit difficult to figure out because is it you know is it like somebody dropping off at a dance studio your kids or are they going to the parents are actually theying to dance stuff and their cars are going to be there so it's a lot to figure out and I know the guys behind me are the zoning guys that's or the planting guys that's some of the stuff they help figure out um but I I think part of the processes that we're working through to make it more identifiable and easy to look at and say okay this is the kind of sign I need rather than I got to filter through all this stuff I think down the road with AI as we integrate AI into some of these things that's going to make life a lot easier too so uh anyway that's my sort of brief presentation if you will and if you have any specific questions or um as always you know holler out to me if you have people that need some help or looking to do business in our area I was very impressed with the proclamation and what great timing so I look forward to Saturday thank you I think if you're nice to tamy she'll let you touch it um yeah if we could I think maybe drill down a little bit on you alluded to um some of the issues that you know applicants were having what was sort of uh and navigating the the process um if you could sort of elucidate a little bit about what that you know the complaints that you had and then okay you had those complaints what did you do to sort of resolve them right well it it it was uh really right in the beginning I the the folks that brought concerns to me I would say almost now they're not concerns anymore it was basically to do um with the learning curve I guess if you want to call it some of the folks upstairs um and as well as other members that we're trying to explain here's the if you handed somebody a bunch of paperwork and it like your heart almost stops when you get handed this application stuff uh that was the frustrating part they were going through a lot of them were a little bit frustrated because um you know frankly we had a lot of the deals with the warehouse going on and they would go to meetings and then not get H so you know they were paying their professionals and then they wouldn't get HT and they'd have to come back again and you know if you didn't um you know if you bailed out on it then you have to repost it in the paper and all that stuff so they usually wanted to carry it over and it was costing them a lot of money so that was when I mentioned some of the people said okay I'm going to pause for now and I think those things are getting worked out because hopefully the pause is start uh coming off on uh some of the developers and builders that are interested in at least approaching ing the town and doing stuff that was the the main thing I think it was mainly the the learning curve and that's why I said I think Jim and Dory and um the planning board and the zoning board folks have done a good job uh getting their Folks up to speed and really hearing a lot less of it now now it's the ability to just work with new people who want to get moving and do stuff thank you and then um one one question I have too I think you alluded to it and and um you know maybe this is just me being a antitrust lawyer and you know I'm dealing with trying to keep markets competitive but you you alluded to that um some things you have to keep confidential because the business is sharing that with you and um I'm wondering how you sort of navigate that where um they're sharing you know maybe competitive information but they're seeking sort of Township help to probably perfect or exacerbate in a competitive Vantage that they may have over another competitor um how do you draw the line there say listen I can you can share that with me but I can't necessarily help you get a competitive advantage over another Sparta business using Township you know ordinances or resources how do you uh navigate that yeah well I usually you know give them my opinion and ultimately I direct them back up to the folks upstairs generally is where they got to start everything but a lot lot of times what they're um asking um is like do you think my business is you know I'm not going to say a a beauty salon or something like that it could be that type of business is that's going to be a good fit and you know or should I go to Andover or should I go to Lafayette somewhere else but usually it's not um you know it's more because they they just don't want to know other people to know like okay I want to start a new business on Main Street and it's a beauty salon it's more things along those lines it's nothing you know like too dangerous or anything like that so um yeah I just work with them I told them you know I won't I won't say anything unless you tell me I can and then a lot of times I'll even come in with the people when they're going to fill out the application uh sometimes it's even with the construction Department they're having issues that and I I think they some people rightly or wrongly worry like boy they're going to get mad at me if uh they hear I was questioning uh why I didn't get the permit or I got got denied or it looked incomplete and then I try to help them that that's not the way it is when you come in the folks are really I hate to use the word lovely but they they really are very professional and helpful so um that was more along the lines of what I metant okay and of the changes that you recommended which one do you are you sort of most proud of or or have seen the most effect from well I think we're still working on the one with the U and Dan was helpful with it or is being helpful with it too with the um the business development Zone where we we actually changed the whole thing instead of maybe just the uh you know Business Development one and two we changed the whole thing so for example U you know we want to make it like for like like so um you know if somebody moves out and basically the same thing is going to move back in you know whether it's uh Auto Parts or whatever it might be because the whole thing got changed for the whole Zone uh even from the railroad tracks all the way down White Lake Road and some of those other Wilson and all those they have to go through the whole hearing process and bring their Professionals in it could take a couple months and a lot of money I I think that one that we're in the process of changing is going to be that's a show that's a big game changer so that's going to be the biggest helpful one and I know like I said Dan was very helpful with that with and that came out of our business development meeting too so Lake for lake is going to be a a big hit I think that's if you want to ask asked me the biggest one that's referring to I think the site plan waiver process that is available yeah uh for business owners in every Zone in Sparta except the economic development Zone and so what what the Business Development Group is uh exploring is whether to make the economic development Zone have the site plan waiver process available even if you split it or whatever we got to do that'll be really helpful and just to be clear the business development committee doesn't make policy that will come before the planning board and the town and I think with that recommend policy yeah with that one it will be you know what was the rationale initially there had to be some rationale for it what was it or it was an accident maybe you know um or was it a yeah I it was I think it it wasn't meant to be the way it turned out because it was probably you know along the the rail line it was to you know if somebody moved out did you want another you know for say Warehouse or a big developer to come in so it was to at least make them go through the whole process as opposed to like for like but the rule change changed it for everybody and then you know kind of threw a hardship on literally somebody that's moving out is an auto parts and move it in where it's like you know it's the same thing so okay so there could be smaller businesses say as you said like a Bea Salon that wants to go in the ed1 there you go go in the place you know should they have to come before the full planning board on an application I do am I correct that though Sparta is one of the only townships in that you know of that allow has a site plan waiver process as far as I know yeah so so in most townships um even if you're like for like regardless of the zone you got to file an application with the planning board yeah that's so far anyone I know of yeah and I mean some of them work a little quicker but you still have to go in front of the whole boards and that's a huge Advantage so they probably don't have the volume that we have here was a big town yeah if you're well that's all the questions I have I know we have um you know other folks may want to have some questions I know councilwoman Quinn you may have some or yeah and I'm always I said I'm always available you know they most people have my cell phone or you can get me through gym or any other way so I just want to thank you because we are incredibly lucky to have somebody here that is incredibly as equally as knowledgeable as you are empathetic to the businesses um I've not heard anything but Kudos and and from businesses and also Personnel that have said you are very professional absolutely en joy to work with and I think the great thing about your position is in many areas because of your knowledge and also your empathy and your way of working with people you have a very good ability to kind of diffuse things because people can get you you're talking about a lot of money a lot of time a lot of frustration and I think one of the gifts of having you be this middle person is to diffuse everything and then calmly get everybody through the process through you know a dialogue that is um productive and I think that's critical and that's a tribute to your knowledge and the person that you are as well and I think it's a great fit so personally I just want to thank you for all your time I know you said before also and I'm sure it is the case you're getting calls nights weekends any time that businesses are closed because that's what's more you know that's what's more convenient for them and you make yourself available so I just want to say thank you no my my pleasure and thank you folks for uh inviting me tonight have a couple wait sorry right so thank you for being here and spending the time with us I appreciate it um just some questions um some of things you shared for in terms of getting a feel how many individuals do you typically work with versus General guidance to the business development uh committee would you say what's the breakdown like weekly or monthly yeah just generally roughly 5050 or is it well it's funny because sometimes of all days like Sunday when you're watching football or something I'll get like five phone call I think I had well even tonight before I came here I had four probably 25 30 people a week a lot of them are repeat so it's not all new people sometimes they're looking for further explanation or like Christine said sometimes you you get friendly with them too where they feel comfortable talking to you so they'll call so yeah it's it's and a lot of times um I I always tell them you can text me too I almost prefer that you text me so I don't have to be on the phone so I get a lot of text messes the game yeah shoot it back and forth I can shoot them um an email with the websites they have to go to so it's uh it's good it typically I think as Christine was pointing out you you really do develop a relationship with a lot of them because you know now you're kind of a confidant and you know that you're sort of their helper on the inside so it's kind of neat yeah yeah do are these uh are all these individuals coming to you through the BDC or do some of them come separately outside of the BDC yeah well a lot sometimes they'll refer like I said even Andy for the enforcement guy he'll tell them uh but mostly it's other businesses in the area like um you know because somebody will be talking to them saying you know you like doing business over there and they do and then they're like well how do I get started and then you know he'll instead of them telling them they're tell them to call me and then I end up telling so it it's all good it works out nice yeah does every every municipality have the service available like their services to them no I think uh Tam you help me I think we're it right over here have one maybe okay yeah so we're pretty much the big one yeah and and of course as we all call you know spart of being the Jewel of the county it's uh it's good that you do have somebody and you have a business development committee and um you know the groups that you do have so I just just wanted to to thank you for being here thank you for your extended Praise of our employees and the volunteers it's nice to hear and I was very happy to hear because there's been sometimes a misperception out there as you specifically mentioned about an anti-business perception I'm so happy to hear that from your experience and all of your thorough working with all these applicants that you don't agree with that and that's it makes us happy it's um more much more good news than not so good news I got to tell you it it wherever the bad news is it's way above us it's I don't like to use the word de P do or things like that but that's where it comes off the rails then so I just wanted to thank our our all of our staff like you did too for their hard work their diligence to sticking to our ordinances and making the process and policies better and our our our volunteers some of them here tonight so no I'm telling you spend spend a few minutes upstairs and watch them do their job and it's uh they really EXC wonderful out so thank you thank you thank you you thanks John thank you okay we are at our uh first um public comment period um but it is limited to items that are not on the agenda so if you see an item that's on the agenda that you want to talk about now is not the time I know there probably people here who want to talk about the ordinances that will be introduced um now is not the time to talk about those um so again this is limited to items that are not on the agenda and please state your name and please be mindful of the five minute comment period hi there my comments will be short but I wanted you to be aware and I'm not sure you're all aware the economic development partnership had their Awards program on Friday and uh one of your businesses was an award winner it was the New Jersey uh the Spartan New Jersey Renaissance Fair they received the expansion award so I just wanted to make you aware of that I wasn't sure if you knew that or not but um congratulations to them um and to you for helping them through that process and I I just wanted to make sure you knew that okay I'll I'll call up Bruce and uh if any 's ever been out to Camp sacka jaia um it's it's amazing um what he's done out there um and if you are a Lord of the Rings or a Dungeons and Dragons fan um I happen not to be but even that even though I'm not it was still amazing to see uh what he's done and he's it's it's really cool out there um so I encourage people to take a look at that well congratulations Bruce from on that excellent uh anyone else for a public comment on an item that's not on the agenda all right see no one will'll get to the expenditures um Deputy Mayor buti would you please read the expenditures for October 22nd 2024 yes I I move that we approve the expenditures for October 22nd 2024 in the amount of 15,1 181,182 October 22nd 2024 have been approved uh next up we have some ordinances that are being introduced again this is simply an introduction um the hearing will be assuming if the introduction passes the hearing will be uh in a few other weeks um and at that point there'll be an opportunity for you know the public to talk about the ordinance although you can do so at the public comment period as well tonight uh Madam clerk could you please read the title of ordinance 2416 ordinance of the township of Sparta permitting cannabis businesses within the township adding definitions to section 18-2 of the Township Code deleting subsection 3 of code section 18-45 prohibitive uses and adopting new sections 18-4 point7 23 comma 18-4 in permitting the operation of class one through class 6 cannabis licenses as addition uses within certain zones in the township right may I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2416 I move that we introduce ordinance 24-16 as was read by the clerk uh may I have a second please I'll second okay mayor if I could just interject before we do take a vote on that introduction and the the council decides whether to introduce or not that but you know please note uh in terms of the uh draft ordinance that was provided for 24-16 there are are still uh material U areas that need to be addressed in relation to that ordinance in particular the specific zones where the commercial Enterprises are going to be permitted uh we do not have the information as to where the council wishes to permit the commercial activities to be permitted also um minimum lot size with regard to uh at least four of the six activities uh I we've Incorporated a uh a number in there but again uh that's not something that has been vetted uh by uh anyone uh and then number three the access and setback so there are material areas that are going to require uh even if we introduce it tonight it's going to require uh an amendment uh at our next council meeting and therefore I I just don't want anyone to be surprised that we may not be in a position to have a hearing and a vote at the next council meeting hopefully between now and and the next council meeting we will get the uh the the information we need to uh amend that uh that draft ordinance 2416 yeah I mean I know that I had made some recommend I mean I think that this was circulated amongst Council probably about two months ago um and um unfortunately didn't get a lot of feedback on the on the the zones but I know that i' I've made some recommendations about where I think the Zone should be um but we can so what you're saying is that we can still introduce it but at the um hearing we'll need to make sure we've come to shore on what the minimum lot size what the zoning is and um and then the setbacks well yes with regard to 24-16 um you know if we do proceed with introduction this evening uh it is going to have to be amended at our next meeting and we're going to have to republish uh that ordinance because