Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on March 2 2022
Note: Transcripts are generated by rev.ai and may not be fully accurate. Please listen to the recording (below) if you feel any text is inaccurate.
Speaker 0 00:00:00 On the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and the two municipal library, bulletin boards, municipal website, providing a copy to the official newspapers of the township. And by filing a copy in the office of the township clerk in accordance with certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes, the township continues to use a remote meeting format in an effort to mitigate the chance of exposure to COVID-19 as a part of the townships ongoing effort to slow the rate of transmission and avoid overwhelming our treatment centers in order to make sure and clear record of the meeting can be made. And that parties are heard in an organized fashion. All members of the public will be muted during the meeting. If a member of the public wishes to speak during any public comment portion, please raise your hand. Speaker 0 00:00:53 This can be done either through the zoom app or by pressing star nine on your phone. When it's your turn to speak, you will receive a prompt or a request to unmute. Please click on the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute upon being un-muted. You will, you should begin to ask any and all questions you have. You will have three minutes to speak at the conclusion of which you will be muted again, and the council or administration will respond as necessary. Should you have any further comments or questions? The town council is always available by email and phone, and you can always call the mayor's office during normal operating hours. 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 a logged in user account, we ask that you wish to speak that you log in or dial in separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual. Individuals may also submit written comments to the town clerk up to 48 hours prior to the meeting to be read by the town clerk. During the public comment portion of the meeting said, comments shall be limited to three minutes of reading. Thank you in advance for your patience. As we continue to move the township forward during this health emergency Mrs. Theater, could you please call the roll Speaker 1 00:02:27 Councilman Bullard, Councilman Bullard, if you could unmute yourself so we can hear you, your response, Councilman Bullard. Speaker 2 00:03:02 Think the record could reflect these here. He's getting, he's getting metered in and out. Speaker 1 00:03:14 Okay. I'll reflect that he's here. He's just not coming through any unmute himself. Councilwoman Cahill counseling. I believe Speaker 2 00:03:25 Councilwoman Cahill will be Speaker 1 00:03:27 Joining us. Councilman Rouse, Councilman Shah, Councilman Uhrin Council, President Lombardy here, mayor Brian Waller this administrator Timothy Dacey township adminish township attorney Raj Goomer deputy township clerk, Kelly Mitch here. And I'm here Melissa Cedar, the tantrum clerk. Speaker 0 00:03:56 Thank you. What everyone, please join me in the flag. So, Speaker 1 00:04:13 And he'll just draw. Speaker 0 00:04:23 I'd like to start the meeting this evening with a brief moment of silence and prayer for the people in Ukraine. Speaker 0 00:04:40 Thank you. We'll move to number five, which are comments from the administration and council regarding a German of any matters on the agenda. Do we have any, a German or comments or questions from council members at this time? Seeing none. We'll move to number six, which is open public portion for comments regarding the consent agenda items only. Please remember again, these are the public portion for only the consent agenda items. I will now open this to the public. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on zoom app or if by phone, by pressing star nine, when it is your turn to speak, you will receive or 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 will have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. So if you have any comments for the public portion for the consent agenda at this time, please, please open up. Now Speaker 1 00:06:04 Council President, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 3 00:06:13 Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, this is ed marsh. I'm at one 13 white calls avenue regarding item 10 C what is this? Just start trust grants for. Speaker 0 00:06:34 Thank you, ed marsh. And I'll refer that to business ministers or yeah. Do you have any other questions at Speaker 3 00:06:43 Yeah, I'd like to know how much is the grant and how did this come come about? Speaker 0 00:06:48 So just give us all your questions and then we'll get someone to answer your questions. Okay. Speaker 4 00:06:58 Grab that, just do that. Every year we get money for the Mettler house through these fake historical grants trust. This is for some, we're doing some exterior work accessibility work, putting in a farewell to connect from river road up until the Mettler house since some additional work. Overall, the grant is $150,000 from state and an $85,000 contribution from the township. Speaker 0 00:07:34 Tim, can you clarify that a little bit? It was a little hard to hear you Speaker 4 00:07:39 It's being used at the Mettler house. It's a grant from the New Jersey historic trust for exterior work for accessibility at the met house, clearly a new staircase from river road to the, up to the Mettler house. And it's in conjunction. So a couple of different ongoing projects. So you've got this as one phase of it, two grand worth about $150,000 state with the match from the town of $85,000. Speaker 3 00:08:12 I think so just the last part for that, I think it was $5,000 for the matching funds. Speaker 0 00:08:20 Okay. I hope that that answers your question, Mr. Marsh Speaker 1 00:08:29 Council President asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 5 00:08:37 Good evening. It's Stacy Berger, 2 33 Ellis Parkway. I'm wondering about item F, which is the emergency temporary budget. And I was interested in part because of the comment that Ms Lombardi made at the beginning that can email council numbers. I noticed recently that the township launched a public information box and the cute little graphic, but that's not really the same as actually being able to directly reach council members by email. Since you pay someone to do that for you to answer that email, as well as the council at T way, Councillor Piscataway, Angie email, that's a paid position. So I'm guessing and correct me if I'm wrong, you won't get a stipend. I was wondering if the temporary budget has any impact on your site opened or your health benefits or the health benefits of our tremendous and wonderful township employees. If you could clarify for that, clarify that. Speaker 5 00:09:36 And since I know I'm supposed to ask all my questions at once, I'm going to try to get them all in and then if somebody can answer them, that would be great. Cause I was wondering if there's a best practices guide that you follow for the use of those stipends or what you spend them on. If there's any kind of guidance about how you should spend them, if you follow it. And whether you can actually decline that if you choose to not take that stipend. So if there's any information you can share about the relationship between the emergency temporary, I'm sorry, the temporary emergency budget resolution. If you could shed some light on that and then address whether it impacts anything specific to the council members or our employees and what the process for the stipend is, I'd appreciate it. I think that's everything. Speaker 0 00:10:21 Thank you. I don't think any of those items have anything to do with the letter F emergency temporary budget, but I will have somebody clarify what that does mean the emergency temporary budget. Thank you. Speaker 4 00:10:35 So the temporary budget we're adding for another month of funding for the current fund, the senior housing operating fund, the story utility operating fund, and a recreation to Willie Applebee's operating funds. We are introducing the budget tonight. So we'll be adopting the budgets within the next month or two, depending on the guidance from the state. So until a budgets adopt that at each meeting, we continue to run on a temporary budget. The temporary budget has no effect on how we pay our bills, the way that it's Southern New Jersey, everybody chooses their temporary budget in January. The governor gives us budget address to March. They really say they numbers a couple of days after that. And then there's some work on finalizing everybody's budget. Speaker 0 00:11:27 Thank you. Mr. Dacey Speaker 1 00:11:35 Council President. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised telling me at themselves. Speaker 6 00:11:41 Hello, Brian rag, 1247 Brookside road. I'm just wondering for 10 a, is that the 2016 plan, your cuts opting or is there a newer one that hasn't been posted to the county Speaker 4 00:11:52 Website? That was all I had. Speaker 0 00:11:59 That's the authorization of the adoption of the Middlesex county Hatter hazardous mitigation plan. Speaker 4 00:12:06 So it's the county is, has changed mainly language. They get rid of the word, have chosen for you a little bit and replace to live references to the border of the county commissioners. So that was done throughout the whole plan. So the rest can everybody else readopted to the new plan with the new titles in it? I believe I'm not sure when they approve it. They approve it after all attempts where we approve them first. I'm not sure what this is. They asked us to do this. We reviewed it and agree with it. Speaker 0 00:12:40 Thank you. Mr. Dacey, but please try to talk into your mic. We're having difficulty hearing you clearly. Is there anyone else, Speaker 1 00:12:56 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 7 00:13:04 David Akins and both valley lane. Speaker 0 00:13:08 Good evening. David Speaker 7 00:13:12 Item number E for echo. Would you elaborate on that? I guess that's a bill three 30. Speaker 0 00:13:20 Do you have any further questions or that's the only one you have to ask this evening? Speaker 7 00:13:25 When I have to have asked right now under this Speaker 0 00:13:29 Letter a okay, thank you. Let me get that answer for you. Speaker 8 00:13:41 This is tantra attorney, essentially what that resolution is that it's just supporting a bill that's in the state Senate right now that all the tax revenues from energy tax receipts used to be well, when it was first implemented was considered to meant to be funding a reduction in property taxes, extra, et cetera, meant to move towards a Ms value that hasn't been happening. So there's a Senate bill to kind of restore that and help municipalities reduce their property tax levy on the, on the residents. And so the council is, is passing a resolution to support that bill. Speaker 0 00:14:24 Thank you, Mr. Lamar, do we have anyone else? Speaker 1 00:14:33 There are no other individuals with their hands raised at this time. Speaker 0 00:14:37 Thank you Mrs. Theater. And we'll now close the public portion for the consent agenda. Number seven is ordinance second reading, exceeding the municipal budget appropriation limits and establishing a cap bank. It will be open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance, Mrs. Cedar, can you please read the ordinance? Speaker 1 00:15:04 They resolved by the township council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled calendar year, 2022 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank, N J S a 48, colon 44 dash 45.14 was introduced on the 15th day of February, 2022 and it passed the first rating and was published on the 18th day of February, 2022. Now therefore be it resolved that the efforts that ordinance having a second meeting on March 2nd, 2020 to be adopted passed, and after passage be published together with a notice of the data fester approval and the official newspaper. The brothers of that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2022 dash zero three. Speaker 0 00:15:49 Thank you Mrs. Cedar, this and Speaker 1 00:15:50 I, excuse me for one second. I just wanna mention that Councilwoman Gabrielle Kay hall has entered the meeting. Speaker 0 00:15:57 So they knew that, okay, I'll now open this to the public because this is a second reading. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on zoom app or if by phone, by pressing star nine, when it is your turn to speak, you will receive or hear every 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 will have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions, if you would like to comment on the ordinance under second reading, please raise your hand. Now Speaker 1 00:16:49 Council President, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised funding, mute themselves. Speaker 5 00:16:57 Thank you, Mr. Cedar is Stacy Berger. Again, I would like the answers to the questions that I asked previously or someone to even address them. I asked the pretty long list of questions and they were not really addressed. I had a very hard time hearing on Mr. Dacey. So I appreciate Ms. Lombardi's request that he speak closer to the microphone because I only got kind of every other word it was fading in and out. But if there is a presentation about the budget or more specificity that Mr. Dacey or any of the council members could offer about what Speaker 0 00:17:30 Mrs. Burger, Speaker 5 00:17:31 This is, it's not Mrs. Anything, but thank you, Ms. Kinneally. Speaker 0 00:17:34 Okay. This is, this is regarding the second reading on the ordinance. I will have no problem answering that question for you at our next public portion of the meeting. Okay. We are actually now in the middle of the second reading on this ordinance. So it is open to the public for that, that comment. Okay. Speaker 5 00:17:54 Right? The con the question, my questions are related to the budget, which are the budget items related to health, healthcare costs, which we all know are extraordinary, extraordinary to the siphons and payments of those sites to the council members, which I suspect are part of the budget, unless they're not part of the budget, which would be interesting. And also what the budget represents for taxpayers and residents in our community. So, because there's no documentation that goes along with this, the public is a little bit at a loss to follow along. But if the, either the BA or someone else can answer the questions I had specifically about the stipend, that's great. If any of the council members could elaborate on what you spend this stipend on, that would also be very helpful because as far as I can tell everyone continues to say that you can be reached by email, but gene Wilkes gets paid to answer that email. And so I am very curious and I think other people are, I'm sorry, Speaker 8 00:18:51 You're attempting to use the, the public portion for ordinances for your personal commentary. Please. Speaker 5 00:18:57 I'm asking a question. The boomer, I have three minutes. You want, you want us to ask all our questions up front. I'm trying to be respectful of your process and ask my questions upfront. Speaker 8 00:19:06 So please keep them on topic. Speaker 5 00:19:08 But the topic is the budget. I'm sorry, Speaker 8 00:19:10 This isn't actually the budget. This is where an ordinance exceeding the municipal budget appropriation and establishing a cap bank Speaker 5 00:19:18 Will be very helpful. It would be very helpful if you publish the actual resolutions that went along with them. Speaker 8 00:19:24 It's the ordinance. This ordinance is on second reading. It's on the website. You can go ahead and retrieve Speaker 5 00:19:30 It there. Then I will look for it. There. Speaker 0 00:19:39 Council President, there are no other individuals with their hands raised regarding this agenda item Speaker 9 00:19:46 Council President. If I may just as a reminder to other people who might be listening for the first time and understanding what this is, this particular item is talking about, extending the cap bank because the budget is not adopted yet. And there's usually a lag of time. I do believe between state budgets, our budgets. That's what this particular ordinance is about. Speaker 0 00:20:15 Thank you so much. And yes, we do do this almost every year. Speaker 2 00:20:20 And in Council President, if I could just briefly add, despite the political minded allegations of Ms. Berger, this information is all been available to the public. It's all available to the public and you know, anybody can see what's in the budget. What's been in the budget. Anybody can see what we've done year in and year out with respect to this exact issue. Speaker 0 00:20:45 Thank you. Thank you for that. And I believe we have one more person waiting. Speaker 1 00:20:55 I got the president, I'm asking the next individual to unmute themselves. You can go ahead and unmute yourself. Please. I've asked you to unmute yourself. Go ahead, David Speaker 7 00:21:20 Akins, Sam book valley lane item number nine. This is where I could get a general idea. Speaker 0 00:21:27 Mr. Akins, Mr. Akins. I'm sorry for interrupting, but we're on number seven. We're doing the second reading to exceed the municipal budget. So we're working on the open public portion for number seven at this time. Okay? Speaker 1 00:21:45 Okay. Okay. Speaker 0 00:21:50 Anyone else wishing to comment for the public portion for number seven, Speaker 1 00:22:00 Council President, there are no individuals with their hands raised. Speaker 0 00:22:03 I will now be closing the public portion for number seven. And may I have an offer, please Speaker 9 00:22:11 Offer a Councilwoman Speaker 2 00:22:15 Second Councilman con. Speaker 0 00:22:17 Thank you very much. And Ms. Cedar, could you please call the roll Speaker 1 00:22:22 Councilman Bullard? Councilman Bullard can unmute yourself so we can hear your vote please, Speaker 2 00:22:37 But he doesn't appear to be muted. I'm not sure why we can't hear him. Speaker 9 00:22:43 Maybe he has to hit that star button. Speaker 2 00:22:46 Oh, there it goes. Now he is muted. There we go. Speaker 1 00:22:54 Councilman Bullard. May I please have your vote? If he can verbally do it? If there is video, if he could nod for yes. Councilman Bullard. What's your vote Speaker 9 00:23:11 Up and down for