Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on March 7 2023
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 00:00:06 Right to call the meeting to order. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 31 P 1975. Specifying 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 two municipal library bulletin boards municipal website, providing a copy to the official newspapers at a 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 into the minutes in order to ensure clear record of the meeting can be made and that all parties are heard in organized fashion. All members of the public that are participating remotely will be muted during the meeting. The Township will provide for public comment periods for both remote and in-person attendees separately. If a member of the public wishes to speak during any public comment portion of remote attendees, please raise your hand. Speaker 0 00:01:01 This can be done either through Zoom app or by pressing star nine on your phone. When is your turn to speak? You will receive a prompt or request to unmute. Please click the prompt or press six on your phone to unmute and begin making your comments. All members of the public will have three minutes to speak and should ask any and all questions they may have during this that period. At the conclusion of your three minutes remote attendees will be muted again in person. Attendees will also receive three minutes to ask any and all questions. They may. They may then take a seat at which time the council or administration will respond as necessary. Should you have any further comments or questions? The Township 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 have one opportunity to speak during each public portion. As the technology does not allow us to know. If there are multiple callers on individual phone line or login or logged in user account, we ask that you we that if you wish to speak, that you log in dial or in our dial in separately so that you can be recognized on a separate individual. Speaker 0 00:02:23 Mr. Dacey, please state the role. Speaker 2 00:02:24 Councilwoman Cahill. Here. Councilwoman Carmichael. Here. Councilman Espinosa. Here. Councilwoman Lombardi. Here. Councilman Rouse Councilman Shaw. Here. Council President Uhrin. Here Speaker 0 00:02:43 Please stand for the, Speaker 1 00:02:49 The flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands of the nation under God, invisible Liberty, justice. Speaker 0 00:03:07 And number five, comments, administration and counsel regarding adjourn of any matters on this agenda. Speaker 2 00:03:16 None. Speaker 0 00:03:17 I see none. Item number six, open to the public open to the comments regarding item number 10, consent agenda items. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on Zoom map or by phone by pressing star nine. When is your turn to speak? Your receiver 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, address and know that you have free minutes in which to make your comments. The council administration will respond if necessary. After you have completed any comments or questions. Speaker 2 00:04:04 Council President, there are no remote attendees with their hand raised. Speaker 0 00:04:08 I'm gonna close the remote attendees if you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make a comments. You may take a seat after completion of your comments or questions and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. I'm gonna close the public portion. Item number seven, ordinance on the first reading bond audience, two million two hundred fifty thousand one million two hundred fifty thousand. Restoration and expansion of the Mettler's Bulleen House is a resolution adopting ordinance. Please read the ordinance Speaker 2 00:04:51 Be resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Bond Ordinance providing for the restoration and expansion of the Metler Boin House in and by the Township of Piscataway in the county of Middlesex, New Jersey, appropriating $2,250,000. Therefore and authorizing the issuance of $1,250,000 bonds or notes of the Township to finance part of the cost thereof. 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 Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey, as well as by remote meeting format on the 18th day of April, 2023. Be further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second Reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public. Speaker 0 00:05:51 Do I have a motion? Speaker 2 00:05:53 Motion Speaker 4 00:05:54 Second Speaker 0 00:05:56 Seated please take the roll. Speaker 2 00:05:58 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilwoman Carmichael. Yes. Councilman Espinoza. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Council President Earned? Speaker 0 00:06:12 Yes. Item passes on the first reading item number eight, ordinance on the first reading authorizing execution of the financial agreement with RG Constitution Urban Renewal llc. Block 59 0 1 block 3.23 10 Constitution Avenue is a resolution adopting ordinance. Mr. City, would you please read the ordinance? Speaker 2 00:06:32 Be it resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, New Jersey, authorizing Execution of Financial Agreement with RG Constitution Urban Renewal L L C. Pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law, NJ S A 48 21 ets, sec B is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published in the official newspaper. And that a second reading and public hearing be held at 7:30 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Ho Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey, as well as by remote meeting format on the 18th day of April, 2023. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public. Speaker 0 00:07:27 Thank you. Mr.. Dacey. Do I have a motion? Speaker 2 00:07:29 Motion? Speaker 0 00:07:30 Second. Second. Ms. Peter, please take the role. Speaker 2 00:07:36 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilwoman Carmichael. Yes. Councilman Esposa. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Council President Uhrin. Speaker 0 00:07:49 Yes. Passes on the first reading item number nine, ordinance on the first reading authorizing acquisition of property portions of block 99 0 3 lots. 4.09 and four point 11. There's a resolution adopting ordinance stated You please read the ordinance, Speaker 2 00:08:04 Be it resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance authorizing the acquisition of certain property identified as portions of block 99 0 3 lots 4.09 and 4.11 In the Township of Piscataway County of Middlesex, state of New Jersey for public purpose pursuant to N J S A 23 1, ETK B is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published in the official newspaper. And that a second reading of public hearing be held at 7:30 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Huling Piscataway, New Jersey as well by as by remote meeting format on the 18th day of April, 2023. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the Township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public. Speaker 0 00:09:01 Thank you Mr. Cedar. How do I have a motion? Speaker 2 00:09:05 Motion? Speaker 0 00:09:06 Second. Speaker 4 00:09:09 Second Speaker 0 00:09:10 State please take the roll. Speaker 2 00:09:12 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilman Carmichael. Yes. Councilman Espinoza. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Council President Earned. Speaker 0 00:09:24 Yes. Item passes on a first reading item number 10, consent agenda. Resolution for efficiency. Items have been consolidated into consent. Agenda to be voted on together. Interiors of 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 remove from the consent agenda to be discussed or voted on separately? I see none. Do I have a motion? Speaker 2 00:09:50 Motion Second. Speaker 0 00:09:53 You please take the roll. Speaker 2 00:09:56 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilwoman Carmichael? Yes. Councilman Espinosa. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shaw? Yes. Council President Uhrin? Speaker 0 00:10:09 Yes. Item passes. Item number 11, resolution. Introducing the fiscal 2023 municipal budget, Speaker 2 00:10:18 Municipal budget of the Township of Piscataway County of Middlesex for the fiscal year 2023. Be it resolved at the following statements of revenues and appropriations shall constitute the municipal budget for the year 2023. Be it further resolved that said budget be published in the star ledger in the issue of March 13th, 2023. Notice is hereby given that the budget and tax resolution was approved by the council members of the Township Piscataway County of Middlesex on March 7th, 2023. A hearing on the budget and tax resolution will be held at the municipal building on April 18th, 2023 at 7:30 PM at which time and place. Objections to said budget and tax resolution for the year 2023 may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons. Summary of current fund, section of approved budget, general appropriations for appropriations within caps, municipal purposes, $53,844,307 and 50 cents. Appropriations excluded from caps municipal purposes $24,701,464 and 51 cents. General appropriations excluded from CAPS $24,701,464 and 51 cents reserve for uncollected taxes. 98.91%. $2,164,454 and 70 cents Total general appropriations, $80,710,226 and 71 cents. Difference amount to be raised by taxes for support of municipal budget, local tax for municipal purposes, including reserve for uncollected taxes, $49,543,426 and 98 cents. Minimum library tax. $3,544,944. Speaker 0 00:12:25 Thank you Mr. Seater. Do I have a motion? Speaker 5 00:12:32 Motion? Speaker 0 00:12:33 Do I have a second? Second. Mr. Seater, you please take the roll. Speaker 2 00:12:37 Councilwoman Cahill. Yes. Councilwoman Carmichael? Speaker 5 00:12:41 Yes. Speaker 2 00:12:42 Councilman Espinoza. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilman Shah. Yes. Council President Uhrin? Speaker 0 00:12:49 Yes. Letter number 12. Announcements and comments from officials. Gabriel, Speaker 5 00:12:57 Just a couple. Council president. Thank you. I wanted to mention what a great event was held at the Middlesex County Muslim Center. The anti hate event was well attended. A lot of great speakers were there and I certainly learned a lot from the Mayor speaking to some of the other faith leaders who were there and the attendees as well. And I would like to say that there were a lot of groups from our senior citizens group from Piscataway attending and it was really good to see the community come out for that. And I'd also like to mention what a great event and really grateful to the Geri Center for being invited to their celebration of holy. It was my first time at that celebration and I think I'm still getting out all sorts of colorful flower out of my ears. It was a really super great event. And last but not least, I would like to say that the women, some of the women here are wearing purple in honor of tomorrow's International Women's History Day. So I think that's it for me. Thank you so much. Speaker 0 00:14:16 Thank you. Gabrielle Councilwoman Carmichael. Speaker 6 00:14:19 Let me just echo what Councilwoman Cahill just said. I attended the same meeting, the same event on Sunday that she attended and it was very eye-opening for me. I had not been to one like that, had no idea what to expect, but it was quite interesting. So I'm glad I was able to to get there. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:14:40 Thank you. Councilwoman. Call Michael Councilman Espinoza. Speaker 7 00:14:45 Thank you. Cons. Yeah, I just want to remind everyone or let everyone know that there'll be a Piscataway Youth Travel tryouts coming up on May 6th. I've always been in the involved with the Piscataway soccer. It's a great program, so if anybody's interested, just you have to register at Piscataway soccer.org and you'll have all the information there. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:15:07 Thank you. Councilwoman Lombardi. Speaker 8 00:15:10 Thank you. The first person I'd like to thank is George for putting this all together for us to be able to do this again. George, thank you so much. I know that it took a lot of hard work and a lot of finagling to do this before. We have the complete required parts that we have to do to abide by the ordinance, so thank you for putting this together for us to be able to be here. Again, the members of the Gaia just sent a thank you over prior to the meeting for us attending. Yes, I'm still getting orange powder out of my car. It was a great event and we had a blast next year. I'm just gonna wear clothes that I'm just gonna ditch on the, on the, on the end. Also, I'd like to wish everybody a St. Patrick's Day upcoming. I think we won't have another meeting before that. And again, it is Women's History Month. It's a celebration of women's contributions to history, culture, and society, and has been observed annually in the month of March in the United States since 1987. Women's History Month 20 20 23 will take place from Wednesday, March 1st to Friday, March 31st. So I thank all of the strong women that made me who I am today. Speaker 0 00:16:32 Thank you. Councilwoman. Councilman Chaill. Speaker 9 00:16:36 Thanks Mike. Everything and thanks for attending the Holy Festival. Speaker 0 00:16:43 Thank you. Councilman. Chaill, Speaker 7 00:16:47 No comments. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:16:48 Tim. Mayor. Wahler Speaker 7 00:16:52 Tim. Speaker 0 00:16:54 Okay. And I just wanna also thank Doug for helping you out there, George. And the other thing I would just wanna say that we had a closed T-Ball registration this year. We have 190 kids, 990 children signed up. It's a, it's amazing. So we're ready to go with that. And with that being said, agenda assessor for April 18th, 2023. Ordinance on a second reading, providing construction of local improvement sidewalks on Road Weston. This will be open to the public ordinance. Second reading to exceed your municipal budget, appropriations and established Cap Bank. This will be open to the public. Also ordinance on a second. Reading Bon Audience $2,250,000, $1,250,000 restoration expansion of the Met House. And this will be open to the public ordinance on a second. Reading authorizing execution of financial agreement with r g Constitution, urban Renewal, L L C Block 59 0 1 lot, 3.23 10 Constitution Avenue. Speaker 0 00:18:05 This will be open to the public ordinance on a second. Reading authorizing acquisition of property portions of block 99 0 3, lost 4.09 and four point 11. This will also be open to the public. Any comments or questions? Resolution authorizing Chapter 1 59 2023 Safe and Secure Committee grant resolution authorizing reading of the fiscal 2023 budget by title. Any comments or questions? Motion to accept the report of the clerk's account. February and March, 2023. Motion to accept the minutes of the council meeting. February 28th, 2023. Motion to accept the report of the Division of Revenue. February, March, 2023. Motion and receive and enter into the minutes disbursements of the month of February and March, 2023. Public hearing Fiscal 2023 Municipal budget and resolution. Adopting orders for fiscal 2023 municipal budget. Any comments or questions? I'm gonna move to open to the public for the remote attendees. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on Zoom app or by phone by pressing star nine. When is your turn to speak? You 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. Know that you have free minutes in which to make your comments. Counsel, administration will respond if necessary. After you have completed any comments or questions. Speaker 2 00:19:41 Council president, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised to unmute themself. Speaker 10 00:19:53 Hi, this is Jessica Kratovil at 1247 Brookside Road. Can you hear me? Speaker 0 00:19:59 Yes we can. Speaker 10 00:20:02 Hi. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here this evening. I was unable to get in earlier to speak at the comment or the question portion of authorizing award of contract for professional services, preliminary design and permitting phase for Ecological Park at Piscataway for CME Associates not to exceed $983,000 or so. And I just wanted to speak about the clear cutting of the land across the street from the proposed ecological park, which has been ongoing from the fall until I, I believe it's complete. And I just wanted to speak about how it's really interesting that the Township is really keen to pay nearly a million dollars of taxpayer money to design a park across from what's going to be an extremely large, hideous warehouse that is going to diminish the air quality of all of the people that live in the surrounding area. And I just wondered if there was gonna be any comment from the council about the potential impacts on the ecological park by this development that is ongoing. Speaker 0 00:21:29 Is that all you have, Mr. Carrell? Speaker 10 00:21:33 Yeah, that's all I have to say this evening. I was hoping for a reply though. Speaker 0 00:21:36 Okay. Speaker 11 00:21:41 So Jessica, so what we're doing is over the past few years, we're moving towards the, the creation of that park, as you may or may not know, that's in over 20 years in the making for that site. And we believe it's gonna be a beautiful improvement for the residents of Piscataway. And it's gonna give people a great opportunity to be at in the open. Speaker 0 00:22:09 Thank you Tim. Speaker 2 00:22:12 Council president. There are no other remote attendees with their hand raises at this time. Speaker 0 00:22:17 Yeah. I'm gonna close the remote attendees portion for in-person attendees, if you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and note that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take a seat after your completion of your comments or questions and the council administration will respond if necessary. And I see no comments. I'm gonna close the public portion. Speaker 12 00:22:52 Thank, thank you Council president. I make a couple quick comments about the budget. This is now the sixth year in a row that we're introducing a budget. I want to thank the Township Council for working hard on this budget. It is coming in four points lower levy than the 2022, which is approximately 8% lower. This is now the sixth year that either the budget has either remained static or there has been a drop in the levy due to that, to some of the economic development that we've been doing here in town. It is allowing us, I know Councilwoman Carmichael has been very advocating for improved some road improvements in our award like Buckingham Drive for some safety improvements. And Councilman has been arguing for some safety improvements in reconstruction of good chunk of Mountain Avenue and Gerard Street over on the north side of town. Speaker 12 00:23:44 And I know Councilwoman Lombardi's pushing along with, you know, the award of tonight with the International Avenues long overdue and as well as the, we we'll be out to bid this year cuz of this budget on Ethel Road West, which will pretty much take care of the whole North Stelton region of our town. As well as Franker advocating for the finishing out of some of the improvements on, on cedarwood drive area and then other areas of Ward one. This doesn't come easy by doing this. I just wanna let people know that this has now been 15 years since we, we have not received an increase in state aid. None of the towns have received an increase. So I suspect that the school district will have a drop in their levee too. I do know that the voters did pass a drop in the levee in three of the fire dis three of the four fire districts out there. Speaker 12 00:24:39 So it's a good thing when the levy's going, when tax levee's going down, which is always good. I'd rather be in a community where the levee's going down instead of levee going up because that is really an apples to apples comparison when you compare yourself to other communities around the state. So we are gonna have a lot of additional programmings, renovation of a, more of a continuum of our parks. The next phase over in Columbus Park, Councilman knows along the waterfront will will take place. As matter of fact, we're out to bid on that right now. So there's a lot of good things that are gonna be helping out the residents out there between safety measures, recreational improvement of our parks, which are always a number one priority. So I want to thank the council for working hard on on that. And then lastly, I just wanna make a, make a comment. The last caller that did call in, you know, I just wanna let the record know that her and her group are advocating for high density housing across the street because it's either high density housing or two logistics buildings so that they're not telling the public that. So they're that. That's what this is all about. Speaker 8 00:25:47 I would like to also, just, since we're discussing all of the accolades of the budget, I'd like to thank Daniel and his staff for the hard work in preparing the budget. Thank you. Speaker 0 00:26:00 Thank you, Daniel. And do I have a motion for adjournment? Speaker 8 00:26:07 Offer Second. Speaker 0 00:26:09 All in favor? Speaker 7 00:26:10 Aye. Aye. Speaker 0 00:26:12 Meeting adjourned. Everyone have a good night. Speaker 8 00:26:15 Good night. Speaker 7 00:26:17 Thank you for coming out.