Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on November 27 2018
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Nov 27 2018 · Council
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Speaker 0Of any matters on the item number six, open to the public comments regarding item number 14th. Item item number seven, ordinance on the second meeting vacating Gallagher Place and a portion of work place open to the public resolutions. Excuse the
Speaker 1Ordinance. It resolved by the town of Council of New Jersey. Then ordinance all the right in the entirety of Gallagher Place and a portion of water from 150 feet south of to the southern borders of block 5 2 0 1 block eight and 7.0 1:00 AM Township Pisca was introduced on the eighth November, 2018 and have passed the first reading and was published on the 13th day of November, 2018. Now they be resolved that the ordinance having a second rating on November 27th, 2018. The adopted pass and after passage be published together with the notice of the date of pass approval and the official dispute. You further resolved that this ordinance shall is signed number 18 dash one.
Speaker 0This is open to public. Any any comments? We have a motion. Motion. Second seat please take
Speaker 1Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Haw. Yes. Councilman?
Speaker 0Yes. Item professors. Item member. Great. On a second reading amending chapter 12 fors, recreation areas Section eight and Township Recreation Utility Read
Speaker 1Ordinance. He resolved by terms of counsel, the scout Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled, ordinance amending or revised General Ordinances of the Township of the Piscataway County of Middlesex, state of New Jersey. Amended Chapter 12 Parks and Recreation areas. Section eight, to add the Piscataway Township Recreation utility in the Township of Piscataway County of Middlesex City, New Jersey was introduced on the 8th of November, 2018 and had passed the first reading and was published on the 13th day of November, 2018. Now therefore be resolved that the opposite ordinance having had a second reading on November 27th, 2018, the adopted past and after passage to be published together with the notice of the date of passenger approval in the official newspaper. Be a further resolved that this ordinance shall be a sign number 18 dash 25.
Speaker 0This is also for the public at the comments Declare a motion. Motion.
Speaker 1Second Councilman. Yes. Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Haw. Yes. Councilman Earn. Okay.
Speaker 0Item number A second. Fully funded, $2 million Senior housing still in Village Building Facility Improvements. This is also the Public New York.
Speaker 1Be resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Coordinate Appropriating 2 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund for phase one of the senior housing Sterling Village Building Facility. Improvements in and by the tactical Piscataway in the county of Middlesex, New Jersey was introduced on the eighth day of November, 2018 and passed the first reading and it was published on the 12th day of November, 2018. Now there be it resolved that the opposite of ordinance having had a second rating on November 27th, 2018. The adopted passed and after passage to be published together with the notice of the date of passenger approval in the official interview, we further resolved that this ordinance shall be signed over 18 dash 26.
Speaker 0This is open to the public. Any promise? Do we have a motion? Motion?
Speaker 1Second
Speaker 0Wall
Speaker 1Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Cahill. Yes. Council?
Speaker 0Yes.
Speaker 1Councilman? Yes. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Council?
Speaker 0Yes. Item number 10 on second reading. Fully funded 30,000 sewer utility improvements. This is you read the
Speaker 1Ordinance be resolved by a council of Council of Theca Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance appropriated $330,000 20,000 of which is from Capital Surplus and 310,000 of which is from the Capital Improvement Fund for various sewer utility improvements in and by the Township of Pisca in the county of middle, New Jersey. Was introduced on the eighth day of November, 2018 and passed the first reading and was published on the 12th day of November, 2018. Now therefore be it resolved, but the opposite ordinance, having had a second reading on November 27th, 2018 be adopted, passed, and after passing publish together with the notice of the date of passenger approval in the official newspaper, you further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 18 dash 27.
Speaker 0Mr. Republic, any comments? We have a motion. Motion second to
Speaker 1Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilwoman Kale? Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shop? Yes. Councilman arm? Yes.
Speaker 0Item number 11, ordinance on the first meeting, bond ordinance $8,175,000. 7,000,706. Six to 50 Various capital improvements. Resolution of ordinance to ordinance
Speaker 1Be resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township of New Jersey. That ordinance entitled Bond Ordinance providing for various capital improvements in and by the Township of Piscataway in the county of Middlesex, New Jersey, appropriating $8,175,000. Therefore, and authorizing the issuance of $7,766,250 on or notes of the Township to finance part of the cost thereof being us hereby adopted on the first reading that had been published in the official newspaper. And that a second reading of public hearing be held at 7:30 PM Prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Post link is scattering New Jersey on the 18th day of December, 2018. Yet brother resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk. For any interested member of the copy,
Speaker 0You have a motion.
