Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on October 6 2026

Last updated October 6, 2026

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Oct 6 2026 · Council

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Good evening everyone, and thank you for coming to the Piscataway Town Council meeting for October 6th, 2026. Would everyone please turn the cell phones off? I'd like to call this meeting to order. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 3 1 PL 1975, specifying the time, date, location, login, or dial in information, and to the extent known the by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court library bulletin boards municipal website, providing a copy of the official newspapers to the township by filing a copy of the, to the office of the township clerk in accordance with certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes. There will be public comment periods for both remote and in-person attendees separately. Each member of the public shall have only one opportunity to speak during each public portion, as the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or logged in user account. We ask that if you wish to speak, that you log in or dial in separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual. Should you have any further comments or questions? The Town Council is available by email and phone, and you could always call the mayor's office during normal operating hours.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Ms. Seader, can you please call the roll

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Cahill? Here. Councilmember Carmichael? Here. Councilmember Espinosa? Here. Councilmember Liebowitz? Here. Councilmember Rashid?

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Here.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Rin. Here. Council President Lombardi

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Here. And would everyone please join in the flag salute. Five would be comments from administration and council, do we have any comments regarding adjournment of any matters on the agenda from any other council members?

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Yes, I do have. So before I ask for an agenda item to be taken off, I want to put it in context. Last month the township released an AI video misrepresenting Councilwoman Laura Leibowitz. And my vote, we voted against another warehouse and that was manipulated to misrepresent our position on the AI data center. I want to make a motion to put the position of the Piscataway Township Council on record that we, the council, oppose the creation of any new AI data center in Piscataway with a roll call vote. Can I have a second? It is part of the consent. I have to put it in context of taking off an agenda item.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) I second the motion.

Speaker 5 Can you just clarify what you're trying to do? So

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) I want to take off an agenda item before I take it off. I want to put it in context. The context is the AI video misrepresented our position. So therefore I want to make a motion where the council can make their re their opinion or their record vote for an AI data center. So do we as a council oppose a ai ai data center in the future in Piscataway? That's not, that would be the

Speaker 5 Motion. That's that's not a procedural process. I leave it to council president to determine whether that's a Yeah, we, if we're filing a motion, we should be doing either a resolution or some type of action that we can memorialize at this point. You know, I leave it up to the council president. It's her determination as to whether a vote should be taken. A council person themselves can individually decide if a vote should be taken, if that's the council president's purview. But I'll leave it.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Yes. I'm gonna say no, this is last minute. And

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) I understand, but this is a very simple, it's

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Something we discussed ahead of time. I think a roll call vote is, can be memorialized.

Speaker 5 Well, first of all, it's council president saying, but you can make your statement. You absolutely, but I'm not sure not gonna

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Take a vote

Speaker 5 On it. I'm not sure what, what the purpose of the motion is for other than making a statement that you, you know, you can

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Make your statement.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) It's not about my statement. What I'm asking for a motion is that we, the council, the Piscataway Township Council all agree sitting here on the council that we do not agree to have a AI data center in Piscataway. That is what we would be voting on.

Speaker 5 Well, you, when you, when the ordinance comes forth, you can make that comment as, as part of your vote

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Shouldn't be a comment because an AI video was created misrepresenting our position. So is

Brian Wahler (Mayor) There was, excuse me, counsel, there was no misrepresent. Another vote was to allow a data center at that site. That's a manipulation. That is not the language in the order council in which we fact and I understand you don't understand law. Thank you. Over on 30 nights grids, as in all of our industrial areas, data centers are a permitted use as well as warehouse office in all of our light industrial zones. What it is, is that that site is gonna be demoed and we didn't want one close. And by the way, the data centers that are in this town are cloud computing sites they're geared

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Towards. I'm aware of that. Thank you. No, you're not aware. One right down the street from me. It's right across from my house. Don't tell me what I know and don't know. Because

Brian Wahler (Mayor) If,

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Tell me what I know and don't know. Thank you. Thank

Michele Lombardi (Council President) You. We, we are not gonna take a vote. Please

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Do not see what I know and don't know.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. Let me continue. Let's end these. Alright, let me, let

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Me, let's end this. Take

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) A, take the item nine. We send it back to the planning board and the developer and let them know that the Piscataway Township and the residents do not want another warehouse in town. AI or not. That

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Is not an ai, it is not an AI center. Okay. So clarify that. It is not an AI center.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Another

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Warehouse wants gets, its involved in a very costly lawsuit. It's a permitted use out there and it's not permitted use. If

Michele Lombardi (Council President) We, if we get to that portion of the meeting, we'll we'll all be able to discuss that.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Pay for the law fees.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) The residents of Piscataway and the neighbors have all spoken that they do not want another warehouse, especially right across the high school. This isn't 39th Bridge Road. It is across the high school. Very prime location. There is going to be retail and housing coming up on that street. It's an amazing location for retail space. Any kind of

Brian Wahler (Mayor) That's I'm glad Council president. I'm glad Councilman respect. Let

Michele Lombardi (Council President) That, alright, let me, let me just say something here. Okay. As elected officials, okay, we're handed decisions that we have to make. Sometimes those decisions might not be what we want that to be, but if a developer owns a piece of land, they have to be able to do something with their land. Okay? It's a permitted use. It will not create traffic. It is not ai. It will bring revenue to the township. It will not put kids in the school system. I surely don't want my taxes to go up any anymore due to the school system 'cause I can't afford it at this point. So let's click. So, so let's

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Say it's not AI

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Pilot program, not part of the

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Pilot program.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) It will bring revenue to the township.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) And by the, let the record reflect that when Mrs. Councilman Rashid was on the school district, she voted for the con and contract and lease to house the, the

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Countdown. We'll take this conversation. There's

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Another board of ed moment.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) The ordinance comes up, we'll discuss this. When the ordinance comes up

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Called Bully pulpit,

Michele Lombardi (Council President) It's called sometimes as elected officials, we have to make decisions based on the, what we are handed. It is a permitted use in that area.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) I understand. But we're also elected to represent the voices, the broader voices or a broad range of voices in town. And there are people that do not want additional warehouses. So there are many vacant warehouses. There's a large one at the back of, I got a new

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Scratch for you. We only have a 5% vacancy in this town

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Of warehouses. I would, I wanna see the facts on that. I have a giant one at the back of my property on Lakeland that we moved a neighbor out for. Okay, I'll be happy to ask for the data backup for that. And there,

Michele Lombardi (Council President) There is no income coming from that property at the moment. It would be better to the township to have income

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Also was rezoned. We rezoned it so that it can, excuse me sir, please. Excuse, excuse. Set it down back

Michele Lombardi (Council President) There. Excuse me. We're gonna end this right now. We're gonna move forward and this can come up at the time of the audience. Number seven is the consent agenda items.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) I actually have a few questions about the consent agenda items themselves.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Okay. We're gonna move to number six, which is open to the public for comments regarding the consent agenda items only. So anyone,

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Adam, president, may I ask when council members can ask about consent agenda items? Go ahead. Okay, thank you. So this was item G Relu resolution requesting approval of items and revenue appropriation community block grant for $282,421. My question is, where does this money get deposited and what is the grant money used for?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) The way that community block development grants go, it's a reimbursable grant. So the township is able to draw down. So the township must execute the project first and then the draws down. So this is our 2026 allotment. We have two years in which to complete a project and we also can go back to the federal government and say, you know, if we had some kind of limitations or, or, or something that might have curtail our ability to complete a project in that timeframe. But what it is, is just saying that the township's been awarded that amount of dollars and that once we earmark a project according to our plan. So we have a plan and there's a whole process involved in terms that people can come and talk about the plan. The plan is pretty broad stroke because we wanna be able to do many different things with the money. So it's a draw down grant and that's how that works. And it's just

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Example specific

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Projects laid out.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Yeah. That we use this money for. Just as an example.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) It, it's, it's a very well prescribed grant. It's not money that you can just take and put anywhere. It has to be targeted to emod areas for respect to a DA accessibility. That's the only way you can use this money.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Great, thank you. You're welcome. My next question is on, this was l this was the backup distribution non-residential development fee challenge on 41 Ethel Road. So this is an addition on to an existing warehouse snack innovations on 1690 Washington Avenue where residents did protest having this built. But it was built. And unfortunately, I just wanna point out that there was an ice arrest made at that location this week, which was tru the end of the month, which was very troubling to many residents reached out to me. That was just a comment and question regarding the consent agenda. Yeah, that was on the consent agenda. N this is authorizing canalization can, excuse me. Cancellation of balances in various general improvement authorizations. N well it was N on the draft. I don't know what it is now. It might be off one. Yeah, it all got bumped down when I think M on yellow. Yes, thank you.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Yes. Yes. Those that, what that means is that those were authorizations made and that the projects are done. So we are canceling the remaining monies for that purpose.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Right. And where is that money going and how much is it?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So what happens is the, the money goes toward future infrastructure projects. I don't have the dollar amount right now.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay, thank you. This might be p Now this was, it's similar, the old escrow balances and associated bank accounts. Again, it was just a question of how much money is this? How many accounts. I know that we're very happy with our new CFO and she's helping us clean up our books. So this was just my question, how much money, how many accounts, where does, where does that money get deposited

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So that that money again goes to fund balance which will be used for future projects. So what's important, and I didn't discuss with letter M, is you wanna cancel out balances because you don't want debt service on your books. So you wanna cancel that out and that's good for the township.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. Okay. This is p, this, I don't know what letter it is now. This was a, we're paying for an assessment for somebody for $500 of their property. Is this part of the township property assessment? Why are we paying for a property acquisition? So this is, they're purchasing the house and we're paying for their appraisal.

Speaker 5 I think this is 600 Park Avenue.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Yes.

