you see e it's my understanding that the first person up will be director Wilson correct yes director Wilson if you're here the floor is yours can evening Council um Steve Wilson Police director director Wilson just so you know I've been informed by the council president you have 10 minutes okay right sounds good all right so uh me to speak briefly about the events of this past Saturday um which included the uh unfortunate killing of three people across the river in Falls Township and the carjacking carjacking of two people one in Trenton one in marsville I need to preface my remarks uh by reminding everyone that this incident is still under investigation and is active and uh therefore only limited information will be disseminated so during the course of uh an investigation like this many working parts were initiated uh there were approximately 20 agencies local um County state and federal that were activated the resources are relative to the investigation at hand and to support Public Safety um a question I frequently heard since Saturday is why I did not use a shelter and place order or a code red as was done over in Falls Township first let's just be clear code red for us is something that we'll be activating in the summertime for heat issues just opposite of code blue that we do in the winter time when the we have sub-degree temperatures um there the use of Amber or silver alerts is inappropriate in in cases like this um and the city does have the capability to issue reverse 911 orders um and information however the circumstances that existed Saturday in Trenton did not warrant this action um public information will always be limited to on a need to know basis if there had been a Citywide threat to Public Safety the reverse 911 system would have been activated uh this would have been done in conjunction with the office of emergency management however we knew that we um that the person that was involved in this heinous crime was not riding around the city and he was not shooting at people in the city um we knew where he had abandoned the car from the uh the SEC the incident in uh fals Township and our real time information that we acquired during this operation indicated that the uh suspect in question was located on Philips Avenue um when the Mercer County tactical response team evacuated the occupant the occupants of the house real time in information was indicated that he was still in that house so rather than create unnecessary City wi panic and based on information known at that time three level perimeter was set up around the location um citizens directly attached were evacuated and other other citizens were pushed out and were ordered by the Unseen resources at the time to remain inside U we always have people who intend to violate that um but they were directed accordingly to get off their porches and to move back into the into their homes um another thing that I I would like to talk about um social media posting is not a place to uh inform the public of active police investigations there was information that was suggested that um wasn't accurate when this happens it immediately calls WID scales panic and in this case that did happen from what I was told about posts on social media so um in addition anyone who learns information relative to any active police investigations I would encourage uh them to notify the nearest police officer and not post such information on social media uh when people post on social media it is often taken as gospel and if it is inaccurate can have a negative impact on the investigation and Public Safety even if information is accurate dissemination of such information must be weighed against people people just wanting to know just wanting to get likes or follows and what can result is Widespread Panic or Corruption of the active investigation um so that's about what I have to say about that like I said I can't really talk about the investigation too much because it is still active but um I know that there is an impact on the people in the city of Tron and sometimes um Public Safety takes a priority over right to know and that's what I have to deal with as the Police director um that's why I'm here in this position to do just that and sometimes that's not what folks want to hear but unfortunately that's the way it is thank you thank you any council members like to address director Wilson Madam president Madam councilwoman so I wanted to just say um I wanted to to commend our Police Department um a lot happened and this could have gone way worse than it did I am appreciative we are quick to um criticize when something goes wrong I want to make sure that we are also commending when something goes right so to our Police Department to director to our mayor to everybody who took part in this I want to commend you um I believe in stepping back and letting the professionals do their job um if there is an issue I would hope that we would um reach out to you I saw a little bit only a little bit of what was going on um on social media not a whole lot of it I am intentional and not going on social media too much but I do believe that it can escalate things and people will go out there which is what they did um and people don't understand that when you are going out there it is interfering because now they have to protect you along with the others that they are trying to secure so I would hope that the public would respect that and understand that in order for you to do your job don't enhance it by going out there and making you have to now possibly bring out even more people that you will have to protect as well it's not a spectator um sport when someone says that there are shots that are being fired or someone has a gun you don't know how heavy it is or how low it is so I just um how light it is but I want to just say thank you for the work that you and the officers and the other 20 agencies city state and countywide all did to make sure that this went off and that another life was not taken so thank you very much thank you man' thank you any other council person council president councilwoman um I just want to Echo my colleagues comments uh regarding service every one in this incident uh particularly also working with partner agencies rang I even saw a College of New Jersey uh sent officers out to help with traffic control to Heights toown and many other U departments um I do share uh some of my colleages concerns about notification but I understand uh strategically as far as operationally there are reasons uh that sound uh for why uh things may not happen uh in the course that we as in the public may expect um also unfortunate we we've been trained in some ways I think since the Boston bombing um and other issues yaldi Texas where shelter and places orders uh have been issued we see them on television so you know I'd like to know as far as scenarios if I may ask without divulging any operation uh techn technical uh information can you um you used a phrase which I thought was interesting three- level perimeter can you describe to us what that actually means and I'm not trying to pretend I'm a police officer okay but I'd like to understand because people ask some folks don't understand what's going on maybe you know we okay that's that's fine so um when we activated all these resources and um they were necessary and it wasn't just law enforcement resources um obviously um well not maybe not so obviously but my partner in public safety um Ken Douglas was one of the first people I called because we had to activate fire and EMS as well um and fire from outside agencies were here in support of our efforts as well so anyways a a thre level perimeter um in this in this case on that scene we had had to push the people back all the way to Brunswick and Phillips MLK and uh and Phillips and inside that perimeter crime scene tape you saw at certain distances there was crime scene tape three levels inside all the way up to um the immediate critical area so that's what I mean by three level perimeter and we wouldn't have been able to do that without the outside resources coming to help us um and that's what uh part that's what part of that is we activated the uh Mercer County rapid response which is the agencies that came here to help us and it's not just law enforcement like I said West wser fire was here Hamilton fire was here as well um also um our federal uh Partners were here and everybody offered Manpower and resources into this event So when you say three level that means um distances away and sealed off by crime scene tape and officers um when the the um location went public uh you would think folks would try to stay away from that that's not the case people came running and we already had the resources in place to prevent them from getting too close so this is another reason why um that wasn't announced that particular location because we had to get resources there first because not not only the citizens want to do that but media wants to get there too the newspapers and you know this and that they want to get as close as they can get and and people want to Facebook live it or whatever they have whatever have you social media get on there live and um that's that's no good it's a safety issue to the public and it's also a safety issue to the investigation at hand because there's certain things that we may not want the general public to to know um such as how a Special Operations units operates we don't want people recording that and then taking advantage of of uh special train specialized training so and then sir uh my second question is uh regarding and I think this would help myself and many and many others what is the scenario where it would require a shelter in place well as far as Trenton looks at it maybe as far as Trenton is be similar to any other place if we actually had active SHO um activity going on shelter in place would have been been ordered um we did not have that and uh so that's why that was never ordered um everyone knows that across the bridge it was ordered and there was it was exactly that going on they have they had active uh shooter activity going on there at several different locations so well thank you very much for your hard work for the city and I just want to also thank you for coming here tonight to share um your perspective because I think that will help with a lot of discussions out there so thank you thank you any other Council people council president Council Edwards thank you um good evening director Wilson good evening thank you for coming in today and addressing the public with your presentation on the recent active shooting s situation um I do want to commend you along with every other agency that took part in that investigation and pursuit of that person and the street teams as well for doing their part yes um that's not to be taken likely to be on the front line in a situation like that in pursuit of someone that just murdered three people and then carjacked another person no one knew what that situation was going to turn out to so I appreciate you for containing it and doing your due diligence along with everyone else I'd be remissed if I did not address the lack of alert that lack of alert resulted in people not taking it serious and had people literally having barbecues around the perimeter that day they didn't take it serious people sat on Facebook live for nearly 6 hours watching that house sitting just 100t away on their front porches and roofs and things like that um I believe an alert being issued of course being cautious about divulging too much information so that the perpetrator is not you know it's not being alluded to where they are or at least they wouldn't know that but to just issue an alert for a shelter place to say there's an active SHO that you don't have to say all the details of it but just so that people are taking the situation seriously and are not literally driving to an active crime scene there were rumors the entire time the neighborhood was communicating on a ring apps the ring doorbell apps and said that he wasn't in the house and said that he was standing in the crowd with them in that right there I don't want to say there is some truth to that or anything but when there's no alert issue you open you leave it open for speculation and rumor and it gets out of control and people don't feel safe and some people don't take it serious it's depending on your personality but I just want to say that I would have appreciated an alert okay um and a lot of people would have as well and I don't think that it would have compromised the investigation if you just didn't say too much but um I'm glad that Bucks County had said something so I knew and the public knew there was something going on so those of us that take things like that serious could shelter in place if they did not feel safe so um again I want to commend you for your work but we have to address the alert situation okay thank you for that but um I'll just comment and say that there was no active shooter here we knew that folks that were inside the perimeter that refused to um go back in their homes they knew what was going on so an alert wouldn't have mattered and we had to use our our uh rapid response team to order them to go back inside their house I know who's I know you're talking about I I was at the scene when uh those folks were on the porch and uh Lieutenant banini who was the operational Commander out there also was aware of it and when we had the resources out there with the raer response team he ordered that they be removed from that porch and they did eventually go inside and any any information um I I mentioned in my little speech here um if there was information that he was somewhere other than that house to post that on social media and not call the police is a mistake um so like I said our real time information indicated that he was in a house when we evacuated the residents of the location our real- time information again indicated that he was in the house um when that changed and we received the information that he was not there and possibly somewhere else it was a matter of like 30 seconds to a minute when he was apprehended it was that fast when we actually got the information so we acted on the information that we had in real time but um we again if there was an active shooter I certainly would have did reverse 911 I would activated OEM which by the way OEM was out on there Grady Griffin you know he's our OEM manager he was on the scene too so um I did activate all our resources necessary in case this um I want to say got bad because it was bad enough but in case it got worse than what we were dealing with all the resources were in place any other Council people Okay so director um thank you to you and to the others that were present to help um deal with the situation our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Pennsylvania who did lose their loved ones because even though life thank goodness was not lost here in the city of Trenton there was loss of life as a result of this person and his actions um along the way so our hearts go out to to those families um I too had questioned the fact about no alert and then the fact that he wasn't found actually in the house where at that time I guess you thought he was and then he was like a couple blocks away so I'm like how does how do things like that happen if you know we were tracking him or we knew where he was and there was no need because you thought you knew where he was and and so to councilwoman Edward's point about um just not knowing right I can I can empathize and agree 100% as a as a um civilian as a as a resident here someone riding through town yeah people want to know and people get nervous and people get upset and scared and rightfully so um but from the other side of it as when we spoke um and talked about this at length not knowing the protocol and not being a police officer or detective or anything there's certain things that that we still have to learn along the way um as well I guess from your standpoint of saying because he wasn't actively shooting at that time there was nothing that would need to I guess be said um you evacuated the people from the homes on that street right yes okay so you took care of that part of it but then I guess for the people and then you had the perimeter blocked off so people couldn't come in out of that street yes um while all of that was happening so again I thank you for doing what it is I guess that you all are Prof well not I guess but that you all are professionally trained to do and know to do um but to my colleagues point I just as being someone out here it would have been nice I guess from the civilian perspective to know so I just ask that as we're asked to understand your perspective I ask that understand our perspective as well cuz we're learning along the way with you but we are grateful for the work that you had done and we're also grateful that it resulted in his in his capture and no one here