Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on August 9 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 August 9th, 2022. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2, 3, 1 PL 1975, specifying the time date, location login, or dial in information. And to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and the two municipal library, bullets and boards, municipal website, providing a copy of the official newspapers of the Township. And by filing a copy in the office of the Township clerk in accordance with the certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes, the Township continues to use this remote meeting format in an effort to mitigate the change of exposure to COVID 19 as a part of the township's ongoing effect, effort to slow the rate of transmission and to avoid overwhelming our treatment centers in order to make sure a clear record of the meeting can be made and that all parties are heard in an organized fashion. Speaker 0 00:00:58 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. This can be done either through zoom or vice pressing the app or by pressing star nine on your phone. When it is your turn to speak, you will receive a prompt to request to unmute. Please click on the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute upon being unmuted. You should begin to ask any and all questions you may have. You will have three minutes to speak at the conclusion of which you will be muted again in the council or administration will respond as necessary. So do 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. Speaker 0 00:01:47 Each member of the public shall only have one opportunity to speak during each public portion. As the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or logged in user account, we ask that you, if 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 Township clerk. During the public comment portion of the meeting said, comments shall be limited to three minutes of reading. Thank you in advance for the patience. As we continue to move the Township forward during this health emergency, we'd like to call this meeting to order Ms. Cedar, can you please call the Councilman Bullard? Councilwoman Cahill here. Councilman Cahn here. Councilman Rouse, Councilman Shaw here. Councilman Uhrin here. Council, president Lombardi here. Mayor Brian Wahler Speaker 1 00:02:59 Present Speaker 0 00:03:01 Business Administrator. Tim Dacey Speaker 1 00:03:03 Here. Speaker 0 00:03:05 Township attorney Raj Goomer Speaker 1 00:03:08 Here. Speaker 0 00:03:09 Deputy Township clerk, Kelly Minch here and I'm here Melissa Cedar, the Township clerk. Thank you, Mr. Cedar, would everyone please join me in the flag? So number five, comments from administration and council regarding adjourn of any matters on this agenda. Do we have any comments from our administration or our council? Speaker 3 00:03:52 No comments. Council president Speaker 0 00:03:57 Saying numb number six is open to the public and these are comments. Please remember they are comments regarding the consent agenda items. Only again, we'll now open to the public for consent agenda items. 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. So please remember to state all of your comments and will now be open to the public for the consent agenda items. Now council president, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raise to unmute themself. Speaker 4 00:04:54 Hello, Brian rack 1247 Brookside road about item L for Lima. Are you guys considering joining either the county trunk radio system or the state one? I know the county one was in heavy use during that Pepsi fire by a bunch of the fire departments and the state one is currently in use to dispatch all the ambulances within the town. So coverage for both should be pretty good. And that would save probably millions of dollars a year. If you don't have to build your own separate radio network. That was it. Thanks Speaker 0 00:05:31 Mr. JC, do you wanna comment on that Mayor, Speaker 3 00:05:42 If I may council president, we have our own 700 megahertz spectrum that we will be building out and that's it. We will not be on the county system Speaker 0 00:05:56 Council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themself. Speaker 5 00:06:05 Good evening. My name is Paul Siler, 43 4 Fisher avenue. And in reference to resolution, N as in Nancy, the appointment of municipal Alliance coordinator, Rosemary Oli, I would request that the council table that because none of the current members of the Alliance were canvased in reference to that. And we have a wealth of ability within our Township that would not require us going outside of the Township for leadership in any way, shape or form. Additionally, I'm on the e-board and this was not even broached at the last meeting that we had. So I would request that the council table, that resolution until the active members of the Alliance can be canvased. And if no candidate found fine, we can go outside, but we have, I think, more than enough talent within the Township. Thank Speaker 0 00:07:22 You. I'm not aware of that. Speaker 6 00:07:34 This is a paid position, right? Mr. Dacey. Speaker 7 00:07:38 Yes. We've been actually looking for somebody for over a year. We've advertised for recreation department is