there will be material changes in that particular and am I right that the doesn't the the crem ACT doesn't does it have uh some of this in in that so that we would fill in the actual State requirement for like for example setback or minimum acreage isn't that in the in the state statute it and so we could just certainly in relation to for example schools and daycare centers and and Parks it it does okay so perhaps the biggest issue is going to be what zones do we want to uh locate these these commercial uh Enterprises okay so at the point of introduction this will then go to the planning board for a review of of compliance with the master plan maybe compliance is the wrong word yes but but it will have to go back again understood when we make a substantial change substantial Amendment yes so but the point is that with the planning at that time be able to offer any opinion on that they certainly can offer the feed to the that may have been the intent actually and and and uh leaving it blank is that we knew it would go before the planning board yeah and they could you know also even though we have the final say with the Zone but we would like to get input from our planning board obviously about uh the particular zones so we're saying we know it's going to be reintroduced but in the meantime we want to send it to the planning board for input well every every Z CH goes to the planning board so there's two types of input there's master plan consistency but then there's a whole another piece of input that the planning board could offer right yes because the zones aren't going to be dictated everything's not going to come from the master plan consistency review no that's a bigger picture planning board is not going to dictate to you what they can recommend yeah they can recommend yeah especially this is a conditional use with regard to uh whether it is not inconsistent with the master plan number one but number two also they can recommend their thoughts with regard to uh zones lot size access setbacks exactly well I I do believe that there's a number of edits and revisions that were around for the last week or two that did not make it into these versions here I don't know if we want to at least go through those tonight and correct some of those or we want to do it offline because there's a number of but you'll certainly want to get those to me because my understanding is them wer Incorporated um yes a lot of them I think Were Somehow didn't make it into these final versions and I'm seeing um when were the or so I just want to correct something so Neil I know you're saying you just made a comment and said that these were circulated two months ago these were absolutely not circulated two months ago I have an email dated August 22 I'm so sorry why don't you let me finish before you before you speak I will correct an incorrect statement of fact well maybe you should do that because all the changes that were made to these ordinances we did not get until when roxan Friday Thursday the redline version with the orange line version with the changes to the changes to the changes so you might have sent this originally but the version we're looking at right now which by the way is not complete and as Mr Ryan is pointing out uh and so is your colleague Dean our colleague Dean these are not quite ready for prime time because of the fact that the I have probably personally received what Jim four versions of these with all different changes in all different colors and all different whatever the most recent of which was last Friday I believe roxan is that correct last Friday so these are very comprehensive it's a huge impact we already know they're not complete and they're probably going to be need to be updated I feel like moving forward in this way is just Reckless and I disagree with the approach I would like to make a motion that we table all of this until we come back make sure that we can come forward with something that is truly inclusive of everybody's input before we're putting this version that version change it update it move it swap it it makes no sense the other thing is I've brought up and I'm going to read them into the record because for over a month I've been bringing up um a series of concerns and a series of requests that to date again this is over a month have been ignored just completely ignored and I'll read those into the record tonight um but as far as I am concerned I have lists and lists of questions um I look in the ordinance and I believe it says 500 ft from the school but Chief correct me if if I'm wrong um don't the signs say you know like if you go by a school zone isn't um like a drug not permitted within a th000 feet minimum of a school or is it 500 feet I I couldn't tell you an honest answer off hand I think it's 1,000 feet so our ordinance falls short of that um well I think that was taken from the actual creme act so you you know I think that's yeah the crem ACT has its own setback requirements creme Act is the state statute um so we would be following that one we we're free to make it more than that if we if we want but I think the initial thought was to stick with the the setbacks in the state statute I think the problem again is what we're looking at here is not what's best for Sparta it's what's best for the state the state has its own guidelines and rules and they're the same for uh very you know high density places like Elizabeth Camden Nork Loi all these different places and we're trying to take that and put it here and it's like taking in my opinion a square peg and trying to put it into a round hole we don't even have a whole inclusive uh you know we don't have these ordinances in my opinion ready for prime time we had promised the public um and you did this mayor Clark you said we were going to have rigorous discussion and dialogue and all of that we have not had that we are going from zero to Full Throttle by saying okay well we said we want nothing and now all of a sudden we're going with all six we have not fully discussed even which pieces of this even make sense to move forward with if we look at the history of the town if we look at the makeup of the town if we look at what the town stands for and if we look at this kind of business the person the people making the money if you do your research the entity making the money is the state the state is where all the money is going the municipalities I have done extensive research over and over and over again to try to answer my own questions since no one else seems to be able to answer them or willing to answer them and the the information that you get is not on a municipality level it also there's so first of all it's very difficult to get that information who what municipalities are actually making money and also I've researched again um and looked at I don't know how many interviews and and uh all kinds of different news sources that basically say it is hugely dependent upon the um the capacity that you have so in other words the density and also the competition so I mean you have to understand the state's getting what 22% the municipality gets 1% of one thing and 2% of another so it's no it's no you know I don't think anyone's sitting here in surpris that the state wants these things all over the place they're making a lot of money but I think we need to look at is I don't really care if I'm making the state money I'm looking at what's best for the town and I I don't think we're in a place to move forward I don't think our word has been you're not keeping our the word that you gave to say we're going to have these open dialogues and open discussions or anything like that and I don't think we are ready I think it is reckless to move forward with so many questions left open and even the ordinances that we're submitting we're just throwing them together to get them out there I don't know what the rush is all of a sudden but it seems to me like we are just desperate to get this passed and we're not even taking into consideration even the comments of the council itself let alone the planning board or anybody else any of our residents um so I'm going to go on the record one more time as saying uh for over a month now I've been asking a series of questions I then put this um into an email again because I got no answers to the questions I said I would like to see actual statistics actual data on how much money individual municipalities have made from each category that you guys are recommending I'm not looking for what the state of New Jersey is making because I found that and their margins are grossly higher than those at the municipal level in addition there's also benefits through SEI credits that other municipalities are going to get that Sparta is not going to ever get uh how does the municipality actually get the money because what we know is you have to get Staffing in place and they need to stay on top of each of these entities so however many businesses you have in each one of these categories we need somebody from the inside because we don't have this model other than and correct me if I'm wrong Jim or Tom other than with brain where we get a royalty fee we have no other business in town where we get this kind of money from these kinds of transactions that means you have to now hire somebody if you're hiring a full-time person if it's going to require a full-time person now you're paying benefits retirement the list goes on and on and on and on so I think we need to be very mindful of what we're going to make versus what it's actually going to cost um also I I totally agree and I'm interested in what the planning board would say personally um you know moving forward with all six of these at the same time I think is reckless um that's my opinion I think also we need to look at the zones and their proximity to things like schools residences houses of worship and all kinds of things like that because one thing I will tell you is through my research of talking to people in other municipalities there are big issues with for example the smell I I spoke to a parent from Hardis who told me their kids can't even are having trouble in school because all they smell is weed all day long so these are the realities is that what we want here because what's the smell place what what exactly is that in the ordinance it says oh someone's going to be responsible for that when I was talking to Residents over at Station Park about what was going on with the stench associated with aop polymers for example one of the things they said was yeah well we would call in compl C but people wouldn't come for 3 days so of course in 3 days there was no more smell there well what happens in this situation you know I I don't think it's it's being thought out um the other thing I said is I want clarification for the law in connection with outdoor pot smoking areas where there is retail the state at one point had approved outdoor areas associated with retail where people could actually use the products they just bought to smoke Vape or eat the marijuana products so my question is you go and you buy it and then you sit outside and smoke it eat it whatever and then what do you do get in your car and drive home I don't think that's a good idea and I don't think I think it's something I want clarification on also I would like to see the statistics around quality of life from municipalities that implemented each of the categories because as I mentioned before I have heard horror some horror stories about this I would like to know what is the business model and the impact so just so everyone is aware um they grow all this in Warehouse houses it's not green houses it's not outside it's not a crop you don't go down the road and see sunflowers and then weed it's a big huge Warehouse where this stuff is synthetically grown so you're talking about Warehouse uses and since it's not on the rail you're talking about trucks so now you have big old warehouses all over the place and you have trucks that are now coming in and out to bring it all over the place so just so we are all talking about the same thing and we're not just looking at you know oh we're going to make money there's no statistics driving exactly what it is we're going to make once we get the money for the actual permit that is the only money you're guaranteed um I also said what's the bit so I want to know what the business plan is if anyone has been by shearing plow you could see the nice lovely sign that says we're armed you know there's all kinds of fencing there's stuff that is required by the state by these um businesses most of them do have armed guards I think we need to look into whatever the business plan is um and I think we can look at some of our neighbors who have implemented these things that are now seeing this drive di them for yourself and take a look um fencing cameras security guards equipment guns um I also would like to see something from the police department regarding projections on the impact if any to our EMS infrastructure phone calls ambulance also to include projections and looking at municipalities if there was I'm not saying there is but I would like some statistics around upticks and crime rates uh DUIs based on statistical data I've reached out to several people some from the state that have told me that because driving under the influence of marijuana is not illegal or buying it is no longer illegal that there's it's really difficult to track any of that data but if we're going to be making decisions like this about bringing it here especially these this is what's going to be introduced I think we absolutely need to make sure that we have are making these decisions based on data and not talking points from the state that's going to make a lot of money from it also um the guides for existing cultivation distribution centers away from schools and neighborhoods and I also brought this up and I need it clarified again I want to confirm I was in open public I asked the question um and it was confirmed that the state deemed cultivation and manufacturing of marijuana as a um a use for Farmland property so as I had said what I see the risk being is that now you have a property maybe a commercial property and they say oh we're going to deem it Farmland so you can't build anything on it and then next thing you know a big huge Warehouse shows up by a company that's manufacturing weed on that now basically Farmland assessed property so the people of Sparta are no longer getting what they would be getting even for commercial use on that property but the company that's making the weed is making all the money and so is the state so I want to make sure that something is built into this ordinance and that we have some kind of confirm that if in fact the state deems manufacturing or cultivating marijuana an agricultural use that something protects the residents that they cannot these facilities cannot be on land that is Farmland assessed because that's just not fair to the taxpayer in addition to all of these things that I've been bringing up for over a month that have been ignored I also presented to you information and input from the municipal Alliance they're extremely concerned if there's going to be any controls about all of the products that look like candy being sold um if these if this goes through so the concern is that many of them look like either gummies or sour worms or things of that nature and could be um you know they're very concerned about what that would look like to kids um also they're concerned about the smell they've said they're very very worried that there'll be an effect on the students and the faculty um if the smell is so significant like it is in other municipalities um also concerns around minors and underage consumers I think Chief that's something that's in the law and just like with alcohol I'm assuming it would be addressed similar you you have to be the proper age to be able to buy these products um but I think we need some kind of clear protocols that's what the alliance is asking for to make sure that um the the products are accounted for and that we have something in place similar to liquor stores where where people aren't kids aren't going in there and buying it um also there's a big concern about things like the gummies along with some of these drinks that the state has now deemed apparently okay to be sold at gas stations that now are very easily accessible and very confusing um to kids who might not realize the difference so um those are my concerns along with the concerns of the municipal Alliance and at this point I would like to make a motion that all of this be tabled until we pull it together get some more statistics answer some of these questions and fine-tune these ordinances so that's my motion that I want to make right now well before we do that I just want to address some of it I I think that first this idea that it's it's been rushed along we brought up that we were going to be considering cannabis probably almost 6 months ago and we had some representatives from the industry here uh we also put it on uh an unfinished business new business agenda probably almost a month ago um so I'm I'm I'm sort of at a loss to understand how this is being rushed or it hasn't been an opportunity to discuss it um I won't address all the you know all the things that you said there's there's quite a bit that if you read the ordinance answers those questions with respect to odor um it cannot be detectable within the premises there's all kinds of filtration systems that you have to have um so just a simple reading of the ordinance uh would have found that also my understanding you do not get a farm uh Farm set exemption uh for cannabis I don't think you're allowed to do that under the law so that takes care uh of that problem uh also with respect wait a minute if the state sees it as an agricultur get a Farmland exemption if you if you have a farm and you want to have cannabis on it you do not you don't qualify for the formad homestead exemption um and so that that's been carved out to address that issue um also I think an overall point is that the reality of it is cannabis is being sold in Sparta right now it is should we well it is and we have no way to regulate it we have no cameras we have all these requirements that are listed in this in the statute about um security measures uh there's things that we can make the applicant do the the chief of police the fire department they all have a say um uh with that application about what can be required for example um an applicant