um got hurt yes ma'am thank you so I thank you and I do see it from the other side of the table as well I really do um but I have to make that hard decision and uh sometimes it's not easy because I understand wanting to know what's going on in your neighborhood I really do um um but unfortunately um I have to be strategic and I have to think about Public Safety First rather than people's right to know so I I 100% understand that side of the table okay just in case you didn't know now you know all right thank you all right thank you thank you Mr Garcia certainly I believe our next presentation will be from psng yes thank you just bear with me one moment I'm going to give you presentation just a moment it just so we all know um the psng is brought here tonight uh by councilwoman Williams about a remediation project that they're going to be working on in the north Ward councilwoman is there anything that you would like to say before they begin yes thank you very much council president so um a couple months ago I was asked to meet with psng regarding a remediation project that's going to occur uh in downtown Trenton um not exactly in downtown but away uh off of Warren Street and it's going to uh resolve in removing a considerable amount of dirt um the folks fromg will describe this project but it's a very large project that will involve fencing tenting uh if you ever saw the movie ET it's the best way I could describe it we actually joked about it uh that you'll see tenting and people in suits uh taking things out uh reason being that um it's not something where we have to worry about poison going in the air or anything but it's just it's a very long stand in sight that they had to there used to be a gas plant there and they'll go into the details and technically going on but I thought it was very important for them to uh speak to the full Council particularly in light of that we've had recent other remediation issues with the grant school um and historically Trenton we had a super fund site we were the very first super fund site for the magic marker site back in 1991 so our city has a history of pollution our sister has a history of having to have this removed and what they described to myself and also meeting with my colleague uh Council vice president um is how they're going to get this soil out of here how they're going to truck it out of here and how they'll be able to keep everyone safe um so everyone has the same information so thank you ma'am thank you all right Mr Garcia you can go ahead and begin the timer you all can certainly um Madam president at this time I'm getting a little bit of technical difficulty we're trying to get the uh other presentation onto the screen we were set up for health um okay so I'm just trying to figure that out at the moment is someone from it here I only wish uh is there anyone from it here okay so we'll have to fix that moving forward hold on it looks like I got a little bit of help from thank you absolutely Lo me thank you so we thank everyone for your patience while we're waiting for this thank you MO got so I was just gonna suggest realize it may not help the audience but um you all have the hard copies so we can kind of flip through it that way if you want and then we can okay yes so my apologies to the audience for not being able to see oh they got it okay never mind we were getting ready to start all right thank you very thank you very much thank you for your help Mr G whenever you're ready to start the CL timer after you get yourself together thank you certainly Madame President what will be the time limit for this presentation 10 minutes thank you and pres C and G you have 10 minutes in counting I understand there should be a slide remote there and I promise it'll work that's the one okay um good evening Council um thanks for uh letting us come tonight my name is Mike Coy I'm the public affairs manager of pscg I'm pinch hitting tonight for Frank lucazi who had to attend a family funeral on Long Island so we're here tonight to talk about our our gas plan remediation project on Warren Street um we have Kelly Henry and and Tom Riley here with us who are through our Outreach efforts for this project so I'm going to turn it over to Kelly to ask her to go through the presentation for you and then we can ask whatever answer whatever questions you may have thank you so um Tom ronley and I are dedicated Community Liaisons uh it's a a sign of P's commitment to seeing Communications as critical to um maintaining safety which is a number one priority it was interesting to hear your previous conversation in terms of communications and we take Communications very seriously so thank you for having us and how's that going for you no then we go from here there you go all right so um in terms of what this facility was and you referenced there's been a lot of pollution this is historical impacts um if you ever wonder why we call natural gas natural gas it's because at one point we used to manufactur gas and there was a manufactur gas facility here in Trenton um that operated in the 1840s and closed out in 1890 that facility was used subsequently for some headquarters but um in the end it was decommissioned according to the practices of the day the impacts that we are looking to address are related to those former historical operations it is not related to Natural Gas and so when you hear me talk about odors it's not a natural gas odor uh this is not an explosive situation um so I just want to make that clear up front the facility was um operated what is now the parking lot near the Department of Labor and near the division of taxation we have completed our delineation of the impacts we have been investigating the site since the early 2000s so what you see there outlined in blue is the full extent of impacts to soil when we address these impacts it will have a benefit to groundwater which is also impacted we will do additional work after we're finished with this work on addressing groundwater but we already have groundwater monitors in the area we've gotten a lot of questions about whether the there impacts to the Delaware there are not so just want to also say that up front what you see to is the helipad and I don't know if you're at all familiar with the areas we have the division uh the Department of Labor is northeast of the site and what you see is that that circular um area is the the governor's helipad and it's also used for emergency situations we are working with in terms of of Safety and Security um we are working with all the the state police and others to make sure that our work does not affect the use of that helipad there's also a small um Blue Square just above that helipad uh that area is not impacted surficial there are impacts at depth um the work that we're going to do is at the surface level and the reasons that we cannot take that out entirely is because of its proximity to the helipad but everything to the left of the helipad there we will be addressing all impacts to soil to depth the way we're going to be doing that is through excavation it'll be about 100,000 tons of soil it's expected that the project will take about 18 months and we plan to get started around April 15 when I say 18 months that is not 18 months of excavation it will probably take us a good 3 months to prepare the area for what we need to do then the work that we do the excavation is expected to be about 12 months and then the final three months is focused on restoration it will be restored to what it is now a parking lot soil will be removed and disposed of at a permitted facility uh you will see later on in our our truck route where the the trucks will be going for the main part we have a primary truck route and in terms of why I guess I covered the the restoration um we try to thermally treat the uh the impacts it can be beneficially reused as a landfill cover um sometimes that's not always possible and again it goes to a license facility if is pure disposal is required where working in accordance with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that is our regulator that is who we're working under we have a number of health and safety plans uh to prepare every aspect of this project we will be meeting with emergency Personnel on site once we get there so that the fire department Police Department emergency Corps everyone knows materials that we're dealing with who to contact if there's a question or concern if they get a call um so that we can work cooperatively if there ever is an external reason for emergency Personnel visit we also have a dedicated on-site safety officer and again we see Communications as part of our safety program the work is going to be done under an enormous enclosure and uh I smile because as uh councilwoman Williams mentioned we quite often get questions is it tennis is the fair here is there tennis courts um all kinds of of speculation we we will have um a camera in there because likewise people are um also concerned when they can't see what's happening so the reason we have the enclosure is because it helps significantly with managing dust and it also allows us to work through inclement weather so that we can maintain a um a more expedited schedule the enclosure will have to be moved three to four times to be able to to manage the area where we're going to be working what you see here is a um site that we had up in Hoboken New Jersey where we used a similar enclosure and um it just gives you a sense of of what the tent here was will look like looking at Trying to minimize impacts to the nearby Department Department of Labor employees and the division of taxation employees we have looked at an Innovative approach to managing um basically creating a safe workspace uh but also managing groundwater to a certain extent and that is a freeze soil process um we are going to have pipes um installed underground it's going to be a closed loop system in other words we are not injecting anything into the ground we are going to have a brine um circulate and it will freeze the soil around the area where we're going to be working and the benefit here is we do not have to install any sheeting that can create a lot of vibrations a lot of noise um additional vehicles and always a safety concern so this is something that we have used before and has worked very well next to a river any surface water um that we counter because while we are going to have the tent we still have external areas outside the tent where we'll have personnel and materials um all of that surface water will be managed as well as any water groundwater that comes up in bottom of our excavation and that will be treated and discharged offsite um and that will be discharged to the city of Trenton sewer utility and is permitted to do that it will be clean water that goes there just to make that that very clear dust is important the enclosure will go to a long way to managing the dust situation that's on site we also recognize that we are Trucking off um soil and that people have concerns obviously so um as to anything that might come off of the trucks all of those trucks will be tarped and before they leave the site their wheels will be washed we have pads there they are changed on a regular basis and we will be looking to make sure that we keep a neat area outside of the perimeter of our worksite in addition to managing dust we also have to look at managing odors and potential Vapors the materials that we're dealing with are volatile organic compounds and also polycyclic aromatic Hydro hydrocarbons and the region and the reason they're called aromatic is because there are odors associated with some of these materials the enclosure will help to a certain extent but we also have Vapor suppressant Foams the Foams that we are using um we have MSDS sheets we have provided we will be providing those to emergency personnel and that also will be posted to a website um that's dedicated to this project and I'll talk a little bit about soon and um and the odors again are not a natural gas odor I'll have to ask you it says 10:03 and I'm not I'm sure that I still have time all right so okay I I don't know if that means I'm three minutes over or so yeah you're three minutes over but because of the technical difficulties and everything if you don't mind Expediting your conversation we'll allow it to go to 15 minutes okay thank you so protecting public health and safety we're going to have air monitoring we're going to have vibration monitoring we're going to have um Security on site 247 in terms of managing truck traffic what we show um on the arrows there are where uh the trucks will be coming into the site and leaving the site they will not be using any other access points to the area and this is the truck route that they will be following it will be um basically South 29 to 129 to the New Jersey ter hi we have a dedicated project website we also have a telephone number project email we've been canvasing we've been meeting with um local officials County officials and that includes the health officers um and tomorrow there will be an advertisement in the New Jersey um their treaten times um because we are having a webinar next week on the 26th and um we're having an inperson Community information session over the division of taxation building on the 27th we have Flyers we have fact sheets we're happy to meet anyone in the back um if they have questions and at that I'll leave it thank you Mr Garcia if you can stop the clock for a moment but don't clear it please all right it stopped thank you so at this time again thank you for the presentation and for the time are there any council members that have any questions or anything while she's here any statements anything president Council vice president Hi good evening thank you for that presentation I mean we all need to know you know what's going on in our city Our Town um especially when big projects like this take place you know residents definitely want to know um I'm sure you said this and I apologize how long is this project going to go on for approximately 18 months 18 months okay um so one of the concerns well one there was there's gas pipes um being installed I guess along um cast Street I mean layer Street ler Street not so long ago okay but they were being stored in front of people's houses on you know on local roads um and things of that nature um I mean it looks like you're going to do what you can to try to avoid that moving forward I know that was pre previous to March of this past year um so I just wanted to be a sure that that's not going to happen again that people's parking aren't going to be taken up and you know people are not going to be looking at these big pipes for months on end in front of their home there's no installation here anything that we need for this project will be staged on site okay okay and and the other concern that I do have is the truck route um I assume the trucks can't make it through the tunnel um but it's so problematic for the trucks that constantly going in and out and turning up cast Street you know that's a hight traffic area um you know the our roads already broken down there um so is there any alternate route that can be utilized for this project I know it's a big ask but it it is highly problematic in that area unfortunately not we did work with um the the state but we can't go over the bridge and you mentioned the tunnel we basically um are looking to go north and this was the best way not to go through the city of Trenton um to to get where we needed to get but we reached out to you because we do understand the concerns there on cast Okay and 18 months beginning when when to when April 15th but in terms of the truck traffic again the first three months are going to be focused on preparing the site there will be more trucks coming in bringing materials Personnel trailers Etc but uh you're not going to see any impacted soil leaving um until probably the the fourth month okay um and and I real quick about the storage where they'll be stored they'll be stored on site but I know in I guess in the past there was some storage right there in that parking lot on Lamberton off the cast okay that's kind of a state it's like a state area now it's a state parking lot will that will anything be stored there at all no okay thank you certainly any of the council people for the remaining time we have here C I just wanted to um just just briefly just thank you for uh coming to speak about this because I know you very much um when I met with you your entire team wants to have as much public information available as possible and want uh the citizens to Trent and downtown state workers everyone to feel comfortable that they're going to be safe as this Project's going on that's true thank you thank you councilman Harrison now my question was going to be the uh 100 tons of impact soil what are you going to do with that where are you are you going to do something to the soil to to um remediate it or what are you