temporarily handling it, but there's nobody in there really with the specialty and the knowledge being able to do this and the county is turned. So this was, this person's recommended. They do a part-time for another town and she does it very, very well. The person who was handling it before did it very well, but she left to take a full Chaill full-time job in our department of public works. So she can't actually do both jobs. At the same time. We have been looking for somebody to do this for a, for a long time. And we found this candidate with the help of the county, the people who actually run the program in the county. Speaker 0 00:08:31 Thank you for that clarification council president. There are no other individuals with their hands raised. Thank you, Mrs. Cedar will now close the public portion. Speaker 0 00:08:48 Number seven is an ordinance first reading amending chapter seven, traffic section 14, parking prohibited at all times on certain streets. It's a resolution adopting ordinance, Mrs. Cedar, can you please read the ordinance, be it resolved by the Township council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend and supplement the revised general ordinances of the Township of Piscataway county of Middlesex state, New Jersey amending chapter seven, traffic section 14, working prohibited at all times on certain streets B and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it 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 ho scattering, New Jersey, as well as by remote meeting format on the 13th day of September, 2022, be a further resolve 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 public. Thank you, Mrs. Cedar, can I have an offer to accept the first reading on this ordinance? Speaker 8 00:09:55 Also? Speaker 0 00:09:56 Can I have a second please? Speaker 6 00:09:59 I'll second Councilman Cahn. Speaker 0 00:10:01 Ms. Cedar, can you please take the role? Councilwoman kale, Councilwoman kale. Speaker 8 00:10:11 Yes. Speaker 0 00:10:12 Councilman Cahn. Speaker 8 00:10:14 Yes. Speaker 0 00:10:18 Councilman Shah. Speaker 8 00:10:22 Yes. Speaker 0 00:10:24 Council president Lombardi. Yes. And the ordinance passes. First reading number eight are the consent agenda. Resolutions for efficiency 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 a Cahn, the consent agenda to be discussed or voted on separately? Seeing none. May I have an offer to accept the consent agenda items? Speaker 8 00:11:05 Councilwoman Cahill. Speaker 0 00:11:08 Can I have a second please? Speaker 6 00:11:12 Councilman Cahn. I'll I'll I'll second. Speaker 0 00:11:16 Thank you. Miss Cedar. Can you please call the role Councilwoman Cahill? Speaker 8 00:11:23 Yes. Speaker 0 00:11:24 Councilman Cahn. Speaker 6 00:11:26 Yes. Speaker 0 00:11:28 Councilman Shah. Speaker 8 00:11:30 Yes. Speaker 0 00:11:32 Councilman Uhrin. Speaker 8 00:11:33 Yes. Speaker 0 00:11:34 Council president Lombardi. Yes. And the consent agenda items passed. Speaker 0 00:11:43 Number nine is a public hearing amending fire district four budget. We will now open this to the public for a public hearing. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on zoom app or 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, we are now open to the public for the public hearing, amending fire district for budget council president. I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised to unmute himself. Speaker 4 00:12:53 Hello, Brian rack 1247 Brookside wrote again. What is the amendment being proposed here? It wasn't posted on the website. All we know is you wanna amend it somehow. And nobody mentioned any further detail. That was it. Speaker 1 00:13:07 Raj Speaker 0 00:13:07 Goomer would you like that? Speaker 9 00:13:10 Yeah. There's this ordinances regarding no parking on certain streets pulling it right now. Speaker 4 00:13:20 That was the fire department budget. Not the Speaker 9 00:13:22 Ordinances. Oh yeah. Sorry. My apologies. The amendments. This is pretty much exactly the same. Those past over a month ago, the amendments were basically a correction, a reduction of the budget. We are just reaffirming and redoing the hearing as, as the DCA requested. There, there are no actual changes since the last resolution Speaker 6 00:13:48 Council president. If, if I could just make a quick comment. Speaker 0 00:13:53 Sure. Speaker 6 00:13:54 Just, just to, to fill in the fire districts, all four of them have elections every year and not always, but often the budget passes and, and budget district four this year, the budget did not pass. And under our system of government, if, if either the board of education budget, which doesn't happen anymore. So now relevantly the fire district's budgets, don't pass. Then there's the voters turned it down and said, we don't want you to spend that money in these areas, this amount, it's the task of the town council to take a look at the fire district's budget and if necessary, make any adjustments. So when district force budget failed, we took a look at it and we listened to the voters in that district. And we made some downward adjustments with the help of our professional staff to district force budget. So that's the, that's what we're doing. We did this a month ago. There was some issue, a technical issue about whether