Speaker 1Second
Speaker 0City please. Victor roll.
Speaker 1Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Koff. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilman Var. Yes. Yes. Council?
Speaker 0Yes. I'm gonna call on the first meeting amending chapter four licenses and business regulations four dash 14 Fiber operat resolution one.
Speaker 1Be resolved by the counsel New Jersey. That an ordinance, ENC code ordinance to amend or revised general ordinances of the town, Piscataway, county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey. Amending Chapter four, licensing and Business regulations Section four dash 14. Fiber optic cable being is hereby adopted on the first reading that'll be published in the official newspaper and that a separated with public hearing. 7:30 PM Prevailing time at the municipal building 4 55 post length, New Jersey on the 18th day of December, 2018 via further result, a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage and a ordinance be available, the office of the Township clerk for any interest in member of Republic Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Kahn. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shop? Yes. Councilman Earn Yes.
Speaker 0Passes. Item number 13, ordinance on the first reading amending chapter seven, traffic section 25. Vehicle over designated with excluded in certain streets. North Ville Road is a resolution adopting ordinance
Speaker 1Be resolved by the of Counsel Discovery from New Jersey. Then 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 seven traffic section 25 vehicles over designated way excluded from certain streets in the Township of Piscataway County of Middlesex State of New Jersey being is hereby adopted on the first reading that be published in the official newspaper. And that a second reading in public hearing be held at 7:30 PM Prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Hose Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the 18th day of December, 2018. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk. For any interested memory of the college,
Speaker 0Remember a motion.
Speaker 1Motion. Second
Speaker 0State
Speaker 1Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman? Yes. Councilman. Cahn. Yes. Councilwoman. Yeah. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Councilman
Speaker 0Er. Yes. Item on 14th. Agenda for efficiency. Items have been consolidated to co agenda to be voted on together. Material items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting at this time. Are there any items that the council would like remove from the consent agenda to be discussed or voted on? Ly Motion. Motion.
Speaker 3Second
Speaker 0Seat
Speaker 1Wall. Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilwoman Cahill? Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shop? Yes. Councilman her?
Speaker 0Yes. As number 15 Announcements with comments from
Speaker 3Yes, I'd like to make a comment and that's regarding a good friend and I've known her now for about 15 years. She was always like a family and a friend and a great team player and see someone like that. Tough. You took a look at her body this afternoon. She looked just like she looked month ago, I should say. Except someone said she needed more lipstick. Fact that, but I wanna say that I I no ones gone out to she and the family seems to have a great family that we met today.
Speaker 2Well,
Speaker 4Yeah, I I will just add on to what Councilman Lar said and just say this much 'cause I get to motion with that. She
Speaker 2Will be missed.
Speaker 5Yeah. I'd also like to, I guess comment on the passing of Van Gordon. She was a tremendous asset in the town. She was a neighbor. She lived on the corner from the three houses from Gabrielle, so we knew her and her family pretty well. Shelby, we missed, I think probably her most important role in town was she made, made sure that the Mayor got to where he wanted to go and behaved himself at all times, which is a full-time position. Not sure anybody else could do that job quite the way she could. Yeah.
Speaker 6May I just say that we lost a very important piece of the fabric of this community and whenever I apply my red lipstick,
Speaker 2I'll come,
Speaker 7I worked with her at least 10 years in a board library board of trustee and she always complain about when she got knee surgery and she missed the two meeting and I never missed the meeting. Say I just only two meeting, I just missed from that meeting. And you meet me for that. She always there every month meeting and she never miss one single meeting. I miss her. Yeah,
Speaker 3Ann's gonna get a good Irish
Speaker 2Send tomorrow and she don't deserves anything. Obviously we'll be talked about at the funeral tomorrow. No honor. Thank you. And I'll also, Ms issue arresting any item number 16th open to the public. We,
Speaker 8Anthony Wild 2250 Plainfield Avenue North. I have one question where the two public places that they, you post notices, do they vary or are they
Speaker 2No, and there's more than two places. It's at least two. Right. So it's the public libraries, the court, and here in municipal element.