going to do with that soil so it is chucked off to a licens landfill and it will be either thermally treated and then reused as a landfill cover it will not be brought back all the soil that is removed is um replaced with certified clean fill um and if it can't be thermally treated then it will just be disposed of at the facility or a similar facility that takes that type of material thank you thank you councilman all right that's Madam president all right really quickly because we're at 15 thank you councilwoman so um thank you for the presentation actually was I'm very thorough and you answered a lot of the questions that I as I was jotting them down one of the things um I have PST currently working in my ward which is the West W and we have just was they were asking pipes piles of all kinds of stuff and it's a major inconvenience for our um community and I would like to speak to some before we leave but one of the things I would like to know will there be a foran on the site that will have that someone in our community one of our directors one of our um someone in our Administration will have direct contact to so there is an issue something that is of concern we know exactly who to go to and that we can get an immediate response from yes we we we are looking at that type of communication um it's been requested and we will be providing now that we have a contractor uh recently procured we will be able to provide that information okay and do we know who that uh person will be for our city will you be is it will be to the mayor's office will be to do we know who you will be making the information available to will it be to council or whomever so when we're Fielding questions from the our constituents we know who to direct them to so we will provide you information so that if they have a concern there's a direct project line that basically is 1 1800 Tom and Kelly goes directly to us and uh we will be with the project the entire time in terms of continuity so you know who will be responding in terms of Emergency Response that's why we meet with emergency Personnel so they know exactly who to contact in that situation um in terms of concerns from from Council and the mayor we will work with you on on who should have that information um so you will you will have information to provide the public and then if you need something where you need to talk to us directly we'll make sure that you have that as well thank you sir thank you madam president thank you council president so I would ask that for this purpose because um councilwoman Williams I guess was the first point of contact with that that from the council perspective you can communicate with councilwoman Williams and councilwoman Williams I would respect ask that you make sure that the council is aware of what's going on during this project so that way we have updates of what's going on and so if Council has questions outside of that 1-800 number or whatever we we will go through councilwoman Williams so that we all have one point of contacts we're not all kind of all over the place right and so we're getting one one source of information so I'll have that go that way thank you that works thank you ma'am I just had a thought since Mr Coy's here psj not to handle us but if he can provide his contact information to Mr Garcia this pipe issue is a problem and a lot of the Ws including my word I know that thank you all right thank you so much for your time we appreciate you so Mr coil if you if everyone could please just give your information to Mr Garcia please the presentation is over thank you so much sir all right thank you all again for coming we we send our condolences to the other gentleman that was supposed to be here tonight on his loss thank you Madame President I believe the next presentation we have is Trenton Health and Human Service Department update yes thank you there's 15 minutes for this presentation certainly thank you and we're allowing for Q&A from Council and everything on that too so thank you good evening Council thank you for having us today and um on behalf of our director uh Maria Ren we want to just say thanks for listening to what we have to say today today I have uh Miss uh officer Green from the animal shelter with us that if you guys need to ask any direct questions to her you are also able to do so she had a impromptu visit today um from the prosecutor's office if you guys have any questions you can ask and then Memphis will uh do the present ation today and I'll be here to answer any questions that you may have in regards to the presentation thank you um good evening everyone I'm Memphis Madden I'm the health educator uh for the division of health promotion I know we have a lot of slides so I'm not going to touch on every single one I'll just highlight um what I feel is most relevant for you guys today so just starting off with our mission and our values we are here to make sure that our resident have the tools and the knowledge to basically make well-informed Health decisions to preserve their life and their well-being long term we function under Administrative Code title 8 chapter 52 which outlines our minimum requirements and functions as a department and here are some of the topics that are covered under chapter 52 but not an exhaustive list so moving into Animal Control um so here's the staff which offerer green is over so some of the infrastructure updates that have happened on the outside we've got Turf we've got parking lot fences and trailers so all of these things not only enhance our operations but they beautify our space to draw in some more public some positive public views um and it can also boost the morale of our employees in terms of the space that they work in which can improve our operations overall and long term on the inside side we have a dog intake board which presents photos and a brief history at each and every dog um if anyone is interested in viewing or seeing a dog in person they do have the opportunity for that dog to be brought out but this does eliminate some of the liability on the city with having the public just walk through the shelter um the shelter is continuously going training undergoing training and we're making sure that all of our staff that are working with the dogs can do so properly um and do all of their duties to the best of their ability there have been new some some programs that have been implemented for one most notely the Doggy Daycare every single one of our dogs get an opportunity to go outside to play to practice simple commands and practice some of their basic life skills and manners as well and we're also making sure that our dogs are bathed weekly including the dogs that are kept at the kennel public relations has become a core component in encouraging fostering adoption and rescuing if you go on the Trenton animals shelter Facebook page you'll see lots of photos videos of our dogs having photo shoots playing um just lots of positive imagery and officer green has done a great job with facilitating engagement on that page by responding to others whether they're posting reaching out to the the page through Messenger or reaching out to her through email um but we're looking forward to seeing more of that positive exposure through some new social media tools as well and here's just a capture of some of the the comments that have been found on the Facebook page in the most recent weeks and some some more programs that will be brought into the animal shelter again our programming is focused on preserving the Dignity of our dogs and making sure that they're still able to enjoy their life and have opportunities for relationship building so we're really focusing on bringing more attention and Outreach to our adoption events again it's about connecting every dog to the home that they deserve um so we want to make that as accessible as possible and seamless for our community as possible and here are some notable upcoming collaborations and events that we can expect to see from Trenton Animal Shelter in the coming months so jumping into lead poison ing prevention um we have a lead program which provides Case Management Services to children under the age of 17 who have a Venus blood lead level of five or higher and the purpose is to identify those lead exposure um methods and try to eliminate those so that we can prevent the child from being having any adverse Health impacts so the lead program is a grant funded program and here's just some of the staff that are maintained through that Grant we also receive in kind services from the city's Bureau of environmental health who does perform um lead inspections in the homes when necessary So currently we have a case load of 327 children this again children under the age of 17 blood level of five or higher this includes majority of Mercer County with the exception of Hamilton in Princeton half of Somerset County and six towns within Morris County in the city we have five homes that are also in the process of lead abatement so methods and measures that are taken to permanently eliminate the lead paint Source from that household so um at the end of January early February we began conversations with the EPA surrounding some soil sampling that was happening in East Trenton among our residential homes and at Grant Elementary School so as the results came out um we were informed that the playground area was found to have higher levels of lead within that soil so the soil part is on the EPA to implement some short-term and longer long-term strategies but we were tasked with creating um a lead testing program for the students as well the staff so we kicked that off last Tuesday we were able to test through capillary testing 65 students and 16 adults so for our students the samples are going to be sent to a lab for processing the lab will send the results back to us for anything that comes back higher than five we will reach out to the families and let them know what comes next um usually the next step is for them to get a second test through a Venus blood draw to confirm that indeed they do have a high Le level if that comes back five or greater will be notified through the state system and that child will automatically be enrolled in our program um so of our adults we did a different method for them they were able to get results within 3 minutes um but of the 16 none of them had high blood level level blood levels um and here's just a few photos um we'll quickly go through our grants again the childhood Le Grant um is funded by NJ dooh in addition to staff it helps us to buy supplies equipment um fun campaign and anything else that we need to distribute to the homes that we do visit we also have an emergency preparedness Grant um which funds gives us funds to keep supplies to respond to large scale Public Health emergencies so through this we're also updating the city's emergency response plan and our point of distribution manual sites um covid-19 our fun our activities functioned under the CRI Grant um so at this time since everything's been commercialized we have applied to and been accepted to the state's covid-19 funded program so right now we're just tying up some details and loose ends on in terms of how we're going to store those vaccines um and here are the groups that we're allowed to distribute to in the ways that we're able to do that we're also looking to partner with some locales because they have a lot more flexibility than we do we also have the strengthening local public health capacity Grant this is around health education it started out of covid but it's expanded since um so this allowed us to get additional staff to our team also for supplies um technology it's all about just getting more materials that we can give out to the public we also have the vaccine supplemental funding Grant also starting out of Co this is our third year and this is to help us to maintain our vaccin activities so syringes needles biohazard bags boxes things of that nature and lastly we have the um enhancing local public health Grant this is a new Grant Endeavor for us sponsored through the New Jersey Association of County and City Health officials this is all about improving our infrastructure as a team but we're also able to use this for our building so the funds we're looking to put into a roof repair um having a security camera system implemented and we're also going to use the funds to pay for the city's um PSA with Trenton health Team to kind of cut on those costs so here's just an overview of where we have been in the past year um some of the places that you guys have may seen us while you've been out and about um along with that some of the things that we're doing while we are actually out there so we're always looking for new ways and opportunities to reach and connect our community um and we've also reaffirmed our commitment to continuing education with the Implement implementation of an employee development program so we meet monthly to do workshops um with other organizations and with that just want to thank you for your time and attention excellent thank you so so much um many thanks to you excuse me all excuse me um Miss graphy Cooper and your team wonderful thank you to D iror Richardson for um allowing the um the periodic updates right we had said before that we wanted to have periodic updates so we'll look again in another three months to have you come back tell us what's going on so we're just aware and the public is aware of what's happening I just have quick question going back to the animal shelter really quick how many dogs do we currently have in the shelter here in Trenton 55 55 and just to remind us what is the maximum we should have in there 20 20 okay so with that I know and thank you for the Doggy Daycare and all that running around and everything like that approximately how many hours a day do the animals stay in the kennel I will say about 6 hours so there are only 20 dogs h in the kennel the rest of their dogs are in crates so would we then say there six hours for the dogs in the kennels and in the crates yes who so six hours well the inside dogs in the crate they get out frequently like every minute of the day the ones in the kennel is that holds 20 dogs they get out about an hour or two okay how many dogs are in Pennsylvania 50 66 how often do they get out do we know yeah so those dogs get out daily um it's a boarding facility so they're required to have the dogs walked and um at least twice a day so at least twice a day yes they have to be and some of the kennels are already outside so they really don't have to walk the dogs they're long so the dogs are able to run back and forth with the outside kennels that they have and I think most majority of their Kels are on the outside so that they have you know they could run back and forth okay and so then because if our if our allowable number was 20 and we had 55 are we still being fined or refined by the state for being over a certain amount per day or well we can be fine um but because Trenton is not the only city that has this uh overflow of animals uh they have been kind of lenient on everyone because this is not a Trenton problem it's a Statewide almost Universal problem we're having right now okay thank you and then when it comes to the new animal shelter where are we with that good evening good evening Maria Richardson um with the new shelter we are basically um right now working on two different locations one of them it's basically contingent on the city um recovering a property that the city owns and that we would like to use not for the shelter but as a I am not in the Liberty to talk too much about that that's fine but that is a um it's a location that it's it has a contingency the other location that we reported before um we are in the process of waiting for the State uh process to start doing uh soil remediation so we are considering two locations um but we are not we didn't stop to wait for the other location whatever comes first we are going to proceed ahead with that location so we are waiting for the contingencies to be solved in one location and with the other location we are waiting for remediation process okay so we're still working on alloc basically and uh I am not sure if um uh uh uh ifet and uh uh Memphis mentioned earlier about the trailers I wasn't here when they started I think um but the trailers are already uh completed and uh we are just waiting for um in two weeks we will have the trailers operational thank so that yeah okay any other the council people have questions council president yes so I have a few questions as um both of these issues affect my ward the north Ward so regarding lead uh can you tell us where we stand on testings I know uh when uh we had a meeting uh last month uh the plans were to start getting the testing going with the kids at the school so I'd like to find out where we are with getting that initiated yes so we actually started last Tuesday we did 65 students but um sorry it was hard to