something was noticed correctly or not. If I'm, I believe so. We're just redoing it again. But, but we're doing this because the voters in that part of town voted down as is their right to do so the, the budget. So that's how we got here just to fill in any members of the public that are listening on this issue. Speaker 0 00:15:24 Thank you, Councilman Cahn. We are still open to the public at this time. Council president, there are no other individuals with their hands raised. Now closing the public hearing. We are closed to the public at this time. Number 10 is a resolution amending and approving fire district for budget. Mrs. Cedar, can you please read the resolution Mayor resolved by the Township council, the scatter Township, New Jersey that whereas the Township previously passed resolution number 22, 2 27 in regard to the approval of the Piscataway fire district number four, 2022 budget. And whereas the department of community affairs requested that the Township hold an additional hearing to confirm the approval of said budget and reaffirm resolution number 22, 2 27. And whereas the fire district number four, 2022 budget referendum was defeated on February 19th, 2022. And whereas pursuant to N Jac 5 31, 2 0.4 M the Township council must adopt a budget for the fiscal year of the fire district. Speaker 0 00:16:31 And whereas the Township administration has reviewed the 2022 fire district. Number four budget submitted to the voters and has reviewed additional financials of the fire district. And whereas the Township administration recommends that the budget be approved with the following changes. One, an increase of $100,000 in the use of surplus to balance the budget, a increase use of surplus from $700,000 to $800,000. Surplus will be generated by in 2022 by the sale of the old fire engine being replaced in the budget. The insurance proceeds of $167,000 from the 2002 Hummer brush truck received on February 5th, 2022, two a decrease in administration of $15,000 reduction of $10,000 in the salary of commissioner Craig Craig Omack from $20,000 to $10,000 in line with the other fire commissioners reduction of $5,000 in professional fees and other administration bookkeeping three, the amount to be raised by taxation to support the budget shall be $1,031,600. Speaker 0 00:17:42 This will be a decrease of $115,000 due to items one and two above. This will result in a decrease of the tax rate from 0.063 to 0.054. Whereas the Township council wishes to adopt the recommendations of the administration and adopt the budget with the specific line item amendments as provided in the attached schedule a now therefore be it resolved by the Township council of the Township of Piscataway that the Township of Piscataway fire district number four budget is hereby adopted with the line item amendments provided in the attached schedule a and be it further resolved that fire district number four is recommended to complete an asset management review of all the equipment owned by the district and liquidate all surplus equipment to create additional revenue and be it further resolved that the Township recommends that fire district number four, schedule future special referendums for capital purchases to be consistent with poll hours and on similar days as set forth by statute for budget referendums Tuesday or Saturday from two to 9:00 PM in order to promote increased voter turnout and be a further resolved at fire district. Number four shall assist the municipality to prepare the budget with the line item amendments as attached and submit same to the New Jersey department of community affairs director for approval pursuant to N J five one dash 2 4 1. Thank you. Can I have a motion please? Speaker 6 00:19:15 Councilman Cahn. We're we're second. Speaker 0 00:19:22 Okay. Mrs. Can you take the role please? Councilwoman Cahn Cahill almost called you Speaker 8 00:19:27 Cahn. Speaker 0 00:19:29 Councilman Cahn. Speaker 6 00:19:31 Yes. Speaker 0 00:19:32 Councilman Shaw. Councilman Uhrin. Yes. Council president Lombardi. I will abstain from this item. Thank you. And then we'll move to number 11, which are announcements and comments from officials. This is Cahill. Speaker 8 00:20:01 No, no major announcements, but I would like to remind residents that I do believe that there still is a voluntary water conservation going on, which would mean if you don't have to water your lawn, please do not water your lawn or run your water. The county, I believe on their site has a lot of tools and tips on water conservation. So I would just remind the folks to pay heat to that volunt, even though it is voluntary to please do their part in conserving water. Speaker 0 00:20:41 Thank you Mrs. Kale, Councilman Cahn. Speaker 6 00:20:46 I have comments. Thank you, council president. Speaker 0 00:20:50 Councilman Shaw. No thanks Councilman. Uhrin Speaker 10 00:20:55 No comments. Council, president Speaker 0 00:20:57 Mayor Brian Wahler. Speaker 3 00:20:59 Thank you, council president. Just wanna say that the community center spray park is being heavily used over the last two weeks. That's all Speaker 0 00:21:09 BI Business Administrator, Tim Dacey. Speaker 7 00:21:12 Thank you. Speaker 0 00:21:15 Township attorney, Raj Kumar. No comments. Thank you. And I just have a couple of quick items