could be required to have cameras that have feed into the police department so that the police department can see who's going in and who's going out we can make that a requirement right now we can't do that and Sparta has has has witnessed what happens when you have an unregulated Market is what we had we had a business in Sparta where they were trying to sell over uh 5 lbs worth of marijuana and the gentleman is doing that is now six years in the penitentiary and that happens in an unregulated Market you bring it to regulation and you have much many many more eyes on it so every day that we continue to to push this along is another day that we allow unregulated cannabis to be sold in our town this is a much more if you're concerned with safety this is a much more safer way to do it than to just say we don't have it and meanwhile there's no regulation and it's coming down the pike I think people saw that Governor Murphy they just passed all that uh any THC based products will now be regulated this sort of cannabis light Delta 9 Delta 8 krampton which affects the um Omega receptors my view of it just thinking of it economically if you have legitimate businesses it's going to be a lot harder for these uh non-regulated ones to compete and likely they will go away and we'll have actually a regulated business where we have many more eyes on it so I think it's the safer thing to do and that's particularly why I'm pushing it I think it's a safer way for this Township than what we have under the existing regime um and it's here like it or not you know it's it was legalized you know in 2021 we have Andover has it Jefferson has it um and you know sort of the parade of horribles that you hear well you can just go over to Jefferson and if and and see I it doesn't look like it's turned into um a pothead hellscape um ever since they've allowed it nor has Andover uh nor has Newton and so I think that some of these things and and also I do encourage people I've looked at some of you know the data uh if you look at and you have to compare municipalities that have passed the ordinance and others that have not uh a good one to look at is in Colorado where some M municipalities opted in some didn't well they did you know had a study um not by some industry not by someone Pro cannabis no these per people with the uh Urban Economic Journal uh found that crime actually went down by 2.9% now why would that be well the reason why is you no longer have a black market you have now light you have a a transparent market and so there's not that need um there's also another study uh just out that showed that actually uh and it was done in New Jersey that Canabis retail actually increases property values by 2.9% um and so there's there's data out there if people and so I'm you know I think in some of these questions are answered by the ordinance itself but my main point is regulating this Market is a safer thing for Sparta to do keeping it unregulated means we're going to have our kids getting through the gifting ordinance that happens at some of these you know ones that sell Delta 8 through the gift this has a gifting prohibition um people right now are able to go in those places and do the through the gifting loophole get cannabis if you regulate it it shuts that down and so to me it's a safer way to handle this and so that's why we can regulate that without doing all of this first of all and second of all if I'm listening to your argument it says well you know hey they're already doing it illegally so we might as well just open up the flood doors so everyone can do it I mean rather than taking careing taking care of the business or two that is doing it illegally let's just open up the floodgates what how does that make sense I'm not understanding how that makesense I opening the floodgates is is two bus this is six this is six like make a point of order could we could we conduct this more like a u a Robert's Rules where we we all get a chance to to weigh in without com devolving into a free form talking over each other I think that's a good idea you can go I just want to make a couple of points um number one is we don't we don't spart is not here for to make a profit that's not what we do any taxes we collect are used to offset our expenses and that's uh and we try to keep our taxes low so anything that any generate any taxes that are generated this will be will be used to uh regulate inspect and um and make sure everything is uh all the businesses are operating accordance with the land use laws um the other thing is I think this this fell this aligned very much with our processes we on August 22nd as we noted the um May mayor and manager solicited for from all the council members feedback and with some sample ordinances I provided mine within a couple of days um and maybe others have uh and that's why you've seen a couple of of edits to the ordinance because as people provide their comments you know those comments were circulated a couple times and so and if you look at the comments there's there's while there's a lot of edits on the document there's it didn't materially change very much at all it's it's it's still very readable and so I would encourage you to again there's you can pick any document you want and provide edits uh your comments on it and that could be funneled through the mayor and the manager and and the and the council and we can uh make those updates um and then as we said um this was discussed a couple of times in public session and uh Al although I was away and missed I I think I've only missed two meetings in the six years I've been here but uh I missed that one on September 10th that was an open public discussion of this where all of us could have weighed in on so I think we've had plenty of opportunities to provide input into this into this process um I also think um it is not unfair that we introduce something that's that's um not perfect and it it gets it into the ecosphere it gets the the public a document that they can read and digest and come with comments at the next at the hearing uh it also gets the hand into the hands of the planning board I've had a number of conversations with u the planning board um uh chair and the previous chair before the current chair and uh every time a discussion of cannabis came up the there was a catch 22 where the the planning board was stuck we passed into ordinance the council passed an ordinance in 2021 I believe uh making all cannabis businesses all six class classifications of cannabis businesses um not allowed within spart and so the planning board couldn't bring up any issues with that because they were Bound by this the council saying you can't talk about it so they couldn't talk about it and by introducing this now this just starts a conversation we can have the conversation with the planning board as they look at their master plan um compliance I'm using the wrong word it's not compliance it's a consistency review and again solicit input on the zones uh maybe in the number of businesses and anything else they want to solicit input on uh the council could be part of that discussion and we can we can ask questions and have a nice dialogue and then at the next meeting uh we have some more input into this thing maybe we have it's Tighter and we can change it again and we can have a discussion and introduce more changes and that's the deliberative process I think that's how that's how the sausage making should work in public um and and we we I don't I don't believe in I'm an agile de project manager I don't believe in trying to get it perfect the first time I believe in iterative development and I believe we should um iterate this and until everybody's uh comfortable with and it's okay not to be perfect going at the board and it's to me it's okay to have a couple holes in it we can fill in those holes uh in the next two weeks so those are my comments thanks an yeah I I don't have I have similar comments and I I do agree that this has been going on for two months uh mentioned probably a well well amount of time before that and there has been a few versions because of input um I do think um that councilwoman Quinn I I think I would say maybe 80% or or 90% of your um questions or concerns from my perspective are probably addressed either in the ordinances or the state law um yeah I think that the revenue as was mentioned may not or is likely not an overriding priority so um I agree there's not great numbers around so if we're going to do this because of Revenue I think that's a mistake um I I think that we need to commit to a process though this you know um we need to commit to if we're going to we're going to edit ordinances we need to put our thoughts and comments into an ordinance for others to then help construct it together and have that kind of process and if there's outstanding questions we need to figure out who they need to go to right is it are the questions for for our town manager or for the rest of the council or the questions for the attorney but whatever outstanding questions that need to be answered are well intentioned then we need to figure out who has to answer those though um I think in terms of the staff I I'll address that one comment I think the way it's written now looks like there's a maximum of seven businesses at at the most across all these classes so and the burden and the requirement is on them when they file their taxes to pay the extra 2% tax or 1% in one case so I I think I I definitely don't see us needing staff and having to take on extra costs in that regard of of personnel um you know I think there are if we're going to send it to the if we're going to introduce it and approve that tonight it's solely to then allow the planning board I think to collaborate right provide input because we can make a couple amendments tonight but I think there will be obviously a need to reintroduce this the way I'm seeing it right I mean even just based on a footprint there's blanks in here there's some things that there's consistent in here that are close but I think we need to just iron those out so I'll just leave it at that I mean there's probably a lot of comments we can go on before but that's kind of where I stand now I think uh Council woman Quint made a motion to table unless there's any more comments unless there's any more com but I think there's um a motion table that needs us I just want to say one more thing with regard to input and feedback if you guys remember when you guys started talking about oh we have this and that and the other thing and Jim correct me if I'm wrong even were saying oh wait a second she didn't get those remember you had to send me updated ones because there were like three or six different sets flying around and I didn't have them until you sent them to me so while you guys might have had them I did not have them and Jim was nice enough to finally send me a version then I got another version on Thursday or Friday which was marked up yet again so uh Neil I don't like your Inquisition or your your uh accusation oh will read the ordinances I've read them about 75 times and it's almost impossible to follow along when I'm looking at a piece of this and a piece of that and then I get here I look Friday night and half the data is not even in here so I just want to say I've done an incredible amount of research on this and I would say uh no the questions that have been asked and brought up have not been answered and until they are um I can't give the rest of the feedback for this document because I need answers to those questions before I can look for example I just asked the chief hey isn't that doesn't the sign say no drugs within a th000 ft of the school well the ordinance I believe says 500 so that to me is conflict right away we need I need confirmation on that we should have confirmation before it goes in um I it's fine I my motion stands I think that we're not ready for this and I think that we need more discussion so yes my motion is to table it we have a motion to table 246 uh do we have a second Hing no second actually I'll I'll second the motion to table it and then we can vote on the tabling okay so we have the alternative is if we don't table it is to discuss vot on the table okay I think Chris's motion should be Council Quinn's motion should be heard okay should be so the the we have a motion to table or ordinance 2416 um and we have I think we should do it as a roll of course yeah can I ask a question a legal question sure if this if this gets introduced tonight maybe with some changes goes to the planning board for consistency review and feedback input comes back gets reintroduced it will have to go back to the planning board again for consistency review Once Again correct yep okay so we have a we're going to vote to table Yeah we have a vote to table councilwoman Quinn yes councilman shirell no Deputy Mayor blumetti no mayor Clark no okay the motion to table has been uh denied um and so now we have a uh motion to introduce uh ordinance well we introduced it already I thought and we had a second did we not yes you have a yes now you're just going to the vote on the underlying yeah that's what I thought and so um we have may I have a roll call vote well I'd like to uh make a motion to make amendments okay before we vote so you want to make amendments now even though we know it's going to be amended later you have are these so pressing that you have to have them right now or do you want to add them no they're material okay um so I'm just going to go through a couple of them on page two oh sorry this is ordinance 2417 licensing well we haven't ince that it has to be amendment to 2416 so if we make a motion if we make any amendments now that are material we would set it back to the beginning we' reset the whole process for the next meeting well you you he can make a motion to amend if the motion is defeated then again we go back to the original right but if the motion passes then we have to reintroduce it at the next meeting with the changes if they're material we can introduce as we're just introducing as amended we can introduce as if the amendments are material would would it have would it have to be reintroduced at the next meeting is the question if we amend tonight we amend tonight it will be re it will be introduced again again at the next meeting along with the other changes that are okay so if we make any amendments tonight you reset it back two week the whole pointet correct no I'm sorry you you can introduce the ordinance as amended tonight but once it is introduced and material changes are subsequently made then we have to reintroduce it at the next meeting the new changes that may be presented at the next meeting but if you if you amend it this evening uh you can introduce it as amended right so either way at the next meeting we're we're introducing it again no yes we're going to have to reintroduce this again because of those those uh those gaps what you're saying than differently if we make amendments tonight and approve the amended ordinance is that introduced technically and can we send it to the planning board yes okay so we don't have to do it again next meeting no okay that answer your question Dan yeah I think the confusion was that you said your changes were material and so it's the materiality that is you know you can right we can make amendments but if they're material amendments we can't even say that it's approved as amended because it's well remember tonight is just the in introduction so we can make material changes to it and introduce it tonight as amended it's when we get to the hearing uh and the final vote if we make material amendments that's we've got to step back and reintroduce it and I think your point is we know we're going to make material amendments because there are some blanks in here correct so it's a given that this is going to go through at least one more iteration that's correct it's almost unavoidable unless councilman blti fills in all the blanks that's correct no pressure I can't do that alone so is is there a motion to amend 24-16 yes okay and I could explain for this ordinance what what they are so page four it it's around the number of licenses that are included so page four number one a yes so it talks about the number of licenses it does not mention delivery which I believe that was the intention is to have a delivery license but also it mentions a total of one well can I can I ask actually can I can I ask a point of order can I interrupt for a point of order um are we talking about the the um um the the um what am I trying to say the merits of the ordinance at this point I thought so that's we're not talking not arguing the merits we're not AR about policy but by introducing these specific changes isn't that in effect changing the policy well I I would say no I mean that can be a determination of the the the council uh but I would just want to alert councilman uh Bluey to the fact that um 23 sub paragraph one addresses cultivation manufacturing wholesale and distribution but 23 sub paragraph two on page uh six addresses the Cannabis retailer and cannabis delivery yeah so that's why you don't see distributor there it's in it's treated in the that was separated out okay okay well then we have under cannabis retailer and cannabis delivery it says there shall be a maximum of two total cannabis retailers and no zero cannabis delivery services page five right 2A well um 2 a and because unfortunately Beed some have gone back and forth but I'm I'm looking at my copy and I've got one cannabis delivery service business it's too bad these copies aren't don't have a date stamp okay so is your motion to amend to add delivery is that what you're asking because you don't see it on I know that was the intent was to have believe that was the intent for all the feedback and I just want the planning board to understand that okay now if that was in the the the the um the version that I reviewed the red line copy that but the version I reviewed online over the weekend did not also had zero for for delivery as is the copy that I'm holding right now has zero for delivery it seems like yours does not so either yours is an older or newer version of it I suspect mine's a newer version of it okay so we're not we're not all coming from this singing from the same page in Himel um so since this has to be my recommendation would be since this has to be reintroduced anyway with some blanks filled in um I would be um economical with changes now because we're not going to have to make changes later do