yeah. Speaker 1 00:23:17 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Speaker 2 00:23:22 Yeah. So may I, it looks like Jim is not muted on his end. I don't know if there's a technical problem on the backend. It looks like he seems Speaker 1 00:23:30 Probably on his computer. I dunno if he has his audio turned on Councilman Rouse, Councilman Uhrin Council, President Lombardi. Speaker 0 00:23:41 Yes. And the ordinance passes. Now we're moving to number eight is an ordinance. Second reading vacating, all the right title and interest of the paper street known as Trent place. It will be open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Mrs. Theater. Can you please read the ordinance? Speaker 1 00:24:01 It resolved by the township council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled an ordinance vacating all of the right title and interest of the township of Piscataway in the entirety of a paper street known as Trent place was introduced on the 15th day of February, 2022. Now the past, the first reading and was published on the 18th day of February, 2022. Now therefore be it resolved that the offer said ordinance. Having had a second reading on March 2nd, 2020 to be adopted passed, and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of passenger approval in the official newspaper, be further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2022 dash zero four. Speaker 0 00:24:40 Thank you, Mr. Cedar. And we'll now open this to the public. And as I said, we are now on number eight. Okay. It's the second reading. And we're going to open the public portion for number eight, which is vacating all the right title and interest of the paper street known as Trent place. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on zoom app or if by phone, by pressing star nine, when it is your turn to speak, you will receive or 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 will have three minutes in which you make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions, if you would like to comment on the ordinance on number eight, please raise your hand. Now, Speaker 1 00:25:42 Council President. I'm asking them the first individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Speaker 10 00:25:51 Hello, Councilwoman, Lombardi, pleasure speaking to you twice in one week. two 80 river road here in Piscataway. I was just wondering, I'll try to get all my questions upfront. Where is Trent place currently in the town? And what's, what's the goal of putting this road in? Is it just a better access or is there undeveloped land around it? And if so, is there anything that's currently in the works to be built there? A yield my time. Speaker 0 00:26:21 Thank you very much. And I'll refer that to our business administrator, Tim Dacey, Speaker 4 00:26:39 Yeah. Is near the, what comes up to the port ranting railroad branch. And it's a couple of couple thousand 12,000 square feet altogether. And the tensor does not have a use for it. And it's unapproved. I just think I want to give a better explanation. That means I don't think. Speaker 8 00:27:21 Yeah. So, so paper street essentially is a, is this is a piece of land that would have been, been improved into a straight, never was. So the township owns it. It's usually intersecting or, or surrounded by a lot. So in this case, the township has never going to build up a street there. They're vacating it to the property. Owners can have a more contiguous property or the neighbors usually we'll split the piece of pie, vacated paper street between them. Speaker 0 00:27:53 Thank you for that clarification. Speaker 10 00:27:56 I did know what a paper street was. I just didn't understand. And that is correct in within 10. Okay. Thank you for explaining the intense of a vacating that on behalf of the town it had misunderstood. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:28:09 Thank you. Do we have anyone else? There are no Speaker 1 00:28:16 Other individuals with their hands raised regarding Speaker 0 00:28:19 We are now closing the public portion for number eight. And can I have an offer please? Can I have a second? Thank you. Yes. You sure did. Mrs. Theater, may you please call the Speaker 1 00:28:40 Councilman Bullard? Yes. Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilman Rouse. Yes. Councilman Uhrin. Yes. Council President Lombardi. Speaker 0 00:28:58 Yes. And the ordinance passes. We'll now move to number nine, which is an ordinance second reading or authorizing the acquisition of certain property identified as block 8 0 0 2 lot 1.02, which is at 2 51 Mettler's lane. It's open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Mrs. Cedar, can you please read the ordinance? Speaker 1 00:29:32 They're resolved by the township council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled ordinance authorizing the acquisition of certain property. Identify that as block 8, 0 0 2 lot. 1.0 to 2 51 Mettler's lane in the township of Piscataway county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey for public purpose pursuant to N J S a 20 colon three dash one FX was introduced on the 15th day of February, 2022, and it passed the first reading and was published on the 18th day of February, 2022. Now therefore be resolved if he ever said an ordinance, having a second rating on March 2nd, 2020 to be adopted passed, and after passage to get pelvis together with a notice of the date of festival approval and official newspaper. The further that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2022 dash zero five. Speaker 0 00:30:19 Thank you Mrs. Cedar. And this is the second reading. It is going to be open to the public. Remember this is for number nine only if you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on zoom app or if by phone, by pressing star nine, when it is your turn to speak, you will receive or 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 will have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. If you'd like to comment on number nine, the ordinance under second reading, please raise your hand. At this time. Speaker 1 00:31:11 Council President, I'm asking the first individual to unmute themselves Speaker 7 00:31:23 David akin and both valley lane, or number nine. What is the future use if any, by taking, by doing this acquisition. Speaker 0 00:31:44 Thank you, Mr. Akins, Speaker 8 00:31:46 I'll take this one. That's a Raj. Goomer the 10th attorney. So the property owner actually reached out to us and me with an interest to, to sell the property to us. It was actually apparently just flooded in this lab and these last storms over the summer and was being renovated. It's actually flooded, I think more frequently over the past few years. And so the township is looking to keep it as open space. It's right next to the Ambrose Brook. And it's actually on low level level and the floodplain of it right by lake Nelson. So the township is looking to keep it as open space because the, you know, the property doesn't, isn't really in a situation where it should be, you know, should have residents in there because it's going to continue to flood further. It's also the meddlers I ended up bridge, right there is, is narrows. So if the township owns that property, it will give opportunity in the future for the, the Mettler's lane to be expanded, to add bike lanes, et cetera. Speaker 9 00:32:50 I'm thinking if I make it Council President. Yeah. I went past that house, David, and you you'll know it when you, when you pass by it. I'm not sure Mr. Akins is still on the call on here. I don't see him, but that house is one that low line house, like right across from lake Nelson, you pass it all the time and I can understand why the, the, the resident was interested in seeing if the town would, you know, purchase it and preserve it for open space. So I, you know, I can certainly understand. And especially after Ida, of course, Speaker 0 00:33:27 Thank you, Councilwoman Cahill. Speaker 8 00:33:30 Yeah. Just to add it to the Emirates book actually runs through part of the lot. So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty much contiguous with the Brooke as it floods. Speaker 0 00:33:44 Thank you very much for that clarification. Speaker 1 00:33:46 Is there anyone else? Yes. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 8 00:33:52 I, you basically already answered my question, so I don't need to answer anything. Speaker 1 00:34:03 I'm asking you the next individual to find me at themselves. Speaker 10 00:34:09 I asked I'm in Chicago. You actually answered most of my questions as well. However, I'm curious as to what the cost of this property will be. And as you stated, you wish to keep the open space. I was wondering if this would be entered into an open space or similar as sort of a preserved property. And if, as such the township would be utilizing publicly available funds other than tax funds from the municipality to purchase it. Thank you. That's all my questions. Speaker 8 00:34:37 Thank you. So I can handle this one. So right now the ordinance, we can do any negotiations, anything until we pass this ordinance to allow us to enter into negotiations, obtain an appraisal, et cetera. So we're, at this point, we don't know what the value is going to be. We're not looking to condemn the property. It's only because the property owner came to us. And so, you know where we're looking to, you know, we'll find out, you know, what the value may be and see if we can come to a price, but you know, this isn't a guarantee that we're going to purchase the property, but we have to pass this ordinance to even, you know, start, start the process. Speaker 0 00:35:14 Thank you, Mr. Kumar, Speaker 1 00:35:16 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Speaker 11 00:35:26 Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, Craig one, the next three lake park drive. I live directly across the Brook from the property in question. And I was wondering if, since it's directly contiguous to the rest of Ambrose Stoney's county park, which is the undeveloped county park, would it not be more appropriate for the county to acquire that property? Especially in light of the fact that I'm assuming at some point in the future, the county is going to attempt to expand the Mettler's lane bridge to either add bike lanes or appropriate pedestrian walkways, which currently doesn't have Speaker 0 00:36:08 Thank you very much. Speaker 8 00:36:10 And, and that, that may be an option. You know, we'll look into it, but I don't think it actually is on the county park. There is. I mean, it's part of, I guess, Ambrose Brook. I, I dunno if this county on property or not, but we'll look into it Speaker 4 00:36:23 Generally when there's a county road widening project, such as it could be there, the county doesn't do the property acquisition. They leave up to the town to acquire it. So that's why it's a good purchase for us. Now, if we can get it because we'll have it essentially, a land bank in case the county does do that extension. Speaker 0 00:36:44 Thank you. Mr. Dacey for that clarification. Also Speaker 1 00:36:50 Council President, there are no other individuals with their hands, right? Speaker 0 00:36:53 We are now closing the public portion for number nine. May I have an offer please? May I have a second Speaker 1 00:37:02 Councilman? Speaker 0 00:37:05 Thank you, Ms. Theater, can you please call the roll? Speaker 1 00:37:07 Councilman Bullard. Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilman Rouse. Yes. Councilman Uhrin. Yes. Council President Lombardi. Speaker 0 00:37:22 Yes. And the ordinance passes. Number 10 are the consent agenda. Resolutions for efficiency, item and items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together. The materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting at this time. Are there any items that the council would like removed from the consent agenda to be discussed or voted on separately? Being non might have a motion to accept the consent agenda, please. May I have a second? This is theater. Can you please call the roll? Speaker 1 00:38:10 Councilman Bullard, Councilwoman Cahill. Councilman con yes. Councilman Rouse. Yes. Councilman Uhrin. Yes. Council President Lombardi. Speaker 0 00:38:25 Yes. And the cassette consent agenda path. Number 11, a resolution, which is the introduction of the calendar year 2022 municipal budget. Ms. Cedar, can you please read that for us Speaker 1 00:38:47 Municipal municipal budget, the attachment post Piscataway county of Middlesex for the fiscal year, 2022, it resolved that the following statements are revenues and appropriations shall constitute the municipal budget for the year 2020 to pay for the resolve that said budget be published in the star ledger and the issue of March 8th, 2022, the governing body of the tangible Piscataway does hereby approve the following budget as the budget for the year 2022 summary of current fund section of approved budget, general appropriations for appropriations within taps municipal purposes, $52,293,674. Appropriations excluded from caps municipal purposes, 24 million, $246,473 and 67 cents. Total general appropriations excluded from cap 24 million, $246,473 and 67 cents reserve for uncollected taxes based on estimated 99.05% of tax collections, $1,814,932 and 95 cents. Total general appropriations, $78,355,080 and 62 cents less anticipated revenues other than current property tax 26 million, $284,566 and 22 cents difference and not to be raised by taxes for support of municipal budget, local tax for municipal purposes, including reserve for uncollected taxes, $48,774,112 and 40 cents. Minimum library tax 3 million, $296,402. Speaker 0 00:40:49 Thank you, Mrs. Theater. Well, now move to number 12. Can I have a motion please? Councilman Bullard. Can I have a second? Thank you, Ms. Theater, can you please? Speaker 1 00:41:14 Councilman Bullard? Yes. Councilwoman Cahill, Councilman Councilman Rouse, Councilman Uhrin Council. President Lombardi. Speaker 0 00:41:28 Yes. Number 12, comments and announcements from officials. Councilman Bullard. Do we have any comments? Speaker 2 00:41:45 No real comments. I'm hoping everyone is doing well. You know, you and your families and so forth and we should be moving soon. Hopefully. Speaker 0 00:41:59 Thank you, Mr. Belarus, Councilwoman Cahill. Speaker 9 00:42:04 Yeah, just a couple of things I wanted to just mention to those residents who are Catholic out there that we marked today is Ash Wednesday. It's the start of the Lenten season. And I wish to, you know, send my well-wishes for a 40 days of resolve and taking time to pause and spending time with family during this time. And then I'd also like to remind folks that there are a couple of the, a lot activities going on in town. We have the, a newsletter and the D the emails that come out from administration. Notably there is a breakfast at that. The Knights of Columbus are having a do believe it's over in the St Francis Cabrini lot, but it's not their school anymore. It's the building that used to be their school. They're having a breakfast. And I do believe that it might be this weekend. Speaker 9 00:43:14 There's a blood drive going on at the Y a lot of activities over at the Y. And there also is for those folks to like myself who may have had cancer before there is an absolutely free exercise program sponsored by live strong. And the Y that you can sign up for, they do a quick medical release and, you know, sort of just a check. They have you come in and make sure you are physically capable of doing it. And you can take that virtually or in person. So that's that. And I would also like to just extend my deepest thoughts and prayers for those people in the Ukraine, for their families for loved ones that are lost and, and just hope and pray that this comes to a very swift end. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:44:14 Thank you, Mrs. Cahill, Councilman con. Speaker 2 00:44:18 Thank you. I don't have any comments. No, I don't have any comments at this time. Speaker 0 00:44:33 Councilman Aaron Speaker 4 00:44:42 Council, President Speaker 0 00:44:46 Mr. Dacey. Speaker 4 00:44:48 So Councilwoman Cahill mentioned the why and all things going out over there. The one thing that would encourage anyone who's interested in putting your child or grandchild into the summer camp, please, please sign up very quickly. We had a meeting today and they're at about 80 to 85% capacity ready for the summer. So there's very few slots left. So if they interests that don't wait too long with Speaker 0 00:45:14 Thank you, township attorney Raj. Goomer no comments. Speaker 4 00:45:18 Thank you. Speaker 0 00:45:20 And I'll just finish up with a few things. I believe tomorrow, March 3rd, there is a vaccine clinic over at the Y from three 30 to five 30. Anybody who does need to get a vaccine or a booster would be eligible for that. I'd like to wish everybody a happy St Patrick's day since we won't be meeting before St. Patrick's day. And lastly, we are now in March, which is women's history month, which provides us an opportunity to honor the generations of trailblazing women and girls who have built their nation, shaped our progress and strengthened our character as a people. So let's all look into our women's history and please keep that in mind for the month of March. So I believe that's all I have to say. So we'll now move forward through the agenda session for the April 12th meeting for 2022, on that session will be a resolution authorizing the 2022 peddlers licenses for various people. Do we have any comments or questions regarding that? Speaker 0 00:46:53 Also a resolution authorizing the refund of a gun permit fee. Any questions, a resolution authorizing the acceptance of a project and release of retainage for second avenue improvements, phase one and phase two are the jabs construction company. Any questions regarding that? Seeing none, there will be a resolution authorizing an award of contract for asphalt coring testing for netherworld avenue improvements not to exceed $2,250. Any questions seeing none? We'll now move to number 14, which will be the open public portion of the meeting. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on gym app or if by phone, by pressing star nine, when it is your turn to speak, you will receive or 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 will have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. So anyone wishing to speak during the public comment portion of this meeting, please raise your hand at this time. And please remember to state your comments and that you have three minutes in which to speak. And then we will answer them. Speaker 1 00:48:36 Council President. I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 3 00:48:44 Hi ed marsh, one 13 white coffee avenue. Hi. I like to say a few words about historic preservation, early African American history, dating back to the revolutionary war. It's documented at the historic Charles Sadam house. Also known as the Miller property located at the corner of hose, Blaine, west and river road cross some old town public records of revolutionary war claims made by Charles Sadam in 1776 to 1777, indicate the presence of five African-Americans at the site. It's believed that these claims were the result of a British foraging party rate and subsequent battle or skirmish that occurred on the property in 1777. Some efforts should be made to determine if the African-Americans are buried at the site, how still retains the early fireplace and beehive oven in its seller. It's historic due to its association with the early African-Americans. Although there are later at distance to the back of the wooden colonial style house, they did not have detract from its integrity. Rather, they provide information about the many generations of families that lived there and the social cultural and economic changes that occurred plans to remove the beehive oven would destroy its context. Unfortunately, the publicly on house has been neglected and is exposed to the elements. However, I believe this historic house should be restored. This will honor the contributions, those guns, Speaker 2 00:50:28 And preserve a Speaker 3 00:50:29 Portal to the past. I'd like to know what you think about this. Speaker 2 00:50:37 Thank you, Mr. Marsh, if Council, President, if I comment on that, if I may, first of all, ed, I don't see you, but it's good to hear you hope you're doing well. I, I agree with much of what Mr. Marsh said, except for the reality of accomplishing those things. And I've been a big advocate for a long time for that piece of property, and I've been inside the property. So that was taking up too much time to give me a brief history of it. The property was privately owned and it, at some point the owners were going to develop, sell it to a developer who was going to take the house down and develop it into a commercial establishment actually, and we got involved looking into purchasing the property. And at the time president McCormick who grew up on river road was the president of Rutgers university. Speaker 2 00:51:36 And we were able to speak to the mayor and I, Dr. McCormick and the university bought the property with the hopes of refurbishing it and using it for university purposes. It was a home run, unfortunately difficult economic times and other issues that the university it never got done. And the university owned the property for quite a while. And the place was not taken care of the place suffered significant amounts of water, damage and storm damage. And eventually like the university was going to sell the property and develop it. We purchased the property to save it from development and have looked into various ways of saving plan were improving the property, including discussions with the county. We, we went into the property shortly after we took the property back from the university. Well, we didn't took it from the boy from the university. And we went into with an in, with, with a contractor engineer. Speaker 2 00:52:46 I think Councilwoman Cahill was there. I know the mayor was there at least one or two other folks from the historical society were there. I've seen the beehive of, and it speaks about it's fascinating, but I, I can say that way we went inside the property. I was tremendously disappointed. It was significantly damaged by water and mold. There had been numerous improvements by the Miller family who owned it with Alaska, where the last owners of it that had modified not all, but much of the historical content of it. And it would have taken according to the engineer that was there several million dollars just to do mold remediation and to do the repairs in the inside. And so we actually looked into whether we could get federal funding, spoke to Congressman Polone about it because it is the place I agree with. What ed said is that historically correct? Speaker 2 00:53:54 And we're unable to secure funding. And at this point, the property, if you went inside, it is, it's sad, quite frankly, the shape that it's in from the weather, but that's the, that's the condition. We got it from university. So I don't know what the future will hold for that piece of property. There's been different discussions about ways of saving it or some of it. And I'm an advocate for doing that, whether we'll be able to do it, whether there's the money there to do it. Cause we're talking probably millions of dollars. I will say the county has an interest in it. Councilwoman Cahill is nodding her head. I know she has an interest in the property and I don't know what the future will be, but it's, it's significantly more complicated and more costly than what you might understand it. And what I understood when I first took a look at it. So I, I, I, sorry, I spoke for longer than I meant to on it sounds like a simple issue, but it is an important issue because it is one of the older and more important properties in town. So I appreciate your comments said, I agree with, with all of them, except for whether we can actually do it. So thanks. And it is good to hear from Speaker 9 00:55:18 Thank you, Councilman Council, President, I'll just add one little thing to 'em so that Mr. Marcia, if he may have even known my neighbors at the time before they bought the house over here and they're now no longer here, they look to purchase the house and to restore it. And they themselves might've been in better stead meaning personally with their finances, but they also too went into buy it. And this may have been even before the university purchased it. I, if I'm not mistaken and they brought in their engineer and they just, they were told millions upon millions. I've had many conversations with the neighbors. You know, we all live over in this area here. So we understand the, the, the historical value in nature of preservation and it, without seemingly a gift of a lot of money coming from either the county state or federal funds, it would be a, that would be a burden onto the taxpayer payer that could not be there. Not, not right now, at least Speaker 2 00:56:31 Without, just without naming who it is. Cause the person's deprived citizen, that person is restored. One of the oldest houses in town and spent more money than I would ever could ever spend. We storing that piece of property. So they were somebody who was personally dedicated to that issue. And they were disappointed that it was not something that they could undertake. So that, but that may not be the end of the story, but that is, those are the facts, unfortunately, that have gotten us where we are today. Speaker 7 00:57:03 Thank you everyone for that clarification Speaker 1 00:57:08 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves, Speaker 7 00:57:24 David Akins and both valley lane on the corner, south Washington avenue and Centennial huge property. They're doing construction back there to tell me what type of construction they're doing. And I like to be able to go to engineering office and look at those clients. Speaker 9 00:57:54 I don't know about the engineering plans. I'll let Raj answer that, but Council, President, if I could just address it. So Mr. Akins, and to be clear there at the very corner is a piece of property that is not part of the property where the construction is happening. That is happening right behind it. But that very corner lot, I do believe is I believe it's owned by a gentleman who I think owns like Speedway or Raceway gasoline stations, but right behind that, where the work is being done is where the old Avis was, right. That is now duke Realty and they are building a warehouse there. I do believe, and I don't Raj I'm, I'm, I'm assuming that, you know, they've filed the plans with planning. Mr. Akins is certainly welcomed to access those as anyone in the public would, would be able to. Speaker 7 00:59:02 Correct. Speaker 2 00:59:04 I don't think the corner property is part of that. Am I right? Correct. Speaker 9 00:59:08 That is like the re like the people only is it's either a Raceway gas station or Southern Speedway, something to that effect. And they still own that. They in just to be completely clear is we sort of in town have a moratorium really on gas stations. Right. We there's really none new coming in. And I know that they wanted to put when there were, the town is not looking to put a gas station there. So their lot is cleared, but there are no plans for that particular corner lot at Centennial and south wash. It's the property right behind where the Avis is. There actually is a, a traffic light there where you could pull into where the Avis is. That is just a little bit, I guess, north of a