I'd like to publicly thank on behalf of the council. All those involved in accomplishing our national night out this year, Calvin Laughlin, I believe is in charge and everyone that worked with him to make that a great night out this year. So thank you to them. And for all of their hard work, we do have one more concert. I believe it's on Thursday evening the 18th, and it is the verdict band and they play reggae music. They have been a lot of fun. They've been rather warm, but we still have many people coming out to enjoy the evening and get out. So again, the following, the next concert is Thursday the 18th and it is, it is the reggae band, the verdict. So that would be it from me. We'll now move on to number 12, which is the agenda session for the September 13th, 2022 meeting. We will have an ordinance. Second reading repealing chapter 21, zoning, section eight, a flood damage prevention and adoption, new flood plane management regulations that will be open to the public. And it's a resolution adopting ordinance. Do we have any questions from council members? Speaker 0 00:22:45 We'll also have an ordinance. Second reading amending chapter seven, track traffic section 14, which we just read parking prohibited at all times on certain streets and it will be open to the public resolution opt adopting ordinance also. And we will motion to accept the minutes for council meetings, July 12th and August 9th, 2022. Any questions or concerns from council members? Number 13 will be open to the public at this time for any items. 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, we are now open to the public for any questions anybody has to council president. I'm the first individual with hand raise to unmute. Speaker 11 00:24:05 Good evening. Can you hear me? Speaker 0 00:24:08 Yes, we can please state your name and address. Speaker 11 00:24:10 My name is Kevin wine and I'm at 3 45 Lancaster court in society hill. I have the floor, I assume so good evening council and Mayor. I am connecting in tonight because I am in receipt of a letter from the Township of the getaway dated July 25th. Received it in my mailbox last Tuesday. I believe it relates to an issue we are experiencing here in society hill with a pile of dirt that apparently needs to be removed from the property. The point of the letter that I want to raise to the council's attention is the part that apparently alleges that the association did not obtain the necessary permits from the town or the DEP. When the pond on the property was dredged in 2013 and 2014, without too much effort, I was able to locate copies of three or four. I believe of these several permits that were actually obtained for that project around the time it was done, which raises the question of how this error got sent in a letter to 545 of our owners over here. It seems that somebody should have caught that because it's just blatantly wrong. There's other slight inaccuracies in the letter as well, but I just want to be on record as alerting the council and Mayor Wahler to the fact that this is completely inaccurate, completely wrong. And I don't know what I will do with it next, but just so you guys are aware that that letter was incorrect and I'd be interested in any comments explaining how such an inaccuracy was published as it was. That's all. Speaker 0 00:25:59 Thank you. Mr. Dacey Speaker 9 00:26:01 Council president. If I could respond to that, please, I, we actually, I actually obtained an update from the, the Township landscape architect assistance zoning officer regarding the issue, and I was gonna summarize it, but I think I might just actually read his whole summary of the, the history of the, the matter cuz as it pertains to the, you know, what the stages that occurred or what, what caused the violation. So if you permit me a couple minutes just to read this out, the violations of society he'll actually started back in 2013, when at the time the council, the HOA president, Mr. Wine, who just just was commenting, lowered the pond and began it without any permits at the time he was summoned and sent stop work orders with the violation notices and told to apply for the necessary permits from not only the Township, but the DEP N JDP, which is, which is regulating agency for work involving open water and wetlands areas. Speaker 9 00:26:59 At the time, the N JDP also gave society hell a long list of violations that resulted from the work that had gone without the proper approvals, as result as a result of the violations, Mr. Wine submitted permit applications to both N JDP as well as the Township in order to comply with all the violations. And I think this is what Mr wine's referring to as he has permits from 2014, but this was only post initiating commencing the work. Finally in May, 2014, society health finally received approval from the state and the Township to continue the work in conformance with the approved grading plan provided with the, with the se permit and in compliance with, with the N J DEP permits in August, 2014, the N J DEP issued a three page violation letter enumerating several violations of their approval, including disposing of the dredge dredge soils outside of the regulated areas, dispersed disturbance of the wetland transition areas, not approved on the permit, exceeding