you want to continue through your your questions I will make note of all of them okay so one cannabis delivery service will be included I yeah I believe that was the intention that should be throughout I agree okay so I think that would be it for this in terms of items for tonight that I think should be in this version so that's the motion unless it's in there but that's the motion that I'm making so is that is that a change if it's in your copy uh yes it is a change because it's not in the copy that uh that is before I'm not saying that that's the ideal solution we wind up in I just want to make sure the planning board has what the so the the thinking was motion to amend is to include under uh on on page six two subparagraph capital A one cannabis delivery service yes is there a second I have a before we make a second on that can I ask uh can a can a business do both and a business can a retail business have a delivery service yes that would they would count as one license or two that would be one business having two licenses thank you okay so we have a motion to amend uh 24 16 23 I thought it was 23 dot and. 2.a 232a to add delivery service I will U second that motion okay uh Madam clerk may I have a roll call please councilwoman Quinn no councilman chiro yes Deputy Mayor buetti yes mayor Clark yes uh motion uh to amend has been approved um do you have any other no other any that's all for the Zoning for me okay for now all right so um we now need a motion to introduce 2416 as amended and so may I have a motion to introduce 2416 as amended I move that we introduce 24-16 as amended may I have a second please I will second U before we go to vote um I just want to say um uh this might seem weird to people watching I think this is healthy I think having us together and talking about kitzing over a document together and talking about policies and changes you know in the light of day with everybody it might I guess said it might seem awkward to people it doesn't seem awkward to me at all I think this is healthy and I'm and I'm I'm happy to participate in this Democratic process um now you may vote I I want to also say you guys are okay with moving forward with all six of these things at the same time not doing due diligence trying one thing you know it's it's six or none six or nothing all this at the same time well I also remind councilwoman Quinn councilwoman Quinn that the um uh in the ordinance there is uh I don't know if it's in this one but it's in one of the collection uh there is another governor and and in that uh any business that wants to apply for license must do so before the council and that was one of my questions I was going to have but I don't know if it's appropriate here before it's uh introduced that uh I don't know what latitude the council has for pausing or not voting on a license um but um I I think my understanding of is we're certainly able to say I'm not going to issue a license and because we're um we want to pause whatever process for a while so uh my point is that there's a governor in place on this process if we need to use it is that fair to say that that is fair to say however if certainly an applicant the first in line uh has met all of the criteria uh there would have to be a substantive basis for for denying that that's another one of my questions anything that's subjective means there better be some good criteria IA otherwise we're going to get sued so if there are people that come in I'm assuming this would follow pretty much the protocol when we get vendor uh bids and things of that nature right so that there's all this these rules but I mean how does the council pick one business over another business uh without risking them saying well you just didn't like me or whatever like what what are the what are the actual criteria we're building them ourselves well the the actual criteria is set forth in some detail in the in the ordinances themselves but it literally will be based upon a first come first serve first one who comes with a completed is automatic approval that person does not get automatic approval they would have to come before the uh the council they would have to present their application before the council if indeed their application meets all the criteria then yeah the the uh responsibility of the council would be articulating a substantive basis for denying it but then also remember it's it's a conditional use application so then in addition to the council they have to go to the planning board and uh and make an application so what under what criteria would the council be able to say no if the first application that comes in they don't meet the the criteria that are spelled out in the uh in the ordinances but that would make that would mean the that would be defined in the application process yeah the in that's correct the municipal clerk will be going through the application and it will have to comply with all of the criteria that's provided for under the ordinance also remember you know another in fact the first um hurdle that a a commercial Enterprise has to get over is they must be licensed by the state so you have to deal with the New Jersey cannabis Regulatory Commission and they cannot come to us unless they at least have conditional approval there and then in order to get final approval by the township they have to have final approval and and Licensing by the New Jersey cannabis Regulatory Commission so another thing I wanted to just I want to make sure that everyone is aware of and I want to just validate that this is still I know there've been some changes but initially um this state in their uh legislation said it is a 5year opin minimum so in other words if we go full force with all these six things you are locked into that for five years you cannot tell a business if it's not working out right if it's not working out or something's not going well we are locked in to all these things for a minimum of five years right and then once we start this conversation the planning board might look at this and say you know something maybe you want to consider this zone is okay but this zone is okay and you know something now that I've look about it this class X doesn't really fit anywhere and then since this is not finalized yet we have another um opportunity to say you know based upon planning board input and and public input and our own pinp put maybe we can we can remove one of these things if we want to so um I think we still have plenty of time to make it perfect so then I want the planning board the members of the planning board to understand the depth and breadth of of flexibility you're going to have in reviewing this so in addition to it's not just going to be oh does it match um is it something that's in line with our existing master plan and it's not just going to be where do we shove these things based on the criteria in the ordinance you're going to also have the ability to come back and say that does not fit in Sparta like we cannot find a place or maybe this is not a we do not feel that this this is a good use of Master Plan whatever it is so you have a lot of latitude other than just saying does it meet the master does it meet and fall in line with or is it in conflict with the master plan and what zones would you recommend it goes in it's not just a question that goes in that direction because you might come back and say there is no Zone this goes in this this it this might be okay with the master plan but this is not so just so that we are being very clear on the expect of what we're asking from the planning board we're not asking you to go take this and retrofit and shove it in and make it work we want your honest input and feedback about all of it so just want to make sure we're clear could say I'm not in a position to give you that information your serve um and then we then we deal with it but ultimately it is it is a decision of detention right right I get I get that but we're I mean it's very important to me to get information from these other boards and so I want to make sure that they have a good understanding of what they can come back with it with I I respect that as well that I think the planning board's day job is what gets built where and that's that's um I respect what they do and look forward to their input all right so we have a um a motion to we've got a first and a second do we not for 2416 as amended okay so now we just need a roll call vote Council Quinn no councilman Shero yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes 2416 as amended has been introduced that was easy next up uh is 2417 U Madam clar could you please read uh ordinance 24 the title of ordinance 2417 ordinance adopting a new chapter 8 entitled cannabis license requirements of the code of the township of Sparta to admin IAL licensure requirements for cannabis facilities okay may I have a motion to introduce uh ordinance 2417 I move that we introduce 2417 as it was read by the clerk may I have a second please I will second and Madam clerk may do you want to sure yeah yeah and I would I would like to say too that it is hard to do this without input from everyone and we haven't gotten input at all from one council person that's I don't know how that's going to work out later on but um under licensing and again I want to get this to the planning board for input so um I have two I'm going to make a motion for two amendments for the licensing ordinance 2417 page two section 81 actually starts at the very bottom of page one number c again same issue maximum number of licenses it talks about five of the classes and I think for now at least we want to get that sixth class which is delivery included there is delivery handle under a different section no it it does need to be corrected and included in there okay and then I'll do them together I believe or I could do these separately um um let's do it separately Amendment separately or I would do them all at once otherwise we're going to have that you know motion amend and go back just why don't you get all your changes down that you want so the second one and last one for now is page three at the bottom uh it's number four application review and approval conditions letter B as a boy so I upon reading this now it seems that the application my understanding is the flow comes in for a new license it goes out for comment and review by the chief of fire chief of police zoning officer Health officer Township manager and other officials as deemed appropriate they provide responses within a month basically then it comes in back then it seems like this it goes next to the planning board for site plan approval and conditional use approval based on our ordinances then it seems like it comes back no I thought you missed you missed this to to the township Council B the clerk and consultant with the township manager makes recommendation to the council for consideration at an upcoming regular meeting approval yeah but up here after receiving not the appli received all applicable site plan approvals and variances including conditional use approval so that first part of B references planning board approval then looks like it comes back for final Council approval is that am I reading that correctly after receiving responses pursuing to paragraph a of the subsection and after receiving notice that the applicant has received all applicable site plan approvals and variances including conditional we use approval for the Township Code so somewhere before that sentence seems like we were missing a step there's a step missing I'm only thinking that why put this through the cost in the for the applicant for the township taking a planning board time if the council is not in favor or hasn't prioritized or hasn't this hasn't met our criteria okay so you're describing it so it goes out to our internal professionals managers then it comes to the council who will provide conditional approval depending upon the approvals from the planning board is that the process you're you're saying the planning board comes before the council or after the council well as it currently reads it comes before the council yeah because we we have to we don't want to approve something that our planning board hasn't had a chance to look at and so the the sequence of events is that the application comes in then Township officials weigh in make you know obviously to see if it's a complete application right then other folks you know uh the police officer zoning officer Etc then it goes after they've had the review it goes to the planning board and then the planning board gives it back to us because saying yes it's approved or not approved so and then we don't weigh in on it until after the planning board has had it say of of the uh of the application because there would be there would be no sense that what you're it's implicit describing it's not explicit it's not explicit I think it was more explicit earlier so it just says after receiving responses pursuant to the paragraph a and that's from the so and then internal PR and after receiving notice that the applicant has received all applicable site plan approval so that implies that they got the plan approvement from the planning board corre yeah so if the chief of police chief of fire Health officer Township manager has receed that feedback it does not deem it appropriate to go to the planning board I'm just saying that should be probably spelled out here you you mean if the the police chief is not satisfied or provides if any of those off negative it would not good to the planning yeah the way it's written it seems like it's routed to the planning board without any kind of filter in there that's the way I'm reading it if if others are reading it as it's implied that's fine well let's let's just talk about that I I mean sorry you're suggesting that each of the individuals cited in subp paragraph a would have veto power over an application no not they would provide comments they provide comments and recomendations so they would provide comments and recommendations Y and then those with those comments and recommendations col eled the applicant would then go to the planning board for conditional use approval and then the third step would be they would come to the council I think it's in here I think it's just yeah you take you take it into consideration it doesn't you wouldn't be on legal authority to to have the the police department have veto power as Mr Ryan said the point of the notice provision is so that Township officials can weigh in and then planning board can hear the recommendations of that and take that into consideration when they do conditional use approval yeah indeed receipt of all site plan approvals are required before Council consideration and also the planning board gets to hear what the zoning officer what the fire chief of fire says what the and they they planning board takes that into consideration and will Ex you know Grant or deny conditional use approval based upon other you know among other things the responses and statements of the chief of police so I don't see a need to add some additional step it's it's kind of built in there yeah I think it's all there it just might not be as explicit as you were hoping but yeah it's right it's not explicit I think in the earlier version there was a there was a another section in here that talked about criteria and a ranking what if you just add the words site plan approval from the planning board now it's more explicit uh no I mean I think that's that's well you you can let me just read it after re and this is sub paragraph B after receiving responses pursued to paragraph a of this subsection and after receiving notice that the applicant has received all applicable site plan approvals and variances including conditional use approval sported Township codee section 18-4 point7 c22 the Township Clerk in consultation with the township attorney and Township manager shall forward the application along with all related comments and recommendations to the township Council for consideration an upcoming regular meeting I think it's clear it just seems like as long as we're comfortable collectively that there will there be a case are we okay with a case coming going through this going to planning board getting approved coming to the council and having it be denied yeah yes yeah that's I mean that's yeah of course that can happen yeah I mean that's we're we're the ultimate Authority and I think that um you know there's also a provision in here that the township Council can require additional measures Beyond those set forth in this section in C yeah and so if we for example I think I alluded to it earlier um you know any type of security plan that I would like to have would be requiring uh a retailer to have uh in addition to the cameras that they have I would want that feed to be available to our police department at any time so they could if they wanted to see what's who is and what is going on at the retailer that's not something that's in the actual you don't need to build it into the ordinance you can build it into your condition for application approval so doesn't need to be in the ordinance but these are certain things that we can talk about but that's further down the road when you actually have a real application in front of you which we obviously don't have at this point because every case would have some nuances that you might want to build in a exactly additional requirements I think it's yeah I mean the only other way to do it would be to put a step in there that the council whether there's a criter a set of criteria or a ranking unless it's first come for a serve and everything goes through so the issue is do you want to make do you think that an amendment to the provision you you spoke about is necessary but having had it explained are you willing to W withdraw your or can we vote on both separately uh I I'll withdraw it for now meaning I want to get it to the planning board but I may want to resisit it next time okay I would also just note that in uh sub paragraph B sub paragraph double I it reads if the township Council receives more applications than there are available local licenses for a particular class of cannabis business the Township Clerk shall maintain a waiting list of additional applications that have been submitted in complete form to the township clerk's office I know if that yeah no I did read that I think that's a good idea um it was mentioned a little while ago that we may want to pause or take our time with certain uses right certain classes