Centennial, anyone else, Speaker 1 01:00:04 Council President, I'm asking the next individual to unmute themselves. Speaker 12 01:00:10 Yeah. Hi folks. This is her four 11 new market road, the stat away welcome hope everyone's doing well. You know, as a political activist and system engineer, I took a keen interest in the recent rewarding process that was occurring for, for the Piscataway council wards. I like the fact that Melissa Cedar, for her service on that board, she was the seventh member as you know, given her position as a municipal clerk. And she also, I did see that the public notice was posted as required by statute. I tended to January 11th meeting where we were told that there would be a minimum of changes made to the wards and Piscataway. However, just three days later, a map was introduced by commissioner Frankl that was adopted with no public review or comment. And this map moves 18,000 people in Piscataway from one war to another, a particular award, three snakes across the township. Speaker 12 01:01:11 And it wraps around and within 250 yards of the residents of the war to council person. And it continues east and inexplicably includes a few blocks, which includes the north stone and firehouse. So it really spreads across town. On February 3rd, we asked the other six war commissioners about the rationale for the changes. And they said they had no answers for us, which was kind of strange because we had through a public records request learned that commissioner Frankel had developed some talking points to justify, try to justify the changes in Piscataway, but the talking points seemed a bit pretextual and that they talked about combining, you know, communities of interests, which included apartments and condos. Speaker 12 01:02:06 So, and they include the river road apartments by Middlesex are now in the same ward as the apartments by FL road and road, which is five miles away. And the reason it doesn't hold water is that there's also apartments. Royal gardens in Princeton gardens were separated from Aspen court, which is directly adjacent. So the idea that there was something going on with this community of interest for apartments is it seems very a pretextual. And at the, at the, one of the meetings, commissioner Katz had said that, you know, if there were going to be changes made to the maps, that the, the person who would have the most, the best knowledge or input to the vocal changes would be the, the municipal clerk. And Melissa was part of this, this commission. So I'm just curious to learn if Ms. Ms. Cedar was consulted with the construction, the re rationale for this third map that was hastily introduced at the, at the very, very last minute. And if she wasn't consulted, if she has any information or knowledge about where the map or what the rationale is for the map and his current form, Speaker 8 01:03:24 Thank you for those comments, Mr. Jarvis, I'm going to start with, this is Raj Goomer. The rewarding commission is a completely independent body. And Ms. Silvera, even though she was miserable clerk, it was acting separately within the independent body. I would request them to Cedar and not make any comments as this isn't the proper form. The township council is it was not part of, of that those meetings, nor that commission, and therefore this isn't the appropriate location to make any comment. Speaker 2 01:03:55 And you just want to say one thing, if I can, when I, when I started on a town council, I was the second ward Councilman. I lived in the possum town area, which included mayor Walter's house. He was on east Lincoln and he's now in, he still is in the second ward and nobody asked me, nobody consulted me. Nobody spoke to me. I didn't move. But one day I found out that I was not the second word council person, but the third word council person, I thought it rather odd that I had lost a huge area in neighborhood. The people that I knew and had a relationship with, and that's just the way it was. And when I asked questions about it, the explanation that I got was that it had to do with demographics and the demographic balance, because there is a requirement to have a certain demographic mix and demographic balance that's as close as possible. Speaker 2 01:04:56 I wasn't involved in this process. I saw the maps when everybody else did, I wasn't involved 10 years ago when the maps changed either. I will say the gentlemen who herb, that is good to hear you heard, but I haven't seen you in quite a while. I look forward to seeing you, at some point, we'll talk about is a Republican and the commission who decides these things is made up equally of Democrats and Republicans. So, and that that's by state constitution. So if you go back, I think, and look historically, and I, I don't, I don't go back that far in down, but if you go back historically and look, we could ask Frank maybe, or others who lived in towns, their whole lives, the maps have changed significantly. The word lines have changed as the population shifts and change to try and have an equal balance of folks. Speaker 2 01:05:47 And of course, we have the university in the middle of town, which has grown tremendously and the growth that the university has brought new people into town has changed the population. So I can't explain how this map came about, or can I explain how the one, 10 years ago came about, came about either. I just know that from the time I got on 20 years ago, this is the third drawing of the lines. And I suspect 10 years from now, there'll be a different map as well. So I, I'm just giving you my, a little bit of my historical perspective on Speaker 0 01:06:24 Thank you, Councilman Cahn, Speaker 1 01:06:28 Council President. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves. Speaker 10 01:06:37 Hello? Yes, Evan Schakowsky again. I just want to thank everyone for their candor and answering my questions earlier. I greatly do appreciate it. I'd like to thank everyone in the community. That's partaking in the EMS advisory council that is now off the ground and working. I'd like to encourage anyone in the community that would like to be involved to either call in or to watch the meetings. I believe they're both on YouTube and maybe, maybe Facebook as well. I'm not really sure that they should be able to search them out. In addition, I do have one last question that was not brought up seeing as though the mass mandate is being dropped from the public schools in the township. And as the country, as a whole is moving away from mass mandates and in some communities, even vaccine mandates, I was wondering what the township plans to do in terms of opening up municipal buildings so that we can access these municipal buildings on, in the near future and to, you know, go to meetings in person. I, my time I have nothing further. Thank you so much. Speaker 0 01:07:39 Thank you. Business Administrator, Tim Dacey. Do you want to answer that question? Speaker 4 01:07:43 So we've just found out today, the superintendent at the end of the month. So we've not had a chance to internally talk about what we're going to do. So we're going to be tackling all of that. The next, next several days, Speaker 1 01:08:04 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Speaker 13 01:08:15 Good evening, Madam president, Charlie crowd Advil. So you know me by now, I'm the editor of new Brunswick today, a community newspaper available online@newbrunswickstate.com. I also wanted to follow up on Mr. Jarvis's questions. He mentioned a number of 18,000 residents that were shifted from one ward to another. Can you please have the clerk specify how many residents are now in a different ward by the, by virtue of the decision to adopt that map? Speaker 0 01:08:51 Are you done with your questions? Speaker 13 01:08:54 No. I would like to ask up questions after I get the answer to that one. Please Speaker 0 01:08:58 State all your questions and then we'll answer them after you're done. Speaker 13 01:09:02 Okay. With all due respect, I got to point out that this is a rather cowardly way for the council to avoid a dialogue with the public. You know, every other town I go to, I can ask a question, get an answer and ask an informed follow-up question, but you're attempting to take advantage of this situation where you're on the zoom meetings and avoid a dialogue. So I'll let you know that I would like to know how many thousands of residents and voters are going to be changed from one more to another. And why Ms. Cedar voted for that to happen? I also want to clarify, did Mr. Khan say that herb Targus is a Republican, because if so, he should correct the record I have in front of me, the voter registration records and Speaker 2 01:09:51 Not a Republican is a he's. Well, he's, he's at least a Democrat. He maybe more than a Democrat, but no. I said that Mr. Frankel, who is the chairman of the, of the board of elections is a Republican who he seemed to be criticizing when he spoke Charlie. And that the board of the board of elections who made up this map is equally made up of Democrats and Republicans. Herb, I know for a fact has never voted Republican is like, am I right herb? Speaker 0 01:10:24 Okay. Let's let's let them send it. Let's let them ask us questions. Speaker 