authorized disturbance failure to obtain a flood hazard area, applicability determination, access to multiple unauthorized locations, installation of inlets into a state approved water without permits, grading, and storage of unsecured material within the flood hazard area of the Ambrose Brook disturbance of vegetation within the regulator areas of the ABRO Brook and finally excavation within the flood hazard area of the Ambrose roof related to the installation of water intake inlets to summarize that essentially, you know, Mr. Speaker 9 00:28:27 Wine had submitted for permits had provided a plan and then proceeded not to comply with the plan that he submitted that was approved under the permits and that, and it caused major environmental issues, including runoff to certain properties in the, in the homeowner association area, as a result of these violations, the NGDP issued a corrective action notice along with the violations. Notice as of this date, compliance with the corrective actions requested remains on the remains remains unknown. But the fact of this, that the site is in the condition that it is with the spoil stockpile and spread around the pond area is highly doubtful. The NGDP issued a compliance NFA released that's a no further action release. This brings us to June, 2021, where we, again, the Township started an issue to issue violations and the attempt to have site violations corrected. And the site restored to its original grades, it's required by the Township and the NGDP permits issued for the project. Speaker 9 00:29:22 I'd just like to add that the Township could have issued violations on a daily basis and accrued severe penalties, but they continued to work with the HOA, just issued initial notices violations to try and get the HOA to comply with the N JDP and actually resolve the issue. But that, that didn't occur again. This whole project wasn't actually required by the Township. It, it was, it, it was done by the HOA. I think the council president time was Mr. Wine and without the permits. And, and since then, you know, he's attempted to re they've attempted rectify it issue, but they haven't even complied with, with the rect rec the corrective plan that they were attempting to to. So that's where we are. And that's why the letter went out to, because I think there was some information that the Township was the cause of an assessment to the HOA members for what it's gonna cost them to clean up this environmental issue. And so the Township wanted to make clear that they've attempted to work with the HOA as much as possible have limited the violation notices just enough to make sure that the, to try and get the HOA to correct the issue and ha were not the ones that initiated the requirement to do the stretching in the first place. Speaker 0 00:30:43 Thank you for that clarification. Our Township attorney clearly stated the situation there. Speaker 6 00:30:53 Council president again quickly, cuz it, it was my letter that Mr. Wine is, was discussing. I'm glad that our, our council had the opportunity to lay out factory illegal. What occurred? I was the one who sent the letter in re with, I went over it with Raj in, in response to complaints from residents in society hill, who somehow were under the impression that Township had created this problem. And so the reason that the letter was sent out was to summarize and clarify what had occurred. And Raj is description of the legal history of it is a hundred percent accurate and the letter's a hundred percent accurate. And I, I, and it's fair. And I think the residents need to know what occurred there. So I stand behind the letter just truthful and accurate. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:31:51 Thank you. Councilman council, president I'm the individual hand raise to unmute Speaker 12 00:32:05 Patel 29 Redwood road. I just have a quick question for council for the term volunteer does volunteer mean work without coercion along the line. If high school kids are teenagers, if they're going to be settled with all these college debts and whatnot, who is going accountable and responsible for all this volunteerism that is on the rise without pay. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:32:42 Thank you, Patek. You were cutting out just a little bit. So I clearly did not understand your whole question, but I believe you're interested in finding out the definition of volunteer, volunteer, traditionally volunteer fire departments and rescue squads in this town. Give of their time and their services for no money. Yes, that is correct. Council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themself. Speaker 13 00:33:23 Hello? Can you hear me? Speaker 0 00:33:26 Yes. Speaker 13 00:33:29 Sid Madison 17 six Blackford avenue. Speaker 0 00:33:33 I said Speaker 13 00:33:34 Appeared before you again, to stress the need to ask governor Murphy to immediately enact on moratorium on fossil fuel projects. I'm gonna see if my computer works. Can you still hear me? Speaker 0 00:33:54 Yes. Yes we can. Speaker 13 00:33:56 Okay. First two notes. The word infrastructure refers to projects which would increase the capacity overall in New Jersey. It would not stop any new construction from attaching to the grid. This was a problem for the Mayor a couple of years