Speaker 8Great, thank you. So I'm, I have some concerns as usual and representing myself and my neighbor's interests. Steve, you mentioned they were gonna be building, there was a good chance there was gonna be a pharmaceutical company going in that next day after you told me that a month and a half ago or maybe two months ago, they had already poured, I drove by, they had already poured the pad for the warehouse and it was pretty obviously gonna be a warehouse. So I don't know. You
Speaker 5Know, it's not, it's not what we're told that the, as of now, am I right Jim? They're gonna, the latest that we know is that that's that, that that's not the case. That the proposed tenant is pharmaceutical. There'd be some warehousing operations there as well
Speaker 8As like 90. They still have 38 bays, you know, or
Speaker 5My understanding, and I, and I, I don't know if I'm correcting this because I can only tell you what I was told as a week or so ago, but what I was told when I was on site with the project manager, she said that would be the layout of it, but they may or may not. They, they may or may not actually all be bay. In other words, that's the pre-construction wall. They may be filled in and it, they would, I had never heard of before called punch outs so that the ability, in other words, they put 38, whatever the number is of, of potential bays in there, but they may fill in any number, in any pattern that they are not ultimately going to use. And that they were building the building at that time. Tim was there, I can't remember when it was, it was probably September, maybe they were building it on spec because they didn't have a definitive tenant. But I'm my understanding the latest is that they're still dealing with the company that I described to you earlier as a company that is a pharmaceutical company. I'm familiar with them. I've seen their op, I've seen their current operations and I would assume it would be similar. Okay. But it's possible that that's, I've said to you from, from six months now that it's possible that I don't have that much control over. That's what they are telling
Speaker 8Us. The optics obviously make you wonder about. I understand
Speaker 5That
Speaker 8It could be filled in.
Speaker 5Right. I can go by it every day and I've seen it and I deal with issues on it on a regular basis. I dealt with 'em today on
Speaker 8Thank you. Next to this, I've been noticing at least three trucks, semis on Plainfield Avenue North and Plainfield Avenue a day over for the last month or two. So I don't know if the ordinance has gone into effect, but the
Speaker 5Ordinance has been in effect for, for a long time. It's in effect.
Speaker 8So the trucks, the trucks are using the road and they will, if it's a warehouse, they're gonna be more trucks using. It's the, it's the cut through to get over to New Brunswick,
Speaker 5First of all, let me say this, yeah. By February, trucks will be banned from River Road. So they'll, they won't be anywhere near there, so they won't be doing that. But if you see an 18 wheeler on Plainfield or Plainfield North, you either call the police or take a picture of it, call the police.
Speaker 8It says you have to be prepared. And you know, I don't walk around with plain camera out. I tried the last time Paul, either
Speaker 5Paul headquarters
Speaker 8Or Paul
Speaker 5LA's office and talk to either
Speaker 8Lead or Jean
Speaker 5Or Margaret or Dana.
Speaker 8Yeah, if I can get a plate number, I will. But so far they, they're gone before I have a chance. So
Speaker 5All, they won't be allowed anywhere near there by February 1st or thereabouts. So
Speaker 8That'd be great. That'd be great. We still have, I haven't seen anything done regarding the parking on Plainfield Avenue North, whether it is legal. The, the no parking sign in far front of my house rusted and fell over. But I don't know that it's okay for people to park. We talked about a waiver or something so that people don't have to worry about getting a ticket if they park at any of my neighbors or my house as where does that stand?
Speaker 5I've been working with the police department. They, they still feel that it's too narrow, but I'm working with them to see what
Speaker 8We can do. Well then somehow it'd be nice to provide parking since when you put the curb on the other side of the street, you took away parking on street parking and people have to walk a quarter mile or more if they, if I have more than three people over to my house or any of my neighbors have the same issue. So it'd be greatly appreciated if you did something that would, you know, allow for more parking. And then lastly, the buffer. I've called Henry Hinterstein. It, it, I've lived there 24 years. I don't think I started hustling you the town about the, what was supposed to be a visual buffer that I believe there's an ordinance that went into effect in the seventies to allow that development to be built, that you'd maintain a visual buffer, which has not been maintained. Another tree fell down in front of my house, fortunately not on across the street, but the, so-called Canopy is down to a few saplings.