13 01:10:29 I appreciate you setting that record straight. But unfortunately, the part about Mr. Frankel, I don't believe is correct. He has represented the democratic party on that board for decades. He may act like a Republican sometimes, but he is most definitely the Democrat representative on there. And I'm deeply concerned about the role that he played in concocting. This map that was foisted on the public without any chance to review or provide input. This was done in a shady undemocratic way. And I hope that you will join me in calling for Mr. Frankel to resign from that board. I also want to raise concerns about the, in the police department, who has not one but two lawsuits against the township. Now, why is it that the township refuse to allow the whistleblowers disciplinary hearing to be recorded? Is it that you did not want a record of what took place there or what was about to take place there, if that disciplinary, disciplinary, hearing move forward. Speaker 13 01:11:33 And, you know, I keep having to bring it up, but why hasn't the mayor being the public safety director made any comments about the lawsuit against the department or about the fact that PPDs records have been held ransom for nearly four years. And why hasn't anyone commented on the computer crime committed by X PPD, dispatcher, Ronald B. Jones who had to spend some time behind bars for his crime? I don't understand why there's no one taking leadership or ownership of this situation. It seems there's a lot of scandal swirling around the Piscataway police department and no one stepping up to give answers. I mean, I I've regularly. Speaker 0 01:12:21 Thank you Mr. Crownsville. We thank you very much for all of your comments and we'll refer that to our township attorney. Speaker 8 01:12:30 Yeah. In regards to your comments requesting inquiries to the township clerk. Again, I remind you that this is not the rewarding commission. This is the tangible council. This is not an opportunity to interrogate our clerk in on, in regard to any actions that were taken by an independent commission. This is not the appropriate venue. And the clerk is not here to, to, to provide information regarding a independent commission that was made up by Democrats and Republicans in regard to Ms. Credible, I know you and me have gone back and forth on undisputed facts, but I, I will say that I don't think there's any scandals going on into police department. Of course there is litigation that I requested counsel not to make any comments. And of course the township would never actually does not make any comments on pending litigation. Speaker 0 01:13:26 Thank you, Mr. Speaker 4 01:13:28 And whoever you got the information from regarding the hearing was incorrect information that you have. Unfortunately, Speaker 13 01:13:40 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Speaker 14 01:13:49 Good evening, everyone. How you doing this is Rob Johnson, 39 east bridges drive one, happy March, Councilwoman Lombardi. Thank you for opening the doors to a women's history month and all the contributions to history, culture, and society. So I thank you for that. I'm also obviously disappointed that history month is over. I think contributions should be going year round, Speaker 14 01:14:19 And I'm glad that we can show people. We can have good civil discourse and that's a good thing. So thank you, Ms. Lombardi for smiling and laughing. I did have a question. I'm quite sure the council was aware that at and T 3g sunset at about a week ago, a little bit less than a week ago, and it was glaring concerns for our elderly community, which thrives here, there, they will remind you very fast that we're very active community. So one of the concerns I had was that the township look into the safety concerns or provide services for our elderly community, because with the sunset of 3g, some people didn't move into 5g and we're looking at, you know, emergency devices, medical aid, equipment, alarms, you know, medical alerts, a lot of challenges that some of our elder community that be able to transfer over to. So I was wondering that anyone that council can talk about it, that we look into that where their major concerns for the shutdown or elder community protected, and anyone can answer. Speaker 0 01:15:27 Thank you, Mr. Johnson, is that all you have, is that your only question for this? Thank you very much. Thank you for those concerns. And we will look into that. Mr. Dacey. Do we have any comments regarding that issue? Speaker 4 01:15:42 I did reach out to the government affairs representatives from the cable wireless and Verizon and discuss it with them. And there did not seem to be the thing that there was as much issues as some of the people that have written about most of the providers have upgraded their, their services over the past couple of years. So I was not led to believe that it was that an issue as some people are writing about and the, in the mayor's office got absolutely no calls from many buddy on it. Speaker 0 01:16:23 And maybe we could just check in to see if anyone called over to the senior center. Maybe anyone else, Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves Speaker 5 01:16:41 Good evening. It's Stacy Berger, again, 2 33 Ellis Parkway. In addition to the questions I asked previously, which I appreciate you being willing to answer now, what I think is the appropriate time. I did review the ordinances during the discussion and it appears on the, and I'm sorry for that, because it was buried in page two of 17, and I just didn't see it. It says you were exceeding the municipal budget appropriations and establishing the cap banks. So if you could, in addition to addressing the questions I previously asked about the stipend, maybe someone could just explain why there's a 1% increase. It just says here in the interest of promoting the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens, which I think we can all agree as a very important role and responsibility of the council. If you could, if anyone could just elaborate on what the specific health safety and welfare issues are that require that increase. Speaker 5 01:17:36 I think everyone would love to, to hear that I also wanted to address a couple of other issues. And since you have requested, we all ask our questions in advance. I want to be responsive and respectful for that. So I hope you'll all join me in congratulating, the Skyway voters for adopting a tape ordinance, which took effect last month, kudos to the PCTV and the municipal staff has been working to implement the ordinance in accordance with the law. And you appreciate it as you know, voters in our community adopted tape ordinance by landslide margin of over 70% last November after residents, including myself collected more than enough signatures to place a binding referendum on the ballot and the council referendum, nonbinding referendum with denied by the judge. I understand that that, that you've all appealed that case at taxpayer expense, which is I'm curious since the election has already happened, but I've seen that the notices for the dates and times of the planning and zoning board meetings are available on the website, but the agendas and the content of the items to be discussed and voted on. Speaker 5 01:18:37 Don't seem to be posted on the website in advance of the meeting as required by the ordinance as somebody could please clarify, those are being posted somewhere else, and I'm just not seeing them or explain why they're not being posted and shared as required by law. Also, if you could, if you could please include the new communications and engagement tools for those meetings in the weekly email that goes out with the community updates that Mrs Cahill mentioned earlier, I've heard from quite a few folks, they were unaware that these virtual meeting options exist, exist, and they don't know that the meetings were being broadcast on CCTV. So it would be great to make sure that everyone is aware of those things. And last I'm wondering if there's any update on the cable franchise agreement that was set to expire at the end of 2021. I'm sure the council and the mayor used that agreement process, or I hope that you would have to secure improvement for our residents to have more reliable internet service, which is something I think we all can agree our community desperately needs. So any updates on that would be appreciated as well. So that's an addition to the questions I had asked earlier about the stipend. Thanks so much. Speaker 0 01:19:37 Thank you very much for all of your questions and hopefully we can get them answered for you. Speaker 4 01:19:45 I thought I did answer her question about the temporary budget. I re answer it, cause it may have been Speaker 0 01:19:52 Tough hearing you in the Speaker 4 01:19:53 Beginning. Okay? So we don't adopt our budget until we get our state aid them. So that, that gives us two, two issues that you deal with. Generally, you're not allowed to adopt a budget until April, which is a state aid numbers come out in March. So every municipality for January, February, March, and April runs on a temporary budget. I think they see those that this is how this is how our government works in New