not all at once or we may want to Pace ourselves and see how it's going this does not allow that or it allows it but it puts an applicant through the whole process and has to come back and say well you know we're not ready for I'm making it up a wholesale because we have the other four already in place and we're want to see how it goes I mean there's just that consideration about does the council want to weigh in earlier on um I'm okay with drawing it for now if we want to think about it I don't believe there's a simply because you're adopting the this this process and the this these licenses I I don't believe it imposes upon the council an affirmative obligation to approve or to fulfill all of the classes that have been created so if the council uh in its wisdom decides it does not want to Grant a uh a wholesale license then you can put a pause on it I I mean ideally that would be communicated at the outs set and before the incur expense the administration would be okay that's what I'm consider you hit it there that's what I want to make sure that we don't let this come all the way through months and months of work have it come back to us and say you know what we're not ready yet for wholesale but as long as it's triggered up front at that first step I think that covers the concern okay okay so we're only voting on I withraw the the second motion just the first can I ask one question with all these ordinances as well there are different states one comes out particularly in my mind where they started with marijuana and then added to it things like mushrooms and other products if the state decides to change its mind or expand its ordinance to include those other things what rights under these ordinances right now the ones that you're talking about is there anything that protects us to say it's just Mar it's just cannabis so if the state goes and says oh we're going to expand it to include hallucinogenics or whatever they might do like and other states have done it this is certainly limited to can okay I just want to make sure that all in all three of them we are protected if the state changes its mind yes limited indeed to to cannabis all right thank you voting on your a motion to amend uh 24 17 I'll second it and all those may have a roll call councilwoman Quinn no councilman shirell yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes so uh ordinance 2417 as amended um or the amendment is adopted uh we now need to have a motion on 2417 as amended I move that we approve uh or introduce ordinance 24-17 as amended okay may I have a second please I will second U may I have a roll call vote councilwoman Quinn no councilman shirell yes Deputy Mayor buetti yes mayor Clark yes so um ordinance 2417 as amended is uh introduced next up is the uh taxing one which is 2418 uh Madam clerk could you please read ordinance 2418 ordinance amending chapter 2 entitled Taxation and Revenue of the code of the township of Sparta to add new sections 2-6 two and the following setting forth a cannabis tax right may I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2418 I move that we introduce ordinance 24-18 as was read by the clerk may I have a second please I will second uh Madam clerk may I have a roll call any discussion okay um Madam clerk may have a roll call vote councilwoman Quinn no councilman shello yes Deputy Mayor blumetti yes mayor Clark yes 2418 is introduced uh we have no hearings of ordinances tonight um next up we have our second public comment period um however this one I apologize is Li to resolutions um so again look at uh paragraph n of your agenda those are the resolutions that are on tap for theight and if you have a P public comment related to those um please do so at this public comment period it will be the last public comment period um that you're allowed to speak on something that's not on uh that's on the agenda so anyone uh public comment with respect to the resolutions see no one um like to take a couple of these in in Mass um because they're perun um they I have a motion to approve resolutions 91 92 93 and 95 someone want to speak did someone again it has to do with the resolution so is itance okay you'd have to wait till the the final public comment period yeah this is only the public comment with respect to resolutions okay so the the motion was to uh approve resolutions 91 92 93 and 95 so may I have a motion to approve resolution utions 91 92 93 and 95 I move that we approve resolutions 9-1 9-2 9-3 9-5 uh may I have a second please I second it all those in favor say I I I all right resolutions 91 92 93 and 95 old police cars it's Vehicles it's safe all right next up uh may I have a motion to approve uh resolution 94 which is a resolution to approve best practices inventory questionnaire I move that we approve resolution 9-4 uh may I have a second please I will second I have some comments okay um first off I just want to hear from uh Mr Zep what is the best practices inventory questionnaire and why are we being asked to to vote on this is just to inform the public of what this is sure thing the uh uh best practice inventory questionnaire is an annual survey uh mandated by the DCA um that basically establishes publicly that the the township is practicing all the uh law practices that are required uh in various areas of operation and uh they also have an area in there uh uh surveying uh the status of other activities that we may be doing um quickly some of the topic areas are affordable housing lead remediation budgeting practices procurement practices um what what not like that uh sometimes the questions will be duplicative from the previous year um we had done this last year and the prior years uh um usually the CFO is the official who uh uh does most of this um this year they added that the uh clerk would get involved that the the clerk gets a chance to review the uh the questions uh and then they um are submitted to the DCA and then the state aid formula is based on uh a score that uh we are adhering to most of the uh diligent uh laws and and practices uh and that's what this is and um I apologize I didn't get the survey out to you guys earlier but um uh the deadline to submit to the state is uh the 25th so uh we we have time to do that uh I shared that with you guys um some of those questions uh um are challenging I I would say and we had to do our due diligence on on on making sure we got uh everything covered correctly um but uh I'm happy to say that uh we we qualified for the full State funding with our current practices okay just a question I have I know and we you and I exchanged some emails about that there was answers that we gave on here that seemed um inconsistent I guess that you know there were some um you know for example uh we had one about you know whether we post labor agreements on the website uh the marginalia said no uh but the answer uh either said na or yes and so my question is given that there's some discrepancies here do we have can we approve this tonight um or and then be able to go back and change the answer so there's consistency along the lines that I had pointed out yes okay and and because I said we haven't done the submission yet and and you know what uh normally the council just uh gets a chance to peruse the questionnaire as it is but um we can make those changes and I have to admit the some of the questions are very ambiguous uh they're difficult to answer because uh it's just not a yes or no answer they give you leeway on the na whether it's Happ iCal or not the the questions are multifaceted um it's not an easy questionnaire so you you really have to follow through with it some of them require comments uh as as you see in there but um we're getting through it most of it is is pretty straightforward but there are some other other ones that are are more difficult and um some of those uh like the affordable housing questions there's no weight on them at all that they're more of a interest survey for the state to just get a feel for uh what the townships are doing so um but uh we haven't submitted yet so um we can um make changes on anything you guys see on that okay so that that was basic question is if we approve this resolution tonight our answers are not in stone tonight because we can change those answers later absolutely the resolution itself though says that you guys have had eyes on it and I think that that is what the the purpose of the resolution is and obviously you have so we've met the resolution uh and that's what that's about but to take it the next step you know I of course I welcome your guys input on the the answers themselves and and the followup that's not a problem okay so I think if any council member um has questions or or thinks there's an answer may be incomplete or not consistent um they should let uh you know Mr zeep know um and then they those can be changed um because the answers that you you know have in front of you or not set in stone tonight we're not approving the answers we're mainly just saying that we looked at at the resolution or at the um corrector questionnaire or altern can we just go through any questions we have now and modify you know get a verble approvement to modify and then just approve it sure I mean is that um scenario too we're going to to have them right here these are administrative practices excuse uh not all of them some of them are some of them were just the answers were just not clear um or the answer was you know not consistent with um the question I we had multi multiple people involved in these questions so um and and it was sort of last minute we had a lot of other items we were getting to so I don't know what the preference is then we want to is there a preference either I think what you want to do is present perhaps some questions to Mr Zep and he can respond to want to try to do it now or is that I have it in front of me if it's easier for you um sure I know you have three Neil's three I think you have right I think I saw a response already by email I did I thought I I both you guys had had sent me the questions and I thought I answered them so I didn't see mine Jim did you respond and it was it's afternoon but we we are having an email problem cuz I have sent them to to you just the report I've sent to you actually multiple times okay I know I was working with Michelle late in the day and there was some issue um so I I'll just mention them you can tell me if you're good with them then I sure number 10 on there was about the budget process and deadlines and my question was did we receive extensions on those that was for the introduction and adoption dates and uh I think the answer was yes on that oh okay yes so yes we we have extensions okay next was uh number 32 that was about the incentives for our volunteer firefighters EMS with Federal that was na which is still there because um it wasn't Sol we we offered the losap program to our EMS but not the fire department uh they've declined it okay and that was that was for incentives outside of losap also right I mean that that's the focus anyway so we're good yes okay uh number 52a this is just a it asks about shared services agreement and no we answered none do we currently at this time because of some recent changes have no shared services agreement is that true on the categories that they list in the answer key the answer is none of above okay none given changes the recent changes correct okay understood and the fourth one was just about the uh 66 about areas uh deemed in need of Redevelopment and it came to mind the DPW site with the landfill and this is asking if we've submitted resolutions and paperwork to the DCA commissioner and I think our answer was no or na but just I think right was no but um I'm looking into that further because I I need to look into that one further okay so I did get that late today okay I think we're good then thank you Jim we'll have to fix the email issue I know it's it's frustrating right yeah I I I don't know what's up there yeah I really don't all right so we just um we need to have a vote we had a motion and a second so all those in favor of approving resolution uh 94 please say i i i i resolution 94 to approve best practices inventory questionnaire uh is approved with um you know changes to some of the answers having going to happen after after today next up is a motion to approve resolution 96 is awarding a contract for the construction of a pole barn storage building at White Lake Park I um will move that we approve resolution 9-6 uh may I have a second please I will second all right before we go to a vote um uh manager Z could you tell us what this is for I know that folks on the rec committee know about it but I think that um the rest of the folks may not yeah a while back we actually uh filed for a grant uh for um White Lake and we received the Grant in the sum of uh $7,000 it's a reimbursable grant uh and then what happened was White Lake was built and while White Lake was being built we were in a position to utilize that grant money at that time to start building the pole barn as you know the White Lake is now you know on that stage virtually complete and we're ready to proceed with the pole barn and we also have our backup against the deadline on possible forfeiture of the grant money uh two years uh if we don't utilize it so uh we went out for quotes uh our engineer went out for quotes uh to build a pole barn uh um and we also do a lot of In-House to keep the cost down and so we're able to um award uh a company to come in and erect a pole bar for us um I've always said this because of my Public Works background I always thought it was a little nutty that we didn't have uh a storage facility up there uh Jerry and Bill and all those guys are trailering all the mowers and the water wheels and all the equipment back and forth between Station Park and White Lake because they have no place to store them up at Wake Lake so in my opinion the the the pole barn is long overdue and fortunately it's paid for the grant money is going to pay for it the pole barn itself comes in at 44 something, and there's going to be some incy costs there with the engineer and some uh more material for the floor and stuff but the grant will cover virtually all the cost for it so uh this is a no-brainer any other questions with respect to uh resolution 9 six all right um all those in favor say I I I um so resolution 96 has passed um next up may I have a motion to approve resolution 97 authorizing the displaying of committ of flags on Township owned flag polls November 3rd 2024 for the sparta fire department I move that we approve resolution 9-7 for the SP fire Sparta fire department flag uh especially at this time uh may I have a second please I will second it and November 3rd is the 101st anniversary of the founding of our fire department um and uh all those in favor say I I I abstains I'm abstaining okay so we have three eyes one exstension next up uh may have a mo motion to approve resolution 98 uh resolution authorizing the displaying of commitment of flag on Township owned flag polls November 10th 2024 US Marine Corps I move that we approve resolution 9-8 uh may I have a second please I will second it on November 10th which is the anniversary of the founding of the US Marine Corps um all those in favor say I I abstentions abstain okay so we have three eyes one exstension next up um a motion to approve resolution 99 resolution authorizing the displaying of commemorative flag on Township owned flag polls November 11th 2024 which is Veterans Day I that we approve resolution 9-9 may I have a second please I will second it so may I have all all those in favor say I I I abstain so we have three eyes and one abstention resolution 99 is passed um next is the council liaison updates um I will start to my far right with danan councilman tiello uh thank you I've got a number of updates to share I'll do that quickly um the revolution NJ committee I think as as it reported last time met earlier this month uh and we are readying for a we're we're we believe we're going to use our December 2nd meeting which is the first Monday in December to uh invite as many uh other Sparta organizations uh committee or Community organizations that we can identify uh that might want to play a role in our celebration of our 250th um anniversary of the founding of our country uh so we'll look I'm trying to send that that invitation probably over the weekend because this is my nights and weekend's job so it's probably going to be the weekend um the environmental commission meeting on the last meeting was the 10th the next meeting is Thursday the 24th in two days uh and as we mentioned earlier there is a site uh open space plan review uh with the planning board on November 6 the council I believe has been extended a formal invitation such that we can have a quorum at that meeting is that true like if three of us decide to go and talk to them about the open space plan have to be able to advertise it so the the environmental commission is is uh meeting is is introducing or reviewing the open space plan formally with the planning board on their November 6th meeting and I think it was implied that council members could attend that meeting to join in the discussion so be uh in case three or more council members join that probably has to be noticed and all that fun stuff correct 4 hours a recommendation okay 4 hours and you need 48 Hours well it's November 6 so we've got some time she's she's gonna post it yep okay okay sorry talk about you're talking about November 6th yes oh yeah that'll be advertis yeahi um uh also uh we are starting to re-engage or engage with our Green Team unfortunately we had solicited uh the uh number of people to join our Green Team and and unfortunately the environmental commission um hasn't really been diligent and engaging with that group and so we're going to rectify that and communication went out to all the members the members of the public that did sign up for our Green Team asking them to join the environmental commission uh at their November 14th meeting to welcome them and sort of plan you know noodle on what we can do with the the group set them to work uh it's my reading of the uh of the sustainable Jersey uh rules guidelines regulations whatever that the members of the Green Team need to be appointed by the council so um once we get a final list that'll probably come before us uh the business development committee meeting last met on October 9th um as we talked about thank you again um for coming and spending some time with us this