Speaker 5 Wanna,

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Family has had interest in selling, from what I understand, a property we need to project and it's adjacent to where our township property, where we use for the community center.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's looking to expand 'cause it's adjacent to the community center for future expansion of the community center. It's good to acquire the property next door.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Got it. Thank you so much. Again, my letters might be off. This is an area in need of redevelopment on one centennial. Can you elaborate on that? What's the plan for this location?

Speaker 5 So all this is, is asking the planning board to actually do a study to determine whether that, you know, it is basically being underutilized right now. One centennial is a basically vacant, vacant, fully vacant rather large commercial office space that's actually had some maintenance issues that we've had been dealing with many. So this is the very preliminary first stage of determining whether, you know, whether it needs to actually, we can try and facilitate it to being a productive site.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. This is our, this updated for our authorization, cooperative authorization list. Just making sure this is all in alignment with our current budget. Also this, there were no headings on this, but like we have $650,000 on tree trimming, pruning, et cetera. This is in alignment, I'm assuming with our budget line.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Exactly. So those, those amounts are listed authorizing departments to continue operations to not delay operations. And anything that is in excess of a budgeted item will be controlled, you know, through the purchasing encumbrance process.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. And I, I see you do save us money where you can when we get money back and I appreciate that. So last, we have these three upcoming contracts with the county. Can you just tell us a little bit about what we're developing here? The timeline and I do have specific concerns about that part of town has a lot of big old trees. Are we gonna make sure to try and protect a lot of that? This is back on Rock Ave and West Seventh and Walnut Street. This was VW and X.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so this is county road projects that have been on the books for 10, 15 years, 20 years. And so the county's finally getting around to it. They do a shared service agreement with the towns that are the streets are located on. Basically we provide the police for traffic or police services, traffic services. And we also do the acquisition of any easements that they require. They do the full design, they do the construction, they do pretty much everything else. We just contribute what they ask us to contribute.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) And what is our relationship with being able to protect some of the environmental features out there?

Speaker 5 We, it's a county road. We don't have any say you can go to the county to

Gabrielle Cahill To, but any, but it would still be true that any tree they take down, they have to replant. Yeah. Like they still have to abide by the ordinance. It says if you take down a tree, you have to replant one. Yeah,

Speaker 5 I mean the county is very similar to in us, as you've seen in most of our road projects, we do a lot of heavy tree planting after road constructions to replace any trees. And even in places that there weren't trees, we plant trees. So I, I don't think there's, you know, hopefully they're on, I, I love all trees myself, but you know that I know the county and the township does make an effort to place them.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you for that. This is a question about the new steel building on Maple Avenue. What's gonna be stored here? Are we replacing an existing building or we're adding a new one?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) What is happening is there's an existing cinder block building that has over lived. Its welcome. So it needs to be demoed and replaced. It's being replaced with a prefab building. Our architect, which was a, which was awarded at the last meeting, Netta Architects is doing the design and we're working together to get this building going. We anticipate the demo starting at some point within the next couple of months we have to go to bid and then we expect the delivery of the structure in about six months. So there's gonna be, and we're gonna, we're picking colors and aesthetics to match the neighborhood. There are very beautiful homes in, in their area. So nice landscaping of on the bottom. So it will make it look a little bit more presentable.

Gabrielle Cahill That was our original DPW building.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So it will be used to continue to house our equipment, our paving machines. Obviously in the winter we have our winter equipment in there. The winter comes out the summer and spring goes back in. We would like to distribute leaf bags through there. We're gonna have a little office, a bathroom. So hopefully we can make it a little more user friendly for residents. And also we will have the ability to store much more there and protect our equipment. We don't wanna leave our equipment out in the weather.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Perfect, thank you so much. And it's a similar question about the salt storage. Is this additional salt storage or are we replacing that structure?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So this is a new salt storage. I think we all are aware of what happened last year with salt. Yes. Or I should say earlier this year. This will allow us to have, I believe 5,200 tons of salt. So the township will be equipped with 10,000 tons of salt. So we are prepared for weather events. It is my understanding, we're in an El Nino stream right now. So we're looking for a lot of moisture on the east coast this year and next

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Don't jinx us.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So I, I'm thinking rain, I'm hoping rain, snow is expensive, but in any event that's what that is for. So we do need that, you know, as we know the climate is, you know, unpredictable and we need to be prepared. Safety is paramount.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Get your salt. Now this is bb so I know this is just our financial accounting. We're adding on now our hotel and motel licenses. What accounts will those be registered under on the, you know, we have animal license clerk's, office clerk's, office licenses, vital statistics, et cetera. Where are we gonna add our hotel and motel fees?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) That'll be just a, another fee collected under the fees under the clerk's office I believe.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. And then just one more on the monthly bank balance, public assistance 33 4 11. What services are provided with this public assistance? The 33 or That's how much we have in there at the, at the moment. Sorry, is this, which consent of the agenda is this? This was, I had it as CC from the yellow. It's the monthly bank balances as of July. It was the finance financial summary. Yeah. Yeah. I think 'cause everything got moved down one or what? Yeah. Moved up One, just an example of what kinds of expenses we use this services, what services are used for this? Public assistance. Money

Speaker 8 Financial.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Yeah, I'm gonna have, I don't, you know what, I don't recall off the top of my head.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) I think I don't have No, I appreciate that. I don't have report here. We can speak later in the week. Thank

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) You. Yeah, sure. I will certainly update

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) You. Thank you very much. I appreciate all of your information. Thank you. Welcome so much. Don't madam President. I am done with my questions.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you for that. We'll now move forward to number six, which is open to the public for comments regarding item number seven, the consent agenda items. So we will now open to the public for the remote portion of the meeting. If you wish to speak at this time, raise your hand either on the Zoom app or if by phone, by pressing star nine. When it is your turn to speak, you'll receive a hear a request To unmute yourself, please click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time. Please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. The counsel or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. So please ask all your questions first. And we're now open to the remote attendees.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president, I'm asking the first remote attendee with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 9 Hello, Brian Wrack, 1247 Brookside Road. I'd like to start just by updating Councilwoman Le Woods' questions. The communally development block grants. The town has submitted some documents. The federal government already, they intend to do road improvements, which includes curb, sidewalks and a DA right of way access as well as sewer repairs and other related public service utility line upgrades. So that's what we told the federal government that we're gonna do. Moving on to more stuff from that, I'd like to read one of the questions and answers that the town has submitted in this document. The document asks what actions are planned to remove and ameliorate the negative effects of public policies that serve as barriers to affordable housing, such as land use controls, tax policies affecting land, so zoning ordinances, building codes, fees and charges, growth limitations and policies affecting the return on residential investment. Town has answered no such action was planned for 2026. I've listened to several meetings about how the state is forcing you to develop affordable housing and how you thought it was unfair. My question then is, why did you spend a federal grant intended to provide decent housing and suitable living environment to low and moderate income persons? That's a quote from the HUD website on adding sidewalks and repairing sewer lines. Sure, sewer lines are important, but is that really the intended use of money? That concludes my quote.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you Mr. Rock. Anyone else?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 10 Good evening, this is Jessica Kratovil, 1247 Brookside Road. Are you able to hear me?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Yes, we can.

Speaker 10 Excellent. So I had a couple of questions and, but first I wanted to make a quick comment and, and thank Councilmember Leibowitz for asking your questions where we could all hear them so that we don't need to ask if, if we need clarification because we get just the, you know, one sentence on each thing that isn't enough for us to know what's going on. I really appreciated getting some more information. So I had a question about consent agenda item P for the area in need of redevelopment. We've been talking a lot about affordable housing lately, and I wondered if it is a consideration that this vacant property in need of redevelopment could possibly be turned into affordable housing. I know it's adjacent to a residentially zoned area and it's quite a large property. You would be able to fit comfortably, I imagine quite a lot of affordable housing in that location. So I wondered if that's been considered. So I'd like an answer to that if you've considered that it could be affordable housing and if not, why. And then I had a follow up question you didn't answer Mr. Re's question on, on letter G, why do you think that that's an appropriate use of this money and Yeah, I I don't, I don't understand how sewer line improvements or sidewalks are gonna help low to moderate income people. So I would really appreciate an answer on those two questions. Thank you.

Speaker 5 Thank you Ms. Kavi. You want I'll take, I mean I I sidewalks helping low to moderate income people is just a no brainer load in moderate income. People are generally the people that have to walk places and or bike. I didn't get that question. Sewer lines are important for infrastructure in low moderate areas besides the fact that I think our Business Administrator can confirm that template is usually a generic description. And as you provided before that this is, we can only draw down when we provide specific projects and a majority of our projects have been most of the time a DA ramps and sidewalks to, to make sure they're accessible for, for those individuals. Right.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) And also I'd like to add the fact that a lot of the monies have gone to repave and rehabilitate roadways in loomo areas. It is the township's decision how those monies are drawn down and spent. And those projects are successful projects and they help the, they help everyone. They improve the quality of life, they improve the quality of living as well as making it safe. And, and that's where those projects are. That's most towns, that's what most towns do if not all, quite frankly. And I, I'm sorry Raj, we, so with respect to one Centennial Avenue, this is nothing more than requesting the planning board to do a area in need of redevelopment. We are not even at a, we are not at a point yet to determine what that property can be. We don't even know if it could be redeveloped following those criteria. So at this point in time criteria has to be met and that's why we're requesting the planning board to do a study.