Jersey. So when you're running on a temporary budget, you pay your bills, you pay your salaries, you pay your stipend to pay your health insurance bills, pay your electricity bills. The same as you pay. As if you have a full budget, we break the budget into a monthly amount and that's what we put in the temporary. But so January it's one 12th of last year's budgets, February, it's one 12th, et cetera. So because we're on a temporary budget, there's no change in the way we pay our employees with that. We their bills. So she can rest assured that people who are looking to get paid, get paid, and then there's get paid and everybody gets sick. Speaker 4 01:21:02 The cap bank. Again, this is issue part two with the saints. Since we have to start the adoption of our budget before the state produces their budget, what we do is we take advantage of what you're allowed to do because we're uncertain as set by the amount of state aid that we're going to get. So the state, the state allows us to pass the cap bank ordinance, which has to be done before you begin the budget process. So that's why every January, this is on our agenda. We pass it every year, but we have never used it. It just gives us a little extra room. In case you have a tremendous snow storm on March 15th, in case the governor cuts to state aid or flooding. And so do we need to put more money into our budget? We need to do this before the budget process, because once the budget process starts, you can't change that. So that's the idea of the campaign we do probably do pass, but we've never used it. The issues with the agendas, nobody has brought that to my attention. I believe that they went up there, but I will check on that. And our cabling agreement expires at the end of 2021 expires at the end of 2023. And we're, we're looking at at that right now, Speaker 9 01:22:23 Kathy Council President. I just add, because I think at the last meeting, I happened to mention something about that. So we have been monitoring a case. That was one I do believe it was in West Virginia, where all peace, who own capable vision in our area. They own other cable companies in other areas. They, they are out of another land. They were sued due to the same reasons, lack of service or lesser service. And we've been speaking to the board of public utilities about what, what is new going to do to get all teeth in line with what they should be providing to residents. And we are working with folks there to try to resolve these issues. It has been an ongoing conversation. We speak to the governmental representative at least once a quarter, who I think that maybe one of the last meetings, Tim, last year, we talked about the splitting of nodes and those were some of the things that cable vision really, you know, all Ts was doing to help improve. Speaker 9 01:23:41 There's obviously still a lot of improvements to go, but we don't have that definitive answer as to what they're going to do next or how they're going to get to that best kind of service. As Tim mentioned, we, our contract expires in 2023. I I'm sure as a municipality, we all would like to have competitors come into the area. We were hoping Verizon would come through with . They sort of stopped those plans. And some information I know about that it has to do with my job. And I'm probably not really privy to explain why they stopped, but that was across really all of New Jersey where, especially in older neighborhoods. So we are on it. It's always unfortunately, behind the scenes in a slow going process, but this may or the administration clearly myself have been on top of the governmental liaison over there at cable vision, following up with what they're doing to improve and ultimately, you know, looking at, will we be added on to maybe some litigation against salty here in New Jersey, but we are working with the BPU on that. Sorry, it took up too much time. Speaker 0 01:25:04 I know you've been staying on top of that for us. Speaker 4 01:25:07 The telecommunications act of 1996, really limited it municipalities and what they can try to get from a companies that really took in the beginning. We became agreements in the late seventies, early eighties pounds could ask for, you know, those and roses every week and whatever else they wanted to the cable companies generally gave it to them. But the once the failed indications that passed Congress very much limited the map that we could ask for, and we are working with the BPU and 12 in the world with towns also, Speaker 9 01:25:45 Maybe we'll drop them in, that'll make wakes a month. You know, I mean, we, we can, well, but you know what I mean? Speaker 0 01:25:53 Thank you so much everyone Speaker 1 01:25:56 Council President, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised on mute themselves, Speaker 6 01:26:02 All Brian rack, 1247 Brookside road. I was wondering if there were any results from the fire commissioner election. I was kind of disappointed to see the town didn't really encourage anyone to vote. I know it was mentioned during the last council meeting, but I'm sure you're aware there's a small number of people that attend those meetings for the entire population. Piscataway, I guess I was also wondering, are you working with the T-Mobile and Verizon to actually encourage 5g adoption here? I know I've been on a couple of zoning board meetings where Fresno was trying to upgrade to 5g and they were being told no, because there's some sort of easement issue with the landlord. And it just seems like you're making it hard to work with the town over stuff like that, which seems like an easy a run around the LTS optimum issues. So I had things Speaker 9 01:26:54 I'm going to only make one comment with regard to that. Cause I am on planning board is that Verizon and T-Mobile and you know, most, any other cellular provider, their antennas live on property owned by other people. And when someone comes before planning or zoning and they, they need a variance, we have township ordinances in place. Now it is incumbent upon a renter or let's say somebody who leases space to either bring the landlord with them, work with the landlord to comply, unless there is reasonable distress, but in this town. And I'm sure Mr. Akins can attest to this, that Verizon, you know, when they used to have that one location, you know, kind of did is what they wanted. And, and, and that's not what we want. So there are ordinances in places we do not make it difficult for businesses to operate in this town. Speaker 9 01:28:07 We ask businesses to respect our residential ordinances. And if you're coming to a planning board meeting and you're seeing somebody like a Verizon, or T-Mobile trying to get some things done and they don't want to either a, you know, give up an easement, which by the way, say, you know, if they don't want to give up land, which is a lot of times we ask that's for sidewalks, by the way, it's not just to give a plan that is to save taxpayer dollars. And so what we do in this town is where we believe in a walkable town. It has been from way before my time, a push from former council member, Camille for Nicola, who then became a freeholder, which is now commissioner. And those ordinances are there to protect the resident. It is really incumbent upon Verizon who, whoever comes before us to either make sure the landlord's in agreement with those ordinances, which they are well aware of and they know why they're coming before us. Speaker 9 01:29:14 But there are times when we can work with those clients where it's not a stress on the residents, but there are times when, you know, we've had, you know, the same company come in time and time again, asking for something, just thinking that if they keep asking us that all of a sudden we'll just change your mind and give them what they want. And that's just not how we work. We have to be watch, you know, we have to follow our ordinances and only where it makes sense, grant variances. Quite frankly, they're making a lot of money. And certainly if they don't have the right to give up an easement, they need to work with the landlord, the land owner, to provide that to the town. And that in essence saves our taxpayers lots of dollars. Speaker 8 01:30:10 There's 224, Raj Goomer just on the comment about the fire commissioner elections. Th the I, as of probably a day before yesterday, and I haven't checked yet to confirm, but the election results were not certified to published. So we don't know exactly what the results were. That there is a potential rumor that one of the districts budgets did not pass. I've already had a preliminary conversation, anticipating those results with the one of the attorneys for the fire commissioners. And we'll be working with them moving forward. But until we have certified results, we can't take any action. Speaker 0 01:31:03 There are no other individuals with their hand raised. I'll now close the public portion of the meeting and move to number 15, which is an a German. Can I have a motion to adjourn please? A second. All those in favor, please say, aye. Aye. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. And thank you everyone for calling in Speaker 9 01:31:29 Tonight. Everyone. Goodnight, Speaker 0 01:31:33 Goodbye.