hear that from oh okay yeah we did 65 students um 16 staff members we're actually going back tomorrow afternoon um we'll be at Grant from 4:30 to 8:00 pm okay and so what how many more rounds do you think it's going to take to test everybody it kind of depends on um how many parents show up each time so our goal is to hit all if we can but it depends on how many show up each time we we offer okay excellent and then so this 65 would be in addition to the ones that were tested previously um so the the ones the 65 that we have that's our first our first 65 said but the ones that were tested before are so I think I think what she asking is that the lead program that we have yes we already have families that are were already in the program that's the 327 the 65 is in addition to that okay thank um and then we'll continue to test each child from that school and we also are testing their siblings um even if they go to another school if they're in the same household they we also let the school know that they could bring families and we'll test um families until everyone is um tested okay and are we partnering with leadfree New Jersey and E Str collaborative as far as helping the recruit encourage folks to get tested yes we are and they will be there um tomorrow we also partner with Isles who will be um doing some of the abatement for the families so Al will also be there with us tomorrow the issue is that we can only the the company that sends us the test will send the test to us in 100 at a time and they're doing that for a specific reason so that they don't want us to send them 600 test results that they have to then get the results and input into their system so each week we'll be sending them 100 120 which makes it a lot easier for them to input without error into their system and we let the school know that we'll be there for as long as we need to to get this done thank you and I just have a couple questions about the animal shelter um so as far as spay and neutering um is that still going on on weekends at all are there any particular events coming up because we do get questions from dog owners and cat owners who would like to get their dogs or cats spayed and neutered you mean spayed and neuter at the shelter yeah uh least I've been told that we offer free services or very minimal cost services but it's on not on every Saturday basis is that not true no no that's not corre um so we've never offered that service SP for the animals that we take in but not for someone is but not for not for a own owner or a pet owner no we don't have a service that they could just bring them in and get them spay anded just the cat folks just the cat call the cats people but the cat folks have their own system of um doing that for the cats but for the dogs we don't have a we don't have funding or we don't have a program that um they could just bring their owner okay if I may ask if You' be kind enough to let us on Council know what the C program is and when that's available because I have had cat owners come up to me and ask me about when you know about getting that done so that will be Trenton cat rescue okay so is that done at our facility no there's no so they do that on their own on the offsite location yes okay so that that clears that up for me and the other question I have for you is because this is also I think is part of systemically and issue we have in Trenton about basic dog ownership and caring for animals would there be any possible way and I know this you have enough on your plate to maybe offer a basic dog ownership class even if it was a small fee for it because kind of like you we actually do an excellent job at citizens Police Academy but I see and I know some of my colleagues we constantly witness people who actually um probably do not know kind of some of the basics on handling an animal or even leashing an animal or things that would make their ownership more pleasurable experience but also maybe help help them engage in the system a little bit and particularly for new dog owners who adopt from the animal shelter so um when we have adoption events or a person coming into adopt a dog we usually tell them how to control the dog and what kind of collar to get and how to use the leash and if the dog pulls on a leash that they're taking home we show them how to keep the dog right close to you and most of the time our assessor is there and if she's not and that person has a problem with their dog we'll connect them too so she can help them out with any issues well if that's something maybe we could offer just even on a quarterly basis to offer a class even if it was just one night to current homeowners I mean dog owners who Maybe aren't adopting I think that might help us overall in the city as far as you know animal um animal control and also as far as like you know you go into some neighborhoods where the dogs just kind of run free because the owners let them off a leash and they're not just even following basic commands so our bear um will be able to conduct um if we want to set a time frame but we have a beist that will be able to do that okay all right thank you very thank you any other Council people council president yes ma'am so most of my questions were answered as far as um the animal shelter Council phano council president um asked most of those but real quick question how many volunteers and how many employees do we currently have at the animal shelter we currently do not have any dog volunteers um we have a few cat volunteers but that's a different organization so I'm not sure the numbers okay many empy any employees there's like about 12 employees right now thank you and one other question as far as the lead program thank you so much actually for doing that and um getting those kids tested but can you also speak to that anyone can ask or call in to schedule to get a Leed uh testing done in their home so the the grant that we have only allows us uh for the age of 17 in the household and under okay uh if someone wants to have lead testing that's why we partner with Isles and they can get a free lead test through that program so through Isles so they will contact Isles to get the testing done and is is at the testing site that we have passing out the information to the parents to say if you would like to have your home tested they will test and they also do the abatement if anything is found okay thank you so much um I think council president may I add something to that uh recently this Council passed an ordinance um that would allow that actually requires the city or a private contractor to to uh do lead testing in houses that are rented in rental houses so according to that ordinance every time that there is a turnover in a house or every three years the houses need to be tested for lead we already started implementing that and we already have received either a certificate of compliance or non-compliance but that will be a requirement to is to issue a um Co for the rental property thank you um yeah I was just talking about more like anyone they can call in for Isles though not the city so that's good to know and they can okay um I may that open and the program that the director is speaking about was implement it was a law that was put in two years ago but come this July they're going to start um implementing fines so um it really does take good um Mass Effect come this July thank you so much Madame vice president and then councilwoman frisbee you good evening guys um so the response about no volunteers I know that there were stated problems with volunteers at the animal shelter before for the dogs um is there any um efforts to bring in new volunteers um to assist with day-to-day activities within the shelter and to follow the protocol of the handbook I would like to right now clean up what I have going on before I bring people in so I would like to when once I complete that I would like to have volunteers only on the weekends because that's when we're the shortest staff okay and um recent reports have been coming in that that dogs are being brought to the shelter and being denied is that happening can you explain that um I it's not happening with me and anytime I someone send a problem to my phone I go out and get the dog so I can speak on what was happening before my presence but right now it's not happening and also it depends on whether this is a owner surrender dog or if it's a rescue because the shelter is so overcrowded we're not mandated to take the dogs that they surrendered um but we have to take the ones that are um Strays that we're that are stray dogs so even though we are over the capacity of what we can do we still have to take the the dogs that are Strays but if someone just you know surrender their dogs we are allowed by the state to say we don't have room yeah the reports that I had received were of lost dogs you know just wandering around so I just wanted to know about that and I understand we are overcrowded in a shelter but I just want to know if there was any type of mandate or anything about having and you just answered that about having to accept the dogs okay um so new the two new possibility possible shelters that are you know coming to will the number of 20 animals allowed is that a state mandate or would that change with either one of the new facilities that would change with a new facility we will try to have a facility that would be able to house I think we were talking about 70 dogs however we always need to remember that it's not going to be a poppy hotel right that we are not increasing the space to instead of having 55 then we will have 120 so um we will be crowded again okay um and what are the actual hours of operation and are the doors closed to people at any time during the shelter hours we get there at 700 a.m. we're done cleaning about 9:00 a.m. that's when we open our doors to the public okay our physical doors are open constantly due to cleaning in and out and bringing the dogs in and out okay okay but but people can't come to the shelter and kind of walk through the kennel and see you know what dogs run up to them or anything you know due to the high number of dogs we have there it's best to not let the public in the walk around because the dog can snag anything which is why I created the dog intake board at the entrance so if they seen a dog and say hi hey I like Tony I can say I can bring Tony out for you but you can't walk through the facility okay so they don't need an appointment they could just come they don't need really need an appointment unless they're you know physically ad taking a dog home that day okay and since when did you take over the positions manager January 15th can you tell me how many dogs have been adopted since then and how many dogs euthanized um this is the estimate I had written on the paper uh I'm going to say about 20 to 30 dogs maybe 25 dogs been adopted euthanize we did about 15 okay we had about 15 go to rescue also rescue okay I also I would like to add all the dogs that we did euthanize were due to behavioral problems okay that was going to be my next question like what is the process other than a Tim stamp so no yeah so the assessor will come in and she will assess certain dogs and especially the new ones that we just intake and we'll wait for her to give her um report on the dog and once she deem it un adoptable that's when we make appointments okay two more questions I promise quick um one is where are we at with the legal breeders have we gone after any of the legal breeders that have been reported since the ordinance got passed okay thank you for asking that question so I know that the audience was put in for the breeding the issue with that is there's absolutely it's very hard to implement that because some of the stipulation in that audience there is no there's nothing in the audience that talks about consequences for individuals that do not follow that breeding uh procedure that was put into place so there is an application there is a background check procedure I mean there's are there are things put in place but without the resource and the staff to implement it makes it very hard so for example if if we are saying they can't you know breed and sell if the dog is under 10 weeks old who monitors that like who goes out and make sure that these breeders are not selling the dog at certain age or who is it that's going to go out and make sure that they're following the proper protocol we do not have the staff to implement the breeding and also there's nothing in there that talks about if someone um um abuse a dog or if they have a legal issue um what are the terms can every and anyone be a breeder as long as they apply um so there's some things in that um ordinance that we would need to do a little brush up on in order for that to be fully implemented because it is hard to um it is hard for us with the staff we have and the way it is written it is hard for us to put any consequence if someone decide that they don't want a license or if we catch someone breeding um we don't have the consequence like what are the consequences and who's going to implement those consequence because for my staff and I are even the acos that are so limited you know if unless we have police or somebody else with you can't just walk up to today day and age to somebody's house and say we're going to do ABC and D so it needs to be a little bit more tight and it has to include more agencies and more um backup system for if we go out and do the implementation okay that's good input thank you um I know that we had assessed fines and stuff when you were not um properly permitting to to breed and things like that so that's really good information and I have no problem going back to the board and you know tidying up and but I just want to know like once we do all that you know are we going to have the means to implement are we going to have the means to enforce so once you put it in that this is what we're going to do then we also would need the funding and resource to have it done so that would be something else that would need to be looked into so whatever is in it we need the funding and we need the resources to implement so just because there's one put out if there is no resource it you know how do we say don't breed if we don't have the people to be monitoring okay and I'm sorry the emo really quickly just I know I spoke to director Richardson about it um I just wanted to know like was there a formal investigation report that was provided to um Taz with regard to the Emu getting back out after it was returned back and to the Emu having proper living conditions as per I believe an investigation by the prosecutor's office so yes we had that call about two months ago the first call we went out there we wrote our report we never seen nothing like that in Trenton so we then contacted fish and wildlife and they got in contact with the state prosecutors they came out and visit the residents and deemed it okay to have uh last week it got out and it was running around I actually went out there we caught it and placed it back in its owner's yard we all also told the owner that he needs to fix his back gate with the heavy wins it was easy for it to keep getting out but you deemed the the premises appropriate for that emu to State deemed it right but you're I wouldn't haveed it no no thank you thank you thank you you're welcome so I just have two really quick ones one I want to thank you for a very thorough quick uh presentation you guys do a lot and I'm glad that the public gets to hear all that you actually get to do that you not get to do that you actually do in our community um one of the questions and you may have answered this I did hear you say with the lead um testing that the 16 School staff that they tested negative that is correct the 65 students were did we get results back on them um not yet so we mailed them off um the following day so it take has to go to Colorado so there's the mailing time and tamarak who's the company that provides us with the filter paper said between 2 to 5 days and then they'll fax everything back um so we're kind of using this since we did under a 100 and we know that their capacity was for a quick turn around was 100 to see how soon they can turn results around okay excellent and then my last question is for the covid testing um I saw it in here with folks who have no insurance and those who have limited Insurance um will it be free to the public and if so where will those locations be yes um so under the guidelines if they're underinsured or uninsured it's absolutely free we can do those who have insurance but it has to be under a setting where checking for insurance would slow down our process and keep us from getting as many arms and shots um or shots and arms so that's where I was mentioning that we have some downs but we can do it um so for things like that if we just want to capture everyone we would have to do it at a CommunityWide event or be at an Outreach event just partnering