Speaker 5 And, and I'd just like to add onto that, as we've discussed many times, council president is these are private properties. We can't tell people what to build and unless they want to build it, this property has sat vacant for now 10 over 10 years and those property owners haven't done anything with it. So this is the first step into trying to see if we can get something productive out of that, that location.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) If I make council president that is on the interchange of 2 87 on the ramps, that is not near a residential area,

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Right? Yes. Thank you for that clarification. Anyone else?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president, there are no other remote individuals with their hand raised regarding this agenda item.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) The public portion is now closed for the remote attendees and it's now open for the in-person attendees. If you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which you to make your comments. You may take a seat after the completion of your comments or questions and the council or administration will respond if necessary. So we're now open to the public for any questions regarding the consent agenda items. Please be advised you have three minutes in which to speak,

Partik Patel Right? Happy to sue you, everyone. And again, we are gonna stick to consent agenda item because this is all meant for the benefit of public with the community development block around. What I see is most of these line items today in 2026 when we have an IT and governance systems, it doesn't help public to understand what this numbers what

Michele Lombardi (Council President) What one are you referring to, sir? This

Partik Patel Is all the seven items and anything, what I've seen, I've been attending meetings for last year. I'll tell you very candidly, the items in consent agenda item is public doesn't even understand what that means and where the projects are done with whatever community development brand grants or community that goes on. I'll give you a perfect example with whatever community development in this affordable housing, whatever circus that you guys are doing on Druggers where I'm staying even after, please

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Keep it to the consent agenda. Yeah, so

Partik Patel Please. So I think with with g what what I heard is we, we still don't even understand that the money is appropriated, but what the projects are and, and again, I mean I dunno if this is kindergarten or or college, then we have in terms of the salt, which was WI know two years back there was shared services agreement, which some salt company which which was across the county. So are we gonna get our salt back or this is gonna be like they take their salt away and then we are gonna build this something with Sodom and get more money. Because in this was planned for three, four years through some shared agreement, if you go back to your contracts, there was money that was appropriated and I don't think so. We used up most of the material that was there.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) President, the only thing I could be thinking of is that we, we purchased some salt through a cooperative. That's the only thing I could think of.

Speaker 13 So we need to get it back.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you sir. Anyone else wishing to speak on the consent agenda? Seeing none will close that portion. So can I have a motion to, well the consent agenda vote for efficiency items have been consolidated into the consent agenda to be wor voted on together and the materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Motion

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilwoman Cahill.

Partik Patel Second Espino.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Ms. Seader, can you please call the role

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael? Yes. Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Lebowitz. Yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Rin? Yes. Council President Lombardi?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Yes. And the consent agenda Items pass. We'll now move to number eight, which is an ordinance second reading amending chapter 12 Parks and Recreation. And it will be establishing hours for the pickleball courts at Durham Park and it will be open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Ms. Seader, can you please read this ordinance

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Be resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey? That an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend and supplement the revised general ordinances of the township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey. Amending chapter 12 Parks and recreation areas, section one, use of parks, playgrounds, fields, rinks and courts hours permits. Subsection 1.1 Hours of operation Prohibited Acts to establish hours of operation for the pickleball courts located at Dorm Park. Was introduced on the first day of September, 2026 and had passed the first reading and was published on the township website on the fourth day of September, 2026. Now therefore be it resolved that the offer said ordinance having had a second reading on October 6th, 2026 be adopted past and after passage be published together with the notice of the date of passenger approval on the township website. Be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2026 dash one six.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you Mr. Seader. Since this is a second reading, we'll now open this to the remote attendees for public comment. Anyone wishing to speak remotely? Please raise your hand at this time.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president, there are no remote attendees with their hand, with their hand raised regarding this agenda item.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) The remote portion is now closed. We'll now open to in-person. Anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance for the hours of the pickleball report? Please come up at this time. Seeing none, we'll close that portion. Can I have a motion to accept

Speaker 12 Motion Espinosa?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Can I have a second? Councilman

Speaker 12 Uhrin.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Ms. Seader, can you please call the

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Roll Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael? Yes. Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Lebowitz. I just wanna comment that I know that we had last spring people reaching out to us looking for clarification for fair share usage. Pickle balls become so popular and there was a little competition between the tennis players and the pickleball players. So I hope that this will satisfy fair use amongst the pickle ballers and the tennis players. So I vote

Michele Lombardi (Council President) And the local residents, the local, this was this was to to appease the local residents. Yes. Have to hear the pickleball people play. Yes. At seven in the morning,

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Correct? So I vote yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Ern. Yes. Council President Lombardi?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Yes. And it passes. Number nine is an ordinance second reading, adopting the redevelopment plan for block 6 2 0 1 lot 4.02 30 Knight Briggs Road. It will be open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Miss Seader, can you please read this ordinance?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Be it resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled an ordinance adopting a redevelopment plan for block 6 2 0 1 Lot 4.02 as shown on the tax map of the township of Piscataway, commonly known as 30 Knight Bridge Road was introduced on the first day of September, 2026 and had passed the first reading it was published on the township website on the fourth day of September, 2026. Now therefore be it resolved that the offer said ordinance having had a second reading on October 6th, 2026 be adopted past and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of pastor approval on the township website. Be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2026 dash one seven.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you Mr. Seader. So we will now open to the public for, actually we're gonna open to the remote first. Anyone wishing to speak on number nine? Ordinance Second. Reading remotely please raise your hand now.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 10 Good evening. Jessica Kratovil here again. Are you able to hear me?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Yes we can.

Speaker 10 Excellent. Yeah, I just wanted to call in about this. I, I don't know why we're always wanting to redevelop areas into warehouses. We certainly have no shortage of warehouses here in town and I applaud council members, Leibowitz and Rashid in voting no on this initial reading. We don't need more warehouses. I don't know why you think people want more warehouses or if it's just your political donors that want more warehouses so you're rubber stamping it. But I'm super over it. So I'd really appreciate if you can listen to the community about what we want in the town. And I completely support their voting no on this and you all trying to paint it like they are pro AI data center when they're just also anti warehouse is really, really upsetting that you're using our taxpayer money to make AI videos, which apparently you are not pro AI either. So I'm really, really confused why you're behaving this way. And then the screaming match you have all had at the beginning of the meeting was very unprofessional on the parts of everyone except for Ms. Rasheed and Ms. Leibowitz. So if you could all get your act together, we'd really appreciate it. That's all. Thank you

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. I'm asking the next individual if their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 9 Hello, Brian Wrack. I'm back again. You just told us you can't prohibit developers from doing what they want with their property, but it seems like you're doing that here. So is that a selective thing? You can do it when it suits you and not otherwise because you could rezone things, but we're getting very inconsistent messaging from you on this matter.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) A permitted use now.

Speaker 5 So yeah, to to correct. So this isn't being rezoned. This was a permitted use for about 50 years and has been a permitted use and data centers were permitted use also this site plan has already been, the application has already been filed at this point. Just to give the council an understanding is that if the council does attempt to restrict a use, that one site plan has already been submitted but or even prior to that is already a permitted use. It puts the township in potential liability for damages for either adverse condemnation or restrictions of use could have, could affect that. So, you know, it didn't, it isn't a simple, oh we can just stop people from building what, what's a permitted use? We can, or you can just rezone it's not so simple. There are effects of restricting uses that are already permitted for a long period of time and for, for certain areas that are basically, in this case, the entire area is all light industrial. So it's not out of out of the norm for that area. I

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. There are no other remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) We're now closed for the remote portion and we'll now open to the public for anyone wishing to speak on this matter at this time.

Partik Patel 29 bedroom. So if this is for, for data warehouse, I'd just like to have this, do you guys do like an open bit for data warehouse? Because if, if it's, if AI data centers are needed right now, where can I find an RFP that is there today along with this that the machines and everything has to be present so it's not there. So again, you guys are systematically using our taxpayers dollars to channel to your donors and then ask, giving them tax breaks and then asking residents to pay more taxes while their incomes were pretty much stagnant for last 10 years. Now mayor sitting in that chair lied today because if I go to LoopNet today and type 0 8 8 5 4 and if I look at the amount of open warehouse spaces or if I call a commercial realtor and if I just do an audit of this, which just says what is the total million square feet available in Piscataway today to do all the data science work that we need to do? There is plenty of stuff right now whether you look at Rutgers, that building which is empty, the one which is next to the school street, which is the Ether Road, the buildings are empty now we are building more warehouses. Doing what? And then we then you guys want to talk about CDBG grant, affordable housing jobs, this, that, just other nonsense.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you. Star

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Rutgers is not part university is not part of the equation.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Anyone else wanna get up? Nope. Sure. I thought you wanted to get out. No. Okay. Seeing none. We'll close the public portion.

Gabrielle Cahill Council president, if I could before you take a vote, I just wanna say a couple of things too. And I think, Raj, I'm glad that you explained, you know, and we all know it, right? When an area is zoned, especially in a, in a business area where somebody owns that building that then we put the town in a liability to pay attorneys to lose in court, which we will most certainly under an a, a, an area that's already zoned light industrial where, correct me if I'm wrong, Councilwoman Carmichael, this location was formally years ago at t, is that correct? And at t had a data center in that location and there were, I don't know, 3000 to 4,000 employees, roughly about 2000 employees. About 2000 employees. Everyone knows that in New Jersey everyone drives their own cars. So that's 2000 cars driving, not across the street from the high school but down the street.

Gabrielle Cahill Right? Right across the street from the high school is where the Fireman's Memorial is. There's another commercial building there. This is further down Knightsbridge. So there's like a circle where you'll see the, the Piscataway Township sort of brick facade there with the flags and you go further down thir to where 30 Knights bridge is. And there are three buildings there, one of which housed at and TA data center, which we excluded in this redevelopment plan specifically. So yes, a warehouse, but in terms of like let's talk about impervious land, there may be some give back on that because you're not gonna need as many parking spaces. And I know this because I'm on planning board and I listen to the testimony and I hear it. And so none of us pick a warehouse, right? I say this every single time we talk about this, but this is a permitted use in town.