evening uh I would uh mention real quick that the one of the things that we talked about that the committee did was go through our uh application process together with the zoning and planning boards to try to you know make it as tight as possible and I think we did a good job with that and now they're turning their attention to signs and and uh and uh while there is opportunity with signs because we don't need this many pages of stuff for signs I think we can would let down to make that more efficient uh parking is a little bit uh more complicated and I believe we've done some parking tightening up the parking rules too but parking is such that if you get it wrong you got a safety problem uh not so much with the signs not a lot of safety problems with signs but um if you underestimate parking you've got a safety problem so we need to be more diligent there and I think we are um the uh as my position on the board of ed Le is on we did have a meeting with the Board of Ed on October 10th and talked about some um cool stuff more to come on that later uh our first sister city committee meeting was held yesterday and uh it was a very good meeting we laid that the groundwork for what the next couple of months or weeks are going to look like as we start to plan two things one is our uh hosting the 2026 Sparta Institute conference here in Sparta and number two is um maybe longterm how we can better uh engage with our sister city in Greece and and form a closer Bond uh that's really secondary uh I will I have been um conversing uh emailing with the state department who runs the sister city program and we'll meet with them probably in the next couple of weeks and finally for the sister city I want to wish all of our friends in Sparta Greece a happy oi day I hope I said that right October 26 um if you don't know what Ali day is um I um very briefly it's it's the AI means no in Greek and it's when uh the the Italian dictator musolini made an ultimatum To The Head of the State of Greece saying let us let my Army occupy certain parts of your territory and all he means no and so the response was no you may not and uh I think war was officially declared so I'm a proud moment in for people in Sparta and happy oi day and that's all my comments on committee councilman BL sure with that segue I think I can top that you can't exactly so a quick update just on planning board from our October 16th meeting uh the board continued the hearing for application 713 which was rames and Company LLC for 61 Sparta Avenue uh after a lot of discussion the applicant uh will be reconsidering and revising its plan and its concept so that was carried forward second is the master plan subcommittee will be meeting next week and related to that third is uh I was mentioned before by our town manager uh the community input survey is open so please fill it out please go there and add your input about uh Sparta's future you can find it one of two ways uh www.spartan.com or you can go to our Township website uh Sparta nj.org of course our homepage and it's under the news flash section on our homepage you can scroll down a couple items and find a link there um Dan already covered the uh joint meeting on November 6th um so the planning board and the council has already received the open space uh plan and open space and Recreation plan um and as it's also available to the public so please go to the website and take a look at it as well and come to that meeting and share some thoughts that's all I have mayor all right thank you um Dan handled rev 250 and the school board um we also had a meeting with uh Lake Mohawk and um discuss some of the issues related to the bridge uh both man to and both the one um on uh West Shore um again I think they're awaiting D approval and that is why no work has been done uh as of yet um also an issue that they raised um was with respect to the uh master plan subcommittee uh was having someone on uh the committee who has uh who actually is not just lives in Lake Mohawk but works for Lake Mohawk that has some domain expertise with the bylaws because as folks know um you know Lake Mohawk is allowed to go above and beyond our ordinances with respect to certain land use they just can't go beneath them and so I think um I thought the point was well taken um to have possibly um you know someone maybe sine um to have be sort of actively involved so they can instruct you know some of the impacts there are some zones that do um back up to to Lake Mohawk and um I think that someone who's well versed in sort of the bylaws of of Lake Mohawk and some of the requirements could uh could be useful um so I'll raise that um and so we had that meeting was two week but that was one of their main um concerns um we have a uh Sparta film ready meeting tomorrow we are in the midst of planning a um commemoration um celebration that will be open to the public on Friday December 13th uh we fully expect that by that time we we will have received our uh designation as a uh Sparta film ready community and so uh we hope to have representatives from the uh State film commission there um along with other dignitaries and then people from the industry um again like I've said it's the entertainment production New Jersey is just growing and growing um and now there's an additional I think they increased the tax credit to 35% and so that's causing even more interest and so that will be December 13th out and we'll also be showing um the trailer that was uh produced by uh completely local residents from the um the only there's a some of the talent is from outside but the actual people who did the work and the production from the production assistant to the lighting person to the script supervisor or all local people they produced a um it's like an 11 minute right now depending on editing a trailer that will then go to be pitched to um various uh entertainment companies from Netflix to Apple TV Etc so that will be an opportunity for the public to see the work that was done uh again that's going to be uh Friday December 13th but there will be so we're busy planning that um and I will let uh councilwoman Quinn handle the rec department and oh the um Trail committee we are getting underway we wanted to wait to have the meeting there's a big meeting um and probably councilwoman Quinn can allude to it in her comments on October 25th with respect to the county um so we'd like to get some feedback on how that goes before our our committee begins sort of our work on what um you know what we can do to improve uh the you know parts of the rail trail that go through Florida uh the goal is so that we can hook those rail Trails up to a larger initiative um and eventually have a whole connected Network and so part of that is dependent upon our neighbors in ogdenburg and elsewhere so that's what the October 25th will give us more insight into that so we thought at least I thought it would be prudent to wait until that meeting happens until uh we get underway so with that I will seed the mic to councilwoman Quinn so um I'll carry on with the department so first and foremost thank you for approving the pole barn I think it's great we're getting grant money for that and I think uh everyone in the department is going to be very excited that they no longer have to drag all the equipment all over the place so it's good to see this happening and us getting into the next levels um of preparedness up there in White Lake especially before the weather comes the I gave a report about a month or so ago about the all the different things that Rec the rec advisory committee and the rec department had prioritized with regard to recreational facilities and whatnot I do want to just let everybody know that that plan has been amended to include What's called the pump Park so if you are not familiar with it you can go see it for yourself up in Vernon New Jersey it's fantastic and what it is is um the way Vernon has it set up there's two tracks one for older um bike and scooter riders and one for little itty bitty um it's basically a series of Hills that have little inclines on them that kids can go up there and they can ride their bikes or their scooters and instead of just going around in a flat circle they can really get out there and get some exercise there's beautiful picnic tables if you haven't seen this up in Vernon I had never seen this before about when it came to you about six months ago I guess it was there was a video um and sent you the video uh my daughter found this place we went up there and I I will say in Vernon where it is you go down this road it looks like you're going to Nowhere there's a little business and then you come out to the most breathtaking view of the hillside of Vernon you have ever seen there's picnic uh tables and benches there so that you could moms can and dads could bring sandwiches or things like that and the kids could just run around and do their scooters and their bicycles up there it's a great addition to our inventory when it comes to other recreational things available to the youth and to the people in the town and it just so happens that our engineer was also the engineer in Vernon that brought this product to life or this project to life so we're in a very good position he forwarded us the information um he did mention as well that they were able to cut cost because just like we would be doing here they did use a lot of internal staff to be able to keep the cost a little bit lower so I just want to point out to everybody nothing has changed the only thing that is added now is the the actual pump Park um the fall Harvest Camp uh if you would if you're interested there's a kids uh Harvest farm camp in November for kids age 7 to 12 and also for all the seniors out there that may be interested the there are tickets on sale for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular trip so if you are a senior and you are interested in that through the parks and recck Department you can go out um the information is online uh to be able to actually purchase tickets this weekend um as a manager mentioned is the Harvest Festival it's going to be done differently this year there's going to be an outside company that comes in there's going to be a lot of food trucks and all kinds of different events and games and things of that nature the trunker Tre a bless you will start I believe at two I think it starts at 2 o'clock so a little bit later for the youngers um so the events are staged a little bit to be more age appropriate and age specific based on the feedback that we got and also it's in a new location this year and hopefully that will help us to be able to get people um out and it's actually earlier so it's not going to be dark so I want to really um thank the rec department and the advisory committee for all the input and the changes I think it's going to be a great day for the community and I do believe it's supposed to be another gorgeous weekend so I think we have really great weather for that what day was that again what's that Saturday Saturday this is coming Saturday yes two o'clock y uh it starts at 12: the event itself starts at 12:00 but the Trunk or Treat I believe starts at 2 right Chief 2 to 3:30 2 to 3:30 yep okay thank you um and uh as Neil mentioned also yes I I was invited to go to the uh board meeting for rails and trails we had a lot of discussions I had follow up with Landon tener after a meeting a couple of months ago we had a real great conversation I followed up that conversation with conversation with County to basically say hey it only makes sense all of this makes sense if everyone connects right that's the whole point you don't want to just spend all the money and have your town be Trail ready if no one else is going to connect to you because then you want to take those funds and do something specific for your own town not so much Branch out to connect so um Landon and I discussed it uh we also had conversations about it at the rec advisory committee the meeting the board meeting was supposed to be in uh September it was moved to the end of October so um I'm planning on going to that and we'll keep everyone posted with regard to the municipal Alliance um we will be at the Harvest Festival on Saturday um so please feel free to stop by uh also we are looking into if you guys remember we got um the municipal Alliance was able to work with the county and with our opio settlement op settlement funding to be able to um make a contribution to the sparta Food Pantry in the amount of $3,000 we agreed to do that $3,000 a year for three years so that payment is going to be due in December um the second payment and also as we had approved um we offered to wherever possible let the pantry be able to use our grant service for up to I think it was two uh grants in a year and they came back Valerie reached out with regard to a grant that might be available so Marie's coordinating that to to have our grant writing company just take a look at it see if it's feasible what's included so we're waiting to hear back from them and and then we can get back to the pantry so that's what's going on from the municipal alliance with regard to the board of health information on the website's been updated Steve continues to do a great job there's consistent correspondence going back and forth between all of us um and I'm cop it and also um you know what he's doing with the county there's some things that have been going on with hearings and whatnot he's very involved with that so I think he continues do a really great job he is he's he he helps a lot Y and I think this is all all great stuff um with regard to salute 07871 I know the holidays are coming again this is a big time of year where a lot of people would like to purchase a flag for perhaps someone in their family that has served in the military we've never done this before but I'm going to do it this year um when you put the order in you don't get a prototype because we don't have the picture yet but I have received some requests in the past people that want to do it for a holiday gift or a birthday gift and have asked me could I do a prototype so they could put it in a card or put it in a box or something like that so they can open it up and actually see what their Banner will look like when it's delivered in May so um for people that are putting orders in the system is open you could put the order in if you it is for a gift then and you reach out to me I will make a prototype electronically and be happy to send it out so this way people will have something to actually put in a a gift box or bag or or whatever um so that's with regard to 07871 with regard to the seniors I want to extend an enormous enormous shout out to schuma so the last uh senior meeting which was this past Wednesday happened at schuma skuma as always was very gracious and gave the seniors a tour of the entire facility if you have not um seen the facility recently it's amazing what goes on over there it is the cleanest dump I think I've ever ever I mean it is meticulous what goes on over there the planning the preparation the operation and um and I will tell you the best customer Serv or I I mean really honestly the best customer service around um I gone there numerous times and I have always been blown away by how helpful and happy um and and just the whole customer service experience so a lot is going on up there scuma was very nice to open up the facility for a tour for our seniors and I really wanted to just extend a thank you to them um so thank you schuma um also I'm I'm going to mention it here I had the opportunity to attend an event for Sussex County Community College funding their future and two Sparta residents were recognized at that event and I really want to pass along a big congratulations from the community so judge Lorraine Parker and also Bill CIO were acknowledged for their service to the not only just the community but to the college as well both of them have served as presidents of the board of directors it was a great event over at Cora farms and again really um if you know Bill or Judge Parker you will know that their dedication in this community over Decades of time has left an immeasurable mark on a lot of lives so I just really wanted to make sure that I brought that back here and extended a heartfelt congratulations so that is it for me for my um report my liaison reports thank you um we're now up to unfinished and new business and um I will go first one thing I neglected to mention was that um uh councilman Herzberg and I attended the council connect uh last week um and we had a fair number of people show up um and it was good to have um you know the people there but also um as folks probably know you know we councilman uh Herzberg and I probably see differently in a lot of issues but I think the the the public benefited from hearing those different sides I think that um some of what dominated discussions was the usual uh some land use things uh also uh business development in town um but you always get kind of a novel thing when someone shows up and you've never seen before who hasn't come to meetings and they raised an issue about our deer population uh I know we have a feeding or or a feeding prohibition um but this gentleman's concern was you know can you do something about the deer they're everywhere they're all over my yard um you know and as someone who managed to uh crash into two deer sep on two separate occasions in the span of one month I could kind of relate to that so I I I think that um you know we'll I'll look into is there any other measures that we can use um to deal with the deer population that is a quality of life issue that that people encounter um good and bad obviously we you know they're very Majestic and pretty um until they tear up your garden and then you crash into them um so in any event um I thought that was interesting that that was uh brought up uh during um uh Council connect um next I do need to make an appointment uh to our Trails committee I'm very fortunate uh to have someone who is also right now a member of our rec committee so is well-versed and a lot of recreational issues um but do I need to make it a motional appoint that or is that just get Council appointment yeah okay so I I will make a motion uh that we appoint and um luk make sure I pronounced that right yeah and leik uh uh to our Trails committee so the motion is to appoint point and lo to our Trails committee and so I need a second second that uh all those in favor do we need a roll call or do we can we do it yays and