Speaker 8I mean it's not a lot of trees. They planted the, the harba planted some, some spruce I guess on one side, but they're fairly big gaps and a couple of 'em have died off and there, you know, there really isn't a visual buffer. And I've been promised by both Mayor Wahler and by Henry interesting multiple times over the years that this would be taken care of. They did clean out some of the garbage that had accrued in there, but there's still no visual buffer. So I don't know if, you know there is an ordinance. I believe I have some paperwork. You know, the town has a responsibility to honor its commitment that it would not, you know, that people in our, on our street would not have to face the back of a industrial building. And that is not the case. It had it, there was a slight buffer there when I moved in. It's dwindled for the last 24 years. It's not acceptable. So thank you very much.
Speaker 9I noticed that I, I would hope that we all want to have a transparent go, is that correct? Yes. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna take that as a yes. I, I I feel that there's a, a lack of detail in, in these minutes and it, it, it disturbs me. It makes me feel like maybe you're not being open with this about things. Let me give you just a few examples on item number seven, vacating Gallagher Place in a portion of Roth Place. How much area is that? Who's vacating? What's it becoming?
Speaker 10First of all, I take offense to say that we're not transparent. Second of all was discussed at the council meeting last week. When you vacate a road,
Speaker 9Whatever, when who vacates a road,
Speaker 10Please. When the municipality va vacates the municipal street, the property goes to wherever it originated from a d that state law in the state of New Jersey.
Speaker 11Right. And it's all the agenda that you have. Obviously this is the agenda book for tonight. So we're not going to print 50 of these for our agenda. The agenda book is a summation of what's on the agenda. Everything is in detail on the specific ordinances. So if you have a question on the ordinance, you can always ask, you
Speaker 10Can come. And
Speaker 9That's what I am I'm asking.
Speaker 11You can ask, you can get a copy from my office's, a copy that's posted, the libraries out here and over in the court. You go to the clerk's office. So
Speaker 10If you question, does
Speaker 9That mean that you take offense? Am I asking you
Speaker 11Now? No, no. You, you're insinuating that you're insinuating and we're not transparent. That we're not transparent. So
Speaker 10I'm just asking for more
Speaker 11Detail. So here
Speaker 10You came up to the mic and said that we're not being transparent. Here's a difference between making
Speaker 9An
Speaker 10Accusation.
Speaker 9I said I hope that you see yourselves as transparent and and are
Speaker 10Transparent. I I respectfully
Speaker 5Minutes are, minutes are not, minutes are a brief summary of what occurred to create a record so that if somebody has an issue or a question, they can then ask a question about the detailed information. And what Marin this Administrator are telling you is all that information, which is a, you know, a stack of stuff that's an inch or too thick is all available in various places. The minutes are not, the detailed minutes are like an outline, a syllabus, so to speak,
Speaker 11Of what went on the agenda. I think you mean the minutes are, but for this, for this specific, it's the second paragraph of the ordinance, which is posted reads. Whereas Roth places we vacated from 150 feet south of Turner Place to the southern borders of block 52 0 1, block 52 0 1, lot eight and lot 20.01, a total area of 14414.3 square feet as indicated existing conditions of lot consolidation plan dated December 28th, 2017.
Speaker 9Thank you. Now I'd like to go on last week you told me about the various capital improvements. I appreciate that. Number 12, is that fiber optic cable by any company or a particular company?
Speaker 10Is anybody within our Ms. Fulbright supply? Okay. The re the reason why we're changing this orange, because the trunk appointed FCC is getting ready to preempt local control over municipal rights away around the whole country. So we need to get this order on the books before the end of this year in order to try to protect ourselves from what they're about to screw all the towns around this country.
Speaker 9I'm sorry, could you, I I I really appreciate your saying that what you can imagine, but could you give me more detail? In other words,
Speaker 10In essence, in essence, it is a, it is a $3 trillion giveaway to the telecommunication industry that they're gonna be able to get on municipal rights of play and have their own business apparatus there without having to go through local zoning control. Paying for, without paying a dime.