Gabrielle Cahill It is adjacent to our 2 87 exchanges off of Centennial Road. So there is no movement of trucks into residential areas. And probably more likely it is that trucks that do go to 30 Knight Bridge area may backtrack the knot towards Ho lane, which is route 18. But the other way to 2 8 7, they may be some, but as we know, trucks were taken off over road whose lane became Route 18. And so we do see on that, none of us prefer that stopped shopping. We did, we probably, but the reason for this particular is not to the owner of the property. Now a new use is an existing use. This is not zoned residential at all. Like through thirties Knights Bridge or, or through Knights Bridge. You'll see it's a, it's a beautiful corporate campus, really Centennial one. So we take risks and and say to the owner, Hey, we want you to convert this to residential use, which probably wouldn't be the nicest area for people to live in or next all the businesses and probably lose in court if the owners, well I don't want retail and I'm certainly not gonna entertain your money to offset affordable housing, which is the way it works, right?

Gabrielle Cahill You have to find a developer who's willing to build affordable housing, right? That we've had this conversation with the las go around, right? And, and I appreciate what Councilwoman Lebowitz said about we're listening to the residents, but we also voted yes for an for affordable housing to go in a residential area where a lot of residents came and said they didn't want that either. We are in a very bad with our housing.

Speaker 15 So

Gabrielle Cahill It's, but

Speaker 15 Again, too,

Gabrielle Cahill But we're not running around around saying is that by,

Speaker 15 By

Gabrielle Cahill Working with a potential with the owner of the billing says I can bring tax revenue back to the town for mostly

Gabrielle Cahill Now we can bring more tax revenue into the town. It's a permissible use currently on the books. We're actually in a way bringing more money into the town and saving the tax barrel lawsuit that we most assuredly will lose. And we will then end up paying for attorney's fees, any penalties that could be assigned to us for prolonging the owner's potential revenue himself or herself. So HT was there, they had 2000 employees, that's 2000 cars versus truck going through a residential area right off 2 87 light industrial, not, not the thing super excited about, right? But a decision that was really made with all of these things in context and what is the best use of your tax dollars. And that's not something that we run around, it's not a sexy idea, excuse the phrase, but it is an idea that we have to look at the dollars and use them the best way possible.

Gabrielle Cahill And I, I'm pontificating here, but I feel very passionate about what folks don't want in town and what they do. The mayor knows on planning board how I behave and what I say to business owners come before us and they're looking to build something. And I'm not the nicest person to most of those people and that's not a pat on the back. That is something that I feel very passionately about. Whatever we do in this town has to a benefit the residents. And, and b, if it's a permissible use, well then you have to put forward the best aesthetically pleasing plan possible while obviously obeying by every law that is on the books, our ordinances and all of that. And all of that is to say is that there are a lot of decisions that we make as council presidents said, that are not popular.

Gabrielle Cahill But if we were to tell this owner, Hey, sorry, you wanna do this and it's, and it's permissible today by law, we will be sued and this township will spend your tax dollars that everybody knows now or getting higher and higher every year to pay for attorney's fees and penalties, that at the end of the day that location will end up being a warehouse because that owner bought that property with knowing what the zoning was allowed. And, and, and the owner is allowed to build that. And what we did do was protect the town from a data center going in there. So it wasn't a granting of a warehouse, it was actually putting, putting some language in there to, to tell and signal to this owner that you cannot have a data center or an AI center. This would be a warehouse use.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Either way to highlight what Ms. Cahill is saying, they have all the available power there because it was a data center.

Gabrielle Cahill Right. And that's the other thing I know I, we, we have to get to the vote and it's been a long night, but I do wanna say this is that this town has a long history of being a, as the mayor will always tell us, a telecommunications town, right? At and t Verizon had multiple buildings here. I think Verizon is all but gone except for one building across the street, which is housing, I think more for, for like line work and things of that nature. But they've consolidated and who knows, they may leave New Jersey and go to Texas where they have their Verizon. Well maybe, but being a telecom communication and when things sort of going down that way and then post nine 11 when we started to lose a lot of our corporate business, right? You know, you have to look at a town and say, oh, not just put your hands up and say, oh shucks, but really have a plan on how do we, how do we get a new type of business in town, right?

Gabrielle Cahill To keep our tax base safe. And I've said this before, you know, during COVID we were able to keep the township building open. Employees will tell you probably much to their su chagrin, they, they came in when other people weren't. But we kept the services that we could provide during COVID. There's a reason why is because we are a, a, a, a fiscally, mostly fiscally conservative town, right? When it comes to, and we try to build infrastructure and try to help revenue. I know Mr. Patel, you always, you know, it's, it's about the taxes and I get that. But without this, our bottom could drop out, right? We, this is sort of the, where we are at. That said, correct me if I'm wrong, we don't really have other build, you know, other spaces for warehouses anyway, right now most of our, all, everything is already existing sites.

Gabrielle Cahill And again, I just not looking for a pass for people to say, oh, you did a great job, Gabrielle or Pat, you're back. For the people who are gonna vote, maybe yes tonight, but I just want you to understand the, the, the backstory is, is a good chance that you would all lose more tax dollars. Should we try to go against what is an existing zoning use And putting some guardrails in today will help us and save us from a data center. But our data centers, correct me if I'm wrong, that do exist in town now there's not many have their own sealed water systems and are currently bringing their own energy in this town. Cannot speak for other towns, but that's sort of the, like the due diligence that quietly goes on to make sure that we don't have what's happening down in South Jersey right now or what happened up in Essex County. Was it Newark, where that spell happened? So those are some things. So anyway, I'm sorry and I'm gonna, are we taking the vote? I wanted to add to, hang on

Speaker 5 Just one com comment. Hang on. So Councilmember, you're exactly right. I think there's a misunderstanding of what this redevelopment plan is and that's why I just wanna clarify as the town of attorney is that, is that this redevelopment plan isn't, isn't adding a permitted use. What the benefit of redevelopment plan is, is that where there's a permitted use already, this, this allows the township to actually put in protections and more stringent controls on how it's built, where, how it's designed. For instance, like if you look through this redevelopment planet, it talks, talks, landscaping, making sure there's berms, making sure there's sidewalks, five foot sidewalks, et cetera. So it's a misunderstanding in terms of a redevelopment plan is, is adding permitted use of the warehouse? No. What it's doing is that warehouse is gonna get built. What can the township do to protect how it's built and how it looks and where it's located on the site, et cetera. And that's where these redevelopment plans tend to give the township a little bit more control in that planning process.

Gabrielle Cahill And I'll say just as a council rep representative on planning is, you know, when, when we vote to, to look at an area in need of redevelopment, meaning the planning board, not the council, right? We, we have to look at it, understand how long it's been vacant, things of that nature, what's going on with the property itself. Because like at one centennial, they're, the owners are not mowing the lawn, right? They're not the, and and I wanna say mowing the lawn, it's not like a single family home we're talking about. Right? And you know, I remember that's

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Woman we talked about that a few months,

Gabrielle Cahill Right? And, and, and mean you would know as you would travel that way too towards 2 87. But I welcome too as the planning board, as the council planning board representative and on that board is that when they do come to council, I welcome, you know, Councilwoman Lebowitz, Councilwoman Rashid. That if you think, hey, 'cause I certainly always have my say the planning board knows they, I think sometimes they don't like me myself 'cause I get persnickety even with, the thing is, is when you see it come, you know, you can come to me, come to the mayor or anybody and say, Hey, I see this is going on. I, I'd like to maybe see could we agree that we would like to make sure these sorts of protections are put in place in the redevelopment. We're mostly always working with the existing zoning, but it is the opportunity for us as a council to add in extras, you know, to, to protect the residents. And I welcome that, you know, because I'm always, I feel like sometimes out on an island over there complaining to people who wanna do certain things. And I'm like, so I welcome that

Michele Lombardi (Council President) And let, let me just finish by saying that, you know, when a developer owns a piece of land, you have to allow them to use it. You know, we cannot dictate what they can and can't do with their own property. It's private property. Okay. So doing these type of things helps us to limit what can be done and what can't be done. I mean,

Gabrielle Cahill And even too, we, we were able to with the, I think with the hotel in motel, add some additional or we're about to hopefully add some additional protections in, you know, where we want to make sure that somebody's on site 24 7, you know, some hotels don't wanna do that and that's just not what we wanna do.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) So let's, okay.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) I just wanna add a little bit of, and I thank you so much Councilwoman. So first of all, I just really appreciate this public dialogue. I think it's important for our residents to hear our thought process and they understand that we take it seriously and that we look at it and we talk about it and we mull it over. We, yes it is private property. I understand that people own, or these developers own property, but to councilwoman Cahill's point in New Jersey, we have to have a balance. We have to constantly be struggling with this. Housing, warehouses, retail. This is a constant negotiation. And yes, they are the developer, but they own it in our town. So we have to take every opportunity to redevelop, you know, to re I don't know, redevelop, but to put in what we want. It's not just what they want. We have to struggle with that balance. And so that is my point. Hmm. We, I get it. But at some point we have ex validate what our residents are saying, do the best we can with the language, do the best we can with the properties. And look, people don't want more warehouses. They don't want them more on Piscataway. They don't want them all over the state of New Jersey. We already pay for a lot of lawsuits by the way. And then my next question is, is this a pilot afforded property?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay. 'cause I think that's, I, that's also another important concern of residents. What properties no,

Brian Wahler (Mayor) It is are

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Offered and what are not. Is there a reason that you're talking over me? 'cause I don't appreciate it.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) We'll finish it up.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Thank you. So I think that's an important consideration going forward. It's also a concern that people have brought forward that they are concerned about pilots, where the funding goes, if there's more creative ways to use pilot funding. And so I, I know that the mayor said earlier that we have a 5% vacancy anywhere

Brian Wahler (Mayor) From five to 7%.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Is that across all businesses? Just warehouses. How is that place

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Up? It's roughly this part on the 2 87 corridor Piscataway Township roughly that we have. We have folks that deal with that when the commercial properties right here, and that's roughly it. Edison and Piscataway are roughly the same. We're actually in a little bit better shape than most of the communities along the 2 87 corridor.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Is that somebody in our municipal office that has that intel or who runs that for us?