nays you can do yays and nay all right all those in favor say I I I and welcome aboard and I know our our committee will really benefit from your uh both your interest and experience so thank you so much for for volunteering and we look forward a meeting uh in November so thank you any other un business from me um oh one issue um I I think that as I found out you know one of the causes of of of the fire um uh the the one I think on Sawmill had to do with the LED flashlight um and so anyone who has an LED flashlight please that those things get very hot um and they're almost surve as like a match they get that hot and um and I I asked uh whether the company that sells those then includes a warning with it um because there should be a fire risk warning that goes along with that and then when I spoke to members of our fire department um they said you know listen it actually has burned through our clothes um if we leave it on it the holster that comes with it has gotten kind of burned through and to me uh it strikes me that um that that company should be warning folks about the the heat that comes off of that and make sure you turn it off and and and actually warn um you know consumers about the the the possible fire risk with that and so um I'll be looking into that um more but again if you do have one of these led flashlights you know treat it like your oven make sure it's turned off when you're not using it so um in any event that's all the unfinished and new business I have and I will go to my right councilman blue maty uh no new business for me tonight councilman Chell I just have two things I want to thank um the sport of PD for a great hanging with Heroes um love the Chile um always have a good time there um the great story too behind that I don't know if get it it up so ask ask the chief sometime about the story why we do that um and then secondly this is probably just an internal for council members uh notice um uh I'm I'm particularly I'm attuned I I've been employed as a data and Steward and document Steward before so getting clean document storage is just in my DNA and so with that end um the uh Town manager and our it U help is uh directors are working to clean up our SharePoint file uh file storage uh it wasn't set up proper or it wasn't set up appropriately the first time or has we have been using it so we're migrating over to a better platform and and uh um over the past couple of days weeks or so I've been because I a lot of the documents I've stored for myself I've migrated over to the share to a a folder structure that I think everybody can navigate uh also starting to go through some old emails uh and moving some files over so um once that site is the SharePoint site is formally introduced uh you might see a bunch of stuff on there that um we'll take you down memory lane with some of the documents I put on there so and I would encourage you to also use that site so this is our our site to store stuff that's all they have um I did forget before I get to councilwoman Quinn who needs to share her new finished unfinished business I did want to address I think uh and it's always kind of bugged me a little bit the way we do our public comment um I don't know if there's a legal reason why we at we have the public comment for items that are on the agenda at the very end not on the agenda um that if it's on the agenda um folks don't have a chance to comment on that until the very end of the meeting which now goes close to 10:00 um if there's a way we could flip that um I think it would probably serve because I know there's folks that been here for quite some time um I don't know if we could look into that or there's a reason because I know the first one has to do with not on the agenda second one has to do with resolutions and then the third one has to do is a grab bag which would include items that are on the agenda which probably most people if you're showing up to the meeting meeting and you're not a normal customer um you probably want to talk about and you're going to have to wait until the end of the meeting so if there's a way that we could flip these I think it would probably serve the public but I don't know if there's a legal reason why we do I I would disagree with that characterization because um as you said the public comments at the beginning of the month not on beginning of the meeting not on the agenda also comments on resolutions and comments on ordinances that we have a hearing for um there is otherwise no public comment on an ordinance that's being introduced because the point of introduction is to bring it into the ecosphere for the the public to digest and come back with comments as we go through the hearing so um I I think I think the meeting is structured appropriately that way and that's how I see the public comment structure the end of the meeting comment is anything that anybody wants to talk about but they will have the public does have an opportunity to comment on the ordinances as they're heard but not till the hearing and I think some people want to want to comment even on an introduction um and you know not that that you know has any force or effect but I think there are items that are on the agenda um that may even not have to do with ordinances that um that they have to wait until the very end and so I I just in consideration of their time um just to look into that but I wanted to raise that and with that I'll seed it over to councilman Quinn for any unfinished or new business so I just wanted to revisit something so at one of our previous meetings I mentioned that there is a great story about unen field and how that was cornered and bu it and I just want to follow up to make sure that we're looking at a plaque a historical there it's a great story it uh you know when we were naming yoner Landing we were having this kind of conversation about um these things make these places in town really special we make them bring it back to the history and and how it happened and these kind of cool stories so I just wanted to follow up on that I'm happy to meet with you and discuss that and then we can get some historians involved and and draft up content but I just need to understand what you need and I'm happy to work with you on that information information got it okay all right information it is thank you um so yeah we'll follow up on that then also um the hanging with the heroes event was fantastic thank you what a great day for the community I know this has been the ice cream social of the past and it just just morphed into this amazing event so thank you very much for um and please thank the officers as well for everything it was such a great event the fire department was there the ambulance Squad was there the police department was there everybody was dressed up everybody was having a great time so just thank you it's it's a great event where the kids can get to know the police I mean I know that was sort of the intent of the whole thing but it's really morphed into this really great event for the entire community so thank you very much um also it is a fire prevention month October so please please please in addition to everything we've talked about here tonight um it's a good time for you to check your fire extinguishers and also to change the batteries whether they need it or not in your smoke alarms just to make sure or to the very least just test them because it can really truly save lives so please just be reminded and chief thank you very much for coordinating the effort to get some more information on the website I think that's great I'm it's really helpful to the community especially this time of year when everyone's starting to put fires in the chimney for the first time and fire up the furnace and and all that kind of stuff um also just something to bring up um I know we're having the master plan meeting on at on November 6 but also the there was an an open space plan that was done we've talked about it multiple times here so if we could get a copy of that to all the council members and maybe also to members of the planning board um just so that they can compare and contrast the two because that is a a recent report we spent a lot of money on it I do think it's extremely comprehensive but I think there are pieces of both things that make the whole picture so um if you if you I can hand it out okay perfect thank you um and the last thing I want to to bring up sort of is a little um more encompassing about just you know there are many times and many days that we live here that we just say wow it's a great day to be a Spartan it's an amazing day to be a Spartan it it's a special place to live um last weekend was another one of those those days one of the things that this community is absolutely um is part of the fabric and the DNA of of who we are regardless of opinions and all this kind of stuff is when something happens we come together period end of discussion full stop doesn't matter that's what we do whatever's needed we come together I've seen that you I've lived here over three decades I'm looking at I know a lot of you have lived here a lot longer than that and you would probably agree that's what makes us special so one of our residents his name is Daniel um he's in eighth grade he is fighting cancer for the second time um you may have seen things over social media or whatnot about number 11 they're referencing Daniel um it's going through a rough time right now and I want to just thank Chief mccarrick the fire department the police department and everyone because what you guys did um in coordinating that entire event down at the field was amazing so if people are not familiar with um exactly what was going on on uh for Daniel um what ended up happening was uh there was a fire department there with the fire truck Chief mccarrick coordinated the flight for life to fly over um when they were down there everybody was there from the EMS the U fire department like I said the fire department had the truck police officers were there uh norstar was the helicopter I believe right Chief norstar was the helicopter um and it just brings you back to the fabric of the community the people that are always there why the place is so special and why everybody loves living here and you know the dedicated efforts of the police the fire the EMT to always be there they're always present they always show up you can always count on them um what they did in in responding to all of those fires and all of the things all the time I mean if we look um outside to the police department um EMS and fire is completely volunteer they're getting up for work in the morning the next morning after being at a fire till 2:30 in the morning our police officers are exhausted they're they're coming in and they have a next shift regardless of the horrendous horrible things they see they're are heroes I said this a million times they're running in we're running out they're amazing and this is just another example of you know just being present and being committed so I really wanted to take a minute and just explain to everybody um this event and what it took to put it together and how special it was for the family and there's going to be another event this Friday night um Daniel's actually going to have the ability to be able to um bring his team out on the field is my understanding of it down at Station Park so um anyone that's interested can certainly go down there and see it for yourself but I just wanted to point it out it's just always going above and beyond all the time and also for Daniel um this very brave young man if anyone is interested there is a GoFundMe site so I would encourage you to go out if you would like to contribute if you're so inclined to do so you can go out to GoFundMe and please make a contribution and that's it thank you oh no that is not it because we have a birthday girl in the house Roxanne don't hide happy birthday my friends happy birthday Ro birth she's now legal to drink at 21 so um all right we are now at our final uh public comment period again this is could be uh anything both an item on the agenda not on the agenda uh whatever you want to talk about just please state your name and please adhere to the F minute limit Jenny Derek's tap into Sparta I have quite a list um some of our some of the old favorites um the brownfields and the minutes do we have an update on the brownfields I don't have anything to report on thank you I appreciate that some of the minutes are being done we still have quite a ways to go so thank you for your continued effort on that um do we have an update on the comments I mean last meeting about having a representative from Sparta one of our Engineers um sitting with Bill copol when they're negotiating with diamond chip at the county yes the engineers reached out to Bill and we've asked to be included in any future meetings uh dealing with that subject thank you um did they what you don't know what they said or they just you haven't responded they haven't responded but they know what our intention is and I I kind of said we're going to be there okay our affordable housing fair share number was published last week um is there any expectation or anticipation of Sparta either negotiating or appealing our thousand unit or so uh obligation is there any discussion about joining the nearly 30 other municip IP alties and their litigation um I if you don't mind I I'll take that uh Council uh you're not aware of this yet but in your uh email inbox is a lengthy email from me regarding the housing number and the obligation uh and the recommendation that the next council meeting we have an executive session to discuss all the points that uh Mr DK just made um there's a lot to consider in this uh there's a lot of options and uh ramifications and um I think it all needs to be discussed uh appropriately and then um we could report about it yeah I would just supplement that by saying yes yes and yes we're we're certainly taking a look at the uh litigation that was initiated uh by Montvale Denville Flor Park uh Hillsdale Mannington Milbourne Montville old tan and and todua uh now that we've received our numbers and they seem to be exceptionally High relatively speaking so we're taking a look at that we're also uh taking a look at the New Jersey Institute of local government attorneys who have uh initiated uh with the assistance of certain legislators um litigation that would make the process more realistic um and uh you know we're going to be bringing that as we get more details of it bringing more of that information back to the council And discussing with the council further what other strategies can be be taken but I expect a a pretty long process because I don't believe that the numbers that we did receive which are being reviewed by our uh our town planner as as as well um really reflect uh a number of factors that are unique to Spart a Township I don't think they adequately take them into consideration service area and our Highlands restrictions and all that I I appreciate that great thank you um I have a number of questions for chief is that okay depends what they are depends on what they are okay so going back a few minutes ago or about an hour ago um Mr Clark said cannabis is being sold in Sparta right now and there's nothing we can do about it well if if cannabis War it's really marijuana ilal to be sold okay that point if it's not regulated like it's you're proposing it is illegal so is that do you see that so right now there's two ways people can have cannabis legally in Sparta they can have enough within the there's a table that shows how much they're allowed to have for their personal use secondly if they are delivering to someone in spart they're allowed to have that and there's a vetting process licenses and all of that approvals and so forth but beyond that are there places in Sparta that you know of that are being that canabus is or marijuana is being sold grown processed packaged I can't specifically comment that right now because of an investigation so okay that's fair um do you so this goes to my next question do you feel that there are tools that you need to support your efforts as a police department to to get in front of all of those all of the Cannabis or the illegal sales of cannabis that's going on in our town I'm kind of confused by what do you need do you need new do you need more rules do you need more like what what's stopping do you feel like you're being overwhelmed with illegal drug sales in Sparta no you have the tools you need to do that so this gifting thing that's that's um frequently the loophole that cannabis or marijuana is sold because if it's not legal it's marijuana uh where somebody will go in they'll buy a $50 lighter or $20 air freshener and as a gift they'll get I know my time is up but I also had people speaking to me um that they they'll get they'll get the gift and then we can so from what the Attorney General said that is distribution ilal distrib and so if you become aware of that and maybe you already are maybe I don't want to get into what you're doing but if you become aware of a gifting situation you can take steps to stop that absolutely so the security of the town for all this cannabis that's being sold we don't really you don't you don't see that we're being overrun by that I do not see that we're being overwhelmed by it um from a standpoint of the police department what we do for investigation we're not overwhelmed though okay thank you for your help anyone else for public comment I I'm Ann luk uh l o u and um I just had a couple questions about the ordinance that we discussed um I'm just wondering uh about the timing it might be easier just to get the questions out so we don't take up your time answering them excuse me I don't want to take up your time or people don't want to take up your time answering the questions so if you get all your questions out initially then you can make sure all your questions are asked at least okay well my first question is about the timing of this ordinance um I know that we're in the middle of uh uh amending the master plan and uh we're also um asking citizens uh through a survey uh some of their uh you know what they what they would like for the town so I'm just wondering um why we're not waiting for those results to come in and um for the master plan committee to talk a little bit more about what our vision of Sparta is uh for the for the future um that's my first question and my second question is um if this does go forward uh and I'm just wondering why we need um all six