ago, when we talked about this, that was the illustration he gave for a reason not to take that action. The second point is the likely pass of the inflation reduction act a step in the right direction does not meet, meet the action needed to meet the Biden Murphy goal of 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 from the New York times. That's not enough to avert the worst impacts. So we still have a long way to go. So why am I asking you to act first? The system is failing to act at the required level. This is especially true in New Jersey where allowing more fossil fuel projects would be 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Speaker 13 00:35:08 Especially when the BPU says no more projects are needed. No more fossil fuel projects are needed. Be the second in, in the simplest terms, the system is the public, the console and the governor. The governor can stop fossil fuel projects, which are 180 degrees in the wrong direction. He needs to understand the public wants him to act. We climate groups have been asking for almost four years, we have not failed in our role. Now you are the next level in the system. It is time for you to act. I'm gonna, in addition to going 180 degrees in the wrong direction, there are four additional costs, which the public will have to pay. If we don't stop these projects, one when the project is completed, it will in increase. The cost of the public two operating costs will increase over time with fossil these fossil fuel projects, as opposed to renewable energy projects, which run on sun and wind, which are free. Another cost will be the cost to shut down plants. We add more fossil fuel plants. Those plants have to be shut down in order to get to all renewable energy. That's cost Mr. More of these Speaker 0 00:36:44 Plants. Can you sum, can you sum up your comments, Mr. Madison, you exceeded your three minute time at this Speaker 13 00:36:49 Point. Okay. The last cost I I'll mention is that the cost of capital for renewable energy will go up because of this more cost of the public run needed projects. If you do not agree to ask governor Murphy to act, then I would like to meet somebody representing the council for an explanation. I'm done. Speaker 0 00:37:10 Thank you, Mr. Madison, and thank you for your continued passion for fossil fuel curbing the fossil fuel projects. Thank you, council president. I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised unmute themself. Speaker 14 00:37:31 Hello. My name is John FLER. Speaker 0 00:37:35 Please state your address, sir. Speaker 14 00:37:36 5 21 Norridge court, Piscataway New Jersey in society hill. Speaker 0 00:37:45 Okay. Can you give us your comments please? Speaker 14 00:37:49 So I wanna go back to the issue in society hill here. I've requested several Oprah requests in regards to paperwork in regards to this matter, asking for engineer reports and pretty much just trying to get to the bottom of this whole fiasco here and what alternative measures might be to doing this process. We've spoken with other engineers, me and several other people outside of the board here, and we've come across some things that are quite concerning for us. And one is stating we've had engineers stating that this soil isn't as contaminated as everyone stating here, also that this, this soil isn't going to leach into the ground water. Like you guys are trying to state here. We have a meeting with the Mayor this upcoming Monday to try and discuss these matters and come to a middle ground here. I've spoken with several people from the Township. Some that have been quite helpful. Ben PO Henry Hinterstein did not return any of my calls and hasn't been transparent whatsoever. Speaker 14 00:39:25 Also I've I've been trying to request some of the reports from the original violations to find out if this wasn't a legal project and there were violations on this. What were the outcomes to that? Because when I requested them in the Oprah reports, I haven't, I didn't receive anything along those lines. Jean will who's the public information officer was extremely rude in trying to find out this information. I was asking to expedite this process so we could have all the information at hand when speaking to the Mayor, because the bottom line here is the people of society hill are just trying to come to a middle ground here. And if there was something wrong by individuals or by our board, then why aren't they being held accountable? And also why wasn't Henry and everyone else, and the inspectors overseeing this process that they clearly knew this project was going on here. Speaker 0 00:40:32 Thank you, John. We're gonna have our Township attorney comment at this point. Speaker 9 00:40:37 Mr. Dacey. And I, hopefully I got that last name, right? A lot of the issues that you're talking about in regard to the leaching or the contaminated soils, that's all the N J D P purview. The Township is really they're limited to basically runoff erosion, et cetera, movement of soils and stuff like that. And, and there are regulations and, and if the, the HOA doesn't comply with the plans that they actually submitted in 2014, there is gonna be violations. They just need to resolve it a as for the N JDP, I'd recommend you reach out to them cuz you know, a majority of the violations