with someone else um to have that open space but as far as we just want to do under uninsured I believe we can restart operations right at our clinic at 218 and will we I believe we have a mobile vehicle do we have a mobile vehicle I'm look of someone else that that's probably the Red Cross so we don't have a mobile we don't have a mobile Co vehicle we don't Henry seal is on it is there okay thank you with the Apper I just have one quick question um um Miss graphy Cooper when the ordinance was put together were you in on any of the meetings for that no ma'am okay so as as we look to craft this to make sure everybody that needs to be present is is present and that's for everything that we look to do right we need to definitely make sure that we involve all the right people in the administration in the room um so as we put these things together we know that we can go out we can enforce and we can make it you know worthwhile for us to do it thank you so much for your time I appreciate your presentation um and for answering our questions thank you thank you for having us oh I'm sorry Mr I'm I'm sorry councilman Harrison I'm sorry sir yes my um question was um was stated was it 55 that are at the shelter dogs 55 at the shelter 56 at our holding facility so it's 111 dogs and counting and counting um have we ever thought about um chipping the dogs so if the dogs are in the shelter or if anybody's breeding dogs that they chip them so in case if they decide to dump them on the street we can scan the dog and realize hey who whoever is breeding these dogs this was one of his dogs that he dumped on the street they come in as a you stri them and they come in as a it's an ideal from a friend of mine yeah so we so are you asking can we chip the dogs right if the dogs are in in the facility right the dogs are there we could chip those dogs but if regarding breeding can we mandate that when people are going to breed those dogs that they have to uh chip their dogs so in case if they decide they breed so many dogs they don't dump them on the street and then they become an issue that we have to deal with so so again we can mandate that but um how do we monitor that so if we do a mandate we really would need somebody to go around with a chip machine to make sure the dogs are chipped so we can mandate that but we also going to need the resources to make sure that we could Implement that mandate well when they're doing their license too right when they renew their license that's not a requirement for right that's what I'm saying should it be a requ well we can't make a requirement that's more stringent than what the state put forth but you can you can the council can decide that that's something that Trenton wants to do um but there's nothing in place for that at this moment okay um also I know we talked about the Emu um I know were you know other incidence is about the chickens um I try to explain to my colleagues and I think they've realized that uh camon Newark Yu does not allow emo and chickens um and I think we need to um actually all over the city we need H more inspectors too we have a lot of issues here but we need there needs to be accountability and I think that's seems to be a problem and you're right the Emu I don't think most people know when they have Emos if you leave the emo out in your backyard and it's not covered over water gets on it and what happens is it gets pneumonia and it can die so that's my concern about like you said about an emo you might have it an enclosure but if it rains on on it it's going to get a pneumonia and it can it can end up dying so I think that's where the education piece comes in right um so if we um get the funding and the resources then we can actually great idea we could put a put the resource together that we can have um these semi classes that we could if this animal is allowed that we can teach how to properly um care for the animal and talk about enclosures and so on and so so forth because even though they may not know it is still cruelty if you know if the animals are um not treated properly so I think that's a great idea to do the classes but again with everything that we do in the city um funding has to be available in order to do so thank you thank you for your time thank you Council welcome thank you so much thank you for having us Mr Garcia certainly on your comment mad President we can proceed thank you certainly Madam president we've reached the point of public comment okay if I could have the public comment clipboard thank you and for the Public Public comment will be reduced to five well not reduced excuse me will be limited to five minutes uh per person you council president we have eight individuals listed here for public comment as I see and to the public you may address anything that you wish during public comment the council is not obligated to respond first person for public comment we have is Chris bukoski uh members of council thank you um for taking it letting me take the time to address you um first uh last time I was here I addressed the counil concerning the proposed ordinance 2415 and I spoke on the benefits of backyard poultry as did a few others tonight um I'd like to address the proposal itself in short it's the wrong ordinance for the city um just for the record Trenton does allow chickens uh Trenton allows chickens and so does norc um they just have to be registered Madame President at the last meeting you spoke of meeting people where they're at and using better using the resources we do have to do more with less better leveraged City assets you know I heard you and I I agree with you 100% I took what you said to heart and I believe that's the right approach for the city um the proposed ordinance is the opposite of that way of thinking at best the ordinance as we heard from um the last speakers it would be nearly unenforceable if the current law that we do have on the books um didn't prevent any of the abuses that this is supposed to address how will the inclusion of circus animals improve the situation at worst it makes criminals of otherwise law-abiding and responsible Trentonian any enforcement that did happen as evidenced would be almost random and seemingly arbitrary to many of our citizens and there's nothing more unfair than selective Justice it has been my experience that the vast majority of people are good people people who are law-abiding and strive to be good neighbors good citizens given that I would suggest that the council take a different approach here instead of restricting and punishing our neighbors why don't we try and teach them to reach out support them we all acknowledge that there's already law in the books that regulates the keeping of animals in the city I'm going to ask is it working is it achieving its intended purpose I would say it's not otherwise this wouldn't be an issue the law isn't working now and one course could be the one proposed I could see that we ban everything everything's restricted and infractions will be punished with the full weight of the law but we can already see the issue here the current law isn't enforcable even so what hope do we have that the Draconian method would be even easier but there's another path we can choose here instead of making things harder we can make things easier craft a law that makes it easier for people to come forward to look to the city as a resource rather than something to hide from make it free to register pets and animals and when people register help them get the resources to be responsible owners and responsible neighbors encourage the community to come together here maybe this might be crazy talk I know the city could actually promote Urban agriculture 85 years ago during World War II people were encouraged to plant what they called Victory Gardens to practice what we now call Urban agriculture cities around the country bloomed neighbors shared their extra produce Parks had plots set aside for onions and potatoes and the cities promoted it with seed banks with setting up produce swaps and by by providing resources like Mulch and compost to anyone who is interested if our grandparents could do this why can't we this time not to help feed the troops overseas but as many Trenton Trentonian might need for feeding ourselves and our neighbors the law doesn't need to be big brother surveiling us punishing us it can be a grandmother mother that helps us and guides us to do better we want our neighbors to help each other not just inform on each other we're not Hamilton or Ying Camden NK we're Trenton and I want us to be Trenton I want to be here in Trenton with our own needs our own problems our own resources we can help ourselves we all want Trentonian to help each other not cower and fear from each other I urge this Council to think hard in what kind of City we want to see outside these walls and how the laws you enact work to that end I'm all for doing more with less but what if we can do more with more thank you our next individual is Cal stalworth uh Cal stalworth is that correct thank you good afternoon um I'm here um I live over on um Mr St with oh thank you nope you got it over on Ohio 11:37 my issue is the new parking um guys and women that been hired now um I've been in my neighborhood I moved there for a reason you know the wife is disabled I come up that she can come up the back steps the steps are too high for the front I've been there 10 Years love my home but all of a sudden now in the last three years I'm starting to get parking tickets which I have a work van you know and um where I work work fan all my ladders and tws there park in front of my house so I come out I get a parking ticket so I go to find the police officer and he says I would never ever give you guys a ticket you know for parking in front of your house because um you know you need to watch your toes so I called down they said well you know it's zone for not commercial work trucks I said Okay um they said tractor trailers and all that we don't have tractor trailers we don't have street signs we don't have no parking signs so I've been there 10 years so so I said okay fine once a year I get a parking ticket $75 I mail it I said okay that's the price for me staying where I live at that's my fee I'll pay and they leave me alone now then next year I don't know if the new officers or what next year I get another ticket I just pay it for a little bit P it goes away so this the this morning I took yesterday I took my granddaughter to school came back 10:00 went in the house came back it's 10 o00 in the morning there's a ticket on my truck 10 o'clock not at night where I normally get them so now the ticket people are starting to ride by and say hey you got a ticket but I have a work van 10:00 everybody's supposed to be at work or going to work so but this is in the daytime so I said to my counsel person so if I'm in the house working on somebody Plumbing with most people going to call the handyman in the van in the whatever and they G to call and so if I'm in the house working I come outside I got a ticket you know so I'm like okay well that's not right you know with this so she says well you're supposed to park I said okay New York Avenue is three blocks from my house so that mean I got the part where track the trailers park at walk back three blocks to get a pair of plowers fix that they walk back over there three blocks over and come back to work in my truck I said ma'am I don't think that's fair you know to me I said I'm a czen pay my taxes I vote I do all that good stuff in there and I said it's just you know not right and I said well okay maybe I need to find me somewhere else to stay or move I said because it's an inconvenience for the wife because she's disabled she can't get up those front steps so they said well you know we have to find um ways to figure it out I said yeah but I'm not somewhere I say you imagine the guys in my community all the contract that talk about this they're saying where do we park at everything I own is in that van if I I parked on New York Avenue got up next morning all my tools gone that's $8,000 worth of tools now doors open I call the police they said oh well there's nothing we can do about it close the door so I rather park in front of my window PID them their $75 so at least if I look at the window I can see them running down the road with my tooth maybe I have a chance to catch them that's my livelihood but all the guys in this community is talking about this they have nowhere to park their trucks they Vehicles you know and some of the cars nowadays are just as big as my work van so if Miss Mary saying it's not enough room for her to par but I think I have just as much right as she do because I'm a taxpayer also you know and I pay my taxes and I vote and I do all that stuff so even where something needs to be done I said okay charge me $75 for the year so I could par least you can say you're not required two or three cars but if you got one work van you know fine that can go in the neighborhood because if you move them out the way what we going to do I go to the grocery store pick my kids up I do everything in my work van you know and stuff and you know and that's the thing that's bothered me that I got a ticket yesterday morning at 10 o00 in the morning you know they riding through and they and it's like they they taking us with a V thank you thank you so Mr stalworth I would ask that you and other um people that are going to speak for public comment just kind of wait around for a few minutes for our Civic comment because I have a feeling that some of our Council people may want to address what it is that you have to say which is why we move Civic comment up go because we want to give I want to give the council the opportunity if they want to say something to the people that say something publicly all right thank you than Mr St Jill Wolford good evening Council I'm here in support of 24-15 the honorary sign of Joseph and Mary Ravenel you know my name already I am a minister at Samaritan Baptist Church ordained by Bishop ravanel in December 2017 during my tenure here I've seen the work of our pastor I've seen the work of our late first lady all that they've done at that corner for more than 45 years in this city the our birthday of our Baptist Church would be 50 years old and the work that Bishop Ral and his late wife Ariel Mar had the impact on the citizens and that Community is immeasurable through our food pantry we have have served over a 100,000 families and still serving today through our vacation bible school we have impacted more than 4,000 youth through our basic program more than 78,000 Youth and many more programs that the Samaritan birthday church under the leadership of Bishop ranell has impacted know youths are talking about vacation bible school today and they're 30s and 40s years old right now and they're saying how they were loved by these two people so that is why I'm here I'm here in support of that honorary sign um bishop and Elder Mary R I was not just pastors to Samaritan they were pastors to the neighborhood they knocked on doors asking the citizens how are you how are you doing what do you need of course prayer the lives that they touch is immeasurable even in today they come by and beat the horn if they see Bishop ravanal out there so that's why I'm here in support I'm 24-15 to honor our pastor and his late wife Elder Mary ravanel thank you you thank you next is hey asan asani is this you know what a s i a n i c o l e b I guess is that aani Nicole Brown did I get that right are they still here last name I'm going to guess this is brown am I anywhere close we'll come back to you J Ford hello my name is Janelle for I'm um I want to talk touch Bas about housing and the taxes excuse me is the taxes being raised for the um landlords for the properties because I want to know the rent is is too high for a lot of people to afford and I just have a question Miss Ford just so you understand you can address the council whatever whatever you wish but they're not obligated to respond to you so if you do have a question they may or may not choose to respond to you at this time or that question may be addressed in their civic comments after public comment okay my apologies okay that's what my my next um I wanted to know is is there for housing for um women or um families they we are the capital of New Jersey and I noticed that it was a program in Camden and in nor that they have to um give families housing the um I heard you speak on that you was going to board up the houses um the abanded houses the last meeting and instead of boarding them up I want to know if is there a program that is available for the families to to to obtain the house instead of them up that was my question you don't want to that's fine so it's not about us not wanting to answer if you just give us a moment during our Civic comments someone may touch on it but as he explained during this time we listen to hear what everyone has to say and then we