Speaker 9That's,
Speaker 10And not only that, we're talking about eliminating the cable franchise nationally, which means the town cost the town money, we would lose money.
Speaker 9Thank you for doing that.
Speaker 5A lot
Speaker 9Of money. I think we're on the same page on that. And by the way, condole is a Gordon.
Speaker 2Yes. Lemme see.
Speaker 9So on item number 11, we need bonds or notes into the amount of 7.7 million. It, it look like we'll get, is that something we put out there for? Typically
Speaker 10We do. We're getting ready to go out for reconstruction on a lot of various streets around the town next year.
Speaker 9Right. Last two weeks ago, I think you mentioned that was for asphalt and construction? That's
Speaker 10Right. It's both for the engineering department in the public works department.
Speaker 2Alright,
Speaker 9Thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 5If I could just follow up on what you said, Mayor, you know, the right of way theft of our right of that's basically what it's, it's probably in the good description was also done by Governor Christie. Yes. Who essentially, the way, the way it works is that when utility companies are gonna use the right of way rather than pay, because they run through 565 different s, they pay a fee that goes to the state for use of the right of ways. And the state forever has refunded the money to the local municipalities. And what Governor Christie did was keep the money. And what you're seeing in Washington now with the Trump administration is like what Christie did on steroids, basically taking it from the whole country. He said, he said federal government keeping it, taking it and giving it to
Speaker 11Private care,
Speaker 5Certain corporate entities.
Speaker 9Thank you.
Speaker 11The other problem is going to be the popular thing now with the wireless providers are the nodes and instead of putting up cell towers, so essentially you want to make, you know, three or four telephone poles on each street, a cell tower and New Jersey's been kind of in the forefront of resisting it. Then each town has required them to come in and get individual approvals for everything that they want to put up. What this will do is allow them to come into any neighborhood and do whatever they want without letting us know or without letting the public know.
Speaker 9Thank you for explaining that.
Speaker 5And the problem is, you know, these administrative agencies, people don't realize no, when you control the executive branch, you control who runs these administrative agencies, everything from the VA to the FCC, to the Department of Labor. And they have the ability to put regulations in place to take regulations away that have dramatic effect on all sorts of things about how we do things on the local basis. And that's, we're feeling the effect of that. And I can only say in some elections have consequences.
Speaker 2Oh, elections. What else? Who?
Speaker 9David Akins. Rose Valley Lane. Good evening Counsel. Good
Speaker 2Evening.
Speaker 9Item number C Charlie, what changed? Did some more trees fall over
Speaker 10David? We're still cleaning up from the march storms. And that's what this is about.
Speaker 9This is additional money you
Speaker 10Need. Yes. But the March storms have last of this year and you may have another change order on top of that coming in a couple of months.
Speaker 9Is the, is the state or county helping out with that cost additional
Speaker 10Costs? No, this is solely us because it was under, there was no FEMA dollars involved.
Speaker 9Okay.
Speaker 10And by the way, I, I just wanted for the record is for one of the few towns in the state where we've allowed the residents to where they put out the things out the curb, we picked it up. Most towns were telling residents you're on your own. You have to get rid of your, your own brush on that. We, we did a major million dollar favor to the, to the residents to try to help them out. And that, that
Speaker 9Item number F Fox shot, are these budget transfers completed or they're in the work? No,
Speaker 2No,
Speaker 11They'll be approved tonight and then we just do it tomorrow.
Speaker 9Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 2Goodnight. Mr. Good
Speaker 12Beauty pain. One 17 Fountain Avenue. Just
Speaker 10I hat
Speaker 12It's cold. I just had more of a personal question that has nothing to do with the agenda this evening or does anyone here know how, or who decides how the ballots are laid out?
Speaker 2Just
Speaker 12Trying figure
Speaker 10Out. We have, it has nothing to do with us.
Speaker 12Yeah. Do you know who I can reach out to? Might
Speaker 10Be. It's, it's whatever the county Board of Elections, every board of
Speaker 2Elections,
Speaker 10The clerks, the county clerks decide how the ballots are laid out.