and a majority of the, the control action plan, corrective action plan that has been submitted has been from the DEP. So the, you know, if it's gonna be, if you want to resolve any of those concerns that you were talking about with your discussions with engineers, I think it would be prudent to talk to the N J DEP, but I'm sure that, you know, the Mayor said, you said the Mayor is gonna meet with you. I'm sure. You know, the, the Township continue, wants to continue to work with the HOA to resolve this without, you know, major ramifications to the HOA members. But however, you know, at the same time the HOA needs to comply with, with, with the Township, you know, ordinances, there are rules and regulations, but Dan JDP is probably the bigger issue. Not probably is the bigger issue. So I recommend you reach out to them also, Speaker 0 00:42:06 Thank you. Mr. Dacey council president. There are no other individuals with their hand raised. The public portion is now closed. Speaker 3 00:42:15 Council president. I, I would just like to address the, the comments that the gentleman just said for the record. My staff is not rude to that gentleman, from what I understand, he just doesn't like the answers that he's getting. I think it was really the other way around. And I suggest if he plans on meeting with me, he should check his attitude at the door or don't even come to the meeting. The other thing is, is that there's a couple people who were involved in this the entire time, Mr. Wine, who was on the before asking the question, he was the prime individual involved in this. He was on the board, as he said, it was the board president's time and was also hired as the managing facilities manager of, of the society hill, which I could never figure out. How could you be an HOA board member and also be an employee of the board? Speaker 3 00:43:11 I never figured that one out. I believe that there was a treasurer at the time on the board. Atif NZI correct me if I'm wrong was, was part of it. So we're here to work with the current board to try to get the issue resolved. But ultimately at the end of the day, it's gonna have to be the board of the HOA that gets as Mr. As the Township attorney said, it's gonna have to get dissolved with the DEP. We just want it resolved because residents are complaining in there about the grading has been changed on the site from the original approval and other units are taking water on during heavy events and that they, we just wanna get it resolved. That's all, that's all you Mayor. Okay. Speaker 6 00:43:57 Yeah. If I could just make one or two further comments on this topic, council, president and I and American or Township council can correct me if I'm wrong, but the last speaker who I, and I appreciate his passion for the subject, cuz the problem is being literally dumped on his lap by a prior administration of the homeowners association, which is extremely unfair, but, and the Mayor correct me if I'm wrong. The town didn't, nobody knew this project was going on. If I recall correctly, cuz I remember when it evolved, it was just kind of stumbled over that this project was underway without any prior notice or approval. And some of the environmental damage from the dredging had been done before anybody was really aware of it. So that's how this started a number of years ago. And I don't know why there's been a special assessment. I can't speak to that. The town wasn't involved in any of that. I, I generally, I know that these boards have insurance that may cover many things. They have errors in omissions type insurance. I don't know whether that applies. And I would encourage the residents in addition to looking at the D DP issues to see whether or not there could or should be some other avenue for paying these fines off rather than it being assessed to the homeowners. So it's, it's an, it's an extremely unfortunate situation. Speaker 6 00:45:35 And I, and I feel for the residents that are out there, but you know, it evolved in a particular way that I, I think is well documented as our, our Township attorney set forth. Speaker 3 00:45:50 You you're correct. Council Councilman Cahn. Speaker 0 00:45:53 Thank you, Councilman Cahn. We have one more comment from our Township attorney. Speaker 9 00:45:57 Yeah. I just wanted to address the, the documentation requests, his history. I understand from the, the clerk's office that actually the Oprah request for the violations and fines and, and, and other actions issued by the Township was actually just submitted recently, either think Friday or over the weekend. So you, you wouldn't have received a response to that yet. So you'll probably be receiving that, you know, in and within the, you know, time period that's provided under Oprah. Speaker 0 00:46:27 Thank you Mr. Kumar. Yeah. This has been an ongoing situation for some time now. It is very unfortunate for those that have not been involved for quite as long, but hopefully we can come to some sort of resolution that can get this moving in the right direction. Well, now I'm move to number 14, which is an adjournment of this meeting. Can I have an offer to adjourn? Can I have a second please? Speaker 6 00:46:57 Second, Speaker 0 00:46:59 All those in favor please say aye. Aye, aye. Have a good evening. Everyone. What.