divvy it up and figure out if we can in or if we could direct you to the right person that can help you with that's what I me yes thank you all right honey thank you for your time thank you for take your is that your juice water your bottle thank you Mr Garcia certainly Kathleen deal hello Council Kathleen deal I live at 19 Greenwood Avenue I'm going to wear a couple different hats tonight I'm going to start with president of the Trenton cycling Revolution this coming Saturday at artworks from 4: to 8 we have our open house as part of the open house we will have a bike parts swap we will have vendors our local um Orchid House will be there um the one up one down coffee house will be there Cafe ohala will be there um it's going to be a great opportunity for some of our partners for complete streets to be there the regional partner of Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission will be there Mercer County Action team will be there Lawrence Hopewell Trail will be there I hope to see some of our council members attend one of the fun events that we have going on there is gold Sprints if you're not familiar with gold Sprints it is two stationary bicycles side by side members of the public get on top of the bicycles and have a competition to see who can pedal the the fastest and it's one of the great events that creates comaraderie in our bicycle community so I hope to see you there to also back up what Mr Cal said earlier uh parking enforcement has been a little um overboard lately I am a mhill resident I have a mhill permit in the back window of my car Front Street has a section between Broad and Montgomery that is allotted for mhill residents only I was ticketed because they didn't take the time to look at my back window of my car to see that I have a mhill permit in my back window and I emailed my my councilwoman I emailed the leadership of uh DPW to let them know that um their officers are not even looking for the permit in the back window of my car so that's an issue um also to back up what Mr Bowski said I am a a fan of uh backyard chickens um the ordinance that's that is uh proposed also addresses exotic birds and iguanas and I know Neighbors in the community who have exotic birds and iguanas who are responsible pet owners um one of the interesting stories out of M Hill over covid we had a neighbor who had an exotic bird who actually flew out and it actually became somewhat news that the bird actually landed on an inmate in Trenton prison and that inmate turned the bird over to the guard and um it it was a quaint story that the inmates actually were really excited to see this exotic bird I don't know what kind of bird it was but it um it is it is an interesting Community we have because we have people that have a variety of interests and to punish good own owners for the actions of bad owners is a is a poor poor policy thank you all hope to see you on Saturday thank you very much and Madam president that is all the individuals that I have for public comment at this time and if uh you may start with Civic comment with whomever you wish thank you councilwoman Williams thank you very much ma'am um so like to First address Miss Ford um Miss Ford still here she's over there there Hi um so to answer partially answer your question uh regarding taxes uh they are handled across the board for homeowners as well as landlords so there's no specific tax increase on landlords however um when things are reassessed or taxes go up there is an appeal process just as there are from homeowners so I know I'm not exactly answering your question for possibly where you want to um you want information from it but there is not a specific tax on landlords there are fees uh for them to pay to become a landlord and remain registered as landlord um and perhaps that process needs to also be boned up to make sure they're living up to their expectations in the city um as far as uh programs I know I gave you information on Trenton neighborhood initiative hopefully that's helpful I'll continue trying to help you where I can with that um as far as the individual program that the City offers for uh families and um uh women um that's something that actually has been discussed um off and on in different details uh but I think we need to talk to you further about exactly what your needs are uh for that but there are other programs we that you can look at and that I will always be happy to help you with also uh here we have director Richardson um natural resource she's a great resource of information to perhaps chat with as well as Mr Cruz who's our business administrator in the front row so I know you met Mr beach at the last meeting so you're welcome yes ma'am I I'll respond to that in post haste you're welcome thank you and um so I'd also like to uh just respond Mr stalwart thank you very much for chatting with me for a good while the other day and thank you for coming to council to speak uh these are important issues I'm just going to flatly say um I don't think our training there's something's going wrong here that it's not working that people such as uh Miss deal and others are being unfairly ticketed um I think we need to step back potentially and that's something it's not U my role as a council person but certainly the department we need to find systematically what's going on that we have parking en Enforcement Officers many of who do a great job and want to do the right job and follow the law but there are too many stories of people getting tickets that they should not have gotten and when we find out about we can't fix tickets we're not to fix tickets but Citizens need to be able to go to traffic court and if they're unfairly ticketed they need to be able to have their ticket um handled in a fair and Equitable process in a in a fair way and I think as well meaning as our Crackdown on commercial vehicles is and it's very very well-meaning um folks like you are being swept up in that and we do need to have a conversation and figure out A Better Way Forward because this is a problem all over the city we have larger Vehicles we have a dump truck on my Street's been um there off and on the past two weeks dump trucks certainly should not be uh in on any City Street but also when people call the police department when it's after hours for parking enforcement officers the parking officers uh the officers should be coming out and actually ticketing if they have nothing else going on or Duty that night we have to make the city safer and more livable for so folks such as you and your wife and many others and part of that is being able to park near your house um there are a lot of contractors they honestly have to worry about their tools I've had contractors come to my home and want to make sure they if first thing to say how close can I park because they're worried about having their tools taken which is their livelihood so again thank you for coming I believe we'll have a very good discussion going forward within Council and with the administration and hopefully we can find some ways to um have what was a good intention maybe there's some ways to find TR I think actually you're suggesting maybe a a fee for maybe a parking pass that's something we should look at um it doesn't help us create spaces but maybe there's a way it can so thank you sir just also want to address um I don't have that much time um regarding um issues in the city sometimes like we have an issue currently with uh and the mhill section regarding a house that may be used for four mil incarcerated uh folks to begin their lives again and I just want to say part of uh when something happens whether it's something like that that affects a neighborhood or something be able to be people to together to talk about issues councilwoman I do believe that is your five minutes can I ask for one more minute ma'am thank you thank you we need to recreate the expectation that we're going to have a conversation and not have people fly off the handle on the internet because that does nothing positive um but also at the same point the citizens have an expectation to be safe and whether it was this past weekend with a lack of information or even uh currently with the situation uh in mhill with that with this particular house I've tried to work to bring people to talk to the table with the church with the neighborhood those conversations are going to happen with each other and that's important because we're in a vacuum otherwise and that's not a way to raise up this city and bring the city forward and I'll just close tomorrow night is our Northwood CPAC meeting 5:30 a galley Baptist Church 440 Martin Luther King Boulevard it's where I met Miss Ford please come if you can spread the word because good things happen when we get together and talk about it particularly with the police and the citizen thank you ma'am councilman Harrison good evening everyone um I know tonight the 24-15 is on the docket um I sent a request out to the Department of Health I want to see what the Department of Health stance on this is so hopefully tonight we'll table this again so we can get more insight and recommendation from the Department of Health and um if they believe there are um like requirements that need to be met for like if somebody were to have them you would have to have so much property um so I think that's one of the things we need to get from the Department of Health regulations and what their stands on it that is um Also regarding like what my colleague just has spoken about um the trailers we have a huge problem with that in this city um they're destroying our street um they have I have seen them where some of the trative trailers have sideswiped people's cars um trying to get over to businesses this is uh residential it's not commercial you shouldn't be allowing these 18 wheelers on our city streets because they're destroying our streets and they're hitting people's uh cars that are parked so um we definitely need to be enforcing this that um these trctor Travelers should not be on our city streets um and I'm glad you're here tonight we had some update but um I actually going to work on that ordinance about chipping the dogs I think I think it's uh a thing that we should be doing when people are um getting their renewing their licenses we we want to make sure that people are if they are breeding these dogs that they're not the thinging back on the street because right now we have 111 dogs and we're storing dogs over over in PA and that's a lot of money every year and um that's a lot of money that we could be used for other things so with that said um welome my next colleagues thank you very much and have a blessed evening thank you councilman councilwoman Gonzalez thank you council president first thank you everyone for being present this evening um I want to say thank you to the Police director and all of the officers and partnering officers that came out um for the incident on Saturday um I didn't speak much about it the first time but just to um some of my colleagues point I think just the frustration was um we understand you have to make hard decisions and certain things are not the public is not privy to and so we I understand that I'm sure most of us do I think just the frustration came when you know the person wasn't in the home and so how do we not know that he's not going to commit another crime in the city you know once we didn't know where he was so that I think that's where the communication came from but um we do commend you and I want to say thank you for everything that you have been doing I know it's not an easy job and prayers out to all of the families who were affected by this incident um I also agree with the social media posting I mean I understand that we can um you know we just we want to try to us as Council people we're trying to inform the the public as much as possible um and so we have to learn you know when and when not to do so so thank you for bringing that but we are learning as we go um I just want to say thank you to the psng for their presentation and providing that information and to the health department also for the update um as we all need that um to Mr stalworth um I agree I've been saying this over for the last couple of weeks the parking has become an issue the ticketing has become become excessive and it's sometimes wrongfully done and we I don't know what it is that we need to do with the public works department as far as training them or even providing signs if we're now enforcing certain areas that um are not allowed to park in that there are signs that are visible for our residents and people to see it is not fair that you know some people have permits already on their cars and they're still getting ticketed um because not only do they get I mean they may have their tickets thrown out but however then they have to in Fe I mean incur the court cost so it still feed to the residents I mean I I do believe in enforcing when we can't park some but I think there should be um there has to be something done it's just excessive to me um and also to the work vans maybe we can look into that possibly um having them file for a special permit if they have a work van in front of their home I think that would be great so thank you for bringing that to our attention and something that we can um have some conversation about and Converse with our director um possibly get that going um to miss Ford on the programs of women's and family um my Council colleague um Miss Williams kind of addressed that so um thank you for that we do have someone that we we passed an ordinance for who plans to provide homes for women and children um in the near future so hopefully that's coming within a next year or two um as far as the the taxes and the rent increasing we are currently working I think most some of us on this Council have been working diligently about the rent stabilization board being active again we are very close to having that board activated and and getting it going so that way some of these things do not occur because it's getting ridiculous um as far as landlords increasing the rent just because a tenant um decides to complain about some things that are being done um we're working on a Case right now with that situation so trust me we are trying to get that together um if I'm not mistaken I believe we received about all of the positions a seven people that expressed interest on being on the board and if you are interested please feel free to come on and um submit a letter interest also a resume state in would like to be on the board um for that um because we can use more people uh Miss deal thank you I think we spoke about she spoke about the ticketing also and responsible pet owner so to the 2415 I agree with my Council uh colleague right here maybe we should table it and maybe get some amendments get some more feedback on it um as far as possibly making people register if they want to have the chicken in the city of Trenton um I think that may help us in that area yeah I think that was it for today I do have a couple of announcements I got a couple more seconds um okay not that much time but sometimes so the Puerto Rican Community friends they will be Pro providing free quro um lessons and that's um a specific little guitar looking um instrument um that we use in the Puerto Rican culture and they will be providing free lessons from 11:00 a.m. to 12: p.m. um on May 18th 25th June 8th and June 5th along with free Spanish classes so if anyone would like to speak Spanish or learn to speak Spanish they are providing free classes for that at Mercer County College um I believe uh Miss deal mentioned the Trenton artworks that would be going on this Saturday also we have the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market councilwoman sorry but that is I should be alloted more I never use my five that thing's better than the Academy Awards like I just you know y'all was gonna hear my last one but no thank you so much for being present councilwoman frisbee so thank you council president so good evening everyone I wanted to just readdress um I want to thank um director Wilson once again for clarifying that we did did not have an active shooter but um and then and um allowing us to understand better proper protocol for when things are happening and allowing um those who are in charge to actually do just that and how do we what we should be doing is we're just directing questions to our officers just like we would if there was a fire just like if there was EMS we would take it to the directors we would take it to those offices so thank you for that thank you for um clarification on that I did want to address also I want to thank again PSG for their um thorough presentation and to of course our uh Health and Human Services Division you guys did a great job I really appreciate you coming out um that's going to help the community um a great deal with understanding what's going on instead of making assumptions and people hear things