Speaker 11Yeah. So it's county,
Speaker 10There's a state, there's a state statute I think how, how it gets laid out. So
Speaker 11Yeah. Does the county court and the Board of election do it? And they're they're required by statute to, to do it in a certain order. You know, the each party
Speaker 5Has, I think it's basically a point toss essentially. There's a process. Yeah, there's a process where what party gets yes. Random Yes. Random process where, what party gets what column and, and the ballot, et cetera. So there's a drawing. Yeah, a drawing, essentially A drawing. But, and you can observe it if you want. They usually publish the time date prior to the election.
Speaker 12Do you know then, since it's random, it has to be somewhat specific to our Township too, because everybody's got different ballots, you know, they're different names on all ballots. So do you guys ever have any input on
Speaker 5No,
Speaker 10Nobody has any input.
Speaker 5The county clerk makes. No,
Speaker 10It's solely the, it's it's governed by the, the State Board of Elections, the county Board of Elections. It's like that in all 21 times in the state of New Jersey?
Speaker 5No,
Speaker 10It's uniform law around the state of
Speaker 5New Jersey. The board of elections is alleged. It's a bipartisan rule. It's got both Democrats and Republicans on it, and that's how the ballot's made up. And it, the objective is to make it mely just completely random. No one party gets controlled.
Speaker 12Okay, thank you. And well, my other thing was just on a personal note, Steve, like why did you come into this creating the service area?
Speaker 5You, you've known me for 20 something years and you're asking me now for the first time to this counseling why I got into public service. Yeah, I I I don't want to put up a lot of your time, but I'll tell you one of the reasons I got into public service. So that, so that I made a position to do things for folks on Fountain Avenue like we did 15 or so years ago.
Speaker 12Appreciated to
Speaker 5This day is because I live in this community like you, I have kids in the school system like you. I've always believed in public service. I, I've been involved in public service probably almost to my entire adult life. Whether it was being in the military or being a volunteer fireman. I'd rather be somebody that is involved and on the sidelines complaining. And that's the reason why that I, I've been involved in this town ever since. I, by pure chance, ran into Mayor Wahler when he was Councilman Wahler and began discussing with him some local issues about park improvement back in 19 91, 9, 2 92, and saw an opportunity to get involved in the town that I lived in. That's, I guess the shortest answer. You know me pretty well, so I think you have a pretty good idea why, but that's the short version.
Speaker 12So with that, I appreciate, I'll put you done again. Do you believe that everybody has the right to do that, to get involved with their communities and make changes like you guys have?
Speaker 5Do I believe that? Sure. We'll see.
Speaker 12And or, and the other last thing is, do you guys believe that, you know, these positions that you now hold should be like lifetime positions or
Speaker 5Should They're not lifetime, they're not lifetime positions.
Speaker 12Oh yeah. But you fight really hard for them, so, and I appreciate you, you know, the work you're doing.
Speaker 5I, I get a sense, this is a, a politically related question, but I'll answer the question anyway. Is there's was a lot of unfinished business that needed to be done in the third ward in particular, like getting the river road truck ban done, which we were able to accomplish. And
Speaker 12You said that's gonna take back in February and
Speaker 5Well, we've got the state state's approval on it and we, we passed an ordinance on first reading a meeting or two ago and we'll be on for another December meeting, for second meeting and then 30 days later it'll go into effect. But we plan on it having go into effect on February 1st because we gotta give, signage has to go up and we have to coordinate it with the state 2 87. So that's one reason. And the community center we, we've been working on for a long time. There were a lot of awful important issues that I felt the need to still be involved in.
Speaker 12We start community
Speaker 5Center. We're opening the bids here on the 4th of December. Now forbid we have a record number of people that have bid on it, we're gonna open up bids, hopefully they're all in order. We're gonna award the bids and by as early as the weather permits in the springtime, we'll have a groundbreaking and we'll be, we'll be building it by this time next year. The wind's at our back, you'll see it up. It won't be operational, but you'll physically see it there. The, the exterior will be built.
Speaker 0I don't mean to cut you up, but you used your three minutes.
Speaker 12Thank you.
Speaker 0Anyone else need this comment? We have a motion. Motion.
Speaker 5Second.