Brian Wahler (Mayor) That would be com commercial real estate brokers.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay. The

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Way that the, the warehouse that's on Normandy is not occupied because it doesn't have a certificate of occupancy. It's not finished yet. That's why.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay. 'cause I know I walk by it every morning. All right, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. Okay,

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Add a little bit more. This building, it's this building now and it's going to be replaced by a warehouse. I don't share your enthusiasm that instead of cars now we'll have trucks coming in and out of that, I think as elected officials, one of our roles is to listen to our neighbors and raise their concerns. And they have raised their concerns that they don't want more warehouses in town. And you said that you, you know, as the planning board and as a township, we're trying to attract new type of businesses. Well we can't attract new type of businesses if we keep doing the same thing. And what we are doing is we're going warehouses. So something that we need to look at. And the other interesting thing you just said is that this, there's no more sites warehouse. So we expect that this is the last warehouse that we will be seeing coming through to the council. Well you, 'cause there's no more sites left,

Gabrielle Cahill You can't guarantee that. But Councilwoman Rashid, I'll, I'll just clarify. First of all, it was an enthusiasm, wrong adjective for, for what I was trying to say is that you're not gonna have 2000 cars. You're can have less amount of trucks and they will mostly probably be headed towards 2 87, not necessarily through the Route 18 corridor, but perhaps back Knights Bridge to 2 87 that way. All that is to say is that when I was also talking, I wanna just clarify when you say attract new businesses that I was talking in context of when post nine 11, this town started to see a decrease in office space. That's, you know, it may have started before that of course of, I mean tel you know, Telcordia went away then Erickson had some spots there. But we started to see that decrease. And, and I know for a fact because I remember that when I moved into town, what I was paying in taxes and I was told that the, that the taxes were like a 75 25 split between corporate campus, the offices taking 75% of our tax property burden versus the residential 25.

Gabrielle Cahill And post nine 11, we, you know, as people were working a little more remotely, some businesses went away, right? Lehman Brothers closed up their storage, well they went outta business. But then we used to have like data storage here on Centennial. I think it was way back. And so those businesses are only taxed on their occupancy, right? Not the building, just how many employees. So if they have 10 floors and five floors are empty, they're now not taxed on 10 floors of employees, but five floors of employees, not the total space. And as we saw that, we had to reimagine, well, where would we get tax dollars from? And you know, obviously warehousing was coming in, that wasn't the idea. But we were doing storage, cloud storage, things of that nature, you know, with high tech companies. So when you talk about if we're doing warehouses, we're not attracting, we're talking about years ago, making sure that the bottom didn't fall out on this town. That there some

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Proper, and that's the burden wasn't shift, the tax burden is not shifted to the residents, right? Because when the bottom drops out, the re the residents will pay more money.

Gabrielle Cahill I would, I would venture to guess that, you know, and there's, you know, like right now you, you can't say 100% this way, but had the, had we, not through the mayor and administration and council members, you know, way back, maybe even be, you know, before my time thought about this and planned for it, we would not be in the good financial stead that we are at. And I'm not discounting what you are looking for, what you councilwoman or lebowitz for. I think it's a broader conversation that we can talk about. But I think we have to remember that many times we have as a township, not perhaps is in zoning done what the owner wants. Right. And we end up in a lawsuit and then they get what they want anyway because we will lose in court when somebody owns that building. And there are, correct me if I'm wrong, there are three buildings there. It's not one, it's three office buildings. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's right. Okay. So

Speaker 15 For that many employees

Gabrielle Cahill Is, is well more than what is needed now. Okay. Sorry. Sorry council president, I'm going on too long.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) I just want to make sure that I understand. We said it might be the last space for a warehouse, but maybe not. You

Gabrielle Cahill Can't guarantee it. Let can mayor, I'll answer. You can't guarantee it. But there are, right now, today, there are no other locations really for a warehouse.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Okay? And you're not looking part,

Gabrielle Cahill It's always, it's always a ation to bring in small business to support small

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Business.

Gabrielle Cahill The town center.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Town center. So I gotta jump in here, council president. 'cause what I've heard so far from several of the council members, you're totally anti-D data center, which is the backbone of our economy in this town, by the way. So if you guys wanna get rid of data centers, get the pink slips out 'cause you're gonna be laying off a lot of police officers and a lot of teachers in this town that adds almost $16 million in revenue for the school district. So if you wanna start laying off school teachers in this town, so be it.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) The

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Fact, the fact is right here on this site, it was a little too close to the residential homes. The most of them are all in hardly highly industrialized areas. Do you know that the one site on, on Centennial Avenue, our commercial base is 39% of the taxes that one building accounts for 28% of the 39%. So if you're gonna chase them out of town, get ready for pink slips with all the miss employees and school teachers in this town.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) You saying that you are for AI data centers now because we didn't say anything about a data center. We're against

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Where, what I'm saying is that the centers that are in this town are cloud computing centers. They're not the massive Amazon, I don't disagree or everything. They're all cloud computing centers. Small. They do house small businesses, backup recovery sites or financial services. That's what's located in this town.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Agree with that. What we're saying is that we won't allow AI data centers in Piscataway.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) AI is not coming here to this town 'cause there's not enough power.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) That being said, can I have an offer?

Gabrielle Cahill Offer Councilwoman Cahill?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) I have a second. Second,

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Second. Councilman Owen

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Seader, can you please call the roll?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Cahill?

Gabrielle Cahill Yes.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Carmichael. Yes. Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Lebowitz. Before I vote, I just want to reiterate thank you for the open and frank discussion. I appreciate the feedback and the input. I'm gonna, you know, continue to appreciate that these conversations happen. There's a lot of engagement with the mayor, engagement with the council members and, and this public forum. I appreciate it. I certainly think on a lot of these topics, we can have community discussions, we can have commissions. We should not just be holding these kind of conversations here. I think we can use this building to open up and establish all kinds of community input conversations for this particular vote. I will be voting now. Councilmember Rashid?

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) No.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Rin.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Yes.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council President Lombardi

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Pass. And it passes. We'll now move to number 10, which are announcements and comments from officials from our council members. Ms. Cahill,

Gabrielle Cahill No announcements. I'm looking forward to Councilwoman Carmichael's event next weekend. And I'll give up. Well, oh, that's right. Do we have not another meeting before my event? Okay, everybody come out on October 24th between 12 and two. Right to the little league field. If you have your furry friend who is licensed, if not licensed, come right to the clerk's office. See Melissa or see Jen there for I think, is it still $15 to license your dog? Yeah, if they're spayed or neutered. And remember in January we'll have the free spayed and neutered event. So you could get your dog or cat spayed or neutered for free. Oh, rabies, sorry, not free. Neutered rabies. Oh, they have to have rabies and their spayed and neutered, right? Yeah. Okay. Retraction on the, on the space. But anyway, come out October 24th between 12 and two, dress in costume, match with your furry friends and enjoy some good community time that I have been long wanting our community to partake of. I'm very jealous of Carney for what they do. So thank you. And Councilwoman Carmichael, I'll pass it off to you.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Councilmember Carmichael.

Sharon Carmichael (Council Vice President) Thank you. Councilwoman Cahill. I just want to say yes, Councilwoman Cahill is correct. The Supervis Advisory Commission will be sponsoring the second multicultural festival at Riverside Park this coming Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM The last one was a great success and we are pretty much overwhelmed with vendors and participants. And so I'm expecting a great afternoon, assuming the weather holds up and looks like the report says it will. So yeah, I, I hope to see you all there.

Gabrielle Cahill I look forward to it.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Councilmember Espinoza.

Dennis Espinosa (Ward 2 Councilmember) Thank you. So the Piscataway bike tour, unfortunately was postponed, but we have a date, it's October 17th. We worked hard in trying to get that date back on the calendar, so I'm hoping to see everyone there. Same time we open registration at eight o'clock if you haven't pre-registered and we start writing at 10 o'clock. We do have, I do have a number of registrations. We have 194 registrations, so that's, that's much more than what we had last year. So it's increasing throughout the year. So I'm hoping for good weather this time around. And there's no nor Easter coming around, so I'm hoping for the best. Thank you.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) It seems to be always raining on Sundays these days. Yeah, thank you. And Councilmember Leibowitz.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Good evening everyone. I just, is this a Sharon Carmichael event or is this a township event? Is this a multicultural, okay, I understand because I noticed that the response was a Gmail. It wasn't the Piscataway nj.org email response.

Sharon Carmichael (Council Vice President) This is a Piscataway Civil Rights Advisory Commission event. And we set up intentionally a town a email just for the Civil Rights Advisory Commission to use for people to communicate with us because we did not want to be using our own personal emails to answer all, all the, all the responses that we're getting.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Okay. I just noticed that some events have the Piscataway nj, they go through Doreen and this, it was just interesting to me to see that you had a private Gmail account. Well, it's not

Sharon Carmichael (Council Vice President) Private.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Private, I know, but I'm just saying. Yeah, and it wasn't a town protected. 'cause I know it's something that I've been asking for, for the township that we all get Piscataway nj.org email addresses, like all the people in town. So I, I'm just curious, but thank you.