of these classes that are in the ordinance um I can understand um maybe the retail not that I want it but I don't really understand why we need cultivating manufacturing wholesaling and distributing or delivery for that matter so um I'm wondering if that's really necessary and if some of those can be eliminated during the um discussion process not that I really want this ordinance to go forward so those are my questions okay um I'll just answer for myself the first about the the master plan I think that um as far as you know Township buy into this I think you have to go back uh to uh it was it was on a referendum um a few years back about whether uh Sparta residents would support uh the legalization of cannabis and also the taxing of it and so if you have the taxing of it would obviously imply that you were going to be selling it um and that uh I think the results were over 60% uh supported it and so I don't um think you necessarily need to wait to to Master Plan Plus these uses are um you know not all that different than what we have now you know for example um you have uh it's not cannabis it's you know you know cannabis THC derived delta8 Etc um being sold as a commercial business in a commercial Zone um so I don't know what how that's really much different than an actual regulated product um also you have for example you have a liquor store in a commercial area um that doesn't seem any materially different than uh cannabis in my mind um so that's how I you know that's why I don't think it's necessary at least my my opinion that doesn't may not be shared by anyone here um of why uh it's not waiting for uh the master plan as for the the various licenses part of it um is simply uh these are the licenses that are allowed um part of it is you look at it as a revenue stream because uh as the as the way the tax structure is um you get the 2% 1% for I think wholesale um along each chain of the distribution and so if there's a million dollars of uh of product that's manufactured you get 2% off of that then it goes to your wholesaler and that's another 2% that same unit then it gets to um the distribution which would be one and then at the retail so all along the chain of distribution there's the incentive for um for Revenue um and as we and you know and I've looked at the the intensity of this use is is not that much and we we're constantly having these battles in Sparta about uh ratables and needing revenue and we tend to side on these gigantic uses with high intensity um uh in the name of ratables and to me uh cannabis sales are a low intensity use particularly there's not tractor trailers bringing this stuff it's it's sort of Silver Line Vans those are little Vans uh cuz you're not it's it's a fresh product you can't just put a whole tractor trailer full of the stuff it's just not how it's distributed so it wouldn't be and it definitely wouldn't be uh the amount that you would have on a logistics terminal um so again I think that's sort of my rationale um that's me I don't know if that's shared by my fellow but that's the rationale behind having all the various uh classes is to take advantage of the 2% tax structure and to you know when I look at some of the the wish lists that our recck department has for example um how are we going to pay for that um I'd rather not pay for it through a gigantic um huge development uh in town um I I feel in my mind uh this is more low intense use uh with a high Revenue stream um you know you know when I went to the presentation at the mayor's conference uh this winter I had the mayor of Maplewood come and they have four whe licenses and and she said they've in just 2023 alone they made $650,000 that's just on retail um now granted that's a function of how much competition there is in the area um you know we are we are behind the uh the eightball here in Sussex County there's already Jefferson there's already Andover uh and also Newton um so the the train is leaving the station uh on this so that's sort of my view of it but um you know that may not be shared by others but that's sort of my approach to it on top of um I'd rather have a regulated market than unregulated one I guess my question was really do we need all six of these classifications and I I guess your answer is that yes we do for monetary reasons and I'm not sure if maybe maybe I'm the only one that thinks this but um my opinion is I'd rather not have the money and if we we need things for the rec department or other things in our town than you know look for Grants or or wait um I'd rather not have the money so I'd like to so you you were sitting here so I don't want to be redundant in what I said before I agree with you I don't think we need all six I don't agree with going from zero to Full Throttle and just opening up every single uh venue of it the other thing that everyone needs to understand is Big Pharma is getting into the medical marijuana field so this is a big deal for big farman that's going to make big big big big bucks along with the state because now they want to get into the marijuana game so just to level set um the other thing is so that that really sets the township up for different things um the the ratables when I tell you and I encourage you to go out and look as well while I was able to find exact numbers as to how much the state of New Jersey had made I was unable to get exact information on how much municipalities had made and to the point it does depend on your density or low density it does depend you know um what's your proximity what's around you what is your competition what is your supply what is your demand the money is so di Minimus at 1% that just think about how much you have to sell to make a big profit at 1% that's great for for belmare like I was just reading a big thing about Belmar and they're like oh we're making all this money what money I want to see a number give me a number because when we talk about ratables we're talking about changing zones to let out all these other businesses and now we think that that weed is going to come in and save the day with ratables the problem is and I would love to be proven Wrong by somebody somebody show me data all I want to see is data what are other municipalities like us actually making Jefferson has no data Anderson Andover has no data Newton has no data there's no data so if we're going to move forward under the preface of selling this to the community as we're going to make all this money and get ratables for the rec part and everything else maybe we should just be able to actually look at how much money that's going to be um so I want to I want to thank you and for bringing it up I think we I I am also concerned about the six uses I don't think we're ready um and I I can't answer anything other than I just want to say thank you for stepping up making your concerns and asking your questions as well thank you I'd like to add add one more comment on the the different uses um you know there's a few ways to think about it um how different are these uses from what we're doing today um you know I had a conversation recently with someone that said why would somebody be against cultivating the product you know people are okay if we were think about alcoholic products if we were we're going to have a bar barley or hops or grapes grown or wheat what have you potatoes for vodka is someone would someone be equally against that or is there another reason why perhaps um someone may or may not want those types of products in our town whether it's for the cultivation whether it's for warehousing manufacturing so I think there's different layers of the reasoning of if we're looking at six uses what's the underlying cause you know for the pros and cons I think we have to think through that it's a great question so thank you Mark Scott I'm pbla Parkway and I just want to An Answer uh Christine's question if the pot store is doing $5 million of business and it's thus making $100,000 of tax revenue for Sparta that means each of the 16,000 adults in Sparta will have to smoke $312 a pot a year so we better get going because that's ridiculous ridiculous to change this entire town entire town the town of Madison today said we are exiting we are exiting the most one of the most lovely towns in this state they are exiting after 5 Years thank you hi Ron day 22 Fox Hollow Road um a couple things um I think first I I just want to thank Chief mccarrick and the the whole Police Department uh you know the community outreach programs that you do we talked about hanging with the heroes but there was coffee with the cops there's all kinds of things I keep reading about I the fire department just had uh invited everyone to go up to their uh the fire department and see the engine but um it's just amazing what what you continue to do uh I'll just give you real quick I had my two grandsons in from Texas and after going to the hanging with the heroes events they are begging their parents to move to Sparta right now so so thank you for that um it would be inappropriate I think for me to talk about the um the ordinances themselves tonight but I do want to talk about the process going forward a little bit if we can um so so now that the ordinance they've been introduced um you know the plan board is is is required now to to do a consistent consistency review um we've got a defined period of time that we have to do that within um Mr Ryan I I believe it's 25 days or it's less than 30 days so it's it's going to be quick um so uh we we're the planning board is not going to have a a regular meeting on 11:20 um the reason for that is I believe that's when the the the state has its uh Municipal um yeah the conference thank you so so that really says to to meet that that date and does that impact the I'm sorry finish yeah because I think that puts it out past the the period of time we have based on introduction tonight so so to me that date we're going to probably need to schedule something for um November 6th which is our our next meeting um so and that's also going to be the same night we're talking about the the the open space and Recreation plan and we were also going to be talking about the pdrm 2 zone so there's a lot going on on the plan of board so so my request tonight is is to help us along um please get copies of the ordinance as it was modified to the the planning board as soon as possible so because we're going to need to get it into our professionals hands and we're going to be looking to them for some guidance so um the sooner we can get that done the better and you know we'll do the best we can in the amount of time we have um um can I ask one question of Tom is it possible for us I know the rules say 30 days can we grant them an extension to help them so that they don't follow can we do that from where we sit here that's possible that's possible I mean it it sounds like I think I think what I'd like to do is see what we can do between now and the six and then then we can can address it then um and the last point just on on a different subject is um so the master plan subcommittee you heard a lot about it today a lot of good people doing a lot of good work and and trying to get the word out about the survey um the subcommittee had a really great milestone day today we we received our 500 with survey um so pretty good um a lot of people you know just trying to remind people get out in front of everybody so I just want to take a moment just to make you again ask everyone out there you know if you haven't participated in the survey and submitted a survey please do it uh the more feedback we get the better representation of the entire community that we'll get so um thanks everyone that did it I thank everyone that that will be doing it and thank you for your time than thank you thank you thanks Ron just on that survey one of the questions was you have to put a dot on your favorite part of Sparta so I put a dot on my house just in case you get some like really weird thing like so make sure you guys really emphasize that that's you is no longer Anonymous thanks Dan that's an area in need of Redevelopment exactly that grant money is oh anyone else for public comment hi Dean R now 15 Birch Parkway um when you guys do the council connect just saying like the the heroes thing was really wonderful um the other Friday night and it made me think back Chris what you were saying and long ago when I met you 30 some years ago um when we would have the milk bowl and there would be you know um fundraisers done for the benefit bit of kids and I was slinging Chile and everything else with uh Ryan Caruso's father and um you know I think about Katrina when my brother and I did all the raising and bringing the stuff and met Dey Brennan and we had the trucks and brought everything down to Louisiana um and now it's mitigate now it's you know the Knights of Columbus the veterans Samaritans purse and all the trucks that went maybe it might be nice just to that whole camaraderie feeling since everybody seen seems to be at each other's throats that you know you mentioned something that's coming up so like Gil Gibbs who for those that don't know the former mayor in town and used to be a neighbor of mine um you know he said another letter request was going to go out for the people of uh Western North Carolina so they've collected the first rounds that went out and the second one so I'm just saying I think people like I work out of the area some people don't have kids that's also me but certainly very much involved in other in other things that it might just be helpful to bring the commoner with mix Sparta special I think it's actually a really great usage of our investment in smart 911 911 um and the Rave system the old Rave system um that's where you're getting the communications for the council connect and all the different things just mention you know like you you're aware of this thing with um the young boy which I saw on Facebook but you know for people that aren't I just think it's something that you know people need some help people need some assistance the fires whatnot we actually said we were going to start working on a promotion campaign for it not just for residents and business owners to actually enter but also to get people to understand that we have it so I think that's a great piece for us Dean to build in hey if you have an event you know what I mean that you would like us to I mean within reason we have to have rules but if you have an event that you would like us to share on this for people that opt into events they would then get a text rather than having a take chance on you know if you don't go on Facebook for a couple days or you don't go on Instagram or whatever else thing you're on you could miss it so I I love that and we could take that into consideration when we're building that marketing and then as far as the LED lights and I'm saying this from very personal business experience uh the city of New York Police Department archives is one of our tenants on our properties and it was a five alarm fire in New York and the City of New York um residential buildings that was passed that no ebikes could be stored in residential buildings because of the lithium batteries and however what happened is is a lot of those ebikes were stored by the police in a building that happened to be the building that we own okay caught on fire and archives were lost in Brooklyn um but thank God they were like 50y old records not anything more current but just if you're going to take any consideration in anything to do with anything with the lithium and the heat please don't put it next to it any housing residential or anything he can go boom so thank you Dean oh did I do that and it went boom boom yeah Dean I think Hey Dean Mike drop mik drop you raised two good points first of the latter one I think uh with respect to the storage of ebikes and and ones that are lithium pattered generated I think we should probably look at that and make sure we're having sort of regulations around that I know New York did pass some type of ordinance about the storage of them because they do overheat and they've had a series of of of um you know incidents involving them so that that's good as to your other point about publicizing these kind of CommunityWide events um I think you know I just couldn't help but think that um what they do demonstrate is that we're not as polarized as we think we are because if we were you wouldn't have a turnout like you did if we were so polarized on our partisan views you know we wouldn't bother to show up with our fellow neighbor who we probably argued with on Facebook and so I think it's a great reminder to us that we really are uh more a product of our community and not to what we hear on social media or on the mainstream media um and so I think that what we saw demonstrated with with Daniel what we saw demonstrated um with the um you know the hanging with Heroes event I think and all the people who turn out um and and give shows that this community is is is connected by our our common connection who want best for Sparta and you know we're coming up on an election season a very divided one nationally but I think it it does us well to remember um that what really matters is is our own community members and and and and reaching out to them and we aren't as divided as as we think we are and that's clearly demonstrated by the people who've donated to the uh Hela um and also to Daniel and all the other events that we see so let let's focus on that and with that I will sorry Margie go ahead Marg Murphy nine weblo Parkway uh I just want to thank you again the best chili and pumpkin soup I've ever had and that could be a fundraisers selling the recipe but then it wouldn't be your own but uh Christine thank you thank you very much as a member of the Board of Trustees for the sparta Community Food panre thank you we really really appreciate it and uh now we can start to get on our way to buy our own truck and we don't have to rent it three times a week so thank you very much I appreciate it and for the grant writing opportunities thank you I'll I'll be in touch I just we haven't heard back yet okay all right anyone else for a public comment all right see no one um that concludes our public comment uh may I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn uh may I have a second please I will second it all in favor say I I motion carries the meeting is adjourn thank you for everyone for sticking around more importantly happy birthday it's not till Saturday something look forward to is I got