Speaker 0All in favor? Aye. Meeting adjourned. I'd like to call the agenda meeting for the CH fourth to order add. Notice of this meeting has been provided as required on chapter 2 31 PL 1 9 75. Specifying the time, date location to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and two municipal library board provid a copy the official newspapers of the Township by filing a copy of the office council clerk with the certification by the first, which will be entered, please take oath.
Speaker 12Council
Speaker 5Here. Councilman Keto. Here. Councilman Cahn. Here. Councilman Lombardi. Here. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Councilman. McCollum. Councilman Arnold.
Speaker 0Here Ms.
Speaker 5United States of America stands nation.
Speaker 0Item number five, resolution authorizing raffle license. RA 1384 SKWC dingo license BA 2 71. Showing those societies. Item number six, resolution authorized. Return of a permit Fee lot 28 0 1 lot 12. 1 37. Question item number seven, resolution authorizing contract renewal for Dearborn Life Insurance Company policy group life insurance not to exceed $25,000. Any comments or questions? Item number eight, resolution authorizing change order number two, 2018. Playground equipment replacements, power plate LT LT Fleming Incorporated not to exceed $8,754. Any comments or questions? Number nine, authorizing budget transfers comments or question item number 10, resolution authorizing Chapter 1 59, drunk driving enforcement fund fiscal 2018 6 11 50 2 cents. Any comments or questions? Item number 11, authorizing tower Nicole as municipal court judge. Comments and questions? Item number 12, resolution authorizing carpet floor installation under state contract. 8 1 7 5 4 JFK library all state office interiors not to exceed 24,734 9 cents. Any comments or questions? Item number 13 and 14, motions regular and agenda meetings for July 24th and August 14th. Any comments or questions?
Speaker 5Mayor, can I ask a question? Sure. The, the the community center bids, what are they, are they all in when they have No, they could been on the fourth, fourth December 4th, 10 o'clock. Traditionally people don't, they don't return them until then. No. Right. Yeah, yeah. We wouldn't have any really in, no, we issued, we issued the last addendum, I think last Friday was the last we had people had questions, so we
Speaker 11Answered up and there was a question that came up about other issues. That's why we delayed it by about a week to allow everybody to the same time. The biggest impact we're having now is the, the uncertainty in the steel market. Steel
Speaker 1019
Speaker 2President,
Speaker 11The steel tar. So they contractors were, there's only a select group of US steel manufacturers that you can quote from. Right. Never have problems getting quotes from US steel manufacturers because the uncertainty of the price with the tariffs. So hopefully it's resolved over reveal from on fourth and then we've got about two weeks to review at the end of the, the last video year.
Speaker 5Do the bids have the bids don't have a contingency. If for some reason that escapes to my knowledge of economics, we have the 25% tariff on.
Speaker 11So we don't put that in there. The contractors can can do a, an exemption in there for, so we'll see when we open up walking onto the open up.
Speaker 5And how many folks picked up
Speaker 11Bid package? 15. 15.
Speaker 215. Wow. Announcements coming from officials. Jim?
Speaker 3Yeah, just one quick comment. As many of you know, this month, November is month that we recognize the veterans and so forth. And this year, this is our seventh year now. And in this year, if you notice that the photographs and everything that are there, we had, we had more veterans bringing their photographs and, and information in this year than we've ever had. Now I haven't seen anyone from you as veterans. Yeah,
Speaker 5Every next year I'll.
Speaker 3Next year. Right. But we are very pleased with our veterans in the discovery area.
Speaker 11I, I don't
Speaker 3Know the s name.
Speaker 2None. Thank here. Thanks.
Speaker 10We'll probably have the sewer ordinance ready to go next week. We're waiting for the auditor to finish the final agreement.
Speaker 11No comment. Thank you.
Speaker 2I have no comment. Number 16 quickly.
Speaker 8Anthony Wild 2250 Plainfield Avenue North. One is, how does one get appointed a municipal judge? Is it, are there elections or how, how do they qualify?
Speaker 11It's
Speaker 10Judges, the council of counsel. I make the recommendation and the councils the advise and consent. We very rarely have judges that this will be a new judge. 'cause Judge Ackerman's retiring December 31st and he's been the presiding judge here in the town for, ooh, 20, almost 20 years.