Sharon Carmichael (Council Vice President) All right, thank you. Yeah, but no, it's, it's, and Doreen by the way is, has access to it as well.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Great. Thank you. Okay. I just wanna update folks with some things that I've done since our last meeting in September. First of all, I did meet with community members, clarified and address concerns regarding the misleading video that was shared on behalf of the township at taxpayer dollars. You know, Sarah, Madam Count, Sarah Rashid and I really ran on no more warehouses and I understand the conflict, but it really is something that we believe in and that's why we were here. I saw in the development plan very specifically that it also included the fact that it should not have an AI center. I get that, but I knew I was gonna vote no for it. So Deli to deliberately say that because I voted no, it is the, it is then a corollary piece that I support. AI is really manipulative and misleading and I don't appreciate it.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) And that was shared by me and residents that I spoke to. Second concerns that I heard in the last month were regarding the ice arrest and detention of a Middlesex County resident man at 1690 Washington Avenue. Community donations were gathered and delivered to Rise to support the man and his family. Additional concerns were that residents request a moratorium on the use of township and private properties for ice or private prisons. And a fourth concern is that at the moment there is nowhere in this town for people to reserve a free space for meetings. The library has changed their policies, the schools, if you're have, you know, depending on who you and what your organization is, there is really no place right now for us to reserve free spaces. And this was also a concern and a source of frustration. And these are issues that I think this council needs to look into. And we'll see you after Halloween. Thank you so much.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Councilmember Rashid, I have a couple of things. First, I attended the Piscataway Police Department promote Safe Streets campaign. It was good to meet neighbors. They all came out to share their concerns and it was really, really great to see the high school sad club there. Amazing kids doing great work. And also I, Laura Liebowitz and I co-sponsored a mental health fair at the Y last week, September 30th. It was a great event. A lot of people attended, a lot of useful resources were shared. So please reach out to us if you're looking for resources for mental health. I want to remind everyone that the voting is still open for the Cultural Arts Commission Art Contest. It's right outside. For people that are attending, please look at the artwork and you can vote before you leave today. Mail-in ballots are also in, bless you. Mail-in ballots are also in.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) So please take the time to send them out. Lastly, regarding that video, I want to make sure that I put, I say this again, that I want to put on public record our view on this and we were not allowed, we are not allowed to put our, what we, what our view is on AI data center because we were not allowed to take a vote. But I want to make sure that we introduce a resolution and that resolution will define what AI data centers are and their impact and on the environment and the local community and how it, we should prohibit land use within Piscataway. So we go ahead of the curve. If you are saying that we are behind the curve for the other property, let's get ahead of the curve and prohibit any AI data centers in Piscataway. So I make a motion to introduce a resolution. It is a draft resolution. If we can accept it as is, you will have the whole time to review and refine it. And that I'm saying that to the township attorney and for the public also, because it is the first reading, they can also review it and if they don't like it, you know, share your concerns. But I would like to make a motion to introduce this as a first reading.

Speaker 5 So resolutions don't have first re they only have one. So let's, and then of course, as I tell the council all the time, please run things by me before you present things to the council because I would love to do that. Ramifications to, to, of course trying to restrict uses on private properties. Again, I mean, for instance, this one we, if we had tried to limit the warehouse on this property, we would put the, an adverse condemnation complaint and damages would be in the tens of millions of dollars. So I, I just ask, you know, I've asked multiple times, please just forward these things to me prior to the meeting. I'm happy to work with you. I'm happy to revise it. And we can actually look at the law to make sure it's legally enforceable and it doesn't affect the township legally.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Okay. So firstly, I think we've been in this situation multiple times over the last year and a half or plus where anything we have introduced was never reviewed and never brought onto the council. So we are kind of left in the dark with that. The second thing is, if this is a resolution that we all agree that we don't want AI data centers, then we can use it as an ordinance. You can take this in and we can accept this in, you can review it and design it as you like. But I find it very concerning that it was very easy for the township to make a video and paint us in this really bad light that we are pro AI data center. But now I am asking the council and the township to take a stand with us against it. But nobody wants to do that with us. We're all of a sudden

Michele Lombardi (Council President) We're to the proper channels. That's what we're asking.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Well, please explain the proper channels. 'cause I have this review, right? The

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Attorney has explained the proper channel.

Speaker 5 I'm happy, just I'll take it from you. We can look it over, we can talk this week. We can definitely review it and, and see what, what's legally enforceable and what, what the liabilities would be on, on it. And then we can try and present something to the council. I'm hap you know, definitely let's talk after the meeting. Okay.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Thank

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Councilmember Uhrin.

Speaker 18 Yes. I just wanna wish our Piscataway cheerleaders luck this weekend. They're going to competition.

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Nice

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Mayor, Business Administrator, Paula,

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. I just have one item I just wanted

Brian Wahler (Mayor) For the, we went out for permanent financing to, and our, we've been reaffirmed as AA plus stable town, which is one notch below aaa. And we went out for permanent financing and the rate came in at 3.89.

Gabrielle Cahill I is that before the, the interest rate increase?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So interest rates have been going crazy. They're increasing by 15, 30, 50 basis points a day. We, we did very well today. So, you know, that's a testament to our financial team. You know, the mayor made a crucial decision here. You know, it it, you're given information. There are, there are very complex algorithms that determine what goes on. Our financial advisors can only provide us with different case scenarios, which were reviewed in great detail. And a decision was made by the mayor in, you know, in, in consultation with CFO and myself. Really the mayor made the right choice. If we, if we held on and didn't do this permanent financing, we could be looking at interest rates, well in excess of 5%. So we really did a great job today for Piscataway.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) The good news is that the rate came in as, as if we were AAA town. And as a matter of fact, a couple other AAA towns went out the week before and they didn't get the rate that we did.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Perfect. What the team,

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) I misspoke to actually have as an ordinance, not a resolution. So we could take a motion right now and we

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Are not looking, not gonna do that right now.

Speaker 5 And council president, I, I recommend to the council not to take any action until I get to review it.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Think Mrs. Councilman Rashid understands the legal implications. This, that you, you're basically, in essence what that's doing is calling for massive layoffs in government services here. Let's just,

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Let's just move forward. This

Sarah Rashid (At-Large Councilmember) Is AI data centers AI

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Move forward. Not gonna, we're not gonna do that. We are gonna do the proper channels and we're gonna bring it to the attorney. First are you Ms. Car and now you're for teachers. Thank you.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Do, I just wanted to give a quick update on the Echo Park. So remediation is now complete. So I, I don't know if you recall, I discussed phase one. Phase one was removing the contaminated soils. Moving into phase two, I'll be meeting with our engineering team on Friday. Moving into phase two means that part of the final remediation is capping and now moving into the actual redevelopment of the park, which we're starting with stormwater drainage, they have already submitted to the DEP stormwater permit application stormwater management. So I'm very excited to say that we're moving forward and then this will enable us to, once we move into the next phase, we'll also allow the township to go back to our Brownsfield folks and ask for additional monies for next year. You're only, you're cap that 3 million a year. So I'll be submitting for reimbursement for the 2.9 million this year and then we'll working on trying to get additional monies as part of phase two. So I just,

Gabrielle Cahill Paula, could I just ask you a question though? Yes. With the storm water management, when do we anticipate, I think we've seen some of it, but when do we anticipate those to be done in the, this first phase?

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) So there's, so the first phase will includes some capping, which is some paved areas. And then the two stormwater management, I believe there's one or two stormwater retention basins. So that's required the,

Gabrielle Cahill The entire property or is that just for this particular, the

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Retention basins are kind of in the middle,

Gabrielle Cahill But, but just two for the

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Yes, yes.

Gabrielle Cahill Meaning what I'm trying to say is that once we get through this phase, there isn't another retention that we have to wait once these are

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Done. No, no, no. We're gonna, we're

Gabrielle Cahill Doing the whole property,

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Right? We're doing the stormwater management plan for the property. So then we can begin now phase three where we start really deciding on construction and whatnot. But we first have to start with our infrastructure first and then, and then I think there's plans for a large and small dog park. So

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Wonderful news,

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) Wonderful news. Yeah, so I just wanted to continue to keep you updated on that. Thank you

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Council attorney.

Paula Cozzarelli (Business Administrator) No comments. Thank you.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) And I would just like to thank everybody who implemented and got the town wide yard sale over the finish line for the weekend. We had 225 people registered on Saturday. It was a beautiful day. There was many, many, many shoppers and I'm pretty sure everybody probably did very well. Unfortunately on Sunday it did rain for the second half of the day. But I do have to say Saturday is primarily the bigger of the yard wide yard sale days. So thank you to everybody who helped get that over the finish line. And also I'd like to acknowledge that October is breast cancer awareness month. And put your pink on the Y is lit up on in pink Also, we all know someone in our family that HA is either struggling with has had or we have lost to breast cancer. So may we support all of those men and women. There are men, I didn't know this, but someone I know personally, her dad had breast cancer and I never knew that. So I just learned that women and men, we may, we support them in this October

Gabrielle Cahill Council press. Thank you. And I know in the past I've never said anything, but as a four time breast cancer, you

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Are a breast cancer survivor,

Gabrielle Cahill Mike. And I want to say something and the reason why I'm saying it is because I realize today as my husband is going through his particular journey, that that today marks 20 years of when I started my chemotherapy for the first time. So 20 years later you can, you know, in four bouts. I'm very grateful for the super smart people in this world who wanna be doctors and who wanna try to save us.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) So we, we support

Gabrielle Cahill You. Thank you very much.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) And moving forward, we'll now speak on number 11, which is the agenda session for the November 5th meeting. At this point we only have a resolution authorizing final special assessments for Ethel Road West and Sutton's Lane. And I'm sure there will be more to follow. Number 12 will be open to the public for any items at this time. So re for people remotely wishing to be open to the public, please raise your hand now.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 9 Hello, Brian Wrack, 1247 Brookside Road again. So there was a lot of talk about the proper, let's say, path for ordinances. As I recall, there was one proposed back in February that Mr. GMO was reviewing about not allowing ICE to use township property. What happened with that? Did that just go into the garbage and never be seen again?

Speaker 5 I do you have a question? There's one that we, we did pass some ICE resolutions back in the spring. I'll pull pull what they were. But I think that included, there's a mayor's proclamation.

Speaker 9 No, there was a proclamation. It was not a resolution, it

Speaker 5 Was a

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Mayor's proclamation.

Speaker 5 I'll double check. I I'll double check and get back to you.

Speaker 9 Okay,

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 19 Hi, good evening. Can you

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Hear me? State your name and yes we can hear you. Please state your name and address.

Speaker 19 Sure, this is Rich Swarski from one 16 Mountain Avenue. Do you also see me?

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) No.

Speaker 19 Oh, okay, because I've, I've met most of you, but I apologize if this has come up before, but I've not seen any public information about it previously. And I assure you it has nothing to do with warehouses or AI data centers. But lately it's become an issue in neighboring towns and in the courts and especially with the actions of ice just apprehending people going about their everyday business even here in Piscataway. My questions are, are you aware that we have some 30 flock automatic license plate readers and possibly other surveillance cameras around town? If you don't know about that, you can check the website maps de flock.org and search Piscataway. My questions and concerns are as follows, was the installation of these cameras in town ever put out for public comment? Are you aware that courts have ruled that these cameras would record data about every vehicle that passes by 24 7 without their knowledge and which can share information with unknown unvetted, third parties who choose to purchase it that have and are being abused by various actors, including rogue police officers and ICE, and including in Piscataway non-criminal with legal status who was disappeared by ice?

Speaker 19 And have you seen that this has been ruled as a violation of the constitution of the Fourth Amendment? And do you know how long data about, for instance, my car or your car passing a particular camera, how long that data is kept, even if there's no violation involved? If you answer no to any of these questions, then I think it is incumbent on this council and to all of you as private citizens to look into this, to put it out to the public and to either establish strict criteria about the use of these cameras or simply get rid of them as some neighboring towns recently have done. I would certainly like to hear a response to my questions now, or at least by the next meeting, or I assure you I will return with more concerned citizens to impress upon you the importance of this issue. Thank you.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you sir.

Speaker 5 Council, I can answer that question. So the township is, the administrations made it clear that they, they were very concerned about it. I've worked with our public safety director, the township, none of those flock cameras are township cameras. So they're probably privately owned flock cameras on private property. But they have nothing to do with the township. The township does not have a contract with flock. And so, you know, the, this is not a a, a situation where the council can do much about this if they're on private property and being used by private citizens.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Want to add in that council president is that we do have license plate readers in the patrol cars, which has been that way for 20 years.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And that's with that, that's with that you

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Pull over a

Speaker 5 Car and those aren't, that's not AI based technology. Those are automated so that the patrol officers can take 'em and actually do their own visual confirmation with those license plate readers in the patrol vehicle. So there's no township cameras or ARS posted anywhere on any, any township police.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Now the prosecutor's office may have a few in town on county roads, but we don't have any on our

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themself.

Speaker 10 Hi, this is Jessica Kratovil 1247 Road again. Are you able to hear me?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Yes, we can hear you.

Speaker 10 Hi, I I did wanna go back to some of the things we discussed previously, but I do agree that block cameras are terrible and wouldn't it be an idea to have an ordinance banning them so that we don't have to worry about them here? 'cause they do have them in South Plainfield and Edison right at the town borders with Piscataway. So we block cameras are terrible. I did, I wanted to mention, I think the mayor said something about one night's bridge road being vacant, so it's not bringing anything in. I interpreted that to mean that the, the township is not receiving tax revenue from that property. And I checked and that the township is receiving tax revenue for that property. And as to the mayor's assertion that because one Knights Bridge Road is near the 2 87 interchange. Wait, can

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) I just clarify the address we're looking at one centennial, it's not one Knights Bridge. I just wanna clarify the address.

Speaker 10 Oh, I'm sorry. I I I've mixed myself up. Thank you for clarifying for me one centennial. I've, I've just mushed together the two, I apologize. So one centennial, they, they do pay taxes and despite the mayor's assertion that it is not a residential area, I'm looking at the zoning map for one centennial and the property is surrounded on two sides. Comp exactly adjacent to the property by residential zoned areas. And then it's just across the street at the corner of Leatherwood and River Road. So one property away from the block because neither wood and centennial are, are parallel where there is another residential area. So it is surrounded on three sides, very nearly by residential areas. And to say that people can't live near 2 87 is insane because there's a huge amount of mis getaway residential property that is right near 2 87. And if they, you say they're not mowing the lawn, you know, you can cite people if they fail to meet code requirements of lawn maintenance.

Speaker 10 So I I I'm, I'm not really understanding why we have to give them a redevelopment plan because the building is vacant because they're not mowing the lawn. And then, you know, I feel like a lot of the things you say, they just come right outta your mouth and maybe not anybody check on them that the data centers that are in town bring their own energy. Is that an implication that all of the data centers in town do not use energy from the grid? That's an, a preposterous assertion that they bring their own energy. And for you to just say that there with a straight face where nobody can talk back to you because we're all muted or seated. It's crazy. And you're saying

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you Mrs.

Speaker 10 Oh I, I'm sorry that you can't tell people what to do with their property, but you, you're telling them you can't build an AI data center there but you can't tell 'em to do anything else. You can absolutely tell people what to do with their property. You're the township. You make the zoning and the planning rules. It's, it's crazy. Good evening.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank, thank you Mrs. Thank you very much. Council president, there are no other remote individuals with their hand. The remote portion is now closed. Anyone wishing to speak on any public matter at this point is now welcome to come up.

Speaker 20 Hi, my name is Rob Freeman. I live at two Haywood Avenue and I'm here just to talk to you again about some traffic and speeding issues that have been ongoing. So about eight years ago I stood here when we used some of the money that I think you guys are talking about from federal grants or other things to widen Haywood Avenue and other streets. And it went from 19 feet with two bump outs to 31 feet. Nice Belgian block and everything. But while we were here, the big thing for me at that time where the rest of the residents didn't want sidewalks for me it was speed and safety. And I, I mentioned to the members that were here at the time that I spoke to a professor of urban planning at Rutgers and he gave a a a great comparison. If you drive down the street in Greenwich Village, you don't go fast.

Speaker 20 No one's speeding. There's no way to go fast down a narrow road. But if you give someone an expanded road with a clean surface, naturally everyone is going to go faster. So I had a lot of reasons as to why that project had to move forward and it did. So I'm not going to go back to why it should not have, but from the time that that road project was completed, the rate of speed has increased significantly. We are at a point right now where there are cars doing 40, 50, 60 miles an hour down Haywood Avenue on a regular basis. Tuesday through Thursday from three 30 till six o'clock we can have anywhere from 25 to well over 50 cars, trucks, tractor trailers, buses, and I mean commercial buses, not school buses on that road. The mayor has been great, been out there multiple times. Our traffic safety guys have been there.

Speaker 20 I know that they were understaffed. They're working really hard since they've been fully staffed. They've made some times when they're out there they pull over tons of people. We counted 15 cars in just 30 minutes the first night that they were there. So that's great. But they can't be there all the time. So Haywood, my family's lived on Haywood since 1971. I've lived on Haywood since 2000. I've seen a lot of those changes. My kids cheerleaders, thank you for the shout out on Sunday, they're nine in 10. I will not allow them to ride their bikes to the park by themselves because it's not safe and that's not fair to me, to the other residents or to my kids. We should be able to live there safely. So you know, when we talk about these road projects creating safety, as you mentioned earlier ma'am, they have done completely the opposite and now we're looking at eight years that we've been living with this.

Speaker 20 I hear a lot of things from the town as to things that we can do. I'm not looking for rumble strips, they're not doing anything. I'm not looking for speed bumps. I'm looking to manage the, the movement of traffic into the neighborhood from Possum Town and the, the exit of those vehicles off of Wynwood Haywood and Woff to get back on 2 87. 'cause as soon as 2 87 gets some traffic, everybody is is jumping off or the people on circle and those other areas are coming through. So, you know, warehouses and other things definitely increased traffic. Obviously the, the, the gross vehicle weight of a tractor trailer is significantly greater than a car. It causes significantly more damage to the road surface. And I know when they, the county had to repave River Road after the warehouses were open, they accommodated that you guys are doing that on centennials to not have that problem. Haywood I'm sure was not built for tractor trailers, tanker trucks or buses. They come down, I've got pictures, videos, so do the rest of the neighbors. We've submitted them to the town, to the police department. And again, I think everyone is trying, I know it's not a big thing for everyone but you know, we don't have a lot of houses on the street. It's a very long road.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Can you just sum up what you wanna try and

Speaker 20 Say? Yeah, I just need, what, what I would really like is a plan in place to make our neighborhood safe once more where kids can go out and play and I don't have to sit in the front yard if my kids are playing in the driveway worrying that they're gonna get run over or you know, there's countless creeps and whatnot that are just sitting in front of my house. We can, it sometimes takes me several minutes with my blinker on to turn into my driveway and five to 10 minutes to get out of my driveway because these people don't care. They don't even let you out.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) So is Waze, is Waze directing traffic down his Yeah, yeah it's wa

Speaker 20 You can't do anything about it but why can't we have no turn, no left turn off of Possum Town onto First Avenue by the park. Why can't on Wykoff, Wynwood and Haywood on those streets? We have some type of no left turn sign at certain times of the day. I as a resident, I know that's an inconvenience to me, but it's way less of an inconvenience than what we all go through almost every night of the week. Thank you very much.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you.

Speaker 21 Hi, my name's Don. I live on First Avenue and I feel for this gentleman because end of first Avenue both ends, there's two stop signs. I've never seen a car stop there. They just roll right through it. We got a lot of young kids out our street also. That's not why I'm here though. I have two concerns. Number one, I've been living in Piscataway since 1970, probably longer than some of you were alive. When was the last time we striped our roots? 30 years, 35 years ago. You drive hose lane, possum town road at night in the rain you can't see the road. What are we going to do?

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Is that a residential? I'm sorry you said to and Possum Town. What was the other street you mentioned?

Speaker 21 Centennial.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Centennial. Thank you.

Speaker 21 It Lane,

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Well Centennial where it's under construction will be fully striped by Thanksgiving as far as Possum Town Road, DPW is gonna be Havening on Thursday there. Avoid Possum Town Road 'cause it'll be shut down by there for the paving operation and that will be striped. We have about 25 to 30 streets now that they're finished. We have a large contract to go out to start striping. Hopefully within the next week or so. We wanna try to have a lot of this striping done before December because you have, the weather has to be warm enough to do the striping. So there's gonna be a lot of striping throughout the town coming up.

Speaker 21 I mean, I know the road's like the back of my hand 'cause I've been here that long. When I come home at night, if I'm coming from the New Brunswick area, that hose lane, I can't see the road. I can't see the turns. I know they're there but I can't see them with the glare from the cars. No striping. I mean the stripings there but you can't see it at night. The, the headlights obliterate. And I, like I said, I can't remember the last time the roads were striped. You're saying you're gonna stripe where it's just getting repaved. Are you res striping from Centennial all the way down to where it's rep paved or are you just striping where it's being repaved?

Brian Wahler (Mayor) We, we, where we're doing this, the, the full blown res striping is gonna be from Possum Town, actually Knights Bridge to River Road. And then we're gonna do some spot striping. We did striping on the other section of Centennial up by the shopping centers up there last year, few years ago. It's gonna be a substantial amount of striping right now. All the streets that we paved within the last 18 months, we'll have stop bars and or leaders, what they call the yellow lines there. 'cause not every neighborhood is gonna get a line or stop bars. So,

Speaker 21 Well

Brian Wahler (Mayor) On the major car fairs, we, we will be striping.

Speaker 21 This young lady mentioned she wanted to protect the citizens of Piscataway. Well I don't feel protected when I'm riding the roads at night and I can't see the turns

Michele Lombardi (Council President) For you. Mr. Am Thank you.

Speaker 21 I have one more quickie.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) No, well let, you've exceeded your time so make it okay. Make it very quick.

Speaker 21 The park you were talking about, Ethel Park, possum town, the park off of Possum Town Road, used to have a nice brook there. It is completely overrun in the sense that the silt has built up that that was dredged at one time. I asked the mayor if it could be dredged again. He said they couldn't get rid of the landfill. Well, where's the landfill going when you have all of these warehouses going up? I mean, the park looks terrible.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) If, if I may, I'm not disagreeing with, I would love to have that dredged. However, the problem is is that a, the process to get that through DEP approval is extremely cumbersome. And then all the soil has to be tested and then if it gets rejected at the landfill, anything that we go to the landfill now, any soil, all each individual truckload has to be paid to be tested.

Speaker 21 Well, my concern is that, that Brook's going to continue to flood because there's no place for this water to go because there's no brook anymore. It's a stream about as wide as as this, there's

Speaker 20 Fallen trees all over it. That area floods a lot.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Yeah. Mr. Amarillo years ago, department of Public works throughout the state were allowed to go in and de snag and to do some minor dredging. The DP rules no longer allow us that availability to do that, unfortunately.

Speaker 20 Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 20 Good evening. Paul Eunice 18 Brandy Wine Circle. Been resident here since 77. Simple request for the council and the mayor and, and the township to consider. I'm the instructor. I work with the recreation department for pickleball. We work outta Quibble town and our park is ideal for pickleball. We've got two courts that have been dedicated. The mayor did a great job at that several years ago. But we've now outgrown that those two courts, we have tennis courts, three others that are adjacent to the pickleball court. We regularly, every day make the adjacent court a pickleball court with portable units and chalk. What I'm asking is this, and I've been, I've been emailing John for several years. I no longer realize I can speak with John or email with him. That's why I came tonight to talk to you to see if I could get this done.

Speaker 20 I, I understand that's going to be some resurfacing, which is very much needed at Quibble Town. It's breaking apart has not lasted that as long as it should have lasted. And when it's resurfaced. I would ask if we, if you would consider making the adjacent court a dedicated court as you as we have right now there. So there'll be four courts there. Quibble Town is an ideal location for pickleball. It's in the middle of the park. The, the courts are no noise problems for your residents. Plenty of parking. It works. I don't understand one of the parks that was picked for new court. 'cause I know that's caused a lot of problem for everybody.

Gabrielle Cahill May, may I ask you a quick question? Is that that's the BLE town park where the tennis lessons were? No, that I took no Columbus

Speaker 20 Park.

Gabrielle Cahill Oh, that's Columbus Park. I wouldn't, oh,

Speaker 20 Qui I'm looking for Quibble.

Gabrielle Cahill Oh, okay.

Speaker 20 Right, and that's, that's a good point.

Gabrielle Cahill Washington Avenue. Okay. Yep.

Speaker 20 Columbus is where most of the people gather for tennis. I can tell you right now, I have pictures in my pocket any day in the week that you go to Quibble Town and, and we have people. I'm not there every day, but I'm there every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And there's no tennis players, maybe one court of a husband and wife. That's it. And that's even on a weekend, on Saturday morning. I have pictures right in my pocket now, 10 o'clock in the morning, nobody using quartz one and two. I'm not looking to take the whole course. I'm looking just to take the one we're, we're using it anyway. We, I'm asking for is when it's resurfaced to dedicate, put fences up so that we don't have the ball traveling all over the rest of the, the, into the tennis course and disturbing anybody that's there and, and lines. I, it's not a big request, I don't think because it's, it's, it's not very costly. I've already looked into that and you've done a great job, mayor so far with us. We have, we have great courts. I am the instructor. As I said, I, everybody gives me great feedback about that. But I like to take it to the next step if I may.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you, sir. We'll take it into consideration.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Thank you. No, I have to check with the landscape architect to see which courts are gonna get it. This, you know, next year.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Okay.

Partik Patel Alright. If I have three minutes, I'm just gonna start with this Affordable housing miss. 'cause Mr. Gomer always talks about how great, sorry, your name and address. So in terms of, in terms of this thing works or not. Okay. Okay, so in terms of affordable housing, and I think you talk about putting sidewalks and footpath and whatnot. I'll just start with this basic thing. If you live in a suburban town, the definition of a suburban town code code is you gotta have a car drive comfortably in and around, take your kids to park at anywhere else. And if you can't meet that standard, there is a town called Jersey City. There is a town called Hoboken. There is an entire city dedicated to that. We just call New York City. Okay? So we don't need to crowd those because people came from Justice City to live in this town because they wanted to have suburban feel. Now second part of it is, if you are talking about being affordability, two of my tenants, they haven't paid close to $12,000 in rent. They're working, both of them are working. I I I, this Sunday this lady called me and I, I, look, I don't know about the families and what whatnot because I'm like, I have to do my own stuff. She said that her daughter committed suicide. Suicide. This is, this is Ms. Carmichael, this is your word.

Partik Patel A single, a single mother, a daughter, and she's a teenager and I think she was playing sports and whatnot. So I really don't know the story about that. She just told me I can pay rent and whatnot. It's three months behind. You guys talk about all this grant funding, this funding that funding two tenants can pay. If I have to go to the courts, I get almost like 30 to 35 years run around. I have to file so much paper, which is just insane. We have a courts here. What is the purpose of this courts over here that I gotta run to? Do I have to challenge the laws? Then, then we are talking about traffic study and all these nice bridge nonsense. I'll tell you this. How many of you guys have stood up at four o'clock on that exit five. And look at the amount of traffic that somebody has to make a left turn. When you look at Rutgers, when I moved into this town 20 years back, just to take a, a music lesson for my son around three 30 or 4 35 have to go there. I have to wait five minutes just because of Rutgers. I can't even make a turn on certain lane from red. But road today.

Partik Patel I mean the, the nonsense that I'm hearing in terms of buildup and super growth and this and this, like, I don't know if you need like a lesson on what the governance should be. When I look at the IT systems, like I look at this numbers and data and whatnot, and I like, the world has advanced so sophisticated, we don't have that. Then you talk about small businesses. You know what, I started with a school system for a project in January. We presented our products. I built it from with ai, by the way, with AI as a single person building up from bottom top where a Microsoft engineer would've taken like a company like corporation would've taken 500 engineers. I built that product and, and, and showed it to the school system. The, the assistant superintendent at that point in time, he, he kind of read that you like, really this is, this was the amazing thing that you have done. You know what has happened? It has been almost like nine to 10 months. It has gone through whatever cycle. Today I hear that, oh, we are going to go into some budget committee meeting of spring of next year. Tell me one small business who's gonna survive one and a half year of waiting.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you Mr. This is

Partik Patel Nothing more than a stalling. Thank you Mr. You call this as a government taking our money.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Thank you. I wanna, anyone else seeing none? We're closed. The public portion.

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Council president. I have to, I'm not

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Sure what he wants us to do with Rutgers. I'm not really sure, but,

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Well, anyway, I wanna talk. I ha I I would be remiss if I didn't say anything about Ms. Kratovil. Mr. R making a comment. I just wanna let the record know. First of all, they were way off base wrong. What I said, but more importantly is that I don't know if the general public knows this. They have a pending lawsuit with the town and basically what the lawsuit says is that they're blaming the town because they bought a piece of property next to a creek.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Mayor, can I just ask, is it appropriate for you to discuss lawsuits of residents on a public forum contact? I've

Brian Wahler (Mayor) Asked you to, I'm getting there. You're gonna come into play in some, okay. I can't wait to thank you so much. They accused myself and the council members of taking campaign contributions from some developers doing warehouses. So why did you and Sarah Rashid take contributions from him? And he's got a pending lawsuit. Why? Because he wants a better outcome. Yeah, no, no. The ba the plain fact of the matter is that creek has been there for more than a hundred years. You bought the house next to a creek and there's, there's no defense. But town didn't put the creek there. You bought a house and what they're doing is they want the taxpayers of this town to have paid to bail them out. And that's wrong. And by the way, yes, they did contribute to the campaign. So I wonder if that has anything to do. They're looking for a positive outcome in a lawsuit from the two of you. Okay.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) I will entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) A second.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Second, those in favor please say aye.

Laura Leibowitz (At-Large Councilmember) Aye. Aye. Aye.

Michele Lombardi (Council President) Everyone have a nice evening. Enjoy your ride home. I.