in the community and it's misinformation that comes out um I think that we are we're we're going I'm going to go past that right now I do want to address the parking parking does seem not seem like parking is becoming um a bit of an issue and we need to figure out how we can get a happy median um people should be allowed to park in front of their homes and especially if it is a commercial van I love the idea of if it's not a tractor Trail or tractor shows don't belong here in our community but if you have a work truck that just like if PSC and GK and their Verizon or AT&T and they had to park in front of your house to complete their work there's no reason why you should not be able to do the same exact thing you should not be ticketed at 10: a.m. during the actual work day so that's something we need to tweak sit down and go over and find out how we can get a a much better balance with that um I'm glad folks are doing their job but we just have to make sure that we are honoring um all of those especially we don't want you to leave after 10 years and especially have a wife who is uh differently abled I like to say and um in her health would needs her to um be there I wanted to also um say with Miss Jill wford we are in uh excited about renaming of um Samaritan um and giving the honor what honor is actually due we know their pastor and uh his wife um who's now deceased has done great and is and continues not has done it's continuing continuing to do great work for our community and it is well-deserved um honor so um I'm excited about that I'm I'm grateful that it was actually put forth um taxes yes I'm excited that we're working on the taxes we absolutely need to get rent stabilization especially when it's going up not just for um moms and dads but for our seniors that is really problematic with our seniors who can't afford um they're now making a decision on how they're going to either eat or keep the light bill on or pay their rent um and that ought not be a question for them they ought to be able to relax in their Golden Years um so I want to make sure that we are addressing that I did want to make a couple of um announcements one is Task mobile uh they have partnered with um the for the glory of God and The Smith Family Foundation where every Monday at 11:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. they will be serving food free food delicious food at 471 Parkway Avenue in Trenton New Jersey again that is at 471 Parkway Avenue Trenton New Jersey task will be out there serving food and you please tell someone to come out there let's take it um Advantage let them know that we appreciate them but come out and get a meal if you're running for lunch or you have someone in the area you will not be disappointed and I have flyers for that in both English and in Spanish um so you can come out um task with for the glory of God and the Smith Foundation also I wanted to do a social media uh announcement Pastor theater is having their 2024 Gala on April 6 at 6m at the Trenton Country Club tickets are $125 we ask you to come out and support Especially since one of the honores is our very young director Miss Maria Richardson Hernandez Hernandez Richardson so I would love to have us come out as many as um possible to come out and support this great Endeavor they do great work in the city and um let's just support and I want to close by saying that the city of Trenton recognizes that the people of Trenton have made us Guardians of the public trust we are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility to seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and compassion and I beat the clock thank you very nice Sun might add absolutely you're welcome councilwoman Edwards thank you welcome thank you good evening everyone good evening I want to start off with the most recent incident just in closing um again to reiterate I would like to commend law enforcement and street team on their Swift actions to you know just address the situation and I'm glad that the perpetrator was apprehended without any type of further incidents and my heart and my hearts and my condolences go to the family of those he had taken the lives of um I do want to say I don't believe that it's a need to know when we're talking about Public Safety when it comes to our community obviously we have a lot of people that do not take things seriously and will flock to a crime scene and if they're not being told that it's of on a certain level of seriousness especially when you don't have all the information you need I think people should have been alerted so I'm going to Stand My Ground on that and I would want to respectfully addressed um the social media post that I made I shared the information on Facebook the moment I saw it on the news before I got word from the administration or anything like that my social media post was not resp response to any type of contact from the administration or any type of official or employee of the city of TR they were from residents they were from the news and I watch the news all day long to make sure my city was safe my family was safe my children was safe and that was the end of the story obviously there was not all accurate information further evidence that I did not release any type of privy information but was reacting to what was going on in our community and I felt like the people needed to know so that they would not put themselves In Harm's Way in the story so I will not apologize for posting on social media as I felt that people needed to know and I was not told not to because I didn't feel like it impeded an investigation when it was already public information widely spread so it was no intent to step on the toes of the mayor or the administration or the Police director or his Department in no way shape or form so I come from a good place of just wanting people to be on alert so that you're safe that's it moving on ordinance 24-15 I am opposed to uh this ordin this ordinance directly supersedes what the state says in its laws its statutes I have shared that with my Council colleagues and um the ordinance unfortunately has not been amended from Banning chickens and emus and I would not like to see us in violation of state law and be fined for that as well so I would just again urge my colleagues to reconsider not excluding the chickens and if we must not exclude the emus but to enforce proper habitats proper cleaning proper care if we have to have emus then it needs to be a certain size yard it needs to be a certain side height of fence so that these birds are not escaping and running down the street um it's not safe for them obviously and just to enforce I know we do have enforcement issues when it comes to resources financially so so we need to address that as well because obviously we do need this but the state has they said what they said they gave the Emu back so I think that we should move forward with just enforcing proper protocols from our residents and making sure these animals are kept safely and the proper habitats uh lastly I would like to uh support the resolution for the honorary honorary naming of Bishop and I'm sorry Joseph rever now way um Samaritan Baptist Church has been a pillar in the north war and in the city of Trenton for over 40 years as you uh heard Minister Wolford speak about um I would like to personally just thank him I wish that he was we here but I will see him uh next month at his event honoring him he has been uh his doors has always been open to the community I have been honored and had the privilege of Hosting seven homeless feedings on Thanksgiving from 2014 to 2021 um and the only reason why so I appreciate the support for this church in the honorary Reen it and evening councilwoman I believe that is your five minutes I'm sorry she can go ahead if you want to say one last name because I'm going to defer thank you Mr Garcia for being on point I I really appreciate you I'm not being defiant thank you don't get me later I'm sorry same here no worries no worries so go ahead and finish what you were gonna say councilwoman Edwards and then before Council vice president speaks councilwoman frisbee has a quick announcement that she wanted to make that she um Overlook so go ahead councilwoman I just wanted to say in closing um I just would like for a council to consider voting in favor of the honorary renaming as the ravenous have been a pillar in the community thank you thank you council president so I just wanted to um announce won Little League presents a fitness fundraiser with everybody EB fit on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 pm it actually started already started March 12th they have $5 donations and it's at the West End batting cage arston Avenue right off of Hermitage for more information it has um numbers on here for various individuals but come out let's get our children uh active moving about and if you need to see a flyer if you want to take a picture you are welcome I will have this at the end of uh uh Council Council vice president yes thank you okay good evening everybody I promise I will try to be quick tonight um so with regard to the wildlife ordinance I just want to say that I look forward to taking concerns into consideration you know worried primarily about inhumane issues of keeping these types of animals captive without proper care I'm I'm sure that we as a council can come to an agreement in a way that potentially keeps um you know the chickens under proper care and while following proper guidelines um as per state statute um I look forward to having further conversations regarding that and what in what is and what is not allowed I know that my South Ward residents have been are being or feel like they will be attacked or seriously affected by this um Wildlife ordinance and I want to speak to them and you know their means and and you know uh the needs of their families and and revenue and things like that why they keep these chickens but I agree with my Council colleague about um you know making sure and and with with the ability to have the proper enforcement to make sure that these animals are properly kept you know their their their coups are clean their yards are clean um you know and we are not um impeding on health and wellness of our you know fellow residents um with that I do agree that reptiles should not be part of this ordinance whatsoever um I do agree to keep the Emu in the ordinance should we move forward with it um just for the record exotic birds I'm okay we don't need to have that Ed so um I do want to read a statement from a Southward count um St Southward constituent who could not be here because she felt ill tonight um this is her opinion on the wildlife ordinance U Pam lupinetti at 102 robling says chickens carry a Litany of diseases Salon Nilla being number one for those were hospitalized in contact with the backyard bird they had chicken after researching on the CCDC website about illness caused by backyard birds I strongly urge Council to leave the chickens on a farm where they receive um you know proper balance feeding and our house in a clean well-maintained Coupe we have been moving forward with this Council let's not uh go back in Reverse so that was her opinion and her opinion only and I wanted to read it for her in her absence this evening um with regards to parking Mr stalworth you had conversation with the parking authority people thinking they they are parking appropriately um but we have had no enforcement for such a long time in the city and I know right now it is kind of um shocking to people and we need to make sure that people are aware of what these ordinances look like and how we are supposed to be parking because we need to be fair to everybody in the city as well with regards to your utility vehicle you are able and within your right to be there at 10:00 a.m. and not receive a ticket so I do encourage you to take that information um and and go the proper channels to fight that ticket because the ordinance for utility vehicles is that you cannot park on the streets um between the hours I believe 10 8 or 10 p.m. and 6:00 am in the morning so um I appreciate your concerns and this is something you know me living where I live next to the ballpark and the arena we have so many parking issues so my residents want more enforcement and I realize others you know want just fair improper and you are right there are some in I think uh Miss de you said it as well there are improper tickets being given out and they're being very very nitpicky as to where these permits are being placed in the vehicles um and we need to have some level of leniency you know when it comes to that so thank you guys for bringing that to our attention as is something we have been continuing to work on um other than that I just wanted to say that um we had I had a great event today um helping out Trenton Community street team we were in the Ward it was really interesting we knocked on a lot of doors and you know a lot of people um who readily don't want to speak to a politician because they think just Politics as usual but Trent Community treat team did an amazing job of getting some of these people to open up and address their concerns um and they they um took to the resources that were being um afforded to them um and they were very very open and honest about their concerns so that was really really great uh with regard to the animal breeding ordinance um yeset you were not not there and I apologize for that um our Police director was there detective R was there there were some um other task officers that were there heilo officers as well um and our one of our law um attorney or one of our attorneys for the city and I did think that uh director Richardson was appr prized I know that she was not in that meeting I think she was not able to attend so yes I just wanted to clear that up and I look forward to sitting down with you and whomever else needs to be in that room and making whatever amendments that make sense um because I want to get that enforcement done um uh southw neighborhood association is having a southw cleanup this Saturday 11: to 1 p.m on Lamberton Street at uh Federal at the community garden that's where it's starting so if you're not doing anything and you want to help out give back please come out um other than that oh and and councilwoman Edwards are having an councilwoman I believe is also your 5 minutes let's talk South Trenton at one up one down at 7:48 cash Street at 1:30 p.m. to 3 so please come out and I will give you guys another reminder and our next meeting our next meeting our next meeting before the event so thank you guys so much have a wonderful evening thank you the next of the next of the next of the next good evening everyone thank you so much for being with us woo F like I was at the eye doctor thank you so much for being with us this evening once again to Mr Bowski to Mr stalworth Miss Wolford Miss Ford um and Miss deal thank you for your comments thank you for your suggestions and thank you for being actively engaged in the process this is how it works it's through people coming forward speaking up the conversations tell us what you think tell us how you feel and I am hopeful that you see that with this Council we are actually working with the administration to get real um solutions that are going to help the residents help the city but also keep everybody in order to where we need to be but we have an open ear um to the needs of the people we're working to do the best that we can to make our city a better place to that being said I would like to thank um director anit Terry and Public Works we did a senior citizen garbage can initiative where if you were 62 and older um you got a free 32 gallon garbage can um with the city of Trenton we ended up giving out well they ended up I got the information and sent it over I was like going crazy with it but they ended up giving out over aund and maybe five garbage cans throughout the city to our seniors so thank you for that um I stopped collecting information for right now just to give you'all a little break you're welcome right and then we'll pick back up a little bit down the line thank you to director Douglas we also did a um smoke detector initiative where they will come out fire department and install free smoke detectors in your home so far we've taken in about 30 um residents with information so thank you for doing that we appreciate your due diligence with that speaking of Trenton fire department this Thursday March 21st they are honoring women in public safety and community service here in our city hall Atrium from 2:30 to 4:30 pm this is put on by mayor R Gora and the department of fire and Emergency Services so if you're around please come out the keynote speaker is Lieutenant Bethesda D Stokes and it's for women's history month they want to honor those Heroes who came before by honoring those who are here now trans Central High School um we're having the um the play The Lightning Thief the Percy Jackson musical March the 22nd at 700 pm and then March the 23rd at 3 pm at the high school adults 18 and above tickets are only $8 students below 18 well 17 and Below $5 the show runs 2 hours and 15 minutes and you can get tickets at .show sltc hs- lightning uh if you want more information about that you can email me c Feliciano Trenton nj.org and I can get that to you on 322 um fathers and men's United is having their annual father daughter dance from 5: to 9:00 p.m. at 7:15 BW Avenue our very own councilwoman Jossie Edwards always is a big part of that um mcing and helping usher that along so we look forward to everything that goes along with that and I believe councilwoman frisbee was there when they did a fitting with the girls recently so thank you for participating and everything with that this Saturday the 23rd of March from 9:00 am to 1: PM the Boys and Girls Club of uh Mercer County is having their girls conference out on Spruce Street there's a host of guest speakers I'll be one of the presenters for all three age brackets um that will be there so I'm looking forward to that on March the 27th that's a Wednesday um our culinary 3 students at Trenton Central High School are going to be doing their culinary dinner for um family and friends at the high school and that's from 5:30 to 700 p.m. so we're looking forward to that right and celebrating our youth as they continue to push through and do great things um for those that are interested in serving our city we currently have openings on our ethics board the Trenton parking authority the zoning board and the senior citizen Advisory Board we are taking applications or resumés um until the the close out is March the 29th you can email boards and commissions b o a r DS n d commissions at Trenton nj.org we want you to come out and serve the city help us to get things in order shout out to Mr Garcia our clerk who actually he held an in-house Oprah training today for the different departments here in the city looking to make things better looking to streamline things having great conversations as to how we can get through the process so thank you for taking that on and for making that happen you are appreciate it again thank you all for coming out tonight I appreciate each and every one of you all right and she made time Madame President uh at this time we can move on to the docket all right let's go and we have minutes for approval which you will uh which will be sent to you and you may vote on on Thursday Communications and petitions as well uh ordinances for second reading and public hearing I will run I will run through the title ordinance 24 d-15 an ordinance regulating the keeping of certain animals and wildlife in the city of Trenton and Madame President if you want I'm go ahead I'm sorry I was going to say I believe councilman Harrison um with regard to 2415 are we tbling this again recommendation from okay yes so we like to table this until we get a recommendation I'd like to make a motion that we table ordinance 24015 until we receive a recommendation from the health department second was moved by the council president was that seconded by I'm sorry frisbee thank you so mooving second I'll call the rooll councilwoman Edwards yes Council vice president figuro kber yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzales yes yes councilman Harrison councilwoman Williams yes and council president Feliciano yes motion carried the item is tabled until I'm sorry until we receive word from the um Department of of Health okay indefinitely until we receive word from the Department of Health thank you noted moving on to ordinance 24-16 ordinance amending ordinance 23-25 creating a senior citizen advisory Council by the city of Trenton reintroduced to correct errors Mr Garcia I'm sorry point of order please forgive me we we'd actually like to give a timeline uh for two weeks so for the second meeting right for second meeting in April wait one second okay April you may 7 more time okay so May 7th we want to table 24015 until May 7th okay so we had a motion to table indefinitely um I'd like to remove that motion I want to take it back recent I don't want it anymore so to withdraw the motion I was trying to find a word I'd like to withdraw the motion for 2415 send okay thank you withdraw okay thank you and I'd like to make a motion to table ordinance 24015 until May 7th May 7th thank you motion second I believe that's by the same individuals correct yes thank you we mooving second I'll call the rooll once again roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figaro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes and council president frisbee council president council president Feliciano I apologize yes I'm looking to on I apologize motion carried item is tabled until May 7th correct yes May 7th thank you moving on to ordinance 24-17 ordinance amending ordinance 23- 050 to releasee vacate and extinguish Mr what happened to 24-16 oh I'm sorry we are at 2416 now 2416 ordinance amending ordinance 23-25 creating a senior citizen advisory Council by the city of Trenton reintroduced to correct erors I have a motion to approve so move second I believe we vote on Thursday for these items right okay okay never mind it's just a got right right let's just keep um if there's no other questions uh Madame President I'll move on yes certainly ordinance 24-17 ordinance amending ordinance 23- 050 to release vacate and extinguish any and all public rights in and to the remaining portion of Baker alley ordinance was any questions who is Baker just kidding not bad moving to ordinance 24-19 an ordinance to release vacate and distinguish any and all public rights in a portion of hannam alley we don't know who hannam is either keep going moving on moving on to resolutions and Madame President uh if is if you would like to ask are there any items that the council are there any items the council would like to extract from a consent agenda I would like 24103 roll call noted anyone else anyone have resolutions no others hold on oh thank you I'm good Madam president yes I would like 24 104 and 105 to be roll call yeah which one is that I'm sorry 24104 24105 not it you want them roll called or you want to ask questions on you want to discuss it well I want to disc I would I think I want it roll called because I asked in our executive session I mean our docet review for information about these entities all right so you g to discuss it when you're okay thank you you have any other ones no anyone else and Madam president I do want to call to your attention uh walk on resolution 24- what will be 24-16 that is a resolution authorized in contract awarded to Winter Ford for the purchase of 22 2025 police interceptor utility marked and unmarked vehicles for patrol and criminal investigation Bureau for Trenton Police Department awarded through New Jersey state contract 20 Fleet 0 excuse me 01189 in an amount not to exceed 1, 6,282 this is a one-time purchase that's fine based on my conversation with ba Cruz um and the necessity of of this um situation with getting these vehicles I have no problem walking it on thank you understood 4116 one are there any other items to be pulled for roll call 2413 103 hold on one second 10 Mr Garcia yeah can can someone tell us who drafted um the resolution 24115 115 one moment was this public works here right here it was5 now years off is please h first we can continue okay does anyone else have anything else that they would like pull or just to um move to the side to discuss the5 for you can continue okay hearing no other uh items to be excluded from the consent agenda we will move on to ordinances for first reading ordinance we have a I'm sorry did you want to entertain question we had a couple we have 24103 24104 and 24105 are there question I take questions on those items I don't have any questions on 24103 I just want it roll called 24104 CVP you have questions on that yes okay she has questions so I had the same question for 24104 and for 24105 and my question was asked in um docer review and I think uh Mr Cherry was supposed to have some information for me um with regards to um what these organizations have done um and what they plan to do specifically with the money but also you know what what they have they done up to this date um and that we'll be awarding them uh this arpa money good evening uh Jim Beach Chief of Staff um so let me start with 24104 uh which is the global youth transformation initiative group they've been around since 2020 what they do is they they're kind of total philosophy is to take children from Urban environments and um subject them or expose them to different cultural aspects uh that they normally would not be privy to in their day-to-day this includes travel both International as well as domestic travel um as I said they started in 2020 then Co came along in 2021 which severely hampered their abilities to uh do these programs they then switched over to more um kind of uh computer BAS programs but now that we're out of Co their intention is to uh proceed and start to do what their original kind of mission is funding and the funding moving forward outside of just obviously a grant for ARA funds what was their funding how are they how are they receiving monies for their program um you know they go out and they seek uh and solicit uh donations from different organizations and private individuals okay and and when we taking these applications do we get um documentation regarding like you know numbers and actual stats of what these organizations have done like the the physicality of you know the stats do we ever get that at all or proposal sometimes they do sometimes they don't um certainly we are free to request that from them before anything is approved or agreed upon okay that's what I requested from Mr Cherry uh that was not shared with me councilwoman yes if I just have that information prior to Thursday's meeting that would be perfect possibly if that's available I'm sorry just to be clear what type of information just kind of stat stats I mean we we've given a lot of arpa funds you know to a lot of different organizations nonprofits and things like that you know we rarely have those visuals of you know what they were using their monies for how were they requiring their monies prior to um you know and what the money are going to go to so I just want to know you know that our money is going to the right places now that's fine I mean I can go back and check it may be part of their original application package again that request was not shared with me uh they all need to submit their tax returns uh they usually all have a pretty substantial narrative as to what they've done and what they're going to use the monies for um and so yeah I'll I'll go back and I'll take a look at their application first if it's not in there then I'll go to the organization and request it directly I appreciate that for 104 and 105 okay so the same same thing yep that's easy thank you thank you Mr I was gonna say Mr Beach actually since uh we're meeting tomorrow about the RP funds if you could have that tomorrow for our meeting when we get I can certainly check the application by tomorrow if it's not in the application then I'll need to go back to the applicants okay thank you remaining for roll call vice president yes okay 104 and 105 so 103 104 and 105 will be roll call thank you thank you and are there any other questions regarding any other resolutions if I just might speak just real fast on 105 which is work well I just wanted to say having some familiarity with this program uh they're located the First Presbyterian Church uh and I think it would be a worthwhile program for us to support thank you yeah I'm familiar with them as well to come to to tidy be but to um cbp's point this was something that she had raised at docket review that she wanted the information that was supposed to be brought forward for that so thank you Mr Garcia certainly uh so with that being done and no other items no other questions on resolutions and no other items to be pulled you know what wait I'm sorry forgive me just real quick um um the one the um oh not for Resolutions I have a question on on the new um ordinance that we're going to be talking about that's fine go ahead I'm sorry uh moving on to ordinance for first reading ordinance 24-20 ordinance supplementing and amending chapter 309 Water and Sewer of the code the city of Trenton by adding article sorry that's um mandat excuse me article what was that nine mandatory replacement of lead Ser I don't know why I didn't know that mandatory replacement of lead service lines in conformance with New Jersey state law are there any questions regarding this ordinance moving on to 24-21 ordinance amending ordinance 8 2-18 entitled an ordinance continuing certain positions fixing salary ranges therefore and setting forth certain regulations for the implementation of these ranges askme local 2286 senior radio dispatcher any questions regarding this particular ordinance hearing none moving on 24-22 in ordance of the city of Trenton in county of Mercer New Jersey amending ordinances to resend special assessment in connection with lead service line replacement project I have a question I have a question good evening director simple good evening council president good evening Council thank you just a quick question um just for a little bit of clarity when we met and we discussed this in docket review um I asked a question about we want to um in the last where're as we have here authorizes Trent Water Works to recoup the cost of the lead service line replacement project from all subscribers of the public water system I.E through the water system rates rather than through the special assessment imposed against particular Property Owners does that mean that our rates at some point are going to increase council president at this time we have to do a rate study regardless of what concerning our water rates you know we have the cheapest water in the whole New Jersey right and at one point we have to be able to sustain ourselves with all the work that we're doing regarding the leadline service but this has nothing to do with a rate increase we just we were not able to bill each and every resident for the in the phase one and two because we weren't um we didn't have the platform to do so so we we had to send this in order to make it free and mandatory moving forward because we lost a great opportunity to do more in phase one and two because of like landlords refusing to let us go in so making it free this will be hoping to get a lot more done during that um our next phases okay but at some point in time our rates are going to increase Bas based on the study we have to do a rate study it's been how many years and also um there was something where if um the people don't let let you in there will be penalties and everything that will be assessed for this C council president if I may interject okay um just point of point of order this is actually the Tuesday introductory meaning the hearing and any discussion and question is properly held on Thursday so that's when you know that's okay I'm sorry this at the next meeting so this isn't really the proper uh protocol for these questions okay I'm sorry director simple thank you thank you I'll see you Thursday it won't be that's not third that's this is the first read yeah could be read by title and discussed on the second second reading want you call Madam president go ahead uh Madam president this time we don't have any I don't believe I have any other items uh I believe it's time for us if you would like to ask for a motion to go into executive session may I have a motion please to go into ex session ex executive session is not needed for this for this uh issue I will have I'll have a meem I'll have a memorandum out to council regarding the issue um that that I can disseminate to them that sounds good to me Madam president if there is nothing further no other items I believe we can have a motion to adjourn one second point of order before we do that um we don't we have to list everything that's going to be on consent agenda uh I can announce I can announce anoun the the items remaining for consent agenda yes thank you um the consent agenda would consist of 24-11 24-14 24-12 we don't need 24101 right because that's the one going into well now no longer needed my apologies from 10 114 102 106 107 108 109 111 112 113 115 and 116 are the remaining items for the consent agenda one second Mr director Bridges okay okay thank you thank you okay Mr Garcia we commit can I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second moving second I call the RO councilwoman Edwards yes not vice president Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilman Harrison yes I do she's what huh where are we councilman Harrison did you say yes yes councilwoman Williams yes and council president Feliciano yes okay thank you carried meeting adjourn but I do