Speaker 9So very rarely do we have a opening of a judgeship.
Speaker 8Haven't done this one before.
Speaker 5She, Tara Cielo. I don't know her that well, but I know who, I know who she is. She's a pretty experienced municipal prosecutor. She's prosecuted in a number of different towns. Yeah, I'm not sure she lives in Franklin or North brother. She lives
Speaker 9In Woodbridge. She lives in wood
Speaker 5Woodbridge. She, but she's been around prosecuting in various towns for quite some time
Speaker 11At
Speaker 8S Just curious. I hadn't seen a judge appointment on the agenda before
Speaker 9Comes
Speaker 8Up. But yeah, my last, I mean, following up on what Fred said regarding transparency and we brought it up before I have regarding hosting the information online so that people don't have to go to the library, don't have to come to town hall to find out what's in these brief summaries of these brief line items on the agenda that would really make for more transparency. Allow people to see how their tax dollars are being spent, et cetera. And the cost of storage for Adobe Acrobat files is, which are pretty small, is not that much. I mean I have a terabyte for $9 a month with one drug. So I would ask that the town again consider, and I think we some point last year you said that was under consideration or something. So I was wondering what's where that stands If we're considering posting this stuff online,
Speaker 5My understanding is putting more and more stuff. We're
Speaker 9Putting more and more stuff that
Speaker 5That is the objective
Speaker 8To see it. Thank you.
Speaker 9Six or seven miles Parkway. Item number nine, budget transfers. Can you explain, I, I would assume, and I I'm probably wrong, but that when you bid something out and they do something, sometimes things come in lower, then you inspected and sometimes the other things come in higher. So you take the money that was lower, put in those things, that's higher. Is that correct or
Speaker 11No, what you're describing would be a change order. So if you bid the project out and the price was up, you can increase it by a certain amount. If the price was down, you decrease it. But what you do is when you issue an award for that contract, you take the amount of money just to say it's a hundred thousand dollars and you encumbered that a hundred thousand. So then that comes out of the budget, gets some covered to be spent. What budget transfers are is in the last couple months of the year, if you weren't sure in one area you can take from other areas. They have a surplus from the cover there. So you dump into a deficit. So here we're moving some money from DPW maintenance to EPW Parks and maintenance to cover some extra expenses we had in, in fixing some things in parks we're perhaps some crossing guard salaries to, to postage. So that's at the end of the year. We do very small fees for total $120,000.
Speaker 10Thank
Speaker 11You very much.
Speaker 5You I could, if I could comment, comment on that. We, we, we got recently got our summary of the report in ratings from standard reports who commented on that. And their specific comment was we view the township's management as very strong Skyways budget performance is very strong in our opinion. And one of the things they, they look at is how we budget to spend money, how accurate we are and how we do certain things like that. And they're, you know, just an independent auditor that audit all these different municipalities. I had a chance to read over that standard report report, I've read 'em in the past and it was very impressive report. And Tim, you and, and Daniel and the other professionals that managed our money and our budget on a regular basis, they should be congratulated. Correct.
Speaker 11We were issued a a double A positive,
Speaker 10Which is one step below aa. And the only reason why we didn't get the AAA is because of the state pension mess, which has nothing to do with Mr. Co. And by the way, we're one of only the three dozen towns in the state of New Jersey where we're, we're self-examining where our finances are in such good shape that we don't have to go to the state to get to improve our budget. They will allow them, prove it on our own because we're better manage the New Jersey
Speaker 9Valley Lane. Item number eight, as far as the equipment, what happened there? Was it
Speaker 2The playground equipment? It's about playground equipment.
Speaker 11So the change orders been this necessitated due to additional sidewalk replacement at three of the playground locations. Yorktown right there. Tower parks to correct unsafe conditions. So we increase the amount of the contract by $8,754.
Speaker 9So it has nothing to do with the equipment is
Speaker 10Side? No, no. This is part of the contract, David. There were some tripping hazards that were noted by the safety officer out there. So why we were installing the playground equipment, we decided to go ahead and replace the sidewalks and make it level so it wasn't at Tri Hazard.
Speaker 